Unlocking the Doctor's Heart

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Beth turned around to see her solemn-faced consultant.

‘Mine was not so lucky. She didn’t make it.’ He wiped his forehead with the back of his hand and took a deep breath. ‘I’ve seen my share of death but it never gets any easier.’

‘It makes you realise how precious life is. You should grab it with both hands,’ Beth said solemnly.

Matthew looked at the woman standing before him. She could be forthright in her opinion, yet still vulnerable and caring. She was getting under his skin very quickly and that was causing him grief. But he didn’t want to care about what she thought or felt. He just didn’t want to care.

‘We have one alive, so let’s act on that,’ he said hurriedly as he climbed into the ambulance. ‘What’s the call here?’

‘At best shock, head abrasions and possible neck injury. At worst, add internal bleeding.’

‘Right, let’s go. I’ll take blood now for a cross-match and we can have her typed in half an hour. Call ahead and let them know I want O-neg ready in case of emergency,’ he directed the paramedics, then reached into his pocket, pulled out his car keys and turned his attention back to Beth. ‘Would you mind taking my car to the hospital?’

‘No, but I haven’t driven a manual shift for a long time,’ she said as she watched him insert the IV line.

‘Like riding a bike,’ he said. ‘But considering what I paid for that little imported job, please don’t forget to change your clothes before you do.’ Beth glanced down at her blood-stained blouse and skirt. It was going to be another day in slacks and a sensible cotton shirt, she mused.

In a wail of sirens the two ambulances took off into the traffic, leaving Beth with a prayer for the woman inside and the keys to a midnight-blue BMW that she hoped was well insured.

CHAPTER THREE

‘YOU DID IT!’ Beth congratulated herself as she pulled the car into the Eastern Memorial car park.

Despite thinking more than once that she had left the entire gearbox on the road during the shift from first to second, Beth managed to drive the expensive vehicle without a single incident. With a sigh of relief, she pulled the key from the ignition and took a deep breath.

Her mind raced back to the embarrassing start to the day. She hoped that Matthew would forget her ridiculous assumption that the flowers were from him. She also hoped the passenger had survived the trip to the hospital. It was touch and go with the woman’s internal injuries but Beth was confident that a doctor as skilled as Matthew would give her the best chance of survival.

He was a complex man and, while respected and revered, he was definitely not loved by his staff. She wasn’t sure why she was so attracted to him. Normally arrogant men left her cold, but there was something about Matthew that made her think that underneath his suit of armour was a different man. She felt in her heart that there was more to Matthew Harrison than met the eye, although that alone was pretty damned good. Her delicious thoughts were abruptly broken by the arrival of a mud-encrusted Range Rover in the parking bay opposite her. The huge grille in her line of vision was filled with splattered insect bodies. Goodbye, daydreams.

But what was she thinking anyway? Dr Harrison was dating a beautiful woman and had made it perfectly clear that morning that he didn’t even want her at the hospital. Well, not her precisely but an exchange resident was definitely not on his wish list. Yet his body language the night before had stirred unexpected feelings in her. She smiled sheepishly at the driver of the Range Rover as she silently cringed at her irrational thoughts. She had never dated anyone like Matthew and doubted she would. She had already seen his standard, and a gorgeous blonde bombshell she definitely was not. Enough with the daydreaming, she thought as she grabbed her bag from the back seat and climbed out of the car.

Perhaps she should put the blame on jet-lag and a long first day at work. She wasn’t herself at all. Both pathetic excuses, Beth Seymour, she chided herself.

The man was irrevocably under her skin, but since he made it painfully clear that he didn’t feel the same way, she had to keep it to herself. He certainly shouldn’t be held responsible for her romantic musing, so Beth decided quickly to curb her imagination by making sure she only saw Dr Harrison within the hospital grounds in future. No more lifts after work. She was far from home and feeling a little vulnerable, and now the poor unsuspecting Matthew Harrison was the focus of her attention. She had to keep everything in perspective. He was her boss. She was there to learn. Nothing more.

Hurriedly she locked the door, and feeling rather pleased that she had brought the car back safely she raced across the parking lot to the hospital entrance. She had changed into sensible beige slacks and a white cotton shirt and put her blood-stained clothes in her laundry tub to soak before she’d left home for the second time that day. As she made her way into A and E, she looked around for Matthew, hopeful of hearing good news about the car-accident victim. They had worked well together during the crisis that morning, and that was something she couldn’t deny. But she mustn’t make more of it than that.

She was still early, so she stopped to chat to Yvette in Reception for about five minutes, getting an update on the previous day’s patients. Then she made a quick call to Paediatrics to check on Tania. She intended to visit her young patient as soon as she had a spare minute, to thank her personally for the beautiful flowers.

With no sign of Dr Harrison on the floor, she walked past his office and saw it was empty. Closing his door, she headed down to the doctors’ lounge to see if he was there. She had to put her handbag in her locker anyway, she told herself. It wasn’t as if she was going out of her way to find him.

‘Morning, Beth,’ came a cheerful voice from across the room.

‘Good morning, Dan. You’re in a very good mood. Any reason?’ Beth asked as she adjusted her white consulting coat and took the hairbrush from her locker, all the while hiding her disappointment that it wasn’t her consultant.

‘Sir Harrison, the Almighty One, was civil to me this morning. It was the first time he’s greeted me with a “Good morning, Dan” in the six months I’ve been here.’