Page 20 of Resuscitation
“Yeah, I’ve been working on that.”
When they reached the ground floor, Blake wheeled Thomas to the doors as Alyssa held them open, a gear bag slung over each of her shoulders. The snow had gotten heavier even though it actually felt a little warmer, maybe because the wind had shifted direction.
Once Thomas was strapped onto the ambulance’s gurney and their gear was stowed, Blake hopped into the driver’s seat and turned them around to head to the hospital in Potsdam.
In the back, Alyssa began an IV. First stick, Blake noted with approval. Not easy to do on Thomas.
“There you go, all set,” she said, adjusting the IV fluids.
“So, who won the bet?” Thomas asked, cracking a grin.
Alyssa laughed. “Well, neither, actually. Dr. Sara went for high sugar and Blake here was counting on your kidneys to win him those M&M’s.”
In the rearview, Blake saw Thomas gesture for Alyssa to lean closer to him. “Say, Blake and Dr. Sara. Any progress?”
“I heard that,” Blake interjected.
“Don’t be an idiot,” Thomas told him. “Life is short. Ask the girl out. Otherwise, you’ll end up just like me. All alone.”
“Hey, you’ve got us,” Alyssa protested. “And you got lucky, married the love of your life. Am I right?”
Thomas nodded with a rueful smile as his eyes drifted off to previous memories. “That I did, that I did. Bless her soul.”
Blake brought the ambulance to a stop at the red light at the intersection with Route 37, ready to turn onto the main highway to Potsdam. It would have been tempting to run the red, sirens blasting, but Blake resisted. While he waited for the light to turn, he peered into the back.
Thomas was talking to Alyssa in a low voice, his face animated. She laughed, and Blake had the feeling Thomas was sharing one of his R-rated anecdotes from when he’d been in the Navy.
“Looks like you’re feeling better,” he told the older man.
Alyssa straightened up, assuming a professional expression. “Yep, we’re all good. Vitals stable, blood sugar normal.”
“Roads look like they’re getting nasty,” Thomas said. “You guys can just take me home, I’ll be fine.”
“You’re not getting off that easy,” Alyssa chided him. “Dialysis, remember? Not to mention you’ll need an IV tonight, keep your sugar stable.”
“Ugh.” Thomas’s face twisted in an exaggerated pout, worse than any toddler, making Blake smile. “They never let me get any sleep. All the noise and the nurses checking me every half an hour. And worse thing is, nowadays seems like half of them are men!”
“Ah, but still pretty, right?” Alyssa joked.
The light changed to green, but as Blake put his foot on the gas to cross, his peripheral vision caught the flashing lights of a speeding law enforcement SUV heading straight for the driver’s side of the ambulance. He hit the brakes, sending the ambulance into a skid just as the SUV swerved to make an abrupt left turn.
“What the hell!” Alyssa shouted from the back.
As fast as it had appeared, the vehicle disappeared into the blizzard. But why was a county sheriff’s unit speeding toward Eastfork?
“You okay back there?” When Blake looked in the direction the SUV had come from, he spotted more familiar red and blue lights glinting through the snowfall. None of them moving.
“Yeah, all good.” Alyssa replied. She checked on Thomas once more, but he waved her away. She climbed up front to join Blake. “What’s going on?”
Blake tried the radio, but it gave him nothing but crackles and pops. “Call dispatch,” he told Alyssa who was already sliding her cell free. “If that was an injured cop, they were heading in the wrong direction.”
“Any officers around here know not to go to Eastfork,” she said as the call connected. “Wayne? You hear anything about police casualties or any major trauma event?”
She put it on speaker and held it between them. Wayne, the EMS dispatcher, answered, “There was chatter earlier about state troopers in pursuit of possible robbery suspects, and the county guys were coming to back them up, but then everything went quiet.”
“Maybe they changed channels,” Blake said. Something usually reserved for critical incidents requiring private communications.
Alyssa met Blake’s gaze with a frown, then told Wayne, “Seems like one of the deputies is heading to Eastfork, maybe with a casualty. You might want to warn Sara.”
