Nurse with a Billion Dollar Secret
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Scarlet Wilson
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CHAPTER ONE
THE DAY WASN’T supposed to start out like this. It just wasn’t. Dr Robyn Callaghan pushed her hair out of her face for around the twentieth time and wondered why the air-conditioned hospital seemed to be keeping everyone cool but her.
She could feel a horrible trickle down her spine as she climbed the stairs—two at a time—to answer her sixth page of the morning. Her breakfast/lunch was still sitting on the cafeteria table, next to her coffee. There hadn’t been time to eat it. She’d need to remind herself about the solitary banana in her pocket whenever she finally got a minute.
She pushed open the doors to the cardiac floor and made it three steps before the arrest page sounded. No. Not again. She didn’t even listen to the rest of the message.
She looked up as she heard the echo of a similar page nearby and started running to the coronary care unit. She’d already attended two arrests in the unit that morning.
A large guy barrelled out of the door to her left and almost straight into her. Thankfully, his broad frame was deceiving; this guy could move like a dancer, as he dodged around her and gave her a half-amused smile. ‘Wrong way,’ he said as the rest of the arrest message was repeated.
‘Cardiac arrest. Main door, front entrance.’
Robyn nearly swore out loud. She spun around and darted after Mr Light-on-his-Feet as he disappeared through the door to the stairway. If the page had only gone off three minutes earlier, she would have saved herself a stair climb.
Her heart thudded as she tried to keep up with her athletic colleague. As he reached the ground floor he paused for a moment and held the door open for her.
‘Thanks,’ she breathed as she ran through and straight along the corridor to the main entrance. She could already see the commotion in front of them. A man in a suit was lying on the ground, a few people on their knees around him.
As she got closer she realised a nurse was already performing CPR on him. ‘I’ll get the cart,’ she said, darting to the right, where the outpatient department was based.
The bright red emergency trolley was fully stocked and sitting directly outside one of the consulting rooms. Robyn grabbed it and ran back to the main entrance, her brain going into automatic pilot. She lifted the defibrillator from the trolley, peeling the labels from the two pads, and positioned herself above the person doing cardiac massage.
The nurse stopped massage for a few seconds, and opened the man’s shirt, allowing Robyn to slap the pads onto his chest. It only took the machine a few seconds to read his heart rhythm.
The man from the cardiac unit grabbed a bag and mask from the cart, positioned it appropriately and started to bag air into the guy’s lungs. It was clear from his colour he wasn’t breathing for himself.
All eyes were fixed on the monitor. Two seconds later it went dead.
Robyn leaned over and gave it a knock. She’d never seen a defib turn itself off. The nurse in pale pink scrubs on the floor seemed stunned. But the guy—the dancer—in the green scrubs of the cardiac unit raised his eyebrows and got to his feet. ‘First time for everything. I’ll get another.’
He took off at a run, leaving Robyn and the outpatient nurse staring in dismay at each other. A little light flicked in Robyn’s brain. If she told her medic friends this at a later date they would all shake their heads in horror. But Robyn refused to let panic anywhere near her. While a defib was now considered an essential part of a hospital’s equipment, at some stage they hadn’t existed. ‘You bag, I’ll do massage,’ Robyn said to the nurse, hoping to kick-start her natural instincts again.
In an ideal world, she’d be trying to get venous access by inserting a cannula—but right now, that would have to wait. Come to think of it—where was the anaesthetist? There was usually one who responded swiftly to an arrest page, but, no matter how hard she strained her ears, she couldn’t hear the sound of any other pairs of running feet.
One of the hospital porters came out of a nearby room, blinked twice, then leaned over. ‘Shall I get you guys a trolley?’
They both nodded, Robyn as she started chest compressions, and the nurse, who inserted an airway and started bagging the patient.
‘Do you know anything about this man?’ Robyn asked the nurse.
She shook her head and gave a half-smile. ‘I was just going on my break.’ She glanced over her shoulder. The doors to Outpatients were closed behind her. ‘They’ll think I’m in the canteen.’
‘Robyn Callaghan,’ Robyn said quickly. ‘Just started my cardiac rotation here.’
