Just Perfect (13 page)

“Ski patrol heard the accident over the loudspeaker and is already on the way,” the ever-efficient Doris told him. “Do you want an ambulance or life flight?”

“Stand by.” He glanced at Christine as she worked to remove the boot without injuring the leg further. “You want life flight?”

“Do we have a head injury?”

Alec lifted the kid’s goggles onto the helmet. “Hey, dude, can you tell me your name?”

“God, it hurts!” The kid squeezed his eyes shut.

“Yeah, I know. Hang in there. Help’s on the way. You’re going to be fine.” He cradled the kid’s head in both hands and used his thumbs to lift his eyelids. “What’s your name?”

“I…” The kid’s eyes shifted back and forth, searching for the answer. “Tim.”

“You got a last name, Tim?”

“O’Neil.” He groped for his leg again.

“Where you from?”

“Bailey.” A few choice obscenities followed.

Alec worked to keep him still. “What’s your phone number?”

“It’s uh, it’s uh, shit!” The kid screamed as Christine pulled the boot free.

Alec glanced over his shoulder. “Pupils are even and responsive. Mild disorientation. Could just be the pain. You got circulation below the break?”

“Strong and steady,” Christine confirmed. “Where’s the nearest hospital?”

“Over the pass. Thirty minutes by ambulance if the roads are clear.”

“That’s too far with the way he’s bleeding. Call for life flight.”

“You got it.” He radioed in her request as Trent skied up towing a toboggan.

“Hey, man.” Alec nodded as Trent grabbed supplies and hurried over. “Good of you to join the party.”

“Wouldn’t miss it.” Trent set the oxygen tank within Alec’s reach. Getting the tube set took some doing with Tim writhing about.

“I need an IV with a large bore needle and a C collar,” Alec said out of habit, then looked at Christine. “Sorry. I’m used to running the show. Do you want to set the IV yourself?”

“Be my guest.” She’d moved back up the leg to stabilize the break before Tim did more damage with his thrashing about. Blood covered her hands and the cuffs of her white fur coat. “I’m kinda busy.”

At Trent’s questioning look, Alec laughed. “Turns out Chris is a doc.”

“No shit?” Trent sent her an incredulous look.

“No shit.” Alec fastened a C collar around the neck, noting Tim’s struggles had grown weaker. Pulling off one of the kid’s gloves, he inserted the IV needle in the back of the hand. “Hey, Tim, how you doing?”

“I’ve been better,” he answered weakly.

“You on any meds?” Alec leaned forward to re-check the eyes. “Prescriptions? Over the counter?”

“No.”

“Anything illegal?”

“No.”

Alec gave him a hard look. “I can’t help you if you’re not straight with me.”

“I’m not wonked, man!” Tim’s breathing grew ragged. “I’m clean.”

“How about allergies to drugs?”

“I don’t… think so. Jesus!”

“Okay, then. You’re doing good.” He patted the kid’s shoulder. From the corner of his eye, he saw Trent grab the traction splint. “Listen, Tim, we’re going to splint your leg. It’s going to hurt like crazy while we’re doing it, but as soon as the splint is in place, you’ll feel a lot better. Do you understand?”

The kid nodded, gritting his teeth.

Alec forced a reassuring smile. “You hang in there, scream all you want, and we’ll try to be fast, okay?”

Tim squeezed his eyes shut as tears leaked out.

Alec turned to Christine. Working around doctors had taught him to tiptoe over egos. “Hey, um, Trent and I are used to doing this together. You mind trading places with me?”

“What?” Christine glanced up. Blinked. “Oh.” Looking from Alec to Trent, she saw them waiting for her to move. With a laugh, she leaned back. “Not at all.”

She shifted to monitor—and distract—the patient. “Hey, Tim, how long have you been snowboarding?”

“Long time.” His face scrunched up.

“Two years? Three?”

“Four. Shit!”

She glanced over her shoulder and saw Trent supporting the leg while Alec strapped the splint into position. Turning back to Tim, she took hold of both his wrists and pressed them to his chest. “You hang on. They’ll be as fast as they can.”

“Here we go,” Alec warned.

Tim let loose a bloodcurdling scream as the splint pulled the lower leg away from the body to realign the bone. She leaned all her weight into holding him down.

“You got him?” Alec called over the yelling.

“Sort of!” She ducked as fists came flying toward her face.

“Done!” Alec announced.

Tim’s struggles stopped so abruptly, she tumbled on top of him. Sitting back, she saw he’d gone limp. “He’s unconscious. Airway clear. Breathing good.” She pressed her fingers to his neck and felt a steady pulse. “Pulse good. Check for circulation and reflex.”

Alec pressed his fingers to the pulse point at the ankle, then ran his finger up the bottom of the foot. “We’re good.”

A shadow fell across her and she looked up to see her father standing over her. He pointed at the IV

bag. “As much as he’s bleeding, you need to be forcing liquid.”

“I got it, Dad,” she growled since she’d already been reaching for the bag to squeeze it.

“Need any help?” her brother asked. “Not that I’m into inviting lawsuits.”

“No, I don’t need help.” Jesus, had they completely forgotten she was a trauma specialist? She looked to Trent. “I need a blanket.”

