by Emily Forbes
There was only him.
He had to help her.
He took a step towards her but his knees buckled under him, surprising him, and he found himself kneeling on the floor in a pool of his own blood.
He was bent double and it hurt to breathe, but at least he was still breathing. His left hand was pressed against his stomach, just below his ribs, and he could feel his lungs inflate and deflate. His stomach muscles screamed and his right hand throbbed, but he was alive and breathing. Kitty still hadn’t moved.
He moved his left hand, placing it on the floor to stabilise himself. He pressed his right elbow into his side and applied pressure to his abdominal wound as he crawled across the floor to Kitty, leaving a trail of blood in his wake.
She was still slumped against the wall. She was pale and her eyes were closed. He could see the small bump of her pregnancy under the blue fabric of her scrubs and he could see the rise and fall of her chest just above the bump. He let out a sigh of relief and some of the tension he’d been holding dissolved with the sigh. She was breathing.
He knelt beside her and reached out, putting his left hand on her shoulder. He winced in pain as the movement stretched his stomach.
‘Kitty, can you hear me? Open your eyes.’ He shook her shoulder, very gently, and his hand left a bloody print on her top. ‘Kitty?’ he repeated, and he could hear the desperation in his voice.
There was no response.
‘I need some help here,’ he called over his shoulder. The sound was loud in his ears, echoing off the walls that were still bathed in blue and red lights from the police cruisers, but there was no reaction. Everyone was busy.
He knew only seconds had passed since he’d stepped inside the ED, even though it felt like an eternity, but Kitty needed help. She needed a doctor.
Joe looked up and saw Anna on the far side of the department and called her by name. He saw her turn in his direction. He could see as she registered all the blood and hurried over to him.
‘Not me,’ he said as Anna knelt beside him, assuming he was the one who needed help. ‘Check Kitty. She’s non-responsive.’ He knew he needed medical attention, but in his mind Kitty’s need was greater. She was living for two.
* * *
‘Kitty, can you hear me?’
Joe?
A bright flash of light startled her but as she lifted one hand to block it out it disappeared, only to reappear again a moment later. She felt her eyelids drop and the light went out again.
‘Left pupil sluggish.’
‘Kitty? Can you hear me? It’s Anna Lewis.’
Anna? She was sure she’d heard Joe’s voice. What was going on?
‘Kitty, open your eyes.’
She opened her eyes and saw the ED doctor squatting in front of her. Why were they both on the floor?
Kitty could hear Anna talking to her and she tried to focus, tried to concentrate on Anna’s words. ‘You fell and hit your head. We’re going to put you on a stretcher and take you to be examined.’
Kitty frowned as she tried to work out what was going on. She felt pressure on her arm, someone was wrapping a blood-pressure cuff around it. She turned her head but the movement made her wince as pain stabbed behind her eyes. She lifted her hand to her head. There was a massive lump at the back of her skull and she had a killer headache.
She closed her eyes as bile rose in her throat. ‘I think I’m going to be sick.’
Someone thrust a green bowl towards her, just in time, and Kitty retched into the plastic container.
She lifted her head as she finished vomiting but the pain hadn’t eased. If anything, vomiting had made her head throb even more. Out of the corner of one eye she could see someone being restrained by half a dozen men—cops and security guards crowded the ED but she resisted the temptation to turn her head to get a better look, not game to risk more pain. She closed her eyes as the pressure inside her head increased. It felt like her head was on the verge of exploding. The ED was chaotic. Noisy and crowded. People were yelling and moving past quickly. She just wanted some peace and quiet. She just wanted to sleep.
She felt the blood-pressure cuff being loosened around her arm. Heard someone say, ‘BP one-sixty over one hundred.’
‘Kitty? I need you to open your eyes. I need you to stay awake.’ She heard Anna speaking to her. She didn’t want to open her eyes. She didn’t want to do anything. But she forced one eye open, and then the other. She sensed it was important to do as Anna asked.
