Amy Andrews - Australian Affairs - Tempted

In came Juan, with that potent post-shower scent that had Cate’s toes curling in her shoes. He was wearing scrubs, yet he still had on his signature boots and he was simply like no other.

‘We’ve got hospital razors, Juan,’ Kelly teased. ‘I can get you a couple if you can’t afford them.’

‘Ah, but then you’d have to suture me after,’ Juan said. ‘They are lethal.’ He looked at the twins, who had paused in their breakfasts and were staring up at this very large, very commanding man. ‘Hello,’ he said and then made Adam laugh. ‘Are you the new consultants that are starting?’

‘No,’ Cate said, ‘the interviews only started this week. These are Harry’s twins, Charlotte and Adam.’

‘Daddy got called in,’ Charlotte said. ‘For a sick boy.’

‘Well, that’s no good,’ Juan said, and then looked at Cate’s glass. ‘Did you make me one?’

‘No.’ For a moment she thought he was going to take a sip of her drink.

For a moment he thought about it!

‘Hey, Juan.’ Kelly wasn’t going to miss an opportunity for a little extra Juan time. ‘A space has opened up on the charity dive next Sunday. You like all that sort of stuff.’

‘I do.’ He went and read the notice. ‘I’ll still be here. I fly out on the Tuesday…’

‘We’ll all go out afterwards,’ Kelly said. ‘It could be your leaving do.’

‘Another one,’ Cate said, and he turned at the slightly tart note to her voice but just smiled.

‘Are you doing the jump?’ Juan asked her.

‘Absolutely not.’

‘You should.’

‘Why?’ Cate challenged, but Juan gave no answer and went to get a pen from his pocket but, as usual, he didn’t have one and he asked Cate if he could borrow hers.

‘No,’ Cate said. ‘You already owe me three.’

‘Just to put my name down on the list. I’ll give it straight back.’

She ended up relenting and handed him her pen.

‘Where are you going to next, Juan?’ Sheldon asked.

‘New Zealand! The south island first.’

‘How long will you stay?’

‘I’m not sure—I’ll see how it goes, but I’ve heard that the skiing is spectacular, so I might stay there for the winter.’

‘Then home to Argentina?’ Sheldon asked as Juan wrote down his name to do the skydiving jump.

‘I’m not sure…’ Juan said. ‘I was thinking of Asia.’

How could he have no idea where he was going? Cate wondered. He was hardly a teenager. He must be in his mid-thirties and just drifting through life, if you could call jumping off bridges and rafting down ravines and biking through the hills drifting. Cate just could not wrap her head around Juan’s way of living.

‘Come on, guys.’ Cate glanced at the clock and stood. ‘We’d better get round there.’

‘You’re not the boss yet,’ Kelly teased.

No, she wasn’t the boss yet, Cate thought. She said goodbye to Charlotte and Adam and turned on some cartoons instead of the news, telling them that someone would be around to check on them soon—but she wondered how she could tell Harry that he couldn’t bring in the twins or, rather, if he did that the nurses wouldn’t be watching out for them.

As they walked through the obs ward on their way, Cate was just about to ask the nurse who was working there to keep an eye out for Harry’s children. But, seeing that the supervisor was there checking the bed status, Cate decided otherwise.

‘Last day in the madhouse!’ She smiled at Christine, who had just arrived at work.

Her smile wasn’t returned.

‘Thank God!’ Christine rolled her eyes. ‘If you can watch the floor, Cate, I’m going to go make sure all the ordering is up to date. Given all the fire warnings in place, I think it might be a good idea to order some extra burn packs and IV solutions…’

‘I already have,’ Cate said, and saw Christine’s jaw tense.

‘Of course you would have,’ Christine said, and flounced off.

Cate knew she had annoyed Christine but, then, everything seemed to annoy Christine lately. Cate didn’t particularly want to go to the leaving do tonight, especially now she knew that Juan would be there, but it would look rude and petty not to go. Handover was about to start and as she went to make her way over to the huddle Cate searched in her pocket for her pen, but of course, yet again, Juan had failed to give it back.

‘Here…’ He walked past and grinned as he saw Cate going through her pockets and he gave her back her pen, or what was left of it.

‘You’ve chewed it!’ Cate moaned.

‘So did you,’ Juan said, and opened his mouth and curled his tongue just a fraction. ‘I had to taste you.’

He could be so filthy.

‘Juan!’ Harry came over to where they were standing, Cate’s cheeks still on fire. ‘I didn’t know that you were on this morning.’

‘Neither did I till late last night.’

‘Well, it’s really good to see you. Renée called me in a couple of hours ago—I’ve got a five-year-old named Jason that I’m really concerned about and am thinking of transferring. It would be great if you could come in and take a look.’

‘Sure!’ Juan said, and walked with Harry over to Resus as Cate went over to the group.

‘Wow! I think Harry just gave Juan a compliment. He said that he was pleased that he was here. That’s a bit of a turnaround.’

‘I’m actually very glad to see Juan here this morning,’ Renée, the night nurse, said. ‘The child Harry is concerned about has got Goldenhar syndrome. Have you heard of it?’

Cate shook her head. There were many, many different syndromes, some relatively common, some rare, as was the case with this admission.

‘It mainly presents as facial abnormalities. In Jason’s case he’s got a very underdeveloped left ear and he was born with a cleft palate and other problems. I’ve looked it up on the computer if you want to read about it. The main problem today is that he has presented with severe asthma, for which he’s had several ICU admissions. Usually he’s seen at the children’s hospital and, understandably, the parents tend to stay close but, given the heat, they thought a couple of days near the beach might be nice.’

‘It should have been nice,’ Cate said. ‘Poor things.’

‘Yes, Jason has a very tricky airway and is really difficult to intubate—he’s had to have a tracheostomy in the past. I think that was why Harry was so pleased to see Juan. The on-call anaesthetist has already been down to check on him a couple of times.’

‘How come Harry is here?’ Cate checked. ‘I thought that Dr Vermont was on call last night.’

‘He was,’ Renée said. ‘He was here till one o’clock but then he was unwell and had to go home. Jason came in just before five. I tried to get the paediatricians down but they’re busy with a sick baby and so really I had no choice but to call Harry in.’ Renée grimaced. ‘I didn’t realise that he’d have to wake up the twins.’

‘Well, it sounds like Jason needed someone senior on hand,’ Cate said. ‘So, what else could you do?’

‘Do you want to go in and take over?’ Renée suggested. ‘From Monday you’ll be spending a lot of time in the office.’

‘No, I shan’t be.’ Cate didn’t elaborate, it wouldn’t be fair on Christine, but Cate had no desire to disappear for hours into the office, as Christine all too often did. Still, Cate knew that she wouldn’t be able to get as involved with individual patients—like it or not, the more senior she had become, the more hands off her role had been, so it was nice to take the opportunity to look after Jason.

Cate took the handover from Mary, the night nurse, as Juan examined the young patient.

‘The parents are incredibly tense.’ Mary pulled Cate aside. ‘I don’t blame them a bit, it must be awful to be away from all the specialists they need, but I think they’re really making Jason more upset. Harry was talking about transferring him to the children’s hospital and getting them to send out their emergency transfer team, but Lisa, the mum, got really distressed. Apparently Jason is petrified of flying, especially given that he’s had more than his fair share of emergency transfers.’