Australian Affairs: Seduced: The Accidental Romeo

‘You can’t blame Marnie for this.’ Ronan laughed and tried to sit up with one hand attached to a pole as Dr Vermont came over to visit the patients in the obs ward.

‘Mr Johnson,’ Dr Vermont said, and Marnie smothered a smile as her father stepped forward, because Dr Vermont was speaking to Ronan. ‘I hear everything went very well last night.’ Marnie took down Ronan’s hand from the pole and Dr Vermont checked the colour and sensation in the tip of Ronan’s heavily splinted finger. He asked Ronan to try and move the finger and Marnie watched with relief as the pink tip lifted just a little.

‘You can feel this?’ Dr Vermont checked as Ronan closed his eyes.

‘Yes.’

Marnie let out a breath and then smiled as Ronan again said he could feel the touch of the needle as Dr Vermont checked the other side.

‘It’s doing everything it should,’ Dr Vermont said. ‘I’ll see you in two days and then…’ He hesitated as he looked at the address on the admission notes. ‘Do you do want to be followed up here?’ Dr Vermont checked. ‘I see that you live quite a distance away.’

‘Here would be great,’ Ronan said. ‘I can catch up with Marnie when I have an appointment.’

‘It’s the only way you’ll get to see her,’ Maureen Johnson muttered, and Marnie chose not to respond to her mother’s barb and stayed silent as Dr Vermont spoke to Kelly. ‘Could you schedule in some hand appointments for Mr Johnson?’ he asked, and then turned to Ronan. ‘If we book the next couple in, at least you’ll know what you’re doing.’

He gave a few more instructions and then moved on to the next bed.

‘You can get dressed,’ Marnie said to her brother a little while later when Kelly had come off the phone.

‘I’ll give him a hand,’ Kelly said, as she pulled the curtains around the bed. ‘I’ve made the appointments. We’ll see you the day after tomorrow and then again on the twenty-third. Is that okay?’

Ronan looked up at his sister, but thankfully the curtain swished past and Marnie had a second to collect herself before she answered for him.

‘The twenty-third’s fine,’ Marnie said, and deliberately didn’t look at her mum as the one date they all dreaded was, for the first time in a very long time, mentioned.

Trust the Irish to not make a fuss when it mattered!

CHAPTER EIGHT

‘THIS TOO WILL pass,’ Dr Vermont said. ‘It’s my favourite saying and one I’ve used often over the years working in this place.’

It was two in the morning and Marnie was on her first night shift at Bayside. It had been difficult logistically without Harry as they struggled to cover the department but, more than logistics, he was sorely missed by everyone, including Marnie.

Especially Marnie.

She was missing him on a whole different level, though—the flirting, the teasing, just the fun of having someone as shamelessly male as Harry around.

Not that she told that to Dr Vermont, of course. They were going through the doctors’ roster for the next couple of weeks and trying to cover the gaps as they ate Marnie’s chicken and mango salad that she had brought in from home.

‘I’ve been through staff shortages, work to rule, the whole lot,’ Dr Vermont continued. ‘And, though it feels like it will never end, invariably it does. It will all get sorted, and I’ll say it again—this is not your fault.’

Dr Vermont was lovely and extremely practical when Marnie had confessed what was on her mind.

‘Even if you had let Charlotte, or was it Adam, lie on the sofa, this still would have happened.’

‘I was trying to make things easier for him,’ Marnie admitted. ‘I know I looked like I was being mean when I told him to go home a couple of times but I was trying to show him that he wasn’t completely indispensable…’

Dr Vermont laughed. ‘Well, you did!’

‘I know.’ Marnie ran a worried hand over her forehead. ‘I was trying to prove to him that we could call the trauma team or the medics, that it didn’t have to all fall to him,’ Marnie explained. ‘I just wish that I’d handled things a little differently. I wish—’

‘Marnie,’ Dr Vermont interrupted, ‘Harry has been struggling to find balance between work and home since Jill died. I honestly don’t know how he’s managed to do this job for so long without a partner. Marjorie, my wife, managed to have a career and raise our family, but we had a lot of support too. Harry’s sister and parents all live a couple of hours away.’

