Chapter 9
Maya had only been off work for a week but they were already into June and coming back today was like a breath of fresh air. A bit of normality. With her people again, doing what she loved. At least it was until she remembered the new recruit. They’d not got off to a very good start at her sister’s wedding reception, but the encounter in the supermarket had been manageable and Maya hoped he was as professional as she was and moved on quickly. The job had to be their focus, nothing else.
Maya began her day the same way as she usually started a shift. She went to the desk she shared with Vik, or whoever was the pilot on the blue team, and checked the handover book, the log and whether any notices had been filed with an aviation authority regarding impending hazards or obstacles that might dictate the flight paths chosen today. There was only one, identifying a crane being used at a construction site twenty miles away, as well as an air show thirty miles in a different direction. The air show wouldn’t be underway until well after her shift was over, but it was good to be aware in case her shift ended up being longer than it should be, something that happened with regularity depending on when the jobs came in and how long they took. She checked the weather conditions and then it was time to get Hilda ready.
The Whistlestop River Air Ambulance was operational for nineteen hours a day. Two shifts worked those nineteen hours with the time between 2a.m. and 7a.m. uncovered and the helicopter kept inside the hangar. Now it was time for Maya to use the tow cart to pull Hilda out and into position on the helipad before carrying out a thorough pre-flight check of the aircraft.
Training for the air ambulance crews was ongoing. There was always something to keep current with, and once Hilda was ready, it was into the briefing room for the organised session. Today, they focused on transfers and paediatrics, ran through various scenarios to work as a crew and decide what they would do in that situation. Nadia threw different things into the mix – inclement weather, a patient with co-morbidities, gave them locations they could see on the iPad which didn’t have easy surrounds for landing the helicopter.
Maya surreptitiously watched the new recruit. She had to hand it to Noah, he seemed to know what he was doing on the job – he certainly had plenty of past experience – and neither of them had referenced their run-in at her father’s house nor the supermarket. She liked that already about him, that he could leave what happened outside of the workplace behind. All he needed to do was watch what comments he made and not offend a patient or their family. But she supposed they’d all been there; she had. It was a definite learning curve. In the early days with the crew, she’d forgotten their patient’s wife was with Bess and Carl as she rushed to help carry the scoop back to the helicopter. She’d made a remark that she was surprised the patient was still alive, something that really hadn’t been necessary to say, but given the call and what they’d been warned to expect at the scene, she’d been shocked that it wasn’t a fatality. The driver had crashed on the motorway, gone through the windscreen of the van he was driving. Maya had hated herself when she registered the patient’s spouse that day. The woman seemed in such shock she hadn’t heard. But Maya had never done it again.
They were only called out on one job during the morning shift – a twenty-minute flight took them to a girl who had fallen from a quad bike and had abdominal injuries and a compound fracture to her lower leg. The crew attended to her and airlifted her to the nearest trauma centre before returning to base. Patient and family liaison nurse Hudson had already been in touch with the family to talk about the girl’s condition and his role from now would be to guide the patient and their loved ones as to what to expect during recovery and to provide a support base in the days ahead.
In the locker room at the end of the shift, Maya changed out of her flight suit and pulled on a pair of jeggings and a fresh T-shirt. When Noah came in, she gave an acknowledging nod in his direction. The locker room was unisex and they were all used to whipping clothes on and off before, during or after shift, but it was always a little strange when someone new worked with the crew.
Time to be polite, pretend they’d never ever had cross words. ‘How are you settling in?’ She turned in time to witness his T-shirt being discarded and the fresh one he’d grabbed from his own locker halfway down a muscular torso. You had to be fit in this job and he definitely lived up to that. Maya was glad Bess hadn’t been here to catch her looking because she’d definitely have a smart remark or two to share right now.
‘Put it this way, I’m glad it was a quiet shift; not sure I could’ve handled a busy one.’
‘Happens sometimes, might be the total opposite next time.’
