Daring To Date Her Ex

He nodded, as if he understood that Thea had nothing more of a personal nature left to say. ‘Yes, that would be good. You’re thinking of working out of the room on the ground floor?’

‘Yes.’

‘It’s not very well signposted, and it’s a way away from the department. We may have to review that location at our first team meeting tomorrow morning. Can you come up with some alternatives, or should I speak with your head of department about that?’

Like hell he would. ‘You can speak to me. I’m the liaison officer.’

He gave a small nod. ‘In that case, I’d like to see some alternatives. Preferably in the department and with easy, well-signposted access. It looks as if we may be testing a large number of contacts, and I don’t want people having to wander around the way I did.’

‘I chose the clinic on the ground floor because it has its own separate external entrance, which is a hundred metres from the bus stop in the hospital grounds.’

‘But if you come in at the main gates—’

‘No one does, unless they’re driving. The back gates are five minutes from the school. The department’s senior secretary is preparing a map that we can append to all the appointment letters, and she’ll get some temporary signage as soon as we agree on wording.’

‘And access to the department?’

This must be new territory for Lucas. Seven years ago, Thea had usually been the one to back down, in the face of two years’ seniority in their studies and Lucas’s seductive charm. Things were different now.

‘There’s a stairway between us and the department. We have easy access to the X-ray department, and there’s a counselling suite next door, which I can annex for our use if we need it.’

‘You seem to have all the answers.’

Not by a very long way. But she knew her own hospital better than he did at least. ‘It’s agreed, then?’

A smile twitched at the side of his mouth, and Thea ignored it. ‘Yes. Agreed.’

CHAPTER TWO

Day Two

THE MEETING CONVENED at eight o’clock the next morning, with Lucas sitting at the head of the table as if he owned it. He was indisputably at the helm, guiding them through the long agenda with the minimum of fuss. When Lucas put his mind to something, Thea had never seen him fail.

‘My office.’ Michael gathered up his papers from the desk, murmuring the words as he walked behind Thea towards the door, and she followed him out of the room. Her professionalism had slipped just once that morning. Lucas had made a joke and she’d responded a little too quickly and with a bit too much bite. It wouldn’t happen again but Michael didn’t miss much.

‘Any concerns?’ Michael had closed the door of his office behind them and waved her to a seat.

‘I don’t think so. This is much as I’d expected—’

‘You know Dr West?’

‘Yes.’ Thea gave up the pretence that she’d been clinging to all morning. She supposed that it would all come out sooner or later anyway. ‘I know him. He worked at the hospital where I trained.’

Michael nodded her on. He obviously wasn’t done yet, and it was unlikely he’d let her out of here until he was.

‘We went out for a while. Two years, actually. I haven’t seen him since then.’

‘Hmm.’ Michael was obviously weighing up the information. ‘Ran its course?’

‘He had plans to work abroad. I’d only just finished medical school and had my two years’ foundation training still to do. I had my career to consider.’

Michael looked about as convinced as Thea felt that this was all there was to it. ‘Okay. I won’t pry any further into things that don’t concern me. All I really need to know is whether you can work with him effectively.’

Thea had been willing to put her career on hold for Lucas once. Once was enough. She wasn’t going to lose this job over something that had been over for seven years.

‘I always had a great deal of respect for Lucas’s abilities and I still do. I’m qualified for this job, and I want to do it well. I’m confident that the same goes for him.’

‘All right.’ Michael leaned back in his chair, a flip of his hand indicating that she was off the hook. ‘Go do it. Remember that my door’s always open.’

Lucas hadn’t failed to notice that Thea had followed her boss out of the conference room, probably responding from some signal from Michael. They’d been gone for ten minutes now, and he guessed that they were talking about him.

Fair enough. It was pretty much par for the course that everyone talked about an external consultant, weighing him up, deciding how capable he was. Lucas took it for granted and concentrated on proving himself. But this was different. He was half expecting to be summoned to Michael Freeman’s office and discreetly informed that Thea would no longer be working directly with him, as if he posed some kind of threat to her.

He waited. The half-open door of the conference room suddenly swung wide and Thea was in the doorway. ‘I’ve just spoken with Michael’s secretary. The microbiology results are in.’

