Sudden Response

by R. L. Mathewson

  "I'll be sure to tell his family that you took the time to announce his private medical information to a roomful of strangers. I'm sure they'll appreciate that," Eric drawled, cutting her off. He ignored her outraged sputtering and headed for the double doors of the emergency room. He was tired of waiting.

  The double doors abruptly opened just as a nurse called out. "You can't leave!"

  Eric sighed long and loud as he watched Joe storm, half stumble, into the ER waiting room with her light blue uniformed shirt untucked and bloodstained, her boots untied and a large white gauze pad taped to her forehead, barely covering the large bruise peeking out to complete the ensemble. He'd like to say he was surprised that she was trying to haul ass A.M.A. (against medical advice) this early in the game, but sadly he wasn't.

  Nothing pissed Joe off more than being told what to do, which of course meant he was going to have to resort to lying and manipulation to make sure that her sweet ass never touched the tech bench in the back of an ambulance ever again.

  Joe leveled a glare on him when she spotted him. She pointed an accusing finger in his direction, barely righting herself as she stumbled on her own two feet. "Don't think you're getting out of buying me a steak dinner tonight, you cheap bastard!"

  *******

  "I. Hate. You," Joe bit out evenly as she watched Eric savor another bite of the steak that should rightfully be hers.

  "Mmmm, this was a really good idea tonight," he said, taking a sip of her beer.

  "You're dead to me," she groaned just as another wave of nausea took over. Slapping a hand over her mouth, she quickly crawled off her bed and made a mad dash to the bathroom. She just barely made it to the toilet when the ginger ale Eric had forced her to drink ten minutes earlier made another appearance.

  Her head pounded, sending a fresh wave of nausea to her stomach. She gripped the sides of the toilet and held on for dear life as she lost the rest of the contents of her stomach. Dizziness took over, from the local anesthesia that had upset her stomach in the first place or the searing pain behind her eyes, she wasn't sure.

  "Let's get you into bed before you slam your head and I end up having to bring you back to the hospital for more stitches," Eric said in a soothing voice as he gently picked her up and carried her back to her bed.

  She couldn't help but glare at the take out container that held the remains of her juicy steak. "You could have waited until tomorrow night," she mumbled pathetically.

  "I believe you requested your steak dinner tonight," Eric reminded her with a smug grin.

  "You know I get sick from anesthesia! You could have waited!" she said a little too loudly, causing the pain behind her eyes to explode. She sucked in a breath as she buried her face in her pillow, hoping it would just go away. When it didn't she focused on not crying. No matter what she would never allow herself to cry. Crying was a waste of energy and didn't do anyone a damn bit of good.

  From somewhere above her she heard Eric soft curse followed by his footsteps as he walked away. She forced herself to focus on relaxing her breathing. A moment later the pounding had somewhat dulled, allowing her to curl up on her side, facing away from the television and small lamp near her desk.

  A minute later Eric knelt in front of her with what looked like another glass of ginger ale and the bottle of generic aspirin she kept in the kitchen.

  "Open up," he said softly. When she grudgingly did as he asked he dropped three pills in her mouth. "Swallow," he said, holding the glass to her mouth. With a roll of her eyes she did just that.

  Eric watched her intently as he gently ran his fingers through her hair, pushing it out of her face. After a minute he sighed softly. "You need the pain medication they prescribed to you."

  She started to shake her head only to remember that right now that wasn't such a good idea. "I can't take that while I'm working," she pointed out, cringing from the new onslaught of pain that accompanied speaking.

  "Since you're not going to work for a few days I don't see the problem," Eric happily announced, cutting off any protests she'd like to make by forcing her to drink more ginger ale. So she just glowered at him.

  When he decided she'd drank enough he removed the cup and placed it by her bed. He stood up and pulled the covers over her. "I don't like the idea of leaving you alone to go pick up the pills."

  "Then don't. I don't need them. I'm fine," she lied, feeling like someone dropped kicked her in the head. Considering she slammed her head into the butt of a gun it was probably a pretty fair description.

  He continued as if she hadn't spoken. "So, I called-"

  "If you tell me that you called mom," she said, cutting him off, "I will kick your ass."

  Eric picked up an ice pack and gently placed it against her forehead. "It would serve you right if I did," he mumbled, ignoring her frown. "But no, I realized calling mom would only set off that stubborn streak of yours and piss me off when she started barking orders."

  Relieved, she laid back and allowed him to place her hand over the ice pack to keep it in place. The last thing she needed was for Alice to come here and fuss over her. As much as she loved the woman, and she did, she tended to turn into a mother hen when one of them was sick.

  Then there was her tendency to act like a drill sergeant to everyone around them who wasn't sick. She still cringed when she thought about the time Nathan caught Mono. Alice being Alice of course fussed over him, making sure everyone of his needs was met whether he wanted them met or not. She probably would have found the whole thing funny if she hadn't been regulated to what Alice liked to call, "Disinfectant duty."

