The Surgeon’s Family Miracle

But it rose and it fell.

‘Let’s get an IV line up,’ Ben snapped. The two newcomers ad obviously realised by now that Ben was a doctor-or maybe they already knew-and they’d merged seamlessly into a highly skilled team. There were now four medics and the right equipment, and suddenly Doug had a chance.

More than a chance. his eyes flickered open again and this time they stayed open.

‘Don’t try to talk,’ Lily said urgently. ‘Doug, you’ve had a heart attack, but you’re OK. You’ll be fine if you stay still.’

‘Rosa.’ He didn’t say the word but Lily saw his lips move and knew what he wanted. She shifted a little so he could see his wife and Rosa could see him.

‘She’s here,’ Lily said, and she felt like bursting into tears-but, of course, she didn’t because she was a doctor and doctors didn’t weep over their patients, no matter how much they felt like it.

But she looked across Doug’s body at Ben, and she saw exactly the same emotion on Ben’s face as she was feeling herself.

Doctors didn’t cry. No matter how much they wanted to.

And after all Ben’s conniving, the choosing of who would leave the farm today was now decided differently.

The two Medivac officers were Dr Claire Tynall and Harry Hooper, a nurse trained in intensive care. Claire and Harry took over Doug’s care with smooth efficiency, fitting a heart monitor, adjusting the oxygen supply, transferring Doug to a stretcher that could be raised onto wheels so he could be could be transferred easily to the chopper. There was space for one more person in the helicopter and it wasn’t going to be Ben.

‘I need to go with him,’ Rosa sobbed, and Ben agreed.

‘Of course you do. Lily, could you pack her some essentials while we get Doug into the chopper?’

So Lily did a fast grab from Rosa and Doug’s residence while they loaded him. Doug was at risk of arresting again. They had to get him to a major cardiac unit fast.

‘I hope this is all you need,’ Lily told Rosa as she ran to the helicopter to find Doug and Rosa already aboard.

‘Buy whatever else you need and put it down to me,’ Ben said gruffly. ‘I’ll be with you as soon as I can.’ Then, as Rosa’s face crumpled in distress, he climbed up into the chopper and gave Rosa a swift hug.

That was it. Ben climbed down again. The door slammed shut. The chopper rose into the morning sky. It hung above their head for an instant, then headed inland.

Ben and Lily were left standing side by side, staring after it.

‘It’s OK, Lily,’ Ben said, as if reassuring himself. ‘We did good.’ He reached out and touched her hand.

‘We did, didn’t we?’ she said, and her voice broke. She pulled away-just a little but enough. It was suddenly enormously important that she didn’t touch him. She was very close to complete disintegration. She’d seen deaths from cardiac arrest many times in her professional life, but today… Well, things had changed. She’d stayed independent, too, she thought, but Ben had come back to her and now her independence was a thing of the past.

But she had to find it again. She had to.

‘He’ll be OK,’ Ben muttered, as the sound of he helicopter faded to nothing. He shoved his hands deep into his pockets and Lily thought he looked as strained as Rosa had.

He loved these people.

‘He will be,’ she said softly, in the voice she might have used for a frightened family member after a trauma. He looked…bewildered?

‘I… Yes.’

He was more than bewildered. He was in shock, she thought, but she had to move on.

‘I need to find Benjy,’ she managed. ‘Are you OK?’

‘Of course I’m OK,’ he said, and he seemed to give himself a mental shake. ‘Why wouldn’t I be?’

‘Because someone you love almost died?’

‘I don’t…’

‘Love? Yes, you do,’ she whispered. She held his gaze for a moment, watching what looked like a struggle behind his eyes. Had he not realised how important Doug and Rosa were to him? They were desperately important, she thought, maybe in the same way Kira had been important to her.

The aching void of loss slammed home again, as it had hit home time and time again since Kira’s death. But at least Kira had died knowing she was loved, Lily thought. At least she’d told the old lady that she was loved, and so had Benjy.

Had Ben ever told Rosa and Doug they were loved? Had he admitted it to himself?

‘You’ll see them soon,’ she said softly, and he flinched.

‘Sure.’ He shook his head, somehow hauling himself back under some sort of control. ‘I’ll…I’ll get someone here to take over the farm as soon as I can.’

Because you want to see Doug and Rosa, or because you want to leave us? Lily wondered, but she didn’t say it. She had to do a bit of self-protection here, too.

‘I…I need to find Benjy,’ she repeated. She needed to give her little boy a hug-mostly because she needed a hug herself.

The totally in-control Ben Blayden seemed somehow now right out of his comfort zone. He was staring ahead like he was looking into an abyss. And maybe he was even considering jumping. ‘OK,’ he managed. ‘Let’s find…let’s find our son.’

Our son? Lily thought. Our son? But he was already moving away. Questions had to wait.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

FINDING Benjy was easier said than done.

Despite the emotional nuances between Lily and Ben, almost as soon as she thought about Benjy Lily was aware of a wave of unease. Where was he?

As she hurried back to the house she forced herself to rewind the events of the last half-hour. Rosa and Benjy had gone out to talk to Flicker, but then Rosa had hurried back to tell them the helicopter was there. Benjy may well have stayed with Flicker.

But he must have seen the helicopter land, she thought. Wouldn’t he have come back to the house by now?

Ben was by her side but before she reached the house she’d started to run, leaving him behind. ‘Can you check the front of the house?’ she called. She ran up the veranda steps, just inside the back door. ‘Benjy?’

No Benjy.

OK, he must still be with Flicker. She walked back out onto the veranda, expecting to see Benjy on his favourite perch, on the end of the water trough where he talked to Flicker. In these last weeks Flicker had become Benjy’s new best friend; someone to talk to when adults didn’t cut it.

But the trough was bare. He must be in the house, Lily thought, retracing her steps. Had he come in while they’d been trying to save Doug? What had he seen? Benjy had suffered too much trauma for one small boy.

She reached the back door again and started to call, but then she turned again to stare down at the home paddock.

She’d almost missed it. Her eyes had swept the paddock, looking for Benjy. But now… She did another long perusal. There were no other animals in the home paddock.

The other four horses were grazing in the pasture on the far side of the river. It was only Flicker who was kept this side, as Rosa wanted her close for foaling. But the gate at the far side of the paddock was open, and Flicker was gone.

She catapulted down the back steps. Ben came around the corner of the house and she almost ran into him.