A Baby to Care for (Mills & Boon Medical) by Lucy Clark

look the girl over, noting red patches where bruises would later form on her arms, legs and face. There were also several scratches and quite a lot of grazing, especially around the heels of her hands.
    ‘I’ve already told Doc Dex,’ she said, her tone a little sullen.
    ‘You answer the doctor, Hope,’ her mother said sternly, and the teenager rolled her eyes.
    ‘Fine. I was running home from school with my friend Nancy and I tripped.’
    ‘That’s it?’
    ‘I fell.’
    ‘And the stick just went into your abdomen?’
    ‘I fell at a strange angle.’
    Iris glanced quickly at Dex and could see that he wasn’t buying the story either. At the moment, though, the real reason why Hope hadn’t told the truth didn’t matter. They needed to treat her wound and stabilise her. ‘You seem very calm about it all.’
    Hope shrugged. ‘No sense in fussing.’
    ‘She had some paracetamol when she came home,’ her mother announced. ‘I cleaned her up as best I could but when I saw that thing sticking out of her belly…’ Hope’s mother shuddered.
    ‘You were right to bring her straight here,’ Dex said placatingly. ‘However, if you’d like to wait outside, we’ll get to work with removing the obstruction. Go and chat with Bub. I’m sure she’d love to see you.’
    Hope’s mother nodded before leaving Dex, Iris and Juanita to care for her daughter.
    ‘I’ve already set up an IV and started antibiotics,’ Dex told Iris as he handed her the patient’s medical notes. Iris read quickly, noting no allergies, except the shellfish Areva had already mentioned.
    ‘Are you going to, like, knock me out?’ Hope asked.
    Iris smiled and nodded. ‘It’ll be easier for you to have a general anaesthetic.’
    ‘You won’t feel a thing,’ Dex told the girl. Juanita continued to prepare the instruments the two doctors would require for removal and debridement of the wound. Iris walked over to the sink to wash her hands and to pull on gloves. She felt rather than heard Dex approach, and warmth from his body as he stood quite close to her was enough to make her skin break out in excited goose bumps.
    ‘Ever done anything like this before?’ he asked, standing beside her and washing his own hands, whilst Juanita continued to monitor Hope.
    ‘A few times.’
    ‘Good.’
    Iris glanced at him. ‘You don’t believe her story, do you? About what happened?’
    Dex scoffed and rolled his eyes. ‘Not likely,’ he said quietly. ‘Don’t push it with her. She’ll tell us before too long.’
    ‘How do you know? Dex, something the size of that stick doesn’t get lodged in a person’s body because they “tripped” over.’
    Dex edged a little closer and spoke in a conspiratorial whisper, the earthly scent she equated with him settling over her delightfully. ‘I know that. You know that, but Hope doesn’t know that we know. You know?’
    Iris couldn’t help the laugh that bubbled out of her. She turned, wiping her hands dry before pulling on a sterile gown to protect her clothes and a pair of gloves, needing some sort of distance between herself and Dex. He was fun. She had to give him that. The only problem was, it only made it more difficult to keep her distance from him.
    ‘Right, Hope. How are you feeling?’ Dex walked back to their patient’s bedside, ready to get the proceedings under way.
    ‘Drowsy.’ Her words were spoken slowly and Dex did a skin-prick test on the area around the protruding stick.
    ‘Feel anything?’
    ‘Feel just fine,’ she drawled, lying back on the pillows, before succumbing to the anaesthetic.
    ‘I’d say we’re ready.’ Dex nodded to Iris.
    Dex monitored Hope, whilst marvelling at Iris’s clever and stable fingers, never wavering, always sure of the next move. That was how he was with women, wasn’t it? Always sure of the next move? Yet with Iris that didn’t seem to be the case. Was that what he was doing at the moment? Planning his next move? Or was the distance he’d