The Doctor's Wife For Keeps

Maybe that was down to the gleam she’d caught in Luke’s gaze. They’d always set out to see who could better the other. And then they would always celebrate the winner without any suggestion of animosity. With a dollop of pride, even...

‘And while we’re on the subject of communication,’ the official continued, ‘it is forbidden for any team to discuss the scenarios with other teams until the competition is finished so please be careful. Anyone found to be using information they have received in advance will be eliminated.’

‘What section are you in?’ she asked as soon as the formalities were over. ‘All doctors? Doctors and med students?’

‘Doctor/paramedic.’ Luke put his arm around the man standing beside him. ‘This is Matteo Martini. Italian paramedic extraordinaire.’

‘Ooh...’ Georgia had moved closer. ‘A martini? Yes, please... Extra-dry—with an olive.’

They all laughed. ‘This is Georgie,’ Kate said. ‘My paramedic partner.’

She caught Luke’s gaze again and this time the gleam took her right back to her student days. Standing in line outside an examination room with both of them knowing how hard they’d studied and both of them determined to be top of the class.

It had become a joke amongst their fellow students about whose turn it was to come first because they were such an equal match. There was never much of a gap between their marks.

‘My turn, I think.’ Kate grinned.

‘I don’t think so.’ But then Luke frowned. ‘Who got first last time? Good grief...it’s so long ago, I can’t even remember.’

‘Finals,’ Kate growled. ‘And it was you.’ She was scowling at him now. ‘You don’t need to look so smug about it.’

Luke adjusted his face. ‘It was a long time ago.’

‘Mmm.’ Kate held his gaze. ‘Too long.’

They were being herded out of the room now. A glance over her shoulder showed Kate that Georgia and Matteo were following so they went with the flow. It seemed that everybody was heading for the bar to wait until their scenario list and start times were handed out.

‘So how are you?’ Kate had to raise her voice to be heard over the babble of so many languages around them. ‘I haven’t seen you since your wedding.’

‘I know. I’m sorry...’ There was something in Luke’s expression that suggested he was sorry for more than the lack of contact. ‘Can I get you a drink?’

‘Just a soda water,’ Kate said. ‘I need to keep a clear head for tomorrow.’

‘Beer for me,’ Matteo said. ‘Georgie?’

The mischievous expression on Georgia’s face made Kate suppress a sigh. It was clear she was enjoying the handsome Italian’s company but surely she wasn’t going to be obvious enough ask for a martini? The sigh came out as one of relief as Georgia spoke.

‘White wine,’ she said. ‘Sparkling, if they’ve got it. I do love a bit of sparkle.’

Matteo raised an eyebrow. ‘A taste for champagne, yes? Classy...’ He went to help Luke carry the drinks while the girls found a place to sit down.

‘You want me to take Matteo somewhere else?’ Georgia asked. ‘So that you and Luke can have some alone time?’

‘Don’t be daft.’ The words came out sounding more irritated than Kate had intended. ‘We’re friends. Or we were. It’s so long since I’ve seen him that we’re practically strangers now.’

She averted her gaze as she finished her sentence. It was so far from the truth. But she couldn’t admit to Georgia how it made her feel to see Luke again. She hadn’t quite got her own head around it yet.

It seemed that Luke had followed her example and got a non-alcoholic drink for himself as well. Clearly he wanted to be as competitive as possible tomorrow as well. Kate had to hide a smile as they touched glasses.

Game on...

‘Cheers,’ she said. ‘I have to say, you’re probably the last person I would have expected to run into here. Have you changed specialties and gone into emergency medicine?’

‘No. I’m still a paediatric surgeon but I do specialise in trauma cases. It’s Matt’s fault I’m here.’

‘Snap,’ Kate told him. ‘Georgia entered me as a birthday present. She said I needed some adventure in my life.’

‘And do you?’ There was a question in Luke’s eyes that went far deeper than the amused query.

Was her life going the way she had planned it out so carefully? Was she happy?

She was saved having to find an answer by Georgia leaning closer. ‘So how do you two boys know each other?’

‘I did a stint in a hospital in Milan,’ Luke told her. ‘I got lost one day trying to find my apartment and this ambulance pulled up beside me. Matt was driving.’

