CHP Officer, Sam Traynor, was the first to arrive on the scene. He'd taken one look over the rail and knew he was going to have to get down there. He tied off a rappelling line to the front bumper of his cruiser and down he went. He could hear a woman softly crying and whimpering and talking to someone.

"Hello, Anybody home down there?" he called out.

"Yes, I'm down here. My leg is caught and I'm afraid the car will explode," she called to him feeling relieved that she was no longer alone.

"Well, the fire department will be here any moment, but for now, it's just you and me so let's see what we have here." He knelt down next to the driver side and peered in to see the victim. "I'm Officer Traynor Ma'am, I'm with the CHP, what's your name?"

"I'm Ellie, Dr. Ellie Casey."

"Well, Dr. Casey, can you tell me what happened?" He shined his flashlight into the car and noted she was indeed trapped, but seemed to be alert and he couldn't see any signs of acute trauma except for the tell tale bruising around her face from the airbag.

"A semi cut me off, and I think I was hit from behind and then I just flew off the road and rolled. I woke up down here. My leg is stuck." She gave a sigh and a weak smile and added "I'm so glad you're here."

"We got the call eight minutes ago but it doesn't look like he stopped. We'll get more information as more witnesses call in, but can you remember a license plate or description of the truck?"

"It happened so fast, I honestly don't remember anything except that it was a truck and it was big."

"Yeah, they always are," he replied. Sam could hear the rescue vehicles approaching. "Well, here comes the cavalry. They'll have you out of here in no time and on your way to a hospital to get you all patched up."

"Are you going to stay with me until my husband gets here?"

"Yes, I'll be here until they take you away, don't worry, but your husband isn't going to be able to come down here, so I'll radio up-top to have them let me know once he's on the scene. Would you like that?"

"Yes, but he'll come. He'll come," she sighed. Her head really was starting to hurt. More than likely a concussion from the airbag she mused. The leg was hard to pin-down. It hurt bad enough that she was almost certain it was a break. But without being able to see or feel the area she was still unsure if it was a break or a deep laceration or a combination of both. She couldn't feel her foot, but that was to be expected due to the compression from what appeared to be the engine firewall that had been forced into her leg. She was getting sleepy, partly from the relief that she was no longer alone and the trauma her body was experiencing and she fought to stay awake and alert.

"Am I bleeding?"

"Your pant leg is wet with blood but not saturated, just hang on Ellie. Take it easy and you'll be out soon."

In another minute there was a flurry of noise, light and activity. Several firefighters were stabilizing the car with blocks to keep it from falling back over onto it's wheels until she could be extricated. A paramedic was now lowering herself into the passenger side of the car. Ellie squinted as the bright light that was affixed to her helmet shined in her eyes.

"So, I hear you're a doctor?" the woman inquired.

"Yes, I'm Dr. Ellie Casey, I'm an ER physician at UCLA Med Center."

The woman smiled. "My name is Jennifer Nguyen. How about I take a look and see what we've got here and you can advise me as we go?"

Jennifer applied a blood pressure cuff to Ellie's arm and checked her vitals. Appraising Ellie as she worked.

Ellie could feel everything Jennifer did, which was a good sign, but she was getting agitated and forcing down the urge to panic. All she wanted was to be freed from the car and be with John. She forced herself to stay calm and listen to Jennifer.

"Okay, from what I can see, and feel, your lower leg is intact, you've got a strong posterior pulse and I can identify at least one break, but there could be more. There's also a deep laceration on the side of your calf and you've got considerable facial contusions from the airbag and a few lighter lacerations on your upper thigh. Your pupils are responsive, BP is 149/88 and your pulse is 90. What do you advise?"

Ellie went into clinical mode and instructed Jennifer. "Administer an IV with Ringer's lactate and a lidocaine push before they extricate me. Oh, and don't use heparin, use saline."

"I'm on it," Jennifer smiled as she went to work carrying out Ellie's orders.

A firefighter came over to greet her, Nguyen and Officer Traynor and began spraying the ground around the car with foam retardant.

A generator began to hum and suddenly the area was bathed in bright light. Traynor could easily see into the car now and noted she appeared to be okay, except for that leg. "Well, how's that now, it gives a whole new meaning to "let there be light." Now I can actually see you and you can see me. It's nice to meet you Dr. Ellie," he warmly smiled. "It sounds like you've got some good vitals, at least from what I know about that sort of thing and they're going to get you out soon."

"You remind me of my brother," she weakly smiled. "He's sweet like you and makes me laugh. Thank you for coming down her and risking your own safety to help me."

"No problem Ellie, no problem. It's what I...it's what we do."

They glanced at each other for a moment, when she first felt his presence and heard him. Her heart fluttered at the unmistakable deep voice. She let out a sigh of relief. John was here. She could sleep now and rest.

