by Joanna Neil
‘Yes…I can’t just ignore it. I have to do something.’ She sent him a sideways glance. ‘I take it you’re going to help out?’
He nodded. ‘Like I said, this day is just totally bizarre.’
They were at the station within a few minutes, and Emma was appalled at what she saw. The rear carriage of an express train had come off the rails and careered into a wall. There must have been some sort of fire, too, because people were walking about with blackened faces and smudged clothes, and one or two had blood coursing from head wounds or injuries to their extremities. Firemen were doing what they could to free people from the wreckage and everywhere there was noise and the overwhelming chaos of destruction.
‘Do we know what caused the derailment?’ Rhys asked one of the fire officers.
The man shook his head. ‘We’re not sure at the moment, but witnesses have talked about an obstruction on the line, and it seems that the train was going at such a speed that nothing could be done to avoid it.’ He grimaced. ‘We’re doing what we can to move passengers away from the area—those that can walk. Some others are trapped in the overturned carriage. It’s going to take hours to get them all out.’
‘Can we get in to treat any of them? Is it safe for us to go to the people who are trapped? I don’t mind for myself, but I can’t risk my colleague’s safety.’
Emma’s brow furrowed. ‘I wouldn’t be here if I wasn’t prepared to go and do what I can.’
‘Maybe, but you’re my responsibility. I’m your boss, and I have to assess the risks. I’m accountable.’
‘Not today…we’re off duty, remember?’
The fireman led them over to the train. ‘We’ve managed to shore up one part of the carriage. I’ll take you there.’
Rhys assessed the situation and looked as though he might stand in her way, but Emma went around him and began to crawl into the shattered compartment, making her way through crumpled metal and treading over broken glass to get to the man who was trapped in there. He was still conscious, but he was in a desperate condition, crushed by the framework of the carriage and with obvious injuries to his upper extremities. He managed to tell her that his name was Callum.
She quickly checked his airway, breathing and circulation, and intubated him, putting in a cuffed endotracheal tube and making sure that he had an adequate supply of oxygen. He was bleeding profusely, and she attempted to stem the flow with a pressure bandage.
‘Callum, I’m going to set up two intravenous lines, so that I can give you fluids and something to relieve the pain.’
He nodded, and she turned around to see if Rhys was close by. She thought she had heard him following her and, sure enough, he was attending to a burns patient, removing the man’s constricting clothing and running saline over the damaged skin.
‘Rhys, I think I’m going to need some help here,’ she said quietly. ‘I’m not going to get adequate pain relief for him without putting in a supraclavicular block and peripheral nerve blocks. Do you think you could help me with that?’
‘Yes. Just give me a minute to dress these burns.’ He was already administering crystalloids to his patient and making him as comfortable as possible.
After a moment, he turned to Emma. ‘What are we dealing with here?’
‘Crush injuries—I’ve not made any attempt to reduce the fractures and dislocations, but I want to immobilise them so that we can get him out of here. He’s going to need more than the usual painkillers for that.’
Rhys nodded, and indicated to the fire crew that they could start to take his patient out. He worked with Emma over the next few minutes to anaesthetise Callum and make his pain more bearable. It was difficult, working in these cramped conditions, but knowing that Rhys was by her side made things seem far less fraught for Emma.
As soon as they were finished, Emma told the crew that her patient, too, was ready to be taken to hospital.
She waited with Rhys as Callum was transferred to a stretcher. The man would have to go straight to surgery and over the coming weeks he would need multiple skin grafts and intensive care.
Carefully, the emergency services worked to remove the patient from the wreckage and transport him to an ambulance that was standing by. It was a tricky operation, because the carriage they were in was being supported by equipment that had been put in place for the purpose, and as they were taking him out through the narrowed entrance, there was a groaning of metal and the carriage gave a sudden lurch.
Emma was thrown sideways and would have hit her head on a mangled seat if it hadn’t been for Rhys’s swift action. He lunged forward and grabbed her, his hands cupping her arms, pulling her to him and sheltering her against his chest. Debris showered down over them, but he covered her head with his hand and held her to him.
