by Joanna Neil
She lay there for a moment, thrown by her sudden descent, and shocked by the noise and chaos that was all around her.
After a minute or two she lifted her head and then she began to cough, dust clouding her eyes and filling her mouth. Then, as her senses returned, she felt her pulse quicken as horror slowly filled her mind.
'Taylor,' she whispered. 'Taylor, where are you?' And what of the fire crew? What had happened to them? She tried to get up, but her head was reeling.
'Are you OK?' Strong hands reached for her, bringing her to her feet, and she stood for a moment, shakily trying to regain her balance. The man held on to her, his fingers curled around her arms, steadying her.
'I'm fine,' she said huskily. 'Really, I'm fine.' The man stood close to her, a calming presence, unmoving, waiting for her to collect herself. She looked up and saw that it was Taylor who was holding her, his grey eyes intent on her face, studying her as though he would search out any hint of anything that might be wrong.
A feeling of relief washed over her. 'You got away in time,' she said, and a slow breath of air left her lungs. 'What about the others...Matt, and the firemen?'
'Matt was already down. The rest of us were able to jump clear when the mass started to move.'
'I'm glad about that,' she said.
He nodded. Seeing that she was all right, he released her, and she felt a sudden pang of loss, a draught of cold air that wafted through her consciousness and made her tremble momentarily.
Taylor was looking at her all over again, taking her in from head to toe, and then his mouth tilted at the corners. 'You're covered in a film of dust,' he said, 'just as though you've walked through a flour factory.'
His comment had her shifting restlessly. Their first meeting after all this time, and she had to look the worse for wear. She wished she could say the same about him, if only to even things up a bit, but for all his heroic manoeuvres amongst the wreckage, he was still in tantalisingly good form. She stared at him, trying to make sense of her chaotic emotions. He was shrugging out of his medic's jacket, and she guessed that he must be feeling the heat after being cooped up in a confined space for so long.
He was just as she remembered him, with that strong, angular jaw and those same brooding grey eyes that seemed to look into her soul. His hair was as black as night and cropped short. His casual clothes, dusky green chinos and pale-coloured shirt fitted him to perfection, so that she couldn't help but notice his broad shoulders and the long line of his legs. He was flat stomached, lean and muscular, and he made her blood heat up, just from looking at him.
'Shall we get out of here and get some fresh air?' he suggested, placing a hand on her elbow and ushering her towards the main door. He glanced around. 'There isn't much more we can do in here. All of the injured but one have been evacuated and they should be on their way to hospital any time now.'
'We don't have any choice but to leave them in the hands of the emergency teams, do we? I hope they all make it, especially Matt.'
He nodded. 'I told the paramedic that I'd go with him and see to it that he's all right on the journey.'
Outside in the open air, she blinked as the afternoon sunlight caught her unawares. A crowd had gathered, and instinctively she turned away, seeking quiet and solitude.
'There's a waiting area just behind where the ambulances are parked,' Taylor said. 'We can be peaceful there, away from prying eyes, while we wait for them to bring out the last patient.'
'Yes.' She felt strangely out of sorts now that the threat of immediate danger had passed. Her senses were numbed, and perhaps it was the shock of seeing him again that was making her react this way.
They walked to where Matt was being transferred to the waiting ambulance, and she took off her own jacket, shaking off the dust before laying it down on an iron railing. Delving in her bag for a moist wipe, she used it to clean her face and hands. Then she loosened the velvet scrunch from the back of her head and shook her hair free, running her hands through the pale golden strands until the dust fell away and her hair seemed to be silky and light to the touch once more.
Taylor watched her, his glance going slowly over her. 'Feel better now?' he asked.
'I think so.'
'You shouldn't have done what you did back there, you know,' he said. 'It was far too risky... But when all's said and done, you were great. You helped to save Matt's life.'
'Maybe, but so did you.' She looked at him. 'I didn't see you holding back, whatever the outcome might have been.'
