The Bush Doctor's Challenge Read online

  ‘The flying doctors are about to land,’ Kell shouted through the darkness. ‘We’re setting up flares along the main road, we can get the head injury evacuated…’

  ‘Jessica’s going off,’ Abby shouted. ‘Get Jack and as many pairs of hands as you can so we get her out, and then we’ll decide who’s going first on the plane!’

  Whoever Kell got, they were strong, but even with the three of them it took a superhuman effort to force the seat forward to somehow slide Jessica’s body through an impossibly small gap. And as was so often the case, as she slipped out from her tomb Jessica’s condition deteriorated rapidly.

  ‘What have we got?’ Abby almost wept with relief as a concerned face greeted her, the golden wings pinned to the man’s very white shirt the most reassuring sight she had ever seen. ‘I’m Hall Jells, the senior medical officer. I think we may have spoken on the radio.’

  ‘Abby Hampton,’ Abby said breathlessly. ‘Emergency Registrar. Her name’s Jessica, that’s all I’ve got. Severe abdominal injures, she’s just lost consciousness. She’s had two units of blood and a litre of Hartmann’s solution, but her blood pressure’s still dangerously low. She desperately needs Theatre. I’ve also done a brief assessment on a young male with a serious head injury—’

  ‘I can only take one,’ Hal broke in.

  ‘Take Jessica,’ Abby said, painfully aware of Kell’s frown as he came over and caught the last of the conversation. ‘Hospital’s her only hope.’

  They liaised for a few moments as they loaded her onto the plane, but as she went to run off Abby turned momentarily. ‘She’s from England.’ Such a paltry summing-up of a young woman, but it was all Abby knew, a tiny personal touch, and as Hall gave her a knowing nod she knew he understood.

  ‘We’ll do all we can.’

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  AT SOME point, night became day, but no one really noticed.

  The clinic resembled a war zone, young people fighting for their lives, their limbs, as all around fought with them.

  Ross and Abby, guided by the knowing voices over the two-way radio, performed a lifesaving burr-hole on the young man Kell had wanted to evacuate first, relieving the growing blood clot pressing against his brain and giving him a chance at life.

  Shelly, who should have been nursing her daughter, snapped into nurse mode and worked alongside Kell and Clara as if she hadn’t missed a day, as friends—who anywhere else in the world would be mere neighbours—tended Matthew and Kate.

  The whole town pulled together on this black Tennengarrah day. Cups of tea and welcome glasses of water appeared like magic as endless limbs were secured with temporary plaster of Paris back slabs and wounds cleaned and stitched, chest drains inserted and, more poignantly, tears wiped. The flying doctors swooped down intermittently, relieving them of one or two patients, until finally all that was left was a floor awash with bandages, swabs and blood. The exhausted crew, who had been awoken in the middle of the night, had not even paused for breath since.

  ‘Nice work, guys.’ Ross stood in the middle, his arm around his exhausted wife. ‘You’ve all done the clinic proud.’

  ‘Have we heard anything from Adelaide?’ Abby asked, taking a long cool drink straight from the tap.

  ‘Hall rang earlier.’ Kell’s voice made her still and she paused over the tap, dreading what was coming next. ‘Jessica had a lacerated liver and a ruptured spleen, along with a perforated bowel. She’s in Intensive Care.’

  ‘But she made it out of Theatre.’ Hope sparked in her voice and Abby quickly fought to quell it, knowing there was a long, long way to go.

  ‘She made it out of Theatre.’ Kell nodded with quiet satisfaction. ‘Good call, Abby. I’d have sent the head injury.’

  ‘That would have been a good call, too,’ Abby said generously. ‘Heaven knows, they both needed help.’

  ‘Well, I for one wouldn’t have fancied performing abdominal surgery here. Give me a burr-hole any day of the week.’ Ross half laughed.

  ‘If you’re so good with a drill,’ Shelly jibed, ‘how come my shelves are still lying in their boxes on the hall floor?’

  ‘Kell said he’d do them.’ Ross gave his wife a playful squeeze around the waist. ‘Hey, Abby, are you sure that you don’t want to stay a bit longer? Say, a few years?’

  There were a few laughs a few ‘hear, hear’s’ but as Abby met Kell’s eyes she could see the pain behind his smile, the nonchalance in his actions for once not coming naturally.

