Reunited By Their Secret Daughter

CHAPTER TWO

‘XANDER, CHLOE IS one of our on-call midwives.’ Rick was still introducing them as if they didn’t already know each other. As if Chloe’s world hadn’t just tipped on its axis.

Her heart was racing and her hands were shaking. She tucked them into her lap, hoping Rick and Xander didn’t notice her reaction.

‘Chloe.’ He nodded. Once. Briefly.

He didn’t deny that he knew her and he didn’t pretend that he was meeting her for the first time but he certainly didn’t appear too thrilled. He gave her nothing. She consoled herself with the fact that it wasn’t the time or place for a personal conversation.

Would he be expecting one?

He probably hadn’t thought about her once in four years. He would have no idea that she thought of him daily. He would have no idea of the impact he had made on her life.

She studied him fleetingly, trying not to stare again. The orange jumpsuit that was the uniform for air ambulance medical staff was not the most flattering shade but Xander wore it well. His face was slightly tanned, making her wonder where else he’d been. Surely he hadn’t got a tan in Wales? His shoulders were still broad, his legs long and lean. He looked thinner than she recalled and she wondered if his hair, beneath the helmet, was as thick and blond as she remembered. Four years ago he had worn it swept to one side, always looking as if he’d just finished running his fingers through it.

When she had left him behind, they’d had no plans for anything to go beyond a brief holiday fling. He had no idea that she’d spent months trying to find him.

She pushed the memories of their time together aside, before they could come flooding back. She couldn’t afford to be swamped by the past. She had a job to do.

She could be professional. She was professional.

She’d waited years to speak to Xander. She’d given up on ever finding him. She could wait a few more hours to catch up.

She turned to Rick, hoping he was the one with all the information about the job and focused on the task at hand.

‘Where are we headed?’ she asked.

‘Stabbing. Domestic dispute. Thirty-year-old woman, fourth pregnancy, thirty-eight weeks. Paramedics are on site. The woman and her partner are both being treated for injuries. The woman is in labour.’

Chloe digested the scant information. Details about the job were relayed to them by the co-pilot, Jeff, and were usually minimal. She knew the job was likely to be complicated but that was normally the case. The air ambulance wasn’t called for simple incidents. But they wouldn’t be the first pre-hospital team at the scene and she knew more information would be forthcoming once they arrived. The team had plenty of emergency medicine experience between them and were used to gathering information as they went.

Out of habit she checked the supplies stashed in the seat pockets beside her while her mind wandered.

She could feel Xander’s eyes on her but she didn’t dare meet his gaze. She needed to collect her thoughts before she connected with him and checking the supplies gave her something to occupy her throughout the short flight.

She needed to control her nerves. She concentrated on counting supplies, willing her hands to stop shaking. She was equal parts excited, nervous and worried.

She needed to focus but she was dying to know what he was thinking. What had he been doing? How was he? Did he ever think of her? And what did his arrival mean for her? For them? For Lily?

It was only a few minutes before she felt the helicopter begin the left-hand bank turn and knew they had reached their destination. The pilot, Simon, would be giving Jeff a chance to identify a safe landing site.

The house was easy to find; from her seat Chloe could see an ambulance, a police car and a police van parked out the front.

The chopper landed on a vacant block that looked as if it may have once been a tennis court. A few kids scattered to the footpath as it descended but then hung around, mouths open and eyes wide, to watch the scene unfold.

Rick slid the door open as the chopper touched down. Chloe reached for one of the kit bags only to find Xander had reached for the same one. Their hands touched and as Xander’s came to rest on top of hers she jerked hers away as if she’d been scalded. Her skin was on fire, her breathing rapid. She kept her gaze averted and picked up a second bag as she tried to get her nerves under control.

She strode off, carrying the bag, quickly putting some distance between them. She needed to keep him out of her line of sight while she pulled herself together.

Two policemen emerged as they approached the house and between them Chloe could see a man in handcuffs. The husband? The police officers pushed on his head, forcing him into the back of their van before slamming the door. She gave him a cursory glance as she walked past before following Rick into the property.

