Kate Hardy - Hot Docs On Call - One Night To Forever?

And she was right about him—Dominic wasn’t one to panic.

He said something to Alistair and then he came straight over.

‘William MacBride,’ Glen said. ‘He became unresponsive while his mother was feeding him...’ He relayed some more details as Victoria lifted the baby from his mother’s arms and placed William in an examination cot.

‘I was going to call you today,’ Jamie said to his older brother, ‘and ask you to take a look at him.’

‘You’re in the right place now.’ Dominic nodded. He called for assistance, but when there was none forthcoming, he knew that these next few moments were down to him and took command. ‘What’s been happening?’

‘He’s been struggling to feed and put on weight. The doctor didn’t seem too concerned and the nurse said that Lorna, well...’

‘She thinks that I’m overly anxious.’ Lorna spoke for herself.

‘How was the pregnancy?’ Dominic asked.

‘It went well.’ Lorna just sat on the stretcher, helpless and wringing her hands as her son was transferred from the ambulance’s monitor to the hospital’s. ‘It’s just been these past two weeks. We’ve been getting nowhere. Finally, I got an appointment to see a paediatrician, but it’s not for a couple more weeks. In the end Jamie suggested that we bring him down to be seen by you.’

Dominic nodded but did not comment on that—he was too busy taking care of the infant and, despite the pressure he must surely be under, he did not miss a beat. He was feeling the little boy’s scalp and checking his fontanelle, which Victoria knew from her own examination was sunken, a sign that he was dehydrated, and Dominic asked for more information.

‘So what happened today?’ Dominic asked as Victoria helped Lorna from the stretcher.

‘We were at the hotel.’

‘How long have you been there?’

‘We got there around midnight. The journey down was fine and he had a really good night. I was starting to think we were making a fuss to have come all this way. I was feeding him and saying the very same to Jamie when he started to make all these choking noises and he went floppy.’ She started to cry and Dominic nodded when Karen suggested that she find someone to take the parents to get a detailed history.

Victoria had helped Lorna from the stretcher and the anxious couple were gently led away, but at the last moment Jamie turned and came back.

‘Dominic, he looks fine now, but—’

‘I get that he’s unwell,’ Dominic said. ‘Jamie...’ His voice was firm. ‘You need to hold it together right now. You need to keep your head.’

‘I know but—’

‘Come on,’ Karen said, and he was again led away.

Victoria guessed that it wasn’t the first time Dominic had had to tell his brother that.

The baby was listless again—even crying seemed to exhaust him—and while he lay quietly, Dominic had a very long listen to his heart.

And still she stood there.

Glen made up the stretcher and replaced the used equipment, and still she watched as Dominic took blood. Victoria stood outside as a portable chest X-ray was taken.

But then, instead of heading for the ambulance, she went back in.

‘Can we get the on-call cardiologist down here,’ Dominic instructed.

‘Victoria,’ Glen called out to her. ‘We’ve got another job to go to.’

She knew that they had to leave.

They were extremely busy, but Victoria found herself wanting to linger and to know more.

She admired how calm Dominic was. Oh, she knew it was his job to be, but no one could even guess what he was going through right now.

There was a sense of agency to him that Victoria liked.

And then he looked up and caught her eyes and she gave a thin smile, one of support, one that said she knew how hard this was.

And he gave back a grim smile of thanks.

‘We’d better go,’ Glen said.

Only she didn’t want to go.

For the first time she wanted to linger—unfortunately, there was no choice but to leave.

It was a long day.

An incredibly long one, and there wasn’t a patient aged under sixty in sight, which meant that they didn’t get back to Paddington’s once.

Oh, how badly Victoria wanted to go to the hospital to find out how William was, but instead they were in and out of Riverside and nursing homes. And in a quick coffee break, where Glen rang Hayley, Victoria thought not just about little William and how he was, and not just about Dominic and how he was coping.

But about Lorna.

Victoria had had neither the time nor the inclination to think about it when they had been dealing with the baby, but now, pausing for the first time since it had happened, she reflected on the woman that Dominic had once loved.

Perhaps he still did.

In her head Victoria had painted Lorna as some sort of vixen; in fact, she was softly spoken and pretty.

Dominic and Jamie were very similar in appearance.

Jamie, though, was expressive, not just with his emotions but with the information he shared. Oh, she knew the circumstances had been dire today and that people’s reactions were often extreme when under pressure, but she just could not imagine Dominic opening up in front of someone else the way that Jamie had.

By Dominic’s own admission, even when he had found out the baby wasn’t his, he had stayed quiet as a doctor was present.

They were similar, yet different.

And it was the more stoic MacBride brother that Victoria very possibly loved.

It was a scary thought and one she did not want to pursue, but at the end of a very long shift she could take it no more.

‘Could we stop by the Castle on the way back to the station?’

‘Sure,’ Glen said. He could see her tense face and was wise enough not to probe.

* * *

It had been a long day for Dominic too.

A new cardiologist had started at Paddington’s and Dominic had felt a wash of relief to hand little William over, especially as Dr Thomas Wolfe seemed very thorough, if rather stern.

‘He’s my nephew.’ Dominic had given his findings and then started to explain the relationship he had with the patient but had immediately been interrupted.

‘Then you need to step back,’ Thomas had said. ‘I’ll be in to speak with the family shortly.’

Dominic relayed that information to Jamie and Lorna and though they had communicated throughout the day it had all been about the baby.

Lorna contacted her parents, who were holidaying in Greece, and Dominic was the one who rang his and Jamie’s.

They had been very upset by the news and the call had been brief. They had soon rallied though and had called back to say that they were flying down to London and could Dominic meet them at the airport.

The underground would be far easier but their plane came in near the end of his workday and so Dominic agreed. Though he warned that he might be half an hour or so late, depending on traffic.

Then he rang his cleaner and asked her to stop by and give his apartment a quick once-over.

On top of that there were patients, of course, and near the end of a long and difficult day he looked up and there was Victoria walking towards him.

‘Do you need me to come out?’ he checked, assuming that she wanted him to come and assess a patient in the ambulance, as happened at times.

‘No, no,’ Victoria said. ‘I just stopped by to see how William was doing.’

And he knew from experience that she chose not to get involved with patients, so it touched him that, for his nephew, she had made an exception.

‘He’s in the catheter lab at the moment. He’s had a day of tests and they think he’s going to need surgery.’

‘Cardiac?’ she asked.

‘Yes.’

‘How are his parents?’