Rescued by Dr. Rafe

by Annie Claydon

  ‘What else...?’

  ‘Everything else is relatively minor. She has some cuts, a lot of bruises and a fractured ankle. I missed it when I first examined her...’ Rafe was still kicking himself for that.

  Charlie rolled his eyes. ‘Yeah, you missed it because you were busy saving her life.’

  ‘I just did...’ What any doctor would do? He hadn’t. He’d felt close to many patients, battled for them with every ounce of his strength. But he’d always been able to maintain enough distance to keep himself sane. Never felt that his own fate was inextricably linked with the person whose life lay in his hands and that if they died he would too.

  ‘How long will it take? Before she’s up and around again.’

  Rafe really didn’t want to look that far ahead. He’d seen all the things that could go wrong in the course of his work, and he didn’t want to think about any of them. But Charlie needed as much information and reassurance as Rafe could give.

  ‘From what her doctor says, she’ll be in the ICU for two, probably three days, if everything goes well. The inflammation on her lungs should resolve by itself in a few days...’

  ‘And the snake bite?’

  ‘It depends, Charlie. We need to wait and see. They won’t transfer her down to the general ward until she’s through the worst of it. But, after that, an adult can experience swelling and pain for up to nine months.’

  ‘Nine months! But what about her new job?’

  ‘I’ll contact them and let them know what’s happened. I can ask them to keep the post open for her but... To be honest with you, I think they’ll be needing to fill the post before she’s well enough to go back to work.’

  Charlie shook his head, puffing out a breath. ‘She so wanted that job.’

  ‘Look, Charlie. At the moment, the best thing we can do is to take each day at a time. Looking ahead is just going to be overwhelming. She was treated promptly, she’s being well cared for and her condition is stable. That counts for a lot.’

  ‘Yeah, I understand.’ Charlie reached forward, gripping Rafe’s hand tightly. ‘Thanks. When will they let us see her?’

  ‘Soon. I’ll go with you, and ask.’ Rafe still knew enough people here and his word might carry some weight. At the very least, he could stay and explain what was happening to Charlie.

  ‘Thanks. I appreciate that.’

  It was the least that Rafe could do. If he hadn’t gone back for the medical bag. If they hadn’t been arguing about it... Overwhelming guilt gripped at his chest, leaving him breathless with remorse, and he tried to shake it off. That was for later. Right now he had to give Charlie as much support as he could.

  ‘We’ll go up there now and see what’s happening, and then we’ll go to the canteen for something to eat.’

  ‘I can’t eat, Rafe...’

  ‘We’ll do it anyway. The next couple of weeks are going to be hard, and you need to pace yourself.’

  Charlie nodded. ‘Just don’t bring me chocolate.’

  ‘You remember that?’ Suddenly the years fell away and he was walking up to the ICU, a sandwich and a bar of chocolate in his pocket for the pretty ambulance driver who spent every waking hour sitting by her brother’s bedside.

  ‘I remember thinking it was just as well that someone was feeding her up. I had this idea that I’d sneak out when the nurses weren’t looking, get to a phone and order up a pizza for her.’

  Rafe nodded. ‘Happens a lot. I’ve seen people who are seriously injured, and who think they just need a minute before they can get up and walk away.’

  ‘I guess we all think we’re indestructible.’ Charlie’s eyes were suddenly full of tears. ‘Mimi always has...’

  ‘She’s going to come back to us, Charlie.’ Rafe felt himself choke, and in a sudden terror wondered whether this was a response to the fact that Mimi too was choking. Maybe intubated. Frightened and unable to speak. He hoped that someone was holding her hand.

  He had to stay calm.

  ‘When you see her, I want you to remember this. She’s going to look pretty bad. But I want you to remember that they’re looking after her well, and that she’s going to mend.’

  Charlie took a deep breath. ‘Thanks, mate. Got it.’

  * * *

  Visiting hours were over, but the ICU doctor had allowed them in for ten minutes. Mimi’s body seemed very small in the bed, overwhelmed by the paraphernalia around her that was monitoring her and keeping her stable. Rafe breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that she was breathing on her own.

