Total pages in book: 67
Estimated words: 80391 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 402(@200wpm)___ 322(@250wpm)___ 268(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 80391 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 402(@200wpm)___ 322(@250wpm)___ 268(@300wpm)
“Motherfucker,” I breathed. “Ma’am, you need to go take a seat on the curb over by your daughter. We have more medics en-route. Please go.”
My temper was starting to fray.
“I’m not going anywhere.” She said as she stomped her foot.
Although inadvertent, when she stomped her foot, she kicked a cloud of dust and debris at my face and I snapped.
Moving quickly, I took the woman by the arm and shoved her bodily away before returning to my patient. I saw her fall out of the corner of my eye, but couldn’t scrounge up the urge to care.
The young girl wasn’t dead, but she was severely close, and if we didn’t get the bleeding stopped, she’d bleed out before I could get her to the hospital.
“Morrison!” I bellowed. “Get this woman out of here.”
Morrison, a prospect with my club, obeyed immediately, running from the crime scene tape he was in the process of hanging to the woman who was still blinking stupidly at me for pushing her.
He ignored her and got to work.
“Clear!” Sebastian called from behind me. “Shocking in 3, 2, 1.”
I distinctly heard the automated voice from the AED speaking, but I was focused on my own patient.
Starting an IV and some fluids, I loaded the little girl onto the backboard and carried her to the back of the ambulance.
I loaded the patient onto the gurney and was relieved when I saw Sebastian loading his own patient into the medic right behind me.
We were both working frantically to save our individual patients, and I knew they’d never do it if either of us had to drive; so, making a split-second decision, I called Tunnel Morrison over.
“Morrison, get in the seat and drive!” I bellowed.
Tunnel jumped like he’d been poked in the ass with a cattle prodder, sprinting around the ambulance, closing the doors, and then heading for the driver’s seat.
“Lights and Sirens, code 1. Go!” Sebastian urged.
Morrison went, slamming his foot down on the gas a little too hard, and then taking the corner a little too quickly.
“Slow down, boy! We’ll never get there if you don’t get your nerves under control.” I said soothingly.
“Goddammit. You’re going to have to start an IO. Can’t find a fucking vein anywhere. Motherfucker.”
I cursed.
Sebastian couldn’t legally perform an IO since he was only an intermediate. As I was the acting paramedic, I’d have to perform the procedure. On a tiny baby.
It was hard enough to get an IV on a baby that young, but with as much blood as the infant had lost, while we were on scene, it became almost impossible to accomplish.
An IO was only used on patients that didn’t have any other options.
It looked like a little baby screwdriver that was used to drill through the bone and run fluids straight to the bone marrow. Although it was crude, the technique worked. Even on babies.
Stripping my gloves off and replacing them with new ones, I switched places with Sebastian awkwardly and then got to work.
Tunnel slowed his pace moderately, and Sebastian and I worked side by side running fluids, taking vitals, and staunching blood flow the entire way to the hospital.
When we arrived, we took our patients to different rooms before giving our reports to the nurses and walking back out to the medic.
“God, I hate those now.” Sebastian sounded like he’d been beaten.
Babies and children were hard for anyone to work on, but when you had a child of your own, comparisons start to be made, and you end up making yourself sick at the potential of your own children being hurt like that.
My eyes flicked to my best friends’ before returning to Tunnel who was practically bouncing up and down on the balls of his feet, beside the truck.
“It’s never been easy to see babies, but now I’m sure it’ll always be hard for you, Ian. I’m sorry.” I said, genuinely sorry for my friend.
“Did they live?” Tunnel asked as soon as they were within a distance that he didn’t have to yell.
Sebastian snorted. “This kid has to be as green as they come. What the hell were you thinking?”
I was currently sponsoring Tunnel. Tunnel was his given name, too; one that Tunnel hated with every fiber of his being.
I saw something in the kid that I’d seen in myself quite a few years ago.
Tunnel, like me, had been kicked out of his parent’s house when he was eighteen for dating a little Mexican girl and getting her pregnant.
Just like I had...I shut my mind down before it could go back to that dark place. That wasn’t something that I wanted to think about right now, especially when I’d just ran a call on young kids.
Particularly one that dealt with a young mother that didn’t have the first clue on how to take care of her kids.
What the fuck was that woman thinking not putting her kids in child restraints? Although not 100 percent effective, most of the previous call could’ve been prevented. All it took was one lone instant in time to change the course of those childrens’ lives.
My own baby wasn’t...
“Kettle!” Sebastian growled snapping my fingers in front of my face. “Where’d you go?”
“To hell.” I muttered before stepping into the passenger side of the medic.
To hell indeed.
“You can drop me off at the station. They took my rig back to headquarters.” Tunnel explained quickly.
Sebastian nodded, but didn’t comment on the fact that the two places were right the fuck next to each other.
Looking down, I studied my clothes and grimaced. These would need to be sent to the dry cleaning service the department utilized. There was too much blood...and other stuff, to let Adeline wash them.
Speaking of Adeline, my phone started vibrating in my pocket, and I pulled it out carefully, avoiding the blood that practically coated my pants leg.
“Hello?” I answered.
“Tiago?” She coughed.
“Addy, what’s wrong? Are you okay?” I asked quickly.
Sebastian’s foot let up on the accelerator slightly, gauging what was going on to see what he needed to do next.
“I’m fine,” she said. “I’m going home sick, though. I don’t feel well at all. My head feels like it’s the size of a small turbo jet, my sinuses are killing me, and my body aches.”