"We have a situation."
John floated beside Selene in the monitoring station pulling up the plans for the resort they were sending Scott, Virgil, Alan and Gordon to. An avalanche had cut off and partly buried the ski lodge at the base of the mountain.
Scott had touched down first on the safe side of the resort and immediately started to organise the crew on the ground exactly as he would his brothers.
His first orders was for the staff that were still up and moving to start getting as many holiday makers out as possible. The back entrance of the lodge had, thankfully, remained relatively clear and with a little digging between Scott and two of the ski instructors, they had managed to excavate a pathway from the door to the large hanger where the shuttle sledges were kept when they weren't in use.
He had the first shuttle full of residents on its way down the mountain to the nearest town just as Virgil began his descent.
"What's the status, Thunderbird 1?" Virgil's voice came cool and calm through the comms.
"So far we've managed to locate a large number of holidaymakers who were in the lodge when the avalanche hit, we've got them out and they are being transported to town by the staff that are still on their feet, but according to reports there are still at least twenty people in or around the building on the south side where the snow slide hit. The sheer weight of the snow has partially collapsed part of the building."
"What are you needing?"
"I'm thinking you'll need to assemble a couple of pods to start clearing the snow, leave that to Alan and Gordon, and you can follow me inside to tackle the heavy lifting. We don't know what we'll find in there, so be prepared for anything and bring a full stretcher and med kit."
"FAB."
They scrambled quickly, knowing time was of the essence. The smallest configured a couple of pods to help shift the snow and Virgil donned his exo-suit heading out to meet up with Scott.
Virgil made his way carefully across the densely packed snow, ducking into the eerie quiet of the lodge's kitchens, the snow muffling all sounds from outside.
"Scott? Where are you?" Virgil spoke quietly into his comm, as if shouting would be some kind of sin in the silence of the building.
"Head towards the front of the building, follow the signs for the lounge bar if you can see any. We've got a few walking wounded that have volunteered to stay and help, but there is an unknown number of potential casualties that we are unable to reach."
"FAB, on my way." He broke into a jog, the suit weighed him down but he refused to let it slow his pace, they knew that in their job every second counted. A minute saved could equal a life.
He navigated a maze of corridors, passing a dining room, a sign for a gym, the pool area and the stairways for the upper floor bedrooms and finally saw a sign for the lounge. The deeper he went into the building the colder and darker it became, the electricity having gone out with the avalanche.
Finally the sound of murmuring voices and shifting debris reached his ears and he put on a burst of speed, following the noise as it grew louder.
"Virgil!"
Scott's voice held just a hint of desperation as he rounded the corner and took in the sight before him. His brother was crouched beside a heavily pregnant woman, who was sobbing uncontrollably.
"My...my husband…my son, where are they?"
"Try not to worry," Scott soothed, "we'll do all we can to find them, just concentrate on breathing."
"I'm here!"
The relief on his brother's face was obvious. "Can you start over there?" he nodded across the hall where the sounds of shouting and falling bricks came loud and clear.
He nodded and took off, climbing over a mound of concrete, wood and steel that had likely been part of the roof.
Five men, each in varying degrees of hurt, were digging into a pile of rubble and snow where a wall had previously stood. He got to work, lifting off the heavier wooden beams and chunks of brickwork.
"I've found someone!"
Virgil tossed aside part of a door frame and moved to help the man who had called out. There was a hand sticking out of the snow.
"Alan, be careful, there is a life sign two meters to the left of your plow." John was frantically scanning the surrounding area, trying to locate any survivors and direct the boys in the best way to go about moving the snow from the outside as safely as possible.
"Got it," Alan's reply was terse as the image of his pod stopped on their map and remained that way for several minutes. "Secured."
The life sign began to move. "Removed from scene, suspected broken collarbone and confirmed ankle fracture. I've left her with the staff that are helping."
"Well done, now you should be clear for another sixteen meters. Gordon?"
