The Doctor She'd Never Forget

‘Well remembered, then.’

He smiled, and pleasure trickled across the dull pain of rejection. Sophie wondered whether he’d adjust his opinion if he knew that she was still searching her mind for his first name. Dr Taylor seemed a little formal, since they’d just saved the life of a props dummy together.

‘As you already have a good idea of how to resuscitate someone, you understand the theory behind it all.’

‘Yes.’ Sophie nodded. When he put it that way, she supposed that she did.

‘Which will stand you in really good stead for this.’ He got to his feet, producing a copy of the medical techniques document. She’d studied her copy for hours, hoping that she might retain at least some of it. ‘I guess you haven’t had much of a chance to look at it.’

‘No. Not really.’ He was giving her a way out, and Sophie took it gratefully.

He grinned. ‘I guess that’s my job. It gives a detailed description of how resuscitation was carried out in the nineteen-forties—which is a little different from the way we do it now.’

‘They did chest compressions but no rescue breaths.’ A fragment of fact suddenly popped into her mind.

He nodded. ‘Yes, I’ve managed to find a couple of old training films on the internet. But it may be easier to just try it ourselves.’ He knelt down next to her. ‘Do you want to start with the compressions?’

‘Okay.’ Sophie could do that. She already knew how to do compressions. This morning was going a lot better than she’d expected it to. No tantrums needed to cover her lapses in memory, and the doctor seemed to be going out of his way not to spring anything unexpected on her.

‘Right, then.’ He flashed her a grin. ‘Here we go…’

The morning’s work had been a success. Starting with what Sophie knew and then using gesture and movement to reinforce the new information seemed to have worked. The atmosphere on set lightened considerably as she sailed through her scene that afternoon, even managing to bestow a few smiles on her co-star and the crew.

Joel, the director, spared a nod of satisfaction for Drew, clearly pleased with his tutelage. Carly gave him a beaming smile when she thought no one else was looking, and Sophie ignored him completely.

Even though she clearly didn’t want to think about him unless she absolutely had to, Sophie dominated Drew’s thoughts. He watched her carefully, and as dispassionately as he could. And the more he watched her, the more he realised that he knew what was wrong, and that she was trying desperately to cover it up.

CHAPTER FOUR

THE FOLLOWING DAY didn’t start well. The script had said rain, but real rain seemed to be a problem, and an unscheduled downpour had stopped filming for a while. Rumour had it that Carly was confined to her room at the hotel with a stomach bug, and Sophie’s face was set in a hard, concentrated frown. She avoided him as if he had something catching.

Joel had called cut, and the clapperboard signalled the tenth rerun of a scene that should have been easy. Each time she’d fluffed her lines Sophie’s air of prickly uninterest had increased markedly.

‘It’s all a matter of…’ She stopped suddenly, frowning. ‘This isn’t right, Joel.’

‘Oh, for goodness’ sake…’ Todd Hunter, her co-star, turned away suddenly, frustration and anger showing on his face. Joel moved in to smooth things over.

‘What’s the matter, Sophie?’

‘It’s not right… Give me the script…’ Sophie looked as if she was about to burst into tears.

A copy of the script appeared out of nowhere, and Sophie leafed through it, seemingly too dissatisfied to find the right page, and then threw it to one side. Drew got to his feet, navigating through the circle of cameras and sound technicians around her.

‘It’s nearly lunchtime. We’ll take a break.’ Joel seemed resigned to handling Sophie’s moods and perhaps he thought that the catering truck could do what he couldn’t and get today on a better footing. ‘Sophie…’

Joel’s mouth quirked in an expression of helplessness as he found himself speaking to thin air. Sophie was already on her way to her trailer, cutting a swathe into the crowd around her as they moved to get out of her way.

Jennie, a bright, usually happy young woman, who had introduced herself yesterday to Drew as Sophie’s assistant, ran after her. He saw Sophie turn, aiming a couple of angry words in Jennie’s direction and gesturing to her to go away. Jennie fell back, her face reddening, and Drew frowned. That kind of behaviour really wasn’t necessary.

