Chapter 1 #2
Kay caught up to Roan later in her shift. He was early for his shift, but then again, Roan Ashley almost always was.
He was standing at the nurse's hub in his street clothes, handing files over to the nurses at the back. "Thuy, if you could, please have those records filed for me?"
"Absolutely, Doctor. It'll be done before I leave."
Kay walked up beside him and put her hand on the top of the counter.
She wasn't tall enough to easily rest her bent elbow on the desk, so this was what she could manage.
"How are things going in the outside world?"
Smiling, Roan turned to look at her. "Good. You should get out sometime and see for yourself."
It was a joke they tossed back and forth at each other. "Maybe. But in about an hour, I'm headed back to my house for a long, hot bath and whatever takeout order tickles my fancy."
Roan shook his head. "You know how to live, Kay."
"I'm a master of non-peoply life."
He gave her a strange little smile. "Maybe you ought to venture out."
"No thanks. I'm fine on my own. So many people at work." She tapped her fingers on the counter and chanced a look at the clock on the back wall. "But, I do have a question for you."
Roan must have heard something in her tone.
He turned and braced his elbow on the top of the counter, and she sighed in mild jealousy at his height.
"What's up?"
The world around them moved in perpetual motion and she was fairly sure no one was listening in. "Callen asked me if I wanted to go to the Admin Conference in Chicago."
Roan's expression lifted in pleasant surprise. "Good. I had a feeling he was going to do it soon."
Kay wasn't sure what to make about his comment. "You usually go to those things. Is everything okay?"
"Everything is great."
She knew Roan enough to know that he'd try to reassure her even if it wasn't, but this was different. He was happy that she was going.
Or at least that she'd been asked to go.
"I don't want to go and create any tension here."
"No tension at all." Roan leaned in just an inch. "I've got the wedding coming up so that was a concern."
Ah. She nodded, understanding. "Okay. Thanks."
She turned to go but Roan reached out and touched her arm.
Shocked, she stopped and looked up at him.
"You didn't let me explain."
She cleared her throat, ready to explain for him.
"Kay? Let me, okay?"
She grinned at him, but it was a thin-lipped grin at best.
"I know you haven't said anything to me about it. At least, not explicitly, but I've had a feeling that you wanted to go and yes, Callen's been sending me to these conferences for the last couple of years, but that's not what I want anymore."
What?
He smiled as if he'd heard her silent question. "Ever since I asked Pilar to marry me- No, since before that. I've been thinking about what I want in my career and my life."
She saw the way his whole face softened, and his thumb reached over to touch his ring finger on his left hand. He didn't wear a ring at the moment, but he was going to have one after he married his fiancée.
"I admit that being the head of Trauma here at Cole was something I wanted before, but not now. I had a talk with Callen. I wanted him to understand..."
"That... it's you and not him?" Kay was trying to keep her heart from pounding out of her chest. She was also hoping that her humor hadn't fallen short.
"Exactly." Roan's mouth curled up at one corner.
"I believe that I'm on his shit list right now and likely for a bit.
He made sure to explain just how much money the hospital had invested in me.
" Roan shook his head. "Again, I wanted to be the head when Callen moves up, but now that I'm getting married, and Pilar and I are talking about kids. .."
"You want to know that you might be able to have some life outside of the ER. I get it."
"I never expected to fall in love, especially not with a police officer, but now, my priorities are different."
She smiled at him, understanding completely.
She didn't have an outside life beyond the walls of the hospital.
Nor did she think she was destined for one.
So this, having the opportunity to become head of the ER department at Cole?
It was everything she'd wanted.
The phone behind the desk flared to life and both Kay and Roan turned their heads.
Thuy darted over from the computer at the far end of the hub and picked it up. "Cole Medical ER... yes?"
Kay fixed her gaze on Thuy and wished she could hear what was on the phone.
"Yes... Okay. I'll let them know. Thank you."
Thuy set the phone down and looked up at Kay. "Truck Forty-Two from Station Twenty-Nine. They're coming in. One of the firefighters was hurt. A gash on his arm."
Kay was nodding along with the nurse's recitation. "Did they give you a name?"
Thuy shook her head. "No. No names, I think they're pulling in now."
The automatic doors opened at the Emergency Vehicle Bay and Kay started forward.
