by Scotty Cade
Brad went to the radio and picked up the receiver where he’d dropped it on the floor. He pressed the button and said, “Wing Mansion to Hiline Lake Lodge, do you read?”
Static was all he heard.
“Repeating, Wing Mansion to Hiline Lake Lodge, Zander or Jake, do you copy?”
“This is Hiline Lake Lodge. Brad, is that you?”
“Zander, switch to channel three eight. Over,” Brad instructed.
“Switching to channel three eight.”
“Brad, are you okay? Over.”
“Zander, we had an accident up here. Mac’s plane went down. Over.”
“What, how do you know? Over,” Zander asked.
“I heard the Mayday calls on the radio and found the crash. Over,” Brad said.
“We didn’t hear a thing. Over,” he replied. “How bad is it? Over.”
“I’ll explain it all later, but it’s pretty bad, Zander. I was able to get Mac out of the plane before it exploded, but he’s still unconscious and had several external injuries, none life-threatening. But the worst thing is that I can’t tell if he has any internal injuries without a CAT scan or MRI. Over.”
“What do you want us to do, Brad? Over.”
“Can you use your satellite phone to get a medical airlift ASAP? Over.”
“I’m right on it. I’ll radio you back as soon as I can get an ETA. Over.”
“Thanks, Zander. Over.”
“Jake and I will be there as soon as we can. Hold tight, Brad. Over.”
“Thanks, but don’t take any chances. Not much we can do until we get him to a hospital. Oh, and Zander, can you call Jack and Zoe and tell them what happened and that he’s alive? Over.”
“Will do. Over.”
“Zander, tell the airlift that I will be standing by on channel one six. Over.”
“Roger that, Brad.”
Brad switched the radio back to channel one six and put the handheld receiver down. He walked over to the bed and pulled back the covers from under Mac and tucked them in around him. He tried to wake him again by calling his name, but he got no response. He gently kissed him on the lips, brushed his cheek with the back of his hand, and then headed to the kitchen to start a pot of coffee. He stopped at the kitchen counter and put both his hands on the counter in front of him and bowed his head. The events of the last few hours and months started to hit him pretty hard, and he sank down to the floor and began to silently weep. When he regained his composure, he decided that he didn’t want any coffee after all. He went back to Mac and climbed in bed next to him. He laid his arm over Mac’s chest and closed his eyes.
Sometime later, he opened his eyes, and Mac was staring back at him with a weak smile on his face.
“It’s about time you woke up, sleepyhead,” Mac whispered.
“Mac, you’re awake!” Brad jumped out of bed and ran around to the other side. “How do you feel?” he asked.
“I have a really bad headache, and it’s difficult to breathe. What happened to me?” Mac asked.
“Your plane went down on your way here,” Brad explained.
“Really?” Mac said. “I barely remember taking off.”
“It’s just the side effects of a concussion,” Brad said. “Your memory will come back. Are you dizzy? Do you feel nauseous?”
“Not dizzy, but a little nauseous, and I’m really thirsty,” Mac said.
“Take a deep breath. How bad does it hurt?” Brad asked.
Mac did as he was told. “Not too bad, just a little,” he said.
“I think you have a cracked rib or two in addition to the concussion,” Brad said as he ran to the kitchen to get him a glass of cool water.
“Sip it really slowly,” Brad said. “Just a little at a time.”
Mac took a small sip of water. He looked very confused. “The plane?” he asked.
“Totally gone,” Brad said. “It’s a miracle you survived. The plane was in three pieces.”
Brad gave Mac two aspirin for the pain and another sip of water. He retrieved more Ace bandages from his medical bag and sat Mac up and held him there as he wrapped his chest to help his ribs and breathing.
“How did you find me?” Mac asked.
“I heard your Mayday call over the radio,” Brad said. “Then I heard you pass overhead at a very low altitude, and then the cabin rumbled when you crashed. At least I knew which direction to look.”
“Zoe-Grace? Did someone call Zoe?” Mac asked.
