Chapter 7

I am so sorry for the very long wait! Enjoy…

The ambulance roared as it pulled up near the crash site. Dixie took a deep breath as she seen the smashed car. Every crash site reminded her of that day; the day she lost everything. She'd obviously been to counselling to stop the vivid memories but any crashed car or van reminded her of Jeffrey Collier.

Shaking her thoughts away, she tried her best to become professional again. Stepping out of the vehicle, her medical kit in her hand; she ran towards the car. As she got closer, she looked through the broken windscreen. A familiar face. Her stomach dropped. She felt her heart thumping in her chest. Rita.

"Iain," she shouted at the top of her voice. "It's Rita!"

Within in a split second of hearing her name, Iain was by Dixie's side. He turned to face Dixie who was just staring at Rita, her body completely frozen. Taking hold of her shoulders, he made Dixie look at him.

"I've got this," he spoke gently. "We need to be quick and I can't have you like this. It won't help me and it certainly won't help Rita. So take a breather, go back to the ambo and phone for back up."

Dixie nodded, knowing that Iain was right. She wanted to help Rita of course but she couldn't do that if she kept being stopped by the memories of Jeff. She slowly turned on her heel and made her way back to the ambulance.

Iain sighed, realising that he was now alone and he had to save Rita. He glanced over to the car. His heart was pounding now. He ran over, slinging his bag down to the floor. He tugged at the car door but it appeared to be jammed. Panicking, he tried and tried again, but nothing. He closed his eyes; taking a moment to collect himself and with all his might he pulled at the door and it swung open. Sighing with relief, he began to call Rita's name in the hope that she would respond in some sort of way.

"Rita," he called. "Can you hear me?"

Taking a small torch from his pocket he carefully pushed Rita's eyelid up and shone the light into her away. There was a slight smile on Iain's face as he watched the pupils respond. But, she wasn't out of the woods yet.

"Right Rita, I'm going to put this oxygen on you," he explained, just in case she could hear him.

He then continued to quickly examine her. Luckily, nothing had been trapped and with the right equipment they could get her out with ease. He placed a collar around her neck and once Dixie had felt more useful she come over to help Iain and the other paramedics. She held Rita's hand and whispered words of comfort to her as the team delicately positioned her on a spinal board to get her out of the car.

The journey in the ambulance was fairly quiet. Both Iain and Dixie too worried and scared to say anything. Iain had been checking Rita every five seconds just to make sure she didn't suddenly go downhill. But, just as they were five minutes away from the hospital the machines attached began to beep rapidly. Iain panicked and started compressions instantly.

"We need to get her to the hospital now," he shouted with frustration. Then, with a more hushed tone, he said to Rita, "You are not doing this, do you hear me? You are not leaving me. I won't let you. I love you."

A couple of minutes later, after Iain had administrated two shocks he finally got her back into the right rhythm just as they pulled up outside the ED.

Iain flopped down into the chair next to the trolley, his eyes slightly red from he had allowed a few tears to escape. Dixie opened the ambulance doors; Zoe standing next to her. Iain watched as Zoe's face dropped in the sudden realisation that it was Rita lying on that bed.

Zoe took a deep, returning to her doctor mode, "Right, what have we got?"

"This is Rita Freeman, 37 years old. She was involved in an RTC…" Dixie trailed off as Iain got the trolley out of the ambulance and pushed it towards resus.

Once they had done the transfer, Iain took a step back but stayed in the room. His face remained expressionless as he watched Zoe and the rest of the team rush around the blonde woman.

"I think we should go, they're going to need some space to work," Dixie nudged him. She was fully aware of the situation between Rita and Iain. She had seen the sparks on Iain's first day in Holby City. She knew they had developed feelings for each other, despite them both being in separate relationships. She knew that they had tried to hide and fight their feelings for one another by arguing all the time. She knew that Rita being in an accident would break him.

Iain didn't reply, he just continued to stare at the body on the bed. Dixie nodded, she understood. Giving his shoulder a gentle squeeze, she left resus.

As she was walking out, she could see Emily approaching her.

"Ah Dixie!" Emily let out. "Is Iain with you?"

Dixie rolled her eyes, she had never liked Emily and the way she always treated Rita made her stomach turn.

"He was, he's just nipped to the loo before we go on another shout," she lied, pointing towards the radio that hung on her belt.

Emily smiled, sensing that that wasn't the truth. But, she was too busy to worry over it so she just replied with an "Okay" and "When you see him, tell him we need to talk," before going back to the job she was supposed to be doing.

In the time that Dixie had managed to keep Emily as far away from Iain has possible, Zoe had surveyed Rita and was satisfied that everything seemed clear. She was now stable and slowly waking up.

Zoe looked out at Iain; she too had an idea about their feelings for each other but didn't really question either of them with her love life being complicated as well.

"You can see her for a bit before she goes up for her CT scan," she spoke quietly as she walked over to him. "She'll be a bit groggy from the morphine but she should be able to make some sort of conversation."

Iain let out a sigh of relief; he ran his hands through his hair as he quickly tried to think of what he was going to say to her. Once it was just them in resus – bar the odd nurse or doctor that came in to check up on other things – Iain stood by the side of her bed and took hold of her hand, being careful not to move too many wires. Rita's eyes flickered at his touch.

"Rita?" Iain whispered. "It's me. It's Iain."

Rita let out a groan, unable to form any words at the moment. She tried to open her eyes, her vision was slightly blurry but as she blinked a few times everything seemed to settle. Her eyes darted around the place as she took in her surroundings. Her heart dropped as they stopped on Iain.

"Iain?" she could hardly speak, her voice was croaky and her throat was dry.

Iain smiled, "Yeah, that's me."

She took a small breath, slightly wincing in pain, "I love you too," she let out. And then she closed her eyes once again.

Iain raised his eyebrows and his eyes widened with shock. He was taken back and he was not expecting her to say that. He could feel his heart racing; she had heard what he said in the ambulance. The thoughts ran through his mind; I love you too. How was he going to reply?

Just as Iain opened his mouth to say something, the resus doors swung open. A panicked man stood in the doorway.

Rocker ran towards Rita's bedside, "Rita! Are…are you okay? I am so sorry. I didn't mean what I said this morning."

Iain immediately let go of Rita's hand and backed away. Rocker looked up as Iain tried to leave.

"No," Rocker snarled. "What were you doing in here?"

Iain closed his eyes slowly, "I was just checking to see if Rita was okay, that's all."

"You were holding her hand," he glared at Iain.

"I was comforting he…" he was interrupted as Rocker started to square him up.

"You stay away from her! Do you understand me?" he spat before pushing Iain away and going back to Rita.

If this had been any other situation Iain would've fought back but he knew that it wasn't fair on Rita, she had been put through enough already. But, he wasn't defeated; he was going to rescue Rita from that retched man, even if it killed him. As he left resus and walked through reception, he bumped into Emily. His face dropped, she was certainly someone he didn't want to see today.

"Where have you been?" she asked, folding her arms. There was a hint of anger in her voice.

"Not now," he tried to walk past her but she stopped him.

"What is going on?" she argued.

Iain rolled his tongue along the edges of his lip, "You want to know what is going on? I'll tell you shall I? One of my greatest friends was in a car accident today; she was in a pretty bad way. So I am sorry if I didn't devote my attention to you but I have other priorities. And if you can't accept that then I don't think we are going to work," he shouted, causing everyone to look at them.

"What?" Emily took a step back, tears brimming in her eyes.

"Us, we're over! Done, finished. I have had enough; just leave me alone, okay?" Iain turned and stormed out of the ED, leaving Emily on her own with many pairs of eyes glaring at her.