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OUTBACK AFFAIR
By
Christina Carlisle
© copyright March 2006, Christina Carlisle
Cover art by Dan Skinner, © copyright March 2006
ISBN 1-58608-865-3
New Concepts Publishing
Lake Park, GA 31636
www.newconceptspublishing.com
This is a work of fiction. All characters, events, and places are of the author's imagination and not to be confused with fact. Any resemblance to living persons or events is merely coincidence.
CHAPTER ONE
The sound of screeching brakes was followed by a sickening thud.
Sally gasped as she watched two bodies flying through the air as if in slow motion. The car continuing its rampaging journey by ramming into a taxi and then rolling over and coming to a shuddering halt.
She turned to the two customer service officers behind the terminal counter who seemed immobile with shock. "Bill, quick! Run to my plane and get my medical bag," she said, pressing the key to the plane into his hand.
Speaking to the other officer, she said, "Contact emergencies services--we have a major trauma. Come on, man. Move it!"
With these parting instructions, Sally ran through the open glass doors of the arrivals entrance to face the chaotic scene outside. People were already crowding around the pedestrian crossing, peering at the devastation caused by the speeding vehicle. She pushed her way forward, shouting as she went, "I'm a doctor--let me through!"
She heard someone cry out, "My God! It's like a bloody war zone!"
A teenage schoolgirl was lying in the middle of the crossing, her body crumpled like a rag doll. A man in a suit was leaning over another girl, while several other girls all wearing similar uniforms, huddled together screaming and sobbing.
Sally knelt by the first child. She knew instantly that she was dead. She had taken the full impact from the car as it had ploughed into the girls as they walked from the terminal. Looking up, Sally saw that the security staff had already formed a barrier providing some protection from the public's curious gaze.
"Get some blankets here," Sally shouted to the nearest staff member. She ran to the second girl. The man was still kneeling beside her, his body shielding her from Sally's vision. "Excuse me. I'm a doctor. I need to attend this patient." There was no time for manners. One child was already dead.
The man looked up and Sally registered brilliant blue eyes in a handsome face before her attention became riveted on the girl lying at his feet. "I'm a doctor too but I need some help here." His voice was calm.
She knelt beside him. "What are her injuries?" she asked, noting for the first time his medical bag open beside him.
"A compound fracture of the femur, as you can see. Airway is clear, breathing is laboured, BP is low and pulse rapid."
"What do you want me to do?"
"Continue to apply pressure to stop the bleeding from the leg. I think we've got other problems--like a massive pneumothorax."
Sally placed her hands on the pad resting over the girl's leg where the blood was seeping through, allowing the other doctor to examine the girl's chest. She nodded with gratitude as Bill placed her medical bag beside her.
"Hand me that pressure bandage, Bill," she said. His face paled at the sight of the bone fragments projecting through the open wound. Working feverishly, Sally managed to successfully slow the bleeding and began to bandage the leg.
"She's got several cracked ribs and could have a contused lung," the stranger reported, once again checking the patient's airway and breathing. "They'll have to watch this in ICU."
Sally nodded, noting his strong Canadian, or was it American accent? A sense of foreboding swept over her. Surely this had to be him. She finished dressing the leg. "The kid over there is dead," she whispered so only he could hear.
"Yeah, I know. Broken neck. Will you set up an IV here and I'll go and check those jokers in the car?"
"Yes, you go ahead." Sally took over the unconscious patient and cursed as her trembling hands almost missed the vein while trying to insert the cannula. Taking a deep breath to calm herself, she successfully set up a line for a saline drip. In the distance she heard the sound of ambulance sirens.
"Sally? Can I do anything?" She looked up into the face of one of the flying doctors, who had run from the adjacent air terminal housing the Royal Flying Doctor Service.
"Yes, Nick. Can you prep this patient for hospital? Her leg is pretty bad--you'll need to strap it well. Get the oxygen on and watch her. If she gets any worse she may need a chest drain. We can't do anything for the other kid." Sally was aware of the tremor in her voice. God Almighty! I'll never get used to this needless waste of someone's life, she thought.
