Resisting Her Rescue Doc
He was a big bear of a man, this unexpected assistant that she had. Well over six feet in height and broad-shouldered.
Felicity Wilson believed that he was what he said he was. He’d clearly known what he was doing when he’d taken over getting this woman out of her crashed car and the way he’d told her to stay back until the car could be secured safely was pretty much what most people in the emergency services would have told her.
How could anybody have stood back when you could see that tiny face in the window, though? And yeah... Fizz knew she had a bit of an issue with impulsiveness when it came to dangerous situations but how good did it feel when taking that risk actually worked?
It would feel even better if she could make sure the mother of those children made it out of this disaster alive.
He had big hands as well, this man, but they were clever and nimble. He was opening pockets within the backpacks and extracting all the kinds of things that were going to be needed. Fizz stole the occasional glance as she looked up from doing a rapid primary survey on her patient, who was groaning but not conscious enough to open her eyes or speak to them coherently. She lay in the plastic rescue basket the fire service had provided.
Currently, those officers were setting up a canvas wind shield around them and watching what was happening. Two of them had taken off their heavy jackets and had passed them to the medics. Fizz felt swamped by the size of the garment but she wasn’t about to let it hamper her movements.
‘I’d put her GCS at less than ten. She’s tachycardic at one twenty-four,’ she told the man helping to stabilise her patient. ‘Tachypnoeic with a respiration rate of thirty-two and... I’m not sure I’m getting any breath sounds on the left side. Hard to tell with the noise of the waves.’
‘Pneumothorax?’ The fire-service jacket looked like it was the perfect size for this man. And he looked as if he was well used to a uniform and the authority it conveyed. He had found the small oxygen cylinder in a side pocket of her first-aid kit and was attaching a mask. ‘Is she hypoxic?’
‘Let’s get some oxygen on.’ Fizz nodded. ‘Got some shears?’ She cut at the woman’s clothing when he placed the tool in her hands and then slipped the elastic of the oxygen mask around their patient’s head to keep it in place.
‘Look at that...’ The marks of deep bruising from the seat-belt injury were already visible in dark red patches. Fizz palpated the side of the woman’s chest. ‘Definitely some rib fractures.’
Her partner had his fingers on the woman’s neck. ‘Carotid pulse palpable but weak,’ he told her. ‘Looks like her jugular venous pressure is raised, too.’
Fizz nodded. She could see the veins on the neck were visibly distended. She needed to have another listen to the chest and to check whether the tracheal line was deviated, which could confirm that air trapped in the woman’s chest was developing into the emergency that a tension pneumothorax represented.
Her partner was setting up for an IV, she noticed. He had his own roll that contained cannulas, alcohol wipes, Luer plugs and tape. He also had a litre of saline and a giving set ready to go. And he’d got a blood-pressure cuff on their patient’s arm already.
‘Blood pressure’s eighty-five over fifty,’ he told her. ‘Can’t see any external bleeding. I’ll check that her pelvis is stable in a tick.’
Fizz nodded but didn’t say anything for a moment. She had her stethoscope on her patient’s chest. Right side then left side. Yes...she was sure there were no breath sounds on the left but was it air or blood that was stopping the lung functioning?
‘I’m missing my ED ultrasound,’ she muttered.
‘The portable ones we carry in the ambulance now are great. Love them.’
She gave him a glance that probably looked startled but she knew that it was only the most highly trained paramedics that got to use equipment like portable ultrasound machines or ventilators. This guy not only knew what he was doing but he was very likely to be very good at it as well. It only took the briefest eye contact but she knew that he could tell exactly what she was thinking. His gaze was steady.
I am good at what I do, it told her. You can trust me...
‘What’s your name?’
‘Cooper. Cooper Sinclair.’
He wasn’t local. Fizz would have noticed this man amongst all the emergency services personnel she had worked with in the last few years. Noticed and remembered him. It wasn’t just his size that made him stand out. He had a strong Scottish accent. Not that where he came from or why he was here was of any interest to her right now.
‘What do you need there, Doc?’ A senior fire officer had come close. ‘Ambulance is just arriving on scene now but it’ll take them a minute or two to get their gear down the cliff. They want me to ask you what you need.’
