to walk on.’
‘How long have you got to train for it?’
‘I don’t know that either.’ The parking area around them was dark now but Harriet could see some people moving off to one side. ‘You’ll be coming to the wedding, won’t you?’
‘If I get an invitation, sure.’ Jack had turned to look in the same direction as Harriet. ‘So what’s your other goal? You said you had two.’
‘I want to get back to my old job. In intensive care.’
‘Where are you now?’
‘Geriatrics.’ Harriet screwed up her nose. ‘I mean, I love the oldies. I hear the most amazing stories every day but I really miss the ICU.’
‘Why can’t you work there again now?’
‘My leg’s not strong enough. Imagine if there was an emergency and I turned to grab a defibrillator or something and I ended up falling over.’
‘Hmm...’ But Jack seemed distracted. ‘There are cops over there. With a dog...’
‘Oh...’ Harriet wrenched at her door handle. ‘It must be Harry the dog. Let’s go and check that he’s okay.’
The two police officers were about to load Harry the dog into their car but were happy enough to stop and chat when they learned of Jack and Harry’s connection to the unusual job they’d been dispatched to.
‘You never know what’s going to happen on a shift,’ the young officer said. ‘We get a good hike up a hill in a glorious sunset and we’re getting paid for it. How great is that?’
‘Was he hard to find?’
‘No. He was just lying there, with his nose on his paws, right on the edge of the cliff.’
‘Oh...poor Harry.’ Harriet crouched down to hug the dog. ‘It’ll be okay,’ she told him. ‘Someone’s going to look after you.’
‘He’s going to the pound,’ the older officer told them. ‘We’ve tried to find a family member to take him but there doesn’t seem to be anybody.’
Harriet felt the nudge of a cold, damp nose against her hand. He was good at communicating, this dog.
‘I’ll take him,’ she heard herself saying. ‘I don’t want him to go to the pound. How scary would that be? He’d think he was being totally abandoned.’
‘If you want to.’ The police officers exchanged a glance. ‘Can’t see a problem with that as long as we get all your details.’
‘Are you sure?’ Jack sounded concerned. ‘He’s a big dog. He’ll need a lot of exercise.’
Harriet straightened. ‘A lot of exercise is exactly what I need, too, if I’m going to get to where I want to be.’
‘Are you allowed dogs in your apartment?’
She shrugged. ‘Sometimes it’s better to apologise later than ask for permission first. I think this is one of those times.’
Jack’s gaze was thoughtful. ‘I could help, maybe. With the exercising?’
‘Sure.’ This time, Harriet wasn’t going to brush off Jack’s offer to help. It was like another peace offering. ‘That’d be great.’
A few minutes later, Harry the dog was installed on the back seat of Harriet’s car and she was ready to drive home as soon as Jack let go of her door so that she could close it.
‘I’ll be in touch,’ he said. ‘We can make up a roster and I can give him a good run on the beach or something.’
‘Okay. I’d better get going, though. I need to get to the supermarket and stock up on some dog food and stuff.’
Jack closed her door but he was still standing there so Harriet rolled the window down.
‘What?’
He shrugged. ‘Nothing. Just that I reckon you could add a third goal to that list.’
‘Oh?’
‘Yeah...’ He threw a smile over his shoulder as he walked away. ‘Getting back on the team for real. Reckon you could do it if you really wanted to.’
‘SAM...WHAT ARE you doing here?’
‘I had to come and find you. They told me on the ward that you’d brought someone to X-Ray.’
‘Yes.’ Harriet glanced sideways to where the patient she was accompanying was already snoring gently. ‘Poor old May fell out of bed during the night. She’s not complaining but it looks like she’s fractured her neck of femur. We’ve got a bit of a wait, though.’ She raised her eyebrows at her friend. ‘Why did you have to come and find me? Have you set a date for the wedding or something?’
Sam shook her head, flopping into the seat beside Harriet. ‘No...it was too late to ring you by the time I got home last night. There was an SDR meeting and I heard all about your cliff rescue. Oh, my God, Harry...what did you think you were doing?’
There was only one person who could have been spreading that news but Harriet wasn’t entirely sure whether she was disappointed in Jack for talking about her behind her back or quietly pleased that the team now knew all about it.
‘Jack said it would have been an astonishing thing for anyone to do but for you to do it was just mind-blowing.’ Sam was looking down at Harriet’s leg. ‘Are you okay? You’re wearing your brace again.’
‘Just a precaution.’
‘Maybe you should have an X-ray after May.’ Sam glanced at the elderly woman and then caught Harriet’s gaze. There was amusement at the snoring but also sympathy. To sit and wait without even conversation was so very different from the challenges of nursing in the intensive care unit.
‘I’m fine. Honestly.’
‘Better than fine, from what I heard. Jack reckons you should be back on the team.’
Harriet shook her head sharply. ‘Not going to happen.’
‘Why not?’
‘Because I couldn’t do it, that’s why. You know the kind of things that go with a callout. Tramping miles into the scene of something like a flood or a landslide. And remember the Urban Search and Rescue course that you did? I still have enough trouble walking on a flat surface. I couldn’t climb over a pile of rubble after an earthquake if my life depended on it.’
‘You just climbed down a cliff and it was only someone else’s life that was depending on it.’
‘But I couldn’t be depended on and that’s like the number one requirement of an SDR team member.’ Harriet
