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Lisa’s eyes widened with anxiety. ‘Won’t it just go by itself?’
Tia hesitated. ‘It might,’ she said finally, ‘but I have a feeling that the doctors might want to sort it out for you. I’ll just give one of them a call.’
She bleeped Luca and explained what had happened over the phone, breaking off for a few seconds as the stabbing pain hit her again.
‘Tia?’ Luca’s deep voice was sharp and concerned down the phone. ‘Are you all right?’
She sucked in a breath and waited for the pain to pass. ‘I’m fine,’ she told him, changing the subject quickly. ‘So will you come and take a look at Lisa Burn for me?’
‘I’ll be five minutes,’ he said shortly, and she suspected that his haste was as much to check on her as the patient.
She was right.
He strode onto the ward in record time, his dark eyes cloudy with concern as he walked towards her.
‘She’s in Ward 4,’ Tia began, but he raised a hand and stopped her in mid-flow.
‘I’ll see Lisa in a minute. First I want you to tell me what’s wrong. And don’t say nothing because I know you well enough by now to know when you don’t feel right.’
It was true.
From being someone who didn’t understand her at all, he now seemed to be able to virtually mind-read.
‘I’ve felt a sharp pain a couple of times, that’s all,’ she mumbled, and his broad shoulders tensed slightly.
Maybe he was more anxious than he seemed to be.
He asked her some questions and then gave a sigh. ‘You’re probably right that it’s nothing,’ he said, his eyes scanning her pale face, ‘but I would prefer that you went home.’
Her eyes slid away from his. ‘I’m all right at the moment. If it comes back, maybe I will.’
‘Tia…’ His voice was a low, threatening growl and she looked at him pleadingly.
‘Luca, they’re so short-staffed here, it would put a terrible strain on them if I went home. I’m not doing anything strenuous and, anyway, this is the best place to be if something is going to happen.’
She didn’t voice her fear, but she was terrified of being at home on her own when the baby came. It didn’t matter whether Luca loved her or not—when it came to the baby she trusted him implicitly.
‘All right.’ He relented, stroking her cheek with lean brown fingers. ‘But try and rest as much as you can.’
‘I promise.’ Tia flushed slightly and her breathing quickened under his touch. ‘Are you ready to see Lisa now?’
Luca nodded, his eyes clinging to hers for a long, very unsettling moment. Then he seemed to pull himself together.
‘All right. Where is she?’
He examined Lisa and immediately agreed with Tia. ‘It’s a haematoma. We’ll observe it for a few hours and see if it contains itself.’ He glanced at Lisa. ‘I suspect we will need to take you to Theatre and evacuate the clot.’
True to her promise, Tia was careful not to do anything too energetic during the rest of her shift, and when Luca came back onto the ward to check on Lisa for the second time, she was sitting down, talking to one of the mothers who had just come back from Theatre.
She stood up instantly when she saw Luca and together they had another look at Lisa.
‘It’s spreading,’ Luca said immediately, his eyes quietly sympathetic as he looked at Lisa. ‘I’m going to pop you down to Theatre, give you a small anaesthetic and get rid of this blood clot.’
‘I’ll make the arrangements,’ Tia said at once, and busied herself doing just that.
Once she’d escorted Lisa down to Theatre it would be time to go home, but she wasn’t at all sure that she really wanted to go.
She hadn’t felt the pain for a few hours.
