chapter EIGHT
GEORGIE was flat out for the next couple of days and it had nothing to do with work. She’d spent a pleasant day with her parents following Isaac’s wedding, although she found herself watching her dad carefully, looking for any sign that he was unwell. Her parents were only in their mid-sixties and it was the first time she’d really thought about them getting old. Her dad was semi-retired; he was a builder and he’d worked hard and always been in good physical shape, but perhaps the years had taken their toll on him. It wouldn’t be unusual. But Georgie had never imagined her life without her parents. Keeping a close eye on him while trying not to make him aware of her attention was difficult but thankfully she didn’t see anything that concerned her.
Con and Anastasia arrived the next day and Georgie found herself playing tour guide to not one elderly couple but two. She’d organised to take them up to Kuranda, a town in the rainforest hinterland inland from Cairns. Travelling by a combination of cable car and old steam train, it was an extremely touristy thing to do but Con and Anastasia seemed to enjoy the outing and were appreciative of the effort Georgie had made.
But the combination of looking for anything untoward with her father’s health and being a shining example of a perfect daughter meant she was exhausted by the end of the day and she was looking forward to returning to work.
Until she got there.
The first thing she saw on the noticeboard in the kitchen was photos of Isaac and Lani’s wedding. That was fine, except that when she got closer to the board she saw that most of the photos were of her with Josh. Lou was in the kitchen, making herself a coffee, and Georgie knew she was watching her, waiting to see her reaction.
‘Who put these up?’ she asked.
Lou stirred milk into her coffee. ‘Marty. He’s taking bets on whether your relationship with Josh is happening for real now.’
‘He’s doing what?’
‘He seems to think that you and Josh are dating seriously now.’
‘And what about everyone else? What do they think?’ She’d been off work for two days and this was what had happened? She couldn’t believe what she was hearing.
‘I think they’d be quite happy to believe it. You do make a good couple.’
‘Not you as well, Lou?’
‘Don’t worry, I haven’t put any money on you either way, I value my life too much.’
That was why this whole fake relationship was a dumb idea. She didn’t want to be gossiped about. She’d conveniently forgotten all the reasons why she hadn’t wanted to do this but Lou was rapidly reminding her. ‘What about Josh? What has he said?’
‘He said nothing’s going on but it seems most people are choosing not to believe him.’
Georgie was mortified. ‘Is he working today?’ She had to find him.
Lou was nodding. ‘He came in just before you. He should be in the change room.’
Georgie didn’t bother saying goodbye to Lou, she bolted for the change room and hoped and prayed she’d find Josh alone. He was just coming out as she got there. She grabbed him by the arm. ‘Can I talk to you? Somewhere private?’
‘Sure. What’s this about?’ he asked as she dragged him outside. She took him around the QMERT building, on the opposite side to the helicopters—that way she was pretty sure they wouldn’t be interrupted.
‘Do you know what Marty’s doing?’
‘Running a book?’ He nodded. ‘Yeah, I know. Pretty funny, don’t you think?’
‘No, I don’t think.’
He was frowning now. ‘What’s the matter?’
‘This is just what I didn’t want, people gossiping about me. This is why dating a colleague is a bad idea.’
‘Fair enough, except we’re not dating.’
‘We know that but it seems everyone else thinks otherwise. All because I caught the stupid bouquet.’
Josh didn’t think that was why people were talking. He’d seen the photos. He’d seen the way they’d looked when they’d been dancing together. Even in a photo their chemistry was obvious. It wasn’t surprising that people were putting two and two together and he couldn’t blame them for jumping to conclusions. He knew he and Georgie were acting the part convincingly, so much so that they were also in danger of believing the illusion.
‘So what do you want to do about it?
‘We should just cancel the whole thing. It was a dumb idea in the first place.’
‘And what will you tell your folks?’
Georgie shrugged. ‘I’ll think of something.’
‘No. We may as well keep going. How much longer are your parents in town for?’
‘Three days.’
‘And their friends are here too now, aren’t they?’
Georgie nodded.
‘I think we should stick with the plan. Everyone here will draw their own conclusions anyway. I don’t think they’ll believe we’ve called it off for a minute if they don’t want to.’
‘Are you sure you don’t mind?’
‘That people think we’re getting down and dirty?’ He grinned.
