‘So you’re not dying of a broken heart?’ Her words were flippant, but her face was still worried. ‘Mike, are you losing weight?’
‘No.’
‘I reckon you are,’ Tess said slowly. Her eyes narrowed as she checked him out. ‘In fact, I’m sure you are. And don’t tell me. You don’t really feel like that eggs and bacon.’
The plate lay before them, untouched. Mike hauled it back before him and picked up his knife and fork. ‘Yeah. I do. OK?’
‘So eat.’
‘I’ll eat when you leave.’
‘I’m not leaving until I see you eat.’
‘Tess…’
‘Mike, is there something really wrong here? There is, isn’t there?’ All of a sudden Tess looked really worried. ‘Mike, tell me-’
‘There’s nothing wrong,’ he said explosively. ‘I’ve just got a bit of a belly ache. That’s all.’
‘And tonight’s the first time you’ve had it?’
‘Yes!’
‘OK.’ Tess held her hands up in mock surrender. ‘I know when I’m not wanted. But if it really has been going on for longer… If there’s something wrong…’
‘There isn’t.’
‘If there is…and you won’t talk to me about it…’ Tess hesitated. ‘Or even take a few days off and see someone in Melbourne… Well, a man would be fool-wouldn’t he?’
There was nothing wrong.
Tess left. Mike abandoned his eggs and bacon and took himself back to his apartment, but Tessa’s words kept playing in his head. A man’d be a fool…
There’s nothing wrong, he told himself harshly, blocking off the thought of a few faint worries. There was no need to talk to Tessa or anyone else about this. It was just a nagging gut ache, that was all, and it was caused by nervous tension. There. The diagnosis was easy. He’d got himself in an emotional state over a woman and it was physically taking its toll.
He just needed time to sort himself out, he figured. He needed to divorce himself from what he was feeling for Tessa and then he’d be fine. He took some antacid and managed to eat and hold down a dry piece of toast. Then he said goodnight to Strop and went to bed.
That was at midnight. By dawn he was sicker than he’d ever been in his life.
‘Have you seen Dr Llewellyn?’
Tess had been in the hospital for a whole five minutes before she was hit by the question. It was Horrible Hannah, about to go off night duty. Tess met Bill Fetson, coming on duty, in the hall and Hannah met them both.
‘Mrs Carter’s drip packed up about an hour ago and I need orders,’ the nurse told them. ‘I rang Dr Llewellyn’s apartment but he’s not answering. He must have gone out on a call but he’s not answering his mobile phone either.’
‘Maybe he’s out of range,’ Bill said. Then he frowned. ‘But he knows where the phone cuts out. If he’s going to be out of range then he rings first and tells us where he can be contacted.’
‘Maybe he doesn’t think it as important any more,’ Tess said. ‘Now that I can be contacted, he has back- up.’
‘He doesn’t like us contacting you.’ Hannah shrugged. ‘But I guess that must be it. Or he’s somewhere where the lines are down. That’s quite a storm outside.’
It was. The wind had been rising all night and now it was screaming around the sides of the building in the full blast of the onset of winter. A storm like this would be bound to bring the odd telephone wire down. Tess frowned but forced herself relax.
‘OK, let’s not worry,’ she said-but she was worrying. ‘I’ll check Mrs Carter for you.’
She did and she ended up doing a full round of Mike’s patients. There must be an emergency to keep him away, they decided, but there was nothing they could do until he contacted the hospital.
Tess had a house call of her own. She should leave now, but instead she made her way back to the nurses’ station. Hannah was still there, having decided she didn’t want to walk home until the worst of the weather had abated, and so was Bill.
‘So, where is he?’ she asked, and Bill shook his head.
‘Beats me.’
‘Has anyone checked his apartment?’
‘Hannah’s rung him more than once and there’s no answer,’ Bill told her. ‘And I had Hannah walk down and check while I rang-just in case there’s a fault in the line. There’s not. From this side of his door you can hear it ringing inside. Oh, and Strop’s inside. You can hear him snuffling at the door. Mike must have decided to leave him indoors because of the weather. Mike has to be out.’
‘Yes, but…’ Tess hesitated, her face creasing in worry. ‘It’s just… Bill, last night Mike didn’t look well. He was off his food.’
Bill stilled. They looked at each other for a long, long minute. Outside, the wind blew more fiercely.
‘Bill, what are we waiting for?’ Tess said at last, and in her heart there was suddenly a lurch of real fear. ‘Let’s check.’
Strop met them as they unlocked the door and he was frantic with worry. He saw them inside and launched himself at the bathroom door, barking in a frenzy.
By the time they reached the bathroom they were expecting something bad, and they found it.
Mike was stretched out, unconscious, on the bathroom floor.
Mike surfaced to the Horrible Hannah.
For a long moment he couldn’t figure out where he was. He lay absolutely still and let the room come into focus. It didn’t completely. It spun, but as he stared upwards the spinning slowed.
And then Hannah was looking down at him.
‘Oh, Dr Llewellyn. Oh, Mike!’ There was no mistaking it. For the first time in his life, Mike heard real emotion in Hannah’s voice. Joy. ‘You’re awake. Oh, don’t you dare shut your eyes. I’m fetching Tess.’
Tess… Hannah was calling Tess
It was all too much to work out, and there seemed no need. He was so damned tired. He couldn’t help it. Try as he may he couldn’t obey Hannah’s order. His eyes closed all by themselves, and he slept.
The next time he opened his eyes Tess was there. And she was crying.
He’d nearly died, and it took him days to figure out why he hadn’t. Days while Strop lay as devoted watchdog under his bed and his body slowly recovered from its shock.
‘You had a massive bleed from a duodenal ulcer,’ Tess told him, in a voice that still shook. ‘I’ve never seen so much blood. We put five units of plasma aboard before we started operating, and once we’d cross-matched we had donors coming in from all over the valley. We needed them all.’
Operating… That was another thing he couldn’t work out. Somehow he’d been operated on, and he’d been operated on here.
‘You were operated on by me,’ Tess said when he was finally well enough to ask the right questions. ‘And don’t ask me how I did it because I don’t know and I never, ever want to do such a thing again. You’re trained in general surgery but, apart from my basic medical training, I’m not.’
‘So how…?’
But Tess shook her head, and her voice trembled. She reached out and took his hand in hers, and it wasn’t just her voice that was trembling. ‘Please, Mike, don’t ask. I can’t think about it.’
It was up to Bill to tell him, and it was two days after the operation before he was well enough to take it all in.
‘It was a bloody miracle,’ Bill growled, as he changed Mike’s dressings with hands that were amazingly tender for such a big man. ‘I’d written you off myself. As soon as I saw you on the floor and saw the blood…well, I was all
