The Taming of Dr. Alex Draycott (7 page)

Eventually, they returned to the sandcastle where they had started off, and Alex hunted out drinks from the depths of one of the bags. Satisfied after quenching his thirst, James wanted to go down to the water’s edge to paddle in the surf.

‘Okay, but stay where I can see you,’ Alex told him. ‘No further than that wooden marker.’

Sarah went with him, and Alex watched their progress, anxious in case they should wander too far into the water.

‘It’s a safe beach,’ Callum told her. ‘They’ll be okay…and we’ll both keep an eye on them.’

She nodded. ‘This is really lovely, being out here. It seems so long since I last sat on a beach and looked at the sea. I didn’t realise how much I missed it.’

‘Didn’t you take holidays?’

She shook her head. ‘I haven’t done recently. Somehow I just don’t seem to have found time for a proper break these last few years. I’ve been studying for specialist exams, taking on high-profile jobs and generally letting myself be swamped with work.’

‘I suppose you must get an adrenaline buzz from all that, otherwise you wouldn’t do it.’

‘Maybe.’ Her eyes clouded. Why was it that her life’s work suddenly seemed nothing compared to these stolen moments in a sandy cove where the only sounds were the gentle swish of the sea lapping at the shore and the call of the gulls overhead? What had she been missing all these years?

Callum leaned back against a rock and studied her with a quizzical expression. ‘And where do men friends fit into all this hard work and dedication to the job in hand? You said you were too busy to be involved with anyone right now, but there must have been someone in the past?’

‘Maybe.’ She wasn’t going to fill him in on her skirmishes with romance, and anyway it seemed odd to say that no man had ever featured greatly in her life. There had been opportunity enough, if she’d wanted to take it, but somehow no one had ever lit that spark in her that would make her fall head over heels in love. There had been good men, rugged men, men who’d made her laugh and promised her the world, but none had made her want to give up her career or turn her back on ambition. Perhaps there was something wrong with her. Perhaps she was expecting too much.

‘I see…dark secrets, eh?’ Callum tilted his head on one side to study her. ‘I heard there was a doctor in Men’s Surgical who lost his heart to you for quite a while. A couple of years, at least, but it was unrequited love, people said. They say you think more about the job than you do about your love life.’ His glance meshed with hers. ‘That’s quite a challenge for any man.’

‘Is it?’ She saw his gaze drop to her mouth, and felt a sudden flood of heat in her abdomen. ‘I don’t know what to do about that, because the truth is I mean it when I say I don’t have time for a relationship right now.’ Her mouth made a brief quirk. ‘Heavens, I don’t even have time to do my ironing. At this rate, the children will be wearing crumpled T-shirts to school in the morning.’

He laughed. ‘I don’t suppose anyone will mind. You’ll be the only one who notices.’ He leaned over her and smoothed back a tendril of hair that had fallen across her cheek.

‘Maybe. But that’s the problem I’m wrestling with, isn’t it? I notice all these things and I care about them, and I want to put them right. Not T-shirts so much, but generally taking care of the children and making sure everything runs smoothly.’

‘It could be that these things aren’t so important as you imagine.’

‘But they matter to me.’

Perhaps that was the reason none of her relationships had worked out right in the past. She had her own set of priorities, and the men she had known had without fail wanted to override them with their own concerns. Callum was probably much the same.

She gazed out to sea, to where the children were splashing one another and jumping with each wave that rolled onto the shore. ‘The tide’s coming in,’ she said. ‘I think we’ll have to make a move.’

‘Yes.’ There was a note of regret in his voice. ‘I think you’re probably right.’

‘Y
ES
, I understand perfectly, Dr Langton…we’re looking for cuts right across the board.’ Alex frowned. ‘Of course, you realise, don’t you, that it isn’t as simple as cutting back on nursing staff and putting the cleaning contract out to tender? Either of those measures could mean that the emergency department will function less well.’ Alex adopted a gentle, coaxing tone. ‘I was hoping rather that we might make savings through using low-priced generic drugs and altering practices within the unit so that we’re more cost-efficient.’

