Light And Sirens Part 7

Gina sat in the crew chief seat, the pa.s.senger seat, while I drove for a while. We had just finished a few back-to-back, minor calls. I was really hoping the most intense call of the day had been the one that morning with Pauli. I knew better than to voice it. The call volume G.o.ds were cruel masters. If I said it, the opposite of what I desired would happen.

Gina finished the telephone call she was on and turned towards me. "Hey, wanna stop and get something to eat? I could use a snack."

I shrugged. "Sure, any requests? I could swing by the diner, or we could hit the convenience store for something."

"What about the new place on Oak? I heard that they are pretty good. Besides, they have a good vegetarian selection."

"Works for me. I didn't know you were going veggie. When did that happen?"

"I guess I've been thinking about it and working towards it for a while. I'm not happy with the way I feel when I eat meat so I cut out red meat about a year ago. I just started phasing out poultry a month ago. Fish and seafood weren't a problem, I never liked them anyway."

After our meal, we headed back to base. As was typical, we were tapped for a call a few blocks from station. Gina answered the call from County.

"Medic two two three from county."

"County, two two three, go ahead."

"Medic two two three, we have a report of a pedestrian versus motor vehicle at Fourteenth Street and Long Lane. No PD on location at this time. What is your ETA?"

County, ETA one minute. What is PD's ETA?"

"Two two three, PD ETA four minutes."

"County, copy ETA, show us on location and dispatch a BLS unit please."

"Two two three, copy on location and dispatch BLS."

"Gina, check the car, I'll start on the pedestrian."

"Copy that!"

I made my way across the street with my primary gear bag and found the victim laying half on and half off of the sidewalk. He was not conscious, had an obvious break in his left humerus, and there was blood from an unknown source under him. Gina came over just as I made an initial a.s.sessment.

"Grab C-spine for me, I need to do a full a.s.sessment and find the blood source."

"Okay, I have him, let's collar."

I measured and secured the cervical collar before taking a set of vitals.

"Blood pressure is up, pulse is down. We might have internal bleeding and there is crepitus upon palpation of his pelvis. Load and go."

"Gotcha, boss. Larry, grab the board and litter, we need an a.s.sist with load and go." Gina yelled over to one of the three basic EMTs on the BLS crew.

I pulled out a trauma dressing in case I found the bleeding when we rolled him. Once Larry got set up, we rolled the patient, with Gina holding his head and neck, and I did a quick exam of his back. He had a puncture wound under his left clavicle that was bleeding. I applied the trauma pad to it and we rolled him onto the board.

"Ready, shift up on three, one, two, three. Good, get him secured and I'll start a line."

I managed to start the line and be ready to move by the time they had him strapped in and our gear collected. We got him up on the litter and moved to the rig.

"Larry, you're riding with us, I need the hands. Grab some vitals and get him on fifteen liters per minute by non-rebreather." He nodded and I had Gina let his crew chief know that we had taken Larry from his crew. I felt the rig shift as she climbed in the driver's seat.

"Take it easy but get us there." I told her. I meant, use lights only, sirens as needed but we weren't racing either. I got the monitor on the patient and after checking it, I called in to the ER to let them know what we were coming in with this time.

"Medical command, medic two two three."

"Go ahead medic two two three, this is command."

"Command, we are inbound with a male caucasian in his late teens or early twenties, involved in a pedestrian versus vehicle as the pedestrian. He is unresponsive to voice, pupils equal and reactive, equal lung sounds, puncture wound under left clavicle on his back, obvious fractures of the left humorous, and crepitus of the pelvic region. BP is one eighty-six over one twenty, pulse sixty-six per monitor, respirations eighteen on high flow. I have a line started, rhythm looks good. Would you like me to push anything? ETA is about four minutes."

There was a pause before command responded. I knew that meant the doc was looking over the notes the nurse had given him. The medical radio crackled back to life.

"Medic two two three, negative on medications at this time. Continue to monitor and repeat vitals. Contact us with any changes, otherwise, see you in a few."