  ‘Why is she in this room?’ Charlie’s brow creased.

  ‘It’s nothing to worry about. They’ll put patients where they can best manage them; a separate room doesn’t mean that she’s any better or worse than anyone else.’

  ‘Okay.’ Charlie looked at the cannula in her arm. ‘Is she in pain?’

  ‘The drugs they’re giving her will be enough to keep her comfortable.’ Rafe looked at the label on the bag suspended above her head. He had every confidence in the people here, but he still couldn’t help checking.

  ‘Her toes...’ Charlie was staring at the lightweight cast that encased her right foot. The other leg was hidden under a canopy, and Rafe dreaded to think what that looked like. Probably swollen, blistered and almost black by now.

  ‘Her toes are just the way we want them to be.’ He couldn’t resist brushing them with his fingers, just to check that the cast wasn’t too tight. The small, intimate act almost brought him to tears.

  Looking at her face was an almost unbearable effort, but he made himself do it until the shock began to numb. One eye was bruised and closing fast, and a row of stitches ran along her jawline.

  ‘I...I want her to wake up.’ Charlie reached for Mimi’s hand, taking it in his.

  ‘I know. She’s better asleep right now, mate. Just hold her hand and tell her you’re here.’

  ‘Will she hear me?’

  ‘Maybe. Hopefully not, but tell her anyway.’

  It was such an effort to stand back, watching Charlie touch her and hold her hand. Hearing him say the words that Rafe wanted to say to Mimi. But he had no right to say them.

  * * *

  They’d eaten and then left the hospital. Charlie had given Rafe a lift back to the brewery to collect his car, and Rafe had followed him home. The lights of the bungalow were ablaze, and clearly Charlie’s house guests weren’t going to bed until he returned. Rafe nodded in satisfaction and accelerated on down the road, not looking at Mimi’s house when he passed it. There was no way he was going to be anywhere other than the hospital tonight.

  He dumped his overnight bag in the small cubicle that adjoined the duty doctors’ rest room and lay down on the bed, fully clothed, trying to tell himself that he wasn’t going to do what he was about to do. Then he gave up all pretence of sleep and went upstairs to the ICU.

  He’d expected a gentle invitation to go and get some rest from the ICU staff. But the doctor on duty knew Rafe and beckoned him inside.

  ‘She’s very restless. I don’t want to give her any more medication if I can help it.’

  ‘What’s she on now...?’ Rafe held out his hand for the notes, knowing that he was pushing his luck.

  ‘Just go and talk to her, see if you can calm her down.’

  ‘Yeah. Of course...’ Rafe followed the doctor to Mimi’s room and walked inside.

  In the muted light, he could see her hand twitching. Grasping for something. Maybe she was still back at the brewery, fighting to find something to hold on to, in the rush of water. The feeling that his heart was going to break, right there and then, hit Rafe.

  ‘She’s been like this for a while. She tried to pull the cannula out...’

  Not good news. Rafe looked at Mimi’s arm and saw that a bandage had been put over a new can
nula insertion, to try and prevent her from getting to that one. ‘Can I sit with her?’

  ‘That would be good.’

  Rafe pulled up a chair and sat down. Whoever Mimi was reaching for probably wasn’t him, but that didn’t matter. She was reaching for someone, and he could be anyone she wanted him to be if she’d just calm down and go to sleep.

  He took her hand and felt her fingers curl around his. It was probably just an automatic reaction, but she seemed to relax a little.

  ‘You’re safe, Mimi. Nothing’s going to hurt you.’

  She lay still. He stood up, leaning over to brush a few strands of hair from her forehead. ‘Go to sleep now. You’re safe.’

  Although her eyes were closed, he could see movement behind the lids as if she was dreaming. She was still fighting it, though. She moved in the bed and seemed to stiffen, as if in pain.

  ‘Honey, please try not to move. You need to rest.’

