ETWentHome, thank you for your review. Things are definitely tricky! There are twins everywhere, but only one Ariel. I know I'd have trouble choosing between Cal and Ethan!
Gillian Kearney Fan, it would probably look a bit odd if Ethan did go to see Nerissa's twins, but he's not thinking very clearly, so he might do! Thank you for your review.
Tanith Panic, thank you for your review. I think a lot of Connie's bossiness is being caring in disguise! I hope you won't be disappointed with Ariel's choice, when she makes it.
Robyn poked her head out of a cubicle and looked relieved to see Ethan. "Ethan, have you got a minute?"
"Yes, of course," said Ethan, and stopped, trying to push all thoughts of Ariel and Nerissa and responsibilities out of his mind. "How can I help?"
Robyn came out of the cubicle and spoke softly to Ethan. "I've got quite an interesting case here and I don't know what to do. Dylan was in here a minute ago and he gave his opinion, and to be fair, he was dealing with the medical problem, which is his job. But… well…. I think it's a bit more complicated than that and I thought you might understand?"
Ethan ran his mind through the patients he was already seeing and decided he'd be okay to look at one more. "Of course, Robyn," he said sadly. "I'd be happy to help."
Robyn's eyes filled with concern. "Ethan, are you okay?"
"Yes. Of course. Never better." Ethan pasted a smile on his face and walked into the cubicle before Robyn could probe any further. There was a girl of about seven lying on the bed, crying. A boy of a similar age was standing beside her, holding her hand and also crying. A woman, presumably their mother, had an arm around each of them. Ethan smiled at them all. "Hi. My name's Ethan. I'm a doctor. How can I help?"
"Dr Hardy, this is Tanya," said Robyn. "She fell over whilst ice-skating and has a closed distal radial fracture to the left wrist."
"Hi, Tanya. I'm sorry to hear that," said Ethan. "I wish I could ice-skate. It always looks like so much fun."
Robyn gestured towards the boy. "And this is Ryan, Tanya's twin brother and ice-skating partner."
Twin brother?
And these twins didn't have a father in evidence either.
It took all Ethan's strength not to run out of the cubicle. "Hi, Ryan. It's nice to meet you. Have you hurt yourself too?"
Ryan looked as though he didn't know the correct answer to that.
"Ryan isn't injured," said Robyn, "but he and Tanya have a sort of psychic connection so when one of them is hurt, the other one feels it too. Their mum, Bryony," Robyn gestured politely in her direction, "is aware this is very unusual, but she confirms it seems to be the case even when the twins are in completely different places. So they're both in pain, but Dr Keogh doesn't really... he doesn't see Ryan as his patient."
Ethan nodded. "So Tanya is being treated and not Ryan, even though he's also in severe pain."
"I don't think Dr Keogh believes it, to be honest," said Robyn. "Which actually shocked me a little bit as he believes all kinds of…" She stopped. "Anyway, he doesn't believe it. He says, even if it is true, treating Tanya will help Ryan's pain too, and he's probably right, but in the meantime, we've got two very distressed twins."
"Yes, I can see that," said Ethan. He still wanted to run away, but he knew he couldn't. "I'm sorry you're both in pain. Ryan, why don't you sit on the bed with your sister?"
He didn't miss the way both twins looked slightly relieved at that.
"Thank you, Dr Hardy," said Bryony. "They were both on the bed before, but Dr Keogh…"
"Well, I'm here now," said Ethan. He turned to Bryony. "I'm afraid that, for ethical reasons, we won't be able to give Ryan pain relief, even though he is experiencing genuine pain, but I will do everything I can to ensure he's kept comfortable. Would you say that, when the bone is set, it would distress him more to watch it happening or to be away from Tanya?"
"It would definitely distress him more to be away from Tanya," said Bryony. "He'll feel all the pain she's feeling, but at least if he's with her, he'll know why."
Ethan nodded. "That makes perfect sense to me. Robyn, we'll need another nurse to comfort Ryan while you're comforting Tanya – unless you'd like to do it the other way round, of course. Perhaps Lofty?"
Robyn nodded eagerly. "Yes, I think Lofty would definitely understand."
"I'll go and find him," said Ethan. "In the meantime, Robyn, could you help Tanya and Ryan to hold their arms in a way that causes them the least pain?"
"Yes, of course," said Robyn, smiling at them. "They were doing it when they came in, but obviously, they're a bit upset now."
