Once Upon a Christmas (6 page)

She started the engine and flinched as the car gave a throaty growl. ‘Boys with toys,’ she muttered disparagingly, finding first gear and carefully pulling out of the driveway onto the road. She just hoped she didn’t meet any other traffic on the way to hospital.

When she arrived she settled Lizzie in the staffroom, promising to come back and update her as soon as possible.

Jack was already in Resus, along with Sean Nicholson and a full team of staff. Jack was barking out instructions as he worked to stabilise Annie.

‘Can someone check her weight with her parents?’

‘I’ve just done it.’ Bryony hurried into the room and reached in her pocket for a calculator. ‘I’ve worked out 4 mils of fluid per kilogram multiplied by the percentage of the burn. Do you have that yet?’

‘Just doing it. My estimate is twenty-two per cent,’ Jack said, glancing up at her. ‘Are you OK?’

Bryony nodded and studied the Lund and Browder charts that helped them to assess the area of the burn according to age. ‘You’re about right, Jack,’ she said lightly, feeding the numbers into her calculator. ‘I make it twenty-two per cent.’

She worked out the volume of fluid and showed her calculation to Jack.

‘Right.’ He gave a nod. ‘So she needs that in twenty-four hours, but we need to give her half in the first eight hours and monitor her urine output. I want her to have a combination of crystalloid and colloid.’

‘Catheter is in,’ Nicky said quickly, ‘and I’ve started a chart.’

‘Great. Can you test her urine? And, Bryony, we need to take some bloods before she’s transferred. Cross-matching, FBC, COHb, U and Es, glucose and coagulation.’

Bryony reached for the appropriate bottles. ‘You’re sending her to the burns unit?’

Jack nodded. ‘The helicopter is waiting to take her as
soon as we give the word. I’ve spoken to the consultant, he’s waiting for her.’

Bryony took the samples and then went to talk to Annie. The little girl was drifting in and out of sleep, hardly aware of what was going on around her.

‘I gave her some sedation,’ Jack said softly, covering the last of the burns and then giving Nicky a nod. ‘OK. Let’s go.’

‘Are you going with her?’

He nodded. ‘Take Lizzie home in my car. I’ll see you later.’

‘How will you get home?’

‘I’ll get the paramedics to drop me at your place, or I’ll grab a taxi.’ He shrugged, totally unconcerned, and she nodded.

‘Fine. I’ll see you later. Do you want me to talk to Annie’s parents?’

‘I’ll do it,’ Sean said immediately. ‘That way you can get home with your little girl and Jack can get loaded into the helicopter.’

Bryony was tucking Lizzie into bed when she heard the doorbell. ‘That will be Jack.’

She dropped a kiss on Lizzie’s forehead and went to answer the door, praying that Annie’s condition hadn’t worsened during the transfer.

‘How is she?’

Jack strolled into her house and gave a shiver, and it was only then that she remembered that he’d used his jacket to put out the flames and that he’d been working only in a jumper. He must be freezing.

‘Come and sit by the fire,’ she urged, and he did as she’d suggested, stretching out his hands towards the flames.

‘It’s nice and warm in here.’ He looked at her. ‘Is my girl asleep?’

Bryony shook her head, her expression troubled. ‘No. She’s very upset by it all.’

‘Of course she is.’ His jaw tightened. ‘I’ll talk to her.’

They both walked towards Lizzie’s bedroom and Jack strolled in and settled himself on the edge of the bed.

‘Hi, there.’ His voice was soft and Lizzie stared up at him, her eyes huge in her pretty face.

‘Hi, Jack.’ Her smile was shaky. ‘Annie is very badly hurt, isn’t she?’

Jack hesitated. ‘She is pretty badly hurt,’ he agreed, and Bryony mentally thanked him for not lying. She knew that Annie’s condition was serious and if anything happened to the little girl, she didn’t want Lizzie to feel that they’d been dishonest.

‘Is she going to die?’ Lizzie’s voice trembled and Jack shook his head.

‘No, sweetheart. I’m sure she isn’t going to die. I’ve just taken her to a special hospital where they know all about burns.’

‘Can I go and see her there?’

‘Sure,’ Jack said immediately. ‘We’ll go together.’

Tears suddenly welled up in Lizzie’s eyes and Jack immediately leaned forward and lifted the little girl onto his lap.

‘Don’t cry, baby,’ he said roughly, stroking her hair with his strong hand and exchanging an agonised look with
Bryony. ‘You were brilliant. My little star. All those grown-ups were panicking and you were cool as ice cream.’

