St Matthew's Passion - By Sam Archer Page 0,48

now had to get them both back to the bank. And she couldn’t do it.

So she’d focused all her energy on simply not sinking, and keeping the boy’s head above the surface. For it while it had felt as if she could keep up the activity for ever; but before long she’d been aware of the creep of a fatigue more profound than any she’d experienced before, and a greyness began to seep across her consciousness.

The shock of suddenly being grabbed and borne aloft choked the breath out of her. For an instant, in her confused, half-drowned state, she thought she was being accosted by some malevolent river demon in human form. Then familiarity had clicked into place like the twist of a kaleidoscope.

It was Fin. He’d come for her, like a guardian angel.

Try as she might to help him as he hauled her and the squalling toddler against the relentless pull of the water, she’d been unable to muster the strength in her arms and legs and instead had simply lain pressed against Fin, feeling helpless, like dead weight.

There’d been the confusion of the approaching speedboat and the shouting and then some sort of awful thundering behind them before a great wave had engulfed them, the river making one last concerted effort to drag them under. Then Melissa felt hands prising her free from Fin’s locked arm. She struggled – he’d saved her, and she didn’t want to be wrenched free from his protection – but she was too weak to resist effectively. Once again she felt herself being lifted, this time by several pairs of hands. The next thing she was aware of was the hard surface of the floor of the speedboat.

Events after that had moved so quickly that she’d registered only a small proportion of them. Fin was strapped to a stretcher on the bank and rolled into the back of a waiting ambulance. He was unconscious, and one of the paramedics had to keep a wad of gauze pressed to his head to stop the bleeding. The child, Melissa noticed, was in his hysterical mother’s arms, crying himself, already wrapped tightly in blankets. He’d have to go to hospital by ambulance as well, but for a few moments the crew indulged mother and son in their reunion.

Melissa started to clamber aboard the ambulance after Fin. The female paramedic stopped her.

‘We need to have a look at you.’

‘There’s no time, and you can’t spare the staff,’ Melissa said thickly. Nausea was beginning to kick in. ‘If I’m in the ambulance then at least you can keep an eye on me.’

The paramedic hesitated, then nodded and helped Melissa into the back.

After she’d tried to interfere, after the ambulance crew had pushed her away and she’d resigned herself to taking a back seat, she nevertheless kept her eyes fixed on Fin and on the expressions of the two paramedics attending to him. She listened to their reports: his blood pressure and pulse were fine, but his temperature was unsurprisingly low. More worryingly, the oxygen saturation in his blood was below normal, and dropping.

‘Pupils equal and reactive,’ muttered one of the paramedics. Then: ‘GCS ten.’

The paramedics moved aside, having done all they could for now. Melissa stared at Fin’s face. She’d never seen it in repose before. The wryness was gone from the mouth, along with the semi-dimple at its corner. The closed lids hid the keen intelligence, the passion, that normally radiated from the eyes.

It was a face that, for the first time since Melissa had met him, was at peace.

The peace, perhaps, of one who had come to the end of his life, and was accepting death with resignation.

Melissa swept ropes of wet matted hair out of her face and pressed her fist against her teeth, choking back a sob.

She pleaded with him silently.

Don’t, Fin.

Please don’t die.

And, although she knew it was impossible, she aimed a thought at him that perhaps he might in some odd telepathic way register.

I love you.

It was only when both paramedics glanced round sharply at her that Melissa realised she’d spoken out loud.

Chapter Eleven

Melissa almost grabbed the films out of Professor Penney’s hands. He’d come ambling down the corridor perusing them, having just collected them in person from the radiology department.

They were the images from Fin’s MRI scan, the ones that would give an idea of the condition of his brain structure.

The professor handed them over and Melissa rammed them up into the viewing box, alongside each other. She flicked the switch