There was an assurance in her face that said that something had been discussed and a decision made. Whatever the details, Lucas couldn’t help but applaud the outcome, because it had brought her back to him.

Responding to a silent alert, she consulted her pager. ‘Sorry, got to go. I’m needed up on the ward.’

‘Our TB case?’ When she nodded her assent, he picked up his papers and buttoned his jacket. He had heard all about the isolation procedures and the patient’s condition at the meeting, but he wanted to check on both. ‘I’ll walk with you.’

Lucas fell into step beside her, following her through the twists and turns of the hospital corridors. She was walking so fast that he had to lengthen his stride to keep up with her. ‘Microbiology?’ Lucas reminded her.

‘Ah, yes. It’s been confirmed as TB—a partially drug-resistant strain, which has markers in common with a known strain found in the Birmingham area a year ago.’

‘I’ll get the notes on which drug regime worked best there. The patient has contacts in Birmingham?’

‘Not as far as I know. We got some details from the wife, but I was reckoning on interviewing her more fully after we’d liaised with you.’ She smiled suddenly and the Thea he knew broke from the shell of the woman she’d become. Eager for the task ahead and ready to face its challenges.

After the bustling hospital corridors, the isolation suite was like an oasis of regulated calm. A nursing station gave access to four separate rooms, each entered via a small lobby. Dispensers at each door held protective masks, gloves and aprons.

Automatically, Lucas’s gaze flipped to the pressure gauge at the side of the door. In order to eliminate the spread of airborne particles containing mycobacterium tuberculosis, the room should be kept under negative pressure.

It was. The whole place seemed to exude a smug pride, telling him he could look as hard as he liked, everything was being done by the book. Quiet and efficient, even if the masks and aprons of the nursing staff did lend an impersonal touch.

And then there was Thea. She approached the man in the bed, who was coughing painfully and being supported in a sitting position by a nurse. Lucas could hear the scrape of lungs that couldn’t do their job properly screaming for air.

‘Hey, there, Derek.’ Despite the mask, Lucas could see her smile. It leaked out of her, in her posture, the way she touched the back of his hand with her gloved fingertips. Her eyes. It struck Lucas that if the last thing he ever saw was her eyes, warm and full of compassion, then he’d be a happy man.

‘Not so good today, I see.’ Derek was fighting for breath and so Thea voiced both sides of the conversation. ‘Okay, let’s have a listen to your chest.’

She nodded to the nurse, who helped her pull the gown away from Derek’s back. A careful, thorough examination seemed to confirm what was already obvious. Overnight, Derek’s condition had deteriorated, and the fluid on his lungs was now making it painful and difficult to breathe.

‘Good. You’re doing great.’ Thea helped the nurse settle Derek back onto the pillows. ‘I think that we can make you more comfortable, though.’

That smile again. And suddenly, in response, Derek’s face seemed to throw off the anonymity of pain. He was no longer just a patient, defined by what treatment the hospital could give. He was a man in his thirties, sandy hair, blue eyes. Who had a wife and a job and a life outside these walls.

And a sense of humour. Thea made a joke, the nurse laughed, and Derek’s eyes suddenly lit up. She patted his hand and gave him a wave, before sweeping out of the room, leaving Lucas to follow her.

Outside, she was all business. Standing by the glazed wall of the isolation room so that Derek could see she was still there, she looked up at Lucas, her gaze serious.

‘I was hoping that the pleural effusion would stay stable.’

‘We need to do a thoracentesis.’ Lucas provided the obvious answer. ‘You have a mobile ultrasound unit available?’

‘Yes. I’ll get it up here.’

‘The sooner the better. I think we should consider a drain as well.’

She nodded.

‘He has no blood coagulation issues?’

‘No. And he understands what’s happening and is co-operative. We can keep him calm while we do the procedure.’

Lucas nodded, removing his jacket. ‘I’ll need to take a look at the notes.’

They’d fallen so easily into the familiar pattern. Lucas in the lead, studying Derek’s notes and issuing instructions. Thea liaising with the ward sister and overseeing preparations. With two years’ seniority to her, that had always been the way of it.

That had been the way of it seven years ago. Now this was her hospital. Her patient.

