But...oh...
She’d never had sex like that. Ever. She’d suspected that Joe might be good at it—he’d had plenty of practice over the years, after all—but she’d never expected that he could be that good.
The insanity had begun to recede rapidly in the wake of that extraordinary encounter, however. Even as Maggie had stood there in the steam, trying to catch her breath, she’d been increasingly aware of the enormity of what they’d just done and was reminding herself, in a flash of clarity, of all the reasons why she’d known she had to ignore the attraction she’d developed towards Joe.
It could destroy their friendship.
It could harm their working relationship.
In a moment of panic, Maggie had done the only thing she could think of that might lessen that enormity, and she’d cracked a joke about him demonstrating another one of his hidden talents. It wasn’t enough, of course. She knew they needed to talk about it and that it had to happen fast and not be left to get more awkward to deal with, like that baby daddy conversation had become. But Cooper and Jack had arrived back on base as she’d headed upstairs and it seemed to take for ever until they got another callout and she was left in the staffroom alone with Joe.
He was staring at her now that she had opened what could be the most awkward conversation they’d ever had. She’d expected him to look relieved at her statement or possibly embarrassed at being reminded of what they’d done but it wasn’t easy to interpret what she could see in those dark eyes. Wariness, she decided. He was waiting to see what she was going to say next. Whether it might be going to start with a ‘but’.
‘It shouldn’t have happened in the first place.’ She lowered her voice even more. ‘And I think it was my fault.’
It was definitely her fault. Joe had tried to talk her out of it, hadn’t he? She’d practically insisted. Told him to shut up and kiss her again.
‘Sorry,’ she added.
‘Excuse me?’ Joe’s eyes had narrowed. ‘Are you suggesting I’ve got no self-control? If I’d wanted to stop, Maggie Lewis, I could have stopped. Okay?’
Maggie blinked. ‘Okay...’
He’d wanted it? As much as she had? Well, well...
‘I’m not saying it was a good idea,’ Joe continued. ‘But we’re both adults. We both made that choice and we can both deal with it.’
Maggie nodded. ‘But it can’t happen again.’
‘No.’
‘We can still be friends, right?’
‘Of course.’
‘We can still go to the movies this weekend with Cooper and Fizz and Jack?’
‘Sure.’
‘And it won’t be weird?’
‘It might be a little bit weird,’ Joe admitted. ‘But we’ll cope. And we’re not going to talk about it again, okay? We’re not even going to think about it at work.’
Maggie’s nod emphasised her total agreement.
But then she caught Joe’s gaze and a curious mix of apprehension and excitement tightened something deep inside her belly.
They both knew it was totally going to happen again.
* * *
‘We did it again.’ Joe pushed his hair back from his forehead as he let the rest of his breath out in a soft groan. ‘When we said we wouldn’t.’
‘Yeah...but we had to find out, didn’t we?’
‘Find out what?’
‘Whether it was going to be as good as the first time.’
‘Yeah... I guess...’
‘It was, wasn’t it?’
‘Oh, yeah... Possibly better...’
Joe was still wondering how that could actually be true. He was lying on his back, his eyes shut, still waiting for his heart rate to return to a normal level, still feeling the aftershocks of discovering that it wasn’t some never-to-be-found-again alchemy of unusual elements that had made sex with Maggie so unbelievably awesome. It was simply the explosive combination of their personal chemistries.
This was a normal bed with no danger of being discovered, after a normal day off, although he couldn’t currently remember the plot of the movie they’d gone to see with their friends. He’d been careful to use the usual level of protection he always used but none of that normality had diminished the excitement or satisfaction of that sex.
‘Mmm...’ Maggie sounded as if she was smiling. ‘So what are we going to do now?’
‘Don’t know. It’s still not a good idea, is it? We’re friends. We work together.’
‘It’s not as though it’s never happened before. Look at Cooper at Fizz.’
‘That’s completely different.’
‘Why is it different?’ He felt Maggie moving and turned his head to find she was propped up on one elbow.
‘They got married.’ Joe was aware of a beat of discomfort now. Was Maggie thinking that this new development in their relationship was leading somewhere? ‘I don’t want to marry you, Maggie.’
‘Don’t even go there,’ Maggie agreed. ‘I don’t want to marry you, either. Believe me, I’ll know who I want to marry—probably within a few minutes of meeting him. That’s how it happened for my mum and dad. They took one look at each other and just knew. It certainly wasn’t something I was thinking when I met you, mate.’
The relief was enough to make Joe smile into the darkness. ‘You don’t have to sound quite so adamant.’
‘Hey... We both know we’re on different planets when it comes to a life partner. You told me your life story. I totally get that you don’t want kids.’
‘And you do.’ Joe nodded.
‘Six of them,’ Maggie said.
Joe shuddered. ‘Really?’
‘Yep.’
‘Why?’
