Sudden Response

by R. L. Mathewson

  "There's no need. I got them right here."

  "Did you check the truck out?" Joe asked, holding her hand out for the keys, but Greg either didn't see her or ignored her as he put them back in his pocket.

  "That's the crew's job to do at night. It's a waste of time to check it out in the beginning of the shift," he said with a shrug, moving to turn his back on Joe.

  "It's part of the job, Greg. We need to check the truck out before we go into service. Hand me the keys, please," she said tightly and he knew she was just barely reigning in her temper.

  He simply shook his head. "The truck's all set," he said dismissively.

  Before Joe could take another calming breath he was in the little bastard's face. "She's your training officer. When she asks you to do something you better fucking do it. I don't give a flying fuck who your uncle is. If you don't pass our standards you will not be working in this station. Understand?" he asked as he held his hand out for the keys.

  Grounding his jaw, Greg reached into his pocket and handed the keys over. He shot a look to Teddy who of course kept his mouth shut. If he thought that Teddy was going to put himself out for him he was mistaken.

  He tossed Joe the keys as he gestured to the ambulance. "Get in there and start checking out the truck."

  With a glare in his direction Greg moved his ass and he knew he was going to have to double check everything afterwards. The man hadn't been here a month and he was already adopting Teddy's work ethic. As Joe walked past him she muttered a few unkind words about his ego, but he let it go since he knew she was just pissed off that he had to handle the prick for her.

  By the time he bought her breakfast, and apparently since it was his fault that she couldn't grab a bite to eat before they left for work this morning he was treating, she'd forgive him. He supposed since he loved her that he could spoil her a little. O'Malley's bakery ran a two for one deal on coffee rolls every Tuesday so he supposed he'd get her one.

  "Is it true what I heard about you and Joe?" Teddy asked.

  "Depends on what you heard," he said, climbing in the back of the ambulance and double checking the oxygen levels.

  "I heard lots of things, but I was referring to you finally manning up and going for it."

  "We're together. Is there a problem with that?" he asked in a bored tone.

  "Nah, I'm just shocked that Joe became that desperate that's all," Teddy said, sounding amused and he had to wonder how many times today he was going to hear that.

  "I'm not desperate!" Joe yelled from the front of the truck. The admission pleased him until she added, "I was drunk."

  "I'm not buying you breakfast for that, smart ass!"

  "You really are a cheap bastard," he thought he heard her say, but decided to ignore it and the bastard laughing at him.

  Chapter 26

  "Let me get that for you, Joe," Greg said, reaching past her to pay the cashier when Eric stepped in front of him, forcing the man back and making Joe wish that she banged out today.

  Their shift only began two hours ago but already she wanted to bitch slap them both. Not a good sign when she still had fourteen more hours to go before her shift ended. She really wasn't sure she'd be able to tolerate this little pissing contest for that long.

  In Eric's defense, Greg really did seem to be going out of his way to piss him off. It was pretty obvious to her at least that Greg hadn't appreciated being put in his place and was trying to use her to piss Eric off. Every five minutes he seemed to be hitting on her, but only when Eric was around. The only thing it was accomplishing was giving her a headache.

  She really didn't need this. All she wanted to do was work. If he wanted to be trained then she'd do that too, but his attitude clearly stated that he wasn't here to learn. He was too damn cocky to realize that he didn't have what it took to do this job and instead of admitting that and asking for help he was too busy pretending that he knew what he was doing.

  Eric handed over the money for their order and grabbed the bakery bag and cardboard tray with their drinks and gestured towards the door. "Get your food and meet us in the truck," he said, not bothering to look Greg's way as they headed towards the door.

  She held the door open for Eric and caught a glimpse of Greg glaring at Eric's back. Yup, this was just getting better and better. After twelve years she really should be used to this testosterone charged environment and for the most part she was. She just wasn't in the mood for it today.

  "Are you okay?" Eric asked as they climbed into the ambulance and shut his door.

  "Yeah, I'm fine," she said, forcing a smile as she accepted her hot chocolate and chocolate frosted coffee roll from him. She took a sip of her hot chocolate before placing it in the cup holder above the control unit located between their seats. She shifted until her back was against the door and used the steering wheel to rest her elbow as she nibbled on her coffee roll.

  "I think Nathan's still pissed at me," Eric said, sounding pleased.

  "Can you blame him?" she asked, inwardly wincing on Nathan's behalf.

  After Amber stormed off Sunday evening Eric decided to make his brother's life a living hell by taking Alice aside and explaining that Nathan felt left out and would really like her to help him find someone special, but he was too embarrassed to ask. Unfortunately for Nathan, Alice jumped on board with that plan and if she wasn't afraid to draw Alice's attention to their relationship and any type of future she would have said something.

  Maybe......