"Yeah, John?"
"A life sign just blinked out, three meters in front of you."
"On it!" again they saw a pod stop and held their breath until Gordon's voice spoke up.
"One confirmed dead, massive head trauma."
Selene squeezed her eyes shut, wishing she could be there for them all. It was always hard to hear her boys when they were delivering that kind of news, they had to stay as detached as possible to be able to get on with the job, but when it was Gordon, her sweet, adorable joker, it was the hardest to bear. His voice never quite sounded like his own, not the one she was used to, not the one that always seemed to hold that undertone of cheekiness, and it ripped at her heart.
"Well done, darlings, you're both doing brilliantly." She knew she was breaking protocol, knew that she wasn't being professional, but she didn't care, they needed to hear it and she would be the one to provide.
"Life sign detected, eight meters southeast of your current location, Gordon."
Again the pod stopped. "Secured, one male, undamaged as far as we can tell."
They breathed a sigh of relief for him, hearing the change in his tone.
Another icon beeped into existence, displaying the number 1. John's touch brought it to life.
"Thunderbird 5? We have a problem down here!"
"It hurts!"
Scott winced as the lady squeezed his hand hard enough to crack bone. He knew the feeling, if he got out of this without permanent nerve damage it would be a miracle.
"Breathe, keep breathing."
"It's too soon! It's too soon!"
"Shock can trigger an early labour, you need to try to stay calm."
"Easy for you to say, you aren't trying to hold in a fucking child!"
Scott eased away, turning his head to appeal for help, any help at all.
"Thunderbird 5? We have a problem down here."
"What's happening Scott?"
"Female, 28 years of age, 36 weeks pregnant, early labour."
"Is there no chance of getting her out?"
"Not at the moment, she's refusing to leave until we find her husband and son, plus a trip down the mountain wouldn't be advisable."
"Have her waters broken?"
"Yes, just after the avalanche."
"Contractions?"
"Down from every 8 minutes to every 4."
"Dilation?"
"I…I don't know." Scott turned back to the woman who screamed and clamped her legs together.
"Don't touch me! Don't even come near me! I want Craig!"
"You have to let me help you."
"No! It wasn't supposed to be this way…urghhh-" she broke off to moan in pain, clutching at her distended belly, panting as the contraction washed over her.
"Is there no one that can help her? No females present?"
"Negative, those that were able to be moved have been."
"Kayo?"
"In dark mode, can't be disturbed."
John groaned, closing his eyes. What the fuck were they supposed to do? All of them had been through paramedic training and knew what to do in almost any situation, but none of them had ever assisted a birth, let alone one in those circumstances and with a less than cooperative patient.
"I'll go, I've helped at births before."
John's eyes snapped open to glare at her. "No way, I'm not risking you."
"But you'll risk your brothers? Kayo and Penelope?"
"That's different-"
"Why?" she cut in.
"Because that's their job, they're part of International Rescue."
"And I'm not?" her voice was low and dangerous, warning him to tread carefully.
"John, not that I want to get in the middle of a lovers tiff right now, but we need help, and if Selene is willing to come, then let her, please."
"No!"
"I won't let her get hurt."
"You can't guarantee that, Scott!"
She grabbed his shoulder, turning him round to face her.
"John, listen to me. I love you, but either I'm part of your life or I'm not." She waved her hand in his face to remind him of the ring he'd placed there just two days before.
He closed his eyes, gathering her close to his chest. "You know you are."
"Then let me help, let me do what I can, we're long haul, I'm not leaving you, but that woman needs someone she can trust and relate to. So trust me to be able to help her?"
"John? I'm seriously needing help here…"
John sighed, then he nodded. She went to pull away but he yanked her back, kissing her swiftly.
"Stay safe, don't take risks," his voice dropped lower so only she could hear him. "You have to come back, we're getting married."
"Love you, Space Man," she whispered back, then raised her voice again. "Let's get your elevator moving, I've got a baby to catch."
