Rescued by Her Mr. Right

by Alison Roberts

What she wasn’t completely sure about was how Jack felt about her. Whether it was strong enough to crush any potential obstacles—one of which Pete had just reminded her of in no uncertain terms.

  ‘It’ll never last...

  ‘He’ll find someone his own age...’

  CHAPTER NINE

  HE COULDN’T JUST stand there, holding his car keys as if he’d forgotten what they were for.

  Jack had a job to do. There was an overnight bag on the back seat that his sister, Talia, had hurriedly filled, in case his grandmother was going to be kept in overnight. She’d been the one to call the ambulance when Gran had collapsed. And then she’d called him and his boss had stepped in to cover the rest of his shift so that he could go to his family. He’d collected the bag on his way to the hospital. His mother and another sister were in Emergency with Gran but he hadn’t had any update on her condition and he had been doing his best to get there as soon as possible.

  But, right now, he was watching Harriet almost running down the street, leaving Pete Thompson standing almost as still as he was himself.

  He’d seen them walking towards the gates as soon as he’d stepped out of his car. Had they planned to meet when Harriet had finished work?

  It didn’t look like it. If anything, it looked like they were having a row. Not that he was close enough to hear anything but Harriet had looked angry when she’d stopped and turned to speak to him.

  The keys had dug into his palm as he’d curled his fist. Did she need help? The only thing that stopped him moving towards them was that Harriet was moving again herself. And then Pete caught up with her. He was holding her. Bending his head as if he was about to kiss her.

  He couldn’t move a muscle then. There was a bottomless pit where his stomach was supposed to be and it felt like he was falling into it.

  Then he saw her jerk back and hope rushed in to fill the pit. She was almost running away from Pete. She hadn’t wanted him to kiss her.

  Except she had, hadn’t she? As he watched Harriet rapidly disappearing along the street, his brain rewound that little scene in his head and, this time, he could see that moment of hesitation. Or feel it. And it felt like history was repeating itself, only with a lot more kick to it. He wasn’t just asking her out on a date, he was in a relationship with her. And now Pete Thompson was back in the picture again.

  Pete was watching her disappear as well. He had his fingers in his hair, making it even spikier than usual, but then he turned back and started walking towards the gates again. Casually, as if he wasn’t at all bothered by the rejection he’d just been subjected to. He had a half-smile on his face as well. As if he was actually pleased about something. Confident, anyway.

  A flash of anger broke whatever spell had been holding Jack hostage. He wrenched the car door open, snatched up the bag and then slammed it shut. He heard the locks engage behind him as he pressed the remote, already striding back towards the emergency department. He wasn’t about to get caught by any encounter in the car park. He wasn’t even going to give Pete—or even Harriet—any more headspace right now.

  His family needed him.

  The first person he saw when he went into the department was Blake.

  ‘Hey...’ Despite the cowboy boots and the ponytail, Blake looked every inch an emergency department specialist. ‘I’ve just found out that it’s your grandmother that was brought in earlier. Can I do anything to help?’

  ‘Do you know what’s going on?’

  ‘Yeah... I checked. Supraventricular tachycardia. Must have been rapid enough to cut blood flow and make her faint. It’s settled now but we’re going to keep her in and monitor her. She’s been started on some medication and I don’t think it’s anything to worry about.’

  Jack had to swallow the sudden lump in his throat. ‘I thought I was going to hear that she’d had an infarct. Or a stroke or something.’

  ‘Go and see her.’ Blake smiled. ‘And you can stay with her as long as you like. Come and find me when you need a coffee or anything.’

  Family members kept arriving, although most of them had to stay in the waiting room because only two people at a time could be with a patient in the observation area, and his mother wasn’t about to leave her mother’s side.

  Jack was more than ready for a coffee after a couple of hours of what felt like traffic management. He’d send everybody other than his mother home soon. His grandmother was going to need follow-up to ensure that the new medication was doing its job but this was no longer a crisis.

