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She bent down for the other bag, grimacing as she lifted the heavy weight up.
‘Here, give me that.’ Jack reached down and took the load from her, his fingers brushing hers.
Instant heat sizzled up her arms. Clenching her hands at her sides, she spoke too loudly. ‘Thanks. It goes—’
‘Over there by the stretcher,’ Jack finished with a growl, his eyebrows nearly meeting in the middle of his forehead. His gaze appeared stuck on a spot behind her head while shock flicked through his eyes. So he’d felt the same sparks too. The sparks that made everything so much more difficult.
‘Glad you’ve got it sussed.’ It was important. If any equipment got put away in the wrong place, it could delay things in an emergency.
‘It’s not rocket science.’ A glint in his eye warned her he wasn’t happy with her telling him anything about the helicopter.
‘You didn’t used to be so touchy.’ But he had touched her often.
Jack dropped down beside her, and unsure of him, she tensed, waiting for him to bawl her out, ready to meet him head on. Instead he stole the breath from her by saying, ‘So, a paramedic, eh? Did you ever finish your nursing certificate?’
‘Advanced paramedic, actually.’
‘Sorry, advanced paramedic.’ His eyebrows rose. ‘That’s fantastic. I’m glad you qualified. You certainly have the smarts.’
She straightened a little at his compliment. ‘Yes, I did finish the year on the wards required to finalise my nurse’s practising certificate.’ She’d worked extremely hard to get all her qualifications. Not being satisfied with a pass, she’d aimed for the highest grades possible. That had been the first good turning point in her life. Jack could raise his eyebrows all he liked but he wouldn’t dent her pride in her accomplishments. ‘I trained on the ambulances in San Francisco. Then during the last four months there I took a rotation on the rescue helicopters, which stood me in good stead for this job.’ She’d found her niche. Nothing, nobody would make her give it up. Not a bung knee. Definitely not Jack.
‘San Francisco, eh?’ His tone was acid and he stared straight ahead as they walked towards the hangar and the staffrooms.
Beside him she grinned, refusing to be intimidated by his attitude. He might think he still knew her but, boy, oh, boy, he didn’t have a clue. She’d returned to Wellington, this time permanently. This was the first city in a long line of cities that she’d come back to. Might as well get some of the details out of the way, let him have his ‘I told you so’ moment. ‘I started in Seattle, then went to Vancouver. I really loved Canada but couldn’t get a job without a work permit. Back in the States I headed down to Kansas, LA, San Diego and finally San Francisco.’ She wasn’t going to enlighten him about her reasons for all that tripping around. Not yet anyway. Not unless they got past being mates. Which, right now, looked doubtful. Unfortunately.
‘When did you find time to fit in your training?’ Strong acid.
‘I lived in San Fran for two years, ample time to qualify. My nursing training put me ahead on the course when I started on the ambulance.’ And she’d focused entirely on her job, no sexy distractions anywhere in sight.
‘Two years in one spot?’ The acid sweetened up a little. ‘Did you ever come back here for a visit?’
‘No. Too busy.’ And, because they’d agreed their break-up was final, there’d been nothing, no one, to come back for.
‘Where are you living now?’
‘I bought a villa on Mount Victoria.’ Glancing sideways, she saw his eyebrows lift, his lips tighten, and she braced herself.
His words dripped sarcasm. ‘Don’t tell me you’re settling down? Not you. Come on, I bet you’ve still got that backpack in the corner of your wardrobe, waiting for the day you’ve had enough of Wellington.’
‘Long gone, fallen apart from overuse.’ Not a great testament to her reliability. But, ‘I’m renovating the house. It’s so out of date and colder than an iceberg now that winter’s here. The electricity and plumbing need completely redoing, not to mention the antiquated kitchen and a bathroom requiring a total refit.’ All of which were already guzzling up cash like a thirsty dog.
‘You haven’t exactly answered my question. How long do you think you’ll be around this time?’ His mouth was still tight, but his eyebrows were back in place. ‘You never showed any interest in owning a house. Too much of a tie, you reckoned, if I recall correctly.’
Which, of course, he did. But that had been aeons ago. And deep down she had wanted a home but fear of not being able to make a success of it had driven her to deny the need. What had she ever known about setting up a permanent home? Continuing to ignore his underlying disbelief, she said, ‘The villa’s eighty-nine years old, and showing its age. But I love it. There’s so much potential.’
‘Oh, right. You’ll be here until you’ve done the house up. A quick lick of paint? Some new carpet?’ He held the door to the staff kitchen open for her. ‘Can’t quite picture you as a house renovator.’
