Emergency Reunion Read online

  ‘Have you met the operations officer?’ he asked, and when she shook her head he said, ‘Come on. I’ll introduce you. As the calls come in to the ambulance service centre at Waterloo they’re monitored by a specially trained paramedic, and if that person thinks that there’s major trauma involved they put a call through to our operations officer here and we swing into action.

  ‘We’ve only the one helicopter, so if there’s more than one call-out required our man here has to decide where the need is greatest. In those circumstances any other situations have to be served by ambulance.’

  As they walked together along the rooftop helipad he explained, ‘The chief would normally show you round but, as I’ve explained, we’re in the middle of a change-over and this new guy is an unknown quantity to all of us. Apparently he’s been doing the same job abroad and is very highly thought of in many quarters. He should have received the paperwork regarding your appointment to the unit and, no doubt, he’ll agree with the rest of us that you’re going to brighten up the place,’ he said with a mischievous twinkle in his eye.

  She managed a weak smile at the compliment and said doubtfully, ‘I see.’

  So to the senior medic on the outfit she would be an unknown quantity when he arrived. Meeting him would be a pleasure still to come. But she comforted herself with the thought that they would all be strangers to him.

  The first time she’d gone on a call-out it had been an incident where a teenage boy had collapsed with a heart attack during rugby practice at a local school and the helicopter pilots had taken them right down onto the playing fields.

  It had been touch and go for the boy but the quick arrival of the two doctors, and the immediate resuscitation they’d given him, had prevented what might have been a fatal cardiac arrest.

  And making the end result even more satisfying had been the quick flight over the rooftops to a nearby hospital for further treatment.

  Altogether, the work was very rewarding. There was none of the frustration often felt in a hospital situation, where delays of all kinds frayed the nerves. She was involved in a branch of health care that covered extreme emergencies, and as such there were two ways to describe it—satisfying, and exhausting.

  Tomorrow they would be a full team again, she’d thought as she’d paid off the taxi after leaving Richard to make his own way home. The doctor who’d been on leave would be back and the new chief would be at the helm.

  There’d been the odd reference to him during the two weeks she’d been part of the unit, and she’d noticed that if enthusiasm had been lacking when he’d been mentioned, there had been no shortage of respect.

  So what was it going to be? Hannah had wondered as she’d wedged herself onto the tube at just gone seven o’clock the next morning. The prescription as before? Or a new broom sweeping clean?

  As the latest addition to the team, it shouldn’t make much difference either way as far as she was concerned. But what of the others—Graham Smith, Pete Stubbs, the operations officer, paramedics and Dr David Wainright who was due back from leave today? How were they going to cope with the new chief?

  There was no immediate answer to that question as when she arrived at the operations room they were all drinking mugs of tea, with the new chief nowhere in sight. As Hannah had poured herself a cup the clock had eased itself on to half past seven and another working day began. Soon the helicopter would arrive from the airfield where it had spent the night and by eight o’clock they would be fully functional.

  On this particular morning the first call had come through just as the chopper was touching down on the roof and by five past eight Pete and herself were airborne to attend the accident in a London street.

  The last thing she’d been expecting was having to cope with the emergency on her own, but Pete’s injury beneath the bus altered everything.

  And then what had happened? she asked herself as they flew back to base after depositing the old lady with the trauma team.

  She’d looked up from her position on the ground to find Kyle looking down on her. Older, with the same dark thatch of hair, his shoulders broader than those of the young registrar of the mercurial mind and short fuse of long ago. But still with the same lean attractiveness.

  Jack Krasner, the amiable pilot, had observed her pale face and he said, ‘Shook you up, that business under the bus, didn’t it, Doc? Or was it finding the new chief standing over you that did it?’

  Hannah had dredged up a smile. ‘It was a bit of both, I think, Jack.’

  The rest of the team were waiting for her, their eyes anxious.

  ‘What’s this about Pete?’ Graham Smith asked. ‘The new chief has arrived and he tells us he was there, at the scene.’

  ‘Pete was crawling under the bus when it moved,’ she told them. ‘He lost consciousness from a knock on the head. They’ve taken him to Charing Cross, but he seemed to be all right apart from the gash on his head.’

  She was aware of the office door being closed and could see the dark shadow of its occupant through the glass. What had he been doing at the scene of the accident? she wondered. If she was going to be confronted with that particular face from the past, it would have been kinder for it to have been now, rather than on her stomach in the grime of a busy street.

  He must have heard her voice. ‘Will you come in, please, Dr Morgan?’ he called and aware that she was a mass of frayed nerves, she obeyed.

  Pointing to the chair opposite the desk, Kyle said, ‘Take a seat.’ And as her eyes raked his face with the same intensity that a starving man might have observed food, Hannah saw that there were creases around the eyes which had once melted at the sight of her and tiny threads of silver in his hair.

  ‘So you’re not in America any more?’ she said jerkily in an attempt to break the ice.

  That remark brought forth a facial contortion that was something between a smile and a grimace. ‘Does it look like it?’

  ‘No, of course not. That was a stupid thing to say.’

