A single sandwich would have been enough.
This felt like it was far more significant than offering food.
It felt like...a peace offering?
She looked up from the feast that had been set out in front of her. Yes...there was something in Blake’s eyes that told her she wasn’t imagining anything. That this was more than a peace offering, even.
He wanted to give her food because he wanted to show her that he cared.
A lot...
That...that he loved her?
A bubble of something Sam couldn’t identify grew inside her chest with such intensity it felt like it was going to explode.
And, just at the point of explosion, two things happened.
The pager on Blake’s belt sounded. Three buzzes, a short silence and then three more. Sam knew what that meant. A Code One callout for the SDR. Some disaster was changing who knew how many lives out there in this instant of time.
A nurse appeared in the doorway as the pager was sounding for the second time.
‘Harriet’s in Recovery. She’s asking for you guys.’
Blake was on his phone as they walked towards Recovery.
‘What is it, Mabel? No, the team’s still out in the Blue Mountains as far as I know... Good grief...really...? I know, but I’m here on my own... Try calling Luc and then get back to me asap...’
He cut the call as they neared the IV pumps and other equipment a phone could potentially interfere with. Harriet was drowsy but she managed a smile.
‘I’ve still got my leg,’ she murmured.
‘That’s a great start.’ Sam blinked back tears as she stooped to kiss her friend.
Blake was looking at the external fixation on Harriet’s leg. ‘That’s some impressive scaffolding, mate. Does it hurt?’
Harriet shook her head, her eyes drifting shut. ‘Morphine’s great stuff...’
‘I can’t stay,’ Blake said apologetically. ‘There’s been a callout and I’m the only one available. Everyone else is still out in the mountains.’
‘What’s happened?’ Sam asked.
‘Explosion and fire on a cruise ship that’s just out of Sydney harbour. They’re sending the coast guard but they need a medical first response. I doubt that any of the other team members will be back in town soon enough to be useful. Sorry...but I have to go.’
Harriet’s eyes opened again. Her voice sounded clearer.
‘Take Sam with you,’ she said.
Blake froze and Sam cringed. Was he going to tell Harriet that he’d dismissed any chance of her being part of this elite team? That she had made a fool of herself by not even being able to follow instructions?
But his gaze caught hers.
‘Do you want to come?’
He knew he was taking a risk. But he was prepared to give her another chance?
He wouldn’t do that unless he actually believed that she could do it.
Sam could feel her confidence take the biggest leap ever as she sank into that gaze for a heartbeat. And then one more. If Blake believed she could do it then she could.
‘Yes,’ she said quietly. ‘I do...’
* * *
If someone had been at all inclined to panic, this scenario would have triggered it.
There were steep, narrow metal staircases to climb down into the engine rooms of this huge ship and it was rolling enough to make it difficult. Power was out, so the only illumination was coming from the lamps on their helmets. It was hot and the air was thick with an unpleasant mix of smoke and oil. To top it off, there were strange noises around them with eerie, muted shrieks and banging from metallic structures that were probably cooling down or had been damaged by the explosion and fire.
Sam hadn’t missed a beat so far. Blake paused at the bottom of what was hopefully the last tube-like stairwell and watched her come after him. It had been the longest ladder so far and she had to be getting tired but there was no hint of any hesitation. If anything, she was climbing down faster now. She actually jumped to miss the last rung.
‘Is this it? Is this where they’re trapped?’
The ship’s doctor had met them as they’d crouched and run from where the helicopter had landed on the top deck. He’d briefed them as they’d started their journey deeper into the ship.
‘One person’s been killed and we’ve got several others with minor injuries and burns. Most we can manage in our hospital but there’s one burns case that needs evacuating.’
‘You want us to transport him?’
‘If this helicopter can take him back, I’ve got a nurse who can go with him. There’s a bigger problem we need you guys to help with, if you can.’
‘What’s that?’ Blake cast a sideways glance at Sam. She was focused intently on what they were being told. Ready for anything, judging by the serious, determined look on her face.
‘There’s a couple of people unaccounted for. We think they’re trapped somewhere in the engine room behind where the explosion happened. The captain won’t let anybody go in there—he says it’s too dangerous.’
Blake felt the knot of tension in his gut tighten.
Did he want Sam going in there?
He had no choice now. He had offered her this second chance and this was what the SDR team did. They headed into disasters, not away from them, with the intention of saving lives that might otherwise be lost.
But he was going in first. If it was too dangerous, he could change his mind and order Sam to wait on the sidelines.
And now, here they were.
A very challenging environment but it didn’t feel too dangerous. Yet.
The man who’d been their guide—one of the ship’s fire officers—was still near the bottom of the ladder and he was the one to answer Sam’s query.
‘We think so. They would have been in that direction. In the next section. We couldn’t get near because of the fire but that’s all out now and it should be cooling down a bit but...be careful. There’s a lot of shredded metal over there.’
Blake nodded. ‘Hear that, Sam?’
‘Yep.’
‘Stay behind me.’
‘Okay.’
