Do Opposites Attract? (4 page)

When there were no tears left, she got back up and went to the ward. At least she could show the boy somebody cared.

Mitch had watched Brianna stalk out of his meeting with an air of resignation. Why were people outside the profession unable to grasp that it was impossible to save everybody? And she’d twisted his words. He hadn’t said
the boy
wasn’t worth it. Just that the exercise of calling for an air ambulance wasn’t worth it. Sadly they’d found the kid too late and Mitch knew no amount of effort was going to save him now. All moving him would do was make the poor soul less comfortable and hasten his departure.

‘I don’t think our visitor has been around death before,’ Tessa observed, speaking into the silence that had greeted Brianna’s departure. ‘Perhaps, in a few more days, she’ll come to understand that not everyone makes it.’

‘Perhaps.’ But Mitch had his doubts. He had a sense that if Brianna set her mind to it, she would never give up, never let go, whether that was on a project or a person. She was a determined woman, a quality he would usually respect. At the moment though, she seemed to have set her stubborn mind on going up against him. Perhaps because he didn’t tug his forelock every time he spoke to her.

They finished the meeting without any further histrionics. Gathering together his notes, Mitch wandered back out to the ward, his mind on Brianna. He had to admit her reaction had been a bit of a shock. He hadn’t expected to find her so concerned with the welfare of a child she didn’t know.

When he entered the ward and caught sight of her sitting at the boy’s bedside, he immediately thought his mind was playing tricks on him. He’d been thinking about her so much, now he was starting to see her. Then he heard her murmuring to the boy and watched as she settled one of her ridiculous teddy bears next to his face. The very real sight touched something deep inside him, a place that hadn’t been warmed in a very long time. Out of her comfort zone and exhausted from the travel, she hadn’t taken off to her tent as he’d thought she would, as she actually had a right to do. Instead she’d decided to offer comfort to a boy she’d never met. He liked to think he was a pretty good judge of character, but as he watched Brianna stroking the young boy’s hair, Mitch wondered if perhaps he’d misjudged her. Beneath the posh, glossy exterior there was clearly a compassionate heart. It was almost as surprising a find as the sharp brain he’d witnessed earlier.

Slowly he walked up to her. ‘Brianna.’

She looked up with a start, her dislike of him very much in evidence when her beautiful face turned from soft to haughty in the blink of an eye. ‘I know you believe he’s not worth any of your precious time,’ she told him in a voice so cold icicles seemed to hang off each word. ‘But you can’t stop me from being here.’

Frustrated, Mitch jammed a hand roughly through his hair. Then, acting on impulse, he reached out, grabbed her arm and dragged her off the chair and outside the tent. Although she protested, his grip was so tight she was unable to do anything but follow him.

‘Damn you, Brianna,’ he uttered under his breath. ‘You’re putting words into my mouth.’ He paused, fighting to control his temper. ‘I didn’t say he wasn’t worthy of our compassion, just that there was nothing else we could do to save him.’

Brianna looked down at the hand that gripped her arm. Mitch wondered what she saw. The strength? Or the fact that it was rough and calloused.

‘Let go, you’re hurting me.’

If she’d slapped him, he couldn’t have let go any quicker. ‘Sorry, I didn’t mean to.’ Angry red bruises marked the delicate creamy skin where his hand had been and he winced at his roughness. ‘I just wanted to make sure you followed me out,’ he tried to explain. ‘Although the boy isn’t conscious, nobody knows whether he can hear or not. I didn’t want to subject him to this conversation.’

Brianna nodded briefly, then turned away from him and disappeared back inside the tent. Mitch was left standing outside like a fool, annoyed and frustrated. It seemed nothing he did was going to please the lady. It shouldn’t matter to him, but it did. And damned if that realisation didn’t escalate his annoyance and frustration.

Brianna spent another hour with the boy and then gave in to the tiredness she’d felt since she’d arrived. Travelling, coupled with the trauma of the day, had left her so exhausted that even the little camp bed seemed like the height of luxury. As soon as her head touched the pillow, she fell asleep.

