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Stephanie joined them. ‘Because of what’s happening elsewhere, I’ve talked to Penny and she asked that we take blood for a troponin.’ Penny being a cardiologist. ‘Can you do that, Kelli?’
‘Sure can.’
‘What’s a troponin?’ Will asked.
‘It’s a test to see if you’ve had a heart attack in the last twenty-four hours. I’d say the cardiologist asked for it because of your problems breathing yesterday when you were trying to walk that hill.’ The notes said he’d been on a walking challenge in Cornwall Park and had been stopping every hundred metres or so to get his breath back.
‘Told you we should’ve come in straight away.’ His wife looked ready to burst into tears.
Kelli nodded. ‘It’s okay, you’re here now. But—’ she aimed for stern ‘—any time this happens, or any chest pain, you must call an ambulance.’
‘I don’t like being a bother. It’s not like it was urgent.’
‘It could’ve been. We’d prefer to send you home healthy and with no heart problems, than have to deal with the consequences of a heart attack.’ Or worse, but the embarrassed look on his face said he’d got the message and didn’t need more horrific details. ‘Right, I’ll get the phlebotomy kit and take that blood sample. The sooner I do that, the sooner we’ll know what’s going on.’
The blood was taken and sent up to the lab. Kelli regularly checked the monitor printout and reassured her patient nothing had changed for the worse.
She worked with a young woman suffering acute abdo pain in the next cubicle as well. Another registrar had joined the shift and between them they arranged bloods for a CBC and CRP. Appendicitis was on the cards, soon confirmed with an increased white cell count and a raised CRP. The girl disappeared with an orderly, heading to Theatre.
Nearly an hour after she’d come into the department Mac strode into Will’s cubicle, his serious face on and his eyes sad. ‘Hello, I’m Mac Turner, an emergency doctor,’ he said. ‘I’ve read all your results and talked to the cardiologist. The good news is that you haven’t had a heart attack.’
‘And the bad?’ Will asked.
‘There’s still your irregular heartbeat to sort out. I’m going to put you on blood thinners, starting today, to negate the chances of having a stroke until you see the cardiologist in approximately six weeks when the thinners have had time to stabilise.’
Mac was in efficiency mode, checking off points as though he held a bulletin board. Kelli watched closely. Saw the distress in the back of his eyes and knew he was worried for Michael. ‘You’re discharging Will now?’
‘Yes. There’s nothing untoward going on.’ He nodded at their patient. ‘You’ll have regular INR blood tests to monitor how the thinners are working. I’m emailing a copy of everything to your GP and you should visit her tomorrow to establish what’s happening over the next few weeks. Any questions?’
The couple was quiet. Most likely shocked, as was Kelli at Mac’s abrupt comments. Unlike him even at his most serious. She could forgive him, knowing he had problems to deal with, but his patient would’ve expected more.
‘Okay, Will, let’s take this slowly,’ Kelli said as Mac disappeared out of the cubicle. ‘No leaping out of bed and dancing around the ward.’
‘Am I going to have to sit in a chair all day until I see the specialist?’
‘Not at all.’ She laughed. ‘I was exaggerating just a little. Carry on as normal. But I’m sure you’re going to have a hundred questions by nightfall so write them down so you can ask your GP tomorrow.’
Soon he was up and dressed. ‘I’ll be fine,’ he muttered.
‘Yes, you will,’ Kelli agreed. ‘I don’t want to see you in here again. In the nicest possible way.’
Mac stood up from the desk when she crossed to pick up a file. ‘Thanks. You were great with Will and his wife.’
Only doing what she was trained for. ‘What about you? And Michael?’
‘Want a quick break? I could do with a coffee.’
And someone to talk to. It hung between them, warming her to her toes. Mac Taylor had turned to her when in need. She glanced around, looking for Stephanie, who was only a couple of metres away at the chute for sending samples to the lab.
Stephanie nodded. ‘I’ve got you covered.’
With a full department she was being extra kind, but then that was Stephanie to a T. ‘Won’t be long,’ Kelli promised as she walked past the senior nurse, hoping she could keep that assurance.
They made instant coffee and took it to Mac’s office. ‘How’s Michael?’ Kelli asked the moment the door was shut.
‘Badly shaken, and in need of a few hours away from here.’
‘Shaken’s not too bad, is it?’
Mac’s lips twitched. ‘No, Kelli, it’s not.’ Then he got serious again. ‘Losing any patient is dreadful, but a child dying is every doctor’s worst nightmare.’
She nodded. ‘Especially when it’s your first in charge of the case.’
