Breaking the Ice (33 page)

Karla’s heart fell. “That’s it? This is good-bye, then?”

Bryson hugged her tight. “Afraid it has to be. Come on, we have to leave.”

“Is it dangerous, where you’re going?” Karla asked once they were in the air.

“I’ve done a lot of glacial landings. But yes, there’s always a risk. The winds that high can be tough, you can’t tell the snow depth before you get down, and you have to worry about hidden crevasses. But I’ll be fine.”

“The woman who was injured—how serious is she?”

“Bad, I think. Multiple broken bones. Don’t know what else.”

Karla pictured the woman and her friends, high on the mountain, waiting for the welcome sight of the Cub. How many people had Bryson saved? “Are you taking a doctor up with you?”

“The nearest doctor’s in Fairbanks. The clinic in Evansville just has a CHA.”

“What’s a CHA?”

“Community Health Aide. Not surprised you haven’t heard of it, it’s an Alaska thing. CHAs get basic medical training and staff rural areas. They’re not equipped to deal with something like this. And the one in Evansville hates to fly.”

The decision came more easily than she expected. “Then you’ll need to take me with you.”

Bryson half turned in her seat. “Are you serious?”

“Very. She’ll stand a much better chance if I triage her on site before you move her.”

“I’m not saying I disagree. Frankly, I’d feel a hell of a lot better about transporting her if you’re there to treat and stabilize her. I can have an air-transport ambulance standing by in Bettles to get her the rest of the way to the hospital.” Bryson paused while she steered the Cub through a narrow canyon. “But, Karla, I won’t have room to take you both at the same time. You’ll have to stay up on the mountain until I can come back to get you. And you’ll miss your flight.”

“There’ll be others. And I’ll just have to deal with waiting for you. Her life could depend on it.”

“You’re absolutely sure?”

“Yes.”

Bryson turned the plane away from Bettles and headed northeast. She radioed Skeeter to update him and to tell him to get an air ambulance to Bettles ASAP. He’d already done that; one would be standing by when she arrived with the patient.

Twenty minutes later, they were circling the area. Two of the climbers appeared as tiny, waving specks of colored parkas in a sea of white. They’d erected a tent, and the injured woman was evidently inside. Bryson made several passes over the glacier, assessing the best approach. The winds here were capricious, shaking the little plane so fiercely at times that Karla fought to keep her breakfast down.

“Okay, get ready. Brace yourself,” Bryson shouted over the prop as she lined up for an uphill approach some fifty yards from the climbers.

Karla gripped the back of Bryson’s seat and watched in horror as they descended. She could make out no depth of field in the solid glare of white below. It was impossible to detect how close they were to the glacier’s surface until the skis actually touched down.

The snow looked so soft and inviting that she was unprepared for the bone-jarringly bumpy ride that followed as Bryson fought to stop the plane before it reached an ominous-looking mound of white invisible from above. She held her breath and closed her eyes, cursing under her breath.

The Cub lurched to an abrupt halt, but they were safely down, with just enough room left to turn the plane around. “You okay?” Bryson asked as she unbuckled herself.

“I’ll tell you when I get my stomach back.”

Bryson retrieved her first-aid supplies while Karla slogged toward the tent. The snow was knee-deep, and she was glad she’d put on her long underwear. The two uninjured climbers met her halfway.

“Thank God,” the first one, a blond man in his thirties, said. “I’m Eric. This is Al. My wife Jane’s badly hurt. We don’t know what to do. Please help her.”

“I’m Karla. I’m a nurse. Does your wife have any medical conditions I should be aware of?” she asked as they walked to the tent.

“No, she’s very healthy. Hardly been sick a day in her life.”

The tent was a small dome model, designed for two or three people. The injured woman was lying on one sleeping bag, an unzipped second one covering her. She was conscious and groaned as Karla bent over her to assess her condition.

“Jane, my name is Karla. Try not to move around.”

Bryson appeared in the entryway with a large First Responder First Aid kit, equipped with a stethoscope and BP cuff, in addition to an impressive collection of gauze and tape and other essentials. “Anything I can do?”