When she woke, the clock by her bed said it was only four in the morning, but her mind told her it was time to get up. That was the trouble with jet lag. Frustrated, Brianna climbed out of bed and got dressed. With nothing to do in her little tent to while away the hours – no TV to watch, no music to listen to – she decided to check up on the little boy. See if he was still hanging in there.

Easing quietly through the entrance to the medical ward, she was heading towards the boy’s bed when she came to an abrupt halt. Good God, was that Mitch at the boy’s bedside? From across the dimly lit tent she could just about make out his broad-shouldered figure, smoothing what she guessed was a damp cloth gently across the boy’s parched lips. Not wanting to disturb them, she backed out and bumped straight into Tessa.

‘Sorry,’ she said hastily. ‘I was awake, so I thought I’d see how the boy was doing. But I see he already has company.’

Tessa nodded. ‘I’m afraid he’s nearing the end now, that’s why Mitch is with him. Nobody under his care ever dies alone, not if he can help it. It’s something he’s done ever since I’ve known him.’ They both gazed at the poignant sight of doctor and patient, man and boy. ‘Often in our work the patients don’t have their friends and families with them. They get split up in the chaos. It’s hard enough to keep tabs on who is alive and who’s dead, never mind where they might be. So in cases where there’s no family around, Mitch makes sure whoever is on duty calls him if the patient is slipping away. No matter what time it is he comes to hold their hand.’

Tessa moved past her and into the ward but Brianna hung back, her mind choked with emotion. Though it might go against the grain, she realised she owed the man a pretty big apology. She’d taken his abrasive, tough attitude as a sign of somebody who didn’t care, when in fact that couldn’t be the case. Why would anybody do this job, living and working in the crudest of conditions, witnessing human suffering on an agonisingly large scale, if they didn’t care? No doubt they had to grow a tough hide, but she’d been wrong to assume that meant they were unaffected by it.

Quietly Brianna entered the ward again and walked over to the bed where the boy was taking his final breaths. As she stood alongside them, Mitch glanced up. From the look of his haggard face, he hadn’t had any sleep.

‘I’ll take over now, if you like,’ Brianna said softly.

He shook his head but nodded in the direction of another chair. ‘Come and join us.’

Twenty-four hours ago, Brianna would have been annoyed that Mitch hadn’t got up to fetch the chair for her. Already she felt like a different person. This Brianna could accept that manners weren’t actually that important. They could be learned, but they didn’t define you. Other attributes, such as strength and compassion, did. Mitch had them both, in spades. So she silently forgave his lack of manners and went to get the chair. Together they sat with the boy while his life slipped away.

Finally Mitch stood up and gently drew the sheet over the boy’s head. ‘He’s gone now,’ he whispered. ‘Come on. I don’t know about you, but I could use a drink.’

Surprised by his invitation and desperately in need of one herself, Brianna followed Mitch to his tent. It was similar to hers, though larger as it had room for a table, currently playing host to several piles of haphazardly thrown together files. Mitch delved into the canvas bag beside his bed and brought out the bottle of whisky she’d given him. Following a quick swig, he wiped the top and handed it to her. ‘Just what was needed, after all,’ he remarked dryly.

Not wanting to turn down his gesture of friendship, Brianna took hold of the bottle, brought it to her lips and took a sip. Used to drinking whisky out of a crystal tumbler, she found it hard to judge how much of a mouthful she was taking and ended up spluttering. Calmly Mitch took the bottle back from her. Though his face was expressionless, she felt sure his brown eyes were laughing at her.

He gestured for her to sit on the chair while he went to lie on the bed, rubbing at his face and eyes as if to wake himself up.

‘Rough night?’ Brianna asked.

‘You could say that.’

Seeing his shattered face she felt a sharp pang of guilt. ‘Mitch, I’m sorry for what I said in the meeting. I’m sure you did all you could to save him.’

