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‘Details?’
‘Pilot. Captain Rizalino Lim. He’s flying to Kadena, then Okinawa today.’
‘I’ll find the details while I put you through to the General.’
Katsuko could almost hear her fingers fly across the keyboard. Her father had always been great when families had medical emergencies on the base. He would do everything he could to find the relative and get them back to their family. On occasion, it couldn’t happen. But nine times out of ten her father would make sure it did.
‘Something wrong?’
She smiled. He was all business. She quickly explained. If she closed her eyes for a second she could picture him. With one hand he’d be playing with a pencil, making little notes on the pad in front of him. He’d be nodding his head slowly too.
There was a loud creaking noise. His door.
‘Ah, that’s Leah with the details. Give me a second. Hmm...yes. Yes, that should be fine. Katsuko, tell Mrs Lim that arrangements are being made for her husband to be with her and Jay as soon as possible. Leah will also arrange for one of our welfare officers to come and wait with her until her husband arrives. Everything else okay?’
She was surprised. When she phoned him about air force business he didn’t tend to talk about anything else. ‘Yes, why shouldn’t it be?’
‘I haven’t seen much of you these last few days.’
Her skin prickled a little. ‘Don, I’m twenty-five. I have a social life.’
‘Any kind of social life I should know about?’
Now her whole body prickled. Someone had told him—told him that she was spending time with Avery. There was nothing surer.
She looked instantly over her shoulder. If her father knew, there was no point pretending her colleagues hadn’t noticed things too. She might as well have a neon sign flashing above her head.
She gave a silent shake of her head. Don would soon get around to asking her outright. She’d just need to figure out what kind of answer she was going to give him.
‘Nothing you should know, Don. Don’t worry.’
She put down the phone and sucked in a deep breath. Her head didn’t know what to do with this information. She spun around and saw Avery’s outline behind the darkened window of the relatives’ room.
Darn it. She even liked his reflection. And as for the unexpected feel and taste of his lips on hers the other night... She squeezed her eyes shut. Thinking about it pushed every other thought from her brain. Not something she could do at work—ever.
She straightened her shoulders and walked back down the corridor, entering the relatives’ room and giving Mrs Lim a reassuring smile. ‘General Williams wants to assure you he’s making arrangements to get your husband back to be with you both.’ She held out her hand. ‘Will we take Mrs Lim along to sit with her son?’
He put a gentle arm around Mrs Lim and led her down towards the resus room. Mrs Lim put her hand up to her mouth when she saw Jay. Frank came over to join her and waited patiently while Avery explained what he could. ‘At this point we have to look at why Jay’s having these symptoms. Meningitis is a likely cause and it’s something that has to be treated straight away. Because of that we’ve got Jay on some intravenous antibiotics. We also have him on some other drugs for some of the other symptoms he’s having. He’s agitated, has been vomiting and has a high temperature. We need to monitor Jay very carefully for the next few hours. You’re welcome to stay and sit with him.’
She turned around. ‘But he’s had injections for meningitis. It can’t be that.’
Avery nodded and pointed towards the computer. ‘We’re lucky. I have access to Jay’s medical records. He has had some vaccinations for Hib, a strain of meningitis, and Men C, another strain. But there are many different types of meningitis and we don’t have vaccines for them all.’
‘So this is a different kind?’
Avery nodded. ‘We think so. We’ve taken some blood from him for testing—the results will show if there are bacteria in his blood. Unfortunately, the other test we need to do is called a lumbar puncture. We’d have to curl Jay on his side and put a needle into a specific part of his spine to collect some fluid. Jay is just too agitated to do that test.’
‘Will it matter?’ Her eyes were wide.
He took a deep breath. ‘We might not be able to specify the exact type of meningitis, but we would still be able to identify it as a bacterial meningitis.’
‘Would his treatment change?’
Avery shook his head. ‘It would still be intravenous antibiotics. We just need to wait and see how he is over the next few hours.’
Frank came over to show Mrs Lim to a seat. He gave a nod to Avery and Katsuko. ‘I’ll give you a shout if I need you.’
Katsuko gave Avery a little smile. Both of them could recognise the signs of being told unofficially to take a break. They were lucky. The ER had its own coffee room. Staff here frequently didn’t have time to make it to the hospital canteen or other facilities.
Katsuko flicked the switch on the kettle and opened the huge tin that sat in the middle of the coffee table.
Avery looked over her shoulder and pulled something out. ‘What are these things? I see them everywhere.’
She gave a laugh as she spooned some coffee into the mugs. ‘I think you’d call them...’ she pointed to the first packet ‘...chocolate pretzel sticks, and those ones...’ she pointed to the other ‘...are strawberry rice cakes.’
Avery was still staring at the pictures on the packaging.
She poured some water into the cups. ‘They are two of most popular snacks in Japan. Think of it as an initiation of fire.’
He pulled open the first packet and sagged down onto a chair as Katsuko tipped some milk into the mugs, stirred the coffee and brought them over. She hesitated for a second, then sat down next to him. There wasn’t much point in worrying if someone saw them sitting together.
Avery settled back, letting his sh
oulder come into contact with hers. ‘Okay, introduce me to your strange snacks. I wanted potato chips and a candy bar.’
She raised her eyebrows. ‘What? No apples or bananas?’
‘Usually yes. But today? After that diagnosis? Definitely something sweet and nasty.’
She handed him the chocolate pretzel sticks. He took a few and started eating. After a few minutes he smiled, picking up his coffee and relaxing a little. ‘Hey, these are actually okay. I could get used to these.’
‘You’ll have to. There isn’t much else in the tin.’
He turned his head towards her. ‘So, you’re off in a few days. Where are we going?’
She was trying so hard to appear like the coolest woman on the planet as she felt all the blood starting to rush to her cheeks and ruin her disguise.
And, for some strange reason, What makes you think we’re going anywhere? turned into, ‘Where do you want to go?’ She wasn’t entirely sure how that had happened.
What had happened to the walls she’d wanted to build around herself earlier? The fact she didn’t really want to give her colleagues anything to talk about? It seemed a few hours in the company of Avery Flynn made her go against all the things she’d planned in her head.
He gave a little nod. ‘You took me to the busiest place on the planet the last time. This time I’d like to go somewhere a little quieter.’
Uh-oh. Those pale green eyes were staring at her. And there was a definite twinkle in them. She didn’t want her brain to start imagining what he was hinting at. If that was what he’d done in the busiest place on the planet, what could he do somewhere quieter?
She gave a little nod. ‘Tokyo is huge. I’m sure I can find us somewhere more scenic to go.’
He grinned. ‘And definitely quieter?’
There he went again, teasing her. She could play him at his own game.
‘I have the perfect place in mind.’
CHAPTER SIX
HE’D TOLD KATSUKO he would pick her up at home but she’d suggested they meet in the base coffee shop. Part of him was relieved and part of him was a little put out. Was she trying to hide him from her father? And did he really want to be under the General’s interrogating gaze anyway?
