Ron looked thoughtful. ‘I never thought of it like that. I suppose you would feel a bit like you were always in the dark. Can’t be pleasant.’
‘It isn’t,’ Thea confirmed.
She cast Ben a grateful glance, which filled him with an unexpected warmth. Lots of the little things that Thea did were causing that reaction these days—from a shared, knowing smile to a grateful glance like that one. He knew he should be taking it as a warning, forcing more space between them. But instead he was doing the opposite.
‘Well, that aside, the guys were talking before and we want to know what else we don’t know about our devilish Doc Abrams, here.’ Ron unpeeled his banana and gulped down half of it in one mouthful.
‘Hmm, well, let me think... I’m a whizz in the kitchen,’ retorted Ben promptly, and the group chuckled.
‘Sorry, mate, we mean the other Doc Abrams.’ Ron chuckled, polishing off the rest of the fruit.
‘Right,’ said Andy. ‘We reckon it’s time to find out.’
‘I’m not sure I like the sound of this...’ Thea feigned a frown at her friend.
‘Nah—you will,’ Andy assured her. ‘We’ve got a couple of days off from tomorrow night—how about we all go for a drink after work?’
‘Plus it’s time for you guys to tell us what’s been going on,’ Ron added pointedly. ‘And, Ben, we’ll tell you all the little fun stories we’ve got about your wife here.’
‘What stories?’ Thea wrinkled her nose.
Ron smiled broadly. ‘Like the fact that the first time she travelled on the chopper she threw up!’
‘Really?’ Ben turned to Thea as she turned beetroot-red. But at least she was starting to relax a little now the very personal questions were over.
‘Thanks for the loyalty, guys. Not.’
‘Come on, Ben, you’re new to the crew,’ urged Franco, another paramedic. ‘It’s a good way to get to know everyone without the stress of call-outs.’
Ben turned to Thea. ‘I reckon a night out would do us both good.’
He knew it wasn’t really her thing, and it wasn’t really his either, but it seemed like a good opportunity to try and create that distance he was considering. It would certainly beat going back to the cottage together and tiptoeing around her in the kitchen in an effort not to simply drag her into his arms and pin her back against the kitchen island.
‘Then tomorrow night it is,’ Ron confirmed, pleased when everyone nodded their agreement.
But when nobody was watching Thea shot Ben a confused glance, as though somehow he’d managed to upset her again. Before he could catch her attention to find out, another paramedic came running around the corner.
‘RTC just called in, guys. Big one. They’re asking for both Air Ambulances.’
‘Two? Hell, must be bad.’ Nic was up and moving before the paramedic had time to say more. Everyone else was right on his heels.
‘I want my whole team,’ Nic instructed as the two teams raced out onto the tarmac. ‘Franco, don’t stay behind this time—and, Ben, you’re coming too. Sounds like we could do with an extra trauma doc, and one of us can always ride in the road ambulance if necessary.’
* * *
Thea stood up from her fourth collision victim, circling her arm and stretching her neck from one side to the other. She had been working non-stop for the last few hours, first triaging, then tending. Her latest victim had a collapsed left thorax, both clavicles and numerous ribs broken, and Thea had been particularly concerned about internal aortic bleeding which might ultimately prove fatal. Until the other trauma team returned to airlift the woman to hospital Thea had been draining the chest cavity, but she knew she was just fighting to buy the woman enough time to get there.
With even a third team now here, she should transfer the woman to their care, and move on to the next casualty who urgently needed her help. Ron had already called her over a couple of times for the next one on their priority list—a list which just kept getting longer as they carefully extricated more victims from their cars. She, Ben and Nic were staying on site to stabilise as many as they could either for air transport or transfer by road crew, but it felt like a losing battle.
As she signalled to another trauma doctor she averted her eyes from the black bags dotted around. The accident had been horrific. Multiple cars—or what had once passed for cars—were scattered over a good mile of motorway, along with debris, people screaming for help, and those who were ominously quiet.
As they’d approached from the air the sheer scale of the collision had been evident, with the police struggling to close all six lanes of the motorway and clear the way. The biggest threat, however, was the two cars still smouldering despite efforts to control them. The fire brigade was still fighting to reach them up the packed motorway.
Both air teams had got to work as soon as they had landed, assessing and operating in tandem with the four rapid response vehicles which had made it through the traffic, with more on their way all the time. Working quickly, Thea had confirmed a spinal injury, a dislocated knee, a hip injury and a head injury, continually communicating with both Nic and Ben in order for them to assess the priority patients.
She prepared herself now to move on to her fifth casualty.
‘I think I’ve got the driver of the van,’ Thea calculated. ‘They’ve managed to get him out of the vehicle now, and initial assessment shows he has definite internal bleeding.’