When everything was still once more, he gently eased his grip on her and asked softly, ‘Are you all right?’
She looked up at him, her heart hammering, her limbs trembling. ‘Yes, I am, thanks to you. Did you get hurt…was there any glass in the fall? You’re not cut, are you?’
‘I’m fine.’ He gazed into her eyes, as though he would search out any hidden pain. ‘I thought you were going to smash into the seat. I couldn’t bear to think of you hurting yourself. Are you sure you’re all right?’
‘I’m OK. I just banged my arm against the side of the carriage, but there’s no harm done. You stopped me from crashing into it.’
‘I’m glad.’ He was still gazing down at her, his grey eyes searching her face with brooding intensity, and it occurred to her that by now she should be calming down, getting back on to an even keel, but instead her pulse had quickened even more, and her nervous system was making chaotic leaps as though it was under siege.
Perhaps he sensed her vulnerability, because his head lowered, bringing him even closer to her, his glance lingering on the soft fullness of her mouth.
Her lips parted in heady expectation. He was going to kiss her. She knew it, and she wanted it, and she closed her eyes in breathless anticipation, so that when his mouth brushed hers, the tantalising sweep of his lips brought a husky sound of urgent need to break in her throat.
He deepened the kiss, tasting the honeyed sweetness of her mouth, drawing from her all the pent-up longing that she had tried to quell.
His heart was thudding heavily, along with her own. She could feel it, even as he moved to draw her into the shelter of his arms, and the blood raced through her veins in a wave of dizzying excitement. His mouth pressured hers and her whole body trembled in aching response.
Then, too soon, he started to draw back, reluctantly easing himself from her, and she looked up into his eyes and saw a glimmer of some dark emotion there. Was he already regretting their quiet moment of intimacy?
‘I’m not sure what came over me,’ he said in a thickened voice. ‘I thought you might have been hurt, but even so…it should never have happened. Perhaps it’s all down to this weird, overwrought situation.’ He shook his head, as though to break lose any vestige of madness that might attempt to cling on.
He moved away from her, distancing himself as if that would emphasise the point, and she was chilled by the sudden loss of that warmth and closeness that had been so precious, and so very short-lived.
Emma gazed at him in bewilderment. He didn’t want her…of course he didn’t want her. What had possessed her to think that anything might have changed?
She might have known that there was never any chance of regaining the empathy and easy familiarity that they had once shared. The barriers would always be there between them, wouldn’t they?
CHAPTER SIX
‘ARE you both all right in there?’ The fireman’s voice reached Emma, jolting her out of her stunned introspection. Her mind was racing, her defences thrown into chaos by what had just happened between her and Rhys. She could still feel the imprint of his kiss on her lips, and she wanted to keep it there for all time. The knowledge that he was already regretting it only served to make her more confus
ed than ever.
Rhys answered for her, saving her from having to find the words. He, at least, was functioning properly. ‘Yes, we’re fine…But what happened to the man you were taking out—and to the fire crew? Is everyone OK?’
‘We got him out just in time. We’re all doing great.’
‘That’s a relief.’ Rhys was thoughtful. ‘I’m going to try to move further along the carriage. I think there’s someone trapped just up ahead of us.’
As he spoke, Emma became aware of an odd groaning sound that was coming from somewhere in the distance. She tried to focus her attention on it, to make sense of where it was coming from, but there was a lot of noise going on all around and it was difficult to pin it down.
‘Take it slowly,’ the fireman advised. ‘We’ve managed to shore things up again at this end, and we’re doing what we can to keep things steady, but there could be isolated hiccups. At the first sign of trouble, be sure to stop and stay still.’
‘I will.’ Rhys turned to Emma. ‘Perhaps you should go back and supervise the transfer of patients to the ambulance.’
