Gwen's Lifesavers

by Eileen Green

  “Nice to meet you ladies. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I believe I have your dinners to prepare.”

  The man moved quickly for a man his size. He was gone in a flash and then the sounds of kitchen utensils being used on the grill appeared. Gwen thought perhaps the man was happiest in his kitchen.

  Gwen made the introductions to Heather and the newcomers. When she explained that Gina was married to both of the men, the threesome seemed to relax as if they were holding back on revealing their relationship.

  “Heather knows about Jake and Andrew,” Gwen said happily. She really was happy with the course her life was taking.

  “Good. I’m glad she understands.” Gina reached over and patted her hand. “I’m so happy everything is working out well for you.”

  “So, what’s this venture you’re working on, Mom?”

  Heather’s question made four heads turn quickly to her as Gwen felt her mouth drop open. Knowing about her ménage relationship was one thing, but their private lifestyle?

  Gwen had never lied to her daughter. She had always been open and honest with her as she expected Heather to be to her also.

  All of a sudden, Connor and Jared became very interested in the picture above Gwen’s head. Heather looked between all of them then said, “It’s okay if I don’t know. I know couples have secrets.”

  “No, sweetie. I’ve never kept secrets and I’m not going to start now.” Gwen swallowed hard and then licked her lips. “One of the lady’s in our group of friends is starting a BDSM club and I’m going to be the secretary.”

  Expecting her daughter to climb over the table to escape her presence as quickly as possible, Gwen was surprised when Heather remained seated and exclaimed, “Really? That’s so cool! And, it sounds like you’ll be working with people you really like this time.”

  Leave it to Heather to look at the bright side of things, although the thought that she knew about BDSM at her young age concerned Gwen. She would need to talk to her about that sometime soon.

  Connor’s phone rang, interrupting her thoughts. She watched as he dug it out of his shirt pocket, looked at the display, and then scowled at the device. “Excuse me,” he said. Then, pressing a button, he lifted it to his ear. “Lawson.”

  He listened to the caller and then replied. “We’ll do. We’ll be up there as quickly as we can. I have some others that I can bring in to help out also. They’ll be there before we are.”

  Jared was already on his feet, pulling his phone out of his pocket and pressing buttons. Realizing the urgency of whatever was going on, Gwen and Heather scooted out of their side of the booth while Gina moved out of her side. Connor followed her.

  “Sorry, we have to go. Some fool decided to forego paying for the day up at Blacktail and ended up causing an avalanche on the west side of the mountain. They sent a helicopter in to try to rescue them, but that went down.” Connor’s explanation was hurried.

  Jared was talking to someone on his phone. When he turned around to look at Connor, concern was written on his face but Gwen caught the quick glance to her before he shifted his gaze back to Connor.

  Dread swept over her right before her phone began to ring. Five sets of eyes looked at her for Tanya had arrived with drinks for the newly arrived trio. The shiver down her spine told Gwen she didn’t want to answer her phone, but she knew being the wife of a first responder was going to come with emergencies, and sometimes dread.

  Pulling the device from her purse, she hit the talk button before she looked at the display. “Hello?” Her voice was shaky. Heather held onto her arm for support, her daughter even clairvoyant of her emotions.

  “Gwen, are you sitting down?” Andrew asked on the other end.

  She could tell he was driving and there was a siren on in the background. She had his truck so he must be in Jake’s.

  “Jake was in the helicopter, wasn’t he?” she asked, sinking to her knees.

  A sigh reached through the phone to her ear. “How’d you know about it so quickly? I just found out.”

  “Connor and Jared are here. They just got the call to help.” Trying to keep herself calm she was finding it was a battle already lost. “Is-is…he…have…”

  “I haven’t heard anything yet, baby girl. I want you to go home and wait…”

  “No! I will not go home and wait to hear from you! I am going with Connor and Jared and I’m going to be there with you until they find him! Do you hear me, Andrew?” Her voice was shrill even to her own ears. She hadn’t meant to be hysterical, but now that she found her happiness, she wasn’t going to let it slip through her fingers.

