The Doctor's Runaway Bride

‘Do I? Well, he’s bound to be over-protective.’ Sharon gave a short laugh. ‘Obstetricians make notoriously paranoid fathers. Unless we keep an eye on him he’ll probably have you sectioned at 37 weeks just to be on the safe side.’

Tia laughed. She and Luca hadn’t actually got round to talking about the delivery yet.

She made her way back down to clinic and got on with her work.

Halfway through the afternoon she saw a woman who was thirteen weeks pregnant and had severe vomiting.

‘I feel so awful,’ the young woman confessed, her face pale and wan. ‘I can’t keep anything down and the minute I see someone else with food I’m sick.’

‘You poor thing.’ Knowing just how ill she’d felt herself, Tia was very sympathetic. ‘Could you hop on the scales for me, Mary? I’ll weigh you.’

Mary slipped off her shoes and pulled a face as she climbed onto the scales. ‘I know I’ve lost weight,’ she mumbled, glancing anxiously at the reading. ‘My clothes are all baggy. I haven’t even had to buy any maternity clothes.’

‘You can step down now.’ Tia checked her weight against the last reading and frowned. The weight loss was significant.

‘Is it bad?’ Mary gave a sigh and sat back down, obviously feeling as ill as she looked. ‘You can be honest—as I say, my clothes are falling off me so I’m already prepared for bad news.’

‘It’s not bad news exactly,’ Tia said quickly. ‘But we do need to check you over. I’ll just fetch a doctor and then we can talk it through in more detail.’

She found Luca about to drink a cup of coffee and he gave a wry smile.

‘I thought a coffee-break was too good to be true.’ He stood up and lifted an eyebrow. ‘What’s the problem?’

She briefed him quickly and he followed her back along the corridor to see Mary.

‘By the way, I’ve just been to ITU to see Sue Gibbs.’ A look of satisfaction crossed his handsome face as he gave her the news. ‘She’s definitely on the mend. Her blood pressure is down and she’s sitting up and talking. They’re planning to take her to visit the baby later.’

Tia’s eyes shone with delight. ‘That’s fantastic!’

Luca nodded, pausing as they reached the clinic. ‘She was lucky she came into hospital when she did.’

‘She was lucky she had you when she got here,’ Tia said gruffly, and Luca gave her a keen look.

‘You were the one who got that airway in while she was fitting, Tia.’

‘Teamwork,’ she said stoutly, and he smiled his agreement.

‘Teamwork.’

They walked into the room to see Mary and Luca introduced himself and flicked through the notes. Then he examined her

, carefully explaining everything that he was doing.

Halfway through the examination Dr Ford appeared, her eyes immediately locking onto Luca.

‘Sorry I’m late for clinic, Dr Zattoni,’ she breathed. ‘I was watching Dan Sutherland section a lady with twins.’

‘No problem.’ Luca quickly updated her and then turned back to Mary. ‘I know that this isn’t what you want to hear, but you must spend a few days in hospital while we sort out this vomiting. We need to try and find a cause and we need to try and stop the sickness.’

‘I thought the cause was pregnancy,’ Mary muttered, and Luca inclined his head.

‘That’s true but sometimes there are identifiable causes. I want to run some tests.’

Mary stared at him. ‘What for?’

He rested one muscular thigh on the couch and folded his arms across his chest, totally relaxed as he talked to his patient. ‘I want to do thyroid function tests—sometimes excessive vomiting can be caused by thyroid or adrenal dysfunction.’ He ticked the tests off on his fingers. ‘I want to take some blood so that we can judge how much fluid we should be giving you, and I want you to have a scan straight away.’

Mary sighed. ‘How long will I be in hospital?’