Rescued: Mother and Baby

by Anne Fraser

  His face crumpled as fresh tears coursed down his cheeks. ‘I don’t know. I saw her coming towards me after I fell. Then she disappeared. I tried to phone her on my mobile, but she didn’t answer. She’s all right, isn’t she?’

  ‘Don’t worry, we’ll find your mum for you.’ She relayed the information to Logan, who wouldn’t have been able to hear the boy’s words above the noise of the helicopter. ‘He says his mother fell trying to reach him—we have no information about a female casualty. Have you?’

  ‘No,’ Logan replied, looking worried. ‘We’ll find out more when we get him out of here and somewhere safe.

  ‘Let’s get you into the helicopter and to the ambulance,’ Logan said to the boy. ‘Then the helicopter will have a look for her. Okay?’

  He spoke into his mike and the helicopter moved until it was above them. The rotors whipped dust from the cliff side, forcing Georgie to bend her head against the dust that peppered her face. Logan turned to Georgie. ‘We’ll find the mother, don’t worry. We’ll be back as soon as we’ve dropped the lad.’

  Logan and Jack were lifted up, and a sudden gust from the helicopter as it swung away almost made Georgie lose her tenuous grip. And she would have, if it hadn’t been for the sudden increase in tension from the rope. Thank God she had managed to drive a bolt into the rock and thank God Kirk was keeping the rope taut. She and her brother had been climbing together all their lives and there was no one she would rather have protecting her back.

  Then, without warning, a chunk of the crumbling cliff under her foot broke away and rolled down the mountainside. Georgie pressed herself against the rock face and held on for dear life.

  Now she was really in trouble. Panic spiralled through her body.

  Before she could move, another piece of rock broke away, and she only had about a foot of ledge left to stand on. She had to get off the crumbling ledge—and she had to do it quickly. But for the first time in her life she was rooted to the spot, frozen with fear. She didn’t know if she could make her limbs respond to her commands.

  Sorry, Ian. I know I promised myself I wouldn’t do this any more—for our daughter’s sake. But I didn’t really have a choice, did I?

  Thinking of her little girl gave her the strength she needed. No way was her child going to lose two parents. Not while she had breath left in her body. Testing the rope still attached to her harness, Georgie forced her legs to move. She was not going to fall. Kirk still had a firm grip of the other end of the rope. There might yet be a danger that falling rocks from above could tumble down and hit her, but she wouldn’t think about that. She couldn’t abseil down for the same reason. Going higher wouldn’t work either. Above, there was only sheer rock face and the rope she was using wasn’t long enough. If she had more time, she could ask Kirk to send up another rope and join that one to the one she had. But time was a luxury she didn’t have. She had to move now. Staying where she was wasn’t an option.

  ‘I’m going move sideways and down to the next ledge, Kirk,’ she said into her radio. ‘There’s another casualty—the mother. The helicopter is going to look for her as soon as they drop the boy off.’

  ‘Be careful, sis,’ Kirk’s voice crackled over the radio. He didn’t need to say any more. He, more than most, would know exactly how dangerous the predicament she found herself in was.

  Georgie eased herself over the side of the cliff. Don’t think about what can happen, she told herself. Think about something else. Think about your daughter waiting for you at home.

  Looking down, a wave of vertigo washed over her. It had taken her precious minutes to travel less than a couple of feet and the cliff she was reaching for was still some distance away. Another rock tumbled from the ledge above, missing her head by inches. Her heart sank as she realised she still couldn’t risk going down or up. All she could do was to keep on inching her way to the side so she’d be away from the line of the falling rocks. Then she would have to think again. Maybe Kirk would have a bright idea.

  Taking a breath to try and quell the rising panic, she continued to move sideways, concentrating on finding footholds and places for her fingers to grip in the sheer rock.

  Glancing to her left, she noted with relief that she had moved far enough away from the crumbling cliff and the falling rocks. Good. At the very least, if she could hang on, Kirk would find a way to get her off the damned mountain.

