The Doctor’s Rescue Mission

by Marion Lennox

  It struck and she was washed forward, tumbled into the cauldron of foam.

  Somehow she surfaced, hoping desperately she was where she’d aimed to be.

  There was no reason in the surge of the water. There was no gap between breakers. The surf was like a giant washing machine-worse, a washing machine with jagged rocks and no bottom to hope to find a footing.

  And somewhere here…Robbie?

  ‘Robbie?’ She was screaming into the dark and the terror of the unknown. ‘Robbie!’

  The lights were focusing-from both boat and helicopter. She was suddenly in a flood of brilliant light, but she couldn’t see.

  ‘Robbie?’

  A wall of water smashed against her, driving her back against the rocks she’d just surged past. She felt her leg buckle and a shard of pain shot through her leg.

  She’d thought she’d had room for no more sensation. Wrong.

  ‘Robbie!’

  She struck out, forward, into the centre of the cauldron. Away from the rocks.

  ‘Robbie…’

  A hand clutched her hair.

  She was jerked sideways, but she didn’t hesitate. All the times of her childhood, with her father on the beach where they’d practised surf lifesaving drill, came to the fore. When grabbed, grab back. Hard. Under the arm, lift, break, turn. Face the victim away from you, and move with force. You’re no help to anyone if you drown.

  Over and over her father had practised the manoeuvre with both Beth and Morag. Even aged seven or eight, she could break away from a grown man.

  So now the hand gripping her head was struck upward but seized at the same time. Robbie? It had to be Robbie.

  She hauled him round so he was facing away from her. And, gloriously, she felt him respond to her hold. She felt him curve into her.

  Then, for the first time, she could accept that she’d found him.

  ‘It’s Morag,’ she screamed. ‘Don’t fight me. Robbie, don’t fight.’

  He didn’t. The hand that had reached for her must have contained the last ounce of strength he possessed.

  He slumped.

  She clung on.

  Another wave smashed her forward. Her right leg wouldn’t work-wouldn’t move. The pain… She was treading water with one leg-that was all she could do. Her lifejacket was holding her up, sort of, but the tumult of water was making it almost impossible to breathe.

  She still had a line holding her, and the line was attached to the boat, but a lot of use that was. If they tried to drag her back through the gap…

  They couldn’t. They’d know it.

  She had to stay out of the range of the rocks.

  Another wave jarred her forward. A submerged rock struck her leg, and she heard herself crying out again.

  In her arms Robbie stirred and whimpered.

  He was still OK, she thought. He was still alive. All she had to do was hold on.

  Grady would come.

  Please…

  ‘Two lines.’ Grady was out on the skids already. ‘Just hand me two lines.’

  ‘I’ll come in with you.’ Doug was clipping a harness in place at Grady’s front so all he had to do was find someone, pull them into the harness and be dragged back up. Simple…

  ‘Yeah, and who’ll operate the line?’ Grady was feeling sick. Of all the times for them to be flying without their full complement… All Max’s attention had to be on the helicopter, maintaining its hover, and he needed Ron on the spotlight. Elsey had gone with Hazel to make sure she was settled in William’s cottage-and also to surreptitiously check on William-and there’d been no time to wait.

  Usually, if there were two in the water they’d both go in. But that was in open seas. Two people in that maelstrom below them would be no use at all. It’d only add to the confusion and double the risk.

  Doug knew it. He held Grady by the shoulder for a fraction of a moment and gripped, hard.

  ‘Go.’

  Her leg was dragging her down.

  How could a leg drag her down? She was wearing a life jacket. She had Robbie securely under his arms, clutched against her breast. If only the water would stop smashing her…

  If only her leg would stop dragging…

  ‘Morag!’

  The yell seemed to come from a long way away, but in this white water even a foot was vast distance.

  But she’d heard him through her fog of pain and fear. Grady was coming. She knew he was coming.

  There was a knife in her thigh.

  ‘Morag…’ She felt a sharp jerk sideways. And then another.

  He was coming. He must.