“I radioed Zander and Jake, and they called her,” Brad said. “We’re waiting for an airlift now.”
“I don’t need an airlift. I’ll be fine,” Mac said as he tried to sit up and fell back down.
“Mac, stay down. You have a concussion, several other external injuries, and God knows what else,” Brad explained. “The worst thing is I can’t tell if you have any internal injuries without X-rays, a CAT scan, or an MRI.”
“Brad, really I’ll be….”
Brad heard the radio come back to life.
“Wing Mansion, this is Hiline Lake Lodge, come back.”
Brad ran to the radio and picked up the receiver. “This is Wing Mansion; I read you loud and clear.”
“Airlift can’t get here until the weather clears. Based on the latest weather report, the earliest they’re saying is tomorrow morning. Over.”
“I was afraid of that. I’ll just have to do the best I can, Zander. Over.”
“Jake and I will up there as soon as possible, and we’ll figure it all out. The next problem is there’s no place to land up there, so we’ll need to get Mac down to the lodge. Over.”
“I’ll carry him down if I need to, no worries there. Over.”
“Jake and I will bring up two snowmobiles, and we’ll each take one back down tomorrow morning. Will he be okay to make the trip? Over.”
“He’ll have no choice. I’ll take good care of him tonight, and hopefully he’ll be okay. Over.”
“We’ll see you as soon as we can get up there. Over.”
“Thanks, Zander. Did you get Jack and Zoe? Over.”
“Yes, they were together. Jack was yelling something about Zoe reading him the riot act regarding you two. They will meet us at the hospital as soon as we give them the ETA. Over.”
“Please call them back, and tell them that Mac is now conscious, talking, and seems to be okay. Over.”
“Will do. Hiline Lake Lodge standing by on channel one six.”
“Wing Mansion standing by on channel one six.”
Brad walked back to the bed, and Mac’s eyes were closed.
“Mac?”
Mac opened his eyes and smiled.
“Mac, you can’t go to sleep,” Brad said. “You have a concussion and need to be kept alert.”
“Then talk to me,” Mac said.
“Okay, for starters, what in the hell were you thinking, flying in this weather?” Brad asked. “You could have been killed.”
“All I knew was that I needed to see you,” Mac explained. “When I got home yesterday morning, Zoe was home early for the holidays to surprise me. She immediately picked up on something and saw that I was hurting. She pushed and pushed until I broke down and told her everything.”
“Really?” Brad said. “And her reaction?”
“She was shocked to say the least, but kept an open mind, and in the end was very supportive. She told me I was an idiot for listening to Jack and for leaving you,” Mac explained. “She also said I’d better get back up here and tell you how I feel before I lost you.”
“Man, I like this girl already,” Brad said.
“She’s something really special,” Mac replied. “So I thought I could beat the storm, but the weather turned on me… like sushi at a summer picnic.”
Brad couldn’t help himself; he started to laugh so hard he thought he would fall off of the bed.
“And,” Mac said, “the rest is history.”
Brad took Mac’s hand and said, “If you ever do anything like this again, I
will personally kill you and bury you so far under the earth, no one will ever find you, got it?”
Mac squeezed Brad’s hand and said, “I love you, Brad, with all my heart, and I don’t care who knows it.”
“What about Jack?” Brad asked.
“Fuck Jack,” Mac said with disgust. “He was supposed to be my best friend, and he made me believe I would lose my daughter and him, the only real family I have left. The funny thing is that Zoe is cool with it, and if Jack doesn’t accept it, he’ll be the one on the outside.”
Mac took a deep breath. “Brad, I should never have left you. I should have known that Zoe would never turn her back on me. How can I ever make it up to you?”
“I love you too, Mac,” Brad said. “I know you were scared and struggling, but that didn’t make it hurt any less.”
“I’m so sorry, Brad,” Mac said. “I will spend the rest of my life, if you’ll have me, making it up to you.”
“Maybe just the first twenty years,” Brad said. “After that, I’ll probably let you off the hook.”
