Dear Reader

Georgie and Josh lived in my imagination for close to a year before I had a chance to begin their story. I thought it would be easy because I knew them so well by this time. I was wrong! (Please keep that to yourself as it’s something my husband would love to hear me admit!)

This story was a battle of wills: mine versus my characters. Almost always my characters take on their own very distinct personalities, but I usually still feel that I am in control of their story. Not this time! Georgie and Josh refused to behave. But they’re like my kids—I still love them even if they’re misbehaving, and I do like it when they show a bit of spirit.

So eventually, with much angst on my part and much rebellion on their part, we found a way to compromise. They might have tested my patience, but I was very pleased ultimately to give them the happiness they deserved.

I hope you love Georgie and Josh as much as I did.

Best wishes

Emily

About the Author

EMILY FORBES began her writing life as a partnership between two sisters who are both passionate bibliophiles. As a team, Emily had ten books published, and one of her proudest moments was when her tenth book was nominated for the 2010 Australian Romantic Book of the Year Award.

While Emily’s love of writing remains as strong as ever, the demands of life with young families has recently made it difficult to work on stories together. But rather than give up her dream Emily now writes solo. The challenges may be different but the reward of having a book published is still as sweet as ever. Her inspiration comes from everywhere: stories she hears while travelling, at mothers’ lunches, in the media and in her other career as a physiotherapist.

If you would like to get in touch with Emily you can e-mail her at emilyforbes@internode.on.net, and she can also be found blogging at the Harlequin Medical Romance blog: www.harlequin.com

WENDY S. MARCUS lives in the beautiful Hudson Valley region of New York, with her husband, two of her three children, and a much loved Bichon Frisé named Buddy. A nurse by trade, Wendy has a master’s degree in Healthcare Administration. After years of working in the medical profession Wendy has taken a radical turn to write hot contemporary romance with strong heroes, feisty heroines, and lots of laughs. When she’s not writing, she enjoys spending time with her family and blogging/e-mailing/tweeting with her online friends. To learn more about Wendy visit her website: www.WendySMarcus.com

Recent titles by Emily Forbes:

BREAKING HER NO-DATES RULE

NAVY OFFICER TO FAMILY MAN

DR DROP-DEAD-GORGEOUS

THE PLAYBOY FIREFIGHTER’S PROPOSAL

These books are also available in eBook format from www.millsandboon.co.uk

Georgie’s Big
Greek Wedding?
Emily Forbes

www.millsandboon.co.uk

CHAPTER ONE

JOSH swung himself out of the ocean and onto the back of the pontoon. Slipping his dive fins from his feet and his mask from his face, he held them in one hand as he used his free hand to haul himself into a standing position. The air tank on his back was ungainly, making his balance awkward, but he was used to the sensation and after more than two hundred dives he knew better than to try to lean forward while changing position.

He dropped his fins, mask and snorkel into his dive bag and checked his watch, noting the dive time and depth. It had been a fairly standard dive, pleasant but certainly not the best. The visibility had been reasonable but aside from a few eels and one huge Maori wrasse he hadn’t seen anything spectacular.

He was disappointed. He’d hoped the easy access to the world-renowned Great Barrier Reef dive sites off the coast of Cairns in northern Queensland would make up for the fact he’d had to transfer to this country town. He unclipped his buoyancy vest and slung it from his back. Okay, to be fair, Cairns was a large regional centre, not a typical Australian country town, but it definitely wasn’t a big city. He’d spent the past two and a half years in Brisbane, a city of two million people, working his way up to a senior position, or so he’d thought, only to find himself banished to the sticks for six months.

But he’d survived smaller towns before, much smaller, all for the sake of experience, and he just hoped this move would pay dividends too. Besides, it wasn’t like he’d had much of a choice. His six-month stint started tomorrow and he’d have to make the most of it.

He would take the opportunity to have one last holiday before he prepared to knuckle down and work hard to achieve the goals he’d set himself. He would be free to do as he pleased on his days off but once he returned to Brisbane he imagined days off would be few and far between.

Have fun, he told himself as he pulled his thin dive shirt over his head before running his hands through his hair to dry it off, but remember to think of the bigger picture and of what you stand to gain, that was the way to get through the next six months.

Georgie pushed herself out of the warm water and onto the ledge at the back of the pontoon that was moored permanently at Agincourt Reef. She removed her mask and snorkel as she dangled her legs in the ocean and watched the myriad holidaymakers splashing around, enjoying the beauty of the reef.

Her stomach rumbled as she basked in the afternoon sunshine, reminding her that she’d skipped lunch in favour of a longer snorkel. She pulled the flippers from her feet so she could stand and threw her borrowed diving equipment into the containers at the back of the pontoon. The deck was almost deserted now that most of the day-trippers had consumed their lunches and returned to the water, so she’d go and see what remained of the buffet.

She hung her life jacket on the rack and let her eyes roam over the handful of people gathered on the pontoon. Her gaze lingered on the starboard side where a group of scuba divers had just emerged from the water and were now laboriously removing their equipment. She searched the group for her brother Stephen and his girlfriend, Anna, who were visiting from Melbourne and had come out to the reef to go scuba diving, but she didn’t see any familiar faces. They must still be in the water.

They’d tried to talk her into doing an introductory dive and initially she’d been keen, but she’d chickened out when they’d reached the pontoon and she’d seen the huge expanse of empty ocean. Who knew what was lurking under there? She decided she felt safer splashing about with all the other snorkellers. Being able to lift her head out of the water and see the pontoon and the catamarans that had ferried them to the reef gave her a sense of security out in the middle of the vast Pacific Ocean.

She continued to watch the group of divers, smiling at their attempts to shed their equipment. They’d looked so graceful under the water when she’d seen them from her snorkelling vantage point but out of it they looked ungainly. She was glad she’d changed her mind about the introductory dive—she wasn’t sure she could be bothered with all the paraphernalia and the air tanks looked awfully heavy.

There was one man, however, who managed to make the tank look as though it weighed no more than a sleeping bag. Georgie watched as he unclipped his buoyancy vest and slung it and his air tank off his shoulders before he removed his thin dive shirt by pulling it over his head. His torso was bare and she was treated to a rather attractive view of a smooth, lightly tanned back and rippling muscles as he stretched his arms overhead. His dark blond hair was cut short and when he ran his hands through it the salt water made it stick up in all directions. He had the physique of a man who worked out. He had broad, square shoulders that tapered nicely into his waist and the muscles on his arms were well defined.

He threw his shirt over his shoulder as her eyes travelled down his back. She could see the two small dimples at the base of his spine just visible above the waistband of his shorts. His shorts hugged the curve of his buttocks and were patterned like the Australian flag. If all divers looked like him, perhaps she would take up the challenge.

‘Help, somebody, please, help us.’

Georgie spun around, her meandering thoughts interrupted by a woman’s cries. The sound came from her right, out in the ocean. She searched the water and it took her a second or two to locate the woman. She was about fifty metres off the back of the pontoon in one of the snorkelling areas marked out by floating buoys. The woman was waving one arm and hanging onto someone else with her other hand. From the corner of her eye Georgie saw a flash of movement as someone dived off the starboard corner of the pontoon. She turned her head. The guy in the Australian flag board shorts had disappeared. In the time it took her to process the cries for help and to find the source of the sound he had dived into the water and was now swimming strongly towards the distressed woman.