I nodded as I cleared the channel. I hadn't really expected anything different but it is protocol to ask. Now and then, they surprise us and have us medicate with something we wouldn't have normally thought to use. I had Larry repeat vitals while I wrote up notes on the patient. I rechecked his level of consciousness but it remained unchanged. As we rolled up to the ER, the trauma team met us and whisked our patient away. I trotted to keep up, repeating my report and including the new set of vitals. We finished our turnover to the staff and left with our gear.

"Good job, guys. Larry, thanks for the help on that one. The extra set of hands came in handy. Let's find out where your crew is so we can arrange a meet up."

"I'll clean up the litter and gear, Donny. You get your paperwork handled, and get Larry squared away."

"Thanks, G, it won't take long."

I walked over to the admitting area and gave them what little information that I had and the guy's wallet with ID in it. Larry followed me and we headed for the EMT room to use the telephone. I called into county to get a location and status on Larry's crew. Larry excused himself to go to the restroom while he had the chance.

"County dispatch."

"Do you deliver? I'm in need of a s.e.xy dispatcher right now." I grinned, but I couldn't help it. I loved hearing her voice when she was all official sounding.

"Honey? What's wrong? Why are you calling from an ER phone?"

"Everything's fine, sweetie. I borrowed an EMT on our last scene, and I need to return him before I incur a late fee. Any idea where BLS two is right now and what their status is?"

"Let me check."

I heard the background noise of the dispatch center as she checked for Larry's crew.

"It looks like they are en route to your location. You can leave him there for them to pick up."

"Thanks, baby. Any chance I can pick you up later? I only have another hour or so left on shift. Want to grab dinner with me?"

"Ah, Chloe, you know the way to my heart." Caity chuckled. "I'd love to do dinner but I have another few hours here. Can you wait for me?"

"Of course. Why don't you come over when you get done, and we can make plans."

"Sounds like a date. Be careful out there Ms. Medic, you just promised your time to me and I plan on collecting."

I grinned as I hung up. For some reason, late calls bothered me more now that I had someone to share my downtime. I knew I would be able to have dinner almost ready by the time she got to my place if I could get off shift on time.

I wandered out onto the ramp of the ER to find Gina and Larry perched on the rear step of the rig. "Larry, your crew is on the way here so we'll just leave you here, okay?"

"Sure thing, thanks for bringing me along for the ride. If you guys ever need a third, let me know. See you!" He gave a cheerful wave and ambled off to wait for his crew.

I settled next to Gina on the step as another rig from our company pulled up. I saw Spike behind the wheel, so I walked over to help them unload the patient. One of the new medics, Brett, jumped out and the patient looked stable. Gina gave Brett a hand getting their patient inside, and I hung outside with Spike.

"So, how's it going with Gina? Is she working out?" Spike looked at me over the top of her Oakley sungla.s.ses.

"She's been doing really well. I like running with her. She seems to fit in well, and she certainly antic.i.p.ates my needs when I'm running the call."

"How soon before you think you can cut her loose? Let her work with the rest of the crews?"

"Another week or two maybe. I wouldn't send her out with an EMT basic yet but she could run double with a different medic by then. Why? Something coming up?"

"I dunno, maybe. I was getting weird questions from above so I want us to be ready in case something shifts soon." Spike looked up as she heard the doors open from the ER. "No worries, just keep doing what you're doing, and I'll let you know when I know something."

"Hey, Spike? When is the last time we grabbed a beer? Do you wanna go hang out sometime soon? Or maybe come over?" I was aware that she looked tired. I also discovered that I couldn't remember hanging out with her since I got together with Caity.

"Yeah sure, gimme a call or something. We'll hook up. Now, get back to base so you can check out on time." Spike tossed a smile over her shoulder as she headed for her rig.

I climbed into our truck, put us available with county, and smiled when I heard my favorite dispatcher acknowledge me.

CHAPTER 8.

"ARE YOU SURE? I don't mind if you want me to go home. I mean, if you two need some time alone."

I looked at Caity like she was growing three heads. "Why would I want you to go home? You've known Spike even longer than I have and she expects you to be here. What's going on?"

She shrugged in a non-committal manner. "I don't know, it just seems strange to entertain one of your friends here."

