AllFreeNovel
Share Us
‘What do you need me to do, Boss?’
Polite and deferential—all part of his Army training—but her throat was nevertheless too dry for her to answer. The idea of being boss to Dr Ben Abrams would have been a daunting prospect at the best of times, let alone given all the baggage between the two of them.
‘Boss...?’
She heard the gentle prompting in his tone. Jack didn’t know Ben well enough to pick up on it, but she knew Ben was trying to encourage her. She was both grateful and resentful at the same time.
‘You remember Ron and Andy? My paramedics?’
‘Yeah, and Harry, our pilot,’ Ben confirmed. ‘I’ve just been to introduce myself to them all again.’
Of course he had, she bristled. He might appear deferential, but he was used to running the show. How was he going to respond to taking orders from her? Because she would be giving them. That much had changed in five years. This was her team and she was responsible for what went on in the field during her watch. She took that responsibility seriously and she had her own way of doing things. A way which suited her guys.
Two bosses vying to take charge. Now what? How was this possibly going to work?
‘Thea—new call-out,’ Jack cut in with sudden efficiency as he slipped his headphones from around his neck to cover his head. ‘Sounds like a horse rider fell—the road ambulance have requested our assistance.’
Well, it seemed as though she was about to find out.
With a rush of adrenalin lending her strength, Thea turned her focus to the screen to read the incoming transcript. There was an open fracture to the ankle, hence the request for a trauma doctor. It didn’t take her long to make a decision, and she spun around to Ben.
‘Alert Andy and Harry and grab the gear. There won’t be enough seats if we have to transport anyone, so tell Ron he can monitor from here. Meet you at the heli.’
‘Understood.’ Ben issued the automatic verbal confirmation before ducking out of the door.
‘Send the co-ordinates to the chopper, Jack, and update me with anything as we’re in flight.’
‘Roger.’ Jack dipped his head.
Racing out into the corridor, Thea grabbed her own kit and headed out onto the Tarmac, swinging up into her seat just moments behind the others.
‘Harry—you’ve met Ben already, I understand? He’s a military trauma surgeon, recently returned from Afghanistan,’ Thea stated, as soon as Harry had completed his checks and they were airborne. It was a discreet attempt to establish herself as team leader.
‘Yeah, turns out we served in the same region a couple of years ago.’ Harry smiled. ‘Although we never met out there.’
Another veteran who no doubt knew of Ben’s reputation. Thea couldn’t help another small stab of apprehension. If Harry knew Ben in a professional capacity she might have to work even harder to ensure she didn’t end up losing control of her own team. It was almost out of her hands. The dynamics of the team largely depended, whether she liked it or not, on how well Ben could take orders from her.
‘Keep a look-out as we approach the scene and stay alert,’ Thea advised Ben over the headset. ‘The rider was apparently on a hack alongside a canal, so when we get closer we’ll follow the canal and look for somewhere to land. By the map it looks like there are some accessible fields nearby. You can learn a lot from the scene with a bird’s-eye view like this.’
‘Acknowledged.’
No doubt he already knew all that, from his military training, but so far he didn’t appear to be trying to take command—subconsciously or not.
‘Approaching scene,’ Harry confirmed about ten minutes later.
‘Rapid response vehicles, eleven o’clock,’ Thea observed.
‘Noted.’
As Harry checked the area for safe landing sites and brought the chopper gently down, Thea waited for the thumbs-up before nodding to her team and jumping to the ground.
She covered the distance to the casualty quickly, taking in everything around them as she introduced herself and her team to the patient and offered some brief reassurance. A quick visual confirmed the leg injury.
‘Open fracture above the ankle.’
‘Right.’ Ben nodded grimly.
His jaw had locked, and she knew he had the same concerns as her. Open fractures to the ankle were often associated with a lack of blood supply to the foot, which could result in the loss of the foot itself. Like her, he must be running through ways to protect the blood supply.