‘No! Are you sure you don’t mind being a surrogate boyfriend for a little bit longer?’
‘It’s fine. It’s probably only a matter of one more dinner and everything will go back to normal.’ Georgie’s parents would leave and this would all come to an end then. But until then he needed to remind her, remind them both, that this wasn’t real. Could never be real.
‘If you like, I can tell Marty and the others exactly why I’m the perfect fake boyfriend. I can tell them why I’m never getting married, why I won’t commit.’
‘You’re going to tell them about Tricia?’
He was positive he could make everyone believe it was all a show, Georgie included, but he needed to tell her his whole story.
‘There’s more to it than what I’ve told you. The others don’t need to hear the whole story but I think you do.’ It would ensure she wouldn’t imagine their relationship to be anything other than the charade it had started out to be.
‘My parents got divorced when I was a teenager. My dad worked for a big international corporation and he travelled a lot. Mum was bored, and lonely too, I suppose, and she had a few affairs. I think my father turned a blind eye the first few times and despite lots of fighting they managed to stay together, but I guess at one point he decided not to accept it and they split up. My brother and I were sent to boarding school. Dad was still travelling and I think Mum either didn’t want the responsibility of looking after us or the reminder of what she’d done to the family so she chose a new life. Scott, my brother, was…’ he paused and corrected himself ‘…is a couple of years older than me. He was the only constant in my life. I depended on him, trusted him, and that was pretty significant because trusting people wasn’t something that came naturally to me. When I started dating I always expected my girlfriends to either leave me or betray me. I was always suspicious and that wasn’t conducive to healthy relationships. I can’t remember now whether I chose to trust Tricia or whether she convinced me but, in my mind, she was my first serious, committed relationship until she betrayed me. But her betrayal wasn’t the worst of it. It was Scott’s betrayal that almost destroyed me.’
‘Scott’s?’
Josh nodded. ‘Tricia had been sleeping with Scott. That’s what we were fighting about when she drove off, when she was killed.’ He paused and took a deep breath. He never discussed the incident that had changed his life and made him into the man he was, the man who couldn’t commit, but Georgie needed to hear this. She needed to understand him.
‘She’d been having an affair with your brother?’ Georgie’s dark eyes were wide with surprise. ‘How could they do that to you?’
‘I don’t know. I couldn’t understand it and I certainly couldn’t accept it. Scott and I were always very competitive, as I think most brothers are, but I never expected him to steal my fiancée. He was my big brother. I thought he’d look out for me. I thought we’d look out for each other, but I was wrong. I went a little bit crazy after that. I took time off university, went travelling, looking for the most dangerous activities and situations I could find, the more outrageous the better. I was feeling sorry for myself, testing my own mortality, trying to decide if life was worth living.’
‘And you decided it was?’
‘Yes, but I promised myself I’d never put myself in a situation like that again, so I concentrated on work and avoided my brother and relationships in general.’
‘Do you see your brother now?’
He shook his head. ‘No. My experience of relationships has all been about arguing, fighting and betrayal. That’s why I don’t plan on getting married. I have nothing left in me to give anyone. If I can’t trust, what’s the point? But I can tell everyone about Tricia. That’ll give them something else to gossip about instead.’
‘No.’ Georgie shook her head. Three days, that’s all it was. She could manage three more days. ‘You don’t need to tell them about Tricia. I’d rather let everyone jump to conclusions for a few more days than make you divulge your secrets.’ Marty could take bets but she wouldn’t give him any more fodder for gossip. ‘My parents will be gone soon and this will all be over. If you can manage one more dinner, that’ll keep my parents happy and then things will be back to normal.’
* * *
Only two more days now, she thought the next morning as she parked her car outside the QMERT building, but even so she found herself automatically searching for Josh’s car as she locked hers. Just thinking about seeing him again made her heart race.
Georgie disagreed about his assessment that he had nothing to give but she knew it wasn’t her place to say so. He was doing her a favour; he hadn’t asked her to interfere in his life. In two days there would be no need to have any extra contact with Josh.
She’d let herself get carried away with their charade but hearing Josh’s story had reminded her of the truth. She suspected that’s why he’d told her and she knew she had to keep her feelings under control. She had to remember their relationship wasn’t going anywhere. Had to remember they didn’t actually have a relationship and they definitely didn’t have a future.