  ‘And I thought I was here for a bit of a holiday.’ Abby attempted a joke. ‘Well, are we going to get this place cleaned up so I can have a long overdue shower?’

  ‘No one’s cleaning a thing,’ June, who Abby now knew to be the legendary hairdresser’s aunt and clinic sandwich maker, said the words with such determination not even Abby would have attempted to argue. ‘I’ll pull on some gloves and get started, and when you’re all rested you can come and finish off. You can’t even use the excuse that you’ve got to restock as you’ve used all the supplies.’

  ‘Come on.’ Kell slung a casual arm around Abby’s shoulders. ‘I don’t know about you, but I’m exhausted.’

  Abby’s eyes flicked around the room, waiting for a few winks or jeers, but she realised they were all too exhausted to even bother with the latest romance blossoming in Tennengarrah. As tragic as the night’s events had been, they’d at least dimmed the spotlight on Abby and Kell.

  Almost.

  Shelly caught up as Abby wearily signed off the drug book.

  ‘Don’t think you’re getting off that easily,’ Shelly whispered, an impish grin on her usually innocent face. ‘I want all the details.’

  ‘You bring the wine.’ Abby smiled, grateful for the chance of some feminine insight.

  ‘Deal.’

  ‘What are you and Shelly cooking up?’ Kell asked as Abby wearily climbed on the back of his bike.

  ‘Girl talk.’ Abby shrugged, then smiled as Kell turned around and gave her a quizzical look. ‘Whatever that is! I’ve never really been one for sitting cross-legged on a bed and engaging in a heart-to-heart.’

  ‘Then you don’t know what you’ve been missing!’

  ‘Oh, and you’d know, would you?’ Abby grinned, poking a pink tongue out between her lips. ‘Being a midwife and everything.’

  ‘So I’m in touch with my feminine side,’ Kell said as Abby slapped his back. ‘It makes for one helluva lover.’

  CHAPTER NINE

  FOR a few days at least, Tennengarrah was the talk of Australia.

  Or at least it felt that way.

  Every news bulletin was filled with images of distraught relatives in England, Germany, Sweden, shell-shocked and stunned as they boarded jumbos, weeping into the cameras, begging their loved ones to hold on till they got there.

  Overdressed reporters, who reminded Abby of herself on her first day in Tennengarrah, talked earnestly into the cameras, trying to ignore the flies that buzzed around their heads and landed unceremoniously on their faces as they spoke of the remoteness, the difficult access, the sheer devastation that had struck these unlucky tourists.

  But even with the benefit of a script and hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of equipment, not one of the reporters managed to truly convey the sheer majesty, the grandeur of a land virtually untouched by human hand. Not one of the news bulletins managed to match the image indelibly etched on Abby’s mind, the sight she had witnessed as she’d first neared the scene. Not one of them truly portrayed the antithetical sight of the minibus, as out of place in this setting as a plastic bag on a deserted beach, the horror of the tourists scattered like dolls on the roadside, the harrowing sight of the makeshift mortuary, or the impressive, anxiously awaited sight of the flying doctors landing their plane on the dirt road, treating the injured and ferrying the wounded.

  Restoring order to chaos.

  Even the clinic had its share of news coverage. And the lump in Abby’s throat, which felt strangely like pride, welled
as she replayed her video tape. Minutes of coverage turned into a couple of hours, a legacy of leaping for the remote and pressing the record button every time the news came on.

  There was Ross—blond, stunning, articulate, praising his staff.

  There was Shelly, pale from combining breastfeeding with a diet, but managing to look like she’d never left nursing for even a second as she bagged an unconscious patient with one hand and spoke into the telephone with the other.

  Clara was there, of course, eternally laid-back, completely unruffled—a true outback nurse by anyone’s standards.

  She cringed as she saw herself, startled by her golden tan, her face void of make-up, tousled dark hair tossed into the scruffiest of ponytails, a far cry from the sleek city girl she was so familiar with, ruing the fact she even cared that her bottom looked massive in her khaki shorts, when beside her Jessica lay a breath away from death’s door.

  And, of course, there was Kell.

