From Duty to Daddy (6 page)

‘Sounds like a plan,’ she mumbled.

He started another lot of toast, this time keeping his eyes focused on it.

* * *

‘Another scorcher of a day,’ Marshall said as he pushed Aimee’s stroller along the footpath.

‘Hope Dad remembers his sun block. The number of times he’s come home off the lake redder than a strawberry is unbelievable, considering he’s a family doctor supposed to be warning his patients about the dangers of melanoma.’

‘Did you become a doctor because your father was one?’

The things Marshall didn’t know about her. ‘In some ways I guess I did. I liked the way he helped people and could make them better. The community spirit of general practice also appealed. But I honestly can’t remember a time I wasn’t going to do medicine. At ten I thought surgeons were the best then at twelve I liked the idea of radiology. Pathology followed until Dad pointed out how isolated pathologists could be.’

‘I can’t quite see you sitting behind a microscope all day.’

‘No, I’m definitely more of a people person and being a GP suits me, though I toyed with the idea of specialising in emergency medicine right up until I found out I was pregnant.’

‘Did that have anything to do with your time in Honolulu?’

‘You can wipe that cheeky grin off your face.’ She playfully whacked his biceps and wished she could wrap her hand around it. ‘Yes, you made the ED exciting for me.’ When his grin stretched further she shook her head at him. ‘Not the after-hours stuff back in our rooms but the nitty-gritty urgency of traumatised patients. I liked not knowing what was coming through the door in the next moment. I loved being tested again and again. It was stimulating.’

‘So why change your mind because you were pregnant?’

‘I wanted to have my baby in Taupo and there isn’t a big hospital with a major emergency department here. Also, being a solo parent didn’t faze me but I preferred to be near Dad. He brought me up on his own. I wanted him to be a part of Aimee’s growing up.’ Please leave it at that.

Of course he didn’t. ‘I looked this place up and saw that there’s a major hospital down the road at Rotorua. Not too far away from your father.’

She’d spent too much time in Rotorua Hospital having treatment to ever want to work there. ‘I considered it and flagged the idea.’ So he hadn’t just hitched a ride down to New Zealand on a whim. He’d done some research. Interesting. But how far should she go with what she told him? He was leaving in a few hours and she didn’t know if he’d ever come back. Did he even need to know about her illness unless everything went pear-shaped?

‘Are you a partner in the medical centre?’ After looking along the road both ways, he edged the stroller over the kerb to cross the street.

‘You’re a natural at this kid stuff,’ she teased, and laughed out loud at the stunned look on his face.

‘You reckon? I’ve never taken a toddler for a walk in my life.’ The stunned look became slightly smug and his chest puffed out a little.

‘Hidden talents. Who’d have thought?’ Then she pointed to a building further down the road. ‘There’s your rental company. And, no, I haven’t taken a partnership but Dad’s thinking about retiring soon and the other partners are keen for me to buy him out.’

She genuinely wanted to pay the going rate for Dad’s share of the practice but so far hadn’t been able to convince him of that idea. He kept telling her it was her inheritance and he didn’t need the money anyway. ‘We’re also looking for another partner. Patient numbers are growing rapidly and it’s hard to turn people away when they need our help.’

‘I can understand that.’ They’d reached the rental place. He stepped away from the stroller. ‘I’ll go and sort this car business out.’

She watched him saunter through the gleaming cars lined up facing the road. He walked with his back straight, his head high, shoulders back. Like a soldier. Her pathetic hint about another partner at the centre had been a waste of breath. Working there would be dull and monotonous for a man like Marshall.

Would he ever consider quitting the army and going into medicine full time? Doubtful. Even if he did return to civvie street it wouldn’t be in New Zealand, and definitely not in a quiet town like Taupo. He was used to the excitement of war zones and the urgency of battlefield injuries, the variety of location and people. Taupo would never suit him.

Her stomach lurched. It had been pie-in-the-sky stuff to think they had a future together. She didn’t even know if he liked her enough, let alone loved her. The fact he was her daughter’s father wasn’t grounds for marriage. Two weeks of hot sex and laughter in the sun weren’t either.

