Authors: Carol Rose
Raindrops fell against the glass in a heavy rush, flooding in at the open window. Caleb rolled it up, leaving a crack to let in the clean smell of scattered rain. The gustin
g wind was turning cooler as a N
orther pushed through.
Despite his best efforts, he couldn
’
t shake the feeling that the last two years had been a test that he
’
d failed miserably.
The truck headlights bounced crazily over the uneven roads slickened by rain. The iridescent flash of a warning turn sign gleamed a hundred yards ahead.
Caleb eased the brake down, wondering absently if he
’
d ever find a way to make his life right again.
The downpour hissed against the pavement as the truck slowed to take a hairpin curve, so frequent on two-lane country roads. As he rounded the corner, his headlights illuminated two crumpled cars in the intersection. In automatic reaction, he stopped the truck.
*
Julia couldn't have been more than ten feet into the intersection when she heard it-the squeal of tires against wet pavement. Whipping her head around, she saw the car, skidding toward her. Accelerating and pulling hard on the steering wheel, she made a desperate effort to get out of the way.
The impact, when it came, was explosive. Her window shattered with the buckling of the door and Julia felt the world tilt as the car fell sideways. Metal screamed against pavement as sparks, brilliant as fireworks, sprayed out.
Her seat belt was a band clenched around her with the force of steel. The silvery leaves of the roadside thicket spun crazily before Julia's eyes. The high-pitched sound of glass breaking assaulted her ears as the windshield shattered, splintering into a thousand glittering knives.
There was a blur of night sky mixed with the splatter of rain on her face as she rolled. Julia's head snapped forward, hitting the steering wheel.
Then ther
e was searing pain and then...
darkness. Julia was aware next of the car tilting slowly, drunkenly into a ditch, its side resting on solid earth. Held still by the seat belt, she felt a sharp sensation in her thigh and her head throbbed painfully.
Unconsciousness claimed her again.
Fighting against it, Julia focused on the pain in her head and on the sudden silence. There was only the creaking of dented metal and a peaceful hissing and the steady hush of rain.
*
The harsh reality of the accident scene penetrated Caleb's shocked mind as he came closer, and with it came a surge of adrenalin.
There were two cars. One with a crumpled side panel and warped hood sat to the side of the intersection, and Caleb could see a man crawling out the passenger door.
He was holding his arm at an odd angle and lurching unsteadily through the tall grass in the culvert.
"Are you all right?" Caleb called out.
"I think so. My arm hurts." The man seemed dazed. Caleb turned toward the other vehicle. A small coupe, perhaps blue or gray, difficult to see clearly in the poor light. A decal of some kind was affixed to the bumper.
Then recognition hit Caleb so hard he began running toward the car.
Julia.
Hoisting himself up to look into the tilted car's front window, Caleb's gaze swept the shadowed interior. Through the gloom and the driving rain, he saw a shape huddled on the front seat, suspended somewhat by the seat belt.
The blackness of the rain-soaked night, alleviated only a little by a faint glimmer from the wrecked car's dash, gave only enough light to tease. He couldn't tell if she was breathing.
The heavy rain fell in a steady curtain, plastering his clothes against him and sending rivulets into his eyes. In desperation, Caleb leaned closer.
Julia made no sound and Caleb had the impression that her eyes were closed. Without so much as a glance at the other accident victim, now standing next to him, Caleb began wrenching at the door.
Despite his forceful attempts, it remained jammed. Abandoning it, Caleb went to the other side of the car, only to find that door blocked by the tilt of the car. He leaned against the top of the car, bracing his legs against the bank of ground behind him.
"What are you doing?" the other driver said, standing at the edge of the road, cradling his injured arm.
Caleb made no response, straining every ounce of his strength to wedge some space to get the door open. He had to see what Julia's condition was, had to get her out of the car. Even with the rain, there was the threat of an explosion from leaking gasoline.
At last, the vehicle creaked as it shifted back a foot or so, its wheels settling back on the ground.
Although the car had landed in a vee-shaped ditch, now that he'd rocked it back horizontally, Caleb had some access to the passenger door. Yanking it open, he gave the woman behind the wheel a rapid examination.
"Is she okay?" The man was suddenly beside Caleb, trying to squeeze into the car door.
"Get out!" Caleb's tone was sharp, not wasting precious seconds.
Unwilling to wait until the man could be made to understand, Caleb grasped his good arm and pulled him, protesting, out of the car. ''I'm a doctor, you idiot. She needs immediate attention."
The man stumbled back, giving Caleb enough room to squeeze back into the car.
Julia lay half on the seat, her eyes still closed. Leaning nearer, Caleb quickly tried to assess her condition. Damn the darkness! Even with the glow from the dash instruments, he could barely make out the white oval of her face.
Automatically, Caleb leaned forward, checking for breath from her closed mouth. He felt none. Tilting her neck, he made sure her airway was open, but still there was
no breath.
Straightening, he felt for a pulse, his palms sweating.
No breath, no pulse.
Damn.
If he moved her to do CPR, he ran the risk of exacerbating any spinal injury. Yet without CPR, she was as good as dead and might be incinerated if the car went up in flames.
He didn't have any choice.
"What are you doing in there?" The man's voice was both sharp and weak.
After one more quick breath, Caleb tried to unlatch the seat belt holding her. It wouldn't budge at first, making him wonder if
he'd have to waste seconds get
ting a knife from his truck. Giving the belt a vicious tug, he heard the mechanism disengage.
Her body fell against him.