Brad leaned down and kissed Mac on the forehead. When he was about to pull away, Mac lifted one arm and grabbed Brad behind the neck and brought their lips together for a long, passionate kiss.
“Whoa, flyboy, there will be time for that later. I need to get you well and down this mountain.”
“Spoilsport,” Mac said.
Brad continued talking to Mac, explaining the rescue. He went into every little detail to make the story longer, in order to hold Mac’s interest and keep him from falling asleep.
After he finished the story, Mac turned his head away with tears streaming down his face.
“Mac, are you in pain? What?”
“Brad, you saved my life. Even after I turned my back on you and listened to Jack,” Mac said. “You didn’t know I was coming back for you.”
“I kind of did know,” Brad said with a sly smile.
Mac looked confused.
“You confessed your love to me over the VHF radio just before you went down. Not that it would have mattered; I took a Hippocratic oath, remember.”
“I don’t care what type of oath you took, I’m just happy you’re here and I have a chance to make it up to you.”
“Me too,” Brad said. “Now you need to rest for a while.”
Brad allowed Mac to sleep for short periods of time, but woke him every fifteen minutes to make sure he was okay.
Just before sunset, Zander and Jake showed up with the two snowmobiles, dinner, and a bottle of bourbon.
“I figured you might need this,” Zander said as he handed Brad the bottle.
“You have no idea how bad,” Brad responded.
Zander, Jake, and Brad shared the bourbon while they sat around the bed, and Brad filled them in on the rescue.
From time to time, Mac would jump into the conversation or ask a question, but for the most part, he simply rested. Finally, he reached down and rubbed his injured thigh.
“What did you do to my leg, Dr. Kildare?” he asked.
“Which one?” Brad replied.
“Both,” Mac said.
“The left one needed stitches inside and out, and I didn’t have anything but a topical anesthesia, but luckily, you were unconscious for that little surgery,” Brad said as he rubbed the wounded leg.
“Thank God for that. I hate needles,” Mac said.
“It’s going to be very sore for a while,” Brad assured him. “But you should heal pretty quickly.”
Eventually, Zander and Jake climbed up to the loft and turned in, and Brad stripped and crawled into bed next to Mac, careful not to bump his wounds. Brad set the alarm for every half hour and felt comfortable taking short naps in between. He took Mac’s hand in his and lay as still as possible until they fell asleep.
Chapter 33
THE next morning they were all awakened by the radio announcing the airlift’s ETA. They had more than enough time to get Mac dressed, bundled up, and down the mountain to meet the helicopter. While Zander and Jake shoveled off the front porch, Brad wrapped Mac’s ankle with another Ace bandage to protect it from movement and tightened the wrapping on his chest to further secure any fractured or broken ribs. He bundled Mac up in warm clothing and threw a few things in a bag for each of them.
Mac was in good spirits, with no dizziness or nausea, sore but otherwise seemingly okay. Brad carried him to the snowmobile, went back and got his backpack, and secured it to the vehicle. They moved down the mountain very slowly, with Zander and Jake taking the lead. Brad drove with Mac tucked in tightly behind him, Mac’s arms securely around his waist. Brad used one hand to steer and control their speed, while the other hand covered Mac’s hands to try and hold him in place.
They reached the bottom of the mountain as the small helicopter was landing on the lake. They met the paramedics at the dock, where they moved Mac onto a stretcher.
“Do you want us to fly back with you?” Zander said, Jake standing right next to him.
“You guys have done so much already. I think I can take it from here. I don’t know how we’ll ever thank you though,” Brad said as he hugged each of them good-bye.
Mac looked up from the stretcher and raised his hand. Zander and Jake grabbed his hand and held on for a few seconds.
“One more thing,” Mac said. “Can I have my job back?”
They all laughed, and Jake said, “Of course you can.”
“You’ll just need a new plane,” Zander added.
“I’ll handle that,” Mac said as they rolled him toward the helicopter with Brad in tow.