The house was identical in appearance to several others in the street. A small front garden in need of some attention separated the house from the street. A short flight of steps led to the front door set in a narrow two-storey building. Chloe knew the floor plan—she’d been to many houses just like this one—and there was nothing to indicate from the outside what went on behind closed doors. Houses where domestic violence occurred could look like any other from the outside.

The front door opened into a tight hallway. There was a staircase on their right, an empty lounge on the left. Looking past Rick’s shoulder Chloe could see a kitchen at the end of the hall. The air ambulance crew crowded into the small room.

A woman lay on the floor. Her shirt was ripped and bloodied and blood pooled on the linoleum. Her skin was pale and her breathing laboured. Two paramedics knelt on either side of her and one looked up as the team entered the room.

‘This is Shania. Stab wound to the right chest.’

The paramedics had cut through the woman’s top and the one who spoke was just finishing applying a dressing to the lateral side of the woman’s chest.

‘We’ve only just been able to get to her,’ the paramedic continued. ‘We had to wait for the police to subdue her partner.’

‘She is complaining of difficulty breathing. She’s hypoxic, absent air sounds,’ the other paramedic said as he lifted the stethoscope that he’d been holding against the woman’s chest. ‘Rapid heart rate and sharp stabbing chest pain. I think she may have a tension pneumothorax.’

The air ambulance team all had their job roles emblazoned on the front left of their overalls. The paramedic holding the dressing reached into the kit that was beside her with her free hand and passed gloves to everyone before handing a stethoscope to Xander.

‘She’s thirty-eight weeks pregnant. Fourth pregnancy.’ The paramedic repeated the information that the air ambulance team had already been given. ‘She’s in labour but we haven’t had time to assess that.’

Xander knelt beside the woman. He placed the stethoscope against her chest and listened. Chloe was happy to defer to him. She knew there was no point asking the woman any questions about her labour until her chest pain was sorted. If she was having trouble breathing, she wouldn’t want to talk. The woman’s labour wasn’t the priority. A tension pneumothorax was life-threatening.

Xander lifted his head. ‘I need a large-bore needle, fourteen-gauge,’ he said.

The paramedic handed him an angiocath along with an alcohol wipe. Xander swept the wipe across the woman’s ribs and Chloe watched as he palpated for the intercostal space in the mid-clavicular line with slender fingers. His blond head was bent over the woman, the smooth skin on the back of his neck exposed as he leant over his patient.

He was talking to the woman, explaining what he was about to do.

He was calm and methodical. He worked quickly but smoothly. There was no panic, no hurried movements, nothing to alarm or frighten the woman, who was already on edge.

Chloe watched his profile as he worked, noting the angle of his jaw, the blond stubble that covered it, the sharpness of his cheekbones, his flat, shell-shaped ears. She remembered how much she’d learnt from him when they’d worked together in Australia. His calmness, experience, patience and bedside manner were some of the many things that she’d found attractive but they hadn’t been the first things she’d noticed about him. She hadn’t even known he was a doctor, let alone that she’d be working with him, when she’d first seen him. It had been one of those moments you read about: their eyes had met across a room and she was done for. She’d fallen hard and fast.

She blinked and cleared her mind as she took a deep breath and told herself to focus. There were more important things to think about than what had happened between her and Xander. Those days were long gone. She was a different person now, no longer carefree, no longer independent. She had a job to do and other things to consider. She needed to get herself under control. She couldn’t let her hormones unsettle her. She needed to take stock of the situation—even if she couldn’t make sense of it yet.

She had to try to ignore the fact that Xander was kneeling just inches away from her. She had to resist the temptation to reach out and place her hand on the back of his neck. To feel the warmth of his skin under her fingers. She had to pretend he was just another colleague, not the man who she’d once thought could be the love of her life.

She forced her attention back to the tableau in front of her, concentrating on the woman’s chest instead of on Xander.

He’d found the space he wanted and she watched as he inserted the needle between the woman’s ribs. They all heard the air as it flowed out of the chest cavity. He removed the needle after a few seconds, leaving the plastic tube in situ, and reviewed the woman’s observations. Her oxygen sats improved as her chest re-inflated. Xander listened for breath sounds before taking a chest seal from Rick and applying it.

