“Okay, but if you think of anything that might help your case then let us know. We will help you all we can.”
Aaron murmured his thanks and turned towards the staircase but Amy suddenly appeared and stopped him on his way up. She grabbed hold of his hand and dragged him back to Paul’s office.
Half an hour later he was shaking his head as he walked towards his room, wondering what on earth he had just agreed to.
He shut his bedroom door behind him and stood for a moment while he considered all his options. There weren’t that many. He walked across the room and only discovered that he had the three recipe books still tucked under his arm when he sat down in front of the computer and lifted the cover. He put them on one side of his dresser and switched on his laptop. His fingers hovered over the keyboard as he felt his own heart thumping rapidly in his chest.
He opened up his email account. There were no new messages. No new answers to his questions. He hadn’t really expected any. This was it. They were hanging him out to dry and he would just have to suck it up and move on.
Just as he had done before.
There was no way that he could fight back. He didn’t have the resources or the contacts.
He made a decision, one he hoped that he’d never regret.
He typed in a few words, but hesitated before he made his choice irrevocable. He looked around the room and his eyes rested on the recipe books. For the first time he stopped worrying about not flying and wondered what the result of his email would mean for him and Gemma. Paul’s story about Amy’s abduction and near entombing had him thinking about Gemma’s reasoning behind her dislike of flying again, maybe even her attitude towards him.
He let out a breath and came to a decision. It would mean everything would be over before it had even begun, but he didn’t really have another choice. Paul had been right. He couldn’t keep hiding and he couldn’t hurt her. Better she found out now than further down the line.
His fingertip grazed the key and he breathed out before he slammed it down hard. He stared at the computer screen as the little blue circle whirled for a few seconds before it stopped and flashed up the message. ‘Your email has been sent’. It was done. There was no going back. He slumped forwards over the dresser, his head held in his hands.
He’d been telling Paul the truth when he said that he wasn’t anything to discover about him. Well, there was nothing to discover beyond ten years previously.
There couldn’t be.
Aaron Thomas hadn’t existed.
Chapter Six
It was all her fault. Gemma felt terrible and knew that she should never have listened to the obstinate man when he insisted that he could manage on his own.
She sat beside a grimacing Jason as the doctor tutted and frowned and poked and prodded at Jason’s knee. The doctor shot off quick questions in rapid French and glared at Gemma when she couldn’t answer quickly enough. He eventually scribbled something on some notes and handed it to the petite nurse standing with them, who promptly disappeared behind the screens.
They had all limped into the hospital nearly two hours earlier and almost caused a riot. One of the nurses at the reception had assumed that the limping, stumbling team carrying the huge, bleeding man had just survived a road traffic accident and it had taken a dramatic show of prosthetic limbs, healing scars, broken spectacles and a lot of explanation to reassure her and the rest of the staff that it was only Jason who needed any immediate attention and that was caused due to him falling over his own feet.
After numerous sheets of form filling and umpteen signatures along with the reassurance that Paul would email Jason’s EHIC details from the château and inform their insurance company, he had been taken through some double doors to be seen by the doctor.
Gemma clutched at Jason’s arm and prayed that he didn’t hate her.
“Shit! I’m so sorry Jason. This shouldn’t have happened. I should have been paying more attention.” She squirmed in her seat as she remembered thinking that Aaron’s eyes were the exact colour of the sea just before Jason went sprawling over the rocks. “And I should have been learning French instead of sailing so much. I don’t have a clue about half of what that doctor said. I hope I haven’t said anything stupid or given him the wrong information.”
Jason laughed through the pain in his knee, his hands and his face. He’d twisted his leg badly when his shoe became trapped between some rocks. His prosthetic foot had lifted clean out of his boot on his next step and immediately sank into a trench of dangerously soft sand with the ultimate result of him thrusting out his hands in an unsuccessful attempt to save himself from nose diving into the next set of shell covered rocks.
