by Amy Briggs
She looked straight ahead. “I don’t know what happened. He came out of nowhere,” she replied. She was definitely in shock. A paramedic rig rolled up, and two medics that I actually knew came running over, Mark tossed himself to the ground next to me.
“Ma’am, we can worry about that later, we need to ask you some questions, and then we’re gonna get you out of here.” I told her. Now that the medics were here, I could go get some tools to free her from the vehicle. She was going to need to be cut out of that seatbelt and it was going to take a few people to make sure she didn’t just come crashing down. “Mark, I’m gonna go get some tools, I’ll be right back,” and I jogged back to the rescue, leaving him to assess and treat the patient.
“Jo! Chief needs you over at the other vehicle. The space is too small for anyone to secure the patient, and you’re the smallest. I’ll take over for you at the SUV,” Scotty had come running to meet me.
“Okay, no problem, the lady seems alright, but she’s gonna need to be cut out of her seatbelt, so take another guy with you so she doesn’t come falling down, she’s suspended upside down.” I took off toward the other car, about fifty yards away. When I got to the other car, more or less all of the heavy rescue tools were out and Brian and Matt were discussing next steps with one of the medics from the second rig that had arrived. “What’s the situation?” I asked as I assessed it for myself.
The victim appeared to be a young man, unconscious but breathing, who was trapped in the driver’s seat, up against the guardrail wall. The dashboard had been crushed enough to trap one of his legs under it, and his spine wasn’t stabilized due to the passenger seat getting shoved in the way. This made him out of reach without crawling into the vehicle, which they were all too large to do without jostling the patient too much. If I wasn’t here, they would have had to, but I was there, and I knew what to do.
“We can’t get in to stabilize the patient before we cut out this dash to free him, I need you to get in there,” Brian said.
“Absolutely. Give me that blanket to cover the patient up, so when you pull the tools out, I can cover him up.” I made my way into the passenger side of the vehicle, over the damaged passenger seat, and then over the console into the back seat. It was a sedan of some kind, but only had two doors, so it was definitely a tight squeeze. I took the blanket and covered up the chest and torso of the victim, so any more broken glass or debris wouldn’t fall on him. As I looked him over, I could see an extremely deep head wound, as well as a better view of his left leg, which looked like a broken femur, thankfully not through the skin, but still nasty. “Anybody know this kid’s name?” I yelled out as I positioned myself behind the driver's seat so that I could stabilize the kid’s spine as best as possible without moving him too much.
“Kid’s name is Marshall, it’s on the insurance card from the glove box. Be careful in there, Jo,” Brian leaned in. “What can you see over there?” he asked me.
“Okay, the only way to get this kid out is gonna be through the passenger side, but you’re gonna need to cut that whole passenger seat out for us to get him out on a board properly. Get me a collar, I’m gonna stabilize his neck while you get set up.” I demanded, and Matt took off to get it for me.
Brian leaned into the vehicle and lowered his voice. “Be careful in there. Glad you’re here to help, we’ll try to get you both out as fast as possible.” We locked eyes, and I nodded. This is what we did, we put ourselves in precarious situations like climbing into crushed cars to help others get out. Matt came back with the collar, and I carefully manipulated it around the patient's neck, trying to not move him at all, you simply had no idea what kind of internal damage was done after a wreck like this.
The heavy rescue work was beginning. Most people think the Jaws of Life and the other large hydraulic tools they see on TV or hear about just come in and rip machinery apart like a hot knife through butter. It really doesn’t work that way. In order for this to go smoothly, it had to be done in steps.