‘The usual,’ Fizz responded. ‘Life pack, oxygen and the kit. I’d like to get her airway secured before we move her.’
‘Her name’s Sonya Greene. We got her bag out of the car and found her driver’s licence. She’s thirty-two years old.’
The same age as she was. With two very young children. ‘Somebody tracing next of kin?’
‘Cops are onto it. I’ll go and help get that gear down to you.’
‘You going to intubate?’ Cooper asked as the fire officer stepped back, talking into his radio.
‘I’ll need to decompress the chest before intubating.’
He nodded. ‘Positive pressure ventilation could make a pneumothorax a lot worse.’
‘I think it’s getting worse, anyway. Does that look like tracheal deviation to you?’
His head came very close to her own as he leaned over to get into a position to be able to see the line of their patient’s neck and chest. Fizz could feel his body heat, which struck her as odd because she knew how cold they both had to be, despite the thick jackets over their wet clothes. She made a note in the corner of her brain that they should probably wrap some foil sheets around themselves at the first opportunity. But she wasn’t going to mention it just yet. Somehow, she knew that this Cooper was not going to be any more interested in his own protection from hypothermia at the moment than she was.
‘Yeah,’ he said. ‘Tension pneumothorax?’
‘That’s what I’m thinking.’
The new medics on scene arrived moments later.
‘Want me to get an IV in, Fizz?’ one of the paramedics asked.
‘We’re good for the moment. You’ve got that, haven’t you, Cooper?’
‘Yep.’
It was someone else’s turn to look startled. Fizz gave him a brief nod. ‘Cooper here is an advanced paramedic, Jack,’ she told the new arrival. ‘I was lucky he was here. We nearly didn’t get to save this woman. And right now, I need to decompress her chest and I want to do a finger thoracostomy rather than a needle decompression. Can you draw up some local?’ She looked at the second crew member. ‘Could you get the monitor on, please? I’d like to know what her oxygen and CO2 levels are.’
All four of them were kept very busy for the next fifteen minutes but Fizz was satisfied that it was safe to transport their patient by that point. The chest decompression had dealt with the breathing emergency and both the pulse and breathing rate had dropped to an acceptable level. Blood pressure was coming up and the airway was controlled.
‘Good job.’ She nodded, as the paramedics secured their patient in the basket for the journey up the steep bank. ‘I’ll come with you in the ambulance and get a police officer to get my car back into town.’
There were plenty of fire officers ready to help lift the basket stretcher and pass it up the chain of people on the bank. Fizz shoved things back into her pack and zipped it shut. She could tidy and restock it at the hospital. Cooper was collecting his own kit.
‘Thanks for your help,’ she told him. ‘Couldn’t have done it without you.’
‘It was a pleasure.’ Cooper smiled at her and, to her surprise, Fizz found her breath actually catching in her throat.
Wow...that was some smile...
‘Yeah...thanks, mate.’ Jack, the paramedic, was slipping the straps of his large pack over his shoulders. ‘You here on holiday or something?’
‘No. I’m actually starting work here tomorrow. At the Aratika Rescue Base?’
‘Oh, wow...choppers?’
‘And the rest.’ Cooper’s shrug was modest. ‘Coastguard work. Police operations. Specialist Emergency Response Team stuff.’
The glance Jack threw over his shoulder, as he went to catch up with the progress of the stretcher, was impressed.
Fizz had to admit she was pretty impressed herself. The members of that team on the rescue base were an elite group of people. She’d love to be an official, full-time member of that team herself but she loved her hospital work too much to give it up. Right now, she had arranged her life to give her the best of both worlds, by devoting her spare time away from ED shifts to the base and she got to work with some amazing people in both arenas.
It looked as if a new and very interesting person had just arrived in one of her worlds.
‘Guess I’ll be seeing you around,’ she told Cooper. ‘I try to be available to help on as many shifts as I can with the base.’
‘Good to know,’ he said. ‘I’ll be able to find out the end of this story. I hope it’s a happy ending.’
‘I specialise in happy endings wherever possible.’ Fizz threw him a grin as she headed towards the bank. The stretcher was more than halfway up already. They would be on the road and heading for the biggest emergency department in the area within a few minutes.
