“I’m so sorry, Libby,” he whispered. “So very, very sorry for letting you down.”

“Seb, have you got a minute?”

He looked round when the door suddenly opened and Cathy appeared. “Problems?” he said, standing up. Libby hadn’t moved, she was still curled up asleep. He doubted if she was aware that he was there, which probably wasn’t a bad thing. He was feeling far too emotional at the moment and he couldn’t afford to feel this way if he hoped to convince her that their marriage could work if she’d only give him a second chance.

He had to stay focused, he thought as he followed Cathy out the door. He had to present the idea of them trying again, with confidence and assurance so that she would believe it was worth taking the risk. He knew it was a lot to ask and that he didn’t deserve another chance after the mess he’d made of things, but he couldn’t just let her go without a struggle. He needed her, wanted her, loved her, and he was going to tell her that before this night was over. He wanted his wife back for keeps!

Dear Reader,

We read so much in the press about the number of failed marriages that it’s easy to forget about those that do survive. I wrote this book in the hopes of reestablishing the balance a little.

When Libby Bridges sets out to tell her husband, Seb, that she wants a divorce, she is sure that she is doing the right thing. They have drifted so far apart that their marriage is little more than a sham. However, during the course of the following twenty-four hours, as she and Seb are forced to work together, Libby finds herself reassessing her decision. Does she really want to lose Seb? Seb is devastated when he realizes why Libby has come to see him. He desperately wants to persuade her to give him a second chance, but as the night passes, and one crisis follows another, time is slipping away. Will he be able to convince Libby that he still needs her?

I had fun writing this book. As each hour passed, nearing the time when Libby and Seb must part, I found myself willing them to admit the truth—that they love one another and want to stay together. Did they manage it in the end? You will have to read the book to find out!

Best wishes,

Jennifer

A Night to Remember

Jennifer Taylor

www.millsandboon.co.uk

A&E DRAMA

Blood pressure is high and pulses are racing in these fast-paced dramatic stories. They’ll move a mountain to save a life in an emergency, be they the crash team, emergency doctors or paramedics. There are lots of critical engagements amongst the high tensions and emotional passions in these exciting stories of lives and loves at risk!

CONTENTS

Cover

Dear Reader

Title Page

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER EIGHT

CHAPTER NINE

CHAPTER TEN

CHAPTER ELEVEN

CHAPTER TWELVE

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

CHAPTER NINETEEN

CHAPTER TWENTY

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

Copyright

CHAPTER ONE

Friday: 3 p.m.

THE sky had that leaden look that usually heralded a storm. Libby Bridges pulled into a lay-by and checked her map. If there was a storm brewing, she wanted to get to her destination as quickly as possible.

Her finger traced the network of roads and she sighed. By her reckoning, she still had another fifty miles to go before she reached the hospital. Maybe she should phone Seb and warn him that she was coming so he would wait for her. She didn’t want him to leave work before she got there. Although he had sent her his new address when he had moved, she had never been to the house and wasn’t sure if she would be able to find it on her own.

Libby took her mobile phone out of her bag but even as she went to key in the number, she changed her mind. If she phoned Seb and told him that she was on her way to see him, he would want to know why. Did she really intend to tell him over the phone that she wanted a divorce? Maybe they hadn’t been able to make their marriage work but the least she could do was to end it with dignity.

She shoved the phone back into her bag and pulled out onto the road, but her heart was heavy as she set off again. She wasn’t looking forward to the next few hours but what choice did she have? There was no point hoping that she and Seb could work things out because they had passed that point now. The problem was that they were two very different people to the starry-eyed lovers who had met at med school and married on the day they had graduated.

Just remembering all the dreams they’d had once for their future together was almost too painful. They had been so sure that their love would last but the strain of working increasingly long hours had taken its toll. Whole weeks had passed when they had barely seen each other if one of them had been working nights. That was the main reason why she had decided to go into general practice. Working set hours—even long ones—had seemed preferable to never seeing Seb and it had been fine at first, until he’d been offered his dream job in the north-east.

Libby’s pretty mouth compressed as she remembered the argument they’d had when Seb had told her that he was considering taking up the post. She was just getting settled into the practice in Sussex and starting to find her feet when he had dropped his bombshell. They’d ended up having a massive row. She’d told him that he was selfish for expecting her to give up her job and follow him around the country, and he had accused her of having a closed mind. They had gone round and round in circles, neither of them willing to give an inch, until in the end they had gone to bed with the problem still unresolved.

She sighed. That was the first time they’d slept in separate beds since their marriage and it had been their biggest mistake of all. Each time they’d had an argument after that, one of them had retired to the spare room. They had never actually sat down and tried to talk through their problems. They had shut themselves away and, inevitably, they had grown apart.

When Seb had taken up the post as consultant in charge of the newly opened trauma unit on the north-east coast, they had made an effort at first: Seb had driven down to Sussex one weekend and she had driven up the next. However, they had both known that they wouldn’t be able to keep up such a gruelling routine. Something had had to give and in the end it had been their marriage. Now it was time to take the final step and end it. At least this way they might have some good memories to look back on.

‘Clear!’

Seb Bridges placed the paddles on the boy’s chest and sent another surge of electricity arcing through the nine-year-old’s body. Young Liam Baxter had had a fight with a bus on his way home from school and he had come off worst.

‘Come on, come on,’ Seb muttered, his dark brows drawn into a frown as he willed the child’s heart to start beating again.

‘Sinus rhythm,’ the nurse beside him announced, and a collective cheer went up. Seb grinned at his team.

‘Well done, you lot. That’s another one we can chalk up as a success. Carry on like this and we’ll start winning awards!’

Everyone laughed at that. The idea of them being afforded any credit for their efforts was a pipe dream. With government targets to meet, not to mention patients’ increasingly high expectations, they were lucky if they received the odd thank you most days. Cathy, the senior charge nurse on the trauma unit, rolled her eyes at him.

‘You still haven’t got rid of those high-faluting southern expectations, have you, Seb?’

‘Are you calling me a dreamer, hen?’ he demanded in his best imitation of the local accent.

‘If the cap fits…’

Cathy stuck her nose in the air and whisked past him. Seb laughed. One of the best things about this job was the camaraderie he enjoyed with his team. They were a great bunch, every single one of them as dedicated as he was. He really had struck lucky when he’d made the move north. Not only had he found his dream job but he’d made a lot of good friends, too. It had helped make up in a small way for all that he’d lost.

