Intriguing.
So, yeah...he couldn’t have picked anyone else from this group to work alongside him like this.
‘You happy if we start?’ he asked Sam.
‘I can’t see any obvious hazards for the first few steps. Oh, wait...what about that bent reinforcing rod there? And that corner of corrugated iron poking out?’ The tin of paint rattled in her hand as she shook it. ‘I’ll mark them as hazards.’
A minute later and the line was waiting impatiently to take their first stride onto the rubbish pile. Blake raised his whistle to his lips and gave one long and one short blast as a signal to commence operations.
Wayne was the first person in the line.
‘Rescue team above,’ he yelled, when everybody moved forward a step. ‘Can you hear me?’
Blake could sense everyone silently counting off ten seconds.
‘Nothing heard,’ Wayne reported.
Andrea was the last in the line. Had he purposely put her as far away as possible? She’d looked disappointed, too.
Her voice sounded quite faint. ‘Rescue team above, can you hear me?’
Blake directed the line to advance a stride and scanned their movements. ‘Three points of contact with the debris at all times,’ he shouted. ‘Don’t forget. One foot, one hand, then the other foot and the other hand. Look out, Tom...’
Tom’s hand had dislodged a brick that tumbled down to crash onto a sheet of corrugated iron. Everyone froze and Blake’s sideways glance at Sam was a question.
‘There’s an overhang there that might have been weakened by that brick getting dislodged,’ she said.
‘What are you going to do about it?’
‘Mark it as a hazard?’ Her gaze was steady. ‘Or tell you so you can shift Tom to a safer position?’
Before Blake could respond, there was a sharp blast on a whistle.
‘I can see something,’ one of the Red Cross attendees called excitedly. ‘I think it’s a...it’s a foot...’
‘Okay.’ Blake redeployed the line. ‘Wayne, move forward a metre and then to your left a metre. Sean, come right and down a metre...’ He soon had the group surrounding the point. ‘Safety Officer—what do you think?’
‘We need to move some of the larger pieces of debris. Like that door. And place it somewhere it’s not going to cause a problem.’
Wayne and Sean lifted the door under Blake’s direction and slid it sideways, uncovering more of the mannequin that had been ‘buried’. As the medic for the team, Blake moved in and checked for a pulse.
‘He’s dead,’ he announced. ‘What now?’
‘Sam’s got the paint,’ Sean responded. ‘She marks it with a V for victim.’
Sam moved carefully, keeping her three points of contact, and sprayed the V on the surrounding debris. And then she remembered to put a line through the V denoting that this would be a body retrieval to be dealt with later, and not a live victim that the team could work to rescue.
She moved carefully back to her position near Blake, keeping her points of contact and clearly testing each point for stability before trusting it with her body weight but he could sense the satisfaction this involvement had provided. When she glanced up, it was an automatic thing to do to nod and give her an approving smile.
This wasn’t any kind of question for her to focus on and then respond to so it seemed to catch her off guard. Her eyes widened behind her goggles and held his for a heartbeat. And then another.
Okay, maybe there was a question there—on her part.
And, for the life of him, he had no defences to pull around him. He was the one who was off guard now.
He wanted this woman.
In his life.
In his bed...
Maybe Sam could see straight into his head through that eye contact. She certainly lost her focus for a moment and that made her scramble the order of her points of contact. With no grip for both hands, her foot slipped and she could have fallen onto something that might have hurt her if Blake hadn’t reached out and caught her arm. He waited until she’d regained her balance and then he took her hand to help her step over an awkward pile of bricks.
They were both wearing gloves but he could have sworn he could feel the warmth of her skin against his.
And that should have been more than enough of a warning to step away.
The blast on his whistle felt like the first step in doing exactly that.
‘Let’s re-form the chain,’ he called. ‘And see if we can find a surviving victim this time.’
* * *
The afternoon wore on but there was no sign that the training session was going to be wrapped up anytime soon.
It was hot and Sam was aware of perspiration gluing the T-shirt she was wearing under these overalls to her skin. She could change her clothes before heading to the airport but how likely was it that she’d be able to find a shower? At least she’d chosen the latest flight available back to Sydney. Her plane didn’t take off until ten p.m. tonight.
‘Rescue team above...can you hear me?’
The call—and then the ten second silence to listen for a response—was so familiar now it was almost boring.
‘Nothing heard.’
‘Rescue team above...can you hear me?’
Sam’s mind wandered a little. She could imagine Blake doing this for real during that earthquake. Day after day of moving over vast piles of rubble, just a metre at a time. Hoping with each call that there would be a response and having that flicker of disappointment every time nothing was heard.
What did he think about when his mind wandered?
This morning, during that intensive theoretical session, she would have said that Blake wouldn’t get distracted. That he was capable of a fierce concentration that nothing would dent.
But there’d been a moment a while back, when he’d grabbed her arm after that stupid slip and, even behind the screen of those plastic goggles, she’d seen something completely unexpected.
Something that was very personal. It had felt as if he was seeing her for the first time. Really seeing her.