  Once Grady had touched the water there was no chance of finding them by sight. He’d been lucky when he’d been lowered to find a line right under him. He guessed what it was straight away-the line linking Morag to the boat-and he sent a silent blessing to whatever fates might be helping him.

  Help him some more.

  She had to be at the end of the line. Just pray the line didn’t catch on a rock and snap.

  Just pray.

  Hand over hand…

  Morag.

  She was here! His hand reached out and touched her, and she was his! He reeled her in and held her tight as the next surge of water threatened to carry her away from him. He was clipping himself to her, clipping himself to the harness she thankfully already wore, but his hands still held her. The power of these waves could rip them apart at any minute.

  ‘I’m here,’ he told her, pulling her strongly into him. As he did he felt what she held.

  She had the boy.

  The three of them were linked.

  ‘Morag…’

  ‘Take him,’ she managed. She twisted around so that Robbie was between them, so he could slip his spare blue and orange harness around the little boy’s midriff and click the metal links into place. Then, with the attachment complete, she gave him a shove that should have sent him away from her.

  It didn’t.

  ‘Take him. Please… Lift him out of here.’ She was screaming but he could barely hear her.

  The child seemed unconscious. Normally he’d be turning him, seeing if he was breathing, trying to give a few short breaths. But to try and assess him here was impossible.

  To stay longer was risking all their lives.

  ‘I’ll be all right,’ Morag was screaming. ‘Go.’

  He’d attached the spare line to her. It wasn’t a lift harness-he couldn’t take her up without breaking her arms. He’d have to be lowered again to retrieve her.

  But to let her go…

  There was no choice. Move, Reece, he told himself. The sooner you get him up, the sooner you can come back for her.

  Morag.

  He caught her with the arm that wasn’t holding Robbie and somehow, crazily, he managed to kiss her. Kiss? Sort of a kiss. Certainly not the best kiss he’d ever given a woman. But maybe it was the most important. His lips just managed to brush her face, and then with a wrench that cut like a knife he let her push him away.

  He gathered the child tighter against him. Then he raised his arm in the air. Above their heads Doug saw the signal for Max to lift.

  They wouldn’t waste time trying to winch Grady and Robbie into the helicopter. They’d land him on the clifftop, Grady thought as he swung upward, over the mass of surging water. May could help then. May must help. If the clifftop searchers weren’t there yet, then they’d put May out to care for the child while he returned for Morag.

  Unless Robbie needed resuscitating, he thought desperately. Why wasn’t the child stirring? If there was a medical imperative for him to stay…

  Jaqui wasn’t with them.

  Dear God, no.

  Please…

  Morag waited.

  The pain in her leg had taken her so far to the edge that she had no strength left to fight the water. Somehow she managed to breathe. Somehow she managed to struggle enough to gasp for breath as the life jacket stopped her sinking.

  Robbie was gone.


  Grady was gone.

  They were safe?

  A wave slapped her face. Another. She choked and choked again, and struggled to turn away from the wash of water. The pain jabbed through her leg with an intensity she hadn’t believed possible.

  Grady…

  Help me.

  She didn’t know whether she said it. She had no way of telling. What was reality and what was nightmare? Who could say?

  Grady…

  The water smashed her against the rock again. Her leg…Robbie…

  Grady.

  It was too much. She’d done all she could do and more.

  She let herself slip away into the dark.

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  SHE was lying in the sun.

  Morag let her eyes open-just a little-and the rays of the early morning sun were playing over her face.

  Heaven?

  It was unbelievable but for the moment she asked no questions. She was warm and dry and there was sunlight.

  Robbie.

  The thought jarred her eyes wide. The light hurt and she closed them again, but as she did so, a strong hand caught hers. And held.

  ‘Morag.’

  It was Grady. Grady was holding her.

  She risked the sunlight again and there he was, right in front of her.

  She was in bed. In a sea of white. White coverlet, white canvas around her…

  But Grady was in green. Theatre garb? She gazed up at him, trying to bring him into focus, trying to make him real.

