Scarlet Wilson - Locked Down With The Army Doc - Locked Down with the Army Doc / The Brooding Surgeon's Baby Bombshell

She seemed to circumvent Jack wherever he went. And that was fine. If he’d overstepped he was glad of the message.

They monitored Zane carefully, watching his limbs closely for any visible signs of septicemia. Eventually, Jack finally made his way up the stairwell to see if he could be of assistance in any other part of the hospital. He’d only made it to the first floor before he could hear the rattle throughout the building. The door at the stairwell had been juddering loudly, obviously being buffeted by wind that had found a way inside the hospital.

Jack stuck his head through tentatively. No patients should be on the first floor or the top floor. Flash flooding and roof damage were two of the major probable issues. The evacuation plan dictated that most patients were moved to central areas on the second and third floors.

“Hello?” he shouted. He concentrated and listened hard. All he could hear was the wind whistling through the building and the sound of thudding rain.

He pulled his head back in and started up to the second floor. There definitely would be patients and staff up there. There was a crowd of people in green scrubs standing at the entrance to the stairwell on the second floor. A few glanced in his direction as he pushed through. He held out his hand to the nearest member of staff with a stethoscope around his neck. “Jack Campbell, Senior Medical Officer, British Army. Can I do anything?”

He could see a myriad people in the corridors with swabs held to arms and heads. The man gave a brief nod. “Oh, yeah, the army guy. I heard about you. I’m Ron Kekoe. Head of the ER. We’ve had to move upstairs in case of flash flooding.” He glanced at his watch. “We’re going to give it a few hours then move back down, and send out teams as required.” He pointed toward a makeshift desk just along the corridor. “Phones are down but we’ve got radios to contact other emergency services and the evacuation shelters.” His face was serious. “We’ve already had a few reports of winds up to one hundred and eighty miles an hour and roofs being torn off buildings. There will be casualties.” He frowned for a second and Jack realized someone had appeared beside him.

Amber, breathing heavily. She must have run up the stairs after him. His first thought was for the teenagers. “Zane? Aaron?”

She shook her head. “No. They’re just the same. But I realized I probably wasn’t much use down there. One of the residents is staying with them. I thought I should probably come and help.”

He could hear it. That little edge of nerves in her voice. It was clear, however, that Ron didn’t hear it. He just gave a nod. “The infectious disease doctor?”

Amber didn’t seem to mind the label and held out her hand. “Amber Berkeley, DPA.”

Ron gave her a half-suspicious look. “Someone mentioned you wanted to take antibiotics out.” He shook his head fiercely. “No way. Not anytime soon. First vehicles that go out will be heading up portable trauma bays. If it’s near to where you need to be, you’re welcome to tag along—provided you do some doctoring.”

He didn’t even wait for Amber’s reply. Jack got that. Everything about this was familiar territory to him. This was all about triage, all about prioritizing. Ron gave them both a nod. “Can you deal with some minor injuries? There’s nothing too threatening. Just flying glass and debris. A few staff were caught. If you could clean and stitch that would be great.”

Amber gave a quick nod of her head and walked around Jack, heading toward the first person with a bloody wound pad pressed to their forearm.

He watched for a few seconds as he could see her swallow nervously. This was different for her. And he got that.

He moved on over and started treating the next member of staff who had a cut on their forehead.

He was methodical. And he was quick. All the injuries were relatively minor.

But as he worked steadily he noticed the continued chaos around him. Although the external phone lines weren’t working, the internal phones rang constantly. Staff seemed to be disorganized, and Ron, as Head of the ER, seemed out of his depth.

Jack couldn’t help himself. He walked over. “How about you let me do some of this?”

Ron looked up from a prescription he was writing. Three other members of staff were waiting to talk to him and the radio was crackling constantly on the table.

“What can you do?”

Jack pointed to the desk. “I have experience of crisis triage. How about I field all the radio calls? I can take the details and liaise with the other agencies. We need to know what’s needed and where. As soon as the winds die down we could have teams packed up and ready to go. What do you say?”

He was trying so hard not to overstep. He could see Ron was struggling with the volume. He might not know Jack, but surely he would let him help?

Ron only paused for a few seconds as the radio continued to crackle.

“Perfect. Let me know if there’s anything major.”

“You got it.” Jack settled at the desk and picked up the radio. There were a few notes already about building damage—but no reports about casualties. There was a footnote querying whether a home with disabled residents had been evacuated, with a note to check with the nearest evacuation center. There were a few other notes from a care agency who had several housebound residents that they hadn’t been able to get to. Chances were they were safe. Most Hawaiians knew about the potential threats and what to do. But the infirm or frail would probably not have been able to put all preparations in place without assistance.

There seemed to be no standard way of keeping track of all the information, so Jack added all the names and addresses to a list for checks and pulled out a citywide map to start charting where everyone was.

Some staff were reporting that the sky was almost black now. No one with any thought to safety could possibly go outside.

The chatter on the radios was constant, along with the background noise of the hammering winds. Even though they’d been told not to, some of the staff squinted past mattresses at the windows and let out squeals and gasps. “Did you see that?”

“That car just flipped!”

“Oh, my, look over there. The roof’s coming off that building like a tin can!”

“Those trees are bending like drinking straws.”

“That one’s going to snap for sure!”

The rain thudded off the windows, battering down in among the wind’s fury. Debris flew through the air, randomly hitting windows and shattering glass.

Jack tried to tune it all out, focusing on the task he’d been given and trying to keep a clear head. But even though he tried, his eyes were distracted by the woman who’d pulled her hair back into a ponytail and seemed to be cleaning and stitching wounds precisely. She had a quieter nature when working with staff who were patients, and, even though he’d seen a smattering of nerves earlier today, he would never question her clinical skills.

Reports continued to come in and his list grew longer and longer. By the time Amber came over and sat down next to him, he’d started to separate out all the calls by seriousness and area.

She looked down at the lists and charts he had spread across the table. “Wow. You’re really keeping on top of this. How many teams do we have?”

“Probably less than we actually need.” He didn’t mean his answer to seem quite so brusque.

Amber shot him a strange sideways glance. “Do you know how many staff we have, and how many transportation vehicles?”

He glanced over at Ron, trying to hide his frustration. “Ron hasn’t told me yet. Search and Rescue say no one leaves unless they deem it necessary. There can be risks of flash flooding.”