Her eyes focussed on a pool of blood on the floor next to her. Where had that come from? Was it hers?
And then she remembered.
The baby!
‘Anna?’ She pointed to the blood as she struggled to speak. Her tongue felt swollen and her mouth was dry. She struggled to form even a simple word. Her heart pounded in her chest and she could feel the accompanying thump in her brain. ‘The baby?’
‘Don’t worry, it’s not your blood,’ Anna said.
‘Whose...?’
‘It’s Joe’s.’
Another wave of nausea engulfed her and black spots swarmed in front of her eyes as her vision blurred. She resisted the urge to close her eyes and give in. Joe’s? What had happened? What had happened to Joe? She needed to know how he was. Where he was. She looked around the ED but moving her head hurt, and moving her eyes wasn’t any better. The nausea intensified and the black spots multiplied and were accompanied now by a ringing in her ears, and as the chaos and noise continued around her she succumbed to the fatigue.
* * *
Images flashed through Kitty’s brain like drawings in a flip book, but instead of evolving into something recognisable the pictures were jumbled, nonsensical and fleeting. Too fleeting to grab hold of and decipher. There were snippets of conversation, flashes of light and a sensation of falling but nothing that made sense. Her head throbbed and her body ached. She felt battered and bruised but couldn’t figure out why.
Her left elbow was sore and when she opened her eyes she could see an IV line snaking its way into her vein.
‘Hi. I was wondering when you’d wake up.’ Lisa stood at the end of the bed, having moved into the line of Kitty’s vision. ‘You caused quite a commotion.’
‘I did?’ Kitty frowned. ‘What happened? What am I doing here?’
‘You don’t remember?’
Kitty shook her head before realising that was a bad idea. ‘No,’ she said.
‘This guy came into the ED, high on methamphetamines, yelling about how “they” were after him. He shoved you. You fell and hit your head and then Joe came in like an avenging angel and—’
‘Joe?’ Kitty remembered someone saying something about him.
‘Yes. He managed to distract the guy, to stop him from assaulting you further, but he was attacked. The guy had a knife.’
A knife! Kitty’s heart rate escalated as she remembered the blood. All that blood. It was Joe’s. ‘Is he all right? Joe? Is he all right?’
‘You should have seen him, Kitty. He was amazing. He saved your life.’
Her headache was getting worse. She needed Lisa to stop talking but first she needed an answer. ‘Lisa, is Joe OK?’
‘He was stabbed,’ Lisa said, but she was nodding. ‘In the stomach. He had to go into Theatre, but he’s out now.’
Kitty breathed out.
‘Can you take me to him?’ She was exhausted and sore but she had an overwhelming desire to see him.
‘I don’t think you’re allowed to be moved,’ Lisa said, just as Anna came into the room.
‘You need to rest, Kitty,’ she told her, making it clear she’d heard the last part of the conversation.
‘I want to see Joe.’
‘Joe is going to be fine. You need to rest.’
She didn’t think she’d be able to rest, not until she’d seen Joe.<
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‘Jess and Cam are on their way,’ Anna continued, ‘and the baby needs you to rest. I’m not arguing about this.’
‘The baby—’
‘Is fine.’
Kitty realised she had instinctively put one hand on her belly. It had become a habit. She held it there, waiting, hoping, needing to feel some movement. ‘Are you sure?’
‘We did an ultrasound. The baby is fine,’ Anna repeated, just as Kitty felt the baby kick. She had a vague recollection of being moved and lifted. Had that been for the scans?
‘You need monitoring,’ Anna said. ‘Your blood pressure is still high and if it doesn’t come down I’ll need to administer hydralazine, and I am going to arrange a CT scan of your head too. Your baby is fine but I’m sure you want to keep it that way?’
Kitty nodded carefully, agreeing with Anna. But only for her baby’s sake.
* * *
Joe opened his eyes. The room was dark and it wasn’t his room.
Was it morning or night?
