Worth the Risk (20 page)

‘Dr McGuire!’ The urgency of Helen’s voice carried down the corridor and Ally breathed a sigh of relief, excused herself and walked briskly to Reception.

‘What’s the matter?’

Helen was just replacing the receiver, her expression worried. ‘That was Felicity Webster. She’s gone into labour and there’s no way she can get to hospital in time. The roads are impassable and she’s contracting every two minutes. She’s in a total panic.’

‘Where’s the midwife?’ Ally was picking up her coat even as she asked the question.

‘Stuck with a woman in premature labour the other side of the Kirkstone pass.’

‘You can’t go—you’re not well.’ Sean picked up his bag and made for the door.

‘Wait!’ Ally caught up with him, her expression determined. ‘Of course I’m going—she’s my patient.’

‘Well, you’re not going on your own!’ He stared at her and then gave a wry smile. ‘I’m starting to learn how stubborn you are, so shall we compromise for once? We’ll both go.’

Ally frowned as he jangled a set of keys. ‘You won’t get through in your car.’

‘Will’s already lent me his four-wheel drive for my calls.’ Sean shrugged on a heavy jacket. ‘Are you sure you’re up to this?’

She nodded, wrapping a scarf around her neck and pushing her hands into her pockets. ‘Absolutely. I wouldn’t miss it for the world. I love delivering babies.’

He gave a short laugh. ‘I’m glad one of us does because it’s certainly not my strong point.’

Ally followed him out to Will’s Range Rover, relieved to sit down. She felt awful. What would happen if she felt like this for the whole nine months?

All along the road to Felicity’s they passed abandoned vehicles, some strewn haphazardly across the road where their drivers had obviously become stuck in the snow and slush. The snow was worse as they approached Felicity’s, but Sean handled Will’s vehicle with enviable ease, negotiating patches of ice and heavy slush in his usual cool manner.

Felicity’s husband was standing in the doorway when they arrived, waving his arms frantically.

‘Is he a panicker or is she delivering?’ Sean switched off the engine and they both hurried down the path.

Hugh greeted them with relief. ‘She’s pushing!’

‘Well, tell her to try not to, Hugh!’ Ally elbowed her way past Sean and took the stairs two at a time, forgetting how exhausted she felt.

Felicity was crouched on the floor at the foot of the bed, her hair tangled and her face blotched with crying.

‘Oh, Dr McGuire, thank goodness you’re here. I’ve been so scared…after the awful time I had with the others.’

‘Everything will be just fine, Felicity,’ Ally soothed gently, stroking her patient’s hair and giving her shoulders a quick squeeze. ‘You’ve had an excellent pregnancy and there’s no reason why this birth shouldn’t be the nicest, calmest experience you’ve ever had. Now then, I need to examine you so let’s get you back on the bed.’

With Hugh and Sean helping, she manoeuvred Felicity onto the bed. Ally then scrubbed her hands and snapped on a pair of sterile gloves.

‘OK, let’s take a look.’ With infinite care she examined Felicity, discovering that the cervix was fully dilated.

‘Oh, that hurts so much!’ Felicity screwed up her face and Ally finished her examination, tugging off the gloves and giving the labouring woman a smile.

‘Well, this baby isn’t hanging around!’ She glanced at Sean, who was looking tense and edgy.

‘Can you open the delivery pack, Dr Nicholson, and draw up the Syntometrine?’ She turned to Felicity’s husband. ‘Hugh, can you fetch some candles and play a tape with something really soothing on it—any Schubert string quartets?’

Hugh gaped at her. ‘Well, yes, actually, but—’

‘Great.’ Ally rearranged the pillows and made Felicity comfortable. ‘Fetch them, will you? Now, Felicity, you can lie down if you like, but you might find it easier to go back on the floor where you were and squat. What do you think?’

Felicity clutched her hand. ‘I don’t know. I just think it’s all going so wrong.’

Ally slipped her arm round her patient’s shoulders and gave her a hug. ‘It’s not going wrong at all, Felicity. It’s perfect. Trust me.’

Felicity gave her a wobbly smile and allowed them to help her back onto the floor.

‘Pass me some of those towels, Hugh,’ Ally ordered, spreading them carefully beneath Felicity. ‘That’s it. There. Now, doesn’t the room look nice with those candles?’

It did. Warm and calm, and suddenly Felicity seemed to relax. ‘I’ve got another contraction coming.’