“Call us on the satellite phone as soon as you know anything,” Zander shouted.
They loaded Mac into the small helicopter and strapped him in. Brad climbed in after him and buckled up as well. Zander and Jake waved them on as they lifted off the ground, heading for Alaska Regional Hospital in Anchorage.
Chapter 34
ON THE tarmac at the hospital forty-five minutes later, Mac and Brad were taken in through the emergency room entrance, where they met Zoe, Zach, and Jack. Zoe ran up to the stretcher. “Daddy, are you okay? We were so worried,” she said.
“I’m fine, honey,” Mac said. “Do you think I’d let you get married without me there to give you away?”
Tears ran down Zoe’s eyes as she hugged her father, almost climbing onto the stretcher with him.
Meanwhile, Brad glared at Jack, who turned away and looked at the ground. Zoe left her father and ran directly into Brad’s arms.
“You must be Brad,” she said. “Thank you for saving my father’s life.”
“You’re welcome,” Brad said.
They were interrupted by one of the paramedics. “We need to take the patient in to be examined,” he said.
Brad turned to follow, but was stopped by the other paramedic. “Family only beyond this point, sir. I’m very sorry.”
“He is family,” Zoe said as she squeezed Brad’s hand. “He’s my father’s partner.”
Brad smiled at her and looked at the paramedic. “I’m also a doctor, Dr. Bradford Mitchell, Northwest Hospital, Seattle.”
“Okay, Doctor,” the paramedic said as he led them through the ER.
Brad went into the examining room to explain to the ER doctor what procedures he had done on Mac’s head, legs, and ankle, while the rest waited in the interior waiting room.
One hour later, Brad came out of the ER and found Zoe, Zach, and Jack.
“He is a very lucky man,” he said. “He’s going to be fine.”
Zoe again hugged him.
“He has a concussion,” Brad continued, “two cracked ribs, a badly sprained ankle, two lacerations—one on his head and one on his leg—and his knee is pretty badly beaten up, but all in all, he’s going to be fine. The MRI showed no internal injuries, and the X-rays showed no broken bones.”
Jack stood and stepped right in front of Brad. Brad prepared himself for more of Jack’s slanders, but was surprised when Jack said, “Thank
you for saving Mac. I still think what you two are doing is wrong, and I’ll never understand it, but you saved his life, and I will always be grateful for that.”
Brad looked at Zoe and Zach with a surprised expression.
Zach stepped up and stuck out his hand. “Pleased to meet you, Dr. Mitchell. I’m Zachary Williams, Zoe’s fiancé,” he said. “We did our best to try and make him understand what you guys have. But he’s pretty stubborn. Maybe, in time, he’ll come around.”
“Hey, guys?” Jack said. “I’m standing right here. I can hear every word you’re saying.”
“I’m glad you can hear us,” Zoe said. “I haven’t forgiven you yet for almost killing my father and ruining our lives in the process.”
“Okay kids,” Brad said. “Jack didn’t want anything bad to happen to your father. He’s just a bigot, that’s all.”
“Fine,” Jack said as he turned and walked toward the doors. “Just keep the shit out of my face.”
Brad looked at Zoe and Zach. “Guys, take it easy on Jack for a while. He’s hurting, in his own way.” Zach and Zoe looked at each other and nodded.
“When can we see Dad?” Zoe asked.
“They’re going to admit him overnight for observation,” Brad said. “And once they get him settled, we can all go in to see him.”
In just under an hour, they were all sitting around Mac’s bed, Zoe at his head on one side and Brad on the other. Brad and Zoe each had a hand, and Jack and Zach were at his feet.
“I think I’m the luckiest man alive,” Mac said. “I have you guys, I survived a plane crash, and,” looking at Brad, he said, “I found you.”
Epilogue
MAC opened his eyes to the most beautiful July morning he’d ever seen. It had been seven glorious months since the plane crash, and he was completely recovered. Brad was sleeping soundly next to him. He had a new plane, and to top it all off, it was Zoe and Zach’s wedding day.