  Blake was due to go off shift but he stayed to have a coffee with Jack and they chose a quiet corner in the cafeteria rather than the department’s staffroom.

  ‘You look wrecked.’ Blake’s smile was sympathetic. ‘It’s under control, you know. Your gran’s not in any danger.’

  ‘I know.’ Jack couldn’t find a smile, though. He fiddled with the little paper tube of sugar, shaking it into his drink. ‘I’ve got other things on my mind as well.’

  ‘Oh?’

  Jack picked up the spoon to stir his coffee. ‘I saw Pete Thompson outside when I was coming in.’

  ‘Yeah...’ Blake’s gaze was cautious. ‘He’d been in to see me and pick up a team pager. I couldn’t really say no when he’s been a member before. And a good one.’

  ‘Wouldn’t expect you to.’

  ‘Is it going to be a problem?’

  Jack shrugged. ‘I don’t know. Maybe.’

  Blake looked serious now. ‘We can’t have problems on the team like that. You know how I feel about distractions.’

  ‘Maybe I should stand down for a bit.’

  ‘Wait...what? No...if anyone’s not going to be on the team, it’ll be Pete. Or possibly Harry, if she finds out that it’s too much for her.’ He was watching Jack’s face. ‘It’s a lot more than a friendship with benefits between you two, isn’t it?’

  ‘For me?’ Jack had finally stopped stirring his coffee. ‘Yeah...’

  ‘What about Harry?’

  ‘I think it is for her, too.’

  ‘You think?’

  ‘We’ve never really talked about it. I’ve kept stuff light, you know? She was worried about our age difference and I didn’t want to push it. And I wasn’t sure that she was completely over Pete. She’d been living with the guy. Probably planning to marry him.’

  Maybe he should have pushed things. He should have stayed the night after that meeting. He could have simply held Harriet in his arms. So that she would understand that he would always be there for her.

  If she wanted him to be.

  Had he made a huge mistake in not telling her how much he loved her? That he couldn’t imagine wanting anyone else to share the rest of his life? Waiting for a sign that she would welcome that kind of commitment?

  Blake’s quiet voice broke the rush of unanswerable questions. ‘You don’t really think she’d want to go back to Pete, do you?’ His face twisted with distaste. ‘After the way he treated her?’

  Jack swallowed a mouthful of his coffee. ‘You see it often enough. Women who go back to relationships that everyone else can see are abusive. Or wrong for them, anyway. There are some guys that have that edge, you know? That “bad boy” vibe that women can’t seem to resist.’ He let his breath out in a sigh. ‘D’you know, I actually asked her out on a date once? She thought it was just a friend thing and she spread the word. Invited Pete along, in fact—and that was the night it all started between them.’

  Blake’s huff of sound was sympathetic. But then he frowned. ‘You need to tell her how you feel, mate. Took me a long time to tell Sam how I felt and that was when I found out that she felt the same way about me. The rest, as they say...is history. And if she does feel the same way about you, you won’t have to worry about Pete Thompson. Or anyone else.’ He raised an eyebrow. ‘I don’t claim to be an expert on women or anything, but if she’s b
othered by the age difference, I reckon she’s the one who needs the reassurance. To be told that it’s not an issue. Call her.’

  As if to emphasise his advice, Blake’s pager sounded, despite his being off duty now.

  Except that Jack’s pager sounded at exactly the same time.

  Three buzzes. A short silence and then three more.

  Blake reached for his phone and his call was answered instantly. ‘Mabel? What’s happening? Is this a Code One callout?’

  He was nodding briskly as he listened. And then he cut the call. His chair scraped on the floor as he leapt to his feet.

  ‘Train versus truck down south,’ he told Jack. ‘Code One. Let’s go...’

  * * *

  The scene on the rooftop of Bondi Bayside Hospital was one of controlled chaos. The big doors of the shipping container, well away from the helipad, were hanging open and a group of people were focused on shifting gear and making personal preparations.

