All The Little Moments (7 page)

Looking straight at Ella, Lane smiled widely.
“You’re Ella?”

Quieter now, Ella
nodded.
“Yup.”

“And this is your—” Eyes finally on Anna, Lane stopped mid-sentence, grin growing
bigger. “Anna!”

For some reason, Anna thought to give an awkward wave. She grimaced internally.
“Lane. Hi.”

“Uh…” Lane looked back to Ella, then to Anna. “So it was you scaring
the intern?”

“Um. Maybe?”

With a knowing nod, Lane shrugged. “I can’t say I
blame you.”

“You
work here?”

Lane looked down at her outfit then back at
Anna. “Uh…yeah.”

“That’s
a coincidence.”

“It
really is.”

“In more ways than one—I start here
on Monday.”

“What? Really?”

“Yeah, I’m the
new anaesthetist.”

“Wow. That really is
a coincidence.”

Anna nodded.
“It is.”

Confused, Ella glanced from one woman to
the other.

“No wonder you ran off the intern. You know
too much.”

Biting her lip, Anna cleared her throat. “He—uh,
looked incompetent.”

“Most
interns are.”

“I bet
you weren’t.”

An amused expression flitted across Lane’s face. “Actually, not a doctor. I’m one of the emergency nurses. We just switched shifts, and I saw the intern fleeing without completing the paperwork I needed. When I confronted him, he told me he had to find someone else
and ran.”

“I may have been harsher than
I intended.”

Shrugging, Lane smirked. “Nah, he’s a cocky one, he needs it. The nurse handed over that she hadn’t completed the initial exam. Is it okay if I do that, and then I’ll get the orthopaedic god around these parts to come over? He likes an initial exam done, and since the intern
isn’t here…”

Still feeling sheepish, Anna nodded. “Of course. I imagine you’re ten times more competent than him at
it, anyway.”

Lane’s cheeks flushed slightly as she tore her eyes off Anna and looked to the bemused six-year-old. “Ella? I hear you hurt
your wrist?”

Before excited about stickers, Ella suddenly frowned, nodding her head.
“It hurts.”

Lane pulled up a chair, seating herself so she was facing Anna, their knees almost touching. Her eyes were on Ella. “Let me guess?” She flicked her gaze to Anna, then back to Ella. “Monkey bars
or trampoline?”

Wide eyes stared at Lane. “Monkey bars! How did
you know?”

“I’m magic.” She checked the chart to make sure Ella had had some pain relief before gently examining her wrist, getting the little girl to wriggle her fingers, passively manipulating the joint to see what movement she had. When she was done, she winked at Ella, who was holding her breath. “Well done. You’re
incredibly brave.”

Ella looked relieved that this part was over. “Will I get a colourful thing on
my arm?”

“A cast?”

“Yeah. Brodie got a blue one
at school.”

Lane grinned. “I’d say you will be getting one, honey, and you can have any colour you want. We just have to take some special photos of your wrist, and then we’ll see what we can do about
that, okay?”

Ella nodded, going back to
her stickers.

Lane turned to Anna. “I don’t think we’ll need the OR. Fingers crossed, it looks like you’ll be lucky. I’ll have the ortho guy come by. He’s nice, you’ll like him.” She flicked her eyes to Ella to make sure she was still preoccupied. “We’ll need the images to confirm, but it
looks okay.”

Anna let out the breath she’d been subconsciously holding. “Thank God.” She smiled. “No OR will make me
very happy.”

“Oh, I’m amazing in the OR. It’s a pity I won’t get to work my magic.” At Anna’s confused look, Lane went on. “I work the casual pool here, but I mainly end up in emergency—sometimes, though, I’m in surgery as a scrub or recovery nurse. So maybe you can see me in
action soon?”

Anna’s heart sped up at the slight innuendo. “Well, I’m sure we’ll work together at
some point.”

Dark eyes looked up at Anna from under long lashes as Lane gave a slow smile. “I really hope we do. You’ve come highly recommended
from Brisbane.”

