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Fitz had been everything Stevie hadn’t been. She’d spent years acknowledging all the ways that Stevie wasn’t the right man for her, so when Fitz had come along she—or at least a part of her subconscious—had recognised in an instant all the qualities she knew she wanted in a man.
And now he was hurting and all she wanted to do was help, but there wasn’t time. She’d have to get to the bottom of it. Later. With a supreme effort, Elle pushed thoughts of Fitz from her mind and turned back to Roshan to ask where it hurt most and if there had been any blood. Despite the long metal shard in her abdomen, Elle conducted a quick visual triage knowing that the most obvious injury wasn’t always the most life-threatening.
As she finished, the interpreter hurried in with Jools. By the looks of them, the worst of the dust storm had passed, but that didn’t mean they were free and clear.
‘That looks bad. But then again, there isn’t much blood,’ the interpreter muttered quietly to her. ‘What do you want me to tell her?’
‘Nothing at the moment. There’s no way to know merely by looking. The lack of blood doesn’t prove anything. She’s breathing and talking, and she’s gesticulating so that’s good and I want to do a full primary check, but first I’d like to make sure she has no other injuries, specifically neck and back, and what state that penetrating injury is in, so that I can get her onto her left side.’
‘They keep telling her to stay on her back.’
‘Yes, I can see that, but I need you to explain that uterine compression on the inferior vena cava and aorta can aggravate shock in pregnant women, especially if they’re in the third trimester. Put it into whatever terms you need to in order to make them understand.’
She waved Fitz over. A darkness swirled in his eyes, almost mesmerising. But it seemed he still wasn’t going to speak. Elle stared in silence, feeling herself being drawn into their dangerous depths. She could drown in those depths and never realise it.
‘Can you get me a kit bag from the medical vehicle, blood-pressure monitor, blankets and maybe some kind of screen? Okay.’ Elle turned her focus to the mother with a soothing tone. ‘Let’s look after you.’
There was no point telling the woman everything would be all right. Although there was no evidence of vaginal bleeding or significant external bleeding from the penetration wound, Elle had no idea what was going on inside. The shard may or may not have caused direct trauma to the foetus, ruptured the placenta, damaged organs or caused internal bleeding. Yet the initial check was looking more positive than she’d feared.
By the time Fitz had returned with the bag, Elle was satisfied the woman’s pulse was strong, she wasn’t clammy or pale, and from the way she was describing the accident, frequently punctuated by sharp pleas to make sure her baby was all right, she didn’t seem confused or weak in any way.
‘What now?’ Fitz appeared suddenly at her shoulder, his voice uncharacteristically tight.
‘At this point I’m as satisfied as I can be that Roshan isn’t going into hypovolemic shock. Neitherr does she indicate any kind of abdominal pain, even from the metal shard. Now I can only hope the penetration wound isn’t as deep as I’d feared, but we still need to pack her carefully for moving her.’
‘You’re moving her?’ Fitz didn’t look happy.
‘With that shard in her side, I want to check the baby’s well-being then do a secondary check on the mother. We’ll have to get them to our hospital, Razorwire’s too far away or I’d call it in.’
‘If the baby’s alive, will you need to operate? To save it?’
‘A C-section? Not necessarily,’ Elle answered grimly. ‘Besides, until the hospital is up and running we have no incubators or anything to help. We don’t even have the new generators yet. But it’s too soon to tell what Roshan or her baby might need.’
Slipping in the earpieces of her portable foetal heart monitor just in case, Elle prepared herself as she searched for the heartbeat, her eyes locked to the screen. It was almost a shock when she found it, slightly slower than she would have preferred but strong and steady.
Clicking for a printout, Elle removed the earphones so that the woman could hear the sound of her baby for herself. She was rewarded with a flood of tears from the mother.
‘It’s alive,’ Fitz bit out.
‘Yes, not in any immediate distress.’
‘Then you’re leaving the metal in situ?’
‘I’d prefer to, yes,’ she confirmed, knowing he would understand that from combat injuries. ‘At the moment it doesn’t appear to be causing an issue and we’ll have more on hand back at the hospital, if anything goes wrong.’
‘So now?’
‘Now we make sure everyone else is okay.’
‘Already done. Jools and your team have taken the rest over to the other building. It’s calm outside now. They’ll deal with everyone and we’ve got anyone who needs further attention onto appropriate vehicles. Most look to be only superficial injuries, the only vehicle really damaged was the one carrying the woman and her husband and he has a head wound she wants you to look at.’
‘Great.’ Elle nodded, those black depths drawing her in again.
She struggled to break free. She would drown, that was the point, because Fitz would never throw her a lifeline. Not because he didn’t want to but because somehow he didn’t think he could. At least, not in his personal life. In his professional life as a leader Fitz not only lived up to but exceeded his responsibilities—she’d seen that for herself over the last couple of weeks. But in his personal life he appeared to have some ridiculous notion that he destroyed life, destroyed people. He was the one who needed a lifeline, and Elle couldn’t shake the belief that she was the only one who could offer it to him.
‘What was that about, Fitz?’ she asked softly.
‘It was nothing.’