Lizzie gave a sniff and pulled away from him, but her little hands still clutched at his jumper. ‘I told the paramedics everything you wanted, just like you said.’

‘I know you did.’ Jack smiled down at her, pride in his eyes. ‘You were unbelievable. And I was so proud of you. You really helped save Annie.’

‘I helped?’ Lizzie’s face brightened slightly. ‘Really?’

‘Really.’ Jack nodded, his handsome face serious. ‘You see, you did all the right things. Everyone was scared and I bet you were, too, but you didn’t let being scared stop you from doing what needed to be done. And that makes you a very special person.’

‘It does?’

‘Certainly. I don’t know many grown-ups who would have been as calm as you and remembered all those things and done what you did.’ Jack lifted a hand and stroked Lizzie’s blonde curls away from her face. ‘One day, if you wanted to, I think you could be a very important doctor.’

Bryony swallowed down a lump in her throat and Lizzie’s eyes widened. ‘Like you and Mummy?’

Jack grinned. ‘Maybe not quite as important as me,’ he said teasingly, winking at Bryony who smiled back weakly. ‘But important, just the same.’

Lizzie gave a gurgle of laughter and punched him on the shoulder. ‘That’s boasting, Jack,’ she said reprovingly, and wound her arms round his neck. ‘I’m glad you and Mummy were there.’

For a brief moment Jack squeezed his eyes shut, his jaw tense, and Bryony knew exactly what was going through
his mind. He’d been imagining a scene where he hadn’t been there, a scene where there hadn’t been a doctor on site to administer first aid, a scene where Lizzie might have been the one near the bonfire.

She gave a little shudder, imagining the same scene, and Jack’s eyes opened and locked on hers for a meaningful second.

‘Time for you to go to bed now, angel,’ he said softly, lifting Lizzie off his lap and tucking her under the covers with her mermaid. He leaned across and switched her little pink lamp on. ‘Your mum and I will just be eating some supper in the kitchen. Shout if you want anything.’

‘I don’t want you to go home tonight.’

‘I’m not going,’ Jack said immediately, sounding rock-solid, dependable and altogether too male for Bryony’s piece of mind. ‘Tonight I’m sleeping in your spare room.’

Lizzie gave a smile and they were just tiptoeing to the door when she spoke again.

‘Jack?’ Lizzie’s voice was a little-girl whisper and Bryony saw Jack’s face soften.

‘Yes, angel.’

‘Tomorrow when we wake up, will you play with me?’ Jack grinned. ‘Absolutely.’

‘Can we play Weddings?’

‘My favourite game,’ Jack said softly, walking back across the room and bending down to kiss her one more time. ‘Now, get some sleep. I can’t marry you with black rings under your eyes.’

Lizzie chuckled, sounding much happier. ‘Mummy, will you leave the door open?’

‘Of course, sweetheart. And I’ll pop my head in later.’

Jack followed Bryony out of the room.

‘Thank you for that,’ she said quietly, walking through to the kitchen and opening the fridge. ‘You said all the right things. In fact, you did all the right things, too. My instincts were to just get her out of there.’

‘That would have been my instinct, too, if she hadn’t already seen her friend engulfed by flames,’ Jack said wearily, sinking down on one of her kitchen chairs with a groan. ‘To be honest, I was mostly concentrating on Annie, but I did think that if Lizzie knew she’d helped, she might feel better.’

‘Which she did.’ Bryony removed a bottle of wine from the fridge and handed it to him along with a corkscrew. ‘I just hope she doesn’t have nightmares.’

‘She’s a tough kid,’ Jack said, yanking the cork out and setting the bottle down on the table. ‘She’ll be fine. As soon as Annie is a bit better we can take Lizzie along to see her.’

We.

Listening to him talking as if they were a family, Bryony found it harder and harder to remember that she was supposed to not be thinking of Jack in
that
way any more.

Remembering how skilled he’d been with Annie brought a lump to her throat. ‘You’re amazing, do you know that?’ She reached into the cupboard for two glasses, trying to keep her tone light. ‘You never lose your cool, no matter what. I just saw Annie on fire and I froze.’

‘Only for about three seconds,’ Jack said easily, stretching out a hand for the glasses and filling them both to the top. ‘And working in a well-equipped A and E department is very different from immediate care, as you know. Here. Have a drink. I think we both need it.’