Selene dashed out of the elevator as soon as it touched down next to Two. She couldn't see the pods as they were working at the front of the resort where the most damage had occurred, but their tracks were clear to see.
"Where's International Rescue inside?" she called out to the first person she saw, but they didn't bother to acknowledge her, not stopping as they ran past.
"Twat," she muttered as she hoisted up the spare med kid that John had insisted she take and started towards the back where the most activity was.
"Hey, miss, you can't go in there! It's too dangerous!"
"I'm with them!"
"They don't have any females in the-"
She rounded on him. "You wanna go? Because we'll go and I'll fuck you up, don't test me. Now where the hell are they?"
"Just leave it, Bill, if she wants to get herself killed, let her," another man sneered.
Bill pointed a shaking finger through an open doorway.
"Thank you."
She hit her wrist comm -having become accustomed to leaving her pendant behind when she was wearing her space suit after it had floated up and smacked her in the face on more than one occasion- and homed in on Scott's signature, following it deeper into the oppressive, silent darkness of the lodge.
It was freezing cold inside, likely due to the fact that the heating and electricity was out and there was a bloody big hole in the side of the building that was rapidly filling with snow.
She saw Virgil first, heard the mechanical whine of his exo-suit, accompanied by his strained grunts of effort as he heaved and flipped things out of his way. He was accompanied by three men who were digging through the snow that was pouring in as rapidly as they cleared it. Two more men were sat on the floor, leaning against the remains of a wall, clearly trying to catch their breath.
She picked her way as carefully as she could over a huge mound of rubble and snow and into what had once been a lovely rustic looking, wood panelled lounge but was now almost unrecognisable, more than half of its insides on the outside, exposed to the wilds of the mountainside.
Off to the side, laid out as respectfully as possible, were three bodies. She took a second to place a supportive hand on Virgil's shoulder, unable to hug him as she'd like to with his gear on. He turned to look at her, the pain in his eyes clear to see. She kissed his cheek and patted the shoulder she still held.
"I'm gonna go help Scott before he freaks out even more, but know that I'm here if you need me."
He nodded and she let him go. "He's through there."
"Thanks."
She followed his directions, climbing back over the debris to the other side. Scott had managed to get the woman away from the open roof and tucked into a relatively clear corner. She was propped up against what looked to be a number of couch cushions and covered in a blanket. She was panting heavily, clutching at his hand as she tried to breathe.
"Hey there, darling, you waiting for me?"
Scott shot her a look that proclaimed she was an angel sent to earth and moved grateful out of the way.
Selene squatted down beside the woman. "What's your name, hun?"
The lady looked up at her with scared eyes, round and full of tears. "Cl...Clare. My name's Clare."
"Hi, Clare, I'm Selene, it's nice to meet you, though obviously better circumstances would have been preferred. But don't worry, I'm here to help. Together we're gonna make sure this little one is safe, OK?"
Selene took Clare's hand in hers and gave it a squeeze, conjuring up as much calming, healing energy as she could.
Clare visibly took a breath, her shoulders sagging as she relaxed a little and nodded.
"That's better. Now, can you tell me what happened? Take your time, in your own words."
Clare gripped on tightly to her hand, her face screwing up in pain as she tried to breathe, another contraction gearing up.
"Scott, can you try to find something to help her? Doesn't Two have Entonox on board?"
He nodded and took off at as fast a pace as he could.
"Keep talking to me, Clare, try to ignore the pain and tell me what happened."
Clare nodded, gasping through the pain, managing to start talking.
"We were here for Christmas, our last trip before this little one was born…" she paused to squeeze Selene's hand, "I wasn't skiing obviously, but my husband was teaching our son."
"Sounds nice," one handed Selene began to unload everything she thought they might need from the med kit.
"Have they been found? Are they OK?"
