The exciting news that he had a son was overshadowed by the baby’s early arrival and what Lachlan called ‘respiratory distress’. The doctor told them Paula’s labour had been very quick and she’d done a great job, and reassured them that the baby was in good hands, but Dan felt so helpless. He wanted to take a car and follow her but Lachlan and Rowena convinced him to go home first. He was covered in several days of fire-fighting grime and he didn’t have his own vehicle.

Austin and Rowena had taken him home to Wood Dell and while he showered and threw some clothes in a bag, Rowena had packed him some food. It had been a surprise to find the bedroom a mess, not that he cared but Paula usually had everything tidy. The bed sheets were a tangled heap on the floor. Beside a small case there was a pile of clothes and her wardrobe doors hung open. No doubt his phone call to leave had frightened her.

The next shock had been the car shed. One of the old doors had broken from its hinges and was wedged shut. It took him some effort to get it open. The back of Paula’s Audi was still packed with the box of things she must have grabbed when he’d phone her about the fire. The dual cab was up in the shed, but what a struggle that would have been for Paula.

He slammed a hand on the steering wheel and slowed up as he approached the first set of traffic lights on the edge of the city. What an idiot he was. If he had been at home, they may have been able to prevent Paula’s early labour. She had done so much on her own. The heat and all the physical work she did, along with the distress of his secrecy, had probably brought on her labour. He would never be able to forgive himself if their baby didn’t survive.

* * *

Paula lay down on the bed for a moment. Her body was exhausted but her brain wouldn’t let her sleep. She had been able to hold her baby to her for a few minutes after he was born and had been amazed by the beauty of his perfect little body and the strength of his suck at her breast.

It hadn’t been for long. Once the helicopter arrived he’d been placed in the special capsule and whisked away. She hadn’t taken her eyes from him all the way in the helicopter, nor throughout the ambulance ride to the hospital and, once they arrived, she sat beside the crib watching his every breath. The staff explained everything to her but she didn’t really take it all in. The cords and beeping machines terrified her.