Page 2 of Dusty

“It seems like forever since I was jerked around under here. I guess I should be lucky that I didn’t get killed, too. My dad, he’s gone like my grandparents are.” They talked off and on, the two of them. He told her that he was going to be sick just before he started throwing up. She asked him if he had any blood in his vomit, and he told her that it was too dark to see down there. “What do you think happened to me that made me sick? I’m not going to die, am I?”

“Not if I can help it. Stress can make you sick. That’s more than likely what it is. That’s what I’m hoping for anyway.” Someone behind her asked if she was all right. “I have an eleven year old male that I can’t get out.”

After telling the man that she was holding onto him and that he was sick to his stomach, he said that they were working on getting the semi to move up a little. He told her that she’d have to get off the car. The scream from Seth telling her not to leave him had her telling the man that she had a clearance that would keep her from being hurt when the trailer was moved upward.

It was another two hours before they got the semi to pull up. Then, it was an additional hour that they were able to get the little boy out. She was asked for her credentials, and once given, she was able to treat Seth when he was pulled free. Shipley was thrilled that the medical team working with her was able to allow her to give him some much-needed pain medication.

There was a chopper on site to get the survivors to the hospital. There were only the three that had been in the cars that were critical. A great many bumps and bruises that were taken by ambulance, and that was about it. It was then that she noticed that she was bleeding a little more than she’d first thought.

The team wasn’t able to stitch her up. They had no clear way of knowing what was in the wounds, such as glass or something more. Shipley was taken away in the chopper when it returned for the second time. By then, she was completely exhausted and hurting. She could only hope that shedidn’t spend the next two weeks in the hospital. She had plans, damn it.

~*~

Locke was glad that he’d been called in to help out with the injured. So far, he’d stitched up forty-three people. There looked to him like there was no end to the people coming in for one thing or another. Since he was helping out, he kept an eye out for the person who had pulled a kid from the back seat of a demolished car. It was told to him that she’d been the first one on the scene and had been the one that had helped the medical and medical personnel that were out there as well. Heroes like that were well thought of, and he wanted to be the first to thank her for her help and service.

“She’s being life-flighted in.” He asked the nurse, her name was Brandy, if she’d been hurt. “Something to do with glass is all I know. Her blood pressure is a little high, I was told, because she’s upset that they brought her in with something that could get here quicker if there were more seriously injured people out there.” Brandy started away, then stopped. “Oh, and she’s army. Doctor with a MASH unit that’s here for her sister or something.”

He knew that Amanda had been on her way to pick up her sister from Columbus. It made him wonder if it could be the same person. Finishing up the elderly woman who had to have nineteen stitches in her arm, he asked her to please wait as it needed to be bandaged yet. She told him to hurry up. She had things to do today. Christ, would people ever be nice?

“She’s in room fourteen, Locke. Be careful. I was told that she’s spitting mad.” He thought that he could handle someone’s temper. His last two patients had been nightmares. As he opened the door to check on her. He was met with a police officer guarding her room.

“I’m here to assess her wounds. Then to stitch her up if necessary.” She asked the other man what the fuck was he doing in her room. At least, he thought it was the other man. “I’m talking to you. Just give me a little something for the pain and take care of the others out there. I can stitch myself up. I’ve done it before.”

He didn’t have any doubt that she had either. There was something about the woman in army brown fatigues that told him not only was she pissed off, but she was going to be hard to nail down to help her out. Not that he minded. She was pretty to look at, and she had a beautiful temper.

“My name is Locke Erickson. I’m here to have a look at your wounds.” She told him that she’d been looking at them all morning. “All right. I’m going to clean them out, with your permission, then I’ll—”

She cut him off. “Listen, doc. I know that there are more patients out there than me. Just work on them, then I’ll let you stitch me up. Also, take this jackass with you.” He corrected her on both things. “Oh, then, Nurse Erickson, go ahead and do what you have to do. But if I hear that there were more people waiting to get their holes plugged up, I’m going to shoot you in the head.”

