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'It isn't God you should be thanking,' Pete said roughly. 'It's Keely. She ran into your house after the child and saved her life. If it hadn't been for Keely, Phoebe would definitely be dead, Zach. The girl's a bloody heroine.'
Keely?
Zach felt shell-shocked, his gaze shifting from the still form of his daughter to the other body on the stretcher in the ambulance. He hadn't even see that there was another person in the ambulance, he'd been so worried about his daughter.
'She had signs of laryngeal oedema so we've intubated her,' Pete told him. 'And she had morphine at the scene.'
Keely or Phoebe?
For a moment he couldn't take in what was being said. He couldn't think straight and he felt an unfamiliar panic grip him. Dragging a deep breath into his lungs, he forced himself to ignore the fact that it was Keely lying there, and that his precious daughter was injured, too. They needed his skills and he couldn't be objective unless he could switch off.
'OK.' He cleared his throat and pulled himself together, his expression grim. 'Let's get both of them into Resus.'
He scrambled out of the ambulance and sprinted back into the department. 'Nicky—get Tony Maxwell down here now and fast-bleep the first-on anaesthetist.'
He needed someone he trusted to look after his daughter while he concentrated on Keely. No way was he going to let her die. No way.
'Get her connected to an ECG monitor now—if she's inhaled smoke she might have arrhythmias, and let's measure carboxyhaemoglobin.' His instructions were terse. 'And get a line in, Adam. Move!'
Adam worked quickly and Sean Nicholson strode over to the trolley, his expression serious.
'I just heard. What do you want me to do?'
'Check on my daughter,' Zach said through gritted teeth. 'The paramedics told me they thought she was OK so I'm letting someone else deal with her.'
'I'll see to it,' Sean said quickly, moving across Resus to the other trolley.
'OK, Adam.' Zach looked up. 'Let's give her the highest possible concentration of humidified oxygen and get an IV up—we need to maintain circulating blood volume.'
'She's got a nasty burn on her hand,' Nicky said. 'Shall I dress it?'
'Let's get her stable first,' Zach said shortly. 'How are her vital signs?'
'She's doing well,' Adam said quickly. 'Her ECG is normal and her pulse and BP are stable.'
'Phoebe is going to be fine.' Sean appeared by Zach's shoulder. 'No sign of smoke inhalation or burns. I suspect she breathed in and then fell to the ground and that probably saved her. Keely obviously got her out before any lasting damage was done.'
She'd saved his daughter.
Zach pushed the thought away. He couldn't think about that now. He was too busy saving her.
Sean moved closer. 'How's she doing?'
'All right, I think. I want to do a chest X-ray. We've sent off bloods and we need to sort out her hand.'
Sean took a quick look. 'It isn't too bad. Smother it in silver sulphadiazine cream, Nicky, and put it inside a sterile plastic bag.'
Nicky scurried to do as he'd instructed and Zach and Adam finished all the necessary investigations and management before transferring Keely to the ward.
Only once he was satisfied that Keely was stable did Zach return to comfort his daughter, and it was then that it hit him.
He'd nearly lost both of them...
* * *
Her chest hurt.
Keely opened her eyes and blinked several times, her vision blurred as she looked round the sterile hospital room.