A couple of crew members had raced to the back of the pontoon, one unhooking a lifebuoy and the other carrying a first-aid kit. Seeing other people in action galvanised Georgie. She made her way across the pontoon, past stunned tourists, to offer her assistance as the crewman with the lifebuoy jumped overboard and struck out towards the woman, trailing in the other guy’s wake.

Georgie followed him with her eyes. She could see that the diver in the Aussie flag shorts had almost reached the woman but it was getting difficult to see everything that was happening as the swell had picked up and the small waves breaking on the top of the reef were obscuring her vision. With two more over arm strokes, the guy in the board shorts had reached the woman and taken over control of the person she was supporting. He had hold of the person’s chin and Georgie could see him making his way back to the pontoon with a strong sidestroke action, dragging the person with him. The woman was doing her best to follow but she was being rapidly left behind. The crewman with the lifebuoy swam up to her, slipped the lifebuoy over her head and under her arms and started towing her back to the pontoon.

The guy in the board shorts was already back at the pontoon with the rescued man in his grip. One of the crewmen knelt down at the edge of the pontoon and hooked his hands under the distressed man’s armpits and hauled him onto the deck.

‘He’s complaining of chest pain,’ the diver in the board shorts told the crewman as he helped to lift the man’s legs out of the water, ‘and I suspect he’s aspirated some salt water.’

What sort of person used the term ‘aspirated’? Georgie wondered. It was a medical term but perhaps it was common in diving as well? She watched the diver as he hoisted himself up onto the deck. His biceps and triceps bulged as he lifted his weight clear of the sea. Salt water streamed from his body as he stood. His chest was smooth and tanned and despite having just swum a fast fifty metres while towing a heavy body, he was breathing normally. He didn’t appear to be even slightly out of breath.

There were now several people gathered around the back of the pontoon and Georgie was able to blend into the crowd. The guy seemed oblivious to her scrutiny so she let her gaze travel higher.

She was pleased to see that he had a face to match his body. He had an oval face with strong features that complemented his chiselled physique. He had full lips set above a firm jaw, which had a day’s growth of beard and perfectly symmetrical, sandy brown eyebrows that framed his eyes. His nose was straight and narrow and his teeth, when he spoke, were even and white. He was rather cute.

‘Let’s clear the area and get him comfortable. We don’t want to encourage extra blood flow to his heart. I don’t want to stress it more than necessary.’

The cute guy, as Georgie now thought of him, continued to issue instructions as he directed the crew to reposition the man where he wanted him. Because of the board shorts he was wearing she’d initially wondered if he was an overseas tourist but he spoke with a definite Aussie twang. Foreign or not, the cute guy was sounding more and more like he had a medical background. Which reminded her of why she’d crossed the deck in the first place. It hadn’t been to ogle a complete stranger, she’d meant to offer assistance. There were more important things to focus on than an attractive scuba diver.

She took a couple of steps away from the cute guy and towards the crew member who was standing nearby, holding the first-aid kit.

‘Have you got a towel or something we can use to dry him off and keep him warm?’ she asked.

He nodded and Georgie took the kit from him so he could go and find what she’d asked for. She squatted down and spoke to the cute guy. ‘I’m a paramedic. Can I help?’

He nodded in acknowledgement but kept his head down and directed his words at the patient. ‘I’m a doctor so between us we should be able to get you sorted.’ For a moment Georgie thought he was going to ignore her but when he finished reassuring the patient he looked across at her. His eyes were an unusual shade of grey. Silvery grey, almost metallic in colour, they reminded her of the paint the Navy used on its ships. ‘Can you have a look and see what’s in the first-aid kit?’ he asked.

She flipped the catches open as she listened to the conversation going on beside her.

‘Can you describe your pain to me?’

‘I feel like someone has punched me in the chest.’ The man spoke with a British accent and he sounded out of breath, as though each word took great effort. He was going to have a holiday to remember, Georgie thought, assuming they managed to pull him through this crisis.

‘Have you had chest pain before?’ Cute guy had his fingers on the man’s wrist pulse and his eyes on his dive watch, counting the seconds. His fingers were long and slender, his nails shortly clipped and nicely shaped.

The patient nodded but the woman, whom Georgie assumed was his wife, and who was now back on board the pontoon thanks to the efforts of the crew member, elaborated. ‘His doctor said it was angina.’

‘Is he on any medication?’ Cute guy quizzed the man’s wife.

Georgie made a concerted effort to turn her attention back to the contents of the first-aid kit and away from the cute doctor’s hands.

‘The doctor gave Nigel some tablets.’

‘Have you got them with you?’

The wife shook her head. ‘We forgot to pack them—they’re in our hotel room.’

Fat lot of good they were going to do there, Georgie thought. She looked up from the first-aid kit and caught cute guy’s eye. It was obvious from his expression he was thinking along the same lines.

‘There’s nothing useful in here,’ she muttered as she finished searching through the kit. The crewman had returned with a towel but Georgie had another assignment for him now. ‘Do you have a medical cupboard that would have any drugs other than mild analgesics? Painkillers,’ she clarified, when all she got was a blank look.

He nodded. ‘Yes, we’ve got a sick bay. If you want to come with me, you can see if we’ve got what you need.’

Georgie stood and quickly followed him along the deck into the small sick room. She grabbed a portable oxygen cylinder that was hooked up against the wall as the crewman unlocked a medicine cupboard. She hunted through the cupboard and found some GTN spray and a mask to use with the oxygen. There wasn’t much else that was helpful.

She returned to the back of the pontoon with her meagre supplies. ‘Symptoms?’ she queried, wanting to know whether the patient’s status had changed.

‘Pulse rate irregular and possibly slightly elevated,’ cute guy said as she squatted beside him. He smelt of salt and sunshine and Georgie could feel the heat of the sun bouncing off him. ‘Shortness of breath,’ he continued speaking, ‘but that could be exercise related. Left-sided chest pain but not extending into his extremities.’ He turned to look at her and the movement made his abdominals ripple along his side.

‘How long since his symptoms started?’ she asked, forcing herself to concentrate.

He glanced at his watch. ‘We’ve been out of the water for four and a half minutes and his pain’s no worse.’

‘Angina?’ she queried.

He nodded in agreement. ‘Most probably.’

‘I found this.’ Georgie held up the spray. ‘I think it’s our best option.’ She expected the doctor to move over and let her administer the spray but he reached out and took it from her. She was a little bit taken aback. She had no idea what sort of doctor this man was but, as a paramedic, she was almost certain she’d have more experience in these situations than him and she wasn’t used to playing second fiddle. But she wasn’t going to have an argument about it—after all, it was a fairly simple exercise and he’d already given Nigel the spray. All that was left was to monitor him and hope his condition improved.

Georgie saw Nigel’s wife waiting anxiously nearby. She swallowed her irritation. Someone needed to talk to the wife. ‘I’ll call QMERT and put them on alert but hopefully we’ll get him stabilised,’ she told the doctor as she stood up. ‘And I’ll explain what’s happening to his wife.’

