Rescue Nights (7 page)

Kate radioed the chopper and within seconds, she could hear the rotor blades start to move.

Andrew turned to her, and spoke over the rest of the crowd, ‘The police told me that the regional hospital isn’t particularly well equipped so the kid is going to have to travel with us. ‘

Kate had come to the same conclusion. She only hoped the boy’s grandfather was going to remain stable through the flight. The child had been through enough traumas, without having to see his grandfather resuscitated in the close confined space of the helicopter cabin.

Leaving Andrew to supervise the loading of their patient, Kate ran to where Keith was still sitting with the little boy.

‘The police used the car’s licence plate to get on to Billy’s parents,’ Keith explained. ‘He was on holiday here, so they are about a six hour drive away.’

Kate couldn’t even imagine getting that call, knowing you were too far away to provide comfort for your child. While he had been talking, Keith had been, with some difficulty, removing the child’s arms from around his neck. Billy was not best pleased at this development and Kate suddenly inherited an armful of a kicking four year old. There was no time for gentle farewells, so holding the child as best as she could, Kate made her way to the chopper. The heft of Billy’s wriggling weight was almost enough to distract her from the rush of protectiveness she felt as she noticed the delicacy of his bones.

Andrew closed the door behind her and Ben handed over her headset as well as their child-sized extra.

‘I’m going to put Billy on channel sixteen so you guys don’t have to put up with the kiddie talk,’ Kate said, while Billy’s intercom still hadn’t been switched on. ‘Andrew, buzz me if you need to tell me anything and I’ll switch him out. The kid really doesn’t need to know if his grandfather is failing.’

While Kate was communicating her instructions, she was securing Billy right next to her, keeping her arm around him. The proximity wasn’t just to comfort the child, it was also about monitoring. A child of four just didn’t have the ability to articulate all changes in his condition. It was up to her to be able to interpret the verbal and non-verbal cues.

‘Billy, you’ll get to the see the lights when we get closer to Cairns. Have you been there before?’ Kate was so pleased at his slight nod in response that she almost missed the click that told her some else had switched on to their channel.

‘He is my responsibility too,’ Andrew said, in response to her raised eyebrow.

Five hours later, Kate finished her final checklist before the end of her shift. The adrenaline that had come with their midnight rescue had faded and what was left in its place was the extra tiredness that always came on the first night of nightshifts.

Andrew had remained at the hospital and they weren’t expecting him back as morning was now breaking.

As soon as she had been able to prise herself from Billy’s grasp, she had been in the way on the floor of the ER. The doctors and nurses had taken over her caregiving role and there was no reason not to go back to base. On the other hand, Andrew had been in his element and Kate couldn’t help a bit of resentment creeping into that observation. Out in the field she was a valuable pair of hands, but put her in a hospital and she was outranked by even the most junior nurse.

‘Six more days to go, so I’d get home if I were you,’ Joe called, as he and Ben left the building. Before Kate joined them in the walk to the car park, she picked up Billy’s plastic wallet.

‘Bed 14A,’ was the nurse’s response to Kate’s enquiry about Billy’s location.

As Kate pulled back the curtain around Billy’s bed she gave a start of surprise seeing Andrew slumped by him.

‘I thought you would have gone home by now,’ she said.

However, now the smile on the night nurse’s face made sense. Even weary, rumpled and wearing someone else’s scrubs, Andrew was startlingly handsome.

Tilting his head to talk to her, he replied, in hushed tones, ‘I knew you guys would call me if another emergency came in. And, after dealing with his grandfather for a few hours, I thought Billy might be able to use some company.’

‘Well,’ said Kate. ‘Now the day shift have replaced us we are free for the next eleven hours and forty-five minutes.’

‘Good news. What is that you’ve got there?’ he asked, pointing to the item she had forgotten she was holding.

She passed the plastic child-sized wallet over to him, and explained, ‘It was shoved down the back seat of the helicopter. I guess he forgot it in the rush. I’m guessing everything else in that car is going to be a long time coming back so I didn’t want him to be missing any more possessions.’

