Laura caught the gaze of the man. ‘Has your wife got a list of her medications anywhere?’
‘She’s not my wife, she’s my mother.’
‘Sorry.’ Maybe living with the woman had aged him rapidly. Laura was feeling older by the minute. If the squeeze of a blood-pressure cuff was enough to elicit such an agonised response, the back pain was probably no more than a mild ache. Her impression that they were wasting their time strengthened as she read the list of medications.
‘So you’re taking pills for your high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes, airways disease, depression, weight control, constipation and pain-is that right?’
‘Isn’t that enough?’
Laura stepped over an overflowing dinner plate that was being used as an ashtray. ‘When was the last time you were in hospital, Mrs Pearce?’
‘Two weeks ago.’
‘And what was that for?’
‘Stomach pain. Something terrible it was. I was in bloody agony.’
‘What did they say at the hospital?’
‘They gave me six enemas.
‘Did they say anything else?’
Mrs Pearce’s son sighed heavily. ‘They told Mum to stop smoking, lose some weight and start getting some exercise.’
‘And
Tim had finished taking basic vital signs and filling in the paperwork. ‘There’s no real need for you to go to the hospital right now, Mrs Pearce. You’ll end up waiting for hours and then being sent home, probably with exactly the same advice you were given last time. Is that what you want?’
‘I want to get fixed up. I’m not going to get anywhere if I just sit at home and put up with it, am I?’ She glared at Tim. ‘It’s the squeaky door that gets the bloody oil.’
‘Fine.’ Laura wanted to get this job over with. ‘But you’ll need to walk out to the ambulance for us, Mrs Pearce.’
‘I can’t move. My back’s too sore.’
Laura caught Tim’s eye. Their patient weighed at least a hundred and forty kilograms. They would be lucky to fit Mrs Pearce onto a stretcher with both sides down, and a scoop stretcher would probably buckle under the strain.
‘We’ll need to get some help to move you, in that case,’ Tim said tactfully. ‘That might take a while.’
‘Are you saying I’m fat?’
‘You have a choice here, Mrs Pearce. You can stay home and ask your GP to make a house call, you can let us help you walk out to the ambulance or you can wait for us to get assistance to move you.’
‘Oh, get lost,’ Mrs Pearce snapped. ‘I’m not having a bunch of firemen tramping around my house and sniggering because you’re not capable of doing your job and carrying me. You’re just as bloody useless as anyone else, aren’t you?’
‘At least she signed the paperwork.’
‘Mmm.’ Laura was negotiating the rush-hour traffic through the central city. ‘Thank goodness we didn’t have to transport her.’
‘She’ll probably call another ambulance in the middle of the night.’
‘Won’t be our problem.’ Laura grinned. ‘If she keeps it up she’ll go on the blacklist.’
‘Doesn’t mean we don’t have to respond, though.’
‘No.’ Even people who abused the emergency services to the point that everyone knew them to be time- wasters had to be seen. They couldn’t afford to let a genuine incident go unattended. Laura let her breath out in a long sigh. ‘It’s been quite a day, hasn’t it? I’ll be glad to get home.’
‘You’re going home?’ Tim sounded surprised. ‘Have you decided to let Jase fend for himself, then?’
‘No.’ Laura felt the heat in her cheeks. ‘I meant home to Jason’s place.’ It hadn’t even occurred to her it wasn’t ‘home’. How could it feel like that when she’d only been in residence for four days?
‘Don’t let him get too dependent on you, Laura.’
‘I won’t. This is only temporary. And there’s no way he’d manage on his own.’
‘Exactly. Don’t let him use you.’
‘I’m enjoying it,’ Laura said sincerely. ‘Megan’s gorgeous.’
‘What about Jason?’ Tim seemed to be choosing his words carefully.
‘He’s gorgeous, too,’ Laura said lightly. Then she caught Tim’s glance and laughed. ‘I was joking, Tim.’ Good grief, had somebody other than Mrs McKendry guessed her motivation?
Happily, Tim joined her laughter and her confession was dismissed. ‘I meant, is he enjoying it? He was pretty horrified at the prospect of trying out fatherhood.’
‘I’m not sure about enjoying it exactly,’ Laura admitted. ‘But he’s getting used to it. He can change a nappy all by himself now and feed her.’ She thought about the laughter that had been provoked by teaching Jason how to bathe his daughter last night and smiled. ‘Actually, I suspect he is starting to enjoy it-he just doesn’t want to.’
‘Why not?’
‘It’s a complication in his life that he wasn’t expecting.’
‘Has he said anything about the mother?’
‘She was a one-night stand.’ Laura pulled away as the traffic light changed to green. ‘He had trouble remembering her name. What is there to say?’
‘I’ll bet his girlfriend has had plenty to say about it all.’
‘Maxine?’ Laura tried to sound offhand. ‘She’s rung a few times but I’m not sure if Jase has told her why he’s so busy.’
‘He’s not the only one who’s too busy. You’ll wear yourself out, Laura, if this goes on much longer.’
‘The next couple of days will be easier, with Mrs Mack helping.’
‘You’ve still got to take her home after work. It must be like having two full-time jobs.’
It was. Both Laura and Jason were tired at the end of the day shift. It would have been wonderful to sit down and have a beer or two and chill out. Jason was keen to talk about the job they had shared that morning and recapture the thrill of rescuing little Vicky. But little Megan needed feeding and changing and bathing.
Laura did the nappy change by herself. She gave Jason a dirty look when he returned. ‘You arranged the timing of that phone call to perfection, didn’t you?’
‘Not my fault.’ Jason smiled winningly. ‘Tell you what, I’ll do the next two nappy changes.’ He tried an effective head tilt and beseeching eyebrow lift. ‘Three nappy changes?”
Laura tried not to laugh. ‘What do you want, Jase?’
‘Well, now you mention it, I kind of told Maxine I might be able to meet her for a quick drink later this evening.’
‘But we’ve got an appointment to take Megan to the GP and have her ears checked.’
‘Oh, no! I completely forgot about that.’ Jason chewed the inside of his cheek. ‘Does she really need to go? She’s obviously better, so she doesn’t need antibiotics.’
Laura just looked at him. Maybe Megan wasn’t in need of a trip to the doctor but, dammit, she wasn’t going to babysit while Jason went off to spend time with his girlfriend. She wasn’t
‘Oh, damn,’ Jason muttered. ‘Maxine thinks I’m trying to dump her.’