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‘I’m fine. Just need some water.’ Sue held a bottle to her lips and she gulped thirstily.
‘What have you been doing to the poor girl, Nick?’ Sue demanded.
‘Hey, don’t blame me. I was just an innocent bystander.’
‘Come off it! You’ve never been innocent or a bystander in your life!’
Nick laughed. ‘Make sure she cools down before she goes on duty.’ He leaned over and ruffled her hair. ‘Stick to the gym in future.’
* * *
Later that afternoon, Tiggy studied the cards in her hand and suppressed a smile. Although every muscle ached, including some she hadn’t known she had, her mood was improving.
She tossed a matchstick onto those already on the table. ‘I’ll raise you ten.’
Nick lifted an eyebrow. He counted out some matchsticks from his pile and added them to hers. They’d no casualties that day and Tiggy had spent most of her day with Hadiya, re-dressing her burns and being taught some words of Pashto by the little girl and her giggling mother. When the patients had all been seen to they’d set up a temporary poker table, at Nick’s suggestion, in an empty cubicle. Some of the nurses and technicians had started off playing, too, but after two hours Nick and Tiggy were the only ones left in the game.
The rest of the team was either watching them play, flicking through magazines or answering the occasional call from the patients.
Nick wasn’t to know, of course, that she played most nights with her father and her brothers whenever they were at home.
‘Twenty and I’ll see you.’
Nick leaned back in his chair and grinned. He placed his hand face up on the table. ‘A flush! Beat that!’
Tiggy pretended to look dismayed, studying his cards as if she couldn’t quite believe her bad luck. Then she allowed herself a small smile before laying hers down. ‘Think my four aces beats your flush.’
Nick laughed. ‘Beaten by a girl! Who would have thought? You have some poker face there, Red.’
She glared at him but before she could say anything he smiled and corrected himself. ‘Apologies. Not Red, Tiggy.’
She blushed. She wished she managed her poker face as well in her private life.
At that moment the siren sounded.
‘Two men down and possibly civilian injuries forty klicks away,’ Sue interpreted the cackle from the radio. ‘They’re requesting a rapid medical response team to go in and bring them out.’
Nick had stood and was shrugging himself into his flak jacket. ‘I need a nurse—any volunteers?’
‘I’ll go,’ Tiggy said.
‘No way,’ Nick replied tersely. ‘Anyone else?’
Irritated and relieved in equal measure, Tiggy glared at him. He didn’t even seem to notice.
There was a show of hands and Nick picked an older man. ‘Okay, Scotty, you’re with me. The rest of you prepare to receive the casualties. I’ll let you know what to expect as soon as I’ve made an assessment. Those who aren’t needed and haven’t donated recently, please give blood—just in case. Sue, turf out anyone from the wards who doesn’t absolutely have to be there.’ He grabbed his helmet and strode out of the room.
Instantaneously, everyone exploded into action. Sue, remembering Tiggy was there, propelled her towards the resus room. ‘We need to make sure we have everything ready. At this stage we don’t know what to expect or how much blood we’ll need. What group are you?’
‘O positive.’
‘Perfect. One of the medics will get you started on a line.’
‘Can’t I help prepare for the casualties?’
Sue hesitated. ‘We need your blood more than we need you right now. Don’t worry, you’ll get your fair share of action before your time here is up. In the meantime, watch and learn.’
When Sue was satisfied everything was ready for the incoming casualties, she came to check up on Tiggy.
She eyed the bag of blood. ‘Another ten minutes max.’
While she’d been waiting for the bag to fill with her blood, Tiggy had been thinking about the little Afghan girl. She hoped Nick hadn’t included her in his instructions to clear the ward.
‘What about Hadiya?’ she asked Sue. ‘We’re not going to discharge her too?’
Sue shook her head. ‘Nick wants to keep her in for a bit.’
‘But are we really going to send her away without further surgery?’
‘It can’t be helped.’
‘Surely Nick can make an exception?’
Sue sighed. ‘Believe me, if he could he would. And I haven’t given up hope that he won’t. If anyone can make a miracle happen, it’s Nick. Now, I’d better get on. You just relax.’
* * *
Tiggy had finished giving blood, although Sue had insisted that she stay lying down afterwards. Frustrated, she watched as everyone double-checked that everything was ready. The radio crackled again and the staff paused to listen.
‘We have two soldiers with shrapnel wounds. One has an injury to his left arm, the other abdominal wounds.’ Nick’s voice was calm over the roar of the helicopter’s engines. ‘ETA five minutes.’
The surgeon in charge of receiving the casualties turned to his team. ‘It sounds as if we’ll need both theatres. Everyone to your stations.’