"He's here. He's finally here," she mumbled to Traynor and Nguyen, as her head began to list and her body started to relax.

Nguyen hoped she wasn't going into shock and was alarmed enough to raise her voice. "Whoa, whoa Ellie, wake-up now. No sleeping yet. Who is here? You mentioned he's here. Who are you talking about?"

Traynor felt a presence behind him and stood up to see a large rescue worker, clad only in black, standing behind him. It was hard to see his face clearly as his headgear was illuminated. But the black gear struck Traynor as odd, as the fire personnel all wore canvas reflective gear and the paramedics wore orange. Before he could speak, the man flashed a military ID and a very unique badge, that he'd only seen in training manuals at the academy. He recognized it at once, as they were not common by any means. This guy was some kind of high-level fed, and he was now directly addressing him.

"Lieutenant-Colonel John Casey. That's my wife in there. Move."

Traynor stepped aside as the man hurriedly lowered himself to the ground and peered inside. "How's my girl?" he roughly asked.

"Oh, John, thank God you're here. I was so afraid. Jennifer is numbing my leg so they can get me out." Tears started to roll down her cheeks as the relief set in that he was finally with her.

John carefully reached in and touched her hair causing her to let out a small whimper.

"Oh Baby, I'm so sorry you're hurt. Everything is going to be okay. They'll get you out."

Traynor knelt beside the large man and introduced himself. He knew when it was time to step back and stop giving orders and start receiving them, and this was clearly one of those times.

"I'm Officer Traynor, Sir. They want to start foaming down the car before they bring in the extrication equipment. Can you get this blanket securely around her to keep her dry?" he asked, handing him the blanket.

Casey took the blanket from the man and began to cover Ellie. "I'm going to wrap you up tight, Baby, then they're going to spray the car with some foam. You just keep talking to me okay? ignore the noise and don't be frightened. Are you ready Baby?" He squeezed her hand as she nodded.

"Ellie, you shouldn't feel so much pain in your leg now. Is the lidocaine push starting to work?," Nguyen inquired.

"Yes, it's starting to get numb." Ellie could hear the hoses spraying the foam around her.

"Good. Well, why don't you tell me more about your personal knight-in shining armour you've got here," she joked earning a smile from Ellie.

"This is my husband John. I knew he'd come as soon as he found out where I was," she sighed.

"Well I guess I should have said knight-in-black-armour. Where's your white horse?" Jennifer inquired as she grinned up at he big man.

Jennifer regretted her comment, as it seemed to upset Ellie, who now started to quietly sob.

"This car was his white horse and now it's wrecked," she whimpered.

"Oh honey, I don't give a damn about the car. I'm just glad you're alive. It seems like Vickie did her best to protect you and it scares the shit out of me to think what this would be like right now if you were in your convertible instead of Vickie. You made the right choice to take her. Don't you worry about a thing now."

Traynor and Nguyen smiled at the man who clearly had only one thing on his mind, and that was his wife.

Two firemen approached them, they were done spraying down the car, and with no words exchanged, indicated they wanted to start cutting Ellie out of the car.

John sighed heavily and knelt back down and took Ellie's hand. "They're going to start cutting away the car now. They'll keep you under the blanket so you don't get any debris on you, so, you just take it easy baby. I'll be right here. You ready?"

"Okay, but keep talking John, keep talking. It helps when I can hear you. I'm not so scared then."

John knew that when they pulled her from the wreckage and placed her on the back board, it was going to cause her pain, and inwardly hoped she'd keep talking to him, so he would remain calm.

The firemen began to cut the doors off of the car with hydraulic equipment. The passenger door was removed and the seat belts and airbags were cut away. They worked quickly and soon one of the men slipped into the wreckage with Ellie. John watched as a back board was handed down to him and saw him take Ellie by the shoulders and begin to gently pull her body onto the board. It was all he could do to not shove the man aside and do it himself but he tempered himself, knowing he would slow the process and just be in the way. The other fireman worked atop of the car pushing the board under her. Ellie cried out in pain as she was pulled onto the board.

"Oh, Oh God it hurts!" she cried.

John tamped down the anxiety he felt and yelled to her. "I know Baby, I know. Just hang on Sweetheart."

The firefighter gently spoke to her in a calming tone. "You're doing great Ellie, just breath and try and relax, I'm going to give you one more pull and you'll be free. Just hang with me Ellie okay?"

Jennifer decided that now was as good a time as any to ask about the car. "Why did you name your car Vickie, Ellie?" she inquired peering into Ellie's eye's to keep her distracted.

Traynor, who'd initially identified the car, quickly answered the paramedic. "It's an older Crown Victoria. They're very hard to find, and this one looked like she was a working beauty, um, still is for that matter," he added, directing his attentions to John when he saw the man visibly flinch at hearing his wife moan in pain as her leg was finally pulled free.