She was standing in the doorway to the living room, looking entirely too cute and awkward. I reached for her and pulled her in for a hug. "Baby, we already told people about us a while ago. We've been together for almost five months now. We've gone to some station stuff together, and you've helped me host stuff here before we ever thought about dating. Why wouldn't I want you here?"

"I don't know. I guess it was just a momentary panic. I know how important your relationship with Kristy is to you. I don't want to keep you from any of your odd paramedic bonding rituals."

"You know, now that I think about it, I think you are the only person who regularly calls her by her actual name. Why is that?"

The cutest blush spread up her neck until it reached her ears, turning her a lovely shade of pink. "Caity, what aren't you telling me? Now I have to know."

"Nothing really, I just never felt right calling her Spike." She didn't look at me when she said it, and I knew there was more to it than she was telling.

"Don't make me use the torture. You know you'll tell me, so just tell me."

"I did, there isn't anything else, really."

"Uh huh, sure. That's it woman! Torture time for you!" I bent low and scooped her up into a fireman's carry so that her upper body bent over my shoulder and I carried her into the bedroom. I dumped her on the queen size bed and grabbed her hands before she could move.

"Last chance, are ya gonna tell me? Or do I torture you?"

"C'mon, honey, we don't have time for this. Besides, I told you, I just never got in the habit."

"Okay, torture time!" I leaned over her, securing her arms with one of my hands and started tickling her with the other.

"Stop it! Stop it! I give, I give!" Caity lay there gasping for breath as I stopped tickling her.

"So, what is it? Why don't you call her Spike?"

"I'm just embarra.s.sed, Chloe. Please don't tell her." Caity looked serious suddenly and she had started to blush.

"Honey, of course not, if you ask me to not tell, then I won't. What could be so bad though?"

"It isn't bad. I'm just embarra.s.sed. When I became a dispatcher, we had to go through a CPR cla.s.s. Kristy was the lead instructor and I totally crushed out on her. You know how she is. She doesn't introduce herself as Spike, so I thought of her as Kristy. Well, I was totally into her. I found reasons to stay during breaks to talk to her. I signed up with her for advanced first aid just to be around her some more. I figured I could work up the nerve to find out if she was gay and maybe ask her out."

I started chuckling. I could just picture a crush-ridden Caity trying to figure out Spike when they were both much younger. "What happened? Did you come on to her?"

"Thankfully, no, I didn't. I found out that she was straight and saved myself that humiliation at least. However, I never was able to think of her as anything other than Kristy."

I helped her up from the bed and smoothed out the comforter. We headed back out to the kitchen to get some food together and kept talking.

"That isn't too bad. Should I worry that you have a thing for medics? I mean, I'm not your first and all." I couldn't help but tease her a little bit. I was so into teasing her that I didn't even see the elbow coming, "Ooof! Hey, what was that for?"

"You earned it! You are the only other medic I've ever been interested in. You're acting like I had a line of them or something."

"I was just kidding! Honest! No more attacks or I'll have to subdue you!"

We were still teasing back and forth when the doorbell rang. I answered the door to find Spike there holding a couple of bottles of wine.

"Hey, I didn't know what we were having so I brought red and white."

I took them from her and thanked her. Caity showed up then, gave her a hug, and took the wine into the kitchen.

"Want something to drink? We have some wine, beer, soda, anything strike you?"

"Beer would be great, thanks."

I grabbed us both a beer and we headed to the enclosed patio to hang out. I had kept dinner simple, baked potatoes, shish-ka-bobs, and grilled asparagus. I was taking advantage of the unseasonably warm weather. The charcoal was already lit and I was waiting for it to get to the cooking stage. We sat inside, just talking about stuff around the station until Caity joined us. She pulled a chair up next to me and took my hand before taking my beer and helping herself to a healthy swig.

"Hey! I was drinking that, wench!"

She laughed and smiled at Kristy. "So, how ya been, Kristy? Is this one giving you any trouble?" She nodded her head in my direction and took another swig of my beer before she handed it back to me.

"She's been doing pretty well actually. I know she didn't want the promotion but she's doing really well. I'm fine I guess, nothing new really. Just work, work, and more work."

"Um, h.e.l.lo? I'm right here! You two can stop talking about me like I'm not." I was teasing, but still, I was sitting right there.