Children's Doctor, Meant-to-be Wife

‘Agitated,’ she said, ‘although there is some good news. Jack seems a little better this morning. Lily?’

She heard Charles’s sigh and knew the little girl must still be unstable.

‘Jill has been with her most of the night. And Grace tells me you’ve been here all night. You should go home and rest.’

‘I dozed between checking on the others,’ Beth assured him. ‘Emily’s on duty today, but I’ll stay now in case Angus needs some help with tests or information.’

She glanced towards the man who had moved to the chair beside Robbie’s bed and was reading through the notes on his chart.

‘You’ve how many sick?’ Angus asked, looking at Charles who nodded to Beth to reply.

‘We have the adult from the resort, one of the rangers and three children, making a total of five. There are another three children at the camp showing symptoms. We’ve moved those three to a cabin and the staff and volunteers there are entertaining them, keeping them as quiet as possible and making sure they take in plenty of fluids. Among the staff, the rangers, even people at the resort, there could be more who are simply not feeling well, people feeling the “beginning of flu” symptoms but who haven’t said anything.’

‘And you’re how far off the mainland?’

This time Charles fielded Angus’s question himself. ‘A half-hour flight by helicopter—less by seaplane.’

‘You’ve got to close the island, Charles,’ Angus said. ‘You must have had similar thoughts yourself, given the number of dead birds you say have been found. We have to quarantine the whole place—resort, national park, the camp and eco-resort—at least until we know more. It’s a thousand to one chance it’s anything sinister, but even that’s too big a chance to take.’

Beth stared at him, sure her jaw had dropped in disbelief.

‘You’re serious? You think it could be bird flu?’

She looked at the little boy still twitching restlessly on the bed and pain washed through her.

‘No!’ she whispered, but she doubted whether the men heard her, Charles asking questions, Angus answering, Charles talking practicalities—how to enforce a quarantine, important people here for the opening who wouldn’t like it, Health Department and Australian Quarantine Service concerns—

‘It has to be complete and it has to start now!’ Angus said in a voice Beth recognised as brooking no opposition. This was the focus Angus always brought to his work. ‘It would be criminal of us to allow even one person who could be carrying a deadly virus to leave the island. And we’ll have to get the police and health authorities to trace anyone who has left in the past week and to isolate those people as well.’

‘That won’t be hard. Most people here this week stayed on for the opening of the medical centre, and resort guests are usually here for a week, Sunday to Sunday. There’ll be guests due to go today but not until later in the day. The helicopter pilots who do the passenger runs each day—they come and go more than anyone but rarely get out of their machines. Their manifests will tell us who’s left so we’ll have a list to give the authorities on the mainland.’

The two men had turned away, intent on putting their quarantine order in place, as well they might be. It was going to be a complicated task, and more than a few people were going to be very annoyed about it.

Beth smiled to herself. Alex Vavunis, the self-important paediatric neurosurgeon, for one. He’d made life uncomfortable for several people, simply because he’d been upset to find his daughter, Stella, was growing up. Although being forced to stay longer might give him more time to spend with his daughter and to accept the new Stella—so good could come from bad.

And Nick Devlin, who’d stayed on longer than he’d intended already because his little boy, Josh, was enjoying the camp so much. But Josh was a brittle asthmatic and a lung infection of any kind could have serious consequences. Beth shivered at the thought of Josh picking up the infection, then felt a momentary pang of sympathy for Angus. He was the epidemiologist—he’d be the one coping with the fallout of the announcement.

Although Angus could handle that—work-related problems would never faze Angus. Only emotions could do that…

‘We’re definitely closing the island. Charles has been on to the quarantine people and the head of the state health department and she agrees it’s the way to go in the short term but she doesn’t want to go public with it and start a panic about a pandemic. Containing everyone on the island might help to keep the news off the front pages.’

Angus returned to Robbie’s room alone, explaining this to her while standing in the doorway, his eyes taking in the small ward, and the child now lying quietly, seeming even smaller than he probably was because of the big hospital beds.

