The London Consultant's Rescue

by Joanna Neil

  A second patient was suffering from a spillage of the chemical on his arms. Martin found a source of water, and was gently running it over the man’s skin. ‘I’m going to keep doing this for quite a while,’ he told the man. ‘We’ll probably be able to send you off to hospital in one of the ambulances.’

  Rhys’s patient was vomiting, and when he had rid his stomach of its contents, he began to wheeze. Swiftly, Rhys put in an airway and a nasogastric tube and made sure that he was receiving oxygen.

  ‘OK, let’s get these people to hospital,’ he said. Within minutes, they were airborne once more.

  Back at base, Emma expected that they would go out on another call, but Rhys instructed her to go and shower. ‘Get rid of those outer clothes and all of your underthings,’ he said. ‘Put them into this bag and seal it, and stay under the water for at least ten minutes. I’ll make sure that there are fresh clothes waiting for you.’

  ‘You’re going to sort out my underwear, are you?’ She gave him a sideways glance. ‘Somehow I don’t think so.’

  ‘Let’s have less of the lip,’ he said. ‘You’ll be surprised what I can do. Go and get on with it.’

  She didn’t stay around to argue with him. Each member of the team went off to follow his orders, but Rhys was last to go and shower, making sure that everyone else followed instructions to the letter.

  When she came out of the shower some time later, Emma was startled to find that he was as good as his word. A package of brand-new bra and briefs was waiting for her, along with a fresh medic’s uniform. The uniform she could understand, but the underwear…? It was a perfect fit, and when she finally went back into the helicopter emergency unit, she gave Rhys an odd look.

  He lifted a dark brow. ‘You’re wondering how I managed?’ His mouth tilted. ‘I had them flown in from Paris. Where they all right?’

  ‘They were exactly right.’ She viewed him with suspicion. Paris, of course, was pure fantasy. How had he actually managed it…and how was he so sure of her measurements?

  He laughed at her uncertainty. ‘I rang a local store,’ he said, giving in, ‘and had somebody bring them over. They were very obliging, and very quick, once I’d explained the predicament.’ There was a gleam in his eyes as he looked her over. ‘How did I do on size?’

  ‘You did just fine,’ she answered, heat coming into her cheeks, ‘but I’m not sure I want to go into quite how you did that.’

  His mouth curved, but by now the rest of the team was coming back into the room, and thankfully he dropped the subject.

  ‘Are we going to hose down the helicopter?’ Chris asked, as they gathered around some time later, drinking coffee and eating lunch. ‘What about the interior?’

  Rhys shook his head. ‘Another crew is coming in to see to all that,’ he said. ‘I doubt that there is any real problem, and it’s just a precaution, but we’ll make sure that everything is done properly.’

  ‘But what if there’s a callout?’ Emma wanted to know.

  ‘We’ll have to use the fast-response car. We don’t have any other option.’

  ‘Do these chemicals have any effects on the central nervous system?’ Martin asked.

  ‘It’s possible. I’m hoping that most of the people we treated will come through this all right, but they’ll probably need ongoing medical attention for some time. It’s more likely that they’ll suffer some kind of asthmatic problem in the future.’

  Emma was frowning. ‘Talking of ongoing problems,’ she said, ‘has there been any news about our car-crash victim? I wasn’t really in any fit state to go and find out this morning.’

  Rhys nodded. ‘You made a good call there. They did a CT scan of her head and discovered a tumour in the membranes around the brain. It must have been growing for some time, and it was beginning to cause problems for her—headaches and dizziness, and some loss of memory.’

  ‘So what’s going to happen to her now?’

  ‘They’re going to start her on steroid drugs to reduce the swelling around the tumour, and then they’re hoping to be able to operate. It all depends on whether they can do that without damaging any other structures within the brain. Either way, it seems that the crash has brought about a diagnosis.’

  ‘I think maybe I’ll go and check on her later,’ Emma murmured. ‘I just feel that I need to know how she’s getting along. From what I heard, she has a young family. She struck a chord with me somehow.’

