“I’m a doctor. Breathe with me now. Ready?”
Being hyped up wasn’t going to serve Diane well, and all Neve could think to calm her was to slow her breathing. She started talking the woman through box breathing, counting slowly in twos over and over and over.
Neve lost track of time as she bobbed along a hazy stream of thoughts. Every ounce of brainpower was honed in on Diane. Making her breathe, keeping her quiet, counting out their breaths.
The faint sound of a child crying reached Neve’s ears. Had she imagined it? Her question was answered moments later when she heard itagain. This time, though, it was accompanied by a resonant, soothing voice. Reece. Reece had the baby and was talking to it.
Diane had slipped out of consciousness once more, and Neve felt for a pulse in her neck, relieved when it thudded under her fingertips, strong and steady.
An indeterminable amount of time passed in surreal silence, and then the world seemed to explode as emergency workers reached the scene and streamed down the embankment. She relinquished her hold on Diane, stood, and backed out of the way. Reece appeared, rounding the hood of Diane’s vehicle and standing so close to Neve she could feel the heat drifting from his body and warming her own.
A shiver moved through her. He dropped his arm around her shoulders. “Where’s your coat?”
She pointed toward the driver’s side, where two emergency workers were tending to Diane. “I don’t need it.”
“There’s nothing more we can do here, and they’ll appreciate us clearing out of their way. They’ve got the situation under control. Let’s get on home, yeah?”
She nodded dumbly and let Reece lead her up the slope to her Tahoe, where he pulled out a bottle of water and cleaned blood from her face and hands before doing the same for himself. Following his lead, she swapped out her sweatshirt for a clean one. Finally, without a word, he helped her into the passenger seat, then grabbed a blanket she always kept in the back seat and draped it over her. He slid behind the wheel, and soon they were rolling down the highway toward Fall River.
As they got closer to town, she finally screwed up the courage to ask if Diane’s baby was going to be all right.
“I think so, but there’s no way to know for sure until they get him to a hospital and take a look at his head. Her ‘baby,’ by the way, is a seven-year-old-boy named Christopher.” Prompted by more of Neve’s questions, he explained that he’d found a booster sitting cockeyed in the back seat on the passenger side.
“There was no baby. Well, not the way we think of one anyway. I’m sure to her, he is her baby.” Instead, he had found the boy crumpled on the floorboards on his side, with his head wedged at an odd angle under the front seat. “Either he’d been unrestrained during the crash, or he slipped his straps on impact. He was facing away from me, and I wasn’tsure if he was alive. There was a lot of blood, but head wounds are like that, so I couldn’t tell how bad it was. I had to take my time getting his head unstuck because I didn’t want to cause more damage. When I finally worked him out, he came to. The poor kid was scared and in a lot of pain, but he was conscious, so I take that as a win. I sat with him, talked to him, tried to keep him calm, like you were doing for his mom.”
“I wanted to do more.”
“I know, but you did plenty. You were calm, and that kept her calm, and that’s huge. You kept her going until the pros arrived and took over. Those guys, by the way? I know them all. Diane and her boy are being taken care of by the best.”
“I would say Diane and Christopherhadthe best with you being there.” She didn’t mask her awe. “Those steps you mentioned. They’re something like the ABCs, right? Airway, breathing, and circulation?”
“Exactly.” He gave her a sidelong glance, and a smile tugged the corner of his mouth. “Are the ABCs something you use on your patients?”
“Not exactly. It just came to me when I first got to Diane. I was going purely on instinct. It must have been something I picked up in a first aid class that stuck with me. Beyond that, though, I had no idea what to do. It must be second nature to you.”
“What you did—racing toward danger, being focused on helping—that doesn’t come naturally. That takes a lot of courage. I would have been there sooner, but it took my brain a second to wake up. Then I had to turn on your hazards so the first responders would be able to locate us—”
“I can’t believe I didn’t think of doing that before I ran from the car!”
“Hey, cut yourself some slack. You did everything right.Morethan right. Your instincts were spot-on. You didn’t freak out, and that’s something most people would do under the same circumstances. You had the situation under control, and that gave me precious time to get that kid’s head out from under the seat. Who knows what kind of shape he’d be in right now if he hadn’t gotten the help he needed? You were a stud, Neve.” Admiration threaded through his words—not something she typically heard in his voice—and pride bubbled in her chest.
“Do you think they’ll be all right?”
“I don’t know, but I’ll see what I can find out. With HIPAA, it’s hard to check on someone after they pass out of your care. Diane bit through her tongue, which explains all the blood. I’m hoping there aren’t anyinternal injuries adding to it, but with the impact and air bags …” The speed limit sign changed as they approached town, and he slowed the Tahoe. “I’ll tell you one thing. That breathing technique you used with her? Really effective. Where did you pick that up?”
“Box breathing? No idea. Maybe in yoga class?”
“Yoga? Is that something you normally do?”
“Yes. Every week at the rec center. Lately, I’ve taken over leading it because therealteacher is off taking care of her newborn.”
“I never knew that about you. Have you been doing it a long time?”
“Breathing or yoga?”
This elicited a chuckle, and she reveled in the lightness of the moment.
“Yoga.”