She waited for her heart rate to return to normal, waited until she was sure she could behave normally around Josh, before she gathered her things and went into work, only to find he was doing a shift at the hospital. But at least with him out of the way she knew she’d be able to keep her mind on her job.
But he wasn’t completely out of contact. The crew was on their second run of the day, a routine inter-hospital transfer, when Louise patched a phone call through to the chopper.
‘Georgie, I have an urgent phone call for you. It’s Josh.’
Louise’s message immediately sent her into a spin. She wondered what Josh could possibly want that would require him to go to the trouble of tracking her down in the chopper.
‘Josh, what’s up?’
‘Where are you guys?’
His tone was short, abrupt even. His phone manner left a lot to be desired but as the call was coming through the helicopter radio she gave him the benefit of the doubt. Maybe it was because he knew everyone in the chopper could hear the conversation through their headsets.
‘We’re heading to Dimbulah,’ she told him.
‘You’re on your way there now?’
‘Yes, we’re about twenty minutes east of town.’
‘I have something I need to tell you.’ He paused very slightly and Georgie frowned. There was complete silence through the radio and it felt as though minutes had passed before she heard his next words. ‘Everyone is okay but your father has just been brought into Emergency with chest pain.’
Immediately Georgie recalled her father’s shortness of breath. ‘Is he having a heart attack?’ Why hadn’t she insisted that he have a check-up with a doctor while he was in Cairns? Why had she been content for him to wait until he got home to Melbourne? Even though she’d seen no sign of any problems she still berated herself. Her mother had told her of the episodes—why had she ignored her?
‘We’re running tests now,’ he said.
‘It’ll be a few hours before I’m back in Cairns. How serious is this?’ She could hear the panic in her voice. Was there more that Josh wasn’t telling her?
‘It’s okay, Georgie, you can relax. We’ve got things under control.’ Hearing him say her name calmed her nerves. He sounded so assured and confident. He’d tell her straight, wouldn’t he? ‘If I thought it was critical I’d tell you,’ he continued. Even over the radio it seemed as though he could follow her thoughts. ‘The ECG isn’t showing any signs of cardiac arrhythmia but we’ll keep testing until we find out what’s going on. I’ll take care of him but come in when you get back.’
She breathed out, concentrating on expelling the air, releasing the tension. If Josh said he’d take care of things she trusted him to do just that. ‘Have you seen Mum? Is she okay?’
‘She seems to be. She’s with Con and Anastasia.’ He knew who they were and now he’d met them, but it was still strange to hear him mention her parents’ friends. It was as though they had no secrets, as though he knew all the intimate details of her life, but fortunately he didn’t disclose anything further. He hadn’t forgotten that the rest of the crew could hear their entire conversation. ‘Don’t worry, everything will be all right. I’ll keep you up to date. See you when you get back.’
‘Thanks, Josh.’
She worked hard to keep her focus and concentration on the job and fortunately the IHT was straightforward and the return to Cairns went smoothly. Josh phoned with another update as they were returning to Cairns. Her father’s condition had stabilised and he’d been transferred to one of the cardiology beds, and this news helped to settle her nerves.
It was nearing the end of her shift when the chopper landed opposite the hospital to transfer their patient. Sean suggested that Georgie stay behind and she gratefully accepted.
‘Pat and I will get your car back to you somehow,’ he said. ‘And Louise can call Marty and see if he can come in a bit early in case we need a paramedic. Don’t worry about us, go and see your dad.’
She didn’t need to be asked twice. She and Sean transferred their patient to the hospital but Georgie didn’t return to the chopper, heading instead for the cardiology ward. Her mum was in a chair beside her father but Georgie was pleased to see there were no other visitors. Con and Anastasia must have returned to their hotel.
‘Dad! How are you feeling?’ she asked as she kissed both her parents.
‘Completely fine,’ George said. ‘If I wasn’t hooked up to these monitors I’d walk out of here. It was just a bit of indigestion, I’m sure of it.’
‘You don’t have any pain? Any discomfort?’
‘None. I feel like a fraud.’
Georgie’s gaze flicked to the monitor. According to the figures George was okay. His oxygen sats, blood pressure and heart rate were all within normal limits. But that didn’t explain why he’d been admitted.
