A Father for Baby Rose. Margaret Barker

sir. She’s had nothing to eat since midnight, hoping that you would decide to operate this morning.”

      “Excellent!”

      Cathy scrubbed up at the next sink to Yannis. She held her hands out. A nurse was waiting with a sterile gown to Velcro down her back. Gloves were peeled over her hands. Yannis glanced down approvingly. “Let’s go.”

      She followed behind, noting that Theatre one was exactly like the one she’d just checked out. The surgical team looked alert and focused. Yannis raised an eyebrow above his mask as he looked across the inert figure towards Cathy.

      “Scalpel, Cathy.”

      As she handed him the required instrument she was feeling relieved that he’d chosen to call her Cathy. He’d already introduced her as Dr Cathy Meredith to the assembled team. But it made her feel special, that she was some kind of friend with the surgeon. A kind of friend; that was a good description that she should try to remember if she could.

      For the next half-hour she was totally committed to the task in hand. Yannis quickly cut through the patient’s abdominal muscles to expose the angry-looking appendix. Yes, the patient would certainly feel much better when that infected organ was disposed of. Yannis was checking other organs in the vicinity.

      “It’s just the appendix that’s infected,” he told the assembled team. “No other organ has been affected. Have the biopsies checked out, Sister. Let me know the results as soon as you get them back from the lab. I took a biopsy of this ovary as a precaution. It looks healthy enough but it’s in very close proximity to the infected area.”

      The swing doors opened as a young, harassed-looking young man already swathed in surgical gown and mask arrived.

      “Ah, Nikolas! Good of you to join us! Problem with the boat, I hear… Thank you, Cathy. You were a great help. You are free to go back to Outpatients now. I’ll see you later.”

      Cathy smiled at the young man as she went out. From the greenish colour of his skin above the mask it looked as if he wasn’t such a good sailor. “Sure you don’t want me to take over for the morning, Nikolas?” she whispered as they passed each other.

      “Better keep in with the boss,” he muttered. “I’m new here and—”

      “So am I.” She pulled down her mask and smiled at the new recruit, who looked terrified of the ordeal ahead.

      “When you’ve finished chatting, Nikolas, you can bring the next patient in,” Yannis said evenly.

      Cathy turned to take a last look at the boss and was sure he winked at her over the top of his mask.