AN: So…This started out as a one shot, mainly because I wanted to see Ranger as a firefighter. As usual though, my wordiness got away from me and this ended up as a multi-chapter fic. The good news is, though, that it's already completely written! Go me, I actually finished a story!

There's some medical jargon down there, I think there's been enough medical dramas on TV for everyone to catch the drift of that. Basically his vitals are all good, if slightly elevated for his fitness level. Normal sinus=best EKG reading possible, LOC=loss of consciousness and Alert and Oriented x 3=aware of person, place and time. C-spine=cervical spine, the part of your back you really don't want to fracture. Immobilizing these vertebrae is a pain in the ass for the patient. It involves moving the entire body as a unit with no jarring motions and being placed on a hard, long board with a collar around their neck and a head restraint device of varying degrees of sophistication and then being strapped down to the whole contraption. It's hard and uncomfortable and thankfully most often, later rendered unnecessary after x-rays clear the patient of fractures. All of these explanations are only necessary for the first couple of pages. We'll call it jargon lite.

Many F-bombs were dropped in the making of this story…You have been warned.

I don't own these two, but I sure do love hooking them up! Oh, yeah, and this plot is all mine.

SPOV

It's been my long held belief that men in uniform are just plain hot. Police, firefighters, armed services, I don't discriminate, they're all gorgeous. The inherent bravery required to wear such finery multiplying the sexiness to the nth degree. Women in uniform inspire my awe as well, maybe even more so on the valor front, for they have more to fight against to be taken seriously. But not my lust, and that's what this tale is about. I'm an ER nurse, you see. Day in, day out I deal with the walking wounded and the barely conscious. From babies all the way up to octogenarians, (and older sometimes) they walk, limp or are wheeled through our doors and, hopefully, exit feeling better.

I was working one eerily quiet Sunday afternoon, changing an IV bag on our only patient, a poor soul who had food poisoning and was pretty badly dehydrated. After voiding what seemed to have been 50% of her body fluids from various orifices, she was finally sleeping and I was trying to keep her that way. I could hear the sirens outside, which was unusual as the hospital was a quiet zone, so sirens blasting were usually a sign of something bad coming in. Sure enough, a laden stretcher, 2 paramedics, 1 paramedic student, 3 EMT's and at least 4 firefighters, still in turn-out gear, flew through our doors and started barking at me. Lula, the other RN on duty went to find Dr. Lin and I headed over to bed 4.

"Over here, guys." I called, snapping on gloves and reaching across the bed for the patient's backboard. "On 3. 1, 2, 3." We heaved him over quickly and I started a visual assessment. Yowza, that's a lot of blood. Looking up, I caught one of the medics eye. "Joe, what have we got?"

"33 year-old male. Captain, Trenton FD. BP 124/78. Heart-rate 72. Normal Sinus. Resp. 20. LOC 6 minutes due to blunt trauma. 12 cm lac on forehead. C-spine precautions taken due to mechanism of injury." He leaned over and whispered. "A big fucking header beam fell on his head. They were checking for hot-spots after they put down a house fire." Joe resumed in a normal voice. "Alert and oriented x 3 since our arrival on scene."

"Any other injuries noted?" I asked Joe.

"I'm fine." Growled my patient from behind his O2 mask.

I smiled down at him. I could just about make out his right eye, but most of his face was obscured by the massive piece of bloody gauze they'd slapped on him. That one eye was a pretty, deep brown and was communicating extreme frustration. He was going to be a difficult patient, I could just tell.

"Hello Captain, just let us take care of you okay?" He just hmmfed and stared straight ahead. I turned back to Joe. "I'll take it from here." He handed me his paperwork and I signed his copy. He unhooked his heart monitor and Joe, Jeff and their student walked out, their pagers already going off for their next call. Eddie, one of the EMTs and a childhood friend of mine, grabbed the oxygen tank from between the Captain's legs, made a call me motion and they moved out too. I didn't even bother telling his firefighters they could go. From their stance at the end of the bed, they weren't going anywhere until they knew their Captain would be okay. "I'm just going to close the curtain while I get him hooked up to everything okay?" All I got were terse, silent nods in reply. I was pulling the curtain around the bed as Lula hustled back in.

