by Scott, Laura
“He still may, if she doesn’t make it.” Reese’s voice was quiet as he dropped into a chair and stared down at his feet. “I hope she does.”
Sam tilted her head, a puzzled frown on her brow. Reese appeared really troubled by this recent air rescue, and she sensed there was something more going on in his head. His thick brown hair made her want to run her fingers through the strands in an attempt to ease his discomfort. Instead, despite knowing she couldn’t get close, she leaned forward.
“Hey,” she said softly. “Are you all right?”
“Me?” He raised his gaze to hers, his expression guarded. “Why wouldn’t I be?”
The wounded expression had vanished, making Sam wonder if she’d imagined it. Still, she continued to press. “I don’t know. You seem—sad.”
“No. I’m fine.” He turned in his seat to stare at the satellite monitor as if the screen held the answers to world peace. Was this all an attempt to avoid her gaze? He could ask her questions about her personal life, but she couldn’t ask anything about his?
She was disappointed by the thought.
“There’s a storm warning for tomorrow.”
“Hmm.” Obviously, he didn’t want to talk to her. For the first time, she realized Reese possessed secrets of his own. Secrets he wasn’t willing to share.
And for some strange reason, she grew more determined to find out exactly what those secrets were.
5
Andrew popped his head into the debriefing room. “Hey, I gotta head over to Trinity for our post-flight follow-up visits.”
As much as Sam really wished for a window to peer into Reese’s mind to understand what he was thinking, the idea of post-flight visits distracted her. “Could I do them? I’d really like to see how some of our patients are faring.”
The paramedic hesitated. “There’s no reason you couldn’t, except the visits are part of my job, not yours. You’re the doctor.”
Samantha didn’t care whose job they were. Turning over the care of her patients was the hardest part of being a flight physician, and she often wondered how her patients were doing long after she left them. “I don’t mind, honestly. Kate showed me how to fill out the paperwork during training.”
Andrew shrugged and handed over the clipboard. “Go ahead, then, if you want to.”
“Thanks.” Sam glanced at the list of names. Jamie’s was at the top of the list. There were at least three other patients in addition to Jamie that needed to be checked on. She glanced at Reese. “Do you want to come along?”
He hesitated, then shook his head. “I think there’s some rule against giving pilots confidential medical information unless it’s directly related to the flight. Go on, I’ll wait here and watch Mitch check over the helicopter.”
She should have realized this wasn’t something the pilot could do. The Federal privacy rules were strict, but in her mind, Reese was so much more than a simple chopper pilot. “Okay. I’ll be back soon,” she promised.
“Just hurry back if a call comes in,” Reese cautioned.
“I will.” Sam flashed a quick smile, then grabbed her bulky Lifeline jacket and headed outside.
The trip to Trinity was short as the Lifeline hangar was strategically located nearby. While she walked, her thoughts dwelled on Reese. She really enjoyed flying with him; he was incredibly easy to work with. Of all the pilots, he was the most in tune with what was going on with the patient during transport.
Had she imagined that hint of sorrow in his eyes? She knew he wasn’t married, she’d heard the other female residents and the flight nurses talking about Reese in the early days of her training. He was always polite, but she noticed he didn’t flirt with the female staff.
Because he wasn’t interested? Last night, when he’d walked her to her apartment door, the heated awareness between them had been a palpable thing. She couldn’t have imagined the moment she thought he might kiss her. If anything, she knew better than anyone how not wanting to be interested was very different than actual indifference. After all, her emotions had a way of reacting without her permission.
Especially when it came to Reese.
At the information desk in the lobby of Trinity Medical Center, she asked for the room numbers of the patients she needed to see. Jamie was in the medical intensive care unit, so she decided to stop there first.
She found Jamie’s bedside without difficulty. Sam entered the room, then belatedly realized a male visitor was seated next to the patient’s bed.
