The Doctor's Family Secret

‘Because he believed the medication was working.’

Nick shook his head. ‘It’s clear that it wasn’t. I told Tom that he shouldn’t be treating patients while he was ill, but he always said that we work as a team and that there would be enough warning of an impending attack for him to be able to hand over to someone else.’

Laura sent Tom a swift, anxious glance, but it was doubtful that their patient could hear what they were saying.

‘That’s true, though, isn’t it?’ she murmured. ‘He put himself at risk by carrying on, but not his patients.’

‘Like your father, you’ll believe what you want to believe.’

Frowning, she looked up at Nick. Was he right? No matter what her reservations were about him, she had to respect him as a doctor. He was doing everything in his power to save Tom. He worked quickly and efficiently and he was very clear thinking. But, then, as he’d said, he’d seen this coming, hadn’t he?

She said quietly, ‘What about fibrinolytics?’

‘That’s probably a good idea,’ he said in a low voice. ‘We’ll get the test results first, but there’s no history of ulcer or recent surgery so they’re probably advisable in this instance. We need to do whatever we can to unclog these arteries.’

As soon as they had Tom stabilised, Nick arranged for him to be transferred to the cardiac unit. Laura watched Tom being wheeled away a little later, and hoped fervently that he would be all right.

‘At least we were on hand to treat him,’ Nick said. ‘If he had been on his own, I doubt whether he would have survived. As it is, he’s in the best place.’

She had the feeling that he was trying to comfort her. ‘I know. I haven’t known him for very long but, even so, I get on very well with him. He’s so kind and thoughtful, and he always has time for other people. He was very good to me when I started here.’

‘He’s good to everyone. His problem has always been that he works too hard, and doesn’t pay enough attention to his own health. If he had done, he might have heeded some of the signs that things were going wrong. Perhaps now he will begin to listen.’

Laura bit her lip. She felt as though she was losing a friend and ally. In the few months that she had known him, Tom had always been steadfast in his concern for his colleagues and his patients, and now he was the one who needed support. What had happened to him this morning was serious and life-threatening, and now he must be feeling vulnerable and frightened.

‘He’s in good hands. Our cardiac unit is one of the best in the country.’

She nodded. ‘I know. We deal with these kinds of incidents all the time, and that should make it easier for us to cope, but Tom is one of our own. He’s not all that much older than my father. It sort of brings things home to you, and makes you think of how these things affect families.’

‘That’s true.’ He was silent for a moment, then said in a musing tone, ‘Talking of families, that was a nasty gash your brother had. Is he keen on DIY?’

‘Not especially, but it makes a change from sitting behind a desk all day. He likes to dabble in all sorts of things that involve keeping busy, like gardening, decorating, sport.’

‘What work does he do?’

‘He works in a bank. He enjoys what he does, but he says that having a desk job means he doesn’t get enough exercise.’

‘Then he wasn’t interested in following family tradition and going into medicine?’

‘No, not really.’

‘He’s very much like your father, physically. Has his lack of interest in medicine caused any friction? I know that David was particularly pleased when you decided to go to medical school.’

‘Perhaps he was, but all he really wants is for us to be happy, whatever we decide to do.’

Nick looked at her curiously. ‘I still think it’s strange that you and your brother are so very different in appearance. I met your mother once, when she came to a function at the hospital, but you don’t seem to take after her either.’

Laura gave a faint, wry smile. She had to give him full points for observation. ‘You’re perfectly right,’ she said softly. ‘The truth is, Matthew is their natural son, but I was adopted. It doesn’t matter to me, because I don’t really remember it being any other way. I love my father dearly, and I miss my mother more than words can say.’

She lowered her head slightly, remembering her adoptive mother. ‘It was a great shock to all of us when she died.’

Nick frowned. ‘I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to upset you.’

She lifted her head and braced herself. ‘That’s all right, I’m fine. I’ve had more than a few years to get over the fact that she’s gone. It’s just that it was so unexpected. She was a good driver, but it was a foggy night and there were patches of ice on the road. That particular bend in the road was an accident black spot. At least now they’ve made it safer by putting warning signs up.’

‘She would have been proud to know that you passed your medical exams, and that you became a fully fledged doctor.’

‘Yes, I believe she would…even though I may still have a lot to learn.’ Remembering his comments on her junior status from a few days ago, she threw him a hooded glance, and perhaps her gibe hit home because his mouth twisted at the corners.

He didn’t follow it up, though, because an emergency admission dragged them both back to work.