"Doc said he'll be here in a minute." She looked at our patient. "What do we have?" I repeated the info I knew, as I hooked him up to our O2.

By the time I was done, we heard a loud wretch followed by an unmistakable splashing and then, "NURSE!" It seemed Mrs. Krowicki was awake, and that the antiemetic we gave her wasn't working.

"It's so your turn." I said to Lula. She had been on break when Mrs. Krowicki had come in and I'd handled three rounds of vomiting alone. We always took turns with pukers, no matter whose patient it was.

She rolled her eyes. "Fine. I'll just leave you here with the Captain." She said placing a sing-song emphasis on his title. She turned before she went around the curtain and waved to get my attention, inclining her head in his direction and mouthing wow! I could only raise my eyebrows in agreement. From the little I could see of him, he was pretty wow!

"Captain, I'm going to cut your t-shirt off and see if we can wiggle your turn out gear off okay?" I asked, pulling out my shears.

"If you just unhook me from this damn board and collar I can get up and do it myself." He replied grumpily.

"I'm sorry, but given where your laceration is, we're going to have to check for cervical spine injury before we remove all of that. I'm going to take you to x-ray as soon as I get you in a gown."

"I know that, but I'm telling you, I'm fine. They just panicked when I didn't wake up right away and I was already strapped down when I came around. Look, all my fingers and toes are wiggling." He grumbled as he demonstrated.

"Losing consciousness for that long is worrying. I promise I'll get Dr. Lin to look at your x-rays as soon as we get them and if you're clear, I'll unstrap you myself. There is a risk of compression fractures to the vertebrae with the type of force you received to the head. I want you to be able to wiggle those fingers and toes forever, Captain." I was 99% sure he had nothing more than a concussion going on and needed sutures on his forehead, but being my x-ray vision was on the fritz, I thought it better to take him and get some imaging done.

"Okay." He said with a sigh, "but I don't need this." He reached up and yanked at the mask. Between the bandage and the head restraint he had a fight on his hands. His 02 saturation was 100% so I took mercy on him and cut the elastic holding it on.

"There, better?"

"Yes, Thank-you."

"Good, now stop being a difficult patient." He opened his mouth to respond, but I just kept going. "I'm going to get all this off you and then we'll slip you into this fabulous gown." I held it up for his approval, adding a game-show flourish. "As you can see, it's a beautiful cornflower blue, which will, no doubt, enhance your skin tone and has this slightly unfashionable, but very conveniently placed gap in the back. Makes walking down the hall to the bathroom an adventure!" He smiled slightly and I caught him rolling the exposed eye.

"You're pretty funny, you know that? You'd be even funnier if you let me get up." He said, trying to turn on the charm. It wasn't going to work

"Nope. This is my one chance to exert my will over you. Now lay still like a good boy, these shears are sharp. We don't want to damage any necessary parts." I didn't usually joke like that with my patients, but something told me he had a good sense of humor when he wasn't busy being cranky.

I slipped his supenders down his arms and started cutting down the center of his navy blue shirt revealing, snip-by-snip, a lickably smooth skinned, very well-defined 6…no, 8-pack abdomen and beautifully sculpted chest. Said chest was adorned on the left side with a large Maltese cross tattoo.

Jesus, this guy could pose for every month of those hot fire-fighter calendars!

I cut through the sleeves and left it splayed underneath him. "Okay, I'm going to try to pull these pants off without moving you. I can get through them with the shears, but I'm guessing these are expensive to replace right?"

"Yeah, you could say that. These cost the FD about $600." I whistled at that.

"Don't move. Let me do all the work, okay?"

His little smile grew, "You know, if I knew you better, I'd tell you I love a woman who takes control."

"And…that's how I know you're probably okay. Innuendo is only used by non-critical patients." I said patting his shoulder. He laughed a little. It was a good laugh, deep and rumbly. I bet when he was really laughing, it was one of those that you can't help but join in with.

I worked the buttons open and saw that the heavy fire-proof pants were probably loose enough to drag down without jostling his neck. I slowly worked them down his legs and sighed when I got to his boots. This wasn't going to be easy. "Just pull them off as a unit. That's how we step into them." He helpfully supplied. I nodded though he was in no position to see me and managed to finally, gently, ease his feet free. I slipped one shear blade under his left uniform pant cuff and he jerked his leg away. "My legs are fine, these stay on." He said with finality.

