Why was she on the road when she should have walked to her shift at Firehouse 15 not been driving a Honda Civic, of all things, in the opposite direction of her job?
He parked behind her and got out. “What are you doing here?”
“Hey, Chief.” She pulled at the door, hands protected by light driving gloves. “Bring the spreaders?”
“Nothing like the Jaws of Life in the Chief Car.” He peered in the car window. A youngish African-American woman was unconscious in the front seat. Her seatbelt was still clasped, and her air bag hadn’t deployed. Luckily, most of the tree was on the passenger side.
“Did you see it happen?”
“Nope, found her like this.” Erin brushed off the accumulated snow on top of the woman’s car. “She’s been here for a while. Still breathing, though.”
“Did you call it in?” Noah asked.
Erin’s brown eyes gave him a ‘duh’ message. “Yes, I called it in, Chief. If you’ve got nothing, we need Yoda.”
“Yoda?” Noah followed her back to her car.
“My officer’s Halligan.” Unlike the standard thirty-inch Halligan, an officer’s Halligan was only eighteen inches long. She hefted it from its spot underneath her driver’s seat. “My Seattle team’s going away present.”
“Nobody names a Halligan.”
“I did. Yoda is short but strong. Anything useful in the Chief Car?”
He went back to his SUV and came back with two complete sets of gloves, helmets, protective goggles, and turnout jackets. “Two of everything, even SCBAs”
“Who wears these?” Erin asked as they shoved their coats under the turnout jackets. They had to help each other put on the goggles and helmets because their winterwear made it difficult for small movements. She got the black helmet, and he used his own white helmet.
“My aide.” She raised her eyebrows, and he amended his statement. “If I had one.”
“Maybe the imaginary aide could carry the imaginary Jaws of Life.”
“I don’t recommend punching the window. No extra shield. Safety first,” he said. Had the passenger side been accessible, they’d have broken the window with minimal flying glass danger to the patient. Instead, they rechecked their goggles to protect their eyes from any flying shrapnel from forcing the door open.
Erin said, “Come on, Yoda. ‘Judge me by my size, do you’?”
“‘For my ally is the Force, and a powerful ally it is,’” Noah quoted back without thinking.
“So is physics.” Erin stood by the door handle, fit the Halligan into the crack between the door and frame, and leaned backward. The driver’s side door began to creak; its edge started to peel away from the body. “Why can’t the Chief Car have a sledge or something?”
She had a good point. A sledgehammer could have pounded the Halligan with more concentrated force. “I have a snow shovel, snow chains, and salt.”
“How about a first aid kit and trauma shears? I don’t have those.” She widened the space by the door.
“In the back.” He ran to his vehicle, opened the tailgate, moved the shovel away, and located emergency first-aid kit. Outside of helping dig out McClunis when the ceiling collapsed, if Noah was doing the rescuing, they were in serious trouble.
The door came free, and they worked together to pull it open. Erin used the trauma shears to cut off the seatbelt. “Still has a pulse,” Erin announced.
“Move her to the back seat of the Chief Car?” Noah asked. They needed a gurney to keep her flat and a cervical spine collar to stabilize her neck. However, the patient might be hypothermic from being stuck in the car for hours.
“I’ll hold her neck, and you carry her,” Erin said.
“Hang on.” Noah opened the SUV’s back doors and swept all the files on the floor. By mutual accord, they dropped the turnout jackets and their winter coats in his driver’s seat to improve their mobility. The less they moved her, the better. They would be cold, but it was a small loss to keep the victim from getting paralyzed.
Noah knelt, ignoring the snow soaking through his pants, and wormed his hands under the victim’s legs and shoulders. Erin fitted herself over Noah’s shoulder, twisting so she could place her hands around the woman’s neck. “Count of three?” Erin said.
“One, two, three.” On Noah’s third beat, they moved together. He held the woman in front of him and Erin walked backward, keeping the neck neutral. They maneuvered to slide the victim in feet first. Erin kept her hands where they were, and Noah used the silver exposure blanket to cover the woman. For good measure, he turned up the heat to maximum and blanketed her with his extra set of turnouts with Erin’s jacket still inside it. Noah looped his turnout jacked over Erin’s shoulders before he put his jacket back on.
Still holding her hands in place, Erin glanced over at him. Her eyes were bright and her face pink from the cold. Naked was hot, but this might be hotter. She was in HIS turnouts, with his name branded on her.