‘You’ll be sitting in on this one, then?’ She murmured the question quietly.

For a moment he seemed lost for an answer. ‘You’ve done this procedure before?’

What did he think she’d been doing for the last seven years? Lucas badly needed to catch up. ‘Yes, many times.’ She kept her voice low and professional, the barb in her words and not her tone. ‘Some of them in conditions you could barely imagine.’

She might just as well have slapped him. The sting hit home and for a moment she saw hurt in his eyes. ‘This is not about scoring points, Thea. It’s about patient welfare.’

‘So you’re in the habit of questioning the competence of the doctors you work with?’ Seven years ago she would have screamed the words at him. Now they were uttered quietly, between clenched teeth.

‘Okay, I get it. This is your hospital …’ His lip curled slightly.

‘What the hell happened to you, Lucas?’ Thea flushed red as she whispered the words. It might be inappropriate, but so what? The question had been on her mind ever since she’d first laid eyes on him yesterday.

‘I got real.’ He almost spat the words at her and then the consummate professional took over. ‘I will sit in if that’s okay with you.’

‘Of course.’ She turned on her heel and made her way back to Derek’s room to take a breath and oversee the preparations. Anger had no place here, and neither did personal issues between doctors. What mattered was the patient, and that her hand was sure and steady.

A nurse helped Derek into position, leaning forward, and offering encouragement and a hand to hold. Thea concentrated on her job, the precise insertion of a needle into Derek’s back in the spot indicated by the ultrasound scan. Fluid bubbled out from the pleural cavity, draining into a bag.

When it was done, a restrained burst of activity got Derek back comfortably into bed, and the room was cleared of the evidence of the procedure. Thea risked a glance in Lucas’s direction, and he gave her a small nod of approval. She shouldn’t need his acknowledgement, she knew for herself that everything had gone well. Maybe she’d just wanted it.

They were both treading on eggshells. Outwardly professional and confident but engaged in a private battle that had nothing to do with now and everything to do with their shared past. Lucas quirked his lips downwards. It wasn’t really the shared past that was the problem. It was the things they hadn’t shared, in the long years since he’d left her, that seemed to be the issue.

They were ready to leave the ward when a woman arrived. She looked tired, her dark hair scraped into a lank ponytail at the back of her head. Thea smiled, beckoning Lucas to follow her over.

‘Anna. This is Dr West, he’s working with me on Derek’s case.’

Anna gave Lucas a cursory nod. ‘How is Derek?’

‘He’s looking forward to seeing you. We did a procedure to drain the fluid from around his lungs this morning, and he should be much more comfortable now. Can we have a quick word with you?’

Somehow she managed to intimate that Lucas should follow them into the small area set aside for patients’ families, without actually looking at him. He wondered whether he should offer to fetch coffee and decided against it. As Thea was so keen that this was her hospital, she would be the one to know where the coffee machine was.

‘How’s it going, Anna? Did you get some sleep last night?’ Thea had sat down next to Anna and Lucas found a chair opposite them.

‘A bit. Actually, it’s almost a relief to know what’s wrong with him after all this time. I know it’s going to be difficult, but …’

‘You’ll have plenty of support, for as long as you need it.’ Thea turned her lovely eyes onto him and suddenly everything else melted away. ‘That’s where Dr West comes in.’

Anna turned her expectant gaze onto Lucas. ‘Yes?’

Lucas dragged his attention away from Thea and smiled at Anna. ‘Part of my job is to provide clear information and advice about tuberculosis. If you have any questions, you can ask the doctors here, or you can ask me.’

Anna took the printed card that he proffered, stowing it in her handbag. ‘Derek’s a teacher, you know. And he’s in a theatre group. But the last time he was there was before Christmas, when he painted the scenery for the pantomime. That was before he was ill.’

Anna was beginning to babble, and Lucas leaned forward to catch her attention. ‘It’s okay, Anna. We’ll go through all the people he’s been in contact with later.’

‘It’s just that I’m dreading what’s going to happen when everyone finds out about this.’

‘We realise that you’re in a difficult situation.’ He glanced at Thea, wondering if she felt that reassurance was her territory as well, but she simply nodded in agreement with him.

