The Army Doc's Baby Secret

‘I’m not trying to play who has the greater claim, Zeke. I’m just saying that...it’s understandable why I want to be here.’

She was holding something back; he knew her well enough to be able to tell. But neither could he deny the point she was making. But whatever else either of them might say was curtailed by the sound of movement outside. Clearly an incident was going down.

‘So that’s why you’re back?’

The hesitation was brief. Blink and you’d miss it.

‘Yes.’

He couldn’t explain why it crept through him as it did.

Was she back for someone else?

But then there was the sound of footsteps and he knew that someone was coming down the corridor. Maybe for Tia.

He’d waited five years for a conversation he’d never been sure would ever ta

ke place—and now it was about to be interrupted. Exactly as he’d feared.

Frustration swamped him, making his words harsher, his voice edgier, than he’d intended them to be.

‘I don’t know, Tia. Maybe I thought you’d returned because you’d read about me in the papers and finally remembered that you were still my wife.’

CHAPTER TWO

TIA HURRIED DOWN the hallway, the emergency somehow grounding her.

She’d never been so happy for an interruption as she had been when one of the lifeguards had knocked on the door to tell her that they were dragging a struggling dog walker out of the surf and she might be needed.

Technically, she hadn’t started yet but, until they knew what it was or whether the emergency services would need to be called, she could certainly take a look.

The confrontation with Zeke had been harder, so much harder, than she’d imagined it would be. He’d brought her to her knees with just a few curt words. So any further, awkward conversations with Zeke could—mercifully—wait.

Turning the corner, Tia spotted one of the lifeguards guiding a disorientated-looking woman up the steps, a dog leaping around behind them. The woman was moving under her own steam but looked weak.

‘This is Marie,’ the lifeguard was saying as they approached. ‘About forty minutes ago she was walking her dog when it ran into the water a bit too far and got into difficulties. She went into the water to rescue it but got a bit stuck herself so we ran in. We brought her back here for a warm drink and change of clothes and then she seemed okay. Then about five minutes ago, she started to take a turn.’

‘So she wasn’t this disorientated when you pulled her out?’

‘No,’ the lifeguard replied. ‘She complained of feeling faint about ten minutes later but nothing more. This has got progressively worse since she’s been here.’

Tia watched as Zeke moved quickly to the fainting woman’s other side, putting her arm around his shoulders.

‘She’s going to go, Billy,’ he warned. ‘Put your hand under her thigh and we’ll carry her through. Quickly.’

The two men had barely got her to the consulting bed when she stopped breathing.

‘Zeke, get her on the bed and get me a defib. Billy—’ Tia turned to the lifeguard as he was dropping the woman’s rucksack and coat from his shoulder ‘—call treble nine.’

‘Heart attack?’ Zeke asked, yanking the cupboard open and producing the defibrillator that Tia hadn’t yet had a chance to locate.

‘Could be.’ Tia ripped open a mechanical ventilating kit and began to administer oxygen to help the woman start breathing again. ‘But it may be drug related. Her skin is clammy and I don’t like that purple colour.’

‘Look there, it’s like a rash,’ Zeke noted, peering at the woman’s arm.

Tia nodded, but her attention turned straight back to her casualty as she saw the woman begin to blink.

‘Marie? Marie, are you with me? Good girl. Okay, my name is Tia, I’m a doctor. Have you got any medical conditions?’