Chapter 1 #2
Why had he spoken in English first and not Spanish?
God, did it matter? He’s here and offering to help—take it.
“I’m fine.” Marie answered in English and then in Spanish. The stranger’s eyebrows rose in surprise at her bilingual skills. “Are you hurt? Do you need assistance yourself?”
There was nothing about the way he was standing, nor the fact that there were no visible cuts or traces of blood on his face and arms that suggested he was hurt, but she had to ask all the same. Sometimes the most potent and dangerous injuries were the invisible ones.
“I’m not hurt. I know this is a hospital and is going to be the first place people will come with their injured family members.” He looked around. “This building isn’t safe for that, though.”
“And you know this because, what? You’re a civil engineer?
An architect? Or maybe you’re a builder.
” Marie snapped back, surprised at the burst of anger firing through her, even though deep down she knew the stranger spoke the truth.
It wasn’t anything she hadn’t thought of herself.
The building was looking worse for wear, and she was surprised it was still standing with the way the building had swayed violently during the earthquake.
Before the stranger had a chance to answer, the ground beneath her began to rumble.
“Fuck! Aftershock,” the man yelled, and with speed she didn’t even know a human being could possess, he was beside her rushing back into the supply closet and pushing her to the ground.
His arms encircled her in a tight embrace, the basket of supplies crushed between them.
They were incredibly close. As the building protested, the ground dancing in Mother Nature’s rhythm, she gripped the fabric of his shirt, feeling the hardness of his shoulders.
His beard brushed her cheek, and she was surprised at the softness of it.
She was fully aware of him as someone bigger and stronger than her, yet she didn’t feel worried that he might do something to her.
“Oh god,” she muttered and closed her eyes, glad her back was to what was happening to the room where she’d spent numerous hours.
Were they even safe in the closet?
“It’s okay, I’ve got you. It’s an internal cupboard, so it’s one of the safest places to be.” His voice was calm and soothing.
Had he read her mind, or had she spoken out loud?
She didn’t know and didn’t care, all she hoped was that he was right and they were going to be okay.
Being plastered against him, she’d picked up on a faint Spanish accent.
No wonder he was able to speak to her in the native language, he’d obviously lived there long enough to pick up an inflection when he spoke English.
After a few more seconds the earth stopped moving. How safe would the building be now? And what about Ophelia, Juanita, Frederico, the other staff, and all the patients? How many of them were hurt even more now?
How many had survived the quake only to lose their lives during an aftershock?
Defeat threatened to weigh her down, but she didn’t allow it to sink her though. People needed her and she would make sure that she did everything she had to do to help them.
She made to move, but the arms around her tightened, and for the first time since the stranger showed up, a flicker of fear ignited in her belly. Her earlier feeling of being safe disappeared. “Let me go,” she demanded.
“I will in another couple of seconds.” No sooner had he finished speaking, a crash sounded close by and dust flew into the small space.
Marie closed her eyes against it and held her breath, knowing that if he had let her go, then she might have been hurt. Or worse, from whatever had fallen outside of their hiding place.
“Now it’s okay to move.” His arms dropped from around her and Marie scrambled to her feet and stepped out, gasping when she saw what was left of the shared office area.
Where there’d once been a wall, now stood a gaping hole, and she could see into the street where the building across from the hospital was nothing but a mass of cement blocks and wooden beams. The desk where she’d taken refuge during the first quake was in pieces as parts of the wall had fallen in.
If she’d hidden beneath it this time, she would be dead.
All around her there was nothing but devastation. Marie couldn’t move. Couldn’t make her feet take the necessary steps to get out of the room. If this space looked this bad, what did the rest of the building look like?
Was there anything left?
“Come on, we'll do this together.” The stranger’s soft voice sounded beside her, and she looked over at him.
“Who are you?” She couldn’t keep referring to him as the stranger in her mind. She needed a connection. A link that she was alive and this wasn’t a The Sixth Sense scenario.
“My name is, is—umm, Samuel.”
Marie didn’t miss the hesitation before he said his name, and she knew she should care, but she had more important things to worry about than Samuel giving her a fake name. “Thank you for saving my life, Samuel. I’m Marie Hughes. I’m a doctor here.”
She held out her hand and his big one took it. A tingle of awareness flitted through her veins. “Pleased to meet you, Marie.” He rolled the “r”, again giving credence to him speaking Spanish for a while.
Marie wished that they were meeting under different circumstances, because there was something about him that intrigued her.
Whoa, her reactions to this man were bouncing all over the place, like a bouncy ball, impossible to grasp.
She moved a little further away from him. What she needed to do was keep her cool. Keep all her focus on the task at hand—triage the situation and move forward.
“Where’s my basket?” she muttered as she surveyed the mess around her. She spied it on the ground by the door to the storage cupboard. It must have fallen when she’d moved away from Samuel.
Picking it up, she grimaced to see it hadn’t fared well from being squashed between them, but it would have to do, there weren’t too many other options to carry their–now even more limited–supplies.
“Do you have everything you need?” Samuel asked, and gently took the basket from her.
“No. What I need is for a building not to be collapsing around my ears. To have top quality equipment, so I can give all the injured the care they need. Can you help me with that?” Marie knew her response was irrational.
It wasn’t as if Samuel had thrown a grenade in the building.
Mother Nature had thrown a fit, and they were the collateral damage from it.
“Sorry,” she said immediately. “I shouldn’t have reacted that way to a simple question. ”
Beneath the bushy beard, Marie detected a hint of a smile, and she wished that she could see more of it. “All good. I’m not offended. But the question remains. Is this enough supplies? Do you have any more?”
Marie appreciated the grace he was giving her. Pushing down her emotions and reactions to everything that had happened in the last thirty minutes, she pulled her professional cloak around her. It was time for her to be Dr. Marie Hughes. People needed her help and she was going to give it to them.