you,’ she said. ‘So come the first of March anyone is pretty much fair game?’
He gave her a glinting look. ‘I do have some standards.’
‘Oh, yes,’ she said with her customary hauteur. ‘A strong working pulse. I almost forgot.’
Jake smiled wryly as he picked up his bucket. ‘Do you want me to run a chamois over your car to dry it off?’ he asked.
‘No, thank you,’ she said, with schoolmarmish primness.
He tapped the bonnet with his hand. ‘Give me a shout if you need a jump start in the morning,’ he said. ‘I have the necessary equipment.’
‘I’m quite sure I won’t be needing any of your equipment,’ she said, that dainty chin going up another notch.
‘Well,’ Jake said, giving her a deliberately smouldering look, ‘you know where it is if and when you do.’
KITTY was putting her things in the locker in the staff changing room the next morning when one of the nurses on duty came in.
‘Hi, Dr Cargill,’ the nurse said. ‘I’m Cathy Oxley. I haven’t been rostered on with you yet. How are you settling in?’
‘Fine,’ Kitty said. ‘It’s a bit of a steep learning curve. I’m still finding my feet.’
Cathy’s brown eyes twinkled meaningfully. ‘I’m sure our gorgeous boss is helping you with that after hours.’
Kitty felt her cheeks heat up. ‘I’m not sure what you mean by that,’ she said, closing her locker door with a little rattle. ‘I’m not seeing Dr Chandler after hours.’
‘Oh, sorry,’ Cathy said. ‘I must have got my wires crossed. I could’ve sworn someone said you two were dating. Mind you, it would be a first for him if you were.’
‘A first?’ Kitty frowned. ‘In what way?’
‘I don’t think he’s ever dated anyone on his immediate staff before,’ Cathy said as she stored her bag in a locker two doors away from Kitty’s. She closed and locked the locker and turned back to face Kitty. ‘One of the nurses last year actually asked for a transfer to another department so he would take her out. Not that it lasted all that long. But that’s Jake-break-your-heart-Chandler for you. It’ll be a very special woman indeed who manages to lure him to an altar any time soon.’
Kitty turned and worked on smoothing over her tightly restrained hair in front of the mirror. ‘Not all men are cut out for the responsibility of commitment and marriage,’ she said. ‘It’s all a matter of maturity.’
‘I don’t think Jake would like to hear you describe him as immature,’ Cathy said with a little chuckle.
‘Men can be commitment-shy for all sorts of reasons, I guess. Particularly if they haven’t had a great experience of commitment in their own family.’
‘Jake doesn’t talk about his background,’ Cathy said. ‘He’s a bit of dark horse in that regard. I know he’s got siblings. His brother’s just as gorgeous in looks, apparently. A younger sister of one of the nurses on the neuro ward went out with him a couple of times.’
‘Looks aren’t everything,’ Kitty said. ‘What about character and values?’
‘Our Jake’s got those as well,’ Cathy said. ‘You just have to go searching for them. He doesn’t wear his heart on his sleeve.’
‘Has he even got a heart?’ Kitty asked with an arch of one of her brows.
Cathy grinned as she shouldered open the locker room door. ‘Last time I looked—but who knows? Maybe someone’s stolen it by now.’
Kitty had barely been on the floor of the unit thirty seconds when Jake Chandler informed her there was a critical incident unfolding right outside the A&E department.
‘Two teenagers have been knocked down by a car,’ he said, issuing orders to the nurses on duty as he strode through. ‘Cathy, Tanya, get airway and trauma kits, hard collars, IV equipment and spinal boards.’
Kitty followed Jake and Lei and four nurses out to the street outside the A&E receiving area, where the police were diverting the traffic and securing the scene from bystanders.
She felt her heart pounding behind the framework of her ribs. She was used to dealing with patients in the unit, not out on the street. She had never attended a real accident, only mock-up ones.
Two kids—a girl and a boy—in their mid-teens were lying on the road. Horns were blaring. Sirens were screaming and lights were flashing. People were screaming and shouting. The police were doing their best to control the scene, but it was nothing short of mayhem given it was smack-bang in the middle of peak hour.
‘Dr Cargill,’ said Jake, calmly but with unmistakable authority. ‘Take Cathy and Tanya and do a primary survey on the girl and tell me what equipment you need. Lei, take Lara and Tim and get started on the boy.’
Kitty started her assessment of the girl who was unconscious. ‘AVPU is P,’ she said. ‘I don’t have an airway.’
‘Get the neck stable and get her intubated,’ Jake ordered.
Kitty felt a flutter of panic rush through her stomach like a rapidly shuffled deck of cards. ‘I can maintain her airway without intubating her out here.’
‘You need to secure the airway and get the rest of the primary survey done now,’ Jake said. ‘We’re not moving her until she’s assessed. Do you want me to intubate her?’
‘No,’ Kitty said, mentally crossing her fingers and her toes. ‘I can manage.’
‘Good,’ he said. ‘Get it done and then give me the primary survey.’ He turned to the registrar. ‘Lei, what’s your assessment?’
‘GCS thirteen, Dr Chandler,’ Lei said. ‘Airway patent, multiple fractured right ribs and a flail segment. Probably right pneumothorax. Pulse one-twenty, BP one hundred on sixty. No external bleeding.’
Kitty kept working on her patient, wishing she were half as confident as the registrar appeared to be.
She tried to focus.
To keep calm.
This was not the time to doubt her skills. She had been trained for this. She had worked on similar cases inside A&E.
Come on, she gave herself a little pep talk. You’ve intubated loads of patients before. Why should this one be any different?
‘Good work, Lei,’ Jake was saying. ‘Is it a tension pneumothorax?’
‘No tension, Dr Chandler,’ Lei said. ‘Fair air entry and no mediastinal shift.’
‘Brilliant,’ Jake said. ‘Get
