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‘Hey, I’m fine.’ Julie assured them, grabbing hold of Richard’s arm. ‘Rich, get your friends together and move them to a safe position on the other side of the road. Stay there until someone checks all of you over. Okay?’
Richard nodded and, taking the still sobbing Susan by the arm, moved away.
Julie raced over to Pierre, who was still attending to his patient. ‘I’m back,’ she said quietly. ‘What do you want me to do?’
Pierre looked up as his patient coughed and struggled for breath. Julie took an oxygen mask from one of the paramedics and placed it over the DJ’s mouth.
Pierre was looking worried. ‘His throat is swelling,’ he said. ‘The oxygen won’t get to his lungs that way.’ He spoke a few words to one of the paramedics, who rushed back towards one of the ambulances. Then he turned to Julie. ‘There are two main problems with someone as badly burnt as our patient. Firstly, the swelling of his throat is restricting his breathing. I’ll need to do an emergency tracheostomy here—right now. If we leave it until we get him to hospital, it will be too late.’ The paramedic returned and Pierre began searching through the bag she had brought. In the meantime, Julie had taken the line and drip the paramedic had passed to her earlier and found an undamaged vein in the man’s groin to insert the cannula.
‘The other problem is that as we resuscitate him, his skin will also start to swell, becoming like leather squeezing tighter and tighter on his chest wall. As it constricts, it squeezes down on the chest, preventing the lungs from inflating properly.’ Pierre continued. ‘Once I’ve made the hole in his throat and we’re getting oxygen into his lungs, I may well have to make a few incisions into the skin on his chest.’ He seemed to have found what he was looking for in the bag, and a scalpel flashed in the light. He looked straight into Julie’s eyes. ‘I’m going to need you to help me. You’ll have to hold him steady. Can you do that? If you can’t, I need to know now.’
Julie returned his look steadily. ‘Just tell me what to do.’
Whatever he saw in Julie’s eyes must have reassured him. He bent low over the injured man. ‘I’m going to do something that will help you breathe,’ he said. ‘I may have to cut into your chest. It won’t hurt, but I’ll give you something for the pain, and then we’ll get you to hospital.’
He glanced at Julie and she could tell from his expression that he didn’t hold out much hope for the man on the ground. ‘He won’t be aware of what we’re doing,’ he said. Gently he tipped the man’s head backwards so the front of his neck stood out and he felt below the prominence of his Adam’s apple. Then swiftly, but confidently, he inserted the scalpel into the victim’s trachea. Julie used a sterile swab to dab away the blood, and then Pierre inserted a tube through the incision into the throat. ‘Bag him,’ he instructed Julie. She fixed an ambu-bag over the tube and squeezed air into the lungs. Within seconds Julie could see the colour seeping back into the victim’s face. But as Pierre had predicted, almost immediately his breathing started to become laboured again.
‘Merde!’ Pierre cursed. ‘It is as I thought. He will need an emergency escharotomy—where we incise the skin on his chest to help him. I hoped the tracheostomy would be enough until we got him to hospital.’ Once more he bent over the patient and, using the scalpel, scored two deep incisions across the chest. Immediately the skin parted, leaving deep furrows across the chest. To Julie the procedure seemed almost barbaric.
Pierre glanced up and, catching her questioning look, said, ‘The burnt skin will have to be removed later once we are sure he is stable. He won’t have felt anything even if he was conscious as the nerve endings are too badly damaged. This way he has a better chance of survival.’
‘Does he?’ Julie whispered. ‘Does he have a chance, do you think?’
‘The extent of his burns…’ He shook his head. ‘Well, they are bad. But I am hopeful. The sooner we get him to hospital the better. Let’s get him into an ambulance.’
As the paramedics helped Julie and Pierre load the injured man onto a stretcher, Pierre said to Julie, ‘I need to go with him in the ambulance.’
‘I’ll come with you,’ she offered. ‘I just need to make sure the people I’m with are okay.’
Pierre shook his head. ‘We can’t wait. He has to go now. Anyway, there is only room for one of us to go with him. And it is better that I go.’ He hesitated, glancing over Julie’s shoulder. ‘Could you do something for me?’
Julie looked around. There were still four or five casualties needing medical attention but they were being attended to by paramedics. Furthermore, she could see a fluorescent jacket with ‘Doctor’ emblazoned on the back. It seemed as if her help here was no longer required.