‘Tell me what happened this morning.’
‘Your mother and I had breakfast with Con and Anastasia and then we went for a walk along the esplanade so they could have a look around Cairns. I had a bit of chest pain, which I’m sure was indigestion—’
‘There was a bit more to it than that, George,’ Sofia interrupted her husband. ‘You felt a bit dizzy too.’
‘I’m not used to the heat, that’s all,’ George insisted. ‘I didn’t have any arm pain or anything else.’
Sofia ignored him and turned to her daughter. ‘We were right by the hospital so, in view of his other recent complaints about shortness of breath, I thought he should get checked out.’
‘That was the right thing to do,’ Georgie responded. With chest pain, dizziness and a history of shortness of breath, it was no surprise her father had been admitted to the cardiology ward. There was definitely something abnormal going on. ‘What have the doctors told you? What have they found?’
‘I think they said the major arteries are okay but they’re going to do more tests tomorrow.’
Movement in the doorway distracted George, and Georgie turned to see what, or who, her father was looking at.
It was Josh.
‘Hello, you’re here,’ he said as he entered the room, and with those few words he managed to make it sound as though he’d been counting the minutes until she arrived. He made it sound as though he’d missed her.
His eyes locked with hers and he smiled. His grey eyes sparkled silver and his smile said he was there for her. His dark blond hair was sticking up and he had a slight shadow of beard darkening his jaw. He looked good. She smiled in return and took a step towards him before she hesitated. She wasn’t sure how she should be behaving. But Josh didn’t hesitate. He stepped forward and took her in his arms.
‘What are you doing?’ she whispered.
He leant down and his lips pressed against her hair. ‘I’m comforting you, I’m supposed to be your boyfriend, remember?’
She closed her eyes as she hugged him back, savouring the feel of him, the solid, dependable sense of wellbeing he gave her. They’d had no physical contact since the wedding, since she’d turned down his invitation to go home with him, and she’d missed it. Being in his arms gave her a sense of belonging, which was silly because she didn’t belong to him, but that was how he made her feel.
‘You have perfect timing. Dad’s a bit vague with the details. Can you give me a bit more information?’ she asked as she stepped backwards, out of his embrace.
Josh was nodding. ‘He’s had several tests today and the results in most of them were normal but the echocardiogram showed a problem with the mitral valve.’
‘You left out that bit of information, Dad,’ Georgie reprimanded her father.
‘Josh interrupted,’ he countered.
‘The cardiologist will do some more tests tomorrow to see how serious the problem is. I’ll give you a heads up, George, just so you don’t get any nasty surprises, but you may need surgery.’
‘I thought my arteries were fine and I didn’t have a heart attack. Why would I need surgery?’
‘The valves in your heart regulate the blood flow. If they’re not opening or closing properly, you get insufficient blood pumped around your body and your heart will work harder to compensate for it. That stresses your heart and can lead to a heart attack down the track,’ Josh explained. He kept the details simple and Georgie knew her parents would be able to follow his summary. ‘The breathlessness and dizziness you’ve already experienced can be symptomatic of heart disease. But the severity of the symptoms doesn’t always indicate the severity of the disease so the cardiologist will investigate further, and that’s why I’ve said you may need surgery. It’s a possibility, that’s all. Does that make sense?’ Josh waited for everyone’s agreement before continuing. ‘Now George needs to rest and I’m sure you two need to eat,’ he said, preparing to bustle them out.
‘Well, if you think it’s okay to leave him?’ Sofia was deferring to Josh.
‘You don’t need to worry. You can come back in the morning,’ he told her.
Her mother turned to Georgie. ‘I guess it would be okay to go home. Anastasia offered to cook dinner for us. She’s at your house. I hope you don’t mind.’
‘I don’t mind,’ she said.
‘Have you finished work for the day, Josh?’ Sofia asked. ‘Would you like to join us?’
Josh looked at Georgie. She tried to keep her face blank; she knew how well he could read her mind. She gave him just the tiniest shake of her head and then held her breath as she waited for his reply. She doubted her parents would be leaving in three days as originally planned and, if that was the case, Josh was going to have to continue to play the part of her boyfriend for a bit longer. But she needed time to digest this thought, they probably both did, and if she was going to survive until her parents left and life returned to normal, she needed to keep everyone in their own little compartments. Which meant only seeing Josh when absolutely necessary. Which meant not tonight.