‘Monica Garske,’ said the nurse. ‘Been in Outpatients for twenty years and never had a cardiac arrest.’ She smiled nervously.
A firm hand landed on her shoulder. ‘And you’re doing a great job.’ The guy in the green scrubs dropped to his knees. He had another defib in his hands and swopped the pads over in a virtually seamless motion. He pressed the button on the machine as an older man appeared, slightly sweaty, and stared down at them. The anaesthetist had finally arrived.
‘Tell me we can get this guy a little higher. I don’t think my back can take it.’
‘Don’t worry, Joel,’ said Mr Green Scrubs smoothly. ‘Ardo is on his way with a trolley. I’ll get him up for you.’
Robyn’s eyes were on the monitor again. ‘Ventricular fibrillation,’ she said, perfectly in time with her green-scrubs-wearing counterpart. Their eyes locked for a moment and her breath caught somewhere at the back of her throat. He might have been kneeling next to her, but she hadn’t really looked at him yet. Not properly.
And now was certainly not the time.
If she had the time, she might consider that the green of his scrubs definitely brought out the green in his eyes. His tanned skin and slightly longer dark hair made him resemble that Italian male model from years ago who had appeared out of water in very tight white trunks, advertising aftershave.
If she’d had the time, she might have lingered on all of that. But the human brain was amazing, and all that flitted through her mind in the literal blink of an eye.
‘Charging,’ she said, leaning forward, pressing the button and sweeping her gaze around. ‘Clear, everyone.’
Hands were lifted and everyone stepped back. The man’s body shuddered but the heart rate remained unchanged.
A trolley rolled next to them, and a plastic sliding mat appeared in the corner of her eye. Five seconds. That was all it took to slide the flexible plastic mat under the man and lift him up onto the trolley, the defib being lifted second and placed next to his chest.
‘Clear,’ Robyn said again, as if this were the most regular thing in the world. In an ideal world, she would have had the time to take him into a suitable room and do a proper assessment. But cardiac arrests were pesky. They didn’t give anyone time. In fact, they were the direct enemy of time. And she knew the sooner they could shock him out of this rhythm, the better.
‘Clear,’ she said as she pressed the button again and electric charge was applied directly to the gelled pads on his chest.
Again, there was no response. She flicked the switch to turn up the joules. As she turned back she saw that the older anaesthetist was checking the patient’s airway, and Mr Green Scrubs was tapping his arm, ready to slide a cannula in place to give them venous access. She might not know either of these individuals yet, but everyone clearly knew their job.
She waited the few seconds it took for the cannula to slide into the vein and be secured and tried not to be put out. Sometimes siting a cannula was a pain in the neck. Lots of patients had tricky veins, small and delicate, that would collapse as soon as anyone tried to get access. But her colleague had slid it into place as if it were the easiest thing in the world.
The defib showed it was ready and she checked again. ‘Clear,’ she announced, giving a nod when everyone had lifted their hands from the patient.
His body arched and after an ominous pause the heart tracing changed, giving a few spread-out beeps. Robyn held her breath. ‘Sinus rhythm, bradycardic,’ she said.
‘ER or Coronary Care?’ asked the anaesthetist.
‘ER,’ said Mr Green Scrubs, just as she said, ‘Coronary Care.’
She stared at him, hard. She was the physician leading the crash team. This should be her call.
‘No beds in Coronary Care,’ he said with an apologetic smile. ‘ER for now, and I’ll go up and clear a bed for you once we have this man stabilised.’
He was annoying her now. ‘And you are?’
There it was again. That tiny quirk of the eyebrow. She was being rude, and she knew it. But he hadn’t introduced himself.
‘Avery Smith, Coronary Care Unit.’ He had a broad smile on his face. And it didn’t help. Because this guy was more handsome than was healthy for a work environment.
‘Robyn Callaghan, I’m your new doctor,’ she said briskly.
A figure appeared next to her, pulling up the side rail and clipping it into place. ‘ER it is,’ said the porter and started wheeling the trolley.
Avery kept pace, automatically clipping his side rail into place and talking to the anaesthetist. ‘Didn’t think you had the page today, Joel.’
