Blazing Fear

almost normal. He shifted, uncomfortably aware of the sick-stickiness of sweat plastering his t-shirt to his chest and back, his hair to his forehead. Turning abruptly, he staggered over to the sink, turned it on and splashed water over his face. It was luke warm—the summer had been too damned hot and dry and they were on tank water—but it helped to get rid of the sweat. He splashed and splashed until the shaking had stopped and wiped his hands over his neck, taking care of the sweat there. He let himself out of the door into the hallway and practically stumbled to his room where he wiped away the rest of the fear-sweat, threw his t-shirt into the dirty clothes basket in the corner and then grabbed another dark blue one from the pile he hadn’t put away yet that was sitting on his dresser.

He stood for a moment, staring at himself in the mirror. Damn. His curly brown hair was limp and sweat-soaked. He didn’t have time to do anything about that now. He shoved his Akubra on his head. ‘You’ve got this.’ And he did. He’d hidden his secret shame for this long, there was no reason why anyone should suspect there was anything wrong with him this time either.

‘I’m heading out,’ he said as he walked back into the lounge room.

‘What is it, love?’ Barb and Aaron looked up at his entry, both of them rising to turn to face him.

He forced a smile to his face, waved them to sit down and lied through his teeth like he’d done so many times. ‘Nothing. Just stupid joy riders on Old Mine Road again.’

‘Bugger. I’ll get onto the council again about putting proper barriers on that corner between the road and our fences. Just because Reid has paid for the last few new fences doesn’t mean it’s okay.’

‘Mum, sit down. Mac and I’ll take care of it. Can you just stay here with Aaron?’

‘I don’t need a babysitter.’ His son’s lower lip pouted out in the same way his mother’s had when she didn’t get her way or was upset.

The resemblance made him look away, afraid Aaron might see the sadness welling inside him. ‘I know you don’t. But you know what the doctor said. Besides, you need more pain medication soon.’

‘Why don’t you and I go into the kitchen and make some of those choc-chip cookies with the fudgy centre to take to the barbie for dessert tonight? You know Doctor Prita loves those,’ Barb said. ‘You can lick the bowl.’

‘Can we make some extra so I can have one now straight out of the oven?’

‘Sure. I love them straight out of the oven too, all hot and gooey.’ She looked up at Flynn. ‘Maybe we’ll put some aside for your dad for later. They’re his favourite too.’

‘Okay.’ Aaron smiled tentatively back. ‘Maybe you could come back and have some morning tea with us?’

‘Sure. I’d love that.’

Barb patted Aaron’s knee. ‘Well in that case, we need to get onto making them now so your dad can get down to look at that fence and back in time for morning tea.’

‘Okay.’ Aaron stood and gave his dad a one-armed hug. ‘See you later?’

‘It’s a promise.’ One he would do everything to keep, no matter what else happened this morning.

Chapter 9

‘Damn it,’ Prita said, noting the time on the clock on the wall as they hurried in from the car. Clinic had run late then Diarmuid had called to wish her a happy birthday and then have a chat about the money for Carter and the relative making a claim. She wasn’t really interested—she and Carter didn’t need the money—but Diarmuid needed her permission, given she was guardian, for him and the lawyers to deal with the issue, so he was having them send her some documents. She hadn’t had time to write up her patient notes before they’d had to drive down to Traralgon to buy a collar for Machiavelli, get Carter’s hair cut and buy the fig salad she loved from a great cafe she’d discovered with Nat. Of course, they’d got caught up waiting at the barbers, then there’d been a mix up with her salad order and she’d had to wait for them to make it up for her, so the whole trip had taken longer than expected.

Did she have enough time to write up her patient notes like she’d planned before having to go to CoalCliff to check on Aaron when she said she would? She’d get a few done at least which would be something.

‘Carter, can you go and put the salad in the fridge, feed Maccy and then get your things together? I’ve just got a couple of things to do in the office and then we can go, okay?’

‘Okay, Mum.’

She’d just opened the file drawer in the reception area when someone knocked on the front door.

‘Hello? Doctor Brennan, are you there? I’m afraid I’ve burned myself again.’

Bugger it. Now she was never going to get to the patient files. But she could hardly not help a patient when they were on her doorstep. Forcing a smile on her face, she opened the door.

Max Smith stood there, holding his arm, a large red welt glistening there.

‘Ooh, ouch.’

‘I ran it under cold water for twenty minutes, but it didn’t get better.’

‘No wonder. I’m going to need to clean and dress it. Come on.’ She led him down to the treatment room and got him to sit on the bed, then angled a light so she could get a good look at it. It was a partial thickness burn that ran along his arm from wrist to halfway towards his elbow. Most of it was superficial with redness and blistering, but there was one area that was red mottled with white slough and low capillary return. Thankfully, she’d just got some low-adherent silver dressings in, because she was going to need it for this one. ‘How did you do this?’ she