Er Doc's Forever Gift

‘Can you hear me?’

A groan escaped her constricted throat. She’d gone off the edge of the embankment, a sheer drop down to these bushes. The pain was really making itself known, as if her body had a grudge with her. In her legs and back, her arms, the left shoulder—sucking in a breath, she tried not to think about what that might mean. She needed to toughen up, check herself out instead of panicking. Work out what the damage was and make a plan for getting out of here.

Moving could be detrimental. Spinal damage is a real possibility.

‘Are you all right down there?’

That persistent voice was annoying. ‘Go away. I’m trying to think here.’

‘I don’t know if you can hear me but I’ve phoned for help.’

So the voice wasn’t in her head. There really was someone up on the road. She wasn’t alone. As she opened her mouth to holler a reply her lungs filled with air and her upper body moved. Pain splintered her and the blackness rolled in again.

Thwup, thwup, thwup.

The bushes flattened and the trees swayed. A helicopter filled the little view Sienna had of the sky when she next pulled her eyes open. A bright red-and-yellow rescue chopper. Gratitude swamped her. Whoever that man was who’d called for help, she owed him big time.

A figure attached to a thick rope was lowering in her direction. Help had arrived. In a pair of red overalls. She’d be out of here in no time. Then she’d be able to get patched up and back on her feet.

If my injuries aren’t serious.

A shudder tripped through her, her tightening muscles sending warning signals of pain to her brain. It was tempting to move, to try to sit up, to prove she was all right. The doctor in her kicked in. Stay still. Let the rescue crew do their job. But waiting had become difficult. What if she’d broken her spine? She was a paediatrician. She didn’t have time for learning to walk again, or never walking...

‘Hello, this is becoming a habit.’ A familiar, husky voice broke through her fear. ‘Harrison Frost, your neighbour.’

Harrison. ‘Not Harry, then.’ Harrison was way sexier than Harry. Ah? Hello? Head injury talking? Sex while smashed up on the side of a hill? Why not? That’d certainly be creating a new norm for her. Don’t forget, she told herself, that if she hadn’t been thinking about him she wouldn’t be lying here afraid to move.

‘Good, you’re cognitive. And yes, I go by Harry most of the time.’ The guy was snapping open the hooks that held him to the rope and giving the thumbs-up to someone above in the chopper, at the same time speaking into a radio. ‘Take it away.’

What were the odds he’d be the one coming to her rescue? But then, nothing seemed to be going right for her lately, so those were as short as the two-year-old with pneumonia she’d treated this week. She could only hope Harry was more forthcoming in his attitude as a doctor than as a neighbour. ‘You didn’t bring the music.’ Anything to keep from the pain getting stronger with every breath.

‘I would’ve if I’d known it was you who’d taken to flying off the side of roads.’ Harrison shucked out of his backpack. ‘Right, let’s check you out. You haven’t moved since coming to a stop against the tree?’ He began disentangling the cycle from her legs.

‘Of course not.’ Unless she’d moved while out cold. ‘I need a neck brace first. My left shoulder is possibly broken. My right ankle is giving me grief, but as for internal injuries I’m certain I’m in the clear.’ The pain throbbed up and down both legs. Bruising from the bike when she’d landed?

‘Leave those decisions to me. Obviously nothing wrong with your head. You’re stringing sentences together and enunciating clearly.’

‘I am a doctor.’ And it was his fault she’d ended up in this mess, tramping through her mind the way he had.

A small smile lifted one corner of his mouth. ‘Right now I’m the doctor, you’re the patient, and I get to make the diagnoses, starting with doing the ABCs.’

Her airway was fine, the proof in her relatively easy breathing when pain wasn’t interfering. ‘Might have known you’d be bossy.’

His smile hit her hard. ‘It goes with the territory and stroppy patients.’

Putting as much indignation into her voice as she could muster, she growled, ‘I’m stroppy?’

‘Yep.’ Harrison’s eyes were focused on her chest, purely to check she was breathing normally.

A twinge of regret came and went. She didn’t want him thinking of her as anything other than a patient. Not really. But it was nice to be noticed by a good-looking guy occasionally. ‘Have you always worked on the helicopters?’

‘No, I’m an emergency specialist so I’ve spent most of my time in emergency departments. Working on rescue choppers is different. It takes some getting used to not having a whole department filled with every bit of equipment I require.’ He might be talking trivia but there was nothing trivial about the way he was checking her over.

She could get to like this man. If she didn’t already.

‘I can imagine.’ He was right. She had to let go and trust him to look after her, but it was hard. She never gave control to anybody over even the most insignificant thing. And this wasn’t insignificant. Thump, thump, went her head. Her mouth opened but she couldn’t give him the go-ahead. She just couldn’t.

As he carefully removed her helmet, Harry asked, ‘Have you lost consciousness at any time?’ Seemed he had no difficulty taking charge, regardless of what she thought.

As he’s meant to.

‘Twice. I think. Maybe three times.’ And about to again if the clouds gathering in her skull were any indication. She’d been trying too hard to say what was needed without slurring or forgetting what she had to tell him and it was taking its toll.

‘Pulse is rapid. I’d say you’re in shock.’ Firm yet gentle fingers touched her neck, her skull, her jawline. If only they could stop the pain.

She guessed she couldn’t have everything.

Please let me be able to walk away from this.

Fog expanded in her head, pressing at her skull.

‘Sienna, can you hear me?’ Was that Harry? Harrison. ‘Yes.’ But there were drums in the background. The humming in her ears also added to the noise.

Firm fingers slid over her skull, pressing lightly, feeling for trauma. ‘From the state of that helmet you hit something with your head. At least the helmet did what it was meant to. There doesn’t appear to be any damage to your skull, though you probably have mild concussion.’ Then he was listening to his radio, and confirmed what she heard loud and clear. ‘The weather’s closing in. The guys above say we have to hurry or we’ll be stuck here until the storm passes.’

‘What storm?’ Come to think of it, she was feeling chilly. But that would be shock. Wouldn’t it?

Come in, Dr Burch. You know your stuff.

‘Am I cold or is the reaction to my crash setting in?’

‘Both,’ answered Harry, slipping a neck brace into position. ‘This’ll keep your head still.’

A male voice came through the radio in his shirt pocket. ‘Sorry, have to back off now, Harry. Hang in there. I’ll return as soon as viable.’

The tree she’d come to a halt against rustled and leaves dropped onto her. ‘Don’t let them go.’ She had to get to hospital and sort out her injuries.

‘Not a lot of choice,’ Harry told her before easing her cycling shoes off. ‘Can you feel me touching your toes?’

‘Yes.’ Relief swarmed through her.

‘Wriggle them.’ There was a reciprocating relief in his dark eyes. ‘Good.’

Neck immobilised, tick. Feeling in feet, double tick. ‘My shoulder?’

But Dr Harry was working his way up her legs, as in how a doctor would, not a lover. As she’d said earlier, this just wasn’t her day. ‘Your ankle’s okay. Lots of bruising would be about as bad as it gets.’

Those fingers... Sienna sighed. Gentle, and warm, and enticing. As if she could succumb to their hidden promise.