Chapter 15
TAYLOR
I watched as he lowered himself over the edge slowly and methodically.
Randomly, I noticed how big and strong his hands were as they threaded the rope between them.
It didn’t seem to take him long at all to get down, maybe ten minutes or so.
Once at the bottom, he unclipped himself and picked his way across the rocks to where Casey was lying.
I could see him chatting to her as he assessed her injuries, and watching him, I was struck by the thought that he looked pretty damn expert at it, more than the usual volunteer training.
Jack reached for his radio clipped to his chest, and a few seconds later Dion’s radio crackled beside me.
‘Do we have an ETA on that helicopter yet?’ Jack asked.
‘I’ll call and check,’ Wendy said, heading for her truck.
‘How’s the patient’s condition?’ Dion asked.
‘Casey,’ I muttered. ‘Her name is Casey.’
‘Casey is alert,’ Jack answered. ‘Responsive to pain and my voice. She has a compound fracture to her left ankle, a large laceration to her knee, and minor lacerations and bruises to the rest of her body.’ His tone suddenly lowered. ‘She also has some bleeding from her left ear.’
‘Damn.’ Dion closed his eyes for a brief moment and winced. ‘OK, I’ll get on to the chopper crew and update them on her injuries.’
‘What does that mean?’ I asked him.
‘What, the bleeding from the ear?’
I nodded.
He pulled a face. ‘Could be a number of things, none of them good.’
‘Like what?’
‘She could have a brain injury, or a skull fracture. They won’t know until they give her a CT scan at the hospital, so the sooner we get her there, the better.’
We both heard it then, a distant whop whop whop sound. I turned my head skywards, to the west where the sound was coming from, but couldn’t see it at first. Then I noticed it, a tiny black dot against the blue of the sky, moving, slowly getting bigger.
‘Chopper’s almost here,’ Dion radioed to Jack.
A thought occurred to me. ‘Where are they going to land?’
‘They won’t,’ he replied. ‘Nearest flat ground is a good mile or two from here. They’ll have to winch her up.’
‘Won’t that hurt her even more?’
‘Not if they do it right.’ He saw my worried face and gave me a reassuring smile. ‘Don’t worry, these guys are the real deal. They’ll give her pain relief first. She’ll be in good hands, I promise.’
‘I just felt so helpless,’ I admitted. ‘Seeing her down there and being unable to do anything to help.’
‘Hey,’ he soothed. ‘You did help. If it wasn’t for you, we wouldn’t have got here when we did. Who knows how long she might have been down there before someone else came along and heard her. It could have been days.’
‘Yeah, I guess.’
The chopper was close now, hovering fifty meters offshore.
Dion directed everyone who wasn’t necessary, including myself, to stand well back, away from the powerful downwash of wind created by the rotor blades.
I watched from the tree line as a man was winched down from the chopper to where Jack and Casey were, out of sight.
Not long after that, a stretcher was also winched down, and about twenty minutes later Casey was lifted up by the winch, in the stretcher, to the waiting helicopter.
I felt a swell of emotion as I watched her disappear inside the aircraft.
Relief, mostly, that she was now safe and would soon be in a hospital where she would have a team of medical professionals fussing over her and giving her the tests and treatment that she needed.
But I wasn’t na?ve enough to think she was completely out of the woods.
The possibility that she had a brain injury was scary stuff, and potentially life-changing for her.
All I could do was watch and hope that she would come through it all OK.
The helicopter departed, whop whop whopping off towards a hospital in one of the big cities on the mainland.
The search and rescue team, relaxed now, started packing up the gear.
I waited at the top of the cliff while Jack climbed back up, not relaxing myself until he was safely back on solid ground again.
I don’t think I imagined how his eyes searched the crowd and softened when they found me, his shoulders relaxing.
‘Hey,’ he said, unclipping himself from the harnesses and taking them off. ‘You OK?’
I nodded. ‘Yeah. I’m fine.’
‘You sure? Don’t be surprised if you get a little shaky when the adrenaline wears off.’
Now that he mentioned it, my legs did feel a little wobbly. My face must have gone a bit pale, or something else gave the game away because the next thing I knew he was beside me, his strong arms around my shoulders, steadying me.
‘Easy,’ he said softly. ‘I’ve got you.’
I breathed in the smell of him. It was woody and salty and masculine, and it felt somehow like I was right where I supposed to be. It was the weirdest feeling but I relaxed into it, mostly because I wasn’t sure in that moment that I could stand without him.
‘I’m fine,’ I babbled. ‘Sorry. God, how embarrassing.’
‘Don’t be embarrassed,’ he said. ‘It can happen to the best of us. Has happened, many times. We’re all human. Nobody judges anybody around here.’
I buried my face in his jersey, feeling his warmth, enjoying how his arms felt around me.
I couldn’t remember the last time I’d been held like this by a man.
Adam and I, we’d drifted apart long before he started seeking comfort elsewhere.
Towards the end, we’d been more like roommates than anything else, although occasionally the guilt would strike, the realization that something was very wrong, and one of us would make a move, but if I was honest with myself I hadn’t enjoyed it.
Hadn’t leaned into him the way I was leaning into Jack.