  Not a dream. Please…

  ‘Robbie,’ she whispered, and her voice didn’t seem to belong to her. Her throat hurt.

  Her leg. What was wrong with her leg? It seemed heavy. Unbearably heavy.

  ‘Robbie,’ she croaked again, and then Grady was gathering her into his arms, tenderly so as not to disturb the mass of lines that seemed to be attached to her at every angle.

  ‘Robbie’s fine,’ he said, and his voice didn’t seem normal either. ‘He’s asleep. Look.’ He moved her gently so she could see across to the next bed. Robbie’s hair was a splash of colour against his pillows, and his freckles stood out on his too-pale face. ‘He was awake in the night, asking for you,’ he told her. ‘But he was content to wait until you woke.’

  ‘In the night?’ She stared wonderingly out into the sunlight.

  She was in the field hospital. She and Robbie seemed to have a ‘room’ to themselves.

  Someone-Grady?-had lifted a flap of canvas, hooking it high so she could see the sun rising over the horizon.

  Dawn…

  ‘I’ve been asleep?’

  ‘For long enough.’ He held her as he’d hold a piece of Dresden china-as if she might crack at any minute. ‘We operated on your leg last night. Compound fracture. Hell, Morag, you might have lost your leg.’

  She let that sink in. It was like a story about someone else. ‘So you and Jaqui operated-as you operated on Sam.’

  ‘Not quite like Sam,’ he told her, and his hold on her tightened. ‘Your leg’s going to be OK. We would have sent you to Sydney but the blood supply was compromised. You’ll need another operation before you’re through, but for now…for now you’re safe.’

  That was enough for the moment. He held her in silence while she absorbed what she’d been told.

  Safe…

  They were good words, she thought dreamily. ‘You’re safe.’ She wasn’t dead. She wasn’t in heaven. She was alive, in Grady’s arms.

  And Robbie? She still had questions.

  ‘You’re sure Robbie’s OK?’ Her voice still seemed to be coming from a long way away.

  ‘He ate eggs and bacon at midnight. He’s suffered a couple of nasty lacerations and some bruising, and he’s had a huge fright, but as soon as he realised you and Hamish were OK, the whole thing started fading to an adventure.’

  Good. That was good.

  Why wouldn’t her sluggish mind think?

  ‘Hamish?’ she managed.

  ‘He ate eggs and bacon at midnight, toasted sandwiches at five and I think he’s complaining that he’s hungry again now. He was a little dehydrated, but he drank so much lemonade after we dragged him up that we didn’t bother putting a drip up.’

  ‘Oh, Grady…’

  ‘And the dogs are fine, too,’ he told her in a voice that was decidedly shaky. ‘The team decided they wouldn’t leave them there overnight, so Doug and Max lowered themselves over the cliff face and brought them up in harnesses. Doug took Mutt home, and William’s decided he’s going to wait a bit before he starts the antidepressants. The first couple of days’ medication can bring drowsiness, and William has too much to do to be drowsy.’

  Then, at the look of sheer confusion on her face, he smiled down at her with a gentleness that turned her heart right over. ‘That’s all,’ he told her. ‘You’re barely with me, my heart. But you are with me. That’s all that matters. For now…you need to sleep.’

  Sleep.

  It seemed a good option to her. Even a great option. Her eyes were so tired.

  But still she clung, and still he held. She could feel the beating of his heart, she thought dreamily. Her Grady…

  Her heart was beating with his. What more could she ask?

  Nothing.

  She woke again and Grady wasn’t there. Robbie was gone from the next bed, but Louise was watching. The nurse fussed and clucked and went and heated some soup. She helped Morag drink a little then she adjusted her pillows, checked her drip and told her not to worry.

  ‘Robbie’s with Hamish. He’s fine. Can you believe that child? He’s scratched to pieces and an adult would be groaning for days, but William’s brought Hamish down.’

  She looked confused. Why wouldn’t she look confused?

  ‘William’s brought Hamish down?’

