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‘Myles, of course.’ Clara rolled her eyes. ‘Or should I say Major Myles? Army trauma surgeon.’
Rae’s head snapped up from the chart she was filling out to look at the woman.
‘Has something happened?’
‘Apparently there was a gas explosion near the forward camp—’
‘Was he hurt?’ She gripped the edge of the table, her knuckles white with the effort. Relief flooded through her as Clara shook her head.
‘Not him. It was in the refugee camp. A couple of families were cooking over a gas stove when the canister exploded.’
‘Serious injuries?’ She fough
t to stay focussed, in control, as she glanced between the two mothers in labour, never more grateful for a quiet lull in her shift.
‘Multiple.’ Clara pulled a face. ‘But one of them was a kid with a crushed leg. The docs there deemed it unsalvageable, and then your Myles stepped up and apparently had some battlefield skills he’d picked up, which enabled him to save the limb.’
‘He’s not my Myles,’ Rae muttered. ‘Anyway, he operated?’
‘Don’t know, he didn’t come out here as a surgeon so possibly not. But he went into the operating area with one of the surgeons and I’m guessing if he couldn’t operate himself then he at least talked the surgeon through it.’
Myles, operating again? Even by proxy, it was a huge step forward.
‘So, the kid’s okay?’
‘They’re transferring the casualties here as soon as they’re stable, maybe tomorrow. I think someone said the little girl will need more surgeries over the next few weeks, including skin grafts.’
‘How do you know this?’ Rae stepped forward as she thought one of her mothers might need her, then stopped as the girl was tended to by her mother.
‘The other volunteers are back and it’s all they can talk about. The mess hall is buzzing. Figured you might want to know.’
‘Thanks.’ Rae nodded; for the first time since she’d been here she silently cursed the never-abating flow of women ready to give birth.
Maybe when she finished her on-call shift, she could swing by his room.
Maybe.
‘Myles...’ she knocked tentatively ‘...are you there?’
Silence, and then, just as she was about to leave, he pushed the door open then backed into the room wordlessly.
The pre-planned teasing quip died on her lips and, in the absence of a verbal invitation, she took that to be the only encouragement she was going to get, and followed.
‘I thought you might be asleep.’
It felt like an eternity before he answered.
‘I can’t sleep. That is... I can’t bring myself to.’
‘Are you okay?’
She braced herself for him to brush it off. To dismiss her. So it was a surprise when he sat down, his elbows on his knees, his hands clasped between, and his body leaning forward.
‘I don’t know.’
Carefully, Rae turned the other chair around, sat down, and waited. The quiet swirled around them, almost peaceful.
But opposite her Myles was too silent, too still. As though there were a storm raging in his head that only he could hear. As though it were buffeting him whilst leaving her untouched, only a few feet away.
