Rescue Nights (17 page)

As he pulled at the top of her swimmers, Kate joked, ‘I don’t think either of us thought the next time you were undressing me, it would be at work.’

Andrew did crack a wry smile but didn’t break his concentration as he, again, listened to her heart and lungs. His examination was thorough; Kate let herself drift away, responding absently to the light he shone in her eyes and his questions about levels of pain.

His hands were quick and professional; his mask as a doctor was definitely on. When he had come to the end of his examination, he said, ‘You won’t need stitches on that cut but we better get it cleaned up.’

Washing saline over the wound, he put butterfly clips in place, and made his report. ‘You’ve almost certainly got broken ribs, severe bruising on your abdomen, a dangerous level of bruising on your throat, and mild concussion. You are going to have to go to the hospital.’

Kate already had realized that was going to be the course of action. ‘Can you at least let me get dressed and drive me there? I don’t need every medical professional in Cairns hearing about this drama.’

‘That ship has probably already sailed but we can do without the ambulance.’ Andrew took the time to tuck the space blanket around her before he opened up the door. From the barrage of questions that sounded, Kate figured the whole staff had been waiting.

‘She is going to be OK,’ he said, and Kate couldn’t help but believe him.

It was probably the unexpected nature of her silence that dimmed the voices of the rest of the helicopter staff. The building pressure in her neck was an incentive to rasp out as little as possible.

It was quiet enough for her to hear the staff discussion from across the room.

‘Margo, grab some clothes that aren’t going to be too tight and hard for us to access. She’ll need my trackpants and then you can raid Kate’s locker. I want her in a warm comfortable sweater, so you might have to beg, borrow and steal from the locker room.’

Andrew turned back to Kate and asked, in a low-pitched voice, ‘Would you prefer Margo or I to dress you?’

Kate actually wanted Andrew’s capable hands and reassuring presence. However, for the sake of gossip, she agreed that Margo would be fine.

Lying there waiting, Kate put her hand to her hairline and encountered the stickiness of half-dried blood. Andrew was right; there would be no getting away without a lot of fuss.

When Margo came back with a bundle of clothes, she hurried everyone out of the room.

‘The boys assure me that all of these are clean,’ she said, as she helped Kate to sit up.

Kate had to be almost dressed like a child. The big fleece hoodie, recognisably from Ben’s locker, provided much needed warm. And she had to admit that Andrew’s oversized trackpants would certainly be more comfortable than her own heavy denim jeans.

Three hours later, lying in the Cairns Base Hospital Emergency Department, Kate looked over to where Andrew was sitting slumped in the visitor’s chair beside her hospital bed. ‘You should head back to base,’ she said. ‘The nurses will look after me here.’

The man hadn’t left her side, barely allowing the emergency room registrar to examine her. He had even remained present during her scans, overruling the radiologist and keeping himself busy with second-to-second primary updates of her results.

‘The guys at base know I’m not flying out for the rest of the day,’ Andrew replied. ‘To be honest, if I had left you here alone they might just beat my toffee-nosed face up.’

Kate would have managed a more genuine smile if the side of her face didn’t hurt so damn much.

‘Can you get me another water?’ she asked, as much to get a minute alone as for genuine thirst.

However, solitude didn’t look a viable option. Andrew had barely slipped away through the curtains when Reid put his head in.

‘Sorry sweetie,’ he said, visibly wincing at the state of her face. ‘The doctor said you might be OK to make a quick statement.’

Reid settled in the chair that Andrew had vacated. ‘Do you want me to call Lucy to bring you anything from home?’ he asked, as he pulled out his notebook.

However, before he could ask any questions, Andrew came back with an attitude that was terminally pissed off. ‘You have got to be kidding me. It is bad enough that the man who did this to her is being treated seven beds away. I can tell you what happened, a man tried to murder her while we watched.’

There was a crack in Andrew’s voice that she had never heard before.

Reid must have realized how close he was to the edge, as he put up his arm in a conciliatory gesture. ‘We’ve got two officers guarding him, so I can assure you that Kate is safe from any further harm. If I can have just a few minutes with Kate now, I won’t have to bother her for the next few days.’

