The Doctor’s Rescue Mission

by Marion Lennox

  ‘Morag,’ he said again, and buried his small face against her breast and burst into tears.

  She held him. It was all she could think of to do. She’d held him like this too often, she thought drearily. There’d been too many times in this small boy’s life when fate had slapped him hard. And now there’d be more people he knew, more people he loved, who he wouldn’t see again.

  Hamish. Please, God, not Hamish.

  Thank God Robbie had been up here with her, she thought. Thank God they both had. If they’d been on the flat and she’d been hurt… If he’d had to cope without her…

  No. She was here for him and she wasn’t going away.

  She had to get up. There was so much to do. A priority had to be a trip out the Koori settlement, she thought, but then…There was so much.

  But for this minute there could only be Robbie.

  There was a tentative knock and Grady was peering around the door as if he didn’t want to intrude. He flinched at the sound of Robbie’s sobbing.

  ‘I’m sorry.’

  ‘It’s OK.’ She gave Robbie a hard hug, ran her fingers through his hair, then lifted his tear-drenched face so she could see him. ‘Robbie’s having the cry that everyone else had last night. Sometimes the only thing to do is cry. Don’t you think so, Dr Reece?’

  ‘I surely do.’ He smiled and crossed to the bed, then stood looking down at them. It was a weirdly intimate moment, Morag thought, still dazed by sleep. Grady was standing over Hubert’s big bed while she and Robbie lay in a huddle of aunt-nephew sogginess and tried to recover their mutual composure.

  At least Grady was composed. He was in his yellow overalls. Dressed and ready for the day, he looked cool and competent and…dangerous?

  Where had that word come from? Ridiculous.

  ‘Hi,’ Grady was saying, holding his hand out to Robbie. ‘I’m Grady Reece. I’ve heard about you. I’m a friend of your aunt’s-a doctor-and I’ve come to help.’

  Robbie sniffed. He sniffed again but Grady’s hand was still outstretched and finally he took it.

  ‘Did you come in the helicopter?’ Robbie asked, a trifle warily but seemingly willing to be distracted from his misery.

  ‘That’s right.’

  ‘You guys in the yellow overalls were the first to arrive. We saw you land through the field glasses.’

  ‘We’re the emergency Air-Sea Rescue team.’

  ‘You came to rescue us?’

  ‘It seems,’ Grady said, smiling but with a depth of seriousness behind the smile, ‘that you’ve done a fine job rescuing yourselves already.’

  ‘Some people are dead.’

  There was only one answer to that, and Grady had the sense to give it. ‘Yes.’

  Robbie seemed to think about it. He gazed up at Grady but his small body was still curved into Morag’s. And here came the question she’d been dreading. ‘What about Hamish?’

  ‘Hamish?’ Grady looked questioningly at Morag.

  ‘Hamish is Robbie’s cousin and his best friend,’ Morag told him, feeling more and more unreal. She was lying in bed discussing the outside world with a man above her, for all the world as if she was a patient and he was her doctor. It was completely alien. It was as if somehow she’d been placed in the position where it was someone else who did the caring. Not her.

  Which was ridiculous. Ever since she’d returned to the island the weight of the world had rested firmly on her shoulders, and that weight was never lifted. To think that Grady was somehow going to alleviate that burden was a nonsense.

  And there was so much to do…

  Grady was still talking to Robbie. Taking his concerns seriously. Let him respond to his query about Hamish, she thought dully. She couldn’t.

  ‘I don’t know who the islanders are yet.’ He raised his brows at Morag. ‘Do you know anything about Robbie’s friend?’

  ‘I didn’t see Hamish yesterday,’ Morag admitted. ‘I know that his parents-Peter and Christine-were injured. They were the couple you evacuated last night.’ She turned back to Robbie. ‘Peter and Christine had broken limbs that need to be set by experts in Sydney, but we think they should be OK. As for the kids…one of the nurses told me Lucy had scratches down her leg and they were treating her, but I didn’t see her and I haven’t seen Hamish. But I’ve been so busy…’

  And that was all she could think of to say. It was all there was to say.

