Paddington Children's Hospital Complete Collection. Kate Hardy

happened the other night?’ Dominic asked. He had been over and over it, and the night that had started with such promise had failed for reasons that he could not grasp.

      ‘Nothing happened.’

      Exactly.

      ‘Just because I’m not talking to my family at the moment, it doesn’t mean—’

      ‘Dominic,’ Victoria interrupted him. ‘What happens between you and your family is your concern. I don’t want to get involved with all the ins and outs. I’ve got enough going on in my own life. Aside from the pregnancy, the campaign for Paddington’s is getting bigger by the day.’ She gave a shrug.

      ‘What about us?’

      ‘There’s no us,’ she said, and she made herself look right at him as she did so. ‘Dominic, you only asked me out when you knew I was pregnant...’ He opened his mouth to speak but she overrode him. ‘If I’d wanted anything more than that night, then I think I’m assertive enough that I’d have asked you for a date, but I didn’t. We’re adults—we’ll work things out closer to the baby’s due date.’

      And still she made herself look at him, though it was almost her undoing because she wanted to lean on him; she wanted him to tell her again that it wasn’t a mess.

      That it would sort itself out.

      She was scared how deep her feelings were for him and was terrified to let Dominic close.

      ‘Have you rescheduled the ultrasound?’ he asked.

      Victoria nodded. ‘It’s on Monday at ten. I’ll ask them to cc you in on the images.’

      ‘Victoria,’ Glen called her. ‘We’ve got a collapsed infant...’

      She tipped her drink into the bush and replaced the lid. ‘See you.’

      It was a call-out to a baby who was unresponsive and the location was a hotel.

      Glen drove them right up to the entrance and they loaded their equipment onto the stretcher. A member of staff greeted them and told them what was happening as she showed them up to the hotel room.

      ‘The father called down to Reception and said to get an ambulance straight away and that the baby was very sick,’ she explained. ‘That’s all I really know.’

      They took the lift and Victoria looked at Glen, who was very quiet, as had become usual for him when it was children or babies.

      The woman who had guided them up knocked on the door and, as she opened it with a swipe card, Victoria stepped in. For the first time in her career, she faltered. A gentleman greeted them in a panicked voice.

      ‘What the hell took so long?’

      For an instant she had thought that the man was Dominic.

      And in that instant, she told herself that Dominic was way too much on her mind if she was starting to think that complete strangers were him.

      This man was younger. It was the accent that had sideswiped her.

      And also, Victoria knew, Dominic didn’t panic, which this man was clearly doing.

      It was all just for an instant, so small that even Glen did not notice her pause.

      Just a tiny slice of time, but it was enough for Victoria to realise that this was Dominic’s brother.

      And so this must be Lorna.

      Dominic’s ex.

      A tearful Lorna was kneeling on the floor beside the bed and bending over her son.

      ‘Why were you so long...?’ Jamie persisted.

      ‘Jamie,’ Lorna shouted to him to stop. ‘He’s turned grey! At the hospital we were told he was fine,’ Lorna said. ‘But I knew though that something was wrong.’

      Something was very wrong.

      A very small baby was lying on the bed on his back with his limbs flaccid by his side. He wore only a nappy and Victoria could see even before she reached the bed that he was grunting and struggling to breathe.

      ‘Come on, William,’ his father cried. He was frantic. ‘Come on, son!’

      As Glen checked the baby’s vitals, Victoria administered oxygen to the infant via a bag and mask. He was breathing, but it was with effort, and so she bagged him a few times, pushing oxygen into his little lungs to assist the little one with his breathing.

      As Glen attached him to the cardiac monitor she could see from the trace and hear from the beeps that his heart was beating far too fast.

      ‘We came down to London to bring him to Paddington’s,’ Jamie explained. ‘My brother is a doctor there.’

      And this was no coincidence, Victoria was starting to realise—they had come here to seek help for their baby.

      ‘I know your brother,’ Victoria said, and looked up briefly from the struggling infant. ‘In fact,’ she said to Jamie, though she was too busy to look at him, ‘I thought that you were him for a second.’

      She felt it better to say she knew Dominic now, rather than to say nothing. There was no time for small talk though; Victoria just felt it was better that she stated it up-front.

      The baby had responded to the oxygen and was beginning to pick up; now his little hands were making fists and he was starting to kick at the air.

      He went to cry and that was the best moment to bag him—Victoria actually saw him pink up before her eyes. In the background, she could hear them explain a little more of what had happened.

      ‘I was feeding him and he just went all floppy,’ Lorna explained.

      ‘He’s on the breast?’ Victoria checked.

      ‘For the most part.’ Lorna nodded. ‘He had formula yesterday while we were travelling. Sometimes he feeds well, other times it’s a struggle, so I’ve been mixing them up.’

      Little William had started to cry in earnest now and was looking a lot better than when they had first arrived.

      Victoria and Glen discussed their options for a couple of moments. Inserting an IV would distress him and calling for backup wasn’t required yet. Though stable now, he needed to be at the hospital if he deteriorated again, so the decision was made to transfer him as a babe in arms, the priority being to keep him from getting distressed.

      They worked swiftly but calmly.

      ‘He’ll be more settled if he’s held by you,’ Victoria explained. As Glen watched the baby, Victoria helped Lorna onto the stretcher. Little William was placed in her arms and the monitor was laid by her legs, and soon they were in the ambulance and on their way to the Castle.

      He was pinker now and looked so much better, but Victoria would relay to the staff at Paddington’s just how very ill this baby had presented when they had first arrived.

      ‘I’ve been so worried,’ Lorna said. ‘I’ve been saying that there was something wrong with him for weeks and everyone said I was just being neurotic.’

      ‘You’re not neurotic,’ Victoria said.

      Lorna started to cry, for, while it was nice to be believed, it was awful to have it confirmed that there was something very wrong with your child.

      ‘There’s been so much going on...’ Lorna said.

      ‘It’s okay, Lorna,’ Jamie said. ‘None of this is your fault.’ He looked over to Victoria. ‘There’s been a big family fallout. My wife’s been through a lot of late.’

      So they had married.

      Victoria kept a very close eye on the baby and listened to the couple trying to comfort each other while so very scared for their child.

      ‘Should we ring your parents?’ Jamie asked Lorna, and she nodded. ‘They’re