Doctors at Risk

by Alison Roberts

  Wendy was biting her lip and Ross could see her face shining with anticipation. That mixture of dread and excitement he remembered so well. He knew Wendy would look at him before she left. She would know it was another slap in the face because he would want to be part of the team again. She might even feel obliged to stand down as a gesture of pity because he would never be asked to respond to a callout like this again. Ross was ready for the glance when it came.

  ‘Don’t miss that plane,’ he said softly.

  An unformed question clouded her eyes and Ross answered it with a hint of a smile. ‘If you don’t go, who’s going to tell me all about it when it’s over?’

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  ‘CANCEL it.’

  ‘But I thought you were looking forward to it. Once you get your licence for hand controls you can get your own car. Real independence.’

  ‘I’ll do it next week, Sally. Couldn’t you try booking another appointment for me? Please?’ Ross tried his most charming smile with apparent success.

  ‘I can try.’ Sally gave Ross a suspicious glance. ‘This isn’t just procrastination, is it? Like using your ankle as an excuse not to try any weight-bearing exercises?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘So what’s the reason? You haven’t got any appointments I don’t know about lined up after lunch, have you?’

  ‘Kind of.’ Ross’s smile was a little embarrassed this time. ‘I’m hoping to catch Wendy before she starts work.’

  ‘She’s not starting till 3 p.m. Your test is booked for 1 p.m. You’ll be finished way before Wendy gets here.’

  ‘She might come in a bit early. She knows I’m waiting to hear all about the USAR callout.’

  ‘But that was on Friday!’ Sally sounded surprised. ‘Surely you’ve caught up on all the news by now.’

  ‘I haven’t heard a thing apart from what I saw on TV or read in the papers.’ Ross didn’t try to disguise his disappointment that none of his friends had thought to contact him. Or the frustration of waiting. He felt left out. Forgotten. It had been three days now since Wendy had responded to the call. She must know how eager he would be to hear all about it from an insider’s perspective. Or did she think that telling him would just rub in the fact that he was no longer a part of the team? Was she, in fact, avoiding talking to him?

  Phoning her to let her know that he was looking forward to talking to her hadn’t worked. The message he’d left on her answering-machine on Saturday evening had been ignored. The staff at Coronation Hospital hadn’t been able to ease the frustration either. The incident in Dunedin had been a major topic of conversation over the weekend but Ross couldn’t learn anything new. It had been on a much smaller scale than the disaster at Westgate Mall, but the similarities between the incidents were still eerie. A bomb had been detonated at a popular shopping centre. There had been fatalities and multiple injuries. And a rescue worker had been injured in a fall.

  At least Joe Barrington was OK. Ross had pulled strings and persuaded Patrick to ring a colleague in Dunedin Hospital for news. Joe had been kept under observation for a night but then discharged. He’d had some fractured ribs and a mild concussion and had been advised not to return to his work as a helicopter paramedic for a few weeks. They said he was expected to return to Christchurch, but that had been two days ago and there was no one answering his home phone. Fletch and Kelly should be back in town by now as well. Surely all his mates wouldn’t assume he would rather not be reminded of his inability to participate? Or did they think Wendy would be keeping him up to date? Maybe he shouldn’t have left it up to her to choose when they made their break-up public.

  Patrick had inadvertently lifted his mood only half an hour ago as he’d paid a brief visit to the gymnasium on his way past.

  ‘Good to hear that Wendy will be back this afternoon,’ he’d said. ‘Sounds like she’s happy with the way everything went down south.’

  ‘When did you hear from her?’ Ross avoided revealing any hint of the misery he’d felt at being left out of the loop.

  ‘Ten minutes ago.’ Patrick grinned. ‘Sounded like she had only just crawled out of bed.’

  Ross had his plan in place well before he returned to the ward for lunch, and a driving assessment was no competition. He intended to be outside any minute now. He would cruise the area between the staff car park and the hospital entrance. Even if Wendy was running late he would make sure she knew how much he wanted to talk. An arrangement to spend some time together during her meal break, or even when she finished work at 11 p.m., would be enough to make him happy.

