Hijacked Honeymoon

CHAPTER NINE

AT EIGHT the next morning there were three doctors in Sapphire Cove hospital, and Sister Eileen Roderick was enjoying herself.

‘I’m sorry, Doctors, but I don’t have enough nursing staff to accompany each of you on ward rounds,’ she said primly. ‘I can offer one of you Ted. but otherwise you’ll have to share.’

‘How about if Dr Wittner goes back on honeymoon where she’s supposed to be?’ Ryan said darkly, glowering at Abbey. Abbey was dressed in a soft blue dress that exactly matched her eyes, her curls were bouncing and shining and she looked altogether too pretty for words.

‘How about if Dr Henry goes back to New York?’ Abbey retorted, flushing. Ryan Henry looked too darned handsome for his own good. Or for her peace of mind. And how on earth could she concentrate on anything other than the memory of that kiss?

‘Well, I’m not going back to Cairns,’ Steve interjected. ’This place is too much fun.’

Both Abbey and Ryan turned to stare at Steve.

‘Excuse me?’ Ryan said. ‘I practically had to blackmail you to get you here.’

Then it was Steve’s turn to flush.

‘Yeah, well, I’m enjoying myself,’ he admitted sheepishly. ‘Medicine’s a bit dry when it’s only books. I think I might be about to make another career change.’

‘Well, how about a spot of nursing?’ Eileen suggested. ‘We’re short a few, and doctors seem to be thick on the ground around here. Let’s divvy up our patients, shall we? How will we work it? Draw straws?’

In the end they didn’t need to. Abbey agreed she really only needed to visit Ian Miller and Janet to keep herself happy-then she’d go back to Jack and her cows. Ryan’s father was due to be ambulanced back to Sapphire Cove within the next hour and Ryan wanted to be at the hospital when his father arrived. He volunteered for morning ward round. That left Steve free to read the morning newspapers and then take morning surgery.

Abbey went to see Janet, shaking her head in bewilderment. To have too many doctors…

Steve Pryor was thinking the same thing.

‘You don’t want to pay me off and have me leave, do you?’ Steve asked Ryan as Abbey disappeared down the corridor. Steve’s voice was a trifle anxious. ‘I mean… you wanted me here for four weeks, right?’

‘Yeah, well… ’ Ryan was watching Abbey walk away, and he hardly heard.

‘Ryan, Abbey’s coming back to work on Monday,’ Steve went on slowly, following Ryan’s gaze. ‘I thought… Wasn’t the idea that I’d help her out for a couple more weeks but we wouldn’t see you here after Monday? You’ll be off, getting married and looking after your dad.’

‘That’s right.’ Ryan was still gazing at the now empty corridor.

Steve wasn’t stupid. He was putting one and two together. Or one and one. And one and one makes two…

There was only one thing to do here. If you want to know something badly enough then ask. Steve squared his shoulders. And asked.

‘Ryan, am I imagining things here, or do you fancy working with Abbey yourself?’

‘What?’ Ryan turned reluctantly to stare at Steve. ‘No.’

‘So…’ Steve put his head on one side, considering. ‘You just like the work-is that it?’ The corners of his mouth twitched into a smile. ‘Well, if that’s the case, you won’t mind if I ask Abbey out to dinner over the weekend.’

Ryan stared. ‘You and Abbey…’

‘Me and Abbey…’

‘Hell!’

And then silence.

The corners of Steve’s mouth curved all the way into laughter. He now knew all he needed to know.

‘Gotcha,’ he said lightly, and grinned. ‘Don’t worry, Ryan. In fact, there’s a rather special nurse who works nights who’s agreed to go out with me already. The date with Abbey line was a ruse. I just was getting vibes about you and Abbey, and thought I might put my vibes to the test.’ His grin deepened to unholy enjoyment. ‘And I was right.’

‘Steve, there’s nothing…’ Ryan was fighting to gain control again. Steve Pryor was too intelligent for his own good. He saw too darned much. ‘There’s nothing between me and Abbey. Hell, Steve, I can’t object to whoever you want to date. I’m engaged to Felicity. Remember?’

‘Yeah, I remember,’ Steve said dryly. ‘If I were you I’d do something about that. It’s likely to cause all manner of complications.’