  Abby deserved a callus on her index finger for the amount of times she hit the pause button, freezing his image, pausing him in mid-sentence.

  And whatever way she looked, he was beautiful.

  ‘Knock, knock,’ Shelly called out as she pushed open Abby’s front door—about as formal as an entry got in Tennengarrah. Having learned her lesson on more than one occasion, Abby had stopped wandering around her home dressed only in her underwear. Cotton shorts and a crop top—topped with the Akubra Kell had given her—was a far better look than a blushing, eternally embarrassed doctor!

  ‘I was just coming over to see you.’ Abby smiled, simultaneously flicking off the video and pretending to be engrossed in a soap. ‘Where’s Kate?’

  ‘Asleep, and Matthew’s having an afternoon doze so I’ve left them with June for half an hour.’

  ‘You haven’t forgotten it’s your six-week postnatal check today, have you?’

  ‘No such luck.’ Shelly pulled a face and picked up the magazine Abby had discarded on the coffee-table. ‘I don’t suppose we could lie and pretend I’ve had it?’ she asked hopefully.

  ‘Not a chance. Do you want to head over to the clinic? Or I could do it here.’

  ‘You don’t mind? I know Kell’s seen more of me than I can even bear to think about, but smiling at him as I head for the treatment room is something I could do without. A girl’s got some pride. It’s such bliss having a female doctor here.’

  ‘Come on.’ Abby stood up. ‘Let’s get it over with then I can make a coffee or we can have some iced tea I’ve made.’

  ‘Now you’re talking.’

  Abby’s bedroom had to suffice, and though she was professional, Abby still reeled at the informality of the outback. Postnatal checks with the neighbours while you spoke about the latest lipstick shades were an entirely new ball game.

  ‘All back to normal.’ Abby finished, labelling Shelly’s pap smear and sorting out her vast doctor’s bag which had tripled in size since she’d first arrived in Tennengarrah.

  ‘Not quite,’ Shelly sighed. ‘I’m still several kilos heavier than nature intended. I’m restarting my diet tomorrow—it’s only four weeks till the ball.’

  Hardly a ball, Abby thought but didn’t say. A massive barn draped in fairy lights more than likely, but it was all everyone in Tennengarrah seemed to be speaking about these days.

  ‘What will you be wearing?’

  Abby shrugged. She hadn’t given it a second’s thought, well, maybe a second. Apparently the men would all be in formal wear and the thought of glimpsing Kell in a suit did strange things to Abby’s equilibrium.

  ‘I bought one nice dress with me—I guess it will have to be that.’

  ‘Show me.’

  Popping the sample in a plastic bag, Abby went and washed her hands before returning. ‘I’ll drop this over to the clinic later, it will go on the run to Adelaide tomorrow.’

  ‘If only Bruce knew what was in that little esky he carries.’ Shelly giggled and Abby laughed along with her.

  They got on really well.

  Shelly still burned with shame when she remembered their meeting, insisting she wasn’t obsessed with the washing, and Abby burned for other reasons when she recalled that fateful night. Girly chats weren’t something Abby was particularly used to, but Shelly was so insistent and so disarmingly nice, Abby’s uptight exterior whittled away to zero when she was around. For the first time in her life Abby had a woman friend, someone she could moan to, someone she could gossip with for hours about absolutely nothing, someone to bemoan PMT and cellulite with.

  And she loved it.

  ‘Come on,’ Shelly nagged. ‘Your dress.’

  Pulling a white dress out of her wardrobe, she watched Shelly’s face for her reaction.

  ‘I love it.’ Shelly bounded over, running her hand along the sheer organza. ‘Just look at those ruffles around the bust and those tiny straps.’

  ‘Hopefully they’ll survive the night,’ Abby said, ever practical, but though her next question sounded casual she held her breath as she awaited the answer. ‘Do you think it will be all right, for the ball, I mean?’

  ‘You’ll be the most glamorous one there. Kell won’t be able to keep his hands off you,’ Shelly enthused. ‘Ooh, look.’ Shelly ran an appreciative eye over Abby’s dressing-table. ‘Gosh, I miss the city sometimes. A quarterly trip into town isn’t anywhere near as fun as hitting the shops every weekend, and by the time I’ve made sure we’re stocked up for the next century there isn’t exactly time to go make-up shopping.’