A familiar pain stabbed his heart at the thought of Libby and he swung round so his colleagues wouldn’t see his anguish. There were patients waiting to be seen, and there was no time to waste by thinking about the mess he had made of his marriage. All the regrets in the world wouldn’t change things now.

He left Resus and went to check the whiteboard. Every single cubicle was occupied and there was a patient in the treatment room as well. It had been an exceptionally busy day, even by their standards. The closure of several smaller accident and emergency units in the surrounding area had put extra pressure on them. The Grace Darling Hospital’s trauma unit was not only a centre of excellence, it was the main provider of emergency care for several hundred thousand people. Now he glanced round when his junior registrar, Gary Parr, came hurrying over to him.

‘Looks like your average day in the madhouse,’ he observed drolly.

‘And it’s about to get worse, by all accounts.’ Gary looked worried as he drew Seb aside. ‘We’ve just had the coastguard on the phone. Apparently, there’s a tanker adrift in the North Sea and it’s on course to hit one of the offshore gas platforms.’

‘Hell! What’s the tanker carrying?’ Seb demanded.

‘Some sort of chemicals, although they’re not sure exactly what yet. The coastguard is still trying to get the information out of the tanker’s owners and they aren’t being very co-operative, it seems.’

‘Does the coastguard think they might be able to head it off?’ Seb asked, frowning as he considered the implications of such a scenario. Obviously there would be casualties from both the tanker and the drilling rig if there was a collision, but that wasn’t his only concern. If there was a chemical spillage, it could spread for miles along the coastline and that would put many more people at risk.

‘There are tugs on their way to it but it doesn’t sound very hopeful.’ Gary grimaced. ‘The coastguard says there’s a storm brewing and it’s going to be a bad one, too. The guy I spoke to didn’t rate their chances of avoiding a collision very highly.’

‘In that case, we need to prepare for the worst-case scenario.’ Seb swung round and headed for the office. Gary followed him inside and closed the door.

‘You think it warrants major incident status?’ the younger doctor asked, going pale at the thought.

‘I think it’s worth putting everyone on standby,’ Seb told him firmly, picking up the phone. ‘The last thing we need is to be caught flat-footed.’

He dialled the major incident headquarters and asked to speak to the duty officer. He was put straight through, although he didn’t need to explain why he was phoning—the coastguard had beaten him to it. He nodded when the duty officer explained that an announcement was being prepared and that it would be aired over local radio within the next half-hour.

He hung up and opened the top drawer of the filing cabinet. He took out the file that contained the names of all the staff who were designated to work during a major incident and handed it to Gary.

‘Check who’s already here then make a list of the others so the switchboard can contact them, will you? I’ll go and tell everyone what’s happened and start winding things down in here. The last thing we need is a waiting room full of patients if we end up with a major emergency on our hands.’

‘What about the air ambulance service?’ Gary asked hurriedly as Seb made for the door. ‘Do I need to get in touch with them, too?’

‘You may as well, although they probably know about it by now.’ Seb turned and stared out of the window, sighing when he saw the black clouds that were massing overhead. ‘It looks as though it’s going to be a very long night.’

CHAPTER TWO

Friday: 4 p.m.

THE storm broke just as Libby was turning in through the gates of the hospital. Raindrops as big as golf balls struck the windscreen, forcing her to slow down to a crawl. She switched on the wipers to their fastest setting but even then they couldn’t cope with the deluge.

Rubbing the back of her hand over the glass to clear away the condensation that was forming on it, she peered out. There was a sign up ahead, directing her to the car park, so she cautiously headed in that direction, surprised by the size of the hospital complex. Seb had told her that a whole new wing had been built to house the trauma unit during the recent renovations but she’d not realised before just how impressive it was.

No wonder he’d wanted to work here, she thought as she searched for a parking place. He had always enjoyed being in the thick of things and thrived in a crowd, whereas she preferred to be with a small group of people whom she knew well. She frowned as she manoeuvred the car into an empty space. She’d never realised before how different they were in that respect.

She switched off the engine then found her umbrella. Opening the car door, she stepped out and gasped when the wind immediately tore the umbrella from her hand as soon as she tried to open it. It went bouncing across the car park, its spokes getting battered and broken as it was tumbled around. She sighed as she locked the car doors. There was no point going after it so she would just have to get soaked, although it was annoying when she’d wanted to appear totally in control when she saw Seb.

She made her way from the car park and followed the signs directing her to the trauma unit. Even though it was barely four o’clock, the light was fading fast. The storm was gathering momentum and she was relieved when she spotted the entrance up ahead. If the wind got any stronger, she doubted if she’d be able to stay on her feet and that would be the last straw—to turn up at Seb’s place of work covered in mud!

Libby hurried inside the building then paused to get her bearings. The reception desk was straight ahead with a large waiting area to the right. Rows of chairs were neatly lined up in there and there was a drinks machine in the corner next to a rack of magazines. The place looked exactly as she had expected it would do, apart from one major omission: there were no people.

Where were all the patients? she wondered, looking around. The walking wounded as well as the seriously injured who filled up every accident and emergency department in the country? She couldn’t believe this was a normal Friday afternoon. Seb had told her several times how busy he was and that there weren’t enough hours in the day to see all the people who turned up. Obviously, something must have happened…

‘I’m afraid the emergency department is closed at the moment.’

Libby swung round when a nurse suddenly appeared. ‘I’m not a patient,’ she explained hurriedly. ‘I’m here to see Dr Bridges.’

‘Dr Bridges is too busy to see anyone at the moment,’ the nurse said firmly. ‘I’m sorry, but I’m going to have to ask you to leave.’

‘Libby!’

They both turned when they heard Seb’s voice. Libby summoned a smile but she could see the shock on his face as he moved towards her. ‘Hello, Seb. I seem to have chosen a bad time to arrive. Sorry.’

‘There’s no need to apologise. You weren’t to know that we were in the middle of a major incident alert.’

He returned her smile but she could hear the tension in his deep voice. Was he wondering why she had turned up like this, out of the blue? It was three months since they’d seen each other, and that meeting couldn’t be classed as a success by any stretch of the imagination. The weekend had been a strain for both of them; they’d found it difficult to think of anything to say most of the time. They had drifted so far apart now that they seemed to have no common ground any more.