  Hamish hadn’t been brought into the cricket pavilion with his parents or Lucy. And his name-she was sure Hamish had been on the list as a query. She hadn’t had a chance to ask questions.

  No. She hadn’t been brave enough to ask questions, she conceded. And maybe by now he’d been found. Maybe…

  She glanced up at Grady and found his face closed. Uh-oh.

  Did he know something she didn’t?

  She still wasn’t going to ask. Not now. Not with Robbie listening to every word.

  How much grief could one child stand?

  ‘Can I go and look for him?’ Robbie asked.

  ‘The professionals are looking for everyone,’ Grady said gravely. ‘We have people searching everywhere, trying to sort out where everyone is. Meanwhile, your friends are gathering down in one of the big tents. I’m about to go down there and I’ll check for myself. Give me Hamish’s details and I’ll let you know.’

  Robbie considered and seemed to find that satisfactory, at least in the short term.

  ‘Is that why you’re here?’ he asked curiously. ‘Do you go round the country rescuing people?’

  ‘We do. I’m a doctor. Our team helps the injured.’

  ‘But there’s more people looking than just the guys in yellow overalls.’

  ‘We have the army here as well. They’ll keep searching until everyone’s found.’

  ‘And then what?’

  ‘What do you mean?’ Grady asked. Morag might as well not be there. Robbie was intent on inquisition and Grady, it seemed, was accepting being grilled.

  ‘Will you take us all to the mainland ’cos our island’s smashed?’

  Whew. What a question. How had Robbie figured that one out?

  At least one of them was focused, Morag decided. But it wasn’t her. She was feeling more and more disorientated. She was still stunned that somehow she’d ended up in Hubert’s bed and she was here, holding Robbie, while this man stood above them…

  His yellow overalls looked tough and businesslike, his professionalism accentuated even more by the Air-Sea Rescue insignia on his arm. His hair hadn’t been combed this morning-it sort of flopped sideways, looking as if it had been raked by his long fingers over and over. His skin was tanned and weathered, and his eyes crinkled down at them, and he made her feel…

  Stop it. Oh, for heaven’s sake, stop it, she told herself. Of all the times-and of all the places!-for her to feel the stirring of unashamed lust…

  It was totally inappropriate. She turned away from him and gazed at Robbie, who was gazing straight at Grady. He’d clearly decided Grady was hero material, worthy of closer inspection.

  ‘Tell me some of the things you’ve done,’ he was demanding. ‘I’ve read about Air-Sea Rescue. That yacht race last year, was that you? When they had to winch all those people out of the water and the waves were sixty feet high and one of them got his ribs all smashed against the side of the boat…’

  ‘It was me,’ Grady said, grinning. He sank down on the bed as if he was a familiar relative rather than a man Robbie had never met. ‘Well, it wasn’t me who got his ribs smashed, but I was the one who winched him up. Robbie, I hope there’ll be time in the next few days for me to sit down and tell you everything about me,’ he confided. ‘But for now…Hubert says you know pretty much exactly what happened on the island yesterday.’

  ‘We watched through field glasses and then Chris’s telescope,’ Robbie admitted. ‘It was awful. Mr Hamm said if he was younger he’d be out there in his boat to get the people who were swept away, but he couldn’t go, so we figured that we�
�d stay up here and just watch the sea and stay close to the bell. We didn’t stop watching until dark.’

  ‘I think you were fantastic,’ Grady said gravely. ‘But the scientists tell us that the danger’s over.’

  ‘Another wave won’t come?’

  ‘It’s a really long shot, Robbie, and we have seismologists checking for earth tremors all the time now. If there’s another wave, there’ll be heaps of warning.’

  Robbie thought about that and nodded. ‘I guess it’s not much use watching, then.’

  ‘No. But there’s other things we need to do.’

  ‘Like what?’ He was still very close to Morag.

  ‘Well, your aunt and I are needed at the medical centre. There are people who were hurt yesterday who need your aunt’s care. We have three doctors on the island now and we’re all needed.’

  ‘Might people still die?’ Robbie asked, and Grady looked gravely down at him.

