He was kind and gentle, and never once told me I should do something else. Hell, it couldn’t be easy for him, us spending almost every night at the club instead of doing fun stuff like other couples. We’d barely even dated, catching a lunch or dinner either in between my schedule or his. Not a lot of guys would put up with that. In fact, the long list of my ex-boyfriends was pretty much the testimony.
But he was different, and when I got my good news, he’d been the first person I’d wanted to tell. Not Bennett or Raelle. Not even my parents or Justin.
Nope, it was him.
The guy who I could let into my heart and trust not to break it.
The guy who had been there all along.
Jared
COLLISION.
A family sedan had played chicken with a semi just outside the Lincoln Tunnel.
We’d responded, expecting the worst, the scene the kind of stuff nightmares were made of.
“Get the kids,” yelled Cap, a toddler and a baby still strapped to their car seats were crying in the back. The mother was unconscious, trapped behind the steering wheel, the hood of her car wedged under the grill of the truck.
Rev and North took the front, using the piston-rod hydraulic Hurst, most people knew as the jaws of life. We had no idea if she was still breathing, our priority, getting the kids out of the car ASAP and I could already smell gasoline.
“Locked,” Tibbs cursed, the door not budging.
I shook my head, pointing to the front passenger side. “Smash the front, it’s too risky to do the back.” He nodded, popping out the front passenger side window, giving us enough access to reach the central locking.
“Mommy,” howled a little girl, her face stained by endless tears as she reached out in fear. “Mommmmmyyyyyyyy.”
There was no time to get emotional, our objective to secure the two kids while the others took care of their mother. Cranking open the door, I reached inside, doing a quick visual check for injuries before cutting loose the tethers for the car seats. With no idea what we were dealing with—and until one of the EMTs could make sure one or both hadn’t snapped their spinal cord—we were moving them as little as possible.
“Take the baby,” I hollered at Tibbs, the smallest of the two screaming so loud he or she was literally gasping for air. “I’ll grab the other.”
We each took a kid, ripping their seats out from the back and carrying them away from the wreck. The driver of the semi was already out, dazed and in severe shock.
Darcy, one of the EMTs, took the toddler while Cole took the baby. Both were doing their best to calm the kids while North and Rev were getting closer to slicing a hole into the car’s metal.
We’d barely left the kids when Cap yelled, “Get some foam down on that gas,” the small leak of gasoline quickly spilling onto the street. All it would take was one fucking spark and the whole thing would go from a really bad accident to a fucking disaster, so we wasted no time in getting the AFFF out and smothering it.
North got the ram, using it to push the dash back so they could finally get to the mom. She wasn’t breathing, North starting CPR the minute she was on the ground, yelling for the EMTs.
McGee was at his side, bagging her while North continued with compressions, not stopping until she finally gave a cough.
“We’ve got a pulse. Faint, but we need to move her.” McGee pointed to a stretcher.
Without waiting to be told, Tibbs and I grabbed the stretcher, helping to lift her on while McGee’s hand kept squeezing the BVM. She was far from out of the woods, but at least she was free and breathing, the rest of it completely out of our hands.
It wasn’t until the family had been loaded into the ambulance that I stepped back and finally took in the whole scene. It was intense, the Honda the family had been traveling in was almost unrecognizable. The silver metal was twisted in directions that shouldn’t be possible, while the semi looked like it had eaten a car, and then vomited from indigestion. All the while traffic had backed up, the stream of cars wanting to get into the tunnel extending farther than we could see.
“PD are handling the diversions. And I have a hazmat team on the way. Good work out there.” Cap nodded his head, pointing to the engine. “You guys head back, and I’ll keep the second unit here just in case. I’ll radio it in to the Chief.”
Cap was hanging back with the second unit, North, Tibbs, Rev, Evans, and me climbing into the engine and heading back to the stationhouse.
“Fucking crazy,” Tibbs shook his head. “It’s not even raining.”
Traffic accidents were common, most a fender bender or two that people usually walked away from. And while it was inconvenient, and racked up insurance premiums like no other, if you had to have a wreck, that was the kind you wanted. Then there were the others. The ones like we’d just left, or worse, the ones where you pull out corpses.
North’s parents had died in a wreck. Both high and drunk, they’d left to go find their next score while their eighteen-year-old kid was home trying to be the adult. He didn’t hide it, but I could never understand how it hadn’t messed him up beyond recognition. His ability to tune out all the bullshit and do his job better than anyone else, something that I fucking admired.
“How’s Quinn?” I asked, tapping his shoulder as I leaned forward in my seat. “Must be getting close.”
The guy turned, biggest smile I’d ever seen beaming from his face. “She’s doing great. Man, I can’t wait.”
And that was all it took, the conversation turning to North and Quinn instead of the horror we’d just left. It was the only way you could keep doing what we did, finding a little part in your head to lock it away and go on with a life you were lucky to be living.
We got back to the station, restocked the truck, and then showered and changed. We hoped to have time to eat dinner between calls, feeling confident when we sat down at the table while Chief dished up spaghetti.
“Hey, you want to do something tomorrow night?” Tibbs asked, tearing off a piece of garlic bread before handing it to me. “We haven’t hung out in a while. Feel free to bring your woman along too, I’m beginning to think you made her up.”
He laughed as did Cole, the rookie not knowing what was good for him. “She exists, asswipes.” I flipped them off. “But tomorrow’s my niece’s birthday. My mom is having everyone at the house. And even if I didn’t love Maddy and want to see her turn two, my ma would kill me if I didn’t show up.”
Ironic how I could be excited and disappointed at the same time. Maddy was my sister Deanna’s youngest, and I fucking loved the hell out of that kid. So the fact she was getting to blow out two candles was a big deal and I wanted to be there. But it also meant I wouldn’t get much time—if any—with Presley. Kid birthday parties usually happened during the day, with my mother insisting on a family dinner after the extended relatives had left. Celebrations were a big thing, and I didn’t like disappointing my mother. Which meant by the time I’d get back to Midtown and Presley, she’d already be at Diablo. I’d have to wait hours before I’d be able to touch her. Having to sit and watch from a distance instead of pulling her into my arms and kissing her like I wanted.
“Maddy is turning two?” Tibbs scratched his head, taking a forkful of his noodles. “Fuck, how the hell did that happen? Seems like yesterday Jeff and Deanna left the hospital with her.”