Emergency At Inglewood. Alison Roberts

you like another blanket, Mrs Ramsey?’

      ‘I’m quite warm enough, thank you, dear. We must be almost there by now, mustn’t we?’

      ‘I think so.’ Kathryn leaned forward, poking her head into the front compartment. ‘How much further is it, Tim?’

      ‘Only another five or ten minutes. It’s a nice little hospital. They usually give us a cup of tea before we have to head back.’

      Tim insisted on driving back to the city as well. Having something to concentrate on besides his new partner was definitely in order. Keeping the conversation strictly professional also seemed a good idea.

      ‘Any questions you want to ask? About this morning’s job?’

      ‘Yes.’ Kathryn sounded eager. ‘You said the patient was in complete heart block. I’m comfortable with recognising the shockable rhythms but it was a very condensed ECG course and I’m ashamed to say a lot of it went over my head.’

      ‘You can’t be expected to know everything. You’ve got a far better knowledge base than most probationary ambulance officers. You’ll find you pick up a lot on the job and you’ll have more classroom time coming up as well.’

      Tim glanced in Kathryn’s direction as he finished speaking, to find her gaze fixed on his face and her eyebrows raised expectantly. She wanted to hear more than reassurance. Tim smiled as he looked ahead at the long, quiet road winding through hills dotted with sheep like mushrooms.

      ‘Complete heart block is third-degree heart block and it’s where the atrial contraction is normal but no beats are conducted to the ventricles.’

      ‘So that’s why the rate was so slow? It was a ventricular escape rhythm?’

      ‘Yes. And if you look at the trace you’ll find p waves that have no relationship to the QRS spikes.’

      ‘We’ve got a copy of that trace, haven’t we?’

      ‘It’s rolled up and in with the case report forms.’

      Kathryn opened the box compartment of the metal clipboard the forms were attached to. She soon had several metres of trace paper uncurled over her knees, examining the recording that covered the various heart rhythms their case had presented.

      ‘Look, that’s where we defibrillated him! Ventricular fibrillation and straight back into sinus rhythm.’ Kathryn sighed happily. ‘Wasn’t it great?’

      ‘Sure was.’ Tim enjoyed a moment of the kind of enthusiasm that tended to get blunted by years on this job. His smile was almost one of gratitude for the reminder of what being a paramedic was all about. ‘It was you that defibrillated him, though.’

      Kathryn’s nose wrinkled as she grimaced. ‘I don’t think I could have done it if you hadn’t pushed me.’

      ‘It’s scary for everybody the first time.’

      ‘I could never do it by myself.’

      ‘Yes, you could, but you’ll never need to. We don’t work alone. One of our responsibilities is to assess a situation and call for whatever extra assistance we think we’re going to need. If you remember, the first thing I did was to call for back-up.’

      ‘I thought that was because you only had me to help.’

      ‘We’re a team, Kat. Most of the time we’ll be able to handle whatever comes our way all by ourselves.’

      Kathryn was staring at him again, but this time her expression wasn’t questioning. A play of emotions flitted across her features. Doubt, followed by hope and then a completely charming gratitude that was accompanied by a faint flush of colour in her cheeks. She looked away, clearly embarrassed.

      ‘I hope so,’ she said quietly. ‘And I can almost believe it with someone like you as a partner.’ Her tone advertised a shy determination to say something important. ‘You were amazing, Tim. You stay so calm!’

      ‘Just practice.’ Tim couldn’t remember anyone telling him he was amazing. Ever. ‘Besides, you only have to look calm. Doesn’t matter if you’re doing the duck thing and paddling frantically below the surface.’

      Kathryn laughed. ‘I don’t believe you’re a duck.’

      ‘That’s the best thing about it. Nobody can tell.’

      ‘Yeah. It is amazing what you can hide if you get enough practice, I suppose.’

      Tim threw her a quick sideways glance but Kathryn was staring at the trace in her lap again.

      ‘So tell me about the other degrees of heart block, then.’

      Tim launched into a mini-lecture that Kathryn seemed only too willing to absorb, but only half his mind was really on the subject. He was doing the duck thing in a way he’d never had to before. Seeming calm and professional on the surface while part of him was paddling frantically and wondering how on earth he could handle working with Kathryn when he found her so incredibly attractive.

      It was ironic in a way. Kathryn’s intelligence, previous medical experience and obvious passion to excel in her new career made her potentially a perfect partner, on a professional basis as much as anything else. It wasn’t her fault that Tim felt irrationally jealous of the man lucky enough to have married her. He knew perfectly well how adolescent such a reaction was and at thirty-five he was old enough and wise enough to know far better.

      And even if Kathryn hadn’t been married she wouldn’t have necessarily returned the interest Tim felt, so maybe it was better this way. He’d never have to face the trauma of offering something that would be rejected. Maybe he should just grow up a little and make the most of what fate had presented him with.

      He could enjoy her company, help Kathryn gain the confidence she desperately wanted and undoubtedly deserved, and be grateful for whatever he got offered in return in the way of friendship and professional rapport.

      He didn’t really have a choice anyway.

      Dammit.

      Sheer exhaustion was setting in for Kathryn by five o’clock that afternoon. It was a challenge all its own to concentrate on helping Tim restock the ambulance.

      ‘What about the BGL kit?’ he queried.

      ‘What about it? Did I do something wrong when I was monitoring that diabetic patient?’

      ‘Not at all. We just need to replace the lancets and test strips we used.’

      ‘Oh, of course. Sorry.’

      ‘Stop apologising, Kat. You’re doing fine.’

      Kathryn took a deep breath. Had she been saying ‘sorry’ that often? Maybe she’d been conditioned by Sean. Oddly, she felt compelled to apologise for anything less than perfect for Tim, whereas apologies at home were always grudging these days.

      When she came back from the storeroom with all the supplies to tuck into the small case that contained the blood glucose-level testing gear, she found Tim snapping rubber bands around handfuls of differently sized cannulae.

      ‘OK. That’s the IV gear done,’ he announced. ‘Can you think of anything else we’ve used this afternoon?’

      ‘What about that triangular bandage I used as a sling for that little girl that broke her collar-bone at school?’

      ‘Right. We need more dressings and saline pouches, too. We had that student that got knocked off his bike just after her.’

      Kathryn shook her head. ‘I’d completely forgotten about him.’

      The cases had been so many and varied over the course of the day, they were becoming something of a blur. Except for the very first job. Kathryn would remember that in vivid detail for the rest of her life.

      A quick trip to the coronary care unit had been squeezed in after delivering one of their later cases to the emergency department.