But, then, he never had. He was always one to take control where necessary, wanting to make sure that things would turn out all right. Hadn't he done the same when she'd last seen him all those years ago?
Her mind drifted back to that fateful evening. It had started out uneventfully enough. She and Rhea had gone for a pleasant evening out, she remembered, enjoying a meal at a quiet little country pub back home in Buckinghamshire. Rhea had wanted to tell her all about the new man she had taken up with, and everything had gone fine until Rhea's ex-boyfriend had come along in search of her.
He had never accepted that she hadn't wanted to see him any more, and he had been determined to cause trouble from the outset. The argument that had followed outside the pub had been unavoidable, and he'd dragged Rhea away by force, ignoring her protests. Allison had tried to intervene, anxious to help her friend out, but he had retaliated, threatening her, and she had been helpless to do anything to stop him.
Making up her mind to follow them, Allison discovered that it wasn't going to be possible. Her car tyres had been slashed, and it didn't take much guesswork to figure out who was responsible. She was virtually stranded, and everything that had happened had left her nerves shattered. It had started to snow, and now, because of the lateness of the hour, she couldn't get a taxi to come out at short notice.
Feeling cold, wet and miserable, and not knowing what to do for the best, she phoned her brother's one-time friend to see if he could help. Things had gone wrong between her brother and Taylor, but he was the only one who lived within a reasonable distance and she didn't know what else to do.
Taylor arrived just a short time later, her knight in shining armour. He was Rhea's knight, too, as it turned out, because when he heard what had happened he went in search of her, squaring up to her ex-boyfriend and sending him on his way. Then he dropped Rhea off at her house and set out to take Allison home.
She grimaced. Perhaps things would have turned out very differently if they had arrived there as planned.
'You look a little subdued,' Taylor said now, dragging her thoughts back to the present. 'I suppose that's not surprising, after what we've just been through. It seems an odd way for us to meet up after all this time, doesn't it?'
'Yes, you're right, it does.' She glanced at him. 'And it has been a long time since we've seen anything of each other.'
His expression was serious, his eyes dark and unreadable. 'Considering that we spent so much time together as teenagers, things turned out very differently from what we might have expected, didn't they?'
More so than he could possibly have imagined, she reflected wryly, but she wasn't about to let him in on her thoughts. Her mouth made an awkward shape. 'Perhaps that's so.. .but you had that offer of a post as registrar, and I went off to do my house-officer year. We've both moved on in the last few years.'
'I suppose we have.' He frowned. 'I heard that your mother died. I was sorry about that—it must have been a bad time for you and your brother. I tried to contact you, but you weren't living at your mother's house and you obviously didn't receive my letter, because it was returned to me. I had no idea where you were working by then.'
Her eyes widened a fraction. She hadn't realised that he had made the effort to keep in touch.
'I didn't know you had written to me. I wonder if a neighbour returned the letter by mistake, or perhaps it was the estate agent? The house was empty for a while when Mum went into hospital, and then we had an agent sort out the sale of
the property.'
'I guess that must have been what happened.' He sent her a searching look. 'Of course, I wasn't sure that you wanted to know me any more. After all, you didn't stop to say goodbye. It was a very final, abrupt ending to our relationship.'
Warm colour washed over her cheekbones and she pressed her lips together, discomfited by the memory of that night. 'Things shouldn't have gone the way they did.'
'No? You didn't seem to be too concerned about that at the time.'
She sucked in a sharp breath. That was a low blow. Did she really deserve that kind of reaction from him? It seemed to her that everything that night had seemed to be out of her control.
'It was all a mistake,' she said. 'I wasn't thinking clearly.'
That was true enough. Snow had been falling steadily, casting a blanket over the landscape, and she had been numb with cold. On their way home from Rhea's house, they had stopped to help a couple whose car had skidded on a patch of ice. The woman had had a concussion from a bang on her head, while the man had suffered cuts and bruises. By the time they had patched them up and helped them on their way, Allison had been shivering from the freezing weather and Taylor had wrapped her up in a blanket and driven her to his home.