‘It’s fine,’ Kate insisted. She had worked with district hospitals enough to realize the man who attacked her was probably being treated here as well. One incident, one town, one hospital. That was the rural Australian way and there was no getting around the practicalities of it.

After Reid left, with his basic questions answered, Kate asked the question that she had been too afraid to ask before. ‘What’s the patient’s status?’

She knew Andrew would have made it his business to know and furthermore wouldn’t patronize her by refusing to disclose another patient’s medical state.

‘He is in much better shape than you. They sedated him in the ambulance and he has no major injuries. They will keep him here for a psych hold and figure out if it was drug-induced psychosis or if he is just a mean mad bastard. Whatever, the good news is they have handcuffed him to the bed, so he won’t be getting near you.’

There was really nothing much to reply. She was only glad that she didn’t have his death on her conscience.

Andrew stood to receive her test results when they came in. ‘Your lungs are mostly clear which almost completely rules out any chance of secondary drowning. No broken bones apart from those two ribs, mild concussion, but I’m still worried about your neck injuries swelling up further and obstructing your airway, so they will want to keep you in for observation.’

‘I’m going home,’ said Kate.

She was definite on that fact. Sympathy from her colleagues at her beaten up face and body was something she wasn’t interested in. Not when she’d worked so hard for their respect.

‘Didn’t you hear what I said? A bleed on the brain or losing the ability to breathe are pretty serious potential complications. It isn’t like there is a DIY treatment plan for patients at home.’

‘You know if I stay here, I’ll have so many people dropping in I’ll never get a moment to rest. Anyway I live next door to a doctor, you can check on me in the morning.’

‘If I agree to take you home, you can be sure I’ll be moving in, not dropping in for a check-up.’

Kate could see it in his face that her argument had already been won.

Andrew’s chest actually ached as he watched Kate’s bruised face turn towards the sun. Her eyes were closed, as she was sitting as a passenger in his four-wheel-drive.

He pulled out his mobile and put in a call to the resort. ‘We’ll be arriving in five.’

Pulling into the driveway, he was glad to see that Lucy had come prepared. Reid had broken the news of Kate’s accident to her and it had been all Andrew could do to insist that she didn’t make the trip to the hospital herself.

Lucy’s eyes filled with tears as she went to help Kate out of the car. Andrew didn’t blame her. There had been a few times today where he had to ward off letting his distress show. No training could prepare you for watching someone you care about be pushed under water, while you believed you probably couldn’t get to them in time.

Andrew was relieved that Lucy managed to swallow her distress enough to deal with Kate. He suspected Kate was hanging by a thread but she wouldn’t appreciate losing it in public.

‘You ordered a golf buggy, really?’ asked Kate, as one of the uniformed resort bell-boys pulled up beside them.

‘There is no way you would have made that walk,’ Andrew insisted.

Whilst Lucy got Kate comfortably situated on the passenger bench of the buggy, Andrew got out the med bag and supplies that he had liberated from the hospital. He wasn’t so indulgent of her to have brought her home without worst-case scenario supplies. Lucy at least didn’t compete for the position next to Kate. Right now, he didn’t want to be anywhere where he couldn’t actually hear her breathe.

Lucy used her master key-card to open Kate’s villa. Tomorrow, he would have to get someone to drop off her handbag and car. Practically carrying Kate, he put her down on the couch.

Lucy helped by draping a soft rug over her. He liked that she didn’t worry about blood marking the mohair; the care for her friend was obvious and strong.

‘Can you get reception to divert all her calls tonight?’ he asked quietly by the door, waiting only for her nod in response.

‘I’ll be back in an hour with some soup for you both. Is there anything else I can do?’ Lucy asked, concern still marking her expression.

‘Not for now,’ Andrew replied. ‘But I promise to call if we need anything before then.’

When Lucy closed the door behind herself, Andrew went and pulled up a chair beside the couch. It took a few seconds for Kate’s eyes to open again. They had given her limited pain medication because of the head injury. He painted on a reassuring smile, hiding the fact that the bruises turning black on her throat made him want to punch through a wall.

‘I can’t let you sleep yet so do you want me to put on the television or a movie?’