“Not right now. You don’t have a neck brace or backboard, do you?”

“I’ve got a foldable stretcher and soft collar.”

“Great. Get them, and anything you can find to rig splints with.” While Bryson did those tasks, Karla took her patient’s vital signs, then used the paramedic scissors from the kit to cut away her clothes to assess her injuries. She talked to Jane as she worked, asking questions that helped focus her examination as she worked through the trauma triage protocol.

Jane’s husband hovered just outside the tent, listening.

Bryson returned quickly with the supplies she’d requested. “How’s she doing?”

“Vitals are good,” she said, loud enough for the husband to hear. “Multiple fractures in both legs—all closed, and an open fracture above the elbow in her left arm. Possible broken ribs, and I can’t be sure about any internal injuries. But under the circumstances, it could be much worse. No indication of head, neck, or back trauma. But I want her immobilized just to be safe. Is the plane ready to go?”

“I have to turn it around and pack down a short runway with snowshoes,” Bryson replied. “Won’t take long.”

“Go ahead and do that while I splint her fractures. I’ll need all four of us to get her on the stretcher and out to the plane, so come right back when you’re done.”

“You got it.”

Within a half hour, Jane was secured in the back of the Cub, kept warm by one of the arctic sleeping bags. Bryson had to remove the passenger seat to make room for her. “It’ll be dark soon. I’ll have just enough light to pick up Karla, so you two will have to hike out.”

“I want to be with my wife,” Eric protested. “Can’t you come back with a bigger plane?”

“I don’t have time to argue,” Bryson said. “Radio in when you get down the mountain and within sight of the river, and someone will pick you up there and take you to the hospital in Fairbanks. I suggest you get moving.” She handed Karla her survival duffel. “There’s a tent and sleeping bag and other supplies in there, including an emergency radio. Keep warm, and I’ll be back as soon as I can.”

“I’ll be fine. Be careful.”

As Bryson took off, the men hurried to stow their gear. “I can’t thank you enough,” Eric told Karla as they shouldered their packs. “It’s damn lucky you could get here so quick.”

Karla wondered how Bryson and the men would have managed without her. “You’re welcome. Now get going. I’m okay.”

The mountaineers were out of sight within minutes, leaving her alone on the mountain. The wind was starting to pick up, so she wrapped herself in Bryson’s sleeping bag while she waited, praying the Cub could make it back before dark.

She could see for fifty miles or more, but detected no sign of another living thing, just snow and mountains and valleys. Formidable and frightening, yet startlingly beautiful. The sun skimmed along the horizon, painting an amber hue over the western sky and casting deep shadows from the cliff face behind her. She felt like the last person on earth.

Dusk began to fall, and just about the time she’d decided Bryson wasn’t coming back, she heard the distant hum of the Cub’s propeller. It was another ten minutes before she actually spotted the plane. By then it was too dark to make out much beyond the pair of white lights on the wings. She turned on the flashlight she’d found in the duffel and tried to signal her position.

Bryson came straight in this time, landing in the same spot as before. As Karla hurried to her, Bryson hopped out of the pilot’s seat and turned the Cub around.

“You all right?” Bryson quickly refit the passenger seat into position and stored her duffel in the hold.

“Really happy to see you. I didn’t relish spending the night up here alone.”

They made it back into the air without further incident and were soon headed toward Bettles.

Karla leaned forward in her seat. “How’s Jane?”

“Still stable when we got there. She went right onto the air ambulance. They should be at the hospital by now. She wanted me to thank you. You know, you made a huge difference today. I always really worry about these kinds of calls. Not the flying so much, but what injuries or problems I’ll have to deal with. There’s only so much I know to do.”

“I’m glad I was able to help. We made a good team.”

“That we did.”

The lights of Bettles came into view, and Bryson radioed in their approach. “I got us our room at the Den,” she told Karla as they touched down. “Sorry you missed your flight, but I have to admit I’m thrilled to get another night with you.”

