The Midwife's Longed-For Baby

She dodged between the rows of cars, reached the kerb by the access road to the main car park and was about to cross it when she felt his hand on her arm.

‘Liv, please, let me talk to you. Give me a chance to explain.’

But she’d had enough to deal with already today, so she turned back to face him and shook her head. ‘No. I can’t do this now just to ease your guilty conscience, Nick, and I’m not going to. Please, just leave me alone!’

He caught her shoulders and held her. ‘Liv, I won’t take much of your time, but there’s something I need to tell you and you need to hear it—’

‘No! No, I don’t!’

She tried to spin away from him, but his grip suddenly tightened and he tried to pull her back.

‘Liv, no!’ he yelled, his voice urgent, but the urgency was lost on her as she wrenched her arm away and stumbled backwards off the kerb out of reach.

She saw the look of horror on his face, heard the blast of a horn, saw the car as it clipped her and sent her spinning, and then her head hit the ground and everything went black...

* * *

He watched helplessly as the car struck her, saw her fall, saw her head bouncing off the kerb as she came to rest just inches from the front wheel. The big SUV had ground to a halt and the driver stumbled out, other people ran towards them shouting, but his eyes were only for Liv.

She was lying motionless on the edge of the road like a broken doll, her head level with the front wheel, her feet partly under the car just inches from the rear wheel, and for a terrifying second he thought she was dead.

Her hair had tumbled over her face and he dropped to his knees beside her, sweeping the hair aside to check for a pulse in her neck, but his own heart was beating so hard he could scarcely feel hers and his breath jammed in his throat.

‘Liv? Liv, talk to me, for God’s sake!’

He found a pulse and dragged in a breath, digging out the doctor instead of the lover, running his hands over her quickly, checking that she was breathing, scanning her for injuries, but her limbs were all straight, her pupils were equal and reactive, her breathing was normal. For now. But she was unconscious, and that could mean anything.

He needed help, and fast. He tugged his phone out of his pocket with shaking fingers and rang the ED direct. ‘One of our midwives has been knocked down near the staff car park and she’s unconscious. Send a team out here now, please, fast. Tell them they’ll need a collar and board and a pelvic band. And hurry.’

She started to stir, and he dropped the phone and reached out, bracketing her head carefully in his hands and holding it steady, feeling the stickiness of blood on his fingers as they burrowed through her hair. No...

‘Easy, Liv. Try not to move. I’ve called for help. Just stay as still as you can.’

‘Nick?’

She knew him. Thank God...

‘It’s OK, Liv, I’ve got you, my love. I’ve got you. They’ll be here soon. You’ll be OK. Just keep still for me, sweetheart.’

‘My head hurts...’

‘I know, darling, I know, but they’ll be here soon. Just hang on another minute. It won’t be long.’

‘Over here,’ someone yelled, and then the crowd that had gathered around them parted as the trauma team arrived.

He looked up without moving his hands. ‘She was KOed briefly, she’s got a head wound, and you’ll need a collar and a board. GCS three at first, now fourteen. She’s concussed, almost certainly whiplashed and she could have pelvic and spinal injuries—and mind her legs. I don’t know if they were hit,’ he said unsteadily, and then someone took over the control of her head and neck and he found himself gently shifted out of the way. Someone backed the car away very carefully to give them better access, and as soon as her spine was immobilised they moved her onto a stretcher, then up onto the trolley for the short trundle to the ED doors.

He scooped up her bag and coat and went with them, still issuing instructions on autopilot. ‘Try and keep it smooth,’ he said, putting his free hand on the trolley to steady it. ‘She’ll need a head and neck CT and a full trauma series—’

‘It’s OK, you can leave her with us now,’ someone said, but he shook his head.

‘No way, she’s my wife,’ he said, for the sake of economy, and he followed them into Resus without waiting to be invited. The team closed around her, nobody he recognised, no one he could connect with, and then a door swished open and someone said, ‘OK, what have we got?’ and the voice from his youth was so familiar he could have cried with relief.

‘Sam,’ he said, his voice choked, and Sam stopped in his tracks and did a mild double-take.

‘Nick? What are you doing here?’

