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Jason had to join in the burst of laughter. Yes, he felt much better. He could still have a good time with his mates even if he was holding a baby and a bottle.

And he couldn’t even reach the chocolate muffins.

5

The surprise was enough to stop her in her tracks.

Fortunately, Laura recovered swiftly enough to prevent Tim bowling her over as he followed her into the staffroom. It wasn’t the first time she had seen Jason feeding his daughter after all. They had sorted that one out the night after the visit to the doctor. It was just the first time she’d seen him looking as though he was enjoying the duty. He was actually laughing.

‘What’s the joke?’ Laura reached for the cup of coffee Mrs McKendry miraculously had ready for her and smiled her thanks.

‘Don’t ask,’ Bruce advised.

‘How’s Vicky doing?’ Jason’s query was casual but Laura could see how important her answer was when she caught his gaze.

‘She’s going to be fine.’ It was Tim who answered, sitting down at the table and reaching for a muffin. ‘She’s one lucky kid.’

Laura eyed the muffins but decided against having one. ‘She sure is. I didn’t think we had a chance to start with.’ She turned to Tim. ‘As soon as you said there was no pulse, I thought that was it.’

‘I couldn’t believe it when you found she was in VF.’ Tim was grinning around the edges of his muffin. ‘Great job, huh?’

Laura found Jason was still staring as he listened intently. ‘When a child has a cardiac arrest, it usually follows a respiratory arrest,’ she explained. ‘And by then the damage from no oxygen is irreversible.’

Tim was nodding. ‘Last case like that I had, we managed to resuscitate this toddler after he’d choked on a button or something. We got him back but they had to turn the life support off two days later.’

‘Normally, they go straight into asystole instead of VF as well,’ Laura said. ‘So you can’t just shock them back into a normal rhythm. That’s why we got excited when we saw what we were dealing with.’

‘What’s VF?’ Stick queried.

‘Ventricular fibrillation,’ Laura explained. ‘The ventricles are the more important chambers of the heart. In a normal rhythm they’re contracting strongly and pumping the blood out to the rest of the body. Fibrillating means that there’s a very uncoordinated movement in the heart muscle and it’s ineffective for pumping.’

‘Whatever.’ Stick wasn’t interested in improving his anatomical knowledge.

‘How come you got there so fast?’ Bruce asked. ‘I thought you got sent out to some unconscious person.’

‘He was asleep.’ Tim grinned. ‘And rather drunk.’

‘That was lucky,’ Stick told them. ‘You guys were awesome at the fire from what we heard. Jase hasn’t stopped talking about it.’

‘It was just the first time I’ve hung around to watch.’ Jason’s ears had gone pink enough for Laura to realise he was embarrassed. ‘It was pretty impressive.’

He was avoiding Laura’s gaze and she dropped her own to her coffee mug. Heavens, had he been impressed by her?

‘It was more than that,’ Bruce said. ‘You should have seen him, Laura. He was standing there, all misty-eyed, watching you drive the kid off to the hospital.’

‘I was not,’ Jason protested. Then he gazed down at Megan and adjusted the tilt of the bottle he was holding. ‘Okay,’ he admitted. His ears were an even brighter shade of pink now. ‘It did get to me. Dunno why.’

‘It’s because it was a kid,’ Bruce suggested.

‘I’ve rescued kids before.’

‘It’s because you’re a dad now,’ Cliff said. ‘It changes things.’

‘Nah. Why should it?’

‘It’s true.’ Laura nodded at Cliff. ‘I’ve seen the way friends change once they’ve had a baby. It changes your whole perspective.’

‘Sure does. You get a connection to other people that makes you more… human, I guess. Or less selfish or something.’