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‘We’ll never let him forget that one. He’ll be fine, Sue. He’s better off staying there until we’re done. If we sit him up, he’ll just faint again, and at the moment you are our priority. What a fantastic Christmas present—a new baby. You’re doing brilliantly. Nearly there. Dino, tell me when to give syntometrine.’ She had a syringe in her hand and Dino delivered the anterior shoulder and glanced at her briefly, surprised to see tears in her eyes.
‘What? What are you staring at? I like babies. What’s wrong with that?’ Meg blinked furiously and glared at him, clearly angry that he’d witnessed her emotional response to the situation. ‘Do I give this stuff now?’
‘Sì, now.’
She gave the injection and with a shocked cry Sue delivered the baby into Dino’s waiting arms. ‘You have a daughter, Sue. Congratulations.’ The baby gave a thin wail and he quickly lifted her into Sue’s arms. ‘Hold her against you. We’re going to transfer you to a wheelchair and get you inside because it’s too cold out here.’
‘A daughter?’ The tears started to fall. Tears of relief. Tears of gratitude. Tears of joy. ‘I’m going to call her Mary because she was born at Christmas.’
Opening the door of the ambulance, he found a crowd of staff from the obstetric unit waiting to help him and moments later Sue and the baby were inside in the warmth.
Having handed over to his colleagues, Dino returned to the ambulance to find Meg sitting with her arm around a white-faced Mike.
‘Actually, I’ve known several,’ she was saying, and she looked up and smiled as Dino approached. ‘Just telling Mike he isn’t the first father to fall over and bang his head when a baby is born. Everything all right with mother and daughter?’
‘The paediatricians are examining Mary, but everything seems fine. In a moment they’ll take her up to the postnatal ward.’ Dino cleared up the remains of the delivery pack and Mike rubbed a shaky hand over his forehead.
‘I can’t believe I missed it. It’s a little girl?’
‘That’s right.’ Meg jumped down from the vehicle and glanced at her watch. ‘I’ll take you up there now. Come on. What do you want us to do with all these Christmas presents?’
Mike looked at them blankly, clearly in shock. ‘I—I have no idea. Sue’s parents are on their way to the hospital now.’
‘In which case we can leave the lot just inside the doors with the girls on Reception and you can transfer it all to the car when you’re ready.’
Meg closed the door and Mike grabbed her arm. ‘Listen—’
‘It’s OK.’ Meg smiled. ‘You’re welcome.’
Mike looked at her intently. ‘You always did have more balls than most men.’
Meg’s smile faltered. ‘Right. Well—thanks. Have a good Christmas, Mike.’
Looking at her tense shoulders, Dino frowned and was about to ask her what was wrong when Ellie appeared in the entrance.
‘Meg? Can you come? I’ve just spoken to Ambulance Control and they’re bringing in a nasty RTA.’
‘Why are people still driving their cars in this weather?’ Meg slithered across the icy ground and into the warmth of the emergency department. ‘Everyone should just stay at home and watch Christmas TV instead of dicing with death on the roads.’
Ellie looked harassed. ‘We’re incredibly busy. Dino, can you go straight to Resus? At this rate we’re going to be lucky if any of us make it to the ball tonight.’
The rest of the shift was so hectic that Meg didn’t even have time to grab a drink. By eight o’clock the emergency department had calmed down a little and it was decided that the staff attending the ball could leave.
Dino glanced at his watch. ‘Good job we planned to change at the hospital because there’s no time to go home. You have twenty minutes to get ready before the cab arrives. It’s never going to be enough, is it?’
Twenty minutes? How long did he think it took a girl to pull on a dress? Meg opened her mouth to tell him that there was no way it would take her anywhere near that long, and then she realised that all the other women he dated probably took three times that length of time to get ready for an evening out with him. He was gorgeous, wasn’t he? Any woman spending an evening with a man like him would want to look their best. All the time in the world wasn’t going to turn her into the sort of woman he normally dated. Why on earth had she agreed to this? Why was she putting herself through this torture? ‘Twenty minutes will be fine,’ she said tonelessly, ‘I’ll do a rush job.’
He gave her a searching look. ‘Take as long as you need. I’ll drive us. That way it doesn’t matter if we’re late.’
Yes, it did, because the last thing she wanted to do was make a grand entrance. She wanted to arrive along with everyone else. She wanted to blend into the background. With a shaky laugh at her own expense, Meg hurried towards the staff room. When had she ever blended at that sort of thing? She was going to stand out like a single poppy in a cornfield.
Ellie was waiting for her in the staffroom. ‘Hurry up! I’ve already heated the tongs. I’m going to straighten your hair before I go and get changed myself.’
Meg flattened herself against the door. ‘I was planning to just wear it up like I always do. I prefer it that way.’
‘I think you should wear it loose. You have beautiful hair. It’s time you showed people how amazing it is.’
Meg allowed herself to waste five of her twenty minutes having her hair straightened. After that it took only a couple of minutes to change into the dress and push her feet into the shoes.
