Beth. Ron and Beth run a clinic in the plaza, right by the car park. Ron’s one of the casualties. Maryanne tells me your Beth’s a single mum with no family here. Toby, her son, usually stays in childcare in the centre while she works. That’s in the plaza, too. The staff did a magnificent job getting the kids out but they’re all traumatised. Maryanne says that means there’s no obvious person to care for Toby, and no one’s stepped forward to be her accompanying person. So in view of that, I’m electing you. Unless the divorce was so acrimonious...’
‘I... No.’
‘Then you’ll do it? She needs medical care during evacuation. I want blood supply to that foot constantly monitored. And she needs someone she knows.’
‘And the child...’
‘Does he know you?’
‘I... No.’ How could he know him? Until two hours ago Luc hadn’t known he existed.
‘Lucky you’re good with kids, then,’ Blake told him, moving on. ‘I’m sending Beth and a guy with fractured ribs and lacerations. Plus Toby. There’s room on the chopper and he’s breathed in enough concrete dust to warrant twenty-four-hour obs. They’re in your hands, Luc.’
‘Right.’
Of course it was right. How many times had he done this, accompanying injured back to Sydney?
But Beth.
And her son.
She was a single mum? There’d been someone else. Had she walked away from him, too?
There was something inside him that clenched and wouldn’t unclench.
He took a deep breath and struggled to focus. He needed to hand over what he’d done.
‘Leave it, Luc,’ Blake said roughly. ‘Sam’ll fill me in on what you’ve been doing. Your head’s with Beth. Sorry, mate, but from now on I need to treat you as compromised. Are you sure you can manage on the plane?’
‘Of course.’
‘There’s no of course about it. Where family’s concerned...’
‘Beth’s not my family.’
‘No? Well, maybe for now she has to be because, as far as I understand, she doesn’t have anyone else. If it was Sam injured...’
Where had that come from? Blake and Sam—Samantha, SDR’s newest recruit—had become an item and were now engaged to be married. They were a couple. There was no comparison.
Or maybe there was.
Until death do us part?
He and Beth had signed the divorce papers but those long-ago vows still whispered in his head. Telling him Blake was right.
Beth was injured. She wasn’t family—how could she be? But somehow there were ties that meant that, yes, he’d stay beside her. For as long as he was needed.
* * *
‘Beth?’
She’d been stirring for a while now, struggling to surface from a drug-induced sleep, fighting down fears crowding in from all sides. She’d been vaguely aware of being carried to a helicopter, being lifted aboard. She remembered the surge of fear as she’d thought she was being taken from Toby, but a paramedic had stooped over her stretcher, showing her a warmly wrapped bundle.
‘He’s asleep, Beth, but he’s coming with us.’
‘We even have Robert Rabbit, a bit scruffy but safely tucked in with him.’ And it was Luc, a growly voice in the background. He’d been supervising the loading of another patient onto the chopper. She remembered thinking that was what Luc did. He got people out of trouble. He cared...
That care had been so stifling it had ended their marriage, but as she’d been lifted onto the chopper she’d sunk into it. She hadn’t had a choice. Let Luc care and be grateful for it.
And now... They were in the air and he was saying her name, touching her shoulder. ‘Beth? Stop fighting it, love. You’re safe. But if you’re awake...there’s something you might like to see.’
Love? How long since anyone had called her that? But it was wrong. She should...
She couldn’t. She let the word wash over her and insensibly it made her feel...okay.
‘This is amazing,’ Luc was saying. ‘Can I help you sit up a little?’
‘Wh-what?’
‘This is too stunning to miss,’ Luc was saying. ‘And it might even make you feel better. You’re supposed to be strapped in. Derek’s right here beside you but he’s fast asleep. He’s copped broken ribs and lacerations and the morphine has put him out like a light. Toby’s asleep, too, but I know you’re awake. We have your glasses. As long as we can do this without moving your leg, you’re okay to see. Beth, there’s a thunderstorm. Let me help you.’ And he was right beside her, gently raising her shoulders, cradling her against him, adjusting her glasses on her nose. ‘Look out the window.’
She did—and she gasped in wonder.
The drugs she’d been given had taken away all pain. Confusion and fear faded. She felt warm and close to sleep. She was being cradled by...by...
Yeah, that was too hard to think about. She tried to block out the feel of him and focussed instead on what lay out the window.
It was indeed a thunderstorm, a massive one, enveloping Sydney in an awe-inspiring display.
Lightning flashed across the sky in a mass of jagged forks, splitting and splitting again. The entire sky was lit. The lightning seemed all around them. In the distance she could see the lights of Sydney. The Harbour Bridge. The amazing Opera House. They were lit themselves, but as each crack of lightning sizzled, their lights mingled with what nature was providing.
The drugs were making her fuzzy, weird, stunned. The sky outside was surreal.
Luc was holding her. Luc...
Focus. Lightning. Toby.
Danger? She should...she should...
‘You’re safe, love,’ Luc said again, as if he guessed her fears. Which of course he always had. ‘It looks stunning but it’s well to the north and moving away. Our heliport’s on the roof of Bondi Bayside Hospital. We’re giving the storm a few minutes to clear before we land but we’ll have you and Toby tucked up and safe in no time.’
So she could relax. She could lie back in his arms and let the wash of what looked like a massive pyrotechnic display stun her into silence. She could look out into the dark, stormy world and know that Luc had her safe.
She mustn’t. Once upon a time she’d fallen for that sweet, all-enveloping trust and it had led to heartache and despair. She had to pull away.
But the drugs wouldn’t let her and neither would her will. She’d been alone for so long. The fear of the time spent trapped was