‘I expect it might be.’
Bess poked her head around the door to the locker room. ‘Who’s up for the pub around 4p.m.? I’m going, Nadia says she’ll make it by six, Hudson is up for it.’
‘Not for me,’ Noah said, and Maya didn’t miss a note of regret in his sigh. ‘I’ve got to get home.’
‘Babysitter issues?’ Bess asked.
‘Something like that.’ Noah smiled at them both, picked up his things and said goodbye.
Bess came inside, scooped her riot of curls up into a ponytail and deftly tied it with the band that had been on her wrist. ‘What’s the story there?’
‘How would I know?’ Maya picked up her bag.
‘You know he has a kid, right?’
‘I know.’
‘It’s his niece, apparently.’
That had Maya’s attention. But not for long – she had enough going on in her own life right now to worry about someone else’s.
‘Do you think he has a wife or a girlfriend?’ Bess pondered out loud.
‘I’ve no idea.’
Bess pulled a wrapped-up portion of flapjack from her bag. ‘Doesn’t it bug you?’
‘He’s only just joined us; maybe let him take a breath before you find out his life story.’ But Bess was the most inquisitive person she knew; she’d want to know all of it, right now. ‘You do like to get to know people, don’t you?’
‘Nothing wrong with that. I like openness, to know what’s going on. I lay all my cards on the table. I know not everyone does…’ She sighed. ‘And that frustrates the hell out of me.’
‘Don’t I know it,’ Maya laughed.
Bess let the subject of Noah and his personal life drop. ‘So, pub for you?’
‘Can’t, it’s Conrad’s discharge today and I’m picking him up. What? Don’t give me that look.’
‘I’m not giving you any look.’ To Maya’s frown, she paused before she took another bite of her flapjack. ‘All right, I am. I get that he has nobody else – although a force of police officers could offer up some options.’ She held up her hand. ‘I’m only saying, it’s not like he’d be stranded.’
‘The doctor doesn’t want him home alone for the first few days; if he is, they’ll keep him in. The sooner he’s out, the sooner he’ll recover and not need me around and I can get on with my own life.’
Bess fixed Maya with her stare. ‘Do not tell me you’re his nurse until he sees fit to dismiss you.’
Unfortunately, that was going to be the case. But Maya wanted to deflect away from it and so she said, ‘You make him sound worse than he is.’ Actually, Bess had him pretty much pegged, but Maya had to toe the line, at least for the time being.
‘He likes to have you at his beck and call, that’s all.’
‘I will be at first but I won’t do it for long. And I didn’t visit him last night; I was firm about that.’ She couldn’t look like a complete pushover; Bess would never let her be that. She was a good friend. But she also knew Maya’s feelings about Isaac and her desire to see him and his father at least try to work things out. ‘He knows I have a life outside of what was once our marriage.’
‘Does he, really?’
‘Okay, so he’s taking a while to accept it. But Bess, this is temporary.’
Bess chewed thoughtfully. ‘You’re too nice, that’s your problem.’ She had the last morsel of flapjack ready to pop into her mouth. ‘Be careful, Maya. I can’t help thinking he’s playing you. He might not have planned this, but you have to admit it’s kind of working out well for him. He never wanted to let you go.’
She looked at Bess as she picked up her bag and slung it over her shoulder. ‘Try not to worry; I’m not getting sucked back in to being with him.’
Bess was right. Conrad hadn’t ever wanted to let her go. But what Bess didn’t know was that even if Maya wanted to, she couldn’t simply walk away, not with the things he knew about her, things she never wanted to share.
As the girls left the locker room, they bumped into Frank. ‘Maya, how are you doing?’ His moustache covered his top lip and then some, and his skin was weathered with a tan that never faded from a life outdoors sailing boats before he’d become an engineer.
‘Not too bad, thanks, Frank. And it’s always good to be back at work doing what I love.’
He winked at her. ‘That’s our girl, isn’t it, Bess?’