‘We put a lot of effort into making the community aware of the facts. And one of those facts is that tuberculosis is not easily transmitted from one person to another.’

Anna rolled her eyes, giving him a watery smile. ‘I understand that now. All the same, it feels as if it’s all around me. And my children …’

‘I saw in the notes that you have two children under five. And that they’ve both had their BCG.’

‘That’s right. I can’t help worrying, though. I bleached everything last night.’ Anna shivered, her gaze slewing around the room as if something was following her, waiting its chance to strike.

Giving her a leaflet wasn’t going to do it.

‘I can understand that, but you were probably wasting your time.’ Lucas shrugged. ‘Apart from working off a bit of steam?’

Anna chuckled, her shoulders relaxing slightly. ‘Yeah. I did that all right.’

‘Well, that’s something. Did you open the windows?’

‘No, I …’

Anna didn’t need to explain. Lucas had seen enough people instinctively shutting themselves in their houses, out of nameless fear. ‘Well, that’s what you need to do. Tuberculosis is transmitted aerobically and not via surfaces. Sunshine and fresh air are the best ways to eradicate the infection.’

Anna gave a snort of wry amusement. ‘That’s a nice thought.’

‘It happens to be scientifically true. But you’re quite at liberty to draw any metaphors you like from it.’ Both women were smiling now, and Lucas felt like a showman. One with a serious intent, who nonetheless got a buzz out of delighting his audience.

‘Okay. Now that Dr West has shed a little light on things …’ Thea paused to grimace at her own, truly dreadful, pun. ‘Dr West is going to be asking you about all the people who’ve been in close contact. I explained that to you yesterday.’

Anna nodded. ‘Yes. I want to help.’

Lucas nodded his thanks. ‘Why don’t you go and see Derek now, and I’ll come and find you in an hour? We’ll chat then, over a cup of coffee.’ He could find the machine. And if Thea wanted to join them, he’d get coffee for her as well.

The doors of the isolation unit clicked closed behind them. Lucas was strolling beside her, his jacket slung over one shoulder. ‘We’re agreed, then. You get to do the real work and leave the bureaucracy to me.’ He was grinning.

‘I didn’t say that.’ Thea attempted a severe look and failed. After all he’d done to assuage Anna’s fears it wasn’t easy to be angry with him.

‘My mistake. I could have sworn that was the general drift of it.’

She gave an exaggerated shrug. ‘Maybe I …’

‘Overreacted?’ He gave her a devastating smile.

‘Probably.’ She’d give him that. Asking him what the hell had happened to him hadn’t been entirely necessary.

‘Then you’ll admit that I haven’t gone over to the dark side.’

‘Don’t push it, Lucas. Anyway, there is no dark side.’ She couldn’t pretend that she hadn’t thought it. And Lucas had always been able to read her like a book.

‘Thank you.’ He gave her a self-satisfied smirk. ‘I’ll take that as a yes.’

CHAPTER THREE

Week Two

THE WEEK HAD flown by in a blur of activity. Lucas had visited the school where Derek Thompson taught, and had collected information from both Anna and Derek. The theatre group had been investigated, but since Derek had been asymptomatic for some months after he’d last seen any of its members, they were deemed to be at no risk of infection.

By the following Monday they had finalised a set of standard letters, along with lists of people to whom each should be sent. And Thea had convinced herself that there would be no more petty arguments between her and Lucas.

She had no reason to take him up on his assurances that he would be there if needed until the Friday evening, almost two weeks after the initial diagnosis of TB had been made. Dialling his mobile number, she wondered what she might hear in the background.

‘Thea. What’s the problem?’

That just about said it all. He knew she wouldn’t call him unless she had to.

‘There’s something I’d like to talk through with you. I’ve had a call from the local paper. I reckoned that was more your area of expertise than mine.’

Thea’s one horrific contact with the press in Bangladesh had taught her to avoid newsmen at all costs. Lucas’s world of measured responses and careful PR was far better equipped to deal with that than she was.

‘Right.’ A note of resignation sounded in his voice. ‘What did they have to say for themselves?’

‘They’ve been contacted by one of the parents at the school. They’re doing a piece and they offered us the chance to comment. And they need our response by tomorrow afternoon, before they go to press.’

