Accidental Rendezvous Read online

  'I will have. There's an attempted suicide coming in,' she told him quietly. 'Young woman who's thrown herself out of a third-floor window—facial and pelvic injuries. Ryan's gone to a meeting, Matt's on holiday and the new SHO is so wet behind the ears I daren't trust him with a Band-Aid.'

  He grinned, sending her off kilter again, and nodded. 'I'll get this one sorted out and come through to Resus. Five minutes?'

  'Maximum.'

  'OK. Get the mobile X-ray in there with a radiographer, and call an anaesthetist in case .we have airway problems.'

  'Done it.'

  'Good girl." With a wink, he ducked back behind the curtain, and she ignored her skittering heart and went into Resus to make sure it was ready for the new arrival.

  It was back to normal after the mayhem of the morning, thanks to the cleaners and the nurses who'd restocked the supplies. Thinking of the facial injuries and the effect they might have on the patient's airway, she checked their stock of all the different sorts of airway the anaesthetist might need, and then went out to meet the ambulance, just as Nick emerged from his cubicle and headed towards the door.

  'Perfect timing,' she said as the ambulance backed up and the doors opened. As the trolley was lifted out, she winced inwardly. Their casualty was a mess—she was on a spinal board, her face was trashed and her colour was lousy despite the oxygen mask held lightly in place.

  The paramedic gave them a quick rundown as they wheeled her rapidly into Resus.

  'Twenty-five-year-old female, name of Jodie Farmer, neighbour saw her jump off her third-floor balcony. She landed on the concrete path outside. GCS 15 at the scene. She needs a tube down really but I thought I'd leave that to you guys as she's still able to breathe and we were only round the corner— watch her jaw, it's shattered and her tongue's bleeding. She'd got umpteen teeth missing, too. It's a mess in there.'

  It certainly was, Sally thought, listening to the list of drugs she'd had on the way in and mentally assessing her. Her left cheekbone was depressed, her eye seemed twisted slightly, her upper lip was huge and torn to ribbons and her lower jaw was grossly misshapen.

  In fact, her face was so severely injured Sally was amazed that she hadn't had a lower score on the Glasgow coma scale, which measured the level of consciousness. She would have expected some degree of concussion, but maybe that would show itself later. She'd have to keep an eye on it and rescore her frequently.

  In the meantime, her whole face was swelling before Sally's eyes, and she was getting restless, moving her head and fluttering her hands, fighting for breath.

  It was a fair bet that the inside of her mouth was swelling too, cutting off her air supply. Protecting that had to be the first priority, and the moment she was on the trolley in Resus Sally was ready. 'Are you going to try and get an airway in?' she asked doubtfully, but Nick shook his head, confirming her suspicions.

  'Not a chance, and we can't wait for the anaesthetist, she's distressed now. I'll do a laryngostomy. I don't want to poke about in there. OK, Jodie, just relax, you're in good hands. I'm just going to get you some air.'

  Within seconds he'd located the cricothyroid membrane, made a neat little slit in it and slipped in a tube. Instantly the patient stopped struggling, and her colour started to improve in moments. 'Right, let's get some oxygen into her and assess her injuries. I want X-rays of head, chest, total spine and pelvis to start with, and we'll work from there. Is there a maxillofacial team here?'

  'Yes—I've alerted them.'

  'I want them here now. This needs urgent attention. Her eye socket's compressed and her tongue's bleeding badly. The orthopaedic reg could do with seeing her when we've got the plates, too, because this pelvis needs sorting out.'

  They stood back as the radiographer slid the plates into the trolley, took the required shots and disappeared to develop them.

  ABCDE, Sally thought. They'd sorted out her airway, made sure she was breathing, they were running in fluids to protect her circulation, Nick had done a brief neurological check to assess any obvious disability, and the last thing on the list was exposure— seeing the whole patient naked to check for anything else they might have missed. Before the door swung shut behind the radiographer, Sally was busy cutting clothes off, and it was immediately obvious that Jodie's pelvic injuries were very severe.

  The skin over her hipbones was stained dark purple with bruises, and there were sharp spikes of bone pushing up against the skin in places.

  'Nasty,' Nick said softly. 'The probability of internal injuries is very high, I think. Circulation to both legs seems good, though, amazingly. Watch her pressure—what is it?'