  ‘Don’t they all?’ Rhys asked. He sent her a probing look, but there was amusement in his glance, and understanding, and she subsided, thinking about the pitfalls of this job they were trying to do. There were a lot of good sides to it, but the downside could be horrendous.

  She didn’t get a chance to follow up on Sarah’s condition until her shift came to an end. Rhys walked with her to the A and E unit, and she wondered if he was going to leave her there and go his own way, but he suddenly appeared to change his mind about the whole thing. ‘Wait, Emma. We should go back.’ He touched her arm and tried to lead her back out into the corridor.

  ‘What’s wrong? I was going to find out what ward Sarah is on. I need to go back in there.’

  ‘That’s not good idea. Your reporter fellow is hanging around. He’s probably checking up on the people we brought in from the factory this morning.’ He grimaced. ‘I think it would be for the best if you avoid him for the time being. You don’t know if he’s the one behind the poisoning, and you could set him off again simply by being around. I’ll go in there and find out what you need to know.’

  He started to urge her away from the unit, but Emma was having none of it. ‘I’m not running away. I want to talk to him,’ she said. ‘I think I need to clear the air, one way or another.’

  His mouth set in a resistant line. ‘I think that would be a mistake.’

  ‘Possibly, but I have to try.’

  ‘Then I’ll come with you.’

  ‘No.’ She shook her head. ‘This is something that I need to do on my own.’

  His eyes narrowed, and she thought he was going to object, so she hurried back into A and E, shrugging him off without giving him a chance to interfere. As she did so, she heard someone approach Rhys and engage him in conversation.

  The reporter pounced as soon as he saw her. ‘Ah, there you are, Dr Granger. I wondered if I might run into you. In fact, I was thinking of coming to find you.’ He looked pleased with himself. ‘I’m just asking about the people who were brought in here today from the industrial plant. You were there, at the factory, weren’t you, treating them? People said the helicopter was called in. Do you have anything that you’d like to share with me?’

  ‘Actually, yes…I do.’ She sent him a cautious look. ‘Although it has nothing to do with the incident this morning.’

  ‘Oh?’ He moved with her to the side of the room, obviously curious. ‘What is it?’

  ‘I wanted to ask you why you seem so intent on bringing up the past every time you write a story involving me. You know…bits about the restaurant, about the explosion and the accusations of negligence.’

  She must have caught him unawares because he had the grace to look uncomfortable. Perhaps he hadn’t expected her to come straight out with it. ‘I was just telling the facts. People like to read stories that have a bit more depth. I thought it would be interesting to give them more detail about you, as you’d been in the news before.’

  ‘So you were embellishing your story, and there was nothing personal I should read into it—is that what you’re saying? The references you made to all the bad things that happened before didn’t have anything to do with the fact that I wouldn’t agree to go out with you?’

  His expression wavered and he shifted, changing his stance a little as though she had caught him off guard. ‘I’m not sure what you mean.’

  ‘Then perhaps I should put it in a more straightforward way.’ She looked him in the eyes, her gaze steady. ‘Just after the explosion at the restaurant, you asked me out on a date, and I turned
you down. I wondered if all this hostility I’ve been sensing from you has anything to do with that.’

  ‘I don’t…I mean, I didn’t think about that.’ He was faltering, searching for a way out of his predicament.

  ‘You didn’t?’ She wasn’t convinced. After all, as far as she was aware, he had no other reason to pursue a vendetta against her, so she tried a new tack. ‘Only, I hope you realise that when I turned you down, it wasn’t because I had any problem with you—it was just that things were pretty awful back then. My head was in a terrible state. I couldn’t think straight, and a friend of mine had been badly injured. My father lost his business. Perhaps I was short with you…and if so, I’m sorry for that. I didn’t intend to be brusque.’

  ‘I…um…’ He was discomfited all over again, his gaze moving about the room as though he was searching for a way out.

  She said, ‘I didn’t even know your name.’ She glanced at his name badge. ‘Jason…that has a nice ring to it.’

