Page 8 of The Long Walk Back

‘What do you have back home?’ His expression started to close off, and she rushed to fill the awkward pause. ‘I mean, when you’re not protecting the world and saving kids on rooftops.’

‘I never really did the traditional way of living,’ he tried to shrug but his whole body tensed from the movement. ‘I have my unit, and that’s more than enough.’

They stared at each other for a long time, but it wasn’t awkward. He looked like he was trying to figure her out just as she was him. ‘What if you need the surgery?’

His lips pursed. ‘I won’t.’ She felt like she should say more, tell him how precarious his condition was, but he spoke first. ‘Tell me, if you couldn’t be a doctor, what would you do? How would you spend your life?’

Kate’s mind flashed to an image of Jamie, at home with Neil, the man she had flown to a warzone to get some space from, and she closed her mouth, tensing her jaw. ‘I honestly don’t know,’ she murmured. ‘I love my son, but?—’

‘You don’t really like the traditional way either.’

‘I guess we’re similar in that way.’

‘Guess we are.’ His smile, when it came, lit his pale face up. ‘My life is here, I have no plan B.’

Kate thought of his wallet, bearing no pictures of home or family. There wouldn’t be anyone flying a banner for the captain when he touched down on the tarmac. He needed to get through this. She pushed the thought away, taking a breath.

‘Well Captain?—’

‘Coop, please. We’ve held hands, and I’m pretty sure you’ve seen me naked.’

She nodded, the corners of her mouth lifting up. ‘We’re not at plan B, Coop. Get some rest.’

He relaxed a little, offering her a cheeky half-smile as he rested back against his pillows.

‘Maybe just for a minute,’ he winced as he adjusted himself into a better position. ‘Feel like I’ve been hit by a damn truck.’

Kate waited till he was asleep, his breathing even, before she reached for his hand again. Resolving that while he was here, he would have someone. Her.

Kate was sleeping in her cot when she was shaken awake by a frantic nurse. ‘Dr Harper, Cooper is crashing.’ Kate leapt from her bed, still fully dressed in her scrubs and raced to the tent with the nurse hot on her heels. ‘How long has he been down?’ she shouted over her shoulder.

‘Less than two minutes, I came straight here.’

‘Where’s Trevor?’ Kate shouted, racing across the dust for the entrance to the tent, ignoring the burn of the sand in her eyes from the grit her frantic feet were kicking up.

‘He’s in surgery, we had another IED casualty come in an hour ago.’

‘Shit,’ Kate said. ‘Fuck!’ Racing across to the captain, she saw doctors and nurses running around. Whipping back the covers, she saw what she had feared and she sent up a curse to the almighty. His infection had taken hold with a vengeance, the discoloured skin now seeping well past Trevor’s pen line.

‘Okay, let’s run the code. Charge to 300.’ Kate grabbed the paddles, hands shaking. ‘Now guys, let’s go, his organs are failing! Someone should have called me sooner!’

‘We were checking him,’ the nurse protested. ‘He kept refusing to let us check!’

Damn it. I withhold consent. She could hear his voice in her head as she fought to bring him back.

The machine bleeped its readiness. ‘Clear!’ she shouted, shocking the captain’s chest. She checked the monitor again. ‘No output, charge to 350.’ She turned, wide-eyed to the side table. ‘Did he sign the papers? The consent papers, did he sign them?’

‘No,’ the nurse confirmed. ‘He was asleep, but we operate, right? We need to take the leg to save him.’

It was different here. Not everyone was in shape to give consent, and when medical intervention was needed it was done. To save the patient. ‘He didn’t want this, I need Trevor. Clear!’

The 350 charge jolted his body.

Nurse Abby looked at Kate. ‘Kate, he refused amputation verbally only. He didn’t sign papers to withhold consent. Protocol is we save him, given that he’s not in a position to sign either way. He’s been down for three minutes, and unless we amputate, his body will continue to shut down. I think we need to make a call.’ The monitors continued their music, the beep of a man circling the drain.

Kate stood, paddles in hand, trying to think. ‘Have you called Trevor?’

‘He’s in surgery, he can’t come.’

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