  'A hundred over fifty.'

  'She's young, but it's still very low. Watch it like a hawk, please. I don't want to miss anything. Pulse?'

  'One-twenty and erratic.'

  'She's breathing all right for herself still, so hopefully her spine's intact. Let's check her reflexes.'

  He ran a quick neurological check to see if there was any likelihood of spinal damage, and incredibly she seemed to have been lucky. 'Looks OK. Wonders will never cease,' he murmured under his breath.

  He gave her a little more pain relief, then bent over her, speaking clearly. 'OK, Jodie, I'm just going to have a look at your mouth and see what you've done,' he told her, then carefully removed the tape from the neck brace and opened her lower jaw a fraction to make sure there was nothing life-threatening that they'd yet to find. He was gentle, but of necessity thorough, and she moaned softly.

  'Sorry, sweetheart,' he soothed. 'I won't be long.' He sucked out her mouth, his hands gentle as he probed the shattered jaw, and he shook his head.

  'We need to tape this up to support it but there's nothing much to tape it to. She'll need it fixing a.s.a.p., and her tongue needs stitching fairly soon, it's still oozing. Where's the faciomaxillary surgeon, for heaven's sake?'

  'Here.' The door slapped shut behind him, and he moved up beside Nick and assessed the patient rapidly. 'OK, I can see why you called me,' he said under his breath. 'Has she got a name?'

  'Jodie Farmer.'

  'Hello, Jodie, I'm Tom Kievenaar. Don't worry, we'll soon have you much more comfortable.' He turned back to Nick. 'Got any plates of this yet?'

  'Right here,' the radiographer said, snapping them up onto the light box.

  The evidence was incontrovertible. 'Ouch,' Nick said softly, and Tom gave a short, humourless laugh.

  'Oh, yes, this one's a lulu. Lower jaw, upper jaw, cheekbone, nose, all the top front teeth—there's enough material here for a whole symposium. The rest of her skull looks all right, though, by a miracle. What's her GCS?'

  'Fifteen at the scene, but she might have been KO'd. No deterioration since admission.'

  'OK. No obvious neurological signs?'

  Nick shook his head. 'Nothing so far.'

  'Good—let's hope it stays like that. OK, let's get cracking. Anything else you've found out?'

  'She's bitten her tongue—it's still bleeding slightly and it needs stitches, but it's not a priority. I haven't checked the spinal X-rays yet, though, so we need to do that before she's moved.'

  They went over them together while Sally continued to monitor their patient and stabilise her. Her pressure was dropping slightly, probably due to the huge blood loss from her many fractures, and Sally opened up the flow on the plasma expander to maximum and reported the pressure drop to the two men.

  'Is she cross-matched?' Tom asked, and Sally nodded.

  'Six units on their way.'

  'We'd better make it ten,' Nick said, running an eye rapidly over her again. 'Those pelvic injuries are worse than we'd thought.'

  'They seem to have taken the brunt of the impact,' Tom murmured. 'The orthos might want to work at the other end while I do her face. I wouldn't want to move her too much until that lot's stabilised. Let's get some more plasma expander into her while we wait.'

  It took a few more minutes before the orthopaedic registrar had come down and conferred with the
m, by which time the blood had arrived. Then Jodie was wheeled away and Sally felt the tension drain from her body as the responsibility for their patient passed on to the next team.

  'Nasty mess,' Nick murmured, watching the trolley disappear through the double doors.

  'Certainly is. I don't envy her. I wonder why she jumped?'

  'I don't know, but the third floor isn't high enough, obviously. If you're going to do that, you need friends in higher places.'

  'Or a friend with enough gumption to talk you out of it,' Sally said shortly, and stripped off her blood-streaked gloves and apron, dropping them into the bin. She glanced up at the clock and did a mild double-take. 'Good grief, is it really five-thirty?'

  'Looks like it.'

  She rolled her eyes. 'Marvellous. I finished at three.'

  'Yes, I can see that,' Nick said with a grin.

  'Oh, it's par for the course round here,' she assured him. 'If I ever manage to get home before the rush hour, I'm doing well. I usually fail.'