  For the first day Eric and she were forced to clean anything and everything Nathan might have come into contact with. It hadn't mattered that Mono couldn't be spread by touching the bricks in the fire place. They were scrubbed within an inch of their lives along with everything else in the house. The second day and every day afterwards until Nathan was better was spent on cleaning his room, bathroom and laundry. The only thing that saved Nathan from getting his ass kicked when they had to wash his dirty underwear and sheets was that he had it worse with Alice fussing all over him for every little thing.

  She really didn't want to deal with Alice on top of everything else right now. Not that she would admit it to Eric, but she was still pretty shaken up by what happened earlier tonight. They'd had a lot of close calls over the years, but tonight's experience easily surpassed every single one of them.

  On more than one call she'd wondered if they were going to be hurt or maimed, but she'd never actually feared one of them could be killed. There was no doubt in her mind that if the patient had managed to get the gun away from them he would have shot at least one of them and she'd been terrified that it would have been Eric.

  "Hey," Eric said softly as he knelt on the floor next to the bed. "What's wrong?"

  "Nothing," she said, forcing a weak smile. "I was just thinking of the lecture mom would give me if she found out I left the hospital A.M.A." Which was a lie, because Alice wouldn't lecture her, she'd simply drag her sorry ass back to the hospital, kicking and screaming.

  "Don't worry, I called Nathan. He should be here soon," Eric said, running his fingers gingerly along the bruise, careful not to make any real contact. "I could kill that little bastard," he said tightly.

  "Nathan?" she asked, trying to lighten the mood. Thankfully it worked. Eric rolled his eyes. "No, not Nathan."

  "It's over," she said, hoping he'd let it go. She didn't want to think about tonight or what could have happened if things had gone differently.

  Eric stood up and busied himself with cleaning up his dinner mess rather than respond to her. "When Nathan gets here you're taking your pills," he informed her.

  She snorted then winced when pain shot through her temple. "Pain medication doesn't work for me," she argued, pressing the tips of her fingers against her temple in hopes that the pressure would soothe the pain. It didn't.

  "They'll help you sleep," Eric pointed out, positioning
the television so that it once again faced the bed. Joe didn't bother telling him that the glare from the television was hurting her eyes. That would just make him more determined to force the pain pills down her throat and she was not taking them.

  They didn't work for her so she didn't see the point in taking them. Besides if she took them then she wouldn't be allowed to return to work tomorrow. Not that she thought anything would happen, but if anything did she could get in trouble for having narcotics in her system.

  "No, they won't and I'm not taking them and that's final," she said as firmly as she could manage without pain and turned over onto her side to face away from the television. A few seconds later she could have kissed Eric when he shut off the bedroom light. Some of the pain shooting through her skull faded. Not that she would tell him.

  When she felt him climb onto the bed and settle next to her she sighed contently and closed her eyes, more than willing to spend the next three or four hours struggling to fall asleep as long as Eric was with her. Just knowing he was okay helped ease some of her discomfort.

  He placed his hand on her blanket clad hip and gave it a gentle squeeze. "Yes, you are."

  "No, I'm not," she said in the same stern voice.

  "We'll see."

  "No, we won't," she promised him, snuggling back against his body.

  "I just left in the middle of a date," Nathan suddenly announced, "so you better believe you're taking the pills even if we have to hold you down and shove a tube down your throat!"

  Joe rolled over to glare at Nathan as he stalked into the room, loosening his tie. She narrowed her eyes on him. "You wouldn't dare."

  Chapter 11

  "We didn't kill her, did we?" Nathan asked nervously as he glanced down at Joe.

  Eric shifted her in his arms, careful to keep her arms pinned against her sides as he raised one hand to check her carotid artery. "Strong and steady. She's just out," he said, gently pulling away from her so he could lay her on the bed. As he got to his feet Nathan pulled the covers up and tucked her in.

  "Thanks for getting the pills," Eric said, rubbing his sore shoulder. She'd put up a hell of a fight. It wasn't because the pills were a waste of time and wouldn't work like she'd claimed the entire time they'd wrestled with her to make her take the damn things. No, the reason that she damn near kneed him in the balls was very simple. She thought she was going to work tomorrow.

  Not fucking happening.

  She had fifteen stitches in her head for fuck sake and needed to rest, but would she listen to either one of them? Not a chance. She actually pointed out that the injury was on her forehead and wouldn't interfere with her doing her job or lifting a patient.

  Joe was too damn stubborn and this little incident just showed him that she needed to get the hell out of the field. She was a young, beautiful woman and it was just so wrong on so many levels that this job was her life.

  He knew she'd fight him every inch of the way, but once he had her off the rig for good she'd thank him. She needed to start enjoying her life and he knew she wouldn't allow herself to do that as long as she worked on the ambulance. Once he found her something else to do he knew it would only be a matter of time before she realized it was the best thing for her.

  "Mom's going to wring our necks," Nathan unnecessarily pointed out.

