Chapter 20
Petula couldn’t remember ever being this cold. She was freezing from the inside out.
She was covered, head to toe in thermal blankets, and the emergency technicians had placed heating pads on her chest, stomach, and groin, but was it helping?
She could barely feel them.
Her teeth had started chattering again, however, and the rescue people said that was a good sign.
Julian was sitting right beside her as they headed for the hospital in the ambulance. She couldn’t begin to say how thankful she was that he was here. Without him, she would have been scared, but his presence soothed her.
He’d scooted one hand beneath the blankets and threaded his fingers through hers once the crew had finished with her and had also attended to him.
Like Petula, he’d been outfitted with heat packs for his core, but now they were putting a warm bottle of something into his free hand.
Something they’d just removed from a small microwave that nestled—almost unseen—between their banks of equipment.
Julian took a long chug, then must have seen her staring at it.
He gave her a questioning look, and she licked her lips in response. She was really tired, but she was also very thirsty, despite the room temperature bottle of water she’d already downed.
“Can she…?” Julian asked the woman EMT, tipping the drink in Petula’s direction.
“Give me one minute.” The technician took her vital signs again for what seemed like the tenth time in the short period Petula had been lying prone, and smiled.
“She absolutely can,” the woman returned cheerily. “She’s already responding well to her slow re-warm.”
Petula truly didn’t feel like moving, but she was dry as a desert, and Julian looked so hopeful and expectant that she couldn’t deny either one of them.
She dug deep and nodded at the bottle in his hand.
The woman attending lifted Petula’s head and Julian held the drink to her lips. She took a sip, and…
Wow.
Had anything ever tasted so good?
It was some kind of tea, with honey or an ingredient equally as sweet that made her smack her lips. It tasted fantastic, and felt so damned good going down her cold throat.
“More,” she requested.
“Only one sip,” the EMT warned. “Then we’ll give you more room temperature water if you want. We can’t have you warming up too fast.”
She had a feeling they were erring on the side of caution, but still…
Petula was aware, being a Mainer born and bred, that mitigating hypothermia symptoms too rapidly could result in cardiac arrest.
Just the fact that she could recall that bit of knowledge, told Petula that her body and mind were already coming back on line.
Obediently, she took one additional, small swig, then laid back down.
So tired.
“Is it okay if I sleep?” she asked, not sure she could stave off the inevitable even if she was told, no.
“Of course,” the EMT said. “Your numbers say you’re no longer in imminent danger. Your ER visit and the doctors there just need to confirm it. “
Petula nodded, sighed, and her eyes slowly closed when something else suddenly occurred to her.
Her orbs popped back open. “Julian, did anybody call my dispatcher and let them know what happened?”
He squeezed her hand. “Don’t worry. It’s all taken care of.
Kyle was on top of it. He notified your boss, too, who is sending out a road crew and a wrecker.
Buck, Spence, and Trask will be staying on scene to assist in the diving part of getting the van out of the reservoir, and they’ve also contacted the DEP. ”
Petula knew, even in her weary state, that the acronym stood for the Department of Environmental Protection; a body that would take care of any gas or oil spills.
Oh, boy. What a disaster.
“Is my boss…mad?” she asked shakily. The two of them certainly managed to rub each other the wrong way. Petula couldn’t help but worry that this would be a huge negative mark on her record, and the boss would be gloating.
“I’m not sure, exactly.” Julian looked puzzled, as he should since most superiors weren’t glorified assholes. “Kyle didn’t say. Shouldn’t a normal boss be more concerned about the fate of an employee who’s undergone the trauma you have?”
Petula pursed her lips. “The operative word here, is normal.”
Julian refrained from commenting but looked sour.
Petula shrugged and yawned. “No big deal. She and I never see eye to eye.” Another thought occurred to her. “Oh. Did anyone fill Statler in?”
“Yup,” Julian confirmed. “Mason called your brother, so expect him to meet us at the hospital.”
