by Annie O'Neil
“Brodie?” Johnny jogged over beside them. “We’ve got the chap in the lorry boarded up. He’s not looking too bad.”
The interruption was exactly what Brodie needed to knock him back into action. Working in an emotional daze wasn’t going to help any of these people—least of all his brother.
“Anyone keeping an eye on him for cardiac fallback?”
“No, he seems fine.”
“If he really got a bash from that airbag—his nose was bleeding, right?”
“Yeah, it’s broken. It’ll need resetting.”
Brodie nodded. “He’ll need some scans. If he was within ten inches of that thing when it deployed it won’t present now, but we’ll want to check for aortic transection, tricuspid valve injuries, cardiac contusions. There’s a raft of things that could still go wrong.”
“Got it. I’ll get one of the lads to keep an eye out. We’ve got Linda and Billy in our rig, getting warm. Again, nothing obvious—but from what you’ve said it sounds like they’ll be needing a trip to the hospital as well. What now?”
The entire scene crystallized into a series of steps they would need to take as a team. Brodie gave Johnny a grim but grateful smile, then rattled off a list of assignments for everyone, taking on communications with the air ambulances and patient checks for himself. Kali was to continue monitoring his brother, while the remaining fire lads prepared the vehicle on top of Callum for removal.
* * *
It couldn’t have been more than ten minutes before they all heard the whirr and thwack of the bright yellow helicopter’s rotors as it began its descent.
Kali had been running on pure adrenaline, each moment passing with the frame-by-frame clarity of a slow-motion film—Brodie the confident director, able to shift from patient to casualty to fire crew to dog handler and back again.
It was a blessing that the crash had happened on the broad stretch of valley where it had, making the helicopter landing possible. Snow, time and limited visibility were the enemies. Every person present was a hero, pushing themselves to the limit to turn a bad situation into something better.
“Where do you want me?” Kali asked when Brodie appeared on her side of the car.
“Stay where you are. The crew will work around you.” He lowered his voice. “He all right?”
She nodded. Callum’s eyes were closed, but he was resting rather than unconscious. It had to be tough, seeing your sibling like this. It was exactly why she’d stayed away from her family. To keep them safe from harm. The violence her father had threatened... She shuddered away from the fearful thoughts that kept her up at night. She just had to have faith. Faith that her mother and sister were all right.
“We’re good,” she said with a firm nod.
“You warm enough?” Brodie took a half step forward and drew a finger along her jawline. The distance she’d thought he’d put between them on the way to the crash evaporated entirely.
Times like this prioritized things. She knew that better than most.
She nodded, giving the palm of his hand a soft kiss. The move was totally unlike her, but why the hell not? From the moment she’d stepped off the ferry onto Dunregan she’d felt a change was afoot. She cared for Brodie and she was going to show it. If it backfired then so be it. She’d just have to learn to cope with a whole new level of heartbreak.
Brodie’s hand cupped her chin, tipping it up toward him so she could see the gratitude in his eyes. Her heart cinched...then launched into thunderous thumps of relief.
Her instinct had been right.
The intimacy of their moment was snapped in two as the air ambulance doctors jogged toward them with their own backboards and run bags.
On Brodie’s signal, the fire department volunteers began preparing the vehicle to be raised and then towed away from Callum and the loch’s edge.
“I’ll grab hold of the bike,” Brodie called as the noise of the rescue crews increased. “We don’t want it yanked away from Callum’s leg. If any of the spokes have pierced through we could easily make it worse. Straight up—and only then do you pull the car forward. Got it?”
A chorus of “Aye” and “You got it” filled the air as lines were attached to the mangled front of the vehicle. All the clamps and foot pump lifts were put in place. A hush descended upon the team.
Brodie knelt down by Kali, his fingers automatically shifting to his brother’s neck to check for a pulse. She didn’t envy him. Not one bit. The intensity of the ache in her heart shocked her, cementing the need to shake it off and focus on Callum.
The car was lifted in seconds, and the cycle went with it, its metal twisted into the undercarriage of the vehicle and—as Brodie had suspected—not one but two spokes had been jammed into his brother’s leg. Callum’s scream of pain at the release hit the sides of the mountains, pulsing back and forth as each person flew into action.
“All right, let’s get him out from under here and onto the scoop stretcher,” Brodie called. “Can somebody trench it into the snow so there’s not too much movement for him?”
A blur of activity took over. Everyone was acting on well-practiced instinct and skill. Everyone was hiding their dismay at the wreckage that was Callum’s leg.
“Compound fractures to the tibia and fibula,” one of the doctors said unnecessarily.
“He’s got an arterial bleed.” Kali jumped forward, pinching the geyser of blood with her gloved hands. “Can I get a clamp?”
“On it,” replied one of the air medics, raking through his run bag.
“We’re also going to need blood, IV and morphine.” She ticked off the list with her other hand.
“Not before splinting him,” Brodie interjected. “If you’re injecting into the muscle he will feel everything during the splinting.”
