“Hey, are you okay to do this?” he asked. I turned to look at him, noticing the way his eyes searched my face with nothing but concern. Stubble grew on his face, a dark five ‘o clock shadow that made him seem even more intense than he already was. I wanted to touch my hand to his face and feel him beneath my fingertips, to reassure him in a way that only a lover could reassure their mate.
“Why wouldn’t I be?” I asked instead.
“Well, you know, the breakup.”
Anger flooded through me, threatening to spill over, and my fists clenched at my sides. “I don’t know about you, Captain, but I try not to let my personal issues get in the way of my work life.” I slammed one of the trauma bags into his chest and walked away to tend to Ann-Marie. He didn’t try to stop me.
Until Korbin and his team got the SUV pulled up and away from her body, there was nothing Hansen and I could do but try to keep her calm. Hansen, seeming hesitant at the prospect of having to calm down a frightened female child, gladly allowed me to crawl to my stomach and make conversation. I didn’t mind; my crew could be intimidating.
“Ann-Marie, how old are you?” I asked. Above us, metal slammed as Korbin hooked a sturdy piece of the vehicle to the hook on his rope. The other end was secured safely to the straight ladder on the truck, which would hopefully give us just enough leeway that we could attempt to untangle her from this mess. At the sound of the clanking, Ann-Marie gasped, a sob stuck in her throat as she started to cry. “It’s okay, Ann-Marie,” I said. “It’s just the firemen securing the truck. You know all about firemen, don’t you?”
Her chin turned as she looked at me, brown eyes bugging out of her skull in terror. “Y—yes,” she squeaked. “One of my friends brought his dad in for a show and tell. He was a fireman.”
“Is that so?” I forced a chuckle. “I probably know him, and he’s out there right now getting ready to help you. Do you remember his name?”
She shook her head no and sniffed. Another loud creak of metal squealed above us, and Ann-Marie screwed her eyes shut. I wished I could reach her, scoot in close enough to take her hand in mine, squeeze it, and hold it until all the evil and scary stuff in the world disappeared.
“It’s okay,” I said. “They’re all such great guys. They’ll get you out of this.” She nodded, still sniffling, then finally opened her eyes and looked at me again.
“Are you a fireman?” she asked. I laughed again, hoping it would ease her terror.
“Of course not,” I said. “I’m a firewoman, Ann-Marie.”
She giggled, if not painfully, but it was better than nothing. That was a good sound.
“I didn’t know there were firewomen.”
“There are now.”
“Are you ready, P?” Hansen asked, kneeling beside me. I nodded, not taking my eyes off the girl. Hansen stationed himself on the other side of the car in case he had better access to her than I did.
“Ann-Marie, there’s going to be a loud noise, and it will be scary, but it won’t hurt you, okay? We just have to get you out of there.” The confidence I forced from my voice sounded weak even to me, but the little girl didn’t seem to notice, and I was relieved.
She nodded, mute, and I scooted myself as close as possible to the crack between the car and the ground. A moment later, the scream of the metal started, creaking and groaning as, inch-by-inch, the ladder lifted the vehicle from the ground. Ann-Marie was crying as the metal pressed against her trapped body, tightening around her. I felt as though I was suffocating, trying to grapple for air that wasn’t even there. I wanted to protect this girl, lay my body over hers and stay there until we were safe—untilshewas safe. At that very moment, I knew I was willing to die for her, for this stranger I’d just met, a brand-new life with so many years ahead. I refused to let it be cut short.
“It’s okay, sweetie. We’re almost there.” If she were to go down today, so I would I. I forced myself even further into the hole, praying that our quest to save her life wouldn’t take it.
I still couldn’t see Hansen on the other side, but as soon as there was enough room for me to squeeze in, I shoved my body under the car and reached for Ann-Marie, taking a c-spine to stabilize her neck before we moved her. Little by little, the vehicle climbed; now, it hovered almost two feet off the ground, and I could see most of Ann-Marie’s body that wasn’t trapped by twisted metal. On the other side of the car, Hansen appeared, going to work at once assessing the scene.
“It h—hurts,” Ann-Marie sobbed, and without thinking twice about it, I grabbed her hand and squeezed.
“I know it hurts,” I said, sliding the c-spine to Hansen so he could wrap it around her neck.
“Pain is good,” Hansen said on the other side of Ann-Marie. “Pain means you’re alive.”
I’m not sure that’s the phrase I would have used for a terrified child, but it seemed to ease her fear a little bit.
“We’ll have to pull her out on your side,” he said. “I just need to see if I can get her leg loose from the—”
Above us, another metal scream split through the air, and the car jolted, unsteady. Ann-Marie gasped, her hand tightening painfully around mine. Somewhere above us, someone shouted something I couldn’t make out. It sounded like Korbin.
“What’s happening?” Ann-Marie sobbed. I caught Hansen’s gaze from the other side of Ann-Marie, and he shook his head just once.
“Nothing is happening, honey. It’s okay.”
“Paisley,” Hansen said steadily. “We need to re-approach this, I think.”
I knew what he meant. Something had gone wrong, and we had to get our asses out of there before the entire SUV came down on all of us.
