Marion Lennox - Bachelor Cure

‘You had a massive bleed from a duodenal ulcer,’ Tess told him, in a voice that still shook. ‘I’ve never seen so much blood. We put five units of plasma aboard before we started operating, and once we’d cross-matched we had donors coming in from all over the valley. We needed them all.’

Operating… That was another thing he couldn’t work out. Somehow he’d been operated on, and he’d been operated on here.

‘You were operated on by me,’ Tess said when he was finally well enough to ask the right questions. ‘And don’t ask me how I did it because I don’t know and I never, ever want to do such a thing again. You’re trained in general surgery but, apart from my basic medical training, I’m not.’

‘So how…?’

But Tess shook her head, and her voice trembled. She reached out and took his hand in hers, and it wasn’t just her voice that was trembling. ‘Please, Mike, don’t ask. I can’t think about it.’

It was up to Bill to tell him, and it was two days after the operation before he was well enough to take it all in.

‘It was a bloody miracle,’ Bill growled, as he changed Mike’s dressings with hands that were amazingly tender for such a big man. ‘I’d written you off myself. As soon as I saw you on the floor and saw the blood…well, I was all for calling the undertaker. If it hadn’t been for Tess, you’d be pushing up daisies by now.’

‘So, what happened?’

‘We couldn’t evacuate you,’ Bill told him. ‘The weather was foul and no helicopter could get in, even if there had been enough time to get you to a major hospital or get a surgeon flown in here. Which there wasn’t. And here you were, losing blood like a stuck pig. Tessa was pouring in plasma but it wasn’t nearly enough. You were dying under her hands. So she said…she said she was going in.’

‘But… How the hell…?’

‘That’s what we all said,’ Bill said grimly. ‘You’ve got no idea… There was me and Hannah and Louise and Tess and Strop-all standing around staring at each other like helpless dummies. We were pouring in blood but we were still losing you. And then Tess said we had nothing to lose so who was going to do the anaesthetic?

‘And I just gaped at her-but Hannah said she’d have a go if Tess told her everything to do. Hannah’s such a poke-nose-there’s nothing she misses and she’s been a theatre nurse in the city. So Tess took a deep breath and says great and not to worry because it might be the first time Hannah’s given an anaesthetic but it’s also the first time Tessa’s ever been a surgeon. Which, you can imagine, made us feel a whole heap better…’

‘Yeah?’ Mike was trying hard to concentrate here. The pethidine was making him drift in and out of reality, but he was getting the gist of it. ‘So…’

‘So Tess rings Melbourne,’ Bill said. ‘You should have heard her. Bossy? You wouldn’t believe it. She organised a phone link with two specialists, one for her and one for Hannah-one anaesthetist and one specialist surgeon. They link up. We use that teleconferencing line you put in, where we talk hands-free. I turn up the volume so both Hannah and Tess can talk and the two specialists can listen and throw in advice as needed.

‘Maybe Tess could have advised Hannah on the anaesthetic-she did a bit and kept her eye on her-but she’s got her hands full with what she’s doing to you.’

Bill shook his head, and the tone of his voice indicated that what had happened was still unreal to him. ‘We had every nurse in the place back in here,’ he said. ‘There were people taking blood donations and helping in the wards and in the theatre. Everybody wanted to help.’ He gave a rueful grin.

‘And for those who weren’t needed and knew what was going on, Father Dan ran a special Mass. Tess said go right ahead, she needed every ounce of help she could get and she’d accept it from any direction she could. Oh, and Strop sat outside the kitchen door and howled.’

‘But she did it,’ Mike said faintly.

‘Yeah. She did it. You know you arrested on the table?’

‘You’re kidding.’

‘Nope. Hannah nearly died as well, she was so frightened, but Tess stayed calm. Stopped what she was doing-had me hold the clamps-and put on the electrodes. Jump-started you. Got the heartbeat going, reassured Hannah and then calmly went back to stitching the damned ulcer up. She did it like a professional, and the surgeon advising her told me afterwards that he doubted if he’d have stayed as calm as she was.’

And then Bill gave a rueful smile.

‘Maybe she wasn’t all that calm, though,’ he said grimly. ‘After it was all over and you’d opened your eyes and she’d seen you might make it…well, I went outside and she was throwing her guts up. Vomiting like it was she who’d had the ulcer and not you. You put her through the hoops, boyo, and that’s the truth.’

‘Hell.’

‘It was all of that.’ Bill’s smile softened and he gripped Mike’s hand. ‘All of that and more. Its bloody good to have you back. But Tess…’

‘Yeah?’ It seemed there was something else on Bill’s mind but he was having trouble saying it.

‘Well…’ Bill shrugged and then dived straight in. ‘When I was helping her clean herself up she told me you won’t marry her because she interferes with your medicine. Crying her eyes out when she said it. Of all the stupid things… She interferes with your medicine? Without her loving you… Without her worrying enough to practically kick your apartment door down, without her taking risks you wouldn’t believe and laying her professional reputation on the line…way beyond the call of duty… Well, without Tessa, you’d be giving this community no medicine at all. Never again. You’d be one more statistic for the graveyard.’

‘Tessa?’

‘Mmm.’

White-coated and efficient, Tessa had breezed into his ward, Hannah behind her. She picked up his obs chart and beamed at what she saw. ‘This is great,’ she said. ‘You know, we might start you on solids tomorrow.’

‘No eggs and bacon, though.’ Hannah grinned and Tessa smiled her agreement.

‘You’re right, Nurse. No eggs and bacon. We might try a little jelly and-’

‘Tessa!’

‘Sorry, Mike. Were you trying to say something?’ Tessa raised her eyebrows and gave him her entire attention-just like a really polite general surgeon.

‘Yes. Can we have a minute alone?’

‘I’m afraid Hannah and I are really busy.’ She smiled again. ‘You understand we have the entire medical needs of the valley on our shoulders. We can’t let our personal lives interfere.’

‘Tessa!’

‘Yes?’ Once again that polite enquiry, though a twinkle lurked behind those green eyes.

‘I need to ask you something.’

‘Ask away.’

‘Alone!’

‘I’m sorry.’ She smiled benignly. ‘You, of all people, must know it’s professionally unwise for a lady doctor to be alone with a male patient. Hannah’s my chaperon.’

Hannah beamed. Goaded, Mike could only stare. Hannah had come right out of her shell. What she’d done had shed years of bitterness from her shoulders. The nurse was practically giggling.

‘You don’t need a chaperon,’ he managed.

‘Remind me to tell you what I need some day,’ Tess said gently. ‘I think I have in the past, but you haven’t listened. Now…is there anything I can do for you?’

‘Yes.’ He glowered. ‘I want you to marry me.’

‘Oh, is that all?’ Her brow cleared, and the twinkle came back. Behind the laughter there was joy. ‘I think we could organise that. Hannah, when you go back to the nurses’ station, could you see if you could find a time in my diary…?’

‘Tess-’