Lynne Marshall - Nyc Angels & Gold Coast Angels Collection

‘It doesn’t seem that way for you.’ Eleanor sighed.

‘Yeah, well, you have to be tough to do this job or you’d go crazy,’ Jack said. ‘Eleanor, sometimes you just have to look at the facts. In this case the mother is doing everything right, albeit too little too late, but, as Nina said, if we take this child from the mother now then realistically they are not going to reunite and though we might think that that might be for the best, who knows where Sienna might end up?’

‘She might be placed with the perfect family. She might …’ Eleanor started, but her lips tightened and her words halted as Nina came out.

‘There’s no such thing as the perfect family,’ Jack said, and giving Nina a brief nod he stalked off.

‘Says the man who comes from one.’ Eleanor rolled her eyes as Jack walked off and then stood a little awkwardly when it was clear that Nina was hanging around to speak to her. ‘Did you see the Carter family Christmas photo shoot?’

Nina gave a pale smile. Yes, she’d seen it—all the Carters gathered around the hospital Christmas tree, their diamonds gleaming as much as their capped smiles. There had recently been a magazine spread too on Jack’s parents, but she didn’t want to think about Jack now so Nina got straight to the difficult point. ‘I’m sorry that you’re upset about the department’s decision.’

‘Thanks.’ Nina watched as Eleanor’s eyes filled up behind her glasses as she spoke. ‘I’ve listened to all that you’ve said and I’ve just spoken with Jack and he’s right—you made some very good points. It’s just that I saw what Hannah was like with her son. She was so distant and unfeeling and refused to take any responsibility …’

‘Addiction will do that every time,’ Nina said.

‘I know.’ Eleanor nodded.

‘And I can assure you that we will be watching Sienna very carefully. The real difference in this case is that there is a loving father on the scene. I really feel that if Hannah goes back to her ways of old and starts using again, then Andy will be the one raising Sienna …’

‘Far from perfect.’

‘Not so far from perfect.’ Nina smiled. ‘I think that he’d do a great job.’

As she said goodbye to Eleanor and headed off to find Hannah to let her know about the meeting, she paused for a moment by the water cooler and took a drink, Eleanor’s words still replaying in her mind.

Jack Carter thought she had made several good points.

Because she had made several good points, Nina told herself, screwing up the small plastic cup and tossing it into the waste bin.

She didn’t need his admiration, neither did she need his approval.

The only opinion Nina wanted from Jack was a professional one.

She just had to remember that fact.

WITH THE MEETING over Jack walked through the maternity unit, restless, angry but not sure why. He was looking forward to getting back to the shield of his office, but his pager stopped him and he halted to use the phone. However, as he waited to be connected by the switchboard he glanced at the handover sheet one of the nurses was working on.

Sienna Andrews. He saw the room she was in and the doctor she was under, that she had been the third pregnancy, and in the comments section was written ‘NASS’—which stood for neonatal abstinence scoring system, a method used to gauge a newborn’s withdrawal from the drugs they had been subjected to in what should have been the safety of the womb.

Jack concluded his call and walked through the maternity ward, pausing when he came to the room where Sienna was. He looked through the glass to the row of isolettes. Hannah wasn’t with her daughter, though a nurse was there, tending to the baby. Jack rarely went into these rooms, only when it was necessary.

Angel’s was a free hospital—there was more hope and heartbreak than one building could contain and as Head of Paediatrics Jack had more than enough to contend with, without getting unnecessarily involved with each and every case.

He had to stay detached, which he did easily.

Jack had learnt the art of detachment long before he had studied medicine—he’d been told by his parents to toughen up at a very young age, and told it over and over again, and so he had, simply refusing to hand over his emotions to anyone.

He had this sudden strange vision of Nina chairing a meeting about his own family and it brought a wry smile to his lips.

There was no such thing as a perfect family.

Certainly he never discussed his family life with any of his many lovers—he didn’t let anyone close and maintained the Carter image, because the image could be used for good. Jack looked around the unit, saw the cots and the equipment and, ever practical, thought of the cost.

‘Do you need anything, Jack?’ Cindy, one of the nurses, broke into his thoughts.

‘Nope.’ Jack shook his head. ‘I’m just checking in. How’s baby Andrews doing?’

‘She’s doing really well,’ Cindy said, as Jack looked through Sienna’s charts. ‘She’s still a little irritable at times, but seems much more settled now. She’d put on another ounce when we weighed her this morning and mum’s given her a bath. How did the case conference go?’

‘Same old, same old.’ Jack shrugged. ‘Home to the parents, follow-up, support systems in place …’ He looked at Cindy, who had worked at Angel’s for a very long time. They’d slept together once, years ago, but there was no awkwardness between them. Cindy was now happily married and expecting her first baby and Jack valued her opinion a lot. ‘What do you think?’

‘As I said in my notes, mum’s really making an effort …’

‘But what do you think?’

‘That I hope her effort lasts.’

Cindy walked off to check on a baby that was crying and Jack looked down into the cot, stared into the babe’s dark blue eyes and wondered, not for the first time lately, if he was in the right job.

Of course the hospital wanted him, he worked sixty-hour weeks as well as juggling a social life that would have most people exhausted. He did an excellent job with the staff, as well as the extracurricular events that ensured the city’s goodwill for the hospital continued.

He did a great job.

He just didn’t love it.

Didn’t know how to fire up, the way Nina had.

He’d heard the tremble in her voice, the passion she had for the family, her willingness to go against the flow and fight for a cause. Sometimes, and this was one of those times, he wished he had even a tenth of her passion.

He looked at Sienna, hoped that for her Angel’s had done its best. She’d had the best doctors, nurses, social workers, but would it be enough?

He turned as Nina came into the room.

‘How is she?’ Nina asked, wondering if he had been called for a problem.

‘Fine.’

‘Is Hannah around?’ Nina asked.

‘Nope, I think she’s at one of her meetings …’

‘That’s fine,’ Nina said. ‘I just wanted to go through the meeting and the conclusions with her.’ She walked over to the cot and gave a slightly wary smile to Jack. She wasn’t particularly used to seeing him pensive by a cot. ‘I was just explaining to Eleanor that we’ll be arranging regular—’

‘I’ll read about it, thanks.’

‘Of course you will.’

Nina saw his jaw tighten at her response and she smothered a smile that twitched on her lips as she scored an unfair point. But that was what Jack did—oh, she had no doubt at all that he was a brilliant doctor, he was incredibly respected amongst his peers and she knew that he was considered a brilliant diagnostician.

She’d seen him in action on several occasions, all suited and suave, and then, when he’d delivered his opinion, when the crisis was over, when he’d saved another life, the next time Nina might see him was the way she had this morning in a meeting.