“Did you plan to end your life?”
Brianna shrugged again. “I wanted him to notice me.”
“Who?”
“My dad.”
Poppy needed to tread lightly. She documented Brianna’s blood pressure, heart rate, respiratory rate, temperature and oxygen saturation levels. Apart from a low blood pressure, she was clammy and pale.
“Is there any medical history we need to know about?” Poppy asked. “Any allergies?”
Brianna shook her head and closed her eyes.
“I’m going to get the ECG machine and check your heart then I’ll need to put a drip in and take some bloods. Is that okay, sweetie?”
“Do whatever and stop talking to me like I’m a baby. I’m nearly twenty-one and I’m pregnant.”
Poppy licked her dry lips. “I’m sorry, Brianna. I didn’t mean to sound condescending.”
“Whatever.” Brianna started shaking.
“I’ll be back in a second.”
Poppy ducked out and looked around for Brianna’s father. There was no sign of him. Hopefully he’d gone to call Brianna’s mother. Poppy grabbed the ECG and wheeled it back to the room while flagging the attention of one of the doctors.
“I’ve got an overdose in resus two,” Poppy said. “She’s also pregnant.”
The doctor paused and Poppy watched his gaze flick between the two resuscitation cubicles.
“It’s okay now, but I’ll yell out if I need you,” Poppy said.
She re-entered Brianna’s cubicle and began explaining how the ECG worked.
Brianna cut her off. “I’m a third year nursing student. I know what an ECG is.”
“Okay.”
Poppy worked in silence. She hit the button and printed off the report. As she anticipated, the QRS was typically wide.
She reached for the IV trolley and grabbed one of Brianna’s arms. Brianna was shaking even more violently but thankfully Poppy managed to insert the IV on her first attempt.
“Are you cold?” Poppy asked as she secured the IV line and began drawing off blood to be sent to the pathology lab. “I can grab a blanket from the warmer.”
Brianna didn’t respond.
“Brianna!” Poppy called.
No answer.
Poppy swore and smacked her hand on the nurse assist button on the wall at the back of the bed. Seconds later the curtain was flung open and a doctor and another nurse rushed in.
“She’s non responsive.”
Before the words left her lips, Brianna went into a tonic-clonic seizure. Poppy leaped forward and rolled her onto her side.
“Do you have IV access?” someone asked.
“Yes,” Poppy replied.
“She’s going to need to be tubed.”
It took half an hour before they had safely intubated Brianna and placed her on a ventilator. When the commotion calmed, Poppy dimmed the lights and now the only sound in the room was the rhythmic hum of the machine. She notified ICU and while she waited for someone to come and transfer Brianna upstairs, she wrote her notes.
She was straightening the sheets over Brianna’s body when Brianna’s father walked in. His mouth hung open as he caught sight of his daughter with a tube down her throat and another one down her nose. Poppy had accidently spilled some charcoal when she was pouring it down the nasogastric tube and the black chalky mixture had stained the sheet.
“What the hell happened?”
“It’s okay. Let me explain.”
The man’s shoulders sagged. “No need to explain. This is what happened to her mother.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. Overdose. Two months ago. Four days in ICU but she didn’t make it.”
Poppy stifled the shocked sound that threatened to escape. “I’m so sorry.”
“She battled for years with mental health issues. That’s why Brianna wants to be a nurse. She wants to help people. But the other week she came home distraught because one of her lecturers mentioned that bipolar and schizophrenia are hereditary.”
Poppy felt like she was going to pass out, but she pulled herself together. “Did your wife have bipolar?” she asked.
The man nodded. “Brianna was worried she would get it too.”
Poppy sighed softly. “I know how that feels.”
*
That afternoon Poppy drove slowly home, thinking about Brianna. After they’d sedated her and tubed her, they whisked her upstairs to ICU. Before Poppy left the hospital she called past the intensive care unit, poked her head into Brianna’s room and chatted to the nurse looking after her. Brianna was stable.
Thinking about Brianna made her think about Lily which made her recall her conversation with Liam the night before. She should have told him about Adam. Now, when she did get the chance to tell him, he’d want to know why she hadn’t been honest in the first place. She promised herself that she’d tell him the next time they were together.
As she was unlocking her front door half an hour later, her phone rang. She grabbed and answered it, knowing it would be Liam – who else called her?
“Hey good looking. How was work today?”
“A tough one.”
“How so?”
She explained about Brianna.
“You okay?”
She sighed. “I will be. So, did you sleep well last night?” she asked, changing the subject.
“Like a baby.”
“I’ve told you before, that saying doesn’t make sense. Ask Kate. Babies don’t sleep.”
“Okay then. I slept like a log. Once I made it to my bed.”
“How’s the head?”
“Not bad actually.”
“I’m surprised.”
“I wasn’t that drunk.”
“Really? Do you remember me leaving?”
There was a pause. “Ah, no. Sorry. I should have warned you that after I have a few drinks I tend to get a bit melancholic and sometimes fall asleep mid-sentence.”
Poppy laughed. “That’s exactly what happened. I was going to ask if you had undiagnosed narcolepsy. One minute you were talking, the next you were snoring.”