Mitch glanced at her, his dark eyes holding hers. ‘Yes, we did. But maybe you were right. Situations like this occur far too frequently and we start to treat them as normal, using phrases we shouldn’t. I never meant the child’s life wasn’t worth it.’

‘I know,’ Brianna admitted quietly. And she did. He might not be crying, shouting, or wearing his emotions on his sleeve, but the man in front of her was suffering because he’d lost a patient. ‘It must be hard, watching a patient die like that. It’s the first time I’ve done it and I don’t think I could bear to do it again.’

‘Watching them die isn’t the hardest part. It’s feeling so damned useless that tears at you.’ He shrugged awkwardly then, as if embarrassed to have let slip that little morsel about himself.

‘How long have you being doing this job?’ she asked, partly because she was interested and partly to get them talking about something less harrowing.

‘With Medic SOS? Three years.’

She thought of what she had already seen in the short time she’d been here. ‘How do you stand it?’

‘What, the primitive sleeping conditions? The cold river water shower?’

She glared at him, not sure whether he was joking with her, or mocking her. His face was so flipping hard to read. ‘I meant how can you stand seeing suffering on such a scale?’

Mitch drew himself further onto the bed and lay back against the pillow, putting his arms behind his head. ‘I guess, like most things in life, you get used to it after a while. It doesn’t make it easy to live with, but you aren’t shocked any more. Before working with Medic SOS I was in the army, so I’d already seen some pretty grim stuff.’ Abruptly he stopped, turning the tables on her. ‘What about you, Brianna? Why is someone like you spending a week here?’

At his use of the words
like you
, she bristled. ‘Look, I know you’ve got me pegged as a spoilt rich bitch and maybe you’re right,’ she conceded crossly. ‘But I don’t want to be like that. I don’t want to spend my life falling out of clubs drunk on champagne.’

‘Doesn’t sound too bad to me,’ he drawled. Then he smiled. Just as the laugh had earlier, the smile transformed his features, warming his dark brown eyes, smoothing the harsh planes of his face. If she was poetic she’d have said it was like a glimpse of sun on a cloudy day. It made her very much aware of him as a man, and not just an irritating person she was forced to temporarily put up with.

Of its own volition, her body responded to him, her blood feeling warmer, her stomach all fluttery. Please no. She didn’t want to be attracted to this man. Hastily she turned away, pretending an interest in the floor. Anything to stop looking at him. ‘Well, I want to do something more with my life,’ she finally stated.

When there was no reply, she stole a look at the bed. He was fast asleep. She watched the rhythmic rise and fall of his chest with a strange sort of relief. At least she could now escape his scrutiny. Hopefully, by the time she saw him again, she would have this crazy desire back under control. They’d just watched a patient die together. Clearly her emotions were all over the place.

She rose from the chair, but couldn’t resist a final look at his sleeping form. Now, instead of an uncouth man, she could only see one who was strong, tough and downright sexy. With a despairing shake of her head, she fled his tent and returned to the safety of her own. It was still only half five in the morning so she chose to lie back on her bed and try and get some more sleep. She must be over-tired if she was starting to find the rough, gruff Dr McBride attractive.

Brianna knew for certain how far this trip had already changed her when she cleaned up the last mouthfuls of a bowl of glutinous porridge in the catering tent. Last week she would have rejected the food without a second thought. This morning she was simply grateful for something to fill her stomach. If Melanie could see her now, she’d laugh her dainty little socks off. Thinking of her, Brianna was hit with a sharp pang of loneliness. She missed a friend, someone to talk to, to laugh with. How long had it been since she’d laughed? Not since she’d arrived here, that was for certain. The team were friendly, but they treated her with the politeness of strangers. She wanted to talk to someone who knew her, who would tell her how it was. Glancing at her watch, and quickly calculating time differences, she reckoned it was lunchtime in the UK. Melanie might just have woken up.

‘Brianna?’ She sounded distinctly groggy.

‘Don’t tell me I’ve woken you up?’

‘Of course you bloody have,’ came the grumpy reply. ‘It’s only five in the morning.’

Brianna started to giggle. ‘Oops, I must have got the time differences wrong. Sorry.’