Dr Langton shook his head. ‘My dear, that simply won’t be enough. From the figures you’ve shown me, those measures will take far too long to bring results. Unfortunately, this job’s all about tough decisions. We need to do something now…and reducing staff numbers is top priority, along with putting a stop on any new equipment being ordered. Some departments are quite irresponsible in thinking they can demand all the latest equipment…we simply don’t have the budget for it.’ He frowned. ‘Make sure they know that in A and E, won’t you? Out of all the departments, that one has the highest expenditure for the last six months.’

‘I’ve already done that,’ she said. ‘I’ve put a stop to any new orders.’

‘Good.’ He gave her a benign smile. ‘We need to show the board that we’ve made dramatic headway at the next meeting…but I know you can pull this off, Alex. I’ve every faith in you.’

Alex nodded. ‘I’ll do my best. At least with all these measures in place we should be able to keep the A and E department up and running. I’ve looked closely at the figures and everything seems to be on course.’

He nodded. ‘That’s what it’s all about.’

She left the chief executive’s office a short time later, deep in thought, and made her way to A and E. Things were going from bad to worse. Right from the beginning, this day had started out wrong.

First of all she had visited Ross and Beth, only to find that her brother had suffered a setback. His breathing had deteriorated, and the doctors were worried about an infection in his lungs. They were initiating more tests and thinking about changing his medication…all of it bad news. How was she to explain things to the children? And on top of that, this was the day that Jane was having surgery to remove the tumour on her adrenal gland…one more thing to play on her mind.

For now, though, she tried to concentrate on the job in hand. She didn’t have to look too far to find the culprit behind some of the so-called irresponsible ordering that had annoyed the chief executive.

Callum was determined that A and E should have the best equipment for the job, and although he was aware that the budget was restricted, he’d been determinedly pushing for those things he felt necessary.

And as for staff cuts, those wouldn’t go down well at all, would they? It was a disturbing situation. Even though Dr Langton was the boss, she couldn’t help thinking he was being short-sighted in ordering them.

‘There you are…I’m glad you’re back from your meeting,’ Katie greeted her as she entered the unit. ‘We’ve a three-year-old in treatment room two—he has a foreign body in his ear, and so far Dr Henderson hasn’t been able to remove it. The boy’s getting quite distressed, and his mother’s becoming agitated, too. Dr Henderson’s tried irrigation and now he’s having a go with forceps. He doesn’t like to admit defeat and he’s doing his level best, but I think it’s a difficult one for him. He asked for a second opinion.’

‘Okay, I’ll go and see the boy. It’s not easy dealing with youngsters when they’re fractious, and it’s amazing how deep into the ear canal they can push things.’ She glanced at Katie. ‘Is there a nurse assisting?’

Katie shook her head. ‘No, everyone’s busy at the moment, but I could go along if you like. I’ve finished here for the moment.’

‘That would be great, if you would. He might need help to calm the infant.’

Callum came up to the desk as she was speaking. He looked purposeful and energetic, as though he meant business, immaculately dressed in dark trousers, a navy-blue shirt and a subtly patterned grey-blue tie. He was so different from the casually dressed man she’d spent time with on the beach, and yet either way he managed to set her pulse racing.

‘Did I hear you talking about Simon Henderson’s patient—the three-year-old who thinks it’s fun to stick things in his ear?’

Alex nodded.

‘I would have had a look at the boy myself,’ he said with a frown, ‘but I have a patient waiting—I suspect she’s had a mini-stroke.’ He gave Alex a smile that warmed her through and through. ‘You’ve just come from seeing Dr Langton, I take it? What was it today? Cut back on the use of surgical gloves and paper towels and make do with cheap coffee in the staff lounge?’

She shook her head. ‘No, nothing like that. I’m afraid it was much more serious.’ She hesitated. He probably wasn’t going to like what she had to say, but she gave him a wry smile and tacked on, ‘As far as you’re concerned, it means ordering any new equipment is definitely off limits for the foreseeable future.’

