‘You haven’t met many of my patients,’ Laura muttered.
‘She’s a fireman?’ Courtney’s surprise indicated that the distraction was working.
‘Nah. She’s not tall enough to be a fire officer. Our station is a base for both fire and ambulance. Just one of each. We’re on the outskirts of town in Inglewood.’
‘That’s where I live.’
‘Cool. You’ll have to drop in and visit us. Mrs Mack makes the world’s best scones.’
‘All done,’ Laura announced. ‘I’m going to give you some morphine now, Courtney. You’re not allergic to any drugs that you know of, are you?’
‘No.’ The distraction Jason had been providing was still working a treat. ‘Who’s Mrs Mack?’
‘She looks after our station. It’s kind of a long story.’
‘I’m just giving you something to make sure the morphine doesn’t make you feel sick, Courtney.’ Laura injected the dose of metaclopramide.
‘Is she your wife?’
Jason chuckled and Laura found herself smiling wryly as she snapped off the top of a glass ampoule to add morphine to the saline another syringe already contained. Jason Halliday married? Tied down to single choice from amongst the model-like creatures that entered his social orbit? That would be the day!
‘Mrs Mack is at least sixty,’ Jason informed Courtney. ‘She’s Scottish and she’s as tough as an old boot. She lives next door to the station and kind of adopted us. We’re in an old house that got converted and…’
And Courtney didn’t appear to be listening any longer. Her eyelids fluttered shut as the morphine took effect and her distress was obviously diminishing despite the increase in noise and activity of the rescue workers outside the vehicle. Another helmeted figure appeared between Jason and Tim, who was still maintaining Courtney’s spinal alignment.
‘How do you want to get her out?’
‘Straight over the back would be great,’ Tim responded. ‘We’ll tilt the seat back and get a backboard in.’
‘Right. We’ll get the roof off as soon as we’ve dealt with these doors.’
Jason looked up at the tarpaulin a colleague was unfolding nearby. ‘Things are going to get a bit noisy and messy now, sweetheart,’ he told Courtney. ‘We’re going to cover you up so you don’t get hit by any bits of glass or anything.’
Her eyes snapped open. ‘Don’t leave me.’
‘I won’t. I’ll be right here with you under the covers.’ Jason winked. ‘My favourite spot when I’m with a gorgeous girl like you.’
‘That’d be right.’ The grin from his colleague acknowledged the kind of humour and encouragement that only Jason could get away with. Even Laura smiled. He’d be saying the same thing if the accident victim were a seventy-five-year-old grandmother of eight and it would probably have the same effect of keeping their patient comforted and calm.
‘We’ll need a dash roll as well,’ Tim told the fire chief. ‘We’ve got a leg trapped.’
‘No problem. You staying in there, Laura?’
‘May as well.’ She moved back to a position where she could support Courtney’s head and neck again. Only she knew that her comment referred to more than providing company for the victim. This was the only way Laura would ever get under any covers with Jason Halliday, but she wasn’t complaining. Any job where she got to work with this particular fire crew was a bonus, and being one on one with a patient and only Jason was the closest they had ever worked together.
The car rocked and shook as hydraulic cutting gear was used to open it up like a giant sardine can. Tiny shards of glass peppered the tarpaulin sheltering those still inside the vehicle, and Laura made sure she kept Courtney’s head immobile. A more violent rocking motion occurred as the roof was lifted clear of the car and Laura could hear the grin in Jason’s voice.
‘The earth sure moved for me. How’re you doing, Courtney?’
‘I’m fine.’
Amazingly, the injured girl did sound fine and Laura’s lips curved a little, unseen in the darkness of their covering. Jason’s somewhat unorthodox communication skills were a new experience and, surprisingly, she liked them. Six months ago she wouldn’t have believed it could be remotely possible to add humour or—heaven forbid—flirting to an accident scene with beneficial results, but it worked. The Green Watch fire crew of Inglewood station were a closely bonded team of intelligent and dedicated firemen and Jason, in particular, had a gift of lightening even the grimmest of atmospheres.
He had his work cut out for him in the next few minutes as the tarpaulin was removed and the rescue shifted into a higher gear. The car was now completely open to the elements with the windscreen, roof and doors removed. The pre-dawn chill was noticeable and scene time had already been nearly twenty minutes. Everyone wanted to move as quickly as possible now and get their patient to the medical care she needed.
The dash roll that lifted crushed metal from Courtney’s right leg revealed a nasty compound fracture of her tib-fib. She tried to move her leg as the weight was lifted but her foot was trapped beneath the brake pedal and she screamed as her pain level skyrocketed. The blood loss was also increasing. Laura opened the flow on the IV fluids she now had running.
‘Can you draw up another 10 milligrams of morphine, Tim?’
‘Got it here,’ her partner responded. ‘Ready for the backboard?’
‘Not yet. Her foot’s still trapped.’
‘I can deal with that.’ Jason still had a heavy protective glove on one hand. He reached carefully past the gaping wound on Courtney’s leg to ease his fingers between her foot and the top of the pedal. Only Laura noticed the way the lines deepened at the corners of his eyes. To anyone else he must have made bending the pedal upwards far enough to clear the trapped foot appear effortless.
‘Ah-h-h! It hurts!’
‘Almost there, love.’ Jason’s tone was calmly reassuring. ‘We’re going to tip your seat back now and slide a board underneath you.’
Too many figures were crowding in now and Courtney’s grip on Jason’s hand was lost as they finally lifted her clear of the wreck.
‘BP was 80 systolic five minutes ago,’ Laura told Tim. ‘We need to get another line in.’
‘Hare traction on that femur before we roll?’
Laura nodded. The low blood pressure could well be caused by the blood loss associated with the fractured bones Courtney had sustained. It was a two-person job to apply a traction splint so it wasn’t something that could be done en route. It would mean a delay of another few minutes before transporting, but effective splinting would help control further blood loss and was therefore a priority.
It wasn’t just the fire officers of Green Watch she was lucky to be working with, Laura decided as the ambulance rolled clear of the accident scene only three minutes later. Tim was one of the most competent paramedics she had ever had as a partner and they were perfectly matched to remain calm and efficient in virtually any circumstances. A few years over Laura’s twenty-nine, Tim had the added advantage of more experience and he also had the kind of laidback personality that made him fit in seamlessly at Inglewood station despite being in a different emergency service. He was just one of the boys.
As was Laura now. The novelty of having a female officer on the watch had worn off rapidly. A shade too rapidly maybe, but who could blame them for losing any interest her gender might have sparked? And it didn’t matter. She was part of a great team and she’d be delighted to be considered an honorary bloke if only it wasn’t for—
‘How’s it going back