Quickly slipping a hand under Julia's shoulders and another beneath her knees, he pulled her limp body from the car, moving back as smoothly as he could.
Once he had freed her, the steady rain came down harder, drenching them both.
Caleb hunched over her, trying to shelter her as much as possible as he climbed through the ditch to the road.
"Grab her jacket off the seat and put it on the ground in front, by the headlight," he told the man, hovering nearby.
Still holding Julia cradled, he puffed a breath into her lips, and waited for a moment. She didn't respond.
The man scrambled to do as Caleb said.
"Do you know CPR?" Caleb asked as he gently set her on the wet ground, covered only by her thin lab jacket.
The man shook his head miserably. "Is she going to die?”
Quickly scanning Julia in the rain-spattered glare of the headlight, Caleb hardly heard the man. A red mark could be seen now on her forehead. There was no visible bleeding. Leaning over her, he tried to shield at least her face from the heavy rain. The rest of her was soaked already, sharpening Caleb's concern.
With the possibility of multiple internal injuries and bleeding, shock was almost a certainty.
"Is she going to be all right?" the man asked anxiously.
"I don't know,"
Caleb said between
chest compressions. "Do you have anything to cover her? Another jacket? An umbrella?"
''I'll check," the man turned back to his car but returned quickly. "There's nothing."
"Damn," Caleb muttered between breaths.
"Listen." He raised his voice above the drumming of the rain. "You need to get help
. Quick."
"Where? There's no place near," the man protested.
"S
he'll die if you don't-" Chest compression.
"Head injury, pos
sible internal injuries." Chest compression
. "Go!"
Counting in his head, Caleb bent over Julia. Every few compressions he checked for a pulse.
Behind him, the man stood, somewhat dazed still. "Move!" Caleb yelled.
"Okay," the man agreed. "There must be a house nearby."
Caleb didn't answer, totally focused. Dammit, she had to live. No way in hell was he going to accept any other option.
Between c
ompre
ssions, he fe
l
t
for
her
pulse. He'd lost all awareness of the rain and darkness. The only thought in his head was Julia. She had to live.
He kept up the chest c
ompressions
, praying furiously
.
The rain fell in sheets, drenching him to the skin. Brushing back the infuriating drips from his eyes, Caleb bent to her face again.
Minutes dragged by with no movement, no sign of life from the precious body beneath his hands. Caleb felt himself shaking and knew it wasn't from the cold. Dammit, she had to live!
The face he cupped as he breathed into her body was as perfect and still as a Madonna's. His hands felt huge over her ribs.
He'd held her just hours before, m
ade savage, violent love to her...
and now she lay nearly lifeless before him.
Bending again, Caleb checked for a pulse. Drawing in a sobbing breath, he raised his face to the driving rain. She had to live. Please, God, let her live, he wanted to shriek.
In the distance, the whine of an ambulance siren sounded. Caleb felt a surge of relief flooding through tension-racked muscles. Within minutes, the box-like vehicle with its flashing lights pulled up, closely followed by a police car.
Looking up from his task, Caleb saw the paramedics racing to him. When they neared, he began rapping out information.
"We've got a female, thirty years of age. CPR for ten minutes. Head trauma." He
didn’t
pause his regular chest compressions
.
"When did you start CPR?" the first paramedic asked.
"Immediately." Caleb paused. ''I'm a physician."
He
then added, "Possible internal injuries."
"Shall I relieve you, sir?" the second paramedic offered respectfully, gesturing to where Caleb knelt next to Julia.
"No," Caleb rejected his offer. "Let's just get her in."
He
checked the pulse again. It was stronger and now regular, though somewhat fast. He saw her chest rise, then put his ear to her nose-yes, she was breathing now. Relief choked him, tears clouding his vision and blending with the raindrops on his face.
"She's breathing. We need oxygen," Caleb directed. One paramedic connected an oxygen mask while the other readied the cardiac monitor nearby.
Within seconds, a stretcher had been pulled from the ambulance and was rolled to where Julia lay. Moving quickly, they deftly transferred her to the stretcher and covered her body and legs against the steady rain.
Caleb himself helped secure the neck immobilizer as a precautionary measure. Julia's beautiful body looked lost on the stretcher. Caleb walked beside her, his hands on her wrist as they rolled to the ambulance, checking again for the steady beat that meant life.
The paramedics lifted the stretcher into the ambulance. Without hesitation, Caleb climbed in next to it. The second paramedic climbed in behind him and moved to shut the door.
"Did someone check the other victim?" Caleb thought to ask.
"Yes, sir. Another unit is coming."
Bent over Julia, Caleb barely heeded the paramedic's reply. As the ambulance lurched into movement, he leaned closer, watching the monitor and wondering if and when she would regain consciousness.
"Julia! Can you hear me?" He thought he saw her move her head, but he saw no other response.
"Let's get an IV in," ordered Caleb.
The paramedic responded quickly and automatically, accomplishing the feat with relative ease. As he taped the clear tubing to Julia's arm, memory jolted Caleb.
Two years ago he had sat beside the bed of a woman threaded with tubes, and watched as she died. His stomach twisted.
He couldn't let Julia die. He might not be able to be the lover she needed, but
he
needed her alive in the world.
The rest of the ride to the hospital was accomplished quickly. Much faster, Caleb knew, than it would have seemed had Julia not started responding. Within minutes, they had pulled beneath the emergency room overhang. The driver opened the doors and Julia's stretcher was whisked through the automatic doors with Caleb beside her.