Worth the Trouble

by Becky McGraw

  "Hold onto the rope! Tie it off on a tree if you have to!" he yelled then fought his way upstream toward where the man was on the bank.

  It was amazing to him that he felt normal in the water. His fricking legs worked like they had before the accident, and his back didn't hurt when he moved them. He made a mental note to add swimming to his therapy program, since the ranch had a pool.

  Excitement and adrenaline gave him added strength as he cut through the current toward the bank. By the time his knees touched the muddy bottom near the opposite bank, his muscles burned and he was exhausted, but exaltation like none he'd felt before flowed through him.

  He had done it, he still had it.

  Dragging himself out of the water, Ethan sat on the bank breathing hard. Across the creek, the others all had their mouths open, except for Rocky. She was knee deep in the water, holding onto the rope with a worried frown on her beautiful face. He gave them a thumb's up then scooted further up the bank toward the inert man.

  "Ya'll tie the backboard to the rope, and I'll pull it over," he instructed and glanced over his shoulder at the patient.

  Ethan scanned his body for obvious injuries and noticed the man's leg was at an odd angle and his jeans were covered in blood. Compound fracture of the femur, most likely. He needed to get that bleeding stopped fast, and he hoped when the bone broke and shoved through the skin, it hadn't nicked his artery, or his efforts could be wasted. The man could bleed out before they ever got him to the hospital.

  There was also blood on the man's head by his ear. That could mean a concussion, or even a brain injury, but he needed to check his pupils and reactions to determine that.

  "Sir, can you hear me?" Ethan yelled back to the guy, but he didn't respond, and he still wasn't moving. Not a good sign.

  Cupping his hands around his mouth, Ethan yelled back to his sister, "Hurry up, Terr--open fracture of the femur and possible concussion. Go ahead and call for a medical transport! Tell them you need a rescue swimmer too."

  Once the backboard was tied to the rope, they pushed it into the water, and Ethan began towing it toward him. It wobbled a few times with the heavy medical kit on top and he held his breath until it stabilized. His plan was working, and Ethan was relieved, until three-quarters of the way across the creek, the backboard snagged on a submerged log. As much as he yanked on it, tried to wiggle it loose, let the rope out then pulled it back in, he couldn't get the backboard free.

  Even though the patient was conscious now, he knew from the weak moans coming from behind him, the man needed immediate treatment. That meant Ethan had to do something quickly to get that medical kit. With a muttered curse, Ethan got on his knees, laid flat on his belly, then pulled himself along the bank toward where the backboard was stuck in the water about fifty feet downstream.

  "Ethan, be careful!" Terri yelled from across the creek.

  He was trying to be careful, but he was going to have to do something drastic to get the damned backboard and medical kit, or that guy was a goner. Even though he hadn't actually examined the man yet, Ethan had been a paramedic long enough to have a sixth sense about a patient's viability. This guy was heading down the crapper if he didn't treat him soon.

  "Ethan, wait!" Rocky yelled, and he glanced back up the creek to see her sitting on the bank taking off her boots.

  The damn woman needed to stay right where she was, he thought, before he wound up with two patients.

  "Stay there, Rocky! I've got this!" he yelled pulling on the rope to get closer to the log. Assessing the situation, he decided if he shimmied halfway down the log, out into the water, he could probably free the backboard.

  After he reentered the water, Ethan climbed out onto the log and straddled it, before tying off the second rope he had with him to a branch jutting out of the water, hoping it would catch him if he fell into the current. Carefully, he held on to the log and scooted down toward the backboard. Just as he grabbed one of the handholds at the top of the backboard, he heard a loud splash near the other bank, and his eyes flew back to the group standing about a hundred yards up the bank on the other side.

  Terri and Dylan stood there, but Rocky was gone.

  Near the middle of the creek, her blonde head popped up to the surface and Ethan cursed. She struggled against the current trying to swim toward the log, as she was swept downstream, but Ethan knew she was never going to make it. The woman hadn't even removed her clothes, they were probably waterlogged and dragging her under. Ethan looked for a safety rope, but didn't see one.