She turned her head once more as she stepped onto the first rung of the ladder that was now secured to the bank.
Cooper wasn’t that far behind her.
‘Hey,’ he called.
‘What?’
‘Just wanted to say that your name suits you. See you around, Fizz.’
She didn’t say anything in response. She didn’t look back again as she climbed to road level and then into the back of the ambulance. It was time to put the big, Scottish paramedic right out of her mind and focus on keeping her patient stable until they reached the hospital and got her to Theatre, if necessary, as quickly as possible to sort out that chest injury.
Fizz knew she would see him around sooner or later.
Hopefully, it would be sooner...
CHAPTER TWO
‘IT’S A FANTASTIC LOCATION.’
Cooper was standing in front of the glass wall that made up this central, third-floor office area of the Aratika Rescue Base. He could see the helipad directly below them with people working around two bright yellow aircraft. It looked as if one of the helicopters was being refuelled and someone—presumably a pilot—was walking around the other one, doing a detailed external check.
‘They’re Kawasaki BK117s, yes?’
‘With every bell and whistle you could wish for.’ Aratika’s manager, Don Smith, sounded proud. ‘We’ve got a backup Squirrel in case both the BKs are out at the same time and there’s no way of getting to another job by road or sea, but that’s actually never happened during my time here.’ He rapped his knuckles on the window sill. ‘Touch wood. If I needed saving I’d want it to be a BK showing up. They’re awesome rescue aircraft.’
‘They’re exactly what we used at the base in Scotland. Love working in them.’
‘You’ll be very familiar with the layout, then, which is a bonus. How many years have you got under your belt now? Ten?’
‘Close enough. I got into helicopter work as soon as I could after I graduated as a paramedic. It was always my burning ambition. Ever since I saw a crew at work when I was a teenager, up in a mountain range in Scotland.’
But it hadn’t been the overwhelming relief of seeing the helicopter arrive at that accident scene that had instilled an unwavering determination to be like the members of that crew. It hadn’t even been the astonishingly technical level of care that had been provided for the victim of that horrendous fall that had made him feel like he was in an episode of some high drama medical television series. No...what had stayed with Cooper and made him so determined to be like those heroes had been the way he had been cared for. The absolute compassion in the way they had done their best to support him as he’d dealt with the horror of his brother’s death and the respect they had shown to both himself and to Connor—even after they knew there was nothing more they could do for him.
‘And you’ve added a string of other accomplishments as well.’ Don’s words cut into the memory that had flashed into his mind. ‘I have to say your CV was pretty impressive. Urban and Land Search and Rescue qualifications, with mountain experience. Disaster management. Coastguard training...’
Cooper shrugged modestly. ‘I like to keep busy. And I like the challenge of learning new stuff. Or being in a new environment—and from what I’ve seen of New Zealand so far, it’s got a lot to offer.’
He knew how impressive his CV was but there was a downside to the kind of ambition that had driven him to achieve so much in his career already. It came from a single-minded devotion to that career that had meant there’d been no room for anything else in his life. Here he was in his mid-thirties—all of twenty years since his determination to be the best rescue worker ever had been conceived—and there’d been nothing to hold him back from shifting his life to the other side of the world for a fresh and interesting challenge.
No long-term relationship to consider. No family ties that were binding. No desire for family ties like that, for that matter. Cooper Sinclair lived for his work and, yeah...the downside was that it could be lonely sometimes, but he wouldn’t have that impressive CV or be as good at this job as he knew his references recorded if he’d let a personal life interfere with where he was heading. Or maybe that should be where he’d already arrived. Was that why he’d come in search of new challenges in a new country? Because he’d been running out of ideas of how to take his skill set to an even higher level?
He shifted his gaze to a parking area off to one side of the helipad, where there were four-wheel drive emergency vehicles, huge command centre trucks and even rescue service motorbikes parked.
‘You’re well equipped to respond by road. And did I read that you take charge of any major incidents?’
