Emergency At Inglewood. Alison Roberts

Old Dr Braithwaite had been far too busy having an affair with the clinic’s receptionist and Kathryn had been forced to turn a blind eye because she knew, better than anyone, that it wasn’t always the husband’s fault. It was quite possible for a totally inadequate wife to drive a man into the arms of another woman. A whole string of them, even.

      And here she was taking on a career she was determined to excel in, which meant she would be working with a lot of men. Inglewood station was a peripheral city response base that housed both fire and ambulance crews, and being assigned here accentuated the difference in the age group and numbers of her new colleagues. She was going to be in almost daily contact with a lot of men who would inevitably be very sympathetic to Sean…if they knew. Kathryn would end up being labelled in terms she couldn’t bear to imagine, even if there was justification in such derision.

      Her problems had nothing to do with life on the outside, however. An ‘outside’ that was now a new start. The future had always been haunted by the unknown but for the first time in many years some of those unknowns were exciting. Compelling, even. Kathryn had taken the first brave steps on a solo journey she had every intention of continuing.

      Straightening her spine, she caught one of the swinging doors as Tim opened up the back of the ambulance and she pushed it to catch in the open position.

      ‘Are you comfortable with the layout and finding what you need in here?’

      She nodded confidently. ‘That’s something I can do.’

      ‘Right. Quick test, then.’ Tim vaulted into the back of the ambulance, surprisingly lightly for such a big man. He tapped the sliding glass door of an overhead locker. ‘What’s in here?’

      ‘Straps for the scoop stretcher or backboard, hard hat, cervical collars, maternity kit and incontinence pads.’

      Tim grinned. ‘Let’s hope we don’t need too many of those on your first day. And this one?’ He tapped another locker on the opposite side of the truck.

      ‘Dressings in three sizes, bandages—also in three sizes—saline pouches, triangular bandages and another hard hat.’

      ‘Where’s the IV gear?’

      ‘In the drawer under the life pack.’ Thoughts of Sean or fears of her private life being exposed were mercifully fading into oblivion. This was fun.

      ‘And?’

      Taken aback, Kathryn frowned as her gaze raked the remaining storage spaces. ‘Well…the giving sets and pressure cuff and bags of saline are in that locker over there and…um…’

      ‘What happens if we need to put an IV line in when we’re not in the back of the truck?’

      ‘Oh-h.’ Kathryn rolled her eyes at her obvious omission. ‘There’s supplies of everything in the resuscitation kit.’

      ‘Good.’ Tim touched the large, tackle-type box with his foot. ‘We’ll go over the kit later. Are you familiar with this type of life pack?’

      Kathryn nodded. ‘That’s what we’ve been using for training.’

      ‘You’re qualified to defibrillate manually, aren’t you?’

      Her nod was a lot slower this time. ‘I haven’t done it for real yet. Only on dummies.’

      Tim’s smile was quick. ‘We’ll try and make sure your first arrest patient isn’t too bright, then.’

      Kathryn laughed but was disconcerted at the way Tim’s gaze veered instantly away from her face. A slightly awkward silence fell, which added to Kathryn’s confusion. This was like a roller-coaster. Whenever she felt that Tim was being friendly and they were establishing some kind of rapport, it got flicked off like a switch and that inexplicable tension was back again. Had she done the wrong thing by laughing at his joke? Why had he made one if she wasn’t supposed to find it funny?

      Recognising that she was doing something wrong was a skill Kathryn was expert in, however. She cleared her throat.

      ‘It must be a pain, having to work with someone like me.’

      ‘What?’ Tim snapped the battery he was checking back into its slot in the life pack.

      ‘I mean, I must seem a bit of a liability when you’re used to working with someone as qualified as your last partner. Laura, was it?’

      Tim nodded. ‘Laura Green. Now Laura Halliday.’

      ‘Halliday? Wasn’t that the name of one of the firemen?’

      Tim nodded again. ‘Jason. He and Laura got married a few months ago. She’s taking maternity leave now.’

      ‘Oh.’ Kathryn knew her smile was probably wistful. ‘That’s nice.’

      ‘Yeah.’ Tim clipped the safety belt that held the life pack in position. ‘She thinks so.’ He looked directly at Kathryn. ‘I hope I’m not giving the impression that I’m not happy to work with you. It’s actually a bit of a treat, getting a probationary officer with your qualifications. I was expecting somebody as green as grass, which can make life a bit difficult for a while.’

      ‘I’m still green,’ Kathryn warned. ‘As I said, it’s been years since I worked in Emergency and all the pre-hospital emergency medicine I’ve learned over the last few months is still just theory.’

      ‘You’ve done third crewing, though, haven’t you?’

      ‘It’s not the same when you’ve got people walking you through stuff. It’s a big step being out on the road as a qualified officer.’

      ‘You’ll learn soon enough,’ Tim assured her. His eyebrows rose as their pagers sounded simultaneously. ‘Perhaps even sooner than I thought. All set?’

      ‘As long as I don’t have to defibrillate someone on my first job.’ Kathryn’s smile was rather shaky as she climbed up into the passenger seat of the ambulance. Any concerns over the difficulty she was having breaking the ice with Tim fled into the same space Sean was now occupying.

      Her pager informed her that this job was a P1 and it was already as nerve-racking as she had feared.

      The switch to change the wail of the siren to a shorter yelp for additional warning at intersections was just above Tim’s head. He left it on yelp and added a blast on the air horn for good measure when a courier van driver decided he could scoot past the other traffic already slowing obediently to give the emergency vehicle right of way. The driver’s non-verbal sign that he wasn’t impressed with being reprimanded drew a disgusted snort from Tim and a squeak from his new partner.

      ‘Can you believe that guy?’

      ‘Believe anything if it’s a courier van,’ Tim growled. ‘Or a taxi. Or one of those little granny wagon boxes on wheels.’ He could see Kathryn’s hand shaking slightly as she tried to find the address they’d been given on the map. ‘Don’t worry,’ he said shortly. ‘I know where it is.’

      His mood slipped another notch or two as he heard his tone. He should be giving Kathryn some encouragement, not making her feel as though he couldn’t be bothered with any incompetence. This was her first day on the job, for heaven’s sake, and as far as potential partners went he had probably scooped the pick of the latest intake. It would be nice to blame his uncharacteristic ill humour on the idiocy of courier van drivers but, sadly, Tim knew that he had been thrown off his usual even keel well before that.

      About the time Kathryn Mercer had walked into the garage at Inglewood station this morning, in fact.

      He must have looked like more of an idiot than a courier van driver with his mouth hanging open, but seeing Kathryn had been a shock to say the least. She was supposed to be firmly in the realms of fantasy now. Locked away like an attractive movie star. Perfect but totally unattainable. She wasn’t supposed to walk into his life like that. How the hell could he be expected to work with someone he shouldn’t have been thinking about in the kind of terms he had been?