How had she gone from talking about the medical centre to thinking about marriage? Because she loved him. Had always suspected that she’d fallen for him but with finding herself pregnant and then learning post-partum that she had cervical cancer her feelings for Marshall had been shoved into the too-hard basket. She hadn’t wanted to deal with the heartbreak of knowing she loved a man who almost didn’t exist.

But less than twenty-four hours since he’d crashed back into her world she knew from the bottom of her heart that this was the man she loved, would always love. And the worst of it was that she didn’t know what to do about it. Tell him and he’d most likely leave town without giving her any contact details at all. That must not happen. The day might come when Aimee would need him, when he might have to step up as the sole parent.

Toot, toot.

‘You going my way, lady?’ Marshall pulled up beside her in an SUV, grinning like a loon.

‘Depends what you’ve got to offer.’

‘You’ve got a short memory.’ He winked at her.

Her stomach tightened. Heat crept up her cheeks as she recalled fingers and a tongue on her skin and a hard body covering hers.

‘Or maybe not, if that smoky look in your eyes is anything to go by.’ Chuckling, he climbed out and undid the straps keeping Aimee in her stroller. ‘Come on, girls, hop in. I’m taking you to a café for coffee and juice.’ His brows almost met in the middle of his forehead. ‘How do we strap Aimee safely into the seat? She’s far too tiny.’

‘The stroller very cleverly becomes a car seat and we thread the SUV’s seat belt through those clips.’ Within moments she had it all sorted and Aimee safe. Turning to Marshall, she suggested, ‘We could drive out to Huka Falls. You may as well see something of Taupo before you leave, and there’s a café there.’

His finger tilted her head up and those suck-her-in eyes locked with hers. ‘I will be back, Charlie. I don’t know when. It would be rash to make that sort of promise knowing the army as I do, but I will return.’ He meant it. He really, really did. The truth, his honesty stared out at her.

It wasn’t enough. Not nearly enough. She needed concrete dates for visits, not some vague idea that he’d return when it suited him or his superiors. But looking into his eyes, like peering into his soul, her breath stuck somewhere between her lungs and her lips, and she couldn’t find the words to tell him what she needed.

Then her cellphone rang, shocking her back to the here and now of the rental company. Flipping the phone open, she saw it was Molly from the medical centre.

‘Sorry, got to take this,’ Charlie said to Marshall. ‘Hey, what’s up?’ she asked the centre’s receptionist.

‘Emergency at the airport. A small plane with tandem skydivers on board crashed on take-off. The police are asking for any available doctors to proceed to the airport immediately. Can you go?’

‘Yes. Hold on. I might have another doctor for you.’ She looked at Marshall. ‘There’s been an accident and doctors are needed. Can you help? Under my guidance, of course, as you’re not New Zealand registered.’

‘What are we waiting for?’ Marshall headed back round to the driver’s door then changed his mind. ‘Better for you to drive. That’ll save time.’

Talking to Molly at the same time as slipping into the SUV, Charlie said, ‘I’m on my way with another doctor. He’ll have to work under supervision but I don’t see a problem.’

‘That’s great. Where’s your dad? I can’t raise him.’

‘He’s out on the lake. I need to drop Aimee off with someone. I’m in town.’

‘Got that covered. Gemma’s here and says she’ll meet you at the airport. She’ll bring you a medical bag and take Aimee home.’

Charlie slammed the gear lever into ‘Drive’ and snapped her seat belt on. ‘Let’s go.’

CHAPTER SIX

T
HE
RIDE
TO
the airport would’ve been exciting if Marshall hadn’t been considering the injuries they’d find when they got there.

Obviously Charlie was too because she hissed through clenched teeth, ‘Impact injuries mean spinal damage, ruptured organs and broken bones.’

‘For starters.’ Marshall grimaced. ‘You’re presuming there are survivors.’

‘We wouldn’t have been called if there weren’t.’

