'This is Mike Richards, aged 34. Fell three floors onto wooden planks. He's got a compound fracture of his shaft of femur but no other visible injuries apart from a few bruises. GCS of fourteen.'
'All right, let's give him oxygen and get a large-bore cannula in,' Ben said sharply, breaking off momentarily as Ellie slipped quietly into the room.
For a brief moment their eyes met and he saw faint colour touch her cheeks. He gritted his teeth and forced himself to concentrate on his patient.
'Will, send bloods for U and E, FBC and blood sugar and cross-match four units. Ellie, can you run through some Haemaccel and we'll get that up while we're waiting for the blood. I want to do a femoral nerve block and then get his leg in traction.' He turned to the patient who was groaning in agony. 'Mike, I'm going to start by getting rid of that pain for you. I'm going to give you an injection into your nerve which will deaden the pain. It will just take a minute and then you'll feel better. Hang on in there.'
Carefully he palpated die femoral artery and inserted a 21-gauge needle, checking that he hadn't punctured a blood vessel before injecting the anaesthetic.
'All right, Mike.' Ben was still talking calmly to the patient. 'We're going to apply traction to your leg as quickly as possible because that will reduce the pain and the amount of blood that you're losing. It will also make it easier to move you while we take some X-rays. Ellie? Can you get a Donway traction splint, please?'
There was much activity and once the splint was in place Ben relaxed slightly.
'OK, folks, he fell from a height and that can be associated with a hip dislocation, pelvic fracture or fracture of the patella. I don't want to miss anything here so I want X-rays of the pelvis, hip and knee and the shaft of the femur. Ellie, can you bleep the orthopaedic reg, please?'
Ellie checked the pulse in the foot again and then hurried over to the phone.
Finally they transferred Mr Richards to X-Ray and Ben and Ellie were left alone in the room.
Immediately she hurried over to him, her eyes concerned. 'Are you OK?'
He stared down at her, totally thrown by her generous nature. Only a few hours earlier he'd told her that their relationship wasn't going anywhere, and here she was worrying about him. Didn't the woman ever think of herself?
He was still racked with guilt about the night before. 'Ellie listen, about last night...' He closed his eyes briefly. 'Did I hurt you?'
She blinked and then blushed prettily when she realized what he meant. 'No.' She shook her head and gave him a shy smile. 'It was fantastic, Ben. I just never knew it could—I could— Oh, help.' This time she looked away and he fought the temptation to drag her into his arms and repeat the experience on the hospital trolley lying vacant next to them.
No wonder his self-control had snapped.
Any man confronted- with a woman like Ellie would have lost control.
He was stunned that she'd never made love before. And he hadn't even noticed...
'I should have taken more time.'
'Ben, why are you beating yourself up about this?' She touched him gently on the arm. 'In case you didn't notice, I was with you all the way. I wanted it as much as you did. There's no need to feel guilty, or apologise or worry about what you're going to say to me.'
He looked at her warily and voiced the question that was worrying him. 'Are we still going to be able to work together?'
'Of course we are!' She looked at him in amazement and then gave a delicious giggle that was pure Ellie. 'Unless you're afraid I'll rip your clothes off in public, and I have to say that there's a very high risk of that happening. It is my turn to undress you, after all. Talking of which, you owe me a new cardigan, Dr MacAllister!'
And new panties.
Remembering just how rough he'd been with her, he bit back a groan. How could he have behaved like that, and how could she joke about it?
She swiftly cleared the room around them and then strolled back over to him, her eyes mischievous.
'Ben, if you're still worrying about last night, please, don't. There isn't a woman in the world that wouldn't want a man to be so desperate for her that he tears her clothes to get to her body. Believe me, if I didn't have those sorts of fantasies about you before, it was only due to ignorance. But I'm not ignorant or innocent any more, and from now on I'll be having them all the time.'
Ben blinked, but before he could speak she walked over to him and stood on tiptoe to kiss his cheek.
'If you need a shoulder because you feel down, you know where I am, and if you need anything else...' she gave him a saucy wink '...you know where I am for that, too.'
With that she strolled towards the swing doors, casting a final look over her shoulder. But it was a look that heated his blood to a dangerous level.
CHAPTER NINE
IT WAS later in the afternoon when the doors crashed open and a burly, muscular man stormed into the department, clearly in a dangerous mood.