“Storms don’t make people not need our services. We’re Rescue, we’re supposed to be focused on rescuing people whenever we can. They can’t get treatment at a hospital if they can’t get to a hospital. And the roads...”
“They’re terrible, I know.” He could agree with her on that part. Things were still tense between them, and every conversation felt like something that could knock them out of the air. “You really hate working on the floor that much?”
“I hate feeling confined. And I do when I’m down there. You might end up doing something exciting, but I usually end up babysitting.” The word babysitting made her face squinch up, and she puffed. “I think it’s time to stop using that word for that, it’s increasingly looking like that will be my whole existence in a few months.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means I’m not going to be able to do anything but take care of the baby. That sounds selfish, I know. It’s not a worry for you because you’re not on the verge of being shelved. I know I’ve had a rough start with the pregnancy, but I feel like other people are taking my choices left and right. Like you telling me to just go home now.”
“It’s just a better use of your time. Stay here if you want to.” He could concentrate on his job better if she went home and didn’t hang around the hospital seething because she couldn’t do what she wanted or fretting about the people she couldn’t help. One boot off, he rose to go peek at her phone and the radar she was currently refreshing. A continuous line of pale blue stretched from New York to West Virginia, and was blowing in such a way that they’d get every mile of that stripe of storms covering several states. “Look at that. You’ll be less bored at home.”
“There are pockets of flurries, especially here for the next three-ish hours. Then it’ll get heavy and stay heavy, but there’s people we can help before it gets too bad.”
* * *
Penny felt her hackles rising again. She knew that Gabriel was being sensible, rational even, but she listened to her gut, and her gut said this wasn’t how her day was going to go. “Haven’t you ever just felt like something was going to happen, and you want to be there for it?”
“Are you saying you have some kind of inkling you’re going to go out there?” he asked, his eyes narrowing a touch, just enough for her to know he wasn’t getting it.
What could she say? If she said yes, he’d have a fit and try to force her to go home. “I’m saying I feel like I have something to do today here, not at home. Maybe it’s just being with Dispatch in case they need another hand. I don’t know, but I’m not going home yet. Even if Dispatch doesn’t need help, I can perform some maintenance on the chopper and make sure it’s stocked better. I’ve noticed the supplies haven’t been kept up as much as I like while I was gone.”
“I’m not going to win this one, am I?”
“I’m pretty sure you have won. You and Charles conspired to entirely shut down flights for the day and I got no input in that. You grounded us. That means you did win. You just aren’t winning the ordering Penny home conversation too.” Penny tried to soften it with a smile, but she wasn’t feeling very smiley.
He shook his head and crammed his boot back on, no longer changing out of his flight suit. “Call me if you get a window and permission to fly.”
Fifteen minutes later, Penny was in the chopper with her tumbler of hot apple tea, powering everything up. She stuck her phone into the mount on the dash so she could keep the radar up and running, and the band radio set to listen, then went back to the rear to start her inventory.
She half listened to the radio chatter, just enough to hear her name or their unit number, and to make out the different kinds of calls going out. Bad fall at a museum. The place had slippery steps, and an injured patron.
All their arguments seemed to shadow the marriage argument, even when they had nothing to do with it.
He and Charles agreed there would be no flying, so she was grounded. He hadn’t orchestrated it, but she was pregnant, which was kind of like being grounded when it came to doing things she wanted to do. And those were the two unchangeable positions that put her at a starting disadvantage.
“Cardiac arrest at Fifty-Ninth.”
He wanted her to go home, and he wanted her to marry him. She’d said no going home, and that she’d work on something else, and she’d also said no to marriage, but she’d work on a relationship.
And they were both unsettled and unhappy.
“ETA Unit 377?”
“ETA Unit 410?”
Maybe she should just marry him. Maybe having that stability would calm him down, nothing else she’d done seemed to. At least he’d sleep in the same bed with her, she could reasonably demand he hug her or comfort her whenever she wanted. But that was part of the problem—she wanted to be fine on her own, without needing that comfort from him. And he seemed to feel more comfortable himself when he was doing something tangible for her.
“ETA Unit 219?”
If she didn’t marry him, she might end up having this baby alone. Sure, he’d still be around to be a father, he’d made that completely clear, but she could end up forced to give birth on her own because having Mom there would stress her out, and Miranda was going to be in Spain by then.
She stopped counting and shuffling inventory to look at the radio in the front, and listened to units calling in left and right about the delays, the traffic, and one who was just stuck.
“We’re sending a wrecker, 410.”
Penny stashed what she’d counted out into her go-bag, and went to check her radar again.
“Any units available? Fire and ambulance needed.”
The snow was falling lighter than it had been. Granted, the air had that strange, bluish, foggy quality over the city because of the falling snow, but she could see through it. She could see the roof of the building at the end of the block, which wasn’t wonderful but it was something.
