One More Time - Louisa George Page 0,52

and saw Mitchell his heart beat faster. The best ER medic in town.

Thank God. And like Max himself, he would put everything aside to help his brother.

Now he knew what Mitch had felt like when Max had agreed to do Jamie’s surgery. Someone who had a vested interest—someone who’d care. He hoped. At least, if not for him then for Gabby. Mitch would repay the debt.

He managed to haul in air and relay her symptoms as they found a trolley and laid her

on it. ‘Weak, rapid pulse. Bleeding, I guess vaginally. She has severe pain in her abdomen.’

‘Where?’

‘Lower right side.’ He tugged hard at his tumultuous memory. What had she said...? ‘She mentioned something about her shoulder, too. Now I assume it could have been referred pain.’ They’d put it down to the jolt of the Skyjump.

His hands fisted. Stupid. Damned stupid. They should have acted faster. He was a doctor. He should have known.

His eyes were drawn to the blood on her shorts. Thick. Dark. Too much. His stomach twisted and he beat back nausea.

Mitchell examined Gabby, talking gently, but she was too lost in pain to answer much. ‘Her blood pressure’s very low. I’ll fix some fluids to bring it up. And I’ll page the obstetrics reg.’ He attached an oxygen mask, heart and blood saturation monitors. ‘Any chance she could be pregnant?’

Holy hell. It had flitted through Max’s head as a possible cause. But they’d used contraception the whole time. Condoms, and then the Pill. She’d been definitive about that, and said he’d been the first in a long time. Unless she’d been lying. ‘I don’t think so. But I guess technically she could be.'

‘We’ll run some tests. And do an ultrasound scan.’

‘I’ll come with her.’

‘You’ll get in the way, Max.’

‘You take her anywhere without me and there’ll be trouble.’ It was the first time he’d ever lost control. The first time he’d ever wanted to lay down his own life for someone else.

Gabby’s eyes flickered open, searching around the room, and her frightened gaze fell on Max. She reached for his hand and held on as if her life depended on it. God, it just might if they didn’t find the cause.

Hurry the hell up. ‘Give her some pain relief first.’

His brother’s palm fitted onto Max’s shoulder. ‘Max, it’s okay. I know what I’m doing. I’ll sort it.’

‘Then do it.’ He twisted out of his brother’s grip and held Gabby’s hand, brushed her thick curls from her face.

Damn her for not listening to him. Damn himself for not making sure she got checked out. It was his job to notice symptoms. But she’d been too caught up in making people happy, in putting herself at the bottom of the pecking order. And he’d been too caught up in letting her have her own way.

He ran his hands through his hair. ‘Sort it now, Mitch.’

He wasn’t prepared to lose her, not when he’d only just found her…

Five hours later, five damned hours, numbness ran through Max as he waited on a hard, plastic chair outside Theatre Two. Okay, so he wasn’t supposed to be here. But, what the hell, he had to be somewhere since they’d all but banned him from the OR.

Being a surgeon at least had some perks. They understood his panic. Cut him some slack. He drew the line at squinting through the frosted window, though. Couldn’t bear to see her like that, lifeless and fragile. Because he knew he’d be in there otherwise, throwing his weight around and interfering in stuff he’d be better to leave alone.

A cup of weak hospital coffee was thrust under his nose. He took it, and when he looked

up he was face to face with his mirror image. Only he knew he looked a damn sight worse right now. ‘Thanks.’

‘You okay?’ Mitch sat down next to him.

It was comforting to have him here. Despite everything, there was a definite connection. Something that undercut the pain, something that went beyond the present and deep into a past that they both shared. Six years of the past where they’d been inseparable. So it was okay to be honest. ‘Nah. Truth is, Mitch, I’m scared for her.’

‘Truth is, you love her.’

Wow. That had come from nowhere. Did he? After such a short time? And how the hell did Mitch know?

Because Mitch had known everything, once. Whatever he himself wasn’t, Mitch had made up for. A right and a left. Two halves that made way more than a whole. They didn’t have