by Carol Rose
Julia made no sound and Caleb had the impression that her eyes were closed. Without so much as a glance at the other accident victim, now standing next to him, Caleb began wrenching at the door.
Despite his forceful attempts, it remained jammed. Abandoning it, Caleb went to the other side of the car, only to find that door blocked by the tilt of the car. He leaned against the top of the car, bracing his legs against the bank of ground behind him.
"What are you doing?" the other driver said, standing at the edge of the road, cradling his injured arm.
Caleb made no response, straining every ounce of his strength to wedge some space to get the door open. He had to see what Julia's condition was, had to get her out of the car. Even with the rain, there was the threat of an explosion from leaking gasoline.
At last, the vehicle creaked as it shifted back a foot or so, its wheels settling back on the ground.
Although the car had landed in a vee-shaped ditch, now that he'd rocked it back horizontally, Caleb had some access to the passenger door. Yanking it open, he gave the woman behind the wheel a rapid examination.
"Is she okay?" The man was suddenly beside Caleb, trying to squeeze into the car door.
"Get out!" Caleb's tone was sharp, not wasting precious seconds.
Unwilling to wait until the man could be made to understand, Caleb grasped his good arm and pulled him, protesting, out of the car. ''I'm a doctor, you idiot. She needs immediate attention."
The man stumbled back, giving Caleb enough room to squeeze back into the car.
Julia lay half on the seat, her eyes still closed. Leaning nearer, Caleb quickly tried to assess her condition. Damn the darkness! Even with the glow from the dash instruments, he could barely make out the white oval of her face.
Automatically, Caleb leaned forward, checking for breath from her closed mouth. He felt none. Tilting her neck, he made sure her airway was open, but still there was no breath.
Straightening, he felt for a pulse, his palms sweating.
No breath, no pulse. Damn. If he moved her to do CPR, he ran the risk of exacerbating any spinal injury. Yet without CPR, she was as good as dead and might be incinerated if the car went up in flames.
He didn't have any choice.
"What are you doing in there?" The man's voice was both sharp and weak.
After one more quick breath, Caleb tried to unlatch the seat belt holding her. It wouldn't budge at first, making him wonder if he'd have to waste seconds getting a knife from his truck. Giving the belt a vicious tug, he heard the mechanism disengage.
Her body fell against him.
Quickly slipping a hand under Julia's shoulders and another beneath her knees, he pulled her limp body from the car, moving back as smoothly as he could.
Once he had freed her, the steady rain came down harder, drenching them both.
Caleb hunched over her, trying to shelter her as much as possible as he climbed through the ditch to the road.
"Grab her jacket off the seat and put it on the ground in front, by the headlight," he told the man, hovering nearby.
Still holding Julia cradled, he puffed a breath into her lips, and waited for a moment. She didn't respond.
The man scrambled to do as Caleb said.
"Do you know CPR?" Caleb asked as he gently set her on the wet ground, covered only by her thin lab jacket.
The man shook his head miserably. "Is she going to die?”
Quickly scanning Julia in the rain-spattered glare of the headlight, Caleb hardly heard the man. A red mark could be seen now on her forehead. There was no visible bleeding. Leaning over her, he tried to shield at least her face from the heavy rain. The rest of her was soaked already, sharpening Caleb's concern.
With the possibility of multiple internal injuries and bleeding, shock was almost a certainty.
"Is she going to be all right?" the man asked anxiously.
"I don't know," Caleb said between chest compressions. "Do you have anything to cover her? Another jacket? An umbrella?"
''I'll check," the man turned back to his car but returned quickly. "There's nothing."
"Damn," Caleb muttered between breaths.
"Listen." He raised his voice above the drumming of the rain. "You need to get help. Quick."
"Where? There's no place near," the man protested.
"She'll die if you don't-" Chest compression. "Head injury, possible internal injuries." Chest compression. "Go!"
Counting in his head, Caleb bent over Julia. Every few compressions he checked for a pulse.