‘Feeling any better?’ he asked after a few minutes, and reluctantly I nodded and pulled away from him.
‘Yeah, I am. My heart feels like it’s beating normally again at least. Thanks.’
He smiled, his eyes intensely boring into mine, and something inside me went flop. My heart, assumedly.
‘Any time,’ he said, and I wasn’t sure what to make of that.
Someone cleared their throat pointedly nearby, and I took another quick step away from Jack. It was Dion, looking apologetic, as if he was interrupting something.
‘You OK, Taylor?’ he asked.
‘Yeah I’m all good,’ I replied brightly. ‘Just felt a bit light-headed for a second. I think I was lying out in the sun at the top of the cliff for too long. Bit overdressed for this heat.’
His eyes dropped to my black jeans, his look appreciative. ‘That would certainly do it.’
Jack moved so that he was standing slightly in front of me, but I couldn’t tell whether it was intentional or not.
‘Gear all packed up?’ he asked gruffly. ‘Sorry I wasn’t any help.’
‘It’s fine,’ Dion replied, a smirk in his voice. ‘I could see you had your hands full. Plus, you kind of pulled off all the heroics today. It was the least the rest of us could do.’
‘It was a team effort, like always.’
‘Well, I need to get back to work, so…’ Dion made a thumbing gesture over his shoulder.
‘Oh right,’ Jack said. ‘I came with you, didn’t I?’
‘You did.’
Jack turned back to me. ‘Can we give you a lift back to town?’
‘No, I’m OK, thanks. I have my bike.’
He frowned. ‘You biked all the way here?’
‘My motorbike,’ I clarified.
The expression that came over his face was very different to the one that came over Jack’s.
‘Cool,’ Dion said, nodding appreciatively. ‘You’re a biker chick.’
I gave him a withering look that made him immediately shut up and start backing away. ‘I’ll wait over by the truck while you guys figure this out.’
Jack scowled. ‘You have a motorbike?’
I crossed my arms over my chest and stared at him. ‘Sure do.’
‘I don’t think you should be riding it.’
I tilted my head. ‘That’s funny, I don’t remember needing, or asking, for your permission.’
‘You’ve been through a lot today,’ he said. ‘You’re most likely still processing it.’
‘I haven’t been through anything. It’s Casey you should be worried about.’
‘I meant that you might still have some residual shock. Coming across a situation like you did today and handling it the way you did.’
‘I didn’t handle anything,’ I pointed out. ‘I just called 911. You’re the one who scaled a cliff like some…’ I fumbled for the words ‘…some ridiculously buff… Spider-Man.’
His frown morphed into an amused grin. ‘You think I’m buff?’
‘What? Maybe, I don’t know,’ I stammered, feeling my cheeks flush under his gaze. It was that damn hug that had brought this on. The stupid bloody delicious smell of him. ‘The point is, I’m fine, and you don’t get to tell me when I can or can’t ride my bike. Got it?’
He held his hands up, palms facing outwards in a conciliatory gesture. ‘Got it.’
‘Good.’
‘But for the record, I wasn’t trying to say you shouldn’t ride the bike in general, although I do have a view on that. I was merely worried that you might be more affected by today than you realize.’
My eyes narrowed as I considered his words. They had struck home in a way he could never have anticipated. ‘You’re worried I might be impaired?’
He shrugged. ‘Shock affects people differently. And sometimes those effects can be delayed.’
‘What about you?’
‘I’ve had a lot of training. And experience. This isn’t even in the top ten of worst injuries I’ve seen.’
I mulled over his words, then fished my keys out of my pocket and held them out towards him. ‘Fine. You can ride it then.’
His eyebrows shot up. ‘That’s not what I meant.’
‘Well I’m not leaving it here, if that’s what you’re suggesting.’
‘Sorry to interrupt, guys,’ Dion said, approaching. ‘But I really do need to get back to work. My apprentice called in sick again today and I’m really under the pump to finish the job.’
I lifted my chin, my eyes challenging Jack. ‘Your call,’ I said.
‘Fine.’ He took the keys from me. ‘You go with Dion, and I’ll take your bike back to town.’
I shook my head. ‘That’s not going to work for me either. You can take control; I’ll ride pillion.’
‘But we only have one helmet,’ he pointed out, his tone triumphant as if he believed he had won one over me.
‘I’ve got my dirt bike gear in the back of the truck,’ Dion said helpfully. ‘You can borrow my helmet, Jack.’
Jack glared at him. ‘Aren’t you helpful.’
Dion shrugged, his grin suggesting he knew full well what he was doing. ‘I try to be.’
‘That’s settled then.’ I zipped my jacket up while he fetched the helmet. ‘Unless you’re scared.’
‘Scared?’ Jack scoffed, taking the helmet from Dion. ‘I’m not scared.’
‘Good. Let’s go then.’ I gave Dion a little wave. ‘Thanks for the pep talk earlier,’ I told him. ‘It really helped.’
‘You’re welcome.’ He doffed an imaginary hat. ‘It was nice to meet you. Maybe you’d like to catch up for a drink sometime?’
‘I thought you were in a hurry,’ Jack said brusquely.
‘Maybe, but I’m only here for a few weeks,’ I told Dion.
He sighed. ‘That’s a shame.’