"9-1-1, what's your emergency?"
Grace Ryder answered what felt like her millionth call of the day. With no answer on the other end Grace's brows furrowed.
"9-1-1 is anybody there?" She repeated.
"I n-n-need an am-am…" A female voice stuttered but seemed to taper off.
"You need an ambulance. Okay hun, can you tell me your name and an address please." Grace said.
"Bailey W-willi-ah-ms." The girl said.
"Hi Bailey, my name is Grace." Grace said.
"H-h-hi." Bailey said.
The girl sounded younger, maybe 16 or so. Her speech was slow and slurred, not like she was drunk but maybe cold.
"Bailey you're stuttering a lot. Are you cold?" Grace asked.
"Ye-ah." Bailey replied.
Grace nodded, her confusion growing. It was mid-July in Texas where the hell was Bailey that she could be so cold that her speech was so slurred
"Okay hun where are you?" Grace prompted again.
Bailey could only mutter, trying to get her mouth to form words but having a difficult time.
"Okay Bailey, I'm going to find you one moment." Grace said, rapidly typing trying to triangulate Bailey's position. Finally the computer dinged and Grace nodded to herself.
"I have you at 447 Hawthorne Avenue, give me some indication that that's right Bailey." Grace said hoping that Bailey hadn't passed out.
"Ye-ye." Bailey muttered slowly.
"Okay Bailey, EMTs are on their way and they will be there in five minutes. I need you to stay awake for me Bailey," But there was little movement on the other line before, Grace could hear Bailey's shivers, as unsettling as it was. However, now there was only subtle breathing and even that seemed labored. Grace muted herself and hit her radio. "Engine 126 be advised adolescent female, age unknown, name Bailey Williams now nonresponsive due to unknown causes."
"Dispatch this is Engine 126, we are less than a minute out." Captain Strand's voice came over the radio and Grace nodded before switching back to the call.
"Bailey, come on answer me." She pleaded.
With no answer at the door Captain Owen Strand called for the battering ram and Judd delivered. The small townhome was in a quiet neighborhood, very white picket fence. The moment they stepped into the house they all paused.
"It's freezing in here?" Marjan said, wrapping her turn-out coat tighter around her as she and the rest of the 126 spread out to find their patient.
"Well it's like 104° outside so I guess they like it cold." TK spoke up from behind them.
It'd been four months since TK had made the transition to be an EMT and he couldn't be happier.
"Anybody seen the patient yet?" TK asked.
"I've got her!" Judd yelled from somewhere deeper in the house.
TK, Nancy, and Tommy all ran towards Judd's voice and they found him on the floor of the girl's room, the girl passed out on the floor, her phone sitting next to her. The EMTs kneeled next to her as they took in the situation. She looked fine, no visible signs of distress but when he put the back of his hand against his forehead he recoiled.
"Cap she's freezing." He said pulling a blanket off of the girl's bed and wrapping her in it.
Nancy took her temperature and her eyes widened.
"Her temp is 94° and dropping." She said.
"What the actual hell?" TK asked, placing the cardio leads on the girls chest.
Judd picked up the phone and put it on speaker holding it up so that Tommy could speak.
"Dispatch we need a run down, anything you can find on this girl." Tommy said.
"Name is Bailey Williams, I've checked her social media and it was pretty bare," Grace's voice came through the phone. "She's 16, lives with her foster family, I've got some medical notic…oh god."
"Grace what?" Tommy said pulling the heating blanket out of the med bag and wrapping it around Bailey's body while TK started an IV.
"She's got a medical condition called Thermoregulatory Dysfunction. Says here that it was caused by a severe spinal injury from an injury to her T6 vertebrae when she was three years old." Grace relayed.
"Thermoregula- what?" Judd asked.
"The inability to control one's body temperature. We need warm saline, now." Tommy said.
TK grabbed a bag of saline and looked around for a way to warm it up. His eyes fell on a heating blanket that seemed to be plugged in a turned on already. He hoped around the people in the room and quickly wrapped the blanket around the saline bag.
"Come on, come on." He muttered, waiting for the heat to penetrate the plastic even slightly. Finally the saline was warm enough and he moved back to his original position and attached the line to Bailey's IV.
TK handed the IV bag to his dad who was standing behind him.