She’d been relieved when Seb had decided to cut short his visit and return to the north-east. However, it had been that meeting which had helped her make up her mind about what she wanted to do. It had proved once and for all that their marriage was dead and that the best thing would be to end it rather than allow it to drag on.

Now here she was, about to do that very thing, yet she couldn’t just baldly announce her decision. She and Seb needed to sit down and work out the details, like who should have which items of furniture, for instance. However, the likelihood of them being able to do that now seemed extremely remote.

‘Sorry. I’m forgetting my manners. I should have introduced you two. Cathy, I’d like you to meet my wife, Libby. Or Dr Olivia Bridges, if you’d prefer her official title.’

Libby summoned a smile as Seb introduced her to the other woman but she could see the wariness in his eyes when he turned to her and knew that she was right. He had guessed why she’d come and she wasn’t sure if that made the situation better or worse.

‘Libby, this is Cathy Watts, the senior charge nurse on the unit. This place would grind to a halt without her!’

‘It’s good to meet you, Cathy,’ she said quietly, offering the other woman her hand.

‘You too, Dr Bridges.’

The nurse shook her hand but Libby detected a definite coolness about her manner, which surprised her. Although Cathy had gone through the motions, she didn’t appear to be exactly enthusiastic about meeting her and, frankly, Libby couldn’t understand why…Unless Cathy had more than a professional interest in Seb, in which case she would hardly be thrilled to see her there, would she?

The thought that Seb might be seeing another woman was one that had crossed her mind several times in the past year, although she had always dismissed it before. He had never done or said anything to suggest that he was having an affair so she had given him the benefit of the doubt. However, she realised all of a sudden it would be naïve to imagine that a man like Seb would be on his own for very long.

Her gaze skimmed up the long, powerful lines of his body and she felt a little shiver run through her. He’d always had a huge physical impact on her from the first moment they’d met. Tall and dark with the kind of leanly hewn good looks that appealed to so many women, Seb had been her first and her only lover. That he’d had other relationships before he’d met her had never bothered her. It had been enough to know that she had been the one he’d wanted and chosen to marry.

Now everything had changed and it was too much to expect that a man as attractive and virile as her husband would have been content to live the life of a monk these past months. Had he been seeing Cathy, or someone else? Maybe it wasn’t her business any more, but she was only human. She couldn’t help wanting to know the answer.

Seb could feel the shock waves spreading through his entire body. Seeing Libby standing there had knocked him for six. He’d physically had to restrain himself when what he’d wanted to do had been to sweep her into his arms and kiss her until every doubt that had plagued him since their last meeting had been erased for good. It was only the thought of why she’d driven all the way up here to see him that had stopped him. Had she come to ask him for a divorce? He didn’t want to believe it—hell, he couldn’t bear to believe it!—yet he knew in his heart it was true. As far as Libby was concerned, their marriage was over.

Pain sliced through him, but before he could say anything to her the main doors burst open and a man ran into the unit.

‘It’s my wife…She’s outside in the car…Please, you have to help her!’

‘I’ll be right there.’ Seb hurriedly set aside his own feelings as he turned to Cathy. ‘Find Marilyn and tell her that I need her in Resus, stat. I’ll take the patient straight there so you and Jayne get everything ready.’

‘Will do,’ the nurse assured him.

Seb didn’t waste any time as he hurried outside. There was a car parked all askew in front of the door and he could see a young woman lying on the back seat. ‘What happened to her?’ he asked as the driver opened the car door.

‘I don’t know!’ The driver was frantic with worry as he climbed into the car and attempted to lift his wife out. She screamed in agony when he moved her and Seb quickly put a restraining hand on his arm.

‘Let me take a look at her first.’ He waited while the man scrambled back out of the car then bent down to speak to the young woman. Her eyes were glazed with pain and she was clutching her stomach.

‘My name is Seb Bridges and I’m the consultant in charge of the trauma unit. Can you tell me when this all started?’

‘I’m not sure…An hour ago…maybe more…’ She broke off and groaned. ‘It hurts!’

Seb glanced round, intending to tell her husband to go back inside and ask one of the porters to fetch out a trolley. He did a double-take when he discovered that Libby had followed him outside and was standing behind him.

‘Do you need a trolley?’ she asked, anticipating his request.

‘Please.’ He swiftly battened down his emotions. It really wasn’t the right moment to think about all the other times when she had seemingly read his mind. ‘Get one of the porters to bring it out here. I’ll need him to help me move her. There’s no way she can walk in this state.’

‘Of course.’

She hurried away as he crouched down beside the car again. He gently eased the woman’s hands away from her abdomen, but she cried out in pain when he tried to examine her and he paused.

‘I know it hurts but I need to find out what’s going on in there. Just yell if the pain gets too much for you. I have very strong nerves so don’t worry about scaring me.’

She seemed reassured by his tone and allowed him to continue, moaning softly as he carried out a rudimentary examination. The abdominal wall was rock hard to his touch, the underlying muscles obviously in spasm. The pain seemed to be worse in the lower abdomen; the patient certainly complained loudest when he probed that area. However, before he could ask her any questions which might have helped with his diagnosis, Libby arrived with a porter and the trolley he’d requested.

Seb backed out of the car and turned to the patient’s husband. ‘We need to get your wife onto that trolley but it’s not going to be easy for her. She’s in a great deal of pain and it will hurt her even more when we try to move her.’

The young man blanched. ‘I’ve never heard Alison cry like that before. She’s quite tough, really, and never makes a fuss.’

‘Which just proves how uncomfortable she is at the moment,’ Libby said gently, stepping forward.

She laid her hand on the young man’s arm and Seb felt a little flicker of resentment run through him when he saw her smile warmly at him. It had been a long time since she’d smiled at him that way, he thought before he realised how churlishly he was behaving.

‘Make sure she knows you’re here for her,’ Libby continued, blissfully unaware of any undercurrents. ‘Talk to her while we move her and hold her hand…anything that might help to reassure her. She’s in pain and she’s scared and she needs you to be strong for her.’

‘I’ll try.’