Dr Vermont thought for a moment. ‘I could not have done this job and raised a family without Marjorie. Even when the place is fully covered you can still expect to be called in. I can’t tell you how many nights I’ve been on take and yet I’ve still rung Harry to come in to give an opinion, or there’s been a multiple trauma and another pair of hands has been needed. Marjorie was more than used to it—long before coffee machines were around she made sure there was a flask of coffee by my bed so that I could have a drink as I drove in.’ He smiled at the memory and so did Marnie. ‘What I’m trying to explain…’

His voice trailed off and Marnie looked up from her salad, waiting for him to continue. ‘Dr Vermont?’ Marnie stood. For a bizarre, still hopeful, second, she hoped that he might have fallen asleep in mid-sentence, but even as she called his name again, Marnie knew what was happening. As she dropped her salad and raced around her desk, he took a couple of laboured breaths and she watched as Dr Vermont’s skin tinged to grey and he let out an ominous gurgle.

‘Dr Vermont!’ Marnie shouted, as she tried to locate a carotid pulse. Her mind was in twenty places—she held onto his shoulder as he toppled forward and Marnie knew she couldn’t get to the phone or door without him falling to the floor.

‘Can I have some help?’ Marnie shouted, trying to break his fall and kick the chair away at the same time, but no one was answering. ‘Can someone…?’ She laid Dr Vermont on the floor and raced to open the door, shouting loudly for help as she grabbed the phone from her desk.

Summon help, the nursing part of her brain told her, yet she wanted to start compressions. Marnie put out a crash call, explaining to the startled switchboard operator that she had to be specific. ‘Code red, Emergency Department, in the nurse unit manager’s office.’ She was shouting, Marnie realised, when usually she was calm. ‘Make sure you say that.’

She started compressions as the intercom crackled into life. But, alerted by her shouting, Clive, the night porter, came running.

‘Oh, no…’ he moaned, but he knew, without Marnie telling him, exactly what to do.

‘I’ll get help.’

‘Get the crash trolley as well,’ Marnie called, as she carried on with the compressions.

There was nothing emergency staff dreaded more than family or friends being brought in, but to have a colleague suddenly collapse at work was truly awful.

The staff came running and in no time Marnie’s office looked more like the resuscitation room. Eric, the on-call cardiologist, arrived first. His shocked expression as he saw Dr Vermont lying on the floor, his shirt open, his glasses off, was one Marnie would never forget.

Abby was trying not to cry as she charged the defibrillator and Marnie could see the resident’s hand shaking as he delivered yet another shock.

‘Nothing.’

‘We need to get him to Resuscitation,’ the cardiologist said. He was breathless from running but helped to lift Dr Vermont onto the trolley that Clive had brought in. They sped Dr Vermont through the department and the resuscitation continued en route—Marnie kneeling on the trolley to continue the compressions as Abby pushed oxygen in with an Ambu bag.

The night supervisor came, as she often did when an emergency page had been put out, but she too had run just a little harder when she had heard the strange alert.

‘It’s Dr Vermont,’ Marnie said, stepping down as Eric took over the compressions, frantically trying to pump the medications through Dr Vermont’s system in the hope the next shock would have some effect.

It didn’t.

‘We need to let his wife know,’ the night supervisor said as the team grimly worked on.

Marnie’s hands were shaking as she went through the contact sheets, dreading the thought of calling Mrs Vermont in the middle of the night to tell her that her husband was critically ill.

‘Get Harry to call her,’ Eric shouted over. ‘Has he been told what’s going on?’

‘Harry no longer works here,’ Marnie said, and Eric shot her a wide-eyed look.

‘I can guarantee Harry would want to be the one to tell her,’ Eric said.

‘Even if he’s on leave, Harry needs to be informed,’ the night supervisor said. ‘Right now the emergency department doesn’t have a consultant.’

Harry didn’t deliberately not pick up the first time the phone rang. He was putting anti-itch cream on a miserable Adam, who had woken at one a.m. and couldn’t get back to sleep.

‘So much for a mild dose,’ Harry said to his son. Apparently you could get a mild dose after a child had been immunised. Harry had found all the immunisation records and had spent half an hour looking at Jill’s handwriting—she had recorded every milestone, every little detail of their little lives and, yes, bang on the suggested dates, Charlotte and Adam had received their immunisations.

Adam getting chickenpox was just another thing that had gone wrong on top of another thing that had gone wrong, Harry was thinking when the phone rang.

Would they not just let him leave? Harry sighed, letting it ring out, but then, worried it might be his parents, He tucked Adam in and went and checked the machine.

