An Alaskan Christmas

by Jennifer Snow

  Tyler nodded. “It holds its own concerns, but I think it’s better than these sinkholes.”

  Reed was lucky this one had only been eight feet deep. He’d seen others that were a thirty- or forty-foot fall. A tumble that far could break limbs, or worse. “Okay. We move slowly,” he told the group.

  “I wonder who’s winning that poker game,” Wade mumbled as they reached the new trail twenty minutes later.

  Before Reed could respond, the ground disappeared beneath his feet and he was free-falling. His arms waved at his sides as he fought to find something to grab hold of, but there was nothing but air around him for a long three or four seconds.

  His body hit the ground with a force that knocked the wind from his lungs and he was tumbling downward over sharp, jagged rocks and ice. Snowdrifts flew into his face, blinding him. He continued to pick up speed as his body crashed into boulders. He brought his arms up to protect his head but winced as it left his body exposed to the hard, crushing terrain as he continued down the mountainside.

  The boulder that stopped him felt like getting hit by a freight train and he gasped for a breath, feeling pain everywhere. He struggled to keep consciousness as he blinked, lifting his head to scan his surroundings, but he saw nothing but white, blowing snow and the jagged boulders that had bruised his entire body. He slowly moved his arms and legs. Miraculously, nothing seemed broken in his limbs, but his stomach and chest were throbbing with pain.

  A wave of nausea hit him as dizziness made him black out for a moment. He continued to fight off the darkness as he struggled to get air into his lungs, but breathing and staying conscious was nearly impossible. Each inhale was followed by a shooting pain in both sets of ribs and his eyelids refused to stay open.

  Trying to remember his emergency training, he fought to focus his thoughts on survival, but only images of his family—Cassie and his mom, his dad...and Erika flashed in his mind.

  Was he dying? Were these images his final thoughts?

  No. He blinked and tried to swallow the saliva nearly choking him as the nausea grew stronger. A dizzy spell had him throwing up and his pulse thundered as he noticed blood on the ground next to him.

  He couldn’t assess the extent of his injuries and he had no idea where the blood was coming from, but it wasn’t good. Pain gripped his chest and he moaned, clutching the front of his jacket. He was barely holding on.

  He fumbled for his bag, unzipping it and reaching inside. He tried to twist his body, but the pain searing through him made him feel as though he were impaled. Luckily a glance at his midsection revealed that wasn’t the case.

  Blackness started closing in and he focused on survival. He needed his flare. He didn’t know how far he’d fallen...and the way his mind was straying he knew he was badly hurt. Time wasn’t his friend.

  His eyes closed and he saw his mom and Cassie and Erika—they seemed to be rotating around him in a circle, all talking at once, all wearing looks of concern...

  His eyes snapped open again. He couldn’t judge the length of the blackout. Could have been a few seconds or hours. His body felt ice-cold and the pain was subsiding.

  Numbness. Shock was setting in.

  His fingers crept along his side and, touching the flare gun, he pulled it out of the backpack. It was preloaded, but his shaky, weak hands struggled to release the safety.

  His eyes refused to stay open and he could hear Erika’s voice saying she didn’t know how to make their relationship work.

  He needed to stay alive to show her. Show her how much he loved her, how much he was willing to sacrifice for her.

  He needed to survive.

  Gripping the flare gun with both hands, he extended his arms toward the sky, ignoring the tearing sensation in his body, and pulled the trigger.

  The loud bang was the last thing he heard as his eyes closed and his head fell back against the cold, hard ground and his body went limp.

  Suddenly, his life was in the hands of his search and rescue crew.

  * * *

  ERIKA STARED AT the resignation letter in one hand and the offer of employment from Wild River Community Hospital in the other.

  Her past. And her future.

  If she could just summon the balls to actually go see her father and deliver the news.

  Dr. Smyth had been surprised to hear from her the week before, but it hadn’t taken the hospital long to put together an offer. They were eager to have her join their staff. And while it wasn’t the salary she was making in Anchorage, there were other benefits that came with the job in Wild River.

  Like Reed.

  Since the holidays, things had gotten a whole lot clearer. Her feelings had started screaming louder than her common sense. She’d spent a lot of time thinking about her future, and he was the one constant she knew she wanted.

  She missed Reed. She loved him. She was moving to Wild River to be with him.

  At least, she hoped so.

  What if he didn’t want her now? What if she’d hurt him too much? Could he forgive her for letting him walk away?

  She hadn’t heard from him since that day in the elevator. She’d spent hours thinking about him and staring at Cassie’s Facebook photos of him, trying to summon the nerve to send him a Friend Request, but it seemed lame. She wanted to be so much more than friends.

  She could have called or texted him but she’d needed to get her head on straight, make her final decision and then move forward with it.

  With him. If he’d still have her.

  She’d thought about reaching out to Cassie to let her know of her decision, but she’d decided to wait. She was scheduled to start at the hospital in mid-January, which gave her only two weeks to get her condo on the market and find someplace to live near the hospital in Wild River. There were several places she was hoping to look at, but she needed to resolve things here before she made any more plans.