He gave a short chuckle. ‘Nice one. Clearly hoping we’ll be uncontactable at the weekend.’

‘They do that sort of thing?’

‘It’s not unknown. I think we’ll be pleased to respond. Do you have a copy of the proposed article?’

‘No.’ Thea supposed she should have thought to ask for one but she’d wanted to get the reporter off the phone as quickly as possible.

‘Okay, give me their number and I’ll call them now. Can we meet up this evening to discuss this?’

‘I’ll wait here for you. How long will you be?’

‘I can’t get there tonight. But I’m only twenty minutes away from you, and Friday night is barbecue night. Come and join us.’

Us. It had crossed Thea’s mind that Lucas might be married, and she’d decided that was none of her concern. All the same, she wasn’t sure that she wanted to play happy families with him.

‘What about tomorrow morning? I don’t want to interrupt your evening.’

‘I’m working anyway. And there’s an old acquaintance I’d like you to meet.’

‘Who?’ He’d married someone she knew? Thea really didn’t want to know now.

‘You’ll see. I’ll text my address. Dinner’s in an hour.’

‘But … Lucas?’ She glared at the phone. He’d rung off.

It would serve him right if she just didn’t turn up. She could text him the reporter’s mobile number and leave him to deal with it. But not turning up might look as if she cared. Her phone beeped, and she looked at the screen.

She couldn’t remember the number, but this was the road his parents had lived in. Large houses set well back from the road behind iron railings. The kind of place that simply screamed money and respectability. Lucas had loved his family but had always claimed he wanted a different way of life.

Numbness settled over her. If he could look her in the eye, when he’d trashed all the values and ideals that had meant so much to him, then he really wasn’t the person she’d once known. If he could pretend that it didn’t matter, he was nothing to her.

She texted back her reply, together with the contact number for the newspaper reporter. Then she grabbed her coat and bag and made for the hospital car park.

The house was easy to find. It had to be the smallest in the road but it was still imposing enough, and stood next to the house that Thea had been to when she and Lucas had visited his parents. Travelling the world, eh? He hadn’t gone very far.

Even the dividing fence between his house and his parents’ had been taken out, one drive serving both properties now. Thea parked in the space next to Lucas’s car and took a moment to steady herself.

Climbing plants wound around the Victorian-style portico of his front door, and instead of a bell there was a heavy brass knocker in the shape of a dolphin. Almost as soon as she knocked on the door, it opened.

A teenage girl answered. Dark-eyed, with dark hair, she looked suspiciously like Lucas, but none of the sums added up. The girl was definitely a good bit more than seven years old. The thought that Lucas had been even more of a fraud that she’d bargained for floated into Thea’s mind.

‘Thea?’ The girl grinned at her as if she knew her. ‘Come in.’

She stepped into a large hallway and the girl closed the front door behind her. ‘You don’t know who I am, do you? I’m Ava.’

‘Lucas’s niece?’ The last time she’d seen Ava she had been six years old, and they’d played football together in the back garden while Lucas and his brother had argued about medical aid in the developing world.

‘Yes.’ When Ava smiled, she looked even more like Lucas. ‘I suppose I have changed a bit.’

‘It’s so nice to see you, Ava.’ It was such a relief to see her. Unless Lucas had another surprise hostess tucked up his sleeve somewhere. ‘You’re staying with your uncle?’

‘I live here.’ Ava wheeled around with impetuous energy. ‘I’ll show you around.’

‘Thank you. Where’s Lucas?’

‘Out back, lighting the barbecue. I’d stay clear if I were you. I always do.’ Ava danced back towards Thea, leaning in close as if she had a secret to impart. ‘He’s not very good at it.’

‘Which naturally makes him cross.’ Lucas never had liked being outmatched by anything.

‘Yep. He gets over it. When we see smoke signals coming over the horizon, it’ll be safe to come out of hiding.’ Ava opened one of the doors leading from the hallway. ‘Sitting room.’

Thea peered past Ava into the comfortable, bright sitting room. ‘Very nice.’

‘Dining room …’ Ava was on to the next room before Thea had a chance to even cross the threshold of the first.

‘Equally nice.’ Thea grinned at her.