Chapter 23

23

Once they'd settled in to the 4p.m. shift, and as the skies grew dark, Maya, Bess and Noah finally packed away the Christmas paraphernalia at the airbase for another year. The decorations had already been taken down from the walls, the ornaments and lights had been removed from the trees, but with interruptions from jobs taking precedence, returning the boxes to where they came from was still on the to-do list. They stored the boxes at the top of the cupboards in the room upstairs with a few small beds should anyone need to sleep on shift when they were quiet. It rarely happened, mostly they all stayed awake, but if you ever did a double shift, those beds were a godsend.

Back down in the office, the Christmas tree looked as sorry for itself as the one that had stood in reception until they'd moved it outside. Stripped of all its merriment, needles littered the floor of the office due to the tree drying out. Bess and Marianne had taken their tree down at home already and left it on the grass verge in front of their house with the label displaying the logo of The Skylarks. Bess hoped it would be a gentle reminder for anyone else in the street to do the same if they'd already made a donation and got a label, or that it might prompt anyone who wasn't aware of the tree collection to support their local air ambulance and get rid of their tree at the same time.

Bess thought again about Gio and how he hadn't stopped by since he came to see her about the pub incident. Marianne was still her lodger, but Bess felt as though she was on her last chance; if she did anything else to rock the boat, she sensed Gio would have his mother out of there. It made her feel terrible about herself and yet she totally understood his reasoning.

Bess and Maya carried the airbase's tree outside and rested it against the side of the building next to the other one, where they wouldn't be tripped over in the dark.

‘Should've worn our coats.' Maya rubbed her arms when they went back inside to the warmth of the office.

‘It's getting colder for sure.'

‘When will the chipper arrive?' Bess asked.

Noah confirmed it was due in two days, in time for the trees the crews would round up and bring here.

‘What do we call this time between New Year and Christmas?' Maya asked. She got nothing but confused looks. ‘I was thinking, if the time between Christmas and New Year is known as Twixmas then there might be a name for this time period too.'

Noah just laughed. ‘I'd call it time to appreciate the rest of the days in between.'

‘He has a point,' Bess grinned.

‘Hey, talking of Twixmas.' Noah spun around in his chair. ‘I could murder a Twix right now.'

Bess bent down to get something from the bottom drawer and threw it to him. ‘Catch!'

He began to laugh at the gold-wrapped bar that had just landed in his hand. ‘How did you conjure that up so quickly?'

‘Mum gave me a selection box for Christmas, an enormous selection box. Thought I'd share it around a bit; can't eat it all myself.' One look from Noah and she admitted, ‘All right, I easily could, I just don't think I should. Maya, can I interest you in a packet of Rolos? Crunchie? Double decker?'

‘Not for me, thanks, still full from my sandwich.'

The phone let out its shrill sound to notify them of a job and the crew snapped into action. Unlike a daytime job, it wasn't a case of getting the helicopter started and leaving within a few minutes. At nighttime, they were required to do a lot more preparations prior to leaving the base.

Armed with maps in the office, the team identified potential landing sights. There had been a road traffic collision involving a bus that had veered off the road and into a ditch. Most of the passengers were unharmed, but an elderly man was trapped at the front of the bus and the fire brigade were on the way to assist.

‘Landing on the road isn't an option,' Bess confirmed. ‘Too narrow and winding.' Those sorts of roads were beautiful to look at, to drive along in the height of summer with the windows down, but hazardous in the winter, especially for a bus. Unfortunately, those types of roads were the only way to get to certain places. ‘There's a farmer's field on our left as we approach. It looks big enough.'

‘There's a second field the other side of the road too,' Noah added. ‘Plus, there's a car park, which is a trek but it's an option should the first two not be good enough.'

‘All right then,' said Maya. ‘Let's go. I'll get Hilda ready.'

Maya left, Bess got the cool box of blood and plasma, and Noah collected the drugs, and with helmets and jackets on, it was time to go.

