Page 16 of A Sudden Response

Two minutes later, they were pulling up in front of a small townhouse. Joe jumped out of the ambulance and opened the backdoors. Eric was there seconds later, helping her unload the stretcher. As they pushed the stretcher up the driveway, a woman in her early thirties with tightly curled, mousy brown hair came running outside, holding her cell phone against her chest.

“Thank god you’re here!” she cried, frantically wiping at the tears running down her face as she waited for them.

“Where’s the emergency, ma’am?” Eric asked, pulling on a pair of purple nitro gloves as Joe continued to push the stretcher. As soon as he was done, he took over pulling the stretcher so that she could pull on her gloves. After twelve years, they were at the point where words were unnecessary. They could anticipate each other’s needs without a word.

The middle-aged woman gestured frantically with the cell phone towards the house. “He’s in the bathroom! He won’t open the door, but he told me to call 911. He won’t tell me what’s wrong! It’s gotta be bad...oh, God!” she finished around a sob.

“We’ll have a look and see what we can do to help,” Joe said softly, knowing better than to make any promises, not unless she wanted to face a lawsuit. Over the years, they’d come across their share of disgruntled patients and family members looking to get back at someone or make a quick buck and knew all the key words to avoid by heart.

“That stretcher won’t fit down the hallway,” she managed to get out between sobs.

Without a word, they pushed the stretcher against the house. “That’s fine, ma’am. Can you show us where he is?” Eric asked, throwing the tech bag over his shoulder.

“Of course, right this way,” she said as she led them inside the house and down a narrow hallway with a door at the end. Before they reached the door, they could hear a man grunting and muttering to himself.

“Sean?” the woman said, knocking on the door. “The ambulance is here!”

“Oh, thank god.”

Joe reached out and tried the doorknob only to find it locked. “Sir? We need you to unlock the door if you want us to help you.”

There was a slight pause before he said, “Marie?”

“Yes?” Marie said, sobbing softly.

“I need you to go find my insurance card. It’s in my office,” Sean said, only to immediately follow that up with a pained groan that had Eric and Joe sharing a look.

The woman looked confused but did as she was asked. “Okay, Sean.”

A few seconds later, they heard the lock click. “Come in,” Sean said around another groan as they opened the door and stepped inside the small bathroom to find a man in his late thirties wearing a gray tee-shirt and nothing else, kneeling on the floor so that he was leaning over the edge of the tub, looking really uncomfortable. Then again, she’d be uncomfortable, too, with two strangers in the room and her bare ass pointing up.

Joe quickly looked around for blood or any obvious signs of trauma, only to find his discarded pants on the floor and a small tube of personal lube on the counter. She was about to ask him what was wrong when a vibrating sound reached her ears.

“Is that your phone going off, sir?” Joe asked as she glanced down at his pants.

“No,” came the hesitant answer.

“What seems to be the problem today, sir?” Eric asked as he quickly assessed the situation and looked just as confused as she was.

“I-I had an accident,” Sean stammered.

“Where are you injured?” Eric asked as Joe ran her eyes over him again, but she couldn’t see any obvious injuries.

Averting his gaze, Sean sucked in a deep breath as he said, “I slipped on something,” while Joe once again found herself wondering where that vibrating sound was coming from.

Eric nodded sympathetically. “Okay, do you think you broke anything when you slipped?” he asked, setting down the tech bag on the narrow counter.

Sean shook his head. “No, I...” He licked his lips nervously. “It’s inside me,” he whispered hoarsely.

As if on cue, their eyes dropped to his bare ass.

“I see,” they both murmured.

Joe cleared her throat. “And that vibrating sound...”

“Is coming from me,” Sean said tightly.

“What is-” Eric started to ask, only to get cut off by Sean.

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