Secret Santa (6 page)

“I'm ok, I think. Everything's locked up now,
police are gone,” she replied as she emerged from the staff locker
room, smoothing down her tunic.

“Are you sure you should be here? You look...
uhm.” The other nurse ground to a halt, looking uncomfortable.

“I look like crap, yeah I know,” She sighed,
running her hand through her hair. “I just needed to get out... you
know? Be around people rather than sitting on my own.”

Em stood, compassion in her eyes as she
pulled Jo into a swift hug. “Totally... uhm…if you need somewhere
to stay tonight, so you're not on your own, you're welcome to come
and crash at mine.”

Jo managed a weak smile as Em pulled away. “I
think I'll be ok, but thanks for the offer hun-”

Her words were cut off as the fire alarm went
off, the shrill noise a sound none of the medical staff liked to
hear. Almost immediately the doors to the trauma room crashed open
and Drew stepped out into the main area, heading straight over to
the nurses’ station to pick the phone up.

“Everything’s fine. No need to panic... if
you can just stay on the bed...” Already Em was moving, reassuring
the patients in the cubicles opposite the nurse's station. Further
down the hall Jo could hear the other staff doing the same.
Although the alarm had been set off, until they got the
confirmation from Security through Drew that the alarm was real,
the staff would just treat it as a hoax. Lord knows they had enough
of those. Some kid only had to walk past once of the alarms, smash
the glass and they had to go through the whole sweep and search
procedure all over again.

“Thanks mate, if you can bring the trolleys
around as quick as you can, I'd appreciate it. Bye.” Drew hung the
phone up, his lips compressing. It was the first time Jo had seen
him since this morning but she didn't have time to drink in the way
he looked. No time to appreciate the way he moved and the muscled
forearms visible thanks to his rolled up sleeves but she did
anyway. Within a split second though, her appraisal had cut off,
warned by the serious expression in his eyes. She knew that
look.

“It's for real this time?” She asked, her
heart sinking as he nodded.

“It is, fire in one of the offices. Let’s get
the patients moving.” He rose to his feet, at her side in the next
moment. He swept a loose strand of hair back over her ear and
kissed her quickly.

“Be careful and make sure you're out quickly,
ok love?” He asked, his eyes firm on hers. Eyes filled with
concern. “Promise me.”

“I promise.” As soon as he got her answer, he
was gone. Jo watched him walk off down the corridor, unable to
believe how things had changed between them since yesterday. The
kiss in his office, which was amazing enough in itself but added to
last night... Surely she was going to wake up any moment and find
it had all been a dream. Shaking her head to clear it, she headed
off in the other direction to start moving patients out.

It didn’t take them long to start moving
people out. The staff worked long and hard on evacuation drills to
make sure they ran as smooth and quick as possible. Mere minutes
later Jo wheeled her last patient out to the marshal point before
heading back in to do a last quick sweep to make sure she hadn’t
missed anything.

She hurried through the doors, smiling at
Emmie, leading another group of patients out, as she passed. Her
movements quick she checked her cubicles, pushing the curtains
right back and out of the way to give herself and anyone else a
clear line of sight.

She pushed the last curtain open, tucking it
at the back. The next one had the curtains fully closed and she
wondered who had that section today. Quiet descended over the
department, the empty corridors and cubicles eerie for Jo, who was
used to seeing them bustling with life. Shivering a little, she
rubbed her arms. Just what she needed, to be on her own again.

She turned, spotting a lone handbag under the
table and reaching down to pick it up. The sound of the curtain
behind her being pulled aside didn’t register at first. Not until
hard hands wrapped around her throat and started to cut off her
air…

Something was wrong. Drew stood at the
checkpoint and searched amongst the crowd for Jo. He’d already
checked once and the initial assumption he’d just missed her in the
mass of people was rapidly giving way to a gnawing, cold feeling in
his gut.

Something was wrong.

She’d been late for work today because of a
break-in at her place. A break in she didn’t find out about until
after he’d driven off. Sure, she’d opened the front door but she’d
stood on the doorstep waving him off before she went in. He didn’t
know a thing about it until she’d called the department a couple of
hours later to say she’d be late for her shift.