‘Thanks,’ he said in response to Sofia’s invitation, ‘but I’ve got some other things I need to take care of. I’ll catch up with you all again tomorrow. I’m back at QMERT then, but if you have any questions about what’s happening speak to the staff here, and if you need further clarification don’t hesitate to call me.’ He turned to Georgie. ‘Are you working tomorrow?’
She nodded and let out the breath she’d been holding.
‘I’ll see you then,’ he said before he left the room.
‘Josh?’ Georgie called out to him and he turned, stopping in the corridor. She left the room and took a few steps towards him. She reached out, putting one hand on his arm. It was a reflex movement but the moment she touched the bare skin of his forearm and felt the tingle of awareness race through her she realised what she’d done and removed her hand quickly, as though it had been burnt.
‘Thank you for taking care of my parents today. Knowing you were here helped when I was stuck out in the chopper.’
He glanced down at his arm, at the spot where her hand had touched him, and when he looked at her his eyes were dark grey, darker than she’d ever seen them before and unfathomable. ‘Don’t mention it. It was my pleasure. I’ll see you tomorrow.’
‘Mum and Dad might be here for a bit longer, depending on what dad’s tests show. You were expecting to be my surrogate boyfriend for only a couple more days. What do you want to do, what do we say?’
‘Don’t worry. I’m happy to do this for as long as you need. I won’t let you down,’ he said. Then he was gone with just a brief nod of his head.
Georgie watched him disappear along the corridor, wondering if he was okay. He seemed upset. She wished she could read his mind as easily as he read hers. She had no idea what could be wrong. She stood looking after him as she tried to figure it out and then realised that nothing was wrong with Josh, something was wrong with her. She was feeling let down because he hadn’t kissed her goodbye. She’d come to expect it. But no one had been watching so why should he kiss her?
Her mum joined her and Georgie let her distract her from Josh as they headed for the lifts. ‘How are you coping, Mum? This must have come as a bit of a shock.’
‘It was quite frightening, not knowing what was wrong. Your dad makes it sound like nothing but, believe me, he looked dreadful. He went quite grey and I thought he wasn’t going to make it into the hospital. Thank goodness for Josh,’ she said as the lift doors slid open and they stepped inside. ‘He was fabulous. He was so good to me, to both of us. He kept checking on me, making sure I knew what was happening. He’s quite something, isn’t he?’
Georgie kept her gaze averted, avoiding eye contact. She didn’t want her mother to read her opinion of Josh on her face, that wouldn’t do. Her mother was going to take the news badly when Georgie and Josh had their inevitable ‘breakup’ and she didn’t need her mother to know how much she really liked him—that would only make things harder. ‘Mmm,’ she replied, hoping that some sort of response would be all that was expected before her mother continued talking.
‘I wouldn’t have coped nearly so well without him,’ Sofia added. ‘It’s a pity he couldn’t join us for dinner.’
Sofia’s chatter kept them occupied until they reached the taxi rank and climbed into a cab for the short trip home. Once there, conversation flowed easily between Sofia, Anastasia and Con, and Georgie wasn’t required to contribute much at all, which suited her. The others made excuses for her, assuming she must be tired after such a long, exhausting and emotional day, but the reality was that she was quite happy to sit quietly and think about Josh. About how smoothly he’d taken care of all of them, her included. He’d single-handedly turned what could have been an extremely scary, stressful situation into something that seemed manageable. She’d seen his calm, confident approach when they’d worked together but to be on the receiving end of his bedside manner really made her aware of his compassion and ability to read a situation. It appeared that being able to read her mind wasn’t his only talent. Her mother was obviously totally impressed by him and it wasn’t difficult to see why.
* * *
The next few days were a whirlwind of activity, all revolving around her family. The cardiologist determined that George had a diseased mitral valve, which was more serious than his symptoms indicated. He advised George not to fly and advocated immediate valve-replacement surgery, which sent Sofia and Georgie into a spin. In the space of a couple of days George had gone from a fit and active man to one who required heart surgery.