‘Give me a break. I’ve never had the opportunity before.’ And they both knew that had been her fault.
Behind her Dave piped up. ‘Ruby’s a dab hand at pulling down walls. You should see her swinging a hammer.’
‘That’s the best bit,’ she agreed, grateful for Dave’s support.
Jack peered down at her. ‘You do know what you’re doing, Ruby? Has a builder looked over your plans? Or are you leaping in feet first and knocking out parts of the house any old how? You could bring the roof down on your head if you take out a load-bearing wall.’
‘Tea or coffee?’ she asked sweetly, fighting the urge to hit him. Of course she knew what she was doing. ‘I have expert help.’ Chris had been a builder until he’d decided there had to be more excitement to life and learned to fly helicopters. He’d been more than happy to take a look at the house and tell her what she could and couldn’t do to it. He’d also put her in touch with a reliable draughtsman who fully understood her need to keep the house in period while modernising the essentials.
‘Coffee, thanks.’ Jack dropped onto a chair at the table. Questions still clouded his eyes.
‘Dave, Chris?’ Outside, the rotors of the second rescue helicopter began slowing down. Ruby got out more mugs for the other crew. ‘Where’s Slats?’
‘Right here.’ A short, wiry man sauntered in and handed Dave some paperwork.
Chris sat down and introduced Jack to his offsider before returning to the previous conversation. ‘Ruby’s got everything under control with the house, Jack. We made sure of that the moment we learned what she was up to. She’s one very organised lady. And damned determined when she sets her mind to something.’
‘Here you go.’ Ruby slid the filled mugs across the table towards the men.
Jack’s eyebrows were on the move again. ‘Ruby? Organised?’ His eyes widened and he turned to her. ‘Have you had a total mind make-over since I saw you last?’ He certainly didn’t have any hang-ups about everyone knowing they used to know each other.
‘Sort of.’ She shrugged off his criticism. ‘I definitely don’t rush things like a sprinter out of the starter’s block any more.’
Jack told Chris, ‘Three years ago, if she’d wanted a wall taken out, she’d have taken it out, regardless of load bearing or any other constraints.’
Chris laughed. ‘Sometimes it’s hard to slow Ruby down once she gets going with that mallet, but she’s very conscious of making the best out of this house. It’s going to be well worth all her efforts.’
Jack pressed his lips together. Holding back a retort? Then he headed to the sink, poured the coffee away and began making another one. Without milk.
‘Oh, sorry.’ She’d made it the way he used to drink it. Silly girl. She should’ve asked, not presumed, she knew.
‘Not a problem.’
Leaning back against the small bench, Ruby folded her arms over her abdomen, holding her mug in one hand. Her pie was heating in the microwave. She put distance between her and Jack, all too aware of the sparks that would fly if they touched. Trying not to watch as he stirred the bottom out of his coffee mug was hard after all those years of wondering about him; yearning for his touch, his kisses, even his understanding. She remembered how those long fingers now holding the teaspoon used to trip lightly over her feverish skin, sensitising her from head to toe.
He glanced over. ‘What?’
‘Nothing.’ Thoughtlessly she laid a hand on his upper arm then snatched it back as his eyebrows rose. Dropping onto a chair, she surreptitiously continued to study him over the rim of her mug. There were a few more crinkles at the corners of his eyes, an occasional grey strand on his head. His tall frame still didn’t carry any excess weight, but when he’d held her he’d felt more muscular than before. Had he started working out? In a gym? Not likely. But, then, how was she to know?
On her belt the pager squawked out a message, as it did on Dave’s. He said, ‘I’ll get the details.’
‘Damn it, when do I get to eat?’ She spun around to empty her coffee into the sink and bumped into Jack. As she snatched the microwave open, she clamped down on the sweet shivers dancing over her skin. ‘Lukewarm’s better than no pie at all,’ she muttered, before sinking her teeth into the gluggy pastry and racing for the helicopter behind Chris and Slats. Would lukewarm Jack be better than no Jack at all? At least she was getting away from him, and he’d have gone by the time they got back.
As Ruby clambered up into the ‘copter Dave called out, ‘You’re picking up a cardiac arrest patient from the interisland ferry.’ He came closer, Jack on his heels. ‘Ruby, I’m sending Jack in my place. Show him the ropes, will you?’
‘Sure,’ she spluttered. Didn’t anyone around here listen to her? Couldn’t they hear her silent pleas? She did not want to be confined inside the ‘copter with Jack until she’d had a few days to get her mixed-up emotions under control. Her heart thudded against her ribs. Would that even be possible?