"Sorry Captain, all patients need to be gowned, which means everything needs to come off. I'll leave your undies on if you're really worried."

"I have no more injuries, just this cut on my head, my pants can stay on." He said with finality.

"Hospital policy, Captain, everyone has to wear a gown. Come on, please?"

"Umm…I'mnotwearinganyunderwear." He mumbled in a rush.

It took me a minute to decipher that.

Oh…ohhhhhh!

"I won't look…" much.

"Just be careful with those scissors." He warned.

"Don't worry Captain, you might be my first patient, but I got lots of practice on my third try at nursing school."

"You're kidding right?" I didn't answer. "Right?" Again, he waited for a response.

I moved back up to his head and looked him right in the eye. "Yes, I'm kidding. Top of my class at Rutgers. I graduated eight years ago. Calm down."

His body relaxed a bit and I worked my way up one pant leg, careful to leave his privates covered. His legs were just as solidly muscular as the rest of him. I hooked a finger under his waistband and he hissed when the cold, blunt edge of the blade touched his skin. "I won't hurt you." I whispered. Preserving his modesty again I worked down towards his ankle, ever watchful for signs of more injuries during the entire process. I knew his kind, he and his ilk would say anything to get out of here as quickly as possible, even ignore an actual injury. I covered him up with the gown and gently tugged the pants out from under him. "I didn't see a thing." I declared, just as Dr. Lin ducked around the edge of the curtain. I gave him the run-down and he gave orders for x-rays and a CAT scan of his head to check the severity of his suspected concussion. After peeking under the gauze he said he'd page the plastic surgeon to properly close the long laceration on his forehead.

"I'll take him to diagnostics now." The Captain's good eye rolled from Dr. Lin to me, his eyebrow raising slightly.

"Don't they have people for that?" He asked incredulously.

"Sure, if you want to wait for two hours. I thought you wanted to get off the board?" I didn't usually take patients down for imaging, but it was slow here and I didn't want to leave him alone. On Sundays, transporters were thin on the ground, that two hour wait time was probably optimistic.

"I do. Thank-you." He said, sighing in relief.

I transferred him to a transport stretcher and pulled the curtain back, surprised to see his crew still waiting. "I'm just going to take him for pictures. You guys can wait in the nurse's lounge. There's free coffee in there." I added to sweeten the deal. They grumbled about coming with me until the Captain told them to go back to the scene to help out the guys that stayed behind.

I stayed with him through the whole process and was very pleased to note no fractures on his C-spine and skull x-rays. By a stroke of luck the radiologist was in and cleared him right away to take off the collar and head restraint.

"Finally!" He exclaimed as he sat up quickly. "I told you I was…whoa!" He grabbed his head, obviously dizzy.

"Captain, I'm pretty strong, but if you pass out on me right now I might not be able to hold you up." I said trying to steady his broad shoulders. His wide-open-in-the-back gown and his new position exposed most of his perfectly shaped butt and I was trying really hard not to stare at it. I didn't win that battle. "Take some deep breaths." He complied. Slowly, his uncovered eye refocused and he seemed to regain his equilibrium. "I'm going to let go now. Do you think you can scoot over to the table for me? We just need to do the CAT scan and then we're done here."

"Yeah, I just sat up too quickly." He gingerly scooted over and I helped him lie back. "Umm…I'm starting to feel a bit nauseous. Is there something I can hold if I need to…you know?" I opened a few cabinets until I found a barf bag.

"Here you go Captain. I'll be on the other side of that window with the tech. Try not to move during the scan okay?" He nodded.

He made it through the test without getting sick, but only just. As soon as he sat up he had another bout of dizziness and I sat with him until the subsequent vomiting stopped.

"You okay now?"

He nodded, still a bit breathless. "Just embarrassed." He muttered.

"Why?"

"Seriously?" He just pointed to the biohazard trashcan where I'd thrown his sick bag.