‘I’d seen him in the emergency department of the hospital,’ Matteo put in. ‘I’d stayed with a child I’d brought in who’d been hit by a car and Luke had been called for a surgical consultation.’

‘He gave me a ride home,’ Luke continued. ‘And then he said he’d pick me up again after he finished his shift because he knew where the best beer in Milan was.’

‘Italy,’ Kate breathed. ‘How exciting. Did Nadia love living there?’

Matteo was staring at Luke. ‘Who’s Nadia?’

‘My ex-wife.’

‘Ah...the cheating cow?’

‘That’s the one.’

It was Kate’s turn to stare at Luke. ‘Oh, my God...you and Nadia split up?’

Luke was eyeing Matteo’s beer as if he was regretting his decision on drinks. ‘Yep.’

‘But...’

Everybody turned to stare at her and Kate bit her lip. ‘Sorry,’ she muttered. ‘It’s just that you guys were so in love...’

Luke snorted. ‘Yeah...well, I won’t be making that mistake again, believe me.’

‘It kind of cures you,’ Matteo offered. ‘When the wife you love turns out to have been shagging every other man she met. I’m with Luke on this one. If someone cheated on me or lied to me like that, I would never let her name pass my lips again either.’

Kate wanted the floor to open up and swallow her. Poor Luke... And she’d made things worse by opening her big mouth and reminding him of something it was obvious he would rather forget. Good grief...he hadn’t even told Matteo his wife’s name? Just referred to her as ‘the cheating cow’?

And something else was trying to push its way into her consciousness.

The fact that Luke was single again?

No. She was too old and wise to allow any seed to grow in that long-ago abandoned space. She’d been romantically invisible back then. Why would that have changed?

What needed to change was the subject. Fast.

‘How long were you in Milan?’

‘Two years. And then I won a consultancy position six months ago. In Edinburgh.’

‘No way...’

Luke blinked. ‘What’s so surprising about that? Did you think I was going to stay a registrar for ever?’

Kate shook her head. ‘It’s not that. I’m a consultant too. In Glasgow.’

Luke laughed. ‘You mean we’ve been living fifty miles from each other and we had to travel halfway across Europe to catch up?’

‘Not even fifty miles. Georgia and I live in Brackenburn—halfway between Glasgow and Edinburgh. I work in the Eastern Infirmary in Glasgow and Georgie’s a paramedic at a rescue base in Edinburgh.’

‘Do you have helicopters?’ Matteo asked Georgia.

‘Yes. Two. I don’t get to go up in them very often, though. Only when they’re short of staff. You?’

‘I’ve been a flight paramedic for eight years now. I love it...’

Kate and Luke weren’t listening to the conversation between their partners. People around them were starting to move, which meant that the time for finding out exactly what tomorrow would bring was getting close.

But they were both sitting very still. So much had happened in the years since they’d last seen each other. Kate wanted to know more and she was saddened by more than a hint of bitterness in Luke’s tone when he’d confirmed that his marriage was over. How could that have happened to one of the nicest people she had ever known?

Maybe something of what she was thinking was showing in her face.

‘What about you, Katy?’ Luke asked quietly. ‘You happily married now? Got a couple of kids at home? That was the plan, wasn’t it?’

Kate dropped her gaze. There was something a little shameful about admitting that she had failed to achieve her most important personal goals. She didn’t say anything, simply shaking her head as she reached for her glass to finish her drink.

‘We’d better get going,’ Matteo said. ‘It’s time...’

Kate stood up, more than happy to leave this conversation behind for the moment.

But Luke stayed where he was for a moment, staring up at Kate.

‘It was your birthday in March,’ he said.

‘It always is.’ Kate grinned. ‘Two weeks after yours, in fact.’

‘Yeah...so we both turned thirty-five.’

Was he trying to rub in the fact that she was still single? That parenthood was probably still years away? That she might get into her forties and get past the point where it might be even possible?

She could feel defensive hackles begin to rise. Maybe, thanks to his own unfortunate experience, Luke had changed from being the nicest person in the world.

But he was grinning. And he didn’t have to say a word for Kate to realise that he hadn’t been trying to remind her that time was ticking on.

He was reminding her of something else. Something they’d agreed on after that legendary night of celebrating their final results as they’d graduated as fully fledged doctors. Something she hadn’t thought about in at least five years.