Toughen up and deal with it. Deal with Jack. He was here. That was all there was to it. Her chin jutted out and her spine clicked as she straightened unnaturally tight and upright. She’d do the job, show him the ropes, and then she was due two days’ leave.
Out over Cook Strait, Chris hovered the helicopter above the rolling deck of the inter-islander. The sky was clear and cold, the sea running fast with a big swell. Not ideal but it could’ve been a whole lot worse.
‘Send the stretcher after me,’ Ruby instructed Jack as she prepared to be lowered to the deck with a pack and the oxygen bottle on her back.
‘Right,’ Jack snapped.
So he thought he should go first. Tough. It was her job today. At least he hadn’t argued and wasted valuable time. That was the Jack she remembered.
The ship lurched upwards as her feet reached for the deck, jarring her whole body and giving her knee some grief. Mindful of the ship’s crew, she swore silently and tried hard not to limp as she crossed to her patient, checking the area for any obstacles that might get in the way of the stretcher being lowered. She waved the crowd of onlookers further back.
A woman looked up as Ruby crouched uncomfortably beside her. ‘I’m a GP. This is Ron Jefferies, fifty years old. Lucky for him I was close by when he fell. I started CPR within sixty seconds. The ferry crew supplied a defibrillator, which I used at maximum joules. We now have a thready heart rhythm.’
Ruby introduced herself as she unzipped the pack and removed an LMA kit. ‘Ron, I’m going to insert a tube in your throat and place a mask over your face to give you oxygen.’
‘I’ll put an IV in.’ Jack was down already and knelt opposite.
‘Please.’ Ruby was already pushing up Ron’s sleeve and passing the bag of saline to the GP now standing behind her. Holding the bag aloft helped the fluid flow more easily until they were ready to winch their patient on board the helicopter. She and Jack worked quickly and efficiently together, unfolding the stretcher and snapping the locks into place at the hinges.
She directed Jack and the GP to grip Ron’s legs and upper arm, while opposite them she clutched handfuls of his trousers and shirt, ready to pull. ‘On the count of three. One. Two. Three.’ And their patient was on the stretcher, being belted securely.
‘We’re ready to transfer.’ Ruby spoke to Slats through her mouthpiece as she checked Jack had attached the winch to the stretcher. Within minutes they were all aboard and Chris had headed the machine for Wellington and the hospital.
Jack checked their patient’s vitals while Ruby wrote up the patient report form.
‘He’s one lucky man,’ she murmured. ‘How often does a GP witness an arrest? Getting the compressions that quickly definitely saved him.’
‘He owes her his life for sure.’ Jack glanced up at her. ‘Did you get her name?’
‘No time for that.’
‘We didn’t learn anything about our man here either, apart from who he is. I wonder if he was travelling with family? Friends?’
She shook her head. ‘According to the steward I spoke to while you were being winched up, he’d put it over the loudspeaker for anyone travelling with Ron Jefferies to come forward, but no one appeared. It will be up to the hospital to track down relatives.’
‘They’ll be able to talk to him when they remove the LMA.’
‘Maybe.’ The man didn’t look very alert. Ruby watched as Jack rechecked all his vitals.
In her headphone Slats said, ‘We’re here, folks. The team’s waiting for your patient.’
Jack glanced up. ‘Thank goodness. Ron needs a cardiologist urgently.’
It didn’t take long to hand Ron over to the hospital emergency staff, and then the pilots were skimming across the harbour to the airport and back to base.
Usually Ruby would gaze out the window during this short flight, looking at all the city landmarks, enjoying the moods of the harbour, unwinding after an operation. But now her eyes were drawn to Jack as he sat, hunched in the bucket seat, reading the clinical-procedures notebook they all carried.
Had he missed her as much as she had him?
Jack glanced across to her, a wry expression in those eyes. ‘Did I pass my first test?’
She held her hand out flat and wiggled it side to side. ‘Maybe.’
Annoyance flickered across his face. ‘I’m being serious, Ruby. You made it abundantly clear you’d be checking me out, so I’ve the right to know what you’re going to tell Dave when we’re back on the ground.’
Whoa. Who was this angry guy? No one she knew. For someone who wanted to be mates he didn’t seem to understand when she was teasing him. ‘I couldn’t fault you. Okay?’ It had been a straightforward job but she refrained from pointing that out.
‘Thank you.’ He studied her for a long moment before returning to reading the notebook in his hand.
