Where the heavy metal hatch had come across the top of his fingers, the skin was split in a deep gash. Amelia dabbed away blood with sterile gauze, seeing bone through the mangled flesh of his index and middle fingers. The cuts on his ring finger and pinky didn’t appear to have reached the bone.
She turned to Tracy. “Set up two suture trays. I’m going to ask Dr Stanley to help with the two deeper wounds as they’re more extensive.”
Although her eyes widened, Tracy just nodded and went about setting up the trays.
Amelia explained what she was going to do to her patient then left the bay to find Cole. Technically, he should have left the medical ward hours ago. Instead, as he’d done each day since arriving, he’d hung around.
Now he stood across the sick ward, talking to Richard, Peyton, who was the ship’s nurse anesthetist, and the physician assistant. As if sensing Amelia, he glanced up, met her gaze, and grinned. Why did her heart light up at his smile? She was just tolerating him to keep things running smoothly in her medical ward. She didn’t like him, didn’t enjoy being in his company, didn’t even want him there.
But she’d been crazy about him once upon a time.
Crazy about him in the worst kind of way because she had liked him, had enjoyed being in his company, had wanted to spend as much time as possible with him because he’d made her smile, laugh, look at life in Technicolor.
She’d denied just how much the way he affected her had meant, had denied she’d cared more for him than she should have. On the night of the wedding rehearsal, she’d quit denying. And look how that had ended up—two Stockton hearts broken in one night. What a fool she’d been.
Even now, looking at him, unable to suppress the quivers low in her belly, she wondered if she was just as much a fool.
“I need your help,” she said, shoving aside her self-preservation instincts.
Immediately, he stepped away from the men he’d been talking to. “I’m yours. All you have to do is ask.”
She so wasn’t touching his comment, but her imagination toyed with the double entendre. Had he intentionally sent her thoughts into a whirlwind?
“I have a hand injury that’s going to require multiple sutures. Capillary refill is good in all fingers. Sensation is decreased. There’s a hairline fracture in the index finger, but no other breaks. I was hoping you’d have a look. The index and middle fingers will require more extensive suturing.”
“Sure.” Cole followed her into the bay. While he washed his hands, he introduced himself to the injured corpsman. He examined the patient then turned to Amelia. “You’re right about the first two fingers. I’ll suture them.”
She could do them, Amelia wanted to argue. But this wasn’t about what she could and could not do. This was about proving to her crew that she wouldn’t compromise them or their patients, that she could set aside her personal feelings because she was a professional, a Stockton.
“I was hoping you’d offer.” And not because he really could do a better job on the man’s fingers. She might be trying to make a point, but she didn’t plan to beg Cole just to prove to her crew that she was a team player.
“Like I said…” his gaze sought hers “…I’m all yours.”
Still not acknowledging his comment, she smiled at the pale man. “Dr Stanley is the ship’s surgeon. He’ll do an excellent job on those fingers while I sew the other two up so we get you put back together a little quicker.”
With Tracy and Richard assisting and the man’s fingers spread wide, Amelia and Cole worked from opposite sides of the exam table, slowly closing the man’s wounds. Their workspace was tight due to the close proximity of the injuries, but just as they’d done earlier, done years ago, they worked well together, rarely encroaching on each other’s space.
From time to time, Amelia would sense Cole glancing up, toward her, but for the most part their concentration centered directly on their patient and his well-being.
Amelia had asked Tracy to give the man something for pain pri
or to starting the closure. Between the narcotic and the local anesthetic at the injury site, the man seemed comfortable. Actually, Amelia was fairly positive near the end of the procedure that he’d fallen asleep.
She finished the less extensive lacerations on his pinky and ring fingers prior to Cole finishing the deeper wounds.
She turned to the nurse and Richard. “I’ll assist Dr Stanley. If there are no more patients, you both can go ahead and sign out for the day. Thanks for all your assistance.”
Sharing a stunned glance, Tracy and the corpsman left the bay to finish their day’s duties.
“I’m glad you asked me to help,” Cole told her when they were alone. “It was just like old times.”
Old times when she’d been an eager resident and he’d allowed her to sit in on procedures to give her the experience.
“You’d have been here another hour at least if you hadn’t.”
“Saving time wasn’t why I asked you to help.”
“So why did you?” Pulling the ethilon thread through, Cole’s gaze lifted to hers, his blue eyes twinkling with a teasing quality that made her almost giddy. “Because you knew I was a better seamstress?”