‘Harry, it’s Marnie, could you call me back at work please?’ He could hear the strain in her voice. ‘I’m sorry to call you but it is an emergency.’

What the hell was he supposed to do from here? Harry thought, picking up the phone when it rang again.

‘Harry, it’s Marnie.’

‘Marnie, I’ve got a child who’s sick—’

‘Harry, please,’ Marnie broke in. ‘I have some very difficult news to tell you.’ Harry heard she was struggling and the line went very quiet for a moment before he spoke.

‘Go on.’

‘Dr Vermont collapsed a short while ago,’ Marnie said, and she heard his sharp intake of breath as she spoke on. ‘He’s in full cardiac arrest.’

‘Oh, no.’

‘We’re doing everything we can but I have to tell you, Harry…’ She glanced over, they were still going but more and more it was looking hopeless. ‘It doesn’t look good at all.’

‘Is Marjorie there?’

‘It’s only just happened,’ Marnie said. ‘I was just away to inform her when Eric said that you’d want to know and perhaps be the one to tell her.’

Harry sat on the edge of his bed and he remembered the kindness the Vermonts had shown him; he remembered all they had done for him when Jill’s accident had happened, and, yes, it was right that he be the one to tell Marjorie.

‘I’ve got the twins…’ He didn’t want to wake them up and drag them out; he didn’t want that for them but sometimes, no matter how inconvenient, certain things just had to be done. There was no choice—the doctor in charge of the department was critically ill, no doubt the staff were distraught and, given Dr Vermont had given more than thirty years of his life to the place, certainly his wife deserved to hear it from him. ‘I’ll ring her now and then I’ll pick her up,’ Harry said. ‘Marnie, I’ll have to bring the twins in.’

There was no argument this time.

And no little barbs either.

It was all too sad.

‘Adam’s infectious, probably Charlotte is too,’ Harry said.

‘So were half the patients that came through tonight,’ Marnie said. ‘The observation ward is empty, I’ll make up two beds and close it off for further admissions.’ Her voice was back to practical and it helped because Harry felt as though the whole pack of cards was falling again, just as he’d almost rebuilt it.

‘Do you need Marjorie’s number?’ Marnie asked.

Of course, he already had it.

Harry rang off and he’d have loved to gather his thoughts for a moment but instead he dressed and then woke the twins and put them into their dressing gowns.

‘I’m sorry, guys,’ he said as he carried them down the stairs and out into the night, ‘but Dr Vermont is very sick and we need to go and get Marjorie so that she can be with him.’

Only when they were strapped in and already nearly back to sleep did Harry stand in the driveway and call Marjorie.

He told her what was happening as best he could, and of course he knew Marjorie well, knew she would be dressing as they spoke and about to get into her car and fly through the night to be beside the man she had been married to for forty years.

‘I’m on my way now, Marjorie,’ Harry said. ‘I’ll be there in a few minutes.’

He was—Marjorie was out on the street and she was trying not to cry as she climbed in

‘You shouldn’t have brought the children out,’ Marjorie told him. ‘I could have got there myself.’

Except her knees were bobbing up and down as she tried to sit still, the adrenaline coursing through her as the enormity of what was happening started to take hold. ‘Is he… .?’ She couldn’t even say it. ‘I’d rather know now.’

‘They were working on him when I last spoke to the hospital,’ Harry said.

Harry didn’t know if it was a good sign or bad when he saw Abby and Marnie waiting for them in the ambulance area.

‘There’s half the hospital in with Dr Vermont,’ Marnie said as Harry came around and briefly pulled her aside. ‘Abby said that twins would know her.’

‘How is he?’

‘We’re just waiting for Marjorie,’ Marnie said, taking a sleepy Charlotte as Abby carried Adam, freeing Harry to help Marjorie into the department.

Harry knew from her voice and words that they were just keeping things going till Marjorie arrived.

‘Hello.’ Marnie felt the sleepy weight of Charlotte stir in her arms as she lowered her onto a bed. ‘Daddy’s just in with a patient; he said to make sure you had a comfy bed. I’m Marnie.’

‘I know,’ Charlotte said, and turned over and went back to sleep.

Adam was a bit tearful and asked where his dad was. ‘I’m here, Adam.’ Harry came in at that moment. ‘You can go back to sleep.’

‘How’s Dr Vermont?’