  “Gwen, it won’t help…”

  Again she interrupted him. “I’m going and that’s final, Andrew. I will see you there.”

  Connor and Jared were helping her to her feet, as she hadn’t realized she had gone down. Gina, Heather, and Tanya were standing around Nathan, concern etched in their faces. Glenn had come close to the table as he was standing there, rubbing his hands on his colorful apron. He must have heard her outburst.

  “We’ll get Gina and Nathan home. You guys head out. Let me know if you guys need anything in the way of food.” Glenn’s offer surprised Gwen. He didn’t seem like a man that liked to help others, although the love he seemed to have for Gina and her son showed a different side of him.

  “Do you have room for me, also?” Heather asked of Connor. “I’m not leaving her alone.”

  “We understand.” Connor’s response was short, accompanied by a quick nod. Leaning over, he kissed Gina on the forehead and then bent further to kiss Nathan on the top of his head. “We’ll call you to let you know what’s going on,” he told Gina. Then, he turned to Gwen. “You can come with us, but you need to listen to us and stay out of the way of the operations. Is that clear?”

  “Yes, sir.” Gwen hadn’t even realized she had said the words until Connor’s lips rose slightly.

  “Let’s go.” Connor started through the restaurant. Gwen and Heather followed him as Jared pulled up the rear after he said good-bye to his wife and child.

  Out on the street, they headed to Connor’s SUV. Gwen and Heather climbed into the back seat while the two men got in the front. Hitting the lights and siren, they backed up, then pulled forward, heading out of town toward the west.

  * * * *

  Jake got the call as he and Andrew had finished a late lunch. They had been sitting by the fire talking when his phone rang. He didn’t want to go to work. There was one more day left on his leave to enjoy his woman that night, but he knew as a responder, he couldn’t be selfish, especially when a life was at stake.

  The only downside he could see about living at Andrew’s was the distance to Kalispell. Today, since A.L.E.R.T. was dispatching their second chopper, the pilot had told Jake that he would pick him up. Andrew took him to a lone spot a few miles away so the machine wouldn’t spook any animals and they met it there.

  Once they were in the air, they headed northwest to the western slope of Blacktail. Occasionally this happened, where usually kids would try to find a spot away from the ski trails to keep from having to pay for the day.

  Today, it was a snowboarder who had taken a tumble according to his friends and hit a tree. A small avalanche had ensued. Jake was going to have to be lowered to try to bring him up.

  These were the jobs Jake hated the most due to the variables of shit that could happen. Give him an ambulance on the road any day, but he had to admit there was something about being up in the chopper.

  Then, of course, was the weather. He and Andrew had told Gwen to be back before dark as a late spring storm was coming in from the north. Hopefully, it would hold off until she came home and until they were able to get the kid off the mountain.

  Unfortunately, the kid’s friends had headed down the mountain to get help, leaving the kid alone. They told emergency services that they weren’t sure if he had come out of the avalanche or not. So much for friends. Jake would think one friend would stay behind and at l
east keep the kid company, but then, of course, that would mean they were having to pull two kids out instead of one.

  They were nearing the mountain, coming in low, so Jake had his eyes peeled. Trees stood thick in some areas while snow blanketed scattered barren areas. He had to hope the kid had on some bright colors.

  Flying in low closer to highway 2, they found the four boys motioning wildly in the direction of where they left their friend. Stealing a glance to the north before the pilot banked to the right, Jake saw the storm clouds moving in. They would definitely be on a time crunch. The winds were already up to fifteen to twenty miles per hour and getting worse.

  Damn, this kid was going to get his ass kicked for this cluster fuck!

  Beginning a grid pattern, they searched for anything with a bit of color in the sparkling white snow. It was monotonous work and after a while it felt as if your eyes began to go cross eyed, but they persevered.

  Section by section, they searched. Not only were they fighting time for they didn’t know what kind of injuries the kid had, but they were fighting the sun that was arguing with the clouds and the horizon.