The young man seemed far more resolute as he bent down and spoke to his wife. The fact that he was no longer so panic-stricken obviously had an effect on her, too, because she immediately started to calm down. Seb told the porter to go round to the other side of the car so they could begin the process of lifting her out, but he couldn’t help thinking how typical it was that Libby had managed to calm the situation down so effectively.

She’d always been good at finding the right words to reassure people. He had learned a lot from her when they had worked together, in fact. He’d had a tendency to rush because he’d wanted to get the job done, but she had taught him to be patient and spend an extra few minutes settling a patient down.

It had been the same in their private life: Libby had been the calm one, the one who had kept things ticking over, whereas he’d always been rushing around, trying to do ten jobs at once. He had always believed that they complemented each other in that respect, that her calmness was the perfect foil for his impatience. But was that really true? Or was it more a case of them being complete opposites who approached life from different directions and had very little in common?

His heart sank because it seemed the more likely explanation. He and Libby didn’t complement each other—they opposed one another. Was it any wonder in those circumstances that she had given up on their marriage?

CHAPTER THREE

Friday: 5 p.m.

‘THANK you, Dr Bridges. I’ll take over from here.’

Libby moved aside as Cathy Watts came hurrying over and took her place beside the trolley. It was obvious that the charge nurse expected her to leave Resus, but for some reason she felt loath to do so. She glanced at Seb, who was standing by the bed, and sighed. Surely she wasn’t jealous at the thought of the other woman being there to assist him while she’d been dismissed as surplus to requirements?

‘On my count, everyone,’ Seb said. ‘One…two…three.’ The young woman was swiftly transferred onto the bed and the team sprang into action. It was obviously a well-rehearsed routine because nobody needed to be told what to do. While Seb was delicately probing the patient’s abdomen, Cathy was attaching her to various monitor leads. Another nurse—Jayne, according to her name badge—had begun to remove the woman’s clothing, and the specialist registrar, Marilyn Maddocks, was taking a blood sample.

Libby had to admit that she was impressed by the ease with which they slotted into their allotted roles, although she wasn’t surprised. Seb had always demanded the very highest standards from his staff because it was what he demanded from himself.

‘Do you have any pain anywhere else, Alison?’

Seb’s voice was clear and deep as he asked the patient various questions, and Libby shivered. She had always loved the sound of his voice. It had been the first thing that had attracted her to him, in fact. She’d been in the students’ union at the time, attempting to buy herself a glass of wine and failing miserably. The place had been packed that night and making herself heard above the din had been a major task. But then Seb had appeared and asked her what she’d wanted and, lo and behold, a glass had materialised in front of her as though by magic.

He had picked it up and led her over to a table—typically, he’d been able to find an empty one even in that crush—and then he had proceeded to charm her. By the end of the night she’d been more than halfway in love with him and by the end of the month they had moved in together. They had lived together all through med school and even though she had found the course extremely hard going at times, she had got through it because Seb had been there to help and encourage her.

She sighed. At one time she’d believed that he would always be there for her but it hadn’t worked out that way. Now she had accepted that divorce was the only answer. Once they made their separation legal, they would be free to get on with their lives, although she wasn’t foolish enough to think that it would be easy for either of them. Their relationship had been very special and there were bound to be regrets on both sides. However, painful though it might be, she knew they couldn’t carry on living the way they’d been doing for the past year. No, it would be better to end their marriage than endure any more heartache.

Seb frowned as he listened to what the patient was saying. ‘So where exactly was this other pain, then?’

‘In my shoulder…just here…’ Alison’s hand fluttered weakly as she touched the tip of her right shoulder, and he nodded.

‘I see,’ he said quietly, not wanting her to know how significant that snippet of information might turn out to be. He glanced over at Libby, wondering if she was adding up the clues as he was doing, and felt his heart jolt painfully when he saw the sadness on her face. She looked so unhappy that he longed to comfort her, but how could he when he had a patient who needed his help?

‘Have you experienced any vaginal bleeding?’ he continued, doing his best to appear calmly in control, although his insides felt as though they were on a merry-go-round. Even if he lived to be a hundred, he doubted if he would ever fully recover from the shock of seeing Libby standing in the waiting room.

‘I’m having a period at the moment,’ Alison muttered, obviously embarrassed at having to talk about something so personal.

‘So there’s no possibility that you might be pregnant?’ he persisted. ‘You haven’t missed a period recently?’

‘Well, I didn’t have one last month, but I’d just stopped taking the Pill and my GP warned me that my periods could be a bit erratic at first,’ Alison explained, blushing furiously.

‘Did you do a home pregnancy test?’ Seb asked, checking the monitor readings. Although Alison’s pulse, BP and heart rate were still within acceptable limits, there had been a slight deterioration in her condition so he decided not to waste any more time.

‘Tell Ben I’m going to need a transvaginal ultrasound done, will you?’ he told Cathy quietly, then turned back to the young woman as she answered his question.

‘No, I didn’t do a test. I didn’t think there was any need to do one because of what my GP had said.’ Alison was starting to look really scared now. ‘Do you think I’m having a miscarriage, Doctor?’

‘It’s possibly a little more complicated than that,’ Seb said gently. He nodded when Marilyn murmured that she would get onto the obstetric’s registrar. Obviously, she’d latched onto his train of thought so he could save his explanations for the patient. Moving to the head of the bed again, he did all he could to sound reassuring but he could tell how terrified the young woman was.

‘It’s possible that you’ve had an ectopic pregnancy, Alison. What that means is that instead of the embryo developing inside your womb, it started to develop somewhere else. The most common place is in one of the Fallopian tubes but we’ll have a better idea after you’ve had an ultrasound scan.’

‘But what’s going to happen if the baby’s growing in the wrong place? Will you be able to put it back where it’s supposed to be?’

‘No. I’m really sorry but that simply isn’t possible.’ Seb squeezed her hand when he saw tears ooze from her eyes. ‘It’s more than likely that the embryo is dead so it will be removed, along with any other damaged tissue.’

‘And that’s all that will happen?’ the girl said through her sobs.

‘A lot will depend on how much damage has been done. If the embryo has developed in one of your Fallopian tubes, the tube might have ruptured and the surgeon will have to decide if he can repair it.’ He squeezed her hand tighter. ‘If that isn’t possible then the tube will need to be removed as well.’

‘Oh!’

