Chapter 16 #3
Gibson couldn't tell how much pain he'd gone through, but he could see the evidence that he'd been in the fire long enough that his muscles and tendons had shrunk in the heat. The body was rigid and had the look of a boxer fighting off an opponent.
The man didn't win the battle.
He'd lost like so many others trapped in a fire.
Pits and Webb came in with a voice coming over the radio.
"Lieutenant Braun. This is Wilder from House Ten. We've got no signs of fire on the outside of the restaurant."
“Okay,” he called back, “keep an eye out just in case.”
“Got it. We’re ready with dry chemical suppression in case something pops up.
Braun watched as Webb and Pits knocked open the back door, the chains falling free.
The early evening twilight was quickly turning into night outside, but there was enough light for Gibson to see the kitchen.
Equipment lined the walls. Fryers. Ovens. Prep areas. No other bodies could be seen in the space.
Pits called out to the crew. "Check all the doors. The cabinets."
Gibson started forward as the man on the radio called back.
"Lieutenant?"
"Freezer!" Gibson felt his heart lift into his throat. "Check the freezer!"
Then he grabbed a hold of the door and yanked it himself.
The there was a momentary resistance and then the door opened up under his hand and he saw the most amazing thing in the world.
"Gibson!"
Kay.
Alive.
Shielding a man with a knife sticking out of his middle.
"I need to get Charles to the ER!"
Charles.
The owner of the restaurant.
He nodded and only found his voice because he had to call for help. "Ambo Sixty-Five. Ambo Nineteen. We need you."
He moved inside and looked at Kay, overcome with relief.
"I saw your car outside."
She nodded. "I'll explain later."
The man beside her groaned and Kay leaned over him. "Charles. The EMTs are here."
He opened his eyes and looked up at Gibson. "He looks like a firefighter."
Gibson nodded and gestured for the EMTs to come inside the walk-in freezer. "We'll get you to Cole Medical, sir. You'll get the help you need."
He stepped to the side and watched as Kay, explained what she knew about Charles' injuries to Harmony.
She was all business, his woman. She was a marvel to watch.
And she held his heart and his soul in her elegant hands.
As soon as Charles was loaded on the gurney with his wound stabilized for travel, Kay felt a hand grasp hers.
Looking down, she saw Charles staring up at her.
"I'm... I'm so sorry, Kay." He gasped and winced at the pain it caused him. "I never thought he'd try to hurt you. I thought it was... it could have been an innocent crush."
Kay turned her hand until she was holding his hand in hers. "You have nothing to be sorry about, Charles. No one could have known what Chuck was going to do."
The look in Charles' eyes said that he knew she was placating him. And then his smile said that he was grateful.
What for, she didn't know, and it didn't matter.
She didn't blame Charles for anything.
He was a good man who'd done everything he could to provide for his son and pick up the pieces after he'd lost his wife.
He wasn't superman.
"Sir?" Harmony touched Charles' shoulder on the other side of the gurney. "We need to go."
"I'll see you at the hospital tomorrow, Charles."
Vega, Harmony's partner looked up at her in a bit of shock. "You're going to work tomorrow, Doctor?"
"I'm still standing, Vega. I'll be there."
Kay felt Gibson put his hands on her shoulders and she stepped back against his warmth.
Charles was wheeled out of the walk-in and the room suddenly felt a little empty. Which was an odd thing to say when she stood in a room full of whole sides of cow.
Ramsey and Raffe, the EMTs from Ambulance Sixty-five moved into the doorway. Ramsey spoke. "Doctor Hata. We have the gurney here if you'd like to come outside with us."
"I can walk, Ramsey."
She didn't mind when the blond man looked up at Gibson behind her, a curious question on his face.
"I'll walk beside her, Ramsey."
Kay felt the reassurance in his words and in his tone.
Ramsey stepped back from the door. "We'll see you outside, Doctor."
As he turned to leave, she saw Raffe, the younger of the two, nod at her. The light in the room reflected on the lenses of his glasses. "Glad you're still with us, Doctor."
"I'm glad, too."
She started to walk out of the freezer and reached back.
Gibson's hand grasped hers and gave it a squeeze.