Ian Miller looked grey.

Tucked into a side ward by himself, Ian had spent the night recovering from the effects of the gas. Ryan paused at the door and checked him over. It was no wonder he’d taken a chance and guessed AIDS. Ian might still be simply HIV positive and not have full-blown AIDS, but the man looked haggard.

Maybe he wasn’t really ill, though, Ryan thought as he did a fast visual examination. Ian was thin but not to the point of emaciation. Underneath his fear there could well be a reasonably healthy male.

Ryan knocked lightly on the door and Ian hardly stirred. ‘Hi, Ian. Finished breakfast?’ Ryan checked Ian’s barely touched tray and frowned. ‘You want to talk?’

Ian looked up wearily from his pillows and shrugged.

‘I’m here on ward round,’ Ryan told him, hauling up a chair and lowering his long frame. ‘As a good doctor, I should examine you-but I won’t if you don’t want. Any after-effects of the gas?’

‘No.’

‘Then just tell me where you’re up to with your AIDS. I assume you have a definite diagnosis? We’re not dealing with guesswork here? Full-blown AIDS or just HIV positive? ’

‘No guesswork.’ Drearily Ian outlined his history. He’d heard a friend had died of AIDS so he’d had himself tested.

The HIV positive diagnosis had been confirmed a month ago.

‘Just HIV? Not full-blown AIDS?’

‘No.’

‘Well, that’s a bonus. Have you had any counselling?’

Ian shook his head. ‘Hell, Ryan, I’m a lawyer,’ he said bleakly. ‘I don’t need counselling. I’ve watched friends die in the past.’

‘Hmm.’ Ryan nodded. ‘So… you tried suicide because you think you’re going to die horribly and die soon.’

‘Yeah, well, I would have died last night-’

‘If we hadn’t messed you around.’ Ryan smiled as Abbey appeared at the door. ‘Hey, Abbey, we’re just being accused of interfering with this man’s life. Or death. And he’s a lawyer, for heaven’s sake. Do you think he’ll sue?’

‘You’d better not,’ Abbey said warmly. She crossed to Ian’s bed, stooped and hugged Ian hard. ‘If you do I’ll tell your mother on you, Ian Miller, and she’s a force to be reckoned with. Your mum’s been worried sick, Ian. She guessed something was wrong way before this. I think you should have told her.’

‘I can’t.’

‘Why not?’

Silence.

‘Does your mother know you’re gay?’ Ryan asked, and Ian shook his head.

‘No. That’s why, well, I live in Sydney.’

‘You don’t think it might be kinder to tell her?’

‘I don’t want people here to know,’ Ian said explosively. ‘They’re so damned judgemental.’

‘They’re not, you know,’ Abbey said softly. ‘I think you’ve forgotten all the good things about small towns, Ian Miller. You and Ryan both. You left here when you were fifteen and seventeen respectively and you’ve hardly been back since. But Sapphire Cove… Well, one of the things it’s really good at is protecting its own. You belong here, Ian. You won’t be tarred or feathered by your family when they know.’

‘How do you know?’

Abbey tilted her head. ‘Well, for a start I’d imagine many of them have guessed you’re gay already. Ryan had, and he’s working on old memories. Maybe you’re underestimating them. Tell them, and see if I’m not wrong.’

‘But AIDS… Hell, Abbey, I’m not just confessing I’m gay. I have AIDS.’

‘At the risk of repeating something that’s been said time and time again, AIDS is a word. Not a sentence,’ Abbey told him. ‘You tell him about the current treatments, Ryan.’

‘Ian, for a start you don’t have AIDS,’ Ryan said steadily, ‘you’re HIV positive. So just stop being so damned dramatic and negative and listen.’

Then Ryan outlined the treatments now favoured in the USA-and Abbey was stunned.

Ryan had certainly done his homework. This wasn’t a brief description of AIDS treatments at the superficial level most doctors could give. Some time between the time Abbey had left Ryan last night and now, Ryan had read every piece of pertinent modern literature on the current treatments and prognoses for AIDS. Ian had a sharp lawyer’s mind and he threw questions at Ryan almost faster than Abbey could think them up-and Ryan calmly answered every one.