‘Sure,’ she said. ‘Just tell me what.’
‘Can you drive?’
Julie was surprised at the question.
‘Yes,’
‘Do you have a car with you and have you been drinking?’
‘No and no,’ she replied.
Pierre dug around in his pocket before pulling out a set of keys and pressing them into Julie’s hands. ‘I don’t like to ask you, but see that girl over there?’ He pointed to a young woman who was leaning against a wall, looking dazed. ‘She is my niece. It’s her I came to find here. She is alone. Please, could you take her home? See that she’s all right? Tell her that I’ll be back as soon as I can.’
He watched as his patient was loaded into the ambulance. Julie could see he was worried. For his patient, his niece, or both, Julie couldn’t be sure.
‘Okay,’ she said, a little reluctantly. She would much rather have followed up the patient in hospital. Perhaps assisted in Theatre—if the DJ made it that far. Still, she could hardly refuse her new boss’s request—and he was probably right about space in the ambulance. Besides, she did need to make Richard sure and his friends were reunited with their parents, who…she glanced at her watch…should be arriving to collect them any time now.
‘Thank you,’ Pierre said softly, just before the doors of the ambulance closed. ‘I owe you a favour,’
As soon as the ambulance pulled away, with its lights flashing and siren blaring, Julie crossed over to Pierre’s niece. The girl looked up at Julie’s approach.
‘He’s gone to the hospital, then?’ The girl nodded in the direction of the departing ambulance. The words were slightly slurred. Had she been drinking? Julie wondered. Apart from that, and an ashen pallor to her skin, she looked okay.
‘Yes, he had to. He asked if I could take you home. He’s concerned about you. Are you okay? Has someone checked you over?’
The girl took a deep, shuddering breath. ‘I’m fine. A bit shook up, but that’s all. I was outside when the alarms went off. Is the person in the ambulance going to be all right?’
‘I hope so,’ Julie said. ‘He’s getting the best possible care. I’m Julie, by the way.’ She held out her hand to the girl who shook it reluctantly.
‘Caroline,’ the girl replied shortly.
‘If you wouldn’t mind waiting just a few minutes while I check on the guys I came with? Then I’ll drive you home.’ Julie said.
‘Whatever,’ the girl said. ‘But really you don’t have to take me home. I’m quite able to look after myself. Uncle Pierre treats me like a kid.’ Caroline’s mouth was set in a sullen line
‘Please,’ Julie said, ‘let’s just do as he asks. He’s my boss and if I don’t see you home I’ll be in trouble.’
Caroline gave a loud theatrical sigh. ‘He’s such a bully. But okay—I’ll wait here for you.’
It only took a couple of minutes for Julie to check on her young charges. Although still shocked, their fright was beginning to wear off and turn to excitement. Their parents had begun to arrive and, seeing that Richard’s parents had everything under control, Julie returned to Caroline. She was relieved to find that she had waited for her. Somehow she wouldn’t have put it past the girl to have sneaked off while her back was turned.
‘Do you know where your uncle’s car is parked?’ Julie asked. Caroline pointed in the direction of a low-slung sports car across the road. Julie whistled under her breath. She had always wanted to drive once of those. She grinned at Caroline.
‘He does have some pluses,’ she said, and Julie briefly caught a glimmer of a smile.
‘C’mon, then,’ she said. ‘Let’s get you home.’
CHAPTER TWO
‘WHERE to?’ Julie asked Caroline as she eased the car into the traffic. Although it was late, the city centre was busy with late-night partygoers, many of whom had come to investigate what was going on. Caroline named a street that made Julie gasp. It was commonly known as Millionaires’ Row by the locals.
‘Is that where your parents live?’ Julie glanced at Caroline and there was just enough light from the streetlamps for Julie to catch the wave of grief that crossed the girl’s features.
‘My parents are dead,’ Caroline said flatly. ‘They died in an accident.’
Julie slid a hand across and briefly grasped the girl’s cold fingers in hers.
‘I am so sorry,’ she said. ‘I know what that feels like. I lost my mother a couple of years ago and my father a few months after.’ She still missed them both terribly. ‘When did it happen?’ she asked gently.
‘Just after Christmas,’ Caroline said softly.
Only a few weeks ago, then. Julie knew how raw her grief would still be.
‘Do you have brothers or sisters?’