Yeah. If Stat had heard what happened, she defied anyone to keep him away. It was possible he’d show up with the entire crew.
That thought made her feel even more tired.
“Not up for a social hour,” she mumbled, rapidly losing her battle with sleep.
“You let me take care of that,” Julian assured her. “I’ll tell Stat that his people can visit tomorrow.”
“Thanks.”
Petula drifted off.
When her lashes finally fluttered open, she immediately recognized that she was in a hospital bed.
The lights above her were dimmed, and outside, night had clearly fallen.
She turned her head to the right. Julian was there, slumped over in a chair, looking charming but slightly disheveled as he quietly snored.
Sometime while she’d been asleep, he’d traded his previous nakedness for scrubs, but his hair was standing up on end as if he’d worried it into peaks, and a line had formed between his brows that bespoke of worry.
She wanted to lean over and smooth it away, but couldn’t conjure the energy.
A noise to her left had her turning that way.
“He stayed awake as long as he could, but about an hour ago he finally conked out,” her brother told her quietly.
“What time is it?” she asked in a whisper.
“Just after ten,” he said.
“Oh, Stat, you didn’t have to stay.” She felt guilty taking him away from his rare, downtime to sit in a hospital and babysit her.
He snorted. “Of course I did,” he corrected. “When I got the news, it scared the crap out of me. I had to come make sure you were okay.”
Her brother was her rock, as always.
“Julian saved me,” she said. “If it wasn’t for him…”
“I know,” Statler agreed. “And I’ll be forever grateful.”
“Does that mean you’ll stop busting my chops because I’m dating your sister?” came a raspy voice from the opposite side of the bed. The sentence was followed by a long, drawn-out yawn.
Statler chuckled. “Not likely.”
“I’m so sorry we woke you up, Julian,” Petula lamented, giving her brother a sisterly “shut up” look. “You clearly need the sleep.”
He brushed that off almost immediately. “Forget about me, how are you feeling?”
Petula paused and took stock. “Umm, good, I think?”
She couldn’t detect any aches or pains, and other than still being tired—even after sleeping the entire day and evening away—she had no lingering effects from her accident that she could discern.
Looking out the first-floor windows of her room, she could count the parking lot lights without any trouble, so her brain was intact.
“How about…?” Statler tapped the side of his head, and she knew exactly what he was asking.
“You want to know how I’m dealing with the whole water thing?” She put the elephant in the room, right out there.
Julian sat up straight and moved closer, placing his hand on her blanket-covered leg, waiting for her response.
“It’s funny,” she said, thinking back. “I was gripped with fear while I was inside the van. I…couldn’t seem to move, knowing I was floating in the reservoir.
Then I looked out the window and saw Julian swimming toward me.
He was underwater, then he wasn’t, like he was keeping his eyes on me, no matter what dangers were beneath the surface.
I knew then that I couldn’t let him down.
I had to help myself as much as he was trying to help me.
If the van had submerged, his job would have been so much harder. ”
She remembered what happened next.
“It took everything I had to move from my seat,” she said softly. “And I realized almost immediately that I had to stay on the high side of the vehicle, or risk swamping it.”
The van had tipped pretty drastically by the time she’d decided to move.
“I carefully slid open my window, and forcing myself not to think about it too much, I stood on the seat, leaned out, then turned around and reached up for the lip of the roof. I tried to ignore the water below me, and instead concentrated on my footing as I braced on the window-frame and hoisted myself up.”
She let out a breath she hadn’t known she was holding.
“I made it,” she added triumphantly. “As Julian can attest. But that’s when my resolve crumbled. From my perch, I looked at the water again and froze. Not just with the cold that was seeping into every pore of my body, but with my precarious position.”
She shivered, remembering. “Between the wind, the rain, and the water below me, I couldn’t move. I could barely breathe. Then Julian was there, right below me, talking me down, both literally and figuratively. He kept saying over and over that everything was going to be alright.”