‘Sure is,’ Bess beamed. ‘We missed her.’
‘And how is Conrad?’ Frank ventured. He knew the deal with him, the times Maya had tried to leave and never had, how much happier she was since the divorce was final, but the concern about her son and his father was never far from her mind.
‘He’s on the mend, discharged today so I’m sure it won’t be long before he’s back at work.’
‘He was lucky.’ Frank was here often enough to hear some of the horror stories. Sometimes the team came back in good spirits having safely got to a patient in time to not only save them but give them the best outcome. But other times, when the stories were grim, the outcomes not hopeful, Frank could see it on their faces, heard the hopelessness and regret in their voices. ‘Well, send Conrad my regards for a speedy recovery.’
‘Will do.’ Maya knew what that meant too. It meant she should remember Frank to Conrad and that would serve as a reminder to him that Maya had plenty of people looking out for her should she need it. Over the years, Frank had been more of a father figure than her own could be. He was easy to talk to… he came here and did more hours than necessary and she knew why. He was lonely. His wife had passed away a decade ago and he’d drunk himself into oblivion until Bess, close to him also, had guided him to some counselling. Nowadays he rarely drank at all, he seemed content in his life and his work. Sometimes it made Maya sad, though, that perhaps he needed a little something more in his life other than work. Didn’t they all?
There was a light shower as Maya drove to the hospital but by the time she arrived, it had finished and the puddles in the car park and on the pavements were already beginning to disappear.
When she reached the ward, the doctor was finishing up with Conrad and Conrad looked relieved to see her. Perhaps despite the hold he had over her, he had, even for a short moment, doubted she’d turn up. ‘Here she is, Doc.’
‘Hello, Maya. Good to see you again. He’s all yours,’ the doctor said before he went off to continue on with his rounds.
Conrad was already dressed and a bag of his belongings sat packed up on the chair beside the bed. ‘I’m good to go.’
‘That’s great.’ As she’d said to Bess, the sooner he got home and started proper recovery, the sooner Maya could begin to fade into the background as much as she could.
‘Thanks again for doing this, Maya.’
Did she really have a choice? ‘No worries.’
He lowered his voice. ‘If you hadn’t stepped up and said you’d help me, they’d have kept me in for longer. And I’ll go insane if I have to spend another moment in here.’
Maya also knew that if he stayed much longer, he’d really piss someone off. Already he kept snapping at doctors and nurses, he’d moaned at the lack of privacy more times than she cared to remember, he’d abused the visiting rules and had too many rowdy people at his bedside. Some of the nurses were uncomfortable with his behaviour, although most were brilliant and took none of his shit, something Maya had quietly thanked them for whenever she left the ward after visiting.
‘I need to get home for my sanity,’ he grumbled. ‘And you won’t need to watch me like a baby; this is all so they let me out. Once I’m at home, I’ll be fine.’
‘I’ll keep an eye on you, Conrad.’ She knew he’d only said it to test whether she would hang around, to know whether he needed to deploy those threats he liked to issue whenever he felt she was pulling away that little bit too much.
‘Why? I’m not going to be leaving the house for a while – not like I can go out on my bike, given it’s a write-off.’
‘I’ll do it because the medical team advise it.’ And because if she didn’t, she’d soon know about it from him, despite the pretence otherwise, the claims that he hated being an imposition.
‘I’ll take the help today but perhaps I can have a word with one of the guys at work, see if they know someone who can come by every day for a while. I don’t want my incapacity to fall to you; it’s not your responsibility.’
He really was digging into his acting skills now. But she wasn’t stupid. This was all part of his master plan, she knew; he was clever that way, pushing enough but not too much.
She might be kidding herself but her theory was that sooner or later, he would accept their marriage really was over and he’d grow tired of playing games. And if he didn’t? Well, that meant that at some point she’d have to deal with him in another way.
She couldn’t be frightened of him forever, worried about what he might say.
But right now, she didn’t see a way out.