Selene looked up, seeing the panicked look on Clare's face. She didn't know what to say for the best, so in the end she stuck with vague honesty.
"I don't know, I just got here, but I can assure you that I know my team and they will be doing everything they possibly can to find them and help them if they need it."
"You promise?"
"I promise you, one hundred percent, that my boys will be doing everything in their power to help."
"You're close to them then?" she grunted as another wave of pain hit her and Selene tapped a button on her comm to start timing it.
"Very close."
"OK…I believe you…" Selene held her hand tight as Clare's face contorted like a Halloween mask, her breath coming in quick pants.
"Try to breathe with me, OK. In through your nose, deep breath," she inhaled deeply and held it for a couple of beats before exhaling loudly through her mouth, "out through the mouth. Come on, again, with me."
She coached the woman through a few more breaths, letting her speed up as the contraction truly took hold. Scott appeared beside them, a canister of Entonox in his hand. He got to work connecting a tube and mouthpiece to it.
"Perfect," she took the tube from him and handed it to Clare to hold. "Put this between your teeth, inhale deeply when the pain gets bad, this will help. Now, I know it's not pleasant, but I need to take a look at you and see how things are progressing, OK?"
At her nod Selene helped her to lay back so she was flatter and removed her jeans and underwear, making sure she was covered with the blanket the entire time.
She pulled off her standard issue gloves, needing to swap them for the more appropriate examination ones. She paused for a second, debating as it would likely rip the gloves, then removed her ring, holding it out to Scott.
"I don't have any pockets in this suit, look after this for me."
He held out his hand and she carefully dropped it into his palm. He stared at it for a second, then looked up at her, one eyebrow raised in question.
"Let's not make a big deal out of it, especially not now. Just don't lose it or John will kill you." He nodded and slipped it into his pocket, zipping it up tightly.
She cleaned her hands with a good squirt of alcohol rub and donned the gloves before carefully examining Clare.
She gently felt around, trying hard to remember what the rules were regarding size. It had been a few years since she had last helped deliver a baby and then she hadn't been the one in charge.
"Definitely not a grape, bigger than a grape," she muttered to herself. "Bigger than a coke can," she carefully spread her fingers, "Definitely Apple, maybe a donut." She stroked her fingers around, feeling the hard, bulbous head of the baby, already in position. "Not long now hun. We're close."
She began to time the contractions again when Clare began to writhe in pain, her swollen belly rippling as the contraction spread through her. Two minutes apart, longer than sixty seconds, they were getting very close.
Selene encouraged her to breathe, offering her the gas and air every time she stopped sucking on the mouthpieces. "Keep inhaling, you'll be OK."
"My…my husband, my son?"
"No news yet that I've heard, but he could be stuck outside as they aren't letting anyone in. Just try not to worry and keep breathing, I need you to focus and tell me the second you feel like you want to push."
"My brothers will do everything they can for your family," Scott promised her. He took the bottle of water Selene handed him and helped Clare sit up enough to sip some.
She swallowed loudly, flinching when Selene gently checked her progress.
"We are definitely at donut territory now and heading towards bagel. Next contraction, if you get the urge to push, do it. Listen to your body."
They had about a minute to prepare themselves before Clare grabbed her hand and hung on tight. She gritted her teeth, letting out a muffled scream as she pushed hard. The contraction waned and she flopped back against the pillows, panting.
It was subtle at first, but it was definitely there. She would have likely noticed it quicker if she hadn't been concentrating so hard on Clare.
It started as a tingle at the back of her neck, an awareness creeping over her like a spiderweb in her hair, the brush of phantom fingers across her cheek.
Her gaze cut to the side, catching the briefest glimpse of a man before he vanished. She didn't have time to worry about him too much as Clare began to wail again.
Selene counted her through another three rounds of panting, pushing, straining screaming and the baby had barely moved. She gave the woman some more water and mopped her forehead as the sweat continued to drip down to her eyes.
