His face was a whitish grey, shocked. Blood had stained one leg of his trousers. ‘Nick. I’m bleeding. Not good.’
‘Well, this is your lucky day because I’m going to do something about that, Nick.’
His lips barely moved. ‘C-cold.’
‘I know. I’m going to do something about that too.’ She glanced at the rock face. Judged the distance. ‘Nick, I’m going to move you onto that ledge and see if I can sort out the bleeding. It will be quicker than getting you to the ground.’
‘Fiona—my girlfriend…’
‘We’ll get her down in a minute. You’re the priority. Can you move?’ Descending half a metre, Meg moved across the rock face and climbed up to the ledge that she knew was under the layers of snow. With her gloved hand she formed a snow shelf. Dino’s voice came through the radio and she talked to him briefly, updating him, telling him about the bleeding. Then she carefully helped the injured climber onto the shelf. ‘OK, let’s see what we’re dealing with. Can you undo your trousers? They’re an expensive brand—I don’t really want to cut them off.’
Nick gave a weak laugh. ‘That sounds like an indecent suggestion.’
‘Nick, it’s minus five.’ Meg ripped open a sterile pad and then helped him slide his trousers down to expose the wound. ‘Sex isn’t exactly the foremost thing on my mind right now. I—’ Blood spurted into the air and she slammed the pad down hard on the wound, pressing with her hand ‘Right, that’s quite a cut you’ve got there. You must have caught an artery.’
‘I gashed it on the rock—it spurted.’
‘Still spurting.’ The pad was soaked within seconds. Meg increased the pressure.
Nick leaned his head against the rock. ‘I tried a tourniquet. Kept releasing it and tightening it but it wasn’t easy. Just leave me. Get Fiona.’
‘I’m not leaving you.’ Her fingers were slippery with the blood. Using her free hand, Meg spoke into her radio. Her own pulse was racing because this wasn’t the place to be dealing with a major injury. She had no room to manoeuvre. ‘Dino, I’m dealing with a bleeding femoral artery.’ She was going to have to apply another tourniquet, up here on a ledge in freezing conditions. What equipment did she have? What could she use? She had another rope in her backpack. Maybe she could cut that—
‘Meg.’ Dino’s voice came over the radio. ‘I’m sending down a sleeping bag and Celox. Use Celox to stop the bleeding. Pour it into the wound. Apply pressure for three minutes.’
‘Celox. Damn.’ Meg blinked. ‘I’d forgotten about Celox.’
Nick’s eyes opened. ‘What’s Celox?’
‘It stops bleeding by bonding with red blood cells. It gels and produces a clot. It’s amazing stuff. Originally developed for battlefield injuries, I think, but now we’re using it. Had our first training session last month.’ Careful with her balance, Meg took the pack that Dino lowered. Trying to remember what she’d been taught in the last training session, she ripped open the packet and tipped the Celox into the wound. Then she tore open a fresh pad and applied pressure. ‘Let’s just hope it’s as good as they say it is. Apparently it takes less than thirty seconds to clot. It even works in freezing temperatures, which is just as well because that’s what we’re dealing with here. See?’ Relief poured through her as the bleeding ceased. ‘It’s magic. Otherwise known as a powerful haemostatic agent. You’re going to be fine, Nick. We’re going to get you out of here and— Nick? Oh, no, don’t do this to me—not here…’
‘It’s all right, Meg, he’s still breathing.’ Dino spoke from right beside her and she turned with relief, realising that she hadn’t even heard his descent.
‘What are you doing here? The rock is crumbling and you must have come down far too fast.’ Her voice was croaky. ‘If I admit that I’m pleased to see you, are you ever going to let me forget it?’
‘Probably not.’ His hands were over hers, reassuring and strong. ‘How’s the bleeding?’
‘It’s stopped. That stuff is like a miracle.’
‘You’re the miracle, tesoro.’ Dino took over. He checked Nick and then signalled to the winchman, who was slowly lowered with the stretcher. ‘I’m going to get some morphine into him and then we’re going to get him onto the stretcher and into the helicopter. It’s only a five-minute flight from here.’
The transfer to the helicopter went smoothly. Having discharged his responsibility towards Nick, Dino abseiled down to help Fiona, who was still clinging to the rock face, frozen with fear.
It took him another twenty minutes to calm her sufficiently to be able to help her down the rock face. Finally, when she was safely secured to him, Dino carefully helped her down to the valley floor. Back in the mountain rescue vehicle, they wrapped her in layers to warm her.
‘Will Nick be all right?’ Her teeth chattering, Fiona huddled deeper inside the coat. ‘When he fell, I thought—I thought…’
‘He’s going to be fine.’ Meg cleaned herself up as discreetly as possible, sloshing water over her hands. ‘We’re taking you to the hospital now, so you can check that out for yourself.’
Ellie met them as they walked into the department. Her eyes sparkled knowingly as she saw Meg and Dino together. ‘Enjoying your Sunday?’ Without saying anything else, she smiled and slid her arm around Fiona, escorting her to where Nick was being assessed.
‘Not subtle, are they?’ Meg gritted her teeth. ‘I should have got you to drop me off.’
Dino sent her a speculative look. ‘I don’t see a reason to hide our relationship. Do you?’
Meg shrugged awkwardly. ‘Well, we’re colleagues. I suppose it’s just I don’t want everyone knowing. I don’t want them all taking bets on how long it is before you go off with some long-legged blonde.’
‘You’re a long-legged blonde, amore.’ Dino slid his arm round her waist and pulled her against him. ‘And I’m with you.’