Chapter 6: A Long Night

Summary: Visit with Carlson, LONG shift and, you asked for it, explanation on Catie (finally)!
A/N: Sorry this took so long, I haven't been able to access the site until yesterday! Is anybody still reading this? I didn't get many reviews for the last chapter.

"Nikki, Mr. Carlson would like to see you," my Spanish teacher said handing me a hall pass.
"Thank you," I said stepping out of the room.
"Ah, Nikki," Mr. Carlson said looking up. "Why don't you sit down?"
I sat down quietly.
"Relax, you're not in that much trouble."
I smiled
"That's better. Okay, well first of all, how are you adjusting?"
"I'm doing okay."
"You're part of the EMT program, aren't you?"
"Yeah, Alex is my uncle."
"That's good. Now my second question. Where, may I ask, were you yesterday?"
"Let me give you the reader's digest version. Boyfriend from Chicago, physical abuse, and a court date next week...I was talking to Alex about everything. About five minutes after I got there I realized I was supposed to be here. I totally forgot, I'm sorry."
"You know what, don't worry about it. You're new here so I'll let you off the hook this time with a warning. Don't do it again, okay?"
"No problem. Thank you."
"Are you going to miss any school next week?"
"A couple of days, probably."
"Don't worry about homework, you can make it up when you get back."
"Thank you."
He signed my pass and gave it back to me.
"Okay, why don't you head back to class?"
"Okay," I said leaving the room.
I ran into Jamie in the hall on the way to class.
"Hey, did you talk to Carlson yet?"
"Yeah, he let me off with a warning."
"No fair! He'd never let me off."
"I'm new."
"You're lucky is what you are!"
"I better get back to class."
"See you later."

"Man, the rain sure is coming down!"
"No kidding!"
"I don't get this Spanish worksheet!"
"Let me see," Val said sitting next to me.
We started working on homework.
Hank, Tyler and Jamie came in and started doing homework.
"Hey Jamie, I got a letter from Catie today," Val said looking up.
"Catie Roth?" I asked.
Val nodded.
"How's she doing?"
"She's doing great but misses Kingsport. She said her mom loves her new job."
"That's good. Does she like Washington, DC?" Jamie asked.
"She loves it. She said she loves living in a big city where shops don't close at 9 every night."
"That's good. I'm glad she's settling in okay."
"Yeah, she said school's actually going okay. She also said she's glad you two are friends now because she's got someone else now."
"Who, Catie?" Tyler asked.
"The one and only."
"Who would have thought?" Tyler commented.
"I know. She's got a lot more confidence then she used to."
"That's good. I'm glad she's happy," Jamie said.
"Hey guys," Alex said coming in, "I need all of you to stay on duty tonight. The roads are a mess and the National Weather Service is advising everyone to stay off the roads, which means no reinforcements."
"No problem," Hank said.
"Hey Alex, how's your back?" Jamie asked.
We all looked at each other and tried not to laugh.
"It's okay right now, but I'm leaving soon," he said glaring at Jamie. "I want you to stay here for dinner tonight as well," he said leaving.
"Well, so much for Chinese," Tyler said.
The alarm went off.
"So much for dinner!" Hank exclaimed.
We hurried to the ambulance.
"What do we have?" Tyler asked.
"MVA, not too serious though."
"Good."
We got to the accident and check vitals.
Val and I moved over to a girl with her leg bent back.
"Hank! She's unconscious," Val called.
"Nikki, get the stretcher and splint. Val, help her."
"On it!"
Val and I ran to the ambulance and grabbed the stretcher and leg splint.
We supported her leg and splinted it, then we moved her onto the stretcher and moved into the ambulance. We drove to the hospital and dropped off the patient.
"I'm soaked!"
"No kidding," I said wringing water out of my hair.
We were on our way to the station when we were called over the radio.
"Vehicle 156, do you copy? Over."
"This is vehicle 156, over," Hank said into the radio.
"24 year old adult male, respiratory arrest on 2420 Horton Road. Can you respond? Over," the dispatcher said.
"This is vehicle 156. We're on it," Hank said turning on the siren, "ETA 3 minutes, over."
We arrived at the house and grabbed the equipment bags and stretcher and hurried into the house.

5 calls later we were finally back at the station.
"Hey guys, I know it's late, but we need to finish chores. Alex will kill us if we don't get it done."
"Okay," I said standing up."
There was a loud clap of thunder and then the power went out leaving us in darkness.
"What was that?" I said sitting down again.
"The power must be out," Hank said.
"Well, duh!"
"I'll find a flashlight," Jamie said feeling around the counters in the rec room. "Oh, here's one."
Jamie brought the flashlight to the couches.
"How are we going to get any calls?"
"Our pagers still work," Tyler said.
"Maybe we should call Alex," Val said.
"Not a bad idea...Nikki?" Hank said slowly.
"Oh no! Alex is going to be mad enough that we're calling him in the middle of the night. If I call him, well, it won't be good, but if you call him," I said looking at Hank, "he'll know something's up. Please?"
"Fine, I'll call him," Hank said, "but you owe me big!"
"Fine. While you talk to him, you might want to mention that we couldn't finish chores."
"Fine," Hank said taking another flashlight and left to call Alex.
"Okay guys," Hank said coming back in, "Alex said to hang in there and don't worry about chores, as long as we finish them before we leave tomorrow. He also said we'd better get some sleep while we can."
"Okay."
We finished picking up the rec room then went to bed.

Well, what do you think? Please r&r.