The Fling That Changed Everything. Alison Roberts

trying to scramble into her arms. Lia lifted the toddler and turned to find Marnie watching, her arms folded over her ample chest.

      ‘Can you look after Joni, please, Marnie? I need to examine Sefina.’

      ‘No-o-o...’ Sefina struggled to sit up but fell back with a cry of pain.

      The hesitation and then grudging compliance from the nurse was enough to anger Lia. Whatever the village had against this young girl, it was not acceptable to be taking it out on an innocent child. By the time Jack returned, Lia was tight-lipped. She met him in the waiting room.

      ‘We have to get Sefina back to the hospital. Her abdomen’s rigid and I suspect she’s bleeding from a ruptured spleen. On top of that she’s got a head injury and there’s no way of telling how serious it is. She needs a CT scan to rule out a brain bleed.’

      Jack was nodding. ‘Let’s go, then.’

      ‘There’s another thing,’ Lia snapped. ‘I’m not leaving her baby here. I think there’s a high chance these injuries weren’t accidental. There’s no way I’m letting that little boy go back to his father and I’m getting the feeling that no one else around here wants to take care of him.’

      ‘Louis isn’t his father,’ Jack told her.

      Lia blinked. Was that what the problem was? Had Sefina cheated on her husband and everyone knew that? Did her low-life husband think it gave him an excuse to beat her up to within an inch of her life?

      ‘All the more reason to take Joni with us, then.’

      ‘It’ll be a rough flight.’

      ‘So we’ll strap him in. Or I’ll hold him. There’s not much I can do for Sefina en route, anyway. I’ll give her some pain relief and get some fluids up and then what we need to do is get her to hospital as soon as possible. Hopefully before this weather gets any worse.’

      * * *

      Sam, Hettie and Anahera were waiting in the emergency department of Wildfire Island’s hospital, having been alerted to the incoming trauma patient via radio.

      Jack and Manu, the hospital porter, were wheeling the stretcher. Lia had her arms full with a very frightened-looking small child. Sam had heard of the child, of course. Everybody in this community had. But he’d never seen him. Or his mother, for that matter. Good grief, she looked so young...

      ‘Let’s get her onto the bed.’ Sam positioned himself at the head. ‘On the count of three. One, two...three...’

      Sefina was transferred smoothly from the stretcher to the bed. Lia moved closer to Sam but still had to raise her voice over the crying of the child she was holding.

      ‘This is Sefina Dason,’ Lia said. ‘She’s sustained head and abdominal trauma. GCS is down at fourteen. Repetitive speech and vomiting. Her abdo’s rigid and her blood pressure is low at one hundred over forty. Up from ninety over forty after a litre of saline. She’s in sinus rhythm and tachycardic at one-three-five, and has a resp rate of thirty. Her oxygen saturation was ninety-five per cent. It’s come up to ninety-eight on oxygen. She’s had ten milligrams of morphine. Provisional diagnosis is a ruptured spleen and concussion.’