Page 75 of Come Back to Me

Fitz is there before I can hit the ground and he and Finn grab me under the arms and lift me onto the second stretcher.

I’m tired. So damned tired. I just need to close my eyes for a minute, but when I do, I see Annie’s beautiful face in my memory and then everything goes black.

CHAPTER 34

ANNIE

Beanie Boy and I are racing each other up the steps to our apartment when the sound of my work phone ringing fills my ears.

I get in just in time to answer it before it goes to voicemail.

“Hello?” I huff out, winded from the sprinting up the steps.

“Annie? It’s Janie, are you able to come back in?” she says, her voice shaky.

“Sure,” I answer, heading to my bedroom to change into scrubs again because, from the tone of her voice, I need to get there quickly. “What’s going on?”

“We have multiple incoming from a fire at a senior housing complex downtown. We were able to divert a few of the more minor injuries to other hospitals but we have several patients coming in, including three critical—a four-year-old and his grandmother with smoke inhalation and…” she hesitates.

“Janie? What is it?” I ask.

“The other is a firefighter,” she answers solemnly.

I grab my keys and wallet, race to my door and pull it shut behind me, then head down the stairs to my car. “I’ll be right there. Is it… is it him?” I manage to get out.

“I don’t know, but it sounds bad.”

Five minutes later, I pull into the ER parking lot and run inside to help.

Janie and the hospital nursing supervisor have a few volunteers from the ICU and medical floors upstairs to help take care of our other patients so our seasoned ER nurses can focus on the critical incoming.

The pediatric patient and the elderly woman are already here, both being attended to by some of our best staff.

I find Janie since she’s the charge nurse and ask her where she wants me.

Since I have burn-care experience from the ER I worked at down near Columbus, Janie asks if I can alternate between the elderly patient and her grandson to be sure everything is running smoothly. She’ll focus on the injured firefighter when they arrive.

I agree and quickly jump into my assignment.

JACK

When I come to, I’m in the back of an ambulance with a medic I know from Station Two and Fitz. Fitz is by my side hanging IV fluids and a high-flow oxygen mask is over my face. I try to talk.

“Jack, don’t talk, buddy. You’ve got blisters in the back of your throat and swelling back there. You’ve inhaled a lot of smoke. We… we need to not do anything that will irritate your airway more,” Fitz says.

I nod. Shit, it hurts to even breathe right now, and mythroat feels so damn raw. I can hear myself wheezing, and I know that it’s a bad sign.

Fitz looks at me and I can tell he knows where my thinking has gone, understands the unspoken question I’m asking.

“It’s bad, Jack. I’m thinking you’re going to have to go on a ventilator to breathe for you until we know you’re out of the woods. I got the okay from the ER to give you a little morphine in your IV to help with the pain and ease the trouble breathing, okay?” Fitz asks.

I shake my head vehemently.

If Annie is there when I get to the ER, I want to see her before I go under, if I can. If I can’t, I need to tell someone to get the journal to her.

“Not… yet…” I wheeze out.

He looks at me for a few seconds, then nods in agreement.

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