His brows drew together. ‘I might have guessed. Still, let’s look on the bright side—that can’t apply to stuff already on order.’ He pulled a face. ‘I don’t suppose there’s any news on the transcranial Doppler ultrasound machine I requested, is there?’

Alex sucked in a breath and laid a hand lightly on his arm as though to soften the blow. ‘Callum, you know as well as I do that it’s not a piece of equipment that would normally be used in the emergency room. You’re setting your expectations way too high in this economic climate. You don’t have a chance. You know the board won’t sanction any undue expenditure.’

Perhaps it was a mistake, touching him. It made her recall all too vividly the way they had sat close together on the beach. A wave of nostalgia hit her. Those few short hours had seemed like stolen moments, and she longed to experience them all over again…but it seemed as though she was wishing on a moonbeam. Her life was complicated enough, without hankering after something that was out of reach. And she and Callum had nothing in common, did they? Their personalities were totally different, and even at work they managed to clash. She let her hand drop to her side.

He laid an arm around her shoulders and looked into her eyes. ‘That’s as maybe, but refusing to even look at it shows a complete lack of forward thinking on the part of the board.’ He grinned. ‘I’m pretty sure you could sweet-talk them into changing their minds. With the right diagnostic equipment in place we could save several days of waiting for test results. That way, we could avert imminent strokes, and by taking quick action we could save the hospital money by not having to keep patients in hospital for long periods. You could say it’s false economy to avoid having one.’

Alex’s mouth made a crooked shape. ‘You could say that, and I can see your point, but I’m not at all sure Dr Langton will be convinced by that argument. He’s not into long-term solutions right now. All he wants is to see immediate cost-cutting.’ She liked having his arm around her. It might not mean anything…it might simply be his way of trying to wheedle her into doing what he wanted, but it still felt good.

‘Hmph. So I guess all this means you won’t be putting a rush on my order for another bedside X-ray machine, will you?’

She shook her head. ‘You already know the answer to that one. No, I won’t…not for the foreseeable future. I did warn you.’

He nodded. ‘It’s as I thought…but it’s a very misguided attitude. The repair bills for the one we’re using are getting beyond a joke.’ He was thoughtful for a second or two, before adding mischievously, ‘And I suppose I’m right in thinking there’s going to be a bit of a wait for my new ECMO machine?’

Alex laughed out loud at that. ‘An extracorporeal membrane oxygenating machine at around a hundred thousand pounds with running costs? I should think so, Callum. That’s a very expensive pipe dream.’

His mouth twitched, before turning down at the corners in mock dismay. ‘But one we could do with—after all, we’re near the coast, and drowning is just one other way in which a patient might need bypass support for the heart and lungs. Children have been known to recover from drowning in cold water, and with one of those machines on hand to gently warm their blood supply, their chances of survival would be so much greater.’

‘I’m with you all the way on that one,’ she acknowledged with a smile, ‘but it isn’t going to happen, I’m afraid. Why don’t you get back to the real world and go and save your mini-stroke patient from imminent disaster by giving her the standard treatment?’

‘A couple of aspirin, you mean, while I wait for the MRI scanner to be freed up—not likely to be very soon, given the waiting list—or until I can gain access to CT in a few days’ time, given that the patient isn’t on the critical list?’ He made a face. ‘A transcranial Doppler ultrasound machine would have given me an accurate diagnosis in a fraction of the time.’ He sighed, releasing her, and Alex immediately felt the loss of his comforting arm around her. ‘What it is to be working in modern medicine.’

He went on his way and Alex watched his confident stride. How was it that he had found his way into her affections so easily? She had always been careful about the men she let into her life, and yet he seemed to have invited himself, and was completely at ease.

She made an effort to shake off these distracting thoughts, and hurried along to see Dr Henderson’s patient in the treatment room.

She could hear the child squealing before she even reached the room, and when she pushed open the door and looked inside, she saw a tearful, red-faced infant rubbing his eyes with his knuckles and glowering at the unfortunate junior doctor. Dr Henderson had relinquished the forceps and was trying unsuccessfully to pacify both the child and his mother. Katie was doing all she could to divert the boy’s attention, offering him toys to cuddle and talking to him in a soothing voice, all to no avail.

