The Doctors' Christmas Reunion

by Meredith Webber

  She walked home slowly, uncertain where her husband, or their guests, might be, wanting only to be alone to think, although by now her mind was running around in circles like a demented mouse in an experimental maze.

  Every thought led to a dead end.

  And how could she possibly work out just what was bothering Andy about the whole baby business if she didn’t know what he was thinking?

  Didn’t know how he had felt, for that matter...

  She had a shower, which cooled her off for about ten seconds, then wandered into the kitchen to make dinner for their guests.

  She had a leg of lamb in the fridge but the thought of turning on the oven in the already oven-like temperature made her shake her head.

  Maybe they should have a takeaway?

  She knew her thoughts about what to feed people were irrelevant but thinking about Andy was tying knots in her head so it was infinitely preferable to thinking about him.

  Feeling the pain thinking about him caused.

  With a huge sigh, she opened the fridge, where she found the stack of T-bone steaks the butcher had pressed on her yesterday. She decided to make a salad, brimful of lettuce and spinach and tomatoes, some avocado and a tin of chickpeas for extra protein.

  And later maybe she and Andy could talk...

  She could go to his room this time.

  Excitement that had risen at the thought hit a wall.

  What if he rejected her?

  Sent her away?

  She was letting her imagination run away with her, coming up with all manner of stupid scenarios.

  She heard the sound of cars pulling up outside.

  She splashed water on her face, aware her last imagined scenario had brought tears to her eyes, and went out to greet their guests.

  Apparently, Chelsea had ducked home earlier and put clean sheets on the beds in the rooms on either side of hers, and it was there she led Jill and Harry, with Ellie trailing along behind.

  ‘You’ll probably need a shower after your travelling and the heat out here,’ she said. ‘There are bathrooms off your bedrooms, so feel free. And if you’d like a rest before dinner, that’s fine, or you could sit on the veranda outside your room. It will be cooler there and you’ll get to see a spectacular sunset.’

  ‘That’s true, Mum,’ Chelsea said. ‘It was like I’d never seen a sunset before until I came here.’

  Ellie left them with Chelsea to settle in, covered the big salad with cling film, and set it in the fridge.

  She was cleaning up the mess she’d made in the kitchen when she heard a siren, and her heart stood still.

  It came from the mine outside town. Her first thought was that it was a practice drill—she’d heard it a few times before—but Ellie really knew it was too late in the afternoon to be a practice drill.

  She hurried around the veranda.

  ‘Chels, will you look after your family? Get them drinks and anything else they need. I’ve got to pop out for a bit. There’s a salad in the fridge, and steaks for the barbecue. Can you manage dinner if I’m late?’

  She hoped they wouldn’t ask about the noise that was still wailing over the small town.

  She escaped before they could.

  Mine safety was a priority these days, the miners might be trapped, but surely they’d be all right?

  Ellie went to the hospital first, which was the rallying point for all medical staff, but one of the ambos saw her and offered her a lift to the mine.

  ‘They say it’s bad. Andy’s there already and they might need you as well, Doc.’

  Ellie climbed into the vehicle, telling herself there were safe places along all the tunnels in the old coal mine—places protected from rock falls, with supplies of water, biscuits, torches and even phone lines to the surface.

  Any miners in a tunnel or a shaft could seek shelter there. They would all be safe.

  As long as they hadn’t been directly under the fall...

  The first person she saw was Andy, talking to the shift engineer near the head of the main shaft.

  ‘You don’t need to be here.’ he said, and she grinned at him.

  ‘Oh, no? And you do?’

  ‘We don’t know who we’ll need,’ the engineer said. ‘But it was good of both of you to come. The ambos are busy talking to the relatives of the men who are on shift.’

  ‘Logan Grant’s father?’ Ellie asked, thinking of the little boy they’d got to know after his father had brought him around to apologise to her, and had since become a nearly constant presence around the house, digging weeds from her garden and teasing Chelsea to distraction but really loved by all of them.

  The thought that he might lose his father, as well as his mother, was unbearable...

  ‘We’ll go over to the main office,’ the engineer said. ‘Word will come through to there first.’

  But even as they left a cheer went up, and Ellie looked back to see the elevator rising up the shaft, a group of blackened men packed inside it.

  Cries and questions rang out, but the on-duty manager herded them all into the washrooms, determined to keep to routine, even at a difficult time.

  ‘Are they all up?’ Ellie asked the engineer, who had also stopped to watch the spectacle.

  He shook his head.

  ‘We always knew this lot was safe. The fall was further down number five. There were another dozen men working down there.’

  Ellie closed her eyes, an unconscious prayer for their safety forming in her mind.

  ‘Have you heard from them?’ Andy asked, and the engineer shook his head.

  ‘But that doesn’t mean much as the fall could have cut the phone lines and, of course, mobiles won’t work that far down.’

  He paused then added, ‘But remember we have one of the best mine rescue teams in the world and they are already down there, using all manner of equipment to work out the depth of the fall, and setting up listening devices to pick up any voices.’

  ‘How do you know they’re the best in the world?’ Andy asked, and Ellie had to smile. It was such an Andy kind of question, wanting proof of things people told him.