  ‘They might, Robbie, but not if Morag and I can help it. But while Morag and I are working, I wondered whether you and Hubert would do something that would help Air-Sea Rescue enormously.’

  Morag was feeling more and more dazed. This was so like being a hospital patient, she thought, lying in bed while the doctor stood over her, telling her the best course of action for her illness.

  And maybe it wasn’t a bad thing. The events of the day before had left her shattered, and for her to stay in control now-to take on the responsibility for the entire medical mess-was surely too much. She could operate but only in a subservient capacity, she decided. The normally wilful and decisive Morag was more than content to lie here hugging Robbie while Grady took control.

  ‘What do you want us to do?’ Robbie asked.

  And Morag thought, Yeah, me too. Count me in on that question.

  ‘We have media arriving,’ Grady told Robbie, professional to professional, without a trace of patronage. ‘There are reporters from all over the world headed here right this minute. Camera crews, photographers, reporters-you name it. Now, we can’t let them down near the harbour. It’s too great a mess and it’s going to upset everyone to have reporters close. So what we thought was that we’d direct them up here. They’ll be coming by helicopter so they can land like we did on the plateau behind this place. I’ll have someone rostered to direct them here. You and Hubert can give them a first-hand account of what happened-you realise you’re the only ones who had a bird’s-eye view of the whole thing? You can point out the whole island from here, and they can take long-range photographs.’

  ‘You mean…you want me to stay up here with Mr Hamm?’

  ‘If you would,’ Grady said diffidently, still as if he were asking a colleague for help and not a child. ‘If you can keep the reporters happy and out of our hair, it would be enormously appreciated.’ He lifted a radio from his belt and laid it on the coverlet beside Robbie. Morag blinked. This was a pretty impressive piece of equipment.

  ‘If you listen in on this, you’ll hear everything that’s going on with the emergency services all over the island,’ he told Robbie. ‘You’ll be able to keep the reporters up to date. We’ll keep you informed as to what’s happening.’ Then he hesitated, as if suddenly unsure. ‘Robbie, Hubert’s offered to do this for us, but he’s very old and his heart’s not so good. I’m hoping you can help.’

  But Robbie didn’t need persuading. He was already pushing back the covers, the horrors of yesterday receding as he lifted the amazing radio to his ear and started fiddling with buttons.

  ‘I’ll be able to hear all over the island?’

  ‘All over the island.’

  ‘You don’t need me, do you, Morag?’

  ‘No.’ Not true. She missed him already. She missed the warmth of his little body against hers. Grady might be able to deflect Robbie’s horrors but he couldn’t deflect hers.

  But it was time to move on.

  ‘I’m going to talk to Mr Hamm,’ Robbie said importantly. ‘We have to get organised. You go with Dr Reece, Morag. I’ll look after everything up here.’

  Morag was left alone with Grady. She wanted to get up-she must get up-but she’d gone to bed in knickers and bra. Her clothes were on the far dresser.

  She was a bit stuck.

  As for Grady… She’d checked him out by now, and discovered that he’d already been out. His big black boots were wet. He’d already been down into the village, she thought, and she knew she had to make herself ask the hard questions.

  ‘What’s the latest?’ she asked, and Grady nodded as though this was the question he’d been expecting.

  ‘Fifteen confirmed dead. Three from the Koori settlement to add to the list from last night and some missing. But in the meantime, there’s some good news. We brought in three fishermen during the night. They were coming into harbour when the wave struck. Their boat was smashed but they were wearing lifejackets. One has a broken arm. The other two only copped lacerations and shock. We found them floating half a mile out to sea-there was no way they could fight the currents. Luckily the sea’s relatively mild at this time of year so we don’t have hypothermia to contend with.’

  ‘Lucky us,’ she muttered.

  ‘You have been lucky,’ Grady said seriously. ‘It could have been so much worse. If you hadn’t seen-’

  ‘I did see,’ she snapped. ‘And fifteen of my people are dead. Don’t call me lucky. Do you have a list of the dead?’

  ‘I have a list.’

  She caught her breath, suddenly remembering the way he’d backed off a little at Robbie’s question.