Ally snapped on a fresh pair of gloves. ‘OK, push down with the pain. That’s it. Good girl. I can see the head, Felicity. Lots of dark hair.’

‘Ooh…’ Felicity groaned and reached out for Hugh.

‘Stand behind her and support her under her arms,’ Ally suggested, and he did just that, holding her while she laboured.

‘Will it be all right like this?’ Felicity made a noise somewhere between a moan and a giggle. ‘I don’t want it to bang its head when it’s born.’

Ally laughed. ‘I’ve got my fishing net ready. It’ll be fine.’

She glanced up and caught Sean watching her, an odd expression on his face. With a soft smile she handed him the suction tube.

‘Can you clear the baby’s mouth and nose?’

He nodded and watched while she applied gentle pressure on the perineum with one hand, while placing her other hand on the head of the infant to control the rate of delivery.

The head slid out neatly, and emotion clogged her throat. It was so amazing, the birth of a baby. And she was going to have one of her own. She was going to have Sean’s baby. She blinked rapidly. But he’d never know. He didn’t want to know.

Sean cleared the baby’s airways and while they waited for the next contraction Ally rested her eyes on his hard, male features, memorising every line and angle of his handsome face. He glanced up to reassure Felicity and frowned as he caught her looking at him, his eyes suddenly questioning as he read the obvious yearning in her eyes.

Instantly she looked away, swallowing hard to subdue her feelings. Oh, help! Had she given it all away?

Felicity groaned. ‘I’ve got another one coming…’

‘OK, pant for me. That’s it.’ With gentle skill Ally delivered the anterior shoulder, aware of Sean giving the injection which would make the uterus contract. The rest of the baby followed, the cord was cut, and she lifted the infant gently into Felicity’s arms.

‘Oh, Hugh! Oh— I…’ Felicity burst into tears and Ally blinked rapidly to clear her own eyes.

‘Congratulations.’ Her voice was husky. ‘A little girl.’

‘Oh, Mummy loves you, darling.’ Felicity cuddled the bawling bundle close and sobbed quietly, while the tears streamed down Hugh’s cheeks.

Ally glanced up at Sean, but his face was like a mask, his expression totally unreadable as he cleared up some of the equipment they’d used.

Didn’t he feel anything? How could anyone see a baby born and not be moved?

Lost in her own thoughts, she applied traction to the placenta, which was delivered easily, and then checked that it was complete.

By the time they’d cleaned Felicity up and settled her in bed to feed her new daughter, the midwife arrived with wet feet and frozen hands.

‘Gosh, it’s lovely and warm in here.’ She stood in front of the extra fire Hugh had thought to put in the room for the birth of the baby. ‘You look great!’

Felicity gave her a euphoric smile. ‘I am. It was incredible. Nothing like either of my previous deliveries. I enjoyed it. I really did.’

Ally laughed and cleared up the last of her mess. ‘Thank goodness! I wouldn’t have fancied using forceps or the ventouse at home!’ She carefully wrote down all the details of the delivery, handed them over to the midwife and promised to call on Felicity again the next day.

‘There’s no point at all in you struggling into hospital in this weather when you’re both so fit. If you’ve got any worries at all just give me a ring.’ As an afterthought she scribbled down her home number. ‘Call me at home if you need to.’

Felicity looked at her gratefully, her eyes misty. ‘I don’t know what to say, how to thank you…’

‘No need.’ Ally’s voice was gruff as she picked up her bag. ‘Well, we’ll leave you in peace now.’

She picked her way through the snow back to the Range Rover and shivered while Sean unlocked the door.

‘You were great.’ He slammed the door and turned the key in the ignition, his breath clouding the freezing air. ‘I wouldn’t have been able to do that without you.’

Ally glanced at him in surprise and then huddled deeper into her coat. ‘Of course you could. You’ve delivered babies before.’

He gave a grim smile, his hands holding the wheel steady as the vehicle lurched through the snow.

‘It’s not the technical bit that’s a problem, it’s all the emotional stuff.’

‘Like what?’

He stared straight ahead, his jaw tense. ‘I don’t know. One minute she’s panicking, then she’s screaming in agony, then she’s laughing. However she was reacting, you were one step ahead of her—I just couldn’t do that.’

‘And, I couldn’t put in a chest drain at an altitude of nine hundred metres in a howling blizzard,’ Ally said quietly. ‘We all have different skills.’

‘Maybe.’ He cleared his throat, his voice gruff. ‘You’re a very warm, compassionate person, Ally McGuire. Whatever you’re doing, you give your whole self. You don’t hold anything back, do you?’

