Storm Haven

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.’

The charge nurse looked from Nikki to Luke and back again. She smiled broadly. ‘I was just taking Dr Russell’s obs,’ she said demurely. ‘But if you think my services are wanted elsewhere…’

‘I think your services are wanted elsewhere,’ Luke confirmed.

‘You won’t disturb my patient, will you, Doctor?’ the nurse grinned. Luke picked up the observation chart threateningly.

‘Get out of here, you insolent baggage,’ he smiled. ‘Dr Russell, I’m sorry to inform you that you have a very insubordinate staff.’

‘It’s hard to command respect when Andrea and I went to kindergarten together,’ Nikki whispered, and Luke crossed swiftly to the bed to take her hand. Behind him Andrea made her departure, still grinning.

‘Don’t you worry about that, my love,’ he said gently. ‘The staff’ll fall in line now I’m back working here. Together we’ll pull this place into shape.’ He smiled down at the bed in a way that made Nikki’s heart almost stop beating.

‘Together’…And Luke was looking at her as… as she had always dreamed a man would look at her.

Not just a man. Her Luke.

‘We…’ she whispered.

‘This medical service is damned inefficient,’ Luke complained with mock-severity. He sat on the bedside chair and possessed himself of her other hand. ‘Leaking roofs. Draughty corridors. Nurses wearing torn jeans and swearing their uniform blew out the window when I complain. A hospital kitchen with a living pot-plant wedged right through one wall. I like a bit more antiseptic and sparkle myself. A staff who say, “Yes, Doctor, no, Doctor, three bags full, Doctor.”’

‘You don’t stand a chance in a million,’ Nikki smiled. ‘But…but, Luke…’

‘Yes, my love?’ His eyes were twisting her in two. His eyes were making love to her all by themselves.

‘You’re not staying?’

Luke frowned. ‘Nikki, Whispering Palms is one of the few undamaged houses in the district. You don’t have any reason to leave.’

‘I…N-no.’

‘Well, there you go, then. You’re staying. I’m staying.’

‘Luke…’ Nikki looked helplessly up at him. Her head was spinning in a dizzy haze of light. ‘Luke, don’t…don’t say it…’

‘Don’t say it isn’t true,’ he finished for her. He nodded and his smile faded. His grip on her hands tightened. ‘I shouldn’t. But I can be happy here. There’s enough medicine to keep me content, and I can keep my journalism going as well. But whether I stay depends.’

‘Depends?’

‘On whether one crazy, courageous, beautiful girlwoman will find it in her heart to forgive me for walking away on the most precious gift I’ve ever received. On whether my heart…my life…my lovely Nikki will marry me.’

Nikki drew in her breath. ‘Luke…’

‘I know I left you,’ Luke said softly. ‘But, Nikki, I almost went out of my mind. I thought…I thought family was so damned important. My masculinity was such an issue that I couldn’t cope. And then…then I walked away and I realised you and Amy were my family already, whether you agreed to marry me or not. Because my heart is yours, Nikki Russell. For now and forever.’

Nikki took a long, shuddering breath. Tears of weakness and joy were sliding down her face and Luke swore as he bent to kiss them away.

‘You don’t have to say anything yet,’ he told her gently. ‘God, Nikki, I shouldn’t be saying this. But… but I thought I’d lost you. And I thought there was nothing as bad as that. The cancer. Infertility. Nothing. To lose my lovely Nikki…’ He shook his head and then kissed her lightly on the lips. ‘You need to sleep. We can talk about this later.’

‘Yes…’ It was a sleepy murmur. Nikki’s hand didn’t relinquish her grip, and her hand was not relinquished in turn. She was where she wanted to be for the rest of her life.

‘Nikki, love…’

‘Mmm?’

‘Nikki, before you sleep, can you do a wriggle for me? Test your fingers and toes.’

Nikki thought about this for a moment. It was sensible, and it didn’t interfere with her euphoric happiness. She tried.

‘Ouch,’ she said softly.

‘Where?’

‘I’ve got full movement,’ she told him sleepily. ‘But my lower back feels as though it’s been kicked by a horse.’

‘You’ve got a thumping bruise there,’ Luke told her. ‘It looks like just bruising, but maybe I’d better take an X-ray to make sure.’

Nikki’s eyes flew wide suddenly. ‘Luke…Luke, I haven’t been bleeding, have I?’

He frowned. ‘No. Apart from your head.’

She closed her eyes in thankfulness. ‘Thank God,’ she whispered.

‘Thank…’ Luke let her hands fall and he bent forward. ‘Nikki, what the hell…?’

She smiled faintly and her eyes opened again. This was right. There would never be a better time.

‘I was just thinking maybe you shouldn’t do that X-ray,’ she whispered.

‘Why not?’ Luke’s eyes were dark with anxiety.

‘Because pelvic X-rays on unborn babies are contraindicated.’

‘Unborn babies.’ Luke sat back hard in his chair. ‘You mean…My God, Nikki, you’re not pregnant?’

‘Only a little bit.’ She smiled shyly.

‘Only…’ He seized her hands again and his grip wasn’t gentle. ‘How far?’

‘You tell me,’ Nikki smiled. ‘Or don’t you remember?’

There was a long, long silence. Nikki watched as Luke’s face twisted. His eyes closed, as though in pain.

But when they opened there was no pain. There was joy. There was love. And there was peace.

‘My Nikki…’

He gathered her to him and held her close. Around them the insistent rain battered the roof and the wind whipped around the building searching for entry in the makeshift repairs.

Neither noticed. No storm could touch them where they were.

They had come home.