Kate Hardy - Carrying The Single Dad's Baby

‘Welcome to the department, Ms Lindford,’ he said, giving her a cool nod. ‘Josh, shouldn’t you be in Resus?’

‘As should I,’ Beatrice said, narrowing her eyes slightly at him. ‘Michael Harcourt asked Josh to show me round and introduce me to everyone, and he’s been kind enough to do just that.’

He liked the fact that she’d stood up for the junior doctor. But he didn’t want to like Beatrice Lindford. He wanted to keep his distance from her, at least until he could get this unwanted attraction under control. ‘Indeed,’ he said.

‘There are brownies in the staff kitchen,’ she said. ‘Do help yourself.’

There was a touch of haughtiness to her voice. She sounded for all the world as if she’d just taken over their department. Which, he supposed, she sort of had, being their new consultant. ‘Thank you,’ he said.

‘And I’m buying drinks at the Red Lion after my shift,’ she said.

Drinks he definitely wouldn’t be going to. ‘Noted.’

‘I guess Josh and I had better get back to Resus.’

Daniel knew he hadn’t been particularly friendly to his new colleague, and he felt slightly guilty about that. But his response to her had flustered him, and right now there was no room in his life for anything other than his son. ‘Uh-huh,’ he said, and turned away.

* * *

Daniel hadn’t been openly hostile, but there had definitely been something there. Beatrice couldn’t understand what the problem was. They’d never met each other before or even knew of each other by reputation. Or was Daniel just offhand like that with everyone, and that was why Josh had looked so awkward before he’d introduced them?

Not that she wanted to put the younger doctor in a difficult position by asking him outright. It wouldn’t be fair. Instead, she encouraged him to chatter on their way back to Resus. And then she didn’t have time to think about Daniel Capaldi when the paramedics brought in a patient. Dev, the lead paramedic, did the handover.

‘Mrs Jane Burroughes, aged sixty-seven, otherwise healthy until today when she slipped in the garden and banged her head on the rockery. She remembers blacking out but she was conscious when we arrived. We put a neck brace on and we think she’s fractured her cheekbone and her arm. I’m not happy about her eye, either,’ Dev said.

From the amount of blood on Jane Burroughes’s cheek, it was entirely possible she’d damaged her eye and they’d need to bring in a specialist.

‘Pain relief?’ Beatrice asked.

‘She refused it,’ Dev said. ‘I haven’t put a line in.’

‘Thank you,’ she said.

She introduced herself and Josh to Mrs Burroughes. ‘We’d like to make you a bit more comfortable while we check you over. I know you refused pain relief in the ambulance, but can I give you some pain relief now?’

‘I don’t like the way it makes me feel, woozy and sick,’ Mrs Burroughes said. ‘When I had my wisdom teeth out and they put stuff in my arm, I felt drunk for two days afterwards.’

‘I could give you some paracetamol?’ Beatrice suggested. ‘That won’t make you feel woozy, and it’ll take the edge off the pain. It won’t be as effective as a stronger painkiller, but you’ll feel a little bit more comfortable.’

Finally Mrs Burroughes agreed to have paracetamol.

‘We’ll need to do a CT scan of her neck,’ Beatrice said to Josh, ‘and call the ophthalmology team for their view on Mrs Burroughes’s eye.’

Thankfully the CT scan showed no problems with Mrs Burroughes’s neck, so they were able to remove the neck brace; the ophthalmology team was able to confirm that the laceration was fixable and Mrs Burroughes wasn’t going to lose her sight. Finally the X-ray showed that the break in Mrs Burroughes’s arm was clean and could be treated with a cast rather than surgery.

Beatrice had just finished treating her patient and arranged a handover to the ward when Sam Price came in.

‘Beatrice, it’s lunchtime,’ he said, ‘and Hayley—my wife, who’s coming back to work here part time next month—suggested meeting us in the canteen. Josh, are you coming with us?’

The younger doctor blushed. ‘I...um...’