Drew pushed through the groups of people who were putting some distance between themselves and Sophie. She could act up with Joel, and he’d try to smooth things over to get her co-operation. Everyone else would cave in to her tantrums, in fear for their jobs. But this was one job he didn’t need to keep.

Dammit! One curse vied with another in her head, filling her thoughts with the kind of obscenities that she never spoke out loud. She was turning into a monster. Slowly and irrevocably, and there was nothing she could do to stop it.

‘Sophie…’

The one voice she didn’t want to hear. The doctor. Damn him, too.

‘Sophie…?’

He didn’t give up, did he? She was twenty feet from her trailer and then she could slam the door in his face, lock him out.

She didn’t make it. With just a couple of paces to go before she reached safety, she felt his hand on her arm.

‘Let go of me.’ She whipped her arm away as if he’d grabbed it, not just touched it lightly.

‘Wait, Sophie.’

His tone was so sure, so commanding, and in a sea of misunderstandings and unknowns it was the only thing that seemed to make any sense. Despite herself, she stopped.

‘You haven’t figured out how things work around here yet, have you?’ She glared at him. ‘I’m at the top of the pecking order and you’re at the bottom. You don’t tell me what to do.’

That bloody smile again. Relaxed and assured, the smile of a man who already knew his place in the world and didn’t need anyone to tell him what it was. And dangerous in the extreme. ‘I thought that was exactly my role. I’m an advisor and so I advise.’

‘Don’t be smart with me.’ Sophie rolled her eyes and turned away from him, as if what he’d just said didn’t deserve a proper answer. That always seemed to work when she couldn’t come up with the words she wanted.

He slipped past her, opening the door of her trailer and walking inside. Her private trailer. The only place where she could take some refuge from the noise and bustle of the set. Panic started to rise in her chest.

‘Get. Out.’

‘There seems to be something wrong. I’d like to help.’

‘I don’t need help.’ Anger wasn’t working, and she tried another tack. Right on cue she summoned tears and a look of melting supplication. ‘Please, go…’

He smiled, sitting down in one of the comfortable armchairs in the seating area. ‘Nice one. You’re very good.’

‘What’s that supposed to mean?’ Sophie scowled at him.

‘It means that you’re a tremendous actress. And that you’ll do anything to stop anyone finding out the difficulties you’re having right now. Only I see through it.’

If he’d had any doubts about his conclusions before, the mock tears and that look of seductive pleading banished them altogether. She knew exactly what was wrong with her. If he could get through to her, just talk to her and make her see sense, then he’d be out of here in a week and back to a world where sanity was more of a guiding principle.

She sat down opposite him. That was something. Sitting was better than running.

‘Who sent you to spy on me? Who are you reporting to?’

‘No one. It’s not like that at all, Sophie. When Carly spoke to me she mentioned…’

Wrong move. All the colour drained from Sophie’s face and her hand flew to her mouth. Tears formed in her eyes and this time they looked like the real thing.

‘Carly…? No…’

‘Carly happened to mention that you were under a bit of stress.’ That was stretching the truth to breaking point, but he’d already landed Carly in enough hot water.

Sophie stared at him blankly. Drew had seen that look before, when everything became too much and someone started to shut down.

‘Sophie, listen to me. It’s okay…’

‘You think that any of this is okay?’ she flashed back at him.

Time for the truth. ‘All right. I don’t know anything for sure, but here’s what I think I know. You’re having difficulties with your short-term memory. The things you’ve known for a while are no problem, it’s new information that you can’t process properly. It’s possible that you sustained a mild traumatic brain injury in your recent car accident.’

‘Carly just happened to mention that as well?’ She’d composed herself now, and was staring straight at him.

‘She’s a good friend to you, Sophie, and she’s trying to help you.’ If he could do nothing else, at least he could try to repair the damage he’d done. So far he’d only managed to isolate Sophie even further from the one person who seemed to care about her.

‘Whatever. That’s not really your business, is it?’

‘No, it’s just an observation.’

