Was this the moment she could tell Mike that she felt the same way? That she loved him? Judging by the look on his face, she might not need to. Perhaps her eyes were saying it for her.
And then the silence was broken by a sound they could both hear only too clearly. The insistent and intrusive beep of a pager.
Emily reached for the button of the device attached to her belt but pushing it did not silence the sound.
‘It must be mine,’ Mike groaned. ‘Damn.’ He read the message on his pager and then flipped open his cellphone. ‘I need to ring the radio room and see what’s happening.’
Emily stood beside Mike as he made the call, her breath escaping in a sigh as she accepted the break in atmosphere and the impossibility of continuing that very private conversation.
Maybe it was just as well. She needed a little space to think about it all. And it was just as well it hadn’t been her pager sounding to call her to some crisis in the emergency department or the intensive care unit.
The last couple of minutes of her life had the potential to seriously undermine her ability to concentrate on her job. Mike really did seem to feel the same way Emily did and if that was the case, Emily’s life was about to change so dramatically it was way too good to be true. A fairy-tale. It was like winning a lottery. Or being struck by lightning.
Both—at the same time. It blew anything else Emily might need to think about clean out of the water.
‘I’ve got to go.’ Mike’s phone shut with a snap. ‘There’s a truck driver who’s had to pull off the road because of severe chest pain. He’s an hour’s drive away and up in the mountains so there’s nowhere for a plane to land.’
‘Not a great spot to pick to have a heart attack.’
Mike was already moving swiftly back towards the path they had taken down to the beach. ‘You on flight duty call?’
‘No. It’s Christina again, I think.’
‘Just as well.’
‘Why?’
Mike stopped abruptly, caught Emily’s shoulders and planted a brief, firm kiss on her lips.
‘That’s why,’ he said ruefully. ‘I might have trouble thinking about anything else if I had you on board with me. I might be tempted to flag the job and fly you somewhere where we could be completely alone.’ His hand caught hers and the look Emily received ignited the heat she had felt when Mike’s hand had cupped her breast. ‘For a long, long time,’ he added.
‘Mmm.’ Emily tore her gaze away from that look and tugged his hand. ‘Come on. I’d better make sure you get as far as the helipad, hadn’t I?’
They had to pass between the hospital buildings and the doctors’ quarters on their way to the ambulance station and helipad. Hamish McGregor was walking in the opposite direction, presumably taking a dinner break or finishing work for the day. Seeing Mike and Emily hurrying towards him hand in hand created an expression of concern rather than astonishment.
‘Is everything all right?’
‘Couldn’t be better,’ Mike responded firmly. ‘Isn’t that right, Em?’
‘Mmm.’ Emily’s smile as they passed Hamish was shy. They were taking rather a large first step in their new relationship here, making their closeness so apparent to someone else. But this was Hamish, a close friend who cared for them both, and his own smile suggested that he was rather delighted with the vibes he was picking up.
‘Of course,’ she heard him mutter behind them. ‘Perfect for each other.’
‘That’s torn it,’ Emily told Mike. ‘It’ll be right through the house in two minutes. They’ll probably have us beating Cal and Gina down an aisle.’
‘Suits me.’ They could see the gleam of Mike’s helicopter ahead as it was pushed clear of the hangar by ground crew. With a final smile at Emily, Mike broke away into a jog. ‘Catch you later, babe.’
Emily actually took another step or two in Mike’s wake.
Why had she never felt the implications of how dangerous his job was before this?
Because this time he would be coming back to her?
Because he seemed to have no doubts that their future together was permanent enough to casually assume that they would be getting married sooner rather than later?
She wanted to follow him. To stay with him. Any fear of flying in helicopters was nothing compared to the flash of fear of what it would be like now if he took off on a mission and didn’t come back. But what he did for a job was part of the man she loved and it was too closely tied in with the thirst for and enjoyment of life that was such a big part of his personality. Emily would never let her own fears have any kind of negative impact on the career he loved.
Her feet slowed. She managed to smile.