Petula looked at Julian, and shook her head, marveling. “You knew just what to say, and where I had to place myself to come down into your arms. I understood then that if I lost consciousness, there’d be no guarantees as to where I’d land, but that I’d be safe if I just came to you.”
He nodded, because he’d lived it.
“I made up my mind quickly,” she added. “I positioned my body appropriately, and let go.”
Petula recalled those few moments as seeming surreal; like they were happening to someone else, but after that…
“Once I felt Julian’s arms around me, I knew everything was going to be okay,” she marveled. “To tell you the truth, I didn’t think about the water at all, except for how cold it was. I was surrounded by Julian, and then his brothers, and I knew they’d all get me to safety.”
She glanced over at Stat, and his eyes held a sheen of moisture. Petula couldn’t remember the last time her big, stoic brother had cried, and tears welled up in her eyes, in solidarity.
“I can’t thank you enough,” Statler addressed Julian. “Seriously. If you hadn’t been there, and Diver Downeast’s gear hadn’t been in your truck…” He let the sentence hang.
Yeah. Petula realized she would have been screwed. And if Julian had arrived without the diving equipment, he probably would have been in jeopardy, too. Knowing him, he would have swum out to get her, regardless, and they both might have succumbed to hypothermia before his brothers had arrived.
They’d been very lucky.
“It all came together because we were being so vigilant where Petula was concerned, Statler,” Julian demurred. “I didn’t do anything more than you or your crew would have, if it had been your day to tail her.”
Julian put the thought out there, but the three of them in the room knew that the outcome could have been much different.
But now? Petula was through talking about it.
“Okay. We’re good, here. I’m alive. Everyone is well, and right now I could drink a gallon of something, and I’m actually hungry.”
Julian held out a cup of water.
Statler got up as she took a long drink. “I’ll go see if they have anything you can eat at the nurse’s station.” He stretched, then walked to the door. “I’ll, uh, give you two a few minutes to, um, talk.”
The minute he was out the door, Julian was up and onto the bed with her. She sighed happily, placed her cup on the overbed table that was off to the side, then scootched over to give him room as he propped himself up on one elbow, looking down at her.
“I like this,” she said with a giggle.
He gazed into her eyes, but didn’t return her humor. His face was serious.
“I like you,” he told her, as if he had to get that out. “I like you a lot, Petula.”
He fidgeted, his fingers playing with the blankets at her hip. “And this might be jumping the gun, but after what happened, and the fact that I could have lost you… I need to say this.”
Petula thought she knew what was coming, and instead of being alarmed, her insides warmed.
It might simply be the heated blanket they had over her, but she didn’t think so.
Julian started again. “We haven’t been seeing each other, officially, for very long,” he told her hesitatingly, “but I’ve known you for a couple months and I know how I feel, and… I’ve never met anyone who gets to me like you do.” He cleared his throat, looking a little embarrassed.
Petula lifted a hand and stroked his cheek, urging him silently to continue.
He cleared his throat. “I’ve never been in love before, but watching my parents and my brothers, I think I know what it looks like. And although I’m not going to say it yet, not until we’re both sure, I think I’m headed that way with you.”
Wow.
After that lovely speech, Petula wasn’t going to beat around the bush.
She leaned up and rubbed her face gently against his scruffy chin.
“I feel the same way, Julian, and you’re right.
It’s kind of strange how quickly we’ve gotten so close, because…
” She decided to get sassy. “…you know we’ve barely even kissed. ”
“Wait. You call what we’ve done, barely kissing?” he squawked, his mouth dropping open.
She did. They’d had several wild, make-out sessions, but every time, Julian had kept his hands to himself. She was determined to tease him about that, right now.
Petula tapped on her bottom lip as if thinking. “Well, yes,” she spit out impishly. “Now, if you’d employed a few other parts of your body…”
She eeped as Julian wound his arm around her waist.
“Fine. I’m ready if you are,” he growled, almost as a dare.
She certainly wasn’t going to pass that up.
“I’m ready, Julian.” She nodded. “I have been since our first date.”