A Mother for Matilda

He forced himself to focus on the Dunleavy twins, noting the beginnings of red seepage on Ryan’s outer dressing. He helped Ryan into the back of the ambulance and laid him on the gurney using two pillows across the teenager’s chest to elevate the injured hand above heart level.

He pulled the BP cuff from its receptacle on the wall and wrapped it around Ryan’s uninjured arm. Eighty on fifty. A little on the lowish side. ‘I might pop a drip in while we wait for Victoria.’

Ryan lifted his head off the pillow and screwed up his face. ‘What? No way. I hate needles.’

Lawson chuckled. How many times over the years had he tended to Victoria’s brother in the back of an ambulance? ‘Ryan, you just almost hacked off your finger. Do you think one little tiny needle can compare to that?’

Ryan held his head up for a few more seconds, then let it drop back in surrender. ‘I guess not.’

Lawson grinned. He reached into the nearby IV drawer and pulled out the things he was going to need. He glanced at Josh sitting in the back passenger seat looking pale, his knee bouncing, his fingers drumming against his thigh. ‘It’s okay, mate. He’ll be all right. Really.’

Josh looked at Lawson intently and then nodded, his shoulders sagging, and the fidgeting stopped.

‘So, do I want to know how you managed to nearly amputate your finger?’ he asked as he swabbed the crook of Ryan’s elbow with alcohol. There was silence from both the boys and Lawson pressed his lips together to suppress the smile. ‘Hmm,’ he said, uncapping the needle and lining it up with the bulging vein staring at him. ‘That stupid, huh?’

‘Ow!’

Lawson ignored Ryan’s protest as he slid the cannula straight into the vein and got an instant flashback. He taped it, flushed it and set up a drip to replace some of the volume Ryan had lost.

‘Vic’s pretty ticked,’ Ryan muttered.

Lawson looked up at anxious Josh, then back at the more robust Ryan. ‘You probably scared the hell out of her.’

‘Will it really need surgery?’ Josh asked.

‘I haven’t seen it but if it’s as bad as Victoria says, and she does know her severed body parts, then yes.’

As if she could hear her name, Vic appeared at the back doors. ‘Righto. Are we ready?’

Lawson, pleased to see her in something neck to toe, her hair pulled back in its regulation ponytail, nodded. ‘You going to be okay to drive?’

‘Sure.’ She flicked a glance at Josh. ‘Buckle up,’ she said as she slammed first one door then the other.

Lawson whistled. ‘She is really ticked.’ And smiled as both boys squirmed in their seats.

Vic didn’t bother with the siren. She knew Ryan’s blood loss was controlled and being replaced and that, under Lawson’s care, Ryan was in the best of hands. She trusted her partner implicitly. Hell, the man was an Intensive Care Paramedic; she’d trust Lawson with her life. So there was no point driving like a crazy thing, endangering all their lives for something that wasn’t life-threatening.

The trip took fifteen minutes and Ryan was seen immediately. Two hours later he was on a ward, prepped and ready to go to Theatre, when Bob strode into the room.

‘Ryan Dunleavy,’ he boomed. ‘What the hell were you thinking?’

Vic, her hand entwined with her brother’s and her head on the bed, catching some shut eye, was immediately alert. Ryan, slightly woozy from morphine and looking like little-boy-lost in his white hospital gown, opened heavy lids. ‘Sorry, Dad.’

His voice cracked and Vic felt it reach right inside her gut and twist. She squeezed his hand. It obviously had the same effect on her father, who strode across the short distance separating them and enveloped his son in a huge bear hug.

‘Bloody silly kid,’ he said, his gruff voice not fooling anyone.

Bob reached out for Josh and put his arm around his other son’s shoulders. After a few moments he straightened and cleared his throat, placing a hand on her shoulder. Vic knew that her mother dying from a pulmonary embolism a few days after the twins had been born, in this very hospital, had for ever altered her father. As it had her.

Her father’s heavy hand, his comforting squeeze, said it all. Neither needed words to express how confronting it was to have another member of their family lying pale and silent in a bed in this hospital.

Bob placed a kiss on the top of his daughter’s head. ‘Lawson, take her home,’ he instructed.

Vic looked behind her, surprised to see Lawson was still there. ‘It’s okay, Dad,’ she protested, looking up at her father. ‘I’ll stay.’

‘No.’ Bob shook his head. ‘You’re done in, Vic. You both are. I’m here now and HQ is sending a replacement to the island to cover me for the next few days. You’ve just come off three nights—you both need to sleep.’

‘Come on, Victoria.’ Lawson stood. ‘The boss has spoken.’

Vic, weary beyond what she would have thought even possible, knew her father was right. She stood and dropped a light kiss on Ryan’s brow. ‘See you in a few hours,’ she murmured. He didn’t stir.

She gave Josh a hug. ‘He’ll be fine,’ she assured him, knowing that Josh was probably the most worried of them all. She gave her father’s cheek a kiss. ‘I’ll be back later. Ring me if…for anything,’ she quickly amended and then departed with Lawson, too emotional to look back.

They’d nearly reached the lifts when a female voice pulled them up. ‘Lawson? Oh, Lawson?’

Vic turned to see the nurse who’d been looking after Ryan. She was young. Younger than her by a few years. Tall and well endowed too. Vic suddenly felt like a dwarf next to the blonde, oh-so-curvy woman who was fluttering her eyelashes at her partner. She couldn’t help but look down at her own rather lacking chest, petite as the rest of her, and sighed.

The nurse had been flirting with Lawson from the minute Ryan had been admitted. Vic had thought it in rather poor taste, but then she’d been tired and cranky and worried about her brother. Night duty generally brought out her prickly side.

‘Hi. Brianna, isn’t it?’

Vic watched as the poor woman almost nodded her head right off her shoulders, obviously reading way too much into Lawson remembering her name. Lawson remembered names—it was an occupational necessity.

‘You were telling me about that great traumatic amputation website,’ Brianna said. ‘Here’s my email address.’ She handed Lawson a piece of paper. ‘Could you email me the link?’

Vic, pushing the lift-call button several times, just stopped from rolling her eyes.

‘Oh, I can write it down for you,’ Lawson offered.

Vic watched as the nurse’s confidence faltered slightly. ‘Oh, no, it’s okay. You’re off now. Just email me.’

The lift dinged but not before Vic was privy to the look of frank sexual interest infusing the nurse’s smile.

‘Sure.’ Lawson smiled, slipping the paper into his breast pocket before following Victoria into the lift.

They rode down in silence. Lawson could feel the tension radiating off Victoria, filling the confines of the lift. He watched her surreptitiously as it descended. He knew she was worried about her brother. She had, after all, helped raise the twins from babies. Biologically she might be their sister, but in every other way she’d been their mother.

‘He is going to be fine,’ Lawson said as the lift touched down and the doors opened.

Vic, still annoyed at the nurse, frowned. ‘I know that,’ she grouched.

She strode out of the lift tired and cranky. At the whole world. What the hell was wrong with her? Females had been making goggle eyes at Lawson the entire time they’d been partnered—why was it bothering her so much now?

Why?

Chapter Two

VIC steamed ahead. She needed to sleep. She wanted her bed. In fact she was already on sandman autopilot just putting one foot in front of the other, counting down the minutes until her head could hit the pillow. The day had been emotionally draining and right now she felt as if she could sleep for a week.