"Squeeze." He spoke calmly but urgently and Captain Strand nodded, holding the bag and squeezing it.
Nancy took Bailey's temp again and it was slowly climbing until Bailey's eyes finally fluttered open. She moved quickly spooked by the number of people around her. Her head swiveled, seeing everybody around her she pushed herself so far back into a corner that TK was scared that she'd rip her IV out from moving too fast.
"Hey, hey, you're okay. Calm down," TK said, showing her his hands to let her know that they weren't a threat. "We're EMTs, we're just here to help."
Bailey was still shivering; her temp couldn't have been normal yet.
"Bailey, my name's TK, can you come out here so that we can warm you up please." He asked.
Bailey was cautious but she nodded and moved out from the corner. TK helped her lean against the side of her bed and he wrapped the heating blanket around her shoulders. By the time she was more aware of her surroundings Captain Strand and the other firefighters had been called out again leaving Tommy, Nancy, and TK alone with Bailey until she could be moved.
"I'm sorry for reacting like that. I get confused until my temp gets back into a more normal range. I'll still be slow for a bit." Bailey said, her head bobbing as she struggled to keep her eyes open.
Nancy moved closer and Bailey jumped a bit.
"Sorry, I'm just going to check your temperature." Nancy said.
"Oh, no need. Can you pass me my phone please." Bailey asked, pointing to her phone that was across the room.
Tommy handed Bailey her cell phone and after a moment Bailey turned her phone around revealing a series of numbers and body temperatures, the top reading 97.5°.
"Well that's convenient, how does it get the numbers?" Tommy asked."
"I had a port put in when I was seven," Bailey explained lifting her shirt a bit to show the port in her side. TK nodded; it resembled an insulin pump that diabetics used. "It basically tracks my body temperature every hour and relays it to my phone. Normally it alerts me when I get too high or too low but the app was updating and by the time it alerted me I was already too low for my medication or any normal measures to be effective."
"So this has happened before?" Tommy asked, sitting back on her heels.
"Full drops don't happen very often but I'll get partials a few times a week. A lot of it depends on my own health, my surroundings, and the weather." Bailey explained.
TK nodded and looked to Tommy.
"What do you normally have the thermostat set at?" TK asked.
"Normally about 72°, why?" Bailey asked.
"Because it was at 68° when we got here." TK said.
"No, th-that's not right. Who sets a thermostat that low anyway?" Bailey asked, her eyes wild until she let her head fall back against the bed and she groaned. "Colby."
"Who's Colby?" Tommy asked.
"My foster brother, he's nineteen. He was here this afternoon before football practice. He's never really understood the whole temperature regulation thing and since it's so hot out he turns down the temp when he gets home and sometimes forgets to turn it back up. I should have checked it but I fell asleep." Bailey said.
"How long have you been with this family?" Tommy asked.
"Almost a year, it's the longest I've ever been with a family." Bailey muttered.
They heard a commotion in the front room and her heart rate jumped causing the heart monitor to beep a bit more rapidly.
"Bailey? Bailey where the hell are you?" A woman's voice filled the house, she didn't sound particularly happy or concerned.
"In my room." Bailey called back, trying to push herself up but TK kept a hand on her shoulder, keeping her down.
"Take a breath, slow your heart rate." He said.
The woman appeared in the bedroom doorway and took everything in.
"What the hell happened to the door?" She asked.
TK was surprised as to why her first question wasn't if Bailey was okay. Tommy stood and approached the woman.
"Are you Mrs. Williams?" She asked.
"No, my name is Rachel Hubbard, I'm Bailey's foster mother. What the hell is going on here?" She asked.
"We received a call from Bailey and when we arrived she was unconscious so we had to use the battering ram to get it open. I'm sure you're aware of Bailey's medical condition. Her body temperature was dangerously low, we were able to bring it up within a normal range but now her heart rate seems to be a bit high." Tommy explained.
"Well, thank you for your concern and I'm sure that Bailey will be fine now. I've told her time and time again to make sure that she's on top of this but she doesn't seem to listen very well." Mrs. Hubbard laughs though her face shows little amusement.
TK's eyes watch the heart monitor as it speeds up again and Bailey shifts uncomfortably. TK exchanged a look with Nancy who could read the tension between Bailey and her foster mother just as easily as TK could and she nodded.