‘Be careful,’ she called, pleased with how casual she sounded. ‘Don’t forget to spit!’
As if he would forget! The superstitious gesture was simply part of an automatic pre-flight routine that kept Mike busy enough to distract him from any personal matters. Not that the distraction lasted, however. Once airborne, it became clear that Christina wasn’t in the mood to chat and Mike was more than happy to let the part of his mind that wasn’t needed for piloting duties return to where it most wanted to be.
Focused on Emily Morgan.
She wanted him. Maybe as much as he wanted her. It was unbelievable. Pure magic. Mike had never felt so happy in his entire life.
Banking to follow the curve of the road, he let just a little of that happiness escape in the form of whistling a few bars of a favourite song.
‘You sound happy,’ Christina commented.
‘I am.’
‘That’s good. You weren’t looking too happy last week.’
‘No, I guess not.’
Mike had to make something of an effort to remember why he hadn’t been looking happy. His relationship with Kirsty felt like ancient history already. Meaningless. Anything else was insignificant compared to how he felt about Emily. Especially now that her reciprocal interest gave him permission to give his attraction free rein. To let those feelings grow.
Hell, they weren’t going to grow. They were in danger of exploding with enough of a blast to light up the entire horizon. Mike couldn’t curb his grin at the notion but then he caught Christina’s startled glance and gave a somewhat embarrassed shrug.
‘Hey, life goes on, you know?’
‘Hmm.’ Christina sounded unconvinced. Or maybe she was unimpressed that Mike could bounce back so quickly from a failed romance. She retreated into the preoccupied silence with which she had begun this mission but then broke it a minute later. ‘So, how have you managed it, then?’
‘What?’
‘Getting over a break-up so easily?’
‘I realised that Kirsty did me a favour.’ A huge favour, given that she’d removed Simon from Crocodile Creek at the same time. ‘It was never serious for either of us. And now I know where I’m going. I can get my life onto the right track.’
‘You sound awfully sure about that.’
‘Oh, I am.’ Mike smiled at Christina but he was thinking of blue eyes rather than brown. And honey-blonde hair rather than brunette. And just for a moment he let himself think about how it had felt to touch Emily properly for the first time. Really touch her. To kiss her. To let his hand shape the outline of her breast.
He covered the slightly strangled sound trying to escape by clearing his throat. ‘I’m very sure.’
Christina was staring at him. ‘Am I missing something here?’
Mike wanted to tell her. To explain that he’d found the love of his life and that by some miracle she seemed to feel the same way. And if Christina still wanted to know how he could be so sure, he could tell her about those badges.
No. That was too private to share now that it had provided an invitation for that touch he remembered with such agonising clarity. Some time, in the very near future, Mike intended to have his lips where his hand had been this evening. On top of that imaginary badge. Tracing a path down a breast that wasn’t covered by any layer
s of silk or lace.
He gave himself a mental shake. No, he couldn’t tell Christina any of that. Emily didn’t want to rush things, did she? She had seemed a little embarrassed when Hamish had seen them holding hands. She was worried that either of them could be feeling the way they did because of a rebound phenomenon. Mike knew how wrong that was in his own case but hadn’t he always been prepared to wait until Emily knew for sure that she felt the same way? He could be patient again now that he knew they were on the same path. Patient enough to let Emily dictate whatever pace would cement her trust.
But Christina still seemed to be waiting for a response.
‘You just need to trust your gut feeling,’ Mike said evasively. ‘If you’re on the right track, you can feel it. Just like you know if something’s not working. Like me and Kirsty. That could never have worked.’
Christina looked away. She nodded agreement but her shoulders slumped in what looked like a sigh.
Mike frowned. ‘You OK, mate?’
‘I’m fine.’
There was no time to check whether that really was the case because they could see the flashing hazard lights of the truck waiting for them below and Mike needed to find a place to land.
Besides, Christina’s relationship with Joe—the New Zealand doctor who flew into Crocodile Creek to fill any gaps for one week in every four—was solid. Anyone who’d seen them together over the last couple of years could see that.