I rolled my eyes. Men. "Captain, you're the third person to get sick in my vicinity this shift alone. Get over it, I'm supposed to wait for the doctor to tell you this but, you have a concussion, we could see it on the images as the test was going. Most often a nasty bump on the noggin goes hand-in-hand with some stomach upset. Will it save your dignity if I take you back to the ER in a wheelchair?"

"Maybe." He conceded, showing me another of those little smiles of his. I have to admit, that smile set off some fluttering in my belly.

"Don't get up until I get back with the chair okay?"

"Yes, boss."

"Smartass. I should make you go on the stretcher again." I giggled at his suddenly contrite expression and left the room and then realized that he made me giggle. He made me giggle!

"Alright, you ready to stand?" I asked after I parked the chair in front of him. "I'm going to stand right here and you can steady yourself on me if you have to."

"I'll be okay." Yup, sure. I've heard that before. He pushed off with his hands and his feet hit the floor.

"Go slow." I warned. I was already wrapping my arms around his waist, trying to angle him so he could sit back down in the chair as soon as he was most of the way to standing. I hadn't thought about the fact that his gown was still wide open in the back and he had to be, holy shit, at least 6 inches taller than me. When he was standing tall my hands, now de-gloved, were right on top of his ass cheeks. He wobbled a bit and plunked down in the chair, unfortunately, or not, depending on your opinion, he had grabbed onto my shoulders for balance and ended up pulling me with him. I ended up virtually nose-to nose with him, my chest pressed against his, with my feet scrabbling for purchase on the slick tile floor. Where were my hands you ask? Why, they were still copping a feel, of course. They were trapped under his butt and they weren't all that unhappy with their placement. Did I say nose-to-nose? We were so close I could have given him rescue breathing if I moved in another half-inch. After a really, really long moment, I cleared my throat. "Umm Captain, could you lift up a tiny bit? I kind of need my hands back."

"Shit, yeah. I'm sorry!" He murmured distractedly. He lifted his butt up and I slid my treacherous hands from their happy little prison. I slowly stood and took a much needed step back. I felt like my cheeks were on fire, both from embarrassment at my unprofessional behavior, I mean, he could file charges against me for that couldn't he? And the fact that the fluttering he was setting off earlier was now like full scale swooping in my belly.

I got my shit together and got us moving.

"Do you want me to call someone to come and pick you up? I asked as I pushed the chair up the ramp to the ER. "I noticed you sent your ride home before."

"I'll call them and someone'll come back to get me." He said quietly.

"Okay. As long as someone drives you. Dr. Lin is going to restrict your driving for at least a week, maybe more."

"I have to work!" He complained.

I shrugged. "Hop back on here." I patted bed 4. "Think you can manage it this time?" I asked with a smile. I raised the head of the bed for him and stood close again. This time he made it unassisted, but, jeez, did he ever give me an eyeful of that behind in the process. Now that I'd seen almost all of him, he really was way more than just wow! Even without seeing his entire face.

Dr. Weber joined us and removed the dressing from his wound. "Steph, no debridement is necessary, but irrigate with sterile saline and then paint the lac with 10% povidine iodine solution. Anesthetize with lido with epi and let me know when he's draped." She turned to him. "This is a pretty long laceration Captain. It's going to take me a little bit to close it properly but it'll be worth it when there's only a tiny scar when it's fully healed. I'm going to have you come back in to have the stitches removed on Friday."

"Okay." He said quietly. She patted his leg and disappeared again.

I started gathering supplies and draped a towel over his shoulder and under his head and snapped on more gloves. "I'm going to irrigate it first, it's only saline but, it might sting a bit. Once your wound is clean, then I'm going to inject the anesthesia, which will sting more than a little bit at first, so I apologize in advance." I got my first full blast smile for that and…there's that swooping in my belly again.

I pulled the curtains closed again, laid the head of the bed down and moved in close to get to work. He watched me silently as I cleaned the blood off of his face, revealing perfect, dark caramel colored skin. He had the longest lashes around those dark eyes and underscoring those where prominent cheekbones. He had full, wide lips that looked like they smiled an awful lot. There was a hint of dimples an inch north of each corner of his mouth even with his mouth relaxed. Top all that off with a strong, square jaw and I could honestly say I was in the presence of one of the handsomest men I'd ever met. I could feel those dark eyes on me, but I concentrated on his forehead. I tried to aim the nozzle of the saline bottle to remove the blood that had seeped into his thick, short hair as well. It took about 3 liters before I got most of it out. "Do you remember what happened?" I asked gently.