First, they had to pop the door off the passenger side. It was open, but the hinge was damaged, and the whole thing was just in the way and was going to make getting the patient out smoothly tricky. The whole point of this operation was to get the patient out to safety without any further injury. Matt got to work on that with the spreaders, which are actually commonly known as the Jaws of Life, because it looked like a huge set of jaws that open and close. What he needed to do, was position the points of the jaws into the door hinge and then open the jaws up, making the hinge pop. We called it a door pop. Once you heard that pop on both hinges, it meant that it was broken off from the main part of the car, and you could remove the door by just a quick yank. Some were easier than others, generally newer cars have a lot of plastic bullshit and wires that control window and locks that you can easily snip, or just pull away. Matt was able to remove the door in just a few moments, and it didn’t even jostle the car a bit. I was crouched in the backseat, sweating my ass off, holding the patients head still and monitoring his vitals. I kept asking if he could hear me, and he would audibly grunt from time to time, which was a good sign.
The next step was to remove the passenger seat. It would probably be a real pain in the ass. It would require using the cutters, which look just like handheld cutters, but they’re huge, and they’re powered by hydraulics and attached to the truck from a hose, just like the Jaws. Because it was a bucket seat, it really was the best option for getting the patient out smoothly, and I knew it sucked, but this kid was in bad shape, the less he was moved around the better off he’d be. Matt stuck his head in the car before he started cutting the seat out. “You alright in there?” he asked with a smile. We'd always made great partners.
“Yep, all good. Hurry up though, it’s uncomfortable and I’m sweating my ass off,” I smiled at him.
“Your wish is my command. Let me know if anything changes,” and with that he pulled his safety glasses back down, and crouched down to start cutting the seat out. It was going to require at least four cuts to get it loose enough to actually remove it. Car seats were definitely not designed to come back out. I looked around, and it appeared there were a lot of people on scene now, and traffic, while light at this time of night, needed to be diverted. I didn’t see Brian anywhere, I’m sure he was bossing people around, I mused to myself.
I could see Scotty was back at the truck operating the other end of the tools where the power was, and there were other people helping that lady out of her SUV. I sighed with relief that she appeared to have minimal injuries. Seriously, a seatbelt will absolutely save your damn life. She had her window down, and without her seatbelt, she could have been ejected right out of that SUV.
After about ten minutes, Matt had two of the posts cut and then stopped to check on me and the patient again. “We’re halfway there. When I get to the final one, if you could push it with your foot, I'll have Joe back here pulling while I cut, and we should be able to yank it out pretty smoothly, okay?” He was dripping sweat now too. It was stifling hot in the gear, shoved in the backseat, however I was just holding onto the victim, Matt was maneuvering a giant tool, and it was heavy.
“You got it, chop chop,” I said. I saw the third little post snap, and connected eyes with Matt signifying I was ready. The medics were waiting right behind him with a board, ready to help get the patient out. As Matt started to cut the final post holding the seat in place, the metal twisted, and the seat snapped backwards, knocking right into my ribs.
“Aww fuck!” I winced, and fell backwards, letting go of the patient for just a moment. “Dude, get someone to hold the fucking seat man!” I yelled at Matt. Joe rushed forward, he had been standing right there, and grabbed the seat, pulling it toward them, instead of me and the patient, and within a few moments, the seat was out.
“Sorry, Jo, didn’t see that coming. I thought you were gonna kick it back in my direction,” Matt said and put the tool back on the ground where they were all set up.
“It’s alright
. I just wasn’t ready. Hey, I have an idea, I think we can get away without rolling the dash, if I can reach the seat adjustment, and lean this driver's seat back, we should be able to slide him out onto a board without fucking around with this dash.” It was going to require me to crawl down and seriously reach, but it could save a lot of time if it worked.
“Works for me, what do you need me to do?” Matt asked.
“Get in here and hold the patient’s head still. I need to crawl down on the floor and see if I can reach between the door and grab the lever without smooshing myself with the seat.”
Matt immediately got in, and took over securing the patient, and a little crowd formed around the vehicle while we tried to make this happen. I was never going to reach it with my turnout coat on, so I took it off, and took off my helmet so I could get my head low, and sprawled my lower body across the back seat. I immediately felt cooler, I was completely soaked with sweat. I scrunched way down below the driver's seat, and managed to stretch my fingers out just enough to reach the lever. When I pulled it, nothing happened. Fuck. It needed more weight to actually push the seat back.
