Sudden Response

by R. L. Mathewson

  opinion on a run sheet. That's the fastest way to find yourself either fired or facing a lawsuit. Stick to the facts. It will not only cover your ass, but provide your patient with evidence if needed."

  "I hate to admit this, but he's right," Teddy said, helping Eric pull the stretcher out of the ambulance. "If you go around writing up staff members you're going to find your job a lot harder to do when the staff snubs you."

  "Just mind your own business and cover your ass and you should be fine," Eric said in what he hoped was a reassuring tone, but judging by the nervous expression on the man's face he'd failed.

  Actually, upon closer inspection he noticed the man looked a little under the weather.

  "You're not going to puke are you?" he asked even as he shifted himself and the stretcher away. Teddy must have noticed the look on their third rider's face because he jumped the hell out of the way.

  "No, I'm not-oh shit!" Greg said, covering his mouth and making a mad dash towards the bushes.

  Eric and Teddy shared an exasperated look before they headed for the front door. He made a mental note to make the kid carry breath mints from now on.

  Chapter 13

  "What do you think you're doing, young lady?"

  Pasting a smile on her face, Joe turned around and tried not to wince under the maternal glare that was being sent her way. She seriously wondered when that look would lose its effect on her. Probably never, she thought with an inward groan.

  "I was just looking for something to read," she lied, hoping Alice would go back to whatever she was doing so Joe could find the backup set of car keys she had lying around somewhere in her office/guest room.

  She'd already searched through her small desk, the pullout couch, and her bookshelves to no avail. The damn things had to be here. She definitely remembered tossing them in here when she had them made up last year.

  "If you were looking for something to read than why are you dressed?" Alice demanded, arching a brow, silently challenging Joe to lie to her.

  "I was cold?"

  "It's eighty degrees in here, sweetheart," Alice pointed out the same time that she stepped to the side and gestured for Joe to get her butt back to bed. It was a small gesture, but one she recognized nonetheless.

  There was no point in arguing, Joe decided grumpily. She'd already tried that for the past five hours and failed miserably, considering Alice had simply ignored her and shoved green jell-o down her throat for "sustenance" as Alice liked to put it. She'd made damn sure that jell-o stayed down, knowing the next step in Alice Parish's home care treatment was beef broth.

  She couldn't even stress how much she hated beef broth.

  "Where are you going?" Alice asked when Joe veered to the left instead of heading for her bedroom.

  "I'm going to get a cold drink," and think of a way to get back at Eric for this. They were supposed to be partners and best friends. After all the shit they'd gone through and the times she covered for him she couldn't believe he did this to her. Granted, he probably knew without Mom here she'd find a way to get to the fire station.

  Damn him.

  "I can get it for you, sweetheart. You should be resting," Alice offered. "I can make up some broth if you think you can handle it."

  Joe couldn't help it, she cringed. "No, that's okay, mom. Thanks."

  Her stomach growled viciously, reminding her that she hadn't eaten anything since yesterday morning and she sure as hell wasn't counting the nasty green goop Alice practically shoved down her throat as food.

  "You want more jell-o? I made a big bowl."

  No, she wanted the delicious steak that Eric owed her, but probably wasn't going to have anytime soon thanks to her babysitting detail.

  "No thanks, mom," she said, grabbing an ice cold Coke and heading back to her room. "I think I'm just going to lie down and take a nap," she said, knowing that she didn't have a choice in the matter.

  "That sounds like a good idea," Alice said, following her anyway as if she didn't trust her, which would actually hurt if she hadn't been caught trying to climb out of the bathroom window two hours ago.

  "Do you need anything?" Alice asked as she pulled back the covers and fluffed the pillows.

  She needed to get to work, but Alice wouldn't be happy to hear that so Joe forced a smile and said, "No, I'm going to take my pill and get a little more sleep."

  "Okay," Alice said, smiling pleasantly as she picked up the pill bottle and held it out to Joe, expectantly. Again with the trust, Joe thought with an inward sigh as she took the bottle and downed a pill.

  "You don't have to stick around, mom. I'm most likely going to sleep well into the night now," Joe said, hoping Alice would take pity on her and leave. It was bad enough to be stuck in the house, she didn't really enjoy being fussed over on top of that. If she was going to be stuck here then she'd rather do it in peace and quiet so she could contemplate all the ways she was going to get back at Eric.

  "Well, I do have a few things I have to do, but I promised Eric that I'd wait around until he got home," she said, looking at her watch. "I guess he got held over."

  Joe nodded absently as she pulled off her sneakers. "It happens, but he'll probably be here soon," she said, not knowing if that was the truth or not and not really caring. For all she knew it could be hours before he got here and she had the pleasure of kicking his ass out.