‘I’m an only child,’ Caroline responded.
Just like me, then, Julie thought, already feeling herself drawn to the young woman. It seemed they had a lot in common.
‘It’s why Uncle Pierre has come to stay,’ Caroline continued after a pause. ‘He lives in France. He’s French, like my father is…was.’ Her breath was ragged as she corrected herself. ‘I told Pierre I was old enough to live by myself, but he wouldn’t have it. Said it was impossible.’ She pouted. ‘He hardly knows me and now he is here bossing me about—interfering in my life.’
‘But no one should be alone after such a terrible loss. I’m sure he just wants to help.’
‘He never bothered with us before. Dad was always asking him to come and visit, but he was always too busy. Eventually my parents went to visit him. And now they’re dead. If they hadn’t gone—if he had come to see them instead like he should have—they’d still be all right. He is so unbelievably selfish.’
Julie was taken aback by the anger in Caroline’s voice. But then she remembered how after her accident, when she’d felt she had been robbed of everything she’d thought mattered, she too had been angry, pushing away everyone, even her parents. And when a few years later her parents had died, she had thought she could never feel happy again. She too had been angry with the world at first. It had seemed so unfair.
‘How old are you?’
‘Seventeen. I’ll be eighteen in a couple of months.’
Julie was surprised. Made up as Caroline was, she could have easily passed for twenty—older even.
‘And you were out at the club by yourself?’
‘Pierre didn’t want me to go on my own. But he just doesn’t understand…’ She tailed off and looked out the window.
‘Go on,’ Julie prompted gently.
‘My friends would have come with me. They’re always asking me to go out with them. But even though they mean well, I get tired of their sympathy. They’re always asking how I am. Am I okay? How am I doing? But they just don’t get it—that all I want to do is forget. Just for a little while. Is that so awful?’
‘No,’ Julie said softly. ‘It’s not awful at all. Sometimes we all need to forget about stuff that hurts us.’
‘I slipped away when his back was turned.’ Caroline admitted. ‘I left him a note telling him where I was and not to worry about me. But he came after me anyway. So embarrassing to be treated like a kid.’
Julie hid a smile. She was having no difficulty imaging the friction between the two. In many ways Caroline reminded her of herself as a teenager.
‘But he was sort of right, wasn’t he? Look what occurred back there. You could have been hurt. I’m sure he would never have forgiven himself if anything happened to you.’ Julie shivered, remembering. ‘I was terrified. Weren’t you?’
‘When the worst thing possible has already happened to you, there’s not much that frightens you,’ Caroline said softly, rubbing her eyes with the heels of her hands, and Julie’s heart went out to her. ‘I’m sorry,’ she continued, regaining her composure. ‘I don’t usually go on like this. I think I must be more shaken than I thought. Anyway, I’m completely fine now, and that’s what matters. I would have taken a taxi home perfectly easily, so he’s fussing over nothing.’
Julie knew there was little point in pursuing the conversation. It was between Caroline and her uncle. The two women sat in silence for a few moments.
Caroline looked at Julie curiously.
‘What happened to your face?’ she said.
As usual, whenever someone reminded her of her scar, Julie’s hand went to her cheek. Sometimes, not often, she managed to forget.
‘Skiing accident,’ she said, ‘when I was about your age.’
‘You should ask Uncle Pierre to fix you,’ Caroline said, and this time Julie heard the note of pride that had crept into her voice.
Fix me? Julie thought. She didn’t think anyone could fix her.
‘He’s a famous surgeon in France, you know,’ Caroline added.
‘So I gather,’ Julie said dryly. ‘However, I’m used to my face the way it is.’
But as she said the words she knew she was lying. She hated the scar.
They pulled up outside the address Caroline had given her. The house was an impressive detached sandstone building with a driveway large enough to hold several cars. Caroline showed her how to operate the gate from a button on the keyring, the gates swung open and Julie drew up beside the front door.
Caroline eased herself out of the car.
‘Thank you for bringing me home,’ she said politely.
‘Will you be all right on your own?’ Julie asked, unsure what to do. Should she go in with the girl? Wait for Pierre to return home? ‘Would you like me to come in? I could wait with you until your uncle gets back.’
Caroline shook her head with a disdainful lift of her brow.
