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The Wheel Slowly Turns


Guest AngelRose

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“Doctor? Sorry to disturb you, but you said you wanted to be informed of any changes or news of the helicopter?”

Rachel looked up from Jack’s test suddenly barely able to breathe: “Yes Anne, what is it?”

The nurse smiled, and Rachel felt hopeful for the first time in weeks:

“Kim Hyde’s been found.”

“What?!” Rachael just about managed to make it to the nearest chair before her legs gave way. “Is he…?”

Anne put a hand on the Doctor’s arm; there was clearly something more going on here but the poor Doctor had just lost her mother and Rachel lived in Summer Bay with these people. The crash victims were her friends. Emotional overload must be putting it mildly, especially as rumour had poor Doctor Armstrong had booked the chopper flight; cause or not, she might have felt horribly guilty. Now was not the time to pry.

“Kim’s suffering from dehydration and exposure but he’s awake. The ambulance is on it’s way in now. Apparently he’s asking for you.”

“We’re close.” Rachael ran a hand through her hair: “The others?” she hardly dared ask.

”They were all alive when Kim left them at dawn. The search teams have been given new co-ordinates based on where Kim was found. We’ve got a broken wrist, a wrecked ankle and a spider bite on the way. If Kim’s anything to go by they’ll all be exposed and dehydrated. That’s all we know for sure. They’ll radio through if Kim tells them any more. We don’t know what kind of spider it was but the standard anti-venom is already on stand-by. Emergency’s been cleared, we’re pulling up as much saline and blood as we can. We do have another problem though…”

“What is it?” Panic gripped Rachel's heart again.

“Matilda Hunter is missing. Apparently she had a fight with her mother and ran off; she won’t get far, the security teams are already searching for her.”

Rachel sighed heavily. Great, that was the LAST thing they needed.

“Ok gather everyone you can in Jack and Tasha’s room, don’t tell them anything. I’ll be along in a second, ok?”

“Yes Doctor.”

With that, the nurse left and Rachael collapsed into relieved sobs for a few minutes before gathering herself again and heading for Jack and Tasha’s room.

______________________________________________________________________________

With Sally having to follow on in the car, it was Ric who rode in the ambulance with Kim. Once the medics had done what they could enroute, Ric picked his moment as best he could and spoke up nervously:

“Kim mate, did Martha say anything? Have you got any idea what happened?”

Kim turned his head: “She wanted me to tell Jack… you know. I told her I wouldn’t, she could do it herself. The chopper must have been losing fuel otherwise…” He stopped unable to handle finishing the thought.

Ric tried to look what he hoped was hopeful as the medics passed on the extra information, but the rest of the journey was silent.

_______________________________________________________________________________

Mattie ran blindly down an empty corridor; she had to get away, away from the pain, away from the fear and most of all, away from the boiling anger. She couldn’t believe this and yet somewhere in the back of her mind and heart she wasn’t altogether surprised. A long time ago she’d learnt one of a child’s hardest lessons, that their parents are human and therefore not perfect, but even for all the Hunter family’s painful past, Matilda could NEVER remember her mother being quite this selfish, quite THIS cruel! Did Beth REALLY only care about her children when she was in danger of losing them?! Now that Mattie was going to live didn’t SHE matter any more?! Ok, so maybe that was too harsh, but hadn’t Beth learnt ANYTHING?! Weren’t Scott and Henry leaving and Kit’s alcoholism even HINTS?!

Robbie too had ‘escaped’; ok so, Mattie doubted that it had even been conscious and Robbie had stayed in the Bay, but his marriage to Tasha had gotten him ‘out’. It wasn’t as if she wasn’t worried about Robbie and Kit too; the mere thought of what might have happened to them made her feel sick. She wished Henry was here; nobody understood her in quite the way her twin brother did. With everything going on she realised that no-one had heard from him in weeks. Everything that had happened, the fire and the crash and she’d lay money that two of her brothers didn’t even KNOW! When was her mother going to realise that they were all people in their own rights, not JUST human emotional shields around her?! Thanks to Tony it didn’t even look like she even needed that any more anyway. Why couldn’t her Mum see that?!

Mattie’s mind had cleared slightly having finally allowed herself to think things she now realised she’d been fighting against for years, she found herself down by the special care baby unit. The irony brought fresh tears to her eyes and she slumped to the ground again and cried yet more tears.

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Fabulous! I said it before but Matilda's thoughts were really someting...really well written and so topical. Now will she manage to say it to Beth? :wink: Great writing AngelRose.xx

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The group gathered in the double hospital room peppered poor nurse Anne with questions, but as instructed she said as little as possible. Tasha huddled close to Irene’s side, the pregnancy in her belly looking particularly at odds with her childlike expression. Amanda stood on Irene’s other side that being as close as she dared come without actually asking for comfort. Cassie, who had gone to visit Macca rather than be alone, pushed him into the room. Macca had been reluctant to join the group and was just as wary as Cassie carefully parked him on the opposite side or the room from Jack. Jack shot black looks at Macca but said nothing, his right hand subconsciously and instinctively protecting his still bright wedding ring. Beth looked torn, but stayed in the room. Lucas had been sent back from the search for Mattie by his Dad with instructions to bring Tony back any news, and stood loyally beside his brother and avoided eye-contact with anyone. Alf arrived seconds later, having driven at a speed Constable Holden would surely not have approved of. But before the first question could even be thought of let alone formed, Rachael had entered the room. An avalanche of noise hit her and she held up her hand to silence it:

“Please, I’ll tell you everything I know, but I only have time to do this once. Sally and Ric found Kim alive about an hour ago; they’re on their way in now. According to Kim, everyone was ALIVE when he left to find water at dawn…”

There was an audible sigh of relief and one or two sobs as she went on to explain.

_____________________________________________________________________________

Sally pulled away from behind the ambulance and prayed that she’d find a visitors parking space quickly and that she had enough change in her purse to pay for it. Was Kim ok? What else, if anything had he told Ric? Had there been any more word from the search teams? She sent up silent thanks as a space opened up in front of her and paying as quickly as she could raced inside.

______________________________________________________________________________

Tony turned back from his third dead end without finding Mattie and sighed heavily. Where COULD she be?! His heart was racing; if he didn’t find her soon he would go back for the update and let Luc take over. But then again, maybe it wasn’t such a good idea for Lucas to be the one to be the one to find Mattie; something had shifted between those two and he had the feeling that Lucas might not like how.

The other feeling he had was one of anger towards Beth. Did she REALLY think she was the only one suffering around here? Well she wasn’t! She wasn’t even the one suffering the most! No-one was saying that having two children missing and one burnt didn’t hurt, but she really didn’t seem to GET that this wasn’t ABOUT one person, let alone about her.

Tony shook his head to clear it; he had to focus on Mattie now. How he felt about Beth and what he might do about it must wait. He had to find Mattie for Mattie’s sake. He stopped for a second to think. Now, where would he go if he were an upset, injured teenager in a hospital? He suddenly realised he hadn’t tried the grounds and flew off in that direction.

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