A Family Made at Christmas

Riley picked himself up and leaned in to check on Ben just as the flames shot up towards the sky. The two men on the other side of the car yelled and leapt backwards. Riley reached forward to check Ben’s legs weren’t trapped. He knew the rules. A casualty should never be moved from a vehicle without a neck collar in place to protect them.

But threat of imminent death from fire took priority over all the normal rules.

He gestured to the other guy. ‘Give me a hand getting him out of here.’ There was a sound of sirens in the distance. The other guy looked at the flames. Riley could see the doubt on his face but, to his credit, the guy stood up and came forward. Together, they half pulled, half lifted Ben out of the car, looping arms around his waist and carrying him over to the side of the road.

Ben winced in pain as Riley touched his leg. Riley glanced around. His emergency bag was lying on the ground next to the first car. He ran and picked it up, pulling a swab out to stem the bleeding from Ben’s forehead.

He shouted over to Phil, whom he’d left at the side of the first car. ‘How’s everything?’

Phil looked anxious. ‘Her lips look a bit blue,’ he shouted back.

Riley looked up. He could see the blue flashing lights now and the sirens were getting louder. The police cars and ambulances were trying to weave their way through the traffic. They would still be a few minutes.

He ran over to the car to check both patients again. A quick glance at the man showed he still hadn’t regained consciousness. But his pulse was strong and he was breathing easily. The leg injuries remained but it was likely that he’d need to be cut out of the car. There wasn’t much Riley could do for him at the side of the road. He turned his attention back to the woman. He spoke quietly. Her handbag was behind the seat, so he checked her details. ‘Elizabeth? Mrs Bennett?’ She gave a nod. ‘I’m Riley. I’m a doctor. There’s an ambulance coming soon.’ He put his fingers on her pulse again. It was faster and more thready than before. ‘Are you having difficulty breathing?’

She nodded again. He glanced at Phil at the other side of the car. ‘Take a run towards the ambulance. Tell them we have a pneumo—’ He changed his mind about the language. ‘Tell them a possible punctured lung. Tell them I need some oxygen.’

Phil nodded and took off. The cars were doing their best to get out of the way of the police cars and ambulances but there was virtually no room to manoeuvre.

Riley was frustrated. He hated the fact he had little or no equipment. From her colour, Mrs Bennett had either a collapsed lung or a blood-filled one. Both needed rapid treatment. But there was nothing he could do right now. He held her hand and spoke quietly to her, trying to ascertain if she had family and if there was someone to contact, in case she became too unwell to communicate. The thud of boots behind him made him look up. The familiar green overalls of a paramedic. He was carrying as much equipment as he could. His eyes fixed on the car that was now firmly alight.

‘Tell me no one is in that?’

Riley shook his head. ‘Man and a little boy, both at the side of the road. They’ll need to be checked but—’ he nodded to the car ‘—Mr and Mrs Bennett look as if they need attention first.’

The paramedic nodded. ‘Eric’ was his reply. ‘What we got?’ He handed over the oxygen cylinder.

‘Lieutenant Riley Callaghan, a doctor at Waterloo Court.’ He leaned forward. ‘Elizabeth, I’m just going to slip an oxygen mask over your face.’ He did that quickly. ‘Mr and Mrs Bennett. Mr Bennett has been unconscious since I got here. I think he has a fractured tib and fib in the footwell. His pulse has been strong and his breathing fine. Mrs Bennett, I think, may have had some damage from the seat belt and I don’t know about her pelvis. She also looks like she has a tib and fib fracture. I think she may have fractured a few ribs and punctured a lung.’

A female paramedic arrived too, shaking her head. ‘Still can’t get the ambulances through. Where do you want me?’

Eric signalled to the side of the road where Aaron and his dad were sitting and she nodded and ran over. Eric ripped open the large pack he’d brought with him. ‘Right, Doc, let’s get to work.’

CHAPTER SIX

FINN WAS SLEEPING NOW. April wasn’t quite sure what Riley had said to Mrs Banks on the phone, but Finn had been released into her care with a few mutterings of ‘exceptional circumstances’.

