Page 36 of Stranded with the Surgeon

‘I’m not retired,’ Colin mumbled as they raised his head position. ‘I’ve just cut down my hours a bit.’

‘What do you do?’ Doug’s eyebrows had been rising steadily during the conversation, but Jennifer ignored his surprise. Why shouldn’t she take the time to get to know her patients a little better?

‘I’m a vet,’ Colin told her. ‘Small animal practice.’

‘He breeds Corgis, too,’ his wife added. ‘They win at every show we go to.’

‘Good for you.’ Jennifer finally turned back to the registrar. ‘You’ll need to draw off blood for cultures, Doug. Then start fluid resus and antibiotics. What are you planning to use?’

Doug told her what drugs and dosages he was going to use and Jennifer nodded her approval. ‘Put a Foley catheter in, too. Get a urine sample and start monitoring output.’ She turned back to her patient. ‘I’ll be back to see you later, Colin. Doug’s going to look after you again now.’

* * *

The toddler was still screaming near the desk and an odd-looking man sat bolt upright on a stretcher beside the triage desk. A police officer stood beside the ambulance crew.

‘Hey… Jennifer!’

‘Hi, Matt. What’s brought you down here?’ The orthopaedic consultant was not a frequent visitor to the emergency department.

‘Overload. You’ve used up all my registrars. There’s a nasty open femur and a fractured pelvis among the MVA patients that have just come in. I’m just waiting for the X-rays to come through.’

‘Oh.’ Jennifer caught the eye of the triage nurse. ‘Is the trauma room covered, Mel?’

‘Yep. We’ve got a status two asthmatic coming in now, though. ETA two minutes. Can you cover that one?’

‘Sure.’ Jennifer’s attention was again caught by the man on the stretcher, who was staring at Mel with an increasingly disgusted expression.

‘Are you going to come out with us tonight?’ Matt’s voice was persuasive. ‘You’ve been having early nights ever since you got back to work, and that’s weeks ago now.’

‘It’s been tiring.’ Jennifer turned her gaze to the overfull whiteboard listing the department’s current patient load. No wonder beds were beginning to line up in the corridors. ‘Maybe I should have taken more than a week to recover in the first place.’

‘How’s the arm?’

‘No problem now. I just put a central line in and hardly noticed it.’

‘And the feet?’

‘Almost back to normal.’ Jennifer was keeping one eye on the doors to the ambulance bay and another on a patient being moved from one of the resus areas. She would need that bed for the asthmatic patient coming in. ‘I’m walking to work now but they’re not up to dancing quite yet.’

‘So just come to the drinks session and on to dinner. If you don’t want to do the club thing after that, we’ll let you go home.’

‘I’ll think about it,’ Jennifer said evasively.

Matt’s face fell. ‘This isn’t like you, Jen. The crowd’s just not the same without you.’

Jennifer smiled. Why was the invitation so unappealing anyway? She had always worked hard and played hard, and a night on the town with a group of congenial people with exactly the same agenda had always been the perfect way to wind down after a stressful shift. Right now, however, it came across as being an empty way to spend an evening. Shallow, even.

What would she rather be doing? Sitting in a hut in the middle of nowhere with a man who would have preferred that she’d never set foot on his planet?

‘Bitch!’

The vehement accusation was startling, but it wasn’t directed at Jennifer. She whirled around to see the man on the stretcher still staring at Mel and making a vigorous attempt to get up. Fortunately, the safety belt was restraining his hips and the police and ambulance officers were quick enough to put pressure on his shoulders and force him back against the pillow.

‘You’re all the same,’ the man shouted. ‘You need to be wiped off the face of the bloody planet!’

Jennifer’s eyes widened, but Matt grinned. ‘I don’t think he’s too happy with the fairer sex at the moment, do you?’

Mel stepped hurriedly back behind the central counter.

---