Behind him, the man stood, somewhat dazed still. "Move!" Caleb yelled.
"Okay," the man agreed. "There must be a house nearby."
Caleb didn't answer, totally focused. Dammit, she had to live. No way in hell was he going to accept any other option.
Between compressions, he felt for her pulse. He'd lost all awareness of the rain and darkness. The only thought in his head was Julia. She had to live. He kept up the chest compressions, praying furiously.
The rain fell in sheets, drenching him to the skin. Brushing back the infuriating drips from his eyes, Caleb bent to her face again.
Minutes dragged by with no movement, no sign of life from the precious body beneath his hands. Caleb felt himself shaking and knew it wasn't from the cold. Dammit, she had to live!
The face he cupped as he breathed into her body was as perfect and still as a Madonna's. His hands felt huge over her ribs.
He'd held her just hours before, made savage, violent love to her...and now she lay nearly lifeless before him.
Bending again, Caleb checked for a pulse. Drawing in a sobbing breath, he raised his face to the driving rain. She had to live. Please, God, let her live, he wanted to shriek.
In the distance, the whine of an ambulance siren sounded. Caleb felt a surge of relief flooding through tension-racked muscles. Within minutes, the box-like vehicle with its flashing lights pulled up, closely followed by a police car.
Looking up from his task, Caleb saw the paramedics racing to him. When they neared, he began rapping out information.
"We've got a female, thirty years of age. CPR for ten minutes. Head trauma." He didn’t pause his regular chest compressions.
"When did you start CPR?" the first paramedic asked.
"Immediately." Caleb paused. ''I'm a physician."
He then added, "Possible internal injuries."
"Shall I relieve you, sir?" the second paramedic offered respectfully, gesturing to where Caleb knelt next to Julia.
"No," Caleb rejected his offer. "Let's just get her in."
He checked the pulse again. It was stronger and now regular, though somewhat fast. He saw her chest rise, then put his ear to her nose-yes, she was breathing now. Relief choked him, tears clouding his vision and blending with the raindrops on his face.
"She's breathing. We need oxygen," Caleb directed. One paramedic connected an oxygen mask while the other readied the cardiac monitor nearby.
Within seconds, a stretcher had been pulled from the ambulance and was rolled to where Julia lay. Moving quickly, they deftly transferred her to the stretcher and covered her body and legs against the steady rain.
Caleb himself helped secure the neck immobilizer as a precautionary measure. Julia's beautiful body looked lost on the stretcher. Caleb walked beside her, his hands on her wrist as they rolled to the ambulance, checking again for the steady beat that meant life.
The paramedics lifted the stretcher into the ambulance. Without hesitation, Caleb climbed in next to it. The second paramedic climbed in behind him and moved to shut the door.
"Did someone check the other victim?" Caleb thought to ask.
"Yes, sir. Another unit is coming."
Bent over Julia, Caleb barely heeded the paramedic's reply. As the ambulance lurched into movement, he leaned closer, watching the monitor and wondering if and when she would regain consciousness.
"Julia! Can you hear me?" He thought he saw her move her head, but he sa
w no other response.
"Let's get an IV in," ordered Caleb.
The paramedic responded quickly and automatically, accomplishing the feat with relative ease. As he taped the clear tubing to Julia's arm, memory jolted Caleb.
Two years ago he had sat beside the bed of a woman threaded with tubes, and watched as she died. His stomach twisted.
He couldn't let Julia die. He might not be able to be the lover she needed, but he needed her alive in the world.
The rest of the ride to the hospital was accomplished quickly. Much faster, Caleb knew, than it would have seemed had Julia not started responding. Within minutes, they had pulled beneath the emergency room overhang. The driver opened the doors and Julia's stretcher was whisked through the automatic doors with Caleb beside her.
The woman had taken ten years off his life, and he wasn't leaving till he knew she was out of the woods.