“Got it!” Trent hurried to the toboggan.

A thumping beat sounded overhead. She looked up to see life flight sweeping over the crest of the mountain, then circling overhead.

A voice sounded on Alec’s radio. He held it to his ear to hear over the noise of the helicopter, then lowered it to shout, “They can’t land here! We need to move downhill!”

Crap
! Christine thought. “Let’s get him on a spine board.” As much as Tim had been thrashing about, that was probably overly precautious, but better safe than sorry when transporting a patient.

While her brother and father watched, they strapped Tim to the board and lifted him into the toboggan. Christine climbed on, straddling Tim with her knees. The first IV was already empty, so she tossed it aside and started a second, all the while watching Tim for any signs of gagging or respiratory distress.

“You ready?” Trent called, clicking back into his skis.

“Yes. Let’s go!” She steadied herself with her free hand.

With Trent towing in front and Alec on the rear rope to keep control, they slid down the course toward level ground at the bottom. She spared a glance at her father and brother and gave thanks when they didn’t try to follow. The last thing she needed was them hovering over her, telling her how to do her job.

At the bottom of the course, a worker rushed forward to take the rope from Trent and pull the toboggan through a barrier. Other workers cleared a path through the curious bystanders.

Christine barely registered the crowd as they continued toward an open area where the helicopter had landed. Tim opened his eyes as the toboggan came to a halt, relieving her fear of a coma.

“Hey, there.” She smiled down at him. “How ya feeling?”

“A little sick,” he moaned.

“Do you know your name?”

“Tim O’Neil.”

“Great.”

The helo crew appeared beside her, helping her off.

“Tim, these men are going to get you to the hospital.” She gave his hand a reassuring squeeze. “You’re going to be fine. Okay?”

He nodded weakly.

She rattled off the patient’s status as the life flight crew took over. Within seconds, Tim was loaded inside and the helicopter was lifting off.

She stood between Trent and Alec, watching it sweep up and circle back over the mountain. As the thumping sound of the blades faded, she realized her heart was pumping to the same hard beat.

“Well.” She exhaled in a rush. “That’s certainly one way to get your adrenaline going.”

“No joke.” Alec laughed, then looked at her. “Now what were we discussing before Tim interrupted?”

Looking back at him, at his sunlit hair against the blue sky, at his wide smile and laughing eyes, suddenly she felt lighter than air. “I um, believe it was something about you being an unemployed ski bum and me being a rich bitch who’s never worked a day in her life.”

“Ah yes.” His smile grew broader. “I remember now.”

“Alec unemployed?” Trent laughed. “Crazy Alec who works twenty-four seven, and would whether they paid him or not?”

Her mind spun with all this new data. “Is that why they call you crazy? Because you’re a workaholic?”

He turned sheepish, although his smile never faded. “Well that and the, um, no-fear thing.”

“What ‘no-fear’ thing?”

“Yeah, Hunter,” Trent put in, even though they were too busy looking at each other to spare him a glance. “Tell her how you lecture us on safety, yet who’s the first one to make a risky helo jump, rappel down a cliff during a rock slide, or belly crawl across a snowbank that’s about to give?”

“That’s my job,” he said.

She shook her head in confusion. “Don’t paramedics usually leave that sort of stuff to trained search-and-rescue volunteers?”

“Hmmm.”“ He finally broke eye contact long enough to look at the blood-soaked gloves covering his hands. ”Why don’t we duck into the restroom and get cleaned up; then I’ll drive you back to the village. We can talk on the way.“

“Absolutely.” She sent him a glowing smile.

Stay open to surprises.

—
How to Have a Perfect Life

Alec tried not to fidget as he waited for Christine to join him at the gate, but that smile she’d given him had his pulse jumping. She’d looked ready to kiss him right there in front of Trent and a crowd of onlookers.

That had to be a good sign.

Unless she’d simply been caught up in a post-rescue rush.

Anyone who worked emergencies knew all about the endorphin high. And when you mixed men and women together, bumping into each other as they worked, was it any wonder that sex became a common release? Adrenaline was a really great aphrodisiac. One that currently had his body primed and ready to go.

No doubt it had effected Christine too, but he really hoped that it wasn’t the only thing behind the look she had given him. What if it was, though? What if she’d merely been temporarily juiced and it all wore off while she was in the women’s room?

She might come out and go right back to pushing him away.

Finally, she appeared, coming through the crowd, tall and graceful with her long coat flowing about her.

Her very ruined coat.

She stopped before him and held her arms out to the side, looking down. She’d rinsed her gloves but left them on; a wise choice with all that blood hopelessly soaked into the fur.

“I guess I forgot I wasn’t wearing scrubs.” When she looked up, he saw amusement dancing in her eyes. “Not that it would have made any difference. What was I going to say? ‘Excuse me, Tim, would you mind not bleeding while I find something more suitable to wear’?”

The fist in his chest relaxed a bit at seeing that the wall hadn’t gone back up.
This
was the woman he’d been steadily falling for over the past week: a contradiction between the polished surface and the irreverent humor bubbling beneath. He wanted to take her face in his hands and kiss her hard on the mouth.