‘Yeah.’ Sadness filled the air. ‘My first one was a girl, seven and the cutest little minx you’d ever come across. Meningitis. The family had been hiking in the Rimataka Ranges and by the time they realised Juliette was seriously ill and tried to get her out they were already too late.’
He’d not forgotten her name. ‘Yet you still blame yourself.’ It was a no brainer. She’d seen it often enough throughout her career.
Mac’s mouth turned down and his focus appeared to be miles away. ‘It’s what we train for, saving people in every eventuality even when we understand that’s impossible.’
‘Will Michael be all right?’
‘He has to be, or take a change in direction as far as his career is concerned. If that sounds harsh, I’m only stating the facts as dealt to me over Juliette. Blunt but true. Unfortunately.’ Mac dragged his hands down his face. ‘But I’m thinking Michael will come through this just fine. He’s talked about it with me and is going to call me any time it gets on top of him.’
‘Talking’s good.’ Often not a guy thing. Nor hers. Telling all and sundry about the bullies who’d shaped her had never been possible, because that’d be exposing her weaknesses and showing others how to get to her. Of course she’d told Steve. They were in love. But he’d used it against her, saying the bullies had a point and shouldn’t she take the opportunity to have surgery. Drinking her bland and now cool coffee, Kelli shuddered. ‘Yuk.’
Mac’s smile was small but it was coming out, slowly, lightening the atmosphere. ‘Not up to Waiheke café standards.’
That coffee at the café where they’d helped the chef had been hot and intense and full of flavour. Not that she’d been thinking of the coffee they’d tried to drink super quick, and the muffins she couldn’t taste for all the need in her mouth. Nothing but returning to their suite at the resort had mattered. ‘Not a patch,’ she replied around the longing building in her again.
Inappropriate, Kells. Mac’s worrying for Michael, and recalling his own unhappy medical stories and you’re thinking of sex.
Mac did that to her. Stole all sense, replaced it with sex-crazed thoughts—no, make that sensations. Because there was no thinking straight whenever Mac was close, unless they were beside a patient, but that didn’t count. He’d tossed her world sideways, leaving her not knowing whether she was up or down, left or right. She was lost. And in love.
‘We’d better be getting back to work.’ Mac stood up slowly, reluctantly. Even sad he was good enough to want to eat.
Or hug. To give warmth to, to show she understood and cared. Easy. Wrapping her arms around him, she held him tight. ‘It’s what you do. Help everyone who needs you.’
‘I do. It’s ingrained in me, and probably Michael feels the same, so when the outcome goes wrong it’s hard to accept we’re not gods.’ The pain in his voice smudged out
any arrogance there might’ve been in that statement.
He was a hero in her book. ‘Want to share bacon and eggs at the All-Nighter after work? We can talk some more if you need to vent.’
Or we can hurry through our meals and head to your apartment.
She’d love to see where he’d hung that painting. Ha. Right. Sure. On the way to his bedroom maybe. Or on the way out after an intense night. Like going to his place would happen.
Mac’s mouth covered hers, not softly but hungrily, taking from her, devouring in his intensity. A kiss like no other. A kiss that said he needed her in a way he hadn’t admitted before. A personal way.
Her knees were jelly, tipping her into Mac’s long, hard body. Exquisite sensations pummelled her from curled-up toes to skin-tightening forehead. ‘Mac,’ she groaned between their mouths before immediately pressing her lips back on his. How had she survived before Mac? How could she have believed she knew all about sex, or lovemaking, or whatever it was called. There was no one word to describe what was ripping through her right this moment.
Those lips she hankered after when they weren’t available were torn away from hers. ‘Work.’ Mac’s chest was rising and falling rapidly.
Kelli spread her hand flat on his pecs, absorbed his heat and harsh breathing. ‘Yeah.’
‘Rain check?’
‘End of shift.’
Mac smiled a long, slow, knowing smile that went nowhere towards toughening up her knees. ‘Bacon and eggs at my place.’
Truly? She was being invited into his sanctum? A place no one seemed to be invited to. Sex, food and a glimpse at how Mac lived. This was right up there with being awesome. ‘You’re on.’
The light in his eyes dimmed. Just realised what he’d got himself into?
Not about to give him a chance to change his mind she spun out of his arms and aimed for the door, unsteady on those knees. ‘Let’s get cracking. The busier we are, the sooner the hours will be gone.’
‘We haven’t just been busy?’ His smile was back, wider, cheekier and, yes, a whole load sexier—if that was possible.
