Page 19 of Together Again at the Cornish Country Hospital

Combining a short crop with sunglasses that covered his distinctive eyes meant he hadn’t been recognised nearly as often, except now the driver of the blue car heading towards where he stood, outside the hospital, slowed down as she drew level with him, staring in his direction. He dropped his gaze, turning to hurry along the pavement in the opposite direction. Lijah had always tried to interact with fans when they approached him, but he just wasn’t feeling up to it. So when the blue car passed him again, slowing down for a second time, he sighed and raised the collar of his jacket in an attempt to obscure his face. He’d gone about another twenty or thirty metres, when he drew level with a heavily pregnant woman, stepping to the left to make sure he was on the roadside as the car passed by.

‘Thank you.’ She had a cheerful sing-song voice, but Lijah didn’t respond as he spotted the blue car coming towards him again. It was going fast, clearly trying to catch another glimpse of him before he had the chance to disappear down a side road. He heard the rumble of a lorry coming from behind him, and turned to look. It was a wide-load and it had moved out past a row of parked cars. There was no way the blue car was going to fit through the gap that remained, but when he turned back again, expecting to see the driver slowing down to a stop, he realised the woman was still staring at him, not looking at the road. Everything seemed to be happening in slow motion as he waved his hands and screamed out the word, ‘Stop!’

The young female driver was so close now that he could see the look of terror on her face when she realised what was happening. There was an elderly man just in front of Lijah, walking with the aid of a stick, and he lurched forward, pushing the man and himself towards the fence, just as the blue car mounted the pavement. The wing mirror of the car clipped him hard, like a punch in his side, pushing him even further forward.

‘Jesus Christ.’ He turned his head to look at the car, but his words were drowned out by the squeal of the brakes and then the most blood-curdling scream he’d ever heard in his life. The car had come to a halt, but the screaming hadn’t stopped.

‘Are you okay?’ He drew back from the elderly man, helping to steady him.

‘Yes, I’m all right, thanks to you.’ The man looked shocked, but Lijah was already moving in the direction of the car. They were less than a hundred metres from the hospital, and up ahead he could see a couple of people running in their direction, but he was by far the closest to the car, and the lorry that was now blocking the road.

It was only when he reached the side of the car that he saw the pregnant woman lying on the pavement. She’d obviously been hit, but it wasn’t her who was screaming, it was the driver. Lijah had never felt so inadequate in his life; he didn’t have any medical knowledge, not even basic first aid. It would have been far easier to try and comfort the driver of the car, whose face seemed to be frozen into a scream, the sound she was making still unearthly, but something told him the woman on the pavement needed him more, even if he couldn’t do anything to help in a practical sense. No one deserved to be alone in a moment like this.

‘Can you hear me?’ Lijah crouched down next to her, and she gave a little whimper. ‘Okay, don’t try to talk if it’s too hard.’

‘The baby.’ Her voice was strangled, and one of her legs was at a weird angle. Lijah had to look away as a lump lodged in his throat, even before she grabbed for his hand, clinging to it like she was never going to let go. At least she still had some strength left, surely that had to be a good sign.

‘It’s okay, we’re going to get help. You’re going to be okay.’ He had no idea if that was true, but he hoped to God he was right, as footsteps came thundering down the pavement towards him.

‘Oh my God.’ The young man who’d run up to them looked ashen. ‘My girlfriend’s gone into the hospital to tell them what’s happened.’

‘That’s good.’ Lijah nodded as another woman joined them, the lorry driver just behind her.

‘Whatever you do, don’t move her.’ The lorry driver’s tone was forceful, and Lijah nodded.

‘Can someone please check on the driver?’ The screaming had finally stopped, but she still hadn’t got out of the car.

‘I’ll do it.’ The woman moved towards the door of the car and, as the elderly man suddenly appeared in the road too, visibly shaking, the lorry driver helped him towards a bench by a bus stop, twenty feet further down the pavement.

‘I’m scared.’ The pregnant woman was still gripping Lijah’s hand, but her voice was even weaker than before.

‘I know, but I’m going to stay here with you until help arrives and I promise you and the baby will both be okay.’ He was taking even more of a risk now, not just giving the woman an assurance but making her a promise that might well turn out to be a lie. It didn’t matter for now, though, and Lijah knew it was what he’d have wanted to hear if it were him. It was clearly a struggle for her to speak, but something told him it was a good idea to keep her talking. ‘The doctors are going to be here really soon, but I’ll be here until they do. I’m Lijah, what’s your name?’

‘Ellen, and…’ Her eyes flickered for a moment as if she was trying to focus on him, but instead a single tear rolled down her face, swiftly followed another. ‘The baby isn’t mine.’

13

The woman who’d come into the reception of the emergency department had been shouting so loudly that Amy had been able to hear her from the cubicles. She’d described a car mounting the pavement just outside the hospital and at least one pedestrian having been hit.

Meg, the newest doctor in the team, had headed outside with Esther and Eden, along with a couple of the paramedics who’d just dropped off another patient. Within minutes the patients started to arrive in the department, the team having split up to deal with individual casualties. The first was a young woman who was sobbing hysterically, who Eden quickly moved into a cubicle, followed by an elderly man who seemed more shocked than hurt. Esther was reassuring him as she wheeled him through to a second cubicle. It took far longer for the final patient to arrive, and to Amy’s utter surprise Lijah was by the woman’s side, as Meg and the paramedics wheeled her in.

‘Amy, can you come through to resus, please?’ Meg asked before she had the chance to ask Lijah what on earth was going on. ‘We’ve stabilised the patient’s neck and spine until we can be certain of her injuries, and we had to use sedation to perform a manual reduction to a displaced fracture in her lower left leg, to restore the radial pulse. So we’ll need orthopaedics down here. We’re also going to need obstetrics to check how the baby is doing, and make a decision about whether she needs to deliver, and we’ll need to continue monitoring her vitals in the meantime.’

‘Of course.’ Any questions could wait, the fact that the patient who’d been hit by a car was pregnant made her blood run cold. It was almost unheard of for someone to be hit by a car and come off unscathed, but for a pregnant woman the chance of serious injury was even higher. She could be under sedation for as little as fifteen minutes, depending on the dose she’d been given, but at least for now she wasn’t in any distress.

‘I think it’s best if you wait outside now.’ Meg’s tone as she turned towards Lijah was gentle but firm.

‘Yeah.’ He looked hollowed out with shock and Amy reached out to squeeze his hand.

‘Do you know her?’

‘I was just there when the accident happened.’ He gave a visible shudder at the memory. ‘Before she was sedated, I promised not to leave her until her husband got here. Will you let me know how she is?’

‘When I can.’ Amy squeezed his hand again, before following her colleagues through to resus. She’d talk to Meg or Esther later about how much she could share with Lijah. She tried not to think about how badly she’d wanted to wrap her arms around him and tell him he was amazing for stepping in to help a stranger in a situation that must have been terrifying. But in the meantime, all that mattered was making sure the patient got the best possible treatment, even if her chest ached at the thought of leaving Lijah, wondering and worrying about what was going on.

‘Okay, this is Ellen. Her vitals are stable, but her injuries suggest—’ Geoff, one of the paramedics began speaking once they were through to resus, and Amy’s heart lurched at the sound of the woman’s name.

‘Oh God no, please.’ Amy hadn’t been able to stop herself from cutting Geoff off. A pregnant woman called Ellen outside the hospital, that was far too much of a coincidence. Amy had only met Ellen once, but as she stepped forward to look more closely at the patient’s face, bile rose in her throat.

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