Where The Heart Is. Kate Hardy
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of heat your body’s losing to the air.’ Luke gave Melissa a tight smile. ‘Don’t look so scared. He should warm up again in three to four hours.’
‘We need to avoid afterdrop, so we’ll keep his arms and legs uncovered, but we’ll cover his head and neck,’ Rowena added quietly. Because the body’s extremities cooled faster than the torso, if they warmed his arms and legs, the colder blood in Stephen’s limbs would re-enter his circulation and make his hypothermia worse. Heat was lost more quickly from the head, so keeping Stephen’s head covered would help.
Luke’s eyes narrowed. ‘You know about hypothermia?’
Oh, no. She’d been bandying technical terms about without thinking. It must be obvious to him that she was a medic. ‘I’ve done some first aid,’ she admitted. It just happened to be part of her job as an emergency department registrar. Though he didn’t need to know that much detail.
‘Do I get him a drink now?’ Melissa asked.
‘Not until he stops shivering,’ Luke said. ‘But shivering’s a good sign. It means your body’s warming up again,’ he added to Stephen.
‘When you get too cold, your body loses the shiver reflex,’ Rowena explained.
‘Right,’ Melissa said, biting her lip. ‘So he’s going to be OK?’
‘We’ll keep an eye on him but, yes, he should be fine,’ Luke reassured her.
‘Go and get changed,’ Rowena told him. ‘I can cope here for a few minutes.’
Again, Luke gave her that assessing stare, but he nodded and left. When he returned, he was wearing jeans—old, faded, but snug enough to make Rowena feel a surge of lust—and a black fleece.
‘Should I get you a warm drink?’ Melissa asked.
‘That’d be kind. Yes, please,’ Rowena said, before Luke could say anything. When the young woman had left the room, she glanced at Stephen. He looked drowsy; the chances were he wasn’t going to pay that much attention to what she was saying. She added quietly to Luke, ‘She needs something to do—something to make her feel as if she’s helping. She’s feeling guilty about what’s happened.’
His eyes were hard. ‘So she damned well should. Of all the stupid things—drinking and then going near the edge of the lake! It’d be bad enough on a warm night in a hot country, but to do it here, on the edge of a glacial lake in the middle of winter…’
‘Hey. She’s young, she’s frightened. She knows she’s done wrong, and if you shout at her you’re likely to make that whole bunch aggressive towards you.’ Rowena had seen it happen before too many times on a Saturday night—a lot of the Saturday night emergency cases could be traced back to the effects of alcohol. The ones who came in with the emergency case had usually been drinking, too, and from her first weekend in the ED Rowena had been taught to defuse the situation, keep it light and make sure any aggression didn’t spiral out of control. ‘Keep it calm.’
‘But it was such a stupid—’
‘I know. She knows. They all know. Trust me, you don’t need to give them a lecture.’
Melissa came in and overheard Rowena’s last words. ‘Yeah. She’s already done it for you—in a nice way. I’m sorry. We all are,’ she said. She took Stephen’s hand. ‘Steve’s kid brother died from leukaemia,’ she said quietly.
Stephen opened his eyes. ‘Being here—we’re trying to do something to help, so it doesn’t happen to someone else,’ he mumbled. ‘Sorry I caused all this trouble.’
‘It wasn’t your fault,’ Melissa defended him. She turned back to face Luke and Rowena. ‘Steve was feeling a bit raw tonight, so we thought we’d cheer him up. We didn’t realise how strong those pisco sours were—or how near the edge of the lake we were. It won’t happen again.’
Rowena saw a muscle tighten in Luke’s face. He was clearly reining in his temper—but why? Had he seen someone die in the glacial waters around here? Or was it the story of Steve’s brother that had upset him? Had Luke lost a younger brother or sister?
It’s nothing to do with you, she reminded herself. Back off. And he hasn’t told you of his own free will, so prying is just going to hurt him.
In the end, Luke shrugged. ‘It’s getting late. You’d better get some sleep.’
‘I’d rather stay.’
‘It’s going to take a while until Steve’s warmed up again,’ Luke said shortly. ‘You’d be better off getting some rest. We’ve got a long day tomorrow.’
‘But—’ Melissa began.
‘Don’t worry, we’re going to keep checking his temperature until it’s back up to normal,’ Luke said.
‘We’ll call you if there’s anything we need,’ Rowena promised, seeing that the young woman was near to tears. ‘He’s going to be fine.’ When Melissa left, she glanced at Stephen, who’d dropped back into a doze, and said, ‘You didn’t need to be quite that harsh with her.’
Luke’s face said it all for him. Back off. Now.
She changed tack. ‘I don’t suppose there’s any chance of warmed, humidified oxygen?’ They’d need it if Stephen started to deteriorate, and she’d be happier if she knew it was nearby.
‘Put it this way, where we’re going tomorrow, the only contact we’ll have with the outside world is by radio,’ Luke said dryly. ‘We’re a long way from a state-of-the-art medical facility.’
‘Just wondered.’
‘If I think he’s deteriorating, I’ll call the air ambulance.’
Still that tightness in his voice. Something had clearly upset him, but she could tell that he wasn’t going to talk to her about it. She sat in silence with him, writing down sets of observations every fifteen minutes.
The next thing she knew, Luke was shaking her awake.
‘Huh?’ Then years of practice from her time as a junior doctor came to the fore, and she was awake instantly. ‘Sorry. I meant to stay awake, help you.’
‘No pasa nada. If you’re not used to being outdoors all day, the fresh air tends to make you sleep well at night.’
She flushed. ‘Even so. How’s Steve?’
‘His temperature’s back to normal.’
She glanced at her watch. As she’d expected, it had taken three hours. ‘That’s good.’
‘We’ll hand him over to Melissa now.’ He shepherded her out of the room and found Melissa, who was hunched over a half-empty mug of tepid coffee.
Melissa looked worried, as if she wanted to know what was going on but was scared Luke would bite her head off if she asked.
Luke obviously saw it, too, because his tone was gentler this time. ‘I’m sorry I snapped at you earlier. I guess being drenched in ice-cold water doesn’t do much for my manners.’
She smiled awkwardly. ‘Sorry.’
Luke put her in the picture quickly. ‘If you’re at all worried during the night—and I mean if anything doesn’t seem quite right to you—then I want you to call me. It’s unlikely he’ll develop any complications but if he does, the earlier we know about it the better chance we have of helping him.’
‘I promise,’ Melissa said solemnly. ‘And thank you. I know what happened was our fault, and we didn’t deserve…’ Her voice tailed away.
‘Hey.’ Luke squeezed her shoulder. ‘I was young once. I’ve got drunk and done stupid things. Though I drew the line at swimming in a glacial lake in the middle of winter.’
‘Well. Thank you anyway,’ she said,