To save time she spoke to a crew member and Nigel’s wife together so she only had to explain things once. ‘Nigel’s symptoms aren’t worsening so hopefully it’s just a case of angina,’ she told them. ‘He’s been given medication and we’ll monitor him for the next ten minutes. If it is angina, we expect his symptoms will have eased considerably in that time.’

‘And if they don’t? What do we do then?’ Nigel’s wife asked. ‘We’re out in the middle of the ocean.’

‘I’m going to radio QMERT, that’s the Queensland Medical Emergency Retrieval Team.’ Georgie kept her voice calm as she wanted to stem the rising panic she could hear in the wife’s voice. ‘I’ll explain the situation and get a helicopter on standby to evacuate him if necessary.’ She didn’t mention that she worked with QMERT, it wouldn’t make any difference to anyone else.

Georgie got a few more details from Nigel’s wife and put a call in to the Clinical Coordination centre in Brisbane to advise them of the situation. All calls to QMERT went through Brisbane. It was up to the central command to find the closest available crew from one of the bases located throughout Queensland. It was more than likely that Cairns, which was her base, or the Townsville crew would be put on standby.

She finished the call and returned to the patient. The cute doctor looked up at her with his gunship-grey eyes and Georgie forgot she was annoyed at him.

‘He’s recovering well, chest pain abating and respirations normal.’

‘So you think we’re okay to bring him in on the boat?’ Georgie asked.

‘How long will that take?’

Georgie frowned. Had she misheard him? Hadn’t he come out to the reef on the boat? Was his cool grey gaze interfering with her concentration?

‘About ninety minutes,’ she replied, ‘but it’s not due to leave for another hour. There’s time to alter plans if things change. I’ve put the QMERT chopper on standby.’

He stood up. ‘Can I speak to you over here?’ he asked, inclining his head towards the side railing of the pontoon.

Georgie wondered what he couldn’t say in front of Nigel and his wife but she nodded anyway. He held out a hand. She reached for him and he clasped his fingers around her wrist to help her to her feet, but when his skin met hers a spark shot through her. It made her catch her breath. It made her heart race. It must have something to do with the adrenaline coursing through her system after the excitement, she thought. He let go of her hand and walked over to the edge of the pontoon, away from Nigel, his wife and the crewman, who was still hovering waiting for any further instructions. Georgie followed him, she didn’t think she could do anything else. Her feet seemed to be behaving independently of her brain, following his lead.

He leant on the railing and Georgie could see each bony prominence of his vertebrae where his spine curved as he bent forward.

‘Are you happy to monitor him and make that call if necessary?’

Her frown deepened. ‘Of course.’ She had no problem with that but she wondered why he was handing total patient care over to her.

‘I flew out to the reef on a helicopter charter,’ he explained, ‘and I’ve just been told it needs to take off as there’s another chopper coming in onto the landing pontoon shortly. But I can stay to help monitor Nigel if you like. I need to know what you’re comfortable with before I tell him what’s happening. I could come back on the catamaran with you if you’d prefer.’

Did he think she couldn’t handle things? Was that why he’d offered? He didn’t need to do her any favours.

‘Thank you but I can manage. I’m used to working in these conditions,’ she said as she looked around the pontoon and the expanse of water surrounding it. ‘Well, perhaps not these exact conditions, but I’m certainly used to coping outside a hospital environment. If I’m at all concerned I’ll call QMERT in. They can do an evacuation from the catamaran if things get really dicey. It’s fine. Go.’

Go and let me concentrate. She knew it would be better if she was left to work on her own. After all, she’d wanted to be in charge.

There was a stretcher fixed alongside the stairs that led to the upper deck, and she instructed the crew to bring it to her as she swapped places with the doctor. She watched him as he gathered his things and boarded the little dinghy that would ferry him across to the helicopter pontoon.

She watched him as he left her to monitor Nigel. That wasn’t an issue. She was more than capable. She didn’t need his help. She could work more efficiently without the distraction. But as the dinghy pulled away from the pontoon, she wondered where he was from and, as he raised a hand in farewell, she realised she had no way of finding out. She didn’t even know his name.

CHAPTER TWO

GEORGIE parked her car beside the airport building that was the headquarters for the Cairns division of QMERT. She climbed out and pulled her white singlet top away from her body, looking for some respite from the heat. A quarter to eight in the morning and the north Queensland humidity was already stifling. She could feel the perspiration gathering between her breasts. She’d been in the tropics for months now but after moving from the cooler climes of Melbourne she still hadn’t got used to feeling hot and sticky ninety per cent of the time. But despite the sometimes intolerable humidity she was thoroughly enjoying her secondment to the Queensland Ambulance Service and QMERT.

And the weather wasn’t always so oppressive, she reminded herself. It had been remarkably pleasant out on the reef yesterday. It was only on the mainland that she noticed the humidity. The scenery yesterday had been very pleasant too, she recalled with a smile. It had been a pity the cute doctor had left before she’d got his name.

She still hadn’t decided whether she was more annoyed or intrigued by him. She had to give him credit for his quick reaction to the crisis yesterday. Nigel had made it safely back to the Cairns hospital and he had the doctor to thank for that. She supposed he’d only been doing what he’d been trained for and she couldn’t hold that against him. But, still, she wished she knew who he was.

She’d kept her eyes peeled last night when she’d gone out to dinner with her brother and sister-in-law, hoping she might see him wandering the streets of Cairns, but her search had been fruitless. She shrugged. She’d expected nothing less really, it had been a rather vain hope. But it had been her only hope. The only way she might see him again. More than likely he was just a tourist, just someone passing through Cairns, someone she was never likely to see again. But that idea was strangely disappointing.

She shook her head, trying to clear it. She had other things to think about than a perfect stranger. It was time to go to work. She searched through her bag for an elastic band to tie up her hair. The air was muggy, heavy with moisture, and having her hair hanging halfway down her back was making her feel hotter. She gathered her dark hair into a ponytail that hung in a thick rope between her shoulder blades, picked up her bag and headed for the air-conditioned comfort of the corrugated-iron and weatherboard building.

She walked past the helicopter that was the latest addition to the QMERT fleet. The night crew was obviously back at base and she wondered what kind of shift they’d had. She hummed show tunes as she crossed the tarmac, pushed open the door to the base and headed for the communications centre. Comms was always her first port of call as she always wanted to check what was happening.

‘Morning, Lou, what have I missed?’ she greeted the dispatch officer who was stationed at her desk.

‘Nothing much,’ was the answer. ‘The boys have just got back from an IHT,’ Louise went on, using the abbreviation for an inter-hospital transfer, ‘but other than that it was pretty quiet overnight.’

Georgie pulled a face, her dark eyes flashing with good humour. She loved the pace and hype of busy days. Flying off in the helicopter to save lives was a huge buzz and while quiet days were good because they meant no one was getting injured, busy days meant the chance to put her skills to use.

‘It’s not all bad,’ Louise added. She knew how Georgie felt about quiet days—everyone on the team felt the same. ‘The new doctor starts officially today. Showing him the ropes should keep you out of trouble.’

‘That’s Josh Wetherly, right? The emergency specialist from Brisbane?’ Georgie recalled some details from the bio that had been circulating about him.

Louise nodded. ‘His experience looks pretty good on paper but, trust me, he looks even better in real life. I reckon you’ll be more than happy to show him around the chopper and maybe even around Cairns.’