  It pretty much went without saying that their mother would throttle them when she found out that they kept this from her. The woman truly believed that they were incapable of taking care of themselves when they were sick. It didn't matter that two of them were EMT's with more medical experience than her, she was their mother plain and simple and only she could take care of them.

  Eric looked over at his brother and grimaced. The man's obviously tailored suit was now a mass of wrinkles thanks to the ten minute wrestling match Joe insisted upon before they could get her to take the damn pills. In the end they'd been forced to shove the pills in her mouth, clamp a hand over her mouth to stop her from spitting them out again, and pinch her nose shut until she swallowed them.

  "You might want to throw your suit in the dryer before you go back to your date," Eric pointed out, fighting back a yawn. Today had been too damn long.

  Nate shrugged out of his coat and tossed it on the chair in the corner. "It's already late and I'd rather not have to get dressed and come back here in four hours to do this all over again when she wakes up."

  Eric didn't think ten o'clock was too late to go back and finish his date, but if the man was offering to stay and help with the next wrestling match then he wasn't going to be stupid enough to point it out. He was however curious.

  "Is everything okay?" he asked, sitting on the edge of the bed to pull off his socks and pants while Nathan did the same on the chair.

  "With what?" Nathan asked, yanking off his shoes.

  "With Caitlyn," Eric said, wondering if his brother was already starting to pull away from the woman. The man had a nasty habit of dumping women that in Eric's opinion were damn near perfect for his brother.

  "Nothing's wrong. She's great."

  So were the other women that had come and gone out of his brother's life over the past ten years, but tonight wasn't the night to bring up the sad expression on his brother's face. Tonight he was exhausted.

  "I'm going to take a quick shower," Eric said, grabbing a pair of fresh boxer briefs from Joe's bureau. He ignored Nathan's amused expression and went to bathroom where he took a long hot shower. It helped relax his muscles, but it did nothing to calm his nerves.

  The only thing that helped was seeing Joe safely curled up in bed sleeping. He wasn't too surprised to discover Nathan lying on top of Joe's old sleeping bag on the floor. Although none of them had a problem sleeping in the same bed together since it had been a necessity on more than one family outing when they were kids, however none of those experiences had ended well for Nathan.

  Odd things just seemed to happen to Nathan when the three of them shared a bed. Most of the time he'd end up falling off the bed, but on more than one occasion he'd ended up with a few minor injuries like a bump on the head, a knee to the groin, a few broken fingers and a broken nose. They were accidents no matter what Nathan claimed, but they were still unsettling.

  Even last October when they'd gone up to Maine for a weekend and been forced to share a tent hadn't ended well for Nathan. How the poor bastard ended up being shoved out of the pup tent into the rain, he still didn't know. Not that he had cared at the time since he'd been happily snuggled up with a very warm Joe.

  He carefully crawled into bed with Joe and pulled her into his arms. She immediately relaxed back into his arms and let out a content little sigh.

  "How long do you think they'll keep her on light duty for?" Nathan whispered.

  Eric sighed heavily. "Normally they'd probably keep her on light duty for a week, but knowing how stubborn she is, she'll probably manage to get back to work in a few days."

  "I still can't believe a mental patient attacked a cop and went for his gun. You're both lucky that he didn't get it free," Nathan pointed out. Eric's arms tightened around Joe. They had been lucky, but it had been close, very close. When he spoke to Nathan earlier on the phone he left off the little fact that the patient had managed to switch the safety off just seconds before Joe's little stunt.

  Joe's little groan had him loosening his hold and pressing a kiss to the top of her head. He had to figure a way to get Joe the hell off the truck before something bad happened.

  "Nathan?"

  "Yeah?"

  "Are you still looking for a secretary?" he asked, glad that it was too dark for his brother to see the calculating expression on his face.

  Nathan sighed heavily. "Yeah, business is really taking off and I could use a hand in the office to free up some of my time. Why? Do you know someone?" he asked, sounding eager.

  Eric couldn't help but smile. This was going to be too easy. He knew how much Nathan's internet company meant to him. He'd built it from the ground up when he was
barely sixteen years old. It was his baby, his pride and joy and he knew the man was nervous about letting anyone near it.

  This was perfect. Joe needed a new job and Nathan needed someone he trusted. He mentally congratulated himself on his fast work. This was going to be easier than he thought.

  "Joe," he simply said.

  "Joe, what? Is she awake?" Nathan asked. Eric heard the telltale sound of the sleeping bag zipper being pulled down and wasn't too surprised to find Nathan standing next to the bed, peering down at Joe nervously. The man clearly wanted to make sure Joe was okay and what better way to do that then to give her a safe job?

  Too fucking easy.

  "She's fine."

  "Oh," was Nathan's obviously confused response.

  "I meant you should hire Joe."

  There was a heavy pause before Nathan snorted his reply. "No way. No fucking way in hell. Not happening."

  "What the hell do you mean 'no way'?" Eric demanded, shifting Joe out his arms so that he could sit up and properly glare at his