“Perfect!”
That was the only word that made it past her lips before the car skidded down into the hard earth and her head slammed against the steering wheel. Her fear vanished as everything went black.
THAT HAD BEEN too close. His heart in his throat, Spence Whitman pulled over to the side of the road, turned on his emergency flashers, and leapt from his car, leaving his door swinging in the strong wind as he dashed into the ditch. There wasn’t any smoke right now, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t coming. He needed to assess the condition of the driver and do it fast.
Pulling his phone from his coat pocket as he scrambled down the bank, he dialed emergency services, connecting just as he reached the car.
“Nine-one-one. What’s your emergency?”
Spence had yanked open the door to find a red-haired woman pressed against the steering wheel, a slight line of blood dripping down her cheek. “It looks like a twenty- to thirty-year-old female. Unconscious. Her car slammed hard into the ditch between milepost seventeen and eighteen. She has a visible contusion on her right cheek and a rapidly forming contusion on her forehead.”
“Are you a doctor, sir?”
“Yes. This is Dr. Spence Whitman.”
“Emergency vehicles are on their way.”
“Thank you.” Spence hung up the phone as he began checking her vital signs. “Ma’am, are you okay?”
It was stupid to ask that question, or any question, when she was clearly knocked out. He knew this, but he couldn’t help it, not when it was so ingrained in him from his training. Lifting his hand to her neck, he was relieved to find her pulse strong. Though she was out cold, at least she was breathing steadily, and the bleeding from the cut on her cheek was already slowing.
He ran his hand carefully along her body and was happy that he didn’t discover any obvious signs of serious injury. That didn’t mean there wasn’t internal damage, but as smoke began rising from the hood of her car, he didn’t want to take any chances by hanging around. He needed to move her.
Just then, she moaned and her eyelids fluttered open. She blinked up at him with confused emerald-green eyes.
“You’ve been in an accident,” he informed her in his most businesslike manner. “Can you tell me if anything hurts?”
She stared blankly at him while she tried to get a handle on his words.
“My name is Spence Whitman and I’m a doctor. I need to move you from the vehicle. Can you tell me if your neck or back hurts?”
“No, they don’t,” she murmured after a brief pause.
“That’s really good. Could you please lift your arm for me and wiggle your fingers?” After another pause, she did as he asked. “Great,” he said. “Now I’m pulling off your shoe. If you could just wiggle your toes for me . . . Great. That’s a very good sign.” He kept his voice professional, calm, reassuring. It was what he did and he was on autopilot.
“Okay, we’re going to get you out of this car now.” He didn’t grab her right then, but waited for her to answer. It was difficult for him to move so slowly, but he didn’t want her frightened, and because she’d hit her head, there was a chance she wasn’t fully processing what he was saying.
“Okay,” she said, her voice weak.
“We’re going to be nice and careful about this,” he said as he slid his hands beneath her and began shifting her weight against his chest. Dark gray smoke began to billow from the hood of the car, making it more apparent that their time was running out.
She groaned when he stood, cradling her close before he began moving cautiously away from the car in the heavy rain. He knew this had to be hurting her more than she’d expected—it was difficult to know how much you’d been hurt in a car accident until you moved. Finally, sirens blared in the distance, filling Spence with relief.
“Spence?”
Spence stopped as he looked down at the woman in the quickly fading light. She’d said his name like she knew him.
“Yes, I’m right here.”
In this town everyone knew everybody. He must have run into her at some point. But after high school, Spence had gone straight to college and then medical school, and he’d lost touch with some of the people here in the years he’d been gone. He’d become something of a city boy over the years. He loved living in Seattle, loved the hustle and bustle, and he was quickly becoming a highly regarded trauma surgeon. A good life, with a lot more privacy. Still, he made enough trips back to Sterling that it bothered him not to remember who this was.
Even as those thoughts played in the back of his brain, Spence remained focused on the injured woman in his arms and the help that would soon arrive. As he watched her pulse and her breathing, he heard the ambulance pull up. Thank heavens. He was soaked through and wanted to get them both out of this monstrous rainstorm.
He reached the road just as the back doors to the ambulance opened, and he waited for the paramedics to unload the gurney. The patient was soon placed safely on it and carted into the back of the vehicle.
“Patient was able to move fingers and toes; coming in and out of consciousness. I’m concerned about internal injuries, but I had to move her from the vehicle. Have a full body scan done as soon as you reach the hospital,” Spence told the paramedics.
“Are you going to follow, Dr. Whitman?”
He occasionally helped out at the local hospital, so he knew these people. “Yeah, I’ll see you there.”
Spence got into his car and scrubbed a hand across his face, trying to clear the rain from his vision. He was exhausted after working all day at the hospital, but a new trauma case had him fully alert and ready for round two. He could leave her in the care of the other doctors, but he’d been the one to find her, and he would see it through.