“Okay, I need you to push gently back on the seat, he’s not enough weight to move it. But I might get stuck down here, so get someone over here to pull me out too.” I sighed. Maybe this wasn’t the greatest idea, but it was still faster for the patient than getting out any more tools and cutting the car apart more. “Okay, on three,” I yelled.
“One, two, THREE!” I grabbed the lever, the seat came back on me, and I was definitely now stuck. Fucking hell.
“Jo, the patient is almost flat on top of you and his leg is free, are you okay?” Matt yelled down at me.
I was pinned down underneath the seat now, not in pain, but extremely uncomfortable. “Get the patient out on a board now, then I can get out!” I couldn’t see a damn thing except for the floor of the car, and I could hear scrambling above me.
Then I could hear Brian yelling, oh fuck.
“What the fuck is going on? Is she stuck under there?” I yelled. I knew the answer to my own question, and I was pissed off.
“Uh, sort of, she’ll be out in one sec,” Matt yelled at me while he was helping the medics get the patient onto the board. “Jo, one more minute alright?” he called down to her. All I could see was her lower half kicked out onto the back seat of the car, and her entire torso and head were covered by the flattened out driver’s seat.
“Yea, hurry the fuck up,” she said from underneath the goddamn driver’s seat, sounding muffled. Seriously? I bet this was her idea. It was definitely faster for the patient, but now my girlfriend is stuck under the seat. Crew member. She’s a member of my crew. At least I didn’t say that out loud. I rubbed my temple and shook my head.
The medics had the patient out, and rushed him to their rig and took off. Matt jumped back in the car to get the seat off Jo. She lifted her head up and laughed at him then lightly punched him in the chest. Her face was bright red, probably from being mostly upside down for however long this was going down.
“Ow! What was that for, I just freed you!” he grabbed at his chest where she hit him.
“That was for hitting me with the passenger seat. What the fuck, man?” she laughed and rubbed her ribs. Was she hurt?
“If you two are done, both patients are now on their way to the hospital, we can clean up and get home. You okay, Jo?” I asked in all seriousness.
“Yeah, Chief, I’m great now. Let me know how that kid makes out.” She smiled, grabbed her coat and helmet from the backseat and climbed out of the car. I got a good look at her. Her shirt was completely soaked, and you could see right through it, that sexy black bra that was for my eyes only, was now visible for everyone to see. Matt noticed right away too.
“Oh, hey now, putting on a show for us out here?” He laughed, and the guys around the truck started whistling. I was pissed. Nobody needed to be looking at her like that; nobody but me.
“Oh, shit! Well I wasn’t exactly planning to be out here tonight,” she turned bright red, and put her coat back on right away, but didn’t buckle it up, left it hanging open. I was going to lose my shit.
Matt walked off to grab a water, and Jo followed him until I stepped in her way, stopping her. “Buckle your goddamn coat up. You don’t need to be showing everyone out here what’s mine,” I growled quietly.
She stopped, stunned, and gave me a fierce look, “Listen, Chief, it’s hot as fuck. I’m not wearing a uniform, because I hadn’t planned to be out here, so how about you just back off,” I think she actually hissed at me.
“You could have gotten hurt today, Meadows. Next time you’re going to try a stunt like that get me over here.” Okay, she really didn’t need me to make that call, I was being a dick now because I was pissed everyone got a burlesque show here on the street.
She softened her expression, and responded as sweetly as ever. “I didn’t realize that your leadership style was micromanagement, Chief. I’ll keep that in mind when considering our earlier discussion about my employment. I did what I felt was best for the patient, and the rest of the crew on scene, the medics agreed, and I stand by that decision. It would have taken another ten minutes or more to roll that dash. Now if you’ll excuse me, I need a drink of water. As I mentioned, and you can clearly see, it’s hot as fuck.” And with that, she walked off to the truck, grabbed a bottle of water, and drank the entire thing down, with her coat hanging wide open in my direction.
