The Army Doctor's Wedding (2 page)

"Of course."

"Promise?"

Cameron was taken aback. Patients
didn't usually question his dedication to the job. Yet he could understand her
being concerned for the baby.

"I promise I'll do whatever
I can to ensure the little guy gets top-notch treatment."

Chapter Two

The hollow footsteps of army boots on the cement floor
echoed as two soldiers wheeled Alice down a hallway on a gurney. Bundles of
cables and pipes ran along the ceiling and harsh neon lights spaced down the
corridor lit the way.

The field hospital did not feel
welcoming. Alice hugged the baby closer and glanced back to check if Cameron
was still with them. Her breath hissed out in relief at the sight of him a few
steps behind, writing on a clipboard.

They turned into a room
containing a bed, a small table, and a plastic chair. One high window allowed a
weak beam of light to filter into the room. The army medical technicians lifted
her across to the bed and left with the gurney. A nurse in army uniform came in
with Cameron.

"This is Acting Corporal
Lane," he said. "She's going to prepare you for surgery." He
came closer and moved the fabric away from the baby's face. "How's the
little guy doing?"

"He's been wiggling a lot
more since we arrived." At that moment the baby let out a mewling cry.

"Sounds hungry to me,"
Cameron said.

Alice wondered how much
experience he had with tiny babies, but now wasn't the time to start asking
questions like that.

A pretty redheaded nurse came in,
a smile lighting her face as she set eyes on the baby. "Oh, he's adorable.
May I take him?" When Alice nodded, the nurse lifted the infant into her
arms and cradled him. "Thank you for paging me, Major. You've made my
day."

Cameron moved to the nurse's side
and joined her in examining the baby. "As soon as we arrived I thought of
you." They shared an intimate look and Alice pinched her lips together.
Were they a couple? Surely the army didn't allow officers who served together
to date. And what business was it of hers, anyway?

"He's a few hours old and
hasn't been fed yet," Cameron said.

"Does he have a name? I'll
register him in the system, examine him, and do all that's necessary to make
him comfortable."

"His mother died before she
named him," Alice said. "His father was called Sami. He died when the
rebels attacked the village. Maybe we could name the baby after him?"

The nurse nodded and turned to
the door.

"Bring him back when you're
done," Alice blurted.

The nurse paused, her questioning
gaze jumping from Alice to Cameron.

Cameron simply nodded.

The nurse left. Alice bit her
lip, anxious now the baby had been taken. If he ended up being handed back to
the locals, she feared for his safety. Because of his disfigurement, his people
thought he was cursed and would have left him to die. Granted, the city
dwellers probably had different customs than the nomadic people who lived in
the desert, but if he was sent to an orphanage, anything could happen to him.
She felt personally responsible for the poor little thing as she'd helped bring
him into the world.

Cameron's hand settled gently on
her good arm. "Lieutenant Grace will take good care of him. She worked as
a pediatric nurse before she joined the army, so she has lots of experience
with babies." He stepped back with a smile. "I'll leave you in the
capable hands of Acting Corporal Lane while I clean up. See you in the
OR."

With a confident stride, he
headed towards the door.

"Thank you, Cameron."

He paused and turned, a smile
lighting his face beneath the helmet he still wore. "You're welcome,
Alice. See you soon." Then he was gone.

The nurse chatted as she helped
Alice take off her shorts and the remains of her jacket, then cut away her
T-shirt beneath.

"Let's clean you up, shall
we?" She brought a bowl of water and a washcloth and left while Alice
soaped herself down using one hand. It had been a couple of days since she had
washed and she was aware she probably didn't smell good. She hoped Cameron had
been too busy to notice.

Once she was clean and gowned,
the nurse helped her back in bed and put an IV in the back of her uninjured
hand. "This is for the anesthetic. You won't have to put up with it for
long."

Two men in uniform came in and
lifted her onto a gurney, then wheeled her along a maze of corridors. They
pushed her into a small room where a technician gently lifted her arm out of
the sling and took some X-rays. Then they wheeled her to the OR.

