After The Burnout
A/N Ethan and Rox in the wildfire, love the story and it was all perfect and heart stopping, just missing that little hospital arrival scene I'm craving so I'm writing it for myself.
Ethan coughed desperately trying to get some oxygen into his lungs, but every breath brought more acrid smoke and he couldn't summon any strength to get to himself to the door. His arms shook under him as he crawled on all fours but with a loud crash one of the beams from the ceiling fell and he lunged to the side to avoid it, ending up flat on his stomach. He lay there face down on the wooden floor and despite his brain screaming at him to move, the lack of oxygen was overriding any attempts to get out.
Just as he was beginning to accept that he was going to die in here he felt hands on him, and a voice finally broke through the haze in his head and he realised that it was Rox. She was trying to pull him, but he was so much heavier than her and she wasn't having much luck. A fresh burst of adrenaline surged through his veins as he heard her desperate cries, and he forced himself back to all fours, and Rox dragged him the rest of the way up, supporting him as he stumbled dizzily towards the door and only narrowly avoided rolling down the stairs once they were out of the rangers' station. Rox went back to the boy and had to shake him again to get him breathing, but soon she had pulled the boy to his feet and began walking to the safety zone, checking every few seconds to make sure that Ethan was still stumbling after her.
Ethan had never been so grateful for fresh air as he was in those moments but the amount of smoke he had taken in was definitely showing now and every few shaky wheezing breaths were followed by a cough. He made sure to keep Rox in sight because he knew that if he lost her he wouldn't be able to work out which way he was meant to be going since his vision kept blurring in and out getting worse every time a particularly bad bout of coughing took hold. Once they reached the safety zone they were quickly ushered into the back of an ambulance and began the drive to the hospital, but for Ethan it was more a blur of stumbling and being pushed into a seat by Rox who pulled on his seatbelt for him, before turning back to the boy. After a few minutes Rox had the boy settled on the gurney with an oxygen mask over his face, and he seemed much calmer than before, but now Rox had turned back to Ethan and had a stethoscope out. He tried to pull away from her but the seatbelt he had temporarily forgotten about held him in place as she listened to his wheezing breaths.
"You need some O2" Rox thought aloud as she looked around quickly before leaning over to grab a spare oxygen tank and mask from a cupboard. She turned up the flow of oxygen before holding the mask out to him, and it was a credit to how bad he was feeling that he didn't try to protest more than a glare and an eye roll as he accepted the mask and held it over his mouth and nose, relishing in the feeling of the cool clear air that finally began to relieve the tightness in his chest. By the time they were pulling into the ambulance bay his head felt clear enough that he turned off the oxygen and put away the tank, ignoring Rox's protests at the action. He pushed the door open and hopped out turning to help Rox and the boy down who was handed off to another doctor who was waiting outside for the boy. Ethan and Rox walked in together to find Mario, Leanne and Jesse by the nurses' station talking but the three turned to look in unison and it was Jesse who spoke first.
"So, I take it you two knuckleheads survived then?" Jesse said sarcastically.
"Just about" Ethan replied hoarsely, he was beginning to wish he hadn't taken off the oxygen mask as he was getting dizzy again without the support of it.
"How did you two outrun the burnout? We were told the area you two were in flashed over badly" Mario asked curiously.
"We didn't, we had to use the foil fire shelter, and then the hot shots found us when they were looking for bodies" Rox explained. Ethan could see the looks of shock on their faces, but he couldn't focus on them much as the urge to cough built again and he coughed, carefully inching back slowly so that he could lean against the wall behind him.
"Right, you both need to be checked for smoke inhalation and burns. Rox, you go with Mario and Ethan you're with me and Jesse" Leanne instructed turning around and walking over to a bed. Rox offered him a quick smile before disappearing up the corridor, and so Ethan began walking to the bed, which seemed a much harder task than usual given the way his knees were shaking under him, but he made it with only a slight meander. He sat down and waited patiently as Leanne checked his breathing and Jesse hooked him up to a pulse ox and blood pressure monitor.
"Pulse ox is 93" Jesse reported grimly, and began preparing an oxygen mask for Ethan, but in that time while their attention was off him, Ethan's dizziness increased as his wheezing failed to get any air in.
"Don't feel s'good" Ethan slurred quietly, as he began to pitch forwards off the gurney his tired body finally giving out.
"Woah ok, Ethan can you hear me?" Leanne called as she caught Ethan just in time before he fell to the floor. When she didn't get a response, Jesse helped her pull him fully onto the gurney and they put the head of the bed down. Jesse put the oxygen mask over his face and gently lifted his head to put the strap around the back of his head.
"I think he just passed out from the adrenaline crash, but let's get him hooked up and I want a litre of saline, CBC and blood gases" Leanne told Jesse who quickly set about putting the IV into the unconscious doctor's arm. Just as Leanne was re-checking his breathing Ethan shifted under their hands and with a soft groan his eyes fluttered back open.
"Wha…? I…" Ethan mumbled from behind the mask, obviously confused. Leanne leaned over him waiting for his eyes to focus on her before she spoke.
"Ethan, you fainted. Can you remember what happened?" Leanne asked.
"Fire… Rox… is she ok?" Ethan breathed out, his eyes darting around but Leanne quickly reassured him.
"Rox is fine, Mario is checking her over. Let's focus on you. Do you have any pain anywhere? Any injuries we should know about?" Leanne paused as he shook his head. "Ok how long were you in the shelter during the burnout?" she asked.
"I'm not sure exactly, we both passed out, but Ethan went in after the boy to the rangers' station and he was almost out again when I got to him. I had him on O2 in the rig and he was looking better but he's been in and out since I pulled him out of the rangers' station" Rox explained catching the question as she re-appeared with Mario close behind, probably having heard the commotion when Ethan passed out.
"Right, well as long as you're sats go back up, we should be fine, but we'll need to watch in case he needs to be intubated" Leanne said firmly, as she briefly pulled his mask off so that she could check his nose and mouth. "Singed nasal hairs and some swelling in the throat, couldn't keep it simple could you Ethan" Leanne mused aloud.
"Was just trying to save the kid" Ethan mumbled from behind the mask.
"Yes, and you certainly did that but occasionally you might want to remember that you are human as well" Leanne cautioned him gently. Jesse pulled the head of the bed up slightly so that Ethan was sitting up and Ethan continued coughing intermittently but the oxygen was really helping. The others moved on soon leaving Ethan with only Rox for company and she sat down on the edge of his bed, watching him carefully her eyes straying to the monitor that beeped softly beside him.
They stayed like that for a while with Ethan's coughs subsiding and his breaths evening out until eventually his eyelids slid closed and the last bit of tension left his body. At first Rox panicked looking at the monitor and checking his pulse on his wrist for herself because she had never seen Ethan look so vulnerable before, but the beating under her fingers reassured her that he was just sleeping.
"Thought that might happen" Jesse's voice came from behind Rox, and she turned to look at the nurse.
"He's exhausted after today" Rox said slightly hoarse herself.
"I'm not surprised, the sleep will do him good, and you could probably do with getting some yourself" Jesse said.
"Yeah, I might go crash in an on-call room, you'll keep an eye on him, won't you?" Rox asked Jesse yawning and rubbing her eyes as she did so.
"Don't worry I've got him, you go get some sleep" Jesse ushered her from the cubicle. Once she was gone Jesse turned back to the sleeping man and pulled a blanket over him, he adjusted the oxygen mask, so it sat over his face better and then checked the monitors readings before heading back out onto the floor.