‘I didn’t, but Emmanuel’s wife decided to go into early labour. He had to leave.’
Avery’s face instantly creased. ‘Gemma’s okay, though? What is she—three weeks early?’
Joel gave him a knowing smile and nodded. ‘You remember everything, and yes. There’s no big problem, though. Her waters broke earlier, and she started to labour, so called Emmanuel to tell him she was heading in. I’ve never seen anyone happier.’
‘So why the long face?’ asked Avery. ‘Did you really not want to carry the page that much?’ His voice held a hint of teasing in it.
Joel shook his head. ‘No, but it means I’ve lost the theatre wager on the baby’s date of birth.’
Avery let out a laugh as the automatic doors to the ER opened and they rolled the trolley down towards the resus rooms. A harassed-looking woman with messy blonde hair frowned at them. ‘What’s this?’
Robyn bristled at the woman’s tone, about to reply, but Avery got in there first. ‘This...’ he paused at the word, making a point, but in a much smoother way than she would have ‘...is a gentleman who had a cardiac arrest at the front door. I haven’t managed to get his wallet out yet because we’ve had to shock him three times to get him back into sinus rhythm. Coronary Care is full, so could you give us some space so our doctor, Robyn—’ he said her name as if they were best friends ‘—can stabilise our man, while I go up and free up a bed for him upstairs?’
The woman rolled her eyes and let out a sigh. ‘Fine.’ She gestured with her head sideways. ‘In there. But don’t be long. This place has been hectic all day.’ She gave Robyn a stern glance. ‘And I can’t free you up a nurse.’
This time Robyn couldn’t help herself. ‘If he’d collapsed in the entrance way of your ER, could you have freed me up a nurse then?’
She could almost see the cogs and wheels of the woman’s brain turning. Robyn’s Scottish accent always got stronger when she was annoyed, and right now she was distinctly irritated. It took a few seconds for her counterpart to make sense of what she had said.
‘Fine.’ The woman turned to face Avery. ‘But I need my room back in an hour.’ She turned and headed out of the door.
‘Is everyone here always this friendly?’ muttered Robyn under her breath as her patient groaned. She moved forward and talked slowly. ‘Hi there, I’m Robyn. You’re at Leanora Paz Memorial Hospital. I’m one of the doctors. Do you remember anything at all?’
The man took a few moments, then shook his head, confusion all over his face. Avery moved into full charm mode on the other side of him. ‘I’m Avery, one of the nursing staff. You’re in the ER. Can I just check inside your jacket pocket? We want to get your name and details.’
The man gave a brief nod, and Avery slid his hand inside, pulling out a wallet he flipped open. ‘Hal Delaney?’
The man gave another nod, and Avery turned the driver’s licence to a colleague behind him to take some details. ‘Can I let someone know you are here?’
Hal sighed, clearly still confused, and patted his trouser pockets. After a few seconds, he realised his shirt was wide open and there were pads on his chest. ‘What happened...?’ he asked.
Robyn wasn’t happy. She wanted to look after her patient properly, and the noisy ER wasn’t ideal. She gently peeled the defib pads from Hal’s chest and put on some electrodes from a nearby cardiac monitor, fastening a blood-pressure cuff to his arm.
‘Hal,’ she said in a low voice. ‘We need to have a chat. Your heart wasn’t beating properly. You collapsed in the entrance way of the hospital. We had to give you some electric shocks.’
Hal’s eyes widened. He looked terrified.
She kept her voice steady. ‘Did you come here to visit someone? Or did you come to the hospital because you weren’t feeling well?’
He shook his head. ‘No,’ he said. ‘I had an appointment.’
‘At Outpatients?’ asked Robyn.
Hal shook his head again. ‘With Mr Paz.’
It was only for a split second, but Robyn noticed it. Avery froze. It was as if he’d been caught in a set of headlights.
Robyn was new here. But she knew the hospital had been built as a memorial to the wife of a wealthy billionaire businessman, who had died years earlier. The Paz surname was apparently synonymous with wealth beyond measure in the San Diego area. She was sure that the Mr Paz he was meeting wasn’t the original Mr Paz, but maybe it was his son, or grandson?