Rick and Xander worked smoothly together, inserting a drip, administering pain relief and hooking an oxygen mask over Shania’s nose and mouth while Xander kept up his explanations.

They didn’t need Chloe’s help but she kept herself busy, finding the things she might need for a delivery and making sure they were close to hand. Focusing on anything but Xander.

‘How are you feeling now, Shania?’ Xander asked. ‘Do you have any pain? Can you tell me where it is?’

‘Ow!’ Shania clutched at her stomach and Chloe could see the tell-tale ripple of a contraction pass across Shania’s abdomen. Treating a tension pneumothorax always gave immediate relief and Xander had relieved Shania’s chest pain so successfully that she was now complaining about her labour pains.

Xander caught Chloe’s eye and gave her a quick smile, uniting them in their treatment of their patient. But his smile did more than that. Chloe thought he was handsome when he wore his usual brooding expression but when he smiled he was something else altogether. No longer wounded, or sad, the shadows in his eyes disappeared and it was like watching the sun come out after a long winter. His smile instantly transformed his face and made Chloe’s world tilt. It had been almost four years since she’d seen his smile and it knocked the wind out of her all over again.

‘Looks like it’s your turn,’ he said as he stood preparing to swap places with Chloe. Space was at a premium and Chloe was very aware of how close to her Xander was standing. How she had to brush past him in order to reach their patient.

She took a deep breath and mentally shook her head as she knelt on the floor.

‘Shania, I’m Chloe. I’m a midwife. Let’s see what’s going on with this baby of yours, shall we?’ She strapped a foetal heart rate monitor around Shania’s belly and waited anxiously for the reading, hoping it would fall between one hundred and ten and one hundred and sixty beats per minute.

One hundred and two...

‘We need to get her to hospital,’ Chloe said. The baby appeared to be in distress and Chloe was concerned about oxygen deprivation given Shania’s injuries.

‘I’m not going to the hospital,’ Shania protested.

‘We need to transfer you,’ Chloe insisted. ‘You have a chest wound and you’re having a baby. This is for your safety. And your baby’s safety.’

‘Who will look after my kids?’ Shania asked as another contraction gripped her.

‘Where are they?’ Xander asked.

‘With one of the neighbours.’ A policewoman stood in the corner of the kitchen. Chloe had barely been aware of her until she replied to Xander’s question.

Xander looked over to her. ‘Can you see if the neighbour is happy to keep them for a while?’

The policewoman nodded and left the room and Chloe indicated to Rick to follow her. She needed him to fetch the stretcher.

She bent her head and resumed her examination. ‘Let me have a quick look to see how far along your labour is.’ The contractions were less than a minute apart and Chloe was worried. She looked up at Xander. ‘I don’t think we’re going anywhere right now. She’s fully dilated.’

The baby’s head was crowning. There was nothing Chloe could do now to slow down Shania’s labour. This baby was coming whether they were ready or not.

‘I want to push!’ Shania cried out.

‘Okay, Shania, ready when you are.’ The pain relief Xander administered was enough to lightly sedate Shania, enough to calm her down but not enough to make her unable to push.

Shania bore down and Chloe eased the baby’s head out. ‘Well done, Shania. Take a breath now,’ she said as she felt for the cord. Everything seemed clear. ‘Wait for the next contraction and I’ll get you to push again.’

The baby came out in a slippery rush. A girl. She didn’t appear to be injured but everything was silent. No crying and Chloe didn’t think she was even breathing. She quickly wrapped her in a soft cloth and rubbed her vigorously and was rewarded with a muted cry.

‘Congratulations, Shania. You have a daughter.’

Chloe clamped and cut the cord and did a quick Apgar assessment. The baby’s hands and feet were blue, her respiration slow, but she scored an eight out of ten, which was great, all things considered.

Chloe wrapped her against the cold and slid a cap onto her head to retain warmth. ‘Do you have a name for her?’ she asked as she handed her to Shania.

‘Tonya.’ Shania was gazing at her daughter, all pain forgotten.