And he liked what he saw...
Oh, man...
Focus, she ordered herself. Ignore that totally inappropriate shaft of desire. One foot, one hand. Other foot...other hand.
The single blast of a whistle at the other end of the line was so surprising it made her jump. Turning her head, she could see that Andrea had her arm raised—the signal that she’d heard something. The whistle blast had been to demand silence.
The call was repeated.
‘Rescue team above...can you hear me?’
Andrea’s arm shot up again. And so did Tom’s.
Any hint of boredom after the last hour of slow movements and endlessly repeated calls evaporated instantly. It was ridiculous to feel this excited as Blake redeployed the line to large circle surrounding where the sound had been heard but it was easy to forget the reality that this was a staged exercise and imagine that it was for real.
That she was on the front line in an emergency situation, like an earthquake or a tsunami.
That she was working alongside Blake Cooper in the SDR.
And it was every bit as exciting as she’d known it would be.
It wasn’t a voice that had been heard, it was a tapping sound. This time it was a live victim who was buried and they were responding to calls with what sounded like a rock hitting a metal pipe. Larger pieces of debris had to be moved and placed somewhere else under Sam’s supervision as the safety officer. Smaller pieces were shifted into a pile that she used as a background to spray a V without a cross through it. This time they were actually rescuing somebody, not locating a dead body.
‘I can see a void.’ Tom sounded as excited as Sam was feeling. ‘There’s a window frame that’s lying against an old sofa or something
. There’s definitely a triangle of space in there.’
‘Talk to the victim,’ Blake suggested. ‘See if you can hear a voice now and not just the tapping.’
‘Hey,’ Tom called. ‘Can you hear me?’
‘Yes...’ a male voice responded. ‘Thank goodness. I’ve been waiting for ever to get rescued.’
‘What’s your name?’
‘John.’
‘Are you hurt, John?’
‘My arm hurts.’
‘Are you bleeding anywhere?’ Wayne had moved closer to Tom and was trying to angle his headlamp into the void.
‘Dunno...it’s pretty dark in here. How ’bout getting me out, guys?’
‘We’re onto it, mate,’ Wayne told him. ‘Hang in there.’
Clearing more rubble to open the void had to be a careful process and Sam had to remind the other members of the team to slow down.
‘We can’t risk anything collapsing into the space where John is,’ she said. ‘One piece at a time and watch for any signs of movement in the debris pile around you.’
‘The command station has been notified,’ Blake told them as they worked. ‘There are people bringing a Stokes basket and a first-aid kit to this location.’
It seemed to take a long time until the window frame could finally be tilted to reveal their victim. John was a young man, probably a volunteer from the fire crew based here. Sam looked at Blake, expecting him to examine John in his role as the team medic but, instead, he used this point in the exercise to reinforce earlier teaching.
‘Apart from Andrea and Sam, who can tell me what you remember from our first-aid session? What are the three most important things?’
‘ABC,’ someone supplied. ‘Airway, breathing and circulation.’
‘What can we tell about John’s airway?’
‘He’s talking,’ Sean said. ‘So his airway’s open and he’s able to breathe.’
‘What can we do about circulation?’
‘Check to see if there’s any obvious bleeding,’ Tom said. ‘And if there is, we need to put pressure on the wound to stop it.’
‘My arm hurts,’ John said helpfully.
‘If it’s a fracture, we need to splint it,’ one of the Red Cross volunteers offered. ‘That will reduce the pain and the risk of further injuries when we move him.’
Blake nodded. ‘Great. And how are we going to move him?’
‘The Stokes basket has straps to secure the patient and handles on the sides for lifting and moving it.’
‘How many people do we need?’
‘Seven,’ Sam said into the short silence that followed as people tried to remember. This wasn’t a question about basic first aid any more. ‘Four people to lift the stretcher and two people standing in front. The front handles of the stretcher get passed to the two people in front and then the two people at the back move around them to stand in front.’
‘That’s only six people,’ Blake pointed out. ‘Who’s the seventh?’
‘The safety officer,’ Wayne said. ‘No, wait. It’s the scout. He’s checking to see the best way to go and whether it’s safe.’ He grinned at Sam. ‘Or she.’
‘Okay...’ Blake was shielding his eyes from the glare of the sun that had dropped much lower in the sky. ‘Great job, everyone. We’ll call it a day, I think. It’s getting late and I know that some of you have to travel to get home. Let’s get down and we’ll collect up all the gear.’ He stretched out his hand to help John to his feet. ‘Thanks for your help, mate.’
‘Hey, no worries. It’s my job to sort the gear and put it away when we get back, anyway.’
It was six p.m. by the time the bus took the group back to the fire station where they’d left their bags. Blake handed out the certificates of course completion to the group and had a few, final words to say.
‘I hope this course will have inspired some of you to go further with USAR training,’ he told them.
Wayne and Sean nodded enthusiastically. Sam felt herself drawing in a deeper breath. She wanted to nod as well. Instead, she just caught Blake’s gaze as it travelled over the group with a steady, determined response. She wanted more than USAR training. She wanted to be part of the action of the SDR team.
