JAYE WAS TALKING rapidly in Sinhalese to the girl’s parents, and her father climbed into the passenger seat of the truck beside her. It seemed that the mother was staying behind in the care of the other villagers.
‘Do we need to bring the other children?’ Megan twisted around as Jaye settled himself in the back seat, next to the little girl.
‘I gave them the once-over as they came out. And I called down to the clinic while you were digging. They’re sending someone up. They’ll be here soon.’
The sound of a motorbike heralded Dinesh’s arrival. Perched on the back, Dr Stone, the young, sandy haired doctor who had arrived at the clinic yesterday, was looking pale but otherwise unscathed. He walked unsteadily up to the truck and a brief exchange between him and Jaye established that there was another vehicle on its way, and that Dr Stone would take charge of the rest of the family.
‘So much for easing him in gently.’ Megan murmured the words as she drove out of the compound, following Jaye’s directions on the quickest way back to the clinic.
‘He’s survived the worst of it.’ Jaye knew as well as she did that any medical challenges involved in looking after the family paled into insignificance next to being bumped around, riding pillion, as Dinesh took the quickest and most hair-raising route from A to B.
‘Yes. Suppose so.’ Megan concentrated on the track ahead of her, hoping that the girl in Jaye’s care on the back seat of the truck would survive too.
* * *
Ranjini was ready when they arrived back at the clinic. Gentle hands lifted the girl from the truck, transferring her inside, while Ranjini took charge of her father, guiding him into the building. Jaye followed, beckoning to Megan.
‘Help me get cleaned up.’ He made a beeline for the clinic’s shower room, and Megan followed him. Easy. This was going to be easy because, however many of his clothes Jaye discarded, there was an urgent need to get clean and dressed again.
He caught his breath in pain as she stripped his shirt from his back. His hand must be really hurting by now. She switched on the shower and he ducked the top half of his body under it, rivulets of dust tracking their way down to expose smooth, dark skin.
No time to think about how good it felt to touch him as she quickly soaped his hands and arms. Then she towelled him dry and he pulled one of the scrub tops from the pile, easing it carefully over his head as he made for the door.
How could one snatched glance imprint itself so indelibly? She had other concerns right now, and Megan wanted to hurry back to the girl’s side, but as she gathered up the towels, putting the soap back in its holder, all she could see was Jaye. Broad shoulders, slim hips, a triangle of visual pleasure leading down to the ultimate physical pleasure.
‘Stop. It.’ How many times was she going to have to say this before her fantasies listened? If things had been the other way round, Jaye would have managed it without leering at her, and she should be able to give him the same consideration.
Hurrying after him, she found that Jaye was already in the emergency treatment room with Ranjini and another of the senior nurses. Blood was taken and tested for type, and an IV drip was set up. Ranjini cut the temporary dressing from the girl’s leg and another was applied, with as little blood loss as could be managed. Covered in dust and grime still, all that Megan could do was press her face against the glass door and watch.
He’d worked with everyone here before, and everyone knew exactly what to do. Jaye could stand back a little, giving quiet instructions, and allow Ranjini to be his hands. It felt as if Megan’s other, stronger half had been ripped away, leaving her just a pale shadow on the sidelines.
She watched as the nurses wheeled the gurney out of the emergency room in response to Jaye’s call for an X-ray. Suddenly, everything that needed to be done had been done, without any input from Megan.
‘I don’t think the leg’s broken, but we’ll take an X-ray to be sure. Once she’s stable I’ll have Dr Stone do the stitches.’ He stopped next to her, speaking as if she’d been an integral part of the process.
‘How’s her BP?’
‘Steady. Beginning to rise a little.’ He smiled. ‘She’s beginning to feel the pain, and I’ve sedated her.’
That was a good thing. The child was coming back to them, and as she did so she was starting to register pain.
‘Do you need a hand with the X-ray machine? I can go and clean up.’
He grinned. ‘No. Ranjini can deal with that on her own.’
She wasn’t needed, even for that. And she couldn’t even look Jaye in the eye, she was so afraid of what she’d see there. That he didn’t need her at all. After the intensity of the connection between them it was almost physically painful.
His finger moved under her chin, tipping her head up. Megan instinctively moved to swat his hand away, but she couldn’t. The warmth in his eyes wouldn’t allow that.
‘I could really do with some coffee, though.’
* * *
Jaye sat in the small living area of Megan’s bungalow. It wasn’t so different from his own as the bungalows were all built to the same plan and were furnished the same. It was the little changes that Megan had made that made it so special.
There was a bright, woven throw across the back of the small sofa, obviously from Africa. A couple of large candles on the coffee table, which Megan must have brought with her from England. He liked the fact that she’d felt the soft light warranted the space they’d take in her suitcase. And the scent of her soap, which seemed to follow him around whenever he was close to her.
Something had happened. He wasn’t sure what but, whatever it was, it had changed everything. This morning they’d set out, both flinching every time the other got too close. And now…
It was if they’d been taken, shaken and then thrust together in an intimacy that should have sent Jaye running scared. At the time it had been necessary, but now he had the leisure to replay it in his head.
Her yelp sounded from the small shower room. Clearly the water was cold. The bungalows were powered by solar panels, and there was a choice between shade in the afternoons and consistently hot water. It was a design flaw, and Jaye turned his mind to how he might rectify it, in the hope that it would take his mind away from the idea that Megan must currently be naked.
It didn’t. Not being able to see her now didn’t mean that he didn’t remember the softness of her skin against his cheek. He’d felt it again today, and somehow it had been just the same. Working with her wasn’t the same as an embrace, but the two seemed to have a lot in common.