The officer snickered, and Locke thought that Sergeant Shipley was going to come off the bed and do what she had threatened him with. Also, he thought that their conversation escalated quickly but he didn’t know her well enough to know if she was that volatile all the time or not. For some reason, it hit him that while she was pissed off, she wouldn’t take it out on others that might be around her.

Cleaning her wound was made easier as she was able to move her arm, or he should say that she was cooperating by moving where he wanted her to. Not one for small talk, Locke decided that she wasn’t either. Once he gave her pain meds, she did have a slight concussion on her head, that she laid back and seemed relaxed. He doubted that she was completely relaxed, however, knowing on some level that she was alert at all times.

“You do good stitches. Thanks. The last time someone put some in me, I had a fucking scar that never properly healed. It took me getting hurt again in the same place to have someone fix it.” He told her that was his specialty. That and putting in IVs. “Yeah? Maybe I’ll have you on my team. I’m betting that you’d just love it where I work.”

“Doubtful that you do either.” She asked him what he was talking about. “I don’t know. Just a feeling that I have. You’re Amanda’s sister, aren’t you?”

“I am. What can you tell me that she hasn’t? Or won’t, for that matter.” He told her that hecouldn’t tell her anything other than his brother had helped her with the logistics of her getting everything ready so that she could get her insurance money. “I’m sure that he took his cut, too, didn’t he? Everyone has their hands out when there is grieving to be done.”

He finished up the stitches on both her arms and stepped back. When she grabbed his arm, something that he was sure she’d done plenty of times when dealing with the public, he stepped back further from her.

“I’m sorry. Not only was my comment uncalled for, but it was nasty. And I’m only nasty when I’m working. Or stressed. And I’m that twenty-four-seven.” He said that it was all right. “No, it’s not. It was, just as I said, rude, and I’m being a bitch. Tell your brother that I said thanks for taking care that no one else could take advantage of her. I think, and this is just between the two of us, but I never really cared for Fred, her husband. He allowed his mom to rule their married life, putting my sister through hell all the time. I’m profoundly sorry for my words and actions.”

“Thank you.” He asked her if she needed more pain medicines, and he gave her as much as he was allowed to. “Your sister is in the lobby. I’m to understand that she helped with a couple of kids while she was out there. Good for her. Amanda is a caring and compassionate person.”

“Because I’m not, right?” He only raised a brow at her, and she apologized to him. Locke was sure that she wasn’t used to doing that either. “I’ll keep my mouth shut now. Thanks for doing a good job on my wounds. Do you know when I’m going to get out of here?”

“I don’t, sorry. However, I can check on that for you.” He glanced at the officer, who had his back to them, and watched the door. “What’s he here for?”

“Don’t know. He was in here when I was brought in. And he won’t tell me dick.” Locke asked the man why he was there. “Good luck with that. He seems to be one bit of cheese short of a cheese and cracker appetizer.”

“My name is Officer Diller. I was told to, under no circumstances to allow anyone in here who was out to hurt her. I guess that came from someone higher up on the food chain than I am.” Locke asked him if he knew who it had been. “No, sir. Just that I was to protect her no matter how much she bitched about it. I understand that now.”

He made his way out to the lobby to find Amanda. She and her daughter Mandy were talking to a younger couple that had a newborn. As soon as she saw him, she leapt up and wrapped her arms around him. It felt really good after all the stress of the day.

“I don’t know if you can go back to see her just yet. Another nurse came in to finish up her dressings.” She asked him what she’d done to need to be in here. “I’m sorry, Amanda, I can’t tell you that. You understand. But she’s getting the best of care, and I can take you back. I want to warn you that she’s in a mood. I think myself that she’s in a mood like that all the time, but then I don’t know her.”

“She is. Aunt Shipley doesn’t like fools. I’m not sure what that means, but she don’t like them.” He asked Mandy if she wanted to hang out in the nurses’ station with him. “Nah. I want to see my aunt, too. Momma said she’s hard on people. I don’t know what that means either, but I love her to specs and dust, I do.”

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