  The plan almost failed. The staged casual meeting became a surprise to both of them when Ross nearly cannoned into Wendy, having coasted down the ramp beside the main entrance.

  ‘You’ll get a speeding ticket if you’re not careful!’

  ‘Wendy! You’re back!’

  ‘Of course I’m back.’ Wendy looked nearly as astonished as Ross sounded. ‘Where did you think I’d be?’

  ‘I didn’t have any idea where you’d be.’ Frustration roughened his tone. ‘You didn’t call. Nobody called. Nobody’s been able to tell me a bloody thing!’

  ‘Oh, Ross, I’m sorry.’ Wendy bit her lip. ‘It was so full on down there, and then we had to stay on for a day for police interviews. Kelly, Fletch and I ended up driving back last night after having dinner with Jess in Silverstream, and it was far too late to call. I didn’t even get your message until I woke up this morning and when I rang, Debbie said you were sweating it out in the gym and that you had a driving test at 1 p.m.’ Her face lit up as she offered amends with a grin. ‘That’s why I’ve come in so early. I wanted to see you before you drove off somewhere.’

  Her grin was contagious enough to dispel his negative mood. ‘I cancelled the driving test. I was hoping to catch you before you started work.’

  Wendy glanced at her watch, her grin fading. It was just after 12.30 p.m. Had Ross been on his way to wait, possibly for hours, somewhere near the car park? The guilt that she hadn’t made more of an effort to prevent the events of the last few days distracting her so completely from Ross now cancelled out any relief that she had found such distraction possible. It was all too easy to see how deeply Ross had been affected by being left out of the action. This was a lot worse than going off to climb Castle Rock without him. The mutual acceptance that their lives were now going in different directions was unavoidable. It was still possible, however, to soften the blow. Wendy smiled again.

  ‘Just as well we’ve got heaps of time. I’ve got so much to tell you.’

  Ross returned the smile. ‘You’d better not leave anything out. What’s this about police interviews?’

  ‘They’re trying to find common links between Westgate and the Octagon incident. They’re looking for a lead on someone with a reason to plant bombs.’

  Ross snorted incredulously. ‘What, do they think it might be a USAR technician looking for some action?’

  ‘It’s not that far-fetched if you think about cases of serial arsonists who turn out to be fire officers.’

  ‘They’re not seriously looking for a suspect from USAR, are they?’

  ‘I don’t know. We were questioned pretty thoroughly. We had to stay in town until they finished the interviews, which took most of Saturday. Jessica got spoken to as well and she wasn’t even involved this time. They’ll probably come and see you soon.’

  ‘Just as well I’ve got a good alibi.’

  ‘You might have an accomplice.’ Wendy moved aside as another wheelchair negotiated the ramp. ‘Maybe you wanted something interesting to watch on TV.’

  ‘I would have organised better coverage,’ Ross growled. ‘They didn’t show nearly enough. I’ve got a million questions for you.’

  ‘We’d better find somewhere a bit more comfortable, then.’

  ‘Sorry.’ Ross’s expression gave nothing away. ‘I forgot you weren’t sitting down.’

  Wendy blinked. Was Ross making a joke about being confined to a whe
elchair?

  ‘I’m sure it can be arranged, though.’ The grin confirmed his attempt at humour. ‘Follow me.’

  Wendy had to walk fast to keep up. She noted the ease with which Ross negotiated the corner of the building, the kerb and then the grass surface. When he positioned the chair neatly at the end of a park bench, Wendy could sit down, and now she was looking up at Ross just the way she always had when they’d sat and talked together. And this time the barrier that the thin side of the wheelchair presented was quickly forgotten.

  ‘Start right at the beginning,’ Ross ordered. ‘And don’t leave anything out.’

  ‘It was a lot smaller than Westgate,’ Wendy began. ‘It all seemed quite manageable in comparison, but then as soon as we got deployed and we were inside it felt exactly the same.’ Wendy shook her head. ‘It made no difference that the blast had done less damage and there were fewer people killed or missing. It was just as scary and we had to work just as hard to find and extricate the victims. We found this woman and she’d been caught between this section of wall and a bed that had tipped on its side. The springs in the mattress saved her from being totally crushed. You could only see her head poking up out of the rubble and she was absolutely terrified. We had to—’ Wendy halted her headlong tumble of words as Ross held up his hand.

