The Surgeon's Convenient Husband

by Amy Ruttan

  After Aran was dressed he grabbed some more wood from the woodpile. Thankfully there were a few embers that were still burning and it wouldn’t take much to get a full fire going again. He knew how to do that.

  Ruby came back into the room. “I got a hold of someone in Anchorage. They’re sending out a mechanic to take a look at the plane and hopefully we can get airborne again and fly to Unalaska.”

  “Were you able to contact anyone there?”

  She shook her head. “No, but I know that they’ve been looking for us since we didn’t arrive. Anchorage was very glad to hear my call signal.”

  He nodded. “Good. I’m sorry I let the fire die out. Are you cold?”

  “A bit—but are the clothes dry?” she asked.

  “Yeah.”

  “I’ll just get dressed.”

  Ruby slipped past him and went behind the curtain to get dressed. He tried not to think about her, naked behind that curtain, but try as he might images of her in his arms last night flashed through his mind.

  He closed the door to the wood stove and then moved to the cabinet, where he hoped there would be some canned food. He opened the door and was met with nothing.

  “Rats,” he mumbled.

  “What?” Ruby asked, pulling down the curtain now that she was dressed.

  “I was hoping for some food.”

  “Check the gear bag I brought in last night. There’s some freeze-dried survival food in there. It’s not the best, but you won’t starve eating that.”

  “I know. I’ve lived on it before.”

  He picked up her gear bag and set it on the worktop. He found the stash of freeze-dried food. All they needed was to add some water.

  Ruby found the kettle that went on the stove. She filled it with water and set it on top.

  “What would you like for breakfast?” Aran asked as he went through the selection—which wasn’t much. He kept digging and then pulled out a bag. “How about a breakfast skillet? Hash browns and scrambled eggs mixed with sausage?”

  “Sounds good. At least that’s a breakfast type of food. There should be instant coffee in there too.”

  Aran dug down further and found it. “We’re all set.”

  “I like to be prepared. It’s the Girl Guide in me.”

  “Is that like a Girl Scout?” Aran asked.

  “Yep.”

  Ruby used a towel and picked the kettle off the top of the stove. Aran divided up the freeze-dried contents and added water to rehydrate it. It didn’t look appetizing, but Aran was pretty sure he’d eaten worse. And the coffee might be instant but, again, he wasn’t going to look a gift horse in the mouth.

  “Well, I guess if one of the questions is how we spent our honeymoon...”

  Ruby blushed and then laughed. “Yeah, I suppose you’re right. Jeez, you could’ve picked a nicer place.”

  Aran smiled, and was relieved that she was joking. Maybe this would be okay. Maybe this would work even if he wanted to be more than friends.

  But he couldn’t promise her anything. He couldn’t promise her forever.

  Why not?

  “I hope Dr. Franklin and his team managed okay,” Aran said, changing the subject so that he wouldn’t have to think about it.

  “I hope so too. And I hope the typhoon wasn’t as strong as they were predicting and that it just dissipated over the islands and into the Bering Sea. They’re so rare here, and usually by the time they reach Alaska they’ve lost steam.”

  “Roger, bush camp base. Can you hear me?” The radio crackled.

  Ruby got up and ran into the radio room. “Roger that, BX7935. We can hear you loud and clear.”

  “Bush camp base, I’ve got a fix on your location and I’m just circling to make a safe landing. See you short.”

  “Roger.” Ruby craned her neck to look out the window.

  Aran could hear the plane coming in. Hopefully it wouldn’t take too long to fix up the plane and they could get out of here and back to work.

  He knew that Ruby was anxious to find out what had happened to Dr. Franklin and the others in Unalaska. And Aran was anxious to put some distance between them and this cabin where they’d been alone.

  He needed to throw himself back into work and get his mindset back on track. Then he could put what had happened behind him. They could move forward, as the plan had always been.

  Who are you kidding?

  * * *

  “You’re all fixed, Dr. Cloutier,” said Stewart, the mechanic. “You’re lucky that you were able to land safely. I’m glad this didn’t happen out over the water when the storm was at its worst.”

  “Me too, Stewart. I’m still annoyed that it happened at all. There’s supplies I needed to get out to Unalaska. Do you know how they fared?”

  “Typhoon was pretty strong when it made landfall on the leeward side of the island. I’m hoping it just blew over, but I know they lost power and communications for a while. I can tell you that Seward Memorial was quite worried about you two when your plane didn’t check in and Unalaska reported you missing.”

  “It was a bad situation all around.” Ruby finished going over the plane. “I appreciate it, Stewart. I owe you a drink for coming out here and fixing my plane.”

  “Sounds like a plan. Come on, Rick. We have to get back to Anchorage.”

  Rick, the pilot of the other plane, nodded to Stewart and shook Aran’s hand. Ruby walked back to where Aran was standing and they waited until Stewart and Rick’s plane had taken off toward Anchorage.

  “You ready?” Ruby asked.

  “More than ready.”

  Ruby grabbed the gear she’d brought inside and Aran made sure the fire in the wood stove was out and that everything was back the way it should be, just in case someone else needed a place to stay in an emergency.