‘True. I wonder what altitude the plane reached before something went wrong. It would’ve been moving at maximum speed and could’ve spun into the ground nose first.’ Goose-bumps rose on his arms. He knew exactly what that looked like. ‘We had a plane crash on landing at my last posting in Afghanistan so I’ve some idea of what to expect.’

‘How did you cope? Did you know any of the men on that plane?’

‘Yes.’ He stared out the windscreen but it was the injured bodies of his men he saw. He could hear Rod groaning, could see his shaking hands splayed across his leaking wound. Marshall closed his eyes, drew air deep into his lungs and focused inwards. If only he’d been able to save his buddy then he wouldn’t have this guilt of failure weighing him down. It could’ve happened to him, and still could one day. He couldn’t put Charlie and Aimee through what Rod’s family had had to deal with.

Charlie’s soft voice slowly broke through his dark thoughts. ‘I wonder how many people were on board. Usually there’s a maximum of six skydivers strapped together in pairs, and the pilot.’

Turning from staring outside to watching her, he asked, ‘As the hospital here isn’t a major one, what happens with the patients we attend?’

Indicating to turn left, Charlie slowed and turned into the airport grounds. ‘Depending on the severity of the injuries, they’ll be flown by helicopter to either Rotorua Hospital or Waikato Hospital up in Hamilton. Again, depending on the extent of injuries, one of us may have to accompany the patient or patients.’

A police car led them onto the grass perimeter. Ahead, black smoke spewed into the sky and fire trucks surrounded what had to be the wrecked plane. Ambulances were parked nearby, the back doors wide open as crews carried heavy packs of equipment towards the victims.

As Charlie pulled up beside the trucks she hauled in a deep breath and clenched her hands then loosened them. ‘Here we go.’ Shoving the door wide, she dropped to the ground and handed Aimee over to Gemma.

Jogging along beside her, Marshall took her free hand and squeezed it hard. ‘You’ll do fine. Once you get started, everything will slot into place. Just like you used to do in the ED.’

Then there was no more time to talk. They were at the site of the crash. Tangled metal that no longer resembled an aircraft stuck up out of the ground from the small crater the impact had made. Bodies lay everywhere.

‘Hey, Charlie. Glad you’re here,’ Joseph, a doctor from another medical centre in town, called to her. He crossed to them and shook Marshall’s hand when she introduced the two men. She recognised the other doctor and a nurse already working with victims. ‘I’ve been put in charge of the scene. We’ve triaged the poor devils who are lucky to be alive. Two dead. Four in a very bad way. We need to crack on.’

‘Where do you want us? You understand that Marshall is an American army doctor without registration here?’ She’d had Molly relay the information earlier.

Joseph nodded at Marshall. ‘You’re probably more qualified for this scenario than the rest of us. You two take that couple by the firemen. They’re still strapped together in preparation for their dive.’

The male and female victims had been slammed into the ground, their bodies tangled together and bound by the parachute straps. Both were unconscious. ‘Barely alive,’ Charlie muttered, after finding very weak carotid pulses in both.

‘Freeing them won’t be easy,’ Marshall muttered. ‘We could cause more damage but there’s no helping that. Let’s start the ABCs.’

They dropped to their knees and began checking airways, breathing rates, pulses. Charlie automatically went for the young woman. At least she presumed the girl was young. Hard to tell with the facial injuries.

She looked around for one of the ambulance crew. ‘Can we have two neck braces?’ They’d need to put the braces on before trying to separate their patients and move them. She began a thorough examination of the woman, not easy when there was a man strapped to her back. ‘Soft bone on the side of her skull, broken cheekbones.’ Her hands moved down the neck, over her patient’s arms. ‘Broken right humerus, crushed ribs, palpable spleen.’

Marshall reported similar injuries in the places he could reach on his patient. With the help of two ambulance officers they placed the neck braces on, before supervising the firemen as they cut the straps and removed the parachute from the man’s back.

