by Jamie Davis
“Okay, Nura,” Brynne said. “You can always call us back if you or baby Flynn have any problems.” She looked at Helena to make sure she had also heard and understood.
“I will be staying with her until the midwife returns, Paramedic Brynne,” Helena said. “We will call you if we need further assistance before then.”
Brynne seemed satisfied because she started to disconnect the IV line from Nura’s arm and detached the sticky pads from the heart monitor. Dean continued his clean-up as well. The maternity kit came with a red biohazard bag for the purpose of gathering all the soiled trash and waste from the birth. He finished up as Brynne was done packing up the rest of the gear. He did one last check around him for anything he had missed and then stood.
The two paramedics picked up their bags and equipment and headed out to their waiting stretcher outside. Saying a final goodbye to the home’s occupants, they started the trek back to their ambulance.
“Congrats, Dean,” Brynne said. “That was your first birth, right?”
“Yep,” he said. “It was pretty amazing, I have to say. It’s much different than just watching from across the room like I did in clinicals at the hospital.”
“Yes, it is,” Brynne agreed. “You got to also witness the birth of the first fairy paramedic.”
“What, you think the mother was serious?” he asked.
“The Fae take such pronouncements at significant events very seriously,” Brynne said. “I wouldn’t be surprised if we see her application come through the academy in eighteen years or so.”
Dean thought about that as he and Brynne got back to the ambulance and put their gear away. He climbed into the passenger side and got on the radio to put them back in service. Then he looked at Brynne.
“Where will she put the wings?” he asked.
“What?” Brynne said.
“In her uniform, when she’s a paramedic,” Dean said, clarifying his thought. “Where will she put the wings?”
“Ah,” Brynne said with a wink as she put the ambulance in gear and started to pull away from the trailer park. “Don’t you know by now, Dean? Girls never give out their secrets. We all have our ways to do what we want to do, even fairies.”
15
Dean spent the rest of the day glowing with a sense of accomplishment and euphoria that he had never felt before. While he had seen childbirth, even witnessing it up close in his hospital rotations while in the academy, participating in it and physically holding that newborn in his hands left him feeling emotions for which he was unprepared. Brynne seemed to humor him, at least she didn’t chastise him when he kept bringing the whole scene up again and again. To top it all off, they had named the baby after him. It was like having a child of his own. Well, sort of.
He had never really thought about having a family before. His relationship with Ashley was great, but he got the sense that Eldara didn’t reproduce, or at least not like humans did. They had the equipment, of that he was certain, but he thought that was more likely so they could mingle with humans without attracting attention. Dean thought he should ask Ashley about her background and learn more about her, but whenever he did, she changed the subject back to him. She always said that she was fascinated with humans and that learning about them never got old for her.
Dean hopped out of the ambulance when they returned to the station, and helped Brynne back the vehicle safely into the ambulance bay. She hopped out when she was done and plugged in the landline power cord to keep things charging inside while it was parked. Dean went to the storage closet to get a new maternity kit to replace the one they had used at the scene. When he came back out, Brynne was standing there holding something for him in her outstretched hand. It was tiny and flashed gold in the overhead fluorescent lights.
He reached out and took it from her to examine. It was a small gold stork pin. The stork was in flight, and had a wrapped baby suspended from its beak. He looked at Brynne, he had noticed a similar pin on the breast pocket of her uniform next to her name tag.
“You earned it, Probie,” she said. “Good job back there. You did everything right, and we were rewarded with witnessing one of the miracles of life that we medical professionals have the rare privilege to see.” She took the pin back from him and stepped up to pin it on his pocket next to his name tag, just like hers.
Dean looked down at his uniform shirt. The tiny pin made him feel proud. He took out his phone and snapped a selfie, pointing to the pin. Brynne laughed as he took the picture.
“What?” Dean said suddenly self-conscious.
“Oh nothing,” Brynne said. “You kids and your selfies.” She walked away shaking her head, chuckling to herself.
“You’re just jealous,” Dean said to her as she walked away. “I already looked good in this uniform. Now I look even better!”
“Yeah, yeah,” she said without turning around. “Finish restocking and get your documentation done, Probie. We could get another call at any time.” Brynne pulled open the door to the squad room and left Dean standing in the ambulance bay with a silly grin on his face.
Dean looked at his phone, examining the picture and then sent the photo and a text message to Ashley. “I delivered a baby! Woo Hoo!” he wrote. He knew she was working and wouldn’t be able to text back right away, so he climbed into the back of the ambulance and started putting the replacement supplies away. His phone buzzed after a bit, and when he looked at it, he saw a photo of Ashley giving a thumbs-up. He smiled and put the phone back in his pocket. He couldn’t wait to tell her about how he felt, but that would have to wait until they were both together and alone. It was good to have someone who worked in the medical field and with Unusuals to talk to after stressful days. He decided it was just as important to have someone with whom to share the victories.
He finished up the restocking and went back into the squad room seeing the police officer still parked on the recliner where they had left him. Dean had forgotten about the events of the previous night in the midst of the delivery of the baby. Now it was all front and center again.
