Dr Dark and Far-Too Delicious

Lisa was as good as her word and popped in and out. Insisting she was done with her ovaries, she put on a lead gown and shooed them out for a moment and they stepped outside for the X-ray.

Strained was the silence and reluctantly almost, as if he was forcing himself to be polite, Jed turned his face towards her as they waited for the all-clear to go back inside. ‘Enjoying your first day?’

‘Actually, yes!’ She was surprised at the enthusiasm in her answer as she’d been dreading starting work and leaving Simon, and worried that her scrambled brain wasn’t up to a demanding job. Yet, less than an hour into her first shift, Jasmine was realising how much she’d missed it, how much she had actually loved her work.

‘Told you it wouldn’t take long.’

‘Yes, well, I’m only two patients in.’ She frowned as he looked up, not into her eyes but at her hair. ‘The hairdresser cut too much off.’

‘No, no.’ He shook his head. ‘It’s white.’

‘Oh.’ She shook it and a little puff of plaster dust blew into the air. ‘Plaster dust.’ She shook it some more, moaning at how she always ended up messy, and he sort of changed his smile to a stern nod as the red light flashed and then the radiographer called that they could go back inside.

‘You’re looking better.’ Jasmine smiled at her patient because now the emergency was over, she could make him a touch more comfortable. The morphine had kicked in and his catheter bag was full as the fluid that had been suffocating him was starting to move from his chest. ‘How are you feeling?’

‘Like I can breathe,’ Jim said, and grabbed her hand, still worried. ‘Can my wife come in? She must’ve been terrified.’

‘I’m going to go and speak to her now,’ Jed said, ‘and then I’ll ring the medics to come and take over your care. You’re doing well.’ He looked at Jasmine. ‘Can you stay with him while I go and speak to his wife?’

‘Sure.’

‘I thought that was it,’ Jim admitted as Jasmine placed some pillows behind him and put a blanket over the sheet that covered him. After checking his obs, she sat herself down on the hard flat resus bed beside him. ‘Libby thought so too.’

‘Your wife?’ Jasmine checked, and he nodded.

‘She couldn’t remember the number for the ambulance.’

‘It must have been very scary for her,’ Jasmine said, because though it must be terrifying to not be able to breathe, to watch someone you love suffer must have been hell. ‘She’ll be so pleased to see that you’re talking and looking so much better than when you came in.’

Libby was pleased, even though she promptly burst into tears when she saw him, and it was Jim who had to reassure her, rather than the other way around.

They were the most gorgeous couple—Libby chatted enough for both of them and told Jasmine that they were about to celebrate their golden wedding anniversary, which was certainly an achievement when she herself hadn’t even managed to make it to one year.

‘I was just telling Jasmine,’ Libby said when Jed came in to check on Jim’s progress, ‘that it’s our golden wedding anniversary in a fortnight.’

‘Congratulations.’ Jed smiled.

‘The children are throwing us a surprise party,’ Libby said. ‘Well, they’re hardly children …’

‘And it’s hardly a surprise.’ Jed smiled again. ‘Are you not supposed to know about it?’

‘No,’ Libby admitted. ‘Do you think that Jim will be okay?’

‘He should be,’ Jed said. ‘For now I’m going to ring the medics and have them take over his care, but if he continues improving I would expect him to be home by the end of the week—and ready to gently celebrate by the next.’

They were such a lovely couple and Jasmine adored seeing their closeness, but more than that she really was enjoying being back at work and having her world made bigger instead of fretting about her own problems. She just loved the whole buzz of the place, in fact.

It was a nice morning, a busy morning, but the staff were really friendly and helpful—well, most of them. Penny was Penny and especially caustic when Jasmine missed a vein when she tried to insert an IV.

‘I’ll do it!’ She snapped, ‘the patient doesn’t have time for you to practise on him.’

‘Why don’t you two go to lunch?’ Lisa suggested as Jasmine bit down on her lip.

‘She has such a lovely nature!’ Vanessa nudged Jasmine as they walked round to the staffroom. ‘Honestly, pay no attention to Penny. She’s got the patience of a two-year-old and, believe me, I speak from experience when I say that they have none. How old is your son?’ She must have the seen that Jasmine was a bit taken aback by her question, as she hadn’t had time to mention Simon to Vanessa yet. ‘I saw you dropping him off at crèche this morning when I was bringing in Liam.’

‘Your two-year-old?’

‘My terrible two-year-old,’ Vanessa corrected as they went to the fridge and took out their lunches and Vanessa told her all about the behavioural problems she was having with Liam.

‘He’s completely adorable,’ Vanessa said as they walked through to the staffroom, ‘but, God, he’s hard work.’

Jed was in the staffroom and it annoyed Jasmine that she even noticed—after all, there were about ten people in there, but it was him that she noticed and he was also the reason she blushed as Vanessa’s questions became a bit more personal.

‘No.’ Jasmine answered when Vanessa none-too-subtly asked about Simon’s father—but that was nursing, especially in Emergency. Everyone knew everything about everyone’s life and not for the first time Jasmine wondered how she was supposed to keep the fact she was Penny’s sister a secret.

‘We broke up before he was born.’

‘You poor thing,’ Vanessa said, but Jasmine shook her head.

‘Best thing,’ she corrected.

‘And does he help?’ Vanessa pushed, ‘with the childcare? Now that you’re working …’

She could feel Jed was listening and she felt embarrassed. Embarrassed at the disaster her life was, but she tried not to let it show in her voice, especially as Penny had now walked in and was sitting in a chair on the other side of the room.

‘No, he lives on the other side of the city. I just moved back here a few weeks ago.’

‘Your family is here?’ Vanessa checked.