He puzzled over the thought for a while, and then Megan breezed back out of her bedroom, wearing a striped T-shirt and a clean pair of chinos. She walked over to the small kitchenette in the corner of the room and reached up into the cupboard.
‘I have ground coffee…’
‘Where did you get that from? Not the kitchen, surely.’
‘I brought some coffee with me. I’ve been eking it out and this is the last of it.’
So she was sharing the last of her best coffee with him, rather than the milky instant stuff that the clinic kitchens served up. ‘I’m going down to Colombo next week. I’ll get you some more.’
‘You’re planning on driving? With that hand?’
Jaye hadn’t really thought about it. ‘I should think it’ll be okay by then.’
Megan raised her eyebrows, pursing her lips in that delicious I don’t think so expression. ‘You’d be better taking Dinesh to do the driving.’
There it was again. Someone to notice. Someone who would care about him and boss him around a little when he needed it.
‘Maybe. I’ll see.’
She plonked a mug of coffee down in front of him and Jaye took a sip, savouring the rich aroma. ‘So how does it feel? Your hand?’
He shrugged. ‘It’s okay.’
‘Don’t worry about me, Megan.’ Her tone deepened by a couple of octaves, mimicking his. ‘As Director of the Western Province Free Clinic, and Peer of the Realm, my nerve endings should be different from everyone else’s. I allow myself to feel no pain.’
Jaye caught his breath, almost choking on his coffee. ‘I never said that.’
‘No, you never said it.’ She sat down in the chair opposite him, her gaze challenging him to pretend that he’d never thought it.
‘Okay. I’ll take Dinesh with me. Happy now?’
‘I’ll be a lot happier when it’s been X-rayed and properly splinted.’
Jaye had been figuring on doing that himself. Suddenly he wasn’t. ‘You’ll be sorry you said that when I start crying like a baby.’
She smirked, clearly understanding that this was some kind of victory. ‘I’m a nurse, crying doesn’t bother me. And these will have kicked in by that time. One or two?’
She held up a blister pack of paracetamol. Jaye was suddenly tired of managing, tired of making do by himself. If he couldn’t rely on Megan as a lover, he might just be able to as a newfound friend.
‘I’ll take the full thousand milligrams.’
‘Good. My thoughts exactly.’ She broke two tablets out of the pack, and handed them over to him. When he swallowed the paracetamol, washing it down with a swig of coffee and then leaning back in his seat, it felt as if he was relaxing for the first time in weeks.
* * *
Megan had let him rest for all of five minutes before ushering him back to the clinic. She then allowed him to at least supervise the X-ray procedure, reminding her of the safety protocols before they switched the machine on. Then she positioned his hand carefully on the couch. He resisted the impulse to move his fingers slightly. It would have been arrogant to do so, since she had the angle just right.
‘Not bad. Not bad at all.’ He grinned at her as they reviewed the X-rays together on the computer screen. He could see the break, but the finger had been straightened almost perfectly, which was no mean feat considering the conditions she’d been working under.
‘Hmm. Maybe a little more.’ She peered at the screen, assessing the two X-rays carefully.
‘So you’re going to hurt me again, are you?’ Jaye would have done the same himself to ensure that the finger healed perfectly straight.
‘You know it’s for your own good.’ That pursed-lips expression again. He was beginning to like it, because Megan’s eyes were full of a humorous, almost self-mocking light. Being one of her patients seemed like the best thing in the world at the moment.
‘Do I get a sweet?’ He nodded towards the jar of sweets on the countertop intended to dry children’s tears.
‘Yeah, you get a sweet. When I’m done with you, though, and not before.’
* * *
Could it hold? Could this really hold?
Megan felt as if she were tiptoeing into new territory, into a fragile friendship built on the foundations of something completely different. Something that they’d both rejected because it was far too hard for either of them to contemplate. But the friendship was surprisingly easy, and after a few days of thinking that its foundations were made of sand and it was all going to topple in on her at any moment, Megan began to cautiously rely on it.
And Jaye made a very good friend. He never gave her any quarter professionally, never made things awkward by favouring her over any of the other staff. But he gave her the opportunities that had been promised, and ensured she made the best of them. At his behest, she and Ranjini started a review of the outreach programmes, with a view to expanding the women’s services that were so dear to Ranjini’s heart.
He’d remembered the coffee, returning from Colombo with half a dozen bags for her. And he must have bought some himself because the following day, when she knocked on the door of his bungalow to inspect the swelling on his hand, wash it and change the plastic sleeve that protected the splint, he had a cup ready for her.
It wasn’t entirely necessary. But it was the one time in the day that Jaye kept entirely for her. Megan justified it with the knowledge that Jaye made time to speak with everyone in the clinic every day. This was just her five minutes.
‘You’ve been washing your hands again.’ She inspected the skin between his fingers, where soapy water had seeped under the plastic sleeve and inflamed the skin slightly.
‘Yeah. Force of habit. I can’t help it.’
‘I thought you were going to let Dr Stone do the hands-on stuff and stand back for a while,’ she reproved him gently.
‘I’m trying.’ He gave her a delicious smile, and Megan couldn’t help but chuckle.
‘Okay. As long as you’re trying.’
‘What are you up to on Friday?’ He watched, uncomplaining, as Megan taped the plastic cover in place.
‘I haven’t got anything planned. Ranjini’s interviewing for a new nurse, and I thought I’d catch up on some paperwork.’
‘You’ve done enough paperwork already. Dinesh isn’t available to drive me, so I thought you might like to come along for the home visits. We’ll try to keep the digging to a minimum this time.’
It was so easy to say yes. They were entirely alone now, and Jaye treated her just the same as when they were surrounded by people.
‘Thanks. I’d like to do that.’