arrival.
The ambulance pulled to a stop and moments later the back doors were opened. They had arrived at the hospital. A couple of the staff had been waiting outside for them. Sally and one of the techs removed the gurney with the man on it.
As other medical personnel began hooking him up to monitors, she reported quickly to the young staff nurse, “This is a John Doe for now. He was in a burning warehouse. Acute smoke inhalation is the place to start.”
Just as she was finishing up her report, the gurney with Ross went by. She followed it into the examination room next to the John Doe. Ross’s coat had been removed and his T-shirt pulled up. He still wore his yellow firefighter pants that were blackened in places. Square stickers with monitoring wires had been placed on his chest connecting him to machines nearby. Aware of how inappropriate it was for her to admire the contours of his well-defined chest and abdomen, she couldn’t stop herself. The man kept himself in top physical shape. It was necessary with his field of work but his physique suggested he strove to surpass the norm. No wonder he’d been able to carry the man out of the burning building.
His gaze met hers. Heated embarrassment washed over her and she averted her eyes. Ogling a man, especially one that she worked with, wasn’t what she should be doing.
Ross went into another round of heavy coughing that sent her attention to the amount of oxygen he was receiving. The bubble in the meter indicated one liter, which was good. Still, at this rate it would take him days to clear the smoke from his lungs.
Sally stepped closer to his side and spoke to no one in particular. “How’s he doing?”
One of the nurses responded. “He seems to be recovering well. We’re going to continue to give him oxygen and get a chest X-ray just to be sure that he didn’t inhale any more smoke than we anticipated.”
“I’m right here, you know.” Ross’s voice was a rusty muffled sound beneath the mask. He glared at her. This time her look remained on him.
“You need to save your voice.”
He grimaced as a doctor entered. What was that look about? Surely, he wasn’t afraid of doctors.
Slipping out of the room as the woman started her examination, Sally stepped to the department desk and signed papers releasing Ross and the John Doe as her patients into the hospital’s care. Done, she joined the EMTs at her ambulance.
She gave James a wry smile. “Good work out there this morning.”
“You too,” he replied as he pulled out of the drive.
In the passenger seat, she buckled up, glad to be out of the back of the box. She wasn’t a big fan of riding there.
She shivered now at the memory of when she’d been locked in a trunk and forgotten while playing a childhood game. To this day she didn’t like tight spaces or the dark. Being in the square box of the ambulance reminded her too much of that experience. It was one of those things she just dealt with because she loved her job.
Sally leaned her head back and closed her eyes. Ross’s light blue gaze over the oxygen mask came to mind. She’d met Ross Lawson soon after she had moved to Austin and gone to work for the Austin Medical Emergency Service, the medical service arm that worked in conjunction with the fire department that shared the same stations and sometimes the same personnel when a fireman was also qualified to work the medical side. As an advanced paramedic, she was assigned Station Twelve, one of the busiest houses of Austin’s forty-eight stations. It just happened that it was the same station where her brother and Ross worked. She hadn’t missed that twinge of attraction when she and Ross had first met any more than she had this morning. But she had never acted on it and never would.
A relationship, of any kind, was no longer a priority for her. She’d had that. Her brief marriage had been both sad and disappointing. Now she was no longer married, all she wanted to do was focus on getting into medical school. It had been her dream before she’d married, and it was still her dream. At this point in her life a relationship would just be a distraction, even if she wanted one. She was done making concessions for a man. Going after what she wanted was what mattered.
The ambulance reversed with a beep, beep, beep. It alerted her to the fact that they had arrived at the firehouse. When they stopped, she hopped out onto the spotless floor.
She loved the look of the fire station. It was a modern version of the old traditional fire halls with its redbrick exterior and high arched glass doors. A ceramic dalmatian dog even sat next to the main entrance. The firefighters worked on one side of the building and the emergency crew on the other. They shared a kitchen, workout room and TV room on the firefighter side. They were a station family.
James had backed into the bay closest to the medical side of the building. The other two bays were for the engine, quint truck and rescue truck. They hadn’t returned yet. The company would still be at the warehouse fire mopping up. When they did return, they would also pull in backward, ready for the next run.
Before she could even think about cleaning up and heading home, she would have to restock the ambulance and write a report. The ambulance must always be ready to roll out. More than once in the last year she’d returned from a call only to turn around and make another one.
“Hey, Sweet Pea.”
She groaned and turned to see Kody loping toward her. “I told you not to call me that,” she whispered. “Especially not here.”
He gave her a contrite look. “Sorry, I forgot.”
“What’re you doing here anyway?”
“I left something in my locker and had to stop by and get it. My shift isn’t until tomorrow.”
Sally smiled. She couldn’t help but be glad to see her older brother. Even if it was for a few minutes. He was a good one and she had no doubt he loved her. Sometimes too much. He tended toward being overprotective. But when she’d needed to reinvent her life, Kody had been there to help. She would always be grateful.
“I heard that Ross was the hero of the day this morning.” He sounded excited.
“Yeah, you could say that.” He’d scared the fool out of her.
“You don’t think so?”
Sally started toward the supply room. “He could have been killed.”
Kody’s voice softened. “He knows what he’s doing. I don’t know of a better firefighter.”
“He ran into a fully enveloped burning warehouse!” Sally was surprised how her voice rose and held so much emotion.
“I’m sure you’ve seen worse. Why’re you so upset?”
“I’m not upset. It just seemed overly dangerous to me. Instead of one person being hurt there, for a moment I thought it was going to be two. He has a bad case of smoke inhalation as it is.” She pulled a couple of oxygen masks off a shelf.
“How’s he doing?” Kody had real concern in his voice.
She looked for another piece of plastic line. “He’s at the hospital but he should be released soon. They were running a few more tests when I left.”
“He’s bucking for a promotion,