  She looked up as the roar of the returning helicopter once again whipped dust into her face. Not that it would do her much good. The wind had picked up, and where she had moved to was under an overhang. There was no way the helicopter could get close enough to the mountainside to lift her off. No, it was down to her and Kirk. Although for the life of her, she couldn’t see an easy way off the mountain.

  Kirk came back on the radio. Perhaps he had a plan?

  ‘Georgie, they’re going to send someone down to get you off. Hold on there. They’ll be with you in a tick.’

  Georgie looked up to find the helicopter hovering dangerously close to the mountainside. Didn’t they realise the danger?

  ‘Tell them it’s too risky,’ she yelled back in to the radio. ‘We’ll have to think of something else.’

  But to her astonishment a figure was already being lowered from the body of the aircraft. She held her breath as the figure swung perilously close to the rock face. Then he was beside her, still suspended. Dr Logan Harris. What kind of doctor was he? No other doctor she knew acted as winchman.

  He held out a harness. The noise of the helicopter was too loud for her to make out what he was saying but the message was clear and there was no time to argue. The longer the helicopter stayed in the air, the greater the possibility of it crashing. Georgie slipped the harness over her head. Then she was being gripped around her waist by strong legs. She unhitched herself from her rope and seconds later they were swaying in the wind as the helicopter lifted them up and swung them away from the mountain. Looking up, she found brown eyes glinting down at her. Unbelievably, he was grinning. If she hadn’t known it was impossible, she would have swore he was enjoying himself.

  A few terrifying minutes later and helping hands were reaching out, pulling them into the safety of the helicopter. For a moment, Georgie lay in a heap, just getting her breath. It wasn’t as bad in the helicopter as she had feared. She couldn’t see outside and she could almost make herself believe that they were on the ground.

  ‘You okay?’ Logan Harris was searching her face. ‘You looked in real trouble there for a moment.’

  Well, that was one way of putting it. If Logan Harris and the crew of the helicopter hadn’t risked their lives to get her off the mountain, God only knew what would have happened. She hugged her legs to her chest as a wave of nausea washed over her. Now she was off the mountain, she couldn’t stop shaking.

  ‘By the way, this is Toby.’ Logan indicated the man who had helped them on board. Toby flicked his finger at his helmet in a brief salute. ‘We dropped Jack off at the bottom. The ambulance is going to take him to Fort William General. He’ll be there by now.’

  ‘What about Jack’s mother?’ She managed to force the words past numb lips.

  Logan’s radio buzzed and he listened intently. Then he and Toby moved to the open door and scanned the ground.

  ‘What is it?’ Georgie asked.

  ‘A call just came in. The hospital’s managed to get some more information from the boy. Apparently his mother’s definitely still out here. No one has reported a woman looking for the boy.’

  ‘She must be hurt. Probably unconscious. There is no way she wouldn’t have noticed what was happening with her son otherwise. She would have phoned for help at the very least.’

  Georgie glanced at her watch. ‘It’s been an hour since we got the call about the boy. That means the mother’s been out there for at least that time.’

  She and Logan looked at each other. If the mother had a head injury, time was critical. Georgie didn’t want to think of the alternative.

/>   Suddenly Toby pointed to something. Two figures on the ground were waving their jackets furiously. It could only mean one thing.

  ‘I see her,’ Logan said.

  Georgie crept across to the open side of the helicopter. Once again a wave of vertigo slammed into her as she saw the ground far below. What was going on? This had never happened to her before. The thought of being in a small plane again nauseated her, but she’d hoped it would be different inside a helicopter. But there wasn’t time to think about that now. The crewman was pointing to a flat piece of ground not far from where a body lay in a crumpled heap.

  ‘We can land there,’ he said, and spoke into his radio.

  Mist was already covering the tops of the mountains, snaking ever closer to where the woman lay. Time was of the essence. If the mist got any thicker, visibility would make everyone’s job much more difficult. It was even possible that the helicopter would have to leave and they’d have to attempt to get the victim to hospital on foot.

  As soon as the helicopter touched down, Logan jumped out. Georgie ran after him, struggling to keep on her feet in the wind of the slowing rotors.