The girl broke into a storm of weeping. Seb sighed, wishing that he knew of a way to make this easier for her. He looked up when Libby suddenly appeared at his side.

‘Let me talk to her,’ she said simply.

Seb stepped aside, only half listening as Cathy came over to tell him that Ben was ready to do the scan. Libby was bending over the girl, stroking her hair and murmuring to her. Although Alison was still crying, whatever Libby was saying to her was obviously helping.

If only she would turn her talents to making their marriage better, he thought wistfully, then swung round because there was no point torturing himself with ‘if onlys’. What was done was done and he had to live with the consequences, even though he had no idea how he was going to do that. How did you manage to live without the person you loved most in the whole world?

Libby sighed sadly as she watched Alison being whisked away. Once an ectopic pregnancy was confirmed, the girl would be taken to the obs and gynae unit and prepared for surgery. She felt very sorry for her. It must be a terrible shock for a woman to discover that she was pregnant and that there was no hope of her baby surviving.

‘Thanks for that. I really appreciated it.’

She summoned a smile when Seb came over to her. ‘It was the least I could do.’

‘I’m still grateful, though. You’ve always had the gift of soothing people when they’re at their lowest ebb.’ He shrugged when she looked at him in surprise. ‘Not many folk have that talent, Libby, but you do.’

‘I…um…well, thank you.’ She stumbled over the words and had to make an effort to collect herself, but it was odd that Seb should have said that after what she’d been thinking about him. ‘We had a case similar to this during our first rotation on Casualty, if you remember,’ she said quickly, not wanting to go back down that route again.

‘Oh, I remember all right.’ He rolled his eyes. ‘A woman came in complaining of pains in her abdomen so we ran through everything we could think of—appendicitis, food poisoning, cystitis…’

‘Abdominal colic.’ She laughed. ‘We hadn’t a clue, had we?’

‘No, we hadn’t. We’d still be struggling if the senior reg hadn’t come along and demanded to know if she had a pain in her shoulder.’ Seb grinned. ‘We thought he’d completely lost the plot by asking a question like that, until he informed us that shoulder-tip pain is often a symptom of an ectopic pregnancy.’

‘We’d never even heard of it until then,’ Libby agreed. ‘He had to explain that it was caused by internal bleeding irritating the diaphragm when the patient breathes in and out.’

‘It was one lesson we never forgot, though, especially as we got a real rollicking from him afterwards. What did he call us?’

‘A pair of half-baked, incompetent morons who shouldn’t be allowed anywhere near a member of the public,’ she supplied helpfully, and he laughed.

‘That’s exactly what he said! How on earth did you remember after all this time?’

‘Because that day stuck in my mind for a number of reasons.’

As soon as the words left her mouth Libby wished she hadn’t said them, but it was too late by then. She could tell that Seb had remembered what else had happened that day, too. After their roasting, they had gone back to their flat and one thing had led to another. They’d ended up making love and afterwards, as they had lain in one another’s arms, Seb had asked her to marry him…

‘Right. I’d better go and brief the team so that everyone knows what to expect,’ he said brusquely, swinging round.

‘You mean about this major incident? What’s happened exactly?’ She shrugged when he paused, not wanting him to know how painful it was to recall happier times. There was no point looking back but it wasn’t easy to block out the memories when they were together. ‘I never got a chance to ask you before because we were interrupted. It must be pretty serious, though, if you’ve closed the whole unit.’

‘It is. There’s a tanker adrift and it’s on course to collide with one of the off-shore drilling rigs. We’ll be treating the bulk of the casualties so it’s going to get rather hectic around here.’

‘Good heavens! It really is a major incident.’

‘It’s certainly the biggest thing we’ve had to deal with since the unit opened.’ He glanced at his watch and sighed. ‘I’m sorry but I really need to get everything sorted out.’

‘Of course you do. Sorry. I didn’t mean to hold you up.’

‘You haven’t.’ There was a moment when she thought he was going to say something else but in the end he merely shrugged. ‘Why don’t you come with me? That way I can introduce you to the rest of the team before it gets too busy.’

‘Are you sure? I wouldn’t want to get in the way.’

‘You won’t,’ he said firmly, opening the door.

Libby wasn’t convinced but it would have wasted too much time if she’d argued the point with him. She sighed as she followed him out of Resus. It certainly hadn’t been the best time to turn up here. Seb had enough to contend with at the moment without her adding to the pressure. She just had to hold onto the thought that she was doing the right thing. For both of them.

CHAPTER FOUR

Friday: 6 p.m.

‘SORRY to keep you waiting, but we had a bit of an emergency.’

Seb could feel his stomach churning as he led the way into the office. He beckoned Libby forward and dredged up a smile. ‘For those of you who haven’t met her yet, this is my wife, Libby. I’m afraid we’ll have to leave the rest of the introductions until later, though.’

He closed the door, ignoring the looks that were being exchanged. Although everyone knew he was married, he guessed that most people had assumed that he and Libby were separated. It must be almost as big a shock for them as it had been for him to have her turn up like this, but there was nothing he could do about it. He could hardly explain why she’d come when he didn’t officially know the reason himself.

‘Right, I’ve spoken to the coastguard and the news isn’t good,’ he said briskly, trying not to dwell on how he was going to feel when Libby asked him for a divorce. ‘The tugs have been unable to get a line to the tanker because of the heavy seas. It’s still on course for a collision so they’ve decided to evacuate as many people as possible from the rig.’

‘By helicopter?’ Marilyn put in.

‘To begin with. However, if the wind speed increases then the helicopters won’t be able to continue flying so they’ve put out a call to all shipping in the area. If the local fishing boats can offload some of the crew, that will cut down the number of flights the air-sea rescue guys will have to make.’ He shrugged. ‘We don’t want to add to the chaos by having a ’copter ditch in the sea.’

‘How many crew are there on the tanker?’ Ben Robertson, their senior radiologist, enquired.

‘That’s something the coastguard is still trying to establish, along with the exact nature of the cargo the tanker is carrying. Let’s just say that the owners of the vessel are a tad reluctant to answer any questions.’

‘So we don’t know how many potential casualties we could end up with,’ Cathy said in dismay.

‘That’s the top and bottom of it, I’m afraid.’ Seb glanced around the room, his eyes lingering only a fraction longer on Libby than they did on anyone else but even so, he could have recited from memory every detail of what she was wearing if he’d been asked to do so.