“No, you’re fine. It’s okay, you didn’t say anything wrong. I would have intervened if you had.” He laughed at Gemma’s confused expression. “You’re lucky that my grandmother was French. I’m pretty fluent. It was only basic stuff he asked, you know; does it hurt if I do this or grind when I do that...I was saying ‘oui’ or ‘non’ at the appropriate places. I nearly laughed when he asked if I’d ever had trouble with my legs before, though. Did you see the colour he went when he realized what he was asking me? I nearly felt sorry for him.” Jason’s chuckle was low and long.
Gemma’s eyes widened in surprise and then narrowed again when she realized that she had been fooled. She stood up with her hands on her hips and faced him.
“Why, you arse! You just sat there and let me suffer the humiliation of my own ignorance while you knew exactly what he was saying. Why didn’t you tell me?”
Jason sniggered and then winced as the cut over his nose opened again. He pressed a cloth that the nurse had given him, to it.
“Well, I’m the one who is actually suffering the most. I couldn’t let you get off with a freebie.”
“Freebie? Bastard! I feel really bad as it is. I don’t need to feel any more inadequate.”
Jason rolled his eyes.
“Don’t be so dramatic. It’s just a twisted knee and a few scratches. If I’m scarred for life, I’ll sue you.” The rumble of laughter in his huge chest had her shaking her head. Jason wiped a tear of hilarity from beneath his eye before carrying on. “They are going to take a couple of x-rays just to make sure nothing is out of place in my kneecap and then I’ll just have to rest it for a few days. Not a big problem. I’ll let you shove me about in a wheelchair if you feel that bad about it.”
She looked him up and down. He was a huge guy even without the bottoms of his legs. His shoulders looked a similar size and shape to the boulders he had fallen into and his biceps appeared to be about the width of her thigh. She shook her head at the thought of pushing him around in a wheelchair.
“I doubt I’d get the thing to move at all with you sat in it. I’ll make Ben do it as he was the one that laughed the most when you hit your nose on that wall of rock.”
The nurse suddenly swished back the curtain surrounding the cubicle and pushed a wheelchair forwards. She rolled her eyes as she measured the width of the chair in comparison to Jason and shook her head. There was no way that he would be able to squeeze his huge frame into the seat with any degree of comfort. She prattled on in French to him and disappeared again. Five minutes later she returned with a slightly bigger chair. Jason manoeuvred his way into it and waved to Gemma as they left the area with the petite nurse puffing and blowing behind him while he sat with a huge grin pasted onto his grazed face.
Gemma stood up and grabbed up Jason’s prosthetic lower limb from the floor. It was a lot heavier than her own false arm and she wondered for a moment how he could ever walk about, clambering over rocks for nearly three hours with two of the things attached to him.
She walked out into the waiting area where the rest of the guys were hanging around flirting outrageously with anyone who took any notice of them. That was practically everyone in the casualty department, even a few of the men.
The three of them stopped immediately the door opened and they all looked up expectantl
y, concern covering their faces as Gemma walked towards them. She didn’t keep them waiting for the news as they gathered round her.
“It’s okay, he’s going to be fine. A nurse has taken him for some x-rays. It doesn’t appear that anything’s broken, but what with the extra strain his knees have to take they’re not taking any chances.” She slumped down in a chair.
Ben took Jason’s false leg and still wet boot from her as she covered her face with her hands.
“It’s not your fault you know. We’re all responsible for our own actions and he insisted that he was fine just before he took a nose dive.” He patted her shoulder with his free hand.
Gemma shook her head and fought back the tears that gathered in her eyes. She could barely form the words that choked her.
“What if he’s permanently damaged his knee and can’t use his prosthetic. If he can’t walk on it again I’ll never forgive myself.”
William walked over and squatted in front of her. He peered at her closely through his broken glasses as he reached up for her arms and gave her a little shake.
“Gem...Don’t be daft. What else could you have done? If you had tried to save him from falling you would have been crushed and hurt badly. He’s at least twice the size of you.”