Kate walked to the end of Billy’s bed and picked up his chart. Strictly speaking, as a non-hospital staff member with no treatment privileges, looking at his records was against the rules. However, she doubted that anyone was going to call her out on it, especially as she was in the presence of a doctor. It went against the grain to have to use Andrew’s position to satisfy her curiosity, but as she had spent the twenty-plus minute flight focusing all her attention on Billy’s body and running the worst-case scenarios through her brain, she had earned to right to know his status.

His file read with news that was as positive as could be expected.

‘Glad someone was here to put a permanent cast on his arm,’ she said.

‘You were right with the diagnosis,’ Andrew said. ‘Maybe you should think about retraining and becoming a doctor.’

Andrew’s words were light but Kate’s spine stiffened and her lungs could only draw a half breath. Another typical bloody doctor who thought their profession was the only one with any merit.

‘You know diagnosing injuries comes in pretty handy as a rescue paramedic as well,’ she said.

Kate could see by the look on his face that he would like to back-pedal his words. However, it really was too late for that.

When Kate spoke again, her tone was sharper and prickly. ‘You are obviously the only one properly qualified to offer anything to Billy, so I’ll leave you to your work.’

Not waiting to hear a response, Kate turned and marched towards the door of the ward. Her face muscles were so frozen that she couldn’t even respond to the polite smiles from members of the hospital staff.

Andrew opened the gate to the resort’s adult only pool, and swore in disgust. Was the blasted woman deliberately haunting him?

Manning up, Andrew squared his shoulders and kept on moving, over the deck to the soft white sunbeds. Just because she was angry and bitter didn’t mean she had the right to ruin his last few hours before they were rostered on.

‘Hiya,’ he said, as he took the sunlounge two down from her. Considering they were the only people in the pool area, it might have been unforgivably rude to choose to sit on the other side. Sunlight bathed Kate as she lay in an oversized sundress with sunglasses covering her eyes.

At the sound of his words, Kate took off her designer branded eyeshades and acknowledged his presence. ‘Getting some sun really is the only way to get through night duty,’ she said. Her tone was not exactly warm but it wasn’t bitingly angry like this morning.

‘Seven days of vampire time isn’t anyone’s idea of a healthy life. In England the worst of it always was, that by the time you’d had your catch up on sleep, the sun had already gone down.’ Andrew gestured to the perfect blue sky above. ‘This here is nice.’

There wasn’t much to complain about in his immediate surrounds, except maybe the company. Thirty metres of salt-water pool stretched in front of them and his villa was only a gentle stroll away. A timber deck reflected some of the heat of the day and the sun nearing the horizon meant that it was possible to sit here without feeling too overly warm. Even the timber sun lounge was perfectly crafted. The one he had chosen had soft cream cotton pillows and was long enough for even his oversized frame.

‘Swimming too much effort today?’ he asked.

‘I’m comfortable and warm now, nothing is going to persuade me to do anything more,’ Kate replied, lazily turning her face towards him.

Feeling they had exhausted all polite avenues of conversation and not wanting to delve into the world of work, Andrew looked down at the reading material he had brought along. He didn’t get further than a few pages in before Kate’s voice had him raising his head.

‘Not a sailing magazine?’ Kate said, pointing at his reading material. ‘Could that be any more of an indulged white guy’s hobby?’

Really. She was going to challenge him on this as well. No-one could say he hadn’t tried playing it nice.

‘Sorry, Kate, I didn’t know that my recreational choices had to be approved through you.’

Kate shrugged theatrically, as she angled her body towards his lounge. ‘Of course you can choose your own hobbies. It’s just when you choose sailing, it screams boy who wore a boater to high school.’

With deliberate slowness, partly to restrain himself from throwing the magazine at her, Andrew put the offending publication down by his side.

‘Kate,’ he said, hearing the steel in his voice, ‘people whose parents weren’t able to afford a private school education probably don’t know what a bloody boater is. So don’t play the working class heroine with me.’

‘OK, so sue me for having wealthy parents too. But that doesn’t mean I’m not just trying to help you fit into a new community.’

‘What do you suggest are appropriate activities that fit your non-spoilt boy standard?’ Andrew asked. Even sarcastically, he wasn’t sure he wanted to hear her input.