Georgie rolled her eyes. She was used to Louise trying to find her a man. Louise and her husband had been married for twenty-five years and she thought everyone deserved the same happiness. Georgie didn’t disagree. Her parents were also a fine example of a happy marriage, but she didn’t want to be reminded that at twenty-seven years of age people were starting to expect her to settle down. There were still things she wanted to do before she settled down to domestic life and she certainly didn’t need another mother figure trying to find her a husband. Her own mother was perfectly capable of that! Besides, at fifty and almost twice her age, Louise’s idea of a hot man was not quite the same as Georgie’s. It took more than good manners and a nice head of hair to get her attention.

One of the reasons Georgie had moved to Cairns had been to get away from the pressure her family had been putting on her to find a partner but so far her plan wasn’t working too well. Her family continued to show a tendency to send eligible bachelors her way and she’d lost count of the number of blind dates she’d been obliged to go on. She didn’t need Lou on her case as well. She needed a project, something to occupy her time so she could legitimately say she was too busy to date. Showing Dr Wetherly around Cairns wasn’t her idea of a suitable project. She’d have to find something else.

The phone on Louise’s desk rang before Georgie could think of a smart retort. She waited for Lou to take the call, knowing it would probably mean a job for the team.

Lou jotted notes as she spoke to the clinical co-ordinator in Brisbane, nearly fourteen hundred kilometres south of their Cairns base. The information the retrieval team received was almost always third hand: the emergency call would be put through to headquarters in Brisbane and, depending on the location of the emergency, the Brisbane co-ordinator would pass the call on to the dispatch clerk in Brisbane, Townsville, Toowoomba or Cairns. They would then pass the information on to the retrieval team. QMERT was responsible for an area extending in a radius a few hundred kilometres around Cairns, including the waters and islands in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Australia. The Royal Flying Doctor Service took over to the north up to Cape York and further inland into the Outback, while QMERT Townsville covered the area to the south.

Louise hung up the phone and relayed the scant information she had to Georgie. ‘A four-month-old baby in respiratory distress. She’s in Tully hospital, they’ve requested an IHT. I’ll find Pat—’

‘And I’ll get changed and track down Dr Wetherly.’ Georgie finished Lou’s sentence. She knew she had time. Pat, the helicopter pilot on duty, would need to get details about the flight and landing, do his pre-flight checks and refuel if necessary. She only needed a few minutes to get changed and find the new doctor. A job this early in the morning wasn’t going to be an ideal introduction for the new recruit on his first day but there was no way around it. She just hoped he was up to the challenge.

She headed for the change rooms to stow her bag and change into the navy and grey jumpsuit that was the retrieval team’s uniform. As she pushed open the door and stepped around the privacy wall that screened the room from the corridor she was greeted by the sight of semi-naked men. The QMERT building was not overly large and the change rooms were unisex. There was a central changing area divided by lockers with male and female showers and toilets off to each side, which afforded a little privacy but not a lot.

The night-shift team was changing to go home. Sean, the duty doctor, was towelling his hair after his shower; she recognised his stocky build even though his face was hidden under a towel. And Marty, an intensive care paramedic like herself, was already dressed and was pulling his motorbike helmet from a locker.

‘Morning, guys,’ she said in greeting.

As Marty stepped away from his locker Georgie could see a third man at the end of the room. He was stripped to the waist, his jumpsuit top hanging on his hips. His back was tanned and smooth, muscular and strangely familiar. She could see two dimples at the base of his spine, just above his waistband, teasing her in a repeat performance. Georgie felt her heart rate increase. It couldn’t be, could it?

He was turning around now at the sound of her voice and his abdominals rippled down his side. Did she dare move her gaze higher?

She lifted her eyes. Abdominals and then pectoral muscles came into view followed by full lips that were smiling, and above those a narrow, perfectly straight nose and grey eyes. Gunship grey.

Her eyes widened. Standing in front of her, semi-naked, was the cute doctor from yesterday. All that was missing were the Australian flag board shorts.

He was the new doctor?

She could feel her heart beating in her chest and she imagined everyone else could hear it too in the quiet of the room.

‘You’re Dr Wetherly?’ She broke the silence but didn’t apologise for bursting in on him while he was changing. Anyone who was at all self-conscious needed to learn to change in the bathrooms. Besides, she’d been treated to the same spectacular view yesterday and looking at this man’s semi-naked body she couldn’t think of a single reason why he might need to hide away. She swallowed hard, forcing herself to continue speaking. ‘I’m Georgie Carides.’ She took a deep breath and tried to relax.

‘Please, my name’s Josh,’ he said as he extended his hand and stepped forward to meet her halfway. He was several inches taller than she was and as he closed the distance between them her gaze fell on his bare chest. Again. It took all her self-control to force her gaze up to his face. But even that was no great hardship. His grey eyes were watching her with amusement and she realised he was still holding his hand out, waiting to shake hers, while she stood there, staring at him. She couldn’t believe he was the new doctor.

Quickly she clasped his hand, unprepared for the tingle that shot through her. It was the same reaction she’d experienced yesterday when he’d helped her to her feet on the pontoon. It felt as though he’d triggered a connection in her palm that led straight to her chest. Her breathing was shallow and rapid and her heart was racing. Again. Yesterday she’d put the feeling down to the adrenaline that had been flowing through her but that wasn’t the case today. This time she knew it was all Dr Wetherly’s doing. Josh.

‘It’s good to see you again,’ he said. He appeared completely unflustered, calm and relaxed, behaving as though he was the old hand, while she felt completely disoriented. He let go of her hand and pulled a grey T-shirt over his head, before slipping his arms into the sleeves of his jumpsuit and zipping it closed. ‘Small world.’

‘Isn’t it?’ she replied, able to speak now that he’d let go of her and her breathing had returned to normal.

‘You guys know each other?’ Marty’s voice came from behind her, startling her. She’d forgotten Marty and Sean were there.

‘We met yesterday—’ she told him.

‘But I didn’t know who she was.’

‘You’re in good hands, mate. Georgie’s a good operator,’ Sean said.

‘We’re going to be working together?’ Josh’s grey eyes hadn’t left her face. He was watching her intently, almost as though he was committing her face to memory. But why he’d need to do that she had no idea. His gaze was intense and focussed but not obtrusive.

She nodded and remembered what had brought her in here. ‘I’m the rostered paramedic today and our first call has just come in. A four-month-old girl in respiratory distress—she’s in the Tully hospital but they’re concerned her condition is deteriorating. Pat, our pilot, is just getting the flight details. We should be ready to take off in about ten.’ That was better. If she concentrated on work, she could block out the image of a bare-chested doctor.

‘The chopper’s restocked and ready to go,’ Marty said as he slammed his locker closed. ‘Good luck, Josh.’

‘Thanks, guys,’ Josh replied as the night crew headed out the door. He turned back to Georgie, watching her with his grey eyes. ‘So you drew the short straw.’

Georgie could see flashes of silver in Josh’s eyes. The colour was striking. She forced herself to concentrate on speaking. Gazing into his eyes was not terribly professional. ‘What do you mean?’

‘You get to work with the new guy on his first day.’

