City Surgeon, Small Town Miracle

the switch-board know that I’m taking your calls until further notice.’

His heart was full as he watched her slip out of the room, shutting the door behind her.

He held Allie until her sobs subsided. In a small silence he grabbed a couple of tissues and proffered them.

‘Thanks.’ She blew her nose with unselfconscious vigour, then sighed. After a moment, she said, ‘I miss Mummy.’

The wobble in her voice tore at his heart.

‘I do, too, Allie.’

‘We left her.’

He frowned. ‘When we came here?’

‘Yes. W-we left her behind.’ She tilted her head to look at him. ‘We left all the places she loved.’

‘She loved it here, too,’ he said. With his thumb, he wiped the moisture from her cheeks. ‘Remember last time we were here together? She taught you how to snorkel.’

‘Yes. But it’s not the same.’ Her voice was thick with unshed tears. ‘We left her garden.’

‘I know, baby, I know.’ Luke understood immediately. The garden had been Sue-Ellen’s pride and joy. She’d lavished love on her plants with the same generosity she’d lavished it on her family. He swallowed as a quick stab of grief pierced his heart. ‘You know Mr Owens is looking after it for us.’ He laid his cheek on the top of her head. ‘But it’s not the same as us being there, is it?’

Allie’s hair rubbed his skin as she nodded. ‘He won’t love it as much as w-we would.’ Her voice shook anew.

‘I know.’ He gave her a quick tight squeeze. The silence was comfortable, soothing. He rubbed her back in slow circles, enjoying the closeness after so many months of friction.

‘T-Terri said maybe we could get a plant.’

‘To remember your mum by? Would you like that?’ How brilliant. How elegantly simple. Bless Terri and her insight.

Allie’s head, cuddled against his chest, nodded.

‘I think that’s a great idea. We can go to the nursery and you can pick something out.’

‘I already know what I want to get. A pink rose like the one we had by the front door.’ She lifted her eyes to his, the lashes spiky with tears. ‘The climbing one.’

‘Okay. We’ll get the very best pink climbing rose in the nursery.’

Allie rewarded him with a radiant smile, a glimpse of the healing process that had begun. The moment was precious. ‘Can Terri come, too? When we get it?’

Luke quelled a pinprick of apprehension. Terri. Both he and Allie wanted more of her in their lives. It seemed like a potential disaster. He didn’t want Allie to get hurt.

For him the want, the need, was on a very different level. In an instant of uncomfortable clarity he realised he was projecting his fears for himself onto his daughter.

He didn’t want to get hurt. Didn’t want to risk losing someone else that he cared about. Didn’t want to put his heart on the line.

He stifled a sigh. He was afraid that his options for choice in the matter were well gone.

‘Can she, Dad?’

‘Of course. If she wants to.’ He shook off the shiver of disturbing self-awareness. A family outing with Terri might help to take the magic out of her presence, give him a bit of perspective where she was concerned. ‘We’ll talk to your granddad, too, and see where we can put the rose.’

‘Somewhere special.’

‘Somewhere extra-special.’

‘Thanks, Dad.’ She reached up and hugged him spontaneously again. The lump in his throat got bigger. ‘I feel better.’

‘So do I, Allie. So do I.’

He had his daughter back. Right now, this was what counted. Allie relied on him to make sensible choices.

For her and for him.

A short time later, Terri filled out a biochemistry form requesting urea and electrolytes and slipped it into a laboratory collection bag with a tube of blood.

As soon as she’d finished, her mind strayed towards the room at the end of the emergency department where Allie had been moved once she’d been stabilised. How were Luke and his daughter? When Terri had left them half an hour ago, Luke had had his hip perched on the edge of the bed and Allie wrapped in his arms.

A cocoon of paternal protection.

A beautiful snapshot of love between parent and child.

Terri swallowed. What sort of parents would she and Peter have been? Her hand ran down the flatness of her abdomen. She already knew he’d had no time for her pregnancy. The changes in her body, which had so delighted her, had left her late husband cold. She tried to imagine him enfolding a child, their child, in his arms.

That picture wouldn’t come.

Suddenly she needed to see Luke with Allie, to see that affirmation of pure, unconditional love. Her feet carried her past the curtained cubicles to the door of Allie’s room.

There they were. She rested her fingertips lightly on the glass of the window and felt the tension in her chest ease.

They were going to be okay, this father and daughter who had each carved a niche in her heart.

As she watched, Allie’s arms came up to wrap around Luke’s neck. The scene in the room blurred. Terri lifted her hands, pressed her fingers to her eyelids as she willed away the unexpected rush of moisture.

The moment between parent and child was infinitely precious. They’d been through some very tough times, but they would get through it together and be even closer on the other side.

As though he’d felt her presence, Luke’s head lifted and looked straight at her. Her pulse gave a treacherous leap.

He smiled crookedly, tilted his head in an invitation to join them.

Terri swallowed then opened the door.

‘Hi,’ she said softly. Her smile felt wobbly.

‘We’ve got something to ask you, haven’t we, Allie?’ Luke’s voice was husky.

‘Yes.’ Allie grinned. Her cheeks were tinged with pink and the strain had faded from her eyes. She looked like a normal happy ten-year-old. ‘Please, will you come to the nursery with us when we chose the plant for Mummy? Please say you will. Please.’

‘Of course. I’d be honoured. When’s the big day or haven’t you got that far in the planning yet?’

‘There’s no school tomorrow.’

‘I think Sunday week perhaps.’ Luke touched his daughter on the nose. ‘Terri and I are rostered off then and it’ll give your granddad a chance to decide where he wants the garden.’

Terri blinked in surprise. He knew her roster that far ahead? She stifled a foolish glow of warmth. He probably knew everyone’s shifts-it wasn’t as if they had a huge medical staff.

‘Sunday week, then,’ she said.

Luke smiled. ‘We’ll let you know what time.’

‘Okay.’ She slid her hands into the pockets of her coat. ‘I’d better get back to work. I just wanted to look in and see how you were.’

‘We’re good. Aren’t we, Dad?’

‘We are indeed.’ His eyes were filled with light and warmth and something more. Something that made Terri’s heart lurch. ‘I’ll catch up with you before you go off duty, Terri.’

‘Sure,’ she managed. ‘I’m off at five, all being well.’

‘I know.’ His slow smile sent a hot shaft of excitement sizzling along her diaphragm.

‘It’s a pleasure, Edith,’ Terri said as she opened the door to let her last patient out. ‘Keep off that foot as much as possible and we’ll see you again next week.’

‘Next Friday. Thanks again, dear.’ Leaning heavily on her walking frame, the woman hobbled a couple of steps then stopped in the doorway. ‘Oh, Luke. How are you?’

‘Good, thanks, Edith.’ His smile seemed tense to Terri’s eye but he stopped to exchanged pleasantries with the