Now the operation was over-successfully, he thought, though with adhesions you could never be sure-and he thought maybe he could hang around until Jeff was properly awake. This surgeon was known as being curt. Jake had watched the operation. He knew the outcome and maybe he could answer questions.
Thanks to Tori he was changing, he decided, as he reversed the anaesthetic and headed out into the recovery area. And as if the thought had conjured her … Tori was there.
For a moment he thought he was dreaming. He wasn't. She was in full surgical garb-she must, to be allowed into this area. She had green gown, green cap, green bootees.
Green eyes.
Tori.
She was chatting to a patient at the end of the recovery queue-a woman wide-awake and ready for an orderly to take her back to the ward.
Both of them were smiling.
She looked up and saw him and she stopped smiling. She said something to the woman in the bed, and she turned to face him.
'Hi,' she said. 'I believe you owe me three and a half minutes, Dr. Hunter. I'm here to collect.'
Shock held him immobile for all of three seconds. Now, though … He was across the room before he knew it, and he meant to take her hands, or he thought he meant to take her hands, but instead she was folded against him in a hold that felt good, felt right, felt wonderful. Her surgical cap was under his chin. He wanted to feel her curls, but they were in a hospital ward and she was gowned, almost a professional, and it seemed every one of his colleagues had suddenly found an excuse to be here.
How long had she been here? Had his colleagues known? Why hadn't someone told him?
'She wouldn't let us.' Brad, the oldest of the orderlies, answered his question before he asked. 'She came to reception a couple of hours ago looking for you. Marie gowned her and brought her in here.'
'I was just as happy in the waiting room,' Tori said, tugging away so she was at arm's length, and grinning happily up at him with that smile that had knocked him sideways a month ago and was still knocking him sideways now. 'But Marie asked me where I was from and we got talking and next thing I was in here. It's been lovely, watching everyone wake up, procedure over.'
'She's been talking to the Holloways,' Brad said, his gaze on Tori openly speculative. 'She's calmed them right down.'
The Holloways?
Jodi Holloway was seventeen with a diagnosis of kidney cancer. The parents had been close to hysterics since the diagnosis, but the surgery, performed by Central's most skilled urologist, had gone well.
'You know our Jim,' Brad said ruefully, still seeming to sense what he was thinking. 'If the great man says one more word than he must, it'll kill him. He told the Holloways there'd been a complete excision and the recurrence rate was on the outer edge of the normal curve, and then he went off to find his dinner. Only of course we had Jodie looking like death after anaesthesia and Mr. Holloway staring after Jim like he'd never heard a word and Mrs Holloway threatening to have hysterics. And here's your Tori, moving in like she's our own personal counsellor only better, saying, No, it's fantastic news, and drawing them a normal curve and explaining probability and saying, Wow, if Jodi's outside normal limits for recurrence, then there's only this tiny chance it'll come back, it's the best news. And by the time Jodie woke up she had both parents smiling. So if you don't keep her we will,' Brad said, grinning, and Jake realised everyone was grinning-practically the whole ward.
What was she doing here?
'Two and a half minutes now,' she said softly, for only them to hear. 'We need to talk.'
'I'm almost finished.'
'So you should be,' Brad said darkly. 'You started at six this morning and it's almost midnight. Take him home,' he told Tori. 'And he's not supposed to be on call tomorrow so you can keep him ' til Monday.'
'I won't keep him,' Tori said, sounding suddenly strained. 'I have a hotel,' she said to Jake. 'I don't want to intrude.'
'You're not intruding,' Jake said, feeling more and more as though his world had just lit up again. He didn't know why she was here but he was pleased to see her on all sorts of levels. 'Give me a minute to finish up here and we'll go find somewhere to eat.'
'At this hour?' she said doubtfully. 'Will anywhere be open?'
'Hey, this isn't Combadeen,' he said, grinning. 'I don't know why you've come, but welcome to Manhattan.'
