Sydney Harbour Hospital: Luca's Bad Girl

Thirty seconds later the scrawny bawling infant slipped into Mia’s waiting hands. ‘You have a boy.’ Mia grinned, laying the baby on the cloth seat and hoping that Caroline thought to bring back something warm to protect the newborn from the brisk air.

‘Let me see it,’ the father demanded.

But Caroline arrived, blocking his view as she handed Mia a pre-packaged emergency birth pack and some blankets fresh out of the blanket warmer. ‘Neonates are doing an emergency intubation in Labour ward,’ she said quietly. ‘They’ll get here as soon as they can.’

Mia nodded as she quickly laid the babe on a warm soft blanket, unwrapped the birth pack and efficiently clamped and cut the cord. She bundled the still crying baby up and handed him to Caroline.

‘Get him into Resus so we can give him a proper check over, although his lungs seem pretty fine to me.’

Caroline laughed as she turned to go.

‘Where are you taking it?’ the father demanded.

‘Inside,’ Caroline said calmly. ‘You can come too if you like.’

The father stalked after Caroline while Mia and Arthur helped Rhiannon onto the gurney. They covered her in warm blankets and pushed her inside to the resus cube next to her baby. The little boy was quiet now as he basked beneath the warm rays of a cot’s overhead heater.

The father was pacing the cubicle when they arrived and seemed agitated. ‘Red hair. It’s got red hair,’ the father growled at Rhiannon as he approached her with a sneer on his face.

‘Oh, for crying out loud, Stan. Your grandfather had red hair.’

‘Whose is it?’ he demanded, rattling the rail of the gurney. ‘Who’s the father?’

Mia felt the hairs rise on the back of her neck as the father’s puzzling behaviour gained some context. But context or not, he didn’t get to act like a bully in her ER.

Thoughts of her own father wormed their way into her head and she quashed them ruthlessly.

‘Sir!’ Mia stood between him and the exhausted Rhiannon. ‘You will not raise your voice in here. Whatever the issue is, this is not the time or place for it. Now, why don’t you go and shift your car from the ambulance bay? When you come back, you’d better have calmed down or I will call Security.’

Mia was used to dealing with emotionally charged situations. Also drunks, drug addicts and a whole bunch of other people who didn’t respect the sanctity of a hospital.

But she was a doctor. And Rhiannon and the baby were her patients. It was her duty to protect them.

The man scowled at her and left, muttering to himself.

‘I’m sorry,’ Rhiannon apologised. ‘He gets so paranoid sometimes but he’s harmless.’

Mia smiled. ‘It’s fine.’

A midwife from the maternity ward chose that moment to arrive. ‘The team’s going to be another twenty minutes or so,’ she apologised.

‘That’s all right,’ Mia dismissed. ‘I think this little tyke’s going to be fine.’

The ugly incident with Stan was forgotten as the midwife tended to Rhiannon, delivering the placenta while Mia gave the baby a check over. ‘They’ll probably want to keep him for the night in Special Care, given his early arrival, just to be on the safe side,’ Mia pronounced, ‘but everything checks out so far.’

She stood aside for the midwife to wrap the little boy up in that special way they did with babies so they looked just like glowworms, with only their little faces showing. Then Mia picked up the precious little package and asked, ‘Would you like to hold your son?’

Rhiannon nodded and Mia was walking the baby over to her when the curtain flicked back a little and Stan stood there, looking slightly mollified. The time away seemed to have helped. Mia changed tack. ‘Would you like to hold him?’ she asked.

In Mia’s experience, babies melted even the hardest of hearts. What man could resist such a gorgeous package? Hopefully this little impatient cherub would help Stan focus on what was important in life.

He looked uncertain for a moment then looked at Rhiannon. ‘Can I?’

She smiled at him and Mia could see the love shining in the other woman’s eyes. ‘Of course.’

Mia eased the little bundle into Stan’s arms. He seemed more dazed than elated but Mia knew that for some new fathers it was a big adjustment. He walked up and down the length of the cubicle with the baby, rocking him as he went, his gaze fixed on his face.

‘What are you going to call him?’ Caroline asked.

‘I like Michael,’ Rhiannon murmured.

The tight swaddling had loosened a little from the rocking and the baby stirred, displacing the wrap covering his head. Stan stopped as he stared down at a shock of red hair. He whipped around to face his wife. ‘Is that his name?’ he demanded. The baby started to cry. ‘Michael? The man you’ve been sleeping with?’

Rhiannon groaned. ‘Stop it, Stan. I’m sick of these accusations. You know there’s only ever been you.’

‘I want a paternity test,’ he yelled.

Mia looked at Caroline then at a near-to-tears Rhiannon. ‘Stan—’

Stan swung wildly around to face her and the baby cried louder. ‘I want you …’ he jabbed the air with an index finger ‘… to do a paternity test.’

‘Stan this is ridiculous,’ Rhiannon wailed, a tear trekking down her face.

Stan swung back. ‘Are you refusing?’

‘Okay, Stan, enough,’ Mia said firmly. Stan turned abruptly and faced her. ‘That is no way to be talking and certainly no way to be flinging a baby around. Listen to him, you’re making him cry.’

She walked briskly towards Stan, her arms extended. ‘Give him to me.’

Stan leapt back, his eyes wild again as he pulled a pocket knife out of his back pocket, flicking the blade open with one hand while he clutched his son in the other.

‘Stay back,’ he screamed. Caroline gasped, Rhiannon wailed and Mia stopped in her tracks. ‘Don’t come near me.’

Stan swung wildly from side to side, brandishing the knife as he backed slowly away from Mia.

Oh, good Lord! Mia felt a spurt of annoyance. She did not have time for this.

‘Okay, Stan.’ Mia summoned her most placatory voice as she put her hands out to calm the situation. She didn’t think that Stan would harm anyone but that wasn’t the way to play it when he was holding a brand-new thirty weeker in one arm and a knife in the other.

‘Okay, I can do that for you,’ she soothed, deftly placing her own body between Stan and Caroline.

Caroline, bless her cotton socks, picked up on her cue and quietly crept out of the cubicle. Mia knew one push of the panic button located under the desk in the nurses’ station and every security guard rostered for the shift would be here in under two minutes.

‘But you’re going to need to give me the baby first.’ She took another step towards Stan, tuning out the lusty newborn’s cries and Rhiannon’s pleading.

Stan slashed the blade through the air. ‘No! Get back,’ he yelled.

Luca di Angelo, who was passing the resus bay, frowned at the raised voice, louder even than the squalling baby. He strode in through the partially open curtain, surveying the scene rapidly.