‘Good. And you’ve been doing a great job around here; nice to have you on board.’
‘It’s just a bit of tidying and cleaning.’
‘It means nobody else has to do it,’ Vik told him. ‘It means we can focus on other things. It means we don’t have to pay someone either, so we can use the funds for life-saving missions.’
‘How much does each mission cost?’ Beau asked the pilot.
‘Around £3,000.’
Beau’s eyes widened. Hudson was pretty sure he’d already told his son facts like this over time but he knew the deal: kids listened to others more than their parents, who they assumed didn’t know much at all. The thought tickled him sometimes; other times, it was frustrating.
They left Vik to it and headed inside the hangar where Hudson picked up the empty mug he’d put inside when he took the broom in.
‘Everyone is being really nice to me,’ said Beau. ‘I don’t deserve it.’
‘You made a mistake, you’re sorry; that’s what they see. And they’re a great bunch here. I’m lucky.’
‘Yeah.’
In the kitchen, Hudson put the mug in the dishwasher. ‘Your apology went a long way; it was much better to admit to the hoax than have it come out at a later date.’
When Brad came into the kitchen for one of the blueberry muffins Nadia had baked and brought in this morning, Beau asked him whether they’d ever had a mid-air emergency on the helicopter. ‘I was going to ask Vik but I forgot.’
Brad bit into his muffin. ‘No major emergencies, no – we’re lucky, Vik and Maya are two of the best pilots around.’
Beau had umpteen questions about Brad’s job – when he’d joined The Skylarks, what they’d been tasked with today, what sort of emergencies they might be faced with.
‘Honestly, kid, every day is different.’ Brad popped the last morsel of muffin into his mouth. ‘That’s why I love my job: no time to get bored.’
Hudson watched and listened, gauging his son’s interest. He’d never seen him focus so intently unless it was when he was talking about his favourite football team, Chelsea. They talked about ventilating a patient at the scene, transfusing blood, emergency surgical procedures on occasion.
‘Did you study for ages?’ Beau asked.
‘Quite a while but it was all worth it.’
‘He has to say that,’ said Nadia when she joined them in the kitchen. ‘He knows he’ll be in trouble with the rest of The Skylarks otherwise.’
When Dorothy appeared in the doorway with the fresh supply of bloods, Beau was still eager to know more and Brad didn’t seem to mind the line of questioning at all.
‘Come with me,’ he said, ‘let me show you where we keep these blood products and then I’ll show you around the inside of the helicopter, all the equipment in the back.’
‘He’s kind of in his element.’ Nadia smiled at Hudson when the other two left.
‘Which one?’
She laughed. ‘How’s Beau doing?’
‘In general, pretty good.’
‘You still seem worried.’
‘I let things slip. I wasn’t there enough for him.’
‘You can’t keep blaming yourself.’
‘Who else can I blame? Lucinda and I did this between us. I’m only glad Carys is so young that she had an initial wobble, but more or less settled into our new normal very quickly.’ He sat at the table.
Nadia sat down opposite. ‘My mum struggled to parent two of us equally, at least from my point of view. But she did try her very best; I never doubted that. She just had no more of herself to give. From what I know about you, Hudson, you seem to have done as much as you could.’