He’d always loved her in blue, he thought wistfully. It was a colour that suited her perfectly, highlighting her honey-gold hair and fair skin. She’d worn a pale blue suit when they had married in the simple register office ceremony they had decided on. Neither of them had wanted a big wedding with lots of fuss. They’d just wanted each other and the day had been perfect. They had made their vows in front of a handful of family and friends, and they had both cried. It had been the best day of his life and it was almost too painful to have to remember it now.

He cleared his throat, afraid that his feelings would be all too apparent. ‘We don’t know if we’ll be dealing with six or sixty casualties so we need to be prepared for every eventuality. Ambulance Control has been instructed to send only the most severely injured patients to us during the course of the next twenty-four hours so that should help, but if the numbers are high, we are going to be pushed to our absolute limit. Just do your best. That’s all any of us can do.’

There was a murmur of agreement before everyone started to leave. Seb didn’t go with them. They knew the drill and he didn’t need to check up on what they were doing. Every single member of the team would do his or her job without him having to badger them. It was what made them work so well together: they trusted each other and had the kind of confidence that came from knowing they were trusted, too.

His gaze went to Libby again and his heart ached with a searing pain. Libby had also trusted him at one time. She’d trusted him to be there for her and he had let her down. Maybe it had been his dream to work in a job like this, but could he put his hand on his heart and swear that it had been worth doing it when it had added to the demise of his marriage?

He wished he could, wished with every fibre of his being that he could say that his job had made up for what he’d lost, but he couldn’t. He may have fulfilled his ambitions but he had lost Libby, and nothing could ever make up for that.

‘I really think I should leave.’

Libby edged towards the door. It was obvious that Seb didn’t have the time to talk to her right now so it would be better if she got out of his way. Maybe she could find a hotel in the town and stay there until the crisis was over? Now that she’d come all this way, she would prefer to get everything settled, but it wasn’t fair to expect him to deal with the issue of their divorce when he had so much else going on.

‘Nonsense! Of course you can’t leave. You’ve only just got here.’

Seb’s tone was brisk and her heart sank when she heard it. She didn’t want to cause a scene but she knew it would be better if she left. Deciding to get divorced was a big step for any couple and they needed time to talk about what it entailed. She was just about to tell him that she would book into a hotel when the phone rang and she stopped as he picked up the receiver.

‘Seb Bridges.’

Libby waited in silence while he listened to what the caller was saying. Even though she couldn’t hear what was being said, she could tell it wasn’t good news. He looked extremely troubled when he hung up.

‘That was the coastguard again. Apparently, the tanker is carrying some sort of organic compound used to make pesticides. It’s highly toxic and also believed to be carcinogenic even in fairly low doses.’

‘Is it water soluble?’ she exclaimed in dismay.

‘They’re not sure. However, in the absence of any information to the contrary, we shall have to assume that it isn’t. Which means if any of the containers rupture, the chemicals could be washed ashore.’

‘It’s a real nightmare scenario,’ she agreed worriedly. ‘It’s coming up to the weekend and I expect a lot of people still use the beaches around here even at this time of the year.’

‘And every single one them will be at risk if they come into contact with any of those chemicals,’ Seb concluded, grimly.

Libby shivered. It didn’t bear thinking about so she focussed on practicalities instead. ‘Are you going to tell your staff?’

‘Of course. They need to be fully informed about all the facts. One of our nurses has just found out that she’s pregnant and I certainly don’t want her coming into contact with a substance like that,’ he said, heading for the door.

‘Of course not.’ She quickly stepped aside, shrugging when he paused beside her. ‘I just wish there was something I could do to help.’

‘If you mean that, I can easily find you a job. We’re going to be really stretched when things start moving around here. Another pair of experienced hands would come in very useful.’

‘Are you sure? You don’t think it would be…well…awkward having me here?’ she said doubtfully. It wasn’t that she didn’t want to help, because she did. She just didn’t want to make his life any more difficult if he was involved with Cathy or some other member of the team. Her heart hiccuped painfully at the thought, but the truth had to be faced.

‘Awkward?’ He frowned. ‘You’re a first-rate doctor, Libby, and you know your way around an A and E unit better than most. Maybe you haven’t worked in emergency care for a couple of years but you won’t have lost any of your skills. You’d be doing me a favour if you agreed to help.’

‘Thanks.’ Libby smiled, deeply touched by the compliment. She’d often wondered if it had been a bone of contention between them that she’d decided to opt out of emergency care and go into general practice. However, there’d been nothing in his tone to indicate that…unless he no longer cared what she did, of course.

‘I’ll be happy to help any way I can,’ she said, determined not to let the idea gather momentum. They were heading towards a divorce so what difference did it make if he cared or not?

‘Great.’ He opened the door. ‘I’ll give you a quick tour so you can get your bearings. There’s nothing worse than the sticky stuff hitting the fan while you’re still trying to muddle your way around.’

‘Like our first day at the Royal, you mean?’ she said, and he laughed.

‘Exactly like our first day at the Royal!’ He grinned down at her, his hazel eyes warm with the memory. ‘Remember when we were told to take that old lady for an X-ray? It took us half an hour to find the radiology unit!’

‘And when we got there we discovered there were no radiographers on duty because they’d gone for lunch and we had to take her all the way back to Casualty.’ She shook her head. ‘You’d have thought someone would have warned us the department closed at lunchtime, wouldn’t you?’

‘Ah, but that would have meant them actually helping us. We were trainees, don’t forget. The lowest of the low. I can’t remember anyone actually talking to us—they just snapped orders.’ He smiled at her. ‘It’s a good job we had each other for support or we’d have gone completely mad!’

‘Probably.’

Libby felt a sudden tightness in her chest and turned away, but the damage had been done. Remembering how close they’d been was just too painful when it only served to highlight how far apart they’d grown in recent years. As she followed Seb through the unit, she found it hard to concentrate on what he was saying. What did it matter if the state-of-the-art radiology department came complete with its very own CT scanner? And why should she care if bloods were cross-matched in the unit’s own lab? None of those things had any bearing on what really mattered, which was the state of their marriage.

