LITMIR.BIZ

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in the next bed,’ he started. ‘You’re not by yourself.’

      But suddenly Pippa wasn’t in the next bed. Enough. She was out of bed, pushing the curtains apart and meeting Riley’s gaze full on.

      ‘Amy needs a midwife.’

      ‘I know she does,’ Riley said. ‘We’re short-staffed. There isn’t one.’

      ‘Then someone else.’

      ‘Believe me, if I could then I’d find someone. I’d stay here myself. I can’t.’

      She believed him. She thought, fast.

      This guy had saved her life. This hospital had been here for her. And more … Amy was a child.

      ‘Then use me,’ she said.

      ‘You …’

      ‘I know there’s still water on my lungs,’ she said. ‘And I know I need to stay here until it clears. But my breathing’s okay. I’m here for observation more than care, and if you can find me something more respectable than this appalling hospital gown, I’ll sit by Amy until she needs to push. Then I’ll call you.’

      He looked at her like she’d grown two heads. ‘There’s no need—’

      ‘Yes, there is,’ Jancey said, looking panicked. ‘Hubert needs help now.’

      ‘We can’t ask—’

      ‘Then don’t ask,’ Pippa said. ‘And don’t worry. You can go back to your toes and asthma. I’ll call for help when I need it, either for myself or for Amy. And I do know enough to call. I may be a twit when it comes to night swimming, but in my other life I’m a qualified nurse. Good basic qualifications, plus theatre training, plus intensive care, and guess what? Midwifery. You want to phone my old hospital and check?’

      She grabbed the clipboard and pen Jancey was carrying and wrote the name of her hospital and her boss’s name. ‘Hospitals work round the clock. Checking my references is easy. Ring them fast, or trust me to take care of Amy while you two save the world. Or at least Hubert’s toe. Off you go, and Amy and I will get on with delivering Amy’s baby. We can do this, Amy. You and me … women are awesome. Together there’s nothing we can’t do.’

      ‘You want me to ring and check she’s who she says she is?’ Jancey asked, dubious. He and Jancey needed to head in different directions, fast. Neither of them liked leaving Pippa and Amy together.

      ‘When you’ve got time.’

      ‘I don’t have time,’ Jancey said. ‘Do we trust her?’

      ‘She’s a warm body and she’s offered,’ Riley said. ‘Do we have a choice?’

      ‘Hey!’ They were about to head around the bend in the corridor but Pippa’s voice made them turn. She’d stepped out the door to call after them.

      She looked …

      Amazing, Riley thought, and, stressed or not, he almost smiled. She had brilliant red curls that hadn’t seen a hairbrush since her big swim. She was slight—really slight—barely tall enough to reach his chin. Her pale skin had been made more pale by the night’s horror. Her green eyes had been made even larger.

      From the neck up she was eye-catchingly lovely. But from the neck down …

      Her hospital gown was flopping loosely around her. She was clutching it behind. She had nothing else on.

      ‘The deal is clothes,’ she said with asperity. ‘Bleeding to death takes precedence but next is my dignity. I need at least another gown so I can have one on backwards, one on forwards.’

      Riley chuckled. It was the first time for twelve hours he’d felt like laughing and it felt great.

      ‘Can you fix it?’ he asked Jancey.

      ‘Mrs Rogers in Surgical left her pink fluffy dressing gown behind when she went home this morning,’ Jancey said, smiling herself. ‘I don’t think she’d mind …’

      ‘Does it have buttons?’ Pippa demanded.

      ‘Yes,’ Jancey said. ‘And a bow at the neck. The bow glitters.’

      ‘That’ll cheer us up,’ Pippa said. ‘And heaven knows Amy and I both need it.’

      Assisting at a birth settled her as nothing else could.

      Amy needed someone she knew, a partner, a mother, a friend, but there seemed to be no one. Her labour was progressing slowly, and left to herself she would have given in to terror.

      What sort of hospital was this that provided no support?

      To be fair, though, Pippa decided as the afternoon wore on, most hospitals checked labouring mothers only every fifteen minutes or so, making sure things were progressing smoothly.

      The mother’s support person was supposed to provide company.

      ‘So where’s your family?’ she asked. They were listening to music—some of Amy’s favourites. Pippa had needed to do some seriously fast organisation there.

      ‘Home,’ Amy said unhelpfully. ‘They made me come.’

      ‘Who made you come?’

      ‘Doc Riley. There’s not a doctor at Dry Gum Creek, and they don’t have babies there if Doc Riley can help it. Mostly the mums come here but Doc Riley said I needed … young mum stuff. So they took me to Sydney Central, only it was really scary. And lonely. I stayed a week and I’d had enough. There was no way I could get home but I knew Doc Riley was here so I got the bus. But the pains started just as I reached here. And I’m not going back to Sydney Central.’

      That explained why Amy was in a relatively small hospital with seemingly not much obstetric support on hand, Pippa thought, deciding to be a little less judgmental about Amy being on her own.

      ‘Why didn’t your mum come with you?’

      ‘Mum says it’s stupid to come to hospital, but she didn’t tell me it hurt like this. If you hadn’t been here …’ Another contraction hit and she clung to Pippa with a grip like a vice.

      ‘I’m here,’ Pippa told her as Amy rode out the contraction. ‘Hold as tight as you need. Yesterday I was staring death in the face. It’s kind of nice to be staring at birth.’

      Riley was in the final stages of stitching Hubert Trotter’s toe when Jancey stuck her head round the partition.

      ‘She’s good,’ she said.

      ‘Who’s good?’

      ‘Our night swimmer. She’s been up to the kids’ ward in her gorgeous silver and pink dressing gown, and she did the best plea you ever heard. Told them all about Amy having a baby alone. Talk about pathos. She’s borrowed Lacey Sutherland’s spare MP3 player. She conned one of the mums into going home to get speakers. She’s hooked up the internet in the nurses’ station and she’s downloaded stuff so she has Amy’s favourite music playing right now. She also rang the local poster shop. I don’t know what she promised them but the guys were here in minutes. Amy’s now surrounded by posters of her favourite telly stars. Oh, and one of the mums donated a giraffe, almost as tall as Amy. Pippa has Amy so bemused she’s almost forgotten she’s in labour.’

      ‘She’s a patient herself,’ Riley said, stunned.

      ‘Try telling her that. Oh, and I managed to ring the number she gave us in England. I had a minute and I couldn’t help myself—she had me fascinated. Her boss says send her back, now. Seems your Pippa left to get married two weeks ago and they miss her. Talk about glowing references. Can we keep her?’

      ‘I’m not sure how we can.’

      ‘Just don’t give her clothes,’ Jancey said, grinning. ‘I’m off duty now. We’re two nurses short for night shift but I’ve

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