The Dangers of Dating Your Boss

‘Send the stretcher after me,’ Ruby instructed Jack as she prepared to be lowered to the deck with a pack and the oxygen bottle on her back.

‘Right,’ Jack snapped.

So he thought he should go first. Tough. It was her job today. At least he hadn’t argued and wasted valuable time. That was the Jack she remembered.

The ship lurched upwards as her feet reached for the deck, jarring her whole body and giving her knee some grief. Mindful of the ship’s crew, she swore silently and tried hard not to limp as she crossed to her patient, checking the area for any obstacles that might get in the way of the stretcher being lowered. She waved the crowd of onlookers further back.

A woman looked up as Ruby crouched uncomfortably beside her. ‘I’m a GP. This is Ron Jefferies, fifty years old. Lucky for him I was close by when he fell. I started CPR within sixty seconds. The ferry crew supplied a defibrillator, which I used at maximum joules. We now have a thready heart rhythm.’

Ruby introduced herself as she unzipped the pack and removed an LMA kit. ‘Ron, I’m going to insert a tube in your throat and place a mask over your face to give you oxygen.’

‘I’ll put an IV in.’ Jack was down already and knelt opposite.

‘Please.’ Ruby was already pushing up Ron’s sleeve and passing the bag of saline to the GP now standing behind her. Holding the bag aloft helped the fluid flow more easily until they were ready to winch their patient on board the helicopter. She and Jack worked quickly and efficiently together, unfolding the stretcher and snapping the locks into place at the hinges.

She directed Jack and the GP to grip Ron’s legs and upper arm, while opposite them she clutched handfuls of his trousers and shirt, ready to pull. ‘On the count of three. One. Two. Three.’ And their patient was on the stretcher, being belted securely.

‘We’re ready to transfer.’ Ruby spoke to Slats through her mouthpiece as she checked Jack had attached the winch to the stretcher. Within minutes they were all aboard and Chris had headed the machine for Wellington and the hospital.

Jack checked their patient’s vitals while Ruby wrote up the patient report form.

‘He’s one lucky man,’ she murmured. ‘How often does a GP witness an arrest? Getting the compressions that quickly definitely saved him.’

‘He owes her his life for sure.’ Jack glanced up at her. ‘Did you get her name?’

‘No time for that.’

‘We didn’t learn anything about our man here either, apart from who he is. I wonder if he was travelling with family? Friends?’

She shook her head. ‘According to the steward I spoke to while you were being winched up, he’d put it over the loudspeaker for anyone travelling with Ron Jefferies to come forward, but no one appeared. It will be up to the hospital to track down relatives.’

‘They’ll be able to talk to him when they remove the LMA.’

‘Maybe.’ The man didn’t look very alert. Ruby watched as Jack rechecked all his vitals.

In her headphone Slats said, ‘We’re here, folks. The team’s waiting for your patient.’

Jack glanced up. ‘Thank goodness. Ron needs a cardiologist urgently.’

It didn’t take long to hand Ron over to the hospital emergency staff, and then the pilots were skimming across the harbour to the airport and back to base.

Usually Ruby would gaze out the window during this short flight, looking at all the city landmarks, enjoying the moods of the harbour, unwinding after an operation. But now her eyes were drawn to Jack as he sat, hunched in the bucket seat, reading the clinical-procedures notebook they all carried.

Had he missed her as much as she had him?

Jack glanced across to her, a wry expression in those eyes. ‘Did I pass my first test?’

She held her hand out flat and wiggled it side to side. ‘Maybe.’

Annoyance flickered across his face. ‘I’m being serious, Ruby. You made it abundantly clear you’d be checking me out, so I’ve the right to know what you’re going to tell Dave when we’re back on the ground.’

Whoa. Who was this angry guy? No one she knew. For someone who wanted to be mates he didn’t seem to understand when she was teasing him. ‘I couldn’t fault you. Okay?’ It had been a straightforward job but she refrained from pointing that out.

‘Thank you.’ He studied her for a long moment before returning to reading the notebook in his hand.

Prickly so-and-so. Jack would have to learn everyone on the base teased each other every opportunity they got. It helped ease the stress levels. Pulling the boss card wouldn’t keep Jack safe at all, but he could learn that from the others. Right now she wanted out of this confined space so she could breath some Jack-less air, could look in any direction and not have her sight filled with a hunky, mouth-watering vision, could move without fear of bumping into him.