‘I don’t mind,’ she said with a grin. ‘This way I can get you trained up just how I want.’ And she didn’t mind. She’d seen his CV and she knew he came with an excellent reputation, although she had expected someone older. Josh looked to be in his early thirties, pretty young for a specialist with his credentials, but that didn’t bother her because this time she’d be in charge.

In an effort to stop ogling him, she opened her locker and threw her bag inside. She needed to get changed.

‘I’ll meet you outside,’ Josh said as she slipped off her sandals and stowed them in her locker.

She turned to him and nodded. He was standing very close to her; she could have reached out a hand and touched him but she didn’t.

As he stepped away she wondered if he was nervous about her disrobing in front of him? Surely not, she thought. He was a doctor, he’d have seen it all before. And he’d seen pretty much all of her just yesterday, she recalled. Her cheeks darkened a little as she remembered what she’d been wearing. Her black bikini hadn’t seemed revealing out on the pontoon, not when everyone else had been dressed in a similar fashion, but now she felt her outfit yesterday may shown him more than she would have liked. She was glad of her olive complexion. Hopefully he hadn’t noticed the blush staining her cheeks.

‘See what other info you can get about the job,’ she said as she tried to quell her embarrassment. ‘Louise should have a contact number for someone at Tully hospital.’

He nodded and said, ‘No worries, I’ll get onto it.’

He turned and left the change rooms, taking the image of Georgie Carides with him. Hearing her voice today and realising they were to be colleagues had been a surprise. A very pleasant surprise, he thought as he entered the corridor. Working with an attractive woman was always a bonus.

He could remember her features. Her face was round and almost perfectly symmetrical. Her dark hair was pulled back from her face and her widow’s peak in the centre of her forehead further highlighted the roundness of her face. Her nose was small and straight and her olive skin smooth and tanned. Her almond-shaped eyes were the colour of chocolate and were accentuated by perfectly shaped black eyebrows. The only splash of colour on her face was the red of her lips.

Her natural demeanour seemed to be quite serious and solemn but when she smiled her whole face changed. Unsmiling, she was striking to look at but when she smiled she was beautiful. Her whole face came to life. Her teeth were brilliantly white against her skin tone and her mouth and eyes and eyebrows all lifted. It wasn’t just her lips that smiled, it was everything.

He’d wanted to give her some privacy to get changed but it had been an effort to make himself leave the room. The room was unisex but it seemed wrong to stand around and chat to her while she was changing when they’d only just met. But when he recalled what she’d been wearing yesterday he’d been tempted to stay. He’d seen plenty of her in her black bikini and he could recall every detail.

Despite the fact they’d been working to stabilise a patient, he was able to recollect every one of her curves. The curve of her waist as it had flared out to her hip. The curve of her bottom at the top of her thigh. The curve of her cleavage where the Lycra of her halter-neck top had pushed her breasts together.

He’d known he couldn’t stand there talking to her while those images had been flashing through his mind, that wouldn’t have been a very professional start to their working relationship. He had no plans to get involved with anyone during his six-month stint; but if there were more women like Georgie Carides in town, his time in Cairns was looking more promising.

Georgie swapped her singlet for a T-shirt with ‘Paramedic’ stencilled across the back and swapped her skirt for her jumpsuit, before pulling on socks and lacing her boots. Her hands were shaking as she tied her laces. She took a deep breath. Although she’d said she didn’t mind working with the new recruit, she was nervous.

But it wasn’t Josh that made her nervous. It was her reaction to Josh.

She knew plenty of cute guys but she’d never had the sense that they could affect her physically. She certainly hadn’t expected to have such a strong reaction to him. Yesterday she’d put it down to adrenaline but today she knew it was more than that. She’d never experienced an instant, powerful physical attraction to a man and now it had happened twice in a matter of hours. It was unexpected and surprising, pleasant but scary—and it was making her nervous.

She wondered how she was going to be able to work with him. Would they work together smoothly? Would their styles be harmonious? Would she be able to concentrate? Questions buzzed through her mind as she zipped up her overalls. There was no way of knowing all the answers.

She’d have to rely on her skills and expertise. She was an experienced intensive care paramedic; Josh was an experienced emergency specialist. In theory she knew they should be fine. But in reality she was the one with experience in pre-hospital emergency medicine. She was the one who would need to take the lead, which meant she needed to be able to concentrate. Josh was used to working in a well-organised hospital environment and she knew, from her days as an emergency unit nurse, that hospitals were a long way from the chaotic, cramped, hot and dusty locations the emergency retrieval team often worked in. She needed to make sure she kept a cool, calm head. She couldn’t afford to be distracted. A lapse in concentration could put her patients at risk. She couldn’t afford to get sidetracked by cute doctors.

She closed her locker and headed out.

Josh was waiting. He held the door for her as they left the building and his stride matched hers as they crossed the tarmac and headed for the helicopter.

‘Are you feeling okay? Ready for this?’ she asked. She wondered if he was nervous, although he certainly didn’t look it. He looked completely at ease. If anything, he looked calmer than she felt.

He nodded his head. ‘Don’t worry. I’m not a complete novice.’

He’d obviously guessed the reason for her question or knew what she was thinking. It would make her job easier if he had a vague idea of what he was in for. ‘This isn’t your first retrieval?’ she queried.

‘I’ve done a couple of transfers before but no primaries and no S&R.’

The most common retrieval for the QMERT team was an inter-hospital transfer or IHT, which was what they were heading to now. Often, but not always, this was a fairly straightforward exercise and Georgie hoped that would be the case today.

Josh’s prior experience of IHTs was a bonus and she was comforted knowing that his confident walk wasn’t just window dressing, but, still, it was probably a good thing that their first callout wasn’t for a search and rescue.

They were almost at the chopper now and she could see Pat in the pilot’s seat, doing his pre-flight checks. Isaac, the air crew officer on duty, was stowing equipment. He closed the final hatch as they approached so it looked as though they were just about ready for take-off. She might just have time to introduce Josh to the rest of the crew but they’d have to check their equipment and run through their procedures in flight. She would have liked a little time to establish some rapport first before they were sent out on a job but, as often happened, the calls dictated their day and they’d just have to get on with it. She prayed it would go smoothly.

‘Have you met Pat and Isaac?’ she asked.

‘Yep, first thing this morning,’ he said as he raised a hand in greeting and Isaac nodded an acknowledgement.

‘G’day, Georgie, Doc,’ Pat greeted them, pointing backwards over his shoulder with his thumb, indicating they should board the chopper.

Georgie let Josh climb in first and she dragged the door shut behind them both, securing it with a flick of the lock. There were four forward-facing seats across the width of the chopper and another two rear-facing seats behind each of the flight deck seats. Josh had taken the third seat across. She could sit beside the door but she preferred one of the middle seats so she slipped into the seat beside him.

‘Baptism by fire,’ she commented as Josh strapped himself in.

She was relieved to see he was able to shrug into his harness, adjust the straps and snap it closed without difficulty. He seemed comfortable enough in the close confines of the chopper and she knew he’d flown before. Yesterday, in fact. She also knew he would have undergone the escape training course. All the rescue crews had to pass HUET—Helicopter Underwater Escape Training—because a lot of their flying could be over water. So transport wasn’t a problem, but what she didn’t know was how much medical experience he’d had outside a hospital situation. A few inter-hospital transfers wasn’t much.

