Something in the Air (Skylarks #3)

Chapter 1

1

The Skylarks huddled together in the kitchen at the Whistlestop River Air Ambulance base. Beyond the window sat Hilda, their trusty helicopter, ready and waiting on the helipad for the next job. The evening crew had arrived to take over from those who had been on the day shift and as the crews overlapped, they gathered to celebrate patient and family liaison nurse Hudson’s forty-sixth birthday.

Nadia lit the candles on the decadent chocolate drip cake.

‘Did you seriously make this?’ Hudson asked. ‘It’s… well, I’m speechless.’

Maya, pilot in the red team, laughed. ‘First time for everything.’

‘Yes, I made it.’ Nadia was happy with the result too. She’d assembled four layers of rich chocolate sponge filled with chocolate cream as well as pieces of dark and white chocolate. A glossy chocolate ganache covered the sponge layers topped with white and dark chocolate curls.

‘It looks and smells divine,’ said Maya.

‘I love baking.’ Nadia was forever making things for the two crews – the red and the blue teams – and what was known as the wider team which encompassed anyone who was involved with the Whistlestop River Air Ambulance. ‘It’s no big deal.’

‘No big deal?’ Hudson’s eyebrows rose at the sight of the impressive cake. She’d hidden it away so he had had no idea what was coming until he’d been ushered into the kitchen this afternoon.

‘Just blow out the candles already!’ Bess hollered. She, like everyone else, was probably desperate to try a slice.

Together the crews sang such a loud rendition of ‘Happy Birthday’ that Nadia almost had to cover her ears, especially when someone added in a high-pitched whistle at the end as Hudson blew out the candles.

‘What did you wish for?’ Nadia asked him.

‘Now that would be telling.’

She removed the four and the six from the top of the cake and set them aside. ‘I cheated a bit with those,’ she said of the two numerals.

‘Would’ve been a fire hazard with forty-six little candles. Much safer this way. And it looks?—’

The big red phone at the airbase rang out announcing a job, putting a stop to the celebrations. The blue team leapt into action at the call from the HEMS – Helicopter Emergency Services – desk and because it was a local job at which pilot Vik knew there was no great place to land, the crew decided to take the rapid response vehicle parked out front instead.

Once the blue team, apart from Vik, who wasn’t needed, had all set off, Nadia picked up the cake knife to do the honours – the blue team would get plenty when they were back; she’d made enough for everyone to have a couple of slices – and they all knew the score. Jobs could take anything from under an hour to hours on end and sometimes the crew might have back-to-back jobs meaning even more time away from base.

And nobody else wanted to wait for cake for that long.

Nadia was about to cut into the sponge layers when the front doorbell of the airbase building sounded. ‘I’ll go and get that,’ she said, pausing. As the operational support officer, her job was to ensure the smooth running of The Skylarks’ operations, so it was more than likely for her. She was expecting a delivery of office supplies.

She handed the knife to Bess to take over, and went through to the reception area. The main door was usually unlocked but not as day approached evening and Nadia prepared to go home. She wasn’t subject to shifts like the two crews; she did a regular day, although more often than not she stayed back, doing unpaid overtime. It was more than a job to her; it was a joy to be a part of, and there was always so much to do. Plus, The Skylarks had always felt like family.

When Nadia walked through to reception, she expected someone to be hovering at the door but all she could see was a sizeable cardboard box left in front of it.

‘Do you think that’s for me?’ Hudson had followed her from the kitchen. ‘Could be a nice birthday gift.’ He rubbed his palms together.

Nadia retrieved the bunch of keys from the desk drawer and picked through for the correct one. ‘I hate to disappoint you, but I’m expecting a delivery of stationery – Post-its, notepads, a few manilla folders.’

‘Best birthday gifts ever.’

She laughed. He’d already got some great gifts from the team; he was popular. Especially with her. He was kind, he was a family man, she liked him more than she should. This morning, she’d presented him with a box of chocolate brownies, but he wouldn’t read too much into it because she’d done the same for plenty of other people she worked with. And so her feelings for him stayed buried and that was the best thing all round.

‘Did your kids give you something special?’

Hudson’s face lit up the way it always did when he talked about his two children. ‘Carys did me a handprint – her grandad may have helped – and Beau gave me a new thermal cup for my coffee.’

‘So cute – Carys, I mean, and that’s a nice gift from Beau. He knows you like your coffee.’

‘I certainly do. I’ll have a coffee with one of those brownies later on, if I can fit it in after the cake, and the kids will help me out.’

She and Hudson had always got on, ever since he’d joined The Skylarks as one of their patient and family liaison officers over five years ago. They’d always been able to talk. In fact, it was that way with the whole team: The Skylarks, who took to the air to save lives; Hudson and Paige, who worked as patient and family liaison nurses; Frank the engineer; and the Whistlestop River Freewheelers who were volunteer riders, drivers, and call handlers, and were responsible for delivering bloods and essential supplies for the air ambulance as well as other medical establishments. And it was good to see Hudson happy today. Lately, she’d got the feeling there was something going on with him that he hadn’t yet shared and whatever it was shrouded him with a fog of sadness and gave the impression that he had the weight of the world on his shoulders.

Nadia found the correct key and went to unlock the door. She was single, but Hudson wasn’t, and lately the energy between them had contained a spark of something she wouldn’t want to admit to. At least not to anyone but herself. She’d never be the one to destroy a relationship, especially when there were children involved. She’d been on the receiving end and would never be that person. But what made it tough was how Hudson seemed to act around her, as if he too wanted more, more than he could have and more than she could ever give.

When Nadia opened up the front door to the airbase headquarters, their conversation stalled completely.

They both stared down at the cardboard box.

‘Did it…?’ Hudson began.

‘It did… it moved.’

‘I don’t think it’s filled with Post-its.’

Hudson crouched down and pulled back the unsealed flaps as Nadia knelt down beside him, her blonde bobbed hair blowing across her face in the spring winds until she hooked it behind her ears.

Neither of them could immediately find the words to convey what they were looking at.

This morning, Nadia had woken from a dream and promptly decided it had been a nightmare. It had left her distressed, spent. Because in the dream, she’d been given the one thing she’d always wanted, but then it had been cruelly severed away from her when she’d woken up. It had felt so real, to have that gift, that one thing.

And now here it was again. Right in front of her.

But this was no dream. This was reality.

There was a baby in a cardboard box, swaddled in a blanket and abandoned, left here at the door to the airbase.