  He shrugged as if it was of no matter. ‘I never went to America. I got a better offer to work in Queensland.’

  ‘Australia!’ she croaked. ‘So that’s why…’

  Her voice trailed away. She wasn’t going to tell him how hard she’d searched for him, not after all this time, and his next words showed it to have been a wise decision.

  ‘This is the last place I would have ever thought to come across you,’ he said tonelessly. ‘I’d have expected you and that brother-in-law of yours to have nested long ago, but I see that it’s still Hannah Morgan.’

  The first shock was passing and pain was taking its place. So she hadn’t been forgiven. Kyle hadn’t believed her then and she was damned if she was going to go through the motions of protesting her innocence now. They’d broken up years ago and yet the sight of him still made her weak with longing.

  ‘Yes, I’m still Hannah Morgan,’ she said coolly, ‘and Paul has made a new nest…but not with me.’ Before he could comment on that piece of information she went on, ‘Is there something you want to discuss with me?’

  His eyes flicked over her face and Hannah saw a pulse quicken in his neck, but his voice was cool enough as he replied, ‘Yes. I see from the information I have before me that you are specialising in accident and emergency, and that your six months with the helicopter unit will be the final part of your training.’

  She nodded without speaking and he went on, ‘Strange that we should both be in the same branch of health care.’

  ‘And stranger still that we should find ourselves in the same unit,’ she commented tightly. ‘How long have you been back in England?’

  ‘Two days this time. I came over a few weeks ago to inspect the set-up here and then went back to tie up all the loose ends in Australia.’

  What loose ends were those? she wondered. Selling a house? Persuading a wife and family that life in the UK would be just fine?

  It was eight years since they’d parted. The Kyle Templeton she’d known th
en had been fiery and ambitious, but passionate, too. He would have found someone to cuddle up to on cold winter nights somewhere along the way, which was more than she had.

  ‘I’m told that new recruits to the team spend the first month merely observing,’ he was saying, as if the brief mention of his affairs was sufficient.

  He must have known that she would be interested, but he wasn’t going to satisfy her curiosity and she wasn’t going to ask. Kyle had invited her into his office to discuss the job. No doubt the fact that she was a blast from the past was now immaterial.

  ‘Yes, that’s right,’ she agreed, as if talking to the only man she’d ever loved, after what seemed like a barren lifetime, meant nothing. ‘I’ve done two weeks already and will feel less of an ornament when the month is up.’

  ‘Hmm. I can imagine,’ he murmured, with his eyes on the paperwork on the desk. ‘How do you feel about it…being part of one of the fastest emergency services in the country?’

  Hannah smiled. They were on an even footing now, and though her heart was still racing she was in control. It would be tonight when she got back to her silent flat that the impact of this incredible meeting would hit her the most.

  ‘I love it. The lack of delay in getting to the patient. The challenge to the doctors as they spill out of the helicopter and charge to the scene of a major trauma. The friendliness here in the operations room…’

  She didn’t know whether it was nerves that were making her so voluble or a desire to labour the point that, though he might be in charge, she’d got settled in before him.

  Whatever it was, with every second that passed Hannah was becoming more aware that for the next few months she was going to be in close contact with the man who had once been in love with her and had then turned his back on her in cold anger.

  ‘Mmm. Quite so,’ he said blandly, as if she weren’t the only one who was aware that she was gabbling. He lifted his head at that point and his next words were of dismissal. ‘That will be all for now. Carry on observing with the different members of the team until I tell you otherwise.’ And as if to emphasise that he had done with her, Kyle Templeton picked up the phone and began to dial.

  ‘So what do you think of the new chief?’ Graham Smith asked when she went back to join the others.

  ‘Impressive,’ she told him weakly.

  It was true. He’d had style when she’d known him before, but the man with whom she’d just had that strange conversation in the office made the impetuous young medical registrar of long ago pale into insignificance.

  The fire seemed to have gone, leaving a sort of cold gravity, but, then, she supposed that he was hardly likely to receive her with open arms after the way they’d parted.

  But none of that mattered. If he’d made her heart beat faster before, now it was thundering in her ears. What a pity that Kyle hadn’t been similarly affected.

  Nothing had changed, she thought raggedly. Absence hadn’t made the heart grow fonder as far as he was concerned, but she’d already decided that he wouldn’t still be unattached, and the sight of a two-timing girlfriend from way back wasn’t going to rock his foundations.

  A call had just come through from the ambulance emergency centre reporting a man with serious head injuries after a fall from the window of a fourth-floor flat, and Hannah’s reflections had to be put on hold as she accompanied Smitty and one of the paramedics to the scene of the accident.

  He was taking charge of the main call-out team for that day after Pete’s accident and had full use of the helicopter. Any other emergencies would be dealt with by the others, using an ambulance.

  Hannah had soon discovered that when a call for the helicopter service came through, everybody ran, doctors, paramedics and the two pilots grabbing ordnance survey maps, monitors and medical kits as they whizzed past.