  ‘Interstate comps, then world competitions, believe it or not,’ the engineer said. ‘Our team won the international title three years in a row.’

  ‘Of course,’ he added, ‘underground mining is fast being phased out. It’s nearly all open cut now, and not much of that going on as the power companies have begun experimenting with cheaper, renewable energy options.’

  He led them into the office and showed them, on a map on the wall, just where the miners were trapped.

  ‘There’s an air shaft just here,’ he said, pointing to a windmill-shaped symbol, ‘so they should be getting air.’

  If they’d made it to the safety bay, Ellie thought, but didn’t say, aware everyone was probably thinking the same thing.

  Another man approached them, carrying overalls and safety helmets. He helped them into the heavy, fire-retardant overalls, and showed them how to switch on the lamps on their helmets.

  Swamped by the overalls, Ellie was bent over, rolling up the legs, when Andy touched her shoulder.

  ‘Let me,’ he said, and squatted down, doing a far neater job than she’d been doing.

  ‘Now your arms. Hold them out.’

  He rolled up the sleeves, then patted the pocket where she knew from drills the heavy gloves were kept.

  ‘Remember they’re there if you need them,’ he said sternly, and even though she didn’t think she’d be digging through coal and actually require them, she smiled as she thanked him. It was nice having Andy fussing over her...

  Once dressed for action, she and Andy stood, a little apart from the professionals, who all appeared to know exactly what they were doing.

  So it was a rise in the level of the excitement of the men
in the room—the managerial and engineering staff—that told them there must be some news.

  After some discussion, one of the engineers crossed to speak to them.

  ‘We’ve found five at the near end of the fall,’ he said quietly. ‘The men are still digging them out but—’

  ‘We’re happy to go down and treat them before they’re moved. They’ll need to be stabilised at the very least,’ Ellie told him, before Andy had time to suggest he go alone.

  ‘If you’re sure,’ the man said, and although Andy shook his head at her, Ellie nodded.

  ‘This way!’

  He led them briskly out of the office towards the elevator that would take them down the shaft. Two of the ambulance crew were already there, carrying their bulging backpacks of emergency equipment and drugs.

  The elevator was well lit but even so, what light escaped the cage-like structure was absorbed by the inky blackness outside so it was only when they reached the bottom and walked out into a well-lit, cavernous area that Ellie was able to get an idea of the scale of the operation.

  * * *

  ‘You should have stayed up top,’ Andy murmured to his stubborn wife, as a coal-blackened miner gave orders to the rescuers. ‘There’s the rescue team, probably all paramedic trained, and the ambos—’

  ‘You came,’ she pointed out, stabbing him in the chest with a forefinger, ‘yet you expect me not to!’

  He had to smile.

  ‘Not expect exactly, I just would have preferred, wished, in fact. I hate to think you might be in danger, Ellie, you must know that, for all that’s been going on between us.’

  He rested his hand lightly on her arm, wanting suddenly to be holding her; for all his anger to be gone, and the two of them be one again.

  But he could hardly give her a cuddle in front of this audience, and after the way he’d reacted to her happy announcement, she’d probably slap him.

  But his heart ached for her, whilst his body was tense with concern.

  She really shouldn’t be here...

  Not that he’d win that argument if he raised it. As if his Ellie would have held back when medical assistance might be needed.

  His Ellie?

  Well, she was and as soon as this business was over he was going to sort it out.

  * * *

  ‘They’re over here,’ a voice was saying. ‘We’ve propped the area so it’s safe to work there.’

  The man who’d spoken led them further into the mine, coming eventually to an area lit now by bright LED floodlights. Five coal-darkened figures lay on the ground. A paramedic was kneeling by one, a miner by another, while one of the ambos took another.

  ‘One each,’ Andy said, and reached out to grab Ellie’s hand and give it a good squeeze.

  He watched as Ellie took the closest man, and moved on to a big fellow whose legs appeared to be still trapped by the fallen rocks. Setting down his medical bag, he pulled on blue nitrile gloves.

  ‘I’m Andy,’ he said. ‘Can you hear me? What’s your name?’

  The man nodded to the first question and offered up his name as Jason.

  Andy slipped his fingers around Jason’s wrist to feel his pulse.

  Fast but not too fast.

  ‘I’m going to check you over but, first, are you feeling pain anywhere?’

  ‘Everywhere, mate,’ the man said. ‘Except my legs. Can’t feel them at all. Shoulder’s bad, and m’head. Stupid hard hat came off.’

  Aware that being able to speak in sentences meant the man’s airways must be working, Andy started a search for blood. He probed all around his patient’s head, checking his hands for any sign that there was bleeding.

  Nothing.

  No sign of swelling, and no grating noises suggesting a skull fracture.

  He moved on to the shoulder, stripping open the man’s overalls to see his skin. Dark with coal but not with blood. But when he lifted Jason’s right arm to test his shoulder, a yowl of pain stopped him short.’

  ‘Bloody roof came down on me there,’ Jason told him. ‘That’s when m’hard hat came off.’

