The Doctors' Christmas Reunion / Unwrapping The Neurosurgeon's Heart. Meredith Webber

only played the game at school, that’s excellent. You could probably give your forwards more goal-kicking practice. Your two forwards should be the best strikers and they really need to practise a lot so it comes more easily to them in a game.’

      There was a slight pause, before she said, ‘I used to be a striker.’

      ‘You were?’ Andy asked in delight. ‘That’s just perfect. Even if you can’t play, you can take the striking practice, try to help them understand different tactics.’

      He paused, then said, ‘They’re all misfits, Chelsea, my soccer players. A few of them are kids who badly need to lose weight and somehow getting them into something that would interest them seemed a better way than nagging them to diet. There are a couple of migrants and it’s helping to settle them into the community, and two of the girls are recovering drug addicts so they’re a bit tetchy at times.’

      She smiled at him.

      ‘Then a pregnant teenager should fit right in,’ she said, and went back to the sink, to peel carrots this time.

      As he, Ellie, and Chelsea sat down to a meal of lamb cutlets with mashed potatoes, peas and carrots a couple of hours later, he realised just how big an asset Chelsea could be. Not only by helping to prepare meals, but her cheerful chatter broke through the tension that usually reigned when he and Ellie were together.

      Tonight they’d even laughed, teasing each other, remembering silly things, something that had become so rare it made his heart ache for what had been.

      ‘You prepared the dinner, Chelsea, so I’ll clear the table and stack the dishwasher,’ Ellie announced.

      ‘And I’ll do the pots and pans,’ Andy volunteered. ‘Have you got something to do, something to read?’ he asked Chelsea. ‘Or feel free to use the television in the sitting room. Ellie might have explained there are only two channels but you might find something you’d like.’

      ‘I’d rather read and there are plenty of books in the bedroom.’

      She paused.

      ‘Whose room was it?’

      Andy thought for a moment.

      ‘The three girls were always swapping rooms, but I think it was Eliza who ended up in that one. They were definitely her posters on the walls.’

      Chelsea disappeared, but as he washed the few pots and pans, Ellie by his side, stacking the dishwasher, life felt almost normal—like the old normal…

      He waited until she straightened then slid an arm around her shoulders.

      ‘It might be good for us, having Chelsea here,’ he said, then he couldn’t resist drawing her closer and pressing a kiss, not on her lips but on her temple. He felt her tremble in response, then ease herself away.

      But the dreamy little smile on her face told him she hadn’t minded…

      Ellie woke suddenly, startled by something she couldn’t immediately place.

      It had been a phone ringing. It must have been Andy’s mobile because she could hear his voice now.

      Had he changed his ring-tone that she hadn’t immediately recognised it?

      But why?

      Maybe she was just confused.

      She lay awake, aware a phone call to a doctor in the middle of the night wasn’t a good thing.

      The talking stopped, then she saw his shadowy figure appear in the doorway.

      ‘Did it wake you?’ he asked quietly.

      ‘Habit,’ she said. ‘Do you need me?’

      ‘Only every day!’

      The words were barely there, nothing more than a jumble of sounds, and probably she’d imagined it for now he was talking again. Asking about someone, a patient apparently…

      ‘Yes, Madeleine’s one of my patients,’ she said, catching up with the conversation although the ‘only every day’ words still hovered in her head.

      And heart…

      ‘Has something happened to her?’

      ‘Accident out on the Wyndham Road,’ Andy said, pulling on the clothes he must have carried as far as the doorway. ‘I don’t suppose—’

      ‘You need me to come? Why didn’t you say so?’

      Ellie was out of bed and pulling on the clean clothes she’d left out on a chair for the morning.

      More mumbling from Andy—what was wrong with the man?

      But her own guilt was more urgent now than whatever was worrying Andy. For weeks she’d been seeing Madeleine for what had seemed like minor and confusing symptoms—aches and pains, tiredness, night cramps.

      Ellie had seen her so often without pinning down a diagnosis that thoughts of Munchausen’s syndrome had flashed across her mind, but the symptoms had never seemed serious enough. Not that she knew much about the syndrome.

      ‘She has been complaining of dizzy spells lately. Where is she?’

      ‘Apparently, she ran into a tree. Someone saw the accident and phoned the ambulance so she should be at the hospital by now.’

      ‘I’ll come with you,’ Ellie said, and was startled when Andy gave her a hug as he thanked her.

      Although after that kiss, mild though it had been…

      She followed him out to the car—rarely used as the hospital was only three blocks away—wondering what was going on. Could Andy also feel that they could make their way back together as they’d first begun their courtship?

      With touches, shared glances, even a little kiss…

      But if Andy was happy to have her company, Madeleine seemed less so.

      ‘You didn’t have to come,’ she told Ellie as Andy completed the handover from the ambulance personnel.

      ‘You’re my patient,’ Ellie said, hoping she sounded more sympathetic than she felt. ‘I was worried about you.’

      ‘Well, I told you I was having dizzy spells and what did you do?’

      Quite a few investigations, Ellie would have liked to remind her, but this was hardly the time.

      Though Madeleine seemed only a little the worse for wear. A graze on her forehead was the only visible injury.

      ‘Did your airbag deploy?’ Ellie asked.

      ‘No, it didn’t!’ her patient snapped. ‘The ambulance people insisted on bringing me here and calling Andy,’ she said, ‘although I’m really perfectly okay.’

      ‘Best we keep you under observation for the night,’ Andy said. ‘I’ll do a scan of your head to make sure there’s no internal damage, and nurses will check you every two hours. You won’t get much sleep as they have to wake you, as well as check your blood pressure and temperature.’

      ‘You’ll be here, won’t you?’ Madeleine asked. ‘Just in case anything goes wrong?’

      ‘I could stay,’ Andy said, and Ellie raised her eyebrows. The woman was playing him—surely he could see that!

      She stomped out of the cubicle, then heard Andy leave behind her.

      ‘There’s no way you need to be up here all night just to hold that woman’s hand,’ Ellie told him.

      He looked slightly startled.

      ‘I’ll do an X-ray and a scan first and take it from there,’ he said.

      ‘It’s a graze!’ Ellie reminded him. ‘She