  ‘Hamish and May are staying with William because of the dogs, and also because Hazel was so pleased. You know Hazel and May are cousins? After losing Elias, finding Hamish has cheered Hazel up like nothing else could. It’s cheered everyone up. Now the two boys and the dogs are sitting out in the sun, comparing adventures.’

  Adventures… There’d been too many adventures. ‘They won’t go back onto the cliff?’

  ‘Are you kidding? I don’t think they ever want to see that cliff again in their lives. William’s told them if they wander from sight he’ll scalp the pair of them, and they’ve promised. You know they’re kids who keep their promises.’

  They were, too. But…

  ‘Grady.’ She was thinking aloud. ‘Where’s Grady?’

  ‘He’s at the town meeting. Like everyone else except Irene and me-we’re keeping the hospital running.’ She gave a tight, distracted smile, and her pleasure in talking of the little boys faded a little. ‘Which is just as well. Someone has to.’

  ‘The meeting.’ Morag’s mind focused sharply. ‘Oh, no, the meeting… Louise, I need to be there.’

  ‘Right, so you can just pick up your bed and leave? I don’t think so.’ The nurse smiled and started to fit a blood-pressure cuff. ‘Stop your worrying, girl,’ she told her. ‘You’ve been doing too much worrying. About everyone. And now Grady’s worrying about you, and William’s worrying about you, and Marcus and May and Hazel and just about everyone else on the island.’

  ‘But-’

  ‘You know you’ve got a really nasty fracture of your leg?’ Louise sounded as if she was scolding. ‘Jaqui and Grady worked like fury to try and re-establish a blood supply, and you’re dead lucky your leg didn’t to go the way of Sam’s. So if you think you can just get up and keep going, you’re gravely mistaken.’

  ‘I must,’ she said in distress. ‘The island… If I’m out of action they’ll evacuate the island and we’ll never return.’

  Louise’s kindly face clouded. ‘I don’t know about that,’ she said stolidly. ‘But there’s nothing you and I can do about it, and worrying won’t help. So how about I call Irene to double-check the drugs, and we’ll give you the injection Dr Reece ordered? Tha
t’ll stop the pain and let you settle back to sleep. I’d imagine when you wake up, everything will be decided.’

  ‘Everything will be over.’

  Louise pursed her lips and turned to call Irene. ‘Wait and see.’

  Morag did sleep. Her body gave her no choice. She drifted in and out of a drug-induced stupor all through that long afternoon.

  When she woke, the flap of the tent was closed. She could no longer see the sea, and the light was starting to fade.

  She winced and groaned a little as the pain in her leg caught. But that wasn’t what was worrying her. The effects of the morphine had receded, her mind was clear and she was faced with the overwhelming realisation that she’d missed the meeting.

  And she was injured. She understood enough of the injury to her leg to know she’d be off work for many weeks. The island would have no medical officer, and that’d be the death knell to the island. The decision about the island’s future was a foregone conclusion.

  ‘It’s about time you woke up.’

  She twisted and Grady was at the entrance to her makeshift ward.

  ‘Hi, Morag,’ he told her, and he was smiling. What a smile. It was a smile to make her catch her breath. ‘We’ve been waiting for you to wake up for ages. Welcome to your future.’

  Her future. What on earth was he talking about? She tried hard to focus, tried to see…

  We’ve been waiting for you to wake up?

  Who?

  Robbie.

  Robbie was beside him, clutching his hand as if he belonged there. Robbie and Grady. The two men in her life. Her love for them both was so intertwined, the fact that they stood hand in hand hardly took any explaining. It felt…right.

  But Robbie was looking desperately anxious. He mustn’t be anxious.

  ‘Robbie,’ she whispered, and the little redhead darted toward her like an arrow to its target. She gathered her to him with her free arm and she held him close.

  But over his head she looked at Grady.

  ‘What…? What…?’

  But there was more to understand. We, Grady had said, and he’d meant we. It wasn’t just Grady and Robbie. There were people behind Grady.