‘I should cook some supper first.’

‘Forget cooking.’ Jack took a mouthful of wine and gave a groan of pleasure. ‘That’s good. Let’s send out for pizza or something.’

Bryony giggled. ‘I can’t do that. Lizzie will find the boxes in the morning and she’ll kill me. Pizza is her treat.’

Jack shrugged. ‘All right. Indian, then. I left a menu by your phone last time I was here.’

‘It would be nice not to cook,’ Bryony agreed, and Jack stood up.

‘That’s decided, then. Indian it is. What do you want?’

Bryony shrugged. ‘You choose.’

So he did and the food arrived half an hour later and was wonderful.

They were well into the bottle of wine when they heard Lizzie’s screams.

Both of them sprinted to her bedroom to find her sobbing and clutching her mermaid, her face blotched with tears.

‘I keep thinking of Annie.’

Bryony cuddled her close, rocking her gently. ‘Well, of course you do, darling. Annie is your friend. She’s going to be fine, Lizzie.’

As she said the words she prayed that she was right. If anything happened to Annie …

Eventually Lizzie calmed down and fell asleep again and the two of them tiptoed back to the kitchen.

Bryony felt totally stressed and she was seriously worried about the effect of the accident on her daughter. As Jack had rightly said, she’d actually seen it happen. What sort of impact would that have on her in the long term?

She desperately wanted to lean on Jack but she couldn’t bring herself to ask him for the hug she so badly needed.

And then he looked at her and she knew he felt the same way. ‘I hate Bonfire Night.’

His voice was hoarse and for the first time Bryony caught a glimpse of the strain he must have been under.

She gave a little frown. ‘We forget about you, Jack,’ she said softly, stepping up to him and looking at him with concern in her eyes. ‘You always seem so strong—so much the one in charge. Everyone else is panicking and flapping and you’re so calm. It’s easy to forget that you can be affected by things, too.’

‘Hey.’ He gave a sexy grin that belied the strain in his eyes. ‘I’m Mr Tough.’

She smiled. ‘Well, would Mr Tough like a cup of coffee?’

‘As I’m not driving, I’d rather finish the wine,’ he admitted ruefully, reaching for his glass. ‘Do you mind me staying?’

‘Of course not,’ she said blithely, wondering why her heart was thumping so hard. Jack had stayed in her cottage on numerous occasions. Why did this time feel different?

‘I’ll get you some stuff ready,’ she said formally, and he reached out and grabbed her arm.

‘Don’t bother. I don’t wear anything in bed anyway.’

Bryony swallowed hard, trying to dispel the mental image of Jack naked in her spare room.

For a woman who was not supposed to be thinking about Jack Rothwell, she was failing dismally.

‘Jack …’

‘What I really need is a hug.’ Without waiting for a response,
he hauled her against him and she went into his arms, feeling the softness of his jumper covering the hard muscle of his chest and the strength of his arms as he held her. He gave a groan and tightened his hold, burying his face in her hair.

Bryony could hardly breathe. She felt the steady thud of his heart against her flushed cheek, felt her whole body tingle in response to the feel of his body against hers. He felt strong and safe and deliciously male.

They stood like that for a moment and she closed her eyes, wishing that it could last for ever. Wishing that it could lead to something more.

And then gradually his grip on her loosened and his hands slid slowly up her arms. His strong fingers curled into her shoulders and he looked down at her, his blue eyes suddenly intent on her face.

A warmth spread slowly through her pelvis and her whole body melted with longing.

She felt his fingers tighten, saw something flicker in his eyes and then his head lowered towards hers.

He was going to kiss her.

Finally, after so many years of dreaming about exactly that, Jack was going to kiss her.

Dizzy with excitement, Bryony stared up at him, breathless with anticipation.

And then suddenly his hands fell away from her shoulders and he stepped back, his handsome face blank of expression.

‘We should probably get some sleep, Blondie.’ His tone was light and he glanced at the clock on the wall. ‘It’s getting late.’

Bryony tried to smile but it was a poor effort. She felt swamped with a disappointment so powerful that it was almost a physical pain.
She’d been so sure that he was going to kiss her.

But why would Jack kiss her?

She gritted her teeth, furious with herself. She was doing it again. Fantasising about Jack.

So much for her campaign to date other men. So far she’d been on one date that had been an utter disaster and she was still noticing Jack.

She had less than two months to find Lizzie a daddy, or at least someone who looked as though he had potential. It was time she made more effort.