‘Oh, pooh,’ she said blithely. ‘I’m not a woman here, Dr Llewellyn. I’m a doctor.’ And she glanced up at him sideways and twinkled. ‘Do you reckon that’s something you can remember? It seems to me that it’s really important.’
And what the hell was he to make of that?
Jason Keeling was clutching his leg in agony. By the time they reached him, the trainers had deposited him on the bench and were looking down helplessly. Jason wasn’t letting them near his leg. He was curled almost into a foetal position, hanging onto his leg for dear life and swearing as if his life depended on it.
‘OK, Jason, let’s have a look,’ Mike said, bending over him and trying to see.
Jason didn’t look up. He was whimpering in pain and the swearing didn’t ease one bit.
‘Hey, I don’t know half those words.’
It was Tess. Of course it was Tess. She stood back from Jason and regarded him with frank admiration, and Jason was so stunned to hear a woman in the training room that momentarily he forgot to swear. He looked up from his leg and uncurled a bit.
‘Who the hell are you?’ he demanded.
‘I’m one half of the Bellanor medical team,’ she said blithely. ‘The better half. Show us your leg, Jason.’
And Jason was so flabbergasted that his hands fell away from his leg. Mike was in there before he could put them back, holding his leg and gently easing it to an extended position.
‘Fancy this happening just as you were winning,’ Tess said sympathetically. She perched on the end of the bench and put a sympathetic hand on his cheek. Mike could only bless her. For all Jason Keeling was six feet six inches of pure beef, he was a real wimp when it came to pain. Now, though, Tess had his full attention and Mike could run his hands carefully over the injured limb.
He couldn’t feel a break…
‘What do you mean-one half of the Bellanor medical team?’ Jason demanded. The team trainers were staring at Tess as if she’d just flown in from Mars, and so was Jason. Mike might just as well not have been present.
‘I’m a doctor.’ She chuckled as she glanced around at the men’s astounded expressions. ‘Believe it or not, that’s what I am. Mike said I might have to prove my qualifications or you’ll throw me out of the training tent.’
‘You can stay in any training tent you want, miss,’ one of the trainers breathed. ‘And I’ll personally chuck out anyone who says different.’
‘That’s really nice of you.’ Tessa’s eyes danced as she twisted to look down at the injured leg. Still her hand rested on Jason’s face. She was sitting so close to him that her crazy yellow jacket was brushing his body, and Jason was clearly completely thrown by the sensation. ‘What’s the damage, Dr Llewellyn?’ she asked. ‘Do you think we need to amputate? Do I get to hold him down while you chop it off?’
‘I reckon we might manage without amputation.’ Mike grinned in return. To examine Jason when he was in pain was usually a nightmare, but she had Jason absolutely silenced. Now she shifted from the bench to support Jason’s leg as Mike carefully ran his hands from the knee down. He watched Jason’s face as he did, but Jason didn’t utter a whimper. ‘What happened, Jason?’
‘I was running,’ Jason muttered. ‘I just felt something…like a bang. Like something snapped.’ Jason’s eyes were still on Tessa, fascinated.
Mike nodded, moving to feel above the ankle. His suspicions were being confirmed here. There was a definite notching.
‘Can you move your ankle, Jason? Will your toes lift?’
Jason stared wildly from Tessa to Mike, trying to collect his wits. It was as if he was having trouble remembering he had a leg at all. Tessa’s pompoms and her gorgeous red hair had him in thrall. Finally he shook his head. ‘Nah…’ Then his face creased again as he remembered his wimpishness and he remembered his pain.
‘I reckon we might get some morphine on board,’ Mike told him hastily. ‘That’ll ease the pain.’
‘But what’s wrong? What’s wrong?’
‘I think you’ve torn your Achilles tendon. It’s hard to say whether it’s a complete tear or not without a fuller examination, but that’s what it feels like.’
‘Aw, hell…’
‘Hey, it beats a compound fracture,’ Tessa told him. Mike was settling the leg back on the bench. Tessa turned to touch Jason lightly again on the face, and Jason stared up at her in stupefaction. ‘It’s not much better, I guess,’ she said sympathetically, ‘but a little.’
‘But it’ll mean I miss the rest of the season,’ Jason wailed. ‘I’ll have to stay on the sidelines and watch…’
‘Like me,’ Tessa said cheerfully. ‘I know nothing about this game. Back home in the States, I love football. Here, though, it sure looks different. I need someone who knows it inside out to teach me what’s happening. You look like just the man-that is, if you don’t mind me barracking for Jancourt.’
‘Jancourt…’ Jason lay back on the bench and stared up at her in stupefaction. ‘Jancourt. Why the hell are you barracking for Jancourt?’
‘Dr Llewellyn said I should,’ Tessa said blithely. ‘And he’s my boss now. It’s always wise to do what your boss says-don’t you think?’
‘Yeah. Right.’ Jason couldn’t think of a single thing more to say.
And neither could Mike.
There was only one more medical case for the afternoon-a bruised hamstring muscle that could be left safely in the hands of the trainers-so they got to watch most of the game. Jason was sent to the hospital. He’d need to be checked later and the leg properly X-rayed and examined, but before that the nurses could clean away the worst of the mud and his family could fuss and generally settle him down. There wasn’t much more to be done in the short term.
‘What if it’s a complete tear?’ Tessa asked as they sat on the trainers’ seats and watched the Bellanor North players storm their way to victory.
‘We’ll send him to Melbourne.’
‘There’s no one closer to do orthopaedic surgery?’ If the Achilles tendon was completely separated then it would have to be surgically joined. A partial tear would heal itself, given several weeks’ immobilisation in plaster, but a full tear wasn’t quite as easy.
‘I could do it,’ Mike said heavily. He was feeling really odd, sitting beside this girl. She was acting as if they’d known each other for ever-as if they were partners in every sense of the word. And yet…
Hell, he felt strange.
‘You’ve done surgical training?’ she asked.
‘I trained for this job,’ he told her. ‘I knew I’d be isolated when I came to work here so I got myself training in everything I could get my hands on. There’s not a lot of emergency medicine I can’t do, but I’ve found it’s not a lot of use if I don’t have an anaesthetist.’
‘I can give an anaesthetic.’
‘Now don’t say it like I’m a porriwiggle,’ she begged. ‘The fact that I’m American doesn’t mean I’m low-life. I’m not even wearing a cheese hat.’ She swung her head to prove it, and her crazy purple pompoms bounced.
She wouldn’t need to give an anaesthetic, Mike thought. She only had to wiggle her pompoms and she had a man mesmerised. She could do anything she wanted…
‘Look, it doesn’t matter whether you can give an anaesthetic or not,’ he managed. ‘You’re not registered. You can’t.’
‘But Maureen says she’ll swing my registration within twenty-four hours from the medical board opening for business on Monday. Jason’s surgery’s not urgent. We could do it Tuesday.’
‘What sort of anaesthetic work have you done?’ he asked. Hell, he was fascinated. He was trying to listen-not watch.
‘General.’ Once more, the pompom waggled. ‘I told you, I’ve always fancied the idea of moving to the country. I was thinking I might do ER in a smaller country hospital so I figured anaesthetics-you know, intubation and pain relief and the rest-might give me an edge.
‘Then I sort of changed my mind. I wanted kids and dogs and prostates instead of car smashes and drug overdoses. But I’ve done a solid basic training in anaesthetics. I’m not volunteering to give the anaesthetic for open