“The others that worked there were morons. But yeah, I’m a little
hard core.”

“What’s
a moron?”

Anna winced. Ella was staring at them. “It’s another word
for idiot.”

“You’re not ’sposed to call
people that.”

“You’re right, it
was mean.”

With a chuckle, Lane said goodbye to Ella
before disappearing.

After a quick glance at her arm, the orthopaedic surgeon sent for X-rays, and Lane re-appeared with the intern
from before.

“Ah, if it’s okay with you, Mrs, um, Foster, I’ll take Ella
to X-ray.”

Lane watched them with a smirk hovering on
her lips.

“Of course. And it’s Miss, not Mrs—or
Doctor, really.”

The intern’s eyes widened as he clearly realised why Anna had so easily scared
him. “O…okay.”

Anna saw Lane look at her with interest as she turned to her niece. “Ella Bella? We’re going to go take photos of your wrist with a really big camera. I’m going to come and be there the whole time, okay?” Her eyes flicked to the intern, daring him
to argue.

Despite his obvious youth, he seemed to sense who had the upper hand, and he just
nodded emphatically.

Lane smirked openly. “I’ll be around if you need me when you get back. Just press the call bell.” She turned to Ella. “I’ll see you really
soon, Ella.”

Ella nodded sleepily. The pain medicine was
taking effect.

As Anna brushed Ella’s hair off her forehead, she looked up and noticed Lane watching her. “Thanks, Lane. I
appreciate it.”

“No problem at all. Call if you
need me.”

Lane started to walk away at Anna’s grateful smile.
“Oh, Anna?”

“Yeah?”

“That pony sticker on your cheek is, you’re right,
incredibly
hard core.” She laughed as she made
her exit.

Anna blushingly peeled the sticker off her cheek before helping a sleepy Ella into the wheelchair. Still grinning, she walked alongside Ella to radiology and gently helped set her up for
the X-ray.

This wasn’t how she had planned to learn her way around the hospital, or meet the new staff. Standing behind the protective screen as the radiologist took the images, she sighed. At least she would know where some things were come
Monday morning.

The X-ray was over quickly. Ella was soon dozing in her bed, knocked out by the pain relief medication. After Anna called her mother with a quick update, she had nothing left to do, and stared blindly at her phone, lost
in thought.

Lane worked where she worked. So much for never seeing her again. Anna couldn’t stop her thoughts from going back to the woman. Lane’s smile made her heart rate speed up in the best way, a relief from the racing pulse she’d been experiencing since Jake had passed away. She missed easy adult conversations—the type that didn’t revolve
around sympathy.

Ella, peaceful as she slept with her hair smoothed off her face reminded Anna that she really didn’t have time for work, let
alone women.

But a flirtation
was harmless.

“Anna?”

Her head whipped up and a delighted grin crossed her lips as she saw who was standing in front of her.
“Kym! Hi.”

“What on earth are you doing here?” Kym looked to the sleeping girl and back to Anna.
“What happened?”

“Broken wrist. Monkey
bar incident.”

They shared a wry look. “She going to
be okay?”

“She’s in good hands. Some ortho God man and a nurse
named Lane?”

“She’s definitely in good hands then.” Kym cocked her head as she looked at Ella. “You must’ve
been worried.”

“Scared me to death, actually. I’ve never seen her
like that.”

“Kids are resilient—you should
know that.”

“All my knowledge and experience, and I was
still terrified.”

“It’s always different when they’re
you’re own.”

Anna hesitated. This hadn’t happened yet. It felt rude to the kids, to quickly deny them as her own, but she couldn’t let people assume she was their mother. “Uh. Actually, she’s my
brother’s daughter.”

Kym nodded, then her almond eyes widened as she put two and two together from their last conversation. Her face grew sympathetic. “Poor thing.” Her eyes were trained on Ella. “Her mum must
be struggling.”

