Rescued By Dr Rafe

‘Hang on, hang on, hang on...’ It was as if she could repeat it enough times to somehow make his grip firmer. The water was subsiding now as it followed the course of the river, and she could see him, tangled in the framework of twisted tree trunks.

Maybe he was holding on or maybe unconscious; she couldn’t see from here. Mimi started to run for the bridge, hoping that it hadn’t been weakened too much by the impact of the water.

A voice sounded behind her but the words were whipped away in the storm. And then someone grabbed her from behind, lifting her off her feet.

‘Mimi...!’

‘Let go of me.’ She struggled and, when he didn’t let her go, she kicked against him. The feel of him was familiar, but Mimi didn’t even stop to wonder how. Another sickening roar was coming from upstream.

‘Jack!’ She screamed his name as the second wave of water came crashing down into the valley. This one was bigger and swept the bridge away almost in one piece as the water boiled and rushed downstream.

‘You can’t reach him, Mimi. You’ll only kill yourself.’

That voice... Maybe her mind was playing tricks on her and it wasn’t him at all. But Rafe’s voice was unmistakable. A trace of public school, softened by years of not caring to mark himself out as any different from the next man, and currently spiced with an urgent growl. ‘Let go of me! My ambulance...’

Water spilled towards them, this time reaching the parked ambulance, pushing it sideways across the road. For a moment, Mimi thought it was going to be okay, that the vehicle would come back to rest on the tarmac, but then it slipped onto the mud by the side of the road, tipping and coming to rest against a tree, as the water retreated again.

If Jack was injured, how was she going to get him back to the hospital now? In fact, how was she going to get to him at all? The bridge was gone and the river had burst its banks and become a lethal, fast-running torrent.

‘Someone’s coming for him—look.’ The arms around her loosened and Mimi struggled free. She’d deal with the sick feeling in her stomach, prompted by the feel of his unrelenting body, later. She had more important things to think about right now.

She watched as five...no, six figures appeared from the trees on the other side of the river, scrambling and sliding in the mud. Two stopped to retrieve the medical bag, which had been deposited in a clump of brambles, and four made for the twisted tree trunks, where Mimi could see Jack’s bright high-vis jacket.

For what seemed like an age, he lay motionless, tangled in the branches like a broken doll. One of the figures squatted down next to him as if talking to him.

Please, please, please... Yes! Through the curtain of rain, she saw him move and then Jack was helped to his feet. She strained to see as the rescue party clustered around him, and then saw him turn towards her.

‘Looks as if he’s still in one piece...’ Rafe’s voice again, behind her.

She could see that. ‘Jack, are you okay? I’ll meet you up at the village...’ she called across.

‘There’s no way through, Mimi.’

‘Only my friends call me Mimi.’ In the sudden shock of seeing him again, all she could think about was that she wished Rafe wouldn’t call her Mimi. Everyone else did, but she’d never wanted to hear him say her name ever again. If he wanted to call her something, he could call her Miriam. Or actually Ms Sawyer would be just fine.

‘All right then. Miriam...’ He shot her a look that told her he knew full well that she was being petty. ‘We both have the same information from the control centre. Unless you’re considering sprouting wings and flying...’ He gestured towards the raging stream, frustration written clearly in every abrupt movement.

Mimi didn’t reply. The most satisfying course of action right now was to hold Rafe responsible for both the state of the roads and the fact that her ambulance was sitting at a precarious angle in a ditch, even if that wasn’t fair. Rafe had gone out of his way to teach her that life wasn’t always fair.

Jack was waving and she waved back, tears springing to her eyes. Then that familiar gesture, the one she’d seen hundreds of times before. I’ll call you. She looked around for her phone, and Rafe picked it up from where she’d dropped it, handing it to her. Mimi took it without looking at him.

She checked that the phone was still working and then signalled back a thumbs-up to Jack. Okay. Then she watched him turn, as the men with him helped him back up the hill, towards the village.

Now that Jack was out of sight, she couldn’t put the moment off any longer. Mimi turned to face Rafe.