‘I grew up as an only child. Don’t get me wrong, I had a great childhood and I love my mum and dad to bits, but the best weekends or holidays I ever had were when I got to tag along with a friend’s family and their brothers and sisters.’ Maggie flopped back onto her pillow with a sigh. ‘Good times. Like picnics or parties. Once, it was a combination. My friend Suzie had a huge family and I got invited to her picnic birthday party. There were balloons tied to the trees and fairy bread and games like...oh...do you remember Bullrush?’
‘The game of tag where everybody who gets tagged turns into a chaser?’
‘That’s the one.’
‘It got banned at my school for being dangerous. Too many kids got injured.’
‘The fun police are everywhere,’ Maggie muttered. ‘We got to climb trees in those days, too. And jump off rocks and just have fun and...’ a poignant note crept into her voice ‘...it was just so much more fun in a big family.’
‘Fun’s good,’ Joe murmured. He wanted to change the subject, however. He could imagine a small Maggie in a scene like that, running around or jumping off rocks, her blonde curls bouncing and her face glowing with the joy of it all. He couldn’t remember anything really joyous about his own childhood and he certainly didn’t want a reminder of the less than happy memories. It was in the past and best left there. Besides, that wasn’t actually what they’d been talking about.
‘So we’re on the same page, then. This isn’t something that’s going anywhere?’
‘No.’
It was Joe’s turn to prop himself up on his elbow. ‘No, we’re not on the same page?’
Maggie grinned up at him. ‘No, it’s not going anywhere. We’re both adults, Joe. We’re both single. We’re not doing anything wrong.’
‘It could mess with our friendship.’
‘Not if we’re both on the same page and we’re not expecting it to go anywhere. Maybe it shouldn’t have started, but it did and you didn’t exactly have to twist my arm to come home with you after the movie tonight, did you?’
‘No.’ In fact, whose idea had it been to keep the evening going after Cooper had declared
that he and Fizz needed to head home straight after the movie because his pregnant wife needed her rest? Joe couldn’t remember. Much like their encounter in the shower room at the base, it had been a mutual and pretty much simultaneous choice.
‘And maybe it’s not going to last long at all but while it’s fun, is there anything wrong with enjoying it? Having some fun?’ The tip of Maggie’s tongue appeared as she ran it across her bottom lip. ‘I don’t know about you, but it’s a very long time since I’ve had quite this much fun.’
‘Mmm...’ Joe’s head had begun dipping the moment he’d seen that tip of her tongue. Any fears of ruining their friendship or working relationship were evaporating in the face of what Maggie seemed to be offering, which was a ‘no strings, no expectations’ enjoyment of the best sex ever. What man in his right mind was going to argue with that?
His lips were on Maggie’s by the time she finished speaking so he only just managed a couple of extra words. ‘Fun’s good...’
* * *
Oh...thank goodness...
Maggie stayed where she was for a long minute, sitting on the toilet with her head in her hands as she breathed the longest sigh of relief ever.
The last few days hadn’t been fun at all.
She’d been late with her period. She had been so absolutely sure that she had been in the safest possible part of her cycle that night in the shower room but then her period hadn’t arrived and it was always on time. She’d actually been on the verge of a trip to the pharmacy to buy a pregnancy test kit. Well, to be honest, she should have done it days ago but she’d managed to maintain a state of almost complete denial.
She didn’t need to go down that route now and the wave of relief was overpowering. She even had an explanation for the unexpected blip in her regularity because that was often due to stress, wasn’t it? And Maggie had been stressed about that falling out with Joe. Not as stressed as she’d been the last few days, mind you.
Maggie wasn’t even going to try and imagine what it might have been like having to explain to Joe that she’d got her timing wrong enough for the consequences of that first time together to be disastrous. And an accidental pregnancy would have been a disaster, she had no doubts about that. Any thoughts of planned single parenthood had been banished for the moment in the wake of that conversation with Laura, but if she ever contemplated it again it would definitely be some anonymous sample from a bank. Involving anyone she knew would make things impossibly complicated.
Involving Joe would be the end of the world...
Her relief must have shown in her smile when she came out of the bathroom and ran to join Joe as he was getting into the chopper in response to their pager signalling a callout.
‘You look like you’ve won the lottery,’ Joe said.
‘It’s been too quiet today, that’s all. I was getting bored.’
‘This should do the trick then. If a local crew has called for urgent backup it could be a critical case.’
Maggie nodded as she clipped her harness together. With the kind of injuries that could be caused by being trampled by animals that weighed half a ton, this could be a challenging job.
Just the kind they both loved.
A ‘hot’ one.
It took only a few minutes’ flying time to reach the farm on the hills behind one of the outer city suburbs.
‘There’s a mob of sheep down there.’
‘We’ll buzz them and come around again. That should persuade them to give us some room.’ Andy the pilot and crewman Nick were both peering down at the intended landing site for the rescue helicopter.
‘The horses might be more of a worry.’ Maggie was also focussed on the ground below as sheep began to scatter to get away from the noisy machine overhead.
‘You don’t like horses?’ Joe sounded surprised. ‘Think of them as motorbikes with brains and you’ll get on just fine.’
‘Motorbikes don’t club together and run you over. Where’s the bunch of horses that trampled our patient?’
