Mika
A hand shoved me back, and another held me down as Colin snapped, “Let me work!”
I yanked at Mav’s grip on me, not as hard as when Colin had held me earlier, but I pulled all the same as I stared at the cold, pale, unmoving faces of the man who had taught me what love was, and the man who had taught me what love meant.
I couldn’t lose both of them.
“No, no, no,” I moaned, slumping as Mav wrapped his arms around my chest and held me on the ground. “Please, let me go, please, no.”
“Let him work,” Mav said in my ear, his rough voice calm. “Let him do his job, Mika. I know, I know.”
“You don’t!” I bellowed and thrashed again.
“I do,” he said, and the sadness in his voice was so deep and understanding that it broke my will on the spot, and I gave a heavy sob.
It had been him who’d shown up to help us get across the river.
We had been frantically trying to get to the other side while we watched Reno and Aidan’s grip loosen, sending them down the rapids.
It had been them who had kept me steady as we found a narrow spot further downstream and between the three of us, our ropes, some sandbags, and a lot of straining, we made it across.
Colin’s face was a mask of pure focus as he worked on them quickly and then turned to look at me. “Breathing, both of them.”
The breath of relief was more like a sobbing heave, but I didn’t care as I bathed in it. They weren’t dead, not yet, but we needed to get them out of there.
“I called for help,” Mav yelled over the sound of the rain and the river that still roared as if furious it didn’t get them. “The minute Xander said Jake went in, I called for help. They’re on their way.”
“They?” I gasped out.
“From town,” Mav admitted with a frown.
Colin turned and looked at us. “Mika, we need to—”
“I’m not fucking leaving,” I snarled, trying to get to them as they lay unmoving on the ground. But Colin had said they were alive, and while he was a moron for thinking I was going to leave, he wasn’t incompetent and he wasn’t a liar…was he?
“We need to guide them here, and two of the three people who know how to get here fastest are unable to do it,” Colin said calmly but firmly. “You need to be the one to get back across and lead them here. The three of us aren’t in any state to get these two over in one piece; we need help. Go.”
“Do it,” I heard Mav growl in my ear, and it was like being slapped.
I stared down at the two of them again. They were still pale and unmoving, but…
Colin had them. There was nothing I could do for them that Colin wouldn’t be able to handle.
I didn’t like it any more than I did a minute ago, but…
I needed to keep my head. I’d already lost it and I’d been a liability because of that.
With a frustrated growl, I got up and made my way to the makeshift ‘bridge’ we’d made.
It wouldn’t hold for long, and I crossed it, feeling it shake, but it held.
I snatched the radio off my hip and punched the button as I ran.
“On my way, Cait, we’ve got two down but alive for the moment. I…don’t know about Jake.”
Her voice was clipped and measured, the voice of a woman who had been through hell and back multiple times and knew how to survive the flames. “Carter and Xander have Jake; he’s alive too, but in rough shape.”
“I’m coming to lead the help back to us,” I told her, wishing I could run faster, but that wouldn’t make the help arrive any faster, and it wouldn’t do anyone any good if I fell and injured myself.
“They’re here,” she said. “They’re waiting for you.”
“Got it.”
It was the longest run of my life, and I was exhausted and wired to hell and back by the time I made it to the main house.
The nearby town hadn’t disappointed; the group of volunteer firefighters had shown up, EMTs as well.
I didn’t waste any time leading them back the way I’d come, frustrated they were being even more careful than I was as I tried to push harder to get them to pick up the pace.
Yet when I showed up, Colin had kept an eye on Reno and Aidan, and Mav led them down to where he had apparently met up with Xander.
There had been a lot of chatter on the radio during Aidan’s stupid heroics, but I hadn’t been able to process any of it.
All I could see was my brother on his last legs and Aidan…
fucking Aidan, doing what he could to get across because there was no one else and because…
damn him. Because not just who else was going to do it, but because that was my fucking brother and he wasn’t going to let any of us down by letting Reno die when there was a chance to save him.
Or let me down.
Fury bubbled inside me as the firefighters made quick work of setting up a system that would let us put the two men on stretchers and slide them securely across the river.