‘Look, mate, the information you’re working on is years out of date,’ he said firmly. ‘The breakthrough in AIDS research has been monumental. You’ll no longer be treated with just the one drug. There’s a real mix. The side-effects of the combined therapies are minimal and life expectancy is increasing dramatically-to a stage now where the medical profession is refusing to make predictions on life expectancy at all.

‘They’re cautiously optimistic that in cases like yours, where you haven’t converted to full-blown AIDS, then that conversion may never happen.’

‘A couple of years ago we were saying life expectancy was up to five years,’ he continued. ‘Now… now we don’t endline it at all. Every case is different. The life expectancy is stretching out and out and we’re hopeful that many cases like yours will never develop at all into full-blown AIDS. There’s millions being poured into AIDS funding and new breakthroughs are happening all the time.

‘Maybe, well, just maybe, given the present rate of learning, you’re more likely to get run over by a bus than to die in the next ten years from the disease you have.’

Ryan smiled.

‘And that would have been a waste of a funeral if you’d happened to bump yourself off last night-now, wouldn’t it?’

Ian stared at Ryan. His face was intent and fearful, as though he was afraid to let himself hope.

‘You’re kidding.’

‘It’s all here, mate.’ Ryan produced page after page of copious notes. ‘I thought you wouldn’t believe me so I had a colleague fax through the literature.’

Ian stared up, unbelieving. He lifted the first sheet and read. Then the second. And then he lifted the whole pile. Some of the greyness eased from his face, and all of a sudden he looked lighter and younger. A life sentence had just been lifted-and he might just choose to live.

His face clouded again.

‘My job, though,’ he said fretfully. ‘I’m a corporate lawyer for an international company. We’re required to have a full medical every year as part of our superannuation scheme. When they know, there’s no way they’ll keep me on.’

‘Then quit,’ Ryan said promptly-so promptly that Abbey blinked.

‘Yeah? And do what?’

‘Do an Abbey.’ Ryan looked across to Abbey and his smile gentled. ‘Hell, Ian, while you and I have been out in the big wide world, making our millions, Abbey’s been here holding Sapphire Cove together with a piece of string. And the locals love her for it I’ve been asking around this morning about lawyers in Sapphire Cove. There’s one. He’s about eighty and is capable of signing affidavits if someone holds his wrist and the magnifying glass-and that’s the extent of it

‘If you were to come back… Well, like Abbey, the locals would fall on your neck and ask questions later. Maybe it’d work long term and maybe it wouldn’t, but in the short term I think Sapphire Cove might be just what you need.’

‘Come back…’

‘I don’t see why you shouldn’t-at least for a while,’ Ryan said. ‘You’re emotionally and physically exhausted. It doesn’t take Abbey’s or my medical qualifications to tell us that. You’ve been living a nightmare, and a stressful corporate job with an axe hanging over your head isn’t what you need. So why not come home for a while and see if Sapphire Cove can’t work its magic on you?’ He smiled. ‘Ian, Abbey and I saw a turtle laying her eggs last night. Why don’t you stick around and see those eggs hatch?’

‘A turtle?’ Ian pushed himself up on his pillows. Like Ryan and Abbey and most kids around Sapphire Cove, Ian had done his own turtle-hunting. His eyes lit up like magic. ‘Where?’

‘A mile south of where we found you, filling yourself with exhaust fumes. If you like, I’ll run you out later and show you.’

Ian stared, and then let the doubt creep back. ‘You don’t have to do that. Hell, Ryan, I don’t need patronising.’

‘And I don’t need humouring,’ Ryan said mildly. ‘If you don’t want to come then say so. I’m going out to check anyway. I’ll stick my head in here when I leave and see if you’re up to a drive.’ His smile faded and he fixed Ian with a challenging look. ‘Now, Abbey and I have work to do and you need to think. Any questions?’

‘Maybe in a while,’ Ian told him slowly. He stared down at the sheaf of papers on his bed. ‘When I’ve read this.’

‘We’ll leave you to it, then,’ Ryan told him. ‘Take it that we’ll discharge you when you’ve summarised the lot!’

‘For heaven’s sake, Ryan, you sounded almost homesick,’ Abbey told him as they left the room together. ‘Talking Ian into coming back here to work… ’

‘If he agrees it’d be the best thing for him.’