  Suspecting a dislocation, Andy rested his patient’s arm across his chest, and pulled out what was now known as the magic green whistle, an inhaler of methoxyflurane, which would help the pain now and especially when they moved him onto a stretcher to get him out of the cramped tunnel, already filled with too many people.

  ‘Just suck on it. A few sucks will help the pain now and you can use it again when they move you,’ he said, aware the device gave metered doses and Jason couldn’t hit himself with it all at once.

  He continued his examination by feeling down the man’s back and onto his thighs.

  Here, two miners were carefully lifting lumps of rock from Jason’s legs, working with great care in case one wrong move brought more rocks down.

  ‘We should have him out in a few minutes,’ they said, ‘but we reckon his legs’ll be okay because these rocks slid from the main fall, not directly from the roof, so he’ll have cuts and bruises, but with luck nothing broken.’

  And no major vessel bleeding freely, Andy hoped.

  He pulled a pad from his bag and wrote: ‘Conscious, query dislocated shoulder, no obvious bleeding.’

  He stopped there, because the rescue team was about to remove the last rocks from Jason’s feet.

  ‘Can you move your feet?’ he asked Jason, who carefully lifted first one foot and then the other.’

  ‘You bloody beauty,’ he said to his rescuers, raising his good hand for a high five with each of them.

  ‘Stretcher needed,’ Andy called, and two ambos came hurrying over.

  Andy added ‘Given self-administered methoxflurane’ to his note, wished Jason well, and moved over to check the next patient.

  ‘See to the chap who’s with your wife,’ the paramedic told him. ‘This bloke’s under control.’

  Andy knelt beside Ellie, who had the man’s chest bare and was counting down his ribs, a large-gauge needle in her hand.

  ‘Haemothorax,’ she said briefly, stabbing the needle into a cleaned patch on the man’s chest, then watching as blood and air escaped.

  Andy found a catheter and handed it to her so she could slip it in over the needle as she withdrew it. He watched as she taped the little tube securely in place, attached a water seal to stop air entering the tube, and covered it with a light dressing.

  ‘Other injuries?’ he asked, as she squatted back on her heels.

  ‘He might have a dislocated knee. He fell very awkwardly. I gave him light sedation before I stuck a needle in his chest so he’s not feeling pain at the moment.’

  ‘Are you happy for him to go?’ Andy asked, and Ellie nodded, then, as he called for a stretcher, she caught his arm.

  ‘It’s no good sending people to the hospital if you’re not there,’ she said. ‘You go back, and at least triage them so you know who will need to be sent to the hospital at Croxton, and who might need to be airlifted out for specialist treatment.’

  ‘But you’d be useful at the hospital, too,’ Andy argued.

  ‘Not as useful as I am here,’ she said, in a voice he knew would withstand any argument.

  CHAPTER NINE

  IT WAS CLOSE to midnight before the five safe men had been sent off to hospital, and Ellie wondered what she should do. Those badly injured would be sent out to bigger hospitals, so Andy wouldn’t need her help.

  Should she go home and feed the visitors, although she guessed Chelsea would probably have done that already. Who’d wait until midnight for their dinner?

  And if they’d heard about the mine accident they were likely to be in the crowd she’d heard were clustered around the fence outside the mine.

  People with more knowledge than she had would be keeping them updated, so...

  ‘Can you stick around?’ a burly
miner asked her.

  ‘Of course,’ she said. ‘What can I do?’

  She saw white teeth flash as he smiled at her.

  ‘Right now, not a lot. There’s a camp bed through here...’ He led the way back towards the lift, to an open, high-ceilinged area with tunnels branching off it.

  ‘This is the nerve centre of the rescue operation now,’ he said. ‘Grab some sleep while you can. The rescue men are clearing from the top, but they have to drill supports into the roof as they go so it doesn’t collapse again. This means it could be some time until we clear the blockage. But the engineers are drilling a smaller hole through the lower part so they can thread a wire through and regain contact with the men on the other side.’

  Ellie was pleased to hear he was positive there were men safe on the other side.

  ‘Once we’ve got contact with them,’ her informant explained, ‘we can find out about injuries. You’d be very useful telling them how to treat their injured, or even just talking to them. A woman’s voice, you know...’

  His voice trailed away lamely, worrying Ellie because he no longer sounded quite as positive.

  ‘How long have you been down here?’ she asked him.

  ‘Eleven hours. I was just coming off shift when it all came down.’

  ‘Then my first advice for treatment is that you go up top, get some food and a hot drink and if you absolutely refuse to go home, at least lie down for a while to rest your body for an hour or two. We don’t need any more casualties.’

  To her surprise, the man headed off towards the lift. He must have been exhausted.

  Although he did turn back halfway.

  ‘And you have a rest, too, lassie. It’s going to be a very long night.’

  Ellie took his advice, and was surprised to find she had fallen asleep on the camp bed and, in fact, she’d slept quite deeply.

  Had it been the rattle of cups and the clunk of huge teapots, the sound of things being unwrapped, and the smell of muffins that had woken her?

  Whatever the case, she’d woken in time for breakfast.

  Ellie took a short break in the bathroom near the lifts, washing her face and running her fingers through her tangled hair.