He was still the same. Dark hair, wet and slicked back with one wet spike caressing his brow. Deep blue eyes, so striking that it was difficult not to stare. He still stole her breath away, and right now that felt like robbery of the cruellest kind.

If anything he seemed a little taller, but she knew that was impossible. He was staring down at her, no hint of emotion on his face, and she wondered what he saw.

‘We’ll wait for Jack to call, and then I’ll take you back to the hospital.’ Finally Rafe spoke.

‘You’re not taking me anywhere. My vehicle and my partner are here.’

‘Your vehicle doesn’t look as if it’s going anywhere, and you can’t get to your partner.’

Rub it in, why don’t you? Rafe had clearly not forgotten how to hurt her. His strong, silent approach, unafraid to face the facts and able to make hard decisions, had been one of the things that had made Mimi notice him in the first place. But this time it wasn’t up to him to make the decisions.

‘It’s not your call, Rafe.’ If he thought that a failed relationship gave him any right to tell her what to do then he was wrong. He’d given that up five years ago, when he’d walked out on her.

‘Okay. So what are you planning on doing?’

‘I’ll wait until Jack phones. Then I’ll decide.’ That was final, and there was nothing that Rafe could do about it.

* * *

Rafe had steeled himself against the possibility that he might bump into Mimi when he’d volunteered to help in the area. When he hadn’t, he’d had to steel himself against the possibility that he might not.

Something about the way she moved had told him that it was her as he’d driven towards the figure in the rain, but he’d dismissed the idea, deciding that the woman was just another of those ghosts which had appeared before him and then turned out to be someone else. But as soon as he’d seen her start to run, he’d known. The kind of passionate loyalty that had sent her towards the wall of water instead of away from it might be foolish but it was Mimi all over and he still admired it.

Not that she’d shown very much passion when he’d left. Perhaps cool indifference was all he’d deserved after the way he’d behaved, but it had still hurt. This bristling anger, the naked hostility would have been almost refreshing if it wasn’t so badly timed.

‘Come and sit in the car.’ He gestured back to where his SUV was parked and she glared at him. He shrugged. ‘Or you could just suit yourself...’

She marched towards the car and, in a series of hurried movements, she managed to get her waterproof jacket off without getting too wet. When she was inside, she took off her overtrousers and heavy boots, hanging her coat on the clip behind her and dumping her boots in the footwell.

‘I hope you don’t mind my getting your car wet.’

She was sitting in the front seat frowning at him, legs drawn up in front of her, her feet in a pair of thick woolly socks. One of the things that hadn’t changed about Mimi was that she was wiggling her toes. She always did that when she was unsure of her next move.

‘Nope. Any time.’ Rafe hung his own coat in the back of the car, and it started to drip.

‘We’re staying here. Until I say so, right?’

‘Yes. That’s right.’ Mimi and Jack had always been close and always looked out for each other, but that had never inspired this sharp ache of jealousy before and it took Rafe by surprise. It had been five years. Even if it felt like just a few days since he’d last wrapped himself in her warm scent before drifting off to sleep. If she and Jack were together now, it was hardly a surprise.

She relaxed slightly into the seat. ‘Might take a while. If you get tired of waiting...’

‘You think I don’t care about Jack?’ They’d all been friends once. Whatever had happened since, Rafe still reserved the right to be concerned for him.

Her honey-brown eyes considered the question for a moment. ‘No. I don’t think that.’

She leaned forward, propping her phone on the dashboard, and Rafe wondered whether he should turn on the car radio to mask the silence. She looked just the same. Dark blonde hair, captured in a plait that was currently tucked into the back of her shirt. How many times had he watched her weaving it into that plait in the morning before she went to work?

‘What are you doing here, Rafe?’ The question had obviously been circulating in her head for a while and she didn’t meet his gaze when she asked it.

‘This area’s the worst hit by the weather conditions. All the hospitals in the county are sparing staff where they can.’

‘And you drew the short straw?’