"We need to try something different. Scott, I need you to help her up and support her from behind for me, can you do that?"
"Of course." Scott was on it now that he had, for once, let someone else take over and start organising. This wasn't his area of expertise and he was smart enough to know when to back off and just accept his orders.
"Alright, my love, let's get you up, OK? Let's see if we can't encourage this little one to start shifting." She took Clare's hands and placed them on her shoulders, then with a hand under each armpit, dragged her up into a squatting position. Scott took over as she guided his arms under Clare's, effectively turning him into a human armchair.
Selene checked her comm. "OK sweetheart, should be another one coming up, really push for me."
Leaving one of Clare's hands on her shoulders, Selene tucked a folded blanket under the woman to pad the floor and pushed the mouthpiece of the pain relief back into her free hand.
"Puff on that and listen to your body, you've done this before, you know the drill. You can do this."
Clare screamed through gritted teeth as another contraction ripped through her. A hard weight pressed against Selene's hands as she felt the baby's head begin to crown.
"Yes, love! Good girl, you're doing it, almost done, baby's almost here. Keep breathing with me, in and out, in and out."
The spirit moved closer, Selene could feel him standing right behind her and shivered in response, the feeling of someone walking over her grave all too familiar.
She coached Clare through, ignoring the spirit as best she could, as one contraction ended and another came fast on its heels.
More pushing, more pained grunting and Selene was able to help guide the baby's shoulders. She held the baby there, supporting its weight and giving Clare a moment to breathe.
"Suck on that gas, keep breathing…"she watched for the tightening of her belly again,"Now, push, come on Clare, we've got this."
Scott grunted as the woman lent heavily against his chest, using him as leverage.
"Last one Clare, let's meet your baby. Come on, you're doing so well!"
The spirit moved closer again, and this time he formed fully behind her, looking over her shoulder.
The woman's fingers dug into Selene's shoulder as she bore down, pushing with all her might. With a sudden release of pressure the baby slid out into Selene's grasp along with a metric ton of ick.
"You have a daughter, Clare!"
Selene felt a wave of emotion from the spirit man, realising why he was there.
Clare collapsed back against Scott who only just caught her. He helped her lay back, propped up on pillows as Selene got to work.
"Is she OK?"
"She'll be fine, just give me a second."
The baby, a little girl, hadn't cried yet and she needed to act fast. She wrapped the baby in a soft blanket from the med kid and gently rubbed her back, encouraging her to breathe. The little one took in a rasping breath but it gurgled in her throat.
Scott came round to help her, visibly paling when he saw the mess that had leaked onto her suit and still covered the baby.
"It's blood, not nuclear waste. Chill out." This earnt her a scowl which she ignored.
Propping the baby in her arms she held out her hand to Scott who, even though he would probably rather be doing anything but helping, gingerly yanked up her bloodied glove from the base, peeling it off and inside out like a banana.
She picked through the med kit with one hand and managed to find a pipet which she could use. She slid her pinky gently into the baby's mouth and used the pipet to carefully suck out any fluid that she may have swallowed, doing the same with her nose. She snuffles, inhaled deeply and then let out a demanding wail, sucked in another breath and did it again.
After a few more lusty yells Selene was sure she would be alright. She carefully handed her over to Clare who was crying with exhaustion, fear, worry, pain and a million other emotions.
"Try to feed her if you can, it'll help with the placenta."
Clare nodded and with some help from Selene, unbuttoned her blouse and pulled aside her bra cup to allow the baby access. The hungry little thing latched on almost instantly.
"Perfect, that's wonderful. You did so well, girl, I'm so proud of you."
"Where's my husband, and my son? Are they OK? I need to know."
"I'm afraid we don't have any news yet, but a lot of people were evacuated so they might be in the village already. I really couldn't say."
She tucked another blanket around them both to keep them warm and then gestured for Scott to follow her.
"I've got this if you want to go and help the others. They could probably do with a hand."