  ‘Hang on! I said start at the beginning.’

  ‘I was. She was the first victim we found. Joe had to—’

  Ross shook his head impatiently. ‘I’ve been waiting days to hear this story,’ he said sternly. ‘As far as I’m concerned, it begins the moment you left work early on Friday morning.’

  ‘Oh…I thought you might only want the exciting bits.’ The look on Ross’s face made Wendy realise that every detail was important and she felt even worse about him having had to wait so long. Ross wanted to share as much of this experience as she could give him. She took a deep breath. ‘Right. I went home and grabbed my gear. I had to hunt for my goggles, which was a nuisance, and then I remembered I’d left them with my climbing gear ’cause I thought they might be better in blizzards than the ones I had. Joe rang and offered me a lift so I left my car at his place and we met Dave Stewart at the airport. Roger and Owen and Gerry were already there.’ Wendy paused for breath and smiled. ‘We thought Fletch was going to miss the plane but he arrived at the last possible minute. We looked out the window and there he was running across the tarmac, holding hands with Kelly. They had to bring the steps back so they could get on.’

  ‘Fletch was holding hands with Kelly?’ Ross’s jaw had dropped noticeably.

  ‘Yeah.’ Wendy’s impish grin flashed. ‘That’s a whole story in itself. Did you know they were engaged once? Years ago.’

  ‘I didn’t know they’d been engaged. Fletch did tell me they were an item for a while. He said she dumped him because he got sick.’

  ‘It was all a huge misunderstanding,’ Wendy said. ‘And it’s obviously sorted now. You should have seen them sitting on the plane, just looking at each other.’ Hoping that her face or tone wouldn’t betray how envious she’d felt, Wendy rushed on. ‘And Joe wasn’t talking either, apart from wondering out loud every five minutes whether Jess was going to respond to the callout.’

  ‘And did she?’

  ‘No, but she turned up in Dunedin later—after Joe had been taken to hospital. She hadn’t known anything about it until she’d turned the television on and there was Joe, being carried out in a Stokes basket. Did you see that?’

  Ross nodded. ‘Paddy rang Dunedin hospital on Saturday morning for me to get the information they refused to give me on Friday night. He’d been discharged by then, though, and I didn’t have a mobile number for him. Is he back in Christchurch yet?’

  ‘No. He’s staying in Silverstream with Jessica to help her pack up her house.’ Wendy shook her head as she smiled again. ‘Seems like they’re engaged now, too. There’s going to be a real bun fight about which couple gets to have the first wedding. Fletch was even suggesting they combine the ceremonies so we could all have one huge party.’ Wendy was avoiding any eye contact with Ross now. Talking about it reminded her how very lonely she’d felt by the time she’d arrived home last night.

  The talk of weddings had eventually forced her confession that she and Ross were no longer a couple, and even the loving support of her friends hadn’t made it any easier. The consensus that the estrangement wouldn’t be permanent hadn’t helped. Wendy had already reached the point where she simply had to accept it and move on with her life. She had always coped with problems by making a decision and then taking action. Had she really believed she could do something as out of character as maintaining a friendship in order to keep herself available in case Ross changed his mind? She should have known herself well enough to know such a resolution could never have lasted.

  ‘Anyway…’ Wendy brushed an imaginary piece of fluff from the dark blue of her uniform trousers. ‘They’re all planning to visit as soon as they get themselves sorted. Fletch and Kelly said they’ll be in to visit you tonight and I’m sure they’ll fill you in. It’s quite a story.’

  ‘I hope none of them are planning to tie the knot too soon.’

  ‘Why not?’ Wendy’s tone hardened a touch. ‘They’re in love, Ross. I’m sure they’re not going to let anything stand in the way of being happy together, and marriage is the usual way of cementing that kind of commitment.’

  ‘Well, one of them might be looking for a best man.’ Ross sounded oddly hesitant. ‘I might have to revisit my decision never to roll down an aisle in a wheelchair.’