When she had made her vows eight years ago she had meant them. She had promised to love Seb until she died and in her heart she had promised to love him long after that, too. Yet here she was, just biding her time until she could tell him that she wanted to renounce those vows, sever the bonds that joined them together. How could anything matter more than that?

‘And last but definitely not least we have our very own theatre.’

Seb stopped so Libby could look through the glass panes set into the top of the doors outside the operating theatre. A wave of tenderness washed over him as he watched her stretch up on tiptoe so that she could see through the glass. He’d forgotten how petite she was and that she would have a struggle to see through the high windows.

His eyes skimmed over the gentle, womanly curves he knew so well and he felt another reaction occur in his body, one which had been all too predictable at one time. Libby’s beauty and femininity had always affected him and little had changed in that respect, it seemed.

‘It all looks very hi-tech in there.’

‘It is.’ Seb dredged up a smile as she turned to him. He couldn’t afford to let her see the effect she still had on him. If she’d decided to end their marriage then he wouldn’t try to make the situation more difficult for her. Even though it wasn’t what he wanted, he wouldn’t stand in her way if it was what she’d decided to do.

It was just too much to deal with that thought right then. He swung round and headed back the way they’d come. ‘So now you know where everything is, don’t you?’

‘Yes. Thanks. I can see why you were so keen to take this job. It’s one of the best-equipped trauma units I’ve ever seen.’

‘It is.’ He elbowed open the swing doors that separated the theatre suite from the rest of the department and held them while she passed through. ‘There’s no doubt that having the best equipment available really helps, but it would be worthless without the right staff. They’re the ones who make the department what it is, and they’re a great bunch of people.’

‘Of course,’ she agreed quietly.

Seb frowned. He couldn’t help noticing that there had been a definite lack of enthusiasm about her response. It appeared that his comment about the staff had struck a chord, although he wasn’t sure what chord that was. He was just about to ask her what was wrong when he thought better of it. There was no point asking questions when he might not appreciate the answers, was there? It was a relief when Jayne appeared to tell him that Ambulance Control was on the phone.

He quickly excused himself and went to the office, his heart sinking when the controller informed him that there’d been a massive explosion out at sea when the tanker had struck the gas rig. Despite everyone’s efforts to evacuate the crews from both the rig and the tanker, there were multiple casualties, the first of which were being flown straight to the hospital.

Seb hung up and checked his watch against the helicopter’s ETA. He had ten minutes to get things moving, ten minutes to get himself moving, too. Somehow he had to set aside this agony he felt about losing Libby and concentrate on what needed to be done.

He headed straight to Resus, knowing that the team would be in there. Nobody noticed him at first, then Gary spotted him and stopped talking and the others realised the time for action had arrived.

‘The first ’copter is on its way in,’ he said crisply. ‘Three men with serious burn injuries. ETA approximately nine minutes now. Marilyn will head up one team, Gary the second and I’ll take charge of the third.’

‘Do we know how many casualties we’re going to have to deal with yet?’ Gary asked anxiously.

‘No. But we’ll think in double figures and that way it will be easier to move up or down the scale,’ Seb replied, moving to the bed nearest to the doors. Cathy and Jayne would be working with him as usual, although if there was a chance that any of the casualties had come into contact with those chemicals, he would make sure Jayne was well away from the danger area. He didn’t intend to put her unborn child at risk.

‘If there’s any sign of chemical contamination, I want you out of here,’ he told her. ‘Understand?’

He sighed when he saw the relief on her face as she nodded. It had been remiss of him not to have made that clear to her before. He’d been too caught up in his own problems to worry about how his staff were feeling and it was an oversight he wouldn’t make again. Mistakes occurred when people were put under too much pressure so he had to forget about everything else and get on with the job.

The doors suddenly opened and he swung round, expecting to see the paramedics bringing in their first patient, but instead he saw Libby come in. All of a sudden he was overwhelmed by the sheer magnitude of what was happening. Libby wanted to end their marriage. She no longer wanted to be his wife—she wanted a divorce. Maybe he was guilty of burying his head in the sand, but he had never expected it would come to this!

‘So what do you want me to do?’

She stopped in front of him and his heart suddenly lifted in sheer relief when he heard what she’d said. Was she actually offering to reconsider her decision to leave?

‘What would you like to do?’ he murmured huskily.

‘I don’t mind. Whatever’s the most useful, basically.’ She glanced round the room and shrugged. ‘I don’t mind acting as gofer. You’ll need someone to take blood samples to the lab for cross-matching, and fetch drugs—things like that. I’m happy to do it if it will help.’

‘Right, thanks. I’ll bear that in mind.’

Seb dredged up a smile but he could feel it inching its way out of his boots. He knew that all they were doing was putting off the inevitable. She wanted a divorce and all she had to do now was to tell him that.

The doors crashed open again and this time it was the paramedics with their first patient. Seb told them to bring the trolley over to him. It took just a few seconds to transfer the man onto the bed and a couple more to set things in motion. This was the easy bit, of course, doing the job he’d been trained to do. The hard bit would come later, after his work here was finished.

Pain lanced through him once again. Nothing he’d ever learned had prepared him for the agony of losing Libby.

CHAPTER FIVE

Friday: 7 p.m.

‘I NEED another line putting in, stat! Libby…?’

‘Got it.’

Libby reached for a fresh cannula and ripped open the package. She swabbed the patient’s arm then swiftly inserted the needle into a vein. His whole system was closing down as shock from the injuries he’d suffered took its toll, but the needle slid into place at her first attempt. She smiled to herself. It was good to know that she hadn’t lost her touch in a crisis.

‘Thanks. Now squeeze that fluid through as fast as you can go. We’re going to lose him if we’re not careful.’

Seb barely glanced at her as he carried on removing a sliver of metal from the injured man’s throat, but she didn’t need mollycoddling. Far from delegating her to the role of helper, he had involved her at every stage and she had to admit that it felt good to be able to use her old skills again. She began rhythmically squeezing the bag of saline, knowing how important it was to get the life-giving fluid into the man’s system so that it would help to compensate for all the blood he was losing.

‘Damn!’ Seb cursed softly as the razor-sharp sliver of metal slid through the forceps he was using. She could see the frustration on his face when he looked up ‘There’s so much blood about that I can’t get a grip on it.’