‘But he’s a corporate lawyer. His mum says he spends half his life overseas on one international deal after another. How could someone like that be happy in Sapphire Cove?’

Abbey glanced uncertainly at Ryan. She’d once known this man so well, and now she knew him hardly at all. He’d sounded convincing in there, talking Ian into a life in Sapphire Cove. Yet… Yet Ryan had left it without a backward glance.

‘Ian’s like you,’ she said softly. ‘He’s left here, Ryan, and I don’t think you can come back again. To be content with Sapphire Cove after you’ve seen the big wide wodd…’ She shrugged. ‘Well, you’d know how hard that could be.’

Silence.

Ryan didn’t answer. For the life of him, he couldn’t think of a single thing to say.

Abbey looked at him for a long moment-and then turned away from his side to go and visit Janet.

Sam Henry arrived back at Sapphire Cove an hour later, and within two minutes of arriving he demanded to see Janet.

‘You don’t think we should get you settled into a ward and give you a rest first?’ Ryan asked doubtfully. Sam had come though the operation with flying colours. Now ten days post-op, he was looking good but it was a long ambulance drive from Cairns.

‘Nope.’ Sam reached out and gripped Ryan’s arm. The ambulance officers were standing at each end of his trolley, waiting for directions, and Sam knew exactly where he wanted to go. ‘But it’s good to see you still here, Ryan. You’re not married yet, I hope?’

‘I told you we’d wait for you to get back before we tied the knot.’

‘Good. The wedding’s not this afternoon?’

‘No. I’ll bring Felicity in to see you this afternoon and we’ll talk about setting a time.’

‘Good.’ Sam smiled in satisfaction. ‘It’s not organised yet, then. I’m not up to a wedding for a few days at least. But Janet… ’ The hand gripping Ryan’s tightened in anxiety. ‘I need to see her. You said she was fine?’

‘She’s fine. She’s only three days post-op, though, Dad, and she’s pretty sore.’

‘Not up to receiving visitors?’ There was apprehension in Sam’s voice and Ryan frowned down at him.

‘She can have visitors, I guess. If it’s important we’ll take you there now.’

‘That’s what I want.’ Sam fell back on his pillows, folded his arms across his chest and prepared to be wheeled on. ‘Take me away, boys. I’ve got a mended heart here, and I’m raring to go.’

‘Why do you suppose my father wants to see your mother-in-law so badly?’ Ryan demanded. He’d tracked Abbey down in Sister’s station and found her writing medico-legal letters. ‘And just what do you think you’re doing?’

‘Catching up on some paperwork,’ Abbey said mildly.

‘Marcia told me she’d look after Jack until lunchtime and it seemed too good an opportunity to miss.’ She hesitated. ‘I guess as soon as you and Steve leave I’ll go back to chasing my tail again. I don’t want to start from behind.’

‘No.’

There was silence while Ryan thought about Abbey chasing her tail with overwork again.

And thought about leaving her for good.

‘Sam’s back, then?’ Abbey asked lightly, searching Ryan’s face. It seemed set and forbidding.

‘He arrived ten minutes ago. And the first thing he demanded was to see Janet.’ Ryan’s frown deepened. ‘Abbey, am I imagining things here? Do you think there’s anything between the pair of them?’

‘They’ve always been good friends,’ Abbey told him. She hesitated. ‘Like you and me,’ she added, her voice slightly hesitant. ‘They were kids together. That sort of thing.’

‘So there couldn’t be any sort of romantic attachment?’

‘I told you,’ Abbey said heavily. ‘It’s like you and me. Friends. That’s all.’ She searched for some way to change the subject, and her eyes rested on her pile of patient notes. Leith Kinley… as good a topic as any.

‘I saw Leith’s dad this morning,’ she told Ryan, her words sounding stiff and forced. ‘He stopped me outside the hospital as I arrived. He just wanted to tell me how well Leith was going with her swimming. I didn’t know you’d been taking her for more swimming lessons.’

‘Yeah, well…’ Ryan shrugged. ‘She’s a good kid. I’m enjoying teaching her.’

‘I would have thought…’ Abbey bit her lip but the words came out anyway. ‘Ryan, are you spending any time at all with Felicity? She must be bored stupid-with all the help you’ve been giving me, the time you spend with your dad and now Leith…’

‘Felicity’s not bored,’ Ryan said coldly.