  He stared at her and seemed to gather himself up. ‘Does this mean that you might reconsider? I mean, would there be any chance…?’

  ‘Of us going out on a date, you mean?’ She wondered how she could let him down lightly. ‘The trouble is, you see…I’m already involved with someone else.’ It wasn’t true, of course, unless you counted the fact that her heart had been tied up in knots for so long, hoping that Rhys would eventually come to realise that he wanted her in his life.

  ‘Oh…so that’s that, then.’ He seemed disappointed. ‘Are you sure?’

  ‘I’m afraid so. I’m sorry.’ She glanced back at the emergency room. ‘You seem to be getting all the good stories, though. I suppose that might be some consolation.’

  He appeared to be a little placated by that. ‘My boss is holding a promotion out in front of my nose. I have to keep turning in good stories.’ He frowned. ‘I think perhaps I should get back to my interviews.’

  ‘I won’t keep you,’ Emma said. She watched him walk away and hoped she had done the right thing in facing up to him, but when she returned to the corridor she was already beginning to have doubts. What if he took her attempt to pacify him the wrong way? Would he come to think that she had been patronising him?

  ‘Are you quite mad?’ Rhys said, coming over to her and taking hold of her arm. ‘What were you thinking of?’

  ‘You’re still here,’ she said, floundering. ‘I thought you would have gone home by now.’

  ‘I could hardly do that. I had to stay and make sure that you didn’t land yourself in any more trouble, and I was just on my way to come and find you. I’d have come after you if your A and E consultant hadn’t managed to waylay me in the corridor.’

  ‘There was no trouble. He talked about how he’s trying to get meaty copy for his paper.’

  He sent her a laser-sharp stare. ‘You took a big risk, facing up to him like that. You don’t know what you’re dealing with. Until you know the score, you should at least be a little more cautious.’

  Emma was thoughtful. ‘Yes, you could be right, but at least I feel a little more reassured now…I think he’s harmless enough. Somehow, I don’t think he’s the one who has been following me.’

  His mouth tightened. ‘What am I going to do with you? I’m beginning to think that you’re more difficult to deal with than any of the patients.’

  ‘Patients…’ She sucked in a breath and glanced at her watch. ‘That reminds me—I wonder if I still have time to go and look in on Sarah? I wanted to pay her a quick visit before I have to go and pick up Kayla.’

  Rhys was frowning, looking at her in exasperation. ‘I suppose it won’t take too long, and I’ll give you a lift home, so you won’t have to negotiate the tube. I thought I would go and look for Amy, and your end of town seems a good place to start.’

  ‘Actually,’ she said, ‘I’ve been thinking about that. When I was talking to Jason just now…’ She broke off, seeing a look of disbelief come over Rhys’s face. ‘What’s the matter? Did I say something wrong?’

  ‘So you’re calling him Jason now, are you? He wrecks your father’s reputation, and all of a sudden you’re on first-name terms with him.’ His dark eyes held a piercing glint. ‘I don’t believe this. You must have taken leave of your senses.’

  ‘And I suppose you and your family haven’t been saying exactly the same thing about my father? Talk about the pot calling the kettle black.’

  ‘That’s hardly the same thing at all. None of us has broadcast our opinion to all and sundry.’

  ‘Oh, no…so now you’re saying your parents didn’t try to put a stop to him opening his new restaurant?’

  ‘That was a matter of health and safety. They felt they had to intervene in a quiet and subdued manner, so that people would ultimately be safe. Your journalist, on the other hand, has gone public with his judgements, painting a black and overly dramatic picture, and now you’re stroking his ego. Next thing, you’ll be telling me that you’re going on a date with him.’

  ‘No…I told him I couldn’t do that because there was someone else.’

  Rhys’s eyes widened, and he took a step back, studying her as though she had slapped him in the face. ‘You did?’

  ‘Never mind all that. What I was going to say was I’ve been thinking about where Amy might be. I wonder if she would have thought of going back to the place where everything went wrong.’