‘Poor Harry,’ Alex murmured, going over to the boy after introducing herself to his mother. ‘Is your ear hurting?’

The boy stopped sobbing long enough to nod and stare at her. ‘Oh, dear, I’m sorry about that,’ she said softly. ‘This has all been a bit too much for you, hasn’t it? I think we’ll give you something to calm you down a bit, and then you’ll feel much better.’

She turned to the boy’s mother. ‘Sometimes these foreign bodies in the ears can slip much further down than we can easily reach and it’s obviously troubling him now—but not to worry, I’ll give Harry an injection of a sedative and something for the pain, and then we can try again, using suction.’

The woman nodded. ‘Thank you. I hate seeing him this way. It’s really upsetting.’

‘Of course it is. Do you know what it was he put into his ear?’

‘A wooden bead. I’ve told him time and time again not to put things in his ears. He wasn’t supposed to play with the beads, but his sister got them out, and he was straight in there. He’s into everything these days, like a tornado around the house.’

‘It happens a lot, especially with boys,’ Alex said in sympathy. She shuddered to think about all the things James got up to… Beth had told her about the time he’d dismantled his toy car and swallowed the button battery. That had meant a swift visit to A and E after it had stuck in his throat.

She prepared the injection and gently explained to the boy what she was about to do. ‘Just a scratch,’ she said, signalling with a nod of her head to Katie, who was ready to divert him with a toy train.

They waited for the injection to take effect, and when Harry finally appeared to relax and began to take an interest in the toys, Alex showed him the light on the otoscope and explained to him that she was going to use it to look in his ear. ‘It’s a bit like a torch,’ she said.

He seemed happy to go along with that. ‘I’ll seek out the position of the bead, Simon,’ she told the young doctor, ‘and then I’ll introduce the catheter through the otoscope and apply suction.’

She reached for the catheter that was attached to a wall suction device and after a few fraught seconds carefully located the object that was lodged deep in the child’s ear canal. A short time later, she withdrew the catheter along with the bead, which she dropped into a kidney dish. ‘There you are,’ she told the boy. ‘All done.’

Harry’s mother smiled, and Simon looked relieved and embarrassed at the same time. ‘I hate having to remove these things,’ he admitted under his breath. ‘It can be such a tricky procedure, and the children are always fractious. You make it look so easy.’

‘It just takes practice,’ she said lightly, adding with a grin, ‘From now on, we’ll make sure to give you all the cases that come in when you’re on duty.’

Simon looked horrified. ‘You don’t mean that?’

‘Well, maybe one or two…just so you get used to doing it,’ she said in a cheerful, placating tone. ‘Don’t worry…you’ll always have help on hand.’

He grimaced, but seemed resigned to his fate, and a few minutes later she left him with the mother and child, and started back towards the main desk.

‘Alex…’ Katie called her name and fell into step beside her. ‘I heard you telling Callum about Dr Langton putting a stop on ordering new equipment. Is that all he’s asking for…along with the cost-saving measures you’ve already put into place?’

Alex shook her head. ‘I’m afraid not, Katie. He thinks we should cut staffing levels.’

‘By staff, you mean nurses, don’t you?’ Katie’s brow furrowed.

‘Yes, but I don’t want you to start worrying about that just yet. I’m not planning on making any cuts amongst the general staff. I’ll see what I can do by stopping all agency work to begin with. That should make a big difference.’

Katie was still concerned. ‘But it will make our jobs harder, too, won’t it? How are we to cover for people who are off sick, or cope when we’re inundated with patients in A and E? What if we have a major incident to handle?’

‘I’m sorry, Katie, I do understand what you’re saying, but I’m afraid that’s the way it has to be. We’re going through hard times. There just isn’t enough money available to cover everything.’

‘It’s worrying.’ Katie frowned.

‘Yes, it is. But I promise you I’ll do everything I can to keep things running as smoothly as possible. If you have any major problems, let me know and we’ll see if we can find a way around things.’