Prickly so-and-so. Jack would have to learn everyone on the base teased each other every opportunity they got. It helped ease the stress levels. Pulling the boss card wouldn’t keep Jack safe at all, but he could learn that from the others. Right now she wanted out of this confined space so she could breath some Jack-less air, could look in any direction and not have her sight filled with a hunky, mouth-watering vision, could move without fear of bumping into him.
As the helicopter settled gently on the ground and the rotors slowed she stood and ran her hands down her thighs, ready for a quick escape.
‘Do we need to take that bag inside to top up or is it all right for me to bring out replacement equipment?’ Jack asked.
Peering down at him, Ruby was disconcerted to find him watching her rubbing her thighs. Tucking her hands behind her back, she answered quickly, ‘It’s fine to bring what’s needed out here as long as it’s done immediately.’ Did he remember smoothing her thighs, running exquisite circles on her skin with his forefinger? Why would he, when she’d only just remembered?
‘Then that’s what I’ll do,’ he snapped back. Unlocking the door, he dropped to the ground and strode towards the hangar.
Ruby lowered herself down, mindful of her now throbbing knee. Sucking in her stomach, she concentrated on walking without limping and trying to force Jack out of her mind.
Except he wouldn’t go away. She’d angered him again. Since when had he had such a short fuse? He’d been the one to tell jokes and tease people, and had happily accepted the same in return. Had something happened to him during the time she’d been away? Had someone hurt him? Apart from her? Another woman? Ruby stumbled. He could be married by now—to Blondie. No wedding ring meant nothing. Not all men wore them. He was very desirable and she hadn’t been the only nurse to set her sights on him in the A and E department. A smug smile tugged at her mouth. She’d been the one to win him, though. Her smile flicked off. That was then. Now was different. He wouldn’t let her close a second time.
The sound of her pager snapped through her thoughts. ‘Here we go again.’ Reading the details coming through, she turned back to the helicopter and clambered inside.
Jack was right behind her, breathing heavily. He slammed the door shut and dropped onto the seat he’d only moments before vacated. ‘What have we got?’
Ruby pushed to the front and read back the details coming through on the electronic screen. ‘“MTV on the Rumataka Road. Female, thirty years, minor injuries but trapped. Stat two. Female, six years, serious facial injuries, possible brain injury. Stat four.”‘
‘Do we pick them both up? Or just the child?’ Jack asked.
‘Just the child at this stage. Being a status four, we can’t afford to wait until the mother is freed. The mother will be transferred to Hutt Hospital by road.’
‘Will we take the child to Hutt Hospital or back to Wellington?’
‘It’s not our call, but most likely Wellington, where they’ve got an excellent neurological department. It’s only a few minutes’ extra flying time.’
‘Every minute can count.’ Jack’s eyes darkened. ‘More than anything else, that mother’s going to want to be with her daughter.’ He twisted around to stare out the window, his hands clenching and unclenching on his thighs, his mouth a white line in his pale face.
‘Jack?’ Ruby leaned closer, put a hand over his. What was wrong? It couldn’t be the flying, he’d been okay on the last trip, and anyway he was training to be a private pilot.
‘I’m fine.’ He slid his hand out from under hers, and continued staring outside.
If she hadn’t been looking so hard she wouldn’t have seen the way his bottom lip quivered ever so slightly. ‘Sure.’ She had no idea how to get him to open up. Once she’d stupidly thought that if Jack had something to say he’d say it, but now she realised he’d never told her anything that involved his feelings.
Minutes ticked by. Then he coughed. ‘I always struggle with seeing kids injured.’ His fingers flexed, fisted, flexed.
‘I think we all do.’ Ruby thought back to when she’d worked alongside Jack in A and E. Had they ever worked together with a seriously sick child? Her mind threw up a memory from her first week in A and E with Dr Forbes.
‘Ruby, for God’s sake, hurry up with that suction. This kid’s going to choke to death.’ Jack whipped the tube out of her hand. ‘Turn it on. Now.’ He whisked the end of the hard plastic around the little boy’s mouth, gentle but firm, sucking up the blood and mucus that filled the cavity. ‘Damn it, kid, don’t you die on me now.’
Nurses worked around them, stemming blood loss from the child’s legs and head, cutting away clothes and ordering X-rays. Ruby smarted as she tossed the boy’s now useless trousers into the rubbish bin. She’d reacted instantly to Jack’s command to suction the boy’s mouth. What was his problem? ‘I was doing just fine,’ she snapped at him. ‘I can take over now.’
