let alone abseiled down a hillside.’ She wiggled her hips and tried to move her tether. ‘These things aren’t too comfortable, are they?’
It struck him—almost blindsided him—how brave she was being. The Jessica Rae he’d known at school hadn’t even liked contact sports. He closed his eyes as an unguarded memory of other activities of a physical nature swam into his mind.
Focus. Focus now.
He knelt upwards and grabbed her around her waist, trying not to think about how it felt to be touching Jessica Rae again after all these years. Trying not to remember how her firm flesh used to feel beneath his fingers. What had happened?
‘I’m going to lower you down, Jess.’ He peered through the side window next to them, which had been removed. ‘Your feet will get a bit wet because there’s some water on the floor. Are you okay with that?’
She nodded. She didn’t look scared. She didn’t look panicked. But there was a tiny little flicker of something behind her eyes. She looked in control.
He shouted down into the minibus. ‘John, I’m going to lower the doc down. Can you take care of her?’
She started. ‘Take care of me?’ It was almost as if he’d just insulted her. ‘Don’t you mean take care of the kids?’
But Callum wasn’t paying attention. He was back in rescue mode. ‘There are two kids in the back who need your attention. One unconscious, the other with a broken leg. It’s too cramped in there to take your bag down. Shout up and tell me what you need.’
Their eyes met again as she shrugged off her pack. ‘Ready?’ She nodded and he lowered her down slowly into the waiting arms of the firefighter below, praying that things would go to plan.
‘Sheesh!’ Her feet hit the icy cold water and it sent the surge of cold right up through her body. No one could stand in this for long.
It took her eyes a few seconds to adjust to the gloom inside the minibus. The mottled daylight was still sending shadows through one side of the bus, but Callum’s body and those of the other firefighters lying across the windows was blocking out the little light that was left.
A flashlight was thrust into her hands. ‘Here you go, Doc.’ She turned it on immediately. The first sight was the way the water was lapping quickly around them. She felt the vaguest wave of panic. ‘Is the river rising?’
John nodded. ‘Not quickly enough for us to worry about.’ his eyes didn’t quite meet hers.
Work quickly.
She noticed his black trousers ballooning around his ankles and gave him a little nod. ‘Did you say no to the waders too?’
He smiled. ‘No room for waders in here, Doc. Space is limited.’
She nodded and she shuffled around him towards the kids. ‘Are any of the kids in water?’ Her feet were already numb. There was a real danger of hypothermia setting in for any kid exposed to these temperatures.
‘Four.’
‘Four?’ She could feel a flare of panic. She was one person. How could she attend to four kids?
Callum stuck his head in the gap. ‘Start with the two at the back, Jess. As soon as you’ve stabilised them and they’re safe to move, my men will get them out. The other two don’t appear injured.’ He pointed to the front of the bus. ‘My men are getting them out as quickly as possible.’ He looked towards the back of the bus. ‘The little girl is called Rosie.’
His voice was calm, authoritative. The kind of guy in an emergency who told you things would be okay and you believed him—just because of the way he said it.
She pushed her way back to a little girl with masses of curly hair, still strapped into her seat. Her leg was at a peculiar angle, and it hadn’t taken a doctor to make an accurate diagnosis of a fracture. The little boy behind her, strapped into the window seat, was unconscious, but she couldn’t possibly get to him until she’d moved this little girl. She took off her gloves and put her hand round the girl, feeling for a pulse at his neck and checking to see he was still breathing. Yes, his pulse was slowing and his chest was rising and falling. But in these cold temperatures hypothermia was a real risk. She had to work as quickly as possible.
The water was lapping around their little legs and would be dropping their temperatures dramatically.
She shouted up to Callum, ‘I need you to pass me down the kit with analgesia—I need to give Rosie some morphine. It’s in a red box, in the front pouch of the bag.’ She waited a few seconds until the box appeared then shouted again, ‘And an inflatable splint.’
She spoke gently to Rosie, stroking her hair and distracting her, calculating The dosage in her head. It was too difficult to untangle the little girl from her clothes and find an available patch of skin. The last thing she needed to do was cause this little girl more pain. She took a deep breath and injected it through the thick tights on her leg, waiting a few minutes for it to take effect. ‘Pass me the splint,’ she whispered to John.
The positioning on the bus was difficult. ‘I’m sorry, honey,’ she whispered, as the little girl gave a little yelp as she straightened her leg and inflated the splint around about it to hold it in place.
‘Is she ready to be moved?’
‘Not quite. Can you get a collar? In fact, get me two. Once I’ve got that on her, you can move her.’
It was only a precaution. The little girl didn’t appear to have any other injuries apart from her leg. She seemed to be moving her other limbs without any problems, but Jess didn’t want to take a risk.
It only took a few seconds to manoeuvre the collar into place and fasten it securely. The cold water was moving quickly. It had only been around the children’s legs when she’d entered the vehicle—now it was reaching their waists. Time was absolutely of the essence here.
She was freezing. How on earth would these children be feeling? Kids were so much more susceptible to hypothermia because they lost heat more quickly than adults.
Another firefighter had appeared next to John, and they held a type of stretcher between them. Space was at a premium so Jess pushed herself back into the corner of the bus to allow them to load the little girl and pass her up through the window to Callum.
Time was ticking on. The sky was darkening and the level of the freezing water rising. She squeezed her way into the seat vacated by the little girl and started to do a proper assessment on the little unconscious boy, who was held in place by his seat belt.
‘Anyone know his name?’ she shouted to the crew.
‘It’s Marcus.’ The deep voice in her ear made her jump.
‘Where did you come from? I thought you were on the roof?’
‘The water’s too cold to have anyone in it for long. I told John to go ashore and dry off.’
‘Tell me about it. Try being a kid.’
There was an easy familiarity in having Callum at her side. It didn’t matter that she hadn’t seen him for years, it almost felt as if it had been yesterday.
Callum
