Page 21 of Hearts on Fire

Scotti looking handsome as ever in full hero mode. She was wearing her red fire department T shirt with her fire pants and boots. Her black suspenders were over the red T shirt. Her face was dirty and her blue eyes sparkled, she was sharp as ever. Naomi felt herself swooning on the spot.

Pull yourself together, Naomi. There is a patient here.

Naomi snapped back to life saving mode. She was a doctor. She was here to save a life.

Naomi ran to the patient as Scotti shouted the details about where they had gotten him from.

None of his personal effects had been retrieved from the fire. They knew nothing about him except the fact that his burns were severe, there was obvious significant chest trauma from impact and he seemed to be suffering from smoke inhalation. He was already on oxygen. He didn’t look good.

Naomi was assessing him as she ran with the stretcher.

The man was wheeled to the hospital on a stretcher and Naomi called out to her intern to page for further surgeons.

Scotti was standing, hands in pockets, blonde hair deliciously tousled, looking deliciously sexy when Naomi walked out of the doors into the fresh air only 10 minutes later. She scolded herself mentally for her inappropriate thoughts. She wasn’t sure whether she was looking for Scotti or looking for the fresh air.

“How is he? Shouldn't you be in there?”

Naomi shook her head. “He didn’t make it.”

Scotti scratched her head and screwed up her face and Naomi could see how shaken by the event she was.

“You pulled him out of a burning vehicle after a collision?”

Scotti nodded sadly. “Yeah, never seen anything like it. We had it all on trying to get into the car. The door was damaged. We couldn’t get him out before the fire took hold of the vehicle. He’s just a young guy. He was calling out for his mom.”

Naomi swore softly.

“I'm sorry you had to go through that,” Naomi said. “I know how hard it is sometimes.”

She was surprised when Scotti pulled her in for a hug and began to sob. It was dark and she was glad that they were under the dim lighting of the motion sensor streetlights in the parking lot.

She stroked Scotti's hair softly.

It was somewhat new to see Scotti this way around her. Between them, Naomi might have tagged Scotti the one with more emotional control between both of them. Scotti was smart and clear-headed almost all the time. It was in the way she spoke and the conversations they had. But Naomi knew well that when it came to being around life and death situations daily, there were just some losses that got under your skin. She knew Scotti felt like she had failed this man by not getting him out of the car faster. It may have made a difference, it may not. But Naomi knew how hard a loss could hit you when you blamed yourself for it.

Scotti shook in her arms and her tears fell silently. Naomi held her close.

“I know you know this, but it wasn’t your fault,” she whispered.

She rocked Scotti against her body where she fit perfectly. She wanted to wrap her up and kiss away her pain. She wanted to take care of her.

They were growing together, Naomi realized. What they had together was blooming. Naomi wanted to control it, wanted to determine which direction it didn't go. But she was quickly seeing how tough that was going to be.

There was something about Scotti Saunders that wasn't in anyone else but Scotti. She brought out something in Naomi. Something fiercely protective. Naomi wanted to call it friendship. But really, she knew it ran deeper than that; way deeper so much that it was almost an insult to shove what they had under a carpet and call it friendship.

But that was as far as Naomi was willing to go with it for now. They were friends, and nothing more than that.

So Naomi held her friend tight as she wept against her shoulder.

7

Scotti

They both trudged out of the hospital exit, barely having enough energy to lift their feet.

This seemed to Scotti like one of the longest weeks of her entire career and she was grateful for the weekend in view. Everyday of the week had dragged on unbearably, occupied by emergency calls here and there. Scotti had had to work overtime due to the immense workload.

She'd sat outside as Naomi went to work on a man they'd brought in with a heart attack that had occurred after he'd come back to find his office on fire. She didn't have to, but she'd wanted to wait for Naomi to be out. Her car was back at the station and her best way home by that time was Naomi's drive home. The surgery had lasted a while and by the time Naomi could take her hands off, it was nighttime, and the sun had set long ago.

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