Evie's Bombshell - By Amy Andrews Page 0,25

inside her she had a massive headache.

She could hear the soft plaintive beep of another alarm in the empty cubicle and it nibbled at her subconscious like fingernails down a chalk board. ‘Where the hell is that coming from?’ she asked irritably as her stomach growled and the baby kicked.

She looked around at the electronic gadgetry vital in a modern emergency department. The alarm wasn’t one she was familiar with as she approached the bank of monitors and pumps.

‘It’s the new CO2 monitor,’ Mia di Angelo, her ex-flatmate and fellow emergency physician, said. ‘It can’t be on charge.’

Evie scanned the machines for an unfamiliar one. She hated it when they got new equipment. It was great to keep their department up to date and stocked with the latest and greatest but it was hell assimilating all the new alarms and buttons.

When she located the unfamiliar piece of equipment with its little yellow flashing light she followed the cord at the back and noticed it trailing on the floor instead of being plugged into the power supply at the back of the cubicle. She squeezed in behind, not such an easy job any more, and the baby let her know it did not like being constricted by a swift one-two jab.

She sucked in a breath, her hand automatically going to her belly in a soothing motion as she bent over, picked up the plug from the floor and pushed it into the socket.

Instead of the instant peace she was hoping for, a loud sizzle followed by some sparks and the pungent smell of burnt electrical wiring rent the air. The point where her fingers touched the plug tingled then burned, a painful jolt cramped up her arm and knocked her backwards onto her butt.

‘Evie!’ Mia gasped rushing to her friend’s side. ‘Are you okay?’

Evie blinked, too dazed for a moment to fully understand what had happened. All she was aware of was a pain in her finger and the sudden stillness of the baby.

‘What’s wrong?’ Evie heard Luca’s voice. He was Mia’s husband and head of the department.

‘Help me get her up,’ Mia said. ‘She got an electric shock from the pump.

Evie felt arms half pulling, half guiding her into a standing position. ‘Evie, talk to me. Are you okay?’ Mia was saying, inspecting the tiny white mark on Evie’s index finger.

‘Let’s get her on a monitor,’ Luca was saying as his fingers palpated the pulse at her wrist.

Suddenly she broke out of her daze. ‘No.’

She shook her head. The baby. It was so, so still. She needed to see Marco. She had to know if the shock had affected the baby.

She had to know now.

‘I’m fine,’ she assured them, breaking out of their hold. ‘Really I am.’

Mia frowned and folded her arms. ‘You just got a zap that knocked you on your butt. You should be monitored for a while.’

Evie shook her head again and forced a smile onto her face even though it felt like it was going to crack into a thousand pieces as concern for the baby skyrocketed with every single stationary second. ‘I’m fine. I’m in the middle of a hospital. If I start to feel unwell, I’ll let you know.’

Luca nodded. ‘Her pulse is steady.’

Mia grabbed Evie’s hand. ‘This could do with a burns consult in case it’s worse than it looks. It’ll definitely need dressing.’

Evie thought quickly. ‘Yes. Good idea. It’s burns clinic today, right? I’ll pop in and see if they can squeeze me in.’

‘I’ll come with you,’ Mia said.

‘Status epilepticus two minutes out,’ a nurse said to them as she dashed past.

And then the distant strains of a siren, a beautiful, beautiful siren, made itself known, and Evie had never been more grateful to hear the wretched noise.

‘You can’t,’ Evie said. ‘You’re needed here. You both are. I’ll be fine,’ she assured them again, a surge of desperation to get away, to get to Marco, making her feel impotent.

‘Okay,’ Mia acquiesced. ‘But I want to see you after you get back.’

Evie nodded. ‘Absolutely.’

By the time she scurried up to the outpatient department ten minutes later Evie was frantic. The baby hadn’t moved and an ominous black cloud hovered over her head. When she’d been hypothermic in the middle of the ocean her brain had been too sluggish to think of the implications for the baby. But today all her mental faculties were intact and totally freaking her out as all the horrible possibilities marched one by one through her mind.

She was on