“Oh, I’m sorry for intruding,” she apologized quickly. “I didn’t see you there. My name is Dr. Samantha Kearn. I was the flight physician who helped transport Jamie down from Cedar Ridge.”
The man bent to press a kiss to Jamie’s forehead, then stood and extended his hand to greet her. ”Pleased to meet you. I’m George, Jamie’s husband. I want to thank you for bringing her to Trinity. Although she’s still very sick, the doctors here have been great. I think she’s finally starting to show signs of improvement.”
“I’m glad to hear it.” Samantha shook his hand, then peeked up at the monitor overhead where the patient’s vital signs were prominently displayed. She was grateful to note that Jamie was indeed more stable. The patient’s husband remained standing, but he reached out and took his wife’s limp hand in his. Sam was touched by the pure devotion in George’s gaze as it rested on his critically ill wife.
“So, how are you holding up?” she asked him. The poor guy appeared exhausted. “You need to take care of yourself too, you know. You won’t do your wife any good by getting sick yourself.”
George’s smile was lopsided. “You sound just like the nurses around here. They’re always telling me to get more rest.” His expression clouded as he gazed at his wife. “I don’t think I’ll be able to rest until Jamie is home with me where she belongs.”
Samantha blinked back empathetic tears. For a moment, the sorrow in his eyes reminded her of the fleeting expression on Reese’s face earlier. Poor Jamie and poor George. Their love was obviously strong. She hoped for both of their sakes that Jamie would get better soon. “I understand. I’ll come back and check in on her again in a few days.”
Jamie’s husband nodded, and Samantha turned to leave. Next to Jamie’s name on the clipboard in hand she wrote, “Critical but stable.”
As she walked to the trauma ICU on the third floor, Samantha thought about her own marriage. She couldn’t imagine Dennis being so supportive. But she could see Reese acting very much like George had, completely devoted to his wife.
A woman would be lucky to be loved like that.
She shook off the flash of self-pity and glanced down at her clipboard. What was she thinking, to be jealous of a critically ill patient? So what if Dennis hadn’t loved her? She had her health and her career. What more did she want? She needed to count her blessings.
In the trauma ICU, Sam was happy to discover how the patient who’d suffered a work-related injury, which had nearly amputated his arm, was doing well after thirty-one hours of surgery to reattach the limb. When she walked in, she found the trauma ICU nurses packing up his supplies to move him to a regular room.
She spent a few minutes chatting with the grateful patient. She hadn’t transported him, but he remembered bits and pieces of the flight and wanted her to thank everyone who had taken care of him. She promised she would.
The last two patients on her list were already in general rooms, ready to be discharged within a few days. She jotted her notations alongside their names on the clipboard and repressed the urge to go upstairs to visit Jamie again. As a physician, Jamie’s complicated medical course intrigued her. Sam had chosen emergency medicine for the variety, but at times like this, she wondered if critical care wouldn’t have been a better option. She wanted to do an in-depth chart review on Jamie’s case to see if there was anything they may have missed. Not that she didn’t trust the critical care team, because she did. Still, she liked taking all the signs and symptoms patients presented with an
d putting the puzzle pieces together until they fit into a diagnosis.
Samantha comforted herself with the knowledge that Jamie was getting the best care possible. There wasn’t anything more she could do for her now.
Taking the stairs to the lobby level, she headed toward the front door. Her footsteps slowed when she saw a tall blond- haired man standing off in the corner, talking on his cell phone. She could only see a part of his profile, but it was enough that she sucked in a quick breath and strained to get a better look at his face. At that moment he turned, and her heart dipped when she recognized him.
Dennis. What on earth was he doing here? Sweat dampened her arms beneath her turtleneck sweater, and she instinctively ducked behind a tall rubber tree plant, hiding from view.
Her hands began to tremble, and she clasped them tightly together. Why was her ex-husband here at Trinity? Was he following her? Even if he was, did it matter? She didn’t have anything to say to him.
No matter how hard he pleaded, she wasn’t ever going back.