Pat had started the engine and the rotor blades were spinning. The noise made it impossible to continue a conversation until everyone was wearing headsets. She and Josh both grabbed sets and flicked the comms switch on so they could talk to each other and the air crew.

The chopper was lifting off its trolley. It tilted as it left the ground and the movement threw Georgie against Josh. There wasn’t a lot of room to move and she could feel his thigh, firm and muscular, where it rested against hers. His body heat radiated through the fabric of their jumpsuits and into her thigh. She’d never experienced such a visceral reaction to someone before. It was as though her body recognised him despite the fact they were strangers. On some level she knew him. She could feel her knees trembling but she couldn’t break the contact. There was nowhere to go.

There wasn’t much room to move in the back of the chopper. She often felt as though she only just fitted in between all the medical gear and Josh was several inches taller than she was. He was really jammed in. She was five feet six inches. He’d be six feet at least. The stretcher was locked in place in front of them. It ran the width of the helicopter, from one door to the other, between their seats and those opposite. Josh’s knees were crammed between the seat and the stretcher and now he had her practically lying on top of him as well. There was no escape for him, he was well and truly stuck.

‘Sorry,’ she said through the headset as Pat straightened the chopper and she was able to shift back into an upright position and away from Josh’s firm thigh. Perhaps she should have taken a different seat. Squeezed up against him in the back of the chopper, she was a bit too aware of him.

‘No worries.’ He looked at her and grinned, apparently completely unfazed by the lack of room. Her stomach did a lazy somersault in response to his smile and the look of mischief in his grey eyes made her blush. Her body was overheating, from her thighs to her cheeks. She was stifling and she wondered if she could ask Isaac to turn the air-sconditioning up higher but everyone else looked comfortable enough. She’d just have to put up with feeling as though her cheeks were on fire.

‘How did things go with Nigel yesterday?’ Josh’s voice was cool and relaxed, in sharp contrast to her flustered state. If he’d been surprised to find himself working with her he hadn’t shown it, and if their close proximity in the back of the chopper rattled him he wasn’t showing any outward signs of that either. Looking at him, one imagined that things were going exactly according to plan. ‘Did he get back safely?’

She decided she needed to chill out. She nodded. ‘No further dramas,’ she said as she filled him in on the outcome of the English tourist’s medical emergency from the previous day. ‘He was admitted to the Cairns hospital overnight but when I checked on him this morning he’d had an uneventful night and they were expecting to discharge him.’

‘The hospital doesn’t mind you following up?’

Georgie shook her head. ‘As you said, it’s a small world.’ She shrugged. ‘Cairns isn’t a big town, everyone seems to know everyone else and that’s especially true in the medical field. I think the hospital staff expect us to ring. Most of the QMERT doctors work in the hospital too, and we all like to know what happened to our charges. Will you be doing any shifts at the hospital while you’re here?’

He nodded. ‘I’ll do one or two a week but I’m in Cairns to get as much experience as I can with retrievals, particularly primaries. I imagine it’s vastly different from working in a first-class A and E department.’

Georgie finally relaxed. This was her area of expertise and discussing this topic kept her mind focussed. ‘You’ll find you’ll have to strip your medicine back to basics. The principles and the goals are the same, you just won’t have the same state-of-the-art equipment at your fingertips or the specialist services you’re probably used to. We become everyone from anaesthetist to scout nurse out here.’

‘Luckily I like a challenge,’ he said. ‘So what should we expect when we get to Tully?’

For the remainder of the flight they ran through possible scenarios that might greet them on landing, including the possibility that they might need to intubate the baby. Together they checked the medical kits to make sure they had everything they might need. Small regional hospitals would have standard supplies but they might not always have the less commonly required equipment.

Josh was methodical in his checking but that wasn’t surprising. It was a character trait attributable to most of the team—organised, meticulous and logical would describe almost all of them—and by the time they circled over the landing site in Tully Georgie was feeling confident that they would be able to work together comfortably.

She watched out of the window as Pat landed the chopper on the cricket oval. Tully had the highest annual rainfall in Queensland and light drizzle was falling as they climbed out of the helicopter and into the ambulance that was waiting to transport them to the hospital. Within minutes of landing they were walking into the tiny hospital.

The local doctor, who looked like he must only be just out of medical school, gave them a rundown on the patient’s condition as they followed him to her bedside. ‘Carrie is four months old but she was born eight weeks prem so her adjusted age is nine weeks. She’s of Aboriginal descent and this is her third admission for breathing difficulties. The first two admissions we managed to control her and discharge her home with her mum. This time we can’t get her oxygen sats up—they’re actually falling.’

They were at her bedside now and Georgie and Josh both glanced quickly at the monitors showing Carrie’s vital statistics. Her heart rate was 98 beats per minute, low for a baby, and her oxygenation was below 88 per cent. That was dangerously low. The medical staff had a tiny oxygen mask over Carrie’s mouth and nose but the baby was listless and her chest was barely moving on inspiration. She was only just breathing.

‘What were her oxygen sats when she came in?’ Josh asked.

‘Ninety two.’ Even that was low, and if they hadn’t been able to improve her saturation since she got to hospital Carrie was in trouble.

Josh checked the monitor again. Carrie’s vital signs were unchanged. ‘Right, we need to get some improvement in her vitals. We’ll have to intubate to see if we can get her oxygen levels up and we’ll have to take her with us back to Cairns. I’ll need a straight blade laryngoscope, size one, and a 4.0 endotracheal tube,’ Josh told her.

Georgie unzipped the medical kit she’d carried in with her. It included all the items they’d need for intubating an infant. As they’d had no way of knowing whether the hospital would have equipment that was small enough, it had been safest to bring it from the chopper. She passed Josh the items he’d requested and he deftly inserted the tube. Carrie was so sick she didn’t resist and the moment Josh was happy with his positioning Georgie taped the tube in place and attached the ambubag. She would need to manually squeeze the air into Carrie’s lungs and she’d need to do this all the way back to Cairns. But if it kept Carrie alive she was happy to do it.

As Georgie squeezed the air in they could see the baby’s chest rise and fall with each pump. It looked like Josh’s intubation had been millimetre perfect. She looked up from the infant and her gaze met his.

She was impressed with his skills—intubating a child of this age was no easy task. ‘Nice work,’ she said, and was rewarded with one of his heart-stopping smiles. He looked incredibly pleased with himself but not in an arrogant way. His grin was infectious and she had to smile back. Things were good. They’d succeeded. Carrie’s oxygen sats and heart rate were climbing. She was stable enough to transport back to Cairns in the chopper. They would manage to keep her alive and get her to specialist care. Their first job together had gone smoothly.

By the time they were ensconced back at the Cairns base after transferring Carrie to the Cairns Hospital, Georgie had almost forgotten it was Josh’s first day on the job. She’d ducked across to the Cairns airport terminal building to buy a drink and when she returned she could see Josh chatting to Louise in the comms centre. He was perched on the edge of the desk, one leg swinging lazily, looking quite at home.

Georgie walked slowly towards him, taking a moment to admire the view. His jumpsuit was undone and his grey T-shirt, the colour an identical match to his eyes, hugged his chest. She could imagine the ridge of his abdominals underneath that T-shirt. That image was burned into her memory from the day before. He was rolling a pen through his fingers and his biceps flexed with the movement, drawing her eye to his arms. She could remember how his arms had looked as he’d pulled himself through the water, the sunlight bouncing off his muscles as he’d swum out to the reef. He was an impressive sight.