  ‘Here.’ Pulling open her drawer, Abby tossed a makeup bag to Shelly which she pounced on like an eager puppy. ‘It’s one of those freebies you get if you spend enough on a bottle of foundation or whatever. I haven’t even opened it.’

  ‘You haven’t opened it?’ Shelly asked, aghast, tearing at the zip like a child on Christmas morning, pouring the countless mini-lipsticks and nail varnishes onto the bed and examining each one with relish. ‘And you don’t mind?’

  ‘Enjoy.’ Abby grinned. ‘Six weeks from now I’ll be swanning round a department store, ordering facials and massages and getting my nails done. It’s the least I can do.’

  ‘Don’t,’ Shelly grumbled. ‘I don’t even want to think about you leaving. Why don’t you stay a bit longer? Six months at least.’ Following Abby out to the kitchen, she perched on the bench as Abby poured two long glasses of iced tea.

  ‘But there’s a new doctor coming to take my place.’

  ‘There could be two new doctors starting and we’d still be short,’ Shelly pointed out. ‘The clinic’s really taking off now. Please, think about it, Abby.’

  ‘I can’t.’ Abby picked up one of the glasses and handed it to Shelly. ‘I’ve got a job, a life back in the city.’

  ‘But it will still be there if you stay a few more months, and you must admit you’re enjoying yourself.’

  ‘I am,’ Abby admitted without even having to think about the answer.

  ‘And if I remember rightly, there’s not too many men like Kell floating around…’

  ‘Shelly.’ Abby’s voice had a warning note to it. They spoke about Kell now and then—he wasn’t off limits exactly, but the inevitable end to the blossoming romance most certainly was. ‘Leave it, OK?’

  ‘I can’t,’ Shelly sighed. ‘You clearly adore each other. How can you bear to leave him?’

  Fiddling with a lipstick, Abby rouged her lips, determined not to pursue this painful subject, but the chance to talk about it, to glean some fellow feminine insight was simply too tempting, and she gave up on her lips with a low moan. ‘Was it hard—for you, I mean?’ Abby asked, turning from the mirror, her troubled eyes meeting Shelly’s. ‘Did you just say yes straight away when Ross asked you to come here with him?’

  Shelly nodded. ‘I didn’t even have to think about it.’

  ‘Well, there’s your answer,’ Abby said cryptically, as Shelly frowned. ‘Maybe Kell and I aren’t as serious as you and Ross. I mean, the fact you didn’t even
have to think about it surely means—’

  ‘It doesn’t mean a thing.’ Shelly said with certainty. ‘Look, Abby, you and I are different. You’ve got a career.’

  ‘So do you.’

  ‘Not like yours.’ Shelly gave a small laugh. ‘You’re about to become an emergency consultant, for heaven’s sake, and you’ve got that blessed drug programme you’re always going on about. I was a reluctant nurse who’d already thrown in her job to concentrate on Matthew. I wasn’t giving up a glamorous job I was completely dedicated to. All I had to give up was a whole heap of angst.’

  ‘It’s hardly glamorous,’ Abby said. ‘You should see the department on a Saturday night.’ Her smile faded from her face as she carried on talking. ‘I just can’t do it, Shelly,’ Abby said quietly. ‘Kell knows where I stand. I’ve been straight with him from the beginning and he’s been straight with me. We both know this relationship isn’t going anywhere, so we’ve just agreed to enjoy what time we’ve got together.’

  She’d said it so many times Abby almost made it sound convincing, but how many nights had she lain in Kell’s arms staring out of her window, counting the endless stars in a bid to beckon sleep and wish that she’d signed for twelve months, six even? But to change her contract now, to extend her stay, would only raise false hope.

  For everyone.

  Oh, she loved Tennengarrah. It wasn’t even a reluctant admission now. Kell had taught her to ride, endless days spent ambling around the bush, picnics by billabongs, listening to the horses whinney as they lay and cooled off in the red dirt, or drank from the water’s edge, lying in Kell’s arms and trying to hold onto a slice of heaven, trying to pretend it could be for ever.

  ‘I’d best get this over to the clinic.’ Putting down her empty glass, Abby effectively ended the conversation, and Shelly gave her a half-smile, concern etched on every feature.