‘In this day of e-mails and mobile phones, do you really think the news can be contained?’ Beth asked. ‘Besides, there were reporters and photographers here for the opening and though some went back on the last boat last night, I’m sure the local gossip columnist stayed on. Apparently she loves mixing with the rich and famous and the opportunity to spend time at the resort was too much for her to resist.’

Angus studied her for a moment and Beth could almost hear his brain working.

‘Perhaps if we don’t mention birds, just talk about a virus of unknown origin that has spread quickly, it might attract less interest from the press.’

‘It won’t work,’ Beth told him. ‘Most of the people on this side of the island know about the dead birds. And on top of that, you’ll have to tell people to stay away from dead birds—maybe all birds—and the moment you say that, then the words “bird flu” will ricochet through everyone’s mind.’

‘You’re right. We’ll just have to ask them to keep quiet about it—maybe someone will have to speak directly to the local columnist. Explain we don’t want to start a nationwide panic.’

‘Or maybe we’ll get lucky and some film star or other celebrity will do something dreadful that grabs the headlines and the quarantine of the island will go unnoticed,’ Beth suggested, and Angus shrugged.

‘Could we be that lucky?’ he said, then he smiled and Beth felt a surge of emotion in her chest—a too-familiar reaction to an Angus smile. And just when she’d been doing so well—playing the part of the mature professional to perfection, though being in the vicinity of Angus was reminding her nerve endings of how good things had once been.

Physically…

‘Charles tells me you’re off duty, but he wants all available hospital staff, as well as hotel personnel, park rangers and eco-lodge management people, at a meeting in the lecture theatre at the convention centre at the hotel. Can you drive me back there?’

Beth hesitated, desperately seeking an excuse to say no. Even before the surge she’d known that the less time she spent with Angus the better off she’d be. But she’d asked for his help…

He’d come right into the room now, and stood beside her, looking down at Robbie, who was sleeping more peacefully now.

‘You go, I’ll keep a special eye on him.’

Grace must have followed Angus in, for there she was, flapping her hands at Beth as if shooing chooks.

She had no choice, standing up slowly, careful not to look at Angus, though every cell in her body was aware of his presence.

‘Do you think it is bird flu?’ she asked, and didn’t need to hear Angus sigh to know what a stupid question it had been. ‘Of course you don’t know,’ she answered for him. ‘It’s just that it’s been in the forefront of my mind all night. H5N1, a seemingly innocuous grouping of letters and numbers, yet with the ability to make anyone who understands them very anxious.’

‘From doctors up to heads of governments,’ Angus confirmed, his voice deep with the gravity of the situation. ‘But what we can’t do is panic—or even become overly dramatic about it. There’s a set routine for any disease outbreak—identify its existence, which we do by seeing how many people are affected—’

‘Five in hospital, three segregated in the camp, and who knows how many who haven’t sought medical attention.’

‘Enough to cause concern in a relatively small population,’ Angus agreed as they reached the cart Beth had used earlier. ‘The next step is to verify the diagnosis.’

He sounded worried and she looked at him and saw the frown between his eyebrows once again.

‘Problems with that?’

‘Of course,’ he said, climbing into the driving seat without consultation, but this was hardly the time to be arguing over who should drive. ‘There is now a fast and definitive test for H5N1, a gene chip known as the MChip, but it’s only been used in laboratories in the US. Out here we still use the FluChip, which is based on three influenza genes. It provides information about the type of virus but the lab then needs to run more tests to get the virus subtype—to identify H5N1, for example.’

‘Clear as mud!’ Beth muttered, although in the past she’d always enjoyed the way Angus had discussed his thoughts and explained things to her.

Or was it because of that past enjoyment—and the risk of enjoying it now—that she was feeling so narky?

‘I’m saying tests take time,’ Angus added, turning towards her so she saw his frown had deepened.

‘I know,’ she admitted. ‘I must be more tired than I realised. Have you and Charles talked further than quarantine?’

Was she interested or just making conversation? Angus wondered.

Once, he’d have known—once, he’d have been sure it was interest, because that was Beth, always keen to learn.

Or had she been?