  After half an hour, they had reached the summit and found nothing. Swinging back around, they began the grid pattern in reverse. They had been notified that a search party was forming at the bottom of the mountain but with the weather coming in, they most likely would be kept back for the night.

  The sun was struggling through the clouds as the copter banked to the right about halfway down the mountain. The light was glinting off something shiny. It was such a brief glimpse that Jake thought he had imagined it, but he wasn’t going to leave his imagination to chance. “Swing back, will ya?”

  “Sure. You see something?” Pete, the pilot, asked through the inflight radio system.

  “A glimpse of something. Just want to make sure.” Communication was short with him and Pete. They had worked together for several years and they knew how each worked. If Jake said he saw something, Pete didn’t argue.

  Swinging the vehicle back around, Jake didn’t see anything, but then they weren’t coming in from the same angle as before. They had to come with their backs to the sun. “Swing it around heading east. Let’s see if the sun catches it again.”

  “Sure thing, boss.”

  Pete was older than Jake, but it always surprised Jake when the man called him boss. He meant he was respected within the department, for he had worked hard to get where he was. He had put himself through school and worked his way up through the ranks. That he worked both an ambulance and a copter wasn’t something that a lot of responders did, but Jake enjoyed it. Now that Gwen was in the picture, he would probably need to rethink some things.

  Bright shiny light caught his attention again. Before he could say anything, Pete’s voice came through his headset. “Got it!”

  Jake climbed in the back as Pete swung around again and began to hover over the target zone. Gerald, the third of their group, helped hook Jake’s harness to the rope that would lower him down so he could hopefully rescue the kid. Jake slipped on his backpack, which contained items he might need.

  Stepping to the edge of the doorway, which was already open, Jake drew in a deep breath before giving a thumbs-up to Gerald. Taking that one step off the floor of the copter was both exhilarating and heart stopping. There were so many things that could go wrong once he was dangling from the line that always ran through his mind, and yet the feel of the air moving around him with nothing under his feet gave him a sense of freedom.

  Keeping an eye on the spot where he thought he had seen the brief sparkle, he motioned for Gerald to continue with his descent. There appeared to be a tree that had fallen, most likely by the rush of hundreds of tons of snow and possibly boulders. Next to that was a piece of blue material along with that occasional sparkle.

  Once his feet hit the snow, he motioned that he was down but as he took a step, he felt how unsteady the ground was beneath him. His heart skipped a beat. If it wasn’t for the fact that a life hung in the balance, he would have had Gerald pull him back up.

  A sense of foreboding swept over Jake as he began to take careful steps toward the tree, the piece of flagging blue material, and the beckoning sparkle. Snow skittered out from each step he took as he got closer. This was dangerous territory he was walking on yet he pushed on.

  The wind was already whipping around wildly and the movement of the helicopter above was evident in the tug of the line in his hand. The air was cold and biting. The storm was moving in faster than forecasted. A glance over his shoulder showed him that the sun was just beginning to dip below the craggy horizon.

  Damn! Just get in there and move it!

  As he got closer, he discovered the blue material he saw was the sleeve of a parka that had been ripped and the sparkle he had seen was a cell phone in the palm of a hand. The near-blue hand was sticking out from under the tree. God, I hope there is a body attached to that hand!

  Turning his head, he spoke into his radio mic, “I’ve got something here. Checking it out.”

  “Roger that,” he heard Gerald say.

  Kneeling down, he touched the hand and it jerked. A painful groan from the other side of the tree sounded. Well, at least it’s attached! “Search and rescue! Can you move at all?” he called out.

  “No,” a small voice said. “I can’t feel my legs. The tree is squishing me.”

  Jake knew he needed to get on the other side of the tree but he hated to chance squashing the kid further, and moving around on the unsteady snow was becoming an issue. But he knew he had to do it. “I need to get around the tree. It’ll take me a minute or two to get over to you. Hold on, all right?”