She moved to the third victim who was still sobbing, as her friends crowded around trying to comfort her. "Let me have a look, sweetie." Sally gently lifted her chin. "What's your name?"
"It's Sarah," the girl wept. "We only came here to wave goodbye to Jason."
Sally examined the deep cut above Sarah's brow that caused blood to trickle down her face. "And who's Jason?" she asked, trying to focus Sarah's attention away from the trauma. She quickly dressed the cut, deciding it didn't need stitches.
"Jason Page, of course," the other girls chorused. "The Australian pop idol."
Sally nodded as if she knew who they were talking about. She thoroughly examined Sarah who, fortunately, only had minor lacerations and bruises. "Were any more of you knocked by the car?"
They shook their heads, looking very young and vulnerable as they clung together. "We managed to get out of the way," one of them said. "But will Jess and Claire be all right?" She pointed toward the dead girl and the other, so badly injured, now surrounded by paramedics.
Sally impulsively put her arms around the group, hugging them. "I don't know yet," she replied. "I'm sorry but I have to go. The medics will look after you now."
She hastily grabbed her medical bag and hurried toward the wrecked car. The other doctor was attending a young man laying a fewmeters away. He had removed his suit jacket and she could see bloodstains on his once pristine white shirt. She bent down beside him, concentrating and trying not to be distracted by the firemen moving in position around the car.
"How are things over there?" he asked, without glancing at her as he expertly dressed a long, ragged cut along the man's arm.
"Minor injuries with the third girl. They're all in shock but the medics have things in hand and the Flying Doctor staff is helping so they won't be long getting them away."
"I'm Luke, by the way," the stranger said, as he fitted a sling around the patient's arm and shoulder. "This guy was the passenger and escaped with a broken arm and a few cuts. He's lucky."
Luke stood up and Sally rose with him. They stared at each other and once again Sally felt the impact of his startlingly blue eyes. His hair was dark and wavy, touching his shirt collar. She gazed transfixed at his classically handsome features with his straight nose and a strong, stubborn jaw. So this is the man with whom I'm going to spend the next few weeks, she thought. What a glorious guy! I'd even consider giving up celibacy for him, she decided, as she studied his sensually shaped mouth.
"And you're?"
At his quizzical expression, Sally felt a blush warm her face. She swallowed, aware of his returned scrutiny and glanced down at her clothes also covered in blood and dust.
"I'm Sally." Her voice was husky as she glanced up at him. She was tall but he seemed to tower over her, well over six feet. He really was the most handsome man she'd ever seen. I must be going into shock perving on some bloke in the middle of this mayhem, she chastised herself.
"Well, this patient is going to be fine," he said, as two paramedics rushed over with a stretcher and he briefed them on the man's symptoms. "But that's more than can be said for his pal," he continued, his face grim.
"Is he dead?"
"No. He's trapped and in a bad way with head injuries and what looks like crushed legs. They are getting the Jaws of Life to try and release him."
As he spoke, the heavy equipment was rolled into place to prize open the smashed car.
"Oh, hells bells!" Sally gnawed at her bottom lip. "Can we do anything to help him?"
"We can't reach him--the space is too narrow. You'd have to be very slim…" He stopped as his eyes swept over her slender body.
Sally was already moving toward the car. Lying on the ground, she peered inside. The driver was young. He looked about seventeen and smelt heavily of alcohol. When he saw Sally, he started crying, tears of pain and anguish pouring down his face.
"Please--please, don't let me die here," he gasped. "I didn't mean to do it. We…we were just having fun and my foot jammed on the accelerator. I didn't mean it!"
"Shh. You're going to be okay, mate," Sally reassured him, all the time gauging his injuries and wondering how she could get through the narrow space to help him.
She stood up to find Luke directly behind her, a look of finality on his face. "Stand back so they can start work on pulling the kid out," he said, bluntly.
"No. I can get in there. Just pass the gear through to me."
"It's too dangerous and that boy is almost certainly going to die," he said in a fierce whisper, his hands gripping her shoulders as if to stop her.
Sally angrily shook his hands away. "Bulldust! He will die if we don't help him now. Give him a chance."