  Suddenly her eyes snapped open. They seemed unfocused and Rafe had no idea whether she could see him or not. But he repeated his reassurances, hoping that he was getting through to her.

  She blinked twice. Then her lids drooped and she lay quiet. Rafe sat down beside the bed, holding her hand, feeling the tears course down his cheeks. This was the only place he needed to be tonight. Every night, until Mimi woke up again.

  * * *

  Three nights. Three nights when he’d been able to sit with her while she slept. Charlie had been there every day. Jack had come in, looking gaunt and tired, and been allowed to spend half an hour with her. But that was the daytime. At night Mimi was still his.

  Rafe knew that he shouldn’t be doing this. He was pushing his luck, asking more favours than he should, but he didn’t care. He drove home for a couple of hours’ sleep first thing every morning, and then back in the afternoon to speak to Charlie. If the ICU staff were willing to allow him to stay on and sit with her during the night, Rafe wasn’t going to question it.

  Mimi was improving. She’d been breathing for herself, her lungs recovering from the assault of the water. Each night she seemed to sleep more peacefully. On the third morning, as he tried to slip unnoticed out of the ICU, her doctor caught up with him. Eddie and Rafe were old colleagues and he had always made time to speak to Rafe when he visited.

  ‘We’re going to discontinue the sedative and if she’s still stable we’ll transfer her on to one of the general wards.’

  The small spot of light at the end of the tunnel suddenly turned into brilliance. ‘Thanks...’ Rafe tried to catch his breath. ‘Thank you.’

  ‘I’ll get someone to call you. When she wakes up? Or are you going to get some shut-eye?’

  In a world where Mimi was awake, Rafe doubted whether he could get any sleep. ‘Thanks, but... Let her brother spend some time with her first. I’ll wait.’

  Eddie raised his eyebrows quizzically, but didn’t ask. ‘Okay. Just to let you know.’

  ‘Thanks.’ Rafe took the doctor’s hand and shook it, gripping tight. ‘You know when people tell you they don’t know how to thank you?’

  Eddie chuckled. ‘Yeah, I know that one.’

  ‘Well, trust me. They don’t. I’m indebted to you...’

  ‘Watch out. I might just collect.’ Eddie turned and walked away, leaving Rafe to wander down to the canteen for breakfast in a daze of happiness.

  * * *

  ‘Thought I’d find you here...’ Rafe was holding the paper in front of him, pretending to read it so that he didn’t have to look at anything else. But Charlie’s voice made him look up.

  ‘You’re early. Can I get you anything?’

  ‘How can you eat at a time like this?’ Charlie peered at Rafe’s plate, where his untouched breakfast was beginning to congeal. ‘Correction. How can you buy food and not eat it at a time like this?’

  ‘Force of habit. Never let a meal break pass you by. They called you?’

  ‘Yep. Said they were waking her up. The doctor said she might not be fully conscious until lunchtime.’

  ‘Probably not. Everyone takes their own time.’

  ‘I remember when I woke up in the ICU...’ He saw Charlie’s hand fist around the wheel of his chair.

  ‘I know that was a very rough time for you, but you were badly injured, Charlie. It’ll be a lot easier for Mimi. Remember that.’

  Charlie took a breath. ‘I will. Thanks.’

  ‘She’ll be drowsy, and she might well be uncomfortable. But this is a real step forward.’ Charlie had been looking to him for advice and Rafe had been careful to keep his expectations realistic, but at the same time stay positive. He knew that Charlie’s worst fears were grounded in his own experience.

  ‘When should we go up, then?’

  ‘I reckon an hour or so. They’ll let you in early if they’re waking her.’

  Charlie narrowed his eyes. ‘What’s with the you? You’re not coming?’

  ‘She’s...’ Rafe shrugged. ‘It’s you she wants to see, mate.’

  ‘Right. You two were arguing, weren’t you?’

  ‘Yeah.’ Every time Rafe thought about it, it was as if a knife had been slid into his heart.

  ‘More than you were when you first turned up?’ Charlie grinned.

