Proposing to the Children's Doctor

She nodded. ‘They’re both still in hospital, but they’re getting better every day.’ His mother had leg and arm injuries, and his father was suffering from whiplash and a dislocated knee, but Connor was the one who had come close to death because of internal injuries.

She looked at him now, noting the dark shadows beneath his eyes, made all the more noticeable by his pale features and the contrasting colour of his brown hair. He had lost a lot of blood in the car accident, and had almost died from injuries to his chest and abdomen. It was only because of the skill of the surgeons who had operated on him within the golden hour, from the time of the accident to admission to hospital, that he stood a good chance of recovery without suffering too many after-effects. In fact, all going well, he would probably be released from hospital in a few days.

‘We need to concentrate on you right now,’ she murmured. ‘We have to make sure that you’re well enough to manage the journey, and that you stay on good form. That means you need to get some rest and allow your body to heal. We still need to keep an eye on you to make sure that everything gets back to normal.’

‘I’m better than I was yesterday.’ Connor gave her a wide-eyed glance. ‘And I ate all my breakfast, even the yucky porridge the nurse gave me.’

Rebecca laughed. ‘That’s good. It’s a start, at any rate.’ She surreptitiously checked the readings on the monitors by his bedside. ‘I’ll have a quick listen to your chest, and then perhaps we can get ready to go on our way.’

She gently laid her stethoscope over his rib cage and listened to the sounds coming from his lungs. There was a slight wheeziness, but all in all things appeared to be good. Since the drainage tubes had been removed from his chest a couple of days ago with no ill-effects, it looked as though she could give the all-clear for the transport to go ahead.

‘You’re doing all right,’ she told him with a smile, ‘so I’ll go and have a word with the nurse and see if we can be on our way.’

‘Yeah!’ Connor whooped, and then coughed, clutching his chest as his body responded to the exertion. ‘Ouch!’ he said. ‘That hurt.’

Rebecca made a wry face. ‘I guess we’d better top up your painkillers before we go.’ She reached into her pocket and pulled out an electronic computer game. ‘Here, you can amuse yourself with this for a while, if you think you’re up to it.’

‘Oh, wow.’ His eyes shone as he looked up at her. ‘Where did you get this from?’

‘I borrowed it from the play leader. She didn’t want you to be bored on the journey.’

He was already thumbing the buttons on the device, absorbed in checking out the game she had slotted in place. ‘This is great.’

Rebecca grinned, and went off to talk to the nurse. ‘How are things coming along with the transport?’ she asked.

‘You’re all set to go,’ the nurse told her. ‘Only there won’t be a paramedic travelling along with you this time. There will be another doctor on board.’

‘That’s unusual, isn’t it?’ Rebecca murmured. ‘How did that come about?’

‘I think it was because—Oh, hang on, here he is now…’ The nurse broke off and looked towards the door. ‘He’ll be able to fill you in on the details himself.’ She shielded her face with her hand in a covert fashion as she turned back to Rebecca. ‘Lucky you! I wish I were the one who was going along with him. He’s gorgeous.’

Rebecca’s stare flicked across the room and she gazed in open-mouthed wonder at the man who was walking towards them. She blinked in disbelief. Surely there was some mistake? What was Craig doing there? How was it possible that the nurse was pointing him out as though he was the doctor who was to accompany her on the journey?

Craig’s dark brows lifted. ‘Are you all right?’ He came to join them at the nurses’station, sending Rebecca a swift, assessing glance. ‘You look as though you’re in shock.’

‘I think that’s because I am.’ Rebecca floundered. ‘I mean, I had no idea that you were anything other than a stranger passing through. How was I to know that you were a doctor? You didn’t tell me.’

His gaze was steady. ‘You didn’t ask.’

‘Yes, but even so…’ Rebecca shook her head. All her preconceived ideas about him had dissolved in an instant. To think that she had even been feeling some degree of sympathy towards him…and now it turned out that she had everything wrong and she felt utterly foolish.

