by Mel Todd
"Hello? Can you hear me?" I looked for a way to get down. There were a few pines there and I might be able to brace myself, but if I missed it would be a long painful fall to the bottom.
The head lifted, turning the tiniest bit towards me, and I heard a pained sound. "Help? Please?"
My throat tightened at the sound of that voice. The amount of pain and terror in it threatened my own composure.
"Cori, help is on the way. Here." She thrust a rope with a carabiner already attached to it. "You probably haven't done the courses, but loop and get down there. You're smaller than me, and I'll need to direct them. I'll send one of the guys to you once we can get some support. Probably from the other side."
I tied off in clumsy movements, and she tightened my knot. "I got it. Go."
She handed me a bag, not mine as it was about empty, still, supplies were good. I slung it over my shoulder, then half crawling, mostly trying not to fall, I worked my way under the bus and over to the person.
When I got close enough, I braced myself on the tree next to the victim and made sure the rope was clicked to the hook in the waistband. I knew I really should have a full harness on, but time and training were lacking. Sally would probably have to radio to get the help we needed. Baskets weren't standard issue for most ambulances.
"Hey, I'm Cori. I'm here to help."
The figure gave a broken sob. "I tried to scream, but no one heard. I thought I'd die here. Thank you." The voice suggested female and young, probably one of the students from the bus.
I didn't dwell on her comments, there wasn’t anything I could say to address them, so I focused on what, at least to me, was the important part. "Can you tell me where you are hurt?"
I heard the sound of another sob being swallowed, then her voice, what little strength it had starting to fade. "Everywhere, but I can't move one leg. The other I can wiggle my toes, but I can't get my left leg to do anything. I think I'm bleeding somewhere. I felt it tickling for a while, but now I can't tell you where. My head hurts. There is only one of you, right? Or is there someone else with you?"
Probably concussion, bleeding, possible spinal injury.
"Just me for now. But I've got other people coming." The constant itch of my skin and head were distracting me. Probably allergic to something with as badly as I itched, but I pushed it all down to focus on the girl. She must have been about fifteen, not much older.
"I'm going to get closer and see if I can find any other injuries, okay?"
"Okay," her voice had gotten even smaller. I moved around, grabbing trees and roots sticking out of the cliff. The entire time I hoped they didn't give way.
Moving around took forever, but I got a look at her and cringed. She'd impaled herself on a branch and it was at the edge of her spine. But when I craned around her body and pulled back her shirt it wasn't distended, so it hadn't gone all the way through.
"I'm going to touch you a bit. I want you to tell me if it hurts really bad or just uncomfortable. Okay?"
She made a sound I took as an agreement, the silent clock in my head speeding up as to how much time she had. I pressed gently, no obvious response, I pushed harder and she moaned a bit, but I didn't hit any resistance.
"Sally?" We had run out of radios and there was too much chatter on them anyhow, so I just yelled.
"Yep?"
"I need a hacksaw. She's got a branch in her, but it doesn't seem to have pierced her abdominal cavity, or if it has, it is just barely, but either way we need to cut her loose and get her to the hospital asap."
"Okay, Darryl is coming down. We have him anchored. He'll bring the saw."
I glanced at the area around us and kept mental fingers crossed that he was more graceful than me, and that they really had him anchored well. I finished my examination, finding a long laceration on her thigh that had bled a lot, but was now sluggish. That worried me. "Hey. What leg did you say you couldn't move?" I asked as I prodded the wound and didn't get any reaction.
"My left," she mumbled. I checked her pulse. It had slowed even more and the clock sped up.
"Sally, I need her out of her stat. The clock is racing and I can't exactly give her an IV here," I barked out, panic and worry making my voice sharp.
"I'm coming down now." The incongruent British accent told me who was coming down without me needing to look up, but I did. Darryl made his way down, a full harness on him, a stretcher basket attached to the rope a bit beyond him, and a hacksaw in his hand.
