Had she not noticed how rough the lip of that overhang was? The rope came over it with the full weight of her body on the end and the conditions were causing her to sway like a giant pendulum. Even a state-of-the-art, dynamic rope capable of holding up to three tons couldn’t take that sort of punishment for long. Sam could see that the clean line of the rope was blurred where it was in contact with the rock.
The rope was fraying.
Sam needed help.
‘Alex? Can you hear me? I…need you.’
The silence within her helmet was deafening. Sam reached up to check that her microphone attachment was in front of her mouth but all she could feel was an empty space. She felt around the sides of the helmet but knew it was hopeless. She must have knocked the tiny arm of the microphone when her arm had thumped against her helmet. It had snapped off.
She had no way of communicating with the helicopter.
Or with Alex.
Maybe she’d never have the chance to speak to him again.
She would never be able to apologise.
Never be able to confess that she loved him.
A curious numbness settled over Sam. There was nothing she could do but hang there. Her arms were still shaking from the effort she had made to rectify the situation and she was reluctant to try again. If she failed once more and fell even a few inches with another jolt like last time, it could hasten the failure of her rope. Her lifeline.
She could still hear through the earpieces of her helmet.
She heard Terry call her but she didn’t want to try and signal him. Any movement would cause her to swing more vigorously and she had no idea now many fibres were still intact in her rope.
Sam heard Alex’s voice as he asked what was happening and she closed her eyes, sending out a silent prayer that it wouldn’t be the last time she heard him speak.
And then she heard Terry say that he thought she might be in a ‘spot of bother’.
Something like a chuckle escaped her then. A spot of bother was not quite the description she would have chosen for this life-threatening situation but if it sent Alex to help her then it was close enough.
All she could do was wait.
And hope.
Sam closed her eyes.
‘Bloody hell!’
The vehement voice in her helmet was loud. It was Alex.
‘What is it, Alex?’ Terry responded instantly.
‘Her rope’s almost frayed through here. I’m going down.’
Sam opened her eyes and looked up. She saw Alex peering down at her.
‘Can you hear me?’ he asked.
Sam nodded. ‘My microphone’s broken,’ she called.
‘What the hell’s happened?’
‘My knot’s flipped. I’m stuck.’
The microphone was close enough to Alex’s lips for the soft curse to be clearly audible. A sound that was resonant with implications of what Alex thought of her abilities.
‘Don’t move,’ he said crisply. ‘I’m coming down to get you.’
Sam watched. Alex had the trauma pack on his back now so it was even more difficult for him to get his balance right to go over the lip of the overhang. He did it as smoothly as he did most things and let himself descend at a much faster rate than Sam would have done.
And then he was hanging right beside her. Only a few feet separated them. His face looked pale and his eyes were as dark as Sam had only seen them become in the height of passion.
Alex reached out a gloved hand and Sam responded automatically by reaching out and grasping it. Alex pulled her closer.
‘Put your arms around my neck,’ he ordered. And hang on.’
With her weight taken by Alex, it was easy for him to grasp the knot and flip it over. He kept hold of the end of her rope.
‘Keep hanging on,’ he told Sam, ‘just in case your rope breaks.’
The rope didn’t break but Sam would have wanted to keep holding on in any case. She could feel the warmth of Alex, the comfort of the security he offered. She didn’t want to ever have to let go.
But Alex pushed her away the moment her feet touched the surface of the rock.
‘You bloody idiot,’ he said succinctly. ‘That was the most dangerous thing I’ve ever seen you do. I can’t begin to tell you how furious I am.”
‘I know. I’m sorry.’ To her horror, Sam felt tears welling up in her eyes. ‘It was stupid. I wasn’t concentrating. I won’t do it again.’
‘No, you won’t,’ Alex snapped. ‘I won’t let you.’
The implied control in those words didn’t bother Sam in the slightest. She wanted someone looking out for her. Keeping her safe. As long as that person was Alex.
She nodded, her eyes downcast. ‘I’ll stop working after today, Alex, I promise. I won’t do anything else that might endanger our baby.’
There was a moment’s silence. And then another moment. Sam looked up to find Alex regarding her with a look of total astonishment.
‘Do you think I’m this furious because you might have had an accident and miscarried?’
Sam nodded. ‘It was stupid.’
‘No…’ Alex shook his head. ‘You’re stupid, Sam.’
She blinked, confused by the mixed signals she was getting. Alex’s voice was no match for the expression in his eyes. Neither could she relate it to the way he was reaching out to pull her into his arms.