Anna swallowed. She wasn’t normally a sharer, but something about Kym, even from their first meeting, made her feel comfortable. Maybe it was because Anna could just tell she was drowning in her own grief. “Sally—Sally passed away as well; they were in a
car accident.”

Kym’s face became even more sympathetic. But to Anna’s relief, it wasn’t pity, the way many people reacted when they found out. She could
handle empathy.

“That sucks,” Kym
simply said.

Anna nodded. They shared a look—two women hit down
by life.

Kym’s pager went off and she checked it quickly. “I gotta run. It’s Friday, so the very high people are already starting to roll in.” She paused. “Coffee on Sunday? We can discuss the impending moment of your first week as a newbie. Though, you already know two of the best people, so it’s
looking up.”

“You and Lane or you and Ortho Guy whose name I have
already forgotten?”

“Definitely Lane and I…you’ll
like her.”

Actually, Anna was grateful Kym didn’t know just how much Lane interested her.

“So, coffee?”

“That’d be great. Uh—” She didn’t know if Kym had realised she was actually the kids’ guardian. “I’ll just have to check some
stuff out.”

“No worries. Here, write your number down and I’ll send you a text.” She tapped some buttons on her phone and handed it over for Anna to input her number. Anna did so and handed it back. “I’ll hopefully see you
Sunday, Anna.”

Anna smiled. A coffee date; her mother would be
so proud.

The ER was hectic, patients rolling in, doctors and nurses moving quickly. Anna’s roving gaze landed on Lane. She was standing at the desk, looking at something on a computer screen. Anna raked her eyes down Lane’s form, then made herself look back up to
her face.

Perving while her niece was in the ER was not a
classy move.

Lane grabbed a chart and gestured to the orthopaedic doctor who was standing next to her. They both looked at the screen, the doctor nodding before he started walking towards their bed. Lane looked up and caught Anna’s eyes, giving her a thumbs up as both she and the doctor stopped at the end of
the bed.

“Good news,” the doctor said softly, glancing at the sleeping Ella. “It’s a clean, hairline fracture. No manipulation needed, only a back slab cast for a week to accommodate the swelling. Then you can bring her in to the cast clinic and we’ll X-ray again to ensure nothing’s shifted, and change her to a
fiberglass one.”

Anna relaxed into her chair as the tension in her muscles finally let go. “Thank God. I really didn’t want to put her through a manipulation, even with sedation. Just the pain relief knocked
her out.”

Lane chuckled, looking down at Ella. “It really did. That cast will only need to be on for four weeks, and then, hopefully, all going well, we can take it off and she’ll be good
to go.”

The doctor nodded. “I’ll leave you to sort it out, Lane. I have an emergency coming in.” He turned to Anna. “I hear I may work with you in the future. It’s been a pleasure meeting you; maybe I’ll see you soon.” And with an almost friendly smile, he
was gone.

They gently woke Ella, explaining to her what would happen next. Her main concern was that she’d have a “boring” cast for a week, but she perked up when she heard that everyone could draw all
over it.

Lane was called away, unfortunately too busy to do the casting herself, as much as she looked like she wanted to. With Anna’s approval, Lane paged the intern to do it and walked away with a shadow of regret in
her eyes.

In no time, they were ready to leave, Anna with some simple pain meds in her pocket that Ella should only really need while the wrist was swollen. They signed some paperwork and made an appointment for the next week, then started to walk out. Ella walked stiffly, adjusting to the collar and
cuff sling.

“Anna!”

They paused at the ER exit doors and turned around to see Lane running up
behind them.

Anna and Ella
both smiled.

Lane raised her eyebrows at them. “Whoa.
Same dimples.”

Laughter lit up her face in a way that made Anna want to bat her eyelashes like a fifteen
year old.

Ella giggled. “That’s ’cause
we’re related.”

The giggle was high pitched and Anna tried not to show her amusement. The girl was still a
little high.

Lane raised her palm up to her forehead. “Oh! Of course it is.” She winked at Ella.
“Silly me.”