'My place is nearer than yours,' he said. 'I think we'll get you warmed up and back on your feet before we go any further.'
And that, in the end, had been her undoing.. .because he'd sat her down and given her brandy to coax the heat back into her, holding her in his arms while she'd recovered, and he'd listened to her worries about her brother, and about her mother's failing health. He'd comforted her and made her feel warm and cherished, and all the while her head had become more and more muzzy from the alcohol, so that before she'd taken on board what she'd been getting into, they had been making love, and all her problems had seemed to disappear on a cloud of passion.
Of course, they came back in full force when she woke up the next morning with a fogged brain and discovered that she was still in his house...in his bed. Taylor was still sleeping as she quickly dressed and called for a taxi.
Her mind was reeling. It had all been a dreadful mistake. She had never meant to get involved with him in that way. She didn't go in for one-night stands and it horrified her to know that she had let her feelings run away with her this one time.
He had been her brother's friend from their school days, and it was inevitable that she would grow close to him. She had admired and respected Taylor, had hungered after him from afar, but there was never going to be any future for her with him, she had known that all along. He had always been career orientated, always on the move, and he wasn't in the market for commitment.
Then he and Nick had a disagreement, a falling-out over something that affected Nick's business enterprise, and he moved on, even from that once solid friendship.
'You might not have been thinking clearly at the time,' Taylor said now, 'but surely the next morning there was at least some time for reflection? I was surprised, to say the least, to find that you had gone.'
'I left you a note,' she murmured. 'I didn't know you were going away that very day. You didn't tell me, and I only found out later on.'
She frowned as the paramedic signalled to him that they were ready to move off with the ambulance and his patient. 'In the back of my mind, I suppose I thought we might bump into one another at some point in the future.'
His mouth twisted. 'Oh, yes,' he said. 'I found your brief message.' He moved towards the ambulance. 'Strange that it should be five years before we came across one another once more, isn't it?'
She didn't answer him. It was more than simple reticence that had kept her from staying in touch. She had a lasting reminder of that evening they had spent together. Her son, Connor, shaped her every thought and deed, and above all she had determined to keep him safe and secure. Better to have no father at all than one who was always on the move.
'I have to go,' Taylor said, 'but I guess we'll be seeing each other again fairly soon.' He flicked a glance at her name badge. 'Dr Allison Matthews, King's Bridge Hospital.' His mouth made a wry slant. 'I'm going to be working there, too, so it looks very much as though we'll be seeing quite a bit of each other, one way or another, over the next few months.'
He frowned. 'I wonder how that will work out...especially as it seems that I'm going to be your new boss.'
CHAPTER TWO
Connor gazed at the open green space behind the primary school, taking in the cluster of trees and the leaves that fluttered gently in the light breeze.
'Can we go to the park after school?' He skipped along beside Allison, heading through the school gates and jumping into the air every now and then out of sheer exuberance.
'We'll see.' Allison wasn't going to commit herself. 'It all depends whether or not you can stay out of trouble. You know, your teacher said you weren't really paying attention to her yesterday, and you keep squabbling with your friends. What's that all about?'
Connor stopped skipping and shrugged, his lips jutting in a rebellious fashion. 'They 'noy me,' he said. 'They push me when I'm having a think, so I push them back.' He looked up at her, spreading his arms wide. 'What am I s'pposed to do?'
Allison hid a wry smile. 'Just try talking to them,' she said. 'Use your voice instead of your hands.'
He blinked, giving that some thought, and then he gave her a sideways glance, his mouth curving sweetly. 'I'll be good,' he promised. 'So can we go to the park?'
'Perhaps.. .if you remember what I said.'
