For Those I've Saved Before
Rox and Ethan were in the ambulance waiting for a call. They had gotten a heads up for a possible collision 7 minutes away from their location and were on standby. But not for long, an operator came over the radio:
"Angel's Base we've got a 2 car head-on collision on South Bank St. Officers and fire crew are on their way but you'll make it before them. The caller said 4 injured, no other information was given."
Rox was already headed that way, "This is Angel's Base rig 1 responding, we're on our way,"
"Confirmed, I'll let the other responders know." The radio went silent.
They came up on the accident, "Shit," Ethan let out, hopping out of the ambulance with this medic bag slung across his shoulder.
The sight before them was bad. Two cars involved, a man was standing outside the first overturned car looking dazed. The car was in shambles, not an undented piece of metal in sight.
The second car lay across the street, it's entire front end smashed, and the airbags busting out the windows. The driver side door was open and the woman was sitting on the curb holding her arm, shoulder dislocated. She had a trail of blood running down the side of her face.
Ethan ran up to the dazed man by the upturned car, "Sir, look at me," Ethan assessed the man's injuries, which seemed to be rather mild. He gave him a gauze pad to hold against his head before turning his attention to the upturned car.
He could hear someone crying within, he knelt by the driver side door, gazing in. A woman sat in the passenger side, and an 8-year-old child was unconscious in the backseat.
"Ma'am, look at me, I'm going to get you out alright?" He was trying to calm her down, she was crying for Ethan to get the child out of the back first
Ethan went to the other side of the car, laying his bag down beside it. He removed a cervical collar and placed it around the woman's neck, "Stay still, I'm going to open the door alright?" He pulled the handle and the door began to open, the car shifted slightly.
He held on to the woman's shoulders as he unbuckled the seat belt, pulling her out of the car gently.
"Rox! Get the backboard over here." She had been tending to the female driver.
The woman was placed on the backboard then on the gurney. Another rig drove up just then and loaded the woman up, tending to the woman's and man's injuries.
The kid, Ethan needed to get him out now. Just then, somewhere beneath the car, a flame sparked to life igniting the gasoline that had been pooling beneath. It engulfed the car in flames.
"Marcus! Marcus! Save him! Please!" The woman in the ambulance was yelling, struggling against the straps of the backboard.
"Ethan! The fire crew is 1 minute out, we can't risk another explosion!" She was
shouting at him from the other car, keeping her distance.
The kid must have woken up just then, he started screaming and kicking from the back seat. That was it, Ethan was going in.
He raced towards the burning car, making his way to the side the child was in.
"Ethan!" Rox was running closer.
"Stay back!" He demanded, she stopped.
The flames were growing, he needed to get the kid out. Injuries be damned, he took his pocket knife with the glass breaker on it.
"Take your jacket and cover yourself with it!" He yelled to the kid, he listened.
Ethan smashed the window with his knife, causing shards to scatter everywhere. One flew backward at him, lodging itself in his forearm. It created a deep long gash, at least 4 inches long. He used his gloved hand to gently pull it out and throw it on the ground, returning his attention to the kid. He grabbed the jacket from the kid and laid it across the now shattered window.
"It's getting hot, get me out of here!" Marcus cried.
"I've got you, I'm going to unbuckle your seatbelt and pull you out, got it?" He was trying to work quickly. The kid nodded.
"One, two, three" Ethan was pulling the kid from his upside-down position, out of the car. The flames licking at his feet.
Ethan had the kid sitting in his arms and was meeting Rox with the gurney. They were loading the injured into the ambulances, getting ready to head back when the fire truck finally arrived. Their response times were horrible, Ethan though.
After tending to his patients, Rox pulled Ethan aside to an empty stool near the wound care station.
"You're an idiot." She said, pulling gauze out of the station.
"Sorry," he said, laying his arm down on the table. Blood had run down his arm and hand through the bandages he had applied in the ambulance.
She began cleaning the wound, not saying anything.
"You could have been killed, I told you to wait for the fire crew."
"The kid would have burned alive before they made it, Rox. You saw their response times, it's horrible." He argued.
She was suturing the man's arm, "I don't understand you, Ethan." She said quietly.
"I didn't ask you to."
She looked at his face, searching his green eyes,
"You've got the worst hero complex of anyone I've ever met. You act as though your life is less valuable than the people you're trying to save.
You're always putting your life in danger no matter what. One of these days it's going to be your life that needs saving and you're going to have pushed everyone away until there's no one there to save you." She finished, they were now sitting in silence.
He hung his head, "If others get to live because I put my life on the line. That's all that matters. I would do it all over again in a heartbeat for those I've saved before."
"You're life is just as valuable as those you're trying to save." Rox placed her hand on the side of his face, "Why can't you see that? You're loved and respected and if died, every single person in this ER would be devastated. Why can't you see that." She finished her last sentence matter of factly, she could feel her voice start to shake.
He looked down at his lap, not saying anything.
"I need someone to save me from myself." Is all he said, before looking back up at her with sadness sitting in his eyes.
She grabbed his neck and pulled her forehead to his. She could feel his breathing become deeper and irregular, realizing he had begun to cry.
"I've got you," she whispered.