  Her chest tightened and she pressed her palm to it.

  Anxiety over the unknown was always worse than the reality.

  She had to hand in her resignation and get it over with. Maybe her father wouldn’t even care. They hadn’t spoken since Christmas Eve when in one moment, he’d crushed her career hopes and her dreams of reestablishing the relationship they’d once had.

  It broke her heart that they weren’t close. More so now than ever before. Falling in love with Reed had opened her up to all kinds of emotions she’d successfully repressed for years.

  And she’d fooled herself into thinking that if she worked hard enough, did what her father wanted, lived her life like he lived his, they could be close again.

  She’d been wrong. She might have opened her heart, but her father’s heart had been buried with her mother. She couldn’t bring either one back.

  Leaving her office, she made her way through the hallways of the hospital. The triage station had New Year’s Eve decorations hanging above the desks and she knew the nurses had noisemakers, confetti and a bottle of champagne hidden in the kitchen for midnight. She’d never participated in the countdown with them before, but she just might this year.

  Better late than never, she thought.

  She’d do things right from the start at Wild River Community. Get to know the staff. Dr. Smyth would be there for the first few weeks to help her make the transition, and she was grateful the older man had offered to delay his retirement. His support continued to be something she could depend on.

  Kam was away from her desk when Erika got to her father’s office. She scanned the hallway. She’d been hoping to gauge her father’s mood from his assistant...kill a few moments with idle chitchat.

  Just get this over with.

  Knocking on her father’s office door, she waited.

  She could hear him talking inside, and a quick peek through the open blinds revealed he was on the phone.

  She refused t
o leave and come back...because she might not get the nerve again.

  She sat on the bench outside his office, struggling not to feel like the nervous little girl she’d been whenever she’d had to tell her father something he wasn’t going to like. She wasn’t a kid anymore. She was strong and independent. A skilled surgeon who could make it on her own, out from under his wing that was suddenly feeling more like a shadow.

  This was the right thing.

  Whenever doubt crept in, she silenced it with thoughts of Reed.

  Please let him still want to be with me.

  Her father opened the door a minute later. “Come in.”

  She stood on shaky knees and followed him inside, shutting the door slowly behind her. She’d never had to quit a job before, but she suspected this had to be ten times worse. She straightened her pencil skirt and folded one leg over the other as she sat in the chair across from him. Possibly for the last time.

  “Hand it over,” he said as he sat.

  Damn, was there anything he didn’t know?

  She slid the resignation letter across the desk.

  He scanned it. “Do you want me to try to talk you out of it?”

  Did he want to? She took a breath and shook her head. Her decision was made. Even if he did ask her to stay, she wouldn’t. She needed to make a career, a life for herself. One she wanted.

  With the man she wanted.

  The next two weeks would be torture, working out her notice alongside her father and itching to get to Wild River to talk to Reed. She couldn’t do it by phone or text. Apologizing to him, telling him how she felt, was something she needed to do face-to-face.

  “No. I’ve made the decision and I’m accepting the position in Wild River.”

  He nodded.

  She waited. There had to be more.

  He was silent. He couldn’t even give her a word. After all the years she’d put in.

  “Do you need anything else from me?”

  “No. I’ll send this to the board. I trust you don’t need a letter of recommendation, seeing as how you’ve secured a new position already.”

  Not a hint of emotion. No way of knowing if he cared that she was leaving or not. She was just another employee. She should be grateful that he was making this easy for her, but it stung a little, to be treated like a stranger.

  “No, I don’t.” She stood. “Okay, so my last day...”

  He held up a hand. “You don’t have to work out a notice.”

  She straightened her spine and squared her shoulders. “Okay.” She paused. “I assume Dr. Smyth told you?” She wasn’t upset. The older man probably assumed this was a decision she’d discussed with her dad.

  He nodded, not glancing up from the latest results from the clinical trials, which she knew from Darren were a great success so far. It still stung that she’d been cut from the project, but at least the patients were seeing results. “He called to gloat, I guess, for stealing my best surgeon.”

  Her jaw nearly hit the floor. His best surgeon? She recovered quickly but the hospital intercom sounded before she could verbalize any of the incoherent thoughts running through her mind.

  “Dr. Sheraton to emergency. Stat. All available nurses and surgical staff to emergency. Stat.”

  Her heart raced. All hands on deck? She turned to leave and her father was on her heels.

  Sprinting toward emergency, she approached the desk as the paramedics wheeled in a stretcher. The sound of the emergency helicopter on the landing pad outside made her pulse race.

  They’d airlifted someone in. A highway accident?

  Moving toward them, her knees buckled as she recognized the Wild River Search and Rescue logo on the red-and-yellow jacket...

  Dark hair covered in blood...

  Reed.