Shania was oblivious to her surroundings now as Chloe delivered the placenta and put it into a bag. Shania still needed to go to hospital and Chloe needed to take the placenta with them.

Rick returned with the stretcher followed by the policewoman. Chloe could see the surprised look on her face. The baby had arrived faster than anyone anticipated. The policewoman spoke to Shania. ‘Shania, your neighbour will mind the children while you go to hospital.’

Shania was too tired to argue as Chloe took the baby and Rick and Xander transferred her to the stretcher.

Chloe did another quick check of the baby and increased her Apgar score by one. Despite the dramatic circumstances surrounding her birth she was doing remarkably well. Chloe carried Tonya out to the chopper and held her as Shania’s stretcher was loaded on board and Rick connected Shania to the monitors. Simon lifted the chopper into the air as soon as Rick gave the all clear.

‘The police asked me to let you know you’ll need to make a report,’ Xander said to Shania. ‘They want to know if you want to press charges.’

Shania shook her head. ‘I’m not going to press charges.’

Xander looked incredulous. ‘What? Why not?’

‘If I’m in hospital I need Greg at home to look after the other kids. I can’t have him locked up overnight. They’ll keep him until he sobers up and then they’ll let him go. I just hope he goes home and not back to the pub.’

‘The police have arrested Greg. I don’t think they’re going to be too quick to let him go.’ Xander was speaking slowly, as if he was worried that Shania wasn’t understanding the situation. ‘Has he been physically violent towards you before?’

‘I started it,’ Shania replied, and Chloe noticed she avoided answering Xander’s question.

‘How do you figure that?’

‘I was going to the next-door neighbour’s. I was going to ask her to drive me to hospital because Greg had been drinking, but Greg got angry. He didn’t want the neighbours to know he was in no state to drive and he insisted he was okay to take me. I knew he wasn’t and when I tried to get past him he blocked my way. I grabbed a kitchen knife and threatened him but he took it off me and, when I tried to push past him, the knife stabbed into me. I shouldn’t have taken the knife in the first place and then none of this would have happened.’

Chloe could see by Xander’s expression that he wasn’t pleased with Shania’s answer. She also knew he wouldn’t be pleased that there was nothing he could do about the situation. She knew he was driven by the same overwhelming desire to help people, to fight for the underdog, to improve people’s lives, as she was. ‘Shania, the knife didn’t stab you, your husband did. That is not okay.’

‘Do you have kids?’ Shania asked.

Chloe should have anticipated the question. It was one she got asked by almost every labouring mother when they were looking for some common ground or reassurance that Chloe knew what they were going through, but she hadn’t been prepared to have to answer that question in front of Xander. Her heart rate spiked but thank God she didn’t have to answer as fortunately Shania was addressing Xander and not her.

Xander shook his head. ‘No, I don’t.’ He kept his head turned away and Chloe wasn’t able to see his expression. When she’d last seen him four years ago he hadn’t wanted kids. Had anything changed? Would he want Lily?

‘I have three kids,’ Shania continued. ‘Four now. I don’t work. Where would I go?’

Xander looked up and Chloe took over from him. She knew he’d be wanting to offer advice but she guessed he wasn’t sure how the system worked in the UK.

‘There are options,’ Chloe said. ‘I can organise for a social worker to come and see you and we can see what measures we can put in place.’ It was often a difficult process. Resources were scant and Chloe knew that a lot of mums preferred not to uproot their children. It was a catch-22. She’d start with getting the social worker visit while Shania was in hospital but she knew from experience that there was little they could do if Shania wasn’t on board with the idea. She was sure Shania had heard it all before but she was pleased to see her give a very slight nod of agreement just as the large red H of the hospital helipad came into view beneath them.

The hospital roof became a hive of activity as the helicopter door slid open. Surgical and neonatal teams were on hand to meet them and transfer the patients and Chloe lost sight of Xander as she went with baby Tonya to the neonatal unit.

Her hands shook as she transferred Tonya to the neonatal stretcher. Her heart rate was still elevated and she knew some of it was due to adrenalin from the job but the rest was wholly and solely because of Xander.