Because it had become redundant the moment that Luke had got married.

Surely he didn’t think it could be reinstated because he was single again?

No. Kate turned away with a dismissive shake of her head.

‘The pact’ was no longer in existence.

CHAPTER TWO

‘I THINK WE’RE HERE.’

Kate looked at the two-storeyed village house they were parked in front of. The door was shut and there was nobody to be seen trying to flag down medical assistance. She had programmed the satellite navigation system with all the GPS coordinates of their daytime tasks herself, however, so she was confident that no mistakes had been made.

‘We’ve got ten minutes. We’ll knock on the door at precisely seven forty-five. You might want to turn off the light.’ The portable flashing light on the top of the SUV was plugged into the car’s cigarette lighter. ‘We don’t want to flatten the battery while we’re on scene.’

‘Roger that.’ Georgia pulled the plug from the socket. She smiled at Kate but then her face scrunched into a grimace. ‘First scenario. You nervous?’

‘I wish we had some idea of what we’re going to. The name doesn’t give us much of a clue, does it? “Sweetheart”?’

‘Maybe it’s got something to do with sugar. A diabetic emergency, maybe?’

‘Good thinking.’

‘Or...’ Georgia wiggled her eyebrows. ‘Maybe it’s a young couple who are madly in love and they were having morning sex in the shower and one of them has slipped over and hit their head on the side of the bath.’

Kate didn’t want to think about people who were so crazy in love they couldn’t keep their hands off each other. She’d never experienced that kind of love. Why was it that the balance always seemed to be tipped far too much in one direction? The people she fell in love with never felt the same way but if she was only mildly interested she could guarantee that the guy would fall head over heels for her and become suffocatingly attentive.

She checked her watch. ‘Five minutes.’

‘Do you think another team is still in there? Luke and Matteo, maybe?’

Kate didn’t want to think about Luke, either. Not when thinking about the past could be a distraction. She had every intention of beating his team in this competition. It was her turn, after all. Payback for him getting better marks in finals.

He’d been so gracious about that, hadn’t he? Toasting her with that excellent champagne he’d brought with him. The first bottle, that was. The second bottle had been a bad idea because it had culminated in concocting ‘the pact’ but the evening had been all about celebrating their graduation to start with. And each other’s success.

‘I owe it all to you, Katy. If you hadn’t been my study buddy and I hadn’t been trying so hard to keep up with your brilliance for the last few years, I’d probably have been at the bottom of the class.’

Not true, of course. Luke had one of the sharpest minds she’d ever had the pleasure of arguing with and, if she’d had the edge on remembering everything she learned, Luke had been better at the practical skills in those days. More confident, with surprisingly nimble fingers. It was no surprise that he had become a surgeon and Kate had no doubt that he was excelling in his field. Did those skills extend to an environment outside of an operating theatre? How much had Matteo taught him about front-line emergency procedures?

‘Time?’

‘Oh, help. It’s seven forty-six.’ How had that happened?

Both Kate and Georgia leapt from the vehicle, slamming the front doors to go around to the back and collect the well-stocked kits that Georgia’s Edinburgh ambulance station had provided for them. She’d been distracted, Kate realised, by thinking about Luke.

It wasn’t going to happen again.

* * *

‘We’re early.’

Luke grunted. Eight-fifteen was their start time for the scenario with the odd name of ‘Sweetheart’ but he’d been determined not to risk disqualification by being late at any of the tasks they’d been set for the day. Especially now, when he had the added incentive of competing with Kate.

Her turn to win?

He found himself smiling. Whatever the result, this competition had just become a lot more fun.

The smile faded, however, as he looked around them at the quiet street dotted with small, village houses. ‘Doesn’t look like much.’ A bit disappointing, in fact. He’d expected to have something like a car versus pedestrian scenario for the coordinates in the middle of this small town. ‘You sure we’re in the right place?’

‘Sì. Assolutamente.’ Matteo pointed through the windscreen. ‘That car parked over there is a competitor. It’s got the numbers. And a light on the roof, like ours. And the flags are...’

‘Scottish,’ Luke murmured. There was only one team representing Scotland here and he knew who that was.

That smile was resurfacing. How astonishing had it been to run into Kate here, of all places in the world?