He cursed under his breath as the crowds
moved again and he lost track of his count. His eyes narrowed,
concern visible on his usually scowling face. Something which made
a couple of his staff look at him in surprise.

Let them look, he didn’t care. In the space
of a few short hours Jo had crawled under the iron plating over his
heart and made herself at home. She wasn’t here and he was as
worried as hell about her.

“Here John, take this, carry on the count. I
think Jo Micheals is still inside.” He ordered, shoving his
clipboard at one of the senior doctors. Before the other man could
argue Drew had gone, sprinting back through the double doors and
into the evacuated building.

*

Her air was running out, black spots
threatening the edges of her vision. In desperation Jo fought,
scrabbling at the hard hands around her throat with her hands,
nails, anything.

“What did I tell you before, you little
bitch? You’ll never get away from me.” A voice hissed in her ear,
the heavy weight of a male body pressing her hard into the bed as
the pressure around her throat increased. James’ voice, filled with
hate and venom.

Despair filled Jo’s heart, her lungs on fire
as she kicked back against him. He’d been violent towards the end
of their relationship, violent enough to break through the fear she
lived and push her to escape. He’d threatened numerous times to
kill her if she left him. But she’d taken that with a pinch of
salt, assuming that with the divorce finalised, he’d move on,
forget about her. So much for that hope.

“Oh no you don’t.” His hands tightened
further, shaking her like a rag doll as she tried to get free. She
gasped; mouth wide open to try and catch some air to fill her lungs
and stop the blackout reaching up to claim her. If she lost
consciousness it was over. He would kill her.

That had been his intent all along, she
recognised that now. An inescapable chain of events that had
started with his phone call to her last night right through to
whatever bin he’d set alight in A&E to get her alone. Setting a
fire to trap her, the twisted bastard willing to sacrifice other
lives, sick people would shouldn’t be moved, all to get his sick
revenge.

She kicked out at him, trying to stamp on his
toes as they’d been taught in the self defence classes they all
attended as a matter of course. But the oxygen in her blood was
depleting and her struggles became weaker and weaker.

“I told you you’d never escape me. I don’t
care if you get every court in the land to order me to keep away.
You’re mine Jo and if I can’t have you… no one will,” James told
her, his breath hot on her neck as he planted an almost tender kiss
on her neck.

Tears filled her eyes. No one was going to
help her. Everyone would be outside, and it would take them a while
to realise she was missing. More than enough time for James to
choke the life out of her then escape through the confusion.

Then, just as she accepted her fate, that she
was going to die at the hands of her violent ex, just another
statistic of domestic abuse, then all hell broke loose. The curtain
behind them was ripped aside, another voice growling in anger. “You
take your hands off her you spineless bastard and pick on someone
your own size!”

*

It didn’t take Drew long to find Jo. The
department was deserted now in preparation for the fire crew to
come in and give it the all clear. The fire which had set the alarm
off had been found and dealt with, a minor blaze in the waste bin
of one of the outer offices. The Security teams had managed to put
it out with fire extinguishers but procedure demanded the Fire
Service conduct a visual inspection as well.

The sounds of a struggle drew him straight to
Jo and her attacker. His low, hate filled words registered in
Drew’s ears with chilling clarity, the words filtering through the
rage colouring the edges of his vision. This was her ex. Her ex had
his hands around her throat, choking her.

He snarled another threat as he launched
himself across the intervening space. His large hands clamped on
the other guy’s shoulders, wrenching him away from the petite woman
pinned under him on the trolley and slamming him into the wall.

Never in all his life had Drew been so
angry.

His lip curled back as he looked James up and
down, contempt dripping from his voice as he spoke. “You want to
get your rocks off beating someone up, you try it with me.”