‘Slowly does it,’ Marshall cautioned as the woman was placed carefully on a stretcher. Immediately Charlie began another check of the woman’s vital signs. ‘Blood pressure’s dropping, resp rate’s falling.’ Suddenly there were no heartbeats. ‘Cardiac arrest,’ she yelled, and began CPR. Nodding at one of the ambulance officers, she gasped, ‘Need an airway in place, attach a mask and bag. Someone get the defib.’ Fifteen, sixteen, seventeen. She continued counting the compressions as the ambulance officer slipped the plastic airway into the patient’s mouth and then strapped a mask over her face.

‘Twenty-nine, thirty.’ Charlie sat back, watched as the oxygen bag was squeezed twice. Leaning forward, she folded one hand over the other and began the next round of compressions while a paramedic placed the defib pads on the woman’s now exposed chest.

‘Stand back,’ he ordered quietly but firmly.

Charlie stopped the compressions and moved away from her patient. She continued compressions when the electric shock did not restart the heart. Another shock, more compressions.

‘I’m not giving up,’ she muttered, more to herself than anyone else.

‘I’ve got a pulse.’ The paramedic sounded relieved.

She could relate to that. ‘Right, let’s finish the assessment and do what’s necessary before sending this lady off to hospital. Where’s Joseph?’

‘Right here. Want to fly her to Waikato?’

‘A.S.A.P.’ Oh, hell. The monitors attached to the woman reading her heart rate gave a warning. ‘Here we go again.’ The blood loss from those internal injuries had to be huge, causing the heart to stop.

They got the woman’s heart going again, gained large-bore IV access to give fluids for shock and made her ready for evacuation. The paramedics whisked her over to a waiting helicopter for her flight to Waikato Hospital’s major trauma unit.

Charlie joined Marshall as he was splinting both his patient’s legs. She held the cardboard splint while he strapped it tight enough to be effective without cutting off any blood supply.

‘How’re you doing?’ she asked quietly.

‘Like I’m not on holiday.’ He flicked a grim smile. ‘I thought you said Taupo was a quiet place.’

‘Yeah, well, usually.’ She looked across at the wreckage and shuddered. The impact had concertinaed the plane to a fraction of its original length. ‘I’ve got to go with my patient.’ Glancing across, she saw the ambulance crew loading the stretcher into the helicopter.

His mouth tightened. ‘How will you get back from wherever you’re going?’

‘The pilot will wait while I hand over. I’ll be away two hours max.’ She glanced at her watch and her skin turned to ice. Two hours and Marshall would be gone. They still had so much to talk about. She hadn’t even got his contact details. Her teeth dug into her bottom lip as she stood up on surprisingly shaky legs.

‘Charlie.’ Joseph tapped her on the shoulder. ‘Your flight’s about to lift off.’

‘I refuse to say goodbye, Marshall. Please call me as soon as you get back to the States.’ Kissing her fingers, she touched Marshal’s cheek and turned and ran fast. Towards the patient who needed all her skills, away from the man who owned her heart. Would she ever see him again?

* * *

Marshall drove carefully on State Highway One towards Auckland and his flight back to the States. He had covered nearly half the distance, and with every kilometre his heart grew heavier. He was leaving something very special behind. A wonderful family who’d welcomed him with open arms.

Hell, working together on those casualties had been like old times. Charlie’s skills had improved no end despite not working in emergency medicine. Her confidence had grown a lot over the years.

Mindful of which side of the road he was on, he tried not to think about Charlie and their abrupt parting. Despite being used to the suddenness of changing circumstances in combat zones, he had not been prepared for the sudden departure of Charlie from his life only hours ago.

It was little more than twenty-four hours since he’d seen her for the first time in a long time. It had been like finding someone he hadn’t known he’d lost until that moment—his other half. They’d fitted together instantly. There’d been no real awkwardness after the first few minutes. Not even the shock of learning about Aimee had driven a wedge between them or made him want to get away—except for a few brief, confused minutes.

Yet now he was on his way, leaving this country and his daughter and Charlie. Charlotte Lang. Her image had tormented him for years, colouring his dreams, unsettling his long-held beliefs. He’d truly thought he could come over here, spend a little time with her and walk away completely over what ailed him.

