whose child had stopped breathing only twenty-four hours
earlier?
And then there was the baby itself, doomed not to
live. Rationally she knew that babies only died at birth
or soon after because they had something radically
wrong with them, but as the little plane flew through the
dusk, the sinking sun far off in the west painting the sky
orange and vermilion, she grieved for the baby as well.
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147
‘Storm building,’ Ron said. He’d spoken little except
to point out places she didn’t know. He waved his hand
towards the east where dark clouds roiled and rumbled.
‘Will it worry us?’ Jackie asked, and though Grace
was still mentally rehearsing she caught Ron’s part of
the conversation.
‘Might do later. I know you can’t hurry things but I
wouldn’t stop for coffee if I were you,’ he said, bringing
the little plane into land on a brightly lit airfield.
‘I don’t drink coffee,’ Grace assured him, feeling
more at ease now they were on the ground.
Ron taxied towards some small buildings at one end
of the runway and in the lights already lit around them
she could see another ambulance waiting.
‘That’s your ride. He’ll bring you back here. I’ll be
waiting.’
Grace thanked him and scrambled out of the plane
behind Jackie, waiting for Ryan to emerge last before
the three of them ran across the tarmac to the waiting
ambulance. Ron hadn’t sounded over-worried about
the storm, but they’d better not dilly-dally just in case.
A woman who introduced herself but whose name
went straight out of Grace’s mind met them at the front
door of the hospital and took them up to the operating
theatre.
‘Have you done retrievals before?’ Grace asked
Jackie.
‘Quite a few,’ the older woman replied.
‘Then I’d like you to check the paperwork and make
sure it’s all in order. Things could be done differently
here and we don’t want to waste these people’s won-
derful gift because of a mix-up in the paperwork.’
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THE HEART SURGEON’S BABY SURPRISE
Jackie nodded her understanding. She carefully read
through all the official approvals, checked the necessary
signatures were in place, then handed them to Grace for
her signature.
The little baby was waiting for them in Theatre and
Grace felt her own heart clamp tightly, as if someone
had gripped it with a fist. She felt a surge of sympathy
for the parents of the tiny child and blinked back
emotion she never allowed herself to show at work.
Quietly, all of them touched by this lost life, they
prepared—no theatre jokes tonight, no chat at all.
Working carefully, she opened the chest and let the
woman who’d met them know the heart was good—
they would take it and use it. The woman would let
Jimmie’s know it was a go so they could start prepping
Scarlett.
Then, making sure to take as much of the veins and
arteries as possible, tying them off as she went, Grace
gently removed the heart, passing it in her gloved hands
to Ryan whose job it was to keep it in good condition
until they got back to Sydney.
‘You people get going, we’ll close up.’ A young
surgeon who had been in Theatre with them made the
offer.
Grace smiled at him.
‘Thanks—but do it neatly, won’t you?’
The young man nodded and as his eyes met hers she
knew everyone in the room was as choked with emotion
as she was. It didn’t seem to matter how often you ex-
perienced death, the death of a baby always affected
you. And this particular baby had given them a precious
gift—the gift of life for Scarlett.
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149
They rode back to the airfield in silence, meeting
Ron who hurried them into the plane.
‘Storm worsening between here and Sydney so
buckle up tight, ladies and gent—we’re in for a rough
ride. Any of you feel queasy, there’re sick bags under the
seats.’
But rough didn’t begin to describe it. As the little
plane was tossed in the air like a leaf in a high wind,
Grace clung to her seat and thought about her own
unborn baby.
CHAPTER EIGHT
‘I’M GOING to see if I can get around it,’ Ron said,
turning the plane so they were now travelling inland
instead of along the coast, ‘and maybe beneath it, so
don’t panic if you feel us going down.’
‘Whatever seems good to you,’ Ryan assured him,
then he started joking about whether any of their hearts
would survive a crash and did they all have valid organ
donor cards?
Medical humour, Grace knew, and Jackie was going
along with it, while Ron concentrated grimly on
keeping his tiny craft aloft.
Grace smiled but she wasn’t listening to the talk, far
more concerned about her own thoughts of immortal-
ity.
It wouldn’t matter if she died tonight, because the
baby would die with her, but later on—if anything ever
happened to her—was it fair to leave a child without
a parent?
Had she selfishly not thought of that?