“Do you have any inhalable diamorphine?” Kali asked the air medic. “He’s losing consciousness, so swallowing anything is out of the question.”
“Right you are.” He handed Kali a clamp and set to mining another part of his bag for supplies.
“Callum? Stay with us, pal. I’m here with you.” Brodie held a hand to his brother’s face. “Nonresponsive,” he muttered, using his other hand to give Callum a brisk sternal rub with his knuckles. “His blood type is A positive. You can give him A positive and negative and O positive and negative. Can we get a defib machine over here?”
“They’re using it on the truck driver. He just coded.”
Brodie cursed, giving his brother another sternal rub. “C’mon...c’mon! Show me something, here.”
Kali flinched in unison with Brodie at Callum’s searing scream of pain as they began the messy splinting process. It was a sorry thing to be thankful for—but at least he was alive. The leg was a mess. Months of rehab were in his future. Pins. Bolts. Who knew what other hardware he’d need?
“I’m his brother,” Brodie told the crew as they each took a handle of the stretcher and walked as steadily as they could across the frozen ground toward the chopper. “If there’s room, I’d like to come along.”
“I’ll send one of my guys with the two less urgent cases. The mother and child can go on the ferry, so there’s room.”
“How’s the lorry driver? Did he make it through the resus?”
“Only just” was the grim response as they reached the helicopter, where the truck driver was being strapped in. “Definitely something dodgy going on with his heart. He’ll need seeing to straight away.”
Brodie glanced at his watch, then at Kali. “Will you be taking the ferry as well?”
“Don’t you trust my guys?” the head of the aircrew said with a joshing smile.
“Nothing like that, mate. I think I’ll just need to see a friendly face in a couple of hours with the way things are going.”
Brodie’s eyes locked with Kali’s. M
ore passed between them in that single moment than ever had before. The feelings all but tearing her heart in two were shared.
Kali was entirely speechless. What a moment to realize she was in love! Her entire body surged with energy. She felt she was capable of doing anything now that she knew how Brodie felt about her.
“We need to load up!” one of the paramedics called from the helicopter. The rotors were already beginning to swirl into action.
Brodie dug into his pocket and handed her a set of keys, his gloved hand giving hers a quick squeeze. “Go in convoy with the lads from the fire station. They’ll help with the transfer to the ambulances. I will try to meet you on the other side. If not—I’ll see you at the hospital. Ailsa will meet you at the docks as well, no doubt.”
Kali nodded, the to-do list in her head growing, turning into vivid detail and then action.
She ran across to the fire truck, where Linda and Billy were keeping warm, just as the helicopter took its first tentative moves to lift and soon soared off, skidding across the white landscape. She stopped to watch it go, taking away the man she was giving her heart to, having no idea what would happen next.
“Doc?”
Kali whipped around to see Johnny holding the two dogs on leads.
“Are you able to drop these two by the vet’s?”
“Yeah, absolutely. Um...” Two big furry faces looked up at her expectantly. They were like small yetis!
“We’ll give you a hand loading them up. If you could bring your car here it would save this one’s leg an unnecessary journey?”
“Yes, absolutely!” Kali jumped into action—embarrassed to have held them up. “I’ll be right behind you in a second.”
And right behind you, Brodie, she added silently, with a final glimpse at the helicopter before it completely disappeared from sight.
* * *
“I’ll come check on you soon, all right?”
Kali waved as Linda and Billy were wheeled off on their gurneys for a full set of scans and X-rays. Bumps and bruises were a definite. She held up a set of crossed fingers that there wasn’t going to be anything else.
“Can we get you anything, Dr. O’Shea? A coffee or tea? I think you might be stuck on the mainland tonight.”
The charge nurse was halfway out of her station before Kali’s brain kicked back into action. The long day was beginning to show.
“No, I’m good, thanks. Just directions to where I might find another one of the patients who came in on the air ambulance.”
“Reggie Firle?”
“No.” Kali shook her head. “He was the lorry driver. He’s all right, though?”
Best not let the heady combination of lust and love cloud her priorities. Patients. They were number one right now.
“Yes, he’s fine. In Recovery, where they are monitoring his heart. So it’s...” She ran her finger along the patient list.
“Callum McClellan.”
“Oh, yes!” The nurse’s finger hit the name at the same time as she spoke. “The one with the doctor brother.”
The extremely gorgeous doctor brother, whose existence is eating all of my brain particles.
“Yes.”
A more politic answer, she thought, given the circumstances.
Turned out the hour-long ferry ride had given her way too much time to think...overthink...and then to worry. Was she thinking she was in love too soon? Reading far too much into that look?
She sucked in a deep breath. It was carpe diem time.
She nodded and smiled as the nurse gave her directions to the surgical department, where Callum was currently undergoing the first of several surgeries. Her breath caught in her throat. Poor guy. Doing his best to save the dogs, the car, dear old Ethel’s remains and now—courtesy of a bicycle shoe—compromising his own future. His life.
