Hijacked Honeymoon

Jack grinned a toothy toddler smile right back at him.

‘I… I see.’ Abbey couldn’t help staring. This man was making himself right at home. Jack was normally shy…

‘It wasn’t all that brilliant,’ Janet conceded. ‘I told him what to do.’

‘Not necessary.’

‘It was necessary, young Ryan,’ Janet told him, and Ryan smiled and sat back in his chair like a rebuked schoolboy. ‘I just wish I could do it myself.’ Janet’s smile faded. ‘If I could lift him…’

‘He’s too heavy for you to lift from the bath,’ Abbey said, as if repeating a conversation that had been played out a hundred times. ‘But, Janet, if you’d get your hip fixed… ’

‘Your hip?’ Ryan turned to look consideringly at Janet. ‘Now that’s what I don’t understand. Tell me why you’re dependent on sticks.’

‘Arthritis,’ Janet said shortly. ‘It doesn’t matter.’

‘It does.’ Abbey leaned forward and spoke urgently to Ryan. ‘Janet’s in urgent need of a hip replacement. If she had that… well, she’d be like a girl again. But I can’t persuade her to get it done.’

‘I’d have to go to Cairns,’ Janet said harshly, ‘and I won’t leave you, girl. You need me.’

‘I can get a babysitter…’

‘For a month or more? And who’d feed the poultry and look after Jack and-?’

‘Who’ll push your wheelchair when your leg gives completely? ’ Abbey retorted.

Ryan held up a hand. ‘Whoa… Is there something I’m missing here?’

‘Yes,’ Abbey said shortly. ‘Or rather-no. There are no complications. She should get it done and she won’t.’

‘I won’t go to Cairns,’ Janet muttered. ‘I’d hate it’

‘I’d come and visit you,’ Abbey told her.

‘Oh, yes,’ Janet jeered. ‘In your spare time?’

‘Why not do it here?’ Ryan asked, and both women turned to stare at him.

Silence.

It was Abbey who spoke first.

‘Well, that’s a crazy suggestion,’ she said simply. ‘Firstly, I’m the only doctor here and I can’t operate and give anaesthetic at the same time. Secondly, and more importantly, I’m not a surgeon, much less an orthopaedic surgeon with the skills to do hip replacements. I can do an appendicectomy in an absolute emergency, with my charge sister giving anaesthetic, but that’s an end to it. With my knowledge of orthopaedics, I’d end up having Janet walking backwards.’

Ryan smiled, but his smile was perfunctory. ‘I could, though,’ he said. ‘I told you when I put your knee back, Abbey. My specialty’s orthopaedics.’

More silence.

‘Oh, yes?’ Abbey said finally, and her voice was faintly mocking. This was cruel. ‘Maybe you could. If we had the equipment. If we had an anaesthetist and back- up staff. If you were registered to work here. If pigs flew!’

‘Registered…’ Ryan centred on only one objection. ‘If I can organise everything else, is registration likely to be a problem?’

‘Well, maybe not,’ Abbey admitted. ‘You’re not Australian trained, but with your Australian citizenship, your training and the fact that we’re a remote hospital… ’

‘Remote?’

‘It’s why I accepted your offer of help this week,’ Abbey explained. ‘Because Sapphire Cove’s categorised as remote, if any doctor is stupid en-I mean, willing enough to work here and their basic overseas training is acceptable, we can get their registration through in a flash.’

‘I see.’ Ryan’s magnetic grin flashed out. ‘So…I’ve just offered to be stupid.’

‘I’m not having any hip operated on,’ Janet broke in harshly. She’d been staring from Abbey to Ryan in confusion. ‘Abbey, this is crazy. Who’d look after Jack if I was in hospital?’

‘If Ryan can organise a few pigs to fly I don’t see why you should object,’ Abbey said promptly. ‘If! But Ryan’s doing my work for me. Didn’t you hear him offer? And Marcia over the road was put off work last week. The resorts always lay off staff during stinger season. Janet, let’s not throw any more obstacles in his way than Ryan already has. He’s offered me his honeymoon and you a new hip. What next?’

What next, indeed?

Ryan sat at the table as Janet and Abbey talked across him, and he felt as if he’d been knocked sideways.

Why on earth had he made that offer?

To do a hip replacement here… in such a place…

It wasn’t that he doubted his ability to organise it. Routine procedures such as hip replacements were now left to those working under him and there were favours he could call in to get equipment and staff. It was just…

Well, this was his honeymoon, after all. He’d have to beg, borrow or steal equipment from a bigger hospital. Pull in favours from all over the place. It’d take a couple of days to get everything he needed. At a guess, Felicity would arrive just as he’d lined up Theatre.

Felicity would not be happy.

But Abbey was.

Ryan looked over the table and Abbey’s eyes were misting as she looked at her mother-in-law. And then Abbey turned to look at him.

‘If you could organise it, it’d be the best thing…’ she said, and her voice shook.

Ryan’s astonishment at what he’d just offered lifted a little.

He’d eased just a fraction of the load on Abbey’s slight shoulders and for some reason-well, for some reason he suddenly didn’t give a toss what Felicity would say. He had to do it. He felt lighter himself.

And then the phone rang.

One thing Ryan had learned early in medical school was that the most emotional moments of his life-or the most embarrassing-were always punctuated with the phone.

The mobile phone shrilled, and both Abbey and Ryan looked down at their waists.

Abbey grinned and held up her hands.

‘You win,’ she said, as Ryan flipped his phone open.

Then her smile faded as she watched Ryan’s face.

‘Ryan, what is it?’

Ryan was talking harshly into the phone.

‘They’re already bringing him in? OK, I’ll be there as fast as I can.’

And Ryan was on his feet, his chair clattering to the floor behind him. He didn’t even notice that he’d knocked it over.

‘What is it?’ It had to be something awful, Abbey knew. All the colour had drained out of Ryan’s face.

‘It’s my father,’ he said shortly. ‘It sounds like he’s had a heart attack.’

‘Oh, no…’ Janet went white and automatically clutched Jack, as if clutching the baby could ward off catastrophe.

‘Not another one.’ Abbey rose too, grabbing her crutches and shoving them under her arms. ‘Ryan, give me a hand out to the car.’

Ryan stopped dead, and stared back at Abbey. His face had grown suddenly haggard. ‘What do you mean- another? ’

‘He’s had three this year,’ Abbey told him bluntly. ‘He’s running on borrowed time.’

‘But-’

‘Ryan, shut up and move,’ Abbey ordered. She gave Jack a fast pat goodbye. ‘See you later, sweetheart. Mummy has to go back to the hospital. Be good for Gran. Janet, I’ll look after Sam for you, I swear. Don’t worry.’ And Abbey grabbed her crutches and headed for the door.

‘You’re not coming,’ Ryan said automatically, but Abbey was already on her way.

‘Just help me into the damned car,’ she said harshly. ‘I’m not leaving you to look after your own father and, besides, Janet and I love Sam Henry.’

And what Abbey didn’t say-and both of them knew-was that if Sam was in real trouble then Ryan could become