Theo had asked if a child shouldn’t have two parents
and they’d talked around the subject a couple of times—
MEREDITH WEBBER
151
hypothetically, of course. She’d scoffed at the idea and
had later pointed out that although it wasn’t ideal, she’d
grown up with one parent and done all right, but she’d
had no choice in the matter. Of course a child needed
two parents, especially if that was possible, if only for
the security of knowing someone would always be there
for them. Why hadn’t she thought of this earlier?
Why hadn’t she considered something happening to
her, and the child being left an orphan?
Almost an orphan—it would still have a father!
But what could she do?
Explain her fears to Theo?
Ask him if he’d mind very much…not marrying her,
of course, that would be asking too much of him, but
being a little more involved than perhaps he’d first
imagined he would, so the child would have the security
of knowing him?
The plane dropped and Grace clung to the seat,
noticing that Ryan’s jokes had dried up and all four of
them were now quiet—each absorbed in their own
private thoughts.
Although hers were surely the most bizarre. She
hadn’t even asked Theo if he’d be content to be the
child’s guardian should something happen to her! How
irresponsible was that?
And if he said no?
Could she marry someone else?
As if! She’d reached thirty-five years of age before
meeting a man who made her hormones zing so how
&nb
sp; likely was it she’d meet another one in the near future—
and one who’d want to bring up someone else’s child?
Impossible!
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THE HEART SURGEON’S BABY SURPRISE
‘Are you OK?’ Ryan asked, and she turned around
to find both him and Jackie looking anxiously at her.
‘Yes, why?’ she said, professional Grace back in
control—or almost.
‘You were groaning,’ Jackie told her.
‘Thinking what a waste if we don’t get the heart to
Sydney in time,’ she lied, but she pushed her own
worries out of her head and concentrated on the plane,
wondering if positive thinking did indeed have power…
The team was in Theatre, Scarlett on the table, Phil
waiting only for the message from the co-ordinator of
the retrieval to say the plane had landed in Sydney
before he opened Scarlett’s chest and began preparing
to put her on bypass.
Downstairs in the parents’ room the Robinsons
would be sitting, probably holding each other, hope
sneaking into their hearts for the first time since
Scarlett’s birth.
‘I hate it when planes are late,’ Phil said, then he gave
a sigh of relief as the theatre door opened and Becky
poked her head in.
‘Are we set to go?’ Phil said, but Becky shook her
head, then her voice, too, shook as she said, ‘There’s a
storm. The plane’s gone off the radar.’
‘What do you mean, the plane’s gone off the radar?
How can a plane go off the radar?’
Theo hadn’t realised he’d bellowed the questions
until everyone in the theatre turned to look at him, and
he read in the horror in all their eyes just how a plane
could go off the radar.
‘The organ donor centre co-ordinator just phoned to
MEREDITH WEBBER
153
tell me that. There’s a storm between the border and
here and the air traffic control people think the pilot
might just be avoiding that,’ Becky said, but Theo could
feel the icy dread that flooded through every member
of the team in that room. People they knew—friends,
even a lover—were on that plane.
And Scarlett’s heart!
‘They’ll come through,’ Phil said, apparently realis-
ing he had to take control before everyone’s morale
sank any further. ‘Or land somewhere and wait out the
blow.’
He touched Scarlett’s cheek with a gloved finger.
‘Only problem is time—how long they can keep the
heart viable—but they’ll do their best, little girl.’
Then he stepped away from the table.
‘I think coffee and something to eat—half the team
go now, the rest when that lot return. Silly to waste an
opportunity to rest and eat when we might be up all
night.’
He sounded cheerful and his suggestion made sense
but no one moved towards a door.
Theo discovered that his main concern was that he
didn’t even know if Grace got travel sick—and whether
being thrown around in a small plane in a storm would
make her ill. And what about the baby?
She probably wouldn’t allow herself such weakness,
he decided, smiling wryly to himself, but the realisa-
tion of how little he knew of her bit deep.
And to think they’d fallen out over something so
stupid! Did it really matter if the baby had money
coming to him or her?
What mattered was that the baby was safe, because
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THE HEART SURGEON’S BABY SURPRISE
now the plane-crash scenario had presented itself in
full gory detail in his mind’s eye, he realised he’d be
devastated if anything were to happen to the baby’s
mother.
Devastated?
Surely not—that was an extreme reaction and that
meant emotional involvement.
Which was when light dawned.
Of course he was emotionally involved with Grace!