The cop looked up and gave him smile. “I understand congratulations are in order, Dean,” he said. “Kudos, and better you than me. I never want to do that. One of my fears is I’ll pull a speeding car over and find a pregnant mother inside ready to deliver. I’m glad it was you and not me.”
“It was awesome, Rick,” Dean said. “You should have been there. The mother was already starting to push when we showed up.”
“La, la, la, la,” Rick said, putting his fingers in his ears and talking to cover up the sound of Dean’s voice. Dean and Brynne started laughing. Even Freddie chuckled a little from over in the kitchen area. Cops were weird. They were simultaneously a lot like paramedics and yet completely different from them at the same time.
“How can you guys run around doing the things you do all day long and not be ready for this type of thing? You’re not the only police officer I know who’s squeamish and can’t stand the sight of blood,” Brynne said. “What’s up with that?”
“You guys are the ones who signed up for the blood and guts,” Rick said. “I wanted to protect people from bad guys. That’s all. Heck, that’s why I’m stationed here right now.”
“And you’re doing a fine job,” Dean said, laughing.
“Yeah,” Brynne agreed, smiling. “Let us know if we can get you anything.”
“Well, I am a little hurt you didn’t call me and ask if you could bring me a coffee from the donut shop.”
“What and no donuts to go with it?” Dean said.
“I hate donuts,” the police officer said. “They give me heartburn.”
“You must be the exception that proves the rule, then,” Dean observed.
“Cops like donuts for the same reason you do,” Rick said. “They are portable and quick to order. You don’t get your hopes up for a sit-down meal and then get another call that makes you miss your dinner. Donuts are grab and go.”
Brynne walked over from the de
sk. “So, for future reference, what do you prefer instead of donuts?”
“I love a nice bagel with cream cheese,” the police officer said. “Simple, classic and easy to eat on the go.”
“I’ll file that away for the next time,” the female paramedic said. “We will be getting lunch in a little bit. I wonder what Freddy has in store for us?”
Rick looked over to where she was pointing and nodded. “Another gourmet meal for the hardworking paramedics at Station U, I’m sure.”
They all laughed as Dean sat down at the computer to start writing up the birth of the baby at the trailer park. He had to document it as two patients, but the system allowed for that in cases of pregnancy he found. When he selected the drop-down menu for emergency maternity, it asked him if there was a delivery and then later popped up a separate window to document the baby’s condition. He linked it to the call number from dispatch, and it asked him if he wanted to tie his report to the one Brynne had already started. She had done a report based on her patient care for the newborn. The system was well-designed, and he was able to finish both reports in a pretty short time frame.
He pushed back from the desk and looked around. This was his station and his job. He knew he was lucky in many ways. First, he was lucky to be in a job he had always wanted to do. Second, he was lucky that job was rewarding in ways that he could never have believed before he started here as Station U. Finally, it had led him to good friends in his colleagues and especially in Ashley. He had had girlfriends before, but the link to Ashley was stronger than he had ever felt before. Was it something to do with her Eldara nature and powers? He didn’t know what it was that she could do. When he asked her, she just said she was there to support and help him. She seemed to be able to sense when he was in trouble, and find him when he needed her.
Dean pulled out his phone and looked at the photo she had sent him in response to his earlier text message. Her smile and the twinkle in her green eyes both filled him with warmth and more than a little desire. He wrote a hasty text message offering to make dinner that night for her at his place. She worked until seven, and he was off at six. He said they could eat at about eight. He slid the phone back in his pocket knowing she’d respond when she got a chance. He keyed open his email and worked on checking up on medical updates sent out by headquarters to all the paramedics to keep them up to date on their knowledge.
The phone buzzed in his pocket, and Dean stopped reading the article on closed head injuries. Pulling his phone from his pocket expecting a message from Ashley, he was surprised by a text message from Gibbie, their self-appointed vampire first responder.
“Dean, if you’re available, call me. I have a problem - Gibbie.”
Dean paged through his contacts and tapped the number to call his former CERT student. The vampire picked up immediately on the other end.
“Dean, thank God you’re available,” Gibbie said in a frantic tone on the other end of the phone. “I’ve got a problem, and I think I’m going to need you and Brynne.”
“Okay, Gibbie,” Dean said. “Calm down. Shouldn’t you be calling 911 if you need us?”
Brynne turned around in her desk chair to look at him as she overheard the phone conversation. She quirked an eyebrow at him in question. Dean held up a hand as he listened to the voice on the other end of the line. He hung up the call as he stood and put the phone back in his pocket.
“I think we need to go,” Dean said. “Gibbie’s gotten himself into a situation and needs some assistance.”
“What does he need?” Brynne asked, getting up. “We can’t just go joyriding around in the ambulance every time a friend needs help carrying some groceries or moving some furniture.”
“I’ll fill you in on the way,” Dean said as Brynne followed him into the ambulance bay. “Suffice it to say if we don’t help him out, it could end up as a dispatched call. We’ll call it a prevention detail.”
* * *
———
* * *
The ambulance drove down the residential street, Dean watching the street numbers on the mailboxes tick by. They had gone out on the road, notifying dispatch that they were on a public service call, such as when they helped an elderly patient who had fallen out of a wheelchair, but had no injuries.
