‘Hey, Harper, you poor thing. I couldn’t believe my eyes when I came out of the treatment room and saw that man holding a gun to your head.’ She raised watery eyes to Cody. ‘I’m glad you saved her.’
Saved her was a stretch of the truth. But he was pleased he’d been able to take Lowlife down before he’d hurt their doctor any more than he already had. He really hated seeing people get hurt, and he particularly hadn’t wanted to see anything happen to Harper. ‘Thanks for the vote of confidence,’ he drawled. ‘But Harper saved herself. She started the ball rolling when she dropped to the floor.’ His relief at Harper being safe was overwhelming. Today the outcome had been good. He wouldn’t think back to the darkest day of his life—not now. Too disturbing.
They were still standing in the middle of the department while other doctors and nurses were ducking and diving around them now, bringing patients in from the waiting room. Cody had had about all he could take of people staring at him and clapping him on the back for doing a cracking job on the assailant. They meant well, but they had no idea what it had really been like in Resus One. ‘Come on, Doc, let’s get out of everyone’s way. Go have that coffee George mentioned.’
‘Doc?’ Harper shivered. That annoyance with George transferred to him. ‘That man called me “Doc”.’
Comprehension slammed him. Of course, Lowlife had, and in a denigrating tone at that. ‘I’m sorry, never thought about it.’ He didn’t want to rile her any more. Not after what they’d been through together.
Her shoulders drooped momentarily, then tightened again as she drew a long, slow breath. ‘Thank you for knocking him down. I am grateful. You could’ve been shot.’ Unbelievably her eyes teared up. Again. For him? Not likely.
He’d never have picked her for the weepy sort, but then today hadn’t been exactly normal. Violence undermined the strongest of people. Even his gut had tightened painfully at the moment when that gun had appeared. ‘Stop talking and give your throat a rest.’ He reached to take her elbow, saw those watery eyes widen and dropped his hand. Of course he was out of line, even if he’d only wanted to help. Being overly friendly to a colleague at work, no matter how well intentioned, could be seen as overstepping the mark. Apparently that hug had been okay at the time but now any other move from him wouldn’t be.
Harper muttered, ‘I’ve seen violence in the ED heaps of times.’
‘But never directed specifically at you, I bet.’ The thought of that kind of personal, immediate threat brought back unpleasant memories. The looks on the faces of women in the pubs when their men came home from a dry six-week stint on the fishing trawlers. Some of the crew over-indulged in alcohol and drugs, then took the resultant mood swings out on their partners. He’d stopped going to the pub with the guys after a while, unable to cope with what he saw but never managing to prevent it. He’d tried talking them out of their rages, had taken some punches and given a few back in self-defence, but he’d never convinced those guys that what they were doing to their women was wrong. Some men had a mind-set about using their fists that was impossible to change.
But that was then, and he’d moved on to a different world, or so he’d thought. ‘Come on. George’s office will be a lot quieter. Even with the police joining us.’
Her fingers worked her forehead, then her temples. ‘You’re right.’
‘Are you okay? Apart from your neck and throat being squashed?’ She looked paler than before. Shock would do that, though he thought something else might be going on.
‘Of course I am,’ she snapped and stormed towards the corridor that’d take them to the office affectionately known as George’s cave. But at the door she stopped and graced him with a wobbly smile. ‘Why wouldn’t I be? It’s not every day there’s so much excitement in the department.’
‘There’s something we can be grateful for.’ The fact that the man had held that gun to a doctor’s head put today’s example of crazy way up there on the scale of craziness. Apparently Harper hadn’t seen as much of the rougher side of humanity in her working life as some medics in big city hospitals did.
‘To think this is Wellington, not Los Angeles, where there are permanent armed guards on the doors.’ For someone who shouldn’t be talking too much, she was doing an awful lot of it. A reaction to everything that had gone down?
