NYC Angels: An Explosive Reunion

Plan B seemed to be going slightly astray.

The idea had been to show Alex that the past was well and truly behind them. That they could enjoy a professional relationship and put any lingering attraction behind them as well. Tuck it away, along with the malpractice suit and the way both their lives had been derailed.

But it seemed to be taking on a life of its own now.

Alex didn’t like it that she was invading his space. Layla could feel the ‘Oh, God, not again’ vibe whenever she just happened to be in the same place at the same time. Like the cafeteria or Recovery or the intensive care unit or one of the wards. She was getting so good at this she didn’t need to check his electronic calendar to guess where he might be next. Often her instinct put her in the right place. Or maybe fate was helping because her path seemed to be crossing with that of Alex far more often as she fulfilled her own professional duties.

Well, Alex had only himself to blame. The effect of her subtle campaign was magnified considerably by how successful Alex had been in trying to avoid her in the run-up to that meeting he’d stupidly decided to miss. This could have all blown over by now. She would have given Alex his moment in the limelight, taken the opportunity to say thank you in a heartfelt manner and they could have agreed that this was a fresh start for both of them.

Bygones could have been bygones.

But no … Alex had taken a stand and presented a challenge and she knew perfectly well that he would have been expecting her to front up and tear a strip or two off him because everybody knew that she didn’t hang back from necessary confrontation. The perfect opportunity had presented itself the very next day, in fact, in the staff cafeteria, with the bonus of a built-in audience.

What a stroke of brilliance it had been, doing the complete opposite of what they had all been expecting. Her ultra-friendly smile and the way she had simply ignored the whole issue had thrown Alex off guard completely. He was still suspicious of her motives and she couldn’t blame him for not liking what was happening. She was in control here.

The problem was that she was enjoying herself. A bit too much perhaps. She was quite confident of how aware of her Alex was. She could sense the way he watched her, like that time in Recovery. She could feel the intensity of that gaze like a touch on her skin.

No. The real problem was the flip side of that particular coin.

She was equally aware of him.

Just how unhelpful this awareness was became strikingly obvious a few days later after Layla had been called to the emergency department to consult on a ‘blue baby’ case that had been rushed in by ambulance. The mother had had almost no prenatal care so the baby’s cardiac abnormalities had not been picked up prior to birth and, to complicate matters, the young mother had gone into labour and had given birth at home. With the baby safely intubated and stabilised and now under the care of the neonatal surgeons, Layla was free to leave the department to carry on with the rest of her duties when she spotted Alex.

He was standing just outside one of the resuscitation rooms where the more serious cases were assessed and stabilised. Right next door to the one she had been in. That small thrill of excitement and the way her heart rate picked up was due purely to the stroke of luck crossing his path in such an unexpected place. Neither of them had much to do with the emergency department so what were the odds of them both being here at the same time? That this would annoy Alex no end might be a kind of a bonus.

Except that he didn’t even seem to be aware of her standing so close by. His attention was focussed on the woman he was with. White-faced and sobbing, she looked barely more than a teenager. She had long, dark, wildly curly hair and she was talking fast and loudly. In Spanish.

Alex was looking stunned. As though he had no idea how to handle the situation.

Layla had never seen him look like this.

She’d seen him in charge of emergency situations in Theatre. Running a resuscitation scenario in the intensive care unit. Dealing with distraught parents. But never once had she seen him look as if he wasn’t in complete control.

Looking … vulnerable?

Well … she had once. When things had gone so disastrously wrong at the end of Jamie Kirkpatrick’s surgery. She’d had to stand back and watch helplessly then. She didn’t have to now.

Layla moved swiftly towards them. ‘Can I help you?’ she said to the young woman. ‘Te puedo ayudar? Digame lo que pasa …’

Her Spanish was fluent. The woman grabbed her arm in relief and sobbed out her story. Alex looked, if anything, even more stunned when Layla turned back to him.

‘Ramona says you’re treating her baby. Felix?’

His nod was terse. ‘He’s got a skull fracture. I was hoping to get to the bottom of the story but the language barrier’s suddenly got a lot worse.’

Layla asked Ramona a question and then translated the response. ‘His brother hit him with a toy brick.’

