Chapter 1 #2
She perked up instantly. "Fries? Absolutely."
Vega sighed and shook his head. "I hope you're eating more than fries, Harmony."
She shrugged, unrepentantly. "Fries are enough! But okay," she hemmed and hawed, "I'll ask Peggy to put some chili and cheese on them."
He exhaled. "Yuck."
"Oh..." Harmony half-turned in her seat and looked at his profile. "And jalapenos!"
Vega turned a little green behind the wheel. "Please, Harmony. Not the jalapenos."
Laughing softly, she turned back to face front. "Fine. No spicy stuff."
He chuckled softly. "For that sacrifice, partner. I'll buy."
"Oh!" She clapped her hands together, the flier falling from her hand down toward the floor. "Deal!"
Vega parked the ambo on the street at a spot just along the curb.
The moment they walked in Peggy Ann lifted her hand to greet them. "Pilar and Crois were just here. They got an accident call nearby."
Harmony turned to look at Vega who met her gaze and then looked down at his radio.
Harmony swore she could see the gears turning in his head.
They were turning in her own, too.
"Peggy?" Harmony looked over at her. "Can we get our orders to go?"
Peggy already had pen and order pad in hand. "Absolutely. What can I get for you?"
CROIS
As soon as they saw the accident ahead of them, Crois felt something twist in his gut. The car was… totaled was too simple a description.
“It’s not a one car accident.”
Pilar’s words were flat.
Not because she was unaffected.
Crois knew that tone.
That tone meant that they were facing a call that was going to be… dark.
Upsetting.
There was no way that this was going to end well for anyone in the car.
At least that’s what he saw at first glance.
“Dispatch.”
He looked down and realized that he was already on the radio.
He quickly called in what he saw, and Irish came back a moment later.
“Ambo Nineteen isn’t far behind.”
The corner of Crois’ mouth lifted at that.
They were in luck.
Either ambo from Station Twenty-Nine would be good, but he liked Nineteen better. Harmony was sweet and Vega? He might smile a little too much.
The crew on the other Ambo was okay, but Ramsey got under his skin. He always seemed like things weren’t moving fast enough for him.
The car came to a quick stop, blocking the intersection.
A second squad car showed up a moment later as they were getting out of their own.
Officers Swinton and Swan.
Josephine, or ‘Joe’ as they knew her, was a stand-up officer.
And just as shrewd as Pilar at accessing a scene.
“We’ll handle traffic. Call out of you need anything.”
They kept to their sides of the car, from their patrol vehicle to the crashed car.
Crois could tell that it was a Toyota from the insignia on the back of the trunk, but much of the back bumper had been sheered off and he wasn’t big on Toyotas so he couldn’t tell much more than that.
He barely beat Pilar to the car. While his legs were longer, his partner could beat him at the track any day.
The moment he put his hand on the door handle, he bit the inside of his cheek. He did it a lot.
He let his mind run to keep his emotions from getting the better of him.
A lot of men in the police department would make fun of emotions, but he’d been raised differently. He might be a bit of an ass outwardly, but that was all smoke and bluster.
His ‘shield’ as his mother called it.
Now, as he put all of his energy behind wrenching open the passenger door, that shield was gone.
He was all eyes and ears and heart.
“Airbag deployed,” that came from Pilar.
“Same here,” he ground out through his teeth. “Passenger is pregnant.”
It took a moment for him to steel himself and reach out. He put his fingers against her neck and felt for a pulse.
There.
Thank god.
“Ma’am?”
He touched her shoulder, giving her a gentle shake.
“Ma’am?”
Pilar spoke on the other side of the car. “The driver is gone.”
That seemed to stir the woman in the passenger seat. “Keith?”
“Ma’am?”
“Whe…where’s Keith?”
His stomach felt like a rock settled in it.
He wasn’t qualified to break the news to her.
And he sure as hell didn’t want to deliver that kind of blow.
“He’s… he’s right beside you.”
She tried to sit up and he reached for her. “Ma’am. There’s an ambulance on the way. Please, don’t try to mo-”
He froze, going silent as the passenger tensed up and screamed.
“Ma’am?”
“I…” she huffed and grimaced, her hand reaching out. “I’m in labor!”
“Labor…” He stupidly repeated her words and then in his head, added a few more. ‘Oh shit.’
He took her hand in his on instinct rather than common sense.
A moment later he felt like his hand was breaking.
She was squeezing his hand like a vice.
He raised his free hand to grab his radio. “Passenger in active labor. How close is the nearest ambulance? We need medical assist-”
The words died on his lips as he heard the distinctive wail of sirens coming up behind him.
It seemed like seconds passed before he heard a voice calling out to him.
“Crois? We’re here.”
He let out a breath, smiling not just in relief but because he knew Harmony Morgan was on the scene.
He would have turned his head to greet her if the woman who had a hold of his hand didn’t let out a scream that stole the breath from his lungs.
There hadn’t been enough time for him to note the time between what he could only assume were contractions.
That couldn’t be good.
He looked over at the man slumped over the steering wheel and felt another weight settle in his chest.
He couldn’t imagine how this was going to shake out, but having Harmony and her partner on scene would give this mother and child a real chance.