The thought still rankled in her mind, though. Whenever she was on duty at the same time as Nick, she felt that he was keeping an eye on her, and she often wondered if he was expecting her to fall flat on her face. A and E was a challenging speciality, and she was doing her level best to master it. You never knew what to expect, but she wanted to do her utmost for her patients, and she knew that she would go on learning for quite some time. She just didn’t need Nick to remind her of that.

When she went back home that evening, Matthew was there with Connor. Her father was showing Connor how to colour pictures on the computer, and he looked up and smiled as she walked into the living room.

‘Matthew tells me that you had to stitch his hand for him this morning. You’d think a doctor’s son would be more careful, wouldn’t you?’

Laura chuckled. ‘You would, but this is Matthew we’re talking about. He’s always been slightly accident-prone. He gets absorbed in what he’s doing, to the exclusion of everything else.’ She sent Matthew a smiling glance. ‘I take it that Catherine’s not back from her shopping trip yet?’

He nodded. ‘She phoned to say that she met up with a friend, and they’re having a meal together to celebrate the friend’s birthday. She’ll be back later on this evening.’

‘Would you like to stay for dinner with us?’

‘That would be great. I’m sure Connor will enjoy spending some more time with both of you.’

Over dinner, she told her father what had happened to Tom.

‘I heard about it,’ her father said. ‘It’s a bad business. I like Tom. We’ve worked together for years, and he’s always been a good friend to me.’

Matthew frowned. ‘Is this the same Tom who goes fishing with you in the summer?’

‘That’s right. I’m sorry to see him brought down by something like this.’ He sent Laura a quick glance. ‘I’m glad that you and Nick were there to take care of him.’

‘I think Nick was expecting it, to be honest. I knew that Tom had been unwell for some time, but I didn’t know how bad it was.’

‘Nick’s more observant than most, I’ll give him that. He’s a very clear-headed young man, but he’s very forthright in his views, too. He doesn’t pull his punches, and he forgets that there is more than one side to most situations.’ He frowned, his mouth tightening in a spasm of anger. ‘We’ve had more than a few arguments over this very subject. He didn’t think Tom should have still been working in A and E.’

‘I know.’

‘Sometimes it seems as though Nick is totally insensitive to what other people are going through. I can understand how Tom must have felt, faced with the thought of giving up his work. I know what it’s like to have to give up a career in medicine. It isn’t an easy thing to accept that your way of life, everything that you’ve worked for, has to come to an end. It can be a brutal blow, but Nick will never appreciate that.’ There was a bitter edge to his words. ‘For him it seems like a simple enough decision, but for Tom it was something he couldn’t even bear to consider.’

‘It’s been forced on him now.’

‘Yes. He’ll have a lot of thinking to do over these next few months while he recovers his strength.’

He reached for the coffee-pot and filled his cup. ‘Actually, I called in to see Tom before I came home this evening. He said that you’d been in to see him, too, and I think it’s made him feel a lot more cheerful to know that he’s surrounded by friends. He seemed resigned to the fact that he’s not going to be able to avoid surgery.’

‘A triple bypass would give him a new lease of life.’

‘That’s true enough.’ He shook his head in grim reflection. ‘It’s a sad fact, but I can’t see him being able to come back to work. He’s only a year or so off retirement, and I think in the end he’ll come around to the fact that he will have to accept his limitations.’

‘That’s probably true, but at least he’ll have his family around him. That will be something for him to look forward to.’

Her father nodded. ‘I’m sure he’ll be glad of their support.’ His expression was sombre. ‘On the other hand, as far as we’re concerned, this whole sorry business leaves us with something of a predicament.’

Laura looked at him curiously. ‘What do you mean?’

‘I mean that the A and E department has been left with no consultant in charge.’

‘Yes, I had thought of that. I suppose, if Tom is ill for any length of time, which seems likely, the hospital will have to appoint an acting consultant, a locum perhaps.’

‘I don’t imagine it will be easy to get someone suitable as a matter of urgency. What’s most likely to happen is that Nick will be asked to stand in temporarily.’ His features darkened. ‘I expect he’ll be glad enough to step into Tom’s shoes. With nobody standing in his way, he’ll have free rein, won’t he? What is there to stop him from going after what he wants?’

Laura’s eyes widened. ‘You mean that he will be in charge?’

‘Unfortunately, I think that’s a strong possibility.’

Laura struggled to absorb that. Nick, in charge? While she respected him as a doctor, there was no way she would be happy for him to have overall control of her daily work situation. It was bad enough at the moment, when there seemed to be constant friction between them. She was forever having to bite her tongue when their sometimes heated disagreements threatened to get out of control. How would it be when he was the acting consultant?

And that was without even beginning to consider the damaging effect his sudden promotion would have on his working relationship with her father. The result would be calamitous and didn’t bear thinking about.

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