Page 11 of The Long Walk Back

Abby shook her head, making the coffees for them both. ‘Nope, thankfully. He needs the rest. Does his family know? I haven’t checked his file yet for contact details.’

Kate shook her head. ‘No, he has no one.’

Abby pursed her lips. ‘Jesus. Well, at least you’ve been there for him.’

Kate took a sip of her own drink, feeling the jolt of caffeine top up her already wired body.

‘Thanks,’ she said, heading back over to the piles of paper she still had to wade through. ‘I hope he sees it that way, eventually.’

‘He’s here, Kate. He has a chance.’ Abby left, leaving her alone with the piles and piles of charting, and her thoughts of everything she had to face in the next few weeks.

Kate was back in her bunk, sleeping off the exhaustion and taut limbs that a day full of paperwork and segregating her life with Neil in her head had brought on, when her phone beeped. She jerked awake, reaching for the handset. Abby had messaged an emoji of a pair of eyes, with the words ‘he’s awake…’ Kate sprang from her bed. She shoved a clean pair of scrubs on, dressing quickly and quietly as others slept and relaxed around her. She turned her phone to silent, not wanting it to go off while she was in the medical tent. It was late, and the patients would be sleeping. She entered the tent. Abby had her back to her, bent over her desk, but she waved her hand towards Cooper’s bed. Kate took a breath and looked around. There were only three patients in the beds, the others having been patched up or medevacked home. Kate walked over to the captain’s bed, cautious that she might make him feel worse, but she needed to see him. Another man in her life that she was disappointing. She neared the foot of the bed, and he turned his head to face her. He had been awake a while by the looks, seemingly staring at the wall. Kate felt a jolt as he looked straight into her eyes. He looked pale and exhausted, his jaw set like a block of stone. The green of his eyes wasn’t diminished though, and she had a flashback to the day he came in. The look in them was very different today. There was nothing in them but hate, reflected straight back at her.

Kate stopped walking, looking across at the chair at the side of the bed.

‘Do you mind if I sit?’

He didn’t say anything at first, he just pinned her with those green eyes. He was acting like he was chewing his tongue off. She wondered if he was suffering. She took a step closer to the chair.

‘Are you in pain?’ She went to reach for his chart. ‘I can ask Abby to give you some pain relief, I just need to check?—’

‘Don’t touch my chart. I don’t want you anywhere near me.’

Kate’s hand stilled. ‘I understand you’re upset, but I just came to check on you.’

He chuckled under his breath. ‘Check you haven’t got a dead man on your hands you mean. You might still have, so I hope you kept my leg. I would like to be buried whole.’

‘Captain, I?—’

‘I’m not interested in anything you have to say, Doc. I should be suing you for not following my orders. I never asked you to save me. In fact, I pretty much insisted that you do the opposite.’

Kate noticed that Abby had stood up and was making her way over, a panicked look on her face.

‘Kate,’ she whispered. ‘Everything okay?’

Cooper growled. ‘Great, sure. The Doc was just leaving.’

‘Cooper, I?—’

‘Leave!’ he growled, lifting himself up off the covers. He started coughing, a hand flying to his chest. His monitor beeped faster. Abby rushed to his bedside, helping him to sit up a little.

‘Kate, you should go. Now.’

Kate looked at them both, Cooper still coughing and wincing in pain, and turned on her heel. She didn’t stop till she was back in her bunk, which was when the tears started to flow. He hated her. She’d destroyed another man’s life by trying to do the right thing. And the worst of it was, she felt alone again.

The next day, Kate was on desk duties again, but she and Trevor both knew that it couldn’t last. There were too many things to do, they were too busy to be able to afford a doctor not seeing to the patients. It was thankfully quiet, but the other doctors would be feeling the strain soon. She would have to go back to the tent, work on patients. Finish what she came here to do. Trevor had insisted again on wanting to tell Cooper that he had made the call on his treatment, but Kate shut him down. He was lead surgeon, he didn’t need the wrath of the captain. It wouldn’t make him hate Kate any less. She would just bear it, do her job and stay out of his way till his ride home came. After today, he would never have to see her again.

Kate had wanted to make him see that he was worth saving, and that he could still have a life. It wasn’t the end. She knew from her job that people coped, adapted. He could too. Anyone who would be brave enough to walk into battle and be responsible for the people under his command must surely see the preciousness of life, and the necessity to survive.

Kate was just standing up to go to the medical bay when her phone rang. She pulled it out of her pocket and pulled a face, walking into the corridor. Trevor was coming her way, and her gut clenched.

‘Neil, it’s not a good time. Is everything okay?’

She winced as she heard the sound of sirens and machinery in her ear, and her husband’s panicked voice stopped her in her tracks.

‘Kate, Kate, don’t hang up! It’s Jamie, th-there’s been an accident. It’s bad Kate, really bad. So much blood… I am so sorry.’ Neil started to cry down the phone, a wet whimpering sound. She cupped the phone to her ear, her legs falling out from under her. Trevor, aware something was wrong, appeared at her side, lowering her to the tent floor.

‘Kate,’ he said in a tone of voice she had never heard from him before. ‘Kate, what’s wrong?’

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