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‘You’d be amazed at what people get up to,’ Belinda said, with a fleeting but totally cynical cop-like expression. ‘You off to work now?’
Georgie glanced at her watch and grimaced. ‘Hell! I’m going to be late for my first ward round on the neurosurgical unit.’
‘Thanks for helping here this morning,’ Belinda said. ‘That little baby was a cutie, wasn’t she?’
‘Don’t tell me you’re a bit clucky.’
‘I’m over thirty now so, yes, I’m hearing the clock tick a little louder than before.’
Georgie smiled at her friend’s rueful expression. ‘You doing body combat tomorrow morning?’
Belinda gave her a twinkling look as she pointed to the tall, good-looking police officer who was inspecting the brake lights of the male driver’s car. ‘I’m hoping to be doing body combat tonight. What do you think of my new partner?’
Georgie ran her gaze over the fit-looking, brown-haired man. ‘Not bad,’ she said.
‘What about you? Got any options going at that new hospital of yours?’ Belinda asked.
Georgie had to forcibly remove the image of Ben Blackwood from her mind. ‘I’m on a three-month no-dating pact,’ she said. ‘My flatmate and I decided after our last relationship disasters we were going to bail out for a while. I’m so over men at the moment.’
‘No wonder you’re hitting the gym every morning,’ Belinda said, reaching for her phone when it started to buzz. ‘Catch you later, Georgie.’
‘See you,’ Georgie answered. Glancing at her watch again, she raced back to her car.
CHAPTER FOUR
‘SO WHERE is the registrar this morning?’ Ben asked Irene Clark, the unit head nurse on duty.
‘She called the unit a few minutes ago. She’s going to be a few minutes late,’ Irene said. ‘She said something about an accident.’
Ben gave a grunt and turned to the four medical students and the intern hovering in the background. ‘Just for the record if you need to make up an excuse for being absent or late, make sure it’s an original each time,’ he said. ‘I will be keeping a mental record of how many grandmothers’ funerals, toothaches or minor traffic accidents occur.’
There was a snigger from the group just as Georgie burst onto the ward. ‘Sorry I’m so late,’ she said a little breathlessly. ‘I was caught up in an accident and—’
Ben hooked one brow upwards. ‘Another one, Dr
Willoughby?’
Georgie stopped in her tracks, her eyes taking in the intereste
d stares from the medical students and Jules Littlemore the intern. She drew her shoulders back and met Ben’s dark satirical gaze with an equanimity fuelled by anger. ‘Yes, as a matter of fact, Mr Blackwood,’ she said in a clipped tone. ‘And this time it wasn’t my fault.’
The corner of his mouth lifted in a smirk. ‘I’m very glad to hear it. Now, if you’d like to join us, we’re about to do a ward round. You do know what that is, don’t you,
Dr Willoughby?’
Georgie silently seethed as he led the way to the first patient. So that’s the way he was going to play it, was he? She ground her teeth as she took her place beside Jeffrey Neale’s bed.
‘Dr Willoughby, can you summarise Mr Neale’s admission from last night for us, please?’ Ben asked as he glanced through the patient’s notes. ‘Mr DeBurgh has asked me to include his patients on the ward round for him as he’s doing a list in the private hospital this morning.’
‘Yes, Mr Blackwood,’ Georgie answered tightly. ‘Mr Neale came in through A and E after a high-speed MVA. He was resussed and investigated by the A and E staff before I was called. Apart from some minor soft-tissue injuries and a couple of fractured ribs, his main problem was a closed head injury, and his GCS was 9 on arrival. He was intubated and CT’d. He’s got diffuse oedema and scattered cerebral petechial haemorrhages but no localising lesion. Last night Mr DeBurgh put in an ICP monitor. He’s been on mannitol, steroids and phenobarb overnight. ICP has remained normal, and pCO2 and oximetry have been closely monitored.’
‘Nicely summarised, Georgie,’ Jules said with an encouraging smile.
‘Yes, not bad,’ Ben agreed. ‘But you haven’t gone on to the management plan.’
Georgie set her mouth. ‘I thought you just wanted the summary up to now.’
Ben held her pointed look. ‘The summary is fine. But you need to spell out a plan of management. You can’t just stop there.’