Georgie didn’t have many opportunities to think about Josh and their fake relationship, she was too busy concentrating on what her parents needed, but Josh didn’t disappear. He worked quietly and tirelessly in the background, taking care of the little tasks that didn’t seem important in the bigger picture but still needed to get done. Georgie hadn’t asked him to help out but he seemed to be able to sense when things needed to be taken care of, and he did it without any prompting and without seeming to expect any thanks. He was just Josh, doing the things no one else had the time or energy for. He organised for Marty to swap shifts with Georgie so she could keep Sofia company while George was in surgery. He replenished the food in her fridge, filled her car with petrol and even managed to get George and Sofia’s flights home to Melbourne changed. Georgie didn’t know how he did that, considering he wasn’t family, but Louise told her that Josh had gone across to the airport terminal in his QMERT uniform with ‘Doctor’ embroidered on the chest and had charmed the customer service officer into doing his bidding.
It must have been a female on the counter at the time, Georgie thought, but just picturing the scene made her smile. She didn’t care how he’d managed it, she was just grateful for his help. It meant one less thing for her to worry about.
In fact, with Josh’s help she found she had very little to worry about. Nothing was too much trouble for him. And it wasn’t just Georgie he was taking care of.
He was constantly popping into the hospital to check on her father too. They’d started a regular evening game of backgammon to pass the time and he even helped to entertain Con and Anastasia. His efforts with them gave Georgie more time to spend time with her parents and it was another one of the selfless gestures that benefited her.
She couldn’t believe she’d initially wanted to keep their contact to a bare minimum. She now wondered how she would have managed at all over the past few days without his help.
* * *
Five days after her dad’s surgery Josh and Georgie were in the chopper, heading to Cooktown, two hundred kilometres north of Cairns. Georgie was tired. It had been a stressful few days and while her dad was making a good recovery she was feeling emotionally drained, even with all Josh’s help. She’d been trying to keep several balls in the air—updating her brothers, looking after her mother and Con and Anastasia, plus keeping on top of dad’s medical condition and working—but Josh had been effectively holding down two jobs and helping her, while somehow managing to remain his usual upbeat, enthusiastic self. Typically for an emergency doctor, he seemed to thrive on challenges. She wasn’t quite sure how he’d managed it, but it left her feeling a little incompetent. But things were slowly getting back to normal. Con and Anastasia were leaving today and then it was just a matter of waiting for her dad to recover enough to head home to Melbourne. And then her life would return to normal and she and Josh would go their separate ways.
Georgie didn’t actually want to think about that so in an effort to keep her mind occupied with other things she immersed herself in checking the medical kits. She told herself it was imperative that she know exactly what they were carrying, but the reality was that if she kept her head down she didn’t need to watch Josh and she knew that’s what she would do. It was far safer to sort through the medical kits, even though they didn’t need sorting, but she could feel Josh watching her as she worked.
‘You’ve checked that kit three times. Are you going to tell me what’s on your mind?’ he asked.
‘You mean you don’t know?’ She’d become so used to Josh being able to read her thoughts that to hear him ask her what was wrong was a surprise.
He laughed and the sound cheered her up. ‘I could guess but it would be quicker if you told me.’
Georgie flicked the communication switch on her headset to the ‘Off’ position. She didn’t need Pat and Isaac listening to this conversation.
‘I’m not sure if I’m ready to go back to Melbourne.’
Josh switched his headset off too before he answered. ‘Why don’t you stay in Cairns?’
‘My parents expect me home and I promised I’d go back at the end of my twelve months. I’ve always done the right thing but I’m not sure I’m ready to go back to being the Georgie I was when I left. I’ve changed but I don’t know if I’ve changed enough to avoid slipping back into the role of the dutiful daughter.’
‘You’ll be all right,’ he replied. ‘The Georgie I knew first isn’t so different from the Georgie I see now. Being you parents’ daughter has shaped you into the person you are, someone who embraces other people wholeheartedly and without reservation or judgement. Someone who is compassionate, unselfish, loyal and strong. There is nothing about you that you should want to change.’
‘You think I’m strong?’
Josh nodded. ‘And capable and confident.’
‘I haven’t felt very capable this past week. I don’t know how I would have managed without your help.’
‘You would have been perfectly fine. I didn’t do anything you couldn’t have done. Have faith in yourself. You can do anything you want to do, be anyone you want to be. Here or in Melbourne.’