  The whole thing did promise to be rather entertaining and she did love a good laugh at family dinners so maybe she'd just sit back and enjoy it for a while. She had a feeling that Nathan wouldn't be able to sidestep his mother's efforts as easily as Eric had. He was a pushover so he'd probably end up taking at least a few of them out to please his mother. Of course she'd have to tag along and she'd bet every last cent she had that Eric would be more than happy to join them.

  "You know that Teddy tried signing Greg out of third riding this weekend?" Eric asked, drawing her attention.

  She frowned at that little announcement. "He can't sign him out. He's not a trainer," she said, wondering what the hell was wrong with Teddy. Even he should realize that Greg didn't belong on a truck.

  "Bill already chewed him a new one," Eric said, opening his bakery bag and grabbing his coffee roll.

  "Why the hell would Teddy do something so stupid? There's no way he did it to get Greg as a partner. If he worked with Greg he'd have to do all the work and there's no way in hell Teddy would willingly screw himself over."

  "I think he was hoping that Greg's uncle would put a good word in for him to get him the supervisor job over at the 603," he said with a shrug as if he hadn't just said something truly frightening.

  Teddy as a supervisor? She prayed that never happened. Bill wouldn't allow that and thankfully the city council didn't have a say when it came to promotions. She knew that Teddy wanted a supervisor position to get the hell off the truck and sooner or later he'd realize that that wouldn't happen as long as he worked for the city.

  A private ambulance company was a different story all together. She'd heard horror stories about assholes being promoted who didn't deserve it. As much as she hated to admit this she'd seen incompetent supervisors from private ambulance companies show up at the scene of an accident and screw everything up.

  As much as she loved her job she wasn't sure she could ever go the private route. From what she'd seen there was too much drama and backstabbing. A few years ago when overtime became tight Eric looked into working part time for a mom and pop ambulance company. The guy had been an asshole with a chip on his shoulder against Bill and spent the majority of the time trying to convince Eric that Bill was an asshole who had no business being a supervisor. Halfway through the interview Eric got up and walked out. It wasn't too hard to find out that the man used to work for the city and had been fired for stealing equipment.

  "Never going to happen," she said, shaking her head as she popped
another bite of coffee roll into her mouth. She looked towards the coffee shop and saw Greg leaning against the counter, talking up one of the servers through the large storefront window.

  Eric cleared his throat and she couldn't help but look over at him. He looked suddenly nervous as he toyed with his coffee roll. "What do you want to do tonight?" he asked, throwing her a nervous glance.

  "What I do every Tuesday night after our shift," she said slowly, wondering what the hell was going on with him. He was never like this around her. Then again the dynamics of their relationship had changed so maybe she should give him a little slack, she thought as he shifted uncomfortably in his seat.

  "And, ah," he cleared his throat, looking uncomfortable, "what are your plans tomorrow?"

  "Unless I get overtime I thought I'd clean up the house and relax a little. Why?"

  He cleared his throat again. "I was thinking that maybe we could-"

  "Echo seventeen?" dispatch chimed in over the radio, cutting off whatever he was about to say.

  Shooting Eric a sideways glance she grabbed the mike. "Echo seventeen."

  "Echo seventeen, I need you to take a priority three call at Hillsmith nursing home for an unknown medical."

  "Priority three at Hillsmith nursing home, received," she said, returning the mike to the dashboard. She placed her half-eaten coffee roll in the bag and handed it to Eric, who looked surprisingly relieved. She was curious about that, but it would have to wait until later.

  She started the ambulance and gave the horn a little push to get Greg's attention. He held up a hand, indicating that she should wait while he finished up his conversation with the cashier. Shaking her head in disbelief, she threw the ambulance in reverse and headed for the road.

  "Not in the mood for his bullshit I take it," Eric mused as he pulled out a run sheet and began to fill in their information.

  "Nope, not at all," she said, spotting Greg running out of the coffee shop and heading for the ambulance.

  When she stopped she heard the backdoor open. It slammed shut as she pulled onto the road. She didn't even bothering waiting for Greg to buckle up, but headed for the nursing home. It wasn't her job to wait for him. If he wanted to do this job then he needed to be prepared to drop everything that he was doing when a call came in and he really needed to drop his attitude while he was at it.

  "The next time you ignore a call I'm writing you up," Eric drawled lazily as he continued to fill in their information.

  Greg didn't say anything and she wasn't exactly surprised. Eric might appear to be calm and relaxed, but she knew that he was truly pissed and Greg must have picked up on that as well. This call might have been called in as a non-emergency medical transport, but they'd learned a long time ago that that status could quickly change so they didn't drag their feet doing the call. It also didn't hurt that they'd probably get their asses chewed out by a nurse or a family member if they took their sweet time getting to the call.

  Ten minutes later she pulled the ambulance up and around the circle drive to the front door and parked behind a chair car, a van decked out to transport people in wheelchair and sometimes those who could walk but needed an extra hand. The only thing a chair car driver needed was a license and a valid CPR card, other than that it was basically a cab.