Don nodded. ‘We get dispatched to work with police and the fire service as command for any multiple casualty incidents or disasters. We also have single-crewed vehicles available at all times for first response if the local ambulance service is overloaded or they need advanced paramedic assistance for patient care. Those staff members are in addition to the helicopter crews. That’s where we’re starting you off for orientation.’
Cooper’s eyebrows rose even though he tilted his head to acknowledge the challenge. But Don smiled.
‘Don’t worry. We’re not throwing you in the deep end by yourself just yet. You’ll be double-crewed until you are comfortable with protocols and destinations, etcetera. In fact...’ Don checked his watch. ‘Let’s head downstairs. Shift changeover will be happening and there’ll be a good crowd to introduce you to, including the guy who’s going to be crewed with you for the moment. I expect they’ll all be having breakfast right now.’
‘Sounds great.’ Cooper took one more look at the stunning view of Wellington harbour in front of him with the skyline of the city visible to one side, past the cranes and ships of a busy port and rugged, forest-covered hills in the distance to the other side. ‘I still can’t get over this view,’ he said as he followed his new manager. ‘You must have one of the best offices in the world.’
‘Can’t complain,’ Don agreed. ‘But this location was chosen for more than the view it gives us upstairs. It provides the fastest access to pretty much everywhere we need to go. We’ve got a straight run into the central city, or over to the west coast, we’ve got the coastguard base two minutes away when they need a medic, and if we’re heading to the mountains or further north, the choppers just head straight for those hills, which is well away from the flight paths for the airport. That’s where the name came from. Aratika means a direct, or straight, path in Maori.’
‘Great name.’ Cooper let the door swing shut on the view behind him.
There was an enticing smell of frying bacon coming from the kitchen area of the staffroom on the second floor of this big, modern building and, due to the change of a night shift to a day shift, there was a large enough group of people to present a challenge in remembering all the names coming at Cooper. Paramedics, pilots, ground crew, which included mechanics and people that serviced and restocked gear—even an older woman who seemed to have the role of a housekeeper—Shirley. It was Shirley who was cooking the bacon at the moment.
‘Welcome to Aratika,’ she said to Cooper, with a warm smile. ‘Can I interest you in a bacon sandwich?’
‘Thanks...maybe later.’ Cooper wasn’t ready to relax enough to eat yet but everybody here seemed just as welcoming as Shirley, so far. It was disconcerting, a moment after thinking that, to find someone staring at him, their jaw dropping.
‘No way...’ He looked back at the newspaper spread on the table in front of him, flipping back to the front page.
‘That’s Joe,’ Don told him. ‘He’s the one you’ll be double-crewing with until you’re comfortable with how things work around here. Joe? This is Cooper Sinclair.’
‘And unless he’s got an identical twin brother...’ Joe looked up again as he got to his feet. ‘I’ve been looking at a picture of what you were getting up to yesterday afternoon. You just couldn’t wait to get to work, huh?’
‘Oh?’ Cooper’s smile froze halfway. It was a just a throwaway comment on behalf of his new colleague. There was no was Joe could know that he’d touched a deep nerve.
That Cooper had had an identical twin brother...
Joe gestured at the newspaper. ‘You’re a hero already.’
Cooper hadn’t seen any newspapers yet today. Or any television last night, for that matter. By the time he’d got through the traffic jam the accident had created and located the central city hotel that would be home until he found something more permanent, he’d been too wrecked to do anything but sort out his wet clothing, find something to eat and then crash for the night. At least he’d been able to contact Don and apologise for missing his orientation meeting at the base and it had been a relief to find that his new manager hadn’t been fazed.
‘Tomorrow’s another day,’ he’d said. ‘Can’t fault you for getting involved in an accident scene. Would have been disappointed if you hadn’t.’
Joe was looking just as laid back as he held out his hand. ‘Good to meet you, Cooper. Look forward to working with you.’
Cooper shook his hand. ‘Likewise.’
Don was reaching for the paper. ‘Front page? Oh... Nice photo...’
Someone had taken it from the top of the cliff with a good zoom lens. There he was, with that crying toddler in his arms, facing back towards the shore. Just a little out of focus in the background behind him, he could see Fizz heading back to where the car was teetering on the rocks, a splash of foam catching the sunlight dramatically in mid-air like a halo around both the vehicle and the woman.