They were crazy about each other.
Just like him and Emily.
CHAPTER SEVEN
FORTY-FIVE minutes was not a long time to wait.
The pleasure Emily gained from seeing Mike pushing one end of the helicopter’s stretcher into the emergency department was definitely out of all proportion to their time apart.
‘We’re ready for you in Resus,’ she called. ‘And Gina’s on her way.’ They had called their new cardiologist in when a radio message from Mike had confirmed they had a cardiac patient on board. Emily was already busy with several patients in the department and she turned back quickly to the six-year-old girl on the bed.
‘How’s your breathing now, pet? Better?’
Her small patient nodded from behind wisps of vapour escaping the nebuliser mask. Emily turned to the child’s mother.
‘I think we have it under control. We’ll let the rest of that salbutamol run through and then reassess Vanessa. I’ll get a nurse to come and sit with you for a while.’
Emily hurried after the stretcher into Resus and arrived at the same time as Gina.
‘Is this our cardiac patient?’
Christina nodded. ‘Todd Baker,’ she told her colleagues. ‘He’s fifty-two and has no previous cardiac history. He developed crushing central chest pain about an hour ago. Ten out of ten with radiation to his left arm.’
Classic symptoms for a heart attack and Mike was holding the strip of paper recording the three-lead ECG they had taken on scene with the portable monitor.
‘ST elevation in leads II and III,’ he told them calmly. ‘Looks like it could be an inferior infarct.’
‘Associated symptoms?’ Gina was checking the flow of oxygen.
‘Diaphoresis,’ Christina said. ‘And nausea but no vomiting.’
Emily pushed the twelve-lead ECG trolley closer to the bed and Mike reached to help her attach the new set of electrodes. Their hands brushed and the electric tingle made Emily glance up automatically. She was relieved to discover she could return Mike’s smile briefly without distraction. It simply added to the pleasure of doing her job well. Had it been Simon present, the nervousness of waiting for the inevitable criticism about her performance would have removed a large proportion of that satisfaction.
‘What’s he had in the way of medication?’ Emily asked Mike.
‘GTN. Aspirin 300 milligrams. Ten milligrams morphine and Maxolon.’
‘How’s the pain, now, Todd?’ Emily’s pager sounded but she killed the beep without taking her eyes off their patient.
‘About four out of ten, I guess. A lot better than it was.’
‘We’ll try and get that down a bit more for you,’ Gina told him. ‘We just need to check a couple of things first.’ She hit the button to inflate the blood pressure cuff around Todd’s upper arm.
‘Try and keep nice and still for a moment,’ Emily told him as she started the recording of the twelve-lead ECG. She glanced at her pager as she waited for the result to print out.
‘ICU’s calling me,’ she said in dismay.
‘Megan?’ Mike paused as he was putting Todd’s shoes into a patient property bag.
‘She’s the only patient in the unit at the moment.’
A nurse poked her head past the curtain screening the resuscitation area. ‘Vanessa’s nebuliser’s finished and she’s still pretty wheezy. What would you like me to do?’
Gina glanced up from her task of filling blood sample tubes ready for analysis of cardiac enzymes. ‘We can manage here, Emily.’
‘What’s her oxygen saturation like now?’ Emily asked the nurse.
‘Only 93 per cent.’
‘Start another nebuliser,’ Emily instructed. ‘We’ll have to think about some oral steroids as well and admit Vanessa overnight. Could you give Hamish a call? She’s one of his regular patients and I might need him to cover ED for a while anyway. I’ve got to dash up to ICU for a bit.’
She ripped off the twelve-lead ECG, having already noted the changes that could only be caused by a blockage in Todd’s coronary arteries. He was watching Gina’s face carefully as she looked at the test result and nodded.
‘Am I having a heart attack, then?’ he said in alarm. ‘What’s going to happen?’
‘You’re going to get the best possible treatment, mate, don’t you worry.’ Mike moved in to reassure their patient as Gina followed Emily for a few steps when she excused herself.