She pretended not to notice Avery’s frozen position and turned to the nursing assistant behind her. ‘Can you dial up to the office of Mr Paz and let the secretary know that Mr Delaney has taken unwell, and is currently in the ER?’
The nursing assistant beamed, delighted to have such an important job. Avery, on the other hand, was doing his best to look composed. ‘I’ll go and clear a bed for you upstairs,’ he said smoothly. ‘I’ll phone down when it’s free and we can arrange to transfer Mr Delaney upstairs.’
Robyn wanted to pay more attention to her brand-new colleague’s hasty departure. But her head was full of ECG tracings, ordering blood tests, a possible chest X-ray, and administering some medicines to Mr Delaney. Whatever was going on with Avery would have to wait.
‘Fine,’ she murmured, averting her gaze back to dealing with her patient as Avery hurried off down the corridor. She ordered some tests, and sat down next to Hal, ready to take his history. Her stomach growled loudly, and she remembered the breakfast/lunch still at the cafeteria that she’d never get back to.
Hal was starting to get a little more colour in his cheeks now. He pressed a hand to his chest. ‘Ouch,’ he said. ‘It’s sore.’
Robyn nodded. ‘Chest compressions. Don’t worry—we’ll check to make sure you have no broken ribs. You managed to catch everyone’s attention today.’ She clocked the blood-pressure reading on the monitor. It was surprisingly low.
‘Have you been feeling unwell at all?’
She ran through the usual questions quickly, trying to build a picture as to why Hal had collapsed today inside the hospital entrance. Before she had a chance to complete her history-taking, a tall, broad-shouldered man appeared in the doorway, obviously not waiting for any kind of permission to enter. ‘Hal, how are you?’
Robyn was a little taken aback. She stood swiftly. ‘I’m afraid Mr Delaney isn’t fit for visitors right now.’
It was as if she hadn’t spoken at all. The man ignored her and walked around to clasp Hal’s hand in both of his. ‘This is a fine way to get out of a business meeting.’
‘I’m sorry,’ said Robyn quickly. ‘But I’m in the middle of a consultation. You’ll have to wait outside.’
The ER manager appeared in the doorway looking instantly flustered. He was usually as cool as a cucumber, but today was practically flapping.
He gave Robyn a quick anxious glance. She could tell he wasn’t delighted that she was the doctor in the resus room.
‘Jon,’ she said stiffly, ‘I’ve just resuscitated Mr Delaney at the front door. I need time to assess and treat him. Could you escort this visitor out, so I can take care of my patient?’
There was an uneasy silence. A long, long silence.
Jon gave a nervous laugh. ‘Robyn, Dr Callaghan, let me introduce you to Mr Paz, our hospital chief executive.’
Robyn blinked. She nodded. ‘Pleased to meet you. I’m sure you understand that, right now, it’s essential I provide the best care to your friend. In order to do that, I need to take a full history, order some more tests and do a full assessment.’
She could swear Jon had just turned five shades paler than white. Mr Paz was clearly the main man around here. But she was a doctor. Should she just stop treating a patient to let a business friend interrupt what could be critical care? As the thought formed in her brain, her body moved automatically to get between Mr Paz and her patient. ‘Why don’t you let me call you back when I’m finished? As soon as our tests are completed and Mr Delaney is stable, we will be moving him up to the coronary care unit. I’m sure you can visit him there.’
There was a not so friendly smile on her face, and every muscle in her body was tensed.
It wasn’t that Robyn didn’t like rich people. It was just their sense of entitlement she didn’t like. Growing up in a poverty-stricken part of Glasgow, Robyn had been luckier than most. She’d done well at school and had interviewed successfully enough to get a place at medical school. While the fees were covered, the food, lodgings and placements at hospitals around Scotland weren’t. Some grants had helped, along with the biggest variety of part-time jobs. She’d delivered pizzas, worked in a nursing home, a supermarket, a library, a gym, and a bar.
She’d trained alongside some others from rich families. While she’d worked back-breaking hours over and above her studies and placements just to survive, they’d swanned around in their flash cars, showed off their apartments and all their latest technology. Robyn could have lived with all that.