Her eyes widened when she saw Dennis turn and shake hands with the gray-haired physician wearing a white lab coat. She recognized Dr. Ben Harris, her boss. Why on earth would her ex-husband be meeting with the medical director of the emergency department? Dennis was a pharmaceutical sales representative, but Milwaukee wasn’t part of his territory. Or at least it hadn’t been while they’d been married. At the time, Dennis had been based in Chicago.
Things could have changed since their separation and subsequent divorce.
Her pager went off, and she read the display describing a request for an ICU to ICU transfer. Samantha didn’t want to see Dennis, or talk to him, but duty won out over the desire to hide. Keeping her gaze averted, she pulled up the edges of her Lifeline jacket to hide her face and quickly wove through the crowd to the front doors. With every step, she expected to hear Dennis call out to her.
But he didn’t.
Outside she quickened her pace until she was running back to Lifeline as if the devil himself was nipping at her heels. Reese and Andrew were waiting impatiently.
“Ready to go?” Reese asked.
“Yes.” Struggling to catch her breath, she tossed aside the clipboard and climbed into the helicopter, with Andrew close on her heels.
Once they had their helmets on and were connected to the communication system, Andrew tapped her knee to get her attention.
“How did the post-flight visits go?” he asked.
“Great. They went fine.” She forced herself to smile, reminding herself Dennis was a part of her past not her future. He was a pharmaceutical sales rep, and for all she knew, Trinity Medical Center was part of his new territory. She didn’t like it, but she knew she had no choice but to get over it.
Sam waited for Reese to finish communicating with the paramedic base to find out their destination. “So, tell me about this transport.”
“Our patient is a thirty-three-year-old male who’d been snowmobiling near Two Rivers when he crashed into a tree. He lives here in Milwaukee, and his family has requested he be transferred to Trinity Medical Center. Apparently, he has multiple fractures and will need extensive surgery and rehab, which they can’t supply up there.”
“He’s stable, then?”
Andrew shrugged. “Relatively speaking. He’s suffered a serious head injury, and apparently, he’s a smoker, so his lungs aren’t in the greatest shape. It will make it more difficult to get him weaned off the ventilator.”
Samantha nodded in understanding. “Reese? How long is the flight to Two Rivers?”
“At least an hour and a half.” His deep voice rumbled through her headset. “Settle in for a long ride.”
A flash of disappointment speared her heart. She normally didn’t mind long flights, but in this case, she’d have preferred to sit up front with Reese.
Settling back against the seat, she stared outside. Their route took them over Lake Michigan. Two Rivers was located close to the lakeshore, and there was nothing but water for as far as she could see beneath them.
Twenty minutes into their ninety-minute flight, Samantha realized the air was full of snow. She leaned forward, peering out the window.
“Reese, what’s with all the snow?” she asked.
“Lake effect. When the cold air meets the warmer water, the result is wet snow. I’m heading farther inland to avoid the worst of it. We should be fine.”
Samantha tried to relax, but she couldn’t help remembering how it had been weather like this that had caused the ice to form on the chopper blades. She trusted Reese implicitly and reminded herself that worrying was useless.
An abrupt dip of the helicopter had her clutching the armrests for support.
“Everyone all right back there?” Reese’s warm husky voice immediately came through her headset.
“We’re fine.” Samantha glanced out the window to see thick flakes. “More lake effect snow?”
“Yes, it’s getting worse, and the wind has kicked up dramatically. If we can’t escape the brunt of the storm by flying inland, we may have to abort.” Reese’s tone was grim.
Oh boy. Samantha drew in a deep breath. Never had she been in a situation where they’d had to abort a flight, but the erratic up-and-down movements of the helicopter were such that she wasn’t about to complain. Thankfully, she didn’t get airsick—at least, not that she knew of. This wasn’t exactly the time she wanted to test the theory, though, either. “Roger. Let us know if there’s something we need to do.”