“Yeah, that happens. I woke up this morning and discovered you’d eaten all my ice cream and all my strawberries though.”
“You offered.”
“Did I dip the strawberries in chocolate and feed them to you one at a time?”
Poppy giggled. “Is that your usual modus operandi?”
“No. But it was my plan when I served up strawberries to you, I got caught up talking instead.”
“Maybe next time,” she said.
“Ah, yes. Next time. About that. I’m calling to see what’s for dinner because I’m coming over.”
“At this stage, there is absolutely nothing for dinner. The pantry is empty. Unless you want two minute noodles or macaroni cheese. That’s about all my mother keeps on hand.”
“Do you feel like Chinese?”
Poppy groaned. “Aw yes, please.”
Liam chuckled. “I thought food was the way to a man’s heart.”
“Whoever made up that rule didn’t know me.”
“I’ll remember that.”
“Yeah, food over flowers every time if you want to win me over.”
“You don’t like flowers?”
“Waste of money.”
“I’ll remember that too.”
“I like flowers, but I prefer plants. Flowers die and there’s nothing more depressing than a vase of dead flowers.”
“Fair enough. I have a few things to tidy up around here so how about I order and call you when I’m on my way. How does that sound?”
“Sounds perfect.”
“I look forward to bringing you food and finding the way to your heart.”
“You have to stop with the corny one-liners. They are seriously bad.”
“Oh, come on, that was a good one.”
“I’ll see you tonight,” she said.
“I’ll bring the strawberries,” he replied.
“And
chocolate.”
Chapter 32
Poppy re-checked the clock on the wall. It was well after eight and Liam still hadn’t arrived. He’d called forty-five minutes earlier to say he was on his way with dinner, so where was he?
She tried his phone again but there was still no answer. She wasn’t overly worried, because he was a local, used to driving on country roads, but it was blowing a gale outside and bucketing down and the roads would be atrocious. She threw another log onto the fire and replaced the fire screen. He’d probably gotten a call out on his way to the farm and hadn’t had a chance to let her know.
Or perhaps his car had broken down and he was waiting for the tow truck. Phone coverage out here was patchy at the best of times. Maybe he hadn’t been able to call anyone and he was sitting out there waiting for someone to drive past. She imagined his face if she pulled up and made a joke about her rescuing him for a change.
At eight-thirty she couldn’t sit still any longer. She checked the fire was safe, pulled on her down jacket and grabbed her car keys. She had to run through sleet-like rain to her car. The weather forecasters had predicted snow for the mountains and if the temperature kept dropping, it was a high likelihood.
The first five kilometers turned up nothing. Her wipers slashed across the screen but it was almost impossible to see in front of her. She squinted into the darkness and scoured the gravel road ahead for any sign of him. There was nothing.
When she turned onto the main road back into Birrangulla, it was slick with water and in some places black ice covered the road. She crawled along at less than forty kilometers per hour.
There was a bend in the road ahead, a slight curve that ended in a straight stretch of road. As she rounded the bend her headlights picked up something in the middle of the road. She slowed further. A dead wombat, on its back, feet in the air, lay in the middle of the road. As she veered around it, out of the corner of her eye she noticed the broken guardrail then spotted a faint stream of light in the ditch. She peered into the darkness and made out the tail end of a car jutting out.
Fear jackknifed through her. It was Liam’s car.
She hit the brakes, fumbled around to find the switch for the hazard lights and jumped out. Wind battered her body, whipping around her and making it difficult to see down the ditch. She zipped her coat up to her chin then pulled her hair into a knot on top of her head to keep it out of her eyes.
“Liam!” she screamed into the wind. “Liam!”
There was no response.
Was he lying unconscious and bleeding? Or worse? She pulled out her phone, relief flooding her when she saw she had service. She dialed triple zero and gave them her location. While they stayed on the line, Poppy slipped and slid her way to the front of Liam’s car. The front of the car was crumpled where it had hit a tree but the doors appeared unharmed.
“Liam,” she yelled again when she caught sight of him.
Yanking open the door, the cabin of the car was flooded with light. His face was streaked with dried blood, one eye swollen shut. The deflated airbag hung from the steering wheel like a popped balloon.
Liam grinned. “What took you so long?”
She slumped against the side of the car.
“Are you okay?”
He nodded. “I’m fine. Just a bit winded. And it’s warmer in here than out there so I thought I’d stay here until you rescued me.”
Her legs wobbled as adrenaline released itself and flooded her veins. Thank God he was okay.
“How long ago did it happen?”
“About twenty minutes ago. I think I hit a dead ’roo.”
“Wombat,” she confirmed. “Dead as a doornail. That’s what caught my attention.”
He started to get out of the car.
“Are you sure you should move?”
“I’ll be fine. You better not have called the ambulance,” he said, pointing to the phone still in her hand.
“Oh crap, I forgot about them.”
“Did you have to?”
She stared at him. “Are you kidding me? That’s the first thing I did.”
She put the phone back to her ear. “Hi. Me again. Yeah, he’s okay. Yes. No. Yes, I still want you to come out please. Can you arrange a tow truck too? Oh. Alright. No worries. Thanks. See you soon.”
