Chapter 1:
The helicopter landed on the sandy soil and blew up a large amount of sand into the air. There wasnt any helipad marked out as such just a fenced off area among army tents strewn hear and there. Beyond there were more tents set out in rows. Luc got out of the helicopter when it had stopped and was relieved to be on solid ground. He had never liked helicopters but had to put up with them as part of the job now. Being an army medical officer or MO for short required the odd trip by helicpoter unfortunately. He was glad to finally get to Kabul, the flight from the U.K. had been a long one and he was tired now. All he wanted to do now was sleep for a few hours. He was met by Private Nicholson as he got off the helicopter. "Dr Hemingway? Can you please follow me quickly? They want to clear the helipad so that another 'copter can land. There has been an attack and some of our wounded are on the way" said Nicholson.
"Yes private" replied Luc. He followed the man over to the nearest tent. "My name is private Nicholson and I'll be your guide around the camp for the next few days, until you get your bearings" he explained while shaking Luc's hand. Luc turned around to see another helicopter land and a group of medics run towards it. They carried out 3 injured soldiers on stretchers and rushed them towards a large tent not far from where Luc was standing. "Here private, take my bags. They need my help" Luc said as he threw his rucksack at Nicholson and ran into the hospital tent after the injured soldiers.
"I need some help over here" shouted a female nurse dressed in army fatigues. Luc ran over in the direction of the voice and immediately started assessing the injured soldier's injuries. He had wounds to the stomach, legs, arms and face. The stomach wound was gaping and gushing blood.
"We need some suction here, I need to find the source of this bleeding" said Luc as he began working on the soldier. The nurse beside him began suctioning up the blood around the wound. Luc noticed familiar tatoos on her arm as she worked out of the corner of his eye but was too busy trying to keep the soldier alive for it to register with him. "I've found the source, clamp please" said Luc.
"Clamp" the nurse said as she handed it to him. The voice was familiar he thought but he was too busy working on the soldier to look up from what he was doing. It was about 20 mins later before he had the soldier stitched up and stabilised enough to look up from the soldiers body and see what and who was standing around him. He turned his head to look at the nurse standing beside him. "Welcome to camp Kabul" she said.
"It can't be, I'm dreaming aren't I?" he said.
"If you are, I wouldn't call this a dream, a nightmare maybe" she replied with a smile.
"Eddie!" he exclaimed but wasnt sure he was correct. Her skin was slightly darker and her hair was darker brown and alot longer than the last time he had seen her.
"That's Medical Support Officer McKee to you" she corrected still smiling and saluted Luc as being an MO he was a higher rank than her.
"What are you doing here?" Luc asked fighting off the urge to grab her and hug her.
"The same as you I guess, looking after her Majesty's finest soldiers" she replied.
"Karen, can you keep an eye on the patient? I'm going to show MO Hemingway here to his quarters as he seems to have lost his tour guide and isnt supposed to be on duty yet" she said to her fellow nurse.
Luc followed Eddie over to the nearby sinks to clean up with a million questions swirling around in his head. "How long?" he asked.
"I joined up about 6 months ago now but have only been in Kabul for the last two" she explained. "Why?" he asked. "There were a number of reasons but I wanted to see a bit of the world and do something rewarding at the same time" she said. "Besides, you know me, I always love being in the thick of all the action" she continued. They finished off cleaning themselves up and walked out of the hospital tent out into the bright sunlight.
"The mess tents are over there, there's food available 24 hrs a day, hot food during the day and sandwiches etc at night" she said pointing at tents over to their right.
"All of the medical staff quarters are at the back of the hospital, you are sharing with 2 other male doctors. Your tent is just 2 down from mine" she continued as they walked by the side of the hospital towards the smaller tents behind it.
Eddie stopped outside the second smaller tent in the row. "Knock, knock" she said before pulling up the door and entering the tent. "Oh, Hi Larry, this is our new MO Luc Hemingway" she said to the man lying on one of the beds inside. He had been reading a medical book and put it down to shake Luc's hand.
"Dr. Larry Duke, nice to meet you" he said continuing to shake Luc's hand. "So I hear you know our beloved nurse Eddie from her civilian days" Larry continued.
"Yes I do" replied Luc blushing slightly. He wondered how much Eddie at told them about their past and was surprised as she seemed to have known he would be coming to the base.
"Private Nicholson left your bags here for you. He put them on your bed over there" said Larry pointing to the bed at the other end of the tent.
"Larry, can you show Luc the showers etc?" she asked. "I'll have to get back to the hospital as I'm still on duty" she said. "I'll come and get you when my shift is over in about 5 hours" Eddie said turning to Luc. "We can catch up properly then" she continued. "Perfect, I need a few hours sleep anyway" replied Luc giving her a tired smile.
"See you later then" she replied with a big smile and left the tent.
"She's some woman isnt she?" said Larry. "She's been in great form the last few days, ever since she found out you would be working with us in fact" continued Larry. "That's funny, we used to fight like cats and dogs when we first met" replied Luc cryptically.