She saw him take a deep breath before he returned to the task, and smiled to herself. She couldn’t count the number of times she’d seen that happen. Seb was incredibly tenacious when presented with a seemingly hopeless situation. He never gave up and would fight, tooth and nail, if he thought there was a chance of saving a patient’s life. If anyone could save this man’s life, it would be Seb.

‘Got it!’

He let out a little whoop as the lethal sliver came free. Cathy quickly swabbed the area before he set to work again—sewing up the severed artery with a skill that many surgeons would have envied. He’d had his choice of specialities after he’d qualified and could have gone into any number of disciplines, including surgery, but he’d always loved the pace and uncertainty of trauma care. Seb thrived on the unknown and the risky, whereas she preferred the familiar and the routine. It was another area in which they differed greatly.

Libby hurriedly pushed that thought to the back of her mind because she didn’t want to think about things like that at the moment. The bag of fluid had almost run through but before she could change it, Sarah, their haematologist, arrived with a supply of whole blood. Libby had to admit that she was impressed by the speed with which things moved in the unit—bloods were cross-matched seemingly in minutes, X-rays ready to be viewed in seconds. Compared to the last A and E department she’d worked in, it was another world and she could understand why Seb had been so enthusiastic when he’d been offered the post as consultant here.

‘Right, that’s all I can do for him. It’s up to the surgical team now. Can you give them a call, Jayne, and tell them we’re sending another one up to them?’ Seb stripped off his plastic apron and gloves then glanced across the room. ‘How many is that so far? I hope someone is keeping count.’

‘Too right we are,’ Marilyn piped up from the next bed. ‘Young Gary and I have a bet on as to how many folk we get to patch up tonight. My guess is fifty, although junior here reckons it’s going to be nearer the hundred mark.’ Marilyn shook her head. ‘That’s the trouble with these young guys. They overestimate the size of everything!’

Everyone laughed, even Gary. Libby smiled, too. There was a wonderful rapport between the members of the team and that undoubtedly helped them work so well together. She couldn’t help comparing it to the stuffy approach of her colleagues in the practice where she worked. There was very little camaraderie there, sadly.

‘I think we’ve earned a break before the next batch arrive.’

She looked up in surprise when she realised that Seb was speaking to her. ‘I’m quite happy to stay on here if someone else needs a break.’

‘Thanks, but that’s not the way we do things.’ He glanced at the two nurses. ‘I want you both to take a break now. The canteen is open so make sure you get something to eat.’

Cathy and Jayne didn’t quibble as they left Resus together. Libby frowned as she glanced at the other teams who were still working on their patients. ‘Don’t you want to give them a hand first?’

‘There’s no need. They know what they’re doing and they’re more than capable of doing it, too.’

Seb urged her out of the door, sighing when he saw how reluctant she was to leave. ‘Trust me, Libby. I know what I’m doing. A major incident like this is extremely stressful for everyone concerned, so you need to recharge your batteries whenever you get the chance. This could go on throughout the night and we need to be able to treat the patients with the same degree of care and attention whether they’re the first to arrive or the last.’

‘You really think it will go on for that long?’

‘Yes, I do. This is just the tip of a very big iceberg so let’s prepare ourselves for the long haul, shall we?’ He led her to the lift then grinned at her. ‘I don’t know about you but I’m starving.’

‘I wouldn’t mind a cup of coffee,’ she admitted.

‘I thought so. What time did you leave Sussex today? It must have been around lunchtime, I imagine.’

‘I set off straight after morning surgery finished. I had a half-day owed to me and decided to take it today so I could drive up here.’

Libby stepped into the lift, feeling suddenly nervous. There had been too much going on before to talk about the reason for her visit, but now it seemed that they had some time to themselves.

‘You made very good time. It’s a long drive, especially on a Friday when there are so many people trying to get away for the weekend.’

Seb pressed the button for the sixth floor then leant against the wall. His eyes were hooded, making it difficult for her to guess what he was thinking. Was he waiting for her to bring up the topic uppermost in both their minds, or did he prefer to make small talk until after the emergency was over?

It was impossible to decide so in the end she took the coward’s way out. Maybe she should have got it over with while she had the chance but she couldn’t quite bring herself to say the words that would effectively end their relationship. It seemed too cold and too clinical to talk about it here in the lift so she would wait until later.

‘The motorway was really busy but the traffic wasn’t too bad once I left it.’ She shrugged, hoping that he would follow her lead and let the subject drop for now. ‘Thankfully, I’d just got here when the storm broke otherwise that would have delayed me.’

‘It’s been a bad one,’ he agreed, straightening up as the lift came to a stop. He put his hand on the small of her back when she hesitated after they got out. ‘The canteen’s this way.’

Libby didn’t say anything as he guided her along the corridor but she was absurdly conscious of the pressure of his hand on her back. Her cotton blouse provided very little protection. She could feel his strong fingers resting against her flesh and a tide of heat suddenly rose up inside her as she recalled all the other times when she had felt them on different parts of her body…

‘Here we are.’

Seb let her go so he could open the door to the canteen. Libby scurried through it as though pursued by a horde of demons. She could feel her pulse racing as the blood surged though her veins and she bit back a groan of dismay. It had been ages since she’d reacted this way around him. The physical side of their relationship had gone the way of the rest and it had been months since they’d made love. How ironic it was that today of all days she should suddenly remember how wonderful their sex life had been!

‘What can I get you?’

Seb waited while Libby sat down at a table in the corner he had chosen for them. It had been a deliberate decision to sit there because it would afford them some privacy.

‘Just coffee will be fine, thanks.’

‘Are you sure?’ He drummed up a smile, determined not to let her know how difficult this was for him. He didn’t want to talk about getting divorced, today or any other day. Although he knew how far apart they had grown in recent months, he’d always assumed that they would be able to work through their differences somehow or other, the ‘other’ being that Libby would decide to move north to be with him.

Now he could see that it had been his biggest mistake. He shouldn’t have let matters lie, let them fester. He should have told her that he loved her and wanted her, but instead he’d allowed his pride to get in the way. Now he was going to pay the ultimate price for his arrogance and he could only hope that he and his pride would be very happy together.

‘How about a sandwich to go with that coffee?’ He managed to hold the smile, although it felt as though his emotions were being forced through a shredder and spat out at the other side. ‘It’s going to be a long night, and if you’re serious about staying on here to help then you’ll need something to sustain you.’

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