Hospital.’
Lewis didn’t answer but she spoke on as if he could hear her and her voice was calm and reassuring.
‘I’m Victoria,’ she told him. ‘You’re doing so well. I know you are scared and in pain but you’re going to be okay. I just need you to stay very still.’
And then she looked up and arched her neck and Dominic offered her some water.
She nodded.
He held her head steady and she took a drink and then Victoria saw the familiar building come into view but she could not relax just yet. Lewis had already lost an awful lot of blood, his heart was beating rapidly and his blood pressure was barely recordable.
‘Keep the pressure on,’ Dominic told Victoria, and he saw her slight eye roll—she was hardly going to let go!
The stretcher was very carefully lowered so that Victoria could keep the vital pressure sustained.
‘That’s it...’ Dominic said, and someone helped guide her out of the back. Victoria let out a sigh, not quite one of relief, but it was good to be on solid ground and have the patient at Paddington’s where he would at least stand a chance.
It was chaos outside the hospital, and security and the police were working together to keep the foyer clear for patient arrivals.
Some parents had headed straight to the hospital in a bid to find out more, as had some reporters. As well as that, there were some people who loved to have a good look at others’ misfortune.
It was a relief to step inside.
They didn’t turn for A&E, instead they moved swiftly through the corridors, guided by a team leader, and with relief, Victoria saw that an elevator had been held for them.
Theatre was waiting and their efficiency was amazing, so much so, that Dominic raced back down to the Accident and Emergency unit as his skills were still in heavy demand.
It was so calm in the theatre and it was just a blessing to be there.
The head-and-neck surgeon had finished scrubbing and was speaking with the anaesthetist about their approach to the neck wound.
Lewis was being given blood through both arms now and he had been given sedation before they went ahead with the intubation.
And Victoria felt dizzy.
Ignore it, Victoria told herself.
But she had been standing there for what felt like a very long time.
‘How much longer?’ she asked, because she was starting to see stars.
And whether it had anything to do with her complexion or voice, or just that they were ready now, the theatre nurse took over just in time.
‘Come on,’ Glen said.
Glen led her out of the theatre and down a corridor and Victoria bent over in the hallway with her hands on her thighs and took some deep breaths, but when that wasn’t enough she sat on the floor and pulled her knees up and put her head between them.
‘Do we have to go back to the school?’ Victoria asked.
‘No, we’ve been stood down,’ Glen informed her. ‘I’ll go and find you some water.’
‘Did they get them all out?’ Victoria asked as Glen walked off, though she did not look up.
‘I believe so,’ Glen answered.
He returned a little while later and Victoria took a long, grateful drink as Glen spoke. ‘Some have been taken to Riverside but most are here.’
She nodded and, having taken a drink, put her head back down. Victoria wasn’t so much dizzy now but replaying the rescue in her head and questioning her decision to dash forward.
It had been instinct, she knew that, but now it was starting to hit home that it wasn’t just her own life on the line.
And some time later, that was how Dominic found her.
Slumped against the wall, head between her knees, and Dominic was cross all over again with her for flouting the rules and crossing the line.
‘How’s the redheaded kid?’ Glen asked Dominic as he approached.
‘I’ve just brought him up for an urgent head CT and handed him over to Alistair, the neurosurgeon,’ Dominic said.
He stood over her and she could feel him demand that she meet his eyes.
She looked up then and the look he gave her felt hostile, even if his voice was even.
‘How bad is he?’ Glen asked.
‘GCS of six,’ Dominic answered Glen while looking at Victoria. ‘He was hiding in a cupboard.’
‘Poor kid,’ Glen said.
It was Glen who asked all the questions, Dominic noted, but he had one of his own, and though it was for the two of them he spoke directly to Victoria.
‘Do you always ignore orders? You were told to stay back because a building had the potential to collapse.’
‘I could see that the firefighter was struggling,’ Victoria explained. ‘And that the child was bleeding profusely.’
Victoria was starting to feel a bit better, but she was herself questioning the decision to run forward. She really didn’t want to deal with Dominic right now and so she pulled herself to standing and spoke to Glen. ‘Let’s get back to the vehicle.’
‘One moment...’
Victoria turned to the sound of Robyn’s voice. Robyn Kelly was Head of Surgery and very much a part of the new drive to save Paddington’s.
‘Dominic, we need you to speak to the press.’
The hospital had been stretched today but the critically injured were now all in the right place and order was restoring. Speaking to the press after incidents like this was a part of the job and so Dominic nodded.
‘And you too,’ Robyn said, looking over to Victoria.
‘Me?’
‘They want a representative from all branches of the first responders,’ Robyn explained, and then nodded her head towards a staff room. ‘Come and see this.’
The news was on and the cameras were trained on the fire that was still burning but had been brought a little more under control.
And there, in the top right hand of the screen, was an image of Dominic and Victoria bent over little Lewis and together fighting to save his life.
‘Angela Marton, a reporter, just asked the viewers to consider how much more seriously things might have played out if Paddington’s had been closed,’ Robyn said. ‘There are people talking about it all over talkback radio...’ She looked over to Victoria. ‘Finally there’s