She gave him a hug and a kiss and watched him run into his classroom. He greeted his friends without a care in the world, and she turned away, heading for the street. It wasn't like him to misbehave, and so far there had only been a few instances, but they were enough to make her a little concerned. If the teacher had commented on his behaviour, then there might be a problem brewing.
Allison frowned, and hurriedly walked the half a mile or so to the tube station. It was a beautiful spring morning, and the scent of blossom filled the air. She breathed it in and tried to relax...not an easy thing to do, under the circumstances. Today was going to be a challenge, if only because Taylor would be on duty at the hospital, and in order to cope with that she needed all her wits about her. Still, she was scheduled to be on call to go out with the rapid response unit today, so perhaps she would be able to avoid him.
As things turned out, he wasn't anywhere to be seen when she arrived in A and E. 'Dr Briscoe is with a patient in the resuscitation bay,' Sarah, the specialist nurse, told her. 'We've been kept pretty busy up to now, but he seems to be very much on the ball. It looks as though he takes everything in his stride.' She smiled. 'Somehow I think we're going to like having him around.'
Allison wasn't at all sure about that. His presence here had opened up all sorts of uncertainties for her.. .most of all, the worry of not knowing what to tell him regarding Connor.
It was a problem she had thought about endlessly these last few years. For a long time, after she had first discovered that she was carrying Taylor's child, she had thought about calling him to tell him the news, but always, at the last minute, she had held back. She had been unwell, and at first there had been the danger of a miscarriage, the uncertainty of whether she would be able to carry the baby to full term, and what would it have served to alert him unnecessarily?
She was still undecided about what to do. Perhaps, for the time being, she would do best to steer clear of the issue altogether.
'Will you take a look at a patient in the trauma room?' Sarah asked some time later. 'I think he must have been involved in a fight last night because there's bruising around his face, and from the look of his X-rays he has several rib fractures. The registrar ordered a CT scan before he went off duty, and we have the results of that now. It looks as though there's a haematoma.'
'Of course.' Allison went along to assess the patient, and confirmed Sarah's diagnosis.
'There's a build-up of blood in the wall of your chest,' she told the m
an. 'That's making it difficult for you to breathe, so we need to put in a tube and drain it for you. We'll make sure that you have something to relieve the pain, and we'll admit you to the observation ward for a time, until we feel that you're well enough to go home.'
She glanced at the patient. He was in a sorry state, and she couldn't help wondering how the other man in the fight had fared. Something about him stopped her from asking, though, and maybe it was because there was a familiar look about him. He reminded her very much of Steve, Rhea's ex-boyfriend, mainly because he had the same craggy features and was thick set.
'Are you about finished in here?' Taylor's deep voice intruded on her thoughts a short time later, as she finished setting the drainage tube in place. He pulled the curtain of the cubicle to one side and walked in.
She glanced at him, her throat going dry. He was wearing a cool-looking mid-blue shirt and dark trousers that clung to his hips and hinted at strong, muscled thighs. 'Yes. I was just about to hand over to Sarah so that she can dress the wound. Why? Did you need me for something?'
He nodded. 'We've had a callout to a fire at a bus depot on the west side of London, near Ealing. You're on the rota to work with the response team, aren't you? We need to go now.'
Allison's chest constricted. She hadn't missed the fact that he had said, 'We need to go.' She nodded briefly and sent her patient a quick look. 'You should begin to feel a little more comfortable soon,' she said. 'Sarah will take care of you from this point, so if you have any concerns or queries, just ask.'
The man made an attempt at a smile. 'Thanks, darling.'
Allison felt a small shiver run through her. That was what Steve used to say. Everyone had been 'darling' or 'sweetheart', and there was nothing wrong with that, it was an endearment, except that when Steve had said it, he had always managed to make her feel uncomfortable. Perhaps it had been because, behind the honeyed words, there had always been the simmering threat of violence.
Allison walked with Taylor to the locker room where her jacket and medical pack were stored. 'How is it that you're coming out with the response unit?' she asked. 'I thought Greg was the doctor in charge of that.'