What she hadn’t liked—or stood for—was some of the entitled attitudes the rich had towards those less fortunate than themselves. It made her blood boil. So, any time she was around someone who was clearly richer than King Midas, it made her twitchy.
It hadn’t helped that the one time she’d risked dating someone in the richer-than-rich category, it hadn’t taken all that long to realise he wasn’t with her because he actually wanted to have a relationship with her. He was there because she was smarter than him and could help him with his studies. Finding out he’d only been amusing himself with her, until he could find a wealthier replacement with better connections, who could help him with his longer-term career prospects, had been a bitter sting. It had made her resentment against inherited wealth and the entitlement of the richer classes, and her strong desire to work herself out of poverty, even stronger.
There was a good thing about being a stubborn Scots girl. She didn’t feel obliged to fill the silence. She just let her words sit with Mr Paz. Robyn was also a master at staring out people. She’d learned that in her days as a steward at the football stadium for one of the two rival teams in Glasgow, when she’d had to deal with sometimes drunk, troublesome fans. It had stood her in good stead.
Jon coughed. It suddenly struck her that she might not be doing herself any favours. She was new here. She’d only met the head of the ER briefly in passing. She’d certainly never met the chief executive of the hospital.
‘Mr Paz, shall we give Dr Callaghan some time to finish with your friend?’ Jon suggested, breaking the standoff.
Mr Paz gave his friend’s hand another squeeze. ‘I’ll see you upstairs, Hal, and I’ll make sure our top cardiac physician takes care of you.’ He gave Robyn a hard stare and left the room. Jon moved to follow but Robyn switched on a bright smile.
‘Can you spare me a nurse? I’ve got a few things still to complete, and it will go quicker if I have someone familiar with everything.’
Jon looked as if he wanted to say a whole lot more, but his gaze fixed on Mr Paz’s retreating back and he flinched. ‘Fine,’ he muttered as he walked out of the door.
Five hours later Robyn was knackered. She’d accompanied Hal up in the elevator, helped him transfer into the coronary care bed, given a rundown to his assigned nurse, and talked over the tests, results and findings with the stern-faced senior physician.
She’d done a good job. She always did. But she couldn’t help wondering if she’d just done herself no favours in her new work environment.
By the time she headed out to the nursing station she could have easily sat in a chair and cried. That, or mugged someone for any single snippet of food they might have on their person.
She finished inputting some final details into a chart and looked around. Nurses’ stations were usually a mecca for food. But this station was pristine. Not the usual ramshackle collection of half-chewed pens left by drug reps, or scraps of paper with indistinguishable notes. Not even a half-opened packet of biscuits. This was the poorest excuse for a nurses’ station she’d ever visited.
Robyn sighed and walked towards the treatment room. She could hear the murmur of voices. ‘We’ve got Dr Grumpy covering for us for the next six months.’
‘Which one is Dr Grumpy?’
‘The girl with red hair. She’s Scottish. Pale skinned. I suppose she’s pretty enough.’
Robyn stopped walking.
‘So how did she earn the nickname of Dr Grumpy already? She hasn’t been here long.’
‘My friend works in the cath lab. She was apparently quite nervous when she started. Bumped a tray in the cath lab when observing an angiogram and put the whole procedure back. Apparently she’s been walking about scowling ever since.’
‘Who was doing the angio?’
‘Raul Hempur.’
‘Dracula? Oh, no. Making a mistake around him would be my worst nightmare.’
‘Well, apparently it was hers.’
There was some laughter and a rustle of something that sounded suspiciously like a packet of sweets. Robyn had started to take a few backward steps, deciding it was definitely time to retreat, but just as she lifted her head Avery Smith came walking out of a patient’s room.
This time it was Robyn’s turn to freeze and cringe all at once.
This cannot be happening.
‘Dr Callaghan? Everything okay?’
Humiliation for Beginners was not a class she intended attending today. She shook her head and strode forward into the treatment room and looked the three staff in the eye. ‘Dr Grumpy at your service! I don’t suppose you’ve got any food around here? Cafeteria’s closed and I’m afraid I’m absolutely starving. I haven’t eaten today yet.’