“Me, too, Bryson. You know, I almost hope that when I call to rebook, they tell me all flights out of here are full for the next six months.”

The Cub rolled to a stop and Bryson came around the plane to help her out. But instead of heading toward the Den, she took Karla in her arms in a fierce embrace. She could feel Bryson trembling, but it was too dark to make out her features.

“You’re shaking. What is it?”

“Karla, you…you could…” Bryson’s voice broke, and Karla realized she was crying. “You could just not go back.”

“What are you saying?”

“I want you to stay. To build a life here with me. I know it’s asking a lot. We haven’t known each other that long, and you’d be giving up so much. But I love you, with all my heart. I’ve waited my entire life for you and I just can’t let you go. I’d do anything and everything possible to make you happy.” Bryson’s hand caressed her cheek. “Please. Think about it? I need you.
We
need you. Maggie. Lars. Karson. The whole village, and beyond. Your skills could save a lot of lives.”

“I have thought about it, Bryson. I’ve thought about little else.” Her pulse was racing. “Actually, I made a pact with myself, to have the Alzheimer’s test…to see whether I could be with you without saddling you with the prospect of having to take care of me. To watch me go through what my mother went through. I planned to come back if I didn’t have this awful future. I was going to surprise you.”

“Don’t you know none of that matters?” Bryson kissed her, long and hard, then hugged her close. “Life is full of risks and uncertainty, sweetheart. I know that better than anyone, doing what I do. I’ve learned it’s best to seize whatever happiness you can, while you can. As long as I have you, I can face anything life may throw at us.”

“I want so much to believe that, Bryson. I do. But—”

“Karla, I know you’ve been through so much that it has to be tough to trust what I’m saying. But I believe with every fiber of my being that we belong together. That your coming here wasn’t just about finding Maggie, but also about finding me. That fate had a role in all of this, somehow. If you search your heart and find you feel the same, then shouldn’t we follow what seems to be our destiny?”

Was it that simple? That destiny had brought her here? It certainly seemed so. Being here with Bryson felt
right.
Completely and absolutely
right.
Preordained. To fight that seemed unconscionable. “On one condition.”

Bryson inhaled sharply as she tightened her arms around Karla. “Whatever it is, the answer is yes.”

“I’m grounding you for at least a week, so we can make love in every way imaginable.”

Bryson laughed. “Done.” She lifted Karla and whirled her around, then kissed her. “Come on. I know some folks who’ll be just about as happy as I am about this. You get one phone call and maybe some dinner, then it’s straight to bed. And don’t expect to get one wink of sleep tonight.”

Karla’s heart soared as they strolled toward the Den, arm in arm. “Yes, ma’am. Have I mentioned I love it when you’re so forceful like this?”

Kim Baldwin has been a writer for three decades, following up twenty years as an executive in network news with a second vocation penning lesbian fiction.She has published five other solo novels with Bold Strokes Books in addition to
Breaking the Ice:
the intrigue/ romances
Flight Risk
and
Hunter’s Pursuit
and the romances
Force of Nature, Whitewater Rendezvous,
and
Focus of Desire.
Four of her books have been finalists for Golden Crown Literary Society Awards. She has also published two books in the Elite Operatives Series in collaboration with Xenia Alexiou:
Lethal Affairs
(translated into Dutch as Dubbel Doelwit) and
Thief of Always.
The third book in the series,
Missing Lynx,
comes out in February 2010.

Kim has also contributed short stories to five BSB anthologies: The Lambda Literary Award–winning
Erotic Interludes 2: Stolen Moments; Erotic Interludes 3: Lessons in Love;
IPPY and GCLS Award–winning
Erotic Interludes 4: Extreme Passions; Erotic Interludes 5: Road Games,
a 2008 Independent Publishers Award Gold Medalist; and
Romantic Interludes 1: Discovery.
She is currently at work on her tenth novel. She lives in the north woods of Michigan, but takes to the road with her laptop and camera whenever possible. Her Web site is www.kimbaldwin.com and she can be reached at [email protected].