‘He’s not well at all,’ Harry said, ‘but Marjorie’s with him so that’s good. You just turn over and go to sleep and I’ll let you know more in the morning.’

Marnie felt a swallow in her throat at the disruption to their little lives. Saw how, with barely a murmur of protest, Adam did as he was told and rolled over.

‘What’s happening round there?’ Marnie asked once they had moved away from the sleeping twins.

‘Marjorie told them to stop.’ Harry’s voice wavered and Marnie watched as he struggled to keep it together. After all, less than half an hour ago he’d been putting cream on Adam’s spots.

He went over to Abby, who was sitting at the desk, crying quietly, and put a hand on her shoulder, but he spoke to Marnie. ‘I think you might want to put the ambulances on diversion—a lot of the staff are going to be really upset.’

‘Sure.’ Marnie nodded. ‘I’ve arranged for a couple of nurses to come down from the wards to help out.’

‘Good. Are you okay?’ Harry asked.

‘I’ll be fine,’ Marnie said, though she could feel tears stinging at the back of her nose, but, really, it wasn’t her place to be upset. She’d only known Dr Vermont a short while and, more importantly than that, she was the manager. Like Harry, tonight really wasn’t about her—it was about doing their best for Dr Vermont and his family and the colleagues who would miss him so much.

‘Who found him?’ Harry asked. ‘Eric said that he collapsed in his office.’

‘We were in my office,’ Marnie corrected. ‘We were having supper and talking…’ She pressed her fingers into her eyes for a brief moment and then recovered. ‘He just stopped talking in mid-sentence.’

‘You might need to speak to Marjorie,’ Harry said, as he headed back out there. ‘She might want to hear what happened from you.’

Marnie nodded. ‘Harry!’ She called him back. ‘I don’t know his first name.’

‘Gregory,’ Harry said. ‘Gregory Vermont.’

Marjorie was as lovely as Dr Vermont had been and, though devastated, she was very stoic too.

‘He spoke very highly of you,’ Marjorie said when she’d been in to see her husband and was sitting down in his office, which was filled not just with his many certificates but with photos of his family too. ‘He said you were going to bring a bit of order to the place…’ She swallowed. ‘Harry said that you were with him when it happened?’

‘We were in my office,’ Marnie said. ‘We were having our supper break and talking about…’ She glanced at Harry, who filled in for her.

‘The Harry problem?’

‘The staff issues,’ Marnie said. ‘He was actually talking about you. How you’d managed to have a career but how he couldn’t have been an emergency doctor without all your support.’ There was a flash of tears in Marnie’s eyes as she recalled the conversation, such a simple one at the time but it was so much more meaningful now. Marjorie gave a grateful smile as Marnie recalled Dr Vermont’s final moments, gave her the comfort of knowing he had been speaking about his wife and a marriage that had so clearly worked.

‘He was telling me how you used to keep a flask of coffee by the bedside. Then he just stopped speaking, Marjorie,’ Marnie said. ‘There was no pain, no discomfort, I promise you that. For a moment I honestly thought that he’d fallen asleep…’

She heard a sniff and looked over. It was Harry. He’d been holding Marjorie’s hand but now it was more that she was holding his.

‘He thought the world of you,’ Marjorie said to Harry, and Marnie watched as Harry nodded.

She felt as if she was glimpsing something incredibly private as, just for a moment, Harry gave in to his grief and screwed up his face, trying and failing not to weep.

‘When you came to do your residency, he said what a great emergency doctor you’d make,’ Marjorie said, and Harry nodded again but pulled himself together, when perhaps he didn’t have to. Dr Vermont and Marjorie were, Marnie was fast realising, so much more than a colleague and his wife to Harry. They clearly went back years.

Marjorie went to sit with her husband again and to speak with her family, who were starting to arrive.

It was a wretched night and looked no better by morning. Marnie had placed the department on bypass so that no ambulances were bringing patients in, though the walking wounded still trickled in. There were a couple of ward nurses helping out and one of the surgeons had come down to assist too. The nursing staff had known Dr Vermont for a lot longer than she had and needed each other more than they needed her, so Marnie took herself around to the observation ward and sat with the twins. She went through the doctors’ rosters and tried to work out how the department could possibly work without even one senior doctor.

‘Are you okay?’ Harry came in a little later to check on the twins. He didn’t want to wake them again and also wanted to be there to tell the day staff the sad news himself when they started to arrive.