She was within a few metres before he noticed her but when he looked up he greeted her with a smile. Even though Louise was sitting right beside him Georgie felt as though they were the only two in the building. How could he make her feel as though the rest of the world didn’t exist with just one smile?

She was vaguely aware of the phone ringing as she smiled back at him. She forced herself to watch Louise answer the telephone, forced herself to concentrate on what was going on around her.

Louise was scribbling details onto a notepad. ‘Male patient, early twenties, he’s fallen from the back of a moving vehicle, severe head and chest injuries, possible spinal injuries. He’s on a cattle station about a hundred kilometres south-west of here.’

Ten minutes later Georgie was back in the helicopter beside Josh. This time she’d deliberately chosen to leave an empty seat between them. She needed to concentrate. They needed to work out their priorities for when they reached their destination. The anticipated flight time was thirty to forty minutes and every one of those minutes would be spent making sure they had a plan of action so they could hit the ground running. A road ambulance was also on its way but travelling on dirt roads it would take closer to ninety minutes for it to reach the accident site. The QMERT team would be the first team on site. This would be Josh’s first primary and Georgie needed to make sure they both had a handle on what they might be facing.

Through the headsets she could hear Pat checking the co-ordinates. They’d flown over the rainforest hinterland and the landscape below them was vast, flat and brown. From this height even the trees appeared two-dimensional, flattening into the dirt. Landmarks were few are far between. Thousands upon thousands of empty miles stretched into the distance, broken only by the occasional hill or river. Homesteads blended into the surroundings and were almost impossible to find unless the sun reflected off a shiny tin roof. They were searching for a couple of isolated vehicles on an unmarked dirt road. A task that was near impossible without the right co-ordinates. It was vital that they find the scene of the accident as quickly as possible. Every minute counted.

Pat had established radio contact with the station hands at the accident site and Georgie heard the radio come to life as a voice, crackly with static, filled their headsets.

‘Is somebody there?’ Despite the static, Georgie could hear the tremor of panic underneath the words. The station hand continued. ‘He’s not breathing. What do we do?’

‘Can you feel a pulse?’ Josh was calm under pressure and Georgie relaxed as her confidence in Josh’s medical expertise grew. He hadn’t put a foot wrong so far.

The reply came back. ‘I think so,’ said the station hand.

Georgie glanced at Josh. A more definite response would have been good.

‘Can you get his mouth open?’ Josh continued to give instructions—keeping them busy would help to rein in any panic. ‘Check that he hasn’t vomited or that his tongue isn’t blocking his airway. If he’s vomited, you’ll have to try to clear his mouth.’

‘His mouth is clear but he’s still not breathing.’

‘Check his pulse again.’

‘I can’t feel it!’ They could hear panic through the radio.

‘You’ll have to start CPR,’ Josh said. ‘Does someone know how to do that?’ Despite the urgency of the situation his voice was still calm, his words and tone measured in an effort to decrease any further panic on the ground.

‘Yes.’

Pat’s voice came through the headsets. ‘I can see the vehicles. We’ll be on the ground in three minutes.’

‘We’re almost there,’ Georgie emphasised. If they could hear them, if they knew help was close at hand, that would buoy them up. ‘Can you hear the chopper?’

‘Yes.’

Pat circled the accident. He needed to check the landing site before he guided the chopper down to the ground. As they circled Georgie could see two station hands kneeling in the middle of the dirt track as they performed CPR. Shredded rubber from a blown-out tyre was scattered along the road. The trailer attached to the back of the utility had jackknifed and was resting at an angle. A second utility and a quad bike were standing guard further along the road.

Josh slid the chopper door open the moment Pat gave them the all-clear. Georgie followed him out, running in a crouch to avoid the downdraught from the blades. She carried a medical bag in one hand and an oxygen cylinder in the other. Red dust billowed around them, kicked up by the spinning blades of the chopper. Georgie squinted as she ran in a vain attempt to keep the dust out of her eyes.

As they reached the scene of the accident the two station hands performing CPR stopped, obviously believing that since reinforcements had arrived they weren’t required.

‘Can you help him? Please, you have to help him,’ said one.

‘We had a tyre blow-out and Gus was thrown from the back of the ute. I think he landed on his head,’ said the other.

‘Keep going with the chest compressions while we do a quick assessment,’ Josh instructed as he extracted a pair of thin surgical gloves from a pocket in his jumpsuit and pulled them on. ‘You’re doing fine. Keep going.’

Georgie also pulled on gloves, before kneeling in the red dirt beside Gus. He was lying on his back but there was a depression over his left temple and blood had seeped out of his ear. He must have landed on his head and hit the ground hard enough to fracture his skull. That was not a good start.

Josh was holding Gus’s wrist, feeling for a pulse. He looked at Georgie and shook his head. Nothing. He quickly checked inside Gus’s mouth, assessing the airway.

‘I’ll take over now,’ he told the station hands, and they didn’t argue about relinquishing their role.

Georgie worked with Josh, breathing through a face mask, breathing for Gus, but there was no change. During the flight they’d planned to establish an airway, make sure he had oxygen and get IV access. They hadn’t planned on resuscitating him.

Josh continued with chest compressions. Georgie continued breathing. There was no change. He still had no pulse.

‘I don’t think chest compressions are going to be enough,’ Georgie said. It had been more than three minutes and normal CPR procedure was getting them nowhere.

Josh nodded. ‘I’ll draw up adrenaline.’

On the assumption that doing something was better than nothing and knowing that chest compressions were more important than breathing, Georgie continued pumping Gus’s chest while Josh searched through the medical kit. He drew up a syringe and felt for a space between the ribs before he pierced the left side of Gus’s chest wall with the needle and depressed the plunger, injecting adrenaline directly into the heart muscle.

Georgie held her breath. Waiting. Her fingers on Gus’s carotid artery.

There was a flutter of a pulse.

‘We’ve got him.’

‘Get some oxygen into him.’

Georgie started breathing air into Gus again while Josh pulled an endotracheal tube and laryngoscope from the kit. It looked as though they’d be doing another intubation.

Georgie did two breaths. She had Gus’s head tipped back slightly and the fingers of her right hand were under his chin, resting over his carotid pulse. His pulse was barely evident. She stopped her breaths and shifted her fingers, searching for a stronger pulse. She couldn’t find it.

‘Josh, I’ve lost the pulse.’

CHAPTER THREE

‘NO, DAMN it.’ Josh turned away from the kit and back to Gus, kneeling over him, checking for a pulse. He trusted Georgie’s skill but he needed to double check for his own peace of mind. There was nothing. ‘Resuming CPR,’ he said as he began chest compressions again in a vain attempt to restart Gus’s heart. If the adrenaline hadn’t worked he knew it was unlikely anything else he did would have an effect, but he had to do something.

He worked hard for another minute. Another sixty compressions. There was no change.

He felt Georgie’s hands over his.

‘Josh, stop. His injuries are too massive. He’s not going to make it.’

He didn’t stop. He couldn’t stop. He couldn’t lose a patient today. He was in Cairns to get some pre-hospital experience but it was expected that he would be demonstrating his medical skills and performing well. Losing a patient on his first day was not part of his agenda.

