“Right,” Richard mutters.
“Does Jodie need any more treatment?” he asks, moving closer to the bed and coming to a stop at the end, as if he’s about to lift her notes and read them for himself.
“Aside from smoke inhalation, we’ve stitched a couple of the deeper lacerations and given her some pain relief. We’re waiting to send her for an x-ray to ensure nothing is broken, but I’m confident it’s all surface injuries. She’s been very lucky. A few more minutes and the smoke could have caused some serious damage.”
“Thank you, Richard. We appreciate it. If she’s going to need admitting, we’ll require her to be sent up to the Cirillo ward.”
“Of course. I’ll get that arranged.”
“Thank you. You’re possibly going to have another patient coming through with the name of Sara Ashcroft. We’re going to need the best team you’ve got on her.”
“Has she been brought in yet?”
“We don’t know,” I say when Theo looks at me for confirmation. “She was in the building with Jodie. When we left, the firefighters were still working to get her out.”
“I’ll see what I can find out.”
Theo nods once and stands aside to let Richard out.
“You’re welcome,” Theo says with an amused grin from the end of my girl’s bed.
“Prick,” I mutter lightly.
“She’s going to be okay, Tobes. You did that. You saved her.”
I sigh, not feeling as heroic about that statement as I’m sure Theo thinks I should.
“She asked me to go back for Sara,” I say quietly.
“Bro, the building was a wreck and the fire crew turned up. You did nothing wrong.”
“But—”
“No, Toby. You did all you could,” he assures me.
“You weren’t even there.”
“I didn’t need to be. There’s no doubt in my mind that you’d have run straight back in there for her if you could. You let the experts do their job. You saved your girl, and yourself.”
I nod, fully aware of all of that but feeling the guilt gnawing at me nonetheless.
“You’re a good person, Toby. And a fucking fantastic soldier. No one can question what you’ve done tonight.”
I shake my head, resting back in the chair but keeping my hand locked around Jodie’s as she sleeps.
Theo moves, squeezing my shoulder in support before pulling another chair over and sitting down beside me.
“How are Archer and his boys?”
“Still breathing, as far as I know. But as I said to Richard, this place could be busy tonight.”
“That’s gonna fucking cost Archer.”
“And us,” he agrees.
“Who knew that the biggest cost of war was paying off the hospital staff instead of the loss of lives,” I mutter, my voice low and pained.
Theo chuckles darkly, but it’s forced.
“The rest of our guys?”
“No news is good news, right?”
I let out a heavy sigh. “I need this shit to stop for a bit, man. I need to take a fucking breath.”
“No. What you need is to kill that motherfucker in our basement so you can focus on a future with your girl.