‘Let me know on the radio when you need assistance,’ the fire officer said. ‘I’ve got my team ready and stretchers and things available.’
Blake moved forward slowly. The rolling movement of the ship made it even more vital to identify every hazard and the fact that it was Sam who was following him heightened his awareness of anything that could cause harm.
Whenever there was a moment’s break or the noise level faded enough, he would pause and call out.
‘Rescue team here. Can anyone hear me?’
And ten seconds later, ‘Nothing heard.’
‘Nothing heard,’ Sam would echo.
They squeezed through narrow gaps between enormous metal structures. They climbed over pipes and splashed through deep puddles left behind from the firefighting efforts. The beam of light from Blake’s lamp finally raked a warped metal door.
‘Rescue team here. Can anyone hear me?’
Another slow roll of the ship happened then and there was a metallic groan as engine parts shifted and scraped. Blake felt Sam touch his arm as she tried to keep her balance. Except she didn’t let go.
‘I heard something.’
‘Background noise.’
‘No.’ Sam was still holding his arm as she turned her head. ‘Rescue team here,’ she called loudly. ‘Can you hear me?’
This time, Blake could hear the response as well. Faint, but unmistakeable.
‘Yes...thank God...’ They could hear someone coughing. ‘We’re in here...’
* * *
The door was jammed but the bottom had been bent far enough to create a gap. Not nearly big enough to let Blake get through. Or even one of th
eir backpacks.
‘I think I can do it,’ Sam said.
‘No way. We’ll get some more manpower in here. And some cutting gear.’
‘That will take too long. What if there’s a time-critical injury in there?’
‘Hey...’ Blake crouched by the bend in the door. ‘What’s happening in there? Are you hurt?’
‘Moz is in a bad way. I think he might be dead. And I’m...bleeding.’ The coughing sounded exhausted. ‘I can’t seem to stop it...’
Sam was pulling her backpack off. ‘What’s your name?’
‘Barry.’
‘Try and put some pressure on where you’re bleeding, Barry. My name’s Sam. I’m going to try and get in to you.’
She knelt on the floor, tilting her head to examine the gap. ‘I can’t see any sharp edges.’
Looking up, she blinked in the beam of Blake’s light. ‘Are you sure you want to try this?’
In answer, Sam lay flat on the floor, ignoring the wash of oil-streaked water around her. She lay on her back, her head already in the gap, and then used her feet to push her forward. A few moments later and she had to twist sideways to get her hips through. She felt her overalls snag and rip and could only hope that no skin was involved. Every time she pulled her legs forward she could feel the distance between herself and Blake increase but it didn’t matter.
She knew he was there.
And she knew she could do this.
She heard him using the radio to contact the fire officer’s team.
‘We’ve found them. We’re going to need help.’
Sam scrambled to her knees on the other side of the door. One man lay directly in front of her. Another was slumped in the corner.
‘Check Moz first,’ the nearest man said. ‘Please. He stopped talking to me a while back...’
Barry was gripping his arm. Sam couldn’t see any active bleeding from between his fingers.
She crawled swiftly over to the corner but she knew instantly how unlikely it was that she was going to find a pulse on this man. She could see how bad his head injury was.
She checked anyway.
And then she went straight back to Barry.
‘I’m sorry,’ she said. ‘There’s nothing I can do.’
Barry groaned. He let go of his arm and Sam saw a pulse of fresh blood appear. She put her gloved hand over the wound and pressed. Hard.
‘I need some dressings, Blake,’ she called. ‘And bandages.’
He passed them through the gap in the door.
‘I’m going to need IV gear as well,’ she told him a minute or two later. ‘And fluids. Barry? Can you still hear me?’
‘What’s happening?’ Blake’s voice was tense. ‘Talk to me, Sam.’
‘Moz is dead. Head injury.’ Sam clipped a tourniquet onto Barry’s uninjured arm. ‘Barry here has got a deep laceration on his arm but I think I’ve got the bleeding under control with a pressure bandage. His blood pressure’s well down—I can’t get a radial pulse and his level of consciousness is dropping.’
‘Any other injuries?’
‘I don’t know. Nothing obvious but I want to get these fluids running and then I’ll check more thoroughly.’
‘He was coughing. Here’s a stethoscope so you can check his lung fields. There could have been a lot of smoke in there.’
‘Okay. Give me a second... There... IV’s in. I’ll just set up the saline and push a bit in.’
She was silent for a minute or two as she worked.
‘You okay, Sam?’
‘I’m good.’
She could hear the sound of more people arriving behind Blake but the additional sounds didn’t quite cover his next words.
‘Yeah,’ she heard. ‘You are...’
CHAPTER TEN
‘ARE YOU SURE you don’t mind staying behind?’
‘No. There’s not enough room on the chopper and it’s far more important that the rest of the injured people get checked out properly.’
‘I’ll stay, too, in that case.’ Blake’s nod was decisive.
‘But Barry’s your patient.’
‘He’s stable. And he’s in good hands with the paramedics.’
‘But the captain says it’ll take hours to get towed back into Sydney.’