"Thank Merlin. You aren't a mage, and I don't know any other way to do this. Do you?" I hoped maybe he'd be a mage that could just dissolve the wood.
"No. And Sally is spent. Besides, it would take her too long to figure this out." He peered at the situation then nodded. "I'll brace her and the wood. You saw fast and smooth and I'll try to keep it from moving."
He'd brought down a neck collar and we got that on her and taped her arms together. Her head almost lolled, but her eyes would open and focus on us every so often and she'd almost smile before fading back down.
I nodded and waited until he was in position. It wasn't a big branch, only about an inch in diameter. But an inch of wood in your body was still an inch too much. At his nod I started to draw the blade back and forth across the branch where it connected to the tree, making sure I was clear of his hands. It cut easily, but it still took me a solid minute.
She moaned as I sawed, and I realized I didn't even know her name. That bugged me for some reason, but I kept at it, until with a sudden snap it broke, and she sagged into Darryl's arms.
"Got her. Can you pull the basket over her so we can roll her into it?"
From our angle we couldn't get a backboard on her, and with the wood in her we couldn't take the risk anyhow. Having her on her side would be safer. I moved over, slipping twice, giving my heart a reason to try and explode out of my chest. But I moved the basket and Darryl, in a move only someone with his height and strength could have done, lifted her up and laid her on her side in the basket, all while keeping her from moving barely at all.
The next few minutes seemed to crawl as we secured the basket and people up above began to heave her up. Both of us came up with her trying to keep her from moving more than was unavoidable. I was drenched with sweat by the time I crawled over the guard rail onto safe ground. An ambulance sat backed up right to the edge, waiting for us. They had lifted her in by the time I crawled back to my feet, Sally at my elbow. "Get in, Cori. You're going with."
I looked at her, confused. I'd been here the entire time.
"She's the last one, and you've earned this. Go with her. Be her advocate until you get to the hospital." She was pushing me toward the ambulance, and too tired to argue, I crawled in, sitting on the bench. I looked at the young woman lying there in the light for the first time. Her dark curly hair was full of leaves and dirt, her band uniform torn and dirty, and her skin so pale she looked like a vampire from any popular movie.
We started to move and I reached out to hold her hand. "Hold on. We're headed down. You'll get to ride in a helicopter. What's your name?" As we hurried down the road I hooked up monitors no one had taken the time to do. Her heart rate was sluggish, but still beating. I didn't like her pulse ox, but right now there wasn't much I could do about it.
"Courtney," she whispered and it took me a minute to realize she was telling me her name.
"Hey, we’re both ‘C’ names. Must be why I found you." I put humor and a smile into my voice, knowing she'd hear it.
"Hurts."
"I bet. But you're super brave to have hung in. And now you'll get to fly to the hospital. How cool is that?"
"Heights bad." Her voice so thin there wasn't even a tremor to it. I glanced back at her EKG, but while slow and her blood pressure sucked, she was holding on.
"Maybe, but you'll be safe inside and we'll get you to the hospital as fast as can be." I felt the bus start to slow. "In fact, I think you're about to go on your first helicopter ride. Something to tell a prospecti
ve boy or girl friend."
Her mouth tilted up at the corner.
"You're funny."
"Nah. Just me."
We came to a stop and I heard the front door open. I disconnected the leads and got in position to help lift her out as the doors to the back flew open.
"Ready?" Sally asked, Darryl standing next to her.
I nodded and less than three minutes later we were ushered towards the passenger area of the chopper, the rotors whipping my hair abound like a vortex.
"Hey, Cori?" Sally shouted, and I paused in the doorway, still overwhelmed and exhausted.
I looked back at her, my brows drawn together.
"You did damn good today. This job was made for you, and I'll have you as my partner any day."
Her words rang in my ears and I climbed in, my mind a whirl. But the primary thing was the smile that spread over my face.