*
A thunderous, thumping pain first brought Julia to consciousness. She surfaced slowly, a chorus of aches and hurts reporting in all at once. In addition to the drumming in her head, she felt bruised everywhere.
Her eyelids were too heavy to lift, as if she'd been drugged. She heard the hum of hospital machinery, the echo of a cardiac monitor pinging, and in the distance, the sound of a doctor being paged.
The accident. She was in the hospital.
The other car had sped out of nowhere, hurtling through the four-way stop before she could react. The remembered sights and sounds of that moment would have made her gasp aloud if her rib cage hadn't hurt so badly.
Her chest felt as if a gorilla had jumped up and down on it.
Lying there, she vaguely remembered seeing the other driver's face at the second of impact, his horrified expression.
After that, there were only fragments of memory...mostly of the feel of rain and broken glass on her face.
She was lucky to be alive.
The enshrouding darkness of sleep beckoned again, tugging at her. Julia resisted, struggling to open her eyes despite the seductive unconsciousness drawing her down.
With an effort that made her tired, she finally managed a look at her surroundings. She was in a hospital room in the intensive care unit. The sound of the monitors should have told her that.
With a detached, almost disinterested glance around her cubicle, Julia's gaze collided with a most unexpected sight.
Caleb was hunched over in a chair next to her bed, sound asleep.
Julia felt the quickening of her heart, absently aware of the monitor's reflection of the changing rate.
He looked grubby, his jeans and shirt stained with blood. His firm jaw was stubbled with the beginnings of a beard. His large frame had to make sleeping in that small chair almost impossible, but he had managed. With one fist propped under his chin, his breathing regular, he was dead to the world. He looked exhausted.
Julia stared at him, overwhelmed with remembrance. It sprang up unbidden, sharp with clarity.
They'd made love with a ferocious, desperate energy. When? Had it been this evening? The night before?
She had no sense of time at the moment.
But the recollection of pain was uncompromised. She'd promised herself she was done with him, that she'd pulled away to save herself. But that night at the house--the home he'd built for her--she'd wanted him so fiercely. Wanted one more time to feel his body merge with hers.
So she'd kissed him, ridden out the most haunting storm with him; then he'd walked away. Headed to Alaska, out of her life.
Caleb muttered something in his sleep, shifting briefly.
Why was he here? There was something else, some tantalizing image that dodged her attempts to retrieve it.
Had Caleb been there...at the accident?
The sound of his voice echoed in her head, mingled with a thousand splintered bits of memory. Caleb calling her name, sounding frantic and desperate.
Julia sighed, closing her eyes. She couldn't tell if those were memories or wishful thinking. Nothing was clear.
She forced her eyes open again, looking at him with a resigned certainty. She would always love him. She knew that much.
Caleb woke with a start, lurching forward in the chair.
He met her gaze for a fraction of a second before jumping up to stand beside her.
"How do you feel?" He took her hand in his, checking her pulse with the other.
Julia looked up at him, exhausted by the effort to stay conscious and too exhausted to speak.
"It's okay," he said, as if he'd read her thoughts. "Rest."
He reached up, smoothing her hair away from her forehead in a tender gesture that made her want to cry.
"You had an accident," he said.
A sudden, heart-pounding possibility occurred to her. Had the other driver been badly hurt?
"The guy who ran the stop sign is okay," Caleb said. "A broken arm and a few lacerations. He came out better than you."
Julia sighed again, turning her face into Caleb's hand as she slid nearer to the beckoning darkness.
"You're going to be okay," she heard him say, his voice rough and unsteady. "You'll be fine."
CHAPTER TEN
Alaska sucked.
Caleb looked out the trailer window at the sunset, unable to find any joy in the sweeping, mountainous beauty. He hadn't seen any polar bears or glaciers, but the place was damned cold.
Especially after a hot Texas summer.
If only he could get Julia out of his mind....
Time was supposed to heal all wounds. He supposed a month wasn't long enough 'cause his wounds sure as hell weren't healing. He'd thought he had escaped before any real damage was done, left soon enough to prevent catastrophe for both of them. He'd been wrong. At least about himself.