‘Well you can try snorkelling, or diving on the reef.’

‘Not exactly a world away from sailing,’ Andrew interrupted.

‘Or you could come and join the local SES branch,’ Kate suggested. ‘You must know a man with your qualifications will always be welcome at an organization like that.’

‘Uh huh,’ said Andrew, triumphant at finding her angle. ‘Now we are getting to it. You are just trying to recruit another volunteer for your beloved rescue group.’

‘No, I was really genuinely also trying to save you from your wanker tendencies,’ said Kate. ‘Getting you to do something for the community was an added bonus.’

‘I guess I’m just surprised that you are interested in having me in your life any more than possible. You didn’t seem too infatuated with my company this morning.’

With her earlier angry walk away, he was quite frankly surprised they were even talking now. And she wasn’t the only one capable of holding a grudge.

Kate waved her hand vaguely in the air. ‘It looks like you are destined to annoy me for your whole Cairns stay. This way, at least, someone other than whatever evil spirit brought you here as a joke will benefit.’

Evil spirit, sent to annoy her for eternity. That was definitely a unique description of his company.

‘The boy’s parents said to thank the entire crew when they arrived this morning,’ said Andrew, breaking his earlier vow not to mention work.

There was an extra alertness in Kate’s eyes when she asked, ‘How long after I left did they get there?’

‘About forty minutes,’ Andrew replied. ‘They were shaken up, especially Billy’s mum, who had to go visit her father too. But at least the news wasn’t all bad. Both look like they will eventually recover, even if the road for the old man will be hard.’

‘You did good work there,’ said Kate, surprising him with a compliment that didn’t even contain a backhanded twist. She rose as if to leave.

Andrew knew he should just let her walk away while they were still on a good standing. But he couldn’t resist one final jab. ‘I think we might have defeated the whole purpose of having a child free area with our arguing.’

Andrew wasn’t prepared by the vibrancy of the smile he received in reply.

‘You obviously haven’t spent much time with a screaming toddler. Any disagreement we might have is extremely civilized in comparison.’

Looking at her now, her eyes alight with humour, Andrew could only agree. Strikingly pretty and animated, she looked like a companion who any man would desire. It was hard to reconcile this suddenly charming creature with the painful prickliness that had ruined his job satisfaction this morning.

Andrew gave Kate a five-minute head start back to the bungalow. Claustrophobia was starting to set in and it wouldn’t be helped by them being attached at the hip. He couldn’t bring himself to pick up his sailing magazine, thanks to Kate for ruining that particular fantasy, so he stared unseeing at the water.

Deciding enough time had passed, Andrew made the short walk to the villa door. His stay at the resort hadn’t jaded him enough not to enjoy the ambience of the beautifully maintained gardens as he walked.

Andrew left his shoes scattered on the front veranda. A flash from his phone told him that at least one new email had arrived. Clicking open the message, Andrew saw the name of one of his best friends, a colleague from his London hospital.

‘Hope Australia is as good as promised,’ the message said. ‘I can’t believe you are over there with the sun, surf and Australian women, while I’m stuck watching the new lovers take over the surgeons’ lounge.’

Andrew rubbed his hand across his suddenly throbbing temples. The thought of his ex-fiancé Bianca was enough to bring on any number of headaches. At least he hadn’t been around for the final humiliation, watching her flaunt her affair-turned-public-relationship.

‘If you start shagging anyone spectacular, I want photos. In fact, I promise I’ll leave them on my desktop and start off a gossip tidal wave.’

Andrew couldn’t resist a chuckle at John’s suggestion. He could imagine him doing just that, probably along with dropping massive hints of Andrew’s exploits. In fact, if Andrew wasn’t careful, he would end up going back to London with a reputation as a massive shagger. Ironic, considering he hadn’t touched a woman since he landed.

Music started playing in the next room. Andrew couldn’t decide if he liked or was vastly annoyed by the intimacy of hearing Kate go through her pre-work routine. To be fair, the rooms were quite well sound proofed, and you didn’t hear much beyond the occasional bit of muffled white noise. However, the knowledge of her closeness was never far away, and hearing things like her shower going on and off was making the nights relatively uncomfortable.