Get real here, use the word, he was in love. And not only
in love, but he loved her—loved the little smile she
gave when she was uncertain, loved the way her eyes
went hazy when they made love, loved a little mole she
had just above her left buttock…
He shook his head. Surely he couldn’t be thinking
of Grace’s left buttock when her life was hanging in the
balance—while she was in a tiny plane being flung
around in the air, at the mercy of a storm.
The door opened and Becky, crying openly now,
poked her head in.
‘There’s no news,’ she said in a voice of such doom
Theo wanted to shake her.
‘Oh, come on now, everyone,’ he said. ‘Stop expect-
ing the worst. The blokes that fly these planes are pro-
fessionals—they know their job. The pilot will get them
through so try some positive thinking here.’
Once again he must have spoken too loudly for the
team members were all staring at him, as if the
machine, not he, had spoken.
But Phil caught on.
‘You’re right. We’re all here thinking gloom and
doom. The pilot will get through—he’s good—and
MEREDITH WEBBER
155
little Scarlett’s heart will arrive in time for us to use it.
Now, I’m not suggesting people take a break, I’m
ordering it. Go, the lot of you. Theo and I will stay here
This time they did troop out, dropping off gloves and
masks but going gowned into the little room where
they could make tea or coffee and find a sandwich in
the refrigerator or some biscuits in a tin.
‘They don’t look as if they’re thinking positive
thoughts, do they?’ Phil remarked when he and Theo
had the theatre to themselves.
‘Not really,’ Theo said, automatically responding to
Phil’s attempt at conversation while his mind was far
away, praying that Grace would come through this—
that he’d have the chance to talk to her, to explain…
‘You’ve grown close, you and Grace.’
He stared at Phil. OK, so he’d told Grace people
would guess they were having an affair but he’d also
told her no one would mention it. Now here was Phil
bringing up the subject.
‘Yes,’ Theo said, not wanting to say more, definitely
not wanting to admit they’d fallen out nearly a fortnight
ago and he was missing her like hell.
‘So you’re especially worried,’ Phil persisted, and
Theo shook his head.
‘Oh, come on, Theo,’ Phil said. ‘For heaven’s sake,
man, you can talk to me about it. It was before you came
here, but when Maggie and I first got together I nearly
lost her through my own foolishness, and everyone in
the unit knows something’s happened between you and
Grace in the last week or so. You can’t both go around
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THE HEART SURGEON’S BABY SURPRISE
with silly smiles on your faces for ages then suddenly
both look glum all the time without people putting two
and two together.’
Theo knew he should protest the silly smiles part—
Grace would never wear a silly smile—but he knew that
wasn’t the issue.
‘Does she know you love her?’
Now Theo sighed. Phil was obviously going to
pursue this subject. ‘I didn’t know myself till Becky
said the plane was missing,’ Theo admitted. ‘It’s the last
thing I wanted or expected to happen but when I
thought of her in danger, I knew.’
He considered the situation for a moment, then
added, ‘And I don’t think she’d want to know anyway.
It wasn’t that kind of affair.’
‘No?’
Phil spoke quietly, but before Theo could explain the
situation—no emotional involvement on either side—
Becky returned, this time with good news.
‘They’ve found the plane. It went off course to
escape the worst of the storm and should be in Sydney
in another forty minutes.’
‘Right!’ Phil said. ‘That gives everyone time to fin-
ish their break but go and tell them, Becky, I want them
here ready to begin in thirty minutes. We’ll go in the
moment we hear they’re on the ground. And send in a
nurse from somewhere to keep an eye on Scarlett.
Theo and I will take a break as well. It’s going to be a
long night.’
But although they did take a break the only thing Phil
said regarding the personal conversation they’d had
MEREDITH WEBBER
157
earlier was, ‘I think you should tell her and let her decide
what kind of an affair it was. And don’t leave it until it’s
too late!’
She’d have to talk to him as soon as possible. That was
the only decision Grace had arrived at by the time the
little plane touched down in Sydney. Guilt that she’d
been so irresponsible as to not think about the pos-
sibility of her own death nipped at her thoughts, but
she’d have to set that aside—time enough for guilt once
she’d spoken to Theo.
Scarlett was all ready to be put on pump when Grace
walked into Theatre, a mask held across her mouth and
nose, the cool-box in her hand.
‘Give it to someone and scrub in, can you, Grace?
I’ll need you for the switch.’
One of the circulating nurses took the cool-box and
Grace departed, but not before she’d looked across at
Theo. She thought he was looking back at her, but in
this theatre they all wore protective goggles over their