Christmas with Dr Delicious

He followed quickly, equally glad of the interruption while they both assimilated the new situation. But, damn, working in the same truck with Nikki would make everything a hundred times more difficult. They weren’t being given any time to get used to being around one another. No time at all. Straight into the fire. Might be the best way.

CHAPTER TWO

NIKKI raced for the ambulance, leaving Fraser to follow. He might be used to a different station but the drill would be the same. Snapping her seat belt in place, she turned the ignition key as he slid into the passenger seat. ‘Did you unplug the truck?’ she asked, without looking at him.

‘Yes. Having you drive off with the power supply still attached wouldn’t be a good look on my first day.’

‘It’s been done before.’ Mainly by new recruits eager to leap aboard, on their way to a call, and completely forgetting about all the truck’s many batteries being kept topped up while on standby. With so much equipment on board that needed power, the batteries drained very quickly.

Fraser tapped the computer screen, bringing up the details of the callout. ‘Ashleigh Rest Home. Eighty-seven-year-old woman found lying on bedroom floor. Conscious but groggy.’

‘And probably very cold because of this morning’s frost.’ Putting on the lights and siren, she eased the ambulance out of the garage, nodding thanks to the car drivers giving way to them. If she concentrated on the details of the job and the traffic she was weaving the heavy vehicle through she might be able to pretend that wasn’t Fraser sitting on the other side of the truck.

Who was she kidding? It was Fraser. No getting away from that. His size dominated the cab. The tantalising citrus smell of his aftershave teased her senses. He hadn’t used aftershave before, not that she could remember, and she remembered most things about him. He liked scrambled eggs soft and made with cream, his toast underdone, his steak rare, and would refuse point blank to eat lumpy mashed potatoes.

Fraser fumbled around behind her seat. ‘Where’s the PRF kept?’

‘Under your seat.’

He found the patient report form and copied in details from the screen, appearing totally impervious to the situation.

Why couldn’t she act as though he was any other crew member she had to mentor? She tried. ‘Patient’s name?’

‘Mavis Everest.’

‘Don’t know her.’ In a town the size of Blenheim she often attended people she knew, which added a personal, and not always welcome, factor to the situation. ‘Is Mavis in a unit or the hospital wing?’

‘A detached unit, number three. She must be capable of looking out for herself, then. Not bad at that age.’

‘Probably has a caregiver.’ Nikki hated the idea of anyone she loved ending up in a retirement village. A lot of people liked the security and companionship but she couldn’t see her parents there after spending their lives on the farm. Not that they were even close to having to think about that but, still, she already knew she’d look after them if the need arose.

‘Is this a good rest home?’ Fraser asked, peering through the windscreen as the entrance came into view.

‘I’ve never heard any complaints or noticed anything untoward. Why? Looking for somewhere to live?’ Dang, why crack a joke? She was supposed to be keeping aloof and discussing work only.

Fraser’s smile flicked on and off so fast she nearly missed it. ‘No, thinking about my dad.’

‘He’s too young for this place.’ She recalled Ken McCall as being years younger than her father. ‘But I guess dementia doesn’t take note of age.’

‘Isn’t that a fact? He’s decades too young. But soon Mum has to face reality and put him into care. He’s already a handful for her.’ A haunting sadness filtered through Fraser’s voice and into the cab between them.

‘But she loves him. It can’t be easy, making that decision.’

‘No, it can’t,’ he snapped.

Whoa, what had she said wrong?

Then he said in a milder tone, ‘Sorry. I’m still trying to get my head around it all.’

Nikki negotiated the narrow entranceway, her mind focused almost entirely on Fraser. His sadness made her want to do the strangest of things. Made her yearn to put her arms around him and hug him tight; made her wish his worries away.

Stop it. Let Fraser in at all and you ‘re back where he left off with you. It was a long enough haul getting over him the first time. Just remember the black hole of depression you fell into and that’ll keep you well away from him.

