A Soldier's Reunion

The door opened and the EMT poked his head inside. “Dr. Manchester, you well enough to be the transport medic if I stay and ready other patients for air evacuation?”

“Absolutely. I’m right in my element here.” She smiled.

So did the EMT. “Any questions on where stuff is?”

She looked around, catching sight of the most important things. Oxygen. IV equipment. Code meds, though none of these children would need any of that. She searched for a seatbelt for the booth. “How do I secure them in?”

The EMT whose nametag read “Cole” tugged a clasp from a crack between padded benches. “Any other questions?”

“Why yes, in fact I do. Did you know fist bumps are in and hi-fives are old news?”

Cole laughed. “I’d heard fist bumps were a wave of the future.” He lifted his hand and touched gentle knuckles to each child, then Mandy’s. “Thank you.” He cast a deeply thankful look to her and closed the door.

Past him, through the windows, she could see men dressed as Nolan had been, assisting other paramedics with stabilizing those who would be flown to other hospitals. Probably those specializing in head and spinal trauma. The thought made her want to leap from the ambulance and help her fellow medical workers.

Likewise, the thought that Nolan, though unseen, could be on the other side of the doors made her want to bolt out and see him. Hold him. Catch up. Connect. Recapture something, anything. The sensation of being the only person in the world who knew the other so profoundly. They’d had a bond like nothing she’d ever known.

Then, one day, nothing.

Hands fisted, Mandy pressed them beneath her thighs and tilted toward the children. “So, what was your field trip?” The bus driver had explained it was an end-of-the-year gig but hadn’t said where. Chitchat would keep the kids’ minds off missing their parents, and her mind off missing Nolan.

Reece grinned. “We went to a science museum. It was fun.”

As the children chattered on, Mandy stacked pillows under her elbow and leaned back. Her wrist throbbed like crazy. But she didn’t want to trouble Cole or any others for pain meds. From some of the serious injuries she’d passed on her way to the ambulance, she definitely sat at the bottom of the triage totem.

Through the windows, a tawny-haired man with a military buzz came back into view. She didn’t have to strain her eyes to know it was Nolan. Nor did she have to see his eyes to know they were the most brilliant shade of blue.

As if sensing her stare, he shifted and looked around. She stiffened, then relaxed and craned her neck. He couldn’t know she was in this ambulance. Nor that she could watch him unaware. She could only see him from the shoulders up, and he was totally out of sight of the children, who would undoubtedly bombard her with questions should they notice her noticing Nolan.

He conversed with someone she couldn’t see, but his gaze kept coming back to sweep the line of ambulances.

She grew enthralled watching him. The lithe motions. Firm jaw. That lopsided grin that had graced her almost daily growing up as he’d walked her home from school because they lived in a bad neighborhood. The familiar yet now mature animation on his face elicited a sense of loneliness that made her miss him.

He bent and lifted something, probably a patient. He looked utterly in his element. Like he was born to do this.

Just like you were born to be a doctor.

Unfortunately their dreams were like two strong arms tugging them apart and in opposite directions. Yet they’d championed one another’s hopes and goals practically since the day they met.

IV bag in hand, Nolan shifted something and raised his arm.

“Miss Mandy, why do we gotta go to the hospital if we aren’t hurt?” Caden asked, breaking the bittersweet trance.

Metal clanked together as Mandy secured a seatbelt over him. “Because that’s where they’re telling your parents to come pick you up. And because the doctors and nurses will want to check you out and make sure you didn’t get any bumps and bruises that might need Band-Aids.”

He nodded. “Miss Mandy, do you have any Band-Aids?”

She spread fingers on her good hand. “Sadly, I’m fresh out. But the nice doctors and nurses at the hospital will have Band-Aids and stickers. Maybe even lollipops. How about that?”

Mandy laughed.

“What’s so funny?” Reece asked.

“Just thinking about how nurses give the shots and doctors give the lollipops.” Mandy wiggled her nose at Reece, who grinned. “But my office will be different.” She might call the shots and have her nurses give them, but she’d let them also dole out stickers.

Nolan moved from her line of sight. The air inside the ambulance vacuumed all hers in a sudden panic. She resisted the urge to push open the door.

Focus. Focus on the children. Forget about Nolan. Focus.

Caden grinned, revealing lost teeth. “I wanted the Band-aids for Bearby. Looks like he could fall apart.”

Reece clutched the brown bear appendage to her. “He does not! It’s just that his fur falls out because I love on him so much.” She sent a harsh scowl at Caden.

He blinked at her like she was an alien. Then tilted his face up. “Miss Mandy, why do you want to be a doctor? Our teacher says it takes lots of school. School’s boring.”

Mandy chuckled as she brushed a hand along Bearby’s disheveled fur and contemplated the question.

Jayna leaned her head against Mandy’s side and hugged her arm. “You were right, Miss Mandy. They came for us.”

“And got us all off,” Caden said. “Every single one.”

Mandy forced a calm, convincing smile. These precious children did not need to know that not everyone had made it off the bridge or out of the water alive. As sure as she lived, she would take those horrific images of the collapse to her own grave.

Reece leaned close to Mandy’s other side. “And you kept us not afraid anymore. Thank you.” She pressed her stuffed animal’s ebony nose to her ear. “What? Oh.” She turned his smooshed-in face toward her ribs, like the toy was being shy. She leaned in and whispered, “Bearby says he thinks he loves you.”

Emotion lodged words in Mandy’s throat. She’d noticed Reece projecting thoughts and emotions onto the toy earlier. Mandy couldn’t have spoken if she’d wanted. So she smiled. Deeply, at each little expectant face.

This is why. These children. This feeling of accomplishment and knowing she could make a difference in the life of a child and their family in a difficult season.

She wrapped an arm around the two girls, and reached over to bump a gentle fingertip playfully on Caden’s nose.

“Children like you are why I do what I do.”

Leaning in, Mandy knuckled her hand and lightly fist-bumped Bearby’s tattered paw. “And for the record, Bearby, I think I love you, too.”

Chapter Four

“Mommy! That’s Miss Mandy, the nice doctor lady who helped us,” a familiar voice pealed through the hospital corridor.

Mandy rose from her chair in the hallway outside the bustling Refuge E.R. waiting room. She smiled at the woman walking toward her with Reece and her stuffed bear in tow.

“C’mon!” Reece tucked Bearby beneath her arm and dragged her mother faster.

Upon approach, deep gratitude glistened from the young woman’s eyes. Uncanny how much she looked like an older version of Reece.

The woman breached the space between them like a close family member would and grasped Mandy’s uninjured hand. “I’m Amelia North, Reece’s mom.”

“I’m Dr. Manchester. Please call me Mandy.”