stay for a while, too,’ she said. ‘I’m not sure I’m up to starting a shift in ED just yet.’ Taking a deep breath, she exhaled slowly. ‘I don’t know how you cope with this sort of thing on a daily basis.’
‘Big incidents like this are few and far between,’ Matt responded. He grinned. ‘And you know what we’re like in the ambulance service. Being able to do what we’re trained for on a scale like this is a highlight of the job.’
That adrenaline buzz might only be a memory now but it was strong enough to make Tori nod slowly.
‘It’s a very different ball game compared to hospital work, isn’t it? You have to be far more self-reliant. Yelling for help isn’t necessarily going to get someone who’s going to be any more able to deal with the situation.’
‘And every challenge is that little bit different. It never gets boring, that’s for sure.’
Matt’s partner, Joe, was packing away their gear but Matt seemed content to take a break. He leaned against the side of the fire engine beside Tori. ‘So, how are you?’ he queried. ‘It must be nearly six months since I’ve seen you.’
‘That’d be right. You talked me into coming to that USAR introduction course you ran last year, remember?’
‘Of course I do. You were hopping around on crutches. How’s the leg now?’
‘Good as new.’
‘Did you find the course at all useful?’
‘Absolutely.’ Tori smiled at Matt. ‘That session on triage started flashing like a neon sign in my head as soon as I found I was the first on the scene here.’
‘Really?’ Matt looked so delighted that Tori found her smile widening.
‘Really,’ she confirmed. ‘It was a great course.’
‘You should come and do some more advanced USAR training, then. We could do with some more medically qualified people on the teams.’
‘Hmm.’ Tori was enjoying the look of genuine interest on Matt’s face. His encouraging smile seemed to reach all the way to a pair of equally warm hazel eyes. ‘I might just do that.’
For a fraction of a second Matt held her gaze and Tori was reminded of a connection that had been completely buried over the last six months. A base for a friendship that had just been strengthened by what had happened this morning. A friendship she would be more than happy to build on.
Not that she’d want Matt to think she’d changed her mind about anything else, though. Tori broke the eye contact hurriedly.
‘How are all the kids?’ The reminder of just what had put Matthew Buchanan firmly off any agenda other than friendship was definitely timely.
‘Settling in finally, I think. That’s why I kind of disappeared for a while. I took a desk job, thinking that the more regular hours would help.’
‘And did it?’
Matt shrugged. ‘Maybe. Trouble was I missed being on the road too much. In the end I decided that making myself miserable wasn’t going to help any of us in the long run. It was rubbing off on the family, no matter how much I tried to hide it.’
Tori found her gaze caught again. He would have tried to hide it, wouldn’t he? Anyone who’d been prepared to turn his life upside down and even sacrifice a long-term relationship for the sake of four orphaned nieces and nephews had to be some kind of saint. Or, at the very least, an awfully nice guy.
‘So you haven’t found anyone to help run the orphanage yet?’
Matt laughed. ‘As if! Any sensible woman is going to run screaming into the middle distance at the mention of four kids.’
‘True,’ Tori grinned. ‘You’ll just have to find someone who isn’t sensible, then.’
‘Totally mad, you mean?’
‘It might help.’ The humour was a thinner veneer than Tori felt comfortable with, however, because she knew better than most the implications of the undercurrents here.
Changing the subject was fortunately effortless enough to be perfectly acceptable. ‘Oh, look! They’ve got the cab of the logging truck onto that crane. It’s moving!’
‘That’s my cue, then.’ Matt straightened and watched for a short time as the cab containing the unfortunate driver of the truck swung slowly towards solid ground where it hovered before starting a gentle descent. Matt moved towards the ambulance. ‘I’ll grab my kit.’
‘Can I help?’ Tori’s exhaustion had mysteriously evaporated. There was, after all, the smallest chance that the truck driver was still alive.
‘Joe?’ Matt got the attention of his partner. ‘Tori’s offered to third crew for us for a bit longer. Give her the heavy stuff, eh?’
Joe was grinning as he held out the lifepack. ‘If you carry the oxygen cylinder in your other hand, it kind of balances you.’
‘Cheers.’
‘Just kidding!’ Joe put the lifepack on top of the stretcher and then added the oxygen cylinder and suction kit. ‘We’ll just take the whole bed. Pull out those handles at the end and help me lift it out.’
They had to wait as the cab was very slowly lowered to the ground. Then Matt swung himself up on the step and opened the door. Tori saw him reach to feel for a carotid pulse on the driver’s neck.
The shout, seconds later, was astonished.
‘Hey…I’ve got a pulse here. He’s alive!’
CHAPTER TWO
THIS was a life none of them had expected to save.
For the next fifteen minutes Tori found herself part of a small team working hard to stabilise a critically injured patient who had major chest and head injuries. A body splint and backboard were used, along with a team of firemen, to lift him from the cab of the truck. Matt intubated him to protect his airway and provide adequate oxygenation, and a chest decompression was necessary to deal with the pneumothorax that had caused a lung to collapse and affect his ability to breathe.
It was Tori who helped gain IV access and start fluids running to combat the shocked condition the man was now in. She kept up the monitoring of vital signs, like blood pressure, heart rate and rhythm and the level of respiratory distress, and it was Tori that found the driver’s wallet in the back pocket of his jeans.
‘His name’s Wayne,’ she told the others. ‘Wayne Judd. He’s fifty-three.’
And his driver’s licence indicated that he was listed as a potential organ donor. The wallet also included photographs of a woman and children that had to be Wayne’s immediate family. Suddenly this patient had a real identity and his willingness to help others if he could no longer be helped himself strengthened the desire Tori felt to see this man survive.
She helped load the stretcher into the ambulance and switched the tubing from