Georgie wanted to ask Josh what else he saw in her. What could he see that she couldn’t? But Isaac was leaning back between the seats, pointing at his headset, signalling to them to switch their communication on. They flicked the comms switches and Pat’s voice came through their headsets. ‘There’s some rough weather coming—make sure you’re buckled in nice and tight.’
The sun disappeared as Georgie checked her harness and the cabin was cast into semi-darkness. They were over the ocean, heading east away from Cooktown and the Queensland coast. They were searching for a yacht, and were planning to evacuate a sixty-year-old woman who’d slipped and fallen and had a suspected broken leg.
Georgie looked out of the window, lost in her thoughts. Josh saw someone who was strong and confident. She wondered how much of that was due to his influence. She didn’t think she would have been nearly as capable over the past week without his help. But perhaps the Georgie she was discovering was those things. She just hoped she could continue to be that person once she was back in Melbourne. Once she was without Josh.
‘We should get a visual on the yacht in the next five minutes,’ Pat said and as they approached the location they’d been given Isaac, Georgie and Josh all began scanning the ocean for the sailing boat. Away to the west Georgie saw a mass of dark clouds, chasing them over the ocean. The storm was heading their way and she hoped they could outrun it or find the yacht before the bad weather hit.
Ten minutes passed and there was no sign of the yacht. Not one boat could be seen.
‘This is Victor Hotel Romeo Hotel Sierra to QMERT Cairns, do you read me?’ Pat radioed Louise.
‘This is QMERT Cairns, go ahead, Pat.’
‘Can we check those coordinates please? I’m overhead now and there’s no sign of a yacht.’
Louise read out the coordinates she had been given.
‘Confirm that’s our current location,’ Pat said. ‘But, I repeat, I do not have a visual on the yacht. Can you confirm with the vessel and get back to us?’
The clouds were closing in quickly now as Pat circled the chopper over choppy seas while they waited for Louise to confirm the yacht’s position.
‘QMERT Cairns to Victor Hotel Romeo Hotel Sierra.’
‘Go ahead, Lou.’
‘I have new coordinates for you, they read them out incorrectly.’ Louise relayed the new location and Isaac repeated the coordinates back to her.
‘That’s thirty nautical miles north-north-west of where we are,’ Pat said. ‘Please confirm our ETA of fifteen minutes with the vessel and remind them to have their medical assistance flag flying for identification.’
‘Will do,’ Louise replied.
‘This extra flying is going to make fuel pretty tight and the weather’s not going to help as we’ll be heading into the storm. We’ll have to assess the situation when we find the vessel and determine if we can do a safe evacuation.’ Pat filled the crew in. Being out over the ocean in bad weather when they were low on fuel was certainly not an ideal position to be in.
‘We’ll need to be ready to go as quickly as possible,’ Georgie told Josh. ‘We’re not going to have the luxury of time.’
Isaac would lower them to the yacht on a winch. One would go with the stretcher and the medical kits, the other would follow. It was always a tricky manoeuvre as there were so many variables and the weather was only going to complicate matters. They would need to move quickly. ‘Let’s get the kits strapped onto the stretcher.’
Isaac spotted the yacht on their starboard side as Georgie and Josh finished arranging the equipment. Pat did a flyover and Georgie and Josh peered out the windows.
The sails had all been lowered in preparation for the storm, which had made the yacht more difficult to locate but gave them a good view of the deck. A woman was lying on the lower section of the deck at the foot of a short flight of stairs. They’d expected her to be in the cabin but this was preferable as access was easier. A man was squatting beside her, waving to the chopper.
‘I’ll go down alone. It’ll be faster to evacuate if we only need to do one retrieval,’ Josh said.
If only one of them went, it would mean two winch operations instead of four, something that would save precious time.
‘That sounds sensible,’ Georgie agreed, ‘but can you manage to get the patient onto the stretcher on your own?’ If the diagnosis was correct and the woman had suffered a broken leg, there was no great need for both of them to attend. The issue wasn’t the medical care but the transferring of the woman.
‘I should be fine but if it’s difficult, her partner will have to lend a hand. If I find things are more complicated than we expected, I’ll call you down then.’
Georgie shrugged. ‘Okay.’
