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“Right.” Theo cut her off, directing her to a green door at the far end of the corridor. “In here.”
She turned and tried to take her bag from him.
He shook his finger—tick-tock, no, you don’t—in front of her lips. “I’m coming with you.”
Great. Just what she’d always dreamed of. Death by proximity to the unrequited love of her life.
She pushed open the swinging door to the changing room. Might as well get it over with.
* * *
Theo had absolutely no idea where this cavalier Jack-the-lad attitude he was trying on for size had come from.
He was exhausted. Running on adrenaline. He needed food, coffee, and yet... Was this—? Was he trying to flirt? Was this what stress did to him? Or was this what all-grown-up Cailey Tomaras did to him?
There’d been that one time as teens, when they’d all been running around the pool, messing about. He’d grabbed her, and she’d slipped on the grass, and they’d fallen in a tangle of limbs on top of one another and there’d been a moment...a kiss...
Μakapi!
There were a thousand other things Theo should be doing besides going down memory lane to find hints of a romance that had never been. A restorative fifteen minutes of sleep. Walking the small wards, filled to bursting wards, and diving in where an extra pair of hands were needed. Helping with rescue efforts.
Not staring at a pretty girl from the past.
She looked good. A far cry from the reedy teenaged girl who had seemed to all but live in the shadows of his father’s ridiculous mansion. A full cherry-red mouth. Inky black hair. A deliciously curvy figure he could almost feel—as if he’d already tugged her close to him for a passionate embrace.
He scrubbed a hand through his long hair, hearing his father’s distinctive voice in his head.
“If you’re going to slum it as the island medic, the least you can do is maintain the family reputation. I’ll not have you gallivanting round the island with a halfwit cleaner’s daughter.”
His eyes flicked to Cailey’s. Dark. Full of passion and empathy. And, if he wasn’t wrong, the smallest dose of fear.
His heart cinched. That she should feel that way around him... His father was a cruel man. Why he couldn’t see that kindness, understanding and empathy were far more effective tools for so-called “people management” was beyond him.
Theo had grown immune to Dimitri’s tendency to cut a person to the quick, but Cailey...? He’d never subject her to the ego-lashings his babbo had dealt out without a second’s thought. And for some reason his father had always had it in for the girl. He’d need to keep her close to him. Far easier to keep her out of harm’s way then.
“Are you ready to go straight to work?”
Smooth. Nice way to make a woman who’s flown overnight to come and lend a hand welcome.
She narrowed her eyes at him. “You’re not going to stand there while I change my clothes, are you?”
Cailey’s sharp tone brought him back to the present.
He ran his eyes down the length of her. Long legs. Sensually curved hips making a nice dip at the waist. A tug of desire unexpectedly tightened in his groin. What the hell? He was supposed to be exhausted, not horny.
“I’ll sit with my back turned.”
“Yeah.” Cailey’s hands landed solidly on her hips. “I don’t think so. Say what you need to say and then...” She swirled her finger around in an out-you-go gesture.
“Fair enough.” Despite himself, he grinned. She was setting parameters. The old Cailey would’ve been too shy to be so feisty. This new Cailey was becoming more appealing by the minute.
Another tug below his belt line broadened his smile. Quite an impact for an unexpected reunion. One of the earthquake’s silver linings, he supposed. Maybe she was strong enough now to stand up to his father.
She pursed her lips and tipped her head from side to side in a when-are-you-going-to-get-going? move.
Fine. He got the message. “Right. Here’s the story. All hell’s broken loose. As you probably know, the quake was strong. It hit this side of the island hardest. A lot of old buildings weren’t up to the magnitude. It hit in the afternoon—”
“I know. I know all that,” interrupted Cailey impatiently. “I saw the news. Late lunch. Quiet time. Lots of people taking naps... Only the Brits mad enough to go out in the sunshine. You should probably know I specialize in pediatrics and maternity nursing, so if it’s—”
“You’ll be working with me in urgent care,” he cut in. He didn’t care how bolshie she was. He was going to look after her, and the easiest place to do that was in his trauma unit.
“I haven’t done trauma for over a year.”
“But you’ve done it. And that’s where I need you. Case closed,” he said firmly before she could protest.
Her shoulders shot up, her mouth opened, but when she saw his stance go rock-solid she dropped the challenge with a flick of a shrug.
“Casualties? Any idea of the scope yet?” she asked.
