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.’
‘Thank the boys,’ Kate replied. ‘Though does the whole of Cairns now know about what happened to me in the water?’
‘One of our elite paramedics almost drowned when trying to help a patient.’ Lucy screwed up her face. ‘Kate, the story is out there.’
Andrew didn’t want to move but he reluctantly pulled his body away from Kate’s, immediately missing the warmth.
‘I have to grab some things next door and get my own shower. Maybe you could help Kate find some clothes she’d be comfortable in,’ Andrew suggested to Lucy. He left only after extracting a promise that they would bang on the wall if Kate’s condition changed.
Walking into his own villa, he made short work of stripping off his clothes. After taking the dip in the ocean to grab Kate, he had had to change a soaking flight-suit for some hospital scrubs. Now it would be good to take the extra step of getting the irritation of salt water off his skin.
Andrew turned on the jets of his shower super high, letting the hot water pummel his body into some kind of reaction. For now,
he just wanted to forget this morning. If he thought about it too much, the memories would overwhelm him, and he would be a shaking mess if he remembered how close Kate had come to death.
It was the thought of getting back to her which had him hurrying to pack. Track-pants and a soft t-shirt to sleep in, as well as his laptop, were added into his backpack.
Grabbing a bottle of beer from his fridge, he necked half of it before reaching for the phone.
‘I’ll need to take a few days off,’ he said, as soon as the night dispatcher picked up the phone at the rescue base.
Of course, those days off were given freely as Craig wanted to know exactly how Kate was recovering.
Andrew also had a similar conversation when he rang up Joe to give him some reassurance. However, now there was a newly formed bond, as only those three men in the helicopter would ever know the fear that gripped them as soon as they saw the attack and realized the danger to Kate’s own life.
‘Tell her that we are all thinking of her,’ said Joe. ‘And call us when we are able to visit.’
Andrew appreciated that no-one had challenged his role in Kate’s life and recovery. There was no way that he would have let anyone interfere but he was grateful that was a fight he hadn’t had to launch.
Back at Kate’s, Lucy gave him a plate of dinner of his own. ‘What will the chefs say about me getting some of the truffles as well?’ he asked, even as he appreciated the delicate flavours.
‘Reid told me that you helped rescue this one,’ Lucy said, nodding in Kate’s direction as Kate slowly ate, curled up on the couch. ‘So that gets you a few brownie points, at least for now.’
Andrew couldn’t accept the role as hero, especially with Kate looking so damaged. He pitched his voice low. ‘She did more to rescue herself than anything.’
Andrew spent the evening hyperaware of every breath that Kate took. On the hour, every hour, he did a full neurological check as well as making her apply an icepack periodically to her face and skull. She had eaten her half of the soup before pushing it away with a listless hand. His only consolation was how readily she seemed to seek out his touch.
Another dose of anti-inflammatories and Andrew was finally ready to let Kate sleep in her bed. ‘Hey sweetie,’ he said, brushing her hair off her face, ‘I’m going to let you go to sleep now. You’ll feel better in the morning.’
‘We both know that is a lie,’ she replied, showing more animation now she had the prospect of bed before her.
For a minute, he had forgotten she wasn’t a docile patient. ‘Yeah well,’ he replied, ‘In the morning I won’t be so worried about a brain bleed so I’ll be able to give you the good drugs.’
‘The things a man will promise to get me into bed.’
The shock had worn off enough that she was steadier on her feet, although still moving stiffly. He let her go to the bathroom and clattered around the kitchen, ready to move swiftly if she called.
‘You can go next door, I’ve got a mobile, I can call you,’ Kate said, as she headed towards her bedroom.
‘For a smart woman, you say a lot of stupid things,’ he replied, getting to the bed first and pulling down the covers. ‘Apart from anything else, if you get sick tonight you’ll ruin my professional reputation.’
Kate went to shrug and instead received what looked to be a world of pain.
‘Just be careful with yourself,’ Andrew warned, bracing his hands under her elbows. He lowered her onto the bed, before helping her sweep up her feet. He pulled the covers over her body and couldn’t resist the impulse to lay a feather-like kiss on her forehead.
‘Thanks,’ she said, as she closed her eyes to rest.
He wanted a few more hours to monitor her breathing, so he sat on the bed and settled in for the long wait.
A groan from Kate woke him in the morning. Andrew looked across the pillow to where she was facing him. In the daylight, he had to restrain himself from wincing, such was the darkened vibrancy of the bruises on her face.
‘Are you sure I didn’t get run over by a truck and forget about it?’ she asked, gingerly moving her hand up to explore her damaged, and certainly hurting like hell, ribs. Her voice was still husky. He was surprised she could even speak, giving the swelling and bruising to her throat.
‘Nope, just a drugged-up man on one hell of a bender,’ he replied, swinging his legs to the bedroom floor and going around to her side of the bed. ‘The truck might have been less painful though.’