‘There is no need. Please, you did what you said you’d do. I’ll be perfectly fine.’ Then her features softened. ‘I’m sorry,’ she said. ‘I don’t mean to be rude when you’ve been so kind. And I didn’t mean to offload on you like that. I think it was the fright.’
‘Hey, it’s okay,’ Julie said. ‘I understand. Are you sure you don’t want me to come in?’
Caroline shook her head again. ‘I’m going to go straight to bed.’ Julie knew she could hardly force her way into the house. So after a brief goodnight, and watching until Caroline was safely inside, she turned the car in the direction of the hospital. She was wide awake and knew sleep would be impossible, so she did what she always did when sleep eluded her—she went in search of work.
A and E was bustling with activity. A number of the clubgoers were being treated with minor injuries or for the effects of smoke inhalation. Julie found her friend Kim, one of the A and E nurses, gulping a cup of coffee at the nurses’ station.
‘Is there anything I can do to help?’ Julie asked.
‘Good grief, woman, do you tune into the police radio or what? How come you always seem to know when we have a rush on? Don’t you have a life?’ Kim stifled a yawn. She was always scolding Julie for working too hard, telling her she should get out more. Julie just ignored her friend’s good-natured cajoling. It was her life, not Kim’s, and she would live it the way she wanted to.
‘I was at the club,’ Julie said. ‘Yes, really. And dancing!’ She ignored her friend’s look of feigned astonishment. ‘I’m looking for one of the victims. The DJ. He was pretty badly burnt. Dr Favatier brought him in.’
‘Ah, the divine Dr Favatier,’ Kim sighed, rinsing her mug at the sink. ‘I’d heard about him from some of the other nurses—and they weren’t exaggerating. He is hot!’ She gave herself a little shake, then grinned at Julie. ‘But what am I thinking? And me a happily married woman and all.’ Her expression turned serious. ‘Your DJ—his name’s Tom Blackheath—is still in Resus. It’s been chaos in here the last few hours—since even before the fire. This is the first chance I’ve had to draw breath.’ She set her mug on the counter. ‘Let’s go find out how your injured DJ is.’
Tom was the only patient in the resuscitation room. There were several doctors and nurse working over him, Pierre included.
Tom had been sedated and ventilated and was still holding his own. Julie stood back from the gurney, not wanting to get in the way. She watched as Pierre checked the incisions and conferred with the A and E consultant. Eventually he noticed Julie. He seemed surprised to see her.
‘You managed to get Caroline safely home, then?’ he asked, turning peeling off his latex gloves and tossing them in the bin. When Julie nodded he continued.
‘Thank you, but you didn’t need to bring the car back here. I would have collected it tomorrow.’
Although it was after two in the morning and he was developing stubble, which only added to his dark good looks, he didn’t seem tired. Quite the opposite, in fact. He radiated energy and vitality that pulsated through the room. Immediately something clicked inside Julie. Despite his image, here was someone who felt the same way about the job as she did. It was where they belonged—where they felt most alive.
His dark hair had flopped across his forehead and for one heady moment Julie was tempted to reach across and push it away from his eyes. Horrified at the thoughts that were flitting through her mind, she forced the image out of her head. What was she doing? Fantasising about her boss. It was totally inappropriate! Besides, she hardly needed to remind herself a man like this wouldn’t be interested in someone like her.
‘Yup, she wouldn’t let me come in. I hope it was all right to leave her?’ Julie prayed she wasn’t blushing. He was probably used to women getting flustered in his presence but she was damned if she was going let him see how much he affected her.
‘She is a very stubborn girl,’ Pierre replied grimly. ‘Takes after her father.’
He turned to theA and E consultant. ‘I’ll operate tomorrow,’ he said, ‘if he pulls through. In the meantime, I’m off to bed. Unless you would like any more help?’ Satisfied he was no longer needed, he steered Julie away from the resus room.
‘Are you ready to go?’ he said. ‘I’ll run you home.’
‘I’d rather stay and help,’ she said.
He looked at her sharply, narrowing his eyes. ‘If you remember, you are joining my team tomorrow…’ He glanced at his watch. ‘This morning. De bleu! It is almost three. You need your rest.’
‘I don’t need much sleep,’ Julie protested.
‘You do if you are working with me,’ he said firmly.
Julie ignored him and nodded backwards in the direction of Tom. ‘How is he?’ she asked.