‘What’s the normal protocol for MIs here? Do you try and evacuate them for angioplasty?’
‘We start a streptokinase or TPA infusion. If pain and ECG changes don’t settle or the bloods indicate a major infarct then we look at emergent angiography and-or try and arrange urgent transfer.’
‘Where do you monitor the streptokinase infusions? We don’t have a coronary care unit here, do we?’
‘It’s incorporated into Intensive Care. We’ve got continuous monitoring facilities and well-trained, one-on-one nursing care.’ Emily smiled as she left Gina behind and sped towards the doors to the main hospital corridor. ‘I’ll get them to set up an infusion and see you up there.’
Emily ran up the stairs rather than using the lift and raced into the unit with a sinking heart. Another complication on top of ARDS could well mean disaster for Megan. Was she showing signs of irreversible renal failure now? Or was her heart giving up the struggle of trying to cope with such a severe strain on her body?
‘What’s happened?’
Megan’s nurse was beside her bed and there was no evidence of a dire emergency. No alarms were sounding on any of the monitoring equipment, the suction gear lay unused and there were no other staff members or trolleys nearby that could have advertised a cardiac-arrest scenario.
In fact, Megan’s colour was good and a swift perusal of the monitor readings showed, at first glance, an improvement rather than any deterioration.
‘She’s fighting the tube,’ the nurse informed Emily. ‘She was gagging a bit and groaning and she’s trying to breathe against the ventilator at times. She’s not due for more sedation for quite a while so I thought you might want to review the dose.’
Emily nodded. ‘Thanks. I’ll give her a thorough check first.’ Her breath escaped in a sigh of relief as she smiled. ‘It actually looks as if things are on the up and if that’s the case we might start weaning her from the ventilator. Can you call the radiologist in, please? I’d like to get another chest X-ray.’
Todd Baker was wheeled into the unit and transferred to the bed opposite Megan as Emily was drawing off a sample
of arterial blood to check oxygen levels.
Waiting for the results on all the tests gave Emily a few minutes to join Gina and the staff assisting with Todd’s admission. Mike didn’t need to still be present but he seemed to be completing his own paperwork while taking an interest in the continuing treatment of his patient and nobody was going to suggest that he leave the unit.
Especially Emily.
‘No contra-indications for administering streptokinase,’ Gina informed Emily. ‘We’re infusing 1.5 million units over thirty minutes.’
‘Blood pressure’s dropped a bit,’ Todd’s nurse advised.
Gina checked the monitor. ‘Right.’ She pressed some buttons on the unit controlling the IV infusion. ‘We’ll slow this down.’
‘Let’s take one of those pillows away, too,’ Emily suggested. ‘Being a bit flatter might help maintain blood pressure.’
‘Rate’s slowing as well.’ Gina’s gaze was on the drift of ECG spikes across the screen of the beside monitor. ‘If it drops any further we’ll give some atropine.’
Mike picked up his paperwork and clipped his pen back into his pocket. ‘How’re you feeling, Todd?’
‘Not bad.’ Their patient actually managed a quite cheerful smile. ‘Who wouldn’t with a bunch of gorgeous women looking after them?’
Mike grinned. ‘I hear you, buddy.’
‘I’d rather be standing in your shoes, though.’
Mike was standing right beside Emily and he caught her gaze as he responded to Todd. ‘Me, too,’ he murmured. Then he raised his voice. ‘I’ll come back and see you a bit later, mate. I’ll bet you’ll be feeling a whole lot happier by then.’
He came back an hour later. Todd’s infusion of clot-busting medication had been completed without major complications and results from the blood tests suggested a relatively minor heart attack. The truck driver was now pain-free and resting comfortably.
Gina had gone back to the doctors’ house but Emily was showing no signs of resting. Neither was Hamish. After admitting Vanessa to the paediatric ward for overnight observation following her asthma attack, he’d come to the intensive care unit to see if Emily needed any assistance. She was only too happy to discuss Megan’s condition and had a whole sheaf of new test results to share with her colleague.
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