  ‘I guess you’re right.’ Wendy tried to make the comment offhand but inwardly she sighed wearily. Was she supposed to take some kind of double meaning here? Was Ross dangling a verbal invitation to move closer so that he could check out whether she was still clinging to dreams that might need extra squashing? She wasn’t going to play that game any more. She was too tired. Literally and figuratively. A small sigh escaped her lips. This discussion was supposed to be an account of her USAR deployment, a kind of personal debrief she had been looking forward to. How had it been hijacked so easily into becoming far too personal for comfort? Maybe she couldn’t even talk to Ross any more. About anything.

  It was Ross who broke the now awkward silence. ‘I’m just glad Joe’s OK. When I saw that news coverage of him being carried out to the ambulance I thought I might be getting a roommate. It brought back a few memories.’

  ‘I’m sure it did.’ Wendy’s tone was anything but light now. ‘I thought the same thing when I saw him fall down the stairwell. It was the worst moment of the whole incident for me.’

  ‘Bit of a coincidence, wasn’t it?’

  ‘It all seemed like that,’ Wendy said slowly. ‘Right from that first phone call. We’d only just met up again that night at the vineyard. We’d even been discussing how unlikely it was that we’d ever get another callout. We all thought Kyle was being his usual obnoxious self by boasting that he kept his personal protection kit packed and ready to go by his bedroom door.’

  ‘Was Kyle there?’

  ‘Unfortunately, yes. It was a surprise we could have done without.’

  ‘Why was it such a surprise?’

  ‘Because Dave said he deliberately left him off the phone list when he was trying to get a squad together. I figured he must have heard about it on the first news broadcasts. He lives somewhere near Dunedin so it wouldn’t have taken him long to get there.’

  ‘He’s probably got one of those radio scanners that pick up emergency service broadcasts.’ Ross snorted softly. ‘I can just see him sitting at home pretending he’s part of any action going down.’

  ‘When he’s not on the internet, downloading pictures of international disasters,’ Wendy agreed. ‘Do you remember that whole folder of stuff he had about the Oklahoma bombing?’

  ‘He’s an idiot,’ Ross declared. ‘He wasn’t responsible in some way for Joe’s accident, was he?’

  ‘No. He was on the other squad wi
th Kelly and Fletch. Our team was checking the least damaged side of the mall by then. We weren’t expecting to find any more casualties and I guess we got a bit over-confident. We went into an electronic goods store that was on two levels, with this modern stainless-steel stairwell that went down to the basement level. If I’d gone first we probably would have seen it wasn’t stable without me coming to any harm. Joe’s weight was just too much for it and he went down like a ton of bricks.’ Wendy’s smile was more of a grimace. ‘He felt like a ton of bricks when we were carting him out up some fire-escape stairs. We all had to stop and rest halfway up.’

  ‘How was he at that point?’

  ‘I think he was almost enjoying himself by then. He had been in a lot of pain from his ribs which had affected his breathing quite badly. Fletch gave him some morphine and he improved a lot with some high-flow oxygen. A pretty easy patient really.’

  ‘Who was the hardest? The woman stuck behind the mattress?’

  ‘No. We had a multi-trauma after that. Buried right in the middle of the worst-hit area. Head and chest injuries, GCS of 3. Joe intubated him and did a chest decompression. I got two litres of fluid in by the time we got him out but he arrested just after that.’

  ‘Did you manage to resuscitate him?’

  ‘No. He was one of the fatalities.’ Wendy sighed heavily. ‘We worked so hard on him.’ She paused to swallow. ‘It was pretty disappointing.’

  Wendy hadn’t realised she’d closed her eyes as she’d lapsed into silence until she felt Ross touch her hand. The touch conveyed an understanding very few people could have given her. She opened her eyes. ‘I wish you’d been there, Ross.’

  Ross simply nodded.

  ‘The mattress woman was great.’ Wendy made an effort to concentrate on something other than the touch on her hand being withdrawn. ‘She wasn’t actually injured at all but she thought she was paralysed for life. She couldn’t move and she had pins and needles in both arms and hands thanks to her hyperventilation. We managed to calm her down, which resolved most of her symptoms, and when we got the bed shifted she was able to walk out.’