‘Of course.’ Marnie nodded. ‘You?’

‘I just can’t take it in,’ Harry admitted, sitting down at the desk beside her and talking in a low voice so as not to disturb the twins. Harry picked up the doctors’ roster. It was already a mess—a mass of red crossings-out and locums and gaps in the schedule, and that had been before Dr Vermont had so suddenly died.

‘So much for leaving,’ Harry said.

‘What are you going to do?’

‘I don’t know,’ Harry admitted. ‘I’ve just about used up every last favour. I’ll have to do something, though. I simply can’t imagine this place without him. He and Marjorie were so good to me when Jill had her accident…’ He hesitated, not sure if Marnie was interested in hearing his thoughts or if she was just being polite.

‘Go on,’ Marnie offered, but Harry looked over at the sleeping twins and shook his head. ‘Not here.’

They moved to the small kitchenette where they could talk and still keep an eye on the children.

‘Jill was on ICU for two weeks after the accident.’ Harry paused for a moment, which he so rarely did—he simply didn’t have the time or the reserves to examine the past, but the emotion of losing such a close friend and colleague forced a moment of reflection. ‘Jill had massive head injuries.’

‘How?’

‘A car accident. The only saving grace was that she didn’t have the twins with her at the time. I knew as soon as I saw her that things were never going to be the same again and so did Dr Vermont. Even if she had lived, her injuries were so severe that things would never have been the same,’ Harry explained. ‘Dr Vermont told me that the time Jill was on ICU was my time. I can’t really explain it, but we both knew at some level how difficult things would be, whether she lived or died. Cathy, my sister, had the twins and brought them in now and then to see their mum.

‘Dr Vermont took care of the department. Marjorie brought dinner in for me every night and clothes, and just did so many things for me that I didn’t even notice. I was so focused on the time I had left with Jill. I think I did all my grieving in ICU. I have bad days of course, but, really, when she died it wasn’t about Jill, or Jill and I any more, or me, it was about the twins and work and just surviving.’ He looked at Marnie, suddenly aware that his words might be hurting her for reasons of her own. ‘Was it the same for you?’

‘No,’ Marnie admitted. ‘The whole time Declan was in ICU I was convincing myself that he’d live and making plans for taking him home. Right till the last day I thought that he’d make it.’ Marnie shook her head—she just didn’t want to go there.

As the day staff arrived and the news was broken there were tears on the floor and more tears in the staffroom. Marnie worked her way through the contact sheets, ringing the staff who were not on duty today, or not due in till later, to let them know what had happened.

It was a department in mourning but, of course, the patients continued to arrive.

‘I’ve come to get the twins.’ It was Harry’s sister, Marnie could tell. Her face was strained and yet she gave Harry a hug when he came over.

‘I’m sorry, Harry. I know he meant the world to you.’

‘Thanks.’

‘The thing is…’

Harry halted her.

‘I know you can’t keep doing this,’ Harry said for her. ‘If you can just help me out till the funeral.’

It was close to eleven by the time Marnie got home and she had to be back there at eight for her night shift.

Despite the warmth of the house, Marnie was shivering as she climbed into bed and recalled her last conversation with Dr Vermont.

This too will pass.

Yes, Marnie thought, her body tired but her mind just too busy for sleeping.

When?

CHAPTER NINE

THERE WEREN’T JUST cracks appearing, there were gaping holes in the roster and a couple of nights Marnie was close to putting the department on bypass again. Harry’s sister had taken the children for the rest of the week and he was covering the department as best he could but, of course, he couldn’t work twenty-four hours a day. He told Admim that he would work till the funeral on Thursday but, after that, it was up to them to find a replacement.

Sheldon was looking boot-faced when he came on duty on the morning of the funeral to work alongside yet another locum and one he didn’t particularly like.

‘Harry’s hardly going to miss the funeral,’ Marnie pointed out. ‘But cover’s been arranged for the weekend. Helen Cummings is covering the night shifts and she’s really good. I worked with her a lot at the Royal…’

‘What about next week?’ Sheldon said, but Marnie had no answer.

‘Who’s in charge this morning?’ Lillian asked.

Marnie explained what had been arranged. ‘Miriam’s working till ten then going to the funeral. I’m going to have a couple of hours’ sleep in the on-call room and then we’re running a skeleton staff till two p.m. and the place will be on bypass.’