  Harriet was getting into her red overalls with their reflective strips. She hadn’t taken the time to change at her apartment, she’d just grabbed her team backpack and got here as fast as she could. She was to one side of the group, near the perimeter fence, which proved useful because it was difficult to try and balance on her left leg when it came to putting on her steel-capped boots and she could hang onto the fence.

  The reminder that her physical abilities were still less than they had been was making her nervous. Was she up to this challenge? The flood of adrenaline she’d experienced when her pager had gone off was still there. She could feel her heart thumping and her senses seemed to be heightened. Against the background noise of a helicopter warming up and instructions being called, she could hear snatches of information being exchanged between team members.

  ‘Sounds big... Semi-trailer truck that failed to stop in time at a level crossing...’

  ‘I heard that the passenger train was pretty full. Could be up to a hundred people involved.’

  ‘Who’s going in the first chopper, do you know?’

  ‘Listen up.’ That was Blake’s voice, carrying clearly in the hubbub. ‘We’re going to run out of daylight soon after we’re on scene. Check the batteries in your headlamps. Put some spare ones in your pocket.’

  ‘Harry?’ Sam was hurrying towards her. ‘You good to go?’

  Harriet straightened from zipping up her second boot. ‘Just need a hard hat.’

  ‘Come on, then. You’re with me, on the first flight.’ Sam led the way to the equipment storage in the container but turned to glance at her friend. ‘You okay?’

  ‘Bit nervous. It’s been a long time.’

  ‘You’ll be fine. Even if you stay in the treatment area, you’ll be an asset. You don’t have to go climbing over wreckage or anything, just to prove yourself. Grab a hat.’

  Harriet stepped into the container. Someone was sorting through the bigger packs of gear at the back but she didn’t need to go that far. She reached up to take a helmet from the shelf beside her and then turned to find Pete right in front of her.

  For some reason, this was the last thing she’d expected to have to deal with. Again? So soon? She could feel herself glaring at him.

  ‘Hey...thanks, hon.’ He reached for the helmet in her hands and she let it drop before his fingers could touch hers. ‘Just what I was looking for.’

  He was grinning at her, clearly excited to be here.

  Harriet didn’t return the smile. Something else had just been added to the uncomfortable mix of adrenaline and nerves. Something that felt totally inappropriate to this situation, like...anger? Resentment, anyway. This was so important to her and the last thing she needed was something that had the potential to make it a whole lot harder. She turned back to pick up another helmet. She heard Blake shouting again outside.

  ‘Who’s got the airway packs?’

  ‘They’re right here.’ Sam stooped to pick something up and then vanished. ‘I’ve got them.’

  ‘Just like old times, huh?’ Pete seemed to be waiting for Harriet. ‘Some things never change.’

  Harriet ignored him, turning back. She had forgotten to get some extra batteries for her headlamp. From the corner of her eye she saw Pete vanish through the door and felt a beat of relief.

  Another figure appeared at the door. Blake. ‘We seem to be missing the extra IV gear.’

  ‘I’ve got it.’ The person at the back of the container turned.

  Jack...

  The relief Harriet had felt when Pete had gone evaporated as her nervousness kicked up a notch. Jack had to have heard the way Pete had just spoken to her and it wouldn’t be doing anything to dispel the tension that had been there ever since the night of the team meeting.

  ‘Thanks, mate.’ Blake took the pack and ducked out of the door. ‘You’re on the first run,’ he called back. ‘It’s time to go.’

  Harriet caught his gaze. ‘I am, too,’ she told him.

  His smile gave her an anchor in the swirl of nerves. ‘Come on, then.’

  She took a deep breath but held his gaze for a moment longer because it was giving her something else to hang onto. Determination. She wasn’t going to let Pete’s presence distract her in any way from this mission. If anything, she was going to use it as even more motivation to do the best job she possibly could. She wanted Jack to be proud of her. Proud of all that he’d helped her achieve.