He brushed Georgie’s hands away and continued. Sixty-one, sixty-two. Another sixty and then sixty more.

‘Josh, it’s too late,’ Georgie insisted. Her hands were back on top of his, stilling his movements. ‘It’s been too long.’

He listened then. He sat back on his heels, his hands resting on Gus’s chest, Georgie’s hands covering his. He could feel her hands shaking. Or maybe it was his. He couldn’t tell.

‘We’ve done everything we can,’ she told him.

He looked at her and he could see the bleakness of his own expression reflected in her chocolate-brown eyes. He could see she knew exactly how he felt.

‘I know,’ she said. ‘We want to save them all but sometimes we can’t. It’s just the way it is.’

He rubbed his eyes and the latex of the gloves pulled across his eyelids. He stripped the gloves from his hands and tossed them onto the pile of discarded face masks and syringe wrappings, the detritus of the action. He breathed deeply. He could smell dust and heat and perspiration. He exhaled loudly and breathed in again and this time he could smell honey and cinnamon, an already familiar scent, and he knew it came from Georgie. Sweet and fresh, it competed with the smell of defeat.

The other station hands had moved back, giving Georgie and Josh some room. He looked up at them. They were gathered together, supporting each other. They knew the battle had been lost. He stood and went to them.

‘I’m sorry. His injuries were too extensive. Even if you’d been closer to help, if we’d been able to get here faster, even then I doubt there’s anything we could have done.’ He knew his words would be of little consolation but he didn’t want them blaming themselves or wondering if they could have done more. Today was just one day out of hundreds just like it. There would have been many times when someone had travelled in the back of the ute without incident but today Gus’s luck had run out.

They stood in silence in the heat of the late afternoon. The bush was still, there was not a breath of wind and even the birds were quiet. Josh knew it was only the heat that was keeping the wild parrots mute but it felt like their silence was in deference to the situation.

In the distance he heard the sound of a vehicle approaching. First one. Then another.

An ambulance pulled up, followed by a police car, their distinctive markings almost obliterated by red dust.

Josh spoke to the policeman. He spoke to the paramedics. He was operating on autopilot. Gus was pronounced dead. His body would be put into the ambulance and transported to the morgue. There was nothing left for him to do here.

Pat and Isaac were helping Georgie load the equipment back into the chopper. He left the police and paramedics to finish up and went to help his team.

‘Sorry, mate, tough day,’ Pat said as Josh returned to the chopper. Josh appreciated his sentiment. Pat hadn’t exaggerated the situation neither had he downplayed it, he’d said all that was necessary with those few words.

Josh climbed into the chopper and started securing the medical kits into position. The empty stretcher in front of his knees was a bleak reminder of what had happened. He unclipped one kit from a seat and strapped it onto the stretcher instead, partially covering the empty expanse. That was better. Less confronting.

The chopper lifted off the ground. As they banked to the east Josh could see the accident scene below them. The paramedics were closing the doors at the rear of the ambulance. The police were still speaking with the station hands. He closed his eyes, blocking out the tableau.

He should be saving lives in a big city hospital, with specialist help at hand and state-of-the-art equipment in place. He should be in control, not shooting adrenaline into a young man’s heart on a dirt track out the back of beyond. What a bloody mess.

What the hell was he doing here?

He kept his eyes closed until he knew they were far away from the cattle station. Far away from the ambulance that held Gus’s body. When he opened his eyes he kept his face turned to the window, his head turned away from Georgie. He didn’t want to make eye contact. He didn’t want to have a conversation. Not about what had transpired out in the red dirt. He knew he would have to think about it at some point. He’d have to fill in a medical report. A death certificate. But he didn’t want to discuss it yet.

Georgie was quiet. Perhaps she was lost in her own thoughts. Whatever the reason, he was relieved she didn’t seem to need to talk. Most women he knew would be attempting to have some sort of discussion, even if it was about nothing. The majority seemed to think that silence was there to be broken. He was pleased Georgie wasn’t one of them.

The silence wasn’t awkward. He knew she was there and knowing he wasn’t alone was somehow comforting. He couldn’t see her but he could feel her presence. He could smell her perfume, cinnamon and honey, warm and sweet.

He let the silence continue for the entire trip and it was after six in the evening and night had fallen before Pat started to guide the chopper down to the airport. In the distance Josh could see the lights of Cairns. They were almost home.

Cairns was a beautiful city by day and even more so by night, but it wasn’t enough to lighten his mood. They were on their way home while Gus was on his way to the morgue. A young life extinguished. He felt the tension of the day in his shoulders. He sighed, a long, audible exhalation, trying to release the strain in his muscles.

He felt Georgie’s hand on his. Her fingers entwined with his in response to his sigh. Her hand connected him to the living. He knew her gesture was meant to give comfort and the warmth of her hand did exactly that. It warmed his entire body. He hadn’t realised he was feeling cold but he was now aware of heat suffusing through him, bringing him out of his fog.

‘Are you okay?’ Georgie asked.

‘I will be.’

‘We did everything we could,’ she said.

‘Are you sure?’ Today’s events made him question his skills. He liked being in control of situations and, while he realised that was sometimes going to be difficult out in the middle of nowhere, what if things went wrong because of him? What if he didn’t have what it took to work in this environment? ‘It’s our job to save lives. I’m no good to anyone if I can’t do that.’ What if he didn’t have what it took to run an emergency department in a big city hospital?

‘You said it yourself,’ Georgie reminded him, ‘Gus’s injuries were too extensive. Even if we’d been able to reach him sooner, the outcome wouldn’t have been any different. There was nothing else we could do.’

Losing a patient was never easy but Josh knew Georgie was right. He’d said those exact words to the other station hands. He and Georgie had done everything they could. But would others see it that way? He needed to prove himself. He needed to show he could handle working in this environment and losing a patient on day one wasn’t an auspicious start.

He’d lost patients before, working in A and E it was inevitable, but today had felt very personal. He knew it was because it had been up to him and Georgie. A team of two when he was used to a team of three or four or ten or however many it took, and having greater numbers took the intimacy out of it. It didn’t remove the responsibility but it did lessen the sense of failure.

As Pat guided the chopper down onto the landing trolley Georgie gave his fingers a gentle squeeze. ‘Today was a bad day. They’re not all like this. It’ll be all right.’

He hoped like hell she was right.

Pat switched the engines off. The blades continued their revolutions but even the rhythmic thump-thump of the spinning blades didn’t disguise the silence that enveloped the team within the chopper. Georgie unclipped her harness and Josh followed suit.

Georgie leant forwards between the pilots’ seats. ‘Dinner at my place when we’re finished here?’

Josh heard her issue an invitation to Pat and Isaac. He was strangely disappointed not to be included yet there was no rule that said he should be. He was the new kid in town.

Their shift was over but it was their job to restock the supplies ready for the next crew and he knew following a routine would help to focus his thoughts. He got busy unloading the medical equipment they’d used and pretended he hadn’t heard Georgie’s words.

Georgie climbed out of the chopper and then turned and reached for the kitbags, preparing to carry them back to the QMERT building. ‘The guys are coming back to my house for a feed. Would you like to join us?’

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