‘Is it rain or sleet?' Maya wondered once she lifted the helicopter into the air and they set off for the job thirty miles north from the airbase .

‘I've no idea.' Bess couldn't tell which it was either.

Night-vision goggles guided them towards their destination along with a powerful white light underneath the helicopter which illuminated the ground.

Bess thought about Gio, how as horrid as the circumstances were, she wouldn't have minded seeing him there tonight. He'd been pleasant enough when he'd come to the house and seemed to understand what she was going through but she hated thinking she'd plummeted in his estimations since the stunt she'd pulled at the pub. She wished more than anything that she hadn't done it now, that she and Gio were just as they'd been before.

‘You think it'll snow?' Noah's voice came over the microphone. The weather conditions were hazardous and right now, out on a job, they all hoped it wouldn't get any worse.

‘Maybe,' said Bess as what she'd deduced as sleet carried on.

‘Eva will love snow when she sees it.' Maya, who seemed to enjoy being a part of the little family, beamed. She and Noah were getting serious.

‘She sure will,' came Noah's voice from the back of the helicopter. ‘I can't wait to build a snowman with her.'

Maya laughed. ‘You're a big kid; don't pretend it's all about Eva.'

‘Okay, I admit, I want snow. Doesn't happen very often in Dorset but we can hope for some.'

They were almost at the scene and general chitchat, which was always interspersed with work talk, reverted to work-only. They couldn't land in the first field; it had farm machinery on the perimeter which made it difficult to get access to the road. The other field was too sloped, the car park became their best bet and Hilda set down safely in no time at all .

Maya stayed with the helicopter and Noah and Bess made their way to the scene lugging the heavy bags.

A firefighter updated them on approach. The elderly gentleman was talking, but he had severe leg injuries.

Noah and Bess attended to the patient. To stabilise him, they administered a blood transfusion on scene.

With the patient on the scoop, Norm, the strapping, blond, Scandinavian-looking firefighter, was on hand to help. The muscles to lift the patient, who was on the heavy side, were welcome as he and Noah took charge of the scoop and Bess picked up the rest of the equipment.

As they paced towards the helicopter, Norm mentioned Gio to Bess. ‘The whole crew is rooting for him.'

‘I'm sure you are.'

‘It's killing him that it might not happen.'

Bess's wet curls stuck to the side of her face. With this crappy weather, it was impossible to keep a hood up, to stay dry. Hazard of the job but the sleet was particularly brutal tonight. ‘What do you mean, "it might not happen"?'

‘Spoke to him earlier. He had a visit with the doc,' Norm called above the noise of the wind and everything else around them. ‘He's not sure whether he'll ever get back on the job.'

That couldn't be right. He was recovering well, getting his strength back. ‘Surely it's a matter of time.'

‘Time… patience… luck. And in this job, it's physically demanding even on a slow day. You know how it is.'

He was right. There was recovery for a person with a regular job and then there was recovery for a person who climbed ladders, jumped on and off engines, hauled around heavy equipment.

Once at the helicopter, Norm left them to it and Bess and Noah transferred the patient to the litter inside .

The sleet carried on once Bess was in position as technical crew member next to Maya. It grew heavier as they reached the hospital's helipad, and the entire crew gave a sigh of relief when they got back to base.

Marianne hadn't mentioned anything about Gio seeing the doctor and being given bad news, which had Bess wondering whether Gio hadn't told her because he didn't want anything to rock her emotionally. He had to be hurting, though. It would be torture to a man like Gio to not be able to do the job he loved, be who he was before, full of strength and able to do anything when it came to saving a life.

And as Bess headed inside the hangar and out of the fat flakes of snow that had begun to come down in place of the sleet, much to Noah and Maya's excitement, Bess wasn't just preoccupied with her own issues; Gio's problems were on her mind too.

Which meant she cared. More than she'd ever thought she would.