  Her heartbeat echoed off the hospital walls. The floor beneath her felt unsteady. She forced a deep breath, trying everything to remain in doctor mode. That’s what the man she loved depended on right now. “What happened?” she asked, taking the chart from the paramedic with a shaking hand.

  Her father and Dr. Richardson were reading over her shoulder.

  “Search and rescue volunteer...fell from the side of Canyon Ridge,” the young paramedic said, wheeling the stretcher toward the hall.

  “Injuries?” It was Dr. Richardson’s question.

  “Broken bones in both ankles and one wrist, a dislocated shoulder and fractured ribs on both sides...and suspected internal bleeding from damage to the spleen.”

  Her breath caught in her throat as she stared at Reed. Unresponsive.

  “Wild River Community Hospital wanted him airlifted here,” the young paramedic said. “Patient’s name is...”

  “Reed Reynolds.” She could barely breathe as she touched the blanket above his chest. Internal bleeding, broken bones—his injuries were extensive. How long had he been unconscious out there on the mountainside? Her mind and heart were a mess. They needed to get him into surgery right away.

  “Reed Reynolds,” her father said. “Cassie’s brother?”

  And the man she’d been preparing to start a new life with, leaving everything she knew behind.

  Now he was lying on a stretcher fighting for his life.

  She nodded, unable to speak as they wheeled him down the hall to prep for surgery. At the doctors’ station, she grabbed her surgical scrubs and headed toward the locker room. There was no time to waste.

  At the doors, her father stopped her. “You resigned, remember.”

  Was he serious? Five seconds ago. “Dad, I have to help him...”

  He studied her. “You can’t perform surgery when you’re this close to the patient. You know that.”

  She swallowed hard, watching through the glass as Reed was wheeled farther and farther away. Dr. Richardson was already in his scrubs at the sink, washing up.

  Hospital protocol prevented her from operating on family and friends...and he was both. More than that. He had her heart.

  He needed to pull through. He had to be okay.

  “He needs me,” she said.

  “He needs a doctor with steady hands,” her father replied, holding hers up in front of her face. “You’re in no condition to perform surgery.”

  He was right, but this feeling of helplessness if she wasn’t in that room might kill her. “I love him,” she whispered.

  Her father’s arms around her broke the dam around her heart and tears streamed down her cheeks before she could try to stop them.

  He smoothed her hair away from her face and held her to his chest. “Shh...it’s okay.”

  She couldn’t remember the last time he’d hugged her. Or offered any comfort. Even at her mother’s funeral, he’d relied on others to offer her support.

  How could he possibly know that right now was the most important moment he could be there for her? She clung to his lab coat as sobs escaped her. She couldn’t lose Reed.

  A second later, she took a deep breath and moved away. She couldn’t waste time crying. “I can save him,” she said. She held up her hands, willing them to be rock-solid. She could push emotion aside and focus on doing her job. This time more than ever, she needed to.

  Her father nodded. “I know, but there’s regulations for a reason.” He took her hands and she couldn’t deny their unsteadiness. The trembling was something she’d never experienced before and she couldn’t honestly say she could pull it together enough to perform the operation successfully.

  But leaving Reed’s fate to another doctor made her nauseous. Dr. Richardson was a seasoned professional, but this was the man she loved. Being on the other side of this was eye-opening. Being the terrified one, watching helplessly while a loved one fought for life was the singular worst feeling ever.

  “Will you do it?” she asked her father.

  He hesitated. “Er
ika, I haven’t performed a spleen operation in years... Dr. Richardson does them routinely.” He glanced toward the operating room. “Once they begin, who knows what else they’ll discover...”

  She winced at the unsettling assessment but shook her head. He was right. Reed’s injuries were severe and there could be more. Which was why her father needed to perform the surgery.

  “You’re the only person I trust to save the man I love.” She took a deep breath. “Please, Dad. I need your help. I can’t lose him.” Again.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

  SIX EXCRUCIATING HOURS LATER, the door to the waiting room opened and her father reappeared.

  Despite an urge to rush forward, Erika held back slightly to allow Cassie and Arlene to move in first, but she was right behind them.

  The two women had arrived a few hours before and the three of them had sat together in the surgery waiting room, trying to keep their spirits up and thoughts positive. Arlene had recounted stories about Reed as a child and every now and then, they’d stop talking to hug, to cry, to pray.

  Her father was the best surgeon in Alaska, Erika had repeated to the group. And Reed was a fighter, they’d all said. Anything to help ease the anxiety they all felt.

  But as time had dragged on, the doctor in her was wondering what was taking so long and her mind went straight to worst possible scenarios. Her father must have been right when he’d said there may be other injuries.

  Luckily, she knew by the look on his face that the surgery had gone well. Her shoulders sagged with relief as he removed his surgical mask and tucked it into the pocket of his scrubs. She rarely saw him dressed for surgery these days and it reminded her of when he’d come home after long shifts at Wild River Community Hospital.

  Her father had been her superhero back then, just like he was now.