‘I had no idea that you would be going back with me to Scotland,’ she said. ‘You must have known all along, but you said nothing at all.’

‘That’s because I didn’t know for certain,’ he murmured. ‘I had a shrewd idea, I’ll grant you, but I knew nothing for sure until I checked with the transport services a few minutes ago.’

He looked across at the nurse. ‘So we’re cleared to go, I take it? Where is the little fellow?’

‘Bay three.’ The nurse pointed in the direction of the side ward, an amused smile playing around her lips. ‘I have his paperwork here, all ready for Dr McIntyre. I hope you both have a good journey.’

Rebecca drew in a swift breath and put out a hand for the paperwork. She would at least put up a semblance of normality and pretend that none of this was happening. ‘Thanks,’ she said. ‘I’ll make sure it’s handed over to the receiving hospital. It’s been good working with you, Libby.’

‘And you.’

Rebecca started towards the bay where Connor was waiting. ‘I’ll show you to our patient,’ she told Craig. Perhaps the best thing she could do was to relate to him in a purely professional capacity. That way, she would be able to stay calm and do her job. ‘He’s doing all right,’ she said. ‘It’s just a question of waiting for him to heal and for him to build up his strength once more. All this has taken a lot out of him.’

‘I can imagine.’

He was still carrying the overnight bag with him, and she said briskly as they approached Connor’s trolley bed, ‘Perhaps you should slide that onto the rack underneath. It’ll be out of the way as we wheel him out to the ambulance bay.’

‘Sure thing.’ He deposited the bag and sent a cheery smile towards Connor, who was looking at him with a guarded expression. ‘Hello, young man,’ Craig said. ‘I’m Dr Braemar. I’ll be going along with you on the journey home.’

Connor sent him a suspicious look. ‘I want Becca to go with me.’

‘Yes, she’ll be coming along, too.’

‘Really?’ Connor lay back and tried to absorb that. ‘So I get to have two doctors? Why?’

‘That’s a good question,’ Craig said. ‘The reason is, I came down here with a patient, but there were problems with the transport, and I had to stay over until they were fixed. So now I get to travel home with you and your delicious Dr McIntyre.’ He leaned forward and gave the boy a clandestine, questioning look. ‘You weren’t hoping to keep her all to yourself, were you?’ Cos if you were, that means I’m stranded here, and I won’t get back to Scotland in time to walk my dog.’

‘You have a dog?’

Craig made a face. ‘Actually, no. You found me out. I made it up, because I just wanted to make sure I get to go with you.’

Connor chuckled. ‘You’re crackers.’

Craig grinned. ‘Yeah. So they keep telling me.’

Rebecca could think of a few more adjectives to describe him. Words like underhand, annoying and in your face all sprang to mind.

‘Are you all set to go?’ she asked Connor, and the boy nodded. ‘Good. Then we’ll move you out to the lift and take you down to the ambulance bay.’

‘Um…’ Craig looked as though he was about to say something, but Rebecca was already releasing the brake on the bed and he nimbly stepped to one side as she set the bed in motion. ‘Was there something you wanted to say?’ she queried, shooting him a quick glance.

‘It’ll wait,’ he said, grimacing as she set off towards the exit door. ‘Far be it from me to disturb a woman while she’s driving.’

Connor giggled, and Rebecca sent Craig a warning glare. Was he looking for trouble?

She waved goodbye to her friends as she left, and then, when she was outside in the main corridor, she headed for the lifts. She steered the boy through the open lift doors and put a hand out to press the button to send them on their way. ‘Going down,’ she told Connor, but just as she was about to choose the ground-floor switch, Craig intervened.

‘In fact,’ he said, ‘we need to go up…to the top floor.’ He pressed the button for the roof area and the doors silently closed on them.

She stared at him. ‘Why on earth would we need to do that?’

‘Because that’s where the helipad is.’

‘Oh, fantastic,’ Connor said. ‘Do we really get to go in a helicopter?’

‘That’s right. It’s the only way to travel.’