"Something fell on my head. That's pretty much it. My guys said that the cut was from the edge of the helmet digging in when the beam hit me." He fell quiet again for a few then drew in a breath, "Your name is Steph?"

"Yep, Stephanie Plum."

"Carlos Manoso. Well, Ricardo is my first name, but I don't go by it."

"It's nice to meet you Carlos."

He grinned and it was nearly blinding, perfect white teeth, and tiny crinkles around those eyes. "Yeah, it might have been better if we exchanged names before you saw me naked and bloody."

"Not totally naked, there's still some mystery yet to be uncovered." If my gloves weren't covered in blood I would've slapped my hand over my mouth.

Very professional!

He laughed out loud at that, and just like I suspected, it triggered mine.

"I'm sorry, my filter seems to be malfunctioning today."

"Don't be sorry. You're taking my mind off the fact you have a needle poised over my face." He looked at it nervously.

"Don't tell me that someone who runs into a burning building on a regular basis is scared of needles."

"Not scared, no. Just not a big fan."

"It'll only hurt for a second." I promised.

"Sure." He said, all sceptic.

"Be still now." I started injecting and he winced. Anxious to get his mind off of it, I started babbling. "So, my sister had a baby yesterday. She's a little girl and she's absolutely beautiful. She was over 10 pounds, can you believe it? She already has fat rolls in her legs! Do you have any kids, or nieces or nephews?"

"I have a huge Cuban family." He said, smiling again. "I have 6 nieces and one nephew. My brother's wife is pregnant, but she doesn't know what she's having yet. Then there's all the cousins and aunts and uncles. Family parties are massive."

"That must be overwhelming when you bring a girlfriend there." I took a peek at his left hand and was relieved to see no ring. I probably should have figured out if he was single before I ogled his naked butt and flirted with him. His smile turned smug at my lame attempt at information gathering.

"I'm not seeing anyone right now."

Huh, me neither.

"That's hard to believe." Seriously? Shut the fuck up Stephanie. "Okay you're ready for the doctor. I'll go get her." I patted his shoulder and went to stand.

"Why is that hard to believe?" He asked, gently grabbing my wrist, setting off some pretty serious goosebumps. I looked down at his hand on me and he released me.

"Ummm…you're kind of…a catch. You know that though don't you." His smile grew even more.

I assisted as Dr. Weber fixed him up. His eyes not leaving me during the whole process. His scrutiny should have made me uncomfortable, but it really didn't.

I was a little sad to give him his discharge instructions, knowing that it was unlikely that I'd see him again.

"Is there someone who can stay with you tonight?"

"Yeah, I'll stay at the station-house. I called my friend Bobby to come and get me. We ride on the same truck together."

"No working though." I cautioned, "Listen to what Dr. Lin told you. You need to rest, or your concussion could get worse. No driving for a week and no bending or heavy lifting for the week either. Give that list of symptoms to watch for, to someone who will stay with you today and tonight. They don't need to do that whole waking every two hours thing. Just once in the middle of the night to be sure, okay?"

"Yes." He sat up and swung his legs over the edge of the bed.

"Any dizziness?" He nodded and placed his hand on the mattress.

"It should pass soon. This could have been much, much worse without that helmet."

"I know." He said seriously.

"Here's some scrubs so you don't have to flash people on the way out."

He took them out of my hand, his fingers grazing mine in the process, setting off all kinds of reactions inside me. "Stand up and I'll help you get them on." I really was worried that he'd get dizzy and fall over. Really. He stood and I bent to help him step into the pants, dragging them up and under his gown. Yet again denying myself the opportunity of seeing his goodies. I flipped the bottom of the gown up when I had them all the way up and tied them closed at his trim waist. His abs contracting when my nails grazed his skin. "I'm just going to take this off." I whispered up at him. The atmosphere suddenly way more intimate than was appropriate for the setting. He gazed down at me for a second and perched his butt on the edge of the bed. I tugged the gown off him and noticed his ink again. "They did a good job with this." I murmured leaning closer. He drew in a sharp breath and I realized I was millimeters from touching his chest with my fingers. "Sorry." I mumbled.