She could see the total disbelief in Alex’s face. ‘I’m talking about a fracture here. A broken skull. An unconscious child.’ His voice was so tense it cracked.

Layla’s brain sent out the kind of alert signal that any Chief of Paediatrics would be wise to pay attention to. It had been known to happen, hadn’t it? She’d read of more than one case where parents had had children taken away from them by social services and had been prosecuted for child abuse.

One sprang to mind immediately, of an eight-month-old boy whose sibling had hit him with a toy aeroplane and caused a fracture. And what about the Tommy Jenner case a few months ago when the child-abuse screen had been started and then they’d found that Tommy had actually been injuring himself because of the seizures caused by his brain lesion?

Alex needed to be careful of what he was saying here but Layla found that she was thinking of something else entirely as she stared at him. Had she really not noticed before how those glimmers of grey had crept into his jet-black hair? The way those lines at the corners of his eyes had deepened over the years they hadn’t seen each other? Had she really forgotten the way those chocolate-brown eyes could darken when something emotionally intense was going on, like anger or … physical passion?

Heavens … they looked positively black at the moment.

Ramona had picked up the tone of Alex’s voice. Looking terrified, she made a huge effort to pull herself together and change languages.

‘No … don’t say those words. No person hurt my baby. I … I love him.’

The anguish in her eyes and broken words was heart-breaking. Alex put his hand on the young woman’s shoulder.

‘Try and calm down, Ramona. I won’t ask any more questions now. We’ve got Felix stabilised and we’ll be taking him up to surgery in a few minutes.’

‘Què? I … no understand …’

Layla translated but she couldn’t look away from where Alex’s hand was still resting on Ramona’s shoulder. She could feel that hand herself.

‘Ask her if her husband’s on the way,’ Alex ordered.

But Ramona understood that.

‘Not husband. Boy … friend. I was …’ With an impatient head shake and hand movements she reverted to rapid Spanish and Layla had to relay the information.

‘She was already pregnant with Felix when she met him. He’s bringing in her older son. She’s scared that you’re going to call the police and she doesn’t want to get into trouble.’ It was quite possible there was an issue concerning illegal immigration here. Layla bit her lip, wondering if this was another alert signal her new position meant she should be worrying about.

The hand had dropped now. Layla watched as Alex’s fingers curled into a fist but that was the only sign that something was disturbing him very deeply. That and the sense of raw power he was exuding. Right now that power was all about anger on behalf of a defenceless small child. Did he know for sure that his little patient’s head injury had not been accidental? Layla wouldn’t want to be standing in his way if he was planning to do something about such a conviction.

When he looked at Layla, she knew he was barely aware of her.

‘Tell her that my only concern is treating her son.’

Alex left the impression of power in his wake and it stayed with Layla long after leaving Ramona with one of the nurses. She was left with a whole kaleidoscope of impressions whirling around her head, in fact.

The tension in Alex’s face. The image of his hand on Ramona’s shoulder. The way those dark, dark eyes had seemed to look right through her.

Memories … That first time they’d made love in the wake of her being so wound up after a blazing row with Luke. The urgency and the mind-blowing heat of that encounter. The unbelievable bliss in which it had culminated …

The feel of his lips against hers, which she’d experienced again not very long ago. The sheer wanting that it could conjure up every single time …

Oh, yes. It was just as well Alex was nowhere near where he might be able to see what was whizzing through her head because any control Layla felt she’d had in following this fool plan of hers had just gone out the window.

Concentrating on what she had to do for the rest of her day was quite a tall order. Layla was still feeling out of kilter by the time she got to the end of her list, long after most staff members had finished their days and gone home for dinner. She always liked to pop into all the intensive care units before she went home, to make sure she was in touch with how all Angel’s most seriously unwell children were doing.

Her little ‘blue’ baby was in the cardiac unit, having had surgery to correct the abnormality she had been born with. All was well in NICU, the neonatal intensive care unit. PICU was her last stop. Maybe because she was a little nervous at crossing paths again with Alex today?

A little nervous? Judging by the way she actually jumped when she heard the sound of his voice even before she saw him, she was as jumpy as spit on a hot skillet.