He could remember being woken but couldn’t remember where he was.
He could hear electronic beeping. Turning his head, he could see monitors beside the bed.
A hospital bed.
He tried to sit up but pain knifed through his abdominals, making him gasp. He clutched his stomach with his right hand and gasped again as pain sliced through his hand as well.
He looked down and saw that his right hand was bandaged, and the memories flooded back. The man. A knife. Kitty!
He tried again to sit up. He needed to find out if Kitty was OK, but the pain in his stomach screamed at him not to move. He lifted the bed sheet with his left hand and saw the dressing on his stomach. He let the sheet fall and rested his head on the pillow.
He should have known better. He’d seen plenty of patients high on drugs and he’d seen first-hand the inhuman strength the drug gave them. He should have known better, but he hadn’t stopped to think about that this time. All he’d been able to think about was Kitty. All he’d seen was Kitty, lying motionless on the floor, with a manic fool headed straight for her.
The clock on the monitor beside his bed said six-thirty and the light around the edge of the window blinds in the room looked like morning, but he had no clue as to what day it was or how long he’d been there.
The call bell was pinned to the left side of his bed. He pressed the button for the nurse.
‘Good morning. Back in the land of the living, I see,’ the nurse said as she came into the room.
Morning.
That was one question answered.
Joe scanned the nurse’s ID badge. North Sydney Hospital. The name ‘Paula’ was typed under her photo. He hadn’t moved far. Just upstairs onto a ward.
He frowned. ‘How long have I been here?’ He held up his bandaged hand. ‘And what have they done to me?’
‘You were brought to the ward from Recovery last night. You had a deep stab wound to your right abdomen. You had emergency surgery to clean it out and close it up.’
‘What about my hand?’
‘You’ve been referred to Dr Clark, she’s a hand surgeon, she’ll discuss that with you. Now, what can I help you with? Do you need something? More pain relief?’ The nurse picked up the tubing that was feeding pain relief through Joe’s arm into his body. He’d seen the monitors but hadn’t noticed the IV pump.
‘I don’t need pain relief but can you find out about a nurse who works here. Kitty Nelson? She was injured in the ED in the same incident as me. Do you know if she’s OK?’
‘Are you her next of kin?’
‘No.’ His heart leapt and lodged in his throat. Why was she asking about Kitty’s next of kin? ‘What happened to her?’
‘You know I can’t tell you about other patients.’
‘Please,’ he begged. He had to know if she was all right. He had to know she’d made it.
Paula was older than Joe, closer to forty than thirty, and he doubted his charms would work on her. She’d probably seen and heard it all before. A young nurse would no doubt be more accommodating but he had to try. ‘I got into this mess by trying to protect her. I need to know if she’s all right.’ Paula wore a wedding ring so he tried appealing to her sense of romance, hoping she was happily married to someone who would protect her if necessary.
She looked at him and he smiled. There was no point in pretending he wasn’t trying to get her on side.
‘OK, I’ll see what I can find out.’
It was only when Paula left that he realised he should have asked about the baby too. But, if he was honest, the baby wasn’t his concern. Kitty was.
Joe had a constant stream of people in and out of his room for the next ninety minutes. First was the upper limb specialist, who advised him he would need surgery on his hand. The knife had cut through the flexor tendon of his little finger. It could have been worse but even so it would mean six weeks in a hand splint, and surgery had been scheduled for her afternoon list today.
The surgeon had been followed by the police, who wanted a statement from him, but he had no good answer for them about why he’d acted as he had. He’d reacted. That was the best explanation he had. He’d reacted without thinking.
Although not totally without thought, but his only consideration had been for Kitty. He’d been taught to assess the danger before diving in but there hadn’t been time for that. He’d seen Kitty lying on the floor and reacted, ignoring all his training. His only thought had been Kitty’s safety, he hadn’t considered his own at all.