There it was again. The three brains having to process what she’d said, because she was annoyed so was speaking quicker, with a strong accent. This was going to get old very quickly.
She could sense Avery’s presence at her back. Three sets of eyes were squirming in front of her as they finally deciphered what she’d said. One was a nurse, one a physio and one a cardiac tech. It was the tech that handed over a half-empty packet of sweets, with an apologetic shrug. ‘Here you go.’
‘Thanks. And it’s Robyn, by the way.’
A light hand touched her shoulder. ‘Why don’t I show you where the staffroom is? You can have a seat for five minutes and take a break.’
She bristled, about to tell Avery Smith she didn’t need a break. She knew he was trying to be a peacekeeper. But he added, ‘We have a coffee machine,’ and the magic words made her instantly more pliable.
She didn’t look back at the other three staff, just made her way out of the door. ‘I hope it’s good coffee,’ she said. He nodded and led her further down the corridor and into a medium-sized room with a small table and chairs, some cupboards, a sink, microwave, comfortable chairs and, yes, a coffee machine, which was bubbling and sending off delicious aromas in her direction.
Robyn didn’t wait to be shown what to do. She’d been first a medical student, and then a doctor too long. She moved over, opened a cupboard to grab a mug, and poured herself some coffee from the jug. She reached into her pocket for some artificial sweetener, popped two in and stood back for a moment with the mug in her hands, just letting the smell drift around her. She closed her eyes and breathed.
She was aware of the silence and eventually opened her eyes again. Avery Smith was staring straight at her with an amused expression on his face. Now she was finally getting a chance to get a better look at this guy. If he could stare at her, she could stare at him.
He definitely looked like the brother of the aftershave model. His scrubs showcased his broad shoulders, sculpted chest and long limbs. But the clear green eyes were his most distinguishable feature. They were still staring at her.
‘Sorry, was I supposed to pour you a cup too?’
He laughed and shook his head, ignoring her slightly sarcastic remark, and got himself a cup, pouring coffee and then reaching down into a refrigerator next to the sink. She’d missed that. He smelled the milk, checked the date, before pouring it into his mug. ‘Milk?’ he asked.
She couldn’t help but finally smile. ‘The familiar actions of someone who’s worked in a hospital too long.’ She held out her mug for him to add a splash of milk.
He tapped a sign on the front of the refrigerator. ‘Some desperate soul actually put a note up here, trying to get people to put the freshest milk at the back of the fridge to make sure things rotated.’
Now Robyn laughed. ‘Fool. Did they actually expect that to work?’
She reached into the packet of sweets—it was actually chocolate-covered biscuits, but they would do—and pulled out two before flopping onto one of the old comfy chairs.
She took a sip of her coffee, a bite of one of the biscuits as her stomach grumbled loudly. Avery laughed as heat rushed into her cheeks.
She owned it, and patted her stomach. ‘Haven’t eaten properly since last night. I did buy food in the cafeteria earlier, but the arrest page went off before I had a chance to eat it.’
He gave her a curious look. ‘How many times has that page gone today?’
She raised her eyebrows. ‘Don’t you know the rules? We don’t talk about fight club.’
His smile broadened at her movie joke. In Robyn’s experience, as soon as you talked about the arrest page, you cursed yourself, and it would usually go off in the next few minutes.
‘I’ll give you that one,’ he agreed.
She took another bite of the biscuit. ‘Six is the answer.’
‘That many?’ He sat forward. ‘I took the page when I came on duty this morning. The arrest at the main door was my first.’
She frowned. ‘I thought the nursing staff started at six?’
He sighed. ‘We do. It’s officially my day off. I’m supposed to be working at the free clinic in the heart of the city, but someone here called in sick.’ He leaned back again. ‘Or maybe they went home sick after so many calls.’ He held up his hands. ‘Who knows? I didn’t really have time to ask. I’d just come on duty, saw the unit was full, and took the page before it went off.’
He settled back into the chair a bit more. ‘And don’t mind what the others were saying back there. They give everyone nicknames.’
‘Really? What’s yours?’