‘Yes, it’s all just observations, isn’t it? I think it’s all in your imagination.’

‘What’s my name, Sophie?’

She shot him a defiant look. ‘Dr…’

‘My name.’

‘What do I care?’ She looked as if she was about to launch into another diatribe about how she was the important person around here, and his status was that of a cockroach, when a knock sounded on the door.

‘Catering…’

‘Come in.’ Sophie pulled herself together and gave the young woman who entered a composed smile, watching as she set a covered plate on the table and got water from the fridge in the tiny kitchenette at the far end of the living space.

‘Would you bring another plate, please?’

‘For Dr Taylor? Sure.’ The woman turned to Drew. ‘What would you like?’

‘Anything’s fine.’ Sophie’s sudden turnaround was a surprise, but if accepting lunch meant that she was going to let him stay a while longer then he would eat whatever anyone put in front of him.

‘Chicken in a cream sauce, sautéed potatoes, green beans…?’

‘Sounds great. Thank you.’

The woman nodded. ‘Back in a tick.’

He picked up the bottle of water from the table and filled her glass, aware that she was watching every move he made. ‘Thank you.’

‘Don’t get any ideas. It’s only lunch. We’re not best friends yet.’

‘I know.’ She’d obviously come to the conclusion that she couldn’t get rid of him so she was calling a truce. Drew nodded at her plate. ‘Don’t wait for me, yours will get cold.’

He knew. It was one thing for people to speculate, but he was a doctor and his word held some weight. And he wasn’t just speculating, he knew. The only way out of this mess was to stop denying the obvious and try to get him to keep quiet about it.

Lunch gave her an opportunity to think. The doctor never mentioned anything to do with her memory until they were sipping their coffee, but Sophie knew this was temporary. He was biding his time, in just the same way she was.

‘There’s something I have to know.’

‘Okay.’ He handed her the mint chocolate that had come with his coffee. He must have noticed that she’d eaten hers straight away. He seemed to notice far too much.

‘I need you to be discreet.’ She unwrapped the chocolate, nibbling at the edge of it.

He nodded. ‘Carly’s already taken care of that.’ He reached into his pocket, taking out a couple of sheets of paper, stapled together. Sophie wondered if he’d been carrying them around with him in anticipation of just this moment.

She scanned them carefully. A standard confidentiality agreement, with his signature and Carly’s on the bottom. ‘You plan to honour this?’

‘Yes. Even without it, anything you say is confidential. I’m a doctor.’

‘I don’t recall asking for your professional services.’ The jibe came out of nowhere, from the place where everything was a threat and no one could be trusted.

‘No, you didn’t. I’m offering them anyway.’

She shrugged. ‘Do you understand how dangerous rumours like this can be? No one wants to employ an actress who can’t remember what comes next. In big-budget projects like this, it’s too much of a financial risk.’

‘I understand. And it doesn’t matter what your reasons are. Confidentiality is confidentiality.’

Sophie supposed that she would have to take him at his word. ‘I want to make it clear that I’ve never taken drugs and I don’t have an alcohol problem. My accident was nothing to do with either of those things.’

‘Okay.’

‘You believe me?’

‘Yes.’

‘Right. Thanks.’ He could have believed her in a few more words but a yes would do. It was unequivocal enough, particularly when said the way he’d said it.

‘I know it’s tough, Sophie. When you remember some things and not others in what seems to be a completely random way. And the toughest thing is knowing that your memory’s not working properly, and never being sure if there’s something you’ve missed.’

‘If you say so.’ Actually, that was a pretty good description of how she felt. Never being sure of anything.

‘Is it all right if I ask you some questions?’

‘If I say no, you’ll only ask them anyway. So you’d better get on with it.’

‘Okay.’ He grinned at her, and suddenly it seemed so much easier to just go along with him. He did have a very nice smile. ‘This all started around the time of your accident?’

‘Yes. It was much worse at first, and it’s been improving over time.’ There had been no recurrence of the lost days that she’d experienced right after the accident. And she didn’t want to tell him about them. She didn’t even want to think about the photographs that had appeared on the internet afterwards. Sophie couldn’t bear to see the judgement in his beautiful grey eyes.

