BooksBarbecue
Back The Desert Midwife Save as PDF
Chapters (59)
  1. Cover
  2. About the Book
  3. Dedication
  4. Chapter One
  5. Chapter Two
  6. Chapter Three
  7. Chapter Four
  8. Chapter Five
  9. Chapter Six
  10. Chapter Seven
  11. Chapter Eight
  12. Chapter Nine
  13. Chapter Ten
  14. Chapter Eleven
  15. Chapter Twelve
  16. Chapter Thirteen
  17. Chapter Fourteen
  18. Chapter Fifteen
  19. Chapter Sixteen
  20. Chapter Seventeen
  21. Chapter Eighteen
  22. Chapter Nineteen
  23. Chapter Twenty
  24. Chapter Twenty-one
  25. Chapter Twenty-two
  26. Chapter Twenty-three
  27. Chapter Twenty-four
  28. Chapter Twenty-five
  29. Chapter Twenty-six
  30. Chapter Twenty-seven
  31. Chapter Twenty-eight
  32. Chapter Twenty-nine
  33. Chapter Thirty
  34. Chapter Thirty-one
  35. Chapter Thirty-two
  36. Chapter Thirty-three
  37. Chapter Thirty-four
  38. Chapter Thirty-five
  39. Chapter Thirty-six
  40. Chapter Thirty-seven
  41. Chapter Thirty-eight
  42. Chapter Thirty-nine
  43. Chapter Forty
  44. Chapter Forty-one
  45. Chapter Forty-two
  46. Chapter Forty-three
  47. Chapter Forty-four
  48. Chapter Forty-five
  49. Chapter Forty-six
  50. Chapter Forty-seven
  51. Chapter Forty-eight
  52. Chapter Forty-nine
  53. Chapter Fifty
  54. Chapter Fifty-one
  55. Chapter Fifty-two
  56. Acknowledgements
  57. About the Author
  58. Also by the author
  59. Sign up to Read More and discover new favourites

At last, most patients had been shipped off to wards or home, the triage area began to clear, and Zac finally was able to lift his head to allow less immediate thoughts to intrude. He could see the nurses had begun the mammoth task of restocking for the next onslaught, which could come in an instant or in many hours. He stood back and watched the ED as it reverted to quiet calm with many empty, freshly made beds. Someone was missing. He scanned the empty open area again, but there was no sign of her.

Ava had gone. She’d left the emergency department without saying goodbye, and he felt jolted. Stupidly bereft. But of course she wouldn’t say goodbye. There could be no future between him, with his city practice, and the bush midwife, so why would she waste any more of her time with him? Plus, he’d been the one to mention he didn’t want to be the cause of any awkwardness for her. He’d be leaving soon, but she had to work in this community. There was no need to advertise their connection if nothing was to come of it.

‘Hey, Ruth. Did you see where Ava went?’

‘Back to maternity. She’s good, isn’t she?’ The tall woman smiled. ‘She’s one of the desert midwives and works here as a casual nurse. She spends most of her time doing outreach midwifery with the stations and remote communities between Uluru and Katherine, and she’s pretty passionate about it.’

‘I can imagine that.’ The words were more to himself than to his colleague.

Ruth hadn’t finished. ‘I guess she needs to deal if she’s the only medical person in an outreach settlement, and it makes for good intuition.’ She glanced longingly towards the staffroom. ‘I’m going for coffee. Wanna come?’

Zac followed Ruth thoughtfully. He’d been wrong to assume Ava would be here a long while and it would be his job to avoid her. She’d be disappearing to another post soon, possibly hundreds of kilometres away, and when this shift ended in the morning, it might just be his last chance to see her before she vanished into the outback.

Chapter Three

Ava

By six the following morning, Ava decided the drama of emergency had moved to the birthing suite. She’d hardly had time to catch her breath all night. She’d had to press the emergency response bell for reinforcements fifteen minutes ago, and thankfully there had been ED staff free to respond and things were settling.