  'Such dedication to duty,' he teased, and she glowered at him, not in the mood to be criticised for doing her job properly.

  'Don't knock it,' she advised tightly. 'Some of us have to be dedicated.'

  He blinked and backed away a step. 'Ouch,' he murmured, his mouth twisting in a rueful smile. 'That wasn't criticism.'

  'Better not have been,' she retorted, suppressing a twinge of guilt. 'Right, I'm going before anything else happens. I'll see you tomorrow.'

  'How about a cup of tea first?' he suggested, but she shook her head. She was tempted—oh, how she was tempted—but she knew all about his charm. It was lethal, and she had absolutely no defences against it.

  'I don't think so, not tonight. I've got to do some washing, I've got no clothes left.'

  'Now that's an interesting thought,' he said softly, and his eyes caressed her, jamming the breath in her throat and draining the strength from her legs again.

  'Forget it,' she advised, and walked away, resisting the urge to weaken and take him up on the offer of tea. All she needed now was to settle down with him for a cosy chat!

  Little chats with Nick had a habit of getting much too cosy, and that lazy charm hadn't diminished over the years, not one iota. Besides, seeing him again after all this time had left her thoughts in turmoil, and she needed time alone to sort herself out.

  Sally kept walking.

  CHAPTER TWO

  'So, you and Sally were quite close at one time, I gather?'

  Nick flicked a quick glance at Ryan, but his expression was innocent. 'We were good friends,' he said guardedly, unsure what Sally might have told the Canadian consultant and unwilling to fuel hospital gossip at her expense—or his own, come to that.

  On the other hand, he was perfectly willing to pump the man for anything he would reveal about Sally's life now.

  'I haven't seen her for years,' he added with truth. 'It's good to see her looking so well and happy—I take it she is happy?'

  'Yeah, she seems to be happy—and, no, I'm not going to tell you any more than that,' Ryan replied with a knowing smile. 'You want answers to questions, just ask her. I'm sure she'll tell you anything she wants you to know, she's usually pretty open.'

  That sounded like his Sally, he thought with a pang of sadness. Open and honest and full of the joys of spring. Damn.

  'What about you?' Ryan asked. 'Anyone in your life going to be affected by you two meeting up again like this? Strange coincidence, wasn't it?'

  Nick gave a short huff of laughter. Ryan was altogether too smart.

  'Wasn't it just?' he said noncommittally. 'But since you ask, no, there's no woman in my life.'

  'And what about all the ghosts you've got behind you?' Ryan probed. 'Is it going to make it difficult for you two to work together?'

  . 'No,' Nick said firmly. 'There won't be a problem.'

  'I hope not,' he said, his voice mild but the warning there for all that. 'I don't want the department grinding to a halt because two of the main players are at each other's throats or weeping in the toilets.'

  Nick's mouth kicked up in a grin as he crossed his fingers behind his back. 'I think you're safe—I'm not given to weeping in the toilets, and would you challenge Sally's temper?'

  'Not knowingly,' Ryan admitted with a chuckle, and to Nick's relief the conversation moved onto safer topics. It had given him plenty to think about, though, and one thing in particular.

  Ryan, despite the mild tone of his enquiries, was fiercely protective of Sally.

  Fine. So was Nick. Just so long as Ryan didn't want her for himself...

  'Nick was asking questions about you yesterday,' Ryan said quietly as they paused between patients.

  Startled, Sally looked up and met his eyes. 'He was?'

  Ryan nodded. 'I told him to ask you himself. I didn't want to tell tales.'

  She shrugged, her heart thumping. He was asking about her? Was that good or bad? She picked up the next set of notes and glanced down at them, pretending interest.

  'He was probably only being curious. We haven't seen each other for years,' she said, and Ryan nodded.

  'Yeah, he said that. It could have been just idle curiosity.'

  She shot him a quick glance. 'You don't think so, do you?' she asked, and Ryan shrugged.

  'I don't know the man. You don't think he's a threat to you, Sally, do you?'

  'A threat?' Oh, yes, he was a threat, but not in the sense Ryan meant. 'No,' she told Ryan. 'He's not a threat.' Not much. Her mouth dried, and she stared blindly at the notes. Only to her sanity—

  'Sally? Those notes you're studying so avidly? They're upside down.'

