“Dispatch to Engine two.” Arnold’s voice crackled.
“Engine two,” Ralph responded.
“Engine two, I need you to head to the intersection of Elm and Maple for a car crash. No fatalities, but paramedics have already transported one of the vehicle operators to the hospital. Another ambulance is on scene for the male involved.”
“Received. En route now,” Ralph radioed, then turned us around and headed south towards the accident.
I sat up straighter in my seat, but was otherwise calm. There was no mention of an active fire, which meant it wasn’t a hot call for us, it was more precautionary than anything else. Still, Ralphflipped on the sirens and hurtled the engine down the streets, quickly closing in on our destination.
The flashing lights of the ambulance and police cruisers came into view first. The fluorescent yellow jacket of an officer directing traffic, second. And third?
Third was the mangled scrap of a red Jetta that would’ve been unrecognizable if I didn’t spend so much time inside of it.
Darcy.
The thundering in my ears had to be something else because my heart had left my body. It was as if my lungs were trying to breathe through a vice-like grip that wouldn’t let them expand, and I was suffocating.
Flashbacks of a different car, a different wreck, a different woman, flashed through my mind, and the panic seized me. The blood. The quiet after the ear-splitting crunch of metal into metal. The smell of burning rubber, and gasoline. I was seven all over again. Except this time, I wasn’t helpless. I didn’t have to stay in the backseat of a car while the life slowly left my mother’s eyes. I could do something.
Ralph hadn’t even brought the engine to a complete stop when I was bolting out of it. I could hear my crew shouting my name behind me, but I wasn’t stopping. Not for them, not for my job, not for anything. The only thing that mattered in this world was Darcy. I could save her. Iwouldsave her. She couldn’t leave me too. Not like this.
The fifty pounds of fire gear I was wearing couldn’t slow me down, adrenaline pumping through my veins as I ran. Dispatch had said medics already transported the other driver to the hospital, so that was where I ran, my boots pounding into the pavement with every stride.
A car flew up along side of me. A cruiser.
“Get in! I’ll bring you to her,” the officer yelled through the open window.
Changing direction, I threw myself into the car without buckling. “Please. Hurry,” I panted, but it wasn’t from running, I just couldn’t breathe.
“On it.” He flipped the lights and sirens on, speeding off toward the hospital.
The town whizzed past the window, but I didn’t see any of it. My hands trembled uncontrollably in my lap, and my head spun. I ripped my helmet off and tried to focus on what was around me, but everything inside me was screaming for attention. My lungs. My head. My heart. It was all screaming, and it all screamed the same thing.
Darcy!
Over.
And over.
The hospital came into view, the cruiser screeching to a halt in front of the ambulance bay, and I leapt from the car. “Thank you!” I shouted, already halfway to the entrance.
The nurses at the desk snapped their heads up, their eyes alert and ready, clearly expecting paramedics with a patient. When they saw me, some of their tension subsided. Until they really looked at me.
“Darcy Adler,” I said, approaching one of them.
“I’m sorry?” she asked, concern lighting her features.
“Darcy Adler!” I shouted, my fist gripping my helmet tightly. “She was in a car crash and brought in here probably twenty minutes ago. Where is she?”
The nurse jumped slightly at my voice, her concern mixing with fear, which made me want to yell more because she didn’t do anything to warrant my rage. What’s more? It didn’t matter that I was still in my uniform—a shouting man in a hospital was always going to be a shouting man in a hospital. Meaning I had one more shot at this before they called security, if they hadn’t already.
I took a deep breath, or I tried to. “Darcy Adler. She’s pregnant and was in an accident. Do you know where they took her?”
The nurse’s eyes softened with sympathy. “Let me see.” She reached for a tablet and began tapping away. A minute went by before she looked back at me, eyes taking me in. “Is this work related?”
I shook my head, and immediately cursed myself. If it were work related, would it get me to her faster? I was seconds away from tearing off down the nearest hallway and bursting into every room until I found her.
“What’s your relation?” she asked.