‘Yes.’ Jasmine gave a tight smile and concentrated on her cheese sandwich, deciding that in future she would have lunch in the canteen.

‘Well, it’s good that you’ve got them to support you,’ Vanessa rattled on, and Jasmine didn’t even need to look at Penny to see that she wasn’t paying any attention. Her sister was busy catching up on notes during her break. Penny simply didn’t stop working, wherever she was. Penny had always been driven, though there had been one brief period where she’d softened a touch. She’d dated for a couple of years and had been engaged, but that had ended abruptly and since then all it had been was work, work, work.

Which was why Penny had got as far as she had, Jasmine knew, but sometimes, more than sometimes, she wished her sister would just slow down.

Thankfully the conversation shifted back to Vanessa’s son, Liam—and she told Jasmine that she was on her own, too. Jasmine would have quite enjoyed learning all about her colleagues under normal circumstances but for some reason she was finding it hard to relax today.

And she knew it was because of Jed.

God, she so did not want to notice him, didn’t want to be aware of him in any way other than as a colleague. She had enough going on in her life right now, but when Jed stood and stretched and yawned, she knew what that stomach looked like beneath the less than well-ironed shirt, knew just how nice he could be, even if he was ignoring her now. He opened his eyes and caught her looking at him and he almost frowned at her. As he looked away Jasmine found that her cheeks were on fire, but thankfully Vanessa broke the uncomfortable moment.

‘Did you get called in last night?’ Vanessa asked him.

‘Nope,’ Jed answered. ‘Didn’t sleep.’

Jed headed back out to the department and carried on. As a doctor he was more than used to working while he was tired but it was still an effort and at three-thirty Jed made a cup of strong coffee and took it back to the department with him, wishing he could just go home and crash, annoyed with himself over his sleepless night.

He’d had a phone call at eleven-thirty the previous night and, assuming it was work, had answered it without thinking.

Only to be met by silence.

He’d hung up and checked the number and had seen that it was private.

And then the phone had rung again.

‘Jed Devlin.’ He had listened to the silence and then hung up again and stared at the phone for a full ten minutes, waiting for it to ring again.

It had.

‘Jed!’ He heard the sound of laughter and partying and then the voice of Rick, an ex-colleague he had trained with. ‘Jed, is that you?’

‘Speaking.’

‘Sorry, I’ve been trying to get through.’

‘Where are you?’

‘Singapore … What time is it there?’

‘Coming up for midnight.’

‘Sorry about that. I just found out that you moved to Melbourne.’

He had laughed and chatted and caught up with an old friend and it was nice to chat and find out what was going on in his friend’s life and to congratulate him on the birth of his son, but twenty minutes later his heart was still thumping.

Two hours later he still wasn’t asleep.

By four a.m. Jed realised that even if the past was over with, he himself wasn’t.

And most disconcerting for Jed was the new nurse that had started today.

He had found it easy to stick to his self-imposed rule. He really wasn’t interested in anyone at work and just distanced himself from all the fun and conversations that were so much a part of working in an emergency department.

Except he had noticed Jasmine.

From the second he’d seen her standing talking to Penny, all flustered and red-cheeked, her dark curls bobbing, and her blue eyes had turned to him, he’d noticed her in a way he’d tried very hard not to. When he’d heard she was applying for a job in Emergency, his guard had shot up, but he had felt immediate relief when he’d heard someone call her Mrs Phillips.

It had sounded pretty safe to him.

There had been no harm in being friendly, no chance of anything being misconstrued, because if she was a Mrs then he definitely wasn’t interested, which meant there was nothing to worry about.

But it would seem now that there was.

‘Thanks, Jed.’ He turned to the sound of Jasmine’s voice as she walked past him with Vanessa.

‘For?’

‘Your help today, especially with Jim. I had no idea where the catheter packs were. It’s good to get through that first shift back.’

‘Well, you survived it.’ He gave a very brief nod and turned back to his work.

‘More importantly, the patients did!’ Jasmine called as she carried on walking with Vanessa.

They were both heading to the crèche, he guessed. He fought the urge to watch her walk away, not looking up until he heard the doors open and then finally snap closed.

Not that Jasmine noticed—she was more than used to moody doctors who changed like the wind. For now she was delighted that her first shift had ended and as she and Vanessa headed to the crèche, Jasmine realised she had made a friend.

‘He’s gorgeous!’ Vanessa said as Jasmine scooped up Simon. ‘He’s so blond!’

He was—blond and gorgeous, Simon had won the staff over on his first day with his happy smile and his efforts to talk.

‘This is Liam!’ Vanessa said. He was cute too, with a mop of dark curls and a good dose of ADD in the making. Jasmine stood smiling, watching as Vanessa took about ten minutes just to get two shoes on her lively toddler.

‘Thank goodness for work,’ Vanessa groaned. ‘It gives me a rest!’

‘Don’t look now,’ Vanessa said as they walked out of the crèche, ‘they’re getting something big in.’ Jed and Lisa were standing outside where police on motorbikes had gathered in the forecourt. Screens were being put up and for a moment Jasmine wondered if her first day was actually over or if they were going to be asked to put the little ones back into crèche.

‘Go.’ Lisa grinned as Vanessa checked what was happening. ‘The screens are for the press—we have ourselves a celebrity arriving.’

‘Who?’ Vanessa asked.

‘Watch the news.’ Lisa winked. ‘Go on, shoo …’

‘Oh,’ Jasmine grumbled, because she really wanted to know. She glanced at Jed, who looked totally bored with the proceedings, and there was really no chance of a sophisticated effort because Simon was bouncing up and down with excitement at the sight of police cars and Liam was making loud siren noises. ‘I guess I’ll have to tune in at six to find out.’

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