Page 29 of Limits
Lindy scowled at him but took his hand in a fierce grip to help lever herself out of the car.
Pav was taking nearly all her weight as he supported her onto the pavement. He couldn’t imagine how Millie managed it at her size. As he walked her to her door his definition of slow pace took a hit. Lindy was practically going backwards. She stubbed her toe on the first step and some very colourful language was directed Pav’s way (at least what he could understand was colourful, the rest was in Scottish).
‘You dinnae tell me it were there!’ she accused after her tirade was over.
‘Sorry, I –’
‘Millie always tells me where the step is. I dinnae have to tell the lass to do it either. She’s a cannie as well a braw, that one.’ Once Pav had half-carried Lindy up the steps, the search for her keys in her cavernous handbag commenced. It was another five minutes before he had the door open, and once inside he realized that supporting Lindy up the steps was the least of Millie’s duties. Lindy had him turning on her lights andthenfeeding her numerous cats.
‘Lindy, I really must be getting –’
‘Impatient lad, aren’t you?’ Lindy’s low croaky voice interrupted him as she settled back into a large armchair in her sitting room. Pav suspected it was where she spent the night. ‘My Millie needs patience. Come over here.’ Lindy waved him over impatiently then when he was standing next to her chair she tugged on his hand so that he would crouch to her level.
‘She needs kindness,’ Lindy said, her accent still strong but her words much clearer now. Pav suspected that when she wanted to Lindy could speak however she wanted. Her faded blue eyes caught his and it was like she was peering into his soul. ‘I’ve been around a long time, laddie. I know pain when I see it. You be kind to her, you ken me?’
‘I understand,’ said Pav as the smile he’d been wearing faded from his face.
The truth was that he didn’t. Not completely. But he wanted to. He wanted to understand a beautiful woman who shut herself off from others to such an extent that she had built a reputation as a notorious bitch. A woman whose anxiety didn’t allow her to speak in public. A woman so brilliant that she would revolutionize a whole aspect of medicine, but had so little self-belief that she would not consider attending a single international conference. A woman who would go to bingo with her gran every week and make sure that an old lady she wasn’t even related to was safely home, whilst showing little or no impatience or annoyance.
And he’d eaten one of those shortbreads tonight.
There was no going back after that.
Chapter 13
Lamb to the slaughter
‘Jumped-up little know-it-all bitch,’ Lucas muttered under his breath, and Pav stiffened next to him. Millie was across the conference table, her face giving nothing away, but when his gaze flicked down to her hands he knew she’d heard the arrogant bastard: they were curled into tight fists and the whites of her knuckles were showing.
‘Watch it,’ Pav growled low. Lucas flicked him a look of annoyed confusion before focusing back on the cause of his irritation.
‘I’ve already consented the patient,’ Lucas told the room through gritted teeth, but his eyes were focused on Millie.
‘You consented her for the wrong procedure,’ Millie told him, or to be more accurate she told his chest, before looking down at the notes in front of her. To everyone else at the meeting her words would sound cold, devoid of any emotion; only Pav could make out that fine tremor in her voice and the stress-induced tightening around her eyes.
‘I consented her for an open procedure and that is what she is going to get.’
‘The evidence is clear that a percutaneous destruction of the stonewould lead to enhanced recovery and lower post-op risk.’ Millie paused then, with visible effort, unclenched her fists so that she could pass a sheaf of papers across the table. Lucas levelled a furious glare at her before he snatched them out of her hands. Millie flinched and sat back in her chair.
She was scared.
Christ, Pav was going to lamp this moody bastard if he carried on like this. Lucas had settled back in his chair and was now glaring at the papers in front of him. Despite his annoyance, Pav had to bite back a smile. Millie was right: the evidence was clear.
‘I’m not having this conversation,’ Lucas spat out. ‘I’m a consultant surgeon and this ismypatient. You’re not even a fully functioning junior doctor, if the rumours are true.’
‘Lucas,’ Pav said in a warning tone which Lucas, the dumb bastard, ignored.
‘It’s true,’ Lucas said, his voice rising along with the colour in his face. By contrast Millie’s cheeks were almost deathly pale. ‘She’s not a consultant. Why are we letting her dictate this stuff to us? Why is she even here? She’s a junior bloody doctor but she can’t even dothatright. Pisses everyone off too much to be let out on her own.’
The MDT was a weekly run-down of the complex urology patients and their treatment plans. The urologists, the pathologists, the oncologists and more recently the interventional radiologists were in attendance. Millie always came with another of the radiology consultants (until recently Pav had just thought this was because they travelled in packs, but he now realized that she was too junior to be radiology’s official representative in the meeting. The fact that the useless blokes that generally accompanied her didn’t seem to have any idea what they were on about didn’t seem to matter). Usually Millie said very little in the meetings. Instead she whispered to the consultant she was with or passed them notes with the relevant information. It was unfortunate that Lucas had decided to be on his period the very same day that there was no consultant with Millie. Pav would be having words with the fucking radiology department, but not before he’d sorted this mess out.
‘Sit down, Lucas,’ he said, managing to maintain his calm voice despite his growing anger.
‘Pav, mate, I’ve already booked the patient onto my next list. This is complete –’
‘Judging by this lot,’ Pav said, pointing at the now discarded papers in front of Lucas, ‘you booked her for the wrong procedure.’
‘Now just a –’