Sam raised an eyebrow. ‘Got a date?’

Josh nodded, and Sam patted his shoulder. ‘Just be yourself and don’t worry. She’ll adore you.’

Sam took Beatrice to the canteen. ‘So how was your first morning?’ he asked.

‘Fine.’ Apart from Daniel Capaldi. Not that she was going to let herself think about him. ‘Josh is a sweetie.’

‘He’s a nice lad. Though I feel a bit guilty because—well, I assume you must’ve heard about the staff day out I organised?’ Sam asked.

‘Go-karting on ice, you mean?’

‘It’s great fun,’ he said with a grin. ‘But I’m a reformed character now. No bungee-jumping, no go-karting on ice and no abseiling—well, unless it’s for work.’

‘Abseiling at work?’ Beatrice couldn’t help laughing. ‘I’m not sure that’s part of the average Emergency Department’s duties.’

He laughed back. ‘It can be, if it’s a MERIT team job, but don’t tell Haze because she worries.’

‘Got you.’

Hayley Price was waiting for them at the entrance to the canteen. Sam greeted her with a kiss. ‘Beatrice, this is Hayley; Hayley, Beatrice.’ He smiled. ‘And this gorgeous little bundle is Darcie.’ He scooped the baby out of the lightweight pram, and the baby cooed at him and pulled his hair.

‘Lovely to meet you, Beatrice, and welcome to Muswell Hill Memorial Hospital,’ Hayley said. ‘So how has your first day in the department been?’

‘Great. Everyone’s been lovely.’ Almost everyone. She wasn’t going to make a fuss.

‘They’re a good bunch,’ Hayley said.

‘She’s a good one, too,’ Sam said. ‘Our kitchen’s full of the best brownies I’ve ever tasted. Did you spend all last night baking them, Beatrice?’

She smiled. ‘No, and I had a bit of help. Make sure you grab one for Hayley.’

By the time they’d bought their lunch and settled at a table, still chatting, Beatrice was feeling very much part of the team.

‘So you’re coming back part time next month?’ she asked Hayley.

Hayley nodded. ‘Much as I love my daughter, I miss work. Part time seemed like a good compromise.’

‘I agree,’ Beatrice said.

‘If you’d like a cuddle with Darcie, better get it in now because the whole department will swoop on her when we walk in,’ Sam said.

A cuddle with the baby.

Beatrice thought of her own baby, the stillborn daughter she’d held for a few brief minutes. What if that car hadn’t crashed into her? What if she hadn’t had the abruption, and Taylor had been born around her due date, alive?

But now wasn’t the time or place to think about it. None of that was Sam’s or Hayley’s fault. She forced herself to smile brightly and scooped the baby from Sam’s arms. ‘She’s gorgeous.’

‘You’re good with babies,’ Hayley said when Darcie promptly yawned and fell asleep.

Again, Beatrice shut the door in her head. ‘It comes from having three nephews and a niece. The youngest one’s four now.’ And how hard it had been to hold him. ‘But I’m an old hand at getting them to go to sleep.’

‘I’ll remember that and get you to teach me some tricks when Madam here starts teething,’ Hayley said. ‘Right. So, tell us all about you. Where did you train, where were you before here, do you have a partner and children...?’

‘Haze, give the poor woman a chance to breathe!’ Sam admonished, though he was smiling and looked as if he wanted to know the answers, too.

‘It’s fine. I trained at the Hampstead Free and I worked there until I came here,’ Beatrice said with a smile. The next bit was more tricky. Telling the whole truth would mean that her new colleagues would pity her as much as they had at the Hampstead Free, and she really didn’t want that. Better to keep it simple and stick to the bare bones. The facts, and no explanations. ‘No partner, no children.’ To make sure nobody would try any well-meaning matchmaking, she added, ‘And I’m concentrating very happily on my career.’ And now it was time to change the subject. ‘Can I ask you something confidential? I know I probably could’ve asked Josh, but I didn’t want to put him in an awkward position.’