‘Any clumsiness, loss of co-ordination?’

‘I used to drop things quite a lot. And I’d forget how to do little things, like how to turn the shower on. I knew about traumatic brain injury from my father talking about it, and I knew that I could practise and relearn things.’

‘That must have been very hard to do on your own.’

‘I’m an actress, I’ve been taught how to be aware of movement and gesture.’

‘Even so, it’s a huge achievement. You should be proud of yourself.’

‘Thanks.’ This was the first time that someone had understood. The first time that anyone had praised her for the little things that had been so hard for her. She felt lighter than she had done for a very long time.

‘That’s good to see too…’

‘What?’

‘Your smile.’ His gaze dropped from her face, as if that was the one thing he was embarrassed to have noticed. ‘You’ve never seen a doctor about any of this?’

‘No. I have to keep it quiet.’

‘I understand that but you need to have a proper diagnosis. I can arrange for you to see someone discreetly. No one will know.’

‘I’ll think about it.’

‘Don’t put this off, Sophie.’

‘I’ll think about it. Don’t push me. I can still have you thrown off the set.’

His gaze held hers for a moment, and then let go. They both knew she wouldn’t do that now.

‘All right. So shall we concentrate on getting through today, then? Leave the other things until later.’

That would be good. ‘What do you suggest?’

‘Why don’t you lie down for half an hour then I’ll go through your lines with you. See if we can crack this scene together.’

The way he’d helped her with the CPR scene. She did need some help, and he seemed to know how to fix memories into her head.

‘Okay. Thank you.’

Drew found Joel eating a sandwich and talking to one of the cameramen. With the practised instincts of a man who missed nothing of what was going on around the set, Joel propped his plate on top of his script and rose to meet him.

‘How’s Sophie?’

‘Fine. She’s calmed down and I suggested she take a rest for a while. She’ll be ready to start work in an hour.’

‘You’re sure about that? If she’s going to be spending the whole afternoon in her trailer, I’d rather know now.’ Joel eyed him suspiciously.

‘I’m sure. She’ll be back here in an hour.’

‘Okay, thanks. Keep me informed, will you?’

‘Of course.’ Drew turned before Joel could ask any other awkward questions. The next task, was make sure that Sophie was word perfect and ready to face the world in exactly one hour.

CHAPTER FIVE

THE HAMMERING ON the door of his hotel room was insistent. Drew looked at the travelling clock at his bedside. Half past eleven. Probably someone who’d just been ejected from the hotel bar.

‘Please… It’s Sophie…’ When he hadn’t answered immediately, the knocking got louder, and Sophie’s voice sounded through the door, propelling him out of bed and onto his feet.

‘What…?’ He stepped back as she almost fell into the room. If she’d decided that seducing him would get him to let up on her, a white cotton nightie with a long cardigan over the top of it wasn’t the obvious choice of outfit, but on Sophie it looked entrancing. Something at the back of his mind screamed that being alone in a hotel room, half-naked, with a scantily dressed film star who had a patchy memory showed spectacularly bad judgement.

‘It’s Carly. She’s sick. Please, come.’ She frowned at him. ‘Put some clothes on.’

He was beginning to like it when Sophie put him firmly in his place. Drew reached for his jeans, dragging them on over his boxer shorts, and caught up a T-shirt. ‘What’s the matter?’

‘I don’t know. She seemed better this evening. Her room’s next to my suite and I left the adjoining door open and went to bed. When I woke up just now I heard her crying. She’s in such pain…’

‘Okay, which way?’ Drew hoped she could remember, because he had no idea where Carly’s room was.

She led the way through a maze of corridors, taking a few wrong turns before she reached one of the rooms at the front of the hotel. Carly was curled up on the bed, her knees almost touching her chin, tears streaking her cheeks. Untypically for someone who was obviously feeling very ill, she didn’t look particularly pleased to see a doctor.

‘I’m all right. It’s just a…’ Whatever Carly thought she might be suffering from was lost as she caught her breath in pain.

