slowed and George craned his neck as they came slowly down the off-ramp onto the highway.
He could see the smoke rising from the wreckage. There were police cars with their lights flashing and firefighters already on the scene, and when George looked behind them he could see other ambulances barreling down the off-ramp and more coming off further down the highway.
“You ready, Atavik?” She reached over and touched his knee, giving it a squeeze and also sending a jolt of pure electricity through him. He liked her touching him, and he didn’t like that. He wanted to like it, but it was wrong.
“Ready.”
Samantha pulled the ambulance over. “Show time!”
She gave him an encouraging smile as she got out of the ambulance.
George leapt down from the passenger side and surveyed the damage. His adrenaline was pumping as he looked up and down the highway, which was a main artery through Ontario. Traffic was backed up for kilometers and there were more than five cars in the mangled wreck as well as a tanker truck, lying on its side across four lanes of the highway.
It was amazing to be in the thick of this. To do his job, but other than nerves he felt nothing and he couldn’t help but wonder if he was a bit dead inside.
“WE NEED TO get this area clear—that tanker is unstable.” The fire chief motioned to the tanker.
Samantha nodded. “We almost have all the injured cleared out of the area.”
“And we have the traffic both ways being diverted off the highway,” the chief of police said.
Samantha looked around at all the carnage. Accidents bothered her. She’d teased George about being sick, but most of the time when they were on their way to large traffic accidents like this she felt a bit queasy too.
Cameron had crashed his ambulance, a mistake that made no sense. So the physicians had investigated why he’d reversed into an empty building and it was then they’d found the tumor. Car accidents made her think back to that awful moment when their lives had changed forever.
While the rest of the team talked about what to do next, Samantha’s gaze rested on George through the chaos. She focused on him. He was calm, dealing with victims in an expeditious manner. It was like the rest of the noise, smoke and shouts were drowned out as she watched him. He worked like he was a machine.
They’d worked together at first, but where a new paramedic would have needed guidance, George had known exactly what he was doing.
So she’d let him work on his own. In all her years of mentoring and teaching she knew when to step in and when to step back, and this was one of those moments.
He was down on one knee, patching up a head wound. It was probably an uncomfortable position with one knee on the pavement, but the older lady looked the worse for wear. He was talking to her and she was smiling, even though she was injured.
Even from this distance Samantha could see he was keeping the patient calm. The lady even smiled at him and that made Samantha grin.
Atavik had the touch. He may have been a bit stand-offish and serious with her, but he was good with the patients.
He was meant to be a paramedic.
It was a damn shame he wouldn’t move to Critical Care and get back in an aircraft. Though maybe by the end of the course they’d head up to Thunder Bay and perhaps he’d change his tune. She still planned to convince him that it was better in the air.
When you flew planes for as long as Atavik had, it got into your blood. You were born to fly.
George waved at her to signal he was ready for her. She wheeled the gurney over to him and he stood up as she approached.
“I think she’s the last one.” George turned to the patient. “You ready to get out of here, Mrs. Walker?”
“More than ready, Georgie boy.”
Samantha cocked an eyebrow. Georgie boy?
George just grinned at Mrs. Walker as he got her to her feet and sitting on the gurney. “We’re going to get you loaded up and off to the hospital.”
Samantha and George worked to get Mrs. Walker over to the next departing ambulance as theirs was blocked in by a police cruiser.
Once Mrs. Walker was loaded and the door was shut George slammed on the back to signal to the driver it was okay to leave.
They stepped back as ambulance headed up the newly cleared wrong side of the highway toward the hospital.
The fire crew was waving people away from the tanker, which was beginning to smoke.
“We have to clear out of here. The tanker is unstable,” Samantha said.
“I think that’s—” The words died in George’s throat as a woman let out a gut-wrenching scream. The kind Samantha recognized. The pain of a mother.
“My baby!”
Samantha swung her head to see a little girl, a toddler, running up the highway to the smoking tanker, the firefighters oblivious to her.
The mother was screeching the girl’s name but was unable to move because of being strapped to a gurney and getting ready to be transported.
George took one look at the girl and went running.
Samantha reached out to grab him, but her fingertips just brushed George’s shirt as he ran through the protesting firefighters and police toward the tanker and the little girl.
“Atavik, get your ass back here!” Samantha shouted, starting after him, but the moment she got close a firefighter grabbed her and held her back.
“Whoa, you can’t go.”
“I have to. He’s my partner. My stupid partner.” Samantha pointed in the direction of George.
The firefighter spun round. “He’s an idiot.”
Samantha’s heart was in her throat, her pulse pounding in her ears, as she was forced away and back.
In situations like this, things really did move in slow motion.
She watched as he ran toward the tanker, which burst into flames, knocking the little girl back. He scooped up the terrified girl and started running back to safety as firefighters with hoses ran toward him and then past him to tackle the roaring fire engulfing the remains of the tanker.
He held the little girl against his chest, one protective arm around her head, holding her close as he ran past the fray, like a football player holding a ball tight and streaking towards the end zone.
Samantha’s pulse rate eased and she pushed the firefighter away as George made his way toward her. He was panting and there was soot on his face and his arm looked burned.
“You’re