Suddenly her friend woke up. ‘Bugger, sorry, tell me everything,’ she screeched. ‘And you’ll have to shout because this is a really lousy signal.’

‘Of course it is. I’m using a satellite phone because I’m in the middle of flipping nowhere.’

‘Well, apart from being in the middle of nowhere, how the heck are you?’

‘I can’t believe I’m about to say this, but I miss your ugly face, my friend,’ Brianna replied with a smile, gratefully easing into their usual banter.

‘Boy, things must be really bad.’

Brianna chuckled. ‘No, they aren’t, not really. In fact everyone has been really good to me. It’s just not the same as being with your friends. They tend to treat me with kid gloves here.’ Her mind wandered back to Mitch. ‘Well, most of them do. They’re probably scared I’ll go telling tales to Mum.’

‘Any hunky men?’

‘Melanie,’ Brianna exclaimed in mock disgust. ‘I’m here to understand how the group rescue and care for injured people whose lives have been ripped apart by a tornado. I’m not here to pick up men.’

‘Well, generally speaking, they try to pick you up,’ her friend replied dryly. ‘I’m sure even the most devoted rescue worker isn’t blind to a beautiful woman.’

Brianna sighed. ‘Maybe, but I have to say, it is all pretty depressing. It certainly puts my own life into perspective. I can’t help but think how flipping lucky I am.’ There was a moment’s silence, and Brianna wondered if Melanie was still there. ‘Melanie?’

‘Hey, I’m still here buddy. I hear what you’re saying, but don’t get too serious on me. Sure, do what you can to help, but you still have your own life to lead. And anyway, you didn’t answer my question. What about the men?’

Brianna thought of Mitch. How would Melanie react if she admitted she thought she was falling in lust with the head doctor? A rough looking man with an abrasive personality. She couldn’t even explain the attraction to herself, never mind her best friend. ‘Nobody you’d be interested in,’ she replied truthfully.

Quickly she caught up on the last few days of trivial but amusing gossip from back home, ending the call with a promise to phone again if anything interesting happened.

‘I thought I might find you here,’ Dan announced as he walked towards her. ‘If you’ve finished your breakfast, would you like a tour of the main camp? I’ve got to pick up some supplies and thought you might fancy a ride.’

‘What, a chance to get away from here for a while?’ She smiled at him. ‘What are we waiting for?’

Brianna knew a trip around the camp wasn’t going to be scenic, but at least it was away from the depressing sight of patients in hospital beds. It also took her away from the close proximity of Mitch, which was definitely a good idea. She was still alarmed by her sudden attraction to him in the early hours of the morning. With a bit of luck, time away would bring her equilibrium back to an even keel.

First Dan drove to the small airstrip where he hauled several large crates marked Medic SOS into the back of the truck. He refused her offer of help, for which she was grateful. If she’d gone with Mitch, no doubt she’d have been the one left lugging the boxes while he watched. And told her to put more effort into it.

Driving back, Dan stopped to introduce her to a twinkling-eyed older man called Sam, who was in charge of the whole set-up, and then detoured so she could see the full extent of the refugee camp.

‘I wonder how they manage to live, eat and sleep all under one small canvas roof?’ she wondered out loud, staring at the huddled rows of tents the poor villagers now called home.

‘It’s probably easier when your original home wasn’t much bigger.’

She nodded, uncomfortably aware that even before the tornado these people had lived in homes probably no larger than the garage her father parked his car in. As she scanned the faces in front of her she didn’t see any of the emotions she’d expected. There was no weeping, no angry tantrums. If this had happened to her, she’d be doing both. Instead there was a quiet acceptance of what had happened. Most people seemed simply grateful to be alive and holding someone they loved.

‘I can’t imagine how it feels to suddenly lose everything. Your home, possessions, maybe members of your family.’ She felt sick at the thought.

‘I doubt it’s much fun, but then again it depends on what you had to lose in the first place.’

