Page 18 of Doc Defence

“Maybe Commotio Cordis?” Hel supplied.

“Yeah, I think that’s what they said,” Claudia agreed.

“But also, they need to exclude anything nasty. They’re taking me for testing later to see if they can make my heart go back into the bad rhythm. And they said if they do, I’ll need a pacemaker, and I’m done with ice hockey.” Aiden’s head dropped, and he looked dejected for a moment. But his gaze soon swung to his family. “It doesn’t matter, as I’ll still be here to see Ava grow up. Thanks Hel, for everything you did. The doctor told me I only had a fifty percent chance of coming back from the blow.”

Hel nodded in acknowledgement. While Commotio Cordis—where something hit the chest at exactly the wrong millisecond in the heart’s electrical cycle and threw it into an arrhythmia—was thankfully pretty rare, every year, some young sports players were unlucky and didn’t make it.

“I’m glad I was there to help.” Hel reached out and touched his shoulder. “Anyway, I don’t want to keep you too long. Do you mind if I leave you my phone number? Can you let me know how you go?”

Claudia pulled her phone out of her handbag. “Absolutely.”

Hel gave Ava a last belly tickle and left, grinning because she had saved the young man’s life, and now he would get to see his daughter grow up. For all the trials and tribulations of her job, moments like this made everything worthwhile.

CHAPTER 7

HEL

“Hi.DoctorRayleigh?”Aman with a camera slung over his shoulder strode along the corridor toward Hel, waving at her.

“Yes?” Hel stopped and stepped to the side to let the other people rushing along the arena corridor flow past her.

The man smiled at Hel. “Great. I didn’t have a chance to catch up with you at the last game. My name’s Greg. I’m a cameraman and producer. I work for Icehouse Films. We’re making a documentary following Jake Forster as he moves from the NHL to the AIHL.”

“Sorry, but what’s the AIHL?” Hel knew what the NHL was, but the AIHL was new to her.

“The Australian Ice Hockey League,” Greg explained slowly, a frown pulling at his brow. “You are Doctor Rayleigh? You’re the team doctor?”

“Yeah. That’s me. Sorry, I’m new to this ice hockey stuff.” She waved her hand vaguely around at the corridor of the rink. “Long story short. The doctor they had got sick and couldn’t do the job any more. I stepped in at the last minute. I know a lot of medicine and absolutely no ice hockey.” Hel shrugged ruefully.

She had meant to research a bit about ice hockey. Maybe read up on the rules or something. Because last week, she had no clue at all about what was happening. Or why players kept leaping on and off the ice. It was a fast game, and she couldn’t keep up.

“Yeah, makes sense.” Greg nodded. “I have a release form I need you to sign.”

He placed the camera down on the floor, and reached into his back pocket, pulling out some crumpled papers and a pen, then holding them out to her.

“Why do I need to sign a release form?” Hel didn’t take the papers. Instead, she folded her arms over her chest and stared at Greg.

“We’re filming all the time, so it’s standard as you’ll be caught in the background of some shots. Also, after your heroic save last week, I would love to get a short interview with you.” Greg pushed the paperwork out again.

“I’m sorry. But I don’t want to give an interview.” Hel shook her head. She did not want to talk on camera. Not in any way, shape or form.

“Are you sure?” Greg asked.

“Yeah. Sorry, it’s not something I want to do. I hope you don’t mind.” Hel grimaced in apology, but she couldn’t think of anything worse than speaking on camera.

“No. That’s fine. Totally fine.” Greg’s eyes darted around as if he was trying to work out where to go from there. “Can we use the footage with you in?”

Hel thought about it for a moment. The look on Greg’s face was so pleading that she finally huffed and said, “Sure.”

“Great.” The cameraman thrust the crumpled paper into Hel’s hand. “This is our standard release form. It says you give us permission to use any footage you’re in while we’re filming Jake.”

Hel took the paperwork this time and scanned it. The agreement was short and as Greg had described. It stated she wouldn’t be the focus of any filming, but she agreed for them to use any footage of her that was caught incidentally.

Not seeing any problem with that, she signed and handed it back.

“That’s great. We’re trying to keep this all as natural as possible, so please feel free to ignore me from now on,” Greg stated as he stuffed the paperwork into his back pocket.

Hel eyed the camera dubiously. “Yeah, that’s going to be tough.”

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