"Yeah, she's a beauty," John answered, never taking his eyes off of his wife as he spoke.

Ellie focused on the three of them talking while she was strapped to the back board.

"Uh, thanks, for taking care of her. I'm glad she wasn't alone for too long. What the hell happened anyways?"

"Well, I haven't spoken with any witnesses yet, but from what your wife tells me, her front bumper was clipped by a tractor-trailer that merged into her lane, she spun out and then was hit from behind and broke through the guard rail and rolled. She's lucky to be alive. Your car did a great job protecting her. I didn't know that year had airbags?"

"It didn't. I had them installed when I bought her, along with the navigation system. Best money I ever spent," he chillingly replied as he glanced at the wreckage. "So, was it an accident?"

"It sure seems that way. The truck didn't stop, so, he was more than likely not even aware of what happened. Once I get the accident report finished, we'll know more, but I don't think it was deliberate. Just the normal carelessness I see every day on the highway."

Everyone looked up as they heard the helicopter hovering overhead. The firefighters worked quickly to strap Ellie into a harness and hook her onto the wench from the helicopter. The firefighter that had been down in the car with her ran over to John.

"Okay, we're going to transport her now to Thousand Oaks Medical Center. I'm sorry, but there isn't room in the copter so you'll have to meet us there. We'll take good care of her and she's going to an excellent facility."

John nodded and maneuvered around the wreckage to get to Ellie. He took her hand and kissed it. "You're going first class on this trip Babe. I can't go along with you but you'll be fine and I'll be there in no time. Chuck is going to drive me and we'll both see you in a few minutes. I love you so much Ellie, I just...I" he had to choke back tears as they welled up in his eyes. "I love you, honey. I'll be with you in just a few minutes."

Ellie had tears in her eyes as she released her husbands hand and was lifted into the air to the safety of the hovering helicopter. Once she was securely on board the copter roared off to the hospital.

John sighed and rubbed his face. He quickly went to the trunk, rifled through the contents and pulled out a shot gun and two automatic pistols from the secret compartment as well as four grenades, one assault rifle and several clips of ammunition.

Traynor's eyes widened when he saw the weapons.

"Look you saw my ID, you know who I am. I can't just leave this stuff. It has to be secure."

Traynor nodded, saying nothing.

John walked back to him and thanked him. "Thank you. Really, thanks....I don't know wh..."

"It's all good. Go. Go be with her."

John shook his hand and then radioed Chuck in the Suburban.

"Hey, have you been monitoring all of this?"

"Yes, it sounds like she's going to be okay."

"Yep. Hey, I've got some weapons from the Vic that I need to get up into the Suburban. Can you send down a large nylon bag fast?"

"I'm on it."

John stood gazing up towards the highway and in no time, a large black bag came down the hill by rope.

John quickly loaded the munitions into the bag and tugged the line as Chuck pulled it up. John then scaled the hill quickly to join him.

Chuck was already loading the bag of weapons into the rear of the suburban when he saw Casey climb over the guard rail. As he moved to the front of the car, he paused when Casey didn't immediately join him. He watched as John glanced back down, one last time, at the wreckage below and then turned his back and appeared to be bending over. It was then that Chuck realized that John was throwing up. His heart filled with emotion as he watched. He knew what it meant and his heart warmed. Casey had been trained to remain calm and to be able to withstand horrible, horrible things. He knew Casey had been a prisoner of war, had been tortured and beaten during his career, and all of that had made him all the more invincible and strong. But, this was the type of situation he most feared, and one that he'd not been trained for and the stress had finally taken its toll. Casey had been truly frightened for the first time in his life.

Chuck quickly got into the drivers seat and rummaged in one of the field bags for a bottle of water. He also leaned over and opened the glove box. Sure enough, right next to the 9mm was a pack of gum that he'd seen Sarah stash there. He waited patiently as Casey got into the back seat.

"They're taking her to Thousand Oaks Medical Center. Can you put it into the nav system. I'm going to change back to my civilian clothes."

Chuck nodded, started the engine and entered the destination and hit the lights. He drove with an urgency, but not like he had done earlier.

"Here," Chuck said as he quietly passed the bottle of water back to Casey.

Casey looked up irritatedly at the interruption, then sighed and relaxed back into the seat. "Thanks," was all he said as he took the bottle and spent a minute to collect his thoughts and regroup. He noted his hands were slightly shaking when he downed the cool water. When he was done, he was about to begin dressing when Chuck again handed him something from the drivers seat.

Casey took it and nodded when he realized Chuck had given him a stick of gum.

"Thank you Casey," Chuck quietly said. "Thank you for taking care of her. For getting to her and being with her. Thank you for loving her."

Chuck had to stop talking as he was getting choked up and a quick glance in the rear view mirror showed the same emotions were quickly playing across Casey's face.