The Doctor & the Runaway Heiress

‘Yes, they are,’ the man said, and Riley realised what Pippa was doing. She was dragging him back from the nightmare into a fragment of reality.

Mickey’s mother was holding Mickey. The paramedics were making sure he was immobilised for the journey. Riley had his pain under control; there was a moment for normality to resurface and Pippa was making the most of it.

‘I guess you guys won’t be eating fish for tea tonight,’ she said, sounding suddenly wistful. And a little bit cheeky. ‘What with having to sit around hospitals waiting for Mickey to get a cast. And you might need one on your foot. That’ll take ages. I guess you’ll have to eat dinner at the hospital cafeteria.’

The man took a deep breath. He looked at his wife and son. He looked at his other kids-three littlies being held by someone who might be an aunt. He looked back at Pippa.

He looked at his fish and Riley saw the instant when nightmare moved to thought. Pippa had found her reality.

‘Would you like a fish?’ the man asked.

‘I thought you’d never ask,’ she said, and she chuckled.

She was incorrigible, Riley thought. She was soaking wet-how she wasn’t shivering was a wonder. There was an ugly graze on the side of her face where she’d thumped against the rock on the way up or down. Her knuckles had lost skin.

Her hair was dripping wetly down her back. She looked about ten years old.

But her smile was enough to make anyone smile. To make anyone’s nightmares recede.

He’d been comparing her to Marguerite? He was out of his mind.

‘You can have all three,’ the fisherman said, handing over his basket. ‘They’re great fish.’

‘Really?’

‘Really.’

‘Oh, and I have a huge family I can feed them to,’ Pippa said, beaming, gathering them to her like gold. ‘Thank you so much.’

‘You saved my son.’

‘And you gave me fish.’ She kissed the guy, lightly on the cheek. ‘It looks like Mickey’s ready to go. Let Doc Riley check your foot and then into the ambulance with you. Oh, and do your fishing a hundred feet from the edge from now on.’

‘I’m buying my fish from the fish and chip shop,’ he growled-but the man was smiling. Everyone was smiling. Everyone had heard the interchange. Even Mickey…

‘So can we buy shop chips?’ the little boy ventured, and his mother burst into tears. But she was smiling through her tears.

‘Happy endings,’ Pippa said in satisfaction, heading back to the chopper with her haul of fish. ‘I love ’em.’

And when the ambulance moved away, as their chopper rose, she made Riley leave the slide open. She kept her harness on. They rose and she leaned out as far as Riley permitted.

She had a fish in each hand and she waved goodbye with fish.

Cheering.

Then she settled back into the chopper with her basket of fish on her knee. And beamed.

And Riley…

The armour he’d surrounded himself with for years, the protective barriers which let him want no one, need no one, were gone.

Pippa.

She could have drowned.

He was totally exposed.

She was taking her fish home to her family, Riley thought, dazed. Her family.

That would be Amy and Jason and Baby Riley. And Lucy and Adam.

And him?

Yeah. Tonight it would be him.

There was no way he was not being part of those fish.

Mickey was being taken by road to Sydney. He’d need specialist orthopaedic care so there was no medical need for either Riley or Pippa to stay involved. Harry started his routine check of the chopper. Riley and Pippa walked back to the house. They needed a shower. They needed a change of clothes. They also needed to talk, Riley thought, but he didn’t know where to start.

What had just happened?

He’d lowered a slip of a girl into a chasm and he hadn’t known if they could all survive. As simple as that. If the sea had turned on them…

There’d been no choice. The alternative had been impossible to contemplate-to leave Mickey to drown. But he’d had to ask Pippa to risk her life and she’d come up laughing.

She’d come up talking of fish and of family.

He was feeling like he’d shed something he’d barely known he had. He felt light and free and… bewildered.

He was carrying her fish. He was caught up in his thoughts, so it was Pippa who saw Amy first. She paused and looked across as Amy yelled wildly from the veranda.

‘Will you two hurry up? We’re having a baby.’

CHAPTER ELEVEN

THEY were indeed having a baby. Lucy was crouched like an animal in pain on the living-room settee. She moaned as they arrived, a deep, primeval moan that told Pippa they were deep into first stage.

‘How far apart?’ she asked Amy. There was no use asking Lucy anything for the moment.

‘Two minutes,’ Amy said. ‘And she won’t go to hospital. She’s scared. She just wants you guys. Gee, I’m pleased to see you.’

‘But Amy’s fantastic.’ Adam looked terrified but he gave Amy a sheepish smile as Lucy’s moan trailed away. ‘She’s real bossy.’

‘Yeah, well, I know what to do,’ Amy said.

See one, do one, teach one. Pippa almost grinned. Then she glanced at Riley and her grin died. He looked like she never wanted a support person to look. Fear was infectious. What was he doing, with a face as grim as death?

‘We need to get you to hospital,’ he told his daughter as the contraction eased and her body slumped. ‘No argument. I’ll phone Louise and take you now.’

‘Hey, how about, “Hi, Lucy, great to see you, we brought you some fish?”’ Pippa demanded, astonished. The last thing Lucy needed was an implication of fear from her doctor.

But, then, she thought, Riley wasn’t Lucy’s doctor. Riley was Lucy’s dad. Maybe terror was understandable.

So maybe someone else had to take charge.

The contraction was easing. Lucy looked up from the settee and gave them a wavering smile. ‘Fish?’ she managed.

‘Three beauties,’ Pippa said, deciding normal was the way to go. Who needed panic? ‘Your dad and I caught them from the helicopter. Sort of. While you’ve been having fun here. But now we’re here… Okay, fish aside, it looks like baby’s next.’

She gave Riley a sideways glance, trying to figure what to do for the best. He looked under such strain… He’d want Louise, but most obstetricians only worked in hospitals. To have Louise take on her care, that’s where they had to go.

‘Lucy, love, why don’t you want to go to hospital? It’s two minutes away.’

‘I’m not going to hospital,’ Lucy said, in a voice where the fear came through. ‘Please. I don’t want to. This feels like family. You guys can deliver babies. I don’t want my legs in stirrups.’