  ‘A lot less than that, actually. In fact we were in complete agreement...’ In the last three days the dogged determination that she was going to get better had overwhelmed everything else. But now... The sadness that Rafe had felt on their last morning together, when they’d both known it was over but hadn’t been able to say the words, washed back over him.

  She was waking up. And he had to go.

  ‘You and Mimi broke up again, didn’t you?’ Charlie’s voice was heavy with resignation.

  ‘Well...we were never together, so it follows that we couldn’t have...’

  ‘Oh, for crying out loud. So you were never together, which is none of my business anyway, but you still managed to break up. Only you and Mimi could do that.’

  ‘It’s complicated.’

  ‘Yeah, I don’t doubt that for a minute.’ Charlie was squeezing the bridge of his nose between his thumb and finger. ‘But I’d really appreciate it if you’d wait with me. I need some company...’

  Charlie seemed suddenly on edge. As close to panic as Rafe had seen him since the difficult days when he’d had to come to terms with the fact that he wouldn’t walk again. This was the one thing that Rafe had feared, and the only thing that could persuade him to stay.

  ‘I’ll stay for as long as you want. She’ll be okay, you’ll see.’

  ‘Yeah.’ Charlie took a deep breath. ‘I know. Thanks.’

  ‘Let’s have some coffee. There’s plenty of time, and I could do with a cup.’ Rafe’s limbs were aching with fatigue, but the thought of a few more precious moments with Mimi made sleeping out of the question. Just as long as he left before she woke.

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  THEY SAT AT Mimi’s bedside as she slept. Charlie had moved from his wheelchair to the perching stool which he had brought from home, the extra height allowing him to lean over and see Mimi’s face, but after half an hour Rafe persuaded him to sit back down again and save his strength for when she was awake.

  They talked, one on each side of the bed. Speaking quietly about the weather, how it had stopped raining. The wheelchair basketball league, the best beer gardens. Anything and everything, so that she might hear their voices.

  ‘So some of us were thinking we’d have the basketball club crest tattooed on our arms. Only we don’t actually have a club crest, so we’d have to get one first. And no one can agree on what to have...’

  ‘Don’t do that.’

  Charlie suddenly fell silent. Mimi’s voice had been quiet but clear, and when Rafe glanced at her she seemed to be sleeping st
ill. Charlie rapidly hoisted himself to his feet, twisting urgently towards the perching stool, but he slipped and ended up on the floor.

  Now was no time to stand back and let Charlie deal with it. Rafe rounded the bed, keeping his gaze on Mimi’s face, and offered his hand. Charlie gripped hold of him, swinging himself up and finding the stool.

  ‘Mimi. No tattoos, I promise. Just wake up... Please...’ Charlie leaned over her, his knuckles white on the bed’s safety rails.

  She lay unresponsive. This was agony.

  ‘She might be like this for a while, Charlie. It’s quite...’ Rafe stopped short as Mimi’s eyelids fluttered. They’d done this before and she’d drifted back to sleep. But this time...

  She opened her eyes.

  Tears spilled suddenly from Charlie’s eyes and he lifted Mimi’s hand to his lips. Mimi blinked a couple of times and licked her lips.

  ‘Dry... Rafe...’

  Rafe had told himself that he would leave as soon as Mimi showed any signs of waking, and let Charlie have this moment, but when he heard her say his name he couldn’t help it. He leaned over the bed, careful not to obscure her view of her brother.

  ‘Mimi...? Welcome back, honey. You want some water?’

  ‘Yes... Tell Charlie...’

  ‘You can tell him yourself. He’s right here.’ Rafe turned, brushing away his own tears as he reached for the beaker of water.

  ‘No tattoos. I promise...’ Charlie was babbling almost incoherently on the other side of the bed, and Mimi batted her hand as if to shut him up. Rafe dipped a swab into the water, holding it against the side of her mouth.

  ‘Good... More...’

  Rafe handed the water to Charlie. ‘Careful. Don’t let her drink just yet. A drop of water on the swab, just to moisten her lips.’