He didn't say a word, but she got his message.
I got you.
They walked out through the back door and onto the cement walkway. She could see them loading the gurney into Harmony's ambulance and she let out a breath.
Gibson tightened his hold on her hand. "Do you want to talk about it?"
She almost laughed hysterically. "If I had my way," she drew in a lungful of air through her nose, "I'd never talk about it, but I know that the police are going to need details.
So, if you want to hear about it," she swallowed past the painful lump in her throat, "you should be there in the room when I talk to them.
I don't know when I'll ever want to talk about it again. "
Kay felt him lean closer and press a kiss to the top of her head.
"As long as you know that I'm here for you, Kay. All I need is you."
She looked up at him and then at the sky over their heads.
"I'm going to need it to get darker faster," she grumbled under her breath. "I want to curl up and sleep for a week, but I know procedures."
He drew her along with him across the parking lot.
His crew caught her gaze as she walked through the first responders who'd been called out to the fire.
She returned their nods and smiles in kind and found herself lifted into Ambulance Sixty-five by Gibson's strong hands.
It was a strange feeling.
As if she was weightless and free at the same time and still filled with nerves.
Raffe and Ramsey didn't waste time.
They took her vital signs and asked her all of the diagnostic questions that she would have asked, but she didn't give them any trouble.
Sitting down on the gurney had felt good at first, but now that they'd concluded she wasn't needing the care of the Emergency Room staff, she started to scoot toward the open doorway of the ambulance.
Gibson's shrewd assessing gaze made her heart flutter in her chest.
When he held his hand out to her, she smiled and put her hand in his.
Raffe took her other hand and helped her down to the ground.
Kay looked around her at the three men who were each more than a head taller than she was.
She grumbled under her breath and while they all looked at her curiously, it was Ramsey who asked her outright. "What was that?"
Kay looked at the EMT with a smile on her face, feeling every bit of relief coursing through her veins like endorphins. "Why do you all have to be so tall? I feel like I'm going for a walk amongst the redwoods."
Raffe coughed out a laugh. "Stellar joke, Doctor Hata."
She grinned at the young man and let out a breath that didn't threaten to drop her to her knees.
Kay saw the two detectives walking toward them. "Hello, Walker. Detective Rafferty."
The two exchanged looks. Rafferty looking more than a little confused. He looked at her and asked, a refreshing change, "Why is he Walker and I'm detective?"
Kay reached out a hand and touched the detective's arm. "I work with Walker's brother. It's hard to think of him as anything other than Roan's younger brother."
Jacob Rafferty seemed happy to hear that. "It's got to sting being known as a doctor's bratty little brother."
Walker glared at him. "She never said bratty, and Kay certainly doesn't think I'm little. "
He said the word as if it had a much deeper meaning and Kay smiled. She really did need his special kind of biting humor.
"So," Kay sighed and managed a smile for the two men, "can we talk about this sooner rather than later because I need to get some sleep before my shift in the morning."
She heard the soft murmur of sound from Gibson and gave his arm a squeeze to tell him that was, indeed, okay.
"I'm sure the administration would let you take a day or two off, Kay." Walker shook his head. "They'd be eviscerated for dragging you back so quickly."
She shook her head and looked up at Gibson for a moment before explaining her thoughts.
"Since Roan wants to focus on family after the wedding, his expected promotion to head of the Trauma team at Cole was sidelined.
They're training me to take over for Doctor Webb now.
" She looked up at Gibson and was surprised when he didn't seem hurt.
"So, I can't exactly take off a day or two because I got a little roughed up. "
The instant she said the words she knew she'd been wrong to say them.
She felt Gibson go still behind her.
The look on Jacob's face and Walker's told her that she hadn't gotten completely off the hook, but at least Gibson had remained quiet.
"So, shall we head over to the station?" Kay was trying to sound more upbeat than she felt.
Jacob looked at Walker and Detective Ashley nodded back.
Jacob smiled at her. "We can talk at your place if that's okay with you. It's closer to here than the station and if we talk to you at home you can go to sleep after we finish instead of having to drive home first."
"Thank you." She smiled at the detectives. "Both of you."