‘As I said at the start, this course is designed to give you the skills to be a first responder if you find yourselves in a disaster situation. Kind of like a public first aid course as opposed to becoming a doctor or a paramedic. You should, however, now be not only in a much better position to keep yourselves safe in a disaster, but you’ll be an asset to the specialist personnel that will arrive as soon as possible. They’ll be wanting any information you can give them on potential victims. And, if they know you’ve done this course, you could well be valuable extra team members. Good luck to you all and thanks for coming.’
People wanted to thank him as well but it was clear that everybody was keen to head home and probably straight into a shower. They were all tired and grubby after their hours at the dump. Sam could feel the grit in her hair and looked down at her stained T-shirt with dismay when the flurry of farewells had died down and the group had dispersed. She picked up her backpack and slung a strap over her shoulder. A glance behind her revealed Blake collecting training manuals and his USB stick. Another glance told her that she was the only pupil left now.
She hadn’t thanked Blake yet but she wasn’t quite sure what to say. He’d given her more than an insight into a world she wanted so much to be a part of.
He’d given her a glimpse of who he was, as well. Someone who walked alone even in the midst of a crowd.
What she felt about him had changed from being simply attraction.
It was more like a connection now. An understanding, anyway. She believed that Blake Cooper, on some level, lived with the same kind of loneliness that she did. That he had barriers as big as hers that made it impossible to connect with others in a way that made you—or them—too vulnerable.
‘Still here?’ Blake was moving towards the door. ‘Are you staying on in Brisbane or heading back to Sydney tonight?’
‘Heading back. I’m on an early shift tomorrow, in fact.’
‘Me, too.’ The glance in her direction held a note of respect and the tilt of his lips was a genuine smile. ‘No rest for the wicked, huh?’
‘Mmm.’ Sam had to break the eye contact. Somehow, the word ‘wicked’ when she was standing so close to this man was a little overwhelming. With connotations that were a world away from the kind of activities they had been engaged in this weekend.
Blake held the door open for her and the courteous gesture felt like a gift.
‘How are you getting to the airport?’
‘I’ve called a taxi. I’ve got a bit of time, with my flight not leaving till ten p.m. I’m hoping I can find a shower and get to change my clothes. I’m filthy.’
Uh-oh... ‘Filthy’ also had connotations that had nothing to do with the dust and dirt she had gathered from head to toe.
Blake was silent as they walked to the front of the building. The taxi was already there. Sam turned and opened her mouth to say goodbye and thank Blake but any words died on her lips. There was an odd look on his face that made her think he was struggling with something. That whatever he was about to say was...important?
‘I’m going back on the same flight,’ he said, ‘and I got a late checkout at my hotel because I knew I’d need a shower.’ He cleared his throat. ‘Why don’t we share your taxi and you could come back to my room and use my shower?’
Wow... This was totally unexpected. And...huge...
A gesture of friendship?
And then Sam remembered that look he’d given her when she’d slipped on the debris at the dump and he’d caught her arm to prevent her falling. When she’d had the impression he was really seeing her for the first time and that maybe he was impressed with what he
could see.
Attracted, even...
Which made accepting this offer possibly not the wisest thing to do.
But it also made it irresistible.
Incredibly exciting, even...
‘That would be awesome,’ Sam heard herself saying. ‘Infinitely better than an airport shower. Thanks, Blake.’
* * *
What had he been thinking?
He hadn’t been able to stop himself making the offer because it would have been a perfectly normal thing to do with any of the team members he worked with on an exercise. And it felt like he’d been working with Sam as a team member out there on the dump.
She’d proved herself, hadn’t she? She was smart and committed. And gutsy. Exactly the type of person that they would want to recruit to Bondi Bayside’s SDR team. Maybe he’d even had the idea that he might have to rethink his aversion to her trying out for the team.
Except he’d known what kind of distraction she’d be, whether it was intended or not.
And, right now, he was being reminded in the strongest way possible precisely what kind of distraction that could be.
He could hear the water running in his bathroom behind the closed door.
He knew that Samantha Braithwaite was standing in that glass cubicle. Naked. Maybe she was washing her hair and had bubbles flowing down the entire length of her body...
Oh, man... When it came to his turn, he’d need to turn the temperature control right down. A blast of icy cold water might do something towards getting his body under better control. Blake tightened the knot in the towel he’d wrapped around his waist after discarding his dirty clothes. He paced his room, keeping his gaze locked on the tablet he was holding. Maybe catching up on the latest MSF news would help.
It did.
Until the click of the bathroom door being opened made the words blur in front of his face.
A sideways glance showed him bare feet and brown legs beneath a fluffy white towel. He couldn’t stop his gaze rising. The top of the towel was tucked firmly across the top of Sam’s breasts and she had another towel wrapped around her head.
So she had been washing her hair...
‘All yours,’ Sam said cheerfully. ‘It’s a great shower.’
The Shy Nurse's Rebel Doc Page 8