And how good had it been to see her again?

It made him realise that he’d been lonely ever since he’d taken up his new position in Edinburgh. He’d missed his mate, Matteo, who’d been so good for him during his time in Milan as he’d licked his wounds after escaping the disaster that his marriage had been. Focusing so completely on work in Edinburgh had left no time to try and make new friends, which was probably why he’d taken up Matteo’s invitation to join him for this competition.

And while it had been great to catch up with his mate, seeing Kate again was on a whole new level. They had history—heart-warming history—that made her like family.

He hadn’t thought about that ‘pact’ for years.

Not until last night, that was, when Kate’s avoidance of answering his query about whether she was married with kids yet had reminded him of how much time had passed. Plenty of time to have achieved the ‘plan’.

The plan they’d discussed that night after graduation, over that really great bottle of champagne.

‘Me? I’m going to start my stellar career and find the woman of my dreams to share the glory. What about you, Katy?’

‘Oh... I’m going to have a brilliant career, too. And I’m going to find the man of my dreams and get married and have a couple of the world’s most gorgeous children...’

And then they’d polished off that second bottle and things had become a whole lot more mushy. The ‘plan’ had morphed into the ‘pact’.

‘You’re my best mate, Katy. I love you to bits.’

‘Love you, too, mate.’

‘Tell you what...’

‘What?’

‘If we haven’t found those dream people by the time we’re...oh...say, thirty-five...let’s marry each other.’

‘Why would you want to marry me?’

‘I might be desperate by then.’

‘Cheers, mate.’

‘Oh, come on...it was a joke.’

‘Your idea of getting married is a joke.’

‘No... I’m serious. Let’s make a pact. If we’re both still single when we’re thirty-five, we’ll marry each other. Okay?’

She’d drained her glass of champagne, pushed her hair out of her eyes and given him a curiously intent stare. And then she’d done it. Agreed to the pact.

‘Okay. You’re on.’

‘So it’s a pact? Signed and sealed?’

‘It’s a pact. But now I need to go to sleep.’

Ancient memories but good ones.

Yes. It was extraordinarily good to see Kate again. Best of all, he had discovered that she lived close enough to his new home town that they would be able to see each other whenever they both had some free time.

Unless she had a boyfriend, of course. Thanks to Matteo’s conversation with Georgia last night, he now knew that Kate wasn’t married and that she was sharing a house with Georgia, but that didn’t mean there wasn’t someone else in the picture. Why wouldn’t there be? Kate was gorgeous, with that impressive intelligence shining from those bright, blue eyes. And he liked that her hair was a bit longer these days. The blonde bob almost touched her shoulders and had a bit of a swing to it.

Not that it would be a problem if she had a significant other in her life. It could mean that Luke’s circle of friends was about to expand, in fact. Maybe they could even double date. He and Matteo had had a lot of fun doing that in Milan. Nothing serious, mind you. Matteo might be dead keen to settle down and start a family of his own with the woman of his dreams but Luke had abandoned any such fairy-tale long ago. At about the same moment he’d learned that his marriage was a complete sham. As he’d remarked so bitterly to Kate, he had no intention of ever losing his head—or his heart—over a woman again.

Still...he wasn’t getting any younger. It would be a shame to miss out completely and spend the rest of his life caring for other people’s children...

* * *

The noise coming from the other side of the door was enough to make Kate and Georgia share a startled glance.

A party? At this time of the day?

Georgia pounded on the door. ‘Ambulance,’ she yelled.

There was no response, so she opened the door. They walked straight into a living room and there were at least half a dozen people, talking loudly enough to hear each other over the music. A bottle of vodka was being passed around and glasses clinked together. Nobody took the least bit of notice of the newcomers.

‘Hello...’ An earlier coin toss had decided that Kate was taking the lead role in this first scenario and she approached the nearest person. ‘Did someone call for an ambulance?’

‘Not me,’ the young man replied. ‘Hey...’ He put his arm around a young woman. ‘Let’s dance...’

Kate blinked. This was nothing like she had expected. Where were the officials that would be judging their performance? Where was someone who looked remotely like a patient?

Georgia’s eyes narrowed as she caught Kate’s glance and she raised her voice loudly enough to be heard by everyone.

‘Oi...’