“What do you have, Dispatch?”
“Davenport?”
“Yes. Is everyone stranded?”
“It’s a mess out there. We’ve got all units out and are trying to get NYPD to take this call.”
“What’s going on?”
“Woman in labor, trapped in an elevator.”
Her stomach bottomed out and she grabbed the phone to look at the radar. There was a hole. She might not be able to make it back to the hospital with the woman, but she could get there. Be there, provide support, and wait for the next ground crew to arrive and take over.
When she’d been so sick, Gabriel showing up and making things better had been like a miracle to her when she had only been vomiting like crazy, not trying to give birth, alone, in a busted elevator.
“What’s the address? Is it close enough to go on foot?”
She couldn’t just leave her there.
There was a pause, then the answer, and confirmation that she couldn’t get there by foot in the snow in less than an hour, even at a run.
She looked at the radar again. Oh, Gabriel would be angry. Charles would be angry. Everyone would be angry, except for the woman and her family. At the least the woman wouldn’t be alone, like she might still end up.
She could make it there, she knew she could. And then she’d just have to leave the chopper until the storm passed, and come back with the ground crew.
Three switches got the chopper started. She waited until she’d lifted off to call in and let them know she was going.
* * *
“Dr. Jackson?” Gabriel turned at the sound of his name from the doorway to see Dr. Miranda Davenport standing there.
“Yes?”
“I’m sorry to interrupt, Dispatch needs you. It’s Penny...”
He frowned over his shoulder at Miranda, instantly on alert. Penny wanted to go up. “I’ll be right there
. We were just finishing up.”
It just took a minute to explain the testing he’d ordered to his patient and excuse himself to call upstairs, and about fifteen seconds for his blood pressure shoot into the stratosphere.
Penny had gone out without him. She’d gone out in the storm.
Miranda was at his heels so that when he turned, ready to hit the stairs and get to Dispatch, he nearly ran her over.
“She went out in the snow?”
A nod was all he had time for.
Ninety seconds later he stood in the Dispatch office, radio open after having called her as calmly as he could, far calmer than his pounding heart wanted.
“I need to do this. I’m almost there,” she called back through the radio. “She needs help, Gabe.”
Children were always one of Penny’s triggers. She’d do anything to get to a child in distress. He’d seen her cow a vicious dog that had stood between them and a child once. Logically, he knew this about her, and she’d been that way as long as he’d known her, long before she’d had her maternal instincts kick into overdrive.
“Ground crews are going to help her. Come back.”
“They’re at least twenty minutes behind me, and I’m closer to the building than I am to Mercy now. Stop distracting me. I’m flying in snow, I need to concentrate.”
She switched off and it felt so final that a swell of premature grief robbed him of words. Swamped with helplessness, rage took control and sent the radio flying into the cinderblock walls of the Dispatch room. It struck hard, then crashed to the floor to clatter across the polished tile, but did little for his state of mind. It was less satisfying to smash unsmashable things against a wall—their radios were built to survive being dropped several stories.
And she was speaking the truth. Distracting her would put her into more danger. All he could do right now was wait.
She’d all but declared earlier that she was going to go out on her own, her gut having told her she was needed today somewhere. Heaven help him, he could barely reason with her under the best circumstances, she listened to her emotions first, reason second. His stomach lurched and he went to pick up the radio to make sure it was on, that he could hear if she called for help.
While waiting, he peppered the staff manning the radio with questions about where the call had come from, then mapped the address. Five minutes of flight, six tops. He looked at the clock. They’d called him as soon as she’d called saying she’d taken off, and he’d run from Emergency to the top of the tower after finishing with his patient, which had taken about three minutes total. Add another minute on the radio with her.
He’d give her two minutes to call in before he lost his mind.
Unable to hold still, he paced the small room until asked to sit. People were there. People had seen him throwing the radio. Would hear everything.
And he didn’t give a damn anymore.
Heartbeats thundered in his ears, so loud he wasn’t sure he’d hear the radio if she called. It was more that and the fact that he might be having a heart attack that made him sit.
This felt just the same. It wasn’t the same, but it felt it. When Nila had gone, he hadn’t been able to say anything to change her mind then either. But this was worse. If this was the last time he saw Penny, it wouldn’t be by choice. It wouldn’t be because she’d remarried and had children with another man, the family she hadn’t wanted with him only two years earlier.
He could lose the baby if she crashed. He could lose her.
Seconds after he sat, the radio beeped and he heard her.
“I’m down.”
He felt eyes on him, but closed his eyes to block them out. Help her. She’d need help.
She was down now, she was safe. Ground crew would come soon.
“What equipment are you taking?” he asked, and waited, willing his voice to be steady and calm.
“Extra blankets. IV, saline. First-aid basics. Rope.”
She sounded confident, more than him at least.
“Rope?”
