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‘What would you say?’ The fireman got in his face, forcing Callum to look at him.

‘You’d ask him to step back, get out of your way, and let you do your job,’ Liv answered the question quietly.

‘She’s right.’ The fireman kept his hand on Callum’s shoulder. ‘So please, do as your colleague says. Step back, keep out of our way, and let us do our job and get in there and bring everyone out safely.’

Callum visibly deflated before Liv’s eyes. All his anger gone and replaced by agonising worry.

* * *

Liv tried to concentrate on the patient she was patching up, and gently pick out the fragments of glass from her arm. She flushed the wound with saline, before carefully padding it with clean gauze. ‘You are going to need a bit more attention, I’m afraid, and maybe a few stitches. But it should heal up nicely.’

Her attention was pulled away from her patient’s thanks by Callum pacing by for the hundredth or so time while waiting for the firemen to reappear. She longed to reach out and comfort him somehow, to make it a bit better, but she knew there was nothing she could say or do right now. And he’d made it clear that he had no interest in anything she had to say.

So she made herself as useful as she could, going from one patient to the next and patching up their wounds, falling back into the compartmentalisation she’d used in emergency medicine for so many years.

But she wished, so much, it was different, and that they could support each other right now. The wait was interminable. And pointless. When eventually the firemen came out, blinking in the bright sunshine, it was to shake their heads apologetically. They hadn’t been able to get far enough inside, the building was too unstable, and there just wasn’t room to work safely. They had to wait for the structural team and their equipment.

She could see the tension in Callum’s back, and feel his frustration building from across the car park. Not that she could blame him. She didn’t care that she wasn’t going to be a part of their life going forward, or that she and Callum had broken up, all she wanted was to see Sarah, safe and well, sparkling in the sunshine. She loved that little girl so much it physically hurt to think that anything might have happened to her.

Unable to focus, and not having any real hope for a response, she unlocked her phone again and redialled Angela’s number which rang and rang and rang. Just as she was about to hit end, rather than listen to the cheery answerphone message for Angela and the animal rescue centre for the umpteenth time, there was a quiet click.

‘Hello! Angela? Can you hear me?’

‘Livvy? I gotted Angela’s phone from her bag.’

‘Oh my God, Sarah!’ Liv’s heart rushed into her throat as she looked around for Callum and beckoned to one of the firemen. ‘Are you all right? Where are you? Let me put you on loudspeaker and find your dad. Sarah, are you OK? Are you still in the café?

‘Uh huh. Livvy, I’m scared.’

‘I know, sweetie. But it will be all right. I promise you, we’ve got lots of people out here who are working really hard to come and get you safely. OK?’

‘OK.’

Finally, she spotted Callum, emerging from down the side of the café. She waved and beckoned, pointing at the phone while trying to stay calm for Sarah. ‘Can you tell me where you are?’

‘Kinda in the booth where we sitted, but it’s upsy topsy.’

‘Oh my God, Sarah.’ Callum grabbed Liv’s hand around the phone. ‘I’m so glad to hear your voice, baby girl. Are you OK?’

‘I’m scared. It’s really dark in here. I don’t like it.’ Her voice dissolved into tears and great sobbing gulps.

‘It’s all right, it’s going to be all right.’ Callum tried to soothe her, but Liv could see that he was getting more and more upset as Sarah cried harder and harder.

After wrestling with herself for a few moments, Liv took a deep breath and placed her hand on Callum’s shoulder. ‘Let me try?’ She kept her voice low, and forced calmness into it.

He nodded, his jaw clenched. ‘But stay close. I want to hear.’

‘Of course.’

‘Sarey-fairy, it’s Livvy. I know you’re upset and scared, but I want you to try and take a deep breath for me, OK? I’m going to count to three, and when I get there, you’re going to take the biggest breath you can, and hold it until I say to let go, all right? A really big, big breath like you’re about to blow up a big balloon. OK? One, two, big breath remember, three.’ Liv felt her own breath catch as the sobbing abruptly ceased. ‘Now, slowly, slowly let it out. Then, when you’ve done that, take in another big, big breath, and blow it out slowly for me again. OK?’

‘Like when we blow bubbles?’

‘Yes, sweetie. Exactly like when we blow bubbles. You’re doing so good.’

‘Is Daddy still there?’

‘Yes, munchkin, I’m still here. And you’ll be out here with me soon, I promise. But for now you’ve got to be brave, OK?’