“Nothing right now. Just hang tight.”
Yeah, she was hanging tight. Sam tried to comfort herself with the knowledge that their patient was stable at Two Rivers, and if they didn’t get there to pick him up today, there was always the chance they could try again the next morning when the weather settled down.
Peering out the window, she couldn’t see any sign of the lake or, for that matter, the shoreline. How on earth was Reese flying? Between the wind and the snow, she couldn’t imagine this was any better than flying in fog.
Reese communicated with the base while she and Andrew listened. Finally, after what seemed like an hour, but in reality was probably only another ten minutes, Reese made the decision to turn back.
“Base, we need to abort this flight. Visibility has dropped to below ten feet. I can’t proceed safely with the wind gusts tossing us around up here like a kite.”
“Roger, Lifeline, will notify the hospital in Two Rivers. They can either arrange for ground transport or we can try again in the morning.”
“Ten-four.”
Sam could tell Reese didn’t like calling a halt to the transport, but looking outside, she couldn’t blame him for the decision. Especially considering the wind. The safety straps of her harness dug into her shoulders, and the helicopter dipped roughly again.
As much as she wanted to be able to help the patient who still needed to be transported, Sam couldn’t deny she would be very glad to get both of her feet back on stable ground. If they manage to land in one piece, she was going to give Reese a big hug.
REESE’S HANDS were slick with sweat around the stick as he finally landed the helicopter on the Lifeline helipad. For a moment, he closed his eyes in relief, sending up a silent prayer of thanks. They’d made it. There had been several moments where he’d had his doubts. The storm he’d read about wasn’t due until tomorrow night, but the weather over the Great Lakes was always dicey. The lake effect snow along with the high winds had been a double whammy.
He shut down the chopper, then climbed out, doing his best to ignore his wobbly knees. Samantha and Andrew were already standing there, waiting for him. He pulled off his helmet, prepared for the brunt of Samantha’s wrath, when she suddenly threw her arms around his shoulders and hugged him tight.
Stunned, he didn’t react quickly enough to hug her back before she stepped away. “What was that for?”
Her smile was bright and maybe a little brittle. “For getting us back safely.”
T
he surge of protectiveness caught him unawares. Having his life in danger was bad enough, but risking Samantha’s life was inconceivable. He swallowed hard and wished his hands would stop shaking.
Their shift was nearly over. Reese verified with the base that they were only in red flying conditions for calls around the lakeshore. Inland calls were still a viable option.
As they split up to file the respective reports, Reese wished for time alone with Samantha to see how she was doing. The turbulent flight must have bothered her more than she’d admitted for her to hug him like that. He couldn’t afford to think of her spontaneous gesture as anything more than relief.
Yet, he really wished he’d returned her hug.
His stomach rumbled with hunger as their lunch had been nothing more than a quick sandwich. Was Samantha hungry, too?
He was surprised by the urge to ask her out for dinner. Reese didn’t date other Lifeline staff. Didn’t date at all, in fact. Over the years since the crash, he’d never wanted to. His heart belonged to Valerie.
Until now. Why the sudden desire to spend more time with Samantha? He could tell himself he only wanted to make sure she was okay, but that would be a lie. Oh, he did care about her state of mind, but that wasn’t all. The hug had awakened every nerve ending in his body. He longed to hold her close, to stroke his hand along her back, to bury his hand in her glorious red hair.
To kiss her, to see if she tasted nearly as good as she looked.
After their debriefing to the next shift, Samantha prepared to leave. He quickened his pace to catch up to her, but she beat him to her car.
“Samantha, wait,” he called as she opened the driver’s door.
She lifted a brow. “What’s the matter?”
He tucked his bare hands into the pockets of his jacket, protecting them from the cold. “I thought maybe we could get something to eat. Lunch wasn’t much, if you recall. And we’re both off work tomorrow.” That’s right, keep it simple. Friendly. This doesn’t have to be a date.