Just for a moment Pierre looked tired. He rubbed a hand across his cheek. ‘The next twenty-four hours are critical. If they manage to stabilise him—if he survives—we’ll start doing skin grafts later on today. You can assist, if you like.’
‘I’d appreciate that,’ she said quietly. ‘I would like to see his treatment through. I feel I owe it to him,’
Pierre looked at her intently. ‘I’ll need you alert and under control,’ he said. ‘There’s no room for emotion in the theatre,’ he said.
Julie realised it was pointless to argue. He had completely misunderstood what she had meant. Suddenly the adrenaline seeped away, and she felt exhausted.
‘You don’t have to take me home,’ she said. ‘I’ll get a taxi.’
The last thing she wanted right at this moment was to find herself in close proximity to this man. A good night’s sleep, or at least a few hours—and there was hardly enough time to get more than that now—would be enough for her to pull herself together and get her emotions under control.
‘Of course I am going to take you home. It is the least I can do.’ He held out his hand. For a stunned moment Julie thought he meant her to take his hand, and almost laid hers in his. Just in time she realised he was expecting his car keys but she was unable to prevent the tell-tale blush flooding her cheeks. Pierre looked at her quizzically, then grinned.
‘You will be perfectly safe with me, Dr McKenzie, whatever people might say.’
Julie shot him a furious look before she could prevent herself and felt herself redden from the tips of her ears to the tips of her toes. Was he actually flirting with her? And what was worse, did he actually think she’d be flattered, grateful even?
‘And why should I think I wouldn’t be safe with you, Dr Favatier?’ she asked in the coldest voice she could summon. He looked at her, then as recognition dawned his blue eyes glinted mischievously.
‘Because people think I drive too fast, of course. What other reason could there be?’
Julie felt her skin shrink with embarrassment. Great start, dr mckenzie, she thought. Way to go, girl!
* * *
Julie sank into the soft leather seat of Pierre’s car. Asking her for her post code, he programmed it into the satellite navigation system of his car.
‘It easier than you telling me how to get there,’ he said, pulling out into the road. ‘You did very well back there, at the fire.’
‘I’m just glad you were there,’ she said. ‘I would have hated having to do a tracheostomy on my own.’ She slid him a look. ‘It’s quite different having to do something out of the hospital setting.’
Pierre turned and flashed her a smile. ‘Something tells me you would have coped okay,’ he said. ‘You stayed very cool.’
Julie felt herself glow at the praise. ‘Skiing teaches you that. How to stay focussed, even when you’re terrified. And I was,’ she admitted.
‘Then you hid it well,’ he said. ‘I think I’m going to like having you on my team.’ He drove quickly through the now deserted streets. Julie was acutely conscious of his presence in the cramped interior of his car. Suddenly she felt awkward.
Glancing down at this hand on the gearstick, she noticed that his right hand had been burnt.
‘You hurt your hand,’ she said.
‘It’s nothing,’ he said. ‘I put some cream on. It will be fine.’
He smiled at her again, his eyes creasing at the corners. Julie felt a tingle run up her spine.
‘Are all Scottish women so reckless?’ he asked. ‘You must know you risked your own life staying inside the burning building to help.’
Julie straightened in her seat. ‘I only did what anyone would have done. I couldn’t stand back and do nothing. I wasn’t being reckless.’
‘I know men who wouldn’t have done what you did,’ he argued.
‘How people behave in a time of crisis has nothing to do with what sex they are!’ Julie said crossly.
This time Pierre laughed out loud.
‘Dis donc,’ he said. ‘So you say.’
Julie felt her skin prickle. He was mocking her. Despite finding him unnervingly attractive, she wondered if she actually liked her new boss—even if he was the kind of surgeon she aspired to be. He seemed to have a pretty sexist view of women. Perhaps that was down to the type of women he spent time with. Julie could just see him with a glamorous simpering model on his arm. Someone who hung onto his every word and liked to have doors opened and him order for her. Someone who was unlike her in every possible way.
‘Anyway, you were pretty reckless yourself,’ she said. ‘You took a risk going to help the DJ.’
Pierre raised an eyebrow, his eyes silver in the semidarkness. ‘A chance you were about to take yourself. In fact, you would have taken a greater risk than I. You would have never been able to get him out of there. And somehow I suspect you would not have left him.’
Hearing the admiration in his voice, Julie felt somewhat mollified. But whatever he thought, she’d only done what anyone in her shoes would have done.