She shivered uncontrollably, the shock of the situation settling into her stomach. They all looked a mess. Covered in sand, damp with seawater and William with a broken pair of spectacles where they had been dropped and trodden on in the commotion on the rocks.
“I know. I know, but I’m clearly not cut out for this job at all. I thought I could do it but I obviously can’t. I’ll tell Paul I’m leaving when we get back. I can’t be trusted to keep you all safe.” She lifted her hand and worried the skin at the side of her nail with her teeth.
Karl burst into great howls of laughter.
“What are you...my mother now? Jeez Gem, no one expects you to keep us safe and we wouldn’t want you to try. We all grew up and took responsibility for our own actions a long time ago. We were only walking over a few rocks. Nothing major. It was just an accident; could have happened anytime. No one is blaming you.”
Ben pulled her hand away from her face.
“You’ll spoil your manicure if you bite your nails like that,” he warned and gave a gentle smile as he closed his hand around hers.
She gave a watery laugh.
“I didn’t think any of you would notice.”
Ben raised his eyebrows.
“Are you mad? Do you think we’re blind...Oops sorry Will, forgot about you for a moment there.” William aimed a jab at Ben, but it was Karl who let out a whoosh of air as William’s fist missed Ben completely and landed in Karl’s stomach. Ben laughed as Karl doubled over and pretended to stagger around in agony. He looked back and winked at Gemma who was trying to hide a smile at their daft antics. “Of course we noticed what you had been up to. Made us all wonder why the sudden changes though. I mean we all thought you looked just fine in the first place, but after that dance last night, well, it was a bit obvious. It makes us all jealous of the guy benefiting from the sudden changes.”
Gemma groaned. Was it that obvious?
“Shit! There’s not much can get by you guys.”
Ben shook his head.
“Nope, not when you’re the best looking girl around. I confess that I was a bit pissed off with him first of all but I daresay I’ll get over it.” He gave a dramatic sniff and placed his hand over his heart before he stopped mucking about. “Aaron’s actually all right. That hand of his looks awful though, like he had all the skin ripped from it. Painful.”
Karl snorted.
“Not as painful as phantom limb syndrome. That freaks me out sometimes. I mean, how can you have a pain in something that’s not there? I’ve tried everything and am now contemplating hypnotherapy.”
Gemma remembered the agonies that she had suffered in the months after her own injury.
“Have you talked to David or Patrick. They might have some ideas that could help. I understand that hands and arms are different than legs, but I got rid of mine by looking at my own real hand in the mirror. The reflection makes it appear that I still have two arms. Somehow the image you see tricks your brain into thinking that your arm is there and the pain disappears almost instantly. Well, it did for me but apparently everyone’s experience is different.”
Will scratched his head and looked at his foot.
“Weird! Not sure that would work with feet. I know Jason suffers with it too. I’ll ask the guys what they did.” He stopped as a door reopened and Jason was pushed through by the now very hot looking nurse. His knee was encased in a thick support, his hands wrapped in bandages and there was a wide plaster stuck across his the cut on his nose. It looked as though his eyes would turn black by the morning.
He raised a bandaged hand as the others crowded around him.
“All done and nothing to worry about, though I’m scheduled for a check up in three days if someone could bring me back.” He glanced over his shoulder and gave the nurse behind him a big grin. Her already flushed face blushed even more deeply and she gave him a shy smile back before she turned to Gemma. She took some paperwork from a clipboard hanging from the back of the wheelchair and handed it across.
“Yes, if you could remember to bring this back with you it will save a lot of time. You can come directly to outpatients. I will check Jason over and see if ‘e needs any physiotherapy before we get ‘im back on ‘is feet. If ‘e can rest ‘is leg as much as possible ‘opefully there will be less swelling by then.”
Jason waggled his eyebrows at her.
“You sure you would like to see less swelling?” He gave her a quick wink with a twinkling blue eye.
The nurse turned crimson and then laughed as she tapped his huge shoulder with her clipboard.