  The climbers, a man and a woman, had stumbled across the inert form a few moments earlier. It was a good thing they had, as Jack’s mother must have fallen some distance and had come to rest almost underneath an enormous boulder. It was unlikely she would have been spotted from the air or that a rescue team on foot would have found her either. The passing climbers had covered her with jackets, but looked relieved to have help.

  ‘I don’t know what happened. I think she must have slipped on the scree and banged her head, but I can’t be sure. I can see blood underneath her head, but we didn’t want to move her,’ the female climber told Georgie and Logan.

  Georgie dropped to her knees beside Logan and the injured woman. Logan was checking her face. ‘Her airway is fine and her breathing seems to be OK too,’ he told Georgie.

  ‘Hello,’ she shouted into the woman’s ear, while Logan was searching for a pulse. ‘Can you hear me? My name’s Georgie and I’m a nurse. There’s a doctor here too. We’re going to help you.’

  There was no response. ‘Pulse is weak and rapid.’ Logan said. ‘Can you check her level of consciousness?’

  Georgie pressed the woman’s fingernail firmly. She groaned softly and pulled her hand away slightly. Good. At least she was responding to pain.

  A spreading red stain under the woman’s head made it obvious that, whatever other injuries she had, she had taken a nasty blow to her skull and possible brain injury would be the main concern. Georgie slipped on gloves and felt around the back of the unconscious woman’s head to feel the extent of the blow. Her fingertips came away sticky with blood, but it was hard to tell how badly she had cracked her skull.

  Logan was feeling along the woman’s chest and abdomen, checking for other injuries. ‘Nothing obvious,’ he said. Georgie knew that didn’t mean that there wasn’t something going on internally, though. Only a full examination at a hospital could verify that.

  The unconscious woman groaned softly. Logan whipped out the small torch from the medical bag he carried with him and shone the light in her eyes. Although the pupils responded, the left pupil was bigger than the right.

  The woman needed to get to hospital—and fast. Her initial head injury was bad enough but if there was more swelling inside the skull, the pressure would build up, causing permanent brain damage, possibly even death.

  ‘Has she been conscious at all?’ Georgie asked the climbers.

  They shook their heads. ‘Not since we got here.’

  Georgie put her mouth to the mother’s ear. ‘You’re going to be all right,’ she said, unsure whether the woman could hear her. ‘Jack’s okay. He’s off the cliff and being checked over in hospital. But he’s going to be fine.’

  Without knowing more, Georgie knew they had to suspect a spinal injury. The sooner the woman was in a specialist unit the better. An A and E nurse she might be, but working in a well-equipped unit was entirely different from being outdoors in dying light in the wilds of Scotland with a woman who shouldn’t be moved unnecessarily until a proper asessment had been made of her condition. Thank God there was a doctor with her who obviously knew what he was doing. It was a good thing too that the RAF helicopter was standing by. If it wasn’t here, they’d be in much greater difficulty than they already were. She looked up to see Toby returning with a stretcher.

  ‘We need to get this lady straight to the Glasgow City General’s neurosurgery unit as quickly as possible. If we take her to the Fort William General she’ll only have to be transferred to Glasgow later. It’ll be risky lifting her onto a stretcher from here, but I don’t think we have a choice.’

  While Logan spoke he was fitting a neck brace. ‘I can’t tell at this stage whether there’s a spinal injury. We’ll have to immobilise her as best we can for the trip.’

  By this time, Kirk had joined them. He gave his sister a quick hug then stood back to let them get on with seeing to the fallen woman. He must have realised that, with his broken wrist, he would only get in the way if he tried to help.

  Quickly Georgie, Toby and Logan, with the help of the two passing climbers, slid the stretcher under the injured woman, taking care not to cause any unnecessary movement, and strapped her in place. Moments later, they were loading her into the helicopter.

  ‘Do you want a lift?’ Logan asked. Once again he grinned and a dimple appeared in his cheek. ‘The weather’s closing in and you must be exhausted.’

  She summoned the biggest smile she could manage. Apart from having Jess waiting for her at home, the last thing she wanted was to go up in the helicopter again.