  “Okay.” The kid sounded groggy which was a bad thing. Probably going into shock.

  “What’s your name?” Jake asked as he started to make his way up the slope along the line of the downed tree trunk. Luckily most of the branches had been broken off.

  He motioned up to Gerald to give him more feed on the line.

  “Lily. My name’s Lily.”

  Shit! A girl!

  “Lily, my name’s Jake. How old are you?” he asked as he moved.

  “Tw–twen–twenty thr–three,” she was finally able to get out. He had to wonder if it was the cold getting to her, or the pain, or both.

  “You know you’re on the wrong side of the mountain, don’t you?” he asked, stepping over a mangled branch.

  Silence.

  “Lily?” he called out.

  More silence. Shit!

  “Lily! Talk to me right now!” He hated using his Dom voice with a woman he didn’t know, but he wasn’t going let her slip away and it hopefully it would keep her with him.

  A distant moan sounded as he stepped around the base of the tree where it had been broken off from the trunk, which was still rooted into the ground further up the mountain. Quickening his step, he started down the other side of the downed tree. He got to where he thought Lily’s head should be, at least he was judging by his footprints on the other side of the tree, but he didn’t see her.

  What the hell?

  He heard her moan and then a cough. “I’m here.” Her voice was so weak.

  Kneeling down, he found where she had scooped out snow from the side of the tree and at least gave her some breathing room. Unfortunately, from where the tree sat, he was most likely on her chest.

  “Lily, I need to try to move the tree, but it will most likely hurt you.” He had to be honest with her. “I’m going to have my friend up in the helicopter try to pull it off of you, but I’m going to have to leave you for another minute. Okay?”

  “‘Kay.”

  Standing, he headed further down the slope to where the trunk of the tree was thinner. Dropping to his knees, he began to scoop snow out from under the tree. When he felt his hand come up on the other side, he unhooked the line from the harness. This was a big risk, but he had to do something. Sliding the line under the tree, he stood and saw where the other end came up on t
he other side. Pulling up the hook, he connected it to the line and then headed back to Lily.

  “Hey, Gerald, start pulling up when I get back to the lady. Be gentle, the tree is sitting on her torso.”

  “A woman?” He heard the surprise in his flight mech’s voice. “Roger that.”

  Once he got back to Lily, Jake pulled off his backpack, dug inside, and pulled out two space blankets. Unfolding both, he knelt down next to where he would be ready to cover her once the tree was gone. The foreboding feeling still wrapping itself around him, he slipped the backpack over one shoulder.

  Motioning for Gerald to begin pulling up, he watched as the trunk began to move. With the blanket ready, he inched it after the tree while it moved. Lily’s body came into view slowly, her face still half covered in snow. No wonder she was so cold and hard to hear.

  From what he could see, she looked like a pixie. Blonde hair stuck out precariously from her pink beanie. Her face was nearly childlike with a cute little upturned nose. A cupid’s bow mouth with trembling lips sat in between two natural dimples. He could only imagine what they looked like when she smiled. Large blue eyes watched him as he moved.

  Jake began to scoop the snow away from her face. Once done with that, he checked her arms for any broken bones. When he found one in her left forearm, he carefully moved it down next to her body. No fractures in her right arm, at least that he could feel, and he moved that one next to her also.

  The blanket was now covering her body as the tree was moved about fifteen feet away from her. Half of it was pulled up into the air, the tail end of it still dragging on the ground.

  A gust of wind caught the tree and the copter pushing them toward the slope. At that moment, everything began to move in slow motion, the clusterfuck beginning.

  The tree moved one way, the line tight as the wench onboard was trying to pull it in the other direction. With the combination of the swinging tree and the wind, the copter began to teeter, Pete most likely trying to control the mechanical bird with everything he had.

  Watching in horror, Jake saw the copter bank to the right, the blades getting closer and closer to the mountain. The rotor was getting closer to Lily and himself and for that one moment, he thought they were going to be chopped in two.