The vodka carrier lowered the bottle. Heads turned in surprise.

‘Someone called an ambulance,’ Georgia said sternly. ‘Who was it?’

‘Oh...’ There was a man sitting in the corner of the room, leaning on the wall. ‘That was me. My girlfriend is upstairs. She’s lying down because she has a bad stomach ache.’

‘Anything else we should know?’

‘No. I don’t think so.’ The man raised a glass as he smiled at them. ‘Oh, she is pregnant. Is that important?’

Turning swiftly, they raced up a narrow set of stairs to find themselves in a bedroom and here it was. The scenario...

Two judges with clipboards were standing by. A young woman was sitting on a bed and she was holding a manikin of a newborn infant wrapped in a T-shirt.

‘Check mum and get her history,’ Kate told Georgia. ‘I’ll check the baby.’

The young mother didn’t want to let go of her baby.

‘How long ago was the baby born?’

‘Only a minute...maybe two...’

‘Have you heard it cry?’

‘No. No... Please don’t take my baby away...’

‘It’s okay,’ Georgia told her. ‘We just want to help you. Kate’s a baby doctor.’

Kate moved the folds of the T-shirt to reveal the baby’s face. The cord was wrapped tightly around the baby’s neck.

‘The baby is blue,’ one of the judges said.

Kate scooped the manikin from the patient’s arms. She turned to find that Georgia had stopped her examination of the mother for the moment. She’d laid a towel on the floor and had the kit opened, with the paediatric resuscitation gear that Kate would need within easy reach. A suction bulb, a tiny bag mask unit and tubes in case intubation was necessary.

‘No significant haemorrhage from the mother,’ Georgia told her. ‘And she has a radial pulse.’

Kate nodded approvingly. ‘Thanks.’ If the mother had a radial pulse it indicated that her blood pressure was adequate and that meant they could both focus on saving the life of this baby.

She laid the baby on the towel and positioned its head to ensure the airway was clear.

‘Can I feel a pulse?’ Kate asked swiftly, her fingers now on the baby’s neck.

‘The pulse is thirty,’ the judge said.

‘Can I see or feel any movements of respiration?’ Kate already knew what the answer was likely to be. This infant hadn’t cried and its colour meant that it was receiving no more oxygen than the umbilical cord was hopefully still providing.

‘The baby is not breathing,’ the judge confirmed.

Kate gave five puffs of oxygen through the bag mask unit and then started CPR, which was needed even though there was a pulse to be felt. The heart rate was too slow and the baby wasn’t breathing on its own yet.

She handed the bag mask to Georgia, who had positioned herself at the baby’s head.

‘Three to one?’

Georgia nodded. With only two fingers on the baby’s chest, Kate kept her compressions gentle but swift. After every three compressions, she paused for a moment to allow Georgia to administer a puff of air. At the same time, she kept an eye on the mother, reassuring her that they were doing all they could and watching for any signs of a post-partum haemorrhage that they would need to manage.

Every thirty seconds, she checked what the baby’s heart rate was. It crept up to forty and then sixty.

‘The heart rate is now over eighty,’ the judge informed them after a few minutes.

‘Colour?’

‘Getting pink.’

‘Breathing?’

‘Yes, she’s breathing. She’s crying now.’ The judge was smiling. ‘Well done.’

Kate put the baby back into its mother’s arms and wrapped them both warmly. ‘Keep her against your skin,’ she said.

‘Is she going to be all right?’

‘She’s going to be fine.’ Kate smiled. ‘Congratulations. You have a beautiful baby daughter.’

The young woman was a very good actor. Kate could swear she had tears of relief in her eyes as she thanked her rescuers and cuddled her newborn. The whole scenario had felt so real that Kate found she was having an emotional response of her own. One that she had had many times in her career—the sheer wonder of a new life being brought into the world and...

And envy of the mother who got to hold it and know it was her own?

Good grief. The baby was plastic and the whole scenario, however brilliantly acted, was not real. While this competition set out to test and even improve the skills of the participants, it was nothing more than a game. Kate needed to step back and not become so involved with the stories or she would be too exhausted to be a good partner for Georgia by the time the night tasks came along.

‘That was awesome,’ Georgia said, as soon as they shut the front door behind them again. ‘You were awesome. I think we smashed that one.’