Alison Roberts - The Doctor's Unexpected Proposal

‘No!’

Emily stayed still for a moment, maintaining eye contact. Offering what she hoped was a sympathetic and nonjudgmental ear. Jill was quietly busy, noting observations on the chart in a corner of the room. Mike had taken the blood samples to the lab where Charles was getting set up to do the analyses.

But Megan looked away. ‘I’m not pregnant,’ she told Emily. ‘And I don’t need any internal examination. I’ve just got the flu.’

‘Having flu wouldn’t be giving you such a sore tummy,’ Emily said patiently. ‘We need to find out what’s making you this sick, Megan. If it’s something like your appendix, then it’s possible you may need an operation.’

‘Is that what you think it is?’ Megan sounded almost hopeful. ‘My appendix?’

‘We won’t know unless you let me do what I need to do. I know it’s not pleasant, Megan, but I’ll be as quick and as gentle as I can be.’

This time Megan nodded and she stayed co-operative as Emily put gloves on and got Jill to assist in positioning Megan. The older nurse moved to hold Megan’s hand reassuringly.

Emily was careful. And thorough. And very surprised. She caught Jill’s gaze and the older nurse blinked. Megan stared at Jill. Then her gaze flicked to Emily who tried to keep both her face and tone very calm.

‘Jill, can you take these swabs through to Charles and see what’s happening with the blood samples?’

Jill eyed her curiously but nodded. ‘Of course.’

‘I’m feeling better now,’ Megan announced as Jill left the room.

‘That’s great.’ Emily smiled. ‘We’ll have to make sure you keep getting better.’

‘I’m really thirsty.’ Megan was staring at Emily with unnerving intensity. Had she guessed what Emily was thinking?

‘We can’t give you anything to drink just yet, I’m sorry—just in case you need to go to Theatre. Not until we’re sure of our diagnosis.’ Emily was sure now. All she needed was a minute to collect her thoughts and decide how to handle the new information she had.

‘I need to go to the toilet.’

‘I’ll find you a bedpan.’

‘Ew!’ Megan looked disgusted. ‘But I feel fine. Why can’t I use a proper toilet?’

‘You might not feel so good if you try standing up. And we need to do some tests on your urine in any case. Can’t you wait just a minute or two? I don’t want to leave you alone to go and get a pan.’

‘No. I’m busting.’

Emily scanned the monitors. Everything was stable, and looking better than it had. She nodded reluctantly. ‘OK. Just rest there, Megan,’ she instructed. ‘I’ll be back in just a second.’

‘Where are you going?’

‘To the sluice room.’ Emily hesitated. ‘Do you want me to wait until Jill comes back? Or find another nurse to sit with you?’

‘No, I told you—I’m busting!’

Emily’s path back from the sluice room intersected with that of Mike as he came back into the department.

‘Results will be through in another few minutes,’ he told her. Then he peered at Emily’s face. ‘What’s up, Em? Is it Megan?’

She nodded. ‘I’ve just done a pelvic exam. I know what’s wrong with her.’

Mike was still studying Emily’s expression. ‘She’s had a miscarriage?’

‘No.’ Emily had used the last minute or so to assimilate the most recent information she had gathered on her patient. ‘I think she’s given birth. Very recently.’

Mike whistled silently. ‘Like…in the last few days?’

Emily nodded again. Very slowly. ‘She’s got a perineal tear that’s just starting to heal. The only likely explanation for that is giving birth—to at least a close to full-term baby.’

‘And Megan was at the rodeo on Thursday. Her mother said she hadn’t eaten any hot dogs.’

Emily’s nod was excited this time.

‘Which would make it entirely possible that Megan is—’

‘Lucky’s mother,’ Emily breathed. ‘Oh, Mike!’ She held onto Mike’s gaze. ‘Do you know what this means?’

‘That she might be septic from a fragment of retained placenta?’

‘Yes, but…’ It was almost too much to get her head around. Emily could so easily imagine what it would have been like if she’d been told her baby wasn’t dead after all. Megan must think she’d lost her infant. Gina—the doctor who had discovered Lucky behind the bushes at the rodeo—had been convinced that the mother would have believed it to be a stillbirth.

‘Should we tell her now?’

‘Has she said anything about being pregnant?’

‘She denied it.’ Emily frowned. ‘But, then, she would, wouldn’t she? She might think she’d get into trouble for leaving it behind the bushes. I think she thinks I might know something now, though—after that examination.’

‘Her family didn’t seem to know anything about it.’

‘No.’ Emily’s frown deepened. ‘Maybe she doesn’t want them to know.’

‘Wouldn’t be surprised. An extra mouth to feed around there might not be very welcome.’

Emily sighed. This wasn’t going to be as simple as she’d thought. Maybe she wouldn’t be producing a miracle. Maybe she was projecting too much of herself into this case. ‘What should I do, Mike?’

‘Talk to her. Carefully.’

‘She might prefer to talk to you. She trusts you.’

‘I’ll come and say hello,’ Mike suggested. ‘And see where she’s at. The number-one priority right now is to take care of Megan.’ Mike eyed the bedpan. ‘Does she need that?’

Emily nodded and started moving again. ‘You’re right, of course. Talking about Lucky can wait. If she’s septic from postnatal complications, we need to get on top of things fast.’

Emily drew back the curtain screening the resuscitation area, though it had been an unnecessary precaution in the empty department tonight.

They both stared at Megan’s bed. And at the end of the IV tubing that was dribbling a dopamine infusion onto the floor, drop by drop.

Emily turned to Mike in horror but he spoke first.

‘Where the hell has she gone?’

‘SHE won’t be far away.’

Emily crushed a surge of panic. She shouldn’t have left Megan on her own, even for a minute.

‘She wanted to use a proper toilet.’ Emily spun on her heel and moved towards the department’s bathroom. ‘That’s where she’ll be.’

But the cubicles were empty and Emily had known, deep down, that they would be.

Things were falling into place. The sense of hopelessness she had perceived in Megan when she had first seen the teenager. Not only was the poor girl physically unwell, she had to be suffering from grief and guilt and quite possibly postnatal depression.

And Emily knew a lot more than she had ever wanted to about all that.

Talking about something as personal as menstruation in front of her father hadn’t been the real issue for Megan, had it? She had been terrified of the truth coming out.

Emily could still feel the intensity of that look Megan had given her after the last examination. Megan knew that Emily had discovered the truth.

Megan had fled.

‘She’s not in the department anywhere, as far as I can see.’ Mike met Emily in front of the main desk. ‘And her clothes seem to be gone.’ Black curls bounced with incongruous gaiety as Mike shook his head. ‘I just don’t believe this!’

‘I do,’ Emily said grimly. ‘She’s panicked. She’s trying to escape. Probably a rerun of what she did after she thought she’d given birth to a dead baby.’

Mike shook his head again. ‘No, what I can’t believe is how she’s managed it. She was delirious when we were taking those blood samples. I wouldn’t have thought she was capable of even getting off that bed, let alone climbing over the sides you put up.’