Page 46 of Stranded with the Surgeon

‘It looks a lot worse than it is,’ Guy said reassuringly. ‘It’s amazing how far a bit of blood can spread, especially on lino. I’d estimate you’ve lost a bit more than a litre but we’ve got some extra fluid going in to replace it and the bleeding should stop as soon as the placenta is delivered and the vessels constrict. This drug I’m giving you will speed things up.’

‘I feel sick,’ Ellie moaned.

‘Have you got a pressure cuff you can put on the fluids?’ Jennifer asked.

‘Yes. I’ll get another line in, too.’

‘Good.’ Jennifer’s tone indicated satisfaction with Guy’s plan. ‘That’s the way, wee man,’ she said. ‘Look… he’s taken his first breath by himself! He’s pinking up already.’

Sure enough, the baby was showing signs of life finally. Guy just hoped it was soon enough for no permanent damage to have been caused by oxygen depletion. Given Jennifer’s intense efforts, it was highly unlikely and Guy was acutely aware that he couldn’t have looked after both mother and child alone. If Ellie’s longed-for baby survived this difficult birth unscathed, it would be entirely to Jennifer’s credit.

Ellie seemed to realise that as well, judging by the look she was giving Jennifer as she helped her hold her son only minutes later. With his eyes open, the tiny boy was in his mother’s arms, skin-to-skin with her body to keep him warm, and a towel and then a blanket over them both.

‘He’s gorgeous,’ Jennifer told her. ‘And he seems fine. He’s a good weight for thirty-five weeks, too. I don’t think he’ll even need to go into an incubator.’

‘Thank you,’ Ellie sobbed. ‘Thank you so much. I don’t care what happens to me – it was the baby I was scared about.’

Jennifer and Guy cared about what happened to Ellie. With the delivery of the placenta, her haemorrhage finally slowed and stopped, but she was shocked enough to need constant monitoring, and Jennifer was clearly as pleased as Guy to see the arrival of the ambulance crew.

‘Ellie, this isn’t fair!’ The flame-haired paramedic, Maggie, was shaking her head. ‘We had an agreement. We were going to go hooning over the Crown Range with lights and sirens on at the first sign of labour.’ She bent over the bundle in Ellie’s arms. ‘Ohh…’ she breathed. ‘Iwantone.’

‘You’ll have to get your own.’ Ellie smiled. ‘This one’s mine.’

‘And mine.’ The man who burst into the room now was white-faced and totally soaked. ‘Ellie, love, are you all right?’

‘She will be,’ Guy told Phil. ‘We need to get to hospital now, though. She’s lost a fair bit of blood.’

‘And the baby? Is it okay?’

‘Thanks to Dr Allen, he is,’ Ellie told him. ‘I thought he was dead.’ Tears of happiness were rolling down her cheeks. ‘She saved him for us, Phil.’

Jennifer was subjected to an appraising and then very appreciative stare.

‘I don’t know how to thank you in that case, Dr Allen,’ Phil said.

Jennifer smiled. ‘Call me Jenna. And I was more than happy to be able to help.’

Phil, Maggie and her crew partner exchanged glances and Guy found himself smiling along with them. If Jennifer had wanted to orchestrate a way of finding instant acceptance into this community, she couldn’t have come up with a better way than being instrumental in the successful delivery of a new – and long awaited – member.

Absurdly, he felt proud of her. Proud of her skills with resuscitating the baby and proud that she had already won a place in the hearts of the people he lived and worked with. It was a dangerous line of thought. He didn’t want Jennifer to feel welcome here, because she wasn’t. Not as far as he was concerned.

Phil was now staring at his son. He reached out but it was to touch his wife’s head, not the baby’s. ‘Are you really okay, hon?’

The look that passed between the couple made everyone else in the room superfluous. Guy had the curious sensation of witnessing the birth of a family as Ellie and Phil bowed their heads over the baby. He swallowed hard as he glanced at Jennifer. If he could feel like this at the birth of someone else’s child, how would he feel when it came time for the birth of his own?

Vulnerable.

That was how he would feel.

Responsible for the happiness of someone other than himself. Someone whose upbringing would be under the control of someone other than himself. It was a recipe for emotional disaster, that was what it was.

Guy had to escape before he got sucked in any deeper.

9

‘Do you go in for dramatic entrances, then?’

Jennifer had to respond to the friendly grins of the Lakeview Hospital staff members with one of her own. The concentration required to drive Guy’s unfamiliar vehicle in the heavy rain as she’d followed a crowded ambulance to the small emergency department of the rural hospital had been a challenge. Especially having to negotiate the ford across a tributary of the Matukituki river that seemed to have become considerably deeper since she and Guy had travelled the other way.

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