‘You’ve worked in LA?’ If she wasn’t going to be quiet then a change of subject might be for the best about now. For both of them. Now that the showdown was over the adrenaline had backed off, leaving him feeling shaky, despite his previous experience with out-of-control thugs.
‘No. Never. But I know people who have.’ Then she turned the questions on him. ‘I know nothing about you. Where were you working before starting here?’
‘Invercargill. I did my training there and stayed on working in the emergency department for another year.’
‘That suggests you’re a late starter.’
Way past being wet behind the ears, for sure. Cody shrugged. ‘I had a career change at twenty-seven.’
‘From what?’
‘Commercial fishing.’
‘You’re kidding me!’ Surprise tainted her eyes.
He was used to that. Fisherman to nurse took a bit of getting around for most people. ‘I’ve found my niche.’
Nudging her into the office, he closed the door to keep the noise of the department out and instantly wished he hadn’t. The room wasn’t much bigger than a shoebox and somehow this woman with all her questions seemed to fill it so that he couldn’t put enough space between them. A scent of lemon or lime wafted in the air, reminding him of summer days in his grandfather’s orchard. The days when he’d been young, carefree and a little hellion. A long time ago.
‘Why Wellington?’ She blushed. ‘Sorry, none of my business, and not relative to the job.’
None of your questions are. But suddenly he couldn’t shut up either. ‘I’m originally from Kelburn.’ Yes, just along the road from the hospital. ‘My mum’s still here and my brother has a home in Central Wellington, though he’s currently working in Sydney at the General Hospital.’
‘Medicine runs in the family then?’
He pulled out a chair for her and tamped down the jerk of annoyance at her surprise. He might be a big man but he had the manners of a gentleman. Except when it came to dealing with thugs. ‘My brother’s an orthopaedic surgeon. Our father was a GP. Mother was a nurse. And so am I.’ And darned proud of it. It beat fishing out in the middle of the wild ocean any day, or trying to straighten out dumb jerks who thought the world owed them. Though that had caught up with him here this morning. Once again.
A brief knock on the door and two cops pushed into the room, filling the remaining space, which brought him closer to Harper.
‘Statement time,’ said the younger one as she gave him the once-over—a slow,
‘I like what I’m seeing’ once-over that stroked his ego but didn’t have his brain wanting to follow up. Nor his body.
Pulling out another chair, he copped a smirk from Harper. So she’d seen the constable’s appraisal. He shrugged. Nothing he could do about it; he hadn’t asked for it. It just happened. He turned to the other police officer. ‘You want to ask more questions? Or just take statements?’
The sooner this was done and that coffee arrived, then the sooner he could go back to work and put the morning behind him. That was if George let them go back to work. He seemed pretty adamant that they were going to have to go home for the rest of the day and rest up. Matilda and Jess too. Harper wasn’t going to like that; he was sure of it.
When they were done with the police Harper pulled out her phone and checked her messages. ‘Who doesn’t know what happened?’ she muttered and shut it off completely without answering any texts or emails.
Cody had texted his brother earlier to say he was good and not to worry about him. They’d talk tonight. Maybe. ‘You’re not putting it out there that you’re fine?’ She seemed very reluctant to talk to her family or this Jason character.
‘George did it.’ Her mouth lifted slightly. ‘He never does take any notice of what I want. No wonder he’s friends with my brothers.’
Cody thought she was just as guilty of that after George examined Harper’s throat and tried to make her take the rest of the shift off. Of course she refused, flouncing out to the department and picking up the next file on the way to the waiting room. George wasn’t best pleased, but he relented in the end. They could stay to the end of the shift but were relegated to paperwork only.
‘I’m fine, George,’ Harper insisted with a scowl.
‘You might think so, Harper, but you’ve had a huge shock. I’m not comfortable with you treating patients till you’ve had a full night’s sleep. That’s non-negotiable.’
Cody actually wouldn’t have minded knocking off early for the day but he didn’t want to leave Harper alone after what they’d been through. He felt weirdly protective of her after all the bravery she’d shown. She was quite a woman.