“Hundreds.” Theo shook his head. “I don’t know. Several hundred at the very least. The island’s got...what?...fifteen or twenty thousand people on it, so it could be more. Patients are presenting with injuries hitting every level of the spectrum, from cuts and bruises to...well...” His mood sobered at the thought of the older gentleman who’d had a fatal heart attack earlier in the day. “Worse than cuts and bruises.”
Unexpectedly, Cailey reached out and took his hand. “Are you sure you don’t need some rest? You look awful.”
“Ha! Thanks. Don’t beat around the bush anymore, do you, Cailey?”
She gave him a sad smile. One that said, I think you might know why.
The door to the locker room swung open and with it came the chaos and mayhem of the quake’s aftermath.
“Dr. Nikolaides?” The nurse was halfway out through the door already. “There’s a helicopter on approach to collect a couple of patients. We need you to sign off on them. And the ambulance is pulling up now.”
“Of course.”
He brusquely pointed toward a cabinet. “There are spare scrubs in there. All sizes. Report to trauma when you’ve changed. You’re working with me. And that’s an order.”
CHAPTER FIVE (#u7fe11c50-78a5-5354-93e4-ef7a9b2634b7)
CAILEY STARED AT the empty space Theo had just occupied.
What on earth...?
Bossy so-and-so.
Hadn’t changed a bit. Still lording it about as if he knew everything which—well, in this case he probably did.
You’re working with me. And that’s an order.
Typical Nikolaides privilege. Just because she was a nurse, and had failed to get into med school, and had taken twice as long as anyone else to get her nursing degree—
Stop! She didn’t need to keep raking it all up again. The all too familiar pounding of her heart suddenly leapt into her head, drowning out everything else as she forced herself to take in a deep, steady inhalation and then breathe out again.
You’re a nurse, she told herself. There are patients. This isn’t about you. Or Mr. Bossypants.
She was scared, that was all. The trauma ward wasn’t her optimum work zone. But she’d done it before—admittedly getting one teensy-tiny panic attack on her score card. Never mind. She could do it again—minus the panic attack part. There was no way she was leaving this island with her tail between her legs a second time.
A quick wash and she’d get her priorities back in order. She’d returned to Mythelios to help, not to swish around Theo Nikolaides praying he’d notice her. That ship had long since sailed.
* * *
When Cailey entered the trauma area it was sheer madness. The number of people had doubled. The volume was higher. The urgency of tone was even more shrill.
A shot of fear jettisoned through her bloodstream and exploded in her heart. This was a far cry from the calm, hushed corridors of the maternity ward she’d left behind in England. There the serene environment helped her stay calm—particularly when she struggled with writing up notes and tackling new medicines and...well...any new words. They all took extra time. Her brain processed things differently.
For the most part she’d beaten her dyslexia into a new, workable form of submission. But this?
This was bedlam. She was going to have to shore up every ounce of courage and nursing know-how she had to avoid falling to bits. It had happened before and she never wanted to go back there again. Especially not in front of—
“All right? Ready to go?”
Theo.
Theo was putting his arm round her shoulders and giving her a squeeze. Everything faded for an instant as she just...mmm...inhaled the scent she hadn’t realized was all but stitched into her memory banks.
Could he sense her fear? Had he seen the blood drain from her face when she walked into the trauma unit? Spotted the tremor in her hands before she wove them together to stop their shaking?
He squared himself off in front of her, one large, lovely hand on each shoulder. “Just remember: I’m a humble country doctor and you’re a big city nurse. You can do this, kouklamou. Okay?”
Surprisingly, the term of endearment wrapped around her like a warm blanket. She looked up into his rich green eyes and drew strength from them, felt her breath steadying as he continued.
“I know it seems crazy in here. It is. But this situation is new to all of us and we will each do the best we can. One patient at a time is how we’re going to deal with it. All right? One patient at a time.”
When their eyes caught she felt her heart smash against her ribcage. The man was looking straight into her soul, seeing her darkest fears and assuring her he would be there to help no matter what. She stared at his chest, half tempted to reach out and touch it, to see if his heart was doing the same.
When their gazes connected again he was all business. He steered her over to a gurney that was being locked into place by a couple of rescue workers.
“Right! Cailey, this is Artemis Pepolo. I’ve known this feisty teen since she was born.”
The dark-haired girl nodded a fraction, the rest of her body contracted tightly in pain.
“Artemis has just been rescued after a pretty uncomfortable night under a beam—but you hung in there, didn’t you, my love?”
Artemis’s breathing was coming in sharp, staccato bursts and her lips were rapidly draining of color. She tried to smile for Theo but cried out in pain. Her arm lay at an odd angle and one touch to the side of her throat revealed a rapid heart-rate.
