She wakes and notices a TV at the end of the bed, finds the remote and switches it on, but there is no sound and her eyes close in protest at the tiny white subtitles.

She wakes and the silent TV is showing footage that could’ve been taken any summer in the past ten years: flame eating into a line of trees, a yellow-clad firey aiming a piddling stream at a wall of blazing bush, a helicopter dumping a swimming pool’s worth of water onto a cloud of smoke. The subtitles tell her it’s not like any other summer (not even summer yet, not for weeks). On the map they show the east coast as one long fire line, starting less than an hour’s drive from where Nic lies and extending all the way up to North Queensland. She tries to remember where Will is, if it’s far enough north to be out of harm’s way.

She wakes and her girl is right there, close enough to touch, looking like she’s swapped sleep for poking herself in the eyes, but still the sweetest sight in the world.

‘They told me you’d been mooching around here.’ Her voice still unfamiliar, husky. ‘Don’t you have anything better to do?’

‘Nah. Air con, free cups of tea, comfy little camp bed set-up down the hall. Hot doctors. It’s been tops.’ Lena sounding the same as ever.

‘Well, the fun stops now. I’m awake and on the mend. No reason for you to hang about.’

Lena’s fingertips on the back of her hand, a millimetre from the cannula. ‘You scared the crap out of me.’

‘Sorry, darlin’. A lot of fuss about nothing. A silly stumble.’

‘Nic, if I hadn’t found you, you woulda died.’

‘There’s my little drama queen. It was only a—’ A cough, dry and sharp, stops her speaking for a bit.

Lena pushes a plastic cup close to her face. ‘Here. Want me to get you some tea? Might be more soothing.’

Nic swallows some water, coughs again, sips and lets it settle. Whole time Lena watching her like she’s going to choke.

‘The nurse who was here earlier—little bloke …’

‘Kon, yeah, he’s the best.’

‘He said that there’d be a social worker in to see me. Does that sound right to you? A social worker?’

Lena nods. ‘Yeah, the doctor mentioned that. They need to do certain checks and stuff to make sure you’re not in danger.’

‘Isn’t that what the bloody nurses are poking at me ten times an hour for?’