‘Looks like you were enjoying yourself, mate.’ One of the pilots had stepped closer to look over Don’s shoulder.
‘I wouldn’t say that, exactly,’ Cooper murmured, but he had to admit there was a hint of something other than professional concern in his expression and he knew why as well.
That had been the moment when he’d been processing the way Fizz had dismissed his bid of taking charge of the situation. When she’d turned back to go and get the baby. When she’d cracked a version of what had become an old joke—Trust me... I’m a doctor... He’d been gobsmacked but undeniably impressed. Maybe that was the reason for that hint of a lopsided smile on his face and yes...it did look as if it could be interpreted as him getting an enormous amount of satisfaction out of what he was doing. It was just as well, he thought, that the picture hadn’t been taken a bit later, when they’d been holding hands as they’d hopped rocks to get back to shore—their wet clothes plastered against their skin.
He’d been right about that particular image coming back to haunt him. It had happened when he’d stood for a long time under the spray of that very welcome hot shower. It had come back with even more punch when he’d slid, naked, between the crisp sheets of his bed. If she ever got tired of being some kind of action woman, Fizz could probably easily get a job as a model. Tall and slim but with curves in all the right places. That long dark hair, dark eyes and olive skin that made him think she could have Mediterranean ancestry. Greek or Italian, maybe?
‘I heard about that job. I was in the ED when it came in.’
Cooper turned towards the speaker, relieved to have his runaway thoughts reined in so abruptly. It was a petite woman with blonde hair who was about his own age. What was her name again? Oh, yeah... Maggie.
‘Do you know if the patient was still stable on arrival? I think her name was Sonya. And if the kids were okay?’
‘Yep.’ Maggie nodded. ‘I was around for a while. I’d gone in with a kid from up north who was in status asthmaticus and I wanted to hang around until he was stable. I’m pretty sure the kids were fine. They got checked out and there were relatives to take care of them, including their father from what I gathered. They put a chest drain in the mother, took off about a litre of blood and fluid, gave her a blood transfusion and then took her off to Theatre. I don’t know what they needed to do to patch her up, though. You can ask Fizz next time she’s here. She went with her to Theatre.’
‘Fizz?’ Someone else, a bacon sandwich in hand, paused to peer at the picture. ‘Oh, for heaven’s sake...that’s her in the background, isn’t it?’
‘She was the first on scene,’ Cooper said. ‘I was yelling at her to stay back until the car could be stabilised but she didn’t take a blind bit of notice.’
‘Sounds like Fizz.’ But Joe was grinning. ‘You’ll find she behaves better when she’s in uniform.’ His grin broadened. ‘Sometimes.’
The familiarity in his tone gave Cooper an odd beat of something he didn’t want to try and identify but could be related to envy, perhaps? Just how well did Joe know Fizz? And why was he even wondering about whether she was single or not? For heaven’s sake, he’d only just arrived in a new city to start a new job and a new life. Hooking up with someone hadn’t even entered his head as part of his immediate agenda. To contemplate the remote possibility of hooking up with someone he’d only spent a matter of minutes with, not to mention someone who’d pretty much ignored him to start with, who’d bossed him around like a minion after that, and had probably forgotten his existence the moment she’d walked away was...well, it was stupid enough to make it easy to dismiss in the same instant it had grazed his mind.
Don’s smile was tolerant enough to suggest that he, too, not only knew Fizz well but could excuse her lack of compliance with safety instructions. His expression reminded Cooper of a fond parent who made allowances for a wayward child. The attitude to the young doctor was intriguing. What did she have that made everybody who knew her prepared to forgive what came across as a maverick streak—something that was not usually acceptable in the emergency services community?
Don had already moved on from his amusement in relation to how well Fizz behaved herself when she was officially on duty. ‘Speaking of uniforms, we need to get Cooper here kitted out. Although...’ His gaze took in the black T-shirt, dark trousers and steel-capped boots Cooper was wearing. ‘Just a team T-shirt might be enough for the moment. And some overalls for a chopper callout, maybe. If there’s room, he could go as third crew at some point soon. He definitely needs a pager, though. Preferably before your shift is due to start.’