"We still need to find her family. Her husband and her son."
Selene tried to school her expression to one of concern but as usual, Scott was too observant for his own good.
"What? What's wrong?"
She glanced over his shoulder at Clare who was crooning lovingly to her new daughter. They were bound to find out about her gifts at some point, especially if she was marrying into the family, now was as good a time as any. She grabbed his arm and pulled him further away, lowering her voice.
"We won't find her husband alive."
"What?" His face registered utter shock. "How do you know that?"
She sighed. "You wouldn't believe me if I told you, just trust that I know."
His eyes narrowed, eyebrows drawing down into a frown. "No, tell me what's going on."
"I'm a Witch."
He had the same eye roll as his brother. "I know that."
She gave him a look as if that one sentence explained it all. Which to her it did.
"So you're telling me that your witch senses were tingling and you just know?" There was a slight hint of something in his voice, maybe disbelief or exasperation,the same tone in which he pushed aside Gordon's squid sense.
"Well, that and the fact that his spirit was standing over me the whole time."
"His...what?"
"Look, I promise, I'll explain it all later, OK? But for now I need to get back to her and you guys need to find a way to get her out."
He looked like he wanted to argue, but finally nodded and went in search of Virgil. At least he hadn't been rude to her about it, that was always a bonus. John's brothers might not always understand or even believe her, but they never made her feel unloved.
She glanced at Clare, who was still quietly feeding the baby. The spirit was close to her now, watching them both with a soft expression that tugged on her heart. Gods she wished things were different, that she could be reuniting them all. The spirit looked over at her, catching her watching them. He leant forward, placing a gentle kiss on the baby's forehead and then the same for his wife, who shivered in response but didn't look up.
He stepped back, lifting a hand, either in greeting, acknowledgement of her actions or in farewell, maybe all three. His form shimmered, losing the solid lines, growing fuzzy before fading away completely.
She let out the breath she had been holding, exhaustion swamping her. Why was it always so hard?
Selene needed to touch base, she needed to talk to John, even just for a second, to let him know she was OK but mostly because she really needed to hear his voice. It was emotional, helping someone bring a new life into the world when others had just been snuffed out.
She peeled off her remaining glove and balled it up, tossing it towards the med kit and tapped her comm.
"Everything OK?"
He was there in an instant and she took her first full breath since entering the building.
"Yeah, I'm fine, love. Mother and baby girl are doing good, I'm gonna go and help with the placenta in a few minutes. I just wanted to check in. How are the boys doing?"
Her man looked tired and she ached to hold him, to feed him and let him sleep, the stress of rescues was never lost on him, even though he wasn't usually an active participant on earth.
"Virgil and his volunteers have managed to extract everyone that was crushed in the collapse and are now working on clearing the way out for your lady. Gordon and Alan have worked non stop to clear most of the snow away and have recovered everyone that was trapped."
"All survivors?"
"Unfortunately not, three more deceased for them, two for Virgil, it brings our total to twelve. Five more still in critical condition."
She didn't want to ask but knew she had to. Lowering her voice she turned away from Clare.
"Any of them children?"
"No, almost all the children were taken to safely, only one boy, around five years old was rescued, he is badly shaken, broken arm but no other injuries. Was treated for hypothermia and shock. It could have been much worse but he was sheltered." John paused and she had a good idea of just how he had been sheltered.
"Someone was with him, weren't they? And they didn't make it." The last was a statement not a question.
He nodded slowly.
"I wont tell her yet, she's not enough and I'd rather she be somewhere safe where she can have help available if needed. I have to go."
"Selene, how did you know that?"
She managed a tiny smile. "I love you, I'll see you later." Her tone made it clear she wasn't up to talking about it right then and as was often the case, he let it go.
"Be careful."
"I will, I promise."
She shut down the link and returned to Clare's side. The baby was dozing quietly now, barely suckling.
