Home > Ryland's Reach (Bullard's Battle #1)(6)

Ryland's Reach (Bullard's Battle #1)(6)
Author: Dale Mayer

She appreciated the respect, although she suspected it was their training. She looked at the two men and said, “Thank you very much for the help.”

“Well, in this case, the rescuer needed rescuing,” he said, “but that was partly on us. We couldn’t get a second trip in fast enough, and we ended up sending you out farther into the rough water, which was not the right answer.”

“It just seemed like you wouldn’t make it back to get the second man, and I didn’t want him to die.”

“Understood. And much appreciated,” he said.

Then the other man offered, “I’m sorry about your boat.”

She winced. “Yeah, me too.”

“Is it yours?”

She nodded slowly. “I’ve had it for quite a few years now,” she said. “So it’ll take me a bit to get over the loss.”

“So where are you currently living?”

She realized they were asking for details about her that went beyond making conversation. “I’m a surgical nurse out of Perth, with odd hours, long hours, so don’t get to sail as much as I would like,” she said. “Plus, my boat is berthed in Sydney because my brother and I had a tradition to come out to these waters for years. Yet I have a friend whose boat is docked in Perth. So we kinda have a boat-share thing going. I’ve kept my boat here in Sydney and come out during my holidays.”

“I’m sorry. This is not what you needed on a holiday getaway.”

“Maybe so,” she said. “But, at the same time, it is what it is.”

They discussed her work, her life, and her holiday a little bit. She wasn’t sure if they were prying or just trying to be friendly.

She asked, “What about the two men? Any chance I could see them?”

“We can arrange that,” the captain said, looking at Petty Officer Joe Smithson. “Get an update for us, will you?”

Immediately he rose and disappeared.

“It’s the first man I’m really worried about,” she said. “He was never conscious all the time I had him.”

“I understood his condition is more severe,” the captain said.

The petty officer returned a few minutes later. “The one is still unconscious. The second is awake, and, yes, I can take you down to see them.”

With that, she stood, leaving her empty coffee cup and the muffin wrapper behind. With a smile, she said, “Thanks for the coffee and the snack.”

“Dinner is in an hour,” the captain said. “Not to worry, we’ll make sure you’re well fed.”

“And then what?” she asked curiously. “Do I get a ride back somewhere?”

“Yes, as soon as the weather calms down,” he said. “We’ll fly you into shore, if we can’t take you, or we’ll send you on by boat.”

“That would be much appreciated,” she said. Then she turned and followed Joe. As they walked, she asked him, “Did they get any details on the first guy? Like what his injuries are?”

“If they did, they didn’t tell me,” he said.

She fell silent after that because, of course, it was all about hierarchy here and the need to know. She had dealt with the same in the hospital. As it was, even with her escort, she got completely lost getting to the sick bay area. They had stairs and hallways and more hallways and more stairs. “How do you not get lost in these ships?” she muttered.

He laughed. “It takes a bit to get used to, but most of them are built in a fairly similar way. So, once you’ve been on one, you’re pretty good at understanding how the others work.”

“Says you, but, at least if I go on a cruise ship, diagrams are on every landing,” she complained good-naturedly. “Here? I haven’t seen anything to tell me where I am, just a series of numbers and letters.”

“The numbers and letters indicate your levels and whether you are forward or aft,” he said. “What’s located on each floor isn’t something that we post.”

“You probably should though,” she said. Just then he turned and went through a set of double doors. She followed behind to a medical center. It was funny how they immediately went from one to the next, and it didn’t seem to matter whether you were on a ship or in a hospital. It looked like a fully functional medical facility, and she instantly felt at home. Several men stood off to one side.

The petty officer cleared his throat, and the men looked up. He said, “This is the woman who came on board with us along with those two men.”

One of the doctors walked over, frowning. “Are you hurt?”

She shook her head. “No, just heartsick that my boat went under,” she said with a laugh. “How are the two men I picked up?”

“You picked them up, huh?” She nodded. “I’d love to know more about what you saw when you found them,” he said.

“Why?” she asked.

“Just to see the kind of injuries they may have. We’re taking x-rays and doing a full workup on the unconscious man right now.”

“That’s Garret,” she said. “How is Ryland?”

“Ryland is awake and will probably be happy to see you. We’ve popped his leg back into place. He’s got a couple hairline fractures and a lot of soft tissue damage that he’ll notice for the next month and a half,” he said with a smile, “but we don’t have to do any surgical intervention for him.”

“Well, that’s good, except for what? Two hundred stitches?”

He laughed. “Yes, it was about two hundred, now that you mention it. Good guess.”

“I’m a surgical nurse,” she said.

He looked at her with interest. “Good to know. I may need your services while you’re here.”

She looked at him in surprise. “Why is that?”

“We’re not happy with Garret’s condition, and I may need to go in and take a look. Normally I’d send him out on a helicopter, but, with the weather right now, we’re not flying.”

Garret, although he was safe, was not out of danger by any means.

*

Ryland heard the voices in the other room. He was hoping he heard the voice of the woman who had plucked them out of the ocean. It was a woman for sure and sounded like it could be her. He tried to look through the glass pane to his doors, but some film was over it, giving him an unclear visual.

Just then the double doors opened, and the doctor walked in. “You have a visitor,” he said.

Sure enough, it was her.

She walked up to him, a big smile breaking across his face. “Hey, I’m so glad to see you looking better.”

“Well, yeah, considering most of the breaks aren’t major,” he said. “Also they got my leg put back in place, so I’m feeling a whole lot better than I deserve to be.”

“Isn’t that the truth,” she said, nodding. “But you have a lot of soft tissue damage.”

“Always,” he said. “Just like any explosion, you take a blow like that in the sky, and then you fall into the water, which is another hard-impact injury. It’s not easy.”

“You did have a chute on your back, didn’t you?”

“We did, and it slowed the plummet but didn’t stop it because we were too close to the ground.”

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