  He must have sensed the tiny hesitation.

  ‘You worried?’

  She nodded. ‘A bit. I just hope I can do this. And do it well.’

  The expression in Jack’s eyes was so intense it made her catch her breath.

  ‘I think you can do whatever you want, Harriet Collins,’ he said. ‘You just have to decide what it is you really do want.’

  She followed him to the helicopter, crouching as she went under the spinning rotors.

  Sam was on board, she noted. And Blake. A few others but not Pete. He must be going with the next group that the chopper would return for. She buckled herself in and resolved not to even think about him again.

  But it was difficult because Jack’s words of encouragement were echoing in her head as they took off.

  He hadn’t been talking about her dream of being back on the team, had he?

  Had he been warning her that she had a choice to make—between him and Pete?

  That he would even think she might want to go back to Pete was a problem that threatened to be more of a distraction than the presence of her ex-boyfriend. It meant that Jack had no idea how she really felt about him, didn’t it?

  And why would he?

  She’d never actually told him. Because she’d been waiting for him to say something first. Harriet closed her eyes for a moment. Maybe now he never would...

  * * *

  Circling overhead as they waited for an air rescue helicopter to land first gave everybody on board the big picture of what had happened.

  And it was big.

  They had already seen traffic backed up for miles in both directions on a rural highway that was now closed.

  Now they could see the massive truck and equally big trailer that had caused the accident by failing to stop at a level crossing. It was lying on its side, the driver’s cab crushed beyond recognition towards where the last carriages of the train had derailed and were also twisted and overturned. The engine of the train and the first carriage looked intact further down the line but in the middle there were at least two carriages that had taken the brunt of the impact, with the sides closest to the truck ripped out completely or mangled into metal shards.

  There were already at least a dozen emergency vehicles on the ground. Police cars, ambulances and fire trucks, all with their beacons flashing. From the air, the red, blue and white lights almost looked festive. Every member of the SDR team, however, knew that the reality was going to
be grim.

  They carried their gear and headed straight for the scene command truck. Behind them, their helicopter was already taking off to go and fetch the rest of the team. Another helicopter, from a major television channel, was hovering overhead, preparing to land.

  ‘We’ve got a treatment area set up,’ the scene commander told them. ‘The ambos will be glad to see you guys. We’ve also got people trapped in the carriages and haven’t been able to get close enough to assess their condition yet. Head count so far suggests that there’s at least six people unaccounted for.’

  ‘Fatalities?’ Blake was looking at an area under police supervision that had blanket-covered bodies on the ground.

  ‘Seven.’ The scene commander’s tone was grim. ‘So far.’

  ‘Where do you need us first?’

  ‘In the treatment area. But maybe a couple of you could join the teams working in the wreckage, for when we get access to the people who are trapped?’

  Blake nodded. ‘Jack? Come with me. The rest of you, see what you can do to help in the treatment area.’

  Ambulance service personnel were overwhelmed by the number of people already needing treatment. One team was fully occupied, intubating someone, and others were amongst a small crowd, many of whom were crying out for help. A man walked towards them, holding a bloodied dressing to his head.

  ‘Please, can someone come? It’s my wife. I don’t think she’s breathing properly. She says it hurts too much...’

  ‘Show me...’ Sam followed him instantly.

  There was a baby, Harriet noted, lying quietly in the arms of a young woman who was sitting on the ground, just staring into space. Was it too quiet?

  They had two doctors, other than Blake, who’d come in this first wave. One headed straight to where the intubation was happening. The other caught Harriet’s gaze.

  ‘Let’s get some triage happening. We need to clear this area of anyone who doesn’t need immediate treatment.’

  Harriet paused beside the woman with the baby.

  ‘How old is he?’ She crouched beside them, putting her hand inside the baby’s blanket, both to feel what his breathing efforts were like and to see if it provoked any kind of response.