"Don't be." He said, his voice deeper than before.

I took a deep breath and tried to act like the healthcare professional I was supposed to be. "Be careful how you get changed later and wash the wound with gentle soap and water once or twice a day and pat it dry carefully, put a little bacitracin on it, you don't have to cover it after tomorrow. Dr. Weber's number is on the discharge paperwork, make sure you get here on Friday to have those taken out. Leaving it too long can make the scarring worse. Don't shower until you feel steady, or sit on a bench if you have to, okay?" He nodded. I slipped the scrub top over his head and he slid his arms into it.

"Thanks for everything Stephanie. You've been very nice to me."

I couldn't help but blush. "You're welcome. It was my pleasure. You're lucky that it was so quiet today or we wouldn't have had all this quality time together."

He chuckled a bit and took my hand in his, "maybe next time I see you, it won't involve blood or injuries. Would you like to…"

"Carlos? Are you in there?" A woman's voice called from the other side of the curtain.

"Christ, what is she doing here?" He whispered, his shoulders slumping, his eyes wide. "I'm not seeing her, I swear it." He said urgently. The curtains slid open and a very, very attractive blonde and busty woman stepped in.

I felt anger bubble up despite his assertions, when she started to coo and fuss over him.

"Are you okay? Oh my god! I was so worried, Sarah called me after she heard from Bobby that you were hurt and he said you needed to be picked up. They're out on another call right now. Why didn't anyone call me?" He opened his mouth to say something, but I interrupted him.

"Excuse me, but you can't be back here in the treatment area. Family members only."

"Well, I'm his girlfriend, that's practically family!" She bristled.

"Sorry, you have to go back to the waiting room. I'll bring him out to you in a few minutes." She glared at me for a few beats and I stared stonily back at her. Apparently I was intimidating enough and she backed down.

"Sweetie, I'll wait out there and take you home when they're done with you." The snottiness with which she said they had my hand itching to slap her. She bent and kissed him full on the mouth, he pulled back quickly, looking kind of pissed. Now I just wanted to punch the bitch.

"Jeanne." Even I could hear the warning in his tone.

She raised her perfectly manicured hands and backed away, but not before giving me a bitch-face and then practically flounced out of the room.

I turned to him and raised my eyebrows. He had the grace to look ashamed. "I broke up with her months ago, but she's best friends with Bobby's girlfriend, so she shows up a lot." I felt my eyebrows go even higher. "I swear to god Stephanie!"

I was too irritated to talk about what just happened, especially considering I had no real right to be pissed off. "Un-huh, here, get in the wheelchair and we'll get you out of here."

"Stephanie."

"Here. I'll move it closer. Hop in." I held out my hand to help him. He took it and shifted into the chair.

"I was going to ask you if you wanted to go out sometime." He said as I bent to move the footrests for him. I think my eyebrows were somewhere above my hairline at this point.

I unlocked the brakes without a word and wheeled him out to the waiting room, where his not-a-girlfriend/girlfriend was pacing.

"If you go and pull your car around, I'll bring him out." I said to her as neutrally as possible.

She looked from me to him a few times and marched outside. I kept him in the vestibule until she pulled up and ran around to open his door.

"Stephanie, I…"

"Here's your paperwork. Have Jeanne keep an eye on you today and tonight." I felt that anger bubbling up again. "Feel better soon." I said as I closed the car door behind him. He rolled the window down and started talking to me, but his words were lost as Jeanne sped away.

I sighed, feeling unsettlingly bereft, considering I'd just met this guy. I wandered into the ER and went to strip his bed. Lula joined me, Mrs. Krowicki, now back to sleep.

"Things looked pretty cozy between you and Mr. Hot Firefighter." She wheedled, always my wing-woman.

"Yeah, it was all good until his girlfriend showed up." I said.

She shook her head, "All the good ones…" Yep, my sentiments exactly.

I lobbed the dirty linens in the basket and finished out my shift, a little grumpier than usual. Pissed at myself that I could not get him and his perfect body and his wonderful laugh out of my mind.

Next chapter will post tomorrow night.

Let me know what you think,

Love,

EA xoxo