I was going to have to have it out with her later; we needed to establish some kind of understanding, and seriously, she needed to buckle the fucking coat up. I was so pissed off and totally turned on right now. Her little sarcastic commentary was hot. I loved it when she used the f word. Good thing my uniform pants are so heavy, or everyone out here would see I’m hard every time she’s near me. I guess me being pissed at her isn’t really her fault, but I didn’t care. She was at the truck talking to the other guys, presumably telling them about her antics, which actually did give that guy valuable time, and the rest of the crews on scene were cleaning up. Once the tow truck took the vehicles off the road we were able to leave.
It was good to see her with the crew, smiling, and she and Matt totally worked so well together. It was like seeing twins. Knowing your partner since the time you were a baby gives you a sixth sense kind of thing. Because of the age difference, even Matt and I weren’t able to read each other as well as Jo and Matt do. Drama, hearts and my dick aside, I really hoped she would take me up on my offer to come work with us full time. I think she’d be good for all of us. I knew already that she was good for me.
That motherfucker. Check with him? Before making a call that gives a critical patient extra time? Oh, fuck you, pal. Fuuuuuuuuck you. That vehicle was perfectly safe, and Matt would never in a million years let me put myself in a precarious situation on a scene. So fuck him, fuck his micromanagement, and sure as fuck, fuck his attitude about my outfit. I was wearing jeans and a t-shirt, because that’s what I wore to come and fuck him in his office. I knew this fling was a bad idea. I couldn’t work here, and keep this up with him.
It was time to go, and I decided I’d ride back in the duty truck with the rest of the guys, not in the Chief’s vehicle. I wasn’t going to ask permission to do it either. I was expected to be part of the crew today, and I was going to ride back to the station with them. And I didn’t want to talk to Brian even though I knew I’d have to back at the station.
“Hey, I’m riding back with you guys,” I said to Scotty and Matt who were standing with me next to the rescue truck.
“So, are you gonna join us permanently, or what, Jojo?” Scotty asked.
“Uhhhhh when did you decide calling me Jojo was cool,” I gave him the fish eye and raised an eyebrow in his direction. I didn’t even hate it, it was just so ridiculous.
“Today,” he laughed and went around the truck to get in the driver’s seat. I actually started laughing too. Of course he decided today, probably at the moment
he said it on the radio.
I looked over in Brian’s direction, and we connected eyes. I wasn’t going to ask him if I could ride the truck back, I was just doing it. And to be truthful, that’s the right thing to do anyway. He acknowledged me with a nod, and actually didn’t even look mad that I was riding back with them, so that’s good.
Matt opened the door to the back for me. “Your chariot awaits, madam,” he chuckled. I hopped in, I was just short enough, that I always have to kind of launch myself into a fire truck by grabbing the ‘oh shit’ handle and propelling myself up the first stair.
“Thank you, kind sir,” I laughed back. Jax and Taylor were already in the back as well as a young guy I wasn’t acquainted with, and after I hopped in, Matt got in the front right seat, the officers seat. We all put our headphones on so we could talk to each other; fire trucks are just loud in general, and we were lucky enough to have each seat wired with a set of headphones and a microphone so we could communicate with each other, or with Central dispatch if we needed to.
Matt asked from the front seat. “So, Jo, what was that little chat with the Chief about back there? He mad about something?” He was laughing.
“Oh, he was just giving me his thoughts on me squishing myself under that seat. He was somewhere between thrilled and ecstatic about it,” I laughed.
Scotty chimed in from the driver’s seat. “Eh, whatever. He needs to get his panties out of a bunch. So seriously, Jojo, you going to come back full-time or what? It feels like we got the band back together tonight.”
I wasn’t sure how I felt about it after getting yelled at. “I’m not sure. There’s a tentative offer on the table, but I’ve got some other commitments I need to work out. Why, you guys need a den mother?” I teased.
“We need some better eye candy around here than these clowns, that’s for sure,” Jax spoke up, sitting across from me, he winked.