Page 36 of Andrew’s Outback Love

For me.

For all those who love him.

For all those in the outback who needed him.

I prayed to the lord above to keep the man I was rapidly falling for, safe.

***

THERE WAS A FLURRY of activity when I entered the hospital emergency department. I had no idea where I’d find Drew so, I headed towards an enquiry counter to ask.

“I’m looking for Dr. Andrew Lowman. He was brought in by ambulance with a gunshot wound.”

A few keys on a computer were tapped and I waited for the young woman to answer.

“He was taken straight to the emergency surgery theatre. Are you a relative?”

Think fast, Linda. “Girlfriend and I’m a nurse who works with him.”

“I’ll have to ask his family if it’s okay for you to be a point of contact.”

“His family are in the UK and the RFDS are contacting them now. He has no immediate family here in in Australia.”

The young woman’s eyebrows rose. “He’s the eye doctor who won the award last night? The one who works in the outback?”

“One and the same. Can I please stay in the waiting room until he’s out of surgery?”

“I guess it wouldn’t hurt.”

She gave me directions and five minutes later, I collapsed into a chair to wait. I felt drained and it wasn’t until I’d been waiting a while, that everything hit me with the force of a sledgehammer. Drew had been shot. Shot! In the shoulder. Nerves could have been damaged which would affect his ability to perform surgery. No, I wouldn’t even consider he might have been permanently disabled. He had too much to give to have his career cut short in such a cruel manner.

It all seemed so surreal. Hatred welled in me for Candy Wilson. I wanted to put a bullet in her fucking head and see her six feet under. Obviously, she had a mental illness, but I didn’t care. She’d injured a man I, along with many others, cared a great deal about. A man who would never hurt a soul. A man whose life goal was to give children and adults their sight so they could live a more fulfilling life. Yep, hatred wasn’t a strong enough word for how I felt.

The phone in the back pocket of my jean’s vibrated and I remembered I hadn’t contacted the team. I pulled it out to see James’ name on the screen. Standing and crossing to a window, I hit answer and spoke.

“James, sorry. I was about to call.”

“Where are you?”

“In the emergency surgery waiting room. Why?”

“Ruby, Cam, Finn and I are here. I have a fax from Drew’s dad to say the doctors have his permission for you to be given information on Drew’s condition.”

I breathed a sigh of relief, it would have been torture not to know. I explained how to get to the waiting room and expected to see the rest of the team within moments. Half an hour later they finally arrived with coffees and water in hand. Finn handed me one of each along with a couple of sugar packets which I didn’t need. I thanked him and we all sat down.

“Any news?” Ruby asked.

I noted she appeared stressed and her eyes were red, probably from crying. She was sitting beside me and I reached for her hand.

“Nothing yet. It’ll probably be a couple of hours.”

“What if his nerves are damaged?”

Ruby brought my fear into the open with her words.

“They won’t be,” I insisted.

“Linda, you know as well as I do that there is every chance the bullet hit a nerve and it could be damaged beyond repair.”