Isaac was out of his seat and had climbed into the rear of the chopper. He attached all three of them to safety lines.
‘The wind is picking up and the forecast is for increasing wind speeds ahead of the storm so we’re only going to get one shot at this,’ Pat said.
Isaac slid the door open and the wind buffeted them inside the chopper.
‘Your call, Josh,’ Isaac said.
Georgie watched Josh’s face. It was up to him whether he wanted to attempt this evacuation or whether he thought it was too dangerous. His expression was calm, his grey eyes steady and he didn’t hesitate.
‘Let’s do this.’
Josh fastened himself into the harness and together Isaac and Georgie hooked him and the stretcher to the winch before disengaging him from the chopper’s safety line.
Isaac directed Pat above the yacht. Pat was flying blind. In order to lower Josh directly onto the yacht, he had to position the chopper above it, meaning he couldn’t see either the yacht or Josh on the winch. Isaac became his eyes; he was in charge of the descent. He swung Josh out of the chopper and waited for his signal before he pressed the button and the winch began to lower its load. Josh’s head disappeared from view and Georgie watched as he dropped towards the sea.
Georgie was nervous. The yacht looked tiny, bobbing about on the waves beneath them. The sea was rough and it was a difficult exercise; trying to manoeuvre a heavy load on a wire suspended from a moving object onto a moving target was no easy task in calm seas, let alone in rough conditions. Georgie didn’t like being in a situation where she had no control. She would have preferred to have been the one going down to the yacht rather than the one sitting, watching and waiting. If she was occupied she wouldn’t have time to think of the danger.
Isaac slowed the winch down, trying to get his timing right. He had to lower Josh carefully to avoid crashing him onto the deck if the boat was lifted up on the peak of a wave.
Georgie saw Josh’s feet touch the deck, saw him take his weight but then the deck fell away from him as the yacht fell into a trough. Josh was suspended again, his weight hanging on the winch line.
His feet touched the deck for a second time but the yacht tipped. Georgie saw Josh lose his footing and her heart was in her throat as he slipped and fell to his knees. For a second she forgot Josh was securely attached to the chopper, for a second she could imagine him sliding off the yacht into the sea, but then the yacht levelled out and he was on his feet.
He was on the deck now. He’d laid the stretcher out beside him as he knelt and waited for the winch line to give him some slack before unfastening the hook from the strap around his chest. He gave Isaac the signal and Isaac began to pull the cable in as he gave Pat the all-clear to move away, Josh didn’t need the downdraught from the chopper to add to the already difficult conditions.
Pat guided the chopper far enough away to avoid the downdraught but close enough to still have visual contact. Georgie could see Josh working quickly, taking observations, talking to the woman’s companion, assessing the situation. She wished she’d been able to go with him. Having two of them there would have made his job easier, but the extra time used might have been critical. Neither the weather nor their fuel situation was on their side.
Josh was putting a canula in the woman’s vein and, Georgie assumed, giving her something for pain. They had radio communication but there was no need to use it. The others were of no assistance while they were in the chopper but Georgie still wished he’d say something. The silence was making her uneasy.
She saw him quickly splint the woman’s leg before rolling her onto her side to get her onto the stretcher. He was working flat out. There was no time to wait for the pain relief to take effect, they needed to get her evacuated and get away from there before the storm hit.
Josh had fastened the straps on the stretcher and was repacking the medical kit. He was kneeling on the deck, his knees spread wide for stability. The woman’s partner was bending over the stretcher but was supporting himself against the cabin wall with one hand. The waves had picked up and it seemed he could no longer keep his feet without support.
Josh crawled around to the top of the stretcher to fasten the protective cage over the woman’s face. He was kneeling at her head, reaching for the cage, when a rogue wave slammed into the side of the yacht. The vessel was thrown onto its port side and anything that wasn’t tied down went sliding across the deck. Including the stretcher. And Josh.
Georgie watched as though it was happening in slow motion. She saw the woman’s partner fall forward, slamming onto the deck. She saw the stretcher sliding towards the sea. She saw Josh’s hand on the side of the metal cage.
‘Josh!’ she yelled, but she was too late. The stretcher had collided with the edge of the deck, trapping Josh’s hand. The weight of the stretcher pinned him in place.