  Flashbacks of Terri being swept away in this same creek, by even higher and faster moving water flitted through his mind and his heart sped up. He'd almost lost his sister that night, and he was damned afraid if he didn't do something, Rocky would die. Right before her head went under the fast moving water again, Roxanne's eyes widened in surprise.

  Ethan scanned the muddy water hoping to see her blond hair reemerge so he could get a fix on her, before she passed the log. When she came up sputtering and flailing about twenty feet from the log, he sucked in a breath and prepared to go in after her, even if it meant letting go of the backboard to swim downstream. At the last minute though, she grabbed onto the very end of the log, hugging it tightly.

  Ethan let go of the backboard and the current took it downstream tightening the rope attached to his waist. He scooted further down the log toward her and grabbed onto another branch. Leaning forward as far as he could toward Roxanne, he extended his hand to her, holding onto the branch with his other arm.

  "Grab on!" he yelled hoping he had enough strength in his legs to hold on and pull her in too. Waist deep in the water now, his hold on the log was tenuous at best with the water rushing against him and the backboard pulling at him even more.

  When a couple of minutes passed and she still hadn't tried to grab his hand, he growled, "Take my damned hand, before you drown!"

  "Can you hold me?" she asked with fear in her gray eyes. It was obvious she didn't believe he could. "I can make it, just give me a minute to catch my breath," she yelled breathing hard.

  "Grab my hand, Roxanne. I don't have a minute or that guy is gonna die!" he shouted gruffly leaning out toward her again.

  With resignation in her eyes, she nodded then swallowed and reached for his hand, but six inches separated their hands.

  "Jump for it, I'll catch you," he promised confidently. "Use both hands, Roxanne, and grab my wrist," he told her when it looked like she was still going to hold onto the log with the other, which meant she would never be able to grab on. "Push off with your legs."

  After a moment, she pinched her lips and he saw her wind up her courage, before she launched herself out of the water toward him. In slow motion, he watched her hands grasping for his wrist. When they closed over his wrist in a stranglehold, he let go of the branch and grabbed her forearms, then used all of his strength to pull her to him.

  Breathing hard, she scrambled up onto the log in front of him.

  "Thank, God," he said, his breathing just as erratic as hers. After a few gulping breaths to calm himself, he told her, "Help me pull in this backboard, then you need to get that damned horse out of the woods, so we can go back over there and help that guy."

  "Okay," she said weakly, reaching out to grab the rope.

  Together they pulled it to the log, then Ethan told her, "Climb over me, and face toward the bank, I'll hand you the rope. Drag it with you to the bank."

  With a nod, she carefully moved behind him, and he untied the rope from his waist and handed it to her. "Tie that around your waist."

  Ethan turned around on the log facing the shore too and waited until she was standing on the bank and had the backboard on shore, before he pulled on the second rope attached to the branch and made it back to shore too.

  She left him sitting there untying ropes, and a minute later reappeared from the woods with a big black horse that looked tired and scared. The animal had scratches on his muzzle and side, but he looked none the worse f
or wear to Ethan, as she led him over to where Ethan was sitting.

  "He okay?" Ethan asked and pulled up to stand using the stirrup.

  "I think he will be once I put some salve on these scratches and give him some Bute," she told him with disgust and anger in her tone.

  "Think it'll be okay if I ride?" he asked. If he couldn't, it would be damn slow going to get back over to the injured man. He hadn't realized he had gone this far away from there.

  "Yeah, can you get up or do you need help?" she asked and walked around the horse.

  "I've got it. We'll need to tie the backboard to the saddle horn and drag it behind, if he will do that."

  "Yeah, this is one of the most bombproof horses we have on the ranch. That's why it's so damned aggravating this asshole abused him like he did. I'd just as soon leave him out here and let the buzzards get him."

