Page 62 of A Sudden Response

“Never going to happen,” Joe said, shaking her head as she popped another bite of coffee roll into her mouth. She looked towards the coffee shop and saw Greg leaning againstthe counter, talking up one of the servers through the large storefront window.

Eric cleared his throat, drawing her attention to find him absently toying with his coffee roll. “What do you want to do tonight?” he asked, throwing her a nervous glance.

“What I do every Tuesday night after our shift,” she said slowly, wondering what the hell was going on with him.

“And, ah,” Eric cleared his throat, looking uncomfortable, “what are your plans tomorrow?”

“Unless I get overtime, I thought I’d clean the house and relax for once. Why?”

He cleared his throat again. “I was thinking that maybe we could-”

“Echo seventeen?” dispatch chimed in over the radio, cutting off whatever he was about to say.

Shooting Eric a sideways glance, Joe grabbed the mic. “Echo seventeen.”

“Echo seventeen, I need you to take a priority three call at Hillsmith Nursing Home for an unknown medical.”

“Priority three at Hillsmith nursing home for an unknown medical, received,” Joe said, returning the mic to the dashboard. She placed her half-eaten coffee roll in the bag and handed it to Eric, who looked surprisingly relieved. She was curious about that, but it would have to wait until later.

She started the ambulance and gave the horn a little push to get Greg’s attention. He held up his hand, indicating that she should wait while he finished his conversation with the cashier. Shaking her head in disbelief, Joe threw the ambulance in reverse and headed for the road.

“Not in the mood for any more of his bullshit, I take it,” Eric mused as he pulled out a run sheet and began filling in their information.

“Not even a little bit,” Joe said when she spotted Greg in the side-mirror running out of the coffee shop.

When she came to a stop, she heard the backdoor open. It slammed shut as she pulled onto the road. She didn’t bother waiting for Greg to buckle up as she headed for the nursing home. It wasn’t her job to wait for him. If he wanted this job, then he needed to be prepared to drop everything that he was doing when a call came in and he really needed to drop his attitude while he was at it.

“The next time you ignore a call, I’m writing you up,” Eric drawled lazily as he continued filling in their information. Greg didn’t say anything, and she wasn’t exactly surprised. Eric might appear to be relaxed, but she knew that he was truly pissed and Greg must have picked up on that as well.

Five minutes later, Joe pulled the ambulance into the long driveway and parked behind a chaircar van. She called them on scene, turned the ambulance off, and pocketed the keys. By the time she made it to the back of the ambulance, Eric was already pulling their stretcher out and gesturing for Greg to move his ass.

“Can I drive?” Greg asked as he hopped out of the ambulance.

“No,” Joe said with absolutely no hesitation.

“Driving’s part of the job. How can I do my job if you won’t let me drive?” Greg pointed out.

“Because you haven’t learned to do the most important part of the job yet,” Eric drawled.

“What’s that?” Greg said, moving to walk past the stretcher.

Eric pushed the stretcher in his direction, cutting him off. When Greg only frowned, Eric gestured to the stretcher. With a glare, Greg grabbed the front handle and gave it a pull in the direction of the double doors.

“You need to learn how to deal with patients and run a call. If you can’t do that, then there’s no point in learning how to drive an ambulance because you won’t be working here,” Eric explained as he took the rear position of the stretcher, leaving her to shut the back doors and follow them inside.

“I know how to handle a call,” Greg argued. “I’ve been doing it for several weeks now.”

“No, you haven’t. The only thing you’ve managed to do is ride along and puke your guts up,” Eric pointed out as he pressed the call button by the front door to be buzzed in.

“I was sick,” Greg bit out, further pissing her off.

“I don’t really care what the problem was. Just do your goddamn job so that we can do ours,” Eric said as they were buzzed in. Greg’s face turned red, but he didn’t say anything else as they walked inside.

Since Eric was the tech for this call, Joe let him do all the talking.

“Good morning, ladies. Who do you have for me today?” Eric asked charmingly as he set his clipboard on the counter at the nurses’ station. She noted that several of the nurses blushed and she had to bite back a smile. Eric really had no idea how devastating that bad boy charm of his really was or he would have used it on her last night to get her to give him that half-hour back massage that he’d demanded for making her dinner. In the end, she’d slapped a bottle of scented oil in his hand and left him with no choice but to give her a body massage, all while grumbling and bitching, of course.

“Beverly needs to go to the emergency room to have her central line replaced,” Margaret said as she placed Beverly’s inch-thick medical file on the counter for Eric.

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