‘They’ve been shifted to the next paddock,’ Andy said. ‘But there hasn’t been time to round up the sheep. It’s okay...looks like we’ve got plenty of room now. Let’s have another go...’
The helicopter tilted as it turned and Maggie could see the horses now, well away from the cluster of people, some farm vehicles and an ambulance.
Joe had the doors open by the time the skids touched the grass. Maggie shoved her arms through the straps of the pack and they both crouched, exchanging a glance as they ran under the still turning rotors of the helicopter.
There was more than just the adrenaline rush of facing an unknown challenge together that was shared in that glance, though. On Maggie’s part it had a lot to do with the relief she was feeling but she knew the message that Joe was conveying in that split second of eye contact and she could agree with it wholeheartedly—an acknowledgement that what was going on in their personal lives at the moment was not interfering in any way with their working relationship. If anything, it was making it better.
They’d been a tight team already but something had definitely changed since they’d become so much closer out of work hours. They both knew their ‘fling’, or whatever it was, couldn’t continue long term and the relief Maggie had felt with the arrival of her period today was an indication that it probably needed to end sooner rather than later because there was more at stake here than simply a physical relationship but...not just yet...
This new layer to her working relationship with Joe was amazing—a side effect of the recent change to their friendship? Was it the intimate knowledge of each other that had added a new depth to that friendship? Or was it that their friendship had made sex such a different experience, adding humour and tenderness into the mix?
Whatever it was, it was special but even the flash of a glance that had reminded her of the bond between them couldn’t interfere with the professional focus Maggie knew they both had right now. If anything, for her, it made that focus sharper. She was working with the person she trusted more than anyone on the planet. Her best friend who was, temporarily, also her lover. She wanted to do the best job she possibly could, not only for her patient but so that Joe would be as proud to have her as his partner as she was to have him.
* * *
A man with a small girl in his arms and a taller boy pressed against his leg were standing beside the figure on the ground as Maggie and Joe ran towards them, their packs on their backs. His face, creased with worry, relaxed a little as they arrived.
‘Thanks for coming, guys.’
‘No worries,’ Joe said.
‘This is Caroline,’ one of the ambulance officers introduced them, and then started his handover. ‘She’s thirty-six. Came out this afternoon to check on one of the horses and got trampled.’
‘It wasn’t their fault.’ Caroline was conscious. She looked pale and as if she was in pain but being fully alert was a reassuring sign that her head injury was not too severe. ‘I was trying to put a halter on Star and I accidently touched the electric fence behind me. She got a shock and bolted and that panicked all the others. I got knocked down and trodden on a few times.’
‘She’s got a head injury,’ the ground crew paramedic said. ‘Pupils are uneven. She’s also complaining of sore ribs and an injury to her lower leg. No breathing problems so far and vital signs all good. She wasn’t knocked out and GCS was fifteen when we arrived. She used her mobile phone to call her husband for help.’
‘That’s me,’ the man with the children said. ‘I’m Barry.’
‘What’s wrong with Mummy?’ The little girl in his arms looked even more terrified than her older brother. ‘Why can’t she get up?’
‘She’s got sore bits, sweetheart.’ It was Maggie who looked up to smile reassuringly at the child. ‘That’s why we need to look after her. Like Mummy looks after you when you’ve got sore bits.�
��
The child nodded. ‘I felled over yesterday. Mummy put a plaster on my knee, see?’
‘I do. It’s a big plaster.’
‘It was sore. But I didn’t cry.’
‘That was very brave.’
‘I’m being brave, too, Lucy.’ Caroline turned her head to smile up at her daughter. ‘Just like you.’
‘Were you lying on your back or your front when you fell?’ Joe asked. He shone a small torch into each of her eyes. Uneven pupils could be a variant of normal so the way they reacted to light might be more of an indication of how serious the head injury could be. Both pupils were reactive to the light, which was another reassuring finding.
‘My front.’ Caroline closed her eyes and groaned as Joe began to check the swollen area of her scalp.
‘She’s had two point five milligrams of morphine.’
‘What’s your pain score now, Caroline? Out of ten, with zero being no pain and ten the worst you can think of?’
‘About six...a bit better than it was before.’
‘Where does it hurt the most?’
‘My leg...and my head.’
‘Maggie will top up that pain relief a bit for you. I’m just going to check your ear.’ He turned to look in his pack for the otoscope, only to find Maggie was holding it out to him. ‘Thanks, mate.’
She was already busy on her next task as he crouched low to shine the light of the otoscope into Caroline’s ear and he knew that as soon as she’d given Caroline some more morphine Maggie would be assessing the leg that was causing so much pain.
Sure enough, as he registered the concerning patch of colour on his patient’s eardrum that could indicate a collection of blood beneath, he could hear Maggie’s calm voice.
‘Push your foot against my hand... Okay, now pull up against it... Where does that hurt?’
They were both delving into their packs for supplies a minute or two later. Joe needed a bandage to hold a dressing in place on Caroline’s scalp and Maggie was finding a splint for her lower leg.
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