  She called them on scene, turned off the ambulance and pocketed the keys. By the time she made it to the back of the ambulance Eric was already pulling their stretcher out and gesturing for Greg to move his ass.

  "Can I drive?" Greg asked as he hopped out of the ambulance.

  "No," she said with absolutely no hesitation.

  "Driving is part of the job. How can I do my job if you won't let me drive?" he pointed out with irritation.

  "Because you haven't learned to do the most important part of the job yet," Eric explained.

  "What's that?" Greg said, moving to walk past the stretcher.

  Eric pushed the stretcher in his direction, cutting him off. When Greg only frowned, Eric gestured to the stretcher. With a glare, Greg grabbed the front metal handle and gave it a pull in the direction of the double doors.

  "You need to learn how to deal with patients and run a call. If you can't do that then there's no point in learning how to drive an ambulance because you won't be working here," Eric explained as he took the rear position of the stretcher, leaving her with nothing to do but shut the doors and follow after them.

  "I know how to handle a call," Greg argued. "I've been doing it for several weeks now."

  "No, you haven't. The only thing you've managed to do is ride along and puke," Eric pointed out as he pressed the call button by the front door to be buzzed in.

  "I was sick," Greg argued, lying and further irritating the hell out of her. He'd get so much further if he just admitted he was nervous and ask for help, but he was too damn worried about his pride and that was going to be his downfall.

  "I don't really care what the problem was. Just do your goddamn job so that we can do ours," Eric said as they were buzzed in. Greg's face turned red, but he didn't say anything else as they walked inside.

  Since Eric was the tech for the call she let him do all the talking.

  "Good morning, ladies. Who do you have for me today?" he asked charmingly as he set his clipboard on the nurse's station counter. She noted that several of the nurses blushed and she had to bite back a smile. Eric really had no idea how devastating that bad boy charm of his was or he would have used it on her last night to get her to give him that half hour back massage that he demanded for making her dinner. In the end she'd slapped some scented oil in his hand and he'd given her a body massage to die for, all while grumbling and bitching of course.

  "Beverly needs to go the emergency room to have her central line replaced," Margaret, a nurse, said as she placed Beverly's inch think medical file on the counter for Eric.

  With a murmured "thank you" he opened the file and began to fill in their run sheet with Beverly's medical and insurance information. She was about to suggest that he have Greg do it when she spotted the man in question lounging lazily in a chair by the nurses' station.

  Great. Just what they needed, another Teddy to deal with, she thought dryly as she grabbed the stretcher by the safety bar and headed for Beverly's room. She didn't need to ask where it was. After five years of picking Beverly up for this and that she knew exactly where the woman's room was.

  She was a favorite patient of theirs and every time they had to return a patient here they stopped by to check on her. Beverly was black, barely five foot nothing, and was one of the sweetest women Joe had ever met. If Joe could, she'd adopt the woman as her grandmother.

  "Joe!" Beverly said, grinning hugely when she spotted her. Joe smiled in return, pushing the stretcher to the side in the small room before she walked over to help Beverly gather the things on her lap and move them to the nightstand.

  "Are you here for me?" the older woman asked, smiling sweetly up at Joe.

  "I'm here for you, darling. Joe's just tagging along," Eric announced as he walked into the room. He tossed the clipboard on the straight basket beneath the head of the stretcher and walked over to Beverly. He took both the old woman's frail hands into his. "Are you ready to run away with me yet, sweetheart? Just say the word and we can be in Vegas in hours making our love legal."

  With a soft laugh Beverly playfully swatted Eric's hands away.

  "Is this your way of denying our love once again?" Eric asked, pouting.

  "I'm afraid so," Beverly said matter-of-factly as she grabbed her reading glasses and a paperback novel and hugged them to her chest.

  "What if I beg?" Eric asked, lowering the bed's side rails.

  "You already have," Beverly pointed out with a smile.

  Eric sighed heavily. "It's because you want a younger man, isn't it? I've grown past my prime and now you're done with me."

  Beverly nodded solemnly. "I'm afraid that's it."

  "I don't think I'll ever recover," Eric said, sighing as he le
aned over and scooped Beverly up into his arms. Normally they would have placed the stretcher against the bed and worked together to shift Beverly onto the stretcher, but she barely weighed a hundred pounds. Plus, they both knew she got a kick out of being swept off her feet by a handsome man.

  "Probably not," Beverly agreed as Eric gently placed her on the stretcher and began strapping her in.

  "Where's Greg?" Joe asked when the other man didn't walk into the room by the time Beverly was all loaded up and ready to go.

  Eric's lips twitched as he said, "He went for a walk."

  Chapter 27

  "Are you going to tell me where Greg is yet?" Joe asked as she perused the vending machine selection in the EMS room of Shamrock Hospital's ER. It was a place set up for EMTs to fill out their paperwork as well as swap out equipment. Some hospitals didn't have any designated areas for EMTs so they knew they were fortunate that