  "I'll stick around for another half hour, but then I have to go before the grocery store closes," Alice sighed.

  Joe frowned as she sat down on the bed to pull her sneakers off. "Berkley's doesn't close until ten," she pointed out.

  Alice waved her hand impatiently through the air. "I can't go there anymore."

  "Why not?"

  "Camie," she said as if that would explain everything. Sadly enough it did. She looked at her watch again, looking anxious.

  "Mom, you can go. Don't worry about it. If anything happens I'll call one of the guys."

  She looked like she was about to agree, but reluctantly shook her head. "No, I'll wait around a little while longer. If worse comes to worse I'll go to Berkley's and deal with those rather disturbing glares."

  Knowing there was no point arguing, Joe sighed heavily and headed for the bathroom, grabbing Eric's favorite tee shirt, an old faded...well, she really wasn't sure what the hell it was, but she knew that it was Eric favorite. Ten minutes later she was curled up in bed and drifting off, wishing it was Eric's arms around her instead of his old tee shirt.

  *********

  "Shh, go back to sleep," Eric said softly sometime later as he curled his large warm body around hers.

  "Get out," she mumbled even as she snuggled against him.

  When he chuckled she buried her face in her pillow and decided to ignore him.

  "How are you feeling?" he asked quietly, gently running his fingers through her hair.

  "Like kicking your ass," she muttered into the pillow. "I can't believe you called mom on me."

  "You didn't leave me with much of a choice on the matter, now did you?"

  "Bastard."

  "Get some sleep," he said, pressing a kiss against the top of her head.

  "I'm going to work tomorrow," she informed him, inwardly daring him to argue, because if he did she was going to kick his-

  "I know," he said, surprising her.

  "You know?" she repeated slowly, not sure if this was a trap of some kind.

  "Mmmhmm, I know you're too stubborn to listen to the doctor. I already talked to Bill and he figured as much, which will actually work out because we have Greg again."

  That got her attention.

  She rolled over, shoving Eric away so that she could face him. "Why the hell is he still third riding?" The man should already be assigned to a more senior partner to finish his probation period, especially since they were only required to do five ride alongs and he must have done at least a dozen by now.

  "He's nervous as hell. Every time he comes close to a patient he loses his lunch and if it's an
emergency he loses it when the ambulance comes to a stop. No one's even let him get behind the wheel, afraid that he'll black out and crash," Eric said, lazily scratching his bare chest as he lay back on the bed.

  "If it's that bad then maybe he should consider doing something else," she suggested, feeling bad for the man, but not bad enough to suggest someone that would endanger patients should work on one of the ambulances.

  "Bill wants you to take another crack at him and see if you can help. If he doesn't improve within a week he's going to have to let him go," Eric said, fighting back a yawn.

  She sighed heavily as she flopped back down on the bed and laid her head on Eric's shoulder and wrapped her arm around his waist. As she tried to figure out a way to help Greg deal with his nerves she snuggled closer to Eric. He pressed a kiss to the top of her head as he wrapped an arm around her and pulled her closer.

  "I'm not sure if a week's enough time to help him," she said as she absently traced circles over Eric's chest and stomach, loving the way the light dusting of hair felt against her fingers.

  "No, it's not. Normally I'd offer to grab a few extra shifts, but with you injured," she rolled her eyes at that, "and the Fireman Muster games this weekend we won't have a chance. I'm hoping Bill will give us until next Friday before he makes his decision."

  As bad as she felt for Greg her mind had moved onto another pressing matter. She couldn't believe she almost forgot about it, especially since she was competing again for the first time in four years. "We're going to kick ass this year," she said, knowing it was true.

  For years they competed together in the ambulance portion of the Muster, a competition between neighboring fire departments to put their skills to the test, they always won. The last four years she got stuck behind the scenes helping out, but she was sick of that and told Bill he could find someone else to deal with the venders because she was going to kick some ass instead.

  Eric gently ran his fingers through her hair, careful of her cut. "Are you sure you're up to it?" he asked softly.

  She snorted her disbelief. "Hell yeah, I'm up to it. We are so going to kick some Blackford ass this year!"

  "They kicked out asses last year and the year before," Eric pointed out.

  "That's because I wasn't competing," she reminded him.

  "There is that," he admitted, pressing a kiss to the top of her head. "Get some sleep, Joe. Tomorrow's our twenty-four hour shift and I have a feeling we're going to need every minute of rest that we can get."

  Frowning, she tilted her head to look at him. "Why do you say that?