Tiggy eased herself up from the gurney and grabbed a leftover biscuit from the coffee table where everyone had been sitting. Although she still wasn’t hungry, she knew she had to eat something. She was damned if she was going to stand by while everyone else around her worked, and fainting wouldn’t endear her to anyone. Slipping into the changing room, she found a clean pair of scrubs and changed quickly. Her throat was still dry but she knew it wasn’t from dust this time.
Before she could find Sue, the doors burst open and Nick entered, along with a couple of soldiers pushing a trolley. Nick was kneeling on top of his patient, doing chest compressions.
‘He stopped breathing in the ’copter, but CPR has been given continuously. We’ve given him two units of red cells and two litres of colloid en route. We need to get him to Theatre stat.’
Willing hands stepped forward and rushed the patient through to Resus. Moments later, Scotty and more soldiers burst through the swing doors with the other stretcher.
‘This man has shrapnel wounds to his arm,’ Scotty called out. ‘I’ve applied a temporary dressing and started a drip. Vital signs all okay.’
The injury to the second soldier’s hand was such that for a moment Tiggy couldn’t move.
As he too was wheeled into Resus, her training kicked in. She grabbed a pair of scissors and started cutting away the soldier’s uniform, only vaguely aware of the staff crowded around the other patient, shouting orders.
Sue wheeled the portable X-ray over to Tiggy’s patient. There was another flurry of activity as the soldier with the abdominal wound was taken into Theatre.
Nick crossed over to them, peeling off his gloves. Tiggy handed him a fresh pair. The soldier’s vitals were getting worse. His blood pressure was dropping and his pulse becoming increasingly rapid and weak.
‘We need to get his arm off. It’s the only way to stop the bleeding,’ the orthopaedic surgeon said, examining the wound.
‘Let’s try and stop the bleeding first, shall we?’ Nick said quietly. ‘The hand might not be salvageable, but we might be able to save his lower arm.’
‘You have five minutes,’ the orthopod said. ‘After that, he’s going to Theatre.’
They did everything they could to stop the bleeding, pumping the soldier with blood, but when Nick, along with the other surgeon, looked at the X-ray of the soldier’s injury, he sighed, his eyes bleak. ‘The damage is too bad,’ he said. ‘You’re right, Simon. Amputation is the only way to go.’
Before she could help herself, a small cry escaped from Tiggy’s lips. ‘Are you sure? Isn’t there anything we can do?’
Nick and Sue were already preparing the casualty for Theatre. ‘If there was, we would do it,’ Nick said tightly.
Tiggy swallowed hard. The boy was so young. But she knew Nick was right. The X-ray was there for them all to see, and Nick had already taken a chance by not sending the lad to Theatre straight away.
Nick looked at Tiggy and if she had any doubts as to how much he’d hoped to save the soldier’s arm they vanished when she saw the anguish in his eyes. ‘I promised these boys we would get them home and that’s what we’re going to do. I’ll assist, Simon.’
Moments later, the resus room was empty.
* * *
Much later, when Dave, the soldier whose arm had been amputated, was settled on the ward, Tiggy escaped outside. She tried to control the tremors that kept running through her body.
‘You okay?’ Nick’s voice came from behind her.
‘No. Yes. I will be.’ She took another deep breath. ‘He’s so young to lose an arm.’
‘He’ll learn to live without it.’
She whirled around. ‘How can you say that? You don’t have the remotest idea what it will be like for him.’
Nick’s expression didn’t change. ‘No, you’re right. I don’t. If I lost my arm or the use of any of my limbs, I don’t know what I’d do. But at least he’s alive. At least he won’t be going home in a body bag. Not like his colleague.’
They had been unable to save the other casualty. They all felt his loss as if he’d been their brother, their husband. When Nick had told them, his expression hadn’t changed, and Tiggy wondered if she’d imagined his anguish earlier.
‘How can you be so...’ she sought for the right word ‘...unaffected?’
‘Because they need me to be professional. They need us all to be professional.’ Nick’s voice was flat.
Tiggy slumped against the wall and wiped a hand across her perspiring brow. He was right, of course he was. If he could have saved the soldier’s arm, he would have. Wishing otherwise wouldn’t help anyone, least of all Dave.
She thought about her brothers. God help them all if either didn’t make it. She couldn’t even begin to imagine how her own mother would react. She loved her children with a tiger-like ferocity. Without warning, tears sprang to her eyes and she blinked furiously. She just couldn’t help herself. It was too awful.
