Page 107 of The Girls of Pearl Harbor
‘He saved me twice, April,’ Grace whispered. ‘And you saved me too.’
‘He saved you twice?’ she asked. ‘What else did Teddy save you from?’
But Grace only held her tighter, curling up against her like a baby to her mother.
‘You need help in here?’ someone yelled out.
April burst into tears as battalion doctors appeared.
‘We’re going to make it, Grace,’ April whispered. ‘We’re going to make it out of here, and Teddy is too.’
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
EVA
‘I’m here, girls. You’re both here with me,’ Eva said, sitting in between Grace and April’s beds as they finally stirred.
‘Eva?’ April croaked.
‘Hello, sleepyhead,’ Eva joked, leaning over and stroking her friend’s hand. ‘I was starting to worry I’d lost you both there for a bit.’
‘What happened? How did we get back?’ April asked, and Eva helped her to sit up and held a glass of water for her to sip.
‘You were lucky,’ Eva said, holding her as she coughed and tried to sip more water. ‘We were so full that the hospital had closed to more patients, and then the ambulance arrived with you and Grace inside.’
‘Grace? She’s—’
‘Alive,’ Eva interrupted. ‘Right here, on the other side of me. I hear you did a good job stitching her up.’
‘And Harry? What happened to Harry?’ April gasped. ‘And Teddy, did he make it? Where’s Teddy?’
Eva placed a hand on April’s chest and looked into her eyes. ‘Listen to me, April. Teddy is alive, but his injuries are serious. What you did for him on the beach, you saved his life, and I only know that because Dr. Evans—I mean your Harry—told me.’
She saw the change in April, the way she relaxed into the bed the moment she heard everyone had survived.
‘And the other soldier—there should have been another with us—he was hurt pretty bad, and I had to—’
‘Sew him up yourself without a doctor helping you,’ Eva said, laughing. ‘We all know what you did, April. You’ve been out of it for almost a day, and someone has been telling everyone how incredible his favorite little nurse was.’
April’s cheeks flushed a deep pink. ‘He told everyone?’
‘He did,’ she said. ‘Before they even managed to knock him out and pull that stake of wood from his leg. His other injuries ended up being minor, so he’ll be back on his feet in no time.’
‘Thank you for looking after us,’ April said, and Eva had to hold back her own tears as she saw them glisten in April’s. ‘If I’d lost Grace, if anything had happened to her ...’
‘But it didn’t,’ Eva said firmly. ‘We’ve all lost enough, don’t you think? And I’m sure Poppy is up there looking down on us, trying her best to keep us all safe.’
They sat for a moment, and Grace started to stir. Eva took it as her cue to leave; she had less than six hours until her shift started again, and she still wanted to check on Art before she hurried back to her tent to sleep.
She bent and pressed a kiss to April’s forehead. ‘I’ll be back to check up on you soon.’
‘Eva?’ April said, her fingers catching Eva’s arm to stop her from moving.
‘What is it?’
‘Grace said something when I was working on Teddy—that he’d saved her twice and now she had to save him. Do you know what she was talking about?’
Eva took a deep breath and glanced over at Grace, still asleep, her blonde hair fanned out across the pillow.