  They loaded the gear into the back of the plane and Ruby took her place in the cockpit. She was glad to get back into the sky. It was still drizzly and gray out, with the after-effects of the typhoon that had blown in, but it was nothing like yesterday. And at least there was no fog.

  She just hoped that she’d have a clear place to land in Unalaska. But Unalaska Airport—or Dutch Harbor—was better than this one, and they would have lights and an air traffic controller.

  She just hoped that Dr. Franklin, John and Lindsey had managed to fare well without them...

  * * *

  It was just a short plane ride from where they’d spent the night to Unalaska.

  “That’s the Bering Sea, over there,” Ruby pointed out.

  “Not far from Russia, then?”

  “Nope.” Ruby smiled. “I’m glad the weather is cooperating, but the sea is a little choppy.”

  “I don’t aim to go swimming,” Aran joked.

  “Me neither.”

  As they approached the airport Ruby made contact with the air traffic controller and was given clearance to land. It was a little windy, but she was able to bring the plane down gently and taxi to the location where she’d been told to park.

  When she got out of the plane Dr. Franklin was waiting with a truck.

  “Thank God you two are okay,” he said as he came up to them.

  Aran opened the hatch and helped to offload the supplies.

  “Yeah, I lost an engine and I was forced to land at that old abandoned airstrip that serves as a bush camp starting point. You know the one?” Ruby said.

  Dr. Franklin nodded. “Good. I’m so glad. The supplies are needed. There were some injuries when the typhoon hit, but nothing serious. The town fared well, but we’re still out of power. We’re mostly camped out in the town’s recreation center. There were also some strong storm surges and there’s quite a bit of damage from that. We could use your help, though. John was trying to help some civilians and he dislocated his shoulder.”

 
“Ouch. Did you reset it?”

  Franklin nodded. “I was able to get an X-ray before the back-up generator was damaged by a storm surge. He’s on some strong painkillers, so it’s been just me and Lindsey running the show all night. We’re waiting for the National Guard to get in and help restore power.”

  “Well, Dr. Atkinson and I are here now.”

  And apparently they were there in the nick of time. She could see that Dr. Franklin was exhausted, and she was worried about John. He would be out of action for some time.

  They finished loading the supplies into the truck Franklin had borrowed and then climbed in and headed toward the recreation center.

  There were downed trees and flooding near the water. Ships in the harbor had been damaged and some had been capsized. Fishing and crabbing were the main industries in Unalaska and a lot of livelihoods and money would be lost.

  It was a slow and bumpy ride, but it didn’t take them long to navigate the debris on the road to the recreation center. Lindsey was waiting with a group of residents, who let out a cheer when Ruby climbed out of the truck.

  Ruby could see Lindsey visibly relax as she came over to give Ruby a hug.

  “I was so worried about you,” Lindsey said. “I know you’re a good pilot, but that was a wicked storm.”

  “I only caught the tail-end of it. I had an engine failure and had to turn back.”

  “Good thing you did,” Lindsey said. “It’s been a wild night, and with John injured it’s been a hard slog for Dr. Franklin and me.”

  “We’re here now,” Aran said as he picked up one of the boxes and followed Dr. Franklin inside.

  “Right,” Ruby stated, and grabbed a couple of gear bags. “We’re here now, so you can get some rest. Show me what you’ve set up and we’ll get right to work.”

  * * *

  There weren’t many really bad injuries, but more people from the smaller outlying islands were being brought in by boat.

  While Dr. Franklin and Lindsey rested Ruby and Aran took over seeing all the patients. Ruby didn’t have to explain anything to Aran about how she usually ran a makeshift medical clinic in the aftermath of a natural disaster. His Army training meant he knew exactly what to do.

  And now she was questioning herself as to why she’d been so against him in the first place—why she’d wanted to hire and train someone herself. That would have taken time, and they wouldn’t have been able to treat as many people as efficiently as they were now.

  She watched him work on the other side of the gymnasium and couldn’t help but smile. He was the perfect ying to her yang. They worked so well together.

  You don’t want love, remember? You don’t want a relationship.

  She tore her gaze away. What had she been thinking? Why had she given in to her needs and kissed him? She was putting her heart in jeopardy. She didn’t have it in her to leave herself open to the possibility of pain. The possibility of losing someone.

  Really?

  The thing was, a part of her wanted to explore that with Aran. Maybe, just maybe, it would be worth the risk if she had someone like Aran by her side...

  “Dr. Cloutier, there’s been an accident with the crew clearing off a section of road near the mountain. There’s been a rock slide and there’s an injured man up on the pass.”

  “Your husband died from crush injuries. If we’d only got to him sooner, Mrs. Cloutier.”

  She could hear the doctor’s voice in her head. She could hear her mother crying and it made her heart skip a beat—because that was something she didn’t want to think about.

  Not right now.

  Not here.

  “Okay,” she said quickly, shaking the ghost of the memory away. “Okay.”

  Aran was looking at her and she could see the concern on his face. She waved him over and he came as quickly as he could.

  “Is everything all right?” he asked.

