Leaning over a little further, he reached between her kicking legs to release the clasp on the car seat.
In his head, he said a little prayer of thanks that whoever had decided to take her in the car had at least buckled her in safely.
If that person was one who survived the crash, it was something in their favor.
Lifting the clasp up, he had to work it gently over her head, some of her wild curls were tangled around her face, grasping at the straps restraining her.
"Hey... hey..." He spoke to her softly and hissed in commiseration as he lifted the straps up and away from her head. "It's okay... It's going to be okay."
As soon as the straps fell against the back of the car seat it was like some kind of a spring-loaded seat.
The little girl was up and out of the car seat, rocketing into his arms.
The impact of her against his chest felt like a wrecking ball, making him exhale in one harsh woosh of breath.
"Ohkay." He tried not to groan as he stepped back and lifted her from the car.
One ambulance rumbled up along the gravel along the side of the train tracks. Another two followed it, fanning out along the edge near the access road.
The EMTs in the first ambulance weren't people he recognized. They must be from another firehouse nearby.
But the second and third pairs of EMTs were well known to him. The first ones out of their rig were Harmony & Vega who were assigned to Ambo Nineteen. The other two were Ramsey and Raffe in Ambo Sixty-five.
Harmony came up to him and the squirming toddler in his arms.
"Hey, Duke. Who do we have here?"
He turned his head toward the car where Faust was shaking his head.
With a heavy sigh, Kaleo looked back at Harmony.
"She might be the only survivor of this crash."
He felt tears in his eyes and struggled to hold his emotions in check.
"Lucky for her, huh?" Harmony looked at Vega. "Go on and see if you can help the others. I'll stay here with Duke and take care of this little sweetie."
Vega nodded at Harmony and gave Duke and chin lift. "I'll be right over there if you need me."
Kaleo tried to move the little girl so Harmony could get a good look at the child, but every time he tried to adjust his holdon her, the little girl would twist back into his arms, wrapping herself around him like she was climbing a tree.
"Hey now... This is Harmony. She's just trying to see if you've been hurt."
He tried again to turn her around so that Harmony could examine her, but the little girl twisted around and hid her face in his chest. "Mm mmm."
That was a definite no.
He heard Harmony laughing softly beside him.
"It looks like she feels safer where she is, why don't you bring her to the ambo with me and sit down on the back bumper. She might settle down if you're sitting down."
Kaleo nodded. He was fairly tall and with nowhere to relax, the little girl might just be holding onto him because she was afraid of falling.
She didn't know him at all, and she was already afraid from the crash.
He wanted to make her feel as comfortable as he could.
"Okay, sweetie," he gave her a few pats on her back, being careful not to put too much pressure on her back, they were still trying to assess any injuries and with everything that had gone on there was a chance that adrenaline was still pumping through her veins. She could be injured and they wouldn't realize it just yet.