This was what I was meant to do. I'd be damned if anyone would take that from me. The school would have a fight on their hands, and so would my parents. This was my dream and I'd earned it.
The rise of the helicopter matched the rise in my heart, and I smiled all the way to the hospital.
Epilogue
We are all masters of our own destiny—magic is but one aspect in our choices. In the end, who you are still matters more than what you are. ~ Merlin James Wells
Take that, you little whiny bitch.
I seemed to be getting less forgiving and more vindictive as I experienced life. I was strangely okay with that.
"Monique Kinnison, you are charged with falsifying statements to the board and conspiring to slander and libel two people with fabricated evidence. These are serious charges and after deliberating we have decided to expel you and place a mark on your record barring you from taking the EMT or Paramedic certification test for the next five years."
The words rang like a death knell, and Monique started crying, big hiccupping tears that I thought might be real.
They had interviewed Bruce and me individually and while that had been uncomfortable, it had been painless. They then asked, just to settle any possible conflict, if I would be willing to take the tests again with a third-party instructor.
I shrugged and said yes. At this point my morning in class was shot, but after Saturday, my confidence in my own abilities was high enough that I didn't mind missing practicals.
I aced the test. All three parts, topping my previous score. I took it in a classroom with one instructor, wearing only a tank top and jeans. I used the pencil they provided. Unless I had telepathy, I couldn't have cheated.
Maybe it was petty of me, but I enjoyed watching her fall apart and seeing the look of disappointment the older couple with her had on their faces as they walked out. I had spent Sunday reviewing all the paperwork and figured I would show up and play it by ear. I didn't know what else to do, as hiring a lawyer was well out of my league. To my delight, I was free with an even better score.
"I am sorry about all of this, Cori," Bruce said as we walked out. "You're a good student, if a bit weird, but I knew you would never have cheated."
"It's a stupid test to cheat on. If I don't know the information and get in the field, I could kill someone by accident. That is not acceptable. Why would anyone be stupid enough to cheat on a test like that?"
He smiled a bit sadly. "Not everyone feels that way, but I'm glad you do. Some people need to pass the test, not caring about who might pay the price for their laziness; or maybe it's arrogance. I've never been sure which. You have an A in the class, no matter what, and I have faith you'll do just as well in the paramedic test as soon as you graduate. Go enjoy your day."
I gave him a smile as he walked off, but it faded quickly. The day off was what I needed, as I had to go talk to someone else.
The bus ride gave me time to review the documents one more time before I got to the police station.
"Hey, is the chief in and does she have time to talk to me?" I asked the front sergeant.
"Let me ping her," he said with a smile and I nodded. Willing to wait. A minute later the door buzzed. "Head on back, she's in her office."
I walked through the now familiar space with none of my original discomfort.
What else can you get used to, simply by learning about it?
That idea occupied my thoughts as I walked back to her office. There were a few things that still made me uncomfortable. Maybe I should go learn about them rather than just fear them. I'd learned more than I expected from this. I tried to let that lesson sink into my mind. You only feared that which you didn't understand, so I'd have to try and understand more. My never-ending quest to learn and figure things out sharpened. Maybe someday I'd get the answers I craved.
Laurel looked up before I could even knock. "Hey, Cori. What brings you by? You decided you really do want to go to the police academy and are looking for a reference?"
The amount of hope in her voice surprised me. "Um, no. Still liking the EMT gig, though Saturday was a bit intense."
Laurel sighed then waved at her chair. "I heard. I also heard you did damn good. They usually avoid pulling newbies into that. It tends to rattle them, and I hear you didn't get rattled."
"Oh, I got rattled." I nodded vigorously. I couldn't remember the last time I'd been so worried about failing. "But the patients were what were more important and I tried my best." I shook my head, already feeling uncomfortable. "But that wasn't what I wanted to talk to you about. I wanted to talk about this." I slid her the envelope and the restraining order.