‘Well, if it was my honeymoon you’d hijacked I’d be really cross,’ Abbey said frankly. ‘And if she knew you’d been kissing me last night…’ She swallowed and stopped in mid-sentence, the thought of kissing Ryan last night flooding back with dizzying intensity.

But what she had to say must be said. Ryan had been so generous to her. He’d given her his honeymoon, but that honeymoon also belonged to Felicity.

‘Ryan, if you’re not careful you’ll mess up your marriage because of me,’ she said softly. ‘And I don’t think you want to do that.’

‘Abbey…’

‘I need to work now, Ryan,’ Abbey said dully. ‘Please… leave me alone to do that. I think you should go back to Felicity.’

After that, Ryan finished doing his ward round, which had been interrupted by Sam’s arrival, and tried to get his thoughts in order.

Abbey was right. He wasn’t being fair to Felicity.

Hell, he’d thought Felicity would have been bored stupid by now. He’d thought Felicity wouldn’t have stayed.

But Felicity seemed to have an endless supply of work at the end of her modern and was perfectly happy to base herself at Sam’s house while he helped Abbey.

While he helped Abbey…

There was no longer any need for him to help Abbey, he conceded as he changed the dressing on little Peter Harknet’s burned foot. The local farmers were still milking Abbey’s cows, despite her protestations, and they would until Janet was up and around again. Abbey had herself a decent babysitter. Her knee was almost back to normal and for the next two weeks Steve was here to make her workload reasonable.

So…

So Ryan should just slope on back to Felicity.

He was like Steve. He didn’t want to.

‘How come you’re not talking?’ Pete demanded as Ryan cleaned down the burned area of his foot and applied cream. Five-year-old Pete had burned himself by sticking his toes into a box of dry ice which had been keeping his birthday ice-cream cake cold. He’d been in Children’s ward for three days. Normally he chattered like a butcher’s magpie, and Ryan’s silence wasn’t to his taste. ‘Cat got your tongue?’ he demanded.

‘No.’ Ryan managed a smile. ‘Sorry, mate. I’m just thinking. I’m just thinking what a really dumb thing it is to stick your toes in places to see what it feels like.’

‘I was going to taste some,’ Pete informed him. ‘Just lucky I didn’t do that, eh? Mum says I would have burned the tongue right out of my head!’

‘Very lucky,’ Ryan agreed. ‘Pete, if you live till you’re ten it’ll be a miracle.’

‘My mum says you’re getting married real soon,’ Pete went on, unperturbed. Then he winced. ‘Yike. That hurt.’

Ryan winced too. The dead skin was coming away as he gently cleaned it. The procedure was impossible to do without hurting at all. Pete was a really brave little patient.

He deserved to have all his attention.

‘That’s right.’

‘You’re marrying a lady from America?’

‘Yep.’

Pete screwed up his nose. ‘You sound a bit American but you’re really from Sapphire Cove-right?’

‘Well, yes. But that was a long time ago.’

‘Then why don’t you marry someone from here and live here again like we do,’ Pete announced. ‘Why d’ya want to go away for?’

Why, indeed.

Silence.

‘Cat got your tongue?’ Pet demanded, and Ryan could only nod agreement.

Ian Miller didn’t have time to go with him to see where the turtle had laid her eggs. Ryan went back to Ian’s ward when he’d finished his rounds and found him surrounded by family.

Masses of family. Mother, brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews, brothers-in-law… the whole box and dice. And somewhere in the midst of them was Ian, being absorbed again into the clan.

Ian looked through the crowd and met Ryan’s eyes-and grinned. The greyness in his face was receding by the minute.

‘Out, you lot,’ he ordered his family. ‘Here’s my doctor and I want to ask him if you guys can take me home.’

When the family had receded just outside the door Ian hopped out of bed and closed it firmly against them. And grinned again.

‘You’d think they owned me.’

Ryan smiled back. ‘You’ve told them?’

‘Yep.’

‘And you haven’t been cast out of the family?’