‘How could I be that furious about a baby I’ve never even met?’ he said more softly. ‘It’s you I was worried about, Sam.’
‘Me?’ The word was a soft squeak. New hope was being born here and the experience was proving overwhelming. Sam sagged a little in Alex’s arms.
‘I could always have another baby,’Alex continued. His arms tightened around Sam. ‘Provided I could find someone willing to have one with me.’
Sam smiled through her tears. She knew someone who might be willing.
‘But I could never have another Sam,’ Alex said then. ‘There’s only one of you, and I’ve just realised how much I love you.’
‘I love you, too, Alex,’ Sam whispered. ‘I think I always have.’
‘Speak up,’ a voice interrupted. ‘What’s wrong with your microphone, Sam?’
Sam met Alex’s gaze. The realisation that everything he’d just said had been relayed through the radio system in his helmet, possibly to the control centre as well as Terry, was appalling.
And then it was really funny.
And there was no time to do anything more than share a smile. Sam and Alex turned and moved, hand in hand, towards the people that were in need of their care.
It was many hours later that they had time to themselves again.
Satisfying hours where the successful treatment and evacuation of all the injured trampers had been completed.
Hours that gave time for both Sam and Alex to snatch moments to savour the birth of a future that would be shared. With more than just each other.
Sam was finally back where she belonged. With Alex. In his arms. His hand was resting gently on her still flat belly.
‘Do you mind,’ he asked, ‘that everybody knows now?’
‘No. Do you?’
‘Hell, no!’Alex grinned. ‘I want to tell the whole world. I’m the luckiest man alive.’ His grin faded and he moved to kiss Sam. Slowly. Softly. Things that words could never be found to express were conveyed in that kiss but Alex managed to sum things up pretty well.
‘I love you, Sam.’
‘I love you, too, Alex. So much.’
He kissed her again and then rested his head beside hers on the pillow, their foreheads touching.
‘What puzzles me is why I never saw it happening. I mean, there it was and I have no idea when it started. I feel like it’s been there for ever.’
Sam smiled. ‘I know that feeling.’
‘I’ve always thought you were amazing, you know. The way you do your job. The way you care about people.’ Alex chuckled fondly. ‘The way you’re ready to kick anybody in the shins if they ge
t in your way.’
‘Hey, I don’t do that,’ Sam protested. ‘Not since I was about ten years old anyway.’
Alex moved to press his lips to her hair. ‘I couldn’t believe how incredible it was to make love to you,’ he continued, ‘but it wasn’t until I saw that frayed bit of rope today that I realised I couldn’t imagine my life without you in it.’
‘And I hated that I broke my radio because I thought I might die and you’d never know how much I loved you. I’ve never been so scared in my life, Alex.’
‘Neither have I,’ Alex said fervently. ‘Don’t ever scare me like that again, Sam.’
‘I probably won’t have a chance. I suspect I’m off active duty for a fair while now. I’ve been told to front up at headquarters first thing tomorrow morning. The boss wants a “chat”.’
‘He’s not the only one. Tom and Angus said if I don’t front up to the pub for a beer tomorrow night, my days will be numbered.’Alex hesitated for a second. ‘You don’t mind too much, do you, Sam?’
‘You going to the pub? Of course not.’
‘No, I meant if you get taken off active duty.’
Sam shook her head decisively. ‘I’m not going to put our baby at any more risk. After today, it seems the right thing to do. The only thing.’
Alex grunted complete agreement. Then he cupped Sam’s face with his hand and turned her head so that he could see her face properly. ‘And what about marrying me, Sam? Do you think that might come under the heading of the right thing to do as well?’
‘Oh…yes,’ Sam murmured. She turned her face and pressed her lips to the palm of Alex’s hand, hiding a smile of pure contentment. ‘It’s definitely the right thing to do,’ she added. ‘The only thing.’
‘The only thing?’ A smile could clearly be heard in the words. ‘I reckon I could find something else we might quite like to do.’
‘Oh?’ Sam raised her face so that she could see the smile but it was very subtle. Alex looked almost sombre. ‘What’s that?’
‘This,’ Alex said firmly.
His lips covered Sam’s again in a kiss that sealed their happiness and more…it promised that it would always be there.
ISBN: 978-1-4603-5877-1
EMERGENCY BABY
First North American Publication 2006
Copyright © 2006 by Rose Richards
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