Emma shook her head. ‘I don’t think so. I’ve already passed on the relevant information to the paramedic. I’m coming with you. We don’t know what we’re dealing with yet.’
‘That’s why I’m suggesting that you should go back,’ he said drily. ‘We’ve already had one scare, and there’s no point in both of us taking risks.’
She wasn’t going to be fobbed off that way. Her mind and body were back on course, and professionalism was taking over once more. ‘You’re wasting time,’ she murmured. ‘Let’s just go, shall we?’
He must have seen that there was no point in continuing the argument, because he began to make his way towards the other end of the carriage without further ado. Emma followed, crouching down and moving at a crawl where the twisted metalwork made it difficult to proceed. The sound of groaning gradually became louder.
There were two people at the end of the carriage. One was a man who appeared to be dazed, and he was hunched over, holding his arm and moaning with pain. Emma guessed that the arm was broken.
Rhys knelt down beside him, while Emma went to help a woman who she could see was pinned beneath the corner of a seat. The woman’s face was turned away from her, a cloud of hair covering her cheek.
‘Let me see if I can get this off you,’ Emma said quietly. She struggled for a while, and then Rhys came to lend his support. He must have been taking note of her efforts, watching her while at the same time taking care of his patient. She was glad of his help. Between them they managed to pull the seat out of the way, and Emma gasped as the woman turned towards her.
‘Lindsey…’ She stared at her friend.
‘You know her?’ Rhys asked, his dark brows coming together in a straight line.
Emma nodded. ‘She’s my neighbour…Kayla’s mother.’
She turned back to Lindsey. ‘It never occurred to me—I had no idea that you would be on this train—but, of course, I should have known that you would be setting off for home round about now.’ She tried to gather her wits and act in a manner that was in accordance with her training. ‘Don’t worry, we’ll take care of you. I just need you to tell me where you feel any pain. Can you do that?’
Seeing that she was able to cope with the medical side of things, Rhys went back to his patient.
‘It’s so good to see a familiar face,’ Lindsey said, her tone distracted. ‘It’s been awful, just lying here, and it feels as though I’ve been stuck here for ages. I was beginning to despair that anyone would come and find us. I could hear that man—I knew he was in pain but I couldn’t get up to go and see how he was doing.’
‘He’ll be all right,’ Emma murmured. ‘Rhys is taking care of him. We should concentrate our attention on you. Are you in any pain at all?’
‘It hurts just here,’ Lindsey said, pointing to the middle of her abdomen, and Emma nodded.
‘Anywhere else?’
Lindsey shook her head. ‘I’m OK. I just couldn’t move because of the seat weighing me down.’
Emma made a swift examination. There was no noticeable injury, except for some clear marking where the seat had been in contact with Lindsey’s abdomen. ‘We’ll try to get you out of here,’ she told her friend. ‘It’ll just take a minute or so until we can get a stretcher through here.’
‘I think I can walk,’ Lindsey said. ‘I’ll try, at least. It’s not too bad, really.’ She made to get up, but Emma gently pressured her back down.
‘That’s not an option. We need to get you to hospital, so that you can be checked over properly. Even if you think you feel fine, we need to be sure that we haven’t missed anything.’
A short time later, they managed to get Lindsey and her fellow passenger out of the carriage. From there they were trundled towards a waiting ambulance.
‘How is she?’ Rhys asked.
‘I don’t think she’s doing as well as she makes out,’ Emma told him. ‘She’s concerned about getting back for Kayla, of course, but her pulse is too rapid, and her blood pressure is falling. There’s something about her condition that bothers me, and I shan’t be happy until we get her looked at properly. I’m worried in case there’s any internal bleeding—but she’ll need a CT scan if we’re to find out exactly what happened.’
‘Do you want to go with her to the hospital?’
Emma nodded, but she was frowning. ‘I do, but it all depends how badly I’m needed here.’
‘I don’t think that will be a problem. We seem to have plenty of medical people around now. You go with your friend. I’ll catch up with you later.’