‘No.’ Ian’s smile faded. He sank onto the bed again. The toll of the last few weeks’ emotional turmoil and his brush with death the night before had left him weak, but there was a determination in his eyes which was growing by the minute. ‘Abbey… Dr Wittner was right,’ he said. ‘The family already knew I was gay. They hadn’t talked about it because they’d decided it was my business and I’d talk about it if I wanted it talked about. Typical, really. My family… ’

‘They want to help?’

‘They sure do.’ Ian shook his head, his voice laced with wonder. ‘I told them I was HIV positive and my sisters started berating me for not laying it on them and for not trusting them. My mother burst into tears and fell on my neck.

‘And my brothers-in-law told me I was a cloth-head and that your idea of me practising law here was the best one they’d heard for a long time. The general consensus was that I’d be a darn sight more use practising law in Sapphire Cove than pushing up daisies. Which I’m starting to think-’

‘Might be true,’ Ryan finished for him. ‘Hell, mate, you can only give it a go. Get yourself on a firm footing again, get your medical regime established and then see if you want to face the world outside Sapphire Cove again.’

Ryan looked out the window across the headland. The sea was a wide band of sparkling sapphire against the horizon. ‘Sapphire Cove really is the loveliest place in the world to live,’ he said, and his voice was tinged with regret.

‘How come you don’t live here any more, then?’ Ian asked, and Ryan shrugged.

‘I’m still on a career path,’ he said with some reluctance. ‘I have commitments in the States that it’d take more than AIDS to shift, and I have a fiancée who couldn’t live here in a fit No. I wish you all the best here, mate, but I’m afraid I have to go.’

The turtle eggs were safe.

Ryan should have been back at home with Felicity. Instead, he spent the next two hours sitting on the beach, watching the barren sweep of sand where last night the turtle had laid her eggs. The tide had done its job well. There was now almost no sign that underneath the sand there were scores of tiny turtles growing towards life.

How long did they take to hatch?

Heaven knew. Ryan didn’t. And he didn’t want to know. He didn’t want to be back in the States, look down at his calendar and say, Today’s the day half Sapphire Cove will be out, escorting baby turtles to the water.’

He had to go back.

There was nothing for him here, he told himself. Nothing. Sure, Sapphire Cove was a beautiful place, but he hadn’t fought his way up the career ladder to abandon it now-abandon it on a whim.

Abandon it because he wanted to please Abbey?

The thought of Abbey was overpowering. He couldn’t get her out of his thoughts. The feel of her last night… her soft curves yielding to his touch… the scent of her… her lovely dusky curls against his face…

Abbey…

Dear God, he wanted her. Ryan shifted uneasily on the sand and finally rose. He walked down to the water’s edge and stood, looking out to sea, as if the answers could somehow be found out there.

They couldn’t. Of course they couldn’t

He had to go home. To the States. He had to marry Felicity.

No.

He couldn’t marry Felicity. He couldn’t.

Last night Felicity had kissed him goodnight deeply-passionately. If the phone hadn’t demanded her attention she would have wanted to make love.

And Ryan hadn’t wanted to make love one bit. Not with Felicity. Back in the States he had thought of Felicity as one of the most beautiful women be knew. Powerful. Ambitious. Wonderful.

All the adjectives he’d used were still true, except the ‘wonderful’. He no longer wanted to many someone who spent her life attached to a mobile phone and a computer. He wanted to marry Abbey.

The thought settled into his mind like a flaming arrow and it buried itself into his heart and burned.

Marry Abbey.

If he married Abbey then he’d already have a son. He and Felicity had talked of children and had decided against them. It wasn’t that either of them disliked them. It was just that they hardly felt they had time for them.

But Jack…

Ryan thought back to the flaming-haired toddler, demanding more egg to be aeroplaned into his mouth. Wobbling on his sturdy little legs. His head upended in a pudding bowl. And Ryan’s mouth curved into a smile. It’d be no problem at all to have Jack. Maybe adopt him, if Abbey didn’t object.

And Abbey… Well, she could be a full-time mum. She’d like that. Give her a chance to be looked after for a change.

How would she like New York?

A flash of doubt swept through his mind at the thought of Abbey in New York, but he suppressed it fast. The thought of Abbey as his wife was so, well, so tantalising…

It had to be possible.

Convincing Abbey would be the easy part.

What came before was the hard part.

Telling Felicity he’d made an awful mistake.