Dammit, he’d forgotten the elevator. “Listen to me, Penny. Do not rappel more than two floors. The shorter the better. If she’s between two floors, go to the one directly above it. As close as you can get.”
Problem was, he didn’t know if the elevator doors on every floor could be forced open. He didn’t know why this elevator was stuck. He didn’t know anything.
“I’ll call building security and tell them to meet you and help. Take a scalpel and clamps. You’ll need them.”
“Scalpel?” The first hint of hesitation. She didn’t treat so much as triage usually.
“It might become necessary. You want to be prepared.”
“Yes. Right. Scalpel.”
She confirmed with a number from the small selection they had on the chopper.
“Have you delivered a baby before?”
“No...”
He rubbed between his eyes, trying to stop the tension headache he felt coming. “Have you been at a birth before?”
“Yes. I had some training, but I might need a refresher.”
Chopper paramedics were usually involved with accidents, not births. If there was trouble, she’d be in over her head.
“What about oxygen?” she asked, breaking into his thoughts. “Should I take the small tank and masks?”
“Yes. And call me the minute you get into the elevator. I’ll talk you through it.”
As soon as he stopped talking, he remembered another thing and shouted into the radio. “Stethoscope! Take a stethoscope...”
“Dr. Jackson, do you need some help?” one of the dispatchers asked, and he thought a moment and nodded.
“I need an ETA on the crews heading for the building. How are they doing?”
Having them there helped, he’d get as organized as he could. Pulling out his cellphone, he had the other dispatcher read him the number for building security and called to do what he’d promised, but messed up the number three times because of shaking hands.
If he believed in Christmas miracles, he could use one right now. Smooth, easy delivery. Healthy mom and baby. Crew arriving before the action started. That would be the best, if they got into the elevator or got it moving with plenty of time to get them all to the hospital before she had to push or lose it.
Juggling his cell and radio was all he could do, and pray, and the last might be a bad idea until he could control his emotions or he’d just end up screaming at God.
* * *
Penny stuffed two large bags with supplies, slung them both ways across her torso, threw the coil of rope over one shoulder, shoved the radio into her pocket, and grabbed the backboard.
She should’ve asked Gabriel to have them meet her on the roof to haul equipment, she’d be exhausted before she got into the shaft at this rate.
No. Now was not the time for defeatist thinking. She could do this. She’d flown in the snow, landed successfully. And she’d help that woman and baby. Every ounce of her exhaustion tonight would be righteous and hard-won. She’d picked rescue as a career for just this kind of reason.
As needy as she’d been when she’d been vomiting everywhere, Gabriel’s arrival couldn’t have been more heaven sent if the actual Angel Gabriel had popped into her apartment in her time of need. And she hadn’t even been trying to push a baby out of her body in a freaking elevator shaft at the time.
She scooted through the roof access door and inside. A moment to stomp the snow from her boots, and she hit the stairs, bracing the backboard on her head and balancing with one hand so she could get the radio.
“Gabe.”
“Are you there?”
“No. What floor? Did Security tell you what floor?”
“Twenty-five.” His voice came through the radio, stilted, and measur
ed. She could hear the effort it took him to speak evenly, and it curdled her stomach. “She’s just below it.”
“Okay.” She knew it was a thirty-story building, relatively small by new building standards. Lucky she was close to the top if they had to carry her out. Lucky for her, too. Gabriel was too good a doctor and too good a man to leave her hanging on this, even when she could hear his frustration.
She switched off, stashed the radio again, and picked up the pace. Her weeks of stair-marathon conditioning helped and, even heavily laden, she made it there quickly. The elevator was just across from the stairs, and the security officer stood there, working on the doors as she stepped off.
“Do you need help?”
He looked back at her and nodded. “I’ve never done this before. I think I use this and put it here and turn, and that’s supposed to unlock something, and then maybe we shove?”
He was as experienced with elevators as she was with birth.
“I’ve never done it before but, here, I’ll take the crowbar and wedge it in, and as soon as you say, I’ll pull it.” She ditched her supplies on the floor and braced one foot against the side of the elevator entrance. As soon as he turned something she could only consider a lock and key mechanism, she pulled hard.
The doors popped and he got his hands in there to shove them open. Once it was done, she set the bar on the floor and bent over the edge to peer into the shaft. Maybe ten feet to the top of the box. She could probably dangle over the edge and just drop onto it, but even knowing there were locks to keep elevators from plummeting to the ground, she didn’t want to just suddenly drop all her weight, along with the weight of her equipment, onto the elevator and tempt fate.
“Andrea?” She called the name that Dispatch had given her into the shaft, and when she heard a response, she introduced herself. “My name is Penny and I’m a paramedic from Manhattan Mercy air ambulance. There are still ground crews coming, but the roads are terrible. So I’m just going to come on down to you, okay?”
“Please hurry. I think my water broke.”
The Rescue Doc's Christmas Miracle Page 13