  “Get a trauma kit ready. Prep it for a crush injury. There’s a man who has been caught in a landslide and he needs medical attention. We need to get up there as soon as possible.”

  “Sure.”

  Aran disappeared into the annex where they were keeping the supplies. Ruby collected up some other gear that they would need and then called the airport to ready a flight plan back to Anchorage.

  She was not going to let this man die here.

  She wasn’t going to let him die like her father.

  By the time they had collected everything they needed it was raining as the tail-end of the typhoon drifted through.

  The crewman who had come to get her drove Aran and her toward where the landslide had happened.

  Come on.

  Every second that passed made her all the more anxious. When her father had died his life had hung in the balance for a matter of minutes, so the longer it took them in the rain the more upset she was, thinking that they weren’t going to make it in time.

  Don’t think like that.

  She couldn’t let herself think like that. This was why she had developed her trauma team—this was why she’d become a surgeon. She’d left the north to head to a larger city that had been overwhelming and strange just so that she could return to the place that was home and save others.

  No one had to die needlessly.

  There were flares on the road, visible even through the sheets of rain that were falling.

  “We’re here,” the crewman said. “Be careful, though. With this rain we’re at risk of another landslide.”

  Ruby nodded and grabbed a gear bag, and Aran followed closely behind her. The rain jacket she’d borrowed from the recreation center did nothing, really. She was still getting soaked as she followed the other members of the road crew around the rubble to where lanterns were lit and a tarp had been erected.

  Ruby’s heart sank when she saw the man.

  No.

  She looked over at Aran and saw his jaw was clenched. He gave a slight shake of his head and pulled her aside.

  “What do you think?” she asked, but she already knew the answer.

  “There’s nothing we can do. Look at the rocks on his body. We remove those rocks and he’ll bleed out. His crush injuries are probably severe.”

  “Probably,” Ruby snapped. “We don’t know for sure.”

  When she looked at the man under the rubble all she could see was her father’s face looking back at her and a lump formed in her throat.

  Papa.

  “The most we can do is make him comfortable until he passes,” Aran whispered.

  “I’m going to do everything I can to save him.”

  “Ruby, it’s a lost cause,” Aran said. “Even on the front lines we knew when it was time to let go.”

  Ruby ignored him and moved toward the man. “Gerald, I’m here.”

  Gerald, the man who was trapped, barely looked at her.

  “Gerald? I’m Dr. Cloutier and I’m here to help.”

  “Oh. Okay.” Gerald was shivering and looking around him.

  “Can you feel anything, Gerald? Are you in any pain?” Ruby asked, kneeling next to him.

  “No,” Gerald responded. “No. Not in pain. Just want to get out of here. I have some errands to run.”

  He was delirious. Ruby glanced out of the corner of her eye to see that Aran was speaking gently to the foreman. She was angry that he was giving up hope. That was not what she did. She saved lives. She didn’t just walk away.

  “I’m glad you’re not in any pain,” Ruby whispered.

  “Who are you?” he asked again.

  “I’m Dr. Cloutier, but you can call me Ruby.”

  “Ruby...that’s a pretty name.”

  “Thank you.”

  She set up her equipment. She had pain medication, but she wanted to save that for when they moved the boulders. She glanced up at the rub
ble and could see the size of the rocks that were pinning him down. Her heart sank.

  His spine was most likely shattered, which was why he wasn’t in any pain.

  “I can’t see!” Gerald called out in a panic. “I can’t see.”

  Ruby choked back the tears that were threatening to overtake her. “It’s okay, it’s raining and it’s pretty dark. Why don’t you close your eyes and try to rest? We’ll get these rocks off you in a moment.”

  “Okay.” Gerald closed his eyes.

  “There was nothing to be done, Mrs. Cloutier. His spine was crushed.”

  Aran came and stood close to her. “Ruby?”

  “No,” she whispered to him. “No.”

  Aran sank down beside her.

  Gerald’s breathing became labored and she watched him slip away. Hot tears slid down her cheeks as Gerald took his last breath on the side of the mountain.

  “Time of death: twenty-thirty,” Aran stated.

  The men on Gerald’s crew took off their hats and looked solemn.

  “You can dig him out now,” Aran said gently.

  Ruby cursed and stormed off into the rain. She walked away from where everything was happening. She had to put distance between herself and that senseless, pointless death.

  Tears streamed down her face and she just stared up into the rain.

  “Ruby...?” Aran said.

  “Leave me alone!” she snapped.

  “Ruby, there was nothing—”

  “Don’t tell me there was nothing we could’ve done. We had everything to save that man. Everything! We’re both surgeons. I could’ve taken him to the rec center and had him stabilized. I had my plane ready to take him to Anchorage. He should’ve survived. My father had nothing! That’s why he died. That’s why he died and that’s why I’ve given my whole life to the north—to saving lives so that people like my papa and Gerald don’t have to die!”

  “We’re not God, Ruby. We can only do so much.”

  “You’d given up on him before we even got to him. Admit it.”

  “I won’t!” Aran said hotly. “But when I saw him I knew there was no saving him. Ruby, his spine was crushed. There’s no way he could’ve survived that.”