Harper opened the medical kit and pulled out a stethoscope. “I’m better than I thought.” She glanced at Owen.
“I’m doing okay,” he told them. “What do you need next?”
Zac glanced at Owen. “Get me a tourniquet fast. There’s one in the medical kit beside me.”
With Owen leaving the bus to help Zac, Harper’s hands moved with a precision born of necessity.
She channeled her earlier distress into making sure the woman she was looking after could breathe and lost as little blood as possible. As she worked, she avoided looking at the metal entombing them. The woman she was trying to comfort had enough chaos around her without Harper adding to her stress.
As they worked, Owen kept the emergency services team updated with what was happening. When he could, he made sure everyone outside the bus was as comfortable as possible.
Harper breathed a sigh of relief at the sound of sirens wailing toward them. They hadn’t been here long, but it felt like a lifetime.
As soon as the firefighters and paramedics arrived, Zac left the mangled wreck to tell them about each patient, and what they’d done to help them. Harper glanced across at him, feeling a mix of admiration and exhaustion. This was the part of being a trauma nurse she remembered all too well—the aftermath, when the adrenaline faded and reality set in.
When the firefighters were ready to cut the driver and the front passenger out of the bus, Harper and Owen left them to do their work.
Owen’s face was pale but composed. He caught Harper’s eye and sent her a relieved smile. Despite their PTSD, they’d helped everyone involved in the accident.
With the flashing lights and the sound of crunching metal surrounding them, a wave of panic threatened to overwhelm Harper. The intensity of the situation, the memories it stirred of her time in New York, and the stark reminder of the fragility of life, hit her all at once.
Owen must have noticed her distress. Moving closer, he wrapped an arm around her shoulders. “I feel the same way. Let’s wait by Zac’s truck.”
When they got there, Harper leaned forward. With her hands resting on her knees, she took a deep breath, trying to steady her racing heart. “I just need a minute.”
“Take all the time you need,” Owen assured her.
Harper nodded, grateful he was here with her. Slowly, she straightened and felt slightly better. The sound of the emergency services working in the background became a distant buzz. Being farther away from the accident made it easier to push it to the back of her mind.
Owen held her cold hand in his. “You did great.”
“So did you. How are you feeling?”
“A little overwhelmed,” he replied. “But I’m glad I could help.”
The doors to one of the ambulances closed and the driver hurried around the vehicle. “I don’t know how to switch off,” she confessed, a vulnerable admission that she’d rarely voiced aloud. “Even after all the years I was nursing, I haven’t worked out how to separate my personal life from situations like this.”
Owen gently squeezed her shoulder. “You don’t have to switch off, not completely. It’s part of who you are and what makes you special.”
Harper’s eyes filled with tears. How could anyone feel overwhelmed with someone like Owen in their lives? “Are you sure you’re okay?”
“I’ll be better once we leave. The breathing exercises Pastor John showed me are helping.”
Harper sent him a weak smile. “I should come to more meetings.”
Before Owen could reply, Zac joined them. “You both made an enormous difference today. If you weren’t here, we could have lost at least one of the passengers.”
Harper leaned into Owen. “You did great, too, Zac. I hope everyone will be okay.”
They stood together in silence, watching the last ambulance leave, and the rescue helicopter take the patients with the most serious injuries to the nearest trauma center. For Harper, it was a stark reminder of why she’d become a nurse—and why she’d left.
As they prepared to drive back to town, she was already thinking about the days ahead. For the patients and their families, there’d be follow-up appointments with doctors, recovery stories, perhaps even a hard goodbye. But, for now, she was grateful to have been here to help, and for Owen and Zac’s support.
With unsteady handson the steering wheel, Owen drove down the quiet streets of Sapphire Bay. Dropping Harper off at her granddad’s had been harder than he’d thought. He wanted to spend time with her, de-stress from what they’d seen and heard. But, as much as that would have helped him, she needed to be with Benjamin.
Unlike Harper, he wasn’t ready to see his family. Instead of going to a restaurant, his mom had cooked dinner for everyone. Daniella’s fiancé would be at his parents’ house, along with a few other friends they’d invited.
He couldn’t think of anything worse than trying to pretend that nothing out of the ordinary had happened. So, instead of going home for dinner, he was on his way to Steve’s house.