James’s eyes flicked from Jo, still gasping
for breath on the bed, back to Drew. “Oh, isn’t it cute Jo, your
fancy man’s come to your rescue. A real knight in shining armour,”
he sneered, reaching into the pocket of his bomber jacket. Metal
glinted as he withdrew it, a flick of his wrist opening the knife.
“Guess I’ll have to teach him a lesson about messing with what’s
mine. Say goodbye Jo.”

Drew went still, all his attention focused on
the madman with a knife in front of him. Jo screamed but he
couldn’t afford to look at her. If this guy got him, Drew held no
illusions about Jo’s fate. No way was he letting psycho here get to
her.

“Come on then Rambo. Let’s see what you’ve
got.” His voice was calm, as though being threatened with a knife
was an everyday occurrence. Which it wasn’t. Just every week or so,
making it common enough for an A&E doctor like Drew to have
been trained how to disarm someone.

James grinned, slashing out in front of him
with the knife. Cocky, that was the only way to describe him. Drew
watched his every movement, waiting for the right time to
strike.

“When I’m done with you, there won’t be
enough left to stitch together again.” James raised his arm, knife
slicing down towards Drew in a vicious arc. The overhead light
caught the vicious edge of the blade, an ominous shimmer along its
length as it descended towards Drew’s unprotected abdomen.

Drew wasn’t there, sidestepping and catching
James’s wrist. He wasn’t a martial artist, not by a long stretch
but he’d had this move drilled into him so many times he could do
it in his sleep. And that one move, practised so many times, had
all the speed and strength of a black belt.

He stepped to the side, twisting James’s arm
into a lock and slammed his hand into the back of his elbow. There
was a meaty crunch and a squeal of pain as James dropped the knife.
On automatic Drew kicked it away, using James’s damaged arm to
drive him face first into the bed.

He looked up, seeing Jo’s wide eyes on his
face. Fear, relief, concern… for him all clearly visible. “Honey, I
need you to go out and get the security guys for me. And get
someone to call the police, ok?” He said, his voice gentle but
firm, bringing all her attention onto him rather than the
whimpering excuse for a man he held in an arm lock.

She nodded and hurried away. Drew leaned
down, his mouth on a level with James’s ear. “Let me give you one
word of advice my friend. Never piss about with a doctor. I know
more than enough about the way the human body is put together to
take you apart piece by piece if you
ever
come near my
fiancée again. Do I make myself clear?”

*

Jo was waiting for him when the police were
done with him, sat behind the desk at the nurses’ station. Her dark
eyes fixed on the door of the room they were interviewing him in.
They’d already spoken to her, endless questions about her
relationship with James, when she’d last seen him and about the
break in at her house. Now Drew was going through the same, maybe
worse since he’d not just restrained James, he’d injured him.

The door opened and Jo was on her feet
without thinking, crossing the hall in the blink of an eye to throw
herself in his arms.

“Thank you Doctor Carson, we’ll be in touch.”
The police officer behind him said, nodding to Jo. “Might I suggest
you take your fiancée home now? Sounds like she’s had a full
day.”

Drew smiled, his arm snaking around Jo’s
waist. “Thank you constable, I fully intend to.”

Fiancée
? Jo frowned, her questioning
gaze on Drew’s face as the police left. “Did he just say-”

“Fiancée. Yes, he said fiancée,” Drew
replied, turning to pull her into his arms. Absently she noted the
small crowd gathering around them. The other nurses, the security
staff… in fact the whole department. But the only thing Jo had eyes
for was the man who held her in his arms.

“Jo Micheals, I think you need to put me out
of my misery. I’ve been stranded in a blizzard with you, I’ve
nearly been stabbed over you. I think you should do me the honour
of agreeing to be my wife, don’t you?”

The room held its breath, all attention on
Jo, waiting for her answer. She smoothed her hands over his shirt,
ironing out the wrinkles as she pretended to think. But she
couldn’t contain the surge of love and joy filling her heart, a
broad smile breaking over her lips as she nodded.

The whole A&E erupted into cheers as Drew
pulled her closer, his lips a bare whisper away from hers as he
whispered, “Good, because Santa didn’t just buy a pair of earrings.
He brought a ring to match. Just in case.”