Page 10 of Hot Response
“Bailey had a little bit of congestion this morning, so she stayed home,” Tony explained as he responded to yet another text from home before stowing his phone in his pocket. “And I do mean a little bit, but she got to Rob first, so you know how that goes.”
Cait laughed. His husband was definitely not the strict parent of the two, and their six-year-old daughter had him wrapped around her little finger. And four-year-old Riley was as smart as his big sister and would figure it out soon enough.
Cait didn’t have a lot of experience with children, but Rob would bring them by the station sometimes if they were in the area and she thought they were probably the cutest kids on the planet. Along with her nephew, of course. Noah had been born in Texas and she’d only seen him in person a couple of times, but he was blood. And he also looked a lot like his auntie Cait had as a baby, so she couldn’t leave him off the cutest-kids list.
“You better not give me Bailey’s germs,” she warned as she buckled her seat belt. “The last thing I need is to bring them home and get my mother sick. Or Carter. He’s bad enough now. If he gets a man cold, I might have to smother him in his sleep.”
It never failed. As soon as they were close enough to the best coffee in town to start looking for a place to park, a call came in.
A sidewalk fall with reported head injury. Tony flipped on the lights while Cait responded to dispatch.
“It’s our buddy,” Tony said as they pulled up at the address.
Cait rolled her eyes as she snapped on a pair of gloves. Victor worked the night shift, or so he claimed, so he did his drinking during the day. A lot of it. Based on the number of interactions they had with the guy, she doubted he was any better at holding a job than he was at holding his liquor.
“Victor,” she said in a friendly tone to the man standing on the sidewalk looking confused while a Samaritan held a wad of napkins to the cut on his head. “How you doin’?”
“I told them not to call an ambulance,” he grumbled. “Least they sent the pretty one, though.”
“Thanks, Victor, that’s really sweet,” Tony said, earning a scowl from their patient.
“I don’t need no help.”
“There’s blood, so you should let me look.”
The laceration wasn’t bad, and the helpful bystander told her he hadn’t lost consciousness. She checked his pupils and he answered her questions to the best of his drunken ability. When sirens sounded in the distance, getting closer, Victor frowned and pushed her hand away.
“You call for backup?”
She laughed. “You won’t even let us treat you properly. Why would we call more people to stand here and argue with you?”
In her peripheral vision, she caught sight of the approaching apparatus and turned her head.
It wasn’t Ladder 37, though, and she was taken off guard by the strength of her disappointment. It was stupid to be bummed she wouldn’t get a glimpse of Gavin, or maybe even a wave. Not that they were friends, but the manhadchecked out her ass.
And it was even more stupid to be so obvious about it in front of her partner, she thought when Tony cleared his throat.
Cait turned back to Victor as the truck that wasn’t Gavin’s rolled by, deliberately avoiding Tony’s gaze. “You should probably have some stitches, Victor. Or a couple of staples.”
“Shit, I got a staple gun somewhere.”
“Different kind of staples.” She poked her finger at his chest to make sure she had his attention. “Donotstaple your own head.”
“Ain’t no difference,” he mumbled.
“There’s abigdifference.” Not the least of which was sterility. “No staples. No superglue. No epoxies.”
“Let us give you a ride in,” Tony said, using his compassionate-but-stern voice. “They can clean up your wound and make sure it doesn’t get infected.”
“I ain’t giving those doctors money to wash my head. I can do it my own damn self. And I’ll pour a little whiskey on it. That cheap shit my old lady buys will kill any kind of infection.”
He probably wasn’t wrong, but Cait wasn’t ready to give up yet. “They have those warm blankets you like. You know the nurses will give you a couple straight out of the warmer while they patch up that cut.”
Victor shook his head. “Just gimme the papers to sign. It’s too cold to stand out here yapping with you two.”
Tony took care of that, and Victor was in the process of signing his name to the statement he was refusing transport AMA when a shoe flew past Cait’s face and bounced off Victor’s jaw.
And there was the wife.