He shifted, his comfortable chair obviously becoming uncomfortable—then pulled a face. ‘Mr Sunshine,’ he admitted.
She groaned and closed her eyes. ‘You have got to be kidding me! So, you’re Mr Sunshine, and I’m Dr Grumpy? No way.’
He waved his hand. ‘You’ve just got here. They don’t know you yet.’
She raised one eyebrow. ‘Well, just wait until they know me. My nickname will be ten times worse than Dr Grumpy.’ She wrinkled her nose. ‘And who will cover your shift at the free clinic if you’re here?’
He sipped his coffee. ‘I swapped it with a friend. I’ll work this Sunday instead. I wouldn’t let them down. Now, tell me a bit about yourself. I love your accent.’
Robyn tried not to avert her gaze. She hated personal questions and tried to give away as little as possible about herself. ‘You first,’ she challenged.
He licked his lips for a second, then nodded. ‘Well, I’m Avery Smith, I’m twenty-six. Trained as nurse. Born and brought up in San Diego. Chose to work in the cardiac unit because I just love everything about the science. I love the transplant work, the surgeries, the implantable defibs, the pacing wires, the management of the heart failure patients, the angiograms, the MI work.’ He waved his hand. ‘I could go on and on.’
She gave a small smile. ‘So, it’s where your heart is?’
‘Exactly.’ He grinned at her very poor joke. ‘If you do a surgical rotation, you might meet my best friend. Serena Dias works in Critical Care. We did our training together and shared an apartment for a while.’ He gave a mild shake of his head. ‘That was before, of course, she met the love of her life, Toby Renfro. He’s one of the surgeons here, and they’ve just moved in together.’
‘So, you’ve been left high and dry?’ Robyn quipped.
He shrugged. ‘You could say that.’ He leaned forward, putting his elbows on his knees. ‘Or you could say that I’m delighted that my best friend has found her happy ever after. She deserves it.’
‘Sunshine by name, sunshine by nature? Do you ever get grumpy?’
He finished his coffee. ‘I try not to. Life’s too short. Now, don’t think you’re getting away with not telling me more about yourself. Play fair.’
Robyn forced a smile. ‘So, I did my medical training in Glasgow, I was born and brought up there. Did my first year in a hospital in Aberdeen, then joined a new programme where you traded places with someone from another country, in an already established programme there.’ She held up her hands. ‘I ended up here.’
‘You didn’t choose here?’ Avery seemed surprised.
‘You only get to choose the country, not the actual hospital. I did a placement in Germany first, and this time in the US.’
She tried to work out the expression on his face. ‘Most doctors or trainees who come here have gone through rigorous selection procedures. Paz Memorial is renowned for its cardiology department, its surgeons and its techniques. Some people try for years to get a job here,’ he said.
The implication was clear. He didn’t approve of her. She wasn’t good enough. He might be Mr Sunshine for the rest of the world. But he didn’t look remotely sunny from where Robyn was sitting.
‘Like you?’ she said, letting the sarcasm drip from her tone.
It was almost as if he’d switched off, being so focused on how elite this hospital was. ‘Only a few from my nursing class were successful in getting jobs here.’
‘Did you have to go through a rigorous selection process?’ She was getting angry now. Was he doing this deliberately?
‘Four interviews,’ he said without hesitation.
She leaned forward, into a similar position as he’d adopted. ‘And what makes you think for a second that I didn’t?’
He blinked. She let him process that for a few seconds.
‘The international programme had seventy thousand worldwide applicants. They picked one hundred.’ She stood up. ‘Sadly, I wasn’t their number one pick, but I was the number two.’ She watched his eyes widen at her statement. ‘So, I more than earned my place here. But don’t try and talk to me about selection processes. I’ve spent my life seeing how unfair some selection processes can be—unless, of course, you have a large bank balance.’
He blanched, then quickly stood up too. ‘What’s that supposed to mean?’
‘I mean that often those from the wealthiest families get the best placements, or the settings that they want. It was certainly like that for me when I was back in medical school. The selection process for this programme was the first time I felt as if things were fundamentally fair. I actually had a fighting chance to be picked because of my scores and not my bank balance.’