With a hitch in her throat she drove into the parking area. How could she even be contemplating touching him or wanting to help him? That’s what partners, husbands and wives, lovers did. Not estranged couples.

Finding unit three, Nikki prepared to back up to the tiny pathway leading to Mavis Everest’s front door, checking as she went how low a nearby tree hung. Wiping off the emergency lights with a branch never went down well back at the station. A car was parked close to where she wanted to put the truck. She sighed. ‘Why couldn’t the staff have asked the car owner to shift?’

‘Want me to direct you?’ Fraser’s hand was on the door-handle.

‘I’ve got it.’ She backed up neatly and stopped. Jumping down, she headed for the back of the truck and pulled the doors open, tugged out the stretcher in readiness for their patient.

When Fraser picked up the defibrillator and the pack containing their equipment, she nodded silently. He knew what he was doing.

A tall, gaunt woman in her late fifties opened the front door. ‘Judy Mathers.’ She sighed exasperatedly. ‘I came around when Mum didn’t answer her phone. We talk every morning at seven while I’m getting ready for work. I found her on the floor and I can’t lift her back into bed.’

They squeezed into the stifling, tiny bedroom full of large furniture. At least their patient hadn’t got hypothermic but how she’d found a space to fall was beyond Nikki. ‘Mrs Everest, I’m Nikki and this is Fraser. How long have you been lying down there?’

‘Been here all night.’ Mavis Everest’s voice was weak but there was a twinkle of mischief in her faded eyes. ‘Long time since I spent the night on the floor alone.’

Unzipping her jacket, Nikki squeezed down beside the prostrate woman and smiled as she reached for Mavis’s wrist. She hated seeing elderly people in this sort of predicament. It seemed so undignified and lonely somehow. ‘Can you remember what happened?’

‘Got up to go to the bathroom and felt a bit dizzy. Must have blacked out because that’s all I remember. Woke up some time about two.’ When Nikki raised an eyebrow, Mavis added, ‘The radio was on. The talkback show and some silly man complaining about his ingrown toenails and how the doctor wouldn’t fix them.’

Mavis was alert and her speech coherent. All good indicators. Amazing, considering how long she’d been lying there. Nikki counted the steady beats under her fingertip as her watch ticked over a minute. Sixty-three. ‘Normal,’ she assured Mavis.

Fraser took Mavis’s other hand. ‘I’m going to check your blood-sugar level so just a wee prick in your finger, Mrs Everest.’

‘Ooh, dear, don’t go to any fuss. Just help me back into bed and I’ll be good as gold.’

From the doorway Judy said in her exasperated tone, ‘Do what they say, Mum, for goodness’ sake. They know best. The sooner they’ve done with you, the sooner I can get off to work.’

Blimey, show some concern for your mother, why don’t you? Nikki kept her face straight with difficulty.

Fraser deftly took a small sample of blood from the elderly woman’s thumb, speaking softly as he did so. ‘We need to find out why you were dizzy, Mavis. Nikki’s checking all your bones in case you did some damage when you fell.’

Nikki ran her hands over their patient’s head, down her neck, feeling for contusions or abnormalities. Down Mavis’s arms, torso and on down her legs. ‘Looking good.’

‘For an old duck,’ Mavis quipped.

‘You’re only as old as you feel.’ Fraser shoved the glucometer back in its bag. ‘Glucose is four point six. No problems on that front.’

But a few minutes later he told Nikki, ‘Blood pressure’s low.’

Nikki nodded. ‘That could explain how she ended up on the floor.’ Looking up at Judy, she asked, ‘Has Mrs Everest got a history of low blood pressure?’

‘Doesn’t look like it.’ The woman held four pill bottles in her hand. ‘Only arthritis drugs here.’

She doesn’t know? ‘Can you pop them in a bag for us? And some overnight clothes.’ Nikki turned back to Mrs Everest. ‘Mavis, have you ever had any problems with your blood pressure before?’