‘Hey, Tiggy. Don’t do that. Dave will be okay.’ It was the first time outside work she’d seen him look serious. ‘We make it our job to get these boys back home alive, and mostly we do.’ His eyes darkened. ‘God, don’t you think I hate not being able to send that boy home in one piece?’
‘It’s not just him—or the man who died. It’s all of them. They’re so young. And my brothers—they’re out there, too.’
‘There will be another team doing the same for them if they ever need help.’
Tiggy dabbed at her eyes with a tissue. ‘I can’t bear to think of them hurt.’
Nick reached out a hand and touched her shoulder. ‘Most soldiers make it home, Tiggy,’ he said. ‘You have to hold on to that.’
She nodded, not trusting herself to speak.
He took her by the arm and steered her across the dusty strip of land in front of the hospital. ‘Let’s walk.’
‘I’m not sure I can after this morning,’ she said. Nevertheless, she allowed him to lead her across to the far side of the camp. A gentle breeze stirred the dust of the camp, cooling the intense night air. Above them a thousand stars studded the crystal clear sky. How could a place so beautiful hold so much heartache? When they reached a flat rock, Nick indicated with a nod of his head that they should sit. For a while they remained silent. Eventually Nick turned to her and grinned.
‘So, Tiggy, the last I recall we were up to when you were thirteen. Why don’t you tell me the rest?’
* * *
Later that week Tiggy was sitting outside her tent, drinking coffee with Sue. Across the camp men, most stripped to their combat trousers, were playing football or working out. Thankfully there had been no more life-threatening injuries to deal with. Dave had been transferred to the military hospital in Birmingham.
As a bare-chested soldier jogged past them, Sue grinned.
‘You see? It’s not all bad out here. Where else would you get the chance to ogle so many fit guys?’
‘I can almost see the testosterone,’ Tiggy admitted. Her eyes drifted over to Nick, who was pulling himself up on a bar suspended between two walls. He too was stripped to his combat trousers and the muscles in his naked back bunched every time he raised himself. Some soldiers sat in a circle, counting off every time he pulled himself up.
Sue followed the line of her gaze. ‘As I said, forget him. He might be a hero but he’s a woman’s worst nightmare. As soon as he gets the girl he’s been chasing, he loses interest. There’s hardly a female on the camp—or off it for that matter—who hasn’t had her heart broken by him.’
‘You don’t have to worry on that score. Nick might be a fine doctor, but his type has never appealed to me.’
Sue groaned. ‘Don’t say that! If he sees you’re not interested, that will only make him worse.’
‘I doubt I’m any more his type than he is mine, so you can rest easy.’
Sue eyed her speculatively. ‘I would say you’re just his type.’ She drained her coffee mug.
Something Sue had said was niggling at the back of Tiggy’s mind. ‘Hey, before you go, what do you mean about Nick being a hero?’
Sue hesitated before sitting back down. ‘Well, I guess I should tell you, although I’m surprised you haven’t heard the story already.’ Sue looked across at Nick. ‘It was last year. Nick was out on an op with the men. They were making sure that a deserted village wasn’t being used as a base for insurgents. It was a joint op with the Americans.
‘Anyway, they got to the place—they call it a sangar—where they were going to base themselves for the couple of weeks they expected the mission to last when fighting broke out. To cut a long story short, Nick left the safety of the sangar and, despite being fired on, ran to the aid of an injured man who had been dragged into one of the houses.’
‘Good God!’ Tiggy glanced across at Nick with new respect. So he wasn’t just a playboy? Of course she already knew he was a great doctor but this latest revelation was making her assess him all over again.
Sue half smiled. ‘That wasn’t the end of it, though. While he was treating the American, one of his fellow soldiers came looking for him and took shrapnel to his upper thigh—straight into his femoral artery.’
Tiggy knew what that meant. The soldier wouldn’t have stood a chance so far away from a proper medical facility.
‘Poor sod.’
Sue rolled her empty mug between her hands. ‘That’s just it. He made it. And all because of Nick. Incredibly, Nick managed, while under fire and with the enemy practically at the door, to clamp off the artery. Thankfully he’d called in the medevac ’copter and God knows how but they managed to land close enough to get Nick and the injured man on board. Nick kept him alive until they made it back to camp. You can imagine how slim the soldier’s chances of survival were—never mind keeping his leg—but Nick refused to give up. Somehow, he and the rest of the team were able to save the soldier’s life and also salvage his leg.
‘Since that day he’s become a bit of a hero around here—and, believe me, there are no shortage of heroes in a place like this—as well as a talisman. The men believe that as long as Nick is with them, or as long as he’s here on camp, they’ll be all right. Sometimes I think they’ve invested him with supernatural powers.’