* * *
The relief Brodie felt when he saw Kali walk into the surgery unit threatened to engulf him. Weighted to the chair he’d only just sat down in, he finally felt able to succumb to the emotions he’d been struggling to keep at bay. He was raw. More so than he’d ever been. And the thought of letting someone see him this exposed was terrifying.
One look at Kali and he knew he shouldn’t have worried. The soft smile, the compassion in her eyes, the outstretched arms all said, You won’t have to go through this alone. As she wordlessly came to him he tugged her in between his knees, his arms urgently encircling her waist when she pulled his head close to her and hit after hit of untethered emotion finally released.
* * *
“Want your coffee straight up or with a splash of artery-hardener?” Kali held the small pitcher of cream aloft, poised to pour.
“With a dram of whiskey, but that’s a no-goer,” Brodie replied, his eyes searching just a little hopefully round the deserted hospital canteen for a bar. Kali’s ever-present optimism must be catching.
“Artery-hardener and some not very appetizing biscuits it is, then, sir!” She handed him a paper cup, with cream still whirling its way through the steaming liquid, and wiggled a packet of vending machine ginger biscuits in front of him that looked as though they could have been made in the last century.
“The middle of the night seems to have its advantages round here.”
He put his arm round her shoulder, biscuits and coffee held aloft in his other hand. Being close to Kali was healing. Touching her was downright curative.
“How’s that?” She smiled up at him with an oops shrug after losing half of her biscuit in a too-deep dunk.
“Lots of sofas to commandeer.”
He steered her toward a dimly lit corner of a waiting room not too far from surgery and sank into the well-worn cushions. The stories they could tell...
“I used to dream of working in a place like this.”
“Oh, yeah?”
“Well,” he qualified, “not exactly like this. Inner city. Busy. Never-get-a-moment’s-rest busy.”
“I thought you preferred international work?” She toed off her thick-tread boots and tucked her feet up underneath her.
“I really love it. Doctors Without Borders does amazing work. But the idea of being part of a city I know and helping people there—being part of something...”
“Like being part of the community on Dunregan?”
“Touché!” He raised his coffee cup and took a noisy slurp, because he knew it sent a shiver down her spine. But she was right. “This sort of thing does put a lot in perspective.”
“Gives you different priorities?”
She wasn’t asking. She was telling.
“That sounds like the voice of experience.”
Kali’s green eyes flicked up to the ceiling, then did a whirl round the room. “Suffice it to say when the unexpected happens for me it all boils down to family.”
“The family you never talk about?” He was feeling too worn by the day’s events to mince words.
She shook off his question and put one of her small hands on his cheek. He pressed into as she said, softly but deliberately, “Today is about you and your family.”
Brodie put his coffee down. Another wave of emotion was hitting him and there would be spillage. Literal and figurative.
“I—I could’ve done so much more...”
“What do you mean? You did everything you could today.”
“Not today. His whole life!” He scrubbed both hands through his hair. “I’m the reason he didn’t grow up with a mother, and then I couldn’t even stick around to be a big brother for him. I just let him go feral. What kind of a person does that?”
Kali let the words percolate and settle before softly replying, “The kind who hasn’t forgiven himself for something that isn’t his fault?”
“But it is! Was...” He still couldn’t believ
e she wasn’t able to see why the blame lay solidly at his feet. He’d begged his mother to go out with him that day.
Kali pulled back and folded her hands in her lap, her index finger tapping furiously, the rest of her completely still.
“The only thing you can change,” she said at last, “is the future. That is completely in your control.”
“Who turned you into a sage little Buddha?” He nudged her knee with his own.
“Ohhhh...”
Her lips pressed together and did that little wiggle that never failed to make him smile.
“Let’s just say life’s had a way of regularly shoving me into the Valuable Lesson department.” She tipped her head onto his shoulder.
“Oh, yeah?” He wove his fingers through hers and leaned his head lightly on top of her silky black hair. “What’s today’s valuable lesson, then?”
“Sticking together,” she said without a moment’s hesitation. “Through thick and thin.”
“This being the thin?”
He could feel her head nod under his.
“This being the thin.”
They both stared blankly out into the room. The beeps and murmurings from the wards were more of a white noise than a frenetic addition to the chaos of the day. Callum’s surgery shouldn’t take too much longer. Then they’d have a much better idea of what lay ahead of him.
Brodie’s thumb shifted across Kali’s and he took a fortifying inhalation of her wildflower-and-honey-scented skin.
A sudden hit of clarity came to him. He stayed stock-still for risk of shaking the perfection of it away. Kali was right. He was in charge of his future—and she, he knew in his heart, was the missing piece of the puzzle.
“Kali? Have you got anything booked after this gig? The locum post on Dunregan?”
“Not yet.”
“Would you consider staying?”
He felt her sharp intake of breath before he heard it.
“You mean at the clinic?” Her voice was higher than usual.