She felt as if she was here under false pretences. He was acting as though he was really pleased to see her. She should just blurt it out now, she thought, but she had to wait until he'd spoken to the family of the guy he'd just been working on, and he'd checked his patient was fully awake and could take in what he was saying. So she watched and waited, calm on the outside. She was anything but calm on the inside.
But finally he was finished. He filled in his paperwork, they both got rid of their gowns and, at last, he was ushering her out through the hospital entrance.
He'd taken her arm as if he was genuinely pleased to see her-as though she was a favourite friend dropping in unexpectedly.
'You look great,' he said, and she smiled, but absently. She'd put all sorts of effort into her appearance but now she was too nervous to think about it. How to tell him?
'Why are you here?' he asked, and at least that was easy.
'After the wildfires we have lots of animals that can't go back to the wild. Zoos are offering them homes. I was asked if I'd come with a consignment of two koalas and four wombats.'
'To Manhattan?'
'Close enough.'
'Close enough to drop in for a visit,' he said and tugged her closer. 'So where are the dogs?'
'At the lodge. Rob's nursing a broken heart. He's a great puppy sitter. But, Jake … I needed to talk to you. I was trying to phone you. But then they asked me to come with the animals. There's something … '
They were in the crowded entrance to Emergency. People were bustling past them, intent, urgent. An ambulance was pulling up; people were spilling out. Life was happening all around them but Tori's life was centred right here, on this moment, and it could wait no longer.
'I'm pregnant,' she said, loud enough for a guy pushing a wheelchair towards the entrance to grin and say, 'Lovely news, dear. Come back in a few months and see how smooth I can push a gurney.'
Tori flushed from the toes up.
Jake stopped. They both stopped.
She knew what he'd say. She braced, waiting. No, she thought, wildly, she didn't know what he'd say; for there were two alternatives.
He could say, 'You told me you were safe.'
Or he could say, 'Whose is it?' Or, 'How do I know it's mine?'
She'd been trying to figure out answers to both, trying to force herself not to react. It was she who'd made the mistake. He was allowed to be angry.
But now … The silence was stretching out and she thought, Which, which …
'Hey, it's okay,' he said finally, strongly, catching her hands in his. 'Tori, don't look like that. We can cope with this. But you will have to move here.'
She blinked. This was so much what she hadn't expected. Simple acceptance.
You will have to move here … She could ignore that, she thought. That was an aside. What mattered most was that he knew. She'd told him.
'I thought I was safe,' she started.
'So did I. I guess we were both wrong.'
'No, but I told you … I thought … '
'And I accepted your assurance because I wanted you,'he said, and his hands were firm and sure, imparting strength and reassurance. 'Tori, I know you well enough to accept you'd never lie about something so important. But hey, we're both medical. We both know the only true contraceptive is a brick wall. So where do we go from here?'
'I don't know,' she managed, shocked almost beyond speech. She pulled away a little and stared up at him, searching for anger. She saw shock, she thought, but no anger at all. Not even revulsion. Just a man taking in important news and trying to deal with it as best he could. A man concerned for her. 'Thank you,' she whispered, awed.
'For making you pregnant?' His mouth quirked at the corners and she thought, He's laughing. The concept of laughter right now was so ludicrous it was … ludicrous.
Maybe she wouldn't mind a bit more emotion, she thought. Was she reaching for the stars to want joy?
'I meant, thank you for not yelling,' she said, thinking it wasn't enough.
'Why would I yell?'
'Because I made a mistake. And … and for not asking me who the father is.'
There was a pause at that. 'I have too great a respect for self-preservation for that,'he said finally, grave again. 'I don't want to be kicked into the middle of next week.'
'I don't think I could kick you that far.'
'You'd be entitled to. Come to dinner. It's close.'
They didn't talk again until he ushered her into a late-night diner, where a guy called Louis greeted him by name and ushered them into an alcove he obviously used a lot.
'Burger and fries for me,' Jake said. 'Louis does the best. Would you like some, too?'
'No!'
'Dry toast?' Jake tried, sympathetically, and Tori screwed up her nose again and so did Louis, his eyes alight with interest.