LITMIR.BIZ

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to patch her up, though. You can ask Fizz next time she’s here. She went with her to Theatre.’

      ‘Fizz?’ Someone else, a bacon sandwich in hand, paused to peer at the picture. ‘Oh, for heaven’s sake...that’s her in the background, isn’t it?’

      ‘She was the first on scene,’ Cooper said. ‘I was yelling at her to stay back until the car could be stabilised but she didn’t take a blind bit of notice.’

      ‘Sounds like Fizz.’ But Joe was grinning. ‘You’ll find she behaves better when she’s in uniform.’ His grin broadened. ‘Sometimes.’

      The familiarity in his tone gave Cooper an odd beat of something he didn’t want to try and identify but could be related to envy, perhaps? Just how well did Joe know Fizz? And why was he even wondering about whether she was single or not? For heaven’s sake, he’d only just arrived in a new city to start a new job and a new life. Hooking up with someone hadn’t even entered his head as part of his immediate agenda. To contemplate the remote possibility of hooking up with someone he’d only spent a matter of minutes with, not to mention someone who’d pretty much ignored him to start with, who’d bossed him around like a minion after that, and had probably forgotten his existence the moment she’d walked away was...well, it was stupid enough to make it easy to dismiss in the same instant it had grazed his mind.

      Don’s smile was tolerant enough to suggest that he, too, not only knew Fizz well but could excuse her lack of compliance with safety instructions. His expression reminded Cooper of a fond parent who made allowances for a wayward child. The attitude to the young doctor was intriguing. What did she have that made everybody who knew her prepared to forgive what came across as a maverick streak—something that was not usually acceptable in the emergency services community?

      Don had already moved on from his amusement in relation to how well Fizz behaved herself when she was officially on duty. ‘Speaking of uniforms, we need to get Cooper here kitted out. Although...’ His gaze took in the black T-shirt, dark trousers and steel-capped boots Cooper was wearing. ‘Just a team T-shirt might be enough for the moment. And some overalls for a chopper callout, maybe. If there’s room, he could go as third crew at some point soon. He definitely needs a pager, though. Preferably before your shift is due to start.’

      ‘Come on...’ Joe signalled that Cooper should follow him. ‘I’ll introduce you to Danny downstairs who’s in charge of uniforms and pagers and suchlike and then we’ll find you a locker. The grand tour can wait until after breakfast if things stay quiet for that long.’

      Even as he finished speaking, a loud beeping was heard and one of the pilots reached for his pager. Two of the paramedics, including Maggie, reached for theirs seconds later. All three staff members got to their feet and headed for the stairway that led to ground level.

      Maggie wagged her finger at Joe as she went past. ‘That was your fault,’ she told him. ‘You said the “Q” word. Karma’s going to get you soon, as well, you know.’

      ‘She’s right.’ Joe sighed. ‘We’d better sort your pager out first, Cooper. We’ll be the next taxi in the rank before long. Let’s get you that pair of overalls until we sort your full uniform out properly.’

      * * *

      ‘Phew...’ Felicity Wilson let herself sink into the armchair in the corner of the emergency department staffroom of Wellington’s Royal Hospital. ‘I thought we were never going to get a break.’

      ‘It’s been full on, hasn’t it? Thanks for staying on, Fizz, but you can get away anytime now. We’re fully staffed for the afternoon shift and we’ve caught up on the backlog.’

      ‘I’ll just have my coffee and catch my breath.’ Fizz smiled at her colleague, Tom—one of the senior consultants here. ‘I’ve already ditched my plans to attend a four-wheel drive club meeting. They’re just planning the next run, which is a sand forest gig that I’ve done before. I might wait until the CT scan results come through on that six-year-old kid that fell out of the tree. I hope he hasn’t got anything more than a mild concussion to go with his broken arm.’

      ‘Young Micky? He’s been a frequent flyer in here since he was a toddler when he fell off the couch and broke his collarbone. Apparently that was his first attempt at flying.’ Tom shook his head. ‘You have to feel sorry for his mother.’ His glance at Fizz was accompanied by a grin. ‘I’ll bet your mother had that worried look a lot of the time when you were growing up.’

      ‘I wasn’t accident prone.’

      ‘But you’re into dangerous pastimes. You probably jumped out of trees with a homemade parachute instead of falling out of them.’

      ‘Actually, no... I was quite a boring kid. Very well behaved.’

      Tom shook his head. ‘So what happened? You grew up and just got a taste for things like hang gliding and off-road driving?’

      Fizz shrugged. ‘Something like that.’ Yeah...she’d got a taste for an overdose of adrenaline, that was true. Who wouldn’t, when you discovered that it could blow anything else that you were feeling into oblivion?

      Things like grief.

      And having no faith in the future.

      Mind you, it was such a long time ago that she’d discovered the potency of adrenaline as a mood-altering medication it was just a part of her history. A life-changing part, admittedly, especially when she’d eventually found a way of incorporating that kind of excitement into the job she loved so much. At least people were more likely to be impressed when you were putting yourself in danger in order to save other people and not just for personal escape masquerading as enjoyment.

      ‘And you always just happen to be where the action is happening. That picture of you in the paper a few days ago... Unbelievable... And you just happened to be driving right behind the woman who ran her car off the road?’

      ‘I saw it happening. Some idiot on a motorbike was trying to pass when he didn’t have room and she had to swerve. Her wheel caught in the gravel on the side of the road and she just lost control and went straight through the barrier.’ Fizz shrugged. ‘Hey...what can I say? Apparently I’m a trauma magnet.’

      ‘I guess it keeps life interesting.’

      ‘Yep...’ Fizz took a sip of her coffee, her mind slipping back to that incident the other day. To the adrenaline rush of getting that child and the baby out of that car. To that moment of fear when she’d been underwater and realising that she wasn’t going to get that safety belt undone and that, at any moment, the car could get displaced enough to trap her underwater.

      She was no stranger to situations that were scary. She had chosen them, way back, when it hadn’t actually seemed to matter that much if she didn’t survive. By the time she’d got through to the other side of the darkest period in her life, she had every desire to survive but she still didn’t shy away from situations that she knew might be a little too risky, because she knew how good that rush of relief was when they were over. That sheer exhilaration that the odds had been beaten and you were still alive? It was definitely a kind of drug, that feeling.

      Addictive...

      And every time it added to her confidence in being able to rely on herself. It confirmed her belief that being totally independent was the only safe way to exist and it was okay, because life was still good. Better than good, in fact.

      ‘Anyway... I’d better get back.’ Tom drained his mug and then rinsed it out under the tap. ‘You in tomorrow, Fizz?’

      ‘No. Day off.’

      ‘As in a real day off, or are you doing a shift at the rescue base?’

      ‘Rescue base,’ Fizz admitted. ‘But you know what they say about a change being as good as a holiday, right?’

      Tom was laughing as he left the staffroom. Fizz sipped her coffee again, her gaze drifting towards the big table in the centre of the room and to the pile of magazines and newspapers on one end

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