Emma could see that more doctors had joined the rescue effort, and she hurried away. If Lindsey was left to her own devices, it wouldn’t be beyond her to try to persuade the trauma team that she was fit to be sent home, and even though Emma knew that the team wouldn’t simply take her word for it, she wanted to be at Lindsey’s side to make certain that all was well.
‘They say that I need to go for surgery,’ Lindsey said an hour or so later. ‘For an exploratory procedure.’ Her mouth drooped. ‘I don’t see the point.’
They were in the emergency room back at the hospital, and by this time Rhys had come along to see how things were going. He had checked up on the patients that had been brought in, and now he came to stand with Emma by Lindsey’s bed.
Lindsey looked from one to the other, her features tense. ‘Surely I’m just a little bruised, aren’t I? The first doctor even said that he didn’t think there was too much wrong with me. I’ll be fine if I rest, won’t I?’
‘That was before your CT scan,’ Emma explained. ‘It turns out that your pancreas was crushed—and there is some evidence that you might be bleeding inside.’
Lindsey frowned, and Rhys said quietly, ‘You’re very fortunate that Emma insisted on thorough checks. Sometimes a pancreatic injury might be missed when people come into hospital because they are difficult to diagnose, and they can be very dangerous if left. In your case, the surgeon will work to put things right.’
‘Depending on what he finds, he’ll resection the damaged area, or he might put in a drainage tube to relieve any problems. Either way, you’ll need to be monitored over the next few days.’ Emma hesitated, waiting for Lindsey to absorb that.
‘Days! I can’t do that…I need to get back home—there’s Kayla and Samson to think about.’ She struggled to get her words out. ‘I can’t just stay here. Her father won’t be back for a week or so yet.’
‘I’ll try to get in touch with him for you, and see if he can come back earlier. I can’t see him wanting to stay away while you’re in hospital—and in the meantime I’ll take care of Kayla and Samson for you.’ She winced inside, remembering Samson’s particular problems. This was hardly the time to tell Lindsey what had happened to him. She only hoped the poor dog would recover from the poisoning.
‘Just you do as the doctors tell you, and try to get some rest,’ Emma murmured. ‘I�
��ll go and make sure that Kayla is all right, and we’ll both come and visit you tomorrow, I promise.’
They left Lindsey a short time later, and Rhys said, ‘I’ll take you home, if you like. Do you want to pick up Kayla on the way?’
‘That would be good…are you sure?’ It would be a relief to get out of there, to begin to put this awful day behind her. ‘I don’t want to put you to a lot of trouble.’
‘I’m sure.’ His mouth made a wry twist. ‘Besides, the train schedule is all over the place, and I don’t think you want to be hanging around for very much longer. I think you must have had quite enough for one day.’
It was true enough, and she appreciated having him take the burden from her. His car was ultra-luxurious, with a soft, cushioning interior that allowed her to sit back and relax on the journey.
Or, rather, it would have been restful, if she hadn’t been quite so conscious of Rhys’s nearness, of his long legs stretched out to manipulate the foot controls, of his strong hands taking easy but firm control of the wheel. She recalled how those hands had held her close to him not so very long ago, and the memory sent the blood fizzing through her veins.
It wouldn’t do for her to dwell on that, though, would it? She looked away and tried to simply focus on the passing scenery.
They picked up Kayla from her friend’s house, and when Emma explained what had happened to Lindsey, Tracey’s mother was shocked.
‘I could help out with Kayla until Lindsey’s well again, if you like. It will be easy enough for me to pick her up from nursery school and keep her with me until you get home from work.’
‘Would you? That would be wonderful, thanks.’ Emma smiled at the woman, grateful for the offer of a helping hand.
Kayla was aware that her mother was in hospital, but Emma had been careful to shield the little girl from the exact details of what had happened to her.
‘When will I see Mummy?’ Kayla asked, as they set off for home. She was clearly unhappy about the situation, and was watching Emma intently from the back seat of Rhys’s car.