Luke saw the defiance written across her features. He hesitated and then shrugged. "Okay, but for God's sake be careful." Raising a hand, he beckoned the emergency team and explained Sally's intentions.
While lining up the medical equipment, Luke watched Sally wiggle through the narrow opening in the car window avoiding the fragments of steel and glass. As her long, golden legs, with high-heeled boots on her feet, disappeared into the wreckage, a thought flashed across Luke's mind that she had the sexiest backside in the shortest of shorts he'd ever seen.
"Pass me the oxygen," she called, her voice muffled.
Luke pushed the mask and cylinder through to her waiting hands.
"He needs a shot of morphine." Her voice was low and urgent.
Luke turned and the medic handed him the injection ready to go. "What are his obs?" Luke asked, his heart pounding as the car shifted ominously. He couldn't bear the thought of it crashing down on her.
"BP one hundred over sixty. Pulse--rapid. He's going into shock," Sally called back. "Give me some pressure bandages."
For the next few minutes they worked together, passing equipment and conferring through the precariously narrow opening. As Sally set up an IV drip, gave the boy oxygen and an injection to ease his obviously agonising pain, Luke knew she was battling to save his life. He peered through the opening and watched as she managed to apply pressure bandages to the boy's left knee, which had been torn open in the rollover and was bleeding badly.
"Come out now." Luke's throat felt constricted and the tension seemed unending as again the heavy metal creaked and groaned above Sally's slender body. "Get out quickly!" His voice was commanding now.
"I can't. I'm stuck on something."
Luke leaned in as far as he could and grasping Sally's waist gently pulled her toward him. Suddenly she was safe in his arms as he lifted her clear and he felt the warmth of her slender body against him.
"Are you all right?" He pulled her away as the emergency crews moved in and began their work to free the boy.
Sally tore off her surgical gloves and looked down at her flat stomach. Lifting her tee-shirt, they both stared at a jagged cut oozing blood.
"Jeez! Wouldn't ya know it?" Sally gave a shaky laugh. "As if we haven't got enough to do around here."
Luke's face was serious as he bent to look at the cut more closely. His hand rested on the curve of her hip as he steadied her, his fingers briefly caressing her skin. As he examined the wound, he felt her tremble. "It's a bit nasty but doesn't need stitches. Come over here and I'll dress it."
Luke picked up their medical bags and led her to the comparative shelter by one of the ambulances.
Sally felt ridiculously shy as she lay on the rug provided and exposed her stomach to this man's scrutiny. Her muscles contracted as Luke swabbed the cut with antiseptic.
"You've done a great job," he said, placing a dressing over the wound and fastening it neatly with surgical tape.
"So have you."
"Are you on holiday?"
"No. Are you?"
"No."
Once again they stared at each other. He has beautiful eyes, Sally thought. Beautiful! She tried to get up--anything to break the spell but Luke placed a hand on her shoulder. "You'd better have a shot," he said, filling a syringe with antibiotic solution and flicking it with long fingers. "We can't risk an infection from whatever material cut into you just now."
Sally waited until he had injected her arm and then scrambled to her feet. "Well, I don't think they want our help anymore but we'll have to make a report to the police," she said, hastily pulling her tee-shirt over her bare midriff.
Glancing around her, she saw that the injured girls were already on their way to hospital, while doctors and paramedics were lifting the last injured boy into an ambulance, having successfully rescued him from the crushed vehicle.
She stared after the ambulance as it drew away. The debris from the crash had been removed and the traffic was beginning to flow again. Just as if this tragedy had never happened, she thought with a faint shudder.
"I have to find my pilot, if he's still here," Luke said, picking up his jacket.
"Who are you meeting?" Sally held her breath as she waited for his reply.
Pulling a piece of paper from his pocket, he read aloud, "Doctor S. Blake from Blake's Charters."
"That's me. I'm Doctor Sally Blake, and you must be Doctor Luke Forrester."
Luke nodded in reply, but Sally could see the shock reflecting in his face.
She held out a grubby hand for him to shake. Yes--this was the man who was intent on destroying her life!
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