"I know you don't want to let her go, but I'm afraid you have to, just for a moment or two while you deliver the placenta." She carefully arranged another blanket on a pillow and took the baby, laying her snuggly and securely beside her mother.
"Have you been feeling more contractions? The feeding should have helped them start."
"Yes, only mild though."
"No urge to push yet?"
Clare shrugged tiredly. "A little."
Selene nodded. "OK, I'm going to massage your stomach and try to get it moving, I'll have to press quite hard I'm afraid. But once it's done it shouldn't be much longer before we can get you on a stretcher and get you out of here."
"Just do it, I need to find my family."
"I'll do my best to get you out of here as quickly as possible."
She stopped talking and, after slipping on a fresh pair of gloves, started to firmly knead Clare's abdomen, rolling down towards her pelvis. Her patient grunted, screwing up her face, obviously uncomfortable but she didn't make a move to stop her.
Gently Selene took hold of the cord that was still attached to the little girl.
"I need you to tell me if you feel a pressure, like you need to use the bathroom." She continued to press hard with one hand, massaging and encouraging the placenta to move.
"I feel it, I think it's moved."
"OK, just like pushing out baby but with less effort, give me a couple of hard pushes please."
Clare nodded, gritting her teeth as she pushed hard, grunting with effort.
The first push almost had it. Selene gently tugged on the cord with the second and the placenta slid out easily.
"All done, hun. You did great."
She did a brief visual inspection to check everything was in one piece before placing the placenta in a clinical waste bag from the med kit.
"We need to keep this attached to baby for a little while, just until you get to the hospital so they can check that everything is as it should be."
She heard a noise and looked up to see Scott and Gordon, a stretcher hovering between them.
"Exit is clear, time to go you two."
"Three," Selene corrected as she shed her second pair of gloves and began to bag up the waste along with two bloodied blankets to be disposed of.
She and Gordon helped Clare to shuffle over into the stretcher and raised it back up to hip height. She turned to see Scott carefully scoop up the baby. She looked so tiny in his big hands, a small blanket burrito of cuteness. He passed the little one to her mother with a small smile.
Selene slipped her arm around his waist, giving him a brief, one armed hug.
"You did good, babes."
He hugged her back. "Think you did most of the work, but it's the best outcome we could have had."
She nodded and let go, following along beside her patient as they made their way slowly outside.
She stayed with her as mother and baby were loaded into one of the recently returned shuttle sledges and off on their way to hospital. On a whim she had told Clare that if she ever needed to talk or needed someone, she could call and John would patch her through. She knew that John would probably scowl at her and it would take a good few kisses and soothing reassurances that she wasn't using him as a messenger service before he forgave her, but she knew she couldn't give out her number now she was so involved with International Rescue. She knew that Clare was about to receive the worst kind of news a wife could ever hear. Selene wasn't married yet and didn't have kids to think about, but the idea of losing the man she loved was something she refused to even contemplate.
She hugged Clare goodbye, stroked the baby's soft head and waved them off.
"Hard isn't it?"
She turned to see Gordon beside her, looking as shattered as she felt.
"Yeah, it's not great."
"Did you hear that we found her husband?"
Selene frowned. Had she heard, why did he ask that? Had Scott not told them that she had been the one to tell him?
"Alan uncovered them under John's direction. They were close to where the side of the building had been. Possibly they were trying to take shelter but the snow just came too fast. He was covering the boy, he'd obviously tried to protect him. We don't know how he died, but we'd assume internal injuries of some kind. The boy's doing OK, he was taken to hospital along with the other survivors." Gordon paused, seeing the look on her face. "None of this is news to you, is it? Did Scott tell you, or John?"
She sighed, suddenly feeling more tired than ever before, and she'd hardly done anything.
"Can we talk about this later? When we get back?"
Gordon looked like he wanted to argue, but finally gave in.
"Virgil is just doing a debrief with the local authorities and then we can go, John's going to meet us there."