Gabe heard the hesitation in her voice and wondered what she’d dropped from the sentence. Colleague, friend, lover? Once he’d considered himself to be all of those things. Ignoring the kernel of disappointment that buried itself deep inside him, he smiled at Rachel, totally understanding her fear for her child, and then reached out to stroke Millie’s head.
Recognition lit Rachel’s face. ‘Oh, you’re Cathleen’s son.’
He nodded as a rush of acid burned his stomach. Damn small towns, where everyone knows everybody. He tried to pre-empt the conversation and direct it away from him.
But Rachel got in first. ‘I bet you’re busy with—’
An incessant beeping split the air and Elly watched Gabe’s expression, which had already changed from open to tense, immediately become all doctor. He firmly stimulated Millie to take a breath by blowing on her face and rubbing her chest with his hand.
‘Why does that machine keep beeping?’ Rachel’s pinched and pale face stared up at her.
The question somehow managed to penetrate Elly’s brain, which was still spinning from the fact Gabe had greeted the baby by caressing Millie’s head. The Gabe she’d known had always been slightly aloof and uncomfortable around children, but right up until the machine had announced its urgent message, he’d looked anything but uncomfortable with Millie. If anything, he’d looked uneasy with Rachel.
She hauled her concentration back to the scared mother. ‘Millie’s having trouble breathing and sometimes she stops for a short time, and that’s called ap-noea. The mattress she’s lying on tells us when that happens.’
Rachel laced her fingers tightly. ‘But she starts again, right? She’ll always start again, won’t she?’
Elly wished she could promise her that. Out of the corner of her eye she watched Gabe examining the baby, his forehead furrowed by a line as deep as a trench. ‘Millie’s receiving oxygen and has started on antibiotics, but she’s not responding as fast as we’d hoped.’
Gabe swung his stethoscope round his neck and with eyes filled with concern he bobbed down so he was at the same height as Rachel. ‘Believe me, I get how terrifying this must be for you, and Elly’s done everything by the book, but Midden Cove’s not equipped to handle a baby this sick. Millie’s not improving, she’s getting worse.’
Rachel grabbed Gabe’s arms. ‘What do you mean?’
‘Millie’s going to need assistance to breathe. The sooner we evacuate her to Hobart or Melbourne the better.’
His melodic voice that had always sounded so deep and in control when he spoke to patients suddenly had an unanticipated tone of understanding threading through it. It was as if he really did know how she was feeling. It all seemed surreal. First he’d touched the baby and now he had empathy she’d never seen in him before.
‘What do you think, Elly?’ Rachel’s trembling voice immediately grounded her. ‘Josh is on his way back from Launceston. Can we wait?’
She shook her head. ‘I’m sorry, Rachel, but Gabe’s right. Millie needs treatment by a specialist paediatrician.’ She pulled her phone out of her coat pocket. ‘I’m ringing the retrieval team now.’
As she spoke to the triage doctor at Royal Children’s Hospital, she heard Gabe gently and carefully explaining to Rachel how the team would intubate Millie and attach her to a portable ventilator before taking off in the helicopter.
She rang off. ‘They’ll be here in forty minutes and, Rachel, you’re going to Melbourne with her.’
Gabe immediately handed Rachel his phone. ‘Ring your husband and tell him what’s happening. I can talk to him if he wants that and he can ring either Elly or me at any time.’
The terrified woman nodded mutely and with trembling fingers pressed the numbers on the touch screen.
Gabe caught Elly’s elbow and gently pulled her aside, his touch sparking off a traitorous wave of heat that spun through her, calling up the memory of every embrace and every kiss they’d shared.
That’s just silly. Not every kiss would have been wonderful.
‘Elly.’
He spoke softly and his warm breath stroked her ear. She felt her body start to sway toward him, seeking his as dangerously as a bug flying toward light. Be strong. She turned, which moved her slightly away from him but gave her a full view of his face. For the first time she noticed deep creases carved in around his eyes, and half-hidden in the shimmering blue was a seriousness she’d never seen before. A light shiver whooshed across her but this time she knew it wasn’t a ghost.
He ran his hand through his hair. ‘I’m staying with Millie until she’s airlifted.’
Surprise skittered through her. Gabe was a triage specialist—assess, prioritise, organise and move on. ‘One of the nurses will special her until the team arrives and we’re just next door, examining the other three babies.’
He shook his head vigorously. ‘You examine the other babies, send the nurse to set up the vaccination clinic in A and E and as soon as Millie leaves I’ll deal with all the suspected adult cases.’
Without waiting for a reply, he turned his attention back to Millie, examining her and rechecking that everything in the emergency intubation kit was ready just in case he needed it.
She’d never seen him drop the triage code like this or seen him so connected with a child. A million questions flooded her but not one could be voiced. Yet.
Six hours later, Elly came up for her first real break. The Jennings baby had been airlifted along with Millie, and the babies from the christening, although thankfully symptomless at the moment, were under close observation.
The local chapter of the Red Cross had joined forces with the state emergency service and had put together a phone-tree and a door-knock, notifying everyone of the need to come to the vaccination clinic over the next two days. Elly marvelled at how much could happen so quickly when a community pulled together.
Her phone beeped and vibrated as two text messages came in. She read the first one. ‘Hoping to see you this evening. Dev.’
A stab of guilt pricked her. She’d completely forgotten to get back to him after her one word text of ‘patient’ she’d sent earlier in the day. Now, after the day she’d experienced, she really only wanted to go home and sink into a bubble bath and pretend that her day off had actually been relaxing. Putting off her reply to Dev, she pressed ‘show message’ on her phone and the second text came through. ‘Just dim. U?’
She smiled and typed ‘dim’ on her phone, using predictive text, and got ‘fin.’ Some things didn’t change. Gabe’s fingers flew faster than his predictive text and he never checked before hitting ‘Send’. She walked down to A and E and as she rounded the corner of the central desk she saw him over by the window, talking on his mobile. She waved as he looked up.
He gave a quick, tight smile loaded with tension before turning away and ploughing his left hand through his hair. She caught the words ‘I won’t be too much longer but only if you think can you manage.’
Manage what? A ripple of sadness washed through her, reminding her of how much everything had changed and how separate their lives really were. Once his face would have lit up when she walked into a room and he would have pulled her into his arms, phone call or not.
Come on, get a grip, don’t go backwards. He obviously wanted privacy and not wishing to be accused of eavesdropping she moved away and tossed her white coat into the linen-skip. She’d just collected her bag from the bottom of the filing cabinet when Gabe appeared at the desk, pocketing his phone. His wide and generous mouth quirked up at the edges in a weary smile and again she noticed deeper lines that hadn’t been there two years ago.
‘So where can we go for an uninterrupted