As the helicopter settled gently on the ground and the rotors slowed she stood and ran her hands down her thighs, ready for a quick escape.

‘Do we need to take that bag inside to top up or is it all right for me to bring out replacement equipment?’ Jack asked.

Peering down at him, Ruby was disconcerted to find him watching her rubbing her thighs. Tucking her hands behind her back, she answered quickly, ‘It’s fine to bring what’s needed out here as long as it’s done immediately.’ Did he remember smoothing her thighs, running exquisite circles on her skin with his forefinger? Why would he, when she’d only just remembered?

‘Then that’s what I’ll do,’ he snapped back. Unlocking the door, he dropped to the ground and strode towards the hangar.

Ruby lowered herself down, mindful of her now throbbing knee. Sucking in her stomach, she concentrated on walking without limping and trying to force Jack out of her mind.

Except he wouldn’t go away. She’d angered him again. Since when had he had such a short fuse? He’d been the one to tell jokes and tease people, and had happily accepted the same in return. Had something happened to him during the time she’d been away? Had someone hurt him? Apart from her? Another woman? Ruby stumbled. He could be married by now—to Blondie. No wedding ring meant nothing. Not all men wore them. He was very desirable and she hadn’t been the only nurse to set her sights on him in the A and E department. A smug smile tugged at her mouth. She’d been the one to win him, though. Her smile flicked off. That was then. Now was different. He wouldn’t let her close a second time.

The sound of her pager snapped through her thoughts. ‘Here we go again.’ Reading the details coming through, she turned back to the helicopter and clambered inside.

Jack was right behind her, breathing heavily. He slammed the door shut and dropped onto the seat he’d only moments before vacated. ‘What have we got?’

Ruby pushed to the front and read back the details coming through on the electronic screen. ‘“MTV on the Rumataka Road. Female, thirty years, minor injuries but trapped. Stat two. Female, six years, serious facial injuries, possible brain injury. Stat four.”‘

‘Do we pick them both up? Or just the child?’ Jack asked.

‘Just the child at this stage. Being a status four, we can’t afford to wait until the mother is freed. The mother will be transferred to Hutt Hospital by road.’

‘Will we take the child to Hutt Hospital or back to Wellington?’

‘It’s not our call, but most likely Wellington, where they’ve got an excellent neurological department. It’s only a few minutes’ extra flying time.’

‘Every minute can count.’ Jack’s eyes darkened. ‘More than anything else, that mother’s going to want to be with her daughter.’ He twisted around to stare out the window, his hands clenching and unclenching on his thighs, his mouth a white line in his pale face.

‘Jack?’ Ruby leaned closer, put a hand over his. What was wrong? It couldn’t be the flying, he’d been okay on the last trip, and anyway he was training to be a private pilot.

‘I’m fine.’ He slid his hand out from under hers, and continued staring outside.

If she hadn’t been looking so hard she wouldn’t have seen the way his bottom lip quivered ever so slightly. ‘Sure.’ She had no idea how to get him to open up. Once she’d stupidly thought that if Jack had something to say he’d say it, but now she realised he’d never told her anything that involved his feelings.

Minutes ticked by. Then he coughed. ‘I always struggle with seeing kids injured.’ His fingers flexed, fisted, flexed.

‘I think we all do.’ Ruby thought back to when she’d worked alongside Jack in A and E. Had they ever worked together with a seriously sick child? Her mind threw up a memory from her first week in A and E with Dr Forbes.

‘Ruby, for God’s sake, hurry up with that suction. This kid’s going to choke to death.’ Jack whipped the tube out of her hand. ‘Turn it on. Now.’ He whisked the end of the hard plastic around the little boy’s mouth, gentle but firm, sucking up the blood and mucus that filled the cavity. ‘Damn it, kid, don’t you die on me now.’

Nurses worked around them, stemming blood loss from the child’s legs and head, cutting away clothes and ordering X-rays. Ruby smarted as she tossed the boy’s now useless trousers into the rubbish bin. She’d reacted instantly to Jack’s command to suction the boy’s mouth. What was his problem? ‘I was doing just fine,’ she snapped at him. ‘I can take over now.’