She looked at his hard profile and felt a lump in her throat. ‘Not with people I trust. But I suppose I’ve been lucky. I’ve always had family who love me.’

For a moment she thought he was going to say something more, but his eyes were suddenly distant and he pulled into the drive without another word, leaving her with her own thoughts.

* * *

Geoff Thompson didn’t turn up for his next appointment and Ally made a call to the community alcohol team, but they were quite happy with his progress.

‘I think he’s probably depressed,’ she confided in Will one morning, and he nodded.

‘Very likely, in the circumstances. Does he seem depressed?’

‘Well, not at first, but ever since we finished the detox programme he’s been avoiding me.’ Ally frowned. ‘I’ve called at his home twice but he’s always out.’

Will rubbed his chin thoughtfully. ‘Well, he’s been through a great deal so I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s depressed.’

Ally made a note to call at his home again, trying to ignore the sudden wave of nausea that hit her.

Jack came in to see her later that morning, and she told him that his gastroscopy had shown a small ulcer, but nothing more sinister. ‘But you tested positive for H. pylori so I need to give you some drugs to clear it up.’

Jack raised an eyebrow. ‘And that should do the trick?’

Ally nodded. ‘Absolutely. You take three drugs together—an ulcer preparation and two different antibiotics—and that should eradicate the organism that causes the ulcer.’

She tapped keys on the computer and printed out a prescription, which she handed to him.

‘I hear you were called out yesterday?’

‘Yes.’ Jack took the prescription and tucked it in his pocket. ‘A woman with a sprained ankle halfway up Harrison Stickle. If I had a fiver for every female with a sprained ankle I’ve seen this year, I could stop doing the lottery.’

Ally laughed. ‘Any excuse to ogle.’

‘She was sixty, Ally,’ Jack said dryly, shrugging on his jacket, ‘although why a woman of her age wanted to walk in the fells in early December is a mystery to me. But there you are. It’s the likes of her that keep me fit.’

They talked for a few minutes more and then she followed him out, picking up her list of house calls from Helen.

Making a note to add Felicity Webster and Geoff Thompson to the list, she wrapped herself up in her woolly coat and took the keys to the four-wheel drive. Since the snow had started they’d worked the calls so that the one with the calls further afield took the Range Rover.

She called on a man with chest pains first and decided he had indigestion. Then she saw an old lady who’d slipped on the ice and hurt her leg. Examining her gently, she noted that the right leg was shortened and externally rotated. Fractured neck of femur.

‘You’ve broken your hip, Mrs Wise,’ she told her gently, exchanging looks with the woman’s daughter who was hovering in the background.

‘Oh, dear. Does that mean a trip to hospital?’

‘I’m afraid so.’ Ally covered her with a blanket and called an ambulance, waiting with them until it arrived.

Next on her list was Felicity, now three days post-delivery and thriving.

‘She’s such a guzzler!’ Felicity patted her daughter on the back to wind her, and Ally smiled.

‘How are the children taking it?’

‘Oh, they keep poking her.’ Felicity laughed and latched the baby on the breast again. ‘If she survives until Christmas it will be a miracle.’

‘And how are you?’

‘Oh, absolutely fine, thanks to you.’ Felicity glanced up, her expression grateful, and Ally smiled.

‘You did it, Felicity, not me.’

Felicity shook her head, settling the baby more comfortably on her arm. ‘No. I was in a total panic. I had such a bad time with the others.’

‘Well, I’m glad it all worked out so well.’ Ally checked the position of the uterus and then said goodbye, checking that she’d finished her calls before she made her way to the Thompsons. If she did catch Geoff Thompson in, she didn’t want to have to dash off in a hurry to do another call.

The Thompsons’ house looked totally deserted. She rapped on the door twice and squinted up at the windows, but there were no signs of life. Well, they could be anywhere, she reasoned, climbing back in the Range Rover and driving back to the surgery.

Suddenly she felt hideously sick and sat still, trying to fight the waves of nausea and faintness which swamped her. She was breathing steadily with her eyes closed in an attempt to control it when the door was tugged open.

Sean stood there, his dark brows clashing in a frown. ‘What’s the matter? Are you ill again?’

‘No. Yes—maybe a bit.’ Help! She had to give some excuse for the way she felt. ‘I just feel a bit weedy, that’s all.’

He stared at her for a long moment. ‘It’s been a week and a half, Ally. The bug doesn’t last that long.’