“Pneumothorax?” Cailey asked in a low voice.
Theo gave an affirmative nod, his gloved hands running along the girl’s ribcage as he spoke. “Good. Yes. Traumatic pneumothorax, in this case. The beams of her house shifted when they were getting her out and broke a couple of ribs. No time to get her X-rayed before we relieve the tension. Can you snap on a pair of gloves, get some oxygen into her and clean her up for a quick chest tube?”
Cailey clenched her eyes tight, forcing herself to picture the chart she’d made for herself on how to go through the procedure. Images always worked better for her than words. Miraculously it came to her in a flood of recognition.
And then, as one, they flew through the treatment as if they’d worked together for years.
After snapping on a pair of gloves from a nearby box, Cailey swiftly pulled an oxygen mask round the girl’s head and placed it over her mouth, ensuring the tube was releasing a steady flow. She then took a pair of scissors from a supplies trolley, cut open the girl’s top, applied monitors, checked her stats and covered her with a protective sheet, leaving a mid-sized square of her ribcage just below her heart exposed. She swabbed it with a hygiene solution as Theo explained the protocol he was going to follow.
“I’m using point-five percent numbing agent to numb the second intercostal space and then a shot of adrenaline-epinephrine before we insert a pigtail catheter, yes?”
“Not a chest tube?” she asked.
The doctor she’d worked under during her stint in the London trauma unit had been old school. Very old school. She wouldn’t say it had been entirely his fault she’d had her...blip...but he most certainly hadn’t helped.
Theo put the tube over a tiny metal rod. “Most hospitals are using the pigtail catheter now. Far less painful for the patient.”
She looked for the sneer, listened for the patronizing tone, and heard neither. Just a doctor explaining the steps he was going to take. But better. A doctor saying his patient’s comfort was of paramount importance to him.
And then it was back to business. Cailey gave the region around the fourth and fifth intercostal space of the girl’s ribcage a final swipe of cleansing solution and then stood back as Theo expertly inserted the needle into the pleural space, his fingertip holding just above the gauge for a second. Their eyes connected as he smiled.
“Ha. Got it. I can feel the air releasing.” He turned to his patient and gave her a gentle smile. “Hang in there, love. We’re almost there.” He attached a syringe to the needle. “I’ll just do a quick aspiration to make sure we get all that extra trapped air out.”
Once he was satisfied, he expertly went about inserting the thin wire and tube as if he had done it a thousand times. Within seconds the tube was in, the wire was pulled out and Cailey had attached the tube to a chest drainage system.
“Right, Artie. We’ll just leave you here to rest up for a bit and then see about moving you somewhere a bit more peaceful where we can check out that arm, all right?”
He pulled off his gloves, smiled at Cailey and tipped his head toward the main trauma area. “Ready for the next one?”
She was impressed. For a man who professed to be a humble country doctor, he knew his stuff.
“Did you study trauma medicine?” She couldn’t help but ask the question after pulling the curtains round Artemis and watching Theo give notes to the nurse who, he’d explained, was in charge of moving patients out of the trauma area.
He nodded. “I thought if I was going to be running this place on my own sometimes I’d better be prepared.”
“You’re here alone ?”
“Well, not alone, alone. There are interns who come in from Athens to have a spell, but they usually get bored with island life eventually and want to get back to the mainland. And the lads come back on and off at certain times of the year in a sort of unofficial rotation; they’re just not here at the moment.”
She nodded. He must mean Chris, Deakin and Ares—the other Mopaxeni malakas he’d set up the clinic with. She wasn’t so sure malakas was the right word for them anymore. Miracle workers, more like. This place was a far cry from the crumbling old clinic she’d gone to as a girl. And Theo was completely different from the elitist snob she’d been expecting.
“Right.” He rubbed his hands together as if preparing for a fantastic adventure. “How are you with broken bones?”
* * *
Broken bones. Fractures. Lacerations. Internal bruising. Heart palpations. A massive blood clot... The list went on.
And no matter what he threw at her Cailey stayed bright, attentive and, much to his surprise, willing to learn. There were holes in her knowledge—as to be expected for someone whose specialty wasn’t trauma—but she seemed capable of everything short of reading his mind, and even that was sometimes questionable.
Whatever he needed—a particular gauge of needle, a certain type of suture thread, the correct scalpel—she already had it ready before he could ask for it.
As he opened the curtain for their next patient he stopped. Ah. Marina Serkos. They’d gone to school together until his father had deemed the local primary unfit for purpose and shipped him off to boarding school.
“Looks like someone’s due soon.”
