Carol Marinelli - The Pregnant Intern

Fi nodded. ‘And in return I had to do half your bloods and IVs.’

‘Cheap at half the price. Come on, Fi, don’t say you’ve gone all hard on me? You’re the only reason I came back to this ward.’

Fi laughed. ‘All right, I’ll help with your bloods, if I get the time. But I’m on nights next week,’ she warned, ‘and you’d better remember your side of the deal.’

As Josh made his way to do his notes, Fi turned her attention to Alice, who was filling up a kidney dish with blood-gas syringes and alcohol swabs.

‘When you’ve done the blood gases, I’ll show you around,’ she offered. ‘Let you know how Jeremy likes things.’

‘Thanks ever so much.’

Fi looked at her thoughtfully for a moment. ‘Listen to me for a moment, Alice. I know I always look busy but I’ve always got time if you need to run something by me. If there’s something you’re not sure about, you can always come to me.’

Alice nodded. It was a kind offer that a lot of charge nurses made when new interns started and one that was much appreciated. Heaven knew, it was a busy enough job and you needed all the support you could get. But there was something about Fi’s offer that sounded ominous, as if she almost expected trouble.

‘I’d better get those gases done.’

‘I’ll get you some ice.’

Although Mrs Marshall was on oxygen, Alice removed the mask before she took the blood gases, as the blood taken while the patient was breathing only air would enable them to get a truer picture of her condition. Although obviously unwell, the increased pain control had already kicked in and she actually seemed in the mood for a chat.

‘I’m just going to take a small sample of blood from your wrist, Mrs Marshall, so just hold still while I inject some anaesthetic.’

‘No one else has bothered with anaesthetic. How come?’

‘Maybe you were too sick and they needed the blood urgently,’ Alice suggested diplomatically.

‘Maybe they were in too much of a hurry,’ the patient said pointedly. ‘When are you due?’

‘In about three months’ time,’ Alice muttered reluctantly.

‘Your first?’

Alice nodded. She really didn’t want to discuss her private life with Mrs Marshall but, as she was increasingly finding out, her obvious condition seemed to be a licence for all and sundry to strike up a conversation about the most personal of subjects.

‘Must be hard on your own.’ She gestured to Alice’s naked ring finger.

Alice concentrated on finding the pulsing artery. ‘Hold still, please, Mrs Marshall.’

Thankfully she hit the jackpot first time and the bright red arterial blood spurted up the syringe.

‘She got it first go and even gave me an anaesthetic first,’ Mrs Marshall said loudly—to whom, Alice had no idea.

‘Glad to hear it.’

Alice nearly jumped out of her skin as Jeremy made his way over. ‘Let’s pop your oxygen back on now.’ He replaced the mask over the patient’s face.

‘I was just saying how hard it must be for the young doctor, being pregnant and on her own.’

Alice wished the ground would open up and swallow her, but she had no choice other than to stand there and press the cotton-wool swab for a full two minutes on the site where she had taken the arterial blood.

‘Oh, I don’t know,’ Jeremy said lightly. ‘Solitude has its virtues. I think you can stop pressing now,’ he added to Alice.

Mortified, she followed him out of the room.

‘Don’t tell them so much next time,’ Jeremy said, taking her to one side.

Alice, blushing furiously, looked down at her feet. Her tinted moisturiser had gone all blotchy. ‘I’m sorry, I know it mustn’t look very good—professionally, I mean—what with me being a single mother and all that.’

To her utter amazement Jeremy gave a small laugh. ‘We’re in the twenty-first century, Alice, for heaven’s sake, not the nineteen-fifties. Nobody gives a damn these days about pregnant women being single.’

‘Well, I do.’ Alice said curtly, though the fact he wasn’t bothered by her status was somehow strangely comforting.

‘I know,’ he said, and Alice looked up, surprised at his perception. ‘I could tell Mrs Marshall’s probing was making you uncomfortable. Next time tell them your fingers have got too fat to put your rings on, or tell them you don’t want to talk about it. Tell them what you like. You’re the doctor. It’s you holding the consultation, not the other way around.’

‘Thanks, I never thought of it like that.’

‘You’d better get those blood gases over to ICU.’

Only then did Alice remember the kidney dish she was holding. ‘I’ll take them down to the lab myself. We’re not allowed to use the ICU blood-gas machine for ward patients unless it’s a real emergency,’ she reminded him.

Jeremy screwed up his nose. ‘Since when?’

‘Since for ever—well, at least in the nine months I’ve been here.’

But Jeremy didn’t look convinced. ‘I’ve never had a problem. Maybe it’s because I’m consultant,’ he said pompously.

Well, you wouldn’t have a problem, would you? Alice thought to herself as they entered the intensive care unit. One glimpse of those impossibly blue eyes and a flash of that ready smile and everyone melted. Even Flynn, the gayest of porters, smoothed down his hair when Jeremy walked past. They were all so delighted to see him that Alice stood there awkwardly as they chatted away, greeting him like a long-lost friend. Finally Jeremy seemed to remember why they were there.

‘I’d better get these bloods done, or we’ll have to get a fresh sample.’

Far from the grumbling staff that reluctantly allowed her to do blood gases in only the most dire of emergencies, for Jeremy it seemed it was absolutely no trouble at all. They even offered to run the test for him.

‘No, but thanks anyway. I just want to have a quick look at the printout and then hopefully dash off. I’ll catch you all later.’

Alice could find neither rhyme nor reason for her indignation as she smeared a drop of blood onto the machine and punched in her request.

‘Don’t take it personally,’ Jeremy said, glancing at her sideways as she glared at the machine. ‘They probably let me use the machine because they’ve got a bit of a soft spot for me. I was a patient here for a while.’

Alice gave a cynical laugh as the printout appeared. The staff might well have a soft spot for Jeremy Foster, but it certainly wasn’t all down to the fact he had been a patient here, or even that he was a consultant.

Ripping the result off, she handed it to him.

‘Better than I thought. Good. But keep an eye on her, Alice. Given that I’ve upped her pethidine and prescribed her Valium, her respiration rate could go down. Tell the nurses to do strict one- to two-hourly obs and keep a close eye on her oxygen saturations.’

Alice nodded.

‘I’ll catch you later, then.’

As he left the tiny annexe, the baby suddenly let out a massive kick. Alice’s hands instinctively moved to her stomach and she tenderly massaged it. ‘Don’t worry, I haven’t forgotten you’re in there,’ she whispered, and watched out of the window as Jeremy made his way down the unit, every nurse in the place turning her head to catch a glimpse as he left. At least she didn’t have to worry about Jeremy trying his well-rehearsed lines on her. Just as well really, Alice thought to herself as she made her way back to the ward. With those blue eyes and that sultry smile she doubted whether even she would be able to offer much resistance.

Pre-op clinics always ran overtime and today was no exception, given the fact it was the intern’s first day and the consultant had only just returned from sick leave.