“You are the most terrible Englishman I ‘ave ever ‘ad the pleasure to meet. I’ll see you in a few days.” She turned the wheelchair handles towards Ben and walked back into the bowels of the hospital.
Jason coughed into his hand as Gemma rolled her eyes at him.
“Good grief! I leave you alone for ten minutes and you are propositioning the staff. They’ll be sending in complaints of harassment if you keep doing that.”
Jason arched his brows and feigned complete innocence.
“I was doing nothing of the sort. I am being re habilitated into the general population and a certain amount of light hearted banter is to be expected. I assumed that was what I was here for.” He grinned and eyed the door that the nurse had disappeared through before he lowered his voice and beckoned the men to gather round. “Her name’s Charlotte Lesmaes. She’s twenty five and single, thank God! She has a younger brother called Antoine, an older sister called Collette and a dog called Tibau. She’s been a nurse for two years and still lives with her mother just outside Roscoff. Lovely, isn’t she? I asked her out already, but she says that she’s on lates for the next two weeks. Bloody shame, though I managed to get her phone number out of her. She’s off the week after that and I’m absolutely sure I’ll still be here. I’m going to take her out as soon as I’m back on my feet.” He lifted his chin and looked proudly around at his friends as they slapped him on his back and congratulated him on his quick thinking.
Ben began pushing Jason.
“Well, you didn’t waste any time. We all thought Gemma was the only one with love on her mind, but we were evidently mistaken.” He was clearly impressed.
“I do not have love on my mind, idiot.” Gemma spoke through gritted teeth.
Jason looked back over his shoulder at her and snorted.
“You could have fooled us. All that new hair-do and make-up. You even had your legs waxed.”
She drew in a deep breath.
“How the hell did you notice that?” She was more mortified than she cared to admit.
He grinned unapologetically.
“When you were swimming last week.” He covered his head with his arms in a
premeditated defence. “I swear that I’ll never look again, but I couldn’t help but notice that your legs were a lot smoother last night when you were wearing that green frock than they had been when you were in the pool.”
That he had even noticed that her legs were not hair free the week before was beyond enough. She groaned as she waited for the ground to open up and swallow her. It didn’t. Instead Joe opened the door of the waiting Land Rover and peered out at her.
“You lot okay? Nothing potentially fatal, obviously.” He sounded only mildly concerned as he glanced over the rest of the men and noted that none of them seemed about to die on him.
Gemma let out a relieved breath.
“Great, you got my message then. Sorry we’ve been so long. I hope it hasn’t upset any of your plans for today.”
Joe shook his head.
“No, I was only working on some new activities.” He frowned down at Jason’s bandaged body. “What happened to you? You look as though you were either in a car accident and went through the windscreen or Gemma here beat you up for something. I hope you didn’t do anything to upset her.” He grinned as Jason rolled his eyes and eased himself out of the wheelchair. He balanced on one foot before he sat into the passenger seat backwards and swivelled around to face the front of the car.
“As if I’d dare! No, nothing so dangerous as upsetting Gemma I’m afraid, or even being in a motor pile up. I fell arse over tit into some rocks when my foot became stuck in the sand. We’d been walking over the rocks and where the tide had only just gone out, the sand was still very soft at the base. Gem tried to warn me as we came off them, but I obviously knew best and didn’t listen. She’s trying to take the blame, but it was entirely my own fault. It’s all superficial, shell cuts mostly. Don’t worry about it. The bandages make it look worse than it is. I only insisted on having them on my hands and getting my nose dressed because the nurse was an absolute peach. While she was sorting out my nose, her breasts were...well, I’ll let you imagine.” He sighed deeply before he grinned again. “I managed to get her phone number!” He sounded thrilled by his own achievement. Gemma was about to speak up and confess that she was at fault for his accident, but reading her mind, Jason held up his hand to stop her. “Gem, shut up will you. I can take responsibility for my own actions. Stop acting like a mother hen.”
Scarred Survival (Scarred Series Book 5) Page 11