Truck Forty-Two was a ladder truck from Station Twenty-Nine just a few blocks away. You didn't work within the first responder community of Center City and not know the people who worked in your vicinity.
The long ladder truck pulled up near the doors and Kay turned to see Thuy, Baldwin, and even Roan standing beside her. Roan had shrugged on a gown over his street clothes and was pulling on some latex gloves.
There were other staff in the ER, but this wasn't a mass causality event, heaven forbid. She knew that Roan would stay at the ready just in case she needed an extra pair of hands.
The passenger door opened first and in moments everyone was out of the cab of the truck. She moved forward and called out the lieutenant. "Lieutenant Braun?"
He turned and lifted his gaze to meet hers and Kay had to focus on the moment at hand.
Gibson Braun was a tall, dark, enigma to her.
He commanded respect as both a man and a firefighter.
There had never been a moment where/when she'd seen him that he hadn't been in complete control of the world around him.
"Doctor."
"Can you tell me what happened?"
He nodded and she felt his focus narrow on the men walking up behind him.
"One of my men, Pits , Hank Berg is his name, he was hit by some shrapnel in a house fire."
Kay turned to look as a couple of firefighters flanked one of their own.
Pits, as the lieutenant called him, had one arm cradled against his chest and his arm had a bandage around it. A bandage that was secured around a long piece of wood.
"Baldwin? Thuy? Get Mister Berg into an exam bay."
Roan lifted a hand. "I'll go with them until you come in."
Kay smiled at him. "Thanks."
She looked Pits in the eye and saw the pain bleeding into his gaze. He was holding it well, but there was only so much stoniness one could manage with something stabbed through their arm. "Go with my nurses and Doctor Ashley. I'll be in as soon as I get some information from your lieutenant."
Pits nodded, his jaw under his beard formed a tight line.
"Thanks, Doc."
Pits looked at Gibson standing at her side.
"You're getting the much better deal, Lieu." Pits gave her a wink. "He gets to talk to the gorgeous woman. And me?" He lifted his arm and then skewered the two at his side with his cutting glare. "They cut my bunker coat, Lieutenant."
Kay gave him a smile. "They did the right thing, Pits. Don't be too hard on them."
He shifted a little, smiling. "Okay. And, uh, call me Hank."
She smiled at the older man. With his silvered temples and his strong form, he surely made many women swoon with that smile. "Okay, Hank. Go with my staff and I'll be in in a moment."
Pits walked on with the other firefighters, and she turned back to their lieutenant.
He was tall.
Tall enough that she had to tip her head back to look up at him because he was standing close to her. And that bunker coat that Pits was talking about? It looked good on the lieutenant. No, it looked amazing on him.
She'd studied anatomy for medical school, but she'd also spent quite a few hours of her life observing people and under his bunker gear, Gibson Braun was an athletic man. He carried himself with an ease that only people in top shape could do.
Someone unlike herself.
"Is there anything I should know about the cause of the injury?"
A muscle tightened in his jaw and while her eyes fixed on it, she was hyper aware of everything about him. The dark glower in his eyes and the way each breath lifted his shoulders and filled his chest. His words were imprinted on her brain.
"Gas cans. The shop owner didn't say a word when we went in to save his business.
Apparently, he had a bunch in the back corner behind a pile of throwaway pieces of wood.
It was like he'd made his own damn bomb in the back.
As soon as the cans blew, the wood went flying.
Pits pushed me to the ground and got his arm torn up for his troubles. "
Kay reached out a hand and gripped his arm gently. "Hey, you guys do that all the time. Saving other people."
His gaze had dropped to her hand the moment she touched him, but it wasn't until after her words ended that he looked up into her eyes. "We save people all the time, I don't see-"
"Your friend saved you. It's instinct. And we're all so very thankful that you and your whole crew do that on... what's likely an hourly basis. You would have done the same thing for him."
It wasn't a question. She knew it was true.
And given the look in his eyes, he knew it, too.
"So this time, it was Hank who did it for you. Don't worry, Lieutenant. We'll do everything we can to get him fixed up and, on the mend, as fast as we can."
"Thank you." She was taken aback by the depth of his voice. It was deeper than it had been a few moments before when he'd been talking about the job. It was deep enough that she felt like she could feel the vibrations moving through her body.
Smiling at him, she made a conscious effort to lift her hand from his arm.
"Do you want me to call you at the station when we're done?"