"Cap, it's rising again, I think we should get her in for a cardio check-up yeah?" TK said.
Tommy turned and looked at the other EMTs before looking at Bailey.
"I think you're right Strand." Tommy said.
"I'm sorry what's happening?" Mrs. Hubbard asked.
"Bailey's heart rate is a bit concerning so we're going to take her in to get looked at. Strand, Gillian let's get her loaded. Bailey, do you think you can walk?" Tommy asked.
Bailey nodded slowly.
"I'll help you." TK offered, helping the teen to her feet.
Nanci gathered the gear and they began making their way out of the house. Mrs. Hubbard followed them out but as soon as Bailey was in the back of the ambulance she paused.
"You're welcome to ride along Mrs. Hubbard." Tommy said.
"No, no I'll meet you later. I've got to call my husband and figure out how we're going to pay for this." Mrs. Hubbard said walking back up towards the house.
TK's eyebrows arched in surprised before he pulled the ambulance doors closed. As soon as they pulled away from the house Bailey relaxed against the wall of the ambulance. TK nodded as her heart rate slowly leveled out.
"I take it you guys don't have the best relationship." TK said, pulling on another set of gloves to take out Bailey's IV.
"That's putting it mildly." Bailey laughed.
TK gently took Bailey arm and Bailey looked away.
"Um, I rarely click with my foster families." She said.
TK cocked a brow at Bailey's behavior towards the needle.
"Not a fan of needles?" He asked.
"I tolerate them," Bailey laughed. "It helps to talk."
TK nodded, continuing his work.
"So, they've never seen you in a full drop before?" He asked.
Bailey shook her head.
"Normally I catch it in time. I had one once a few months ago but I was at school so they only saw me when I got home from the hospital. They were mad because of the bill. They don't have to pay it because I'm a ward of the state but they still get mad. I was grounded for two weeks." She said.
"That must have been an awkward ride home." TK said.
"It would have been if they had been the ones to take me home. Or even bothered to show up for that matter." Bailey said.
TK was definitely shocked by that; he opened his mouth to say something but Nancy spoke up before he could.
"TK, we're here." Nancy called from the front.
"Love hospitals." Baily muttered.
TK smirked.
"Who said anything about the hospital?" He asked.
Bailey quirked a brow.
"All we said was that we were bringing you in." TK said as the back doors opened revealing the inside of the firehouse.
"Bailey, welcome to Fire House 126." Tommy said, helping Bailey out of the ambulance.
Bailey looked around and smiled.
"This is so cool." She muttered.
She heard a chuckle from above her and she looked around to see Captain Strand standing on the landing above her.
"I'm glad you like it," He said. "You hungry? We're making sandwiches."
"I could eat." Bailey nodded.
Bailey followed TK into the kitchen where she could see the firefighters from her house.
"Hey Bailey! Good to see ya movin' kid," The tallest firefighter said. "I'm Judd by the way. And this is Paul Strickland, Marjan Marwani, Mateo Chavez, our Captain, Owen Strand, and you already know Tommy, Nancy, and TK."
"It's good to meet you all. And thank you for ya know, saving me." Bailey said.
"Our pleasure Bailey, now come on and make yourself some food. You don't have any allergies do you?" Captain Strand asked.
"No sir, not unless you put Benadryl in sandwiches." Bailey laughed.
"That we do not and it's Owen." Owen replied.
Bailey smiled and quickly made herself a sandwich before sitting with the rest of the team. At first she was shy, putting up a front of professionalism and respect but soon she relaxed and let her guard down, joking with the friendly people around her.
TK held back watching the girl interact with the rest of the team. Owen noticed his son's absence and walked over to him.
"TK, you okay?" He asked.
"Yeah," TK said. "Just thinking about something that Bailey said on our way here. Her foster parents didn't even bother to come to the hospital last time this happened. In fact, they grounded her for having had a full drop in the first place."
Owen looked at his son in surprise.
"Grounded her for a medical condition she can't control?" He asked.
TK nodded.
"We ran into the foster mother before coming back she basically said that it was Bailey's fault anything like this ever happened. That she needed to be more aware and on top of her condition." He said.
Owen looked over at the young girl laughing with his crew.
"Yeah, well we'll see about that." He said.