  "We'll take care of the horse after we take care of the asshole," Ethan told her with frustration and grabbed the saddle horn. This horse was a lot taller than Diamond had been, and he was a lot more worn out, so he wasn't sure at all he could mount without assistance. After two tries, he huffed out a breath and asked angrily. "Can you give me a leg up?"

  "Yeah," she told him with a snort then cupped her hands and leaned down. He put his foot in her hand, bounced and used his arms to push himself up at the same time she heaved him up. Landing on his belly on the saddle, Ethan threw his leg over then found his balance. Rocky grabbed the rope on the backboard then handed it to him and he looped it around the saddle horn.

  "You gonna give me the reins?" he asked.

  "Hell, no...you ride, I'll lead. Rambler has had enough trauma for one day," she said with a snort then started forward down the bank along the tree line.

  Ethan's bare wet feet were a little slippery in the stirrups and several times he had to grab the horn to keep his balance when the horse bogged down in the mud and shifted to get his hooves free. Rocky just kept trudging forward, even though he saw she was having the same problem with the soft mud sucking around her feet.

  When they reached the spot where the man was laying, he was awake now and didn't look like he was too happy. "Bout damned time you got here. I'm a good mind to sue your ass off. That damned horse is crazy," he said and tried to sit up then groaned loudly.

  Ethan saw Rocky's shoulders tense and he knew she was about to cut loose on the abrasive man. He shot her a look then grated, "Sit still."

  Even though he was at the end of his reserves of energy, somehow Ethan managed to get his legs on the same side of the saddle to slide to the ground. Instead of landing on his feet though, his knees buckled and he landed on his ass. Instead of trying to stand again, he just crawled over to where the may was laying.

  "Bring me the first aid kit, Rocky," he said then scooted up near the man's head.

  It was starting to get dark, and they needed to get the man out of here before it did. He hoped Terri had called for the helicopter, and that it would arrive soon.

  Roxanne set the case down beside him, he opened it then rummaged around until he found a pen light. The man's pupils were even and responsive, so Ethan didn't think he had a head bleed.

  He checked the man's skull and didn't feel any indentations, although he did have a bump behind his right ear. Working his way though his assessment of the man's condition, he determined that other than bruises and contusions, he had only the compound fracture of his femur and possibly a broken collarbone.

  "I'm going to put a splint and pressure bandage on your leg. This will hurt some," he told the man then proceeded to do that, while the man grunted and groaned. When he finished wrapping it, Ethan tied it off then pulled out the blood pressure cuff and stethoscope to check the man's vitals. They seemed stable, so all he had to do was get him in a collar just in case he had a neck injury, before he put him on the backboard.

  "I need your help to get him packaged up," Ethan told Rocky moving the backboard around to align it with the man's body. "This will probably be a little uncomfortable sir," he warned.

  "Nothing about my trip to this damned ranch has been comfortable. Just do it!" he grumped.

  Ethan looked up at Rocky's red face and knew she was biting her tongue. He felt sure she might need sutures for it once they got out of earshot of this guy. Quickly, Ethan put the C-collar on the man's neck to stabilize it, then told Rocky, "Get his feet. We need to hold him steady and roll him on his side in one motion."

  She moved to his feet and held his calves together then nodded. "On three," he said then counted and they rolled him on his side. He screamed like someone had grabbed him by the balls and yanked.

  Ethan glanced at Rocky and saw a smile flit across her face. He shook his head, because it looked to him like the woman didn't have a damned bit of compassion for this man. Ethan reminded himself never to mess with one of her horses.

  "Okay, shove the board under him and we'll ease him back down on it in one motion," he instructed and tucked his end of the board under the man's shoulders and head. Rocky did the same then he counted and they lowered him onto the board. Ethan strapped him onto the board and found tape in the kit to tape down the collar to the board.

  "What now?" Rocky asked, sitting down beside him.