‘What I really want is a shower,’ Kate said. ‘I am covered with salt and blood after my little dip in the ocean. I would really like to feel clean.’

Andrew could appreciate the sentiment but the villa’s glamorous black marble bathrooms were hardly user friendly to a woman who could barely stand. ‘You are going to have to let me help you with that,’ he explained.

‘Finally you get to see me naked,’ Kate cracked a smile. ‘Lucky, lucky you.’

Certainly, a different girl sat before him. The woman, who last night had stripped her breasts bare for him, now looked infinitely frailer.

However, she still had the same spirit as the girl who had cheerfully pocketed her camisole. ‘Can you grab me something comfortable for me to wear?’ she asked, as she walked a determined if shaky path away from him.

He appreciated that he didn’t have to tell her not to close the bathroom door behind her. Kate was nothing if not a realist. Opening her drawers and finding her lingerie on top, he absolutely wished tonight had been different. But any feelings of desire were now coloured by fear.

‘Shit, shit, shit!’ her cursing made him grab the nearest underwear, yoga pants and t-shirt and hurry back to her side.

Standing half dressed in the middle of the bathroom, she looked at him in disgust. ‘I hadn’t seen myself in a mirror. God-damn, I actually look as awful as I feel.’

Looking at the extent of her injuries, Andrew couldn’t argue with her. All he could do was turn the shower taps on and test the water’s warmth against his hand.

‘I’ll turn my back here,’ he explained. ‘But if you can’t do anything you have to let me help.’

Andrew perched on the side of her bath and faced the wall. He could sense the slowness of her painful movements, but knew that she would prefer independence rather than his help. The change in the sound of the shower told him that she had gotten under the spray.

For four long minutes, Andrew concentrated only on the sound behind him. Time had rarely stretched out so interminably. Finally, he could hear her exit the shower. It stood as testament to her weakness that she didn’t even turn off the taps behind her.

‘You don’t have to protect my modesty anymore,’ Kate eventually said.

He turned around and found her wrapped in her oversized terry robe.

‘Clothing may have been overly ambitious,’ she admitted.

Her hair was still streaming with water so Andrew grabbed a towel. ‘Do you mind?’ he asked.

A slight nod of her head, and Kate closed her eyes. He took the towel and wiped the smears of blood from her forehead and squeezed the remaining moisture from her hair.

When he stopped concentrating on his task, he became aware of the track of tears that were running down Kate’s face.

‘Hey, darling,’ he said, putting down the towel and taking her in a careful embrace.

Touching her, he realized that he needed to soothe himself as much as her. ‘Today was horrible and truly frightening, but your injuries will heal and until then you get a holiday from work. You can hang out by the pool, read lots of trashy books. In a few days they’ll even start bringing you cocktails.’

Her head was against his shoulder, but he could almost feel the moment that he was sure that she was rolling her eyes. ‘I have a face that would scare small children and at this point I can’t even get my arm high enough to brush my hair. That somewhat limits the holiday activities available.’

‘On the plus side you have a willing slave,’ said Andrew, detaching his arm enough to grab the comb off the bathroom cabinet. ‘As for your face, luckily I don’t scare easily.’

Andrew would have carried her back to the couch if he wasn’t so afraid of exacerbating her pain. Instead, he had to lower his protective impulses and just lead her back to the massive sofa.

He sat down on the couch next to her and was warmed by the way that she snuggled into his arms. Turning the television on, he hoped that the distraction of a reality TV fashion show would provide some relief from both their traumas. Taking great pains not to hurt her, he spent ten minutes and put in all his surgical dexterity into untangling the knots from her hair.

Two hours later, there was a soft knock on the door.

‘Come in,’ Andrew called, not wanting to dislodge a curled-up Kate by his side.

It was Lucy, carrying a tray and looking significantly more composed. Kate lying on Andrew’s chest didn’t even cause her to blink.

‘Hope you are hungry,’ she said, as she put down the tray on the table. ‘The boys in the kitchen were so worried about you that they broke out the supply of truffles for your soup. So you have to eat it, because I think each bowl is the equivalent of three hundred and fifty dollars.’