  In this case the victim’s obvious injuries were severe, and while the paramedic was cutting off his clothes to make sure they weren’t missing any other damage, Smitty was preparing to give him an injection that would put him to sleep. But first he tried to coax the patient into giving his name and address as a sign that his thought processes were still working.

  The reply was a slurred jumble of words and, pointing to a huge swelling on the side of the man’s head, Smitty said, ‘We need to get this guy to the nearest hospital for a CT scan as fast as we can. There’s a haematoma there if I’m not mistaken. But first I’m going to have to insert a breathing tube as he’s no longer able to breathe on his own.’

  ‘We’ll take him to the Royal London Hospital,’ he said when that had been accomplished. ‘It’s not exactly the nearest but they’re more geared up to head injuries than some of the others in the area.’

  While the inert figure was being carefully placed into the helicopter he rang to alert the trauma team at the hospital, and Hannah thought thankfully that yet another serious injury would be receiving the fast treatment only they could provide.

  ‘Suspected haematoma on the left-hand side of the head,’ he told them with brief clarity. ‘Deep lacerations to the skull and neck area and possible fracture of the ribcage, forearms and pelvis.’

  When they got back to base the office door was open this time and Hannah heard Kyle Templeton say, ‘I know that it isn’t a cheap service that we’re running here and that the health authorities’ funding of over a million a year is a heck of a lot of money. I’ve just come from Australia. In fact, this is my first day with the helicopter service over here, and I have to tell you that it was no different there. Always threatening cuts to one of the most efficient accident and emergency teams ever created.’

  As Hannah made to move on, his broad back was towards her, but almost as if he sensed her presence Kyle swivelled round in his chair and beckoned her to enter.

  He was actually smiling as he told the person on the other end of the phone, ‘No need to apologise. You weren’t to know that you were talking to the new boy. But uninitiated though I may be, I can tell you without even checking that we need every cent of funding we can get.’

  A step behind her in the open doorway heralded the arrival of Jack Krasner, the pilot, who had already asked her for a date.

  He was a pleasant change from the nit-picking Richard, but up to the moment Hannah had met Kyle Templeton again she’d been more interested in the job than new friendships with the opposite sex.

  The man behind the desk had put the phone down and was eyeing the pilot questioningly. ‘You said that you wanted to go over the chopper with me, sir,’ Jack said.

  ‘Yes, Jack,’ Kyle said briskly. ‘Give me a couple of minutes and I’ll be with you.’

  ‘Did you want me for something?’ Hannah asked when the other man had gone.

  ‘Er…yes, and don’t think I intend to make a habit of having private conversations with you. The last thing I have in mind is for you to be closeted in here with me all the time.’

  ‘I can quite easily believe that,’ she told him with a bland sort of pleasantness that hid the hurt the remark had brought forth.

  Dark eyes were studying her thoughtfully and she thought that if Kyle had something to say, why didn’t he get on with it?

  He was about to do so.

  ‘There are a couple of things I want to say to you,’ he said levelly. ‘First of all, I’ve had time to adjust to our unexpected meeting and I see no reason why past happenings should intrude upon our work here. We are both adults and it was all a long time ago.’

  ‘Absolutely,’ she agreed calmly, as her spirits plummeted.

  What was he expecting her to do? Claim a previous acquaintance with him in front of the others? Surely Kyle didn’t still feel bitter about their break-up?

  Yet maybe he did. Strong, passionate, loyal, his hadn’t been a forgiving nature and it looked as if nothing had changed with regard to that.

  ‘And secondly,’ he was continuing, ‘I need temporary accommodation…smartish. I’m in a hotel at the moment amongst a clutter of luggage and other person
al belongings and it’s not good.’

  Hannah’s eyes widened. ‘I take it that you’re not asking if I’ve got a spare room…if your previous comment is anything to go by. That it’s more a case of do I know of a vacant house or flat?’

  He nodded and she had to admire the cheek of him. One moment he was well and truly putting her in her place and the next was asking her to help him house-hunt.

  ‘So you’re on your own, then?’ she questioned as the image of the wife and family receded. No wife or children?’

  ‘I’ve brought no baggage with me, if that’s what you’re asking,’ he answered, and, as if he really was out to rile her, added, ‘He travels fastest who travels alone, don’t you think?

  ‘What about you?’ he went on as she glared at him. ‘The name’s the same but that doesn’t mean that you’re not tucked up in a cosy little love nest.’

  ‘I think that’s my business, don’t you?’

  She wasn’t going to tell him that no man had ever equalled him in looks, character and charisma, although that last characteristic seemed to be in short supply so far.

  For the first time his cool composure faltered. ‘Yes, of course it is. I shouldn’t have asked,’ he said in a low voice.

  ‘There’s a penthouse apartment in the same block as mine,’ she said perversely, having handed out the rebuff. ‘It’s way above the rest of them in position and price, but would probably suit a high flyer such as you.’

  His head came up at that. ‘If that was sarcasm it’s wasted on me, I’m afraid.’ He pulled a sheet of paper towards him. ‘Where is it?’

  As Hannah gave him the address and telephone number of the letting agents, he looked up enquiringly. ‘How far from the helipad is it?’