‘He’s safe.’ Nikki was no longer worrying about the oozing blood. It was too late for that now. She gripped Bert’s free hand in hers and held it.
Tell him…tell him I’m sorry.’
‘I’ll do that,’ Nikki told him evenly. ‘I promise.’
‘And tell him…’ The elderly fisherman closed his eyes as if he had reached a point where he could go no further. His words were an almost superhuman effort. ‘Tell him he’s been a good kid and I’m…I’m proud of him. Tell him…’
‘I’ll tell him.’
It was the last thing Bert Payne ever said. Five minutes later he died.
There was nothing more for Nikki to do. She let Bert’s hand rest on the pile of rubble, and pushed her bag back out of the way. There was no point in her staying. Not now…
But as she moved so did the tree. Nikki looked up in fear as the massive trunk started slowly to settle. She flung herself backwards, but it was too late.
The mass of rubble in the tunnel behind her came down in a dust-laden roar. The dust filled her head, blinding her. She put her hands instinctively to her head and waited.
And it came. The huge mass of debris above her head shifted downwards. Nikki felt a blow to her shoulder and then a massive, crushing weight on her head. She tried to cry out, but no sound came. The weight…
‘Nikki!’ The sound came from outside the shifting rubble. ‘Nikki…’
‘Luke…’ Nikki whispered a response uselessly into the shifting, tearing dark. It was Luke. He had come back to her…‘Luke…’
Then she knew no more.
CHAPTER TWELVE
THERE was something gripping her head. It was an iron vice, clamping behind each ear and slowly squeezing…
Nikki opened one eye and then shut it again fast. Whatever was holding her gripped a thousandfold tighter with light. She lay absolutely still, not daring to move. Whatever vice her torturers were using might stay in abeyance if she only kept still.
‘There’s my girl. Come on, Nikki, love. You can do it. Come on, my love.’
She was dead and was dreaming. Nikki’s eyes stayed firmly closed while she thought about the voice.
It was Luke’s. It was Luke’s voice. Her love…
Maybe it was…Maybe…Maybe if she opened her eyes she would see him, but then again, maybe not. Maybe she was dead and dreaming.
‘Come on, Nikki, love.’ There was no mistaking the voice. Nikki felt her hands being taken between two strong ones, and gripped. And somehow Luke’s hold on her hands lessened the gripping pain surrounding her head.
‘Come on, Nikki, love. You can do it. Come back to me, Nikki.’
‘Come back to me’…Still Nikki didn’t stir. She lay and let the voice drift around her.
It was Luke. He was here, with her, and his voice held love.
If she opened her eyes then she might find it was all a dream. That it was all some cruel joke. Her head hurt so…
A tear crept down her cheek and she tasted it as it reached her lips. She was dead and dreaming that Luke was here…that Luke had come back to her…
And then the hold on her hands tightened and a mouth covered hers, kissing away the salt tear. ‘Come on, Nikki, love. Come back to me. I love you so much…’
And she opened her eyes.
It was no dream. He was here-her Luke. He was holding her as if she were the most precious thing in the world, and his kiss held the tenderness she had only dreamed of.
He must have felt her slight movement. Luke’s head lifted from her face and his troubled eyes looked down. And he saw her eyes on his.
There was no mistaking the joy in his face. It lit him within, blazing down on her like a blessing.
‘Nikki…’ His voice was hoarse with strain. ‘Nikki…’
‘Luke…’ Nikki wasn’t too sure where her voice came from. She only knew that somehow the nightmare had receded. The pain in her head was still there but so was Luke-and who could feel pain with so much happiness inside?
Tears slid helplessly down her face. ‘Luke,’ she whispered again, and he closed her lips with his fingers.
‘Don’t try to speak, Nikki, love. You’re safe. Amy and Beattie are fine. And you’re safe. That’s all that matters.’
‘You came…’
‘Too damned right I came,’ Luke said grimly. He gathered her tenderly to him, holding her tight while leaving her carefully still on the white hospital bedclothes. ‘And I’m never leaving you again. Not ever. And that’s a promise, my love.’
‘My love’…Nikki closed her eyes again as the words drifted round and round her. ‘My love’…
It was with her still as she drifted into sleep.
When next she woke the pain in her head had all but disappeared. Nikki lay for a moment staring sightlessly up at the hospital ceiling. The pain had gone, but so had Luke.
Had she dreamed the whole thing? Had it been some crazy nightmare…?
She put her hand tentatively up to her head. A large bandage covered her forehead. She’d been hit on the head and had been dreaming.
The disappointment almost made her cry out, but as her hand dropped to the pillow the door opened and Andrea bustled in.
‘Well, well,’ the charge nurse smiled. ‘So you’re awake, Dr Russell. About time too.’
Nikki tried to focus. ‘How…how long have I been asleep?’
‘Oh, about two days.’
Two days!
‘Well, not all of that time asleep,’ Andrea told her, lifting Nikki’s wrist and looking down at her watch to check her pulse. ‘You were unconscious for twenty-four hours.’ She grimaced down. ‘You gave us the fright of our lives,’ she confessed.
‘I gave me the fright of my life,’ Nikki agreed weakly. She put her hand back up to her bandages. ‘What’s…?’
‘A fractured skull and twelve stitches,’ Andrea told her. ‘But it’s a simple fracture and there doesn’t appear to be any internal bleeding. Dr Luke says-’
‘Dr Luke…?’
‘Dr Luke says you’ll live.’ Andrea grinned happily down at Nikki. ‘And Dr Luke seems a whole heap happier since he made that announcement, I can tell you.’
‘So he really is here. I…I thought I dreamed it.’
‘He’s here,’ Andrea told her. ‘He’s checking a plaster at the moment or he’d probably be beside you right now.’ She smiled again. ‘He’s spent a fair amount of time next to this bed over the last two days.’
‘I…I thought I heard him when…when the tree came down.’
‘You did,’ Andrea told her. ‘I gather he was in Cairns and when the cyclone warning came through he moved heaven and hell to get back here. He came storming in here about fifteen minutes after you left for Bert Payne’s. He got a helicopter to Port Douglas, but heaven knows how he got through the blocked roads to here. The call came from the SES people about two minutes after he arrived, asking for more men and longer shoring timbers and telling us why.’ They told us you were in the ruins with Bert, and Dr Marriott…well…’ She shook her head. ‘I think Dr Marriott seemed a little crazy.’
‘So he was there…’
‘He got there just as the tree came down,’ Andrea told her. ‘The SES men told me he worked like a madman.’ She hesitated. ‘Have a look at his hands next time you see him. They’re torn to bits. He didn’t stop until they got you out, and even then…well, even then I think he was a little crazy.’ She shook her head. ‘You looked awful. You were deeply unconscious and there was so much blood…’
‘But Bert Payne…’
‘Bert Payne’s dead,’ Andrea told her. ‘But Jim’s alive, thanks to you. The SES people say it was a miracle you weren’t crushed to death. Anyone as big as Jim would be dead for sure.’
‘Jim’s…Jim’s OK?’
‘Jim’s OK. It’s his plaster Dr Marriott is checking now.’
‘It’s checked.’ The strongly masculine voice came from the doorway, making the charge nurse twist around with a start. Luke was standing there, his stethoscope swinging from his fingers and his eyes on Nikki. ‘He needs a new sling, though, Sister,’ he said without taking his eyes from Nikki. ‘If you could.’