‘Okay, then. Let’s just have a look.’

Carly resisted him, and Sophie’s voice sounded, firm and calm. ‘Stop messing about and just do what the doctor tells you.’

‘You’re a fine one to talk.’ Carly cursed under her breath but she let Drew roll her over on the bed and pull her hand from her side.

‘Is this where it hurts?’

‘Yeah…’

He pressed gently and Carly winced. When he removed the pressure she cried out in pain. Drew didn’t need a thermometer to tell him that she was running a fever, burning up.

‘Sophie, do you have your phone?’

‘I think so.’ She looked in the pocket of her cardigan and found it, handing it over to Drew. He dialled quickly, telling the ambulance controller that he was a doctor and that he had a patient with all the signs of acute appendicitis.

‘Get off… my case…’ Carly paused to catch her breath. ‘It’s a stomach bug. I’ll be fine in the morning. I’m not going anywhere.’

‘Carly, you’re sick. Please.’ Sophie was standing behind him, close to tears now. ‘You have to go.’

‘Soph…’ Carly was clearly in a lot of pain, but all she could think about was her friend.

‘Look, Carly. I know you brought him here to help me, and I’ve told him everything.’

‘You told… him?’

‘Wasn’t that your plan all along?’ Drew wondered whether he should leave the room to allow the two of them to argue about him in private.

‘None of that matters now, Carly. Since the accident, I can’t remember stuff, but I’ve admitted it now, and everything’s going to be okay. You have to go. Please, I promise I’ll let the doctor help me.’ The words tumbled from Sophie’s mouth in a rush of anxiety for her friend.

‘Is that true?’ Carly looked at Drew.

‘It’s true. You need to go with the ambulance. I’ll look after Sophie.’

‘You only signed for a week…’

‘Forget the contract. I’m staying here until you’re well.’

Carly gave a small nod and let him roll her over onto her side, drawing her knees up in a position that would make the pain easier for her to bear. Sophie pushed past him, getting onto the bed and holding her friend as best she could.

‘Hang onto me, honey. It’s going to be all right.’

Tears began to roll down Carly’s cheeks, and she started to sob. ‘I want Mark…’

‘I know you do. We’ll call him as soon as we have you safe in the hospital.’ She turned her head towards Drew. ‘Mark DeAngelo, Carly’s husband. His number’s in my phone. Will you remember that I have to call him?’

‘I’ll remember.’

It had taken this for Sophie and Carly to finally talk to each other. Drew watched the two of them, curled up together on the bed, holding each other tightly, and hoped that Sophie would remember at least something about her promise to take some help.

The ambulance crew arrived and Sophie slipped away, letting Drew talk to the woman paramedic. He could hear her banging around in the suite next door and he resolved that he’d go and see what she was up to as soon as he could.

‘Okay.’ The paramedic bent over Carly. ‘Carly… Carly, we’re going to take you to hospital. The stretcher’s coming up now and we’ll get you comfortable and carry you down to the ambulance.’

Carly nodded wordlessly. She was lying quietly now, which wasn’t necessarily a good sign. Sudden relief of pain usually occurred when the appendix burst, and Drew wouldn’t put it past her to give a busy A and E department the slip and simply walk out of there.

A noise behind him made him glance around. Sophie was standing in the doorway, fully dressed, her designer handbag slung across her body, looking as if she was planning on going somewhere. That was all he needed. Drew had no intention of letting Carly go to the hospital alone, but Sophie was only going to get in the way.

‘Sophie…’ He walked towards her, leaving the paramedic to tend to Carly. ‘I want you to stay here.’

‘Forget it.’

‘The ambulance won’t take two passengers.’

‘Then I’ll get a taxi and follow you.’

Like hell she would. Having Sophie wandering around a strange hospital in the middle of the night wasn’t his idea of looking after her.

‘I can’t watch out for both of you at the same time. Work with me, Sophie. I want to go with Carly to make sure she’s all right, but I can’t do that if I’m not confident that you’re going to stay here.’

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