  She felt the colour run up her cheeks, and she turned on her heel and walked away from Ryan, cutting through to the waiting room to retrieve her next patient. Just by the door she paused, gathering her wits, and tried to put thoughts of him out of her mind.

  It didn't matter that he was here, she told herself sternly. He was bound to ask questions about her, but it was irrelevant. Their affair was finished, over. She wasn't going to allow him to talk her into anything— not ever again.

  'I've made coffee.'

  Sally's hand flew up to cover her pounding heart, and she whirled on Nick. 'Will you not creep up on me!' she snarled furiously. 'You're going to give me a heart attack!'

  His grin was unabashed. 'You'll get over it, you're made of sterner stuff than that.' He bent closer. 'I brought some really good Colombian coffee in—it's gorgeous. Come and have a cup.'

  His voice was coaxing, and she could almost taste the coffee. She was parched, and they were fairly quiet, and she was overdue for a break...

  'I'm only offering coffee,' he said in a gently teasing voice, and she felt soft colour brush her cheeks.

  'I was just trying to work out if I'd got time,' she ad-libbed weakly.

  'Liar. Come on, Sal, I'm not going to jump your bones. If you don't get in there soon the vultures will have descended on the pot and drained it.'

  She summoned a smile. 'I'd better come now, then, hadn't I?'

  'Dr Baker?'

  They turned towards the voice of the young SHO, who was looking hopelessly out of his depth. 'Yes, Toby?'

  'Um—I wonder if you could look at this X-ray for me, sir. I'm not sure if it's a fracture.'

  Nick turned back to Sally and gave her a wry grin. 'Now you're definitely safe,' he murmured, and went into the cubicle, leaving her heading towards the staffroom with a sense of lingering disappointment that she was totally at a loss to understand.

  There was still half a pot of coffee, and there was nobody in there, so she filled a mug, curled up in one of the chairs near the corner of the little room and rested her head against the back of the chair.

  Bliss. The coffee smelt wonderful, and for a moment she was content just to inhale the aroma and relax. She hadn't slept well—too many painful memories churning, too much turbulent thought to be able to escape to oblivion. Seeing Nick again had stirred up a whole hornet's nest, a
nd she felt edgy and restless and unhappy.

  Still, for a moment she could relax. She opened her eyes, and jumped, almost slopping her coffee in her lap as she focused on him lounging against the worktop on the far side of the room.

  'You've done it again!' she snapped, and he gave a wry grin.

  'Sorry. I thought you were asleep. I was just contemplating my options.'

  'Options?' she said suspiciously. 'What options?'

  The smile was lazy. 'Foregoing the coffee and leaving you in peace, removing the cup so you didn't drown yourself in it when it tipped over, or waking you up. You've saved me from doing the wrong thing—unless just existing is enough to put me in your bad books?'

  He looked so crestfallen she had to smile, even though she knew it was all an act.

  'I'm awake,' she assured him, and he grinned and filled a mug, sitting down at right angles to her on the other side of the corner.

  'How's the coffee?' he asked.

  'I haven't tried it yet. I was getting high just smelling it.'

  'You'll be glue-sniffing in a minute. Just drink it.'

  She buried her nose in the mug, breathed again and tasted. 'Oh, gorgeous. You always could make good coffee.'

  'Yours was always lousy, if I remember,' he said softly, and she could have kicked herself for bringing up the past.

  'I've got better,' she said, firmly switching to the present, and he let it go. Not for long, though, she was sure. She had a feeling Nick was headed for memory lane with her in tow, whether she wanted to go there or not.

  And she didn't. The past was buried, her memories and her happiness and everything she cared for with it, and the last thing she needed was Nick dredging it all up again and throwing her life into chaos.

  She drained her coffee, almost scalding her tongue and throat and not caring. 'Lovely,' she lied, not having tasted it in the end, and she unfolded her legs, stood up and tugged her dress straight. 'I have to fly. We aren't that quiet. Thanks for the coffee.'

  She put her mug down and made her escape, leaving Nick to drink his coffee alone.

  An hour later she was kicking herself. She shouldn't have said that about being quiet. They were never quiet, not this quiet, eerily so, as if the world had ground to a halt.