He leaned back, propping his booted feet up on the cushioned seat in his minuscule dining area.
Driving up to the job had seemed like a good idea at the time, but the days on the road had given him too much time alone to think...and worry.
He'd stopped twice and called the hospital to see how Julia was doing. Once he'd pretended to be her nonexistent brother.
They said she was improving every day, that there'd be no permanent damage. He'd had to bully an intern to get that much information.
Then when he'd called back two weeks ago, she'd already left the hospital. Convalescing at home, the nurse had said.
Thank God, he'd been able to find her sister's phone number. The woman, Eileen, had been frantic when he called just after the wreck, but she'd promised to come take care of Julia.
Caleb couldn't stay to nurse her back to health. He'd had to dredge up every ounce of willpower to leave when he did. Staying wasn't an option. He couldn't be the man she needed.
Amazingly, he hadn't dreamed about the accident, hadn't woken up in a cold sweat with the image of Julia's limp body.
She was alive.
Those frantic moments of trying to revive her, desperate to snatch her life out of the balance, had replayed themselves during the days. At work when his hands were busy, but his mind free, he remembered every detail. How natural it had seemed. He'd done what he had to do, a complete professional--except for his urgent prayers.
It was probably crazy, but wrestling for Julia's life and winning had left him with a strangely victorious sensation that still hit him in odd moments. That kind of experience had been part of what had initially drawn him to medicine. Triumphing over death and illness, helping the body's healing process with hard-won knowledge and the skills passed on by generations of doctors before him....
His emotions on the subject were definitely mixed. In fact, the whole damn thing was a jumble. Clearly Alaska wasn't far enough away from Julia, and the strong feelings only she could evoke.
A knock on the trailer door jolted Caleb. "Yeah?"
The door opened and Sherry stuck her head inside.
"Hey, a bunch of us are meeting for a drink in an hour at the roadhouse down the way. Wanna come?"
&
nbsp; What a difference six months made. Before he'd been irritated just to have a woman dropping by the building site, now he worked next to one. Sherry was a damn good foreman. She was also fabulous looking, a natural beauty with a mane of dark hair and incredible dark eyes.
"Well?" she prompted. "Unless you've got a hot date tonight, get your butt in gear and meet us."
A dry laugh escaped him. "No hot dates."
"I didn't think so," she said, mock pity in her voice. "But if you get cleaned up and ask nicely, I'll even dance with you."
"Okay," he agreed, dropping his feet to the floor.
"Good." She closed the door.
Caleb stared at the spot where she'd been. He couldn't ask for a nicer, sexier diversion from his thoughts. But up to this point, he hadn't been able to locate his libido.
Maybe tonight would be different. Sherry had made it clear to him on several occasions that she was uninterested in a more physical interaction. She should be perfect for his requirements.
Getting up, he shucked his clothes, heading for the shower.
*
The rustic roadhouse was crammed to capacity. Caleb wove his way back from the bar, balancing two beers. When he reached the cluster of tables commandeered by the resort construction crew, he placed Sherry's beer in front of her.
"Thanks," she said, her eyes sultry. "Wanna dance?"
Caleb hesitated only a fraction of a second before setting his beer down. "Sure."
Sherry took his hand and headed into the crowd on the dance floor. The music was loud and rhythmic. The dark-haired woman snuggled close, her breasts brushing his chest. He focused on the curvaceous body in his arms, willing himself to get aroused.
They danced to two songs and then returned to the table. Caleb sat next to her, letting the conversation flow over him. They were a boisterous bunch, hard-working adventurers who'd come here partly for the money, but mostly for the hell of it.
After an hour, Sherry said, "Well, I'm headin' home. Gotta work tomorrow."
A chorus of voices met her announcement, some teasing, several offering suggestively to accompany her home.
"Nope," she said, grinning. "Caleb is going to walk me to my truck. 'Night, guys."