  ‘The trip back down is a piece of cake,’ she told Logan firmly. ‘You just get Jack’s mum to Glasgow and don’t worry about me.’

  Kirk stepped forward and placed his uninjured arm around Georgie’s shoulders. ‘She’s right. Georgie is the last person you have to worry about on these mountains. She’s like a cat,’ he said. ‘I’ll make sure she gets down in one piece.’

  Logan seemed doubtful. ‘It’s getting dark.’ He jumped into the helicopter where Toby was securing the stretcher.

  ‘Hey, Georgie and I could go down this mountain blindfolded. Couldn’t we, sis?’ Kirk said.

  Logan glanced up at Kirk, obviously noting the family resemblance for the first time. While Kirk’s hair wasn’t nearly as red as hers, it had the merest hint of russet in its dark depths. Apart from that, Georgie knew she and her brother had almost identical eyes.

  ‘I don’t like it, but who am I to argue? You two obviously know what you’re doing.’ Then he grinned at Georgie and unbelievably her heart did a crazy little dance in her chest. It was still beating rapidly as the helicopter lifted into the air, taking with it Dr Logan Harris.

  ‘Good work, sis,’ Kirk said once the helicopter had disappeared from view. ‘Are you okay? It looked a little hairy back there.’ He pulled her into his arms and hugged her tightly. ‘It was a brave thing you did.’

  Brave? Was it brave to do something when you had no choice? She had been terrified, but she had coped. She felt the old familiar surge of satisfaction. And, God, she had missed being out on the mountains, had missed being part of the mountain rescue team.

  ‘Let’s get out of here. I don’t know about you, but I could do with a pint.’ Kirk gave her a final squeeze before releasing her.

  It wasn’t a pint Georgie could do with. Quite frankly a magic wand to miracle her to the bottom of the mountain was what she needed. Now it was over, her legs had turned to jelly and she wondered if she could keep them working long enough to make the descent. She also knew that if she couldn’t, Kirk was perfectly capable of carrying her down—plastered forearm or not—on his back if necessary. But she couldn’t do that to him. One way or another she would have to force her mind away from the climb and the feelings it had brought flooding back and focus on something else. Like Logan Harris, for example, a little voi
ce from nowhere chirped in her head. Think of him. Think of eyes the colour of the moor in winter and a fleeting grin that could stop a heart.

  CHAPTER TWO

  ONCE they were down, all Georgie wanted to do was collapse in a heap. And hug her daughter. But before she could do either, she wanted to go to the hospital and check on Jack. The little boy was bound to feel frightened and lonely, especially without a parent to comfort him. She also wanted to reassure him that his mother would be okay. If Jack were her son, she’d want someone to do the same.

  But first she needed to phone her mother. Mary had come with her to Fort William for the two-week holiday and would have heard her children were involved with a rescue. She’d be worried sick and Georgie couldn’t blame her. Ian hadn’t been the only member of the mountain rescue team to have lost his life in recent years.

  Sure enough, Mary’s relief when she heard both her children were safely off the mountain was palpable.

  ‘Are you all right?’ she said anxiously. ‘I mean, I know you’re safe now, but it couldn’t have been easy for you. Not after…’ She didn’t have to finish her sentence. Her mother knew she had sworn never to go on a rescue again and although she regretted the reasons for Georgie’s decision, she had been grateful she would have one less child to worry about. If her mother had her way, Kirk would give up his position with the mountain rescue team too. Not that that was ever going to happen.

  ‘I’m okay, Mum. I was just glad I was there to help. I kept thinking if it were Jess up there, alone and frightened.’ She shivered. ‘How would I have felt if no one had gone to help her? And that’s why I want to go and check on Jack myself. They had to take his mum to a specialist unit in Glasgow, but he was taken to the Fort William General. He’ll be alone, worried about his mum and bound to be shaky after his experience.’

  ‘Of course you have to go and see him. Wee Jess is tucked up in bed fast asleep,’ Mary said. ‘She won’t even know you’re not home. I’ve kept supper for you and Kirk. It can go in the microwave when you get back.’