Plastic sheeting covered the
walls and machines bleeped and hummed. The gowned and masked medical team
worked around Alice, attaching monitors and preparing. Relief burst through her
when Cameron strode in with a female doctor at his side.

"How do you feel?" He
leaned over her, gowned and capped in green scrubs, his mask loose around his
neck, and rested a hand on her shoulder.

"Nervous."

"No need to be. This won't
take long. When you wake up your arm will be set in a cast."

The female doctor stepped up
beside him. "Hello, Alice. I've heard a lot about you." Dark curls
peeped out from beneath the green cap topping the woman's heart-shaped face.
She smiled and instantly put Alice at ease.

"This is Major Braithwaite.
She's here to put you to sleep for a little while." Cameron glanced at the
X-rays clipped to a light board on the wall and exchanged a few words with one
of the medical team.

"I'd like you to count
backward from ten for me, Alice." Major Braithwaite injected something in
the IV on Alice's hand, her eyes moving to a monitor.

"Ten…nine." Alice met
Cameron's gaze as he pulled up his mask and tied the tapes behind his head.

"Eight." All she could
see of his face were his chocolate brown eyes between his cap and his mask.
What long eyelashes he had, thick and dark.

"Seven." Although she
couldn't see his mouth, she knew he was smiling at her; the corners of his eyes
crinkled. "Six."

He leaned closer, his hand on her
shoulder. "See you on the other side," he said softly behind his
mask. Then everything went dark.

***

Cameron pulled off his cap and mask and tossed his gloves in
the trash. He held aside the plastic strip door as Alice was wheeled out of the
temporary OR, still unconscious. Her arm was so slender it had seemed almost
fragile as he'd set the bones. In fact there wasn't much of her at all—probably
a result of spending weeks in the desert without a decent diet.

Much as he admired the work the
charity did, he had mixed feelings about young women like Alice working
unprotected in conflict zones—especially in countries with a misogynistic
culture like this one. He didn't want her to go back out there. Lips pressed
together in thought, he headed off to check on the baby.

Lt. Kelly Grace stood beside a
plastic hospital bassinet, rattling a small blue rabbit in the air. "Who's
a good boy?" She grinned down at the baby as Cameron moved to the other
side of the crib.

"I don't need to ask if you
enjoyed tending your patient."

"You know me, Cam…oops, I
mean, sir."

He did know her. Very well.
They'd dated for over a year way back when Cameron first came out of the Royal
Military Academy Sandhurst and was stationed in Germany, back when he'd gone
through something stressful and upsetting in his personal life. Kelly had been
a rock, helping him through it. But they had both realized they weren't right
for each other and moved on.

Cameron had started to wonder if
a woman existed who was right for him. He never seemed to maintain a
relationship for longer than a few months. Everything was great to start with,
then his girlfriends got fed up with him being away so much and dumped him. Not
that he was bothered. By that time, he had usually lost interest in them
anyway.

"So how is the little
guy?" The baby wore only a tiny diaper with colored alphabet bricks along
the waistband. His frail body was a rich chocolate brown against the white
mattress.

"He's clean and fed."
Kelly patted the baby's round belly. "Look at that lovely full
tummy."

Cameron touched the baby's tiny
hand and smiled as he remembered the first time his own son had gripped his
finger. Now George was about to turn six. Cameron was due to go home for the
birthday party in a few weeks.

Where had those six years gone?
Cameron would turn thirty soon, yet he had nothing except his career. Not that
he didn't value his career as an army doctor—it suited him well. But there
should be more to life.

He ignored the voice inside that
whispered there had been more, but he'd given it away.

Kelly ran her finger over the
baby's mouth with a frown. "We need to have the cleft lip repaired before
we release him. Once he's turned over to an orphanage, he won't get the
surgery."

"Yes, I want to take a look at
that again. Will you hold him up for me?" Cameron took a penlight from his
pocket as Kelly lifted the baby. She palmed the infant's head so Cameron could
examine him. Gently opening the child's mouth, he shone his light inside and
confirmed what he had initially suspected.

"The palate is intact."
He grabbed the baby's notes and recorded his initial observations in the space
that had been left for them, then added his latest findings.