Kate struggled to sit up in bed but waved away his unspoken offer of a helping hand. Andrew clutched his fist in frustration in watching her slow and painful process.
‘What’s that?’ she asked, gesturing towards the barrier of pillows he had laid across the middle of the bed.
Andrew’s cheeks heated just a little before he could reply. ‘I didn’t want to hurt you when I was sleeping. If I’d gone to put my arm around you I could have done some damage.’
To admit the truth, Andrew had considered sleeping on the hard floor, so worried was he about unconsciously reaching out to Kate during the night.
‘How much sleep did you even get?’ she asked. ‘Every time I woke up you seemed to be checking on me.’
‘I got enough,’ he said, rubbing his hand over his bleary eyes.
The truth was, of course, he had been lucky to get even a few hours. The need to watch over her had been as much emotional as of actual medical need.
Grabbing the pen torch from the side of her bed, he checked her pupils for their dilation response.
‘So doctor, will I live?’
‘In a few hours you’ll be past the window where we have to worry about a bleed on the brain,’ he answered, seriously. ‘All the rest of your injuries will just require time to heal.’
Saying the words, and knowing she was almost out of the danger zone, went someway to easing the tightness of worry in his chest.
‘Does that mean I’m not going to work today?’
‘You are not even leaving these rooms for at least one week.’
The annoyed expression on her face didn’t surprise him. Andrew knew how hard these instructions were going to be to obey, but he hoped the steel in his voice would convey how seriously he intended to enforce her bed-rest.
The silence stretched between them. Kate couldn’t hide her peevish undertone when she said, ‘Well, one of us has to go to work today. So you should be getting dressed.’
‘Nup,’ Andrew replied, with determined cheerfulness. ‘You’ve still got me as playmate. So is it a Housewives of New Jersey marathon or the sports channel kind of day?’
Chapter Fifteen
A week of Andrew treating her like his personal project had Kate ready to take someone’s, anyone’s, head off. Her injuries were slowly healing; today she had even gone for a swim in the pool, but he kept treating her as if she was his elderly aunt.
She was bored out of her mind as she did a slow walk alone around the resort, working hard to minimise her limp.
A call, as Lucy spotted her, was a welcome interruption.
‘Don’t you dare ask me how I am,’ she warned, as soon as her friend got within hearing distance. ‘It’s bad enough I get that from Andrew twenty times a day.’
‘The gall of the man,’ Lucy replied, as she kissed her on the cheek and slipped a supporting arm around her. ‘First he dares to help save your life and then he dares to try and care for you.’
‘He’s a doctor,’ Kate said, knowing she was being ungracious. ‘Him checking on me is a professional occupational hazard.’
‘That’s funny, keeping you company everyday around the clock doesn’t seem like it is on everyone’s official health plan.’
Kate didn’t bother arguing; somewhere along the line, Lucy had become the number one member of Andrew’s fan club. It wasn’t as if the man wasn’t seriously conscientious, it was just Kate wasn’t used to being handled and patronised as if she wasn’t a health professional herself.
Before they reached the
resort’s busy outdoor dining area, Kate reached into her pocket to put on the large sunglasses which had become her accessory of choice. She had learned early on that she didn’t enjoy the double-take that strangers took, and the inevitable discussions that she was sure they had about her supposed status as a battered wife.
Maybe she would get lucky and they would assume that she was just recovering from a brutal plastic surgery.
Kate appreciated the break that Lucy took with her each day. The serving staff out here on the pool deck had become used to their routine and quickly brought over their iced teas.
‘Have you heard anything about getting back to work?’ Lucy asked.
It was another touchy subject but Kate decided that another rebuff might end up with her drinking alone. ‘I’m out for at least another week, and then I’ll be on light duties for a month after that. They won’t even consider a fitness test until then.’
Lucy knew what a blow losing her professional identity was to Kate, and leant over and took her hand. ‘Important gossip update time,’ she announced. ‘Has Andrew tried to kiss you again?’
Kate, of course, had told her best friend the details of the night she had gotten back from making out on the scenic railway, and further updates after the dinner at his place. Those girly confessions seemed to belong to another time-zone now.
‘He does kiss me on the forehead every night before he leaves to go back to his villa.’ She laughed self-consciously, pointing at her bruised cheekbone. ‘It’s not like all of this is super appealing.’
‘No, it’s not appealing,’ Lucy said. ‘It’s scary and it’s horrible and the day it happened Reid told me that Andrew almost ripped his throat out. Maybe he is just waiting for you to be ready to make a move.’
‘Maybe he doesn’t care enough to want to bang the girl who isn’t exactly a barrel of laughs.’
Hearing herself speak, Kate heard the self-indulgence that had been plaguing her since the accident occurred. Maybe it was time that she got back her action initiating self.
Rescue Nights Page 14