The oath that shot out of his mouth shocked even him, seasoned soldier that he was. He’d been a fool. Rod had warned him time and again that he was hooked but he’d disputed that, saying it wasn’t possible to fall in love in two weeks. How could he love a woman he didn’t know anything about apart from her stunning body and its fantastic reactions to his lovemaking?

But none of that mattered. He had to go. That’s what he did, had always done. Moved on. It had never been a problem before. He’d never cared before. He had men depending on him back home so between here and Auckland he needed to pull on his army persona and start acting like the competent officer he was. He could definitely not behave like some lovelorn fool who was leaving behind the most wonderful woman he’d ever met and the sweet little girl he’d fathered. The only way to get through life without hurting others was to remain alone.

Hamilton. The road sign indicated he should carry on straight ahead.

Auckland. Turn right to bypass the city.

Marshall indicated a right-hand turn. He didn’t need the delays that driving through a city would bring.

You didn’t find out why deep sadness unexpectedly sneaked into Charlie’s eyes at times.

Yeah, buddy, I hear you. Unfortunately it didn’t work out. That plane crash took care of the last few hours I had with her.

Don’t you want to know? Or is running away preferable to what Charlie might tell you?

Stop mucking with my head. I’ve got to concentrate on driving. These Kiwis aren’t very forgiving motorists.

Excuses, excuses.

He wasn’t running away. He didn’t do that. The SUV slowed. He glanced at the dials on the dashboard. All normal. What was happening? He pressed down on the accelerator and the vehicle surged forward and maintained a steady one hundred kilometres an hour. Idiot. Why had he lifted his foot off the pedal? Slowing his departure?

The soft sensation he’d felt when Charlie had brushed her kissed fingertips over his cheek drifted through his mind. Charlie. They’d shared two kisses in these past hours. Kisses filled with hunger, longing, caring. Kisses that had held so much promise.

Pulling to the side of the road, he switched the engine off. He couldn’t drive and deal with all this stuff going on in his head at the same time. So if he wasn’t running, why leave? No one had ordered him to head back to Kansas today. The army had called and he’d jumped. A habit formed from following orders for too long. Orders designed to save a man’s life in combat. Orders that took serious decision-making away if a man let it.

As you have.

‘Damn it, Rod, can’t you go and annoy someone else?’ He slapped the steering-wheel. If he turned round and went back to Charlie, would she read too much into it? Expect more of him than he was prepared to give? His gut churned as fear of getting too involved reared up.

Reaching for the ignition, he hesitated. Withdrew his hand. Asked himself a scary question. ‘What do I want to do? If I was free of the army, would I go back to Charlie without a thought?’

Hard to imagine being free of the army when it had been more of a family to him than his folks had. But it was an impersonal, unloving institution. This wasn’t about getting out, only about returning to Charlie for a few more days.

Family. The word evoked things he’d missed out on and the hidden dreams that one day his parents might’ve remembered to acknowledge they’d had a son they loved. He’d spent his childhood trying to be noticed for the right reasons, but some things just didn’t work out in life, no matter how hard a guy tried.

You could try to change. Make the most of this opportunity.

Opportunity. That was one word for what waited for him in Taupo. Commitment was another. Could he commit to being in Charlie and Aimee’s lives from a distance? Stay safe for them? He wasn’t going to know unless he tried. His hand wasn’t as steady as it normally was when he reached for the ignition this time. A vision of Charlie filtered into his mind. She’d been awesome, the way she hadn’t demanded anything of him for Aimee.

But it was her steady blue gaze that really got to him. Full of understanding, need and sadness. Occasionally tinged with laughter and something that shot straight to his heart and grabbed it. Love? Did Charlie love him? Not likely. But maybe she cared a lot about him. That was something he wasn’t used to.

The engine turned over and he flicked on the indicator. When a break came in the traffic Marshall made a U-turn.

He wasn’t finished with Charlie Lang. Not by a long shot.

* * *

Dad stuffed the trout with lemon zest and garlic then wrapped it in foil. ‘That’ll go on the barbecue shortly. Want a salad with it?’