“On it.” His partner rushed off and Brodie yanked at the passenger door. It didn’t budge. He needed to get in so he tried again, resting his foot against the side of the car in an attempt to get leverage. The metal was twisted and he didn’t have time to deal with waiting for his team or another one to arrive with the jaws of life to pry it open. Giving it another good yank, the door screeched open allowing him access inside.
The wind whipped up around him as the helicopter came in for its landing. He put himself, as much as he could, in front of the patient so that the small pieces of the debris flying up from the road wouldn’t cause more damage to her.
Once things settled down, he reached for his bag and pulled out a flashlight, positioning it so that he could see what he was working with. Grabbing some gauze pads, he pressed them against the deep cut on her forehead. The seatbelt was cutting in, but he didn’t want to release it until he had a better idea of her injuries. He pressed and prodded and took mental notes of what he found so that he could address them systematically.
He was aware of footsteps running up behind him. “What have we got?” A confident feminine voice sounded behind. A voice he recognized as belonging to Mitch’s fiancée, Nadia.
“Nadia, good to see you,” he said as he swiveled around and paused. Standing next to her was a dark-haired woman carrying a medical bag. For a moment he forgot all the chaos around him and focused on her. He couldn’t explain why she captured his attention. He hadn’t met her before because he was sure he would’ve remembered her. All he knew was he wished it was under different circumstances than an accident scene that they were meeting. He’d love nothing better than to sit and talk to her. Get to know her better.
In the muted light he thought he caught the glint of glitter on her eyelids.
Glitter?
No, he had to be mistaken.
“Hey, Brodie, I wondered if you’d be out here. Doesn’t look good, does it?” Nadia’s voice had all the sounds from the surrounding area rushing back to him. Shit, he’d never lost focus like that before and he couldn’t afford to now. So many lives depended on him keeping his head in the game.
“Nope, the driver is deceased. The female passenger was conscious for a few seconds after we got here before passing out. Her pulse is weak. Major cut on her forehead. Her abdomen is firm, suggesting internal injuries and bleeding. Lacerations to the legs and feet. I suspect she also has a fracture to her left leg and possible right arm fracture as well.” Listing the findings from his preliminary examination redirected his attention to where it should be.
“Right, let’s get to this. Cerise, I’ll need you to work with Brodie to keep the patient stable while I try and lower the seat. I’m going to do it in increments to ensure we don’t cause more damage.”
“On it, Dr. Fletcher. Neck brace first?” Her voice was quiet and gentle, and sent shivers down his spine.
“Yep.”
The way Nadia and Cerise spoke and moved, suggested to Brodie they’d worked together regularly.
As Cerise leaned in to place the brace around the patient’s neck, he caught a whiff of her light floral scent. He couldn’t determine what the exact fragrance was but he knew he liked it. And yes, she wore glitter eyeliner. He’d never been a fan of the item he’d heard people call “every art teacher’s nightmare,” but he had to admit he liked it on her. It gave her a whimsical air which, in times as stressful as the one they were smack dab in the middle of, was much needed.
Geez, he’d lost his focus again. He gave himself a mental slap on the back of the head and concentrated on the task at hand.
Once the neck brace was in place, he pulled open the back door and climbed in, ready to control the movement as the seat was lowered. “Ready when you are.”
Cerise looked up and their gazes connected. A rush of emotion slammed into him like he’d never experienced before, and one he had no name for. Only that it left him slightly breathless and, by the way her eyes widened and her fingers slipped from where they’d been holding the patient’s head, he hazarded a guess she’d experienced the same or a similar reaction as well. So his immediate response to her hadn’t been a fluke.
She visibly shook her head, lowering it so her attention was directed on the patient and not on him. “Patient’s stabilized, Dr. Fletcher. Do you want to start lowering the seat?”
“Brodie, you good?” Nadia asked, in complete doctor mode.
Brodie braced himself on the back seat and rested his knees into the back of the passenger seat. “In position.”
“I’m going to start lowering on three. One, two, three.”
The seat began to lower, and the woman moaned as if the movement had pulled her back to the present.
Brodie leaned forward. “We’ve got you, ma’am. We’ll get you out of here.”
Whatever happened in the next few minutes, he would keep his word to her. He just hoped when they did extract her from the car, she’d still be alive.
CHAPTER TWO
Cerise’s stomachdropped as the helicopter lifted off the ground, a sensation she still wasn’t used to. All the trauma staff at the medical center had gone through a rigorous training process in preparation for the arrival of the life flight helicopter. Not once during that training had anyone mentioned how a person’s body would react to the motion of the aircraft. Glancing at the small screen monitoring the vitals of the woman they’d pulled out of the car, she said a prayer that the flight would be quick. The patient needed surgery, fast.
Working with Nadia in the ER was always an eye-opener, with the way she maintained her cool when chaos surrounded her. Hell, Cerise had experienced it when she’d been injured herself in the tornado that ripped through Hunt the previous year. A shudder trickled through her as the memory of almost dying slammed into her mind. Tonight, though, Nadia had known exactly what to do to make sure the patient was given the best chance to survive.
The three of them—her, Nadia and Brodie from the Hunt VFD—had managed to pull off a miracle. Well, it would be a miracle, if the patient survived the night.
Shifting to get comfortable in the small helicopter seat, and determined not to think about her own brush with death, Cerise let her mind venture into the unusual reaction she’d had the first time she met Brodie’s eyes. She’d just finished putting the brace around the patient’s neck when he’d let Nadia know he was ready for her to start lowering the seat. Her job was to make sure that she kept the victim’s neck still and to monitor any change in her skin pallor. But for a few seconds she’d lost her train of thought and her heart had sped up until it was beating about triple it’s normal rate. After that initial eye contact, she’d kept her attention firmly off the handsome volunteer firefighter.