  He frowned and she said carefully, ‘Sometimes, when people can’t make sense of events, they go over and over things in their mind, and perhaps she decided to go back to the restaurant. After all, it was never pulled down. They secured it so that there was no danger to the public, but it was all shuttered and left. The insurance wouldn’t pay out, and I think my dad couldn’t face up to having it demolished. Perhaps he had some idea that one day he could start it up again.’

  Rhys was deep in thought. ‘You could be right, I suppose…but I don’t know where she would have stayed last night. She might have found a place close by, so that she could go back there today. It could be worth going and taking a look.’

  ‘I want to come with you this time,’ she said, giving him an intent look. ‘I need to be part of this…I can’t explain it properly, but I feel that with all that’s gone before I need to help to put things right…even though I don’t accept that my father was at fault…Do you understand?’

  He nodded. ‘Yes, I think I do. But what will you do about Kayla?’

  ‘I’ll see if Jane—Tracey’s mother—will look after her for a little while longer. She’s usually quite agreeable. She’s been very good about things up to now, and the girls love playing together, so there shouldn’t be any problem there.’

  They went to look in on Sarah first of all. She was under sedation, and unable to move very easily because of the cast on her leg. The displacement of her hip had been corrected, but she was in a sorry state.

  ‘Thank you for looking after me,’ she said. She looked at Emma. ‘The doctors told me that you had said there might be a problem—something that had made me crash. I suppose I’m glad that they found out what the trouble was, but I’m not sure I wanted to hear such bad news. I have to admit that I’m scared.’

  ‘Anyone would be upset at hearing that kind of news,’ Emma said, ‘but at least now they know what caused your problems, the doctors can try to do something about it.’

  Rhys added, ‘If the surgeon decides to operate, there’s a good chance that he can get the whole of the tumour out.’

  Sarah’s mouth trembled. ‘What if he can’t do that? What if it turns out to be malignant and they’ve caught it too late? How am I going to explain to my little boy and girl?’

  ‘Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. We don’t know the full facts yet, and you should cross that bridge when you come to it,’ Rhys said. ‘If the worst happens, there are other ways of dealing with tumours…radiotherapy, for one, and chemotherapy.’

  ‘I know. They tried to explain it to me, and I’m doing my best to be positive, b
ut it’s very hard.’

  Emma patted her shoulder. ‘It’s bound to be difficult for you, but try to hold on, and keep talking to the doctors and nurses about any worries that you have.’ Her eyes filled with compassion. ‘Would it be all right if I came to see you again?’

  ‘Yes, I’d like that.’

  Emma was quiet as they made their way out of the hospital. She walked to the car with Rhys and he opened the passenger door for her, helping her into her seat. ‘Buckle up,’ he said.

  ‘I do know what the procedure is,’ Emma returned.

  ‘Hmm…maybe, but I’m not sure what to make of you today. Perhaps it’s just that you’re overtired. You don’t seem to be behaving in quite the same way as usual.’

  He was probably still mulling over the fact that she had approached the reporter. It seemed to bother him for some reason, but she was too weary to work out why that should be.

  ‘You’re right,’ she murmured. ‘It’s probably lack of sleep catching up with me—but I’m keyed up about seeing the old restaurant again. I haven’t been back since the day it fell apart. It’s something I have to do, but I think it’s going to be difficult.’

  They travelled across London until they arrived at the site of the crumpled building. It had been fenced off, and it was long overdue that it should have been pulled down, but there it was in all its faded glory. From the front, the building didn’t look too bad, but Emma knew that it was around the back, in the old kitchen, where most of the damage remained.

  ‘I’ll see if I can find a way for us to get in,’ Rhys said, parking up and going to stare at the front of the edifice. ‘If I recall correctly, all of the doors have been boarded up, but there might be a window that we can reach.’

  They were probably on a false errand, but Emma knew that there was no going back. Rhys knew it, too. This was the only other option that they could think of. Amy had been badly hurt because she had been in the restaurant, close to the kitchen door, when the explosion had occurred. Was it possible that she had come back to take a look at where it had all happened?