Liam was shaking his head at her and trying to reach for the phone. She stepped away and scowled at him before disconnecting the call.
“They’re on their way,” she said as she pocketed her phone.
“I told you, I’m fine. I’m hardly in a critical condition.”
“Not yet,” she retorted. “But you might be if you don’t sit still.”
“Seriously. It’s okay. The airbag winded me. Nothing’s broken.”
She glared at him. “So your super powers include x-ray vision do they?” she asked. “How would you know you haven’t broken a rib and pierced a lung?”
“Because there’s nothing wrong with my breathing.” He coughed to demonstrate. “See.”
She narrowed her gaze. “I saw you wince.”
“Winded. Seriously, I’ve been hurt worse playing football.”
“Yeah, when you were a teenager. Shall I hold up a mirror and remind you that you’re not eighteen and bulletproof anymore?”
“Come on, Poppy, help me get out.”
She crossed her arms and glared at him. “Nope, I’m not moving you. What if you’ve hurt your back or your neck? You need to be collared.”
He twisted his neck from side to side. “Seriously, I’m fine.”
“You’re bleeding. What if you need stitches or something?”
He touched his nose. “It’s just a bloody nose.”
She peered closer. “Your face looks terrible,” she said, examining the smeared blood rapidly drying on his face and his left eye which was swelling faster than her breathing rate. She touched his cheek. It was cold. “Are you cold?” she asked.
“A little. My jacket is on the back seat. Can you reach it?”
Poppy opened the rear passenger door and grabbed his coat. She laid it across his chest.
“Squeeze my hands,” she said. “Can you move your legs?”
“I’m fine, Poppy. Honest. I knew in this weather it was better to stay in the car.”
“Do you know where you are? What day of the week it is? What year? What month? Who is the prime minister?”
He laughed. “Have they decided? It took them weeks to figure it out after the last election. I can never keep up.”
“Don’t be funny. Who is it?”
She glared at him, arms crossed, when he refused to answer.
Moments later she heard a siren in the distance. She let her breath out in relief and went up to the roadside. Seconds later a police car appeared, followed by the ambulance.
Sean jumped from the car, panic written on his face.
“He’s okay,” Poppy assured him as he began running toward Liam’s car.
He stopped and exhaled. “Are you sure?”
“Trust me, he’s fine. He’s complaining that I called you guys. You and I won’t be in his good books tomorrow.”
Poppy followed Sean down into the ditch.
“Thank goodness for the airbags,” he said when he reached his son. He checked the front of the car. “Looks like it’s a write-off though. And what is that smell?”
“Our dinner.”
“Whatever it was, it’s all over the back seat,” Sean said.
Liam sighed. “Bummer. It was Chinese food and I was going to use it to get to Poppy’s heart.”
“I think that’s the last of your concerns right now,” Poppy said.
*
Liam tried not to laugh at her. Partly because it hurt a bit when he did and partly because she would probably hit him. She was glaring at him with a mixture of anger and concern in her eyes. He found her concern for him endearing. If food didn’t win her heart, maybe his being injured would.
Once the ambulance arrived, his colleag
ues helped get him out of the car. He’d insisted he was okay to walk and with some help he’d clambered back up to the road and allowed them to check him over. While they did, Sean moved the dead wombat onto the shoulder of the road and called a tow truck to collect Liam’s car.
When everyone was satisfied that Liam was not about to die, he announced he wanted to go home.
“I still say you should go to hospital,” Poppy said. “You should get an x-ray at least.”
“No way. There’s nothing worse than being treated in the hospital by people who know you.” He touched her arm. “Can’t you take me back to your place, get me cleaned up and nurse me back to health? Pretty please?”
She closed her eyes and shook her head.
Sean chuckled. “Sorry, Poppy. He’s always been like this. Stubborn as an ass.”
“Okay. But if you start making no sense or I think you need to see a doctor, you’ll have no say in the matter. Deal?”
Liam held out his hand and grinned. “Deal.”
“And if you give me a hard time I’m calling your dad and he can come and pick you up.”
“I promise I’ll behave.” He held up his pinkie.
“What are you? Five?”
Liam mimed zipping his lips while she helped him into her car.
She rolled her eyes at him as she leaned over, pulled the seatbelt gently across his chest and clicked it into place.
They drove in silence and when they reached her house, Poppy parked as close as she could get to the front door. The rain had eased to a drizzle but the temperature had dropped further.
“Looks like we’ll get snow,” he said. “I might have to stay the night.”
“We’ll see about that,” she replied.
She came around to his door and helped him out of the car. He didn’t want to admit that he ached all over and was desperate for some Panadol and anti-inflammatories. Although he tried hard, he found himself leaning against her as his legs threatened to buckle under him in the few steps to the front door.
She looked at him in concern. “Are you sure this is such a good idea?”
He nodded. “I’ll be fine. All I need is some pain relief and a hot shower.”
She unlocked the door and kicked it open with her foot. Heat rushed out to meet them. Smart woman. She must have stoked the fire before going out to look for him.
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