After she’d realised she didn’t have a key to Riley’s place, she’d made a quick trip to the shops to let Finn pick something for dinner then brought him back to her flat.

Thank goodness for the TV. There was a whole host of kids’ TV channels she’d never known about or watched, but Finn could tell her exactly where to find them. She’d checked him over as best she could and, apart from being a little pale and not wanting to eat much, he seemed fine. As soon as he’d eaten a little dinner, he’d fallen asleep, lying on the sofa with a cover over him.

Part of her had been nervous. Hadn’t Riley said something about sleepiness being a sign of head injury? But her gut instincts told her that Finn was simply exhausted. It was after seven; she wasn’t sure when he normally went to bed.

She walked through to the kitchen to make herself a drink but when she came back through Finn was awake again with his nose pressed up against the window.

‘Hey,’ she said gently as she crossed the room and put an arm on his shoulder. ‘What are you looking at?’

It took her a second or two to realise his shoulders were shaking a little. She knelt down beside him so she could see his face. ‘Finn? What’s wrong?’

‘I...I heard someone shouting. I heard someone shouting my name...’ His voice stalled for a second.

April glanced outside. There was a family directly under her window, laughing and carrying on in the light dusting of snow outside. The woman shouted at the little boy and girl. ‘Finn, Jessie, come over here.’

Finn started to shake next to her. ‘I thought it was my mum,’ he gasped. ‘I thought it was her.’

Her actions were instinctive. She gathered the little body as Finn’s legs collapsed under him and he started to sob. She pulled him in towards her shoulder and stood up, clutching him tightly. Normally she would have thought a five-year-old might be too big to carry like a toddler. But there was nothing else she could do right now. Finn needed her and she would never let him down.

She rubbed his back as he sobbed and whispered in his ear. ‘I’m so sorry, honey. I’m so sorry that your mum isn’t here.’

His words came out in gasps. ‘I...I...miss...her.’

Tears started to flow down her face. She walked over to the sofa and sat down, keeping Finn firmly in her arms. ‘I know you do. Of course you do. And I know that your mum wishes she was still here with you.’

He curled in her arms, pulling up his knees and resting his head on her chest. ‘I want my mum.’

She rocked back and forward. His pain was so raw. So real. She wanted to reach out and grab it. To take it away for him. No child should have to go through this.

She stroked his hair. ‘It’s not the same. But I had a sister who died not long ago. I know how hard it is when you lose someone you love very much. And it is hard, Finn. I won’t tell you lies. You’ll miss your mum every single day. And while it’s really horrible right now, and you’ll think about her all the time, I promise that at some point it won’t be quite as bad as it is now.’

Finn shook his head. ‘I just want her back. I just want to go home.’

It was almost like a fist reaching inside and twisting around her heart.

She kept rocking. ‘I know you do, honey. But you’re going to have a new home with your dad. He loves you. He loves you just as much as your mum does. It just takes a little getting used to. For him too.’ She gave a little sigh and tried to find the right words. Were there even right words?

‘

Mum used to do this,’ whispered the little voice.

April froze mid-rock.

She’d only done what came naturally. She wasn’t trying to be a mum to Finn. She was just doing what she thought she should.

Finn’s hand crept up and his finger wound in her hair. Now, it was her turn to almost shake. ‘Can we stay like this till I fall asleep?’ came the tired voice.

Her brain was screaming silent messages at her. No! Too close.

Her body started to rock again, but she couldn’t say the words out loud. It was almost like being on automatic pilot. And even though her movements were steady her thoughts weren’t.

She was overstepping the mark. This was wrong. It was Riley’s job to comfort his son—not hers. She couldn’t let Finn rely on her. That would be wrong. That would be so wrong. Particularly when she didn’t know what might lie ahead.

Finn’s little heart had already been broken once. It was bad enough for a child to experience that once. If things developed...

She pushed the thoughts straight from her head. No. They wouldn’t. She couldn’t let them. It wasn’t good for her. And it really wasn’t good for Finn.

Her brain buzzed as she kept rocking until the little finger released its grip on her hair and Finn’s head sagged to the side.

Moving carefully, she positioned him on the sofa with a blanket on top as she stood on the other side of the room, leaning against the wall and breathing heavily.