OK, sweetheart,’ she told the rigid bundle on her lap. ‘I’m going to put these special straps around you and then Mac’s going to get you out of here and carry you right up to the top.’
‘No-o-o!’ Arms tightened their vice-like grip around Julia’s neck.
‘I need to go back and look after the other people. Like your mummy. You’ll be fine, Carla, I promise.’
But the child was shaking now. Whimpering with fear.
‘Mac is a very nice man,’ Julia told her.
‘Cheers, mate,’ came with the chuckle in her earphones.
‘And he really, really likes children,’ Julia added. ‘Looking after little girls like you is absolutely his favourite thing to do.’
The earphones stayed silent this time. What was Mac thinking? Remembering occasions when he’d poured his heart and soul into trying to save a child? The heartbreak when he hadn’t been successful?
Carla had relaxed fractionally. Enough for Julia to be able to slip the straps into position and then close and tighten buckles. She hoped the silence wasn’t because Mac was putting two and two together somehow. That he had noticed at some point over the last weeks the way she avoided prolonged contact with paediatric patients if possible. The way she was so good at distancing herself by taking on any case that was preferably complicated and adult.
No. She was pretty confident she kept personal issues well away from her work. Out of her life, in fact, because she wasn’t letting anyone close enough to discover the truth.
‘I’m going to tell Mummy how brave you are,’ Julia told Carla. ‘As soon as I get back down to her. Do you think she’ll be proud of you?’
Carla didn’t nod but her head moved so that she could look up at Julia.
‘I’m proud of you.’ Julia smiled. ‘Mac will be, too, you’ll see.’
She eased herself to her feet. Carla was still tense and she cried out in terror when Julia lifted her into Mac’s waiting hands but then she was in his strong, secure grasp and the child looked up and saw the face of the man above her.
Mac’s smile was as reassuring as a hug.
‘Hi, there, peanut,’ he said. ‘Going to come for a wee ride with me?’
And this time Carla nodded and, as Mac clipped the buckle of her harness to his own and instructed the child to put her arms around his neck and hold on tight, she turned her head and Julia could see that she was—incredibly—smiling herself.
Mac was simply the best when it came to dealing with children. It had made it easier to step back herself and not get people asking awkward questions.
‘Your job,’ she could say to Mac with total sincerity. ‘You’re the best.’
He was. He adored kids and she knew him, while he probably wouldn’t admit it on station, he was aching for some of his own. And why not? He was in his mid-thirties and by now the absolute obsession with his career had to be ebbing enough for him to realise he might be running out of time to find someone to make a family with. He needed to get on with it.
He’d have gorgeous children and he’d make the best father ever.
And some incredibly lucky woman was going to be his wife and the mother of those children.
Julia turned and began climbing back down as soon as she saw Mac and Carla beginning their upward journey. She had to be just as slow and careful as she had been the first time she had done this despite it seeming easier having done it before. She couldn’t afford to fall.
The descent was too slow. It allowed too much time for errant thoughts and emotions to seep into her mind and body.
Inappropriate things but she was learning to expect the backwash that came from seeing Mac with a child in his arms.
A mix of grief. And jealousy. And…yes…desire.
And, as usual, they had to be stamped out with fierce determination because there was nothing Julia could do to change the way things were now.
Not a single thing.
It took well over an hour for her to help the eight relatively uninjured victims up to the door where they had been winched up to the bridge and into the care of waiting rescuers. Eight heavy people who had required assistance to make the climb. Constant guidance and encouragement, if not actual physical support. Julia had to be exhausted both physically and mentally.
‘Angus and Dale could take over the next stage,’ Mac suggested.
‘No way.’ Julia was heading for the base of the carriage again and the crisp words via the communication system put paid to any further suggestions on Mac’s part. ‘The job’s nearly done and there’s no way I’m deserting Ken. He knows me, now.’
And she knew. She was deeply involved in this scenario and, knowing Jules, she would be committed to the people and the mission a thousand per cent. If they wanted to get her out of there it would be neither easy nor pleasant. And she was right, the job was nearly done. She had managed to get virtually all the people from the carriage out and Mac knew there was one conscious, injured person, one unconscious and one dead.
So Mac went in to join her because Julia was his partner and everybody knew just how tight a team these two were these days. Inseparable. And darned good at their jobs.
This time when Mac came down on the winch line he brought equipment and the medical supplies they would need.
The bottom two rows of upturned seats had become a kind of triage station.
Julia indicated one of her patients. ‘This man has been unconscious since I got my first glance inside.’
The figure was slumped on the seat by the window but Mac could see the end of a plastic OP airway in his mouth. Julia had obviously assessed him and done what she could in the brief window of time that triaging allowed for.
‘Head injury,’ Julia continued. ‘GCS 3. Rapid, weak pulse and query Cheyne-Stokes breathing pattern.’
The man was very seriously injured, then. Unlikely to survive. If they took the time to evacuate him first, others who could survive might die.
‘And this is Ken.’ Julia was hanging onto the edge of the seat across the aisle now. ‘Spinal injury. Paralysis of both legs and paresthesia in both hands.’
A high spinal injury, then. He would need very careful immobilisation before evacuation so they didn’t exacerbate the injury.
Julia dropped lower, shining the light of her helmet on the very end of the carriage.
‘Status zero here,’ she told Mac quietly. ‘There were several people on top of him to start with. He’s too heavy for me to shift but I’ve moved enough to be fairly sure there’s no one underneath him.’
Mac reached down and caught the arm and shoulder of the heavy body, lifting it further than Julia would have managed. A
