MilaWhen I woke up later on Sunday, the sun was already high in the sky, and it fell right on my face through the curtains I had forgotten to close. I turned around and groaned. My head pounded something fierce, and I felt sick to my stomach.It was all the alcohol I had consumed with Ben. It was easy to keep drinking, especially if the company was good. The music played all night long, and the more I drank, the better I felt. Now that it was in the light of a new day—or later the same day—I regretted it all. Why did I drink? It made me feel like shit for a lot longer than it had made me feel good, and it was expensive. Although, the latter didn’t count this time because Ben had paid for my drinks.Which had been very sweet of him. I wondered if he suffered as much as I did today. He’d told me he had to be in great physical condition to be a firefighter and he’d trained for years to keep up his fitness. I had to admit, it made him look fantastic too. Muscular and delicious. But fitne
MilaWe were all on high alert. The woman’s heart stopped twice. We managed to bring her back with a crash cart, but I was terrified she wouldn’t make it through the night. The driver was losing blood so fast, it didn’t have a chance to clot. We had to give him extra blood, and thankfully, he had a common blood type and we had more than enough in the blood bank. When they needed something like O-negative, it got harder.By the time I could tear away for something as simple as a bathroom break, I had been running around for four hours, and there was still no sign of slowing down. I hadn’t paid attention to my hangover. There hadn’t been time. Now that I stopped to take a breath, my head thudded dully and I felt nauseous. I hadn’t had a chance to eat anything. The only thing I’d had all day was the tomato juice.After I finished in the bathroom, I bought a bottle of water and a cereal bar from a vending machine and forced it down even though I didn’t feel like eating.And it helped.Ben
BenSunday had been a fuckup. I had been so hungover, I hadn’t been able to function. My head had felt like it was going to explode, and I had spent half the day hugging the toilet, vomiting out everything my stomach contained even after there was nothing left to get rid of. It was a lesson in self-control if I’d ever had one.Moderation. I should have tried some.I had texted Mila in the morning, but she hadn’t replied. That kiss had been bouncing around in my mind since the moment I had woken up, and I had felt like a bastard for doing that to her when we obviously couldn’t be more.I didn’t even know if she felt anything for me. The passionate response I had gotten from her could very well have been the alcohol speaking. God knows she’d had as much as I’d had.And if she was in any kind of physical shape as I was, she would have suffered as much too. Judging by her spectacular body, she was in great shape, which meant we had both been suffering.I had been such an idiot drinking so
I nodded, and the guy called Jonas ran in with the other two guys. I had studied fire engineering, and Ted needed me to brainstorm a way to vent the wire on the one side and draw it toward the oxygen we gave it so it was safe for the men to start fighting it on the other side.I was explaining to Ted that a fire could consume itself if left alone for long enough when shouts from inside were heard, followed by a loud crash.“Shit,” Ted said, and we both ran. I watched as the building collapsed in front of me, one half crumpling like it was made of paper.“How many are still in there?” Ted shouted.“Three,” came the reply, and I could taste the fear.“Any civilians?”“Negative.”Shit. They were ours.The firemen turned their attention to the three men inside, forgetting about the fire for the moment. Ambulances were already on scene, and EMTs were on standby, ready to take care of anyone coming out.“We found them!” Tyler shouted from inside. He had gone in with Sam and Jay to retrieve
MilaOn Tuesday, we had our hands full with burn patients that had come in a steady stream from a warehouse fire just outside of town. I had seen burn victims before, but some of them were in a bad state, and Claire and I helped out in the ER where the nurses had their hands full. We were in the back, handling the worst cases.When a firefighter came in looking like he should have been dead, my heart stopped for a moment. He looked almost like Ben. Or least, the dark hair did. The rest of his face was burned severely.“Who is this?” I asked Claire breathlessly.“Jonas Murray,” Claire read the tag on the suit, and I could breathe again. It wasn’t Ben. I knew that being a firefighter wasn’t a safe desk job, but seeing this man so mangled and burned was an eye-opener. It was thanks to fighters like this guy and Ben that all the people in the ER were alive.“What happened to him?” I asked.“The EMT said a warehouse collapsed on him in a fire. He’s lucky to be alive. I spoke to the guy who
Mila“Of course. If anyone understands, it’s me.”“When will we know he’s okay?” Ben asked. “And the others? God, I didn’t even ask about them.”“Two other nurses took care of the firefighters but that will be quick to find out. I’ll let you know as soon as I get back to the ICU.”Ben and I sat in silence once more while he drank his sweet coffee.When Ben’s coffee was finished, and I had taken about as much time as I was able from the ER, we headed back. I let Ben tag along with me even though it wasn’t technically allowed. He stayed out of the way of the other nurses. I took him to see Jonas.When Ben saw Jonas, the emotion was raw on his face. He walked to Jonas’s bed. He didn’t touch the man, which was a good call. Jonas’s wounds were extensive.“I’m so sorry,” Ben whispered. My heart went out to Ben. Not only did I feel for Jonas who would be in excruciating pain the moment he woke up, but I felt for Ben whose heart ached more than anyone I had ever seen before. I was worried abo
BenI struggled to sleep that night. Everyone was telling me it wasn’t my fault that it hadn’t happened because I had done anything wrong. It was purely a matter of circumstance that someone else had been injured instead of me.Logically that made sense. I knew Ted had called me back at the last minute to ask for advice. I knew Jonas had jumped at the opportunity to go into the warehouse instead, and the accident had been exactly that—an accident.But I couldn’t shake the guilt. I felt terrible that Jonas was fighting for his life, that his face was mangled beyond recognition, that he might not be able to fight fires for a long time to come, if ever. I felt like I was responsible for the difficult time that lay ahead of him and the pain he had to endure.The worst was that there was nothing I could do about it. I could pay for the best possible care and therapy there was. And I planned to do just that. I could be there for him every day and ensure that they were doing everything possi
BenI nodded. “Yeah, eventually they did. The warehouse is ruined, though.” I’d heard it on the news late last night when I hadn’t been able to sleep.“How’s Luke? And Jonas?”“I haven’t seen Jonas yet. Luke is okay. The tube is out, but he’s weak.”Steve nodded. “Yeah, playing hero will do that to you when it blows up in your face. Thanks for coming around today.”I nodded. So far, things were looking up. I was starting to slowly feel better about the whole thing. If everyone was out of the hospital safe and sound, then I would be happy.When we walked to Jonas’s room, I knew we weren’t in the clear yet. Jonas’s skin was terribly burned, and he didn’t seem to be conscious. His leg had been put in a cast, and machines whirred and beeped all around him, making the room seem like something from a sci-fi movie. I carefully walked to his bed.“What happened?” I asked. He looked worse off than yesterday.“He had a rough night,” Mila said, reading his chart. “He’s in a chemically induced co