  ‘Is Hamish still on the list as missing?’

  ‘Yes.’ He hesitated. ‘Hamish is listed as definitely missing. No one’s seen him.’

  ‘Oh, no.’

  ‘Morag, I have no more information than that,’ he told her. ‘But we’re still searching.’

  ‘How many are missing?’

  ‘Three now from the Koori settlement. Only Hamish here.’

  She swallowed.

  ‘OK.’ She closed her eyes. Taking a grip. Moving forward. When she opened her eyes again she was in business mode.

  ‘You’ve been up for a while?’

  ‘I slept for four hours. I don’t need more. I’ve been organising.’

  ‘Finding spare radios?’

  ‘That, too.’

  ‘To keep Robbie happy?’

  ‘He’ll be useful.’

  ‘You could easily have sent someone else up here to cope with the press contingent.’

  ‘Hubert and Robbie together are more than capable.’ He smiled, that slow lazy smile that had the power to unsettle her world. Then. In the past. A long time ago. Now a smile couldn’t unsettle her. A wave had done that pretty decisively already. ‘I’ve done a fast examination of Hubert,’ he told her. ‘He’s pretty solid. What makes him think he’s dying?’

  ‘I revoked his fishing licence,’ Morag confessed. ‘He hit the jetty at full tilt and pushed a full day’s catch by the entire fleet into the bottom of the harbour.’

  ‘So he decided he’d die?’

  ‘Why not? Dying’s interesting, as long as you can stretch it out a long, long time.’ She managed a fleeting smile. ‘And today you’ve made life even more interesting, for both of them. Thank you.’

  ‘It’s self-interest,’ he confessed. ‘I have need of the island doctor.’

  Her smile faded. ‘Of course. I’m sorry. I should be up.’

  ‘You needed to sleep. There’s a lot to cope with, Morag,’ he told her seriously. ‘As you said, these are your people. We’re coping with major trauma-major physical damage-but as well as that there’s also shocking emotional damage. If you’re strong enough to work through this, you’ll be our most valuable medic.’

  ‘You mean…you’re being nice to me so that I can cope mentally with what’s coming?’

  ‘Something like that.’ He smiled down at her, his eyes crinkling at the corners. ‘Hey, Morag, it’s really good to see you again.’

  ‘It’s
good to see you, too,’ she whispered. He didn’t know how much. ‘What do you want me to do?’

  ‘Cope. Not collapse. My job is to support you. I can do hands-on physical stuff but this community needs you if it’s going to be viable.’

  ‘You’re thinking it’s still viable?’

  ‘I don’t know what the decision will be.’

  ‘I want to be in on that decision-making.’ She eyed her clothes on the dresser and thought about making a grab for them. To be sitting in bed…

  ‘Of course you do,’ he agreed. ‘And one of my tasks is to make sure you’re capable of that.’ He smiled again. ‘Now, I’m going to make us some toast. Do you want some space to get dressed or do you want some help?’

  Help her with dressing? He had to be kidding. ‘I can cope.’

  ‘I’m sure you can.’ His smile faded. ‘You seem to have coped so far. Alone.’

  ‘I haven’t had much choice.’

  ‘No.’

  Silence. It was a tangible thing, this silence. It was loaded with history and with pain.

  Loaded with emptiness.

  ‘Get dressed, love,’ he said at last, almost roughly. ‘I’ll make you breakfast, but we need to move fast. For today we need each other.’ Then he grinned and reached for her pile of clothes. ‘Here’s your modesty. You know, you really do remind me of you.’

  They both knew what he meant by that. Once upon a time he’d thought he’d fallen in love.

  With someone who was no longer her.

  CHAPTER SIX

  SHE might fleetingly remind Grady of the Morag she’d once been, she thought bitterly as the morning progressed, but the old Morag was long gone. The sophisticated career-woman who’d only cared for herself… Ha!

  Even that thought hardly had time to surface. Everywhere Morag looked there was need. Aching, tearing need that she had no hope of meeting. The walk back down to the ruined township had her stopping time and time again as people wept on her, people hugged her, people tried to talk through their fears.