Blake’s eyebrow rose. ‘You want me to give up the opportunity for an evening cruise into one of the most beautiful cities in the world? A rare chance to actually relax for a while?’
Sam caught her lip between her teeth. He wanted to stay on board with her? For hours and hours?
It almost felt like a date.
‘You’re not worried about Harriet?’
‘I called the hospital. She’s sleeping and probably will until the morning. I left a message to say I’ll be in first thing, before I start work.’
Blake’s decision to stay behind meant that another crew member with minor injuries could head home to his worried family. As they watched the rescue helicopter disappear into the distance, the captain approached to thank him.
‘You both did an amazing job today,’ he said. ‘And we want to show you our appreciation. I’m afraid I’m going to be a bit busy supervising this towing operation but we want to make one of our staterooms available for you. You can have a shower and clean up. We’re a bit limited in what we can offer from our menus, with no power, but we’ll do our best.
A shower...
Sam couldn’t stop her lips curving into a smile.
It was getting even more like a date. Or rather, like their very first time together, when Blake had offered to let her use the shower in his hotel room. And look how that invitation had turned out...
But maybe he didn’t want that to happen again. She risked a quick glance in his direction and something began melting inside her at the brush of pure heat in his eyes.
He was remembering exactly what she was. And he wanted it again as much as she did. Maybe not now. Or here, because that would hardly be appropriate.
But soon...
‘Wait here,’ the captain instructed. ‘Give us a few minutes and then my chief purser will come and get you as soon as we’ve sorted things.’
It was almost deserted in this area of the top deck where the helipad was located. Sam walked towards the railing to watch the misty outline of the coast becoming clearer. Blake followed her.
‘The captain was right,’ he said. ‘You did do an amazing job today.’
Sam smiled. ‘Does this mean I’m going to get an invitation to join the team?’
Blake didn’t return the smile. ‘Do you still want to?’
She caught her breath. She’d been given a second chance to prove herself worthy of the goal that had been so important to her but...was she being given a second chance of something completely different here?
To be on the team—or to be with Blake?
She couldn’t tell. But she could sense that the question in his eyes went deeper than whether she still wanted to be a member of the team he was so passionate about.
Sam had to look away. ‘You’d really consider that—after what happened today?’
‘You mean the way you were totally unfazed by a hostile environment and responded to an emergency without hesitation and pretty much saved a man’s life single-handedly?’
‘No...’ But the praise was doing funny things to her body. Could this glow actually be visible? She didn’t dare catch Blake’s gaze in case it was. ‘I meant what happened on the cliff.’
There was a moment’s silence before he spoke quietly. ‘What did happen, Sam? It wasn’t just fear, was it?’
The silence was longer this time but Blake seemed happy to wait.
‘A long time ago,’ Sam said slowly, ‘my older brother, Alistair, got killed in a rock fall.’
‘Alistair...’ Blake echoe
d. And then his jaw dropped. ‘Alistair Braithwaite was your brother?’
‘You knew him?’
‘I knew of him. Who didn’t? He was a role model for a lot of young people. He came to speak at my school once and he was inspirational. Bit of a hero of mine, to be honest.’
Sam’s smile was poignant. ‘Mine, too. I adored him.’
‘It was such a tragedy. My God, Sam... I’m not surprised you got overwhelmed. It must have brought everything back in an instant.’
‘Too much,’ Sam admitted. ‘Like how I thought my parents would just disappear into their grief. How it changed our family overnight. We seemed to swap roles somehow. It became my job to protect them.’
‘I know that feeling. My mum’s been pretty dependent on me ever since her stroke.’
‘I heard about that.’ Sam hesitated for a beat. She was stepping over an unspoken barrier that protected his private life. It took courage to move past it. Almost as much courage as it had taken to start squeezing herself through that narrow gap in the twisted metal door of the engine room. ‘It’s what stopped you joining MSF, isn’t it?’
Blake didn’t seem to mind that the barrier had been crossed. ‘I love my mum. And I owe her everything but... I’m not proud of it, but I also resented it. I felt like her dependence robbed me of my freedom.’
Sam touched Blake’s hand that was gripping the rail in front of her—an automatic gesture of understanding. ‘And I felt like Alistair’s death robbed me of doing anything exciting ever again. I had to keep myself safe to protect my parents.’
Blake’s hand moved to cover hers. ‘You didn’t keep yourself safe today.’
‘I’m not looking forward to telling them about it.’ Sam sighed. ‘But...but I felt like me today. Who I really am. The person I really want to be. And that’s important, isn’t it?’
She looked up to find Blake smiling at her. The look in his eyes told her that he was about to kiss her but he had something to say first.
‘More than important,’ he murmured. ‘You’re not only amazing, Sam Braithwaite. You’re very wise.’
The glow that his praise had given her paled into insignificance compared to the one that replaced it as his lips covered hers. It was just the briefest touch but that was okay, because they were in a public place, after all, and were here in a professional capacity.
The Shy Nurse's Rebel Doc Page 14