"Of course," said Ethan sympathetically. "Ryan, I'm afraid we won't be able to put your arm in a cast – we can't do that unless there's an actual physical break. But perhaps we could manage a support bandage of a similar shape that can be written on in pen, and identical slings, of course?"
"I'm sure that can be arranged, Dr Hardy!" said Robyn.
Ethan smiled. "Excellent. I'll speak to Lofty about it when I see him." He smiled at the twins. "I can see you're both in pain, so I'll try to hurry things along as much as I can. I'll see you both later - and Robyn, if Dr Keogh comes back, please could you explain that I'm treating the patients now? If there are any problems, I'm very happy to speak to him."
Ariel stared at Cal as though she couldn't believe what he'd said. "You love me?"
"I think so," said Cal. "Yeah. I do."
Ariel shook her head. "But you hardly know me."
"I know you well enough," said Cal. "I know my life was a mess without you. There was something missing. Three things missing. And now I've found you all and everything feels right."
"But how can you be sure?" wailed Ariel. "I want it to be true, Cal. I want it so much. But you can't know. You can't possibly know. So I can't let myself believe it."
Cal wanted to comfort her and hold her close and reassure her, but he knew she was right. He couldn't prove anything now. Only time could do that.
"And, oh God, Ethan loves me too?" Ariel started to laugh, but it was high and hysterical. "That makes slightly more sense because he did spend more time with you and love makes you do silly things. But I don't want to believe that because then…"
Cal caught her by the shoulders and kissed her firmly. When he'd finished, she just looked at him, breathing shallowly. Cal loosened his hold on her and moved slowly away, relieved she was calmer now. "Don't worry about our feelings. They don't matter for now. What are your feelings, Ariel? Do you care abouteither of us?"
Ariel was silent while she thought. Her hands moved over her bump, but Cal was sure it was absent-minded. His heart thumped with fear at what her reply might be, but he knew he had to wait. He would wait as long as it took for her to find an answer.
"I think I love you both," said Ariel at last.
It was Cal's turn to laugh, though he didn't know why. "You love both of us?"
"But not in the same way," said Ariel. "Ethan is lovely and I was so grateful to him. I loved him for what I did for me and I didn't think I'd ever find anyone I loved more. But then he betrayed my trust…"
"Believe me, he is beating himself up about that every minute," said Cal.
Ariel's eyes filled with tears. "But it wasn't just that, Cal. I wasn't just angry with him."
Cal's chest stabbed with pain. He reached out for her and held her tightly. "Is that when you realised, Ariel? Is that when you realised your feelings for Ethan were deeper than a friendly love?"
"No," said Ariel, her voice muffled by his top. "That was when I realised I still loved you. That there could never be anyone else. It wouldn't be fair to you, to me, and definitely not to Ethan. So I pushed him away." Her voice broke as she started crying. "I knew I'd used him. I also knew he'd betrayed me. But I concentrated on the betrayal; made it bigger than it should have been because I knew that if I forgave him, then I'd have to admit what I'd done."
Cal held her more tightly as she sobbed hard. "It's okay, darling. It's not your fault. You believed you wouldn't see me again and Ethan, as you say, is, um, really nice, and you did love him in a way. Turning him down seemed crazy. You listened to your head instead of to your heart – which is usually by far the most sensible thing you can do – and you let Ethan kiss you. It seemed to make sense to you at the time – and let's not forget how upset you must have been. You'd lost your keys. You were nearly eight months' pregnant. How anyone could expect you to think straight in that situation… A lot of people would have done as you did, Ariel. Accepted the love that was offered. But listen to me, beautiful. It's not like you and Ethan had a whole relationship – or even like you slept together. It was a few kisses at a very emotional time. Even if I'd stayed in bed like Ethan wanted, you might easily have come to the same conclusion soon afterwards: that Ethan wasn't the guy you wanted."
"But I used him," wept Ariel. "And now he loves me."
"That's not your fault," said Cal. "It just happened. It's very, very sad, but it's not your fault."
"I wish I could believe it's not real love," sobbed Ariel, as Cal rubbed circles on her back. "I wish I could say it's impossible to fall in love after such a small amount of time. But I know it is possible because I fell in love with you."
"And I fell in love with you," whispered Cal, as he rained kisses on her hair.
Ariel only cried harder. "But we can't be together, Cal. How can we? I tried to convince myself I hated Ethan. I tried to convince myself I didn't care if he was hurt. But I do care. How can we be together when it's going to break Ethan's heart?"