“It’s that one,” Dean said, pointing at the ranch-style house set about fifty yards back from the road on the left. The mailbox read thirty-two, matching the address from Gibbie’s cell phone GPS map.
“I think there’s an alley around to the back of that row of homes,” Brynne said as she drove past the house. “That will be our best bet. There’s his van parked across the street.”
Dean saw Gibbie’s beat-up white van parked on the right as they drove by. It marked the location and also seemed a little out of place parked in front of homes with well-manicured lawns. Brynne continued past it and then turned down a side street that led to the rear of the homes on the left. That led to a narrow alley that Brynne expertly pulled the ambulance into, driving down the lane. Dean was glad they hadn’t seen anyone. This was the kind of neighborhood whose residents would come to see why an ambulance was at a neighbor’s home.
There were tall fences along the backyards here and detached garages. They drove until they were even with the back of the rancher they had noted from the front. Dean checked the map that Gibbie had sent him by text link.
“This should be it,” Dean said. He keyed the phone function and dialed the vampire’s number. He put it on speaker phone so Brynne could listen in, too.
“Dean, I can hear your engine. I’m in the back yard in the princess house,” Gibbie said.
Brynne looked out her window. She could sort of see over the fence and saw the top of the plastic playhouse castle in the backyard nearby.
“I see it, Gibbie,” Brynne said. “The question is how we get you out of there. The sun’s pretty high. You’re going to get burned pretty badly if you just run for it.”
“I’ll get out and see if the gate’s locked,” Dean said. “If it isn’t, I can bring you a mylar rescue blanket to wrap up in. That should keep the sun off of you.”
“Oh, Dean, you’re a Godsend,” Gibbie said. “I’m afraid some kid’s going to come out and play back here and find me. Then what am I supposed to do?”
“Just hold on and let me see what I can do with the fence,” Dean said. “Be back in a sec.”
He left the phone with Brynne to soothe the frantic, trapped vampire while he checked on the gate. The fence was a six-foot tall wooden palisade style with a wooden gate in the middle of it. Dean walked over to the gate and tried the outside latch. It opened, and the gate swung inward a little when he pushed. He pulled it closed and returned to the driver’s side of the nearby ambulance. He climbed on the step outside the driver’s door as Brynne put the window down.
“Gibbie,” Dean said through the window. “The gate opens. I’m going to get the rescue blanket and bring it to you, but you be ready to high-tail it out of there. I don’t want to get caught having to explain why I’m trespassing in someone’s yard.”
“Okay, Dean,” Gibbie said over the speakerphone. “I’ll be ready.”
Dean stepped down from the driver’s step and went to one of the back cabinets that opened to one of the first aid bags. He dug around and pulled out a folded mylar emergency blanket in its plastic wrapper. He opened the plastic and took the shiny silver folded packet over to the gate, opening it again. He pushed it open enough to slide through, looking up the back yard to the house. He didn’t see anyone in the windows, but that didn’t mean there wasn’t someone watching. He scanned the large yard and saw a plastic playhouse castle for small children. He jogged over to it.
“Gibbie,” he said. “Are you in there?”
“Yes, Dean,” the voice from inside said.
“Here,” Dean said. “Here’s the mylar blanket.” He held his hand in the window closest to him and saw a pale, meaty hand snatch it from him. “I’ll be back in the ambulance. The
back doors will be open for you. Hurry up.”
“I’m coming, just let me wrap up,” Gibbie said from inside.
Dean headed back to the ambulance, opened the back doors and barely had a chance to step aside when a silver reflective shape zoomed past him into the back of the ambulance. He laughed even though he was startled and shut the door. He walked back over and shut the gate before climbing back in the passenger side of the ambulance. The paramedic looked down the passage to the back of the unit to see the vampire sitting there, wearing his improvised first responder uniform shirt and pants.
“Thank you so much, Dean and Brynne,” the chastened vampire said.
Brynne spoke up first, glancing over her shoulder at the vampire in the back as she drove back around to the front of the homes. “Gibbie, we need to talk about this. What was the first thing we talked to you about in your CERT training?”
“Scene safety,” the vampire said quietly.
“That includes situational awareness,” Brynne said. “Like knowing when the sun is starting to come up. How many hundreds of years have you been a vampire? Isn’t that Vampire 101?”
“I thought you older vampires were able to withstand some sunlight for a short period of time?” Dean asked.
“That might be true for those as old as James,” Gibbie said. “I’m only a few hundred years old, and I’d have been a flaming mess by the time I had gotten to the van.”
“Well that’s good information to know,” Dean said. He thought Gibbie was a flaming mess most of the time.
“Gibbie,” Brynne said. “What did we say to you about freelancing like this? You can’t just be out trolling for emergencies to take on.”
“I’m allowed to be out driving around if I want. I just got out to patrol on foot and enjoy the night air,” Gibbie said defensively. “I have some training, and I would not do anything that I didn’t know how to do. I know the most important thing to do is to call 911 and get you guys on the way. But I also know that in the meantime, I could be making a difference with a patient, if only keeping them calm and telling you what’s going on when you get there.”