Despite the fact that Joe hadn’t exactly followed protocols, the police also wanted to know if he would like to press charges. But unless pressing charges meant Kitty’s assailant would be forced to undergo rehab Joe didn’t see the point, and he didn’t want to spend any longer than necessary on filing paperwork. He wanted everyone to get out of his room—unless they were bringing him news of Kitty.
But Paula went one better than news. Five minutes after the police had left she wheeled Kitty into his room.
His heart missed a beat when he saw her in a wheelchair. She had dark circles under her eyes but she was smiling. Maybe things weren’t as bad as he’d feared. ‘Kitty! Are you OK?’
She nodded slowly. ‘I have a concussion, a headache, a bit of dizziness and a few bruises, but otherwise I’m fine,’ she said, as Paula put the brakes on the wheelchair and told them she’d be back in ten minutes.
‘And the baby?’
‘Is fine too,’ Kitty said, as she stood and took the two steps to Joe’s bedside. She bent over and kissed his cheek. ‘I’m doing better than you by the looks of things.’
‘I’m OK.’ He was much better now that he’d seen her with his own two eyes.
‘Lisa said you got stabbed.’
‘Slashed, more precisely.’ He held up his right hand, downplaying his injuries. ‘A cut to my hand and one to my stomach.’
‘Lisa also said you saved my life.’
‘That’s a definite over-exaggeration.’
Kitty wasn’t so sure. She preferred to believe Lisa’s version of events. The version where Joe had rushed to her side like a knight in shining armour. No one had ever done that for her before. It sounded very romantic but she knew she’d just embarrass him if she made a big deal out of it. It was a big deal to her. ‘Thank you anyway,’ she said, before kissing his cheek again. ‘How long will you be in here for?’ she asked as she sat carefully on the edge of his bed.
‘Hopefully only until tomorrow. I’m having surgery on my hand this afternoon.’
‘Surgery?’
‘I have to have a tendon repaired, which means six weeks in a splint, but I shouldn’t need long in hospital.’
‘Does that mean six weeks off work?’ Kitty asked. She knew he’d go mad from boredom if he was out of action for that long.
‘I�
�m sure there will be office work or something I can do,’ he said. ‘Paramedics are always getting injured on the job, there’s a constant rotation through the office of ambos on light duties or returning from extended time off. I’m sure they’ll find me something. Otherwise I’ll go around to Cam and Jess’s and help paint the nursery.’
‘Left-handed?’
‘Sure.’
She smiled. ‘Jess won’t let you anywhere near her nursery. She’s been planning it for ever.’ Jess was an interior designer and Kitty knew that her baby’s nursery would be the most important project her sister had ever tackled. She had already spent hours obsessing over paint colours, fabrics and furniture to make sure it was perfect. ‘You’re going to be sidelined for a while, though, aren’t you? Showering and dressing will be difficult, let alone cooking.’ She’d been a nurse for long enough to know the difficulties Joe would face, being right-handed and living alone. ‘You might have to get Victoria to give you a hand when you’re discharged.’
‘Victoria?’
‘Yes, haven’t the two of you got a thing going on?’
‘We hooked up a couple of times if that’s what you mean but I wouldn’t say we had a thing. I’ve told her it can’t be anything serious and I certainly won’t be asking her to help me out.’
Joe never had anything serious going on with his women, Kitty knew that. He went through them faster than Kitty could blink but suddenly her day didn’t seem quite so dismal.
‘What will you do?’
‘No idea,’ he replied. ‘I’ll figure something out.’
‘I can help if you’d like?’
‘What with? I’m not letting you do all the heavy lifting when you’re seven months pregnant.’
‘Why not? It won’t be hard, in fact, it’ll be easier than what I have to cope with at work. No aggressive drugged-out patients, for a start. And I won’t be allowed back to work until my symptoms have all settled. We can keep each other company while we recover,’ she said, as Paula returned to take her back to her room. ‘Think about it. I’ll come back and see you later after your surgery. You can tell me your answer then.’