"What's this?" She asked even as she picked up the paperwork and began to read. A frown creased her face deeper and deeper as she read. "Well, fuck," Laurel muttered and I blinked. I couldn't remember ever hearing her cuss. "I'm sorry about this Cori. It never occurred to me they would trace it back to you. Give me a minute."
She continued to read, and I settled back in the chair looking at the photos that adorned the room. Most of them were of her and Martin, though there were one or two of her with a younger man and one with an older woman. I wanted to ask why she had never had children, but I managed to not blurt that out. Even I knew that wasn't my business.
"I swear, Cori, your parents are pieces of work. But here's the good news." She looked up, stacking the papers back up and putting them in the envelope. "Go to court, it's in June. Agree to not send anyone to spy on them or try to contact them in any way. Also agree to not try and contact Kris while he is a minor. But only while he is a minor." Her emphasis on this. "After he is eighteen, he has the right decide if he wants to contact you."
I looked at her, confused. "But I didn't ask anyone to spy in the first place."
Her grin would have made a shark envious. "Exactly. Which is why you can say that with perfect honestly. What other people do isn't your problem. You always knew he would have to make the choice to contact you prior to eighteen and maybe someday he can. But either way, you can go to court and agree to every one of their terms. Don't even bother with a lawyer, just agree to their terms. They have to prove if you break them and since you won't," she glared at me and I shook my head, "it won't be an issue."
She slid the papers back to me. "Bottom line. Don't worry about it. You didn't break any laws or even try to find them. You didn't do anything wrong."
The stress that had wrapped around my spine like kudzu released a little and it felt like an electric shock raced own my back. The picture frame on her desk fell backwards. We both turned to look at it and Laurel rolled her eyes then looked at me.
"You're sure?" I asked, trying not to look at the picture of her with the older woman, that now obviously had a crack running through the glass.
"Yes. Go to the meeting. Agree not to try to contact them or Kris until he is an adult. Do not agree to not speak to them. If they contact you, you can talk all you want. And then let it be. They aren't worth knowing and you have a decade really before Kris can make his own choices."
I nodded. It made sense and at this point I just
didn't want to deal any more. In a decade, and didn't that seem like forever, I would start trying to see if he wanted to talk to me.
"Thanks. I just wanted to make sure." I rose from my chair, the paperwork in hand.
"Not an issue. You do have friends here, Cori, even if it seems like catastrophes follow you." She shot a wry look at her picture.
"Thanks. I'll get out of here before a tornado strikes."
Laurel cringed. "Don't even joke about that. I'm too scared it might happen." She was both serious and teasing at the same time. "By the way, Happy Birthday."
I ducked my head but smiled. "Thanks. See you later."
I walked out of the police station, my whole being feeling lighter. I'd file everything when I got to the apartment. I had little doubt I'd pass the exam, and Bruce told me I'd graduate. Sally had agreed to start letting me practice in the back lot driving the ambulance to help with the course after I graduated. And best of all, I was heading over to the Guzman's for my birthday dinner.
Pain flashed through my skull and I groaned for a second, then it faded. I shook my head. Where had that come from?
A strange sound up in the sky made me look up and there Elsba hung, wings beating like a hummingbird, a strange ripple behind her. Before I could focus too much she darted down behind buildings and disappeared as did the ripple in the air.
Magic will never make sense to me, or be anything I use, but it sure is fascinating.
I laughed and headed home. The last challenge I had was to find a job in Atlanta so Jo and I could start our lives as true adults. My faith was higher than it had been six months ago.
Finally, my life was on track and no one would be able to tell me what to do. And I'd leave behind all the oddities that followed me. My life was about to begin.
I still had questions. Who was Kori Munroe? How was Kris? Why did Stevie die? What did my strange dream/memories mean? But with a good job and time, I'd be able to find all my answers. Right at that moment, I just wanted dinner, flan, and time with my chosen family.