‘My wife was knocked down in the car park, right in front of me. Her name’s Olivia—Liv. She’s a midwife here.’

‘Liv’s your wife?’ Sam’s face creased into a frown and he bent over her so she could see his face without moving. ‘Hi, Liv, it’s Sam Ryder. Remember me? You delivered our baby last year.’

‘Of course I do. How is she?’ she mumbled, and Nick let out a sigh of relief because if she remembered that, it was a good sign—wasn’t it?

‘She’s fine. They’re both well.’ Sam turned to him. ‘What can you tell me about the accident? Speed, angle of collision, how far she travelled?’

He made himself focus. ‘Um—low speed collision, probably less than ten miles an hour at the most? She stepped out backwards in front of a big SUV. She was hit from her left side and spun as she fell, but not far. Her head hit the kerb pretty hard. There’s a cut on the left side just behind the temple. GCS three initially, then fourteen after a brief loss of consciousness—’

‘How brief?’

He shrugged. ‘I don’t know. Not long, but long enough to be significant. A minute, maybe, at the most? I’d done a cursory check and called for help before she stirred.’

‘Did her head hit the bonnet before she fell?’

‘No. No, it really wasn’t that fast and the front wing just clipped her. She just—spun and fell, but really hard so she’ll need a CT and her head’s bleeding so she could have a fracture there where she hit the kerb, and she might be whiplashed and her spine needs checking thoroughly—’

Sam lifted a hand. ‘OK, we’re on it. Can you give us her details so we can be getting her notes up? And then maybe you need to go and get a coffee while we check her over.’

‘I can’t leave her—’

‘Yes, you can. Don’t worry, we’ll keep you updated. Make sure we’ve got your number.’

Sam turned back to Liv, taking her hand in his, focusing intently on his patient as Nick stood numbly and watched them, hardly daring to breathe.

‘OK, Liv, can you tell me where it hurts?’ Sam asked softly.

‘Everywhere.’

‘Well, that’s not very useful,’ he said with a grin. ‘Can you try and be a little more specific?’

‘My head?’

‘Anywhere else?’ He carried on chattily assessing her while Nick watched tensely from the sidelines, then he straightened.

‘OK. That’s all good. Can we get some IV paracetamol on board, please, and get a full trauma screen to rule out any fractures and then we’ll send you down for a head and neck CT, Liv, OK? And can we run a FAST scan, please, while we’re waiting?’

Nick felt himself relax a fraction. Despite his light-hearted banter, Sam was looking after her properly, and all the time the nurses had been working, linking her to a monitor, getting IV access ready, cutting her clothes away so Sam could see her injuries.

He could see them, too, and the bruises on her smooth, pale skin made him wince. She could so easily have been killed—

‘Mr Jarvis?’

He turned his head, finally becoming aware of the nurse who’d laid a hand on his arm and was shaking it gently to get his attention.

‘If you could give me her details that would be very helpful.’

‘Of course. I’m sorry.’ He forced himself to focus, rattled off her name, date of birth, address, GP—

‘OK, I’ve got her. You’re her next of kin?’

‘Yes,’ he said firmly, although he didn’t know if that was still true, strictly speaking, because the ex-ness made that all a little unclear...

‘Same mobile phone number?’

‘Yes.’

‘Is that her stuff? Would you like me to look after it?’

He looked down and saw the coat and bag, clutched in his hand like a lifeline. He’d forgotten all about them. ‘Yeah, thanks.’ He handed them over just as the door behind him opened again and swished shut, and he turned his head and met Ben Walker’s worried eyes.

‘What’s going on? I heard Liv had been run over.’

‘Not run over,’ he said, his voice suddenly hollow. ‘She was knocked down. She’s got a head injury.’

Ben frowned, crossed over to the bed and exchanged a few words with Sam, then leant over her. ‘Hi, Liv. Anything I can do?’

She mumbled something, and Ben nodded and straightened up, squeezing her hand as he left her side.

‘Don’t worry, I’ll look after him.’

He turned to the nurse who was printing up Liv’s labels for the notes. ‘Page me if you need us,’ he said, and hooking his arm around Nick’s shoulders, the bluff Yorkshireman gently but firmly led him away.

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