Next of Kin

“Are you the baby’s mother?”

“What’s the situation back at the accident scene? Anybody killed?”

From under the cop’s protective arm, Jackie did her best to ignore the questions. Inside the ER, she was finally on home turf and knew exactly what to do. She raced to the admittance desk. Stout, gray-haired Izzy was working triage today.

“What’s wrong, Jackie?” She eyed the bundle in her arms. “Who is that?”

“I have no idea.”

“Oh, my Lord. Here.” Izzy passed a clean tissue for Jackie to mop up the fresh blood on the baby’s face. “What happened?”

“I was in a car crash on the PCH.”

“We heard about that. We’re expecting the ambulances shortly. So you got caught in the pileup? How terrible. And the poor baby…Oh, my Lord, he doesn’t look older than a couple of months.”

Jackie lowered her voice. “His mother died in the crash. I think he may have a glass shard embedded in his right cornea. I haven’t had a chance to examine him properly yet.”

Izzy gave her another clean tissue. “We’ll get a pediatrician right away. How’d you get here so fast?” Izzy’s gaze slid over to the police officer.

He nodded and held out his hand. “Officer Guthrie.” He turned to Jackie and added, “Casey Guthrie.”

She had to swallow before she could reply in kind. “I’m Jackie Kellison.”

It only took a few seconds to exchange their names, but Jackie had the weird sense of falling into a time vortex where the moment felt long and heavy with importance. Then the baby stirred in her arms.

She faced Izzy again. “Officer Guthrie was the first one on the scene. He gave us a ride on his motorbike.”

“Well, that explains the hairdo.”

Jackie supposed more hair was out of her ponytail than in. She’d also lost her sunglasses in the fray and her cotton shorts and blouse were smeared with blood. None of that mattered at the moment.

Izzy shoved aside the paperwork she’d been dealing with. “Come on, we’ll get that little one into an examining room.” She glanced back at the cop still standing by her desk. “Nice to have met you, Officer Guthrie.”

The baby started crying again and Jackie hurried after Izzy. She managed one last glance at the motorcycle cop, regretting she’d had no chance to say a proper goodbye. They’d made a good team.

He smiled at her, and his smile was nice, just as she’d thought. Too bad she probably wouldn’t see him again.

IN THE SMALL examining room, Jackie was finally able to take a good look at her patient. While waiting for the physician, she cleaned the abrasions on the baby’s face and hands, ensuring that she hadn’t missed any tiny pieces of glass. Tenderly she undressed the fussing infant, inhaling with mild surprise when she unfastened the diaper. Well, the baby was a girl. And her diaper was sodden. When had her mother last changed it?

Jackie cleaned the bright pink bottom gently, noticing an oval-shaped birthmark on one chubby thigh. The child was working herself into a frenzy again. Would the damn doctor never get here?

CASEY LINGERED IN THE ER waiting room for a while. He made a call to the station and confirmed that since he’d been officially off duty for the past hour, he wouldn’t be part of the team investigating the collision.

He passed on the information about the burning sedan, how there’d been a second explosion following the first. He’d seen cars catch fire because of a leaking fuel line before, but this one hadn’t fit the pattern.

After he’d concluded that call, he made another, leaving a message at the hotel where his friends were staying. “Sorry, something came up at work. A collision on PCH. I won’t be able to join you guys tonight.”

There was really no reason for him to cancel. He still had time to get home and shower and go out tonight. But he didn’t want to leave the hospital.

He wanted to make sure the baby was okay. Yeah, that was part of it, but he didn’t try to kid himself that that was the whole reason.

Truth was, he wanted to see that nurse again. Jackie Kellison. Hell, she sure was something. She’d been unstoppable at the accident scene. He was willing to bet she’d saved more than one life today with her quick thinking and fast action.

Never mind that she’d been a victim in the accident herself. Beyond the emotional distress of the experience, she’d obviously suffered whiplash. He’d noticed her holding her head tighter and tighter as time went on. That ride on his bike must have been murder.

He’d liked the way she’d rested her head on his back, though. He had a feeling Jackie didn’t lean on many people and he was glad he’d been one of them.

Anyway, she’d been in the accident and helped all those people at the scene, and now it appeared she was prepared to put in her full shift. Which only made him admire her more.

The desperate crescendo of sirens told him the accident victims were finally about to arrive. Tired after his long day, yet unable to relax, Casey began pacing. He wished there was something he could do to help. Waiting wasn’t his strong suit.

Perhaps he ought to go home and have that shower, and maybe a good long nap, too. But he couldn’t take the chance of missing Jackie, so he bought himself a coffee from the vending machine, then found he couldn’t drink it.

He tossed out the paper cup, wondering why he didn’t just go on his way. Izzy was shooting him quizzical glances, as if she, too, couldn’t figure out why he was still hanging around. She’d come over earlier to tell him the baby was about to go into the operating room. Later, she’d be transferred to the hospital’s infant care wing.

She. Despite the blue blanket, the baby was a girl. Shouldn’t have made any difference, but somehow he’d felt even more protective once he’d heard that. He hoped the doctor operating on her was good, that he was well rested and at the top of his game.

An hour went by, maybe two. Finally his patience was rewarded when Jackie came out to grab a can of cola from a vending machine in the hall. Dressed in scrubs, she leaned against the machine with exhaustion, a hand on her neck as she waited for the can to drop.

“Sore, huh?”

Her head shot up at his unexpected presence and she winced.

“Sorry. Shouldn’t have snuck up on you.” He wanted to make her sit down for a minute. Maybe get some ice for that neck. Or massage it for her. Instead he leaned over to snag her cola out of the machine. When he handed it to her, she pressed the cool can against the side of her neck.

“You should be at home, looking after yourself.”

“I’m fine,” she insisted. “It’s just a pulled muscle. I consider myself lucky.”

Whiplash would send most accident victims running for the nearest liability lawyer. Casey’s admiration for the woman increased. “How’s it going in there?”

“Not too bad. The burn victim…” She squeezed her eyes shut as if blocking a horrible mental picture. “He and our baby’s mom are the only fatalities. The really good news is that we had a young woman trapped in a car who couldn’t move her legs, but it turns out her injuries won’t be permanent.”

“What about the rig driver?”

“Amazingly, he walked away with minor cuts and a few bruises.”

“Life makes no sense sometimes.”

She looked at him as if what he had said was somehow profound. “Yes. Like that poor mother. Now that she’s dead, who’s going to look after her baby?”

He encountered tragedies like this all the time in his work. She must, too. Yet he had to agree that this particular situation hit harder than most.

“With any luck she has a good father,” he said.

“I hope they find him soon. Though I sure wouldn’t want to be the one to tell him what happened.”

He nodded, feeling again the sense of affinity that they’d shared at the accident scene. They’d been strangers, tossed into circumstances beyond their control, but their impulses had been identical. To help as many people as they could.