  "I start an IV, then we wait for the helicopter," he told her and checked the man's vitals gain. Next, he pulled out a bag of saline, tubing and a twelve gauge needle. After sanitizing his arm, he started the IV, then gave the man a little pain medication to take the edge off until the helicopter arrived.

  The best thing this man could hope for was unconsciousness, so he didn't say anything else that might send Roxanne Baker over the edge. If he did, Ethan was afraid they wouldn't need the medical transport after all.

  "I gave you a shot of morphine to help with your pain," Ethan told him. And to help you keep your mouth shut, he added silently.

  Relief washed through Ethan when he heard the sound of rotor blades in the distance. That sweet sound meant that this whole ordeal would be over soon. Ethan had never had a more challenging rescue, even when he had rescued his sister from this same creek last year.

  Then he had been in top physical condition, so things were easy. Right now he was less than halfway where he had been that night. Although that made things a lot more difficult with this rescue, somehow he had managed to save not one, but two people, without killing or injuring himself in the process.

  Ethan was proud of his performance here, and he was a little hopeful he might eventually get back to where he was. Satisfaction poured through him, and something else, hope. His back would never be the same, but maybe he could compensate and still do some of the things he used to be able to do.

  "How are they going to get him out of here? A boat?" Rocky asked him.

  Ethan snorted and looked at her, "No, they are going to drop a rescue swimmer, then send down a basket to haul him back up. They'll probably send the basket back down for us to ride out."

  "Oh," Rocky said with lifted brows. "You used to do this?"

  And a lot more, he thought, but he said, "Yeah, I used to do this."

  "Impressive," was all she said, but he saw grudging respect in her eyes as she pushed up to her feet. "I'm going to walk Rambler a mile or so downstream and cross at the shallow part of the creek. I'll meet you back at the ranch later."

  "You're walking out?" he asked with surprise.

  "Yeah, unless there's room for a horse on that helicopter," she said with a chuckle then added with a chin nod toward the now sleeping man on the ground, "I've got to make sure my horse is okay now that you have him handled."

  "Okay then, I'll see you later...be careful crossing," he warned.

  "I'm always careful," she tossed his words to Terri back at him and grinned.

  CHAPTER NINE

  When the rescue swimmer paramedic dropped from the helicopter into the creek, he swam over to the bank where he waited, Ethan knew he was shocked to find the patient already triaged, treated and packaged when he got out of th
e water.

  After he checked Ethan's work, and Ethan gave him a sit rep on the man's condition, the medic loaded the patient into a basket dropped down from the helicopter. Someone in the helicopter hoisted the basket back inside the bird, then sent down a different one to pick them up.

  Riding out in the chopper basket with the rescue swimmer was as much fun as Ethan had had in forever. He soaked up every minute of it too, because the odds were he would never have another chance to do it again in the future. Those days were over for him.

  In the helicopter, the two medics and the pilot asked about his background. When he told them that before his accident, he was a firefighter and Spec Ops Paramedic who worked with the Texas Task Force 1, they became fast friends by the time the pilot dropped him off back at the ranch in front of the house.

  It was just getting dark when he got there, but the front porch lights were on and Penny came out of the house when she heard the noise from the rotor blades. The helicopter quickly lifted off again to take the patient to the hospital in Amarillo, leaving Ethan standing in the yard in his underwear.

  Penny shuffled off the porch and across the yard toward him. After fussing about his lack of clothing, and the fact he was covered from head to toe in silt and mud, she went back inside to get his walker, then led him over to the side of the house where she hosed him off, before going back inside again for towels.

  When Ethan dried off, he went inside the darkened house, and nobody else was around, so he figured they were either still out by the creek, or headed back. As he walked down the hall to go finish showering, he wondered if they were still having the bonfire tonight.

  Ethan knew he should be tired, worn out and want nothing other than a beer and bed, but he was pumped. Adrenaline was pumping through him and he was more full of life than he had been since the accident. Just like old times, there was no way he was going to be able to sleep without some unwinding time.