Each minute we worked, including getting them on the stretchers and getting them across to carry them back, were minutes where the injuries, the cold, and the water they’d inhaled were ticking away at their lives, and I was vibrating with restrained anger.
“We got a third coming up behind!” someone called as they were loading Reno and Aidan up. “These two in one, the other one’s big.”
“Very,” Colin said in that calm way he had about him, and I wanted to strangle him.
I would have, if it wasn’t for the fact that the skin around his eyes was stretched more than before and there was a slight tremor to his fingertips when he pointed.
“You already know about Reno, but that one, Aidan, he doesn’t have any medical allergies, just a food one. ”
The last part probably wasn’t necessary, but I was distracted by the sight of Jake being carried by a group of men.
My heart twisted in my chest; he was as pale and unmoving as the other two, but the bruises on his body showed an ugly mottling of pain.
He had been tossed and rolled down the river, and it was a fucking miracle he was alive, and it would be another one if he made it through the night.
Xander brought up the rear of the group, looking as exhausted and strained as the rest of us, and I remembered the last thing he had said to Aidan. “Alright, we’re going to need to get some to ride in and some to—”
He stopped short as I advanced and slammed my fist into his face. “You fucking prick!”
Xander staggered back, hand going to his face, eyes going wide as I swung again and he…
took it. I barely noticed, though, screaming at him.
“Fucking telling him that if anything happened to any of us, you’d hurt him?
What the fuck is wrong with you? He’s not trained for this shit, he wasn’t ready for this shit, you fucking… let me the fuck go!”
“No,” Colin said calmly as his arms wrapped around my upper arms and pinned them, clasping his arms behind my head so I couldn’t throw it back into his face.
“Protecting your man, huh?” I snarled, and if I expected Colin to get pissed or indignant, I should have known better.
“No,” he repeated. “Now isn’t the time. They need you, Mika. Ride with them; I have to stay here to look after everyone else, as does Xander.”
“Fuck Xander,” I snapped, glaring at the offending party. Even in the haze of my rage, I was surprised to see that Xander didn’t look at me with anger, but…exhaustion. It made me hate him. How fucking dare he look so…human.
“They need you,” Colin emphasized.
“Someone else needs to go with Jake,” I said and slumped in his grip. “Let me go.”
“Okay.” And he did.
I considered going after Xander anyway, but Colin was right; I needed to go with Aidan and Reno. Sucking in a breath, I turned away. “Jake!”
“I’m going,” Carter announced, and I looked over to see his gear was torn and there was a goose egg on his head.
“No,” Colin yelled, and when Carter whirled around, Colin shook his head. “Not unless you’re getting your head checked out while you’re there.”
“He will,” I said, and yanked Carter around to stare at him. “Won’t you?”
“Fine, fuck it, whatever,” Carter said and marched toward the EMTs.
“We can only let family in,” an EMT said, looking so young he must have been in diapers a couple of years ago.
I grabbed the front of his shirt. “I am their fucking family, try and stop me and I’ll shove my foot so far up your ass you’ll be tasting my toes for years.”
“Mika?” a soft voice asked, and I let go of the EMT without realizing I was doing it, shoving myself between the two stretchers to take Reno’s frozen hand in mine.
“I’m here,” I told him, tears stinging my eyes before rolling out freely. “You’re okay; we’re taking you in.”
“Aidan?” he asked.
I glanced over and took Aidan’s hand, even though he wouldn’t know it. “Alive and stupid as hell.”
“J-j-j,” he stuttered and closed his eyes, his fingers going limp in my hand.
“Reno?” I barked.
An older EMT put his hand on my shoulder. “He’s just out cold. We’re going to need you to take a seat so we can do our job.”
I didn’t even question it; I smoothed Reno’s hair and kissed Aidan’s cheek before I slumped in the corner, out of their way.
The night had only just begun.
* * *
I had once gone a couple of weeks with only three hours sleep a night.
And even that didn’t compare to the exhaustion that filled my body as I sat next to my brother and Aidan’s bedsides and watched them sleep.
Reno had woken up earlier and asked some questions, mostly about Aidan and Jake, and I’d answered to the best of my knowledge.
About himself, he had only asked if he was going to live, which he was, and if he was going to work again, which the doctors had said he would, and that was all he was worried about.
Idiot.