Harvard nodded.
“Good. Hurry the fuck up!” I ordered before moving back through the window. “Michelle,” I called out, my voice much more soothing than the tone I’d just used with Eric.
“Yeah,” she answered, sounding dazed.
“I’m going to cut you out of here, but again, I need you as still as possible. It’s also going to get loud as my guys work to get you free, alright?”
“I’m scared,” she confessed.
“I know, sugar. Do me a favor?”
She nodded.
“Keep your eyes on me. As long as you’re in here, I’m right here with you.”
“Wh-what’s that?” she asked, anxiously, as the loud hum of the jaws began its work, causing the car to vibrate.
“That’s my team, working to get you free. Eyes on me,” I ordered and those honey brown orbs, full of fear, turned back on me. “That’s it. Michelle,” I began, tugging a piece of the seatbelt and using the knife to begin sawing at it. “What’s your last name?”
“Clarke.”
“Michelle Clarke. Beautiful name. How old is your son?” I periodically looked between her and the work of my hands, unable to keep my gaze off of her for too long.
“He’s six … and a half.”
I chuckled. “That half’s important. He like sports?”
“Baseball and football.”
“No kidding? My kid brother plays a little football. I bet they’d get along.”
I continued talking about any and every thing, asking questions that came to mind just to keep her distracted. Eventually, everything fell away. The fact that she was upside down in her car. The noise of my squad working. Even the knowledge that this car could explode without a moment’s notice. It all fell by the wayside, and it was just Michelle and I making conversation. Something that’d never happened on a rescue before.
“We’re almost there,” I told her, when I was almost finished with the sawing of the seatbelt.
“Carter, take this,” Captain Waverly stated, pushing in a neck brace through the driver’s side window.
“Got it,” I called back. “Michelle, sugar, I’ve got to put this around your neck. It’s a neck brace to keep you stabilized while my guys pull you out. It’s just for your safety.” I carefully placed the brace around her neck. “I’m just about done with the seatbelt, and when I am, my guys are going to yank the door open and pull you onto a gurney, okay?” I told her as calmly as I could, and went back to the last quarter inch of the seatbelt until I finally got it out. I pressed the walkie talkie on my shoulder.
“All clear.”
Soon after that message, the driver’s side door made a horrible scraping sound as my guys pulled it open.
“What’s that?” Michelle shrieked, grabbing my shoulder. She was unable to turn her head due to the brace.
I reached for her outstretched hand, taking it in my ungloved grasp. “It’s my squad, we’re getting you out of here.”
“Don’t leave me, Carter.”
If I’d been standing, I’m not sure I would’ve been able to keep myself upright the first time I heard her say my name.
“I’m not going anywhere, sugar.” I squeezed her hand tighter, and didn’t let it go, even as my guys loaded her onto the gurney after they pulled her out of the car. I closely followed, pulling myself over the center console of her car and crawling until I was completely out the other side, and standing next to her as she laid on the gurney. The paramedics told my squad they got it from there. I heard them tell me they could manage, but Michelle’s pleas to not leave her outweighed them all.
I peered down at the male paramedic and gave him a death glare before turning back to Michelle. No one asked me to move out of the way after that.
“Carter,” Michelle said my name as we arrived at the ambulance.
The paramedics pulled the doors open and out of my peripheral I saw them glance at one another, deciding who was going to ask me to move so they could load her in. It was selfish of me. She needed to be checked out. She needed medical attention, at the very least on that cut above her eye, but I wouldn’t … no, couldn’t let go of her hand or her gaze.
