It was a dull day in Sydney, but today was slow for the ambulance officers so they sat having a brew in the ambulance station chatting away.
"So what did you do last night because you didn't come out with the rest of the team, so come on who is he" asks Heath being nosey, trying to ease out the important information from his partner.
"Oh I had something to do last night and no it was not a guy" answers Cate.
"Fine be like that maybe we can talk more over a drink since I believe there is more to you that you're not letting on" brags heath.
"Ok I will but you're buying the first round" says Cate.
"Any units from ambulance operations assault at Franklin Street, neighbour reports of blood on the patio" says Operator voice through the radio.
"Car 978 we will take that over" says Heath answering the call.
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Scene
Arriving at the scene both heath and Cate take in the surrounding trying not to judge the people who live here but when it comes to domestic incidents they get all judgemental.
Walking into the house they are approached by a frantic man, who they believe is the husband of the women who is injured, when they walk into the front room of the house they see the lady lay on the floor badly beaten, bleeding from the face and from what looks to be a gunshot wound to her upper arm, soon they get to work on stabilizing the women for transport.
Cate turns around to see the frantic man holding a gun to their faces, hands shaking, sweat dripping off his head like he was high on something.
"Sir we need you to put the weapon down and let us go so we can help your wife" pleads Cate.
"No you're not going anywhere with her, she stays here" shouts angry husband.
"ok sir if you won't put the gun down, then please explain to me why you are withholding treatment for your wife" asks Heath trying to get a clear picture of the situation.
"She… she tried to leave me, she said that I aint good enough for her and my drug habit is a problem for our marriage" stutters man trying to control the shakes and the gun.
"Ok but let us treat her then we can talk more" says Heath reasoning with the man.
"No she should be dead"
"Why should she be dead" asks Cate.
"She wanted to throw it all away and go to the cops about me and my import business, I could not let that happen" cries unstable man.
"Okay so put the gun down and run get away from here before the police arrive" says Cate, but is interrupted by her radio which distresses the man even more.
"Radio's and all communication off now on the floor" shouts man.
Cate took her time taking her equipment off her person and the husband got impatient, he took matters into his own hands and he landed a solid kick to her side knocking her to the floor gasping for air and groaning at the pain in her side, then he delivers another blow but to her head, he knocks her clean out landing in a heap on the floor beside the wounded wife.
"See that's what you get when you cross me so don't cross me you here" shouts a getting all up in heaths face.
Heath looks too his partner's lifeless body that lay on the floor of the man's house, she lay there with blood pooling round her head, heath wanted to check her but he was scared to move in case the man got an itchy trigger finger.
"Sir I need to check your wife and please let me check my partner over "pleads Heath.
"Fine but make it quick" answers man.
Heath gets up from his place on the floor, he grabs his medical bag and first off he checks on the wife who is slowly bleeding out and he also suspects that she has internal bleeding, after checking the current patient he goes over to his partner, he places two fingers to her neck and is relieved to feel a faint pulse beneath his fingers, he shines a light into her eyes, and lastly for precautions since she is unconscious he places a spinal collar round her neck to prevent spinal injury.
He sits back down now he knows his partner is okay and now it's a waiting game for both her to wake up and for the mad husband to put the gun down.
"How are they doing" asks Man?
"Both fine at the moment but your wife is slowly deteriorating, we need to get her to a hospital fast" pleads heath.
Soon there was bang which shocked heath to the core, looking round he sees smoke puffing out the end of the gun in the man's hand, he looks to where the gun was aimed and sees the man's wife lay on the floor with a bullet hole to her head, and blood was pooling beneath her lifeless body.
Heath staggers to the women and checks for signs of life, he determined that she was dead by the hands of her own husband who didn't want her going to the police because of his drug smuggling operation, which in his opinion was on a large scale due to the fancy gear scattered round the place and all the large boxes stacked up near the front door awaiting delivery to their destinations.
"whoa buddy what's the matter you can't go round shooting people, and know that you just did that cops will be swarming round here in matter of minutes" shouts heath trying to reason the man down.
"So she is dead now, so shut up or she is next" shouts man.
"Fine but if we are going to be stuck together I need to know your name" asks Heath.
"Derek" answers Derek.
"Ok Derek my name is heath and we need to get out of here, maybe a hospital because I am concerned for my partner she hasn't regained consciousness" pleads heath.
"Fine but no hospital, and I will get your trolley out the ambulance" says Derek.
"Ok great but I will also need a spine board it should be on the trolley" explains heath.
"Right I'll be back in a minute no running away" says Derek waving the gun in his face.
Heath moves quickly to his partner and tries to make her wake up and he gets a painful response.
"Cate can you hear" shouts Heath trying to make his partner wake up.
"Uhhh" groans cate.
"Cate open your eyes" orders heath.
She opens her eyes but blinks a couple of times trying to make her vision clear for her to see, soon she can see and she notices she is looking up at her partner, she tries to move but pain radiates through her head and her left side, she winces because of the pain which heath notices first time.
"You in pain mate" asks Heath.
"Yeah what happened" asks Cate.
"We are being held hostage and the gunman has gone to get the trolley from the ambulance but he won't take us to the nearest hospital so you are stuck with me for medical treatment" explains heath.
"Great what about some pain relief" asks Cate breathing through the pain.
"Sure but I can't give you lots I have to make it last but before he comes back and I give you this I need to examine you" says Heath.
"Make it quick" says Cate.
Heath un buttons cate's shirt half way just so he can get a good look at her left side, he sees a dark purple bruise had already formed on her side he presses on her side feeling for her ribs and she winces at the pain of him touching and he feels she has a cracked rib.
"Hey you got a cracked rib so let me know if you have trouble breathing" says Heath redressing her.
"Okay" says Cate but she is cut off when she hears the man returning with the trolley.
Derek bashes each wall as he pushes the trolley into the house, heath runs over to help him guide the trolley to where he needs it, they both work together to get cate onto the spinal board and then the trolley.
"Hey put this flat against her back and help me roll her onto her back" says heath guiding him through a log roll.
He does as heath directs and soon cate is flat on the spinal board.
"Right now on 3 … 3, 2, 1 lift" shouts heath.
They lift her onto the trolley and strap her onto it, Derek grabs the gun and a bag full of money and his product for the journey, once loaded in the back of the ambulance Derek gets in the back while heath turns on the lights and sirens and heads to a place where Derek tells him.