Avery was looking at her with a deep frown in his forehead, as if he didn’t quite know what to say to that.
The door opened and another nurse walked in, took one look at them both, turned on her heel and walked back out.
Robyn felt exasperated. She waved her hand. ‘Might as well earn my new nickname.’
She watched as Avery took a few long, calming breaths, wondering what on earth she’d said that had set him off. He raised his eyes to hers. ‘I think we got off on the wrong foot.’ He put his hand on his chest. ‘I love this place. I’m passionate about it. Paz Memorial has a great reputation and it matters to me—’ he shook his head ‘—for reasons I can’t really explain. I didn’t know about your programme. Most doctors have to apply or specially request to continue their training here. Competition is tough.’ He hesitated for a second, ‘And I’m sure bank balance doesn’t matter in the selection process. But I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to sound defensive.’
‘I think we did get off on the wrong foot,’ replied Robyn quickly, turning his explanation over in her head. What reasons could he not explain? ‘But then, you did abandon me down in the ER earlier.’ She put her hands on her hips.
‘I did not.’
‘Oh, own it, Avery. As soon as that hospital CEO appeared, you practically broke the record for the four-minute mile. What was that all about?’
She saw something flash across his eyes. Anger? Annoyance? Fear? She couldn’t quite put her finger on it.
‘I did not,’ he said defensively. ‘I’d just started work and already knew the unit had no free space. The most useful thing I could do for you was to come up here and clear a bed for you, so Mr Delaney could get the expert care that he needs.’
‘Sounds like you read that straight from the brochure,’ she said sarcastically.
He shook his head.
‘So, you really think the best thing you can do, the first time you meet a new doctor, carrying the arrest page, is to leave her in an unfamiliar environment, with staff she doesn’t know, and procedures she’s not used to?’
She saw his jaw clench. ‘I might not have met you before, but I had no idea you’d never been inside the ER before. I’m not responsible for the induction of new staff. That should have been covered before you started. You should know all the procedures by now and you were with the head of the ER; you couldn’t have been in better hands.’
Robyn hadn’t moved her hands from her hips. Six months. That was how long she was going to be here. She wanted to learn everything that she could from all members of the team. Why did she have to get stuck with this guy? He was clearly a fake. Everyone else called him Mr Sunshine. But she wasn’t fooled for a second.
Her back ached. She hadn’t slept the last two nights because the room the hospital had given her backed onto the kitchens, where deliveries seemed to come all hours of the night. She was tired. She was still hungry. And some of the staff here were already talking about her snidely.
Robyn might excel at all things medical, but she readily admitted that her people skills were always a little trickier to negotiate.
She sighed. ‘From my perspective, you practically raced out of the ER. You weren’t even sure our patient was stable enough to leave. One thing you will learn about me, Avery, is that I call things the way I see them.’
He frowned and held out his arm. ‘Did I clear a bed for you?’
She gritted her teeth but nodded.
‘And is the cardiac unit the best place for Mr Delaney right now?’
She nodded again.
‘Then, things have happened the way they should. You’re imagining things. Maybe you’re tired. Maybe you need to sit down, take a break, and get a proper meal. It’s overwhelming coming to a new place. And as for the procedures, I can take some time to go over them with you if you want. All the staff here are willing to help our new doctors. All you have to do is ask.’
‘It’s hard to ask when they’re too busy gossiping and name-calling.’
Avery drew in a deep breath, gave a conciliatory nod and lifted his left hand. ‘You’re right. I’m sorry about that. I’ll talk to them. That’s not the kind of unit that we run.’
He was being nice now. But it wasn’t helping.
‘I’m a big girl,’ she said as she raised her chin. ‘I don’t need your pity.’
She turned and headed to the door, her stomach growling again. Her footsteps slowed and she reached back and picked up what was left of the chocolate biscuits, aware that his green eyes were still on her.
She gave a toss of her hair and walked out of the room, glancing at her watch and heading to the nurses’ station. She was due off duty and she couldn’t wait to hand over this page and get out of here.
Maybe coming to San Diego hadn’t been such a good idea after all.
