senior reg hadn’t come along and demanded to know if she had a pain in her shoulder.’ Seb grinned. ‘We thought he’d completely lost the plot by asking a question like that, until he informed us that shoulder-tip pain is often a symptom of an ectopic pregnancy.’
‘We’d never even heard of it until then,’ Libby agreed. ‘He had to explain that it was caused by internal bleeding irritating the diaphragm when the patient breathes in and out.’
‘It was one lesson we never forgot, though, especially as we got a real rollicking from him afterwards. What did he call us?’
‘A pair of half-baked, incompetent morons who shouldn’t be allowed anywhere near a member of the public,’ she supplied helpfully, and he laughed.
‘That’s exactly what he said! How on earth did you remember after all this time?’
‘Because that day stuck in my mind for a number of reasons.’
As soon as the words left her mouth Libby wished she hadn’t said them, but it was too late by then. She could tell that Seb had remembered what else had happened that day, too. After their roasting, they had gone back to their flat and one thing had led to another. They’d ended up making love and afterwards, as they had lain in one another’s arms, Seb had asked her to marry him…
‘Right. I’d better go and brief the team so that everyone knows what to expect,’ he said brusquely, swinging round.
‘You mean about this major incident? What’s happened exactly?’ She shrugged when he paused, not wanting him to know how painful it was to recall happier times. There was no point looking back but it wasn’t easy to block out the memories when they were together. ‘I never got a chance to ask you before because we were interrupted. It must be pretty serious, though, if you’ve closed the whole unit.’
‘It is. There’s a tanker adrift and it’s on course to collide with one of the off-shore drilling rigs. We’ll be treating the bulk of the casualties so it’s going to get rather hectic around here.’
‘Good heavens! It really is a major incident.’
‘It’s certainly the biggest thing we’ve had to deal with since the unit opened.’ He glanced at his watch and sighed. ‘I’m sorry but I really need to get everything sorted out.’
‘Of course you do. Sorry. I didn’t mean to hold you up.’
‘You haven’t.’ There was a moment when she thought he was going to say something else but in the end he merely shrugged. ‘Why don’t you come with me? That way I can introduce you to the rest of the team before it gets too busy.’
‘Are you sure? I wouldn’t want to get in the way.’
‘You won’t,’ he said firmly, opening the door.
Libby wasn’t convinced but it would have wasted too much time if she’d argued the point with him. She sighed as she followed him out of Resus. It certainly hadn’t been the best time to turn up here. Seb had enough to contend with at the moment without her adding to the pressure. She just had to hold onto the thought that she was doing the right thing. For both of them.
Friday: 6 p.m.
‘SORRY to keep you waiting, but we had a bit of an emergency.’
Seb could feel his stomach churning as he led the way into the office. He beckoned Libby forward and dredged up a smile. ‘For those of you who haven’t met her yet, this is my wife, Libby. I’m afraid we’ll have to leave the rest of the introductions until later, though.’
He closed the door, ignoring the looks that were being exchanged. Although everyone knew he was married, he guessed that most people had assumed that he and Libby were separated. It must be almost as big a shock for them as it had been for him to have her turn up like this, but there was nothing he could do about it. He could hardly explain why she’d come when he didn’t officially know the reason himself.
‘Right, I’ve spoken to the coastguard and the news isn’t good,’ he said briskly, trying not to dwell on how he was going to feel when Libby asked him for a divorce. ‘The tugs have been unable to get a line to the tanker because of the heavy seas. It’s still on course for a collision so they’ve decided to evacuate as many people as possible from the rig.’
‘By helicopter?’ Marilyn put in.
‘To begin with. However, if the wind speed increases then the helicopters won’t be able to continue flying so they’ve put out a call to all shipping in the area. If the local fishing boats can offload some of the crew, that will cut down the number of flights the air-sea rescue guys will have to make.’ He shrugged. ‘We don’t want to add to the chaos by having a ’copter ditch in the sea.’
‘How many crew are there on the tanker?’ Ben Robertson, their senior radiologist, enquired.
‘That’s something the coastguard is still trying to establish, along with the exact nature of the cargo the tanker is carrying. Let’s just say that the owners of the vessel are a tad reluctant to answer any questions.’
‘So we don’t know how many potential casualties we could end up with,’ Cathy said in dismay.
‘That’s the top and bottom of it, I’m afraid.’ Seb glanced around the room, his eyes lingering only a fraction longer on Libby than they did on anyone else but even so, he could have recited from memory every detail of what she was wearing if he’d been asked to do so.
He’d always loved her in blue, he thought wistfully. It was a colour that suited her perfectly, highlighting her honey-gold hair and fair skin. She’d worn a pale blue suit when they had married in the simple register office ceremony they had decided on. Neither of them had wanted a big wedding with lots of fuss. They’d just wanted each other and the day had been perfect. They had made their vows in front of a handful of family and friends, and they had both cried. It had been the best day of his life and it was almost too painful to have to remember it now.
He cleared his throat, afraid that his feelings would be all too apparent. ‘We don’t know if we’ll be dealing with six or sixty casualties so we need to be prepared for every eventuality. Ambulance Control has been instructed to send only the most severely injured patients to us during the course of the next twenty-four hours so that should help, but if the numbers are high, we are going to be pushed to our absolute limit. Just do your best. That’s all any of us can do.’
There was a murmur of agreement before everyone started to leave. Seb didn’t go with them. They knew the drill and he didn’t need to check up on what they were doing. Every single member of the team would do his or her job without him having to badger them. It was what made them work so well together: they trusted each other and had the kind of confidence that came from knowing they were trusted, too.
His gaze went to Libby again and his heart ached with a searing pain. Libby had also trusted him at one time. She’d trusted him to be there for her and he had let her down. Maybe it had been his dream to work in a job like this, but could he put his hand on his heart and swear that it had been worth doing it when it had added to the demise of his marriage?
He wished he