‘I guess.’ The sheer extent of her privileged existence hadn’t been clear to her, until now. Would any of the crowd she partied with really understand the hell other people were living through? Even Melanie had changed the subject when Brianna had tried to explain what she had seen. Whatever she did with the rest of her life, Brianna promised she’d never forget the hardship she’d witnessed on this short trip. Or the grace with which the villagers handled the cruel blow fate had thrown them.

‘So, are you enjoying your stay with us so far?’ Dan’s voice interrupted her thoughts.

‘I’m not sure enjoying is the right word. It’s certainly been an eye-opener. You read about this sort of thing in the newspapers, but until you’ve actually seen it for yourself, well, it just doesn’t seem real, does it?’

Dan glanced over at her. ‘I guess you’re right. I’ve been doing this job for a couple of years now, but I can still remember my first camp.’ The jeep shuddered as it went over a few craters in the road. ‘Still, we can’t have you going back remembering just the tough stuff. You have to have some fun. It’s how we manage to cope with the rest. Me, Jane and Toby are going out to the town for a drink tonight. Will you join us? We’re a lot more entertaining when we’re not on duty.’ He grinned, his eyes lighting up in invitation. The message in them was clear.

‘Perhaps,’ Brianna replied cautiously. She longed for a few drinks and a bit of light relief, but she didn’t want to give Dan any wrong ideas. ‘I’ll see how I feel later. What about the others? Aren’t they coming?’

‘Roger doesn’t fancy it and Tessa and Stuart are on duty.’ He veered sharply to the right to avoid a giant pothole. ‘Mitch rarely comes out, but maybe if you invited him, he would.’

Brianna laughed at that. ‘After our little altercation yesterday, I sincerely doubt that.’ Thank goodness only she knew how her pulse had rocketed at the suggestion. She gave what she hoped was a nonchalant shrug. ‘But I’m happy to give it a try.’

They were on their way back to the medical tent when Dan’s phone went off. ‘Yes, no problem, we’re nearly there.’

After finishing the call he turned to Brianna. ‘We’ve got to get a move on. They need the truck to get out to a child who’s been found in the rubble of one of the houses. Apparently a metal pole has speared straight through his chest.’

Brianna shuddered violently. ‘Oh God.’ The images that flashed through her mind were enough to make her feel faint.

‘The family had evacuated to the camp a couple of days ago but this morning the mother noticed her son was missing. It seems he’d wandered back to his old home for some reason. When they found him he was trapped by the pole, still alive but unable to move.’

Dan continued to talk but Brianna heard very little of the rest. It took all her concentration to stay conscious. And not heave all over the dashboard.

They screeched to a stop outside the medical tent and Dan dashed inside. Brianna waited in the truck, desperately trying to be strong. It wouldn’t be pleasant but she wanted to go with them. This was the type of situation they must regularly come face to face with. She wanted to see for herself how they dealt with it.

‘Brianna.’ Mitch opened the truck door. His hair was dishevelled, his eyes tired and his chin wore a couple of days’ worth of stubble. It didn’t stop her heart doing cartwheels in her ribcage as he glared at her. For all his roughness, perhaps because of his roughness, he was the sexiest man she’d ever met. ‘We need to take the truck. You’ll have to get out.’ No please, just a command.

She stayed seated. ‘I’m coming along.’

Mitch started to grab her and pull her out of the truck. Then he looked down at his hand gripping her arm and dropped it faster than the proverbial hot potato. ‘For God’s sake woman, why won’t you do as you’re told?’ he thundered, clearly exasperated.

‘I’m here to see what you do, so I’m staying. I’ll sit in the back if you like, but I won’t remain behind.’

‘This isn’t a flaming outing to the park,’ he replied tightly. ‘There’s a boy impaled with a pole. It won’t be a pretty sight.’

She raised her chin. ‘I’m not stupid. I know that. But what’s the point in me coming all the way out here if you won’t let me see what you actually do?’

