When the garage door rattled downwards Fraser realised Nikki had finished her phone call and was standing beside him. ‘Are you happy with the way those callouts went?’ she asked, one hand on her hip.
‘Absolutely. So far everything works the same way it does in Dunedin.’
‘Good. Do you know when you’ll be starting your courses?’
‘Online workshops start in a couple of weeks and my first week away in Christchurch is next month.’
Nikki was deliberately showing him that their relationship was strictly professional. He’d have gone along with that if she hadn’t discussed him with Jay.
Tonight. Tonight he’d visit Nikki and lay the past to rest. A cold sweat broke out on his brow. All those years and he still wasn’t prepared for her reaction to what he had to tell her. He did not want to see pity in her eyes. He did not want sympathy. He just wanted a clear conscience.
Tonight. After they knocked off for the day. He’d get her address and pay her a visit.
CHAPTER THREE
‘WHY are we doing a Life Flight pick-up?’ Fraser negotiated the ambulance through the lunchtime traffic the next day. ‘Surely two paramedics for this job is overkill?’
‘Blenheim Two’s already out on a job so there’s no one else.’ Nikki didn’t look up from her paperwork. ‘But if there’s a priority one call we’ll ditch the pick-up.’
Fraser rubbed his aching head. Another sleepless night tossing and turning after his plan to see Nikki had gone awry. He’d wheedled Nikki’s address out of Amber when she’d come on for the night shift and had headed straight around there, only to find the place in darkness. He’d returned after dinner with his parents but Nikki still hadn’t come home so he’d had no choice but to forget about talking to her last night. But he would try again tonight, and every night until she was at home and ready to listen to him.
As he drove down Middle Renwick Road towards the airport, they passed row after row after row of grapevines, some still being pruned. ‘The vines always look naked at this time of year. I’d forgotten how I always knew the season by the vines and the activities in the vineyards.’ A pang of homesickness struck Fraser, despite being back here. This was one of the things he’d come back to Blenheim for, he suddenly realised. A sigh trickled past his lips. He was home physically, but in any other respect he had a long way to go.
‘Remember when it used to be cherry and apricot orchards, and paddocks filled with carrots and peas that you drove past.’ Nikki glanced out at the passing scenery.
‘Not many of those left now. I heard that the council rates have been driven up with all the vineyards creating high prices for the land.’
‘Yep, and that’s a sore point with some of the older farmers.’ Nikki touched the icons on the screen in front of her. ‘Our patient’s been having chemo and radiation in Wellington. Bowel cancer.’
‘Ouch.’ An old, familiar tug of horror and fear grabbed at Fraser. The fear that had receded over the years since his treatment still managed to raise its ugly head at times to twist his gut. Like a warning not to get too complacent as it could come back. But, no, it would not. Must not.
Nikki continued reading aloud. ‘Glen Wright. Twenty years old. Hell, that’s terrible. He’s so young. How does someone deal with that? He’s got his whole life ahead of him.’
You have no idea. Fraser pressed his mouth tight, kept the words in. Now was definitely not the moment to be revealing his secret. Gawd, if Nik had been at home last night she’d know the answers to her questions.
She hadn’t finished. ‘I hope he’s got a good prognosis. At twenty he’ll have hardly done a thing with his life.’
Nope, he won’t have. But he sure as hell will hurry on with it the moment he’s fit enough. ‘It must’ve been dreadful for him to learn he had cancer.’
It would’ve blown the guy’s mind wide apart with fear and disbelief and shock. It would’ve stopped him eating and sleeping for days. He’d have looked out at the world with a deep longing for all that he could be deprived of. He’d wonder what he’d done so wrong to be thrown into this situation.
‘You planning on snapping that steering-wheel?’ Nikki’s eyebrows rose cutely.
‘Not today.’ He tried to relax his fingers and his brain. A return mental trip to those bleak days would achieve absolutely nothing but darkness. And the darkness was over. With the all-clear, he’d been given a fresh start on life, which he mustn’t waste.
Stopping at the security gate leading onto the tarmac, he punched in the access code Nikki reeled off and watched the gate slowly pull back. ‘I called round to see you last night.’
Nikki jerked around in her seat, her beautiful azure eyes darkening with worry, panic even. ‘Why? I thought we agreed to keep everything on a professional level.’
Why had he opened his goddamned mouth? Now he’d have to give her some reason or she’d niggle away at him all day to find out what he’d wanted to see her about. The truth but nowhere near the whole truth? ‘Thought we might discuss how we’re going to make this crewing together work without too much aggro.’
‘We can do that on the job.’ She wasn’t giving him any leeway. ‘Move, or the gate will close on us again.’
Fraser blinked. When had the gate opened fully?
Pointing to the left, Nikki told him, ‘Keep your speed at ten k’s an hour and park between that hangar and the painted circle on the tarmac.’
Easing the ambulance onto the edge of the tarmac, he watched the plane rolling along the taxiway, the wintery sun highlighting its bright red paintwork. Beyond the flat ground of the airport the rolling curves and sharp edges of the Wither Hills wore their winter green.
Fraser dropped down onto the tarmac, asked over his shoulder, ‘What’s our role here?’
‘We help transfer the patient and drive him to hospital. He’s accompanied by two nurses, who take care of him. They’ll return to their plane by taxi once they’ve handed over to the ward staff.’
‘That’s it?’
Nik came around the front of the truck and looked up at him. ‘Guess you never had to do this in Dunedin where there’s a big hospital with all the bells and whistles. Unfortunately there are many instances when local patients are sent away for major surgery or treatment. These flights save them an awful lot of discomfort getting home.’
The sound of the engines of the advancing plane drowned out anything else she might have said. As soon as the props stopped spinning a side door popped open and an elevator with a platform attached began sliding out.
Nikki told him, ‘You can move the truck closer now. Come from the back. The pilot gets antsy if he thinks his wingtip is in jeopardy.’
Yes, boss. Keep it professional. Absolutely. Fraser felt a wry smile tugging his lips. ‘On my way.’
He’d barely braked to a halt when Nikki had the back doors open and the stretcher out. A chill wind edged under the collar of his thick uniform jacket, making him shiver. ‘The sooner Glen’s inside the ambulance the better.’ The guy’s resistance to the cold would be low if he’d just finished a round of chemo. Fraser shivered, this time not from the cold but from the melancholy memories of his own chemical-ravaged body in the days after treatment.
On the platform at the plane’s side was a stretcher with Glen strapped on. He was looking around with dull, tired eyes, barely acknowledging what was going on.
‘Hey,