City Surgeon, Small Town Miracle

were just right. So honest and brave and perceptive. No defences. No armour. He’d lost people close to him and yet he was still prepared to put his feelings on the line for those he loved.

Perhaps this was a lesson she needed to learn. She’d thought she’d lost her physical courage in the landmine explosion. But maybe she’d never had what really counted-the raw emotional courage she was witnessing now between father and daughter.

Allie’s head stayed bowed, her shoulders rounded.

Luke’s eyes were soft with hope and love. ‘I promise I’ll listen and between us we’ll try to find a compromise.’

There was a long tense silence. Terri held her breath and willed Allie to answer.

Luke glanced up and she gave him a tiny nod of encouragement. His throat moved as he swallowed, then he looked back at the top of his daughter’s head.

‘And even if I can’t make it better,’ he said, ‘I will always love you, Allie.’

‘How can you?’ The girl sucked in a slightly wheezy breath, her arms wrapping tightly around her thin body. Terri’s heart ached at the sight of the defensive movement. Then, in a tiny, unsteady voice, the girl said, ‘Mummy died because of me.’

‘No!’ The last vestige of colour drained from Luke’s face. He laid his arm on Allie’s shoulder. ‘No, baby.’

‘Yes!’ she whispered.

‘Oh, Allie.’ His face twisted. ‘Why, sweetheart? Why do you think that?’

‘You could have fixed her b-but you were looking after me so she d-died.’ Tears streamed down Allie’s flushed cheeks and her words came out haltingly between spasmodic sobs. ‘She’d still be alive if it w-wasn’t for me.’

‘No, Allie. I’m sorry.’ Luke could hardly get the words out through the constriction in his throat. Why hadn’t he intuitively understood the cause of his daughter’s anguish? He was her father, for God’s sake. ‘I wouldn’t have been able to fix your mum.’

‘B-but I get sick,’ she said. ‘You always f-fix me.’

‘Sweetheart, your mum’s sickness was different. The cells in her blood multiplied and multiplied and we couldn’t find a way to stop them.’ He sat on the edge of her bed, wanting to gather her into his arms but not wanting to push while she was so defensive. ‘I’m sorry, Allie. I didn’t realise you were feeling this way. I let you down.’

‘No.’ With a choked cry, Allie suddenly launched herself at him. He hugged her close, her thin arms wrapped around his neck tightly. The frail body against his shook with great sobbing shudders.

He breathed deep. His child, his baby, had thrown herself into his arms. The stamp of this small person’s scent affixed itself on his soul all over again.

It had all been made possible by one extraordinary woman.

He lifted his head in time to see Terri swiping her hands across her cheeks as she turned to leave.

‘Terri?’

She hesitated a moment then lifted brimming eyes to meet his. His chest swelled at the unsteady smile she gave him. He owed this woman more than he could ever repay. He wished he could reach out and draw her into the circle of his embrace with Allie.

‘Thank you,’ he murmured.

She nodded, nudging a box of tissues along the bedside dresser until it was within easy reach for him. ‘I’ll let 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