Mitch could see there was no point arguing with Brianna. Other than manhandling her out of the truck – and she probably still had the bruises from the last time he’d put his grubby hands on her soft flesh – he had no choice but to let her stay. He was damned if he’d ever met a woman more stubborn, or more arrogant. ‘Fine,’ he snarled. ‘But there’s only one person we’ll be focusing on. You feel faint, or sick, you’re on your own.’

He slammed the door shut and went to check the equipment Dan was putting in the back of the jeep.

‘Will you need to operate on site?’ Dan asked, heaving a medical bag over his shoulder.

‘I hope not.’ The preference was always to get a patient into hospital with injuries like this. The reality was that the hospital was hundreds of miles away. With no smooth roads and no ambulance with soft suspension, it was highly likely such a long trip would cause more damage. He’d have to assess it when he was there. The most realistic scenario was he’d have to bring the boy back to the medical tent and operate on him there. It was primitive, but he’d done it before. He just hoped Brianna didn’t stick her pretty little nose in too far. He knew how traumatic the sight would be when they got there. He’d seen it many times before, both with Medic SOS and on the battlefield. She hadn’t. He didn’t have the time or energy for more than one patient.

‘What’s she doing in the truck?’ Tessa looked pointedly at Brianna, who was staring defiantly out of the window.

‘Apparently she’s coming with us,’ Mitch replied absently, his mind already thinking ahead to what he might find, what he would need.

‘You’ve got to be kidding. She’ll just get in the way.’

Clearly incensed at being discussed as if she wasn’t there, Brianna yanked open the door. ‘I can hear, you know,’ she told them. ‘And I won’t get in your precious way. I’m just here to observe.’ With that she slammed the door shut again.

Tessa raised her eyebrows at him, but Mitch merely shrugged. He wasn’t going to get embroiled in a female spat. Taking the coward’s way out, he helped Dan load up the rest of the equipment.

The atmosphere in the truck was tense as he drove to where the boy had been found. Next to him Brianna folded and unfolded her arms, wrapped her hair into a ponytail, and finally stared out of the window. Behind him, on the back seat of the truck, Dan closed his eyes and a stony-faced Tessa glared at the back of Brianna’s head.

Once again, Brianna shifted in her seat. ‘Having second thoughts about tagging along now?’ he asked.

‘No.’

He almost smiled. As if she’d admit to being wrong. ‘Ever seen a bad injury?’

‘My mother once cut her hand on a kitchen knife.’

He couldn’t help himself. He snorted. ‘Don’t tell me. She needed one, no maybe two plasters?’

‘She needed stitches,’ Brianna muttered, refusing to look at him.

Casting his eyes down to her hands, he saw how tightly she clutched them together and felt a twinge of sympathy. ‘You want my advice? When we get there, don’t look.’

He brought the truck to a halt outside the ruined remains of a small house and flung open his door. Leaving it up to the rest to bring the equipment, he headed straight towards the cluster of people. A woman, presumably the mother, lay on the ground, weeping loudly and cradling the boy’s head in her arms. They all looked up as he approached.

‘Doctor, doctor,’ the mother cried in Spanish, tears streaming down her face.

Mitch nodded at her and hunkered down next to the boy. He might have seen several such injuries, but it didn’t take away the immediate feeling of repulsion. Poor little mite. Gently he began to examine him, trying to find out if the pole had skewered any vital organs. Thankfully the boy was unconscious, though the family confirmed he’d been awake when they’d got there.

‘It looks like it’s just missed his heart,’ he reassured the mother in his serviceable Spanish.

While Mitch and the others raced to the child, Brianna hung back. From what she judged to be a safe distance, she allowed her eyes fleeting glances of the scene, keeping them at head height so she wouldn’t accidentally glimpse the poor boy on the ground. She felt really, really shaky. Mitch and Tessa had been right. She had no place here.

Suddenly the crowd around the boy moved away, and Brianna’s eyes unthinkingly shifted downwards, towards the child. Instantly she knew she had to look away, but found she couldn’t. It was as if someone had hit the pause button and she was left staring at the grotesque sight of a long rusty pole sticking out from the top half of a child’s body.
Oh my God.