  He sighed heavily as he pressed a kiss to her forehead. "Because we have Greg for the entire shift," he announced, making her groan and bury her face against his chest.

  "I'm demanding a raise," she muttered against his chest.

  "Damn straight."

  *******

  "Wow, you look like you got your ass handed to you by a psych patient," Jeff said brightly as he held the side door open for her.

  Joe shook her head as she walked past the man. "No, this is what Eric did to me when I talked back," she said with a shrug.

  "She needs to learn her place," Eric informed Jeff with a straight face.

  "They all do," Jeff agreed quickly, earning a playful glare from Joe.

  He followed Joe to their bunkroom, wondering how exactly he should tell her. He'd considered making a run for it while she was in the shower this morning and leaving her a note, or send a test message, but he knew that would just piss her off more. Maybe he should just tell her.

  It was probably for the best that he just tell her and get it off his chest where they had a modicum of privacy for the fight that would no doubt follow. No doubt she'd be pissed at him, but he could make her understand and he would. This was only temporary anyway, well hopefully it would be.

  Actually, he hoped to have her the hell out of this line of work and somewhere safe soon. He was still hoping against hope that Nathan would change his mind and let Joe come work for him, but if that failed, and it probably would, he would find something else for Joe. If worse came to worse he could, and probably would anyway to help out, move in with Joe and take over her bills while she figured out what she wanted to do for the rest of her life.

  If she wanted to go back to school that was more than fine with him. He'd take care of her, pay off her regular bills and take as much overtime as he could get to help pay for college. Hell, if she just wanted to relax for a few months he'd be more than fine with that. As long as she didn't have to worry about her any longer he'd be more than fine with whatever she wanted to do.

  He closed the door behind them as Joe began the tedious job of making her bed. She sent him a questioning look, but thankfully didn't say anything as she tucked the top sheet in. After a minute he realized there was no point in putting it off any longer. She'd find out soon enough and really it was better that they handle this in private.

  Praying she wouldn't kick him in the balls, he said, "You're on light duty."

  She paused mid-tuck. "What did you just say?" she demanded without looking back.

  "I said you're on light duty," he repeated, trying not to wince when she abruptly stood up and glared up at him. "For the entire shift. You're not allowed to lift or drive," he quickly explained, mentally kicking himself for not wearing a cup.

  "If I'm not allowed to lift or drive then what the hell am I supposed to do?" she asked evenly as she walked over to him, crossing her arms over her chest as she waited for his answer.

  "Rest?" he suggested seconds before she slammed her foot down on top of his. When he leaned down to check his poor abused foot she shoved him out of the way and stormed out of the room, probably to track down Bill and give him a piece of her mind. He just hoped the man didn't sell his ass down the river and inform the grouch that it had been his idea to keep her on light duty.

  Of course the man would rat his ass out. His only hope was that Joe didn't turn her anger on his balls.

  Chapter 14

  "Are you still in a pissy mood?" Eric asked as he sat next to her on the couch and threw his arm around her shoulder.

  In answer, she rammed her elbow into his side. "Shit!" he gasped as he bent over and sucked in a breath.

  If she wasn't stuck on light duty she might feel bad about it, but she was. Some people might enjoy light duty, but she was not one of them. Neither was Eric. It was boring, incredibly boring and now she was stuck on it for at least this shift, a twenty-four hour shift, she'd like to point out.

  The only thing she was allowed to do for the next twenty-four hours was sit around, walk with Eric and Greg to get patients. She wasn't allowed to drive, help with the stretcher, move a patient, or even fill out paperwork, because apparently that would be too strenuous, she thought dryly. Hell, if they ended up with a heavy patient she wouldn't be allowed to help them. They'd have to call for a lift assist, another ambulance or an available supervisor would be asked to come help lift the patient, while she stood around feeling useless.

  She liked staying busy during her shifts, especially during her twenty-four hour shift. It made the time pass by quickly. As much as she loved her job, and she did, it could get a little boring when there was nothing to do and it appeared that she had nothing to do for twenty-four hours.

  "Such a baby," Eric said, sighing heavily as he stood up, grabbed her hand and yanked her to her feet so that he could steal her place on the couch and yanked her back down onto his lap. "There. That's much better," he mused as he settled back into the corner of the couch and got comfortable.

  Most of the guys were used to their odd relationship and didn't care enough to tear their eyes away from the game. Greg on the other hand wasn't and every few minutes sent them a questioning look that she decided to ignore. She was pissed and in no mood for any bullshit today. She swore if he asked her out again she was going to stomp on his foot, too. The only thing she wanted to do was sulk all day.

  Of course she also wanted to get the bastar
d who was absently