Kelly deposited the child back in
his bassinet while Cameron tapped his penlight on his palm. "None of our
surgeons will want to take on delicate facial surgery on a baby. We need a
plastic surgeon. I'm going to call my brother for advice."

"Do you want me to take the
baby back to the charity worker who brought him in?"

Cameron could tell from the tone
of Kelly's voice that she didn't want to give up the tiny boy just yet.

"Alice will still be groggy
after her surgery. You keep the baby here for a while longer. I'll take him
back when I've spoken with Radley."

Cameron pulled out his mobile
phone and headed outside to stand in the shade of the doorway. He glanced at
the time on the phone display. They were only an hour ahead of the UK. Radley
would still be at the military hospital where he worked. Staring out at the
dust blowing around the heaps of debris, he dialed his brother's number and
waited.

"Lieutenant Colonel
Knight," his brother answered.

"Rad, it's me."

"Please don't tell me you're
not coming back for George's birthday."

"Of course I'm coming. Why
do you always assume I'm going to let you down?"

Radley grunted. "It's been
known to happen."

Cameron chose to ignore that
comment. He had missed George's first birthday. He hadn't been able to face
playing uncle to his own son back then. Giving George up to Radley had been too
fresh and painful. He was used to it now, yet it still got to him occasionally.

"We have a newborn baby here
with a cleft lip."

"Not really my area of
expertise."

"I know that." Why did
talking to Radley always make him feel like an idiot? "I wondered if your
plastic surgeon friend would help."

"Lieutenant Colonel Fabian
is unlikely to fly all the way to Africa for a cleft lip, but if you can bring
the child here, I'm sure he'll operate."

"Okay. Thanks, Rad. Can you
mention it to him?"

"Sure. See you in a few
weeks."

Cameron cut the connection and
kicked at a crack in the cement. The baby would need a visa to get into the UK,
and goodness knows what hoops they'd have to jump through to take the baby out
of this country. He wanted to help the boy, but the whole thing was getting
very complicated.

***

Cameron wheeled the bassinet into Alice's room to find her
propped up against her pillows, sipping from a plastic cup of water.

"How's your arm?"

"Good. I'm sleepy,
though."

"That'll be the sedative
effect of the painkillers. It's best if you sleep for the rest of the day,
anyway. I think you need to after what you've been through today."

Alice sat tall and peered towards
the bassinet. "How's Sami?"

"Bathed, fed, and fast
asleep." The tiny boy lay flat out on his mattress, his small arms thrown
up beside his head, a sheet over his body.

Alice relaxed into her pillows
with a sigh. "What a relief. I couldn't bear it if he'd been
injured."

Cameron parked the bassinet,
unhooked the baby's notes from the end, and pulled a plastic chair up beside
the bed. When he was seated he tapped his pen on the clipboard. "I need to
take some history for him. How did he come to be in your care?"

"A group of us from Safe
Cradle were working with the nomadic clans in the desert, trying to educate the
women so they are more able to look after themselves and their children. The
group I was with moved every day to avoid the rebels or they force the young
men to join them. Early this morning the rebels caught up with us."

Alice dragged in a breath and
closed her eyes, tears squeezing out and running down her cheeks. "It was
awful, Cameron. Those pigs slaughtered them all—men, women, and children. I'll
never forget what I saw."

Cameron gripped Alice's hand
where it lay on the bedcover and gave her a moment. "How did you
escape?"

"I wasn't in the main camp.
They set up a birthing tent some distance away. I was there with a woman called
Faiza while she gave birth." She reached out and brushed her fingers along
the edge of the bassinet. "This is her son."

"So how did Faiza die?"
Cameron wished he didn't need to ask. He didn't like upsetting Alice.

"Giving birth. The three
women with me were meant to help her but the moment they saw the baby they
wouldn't touch Faiza again or the baby. They said he was cursed because of his
lip."

Cameron finally remembered he
should be taking this down and hastily made some notes. He'd come across all
kinds of customs and prejudices in his time working overseas with the army.
Even when a people's beliefs ran contrary to his mission to preserve life, he
often understood the rationale behind them, as he could here. A nomadic people
living on the edge of survival would not have the resources to look after a
child who needed special care.