12-Alarm Cowboys (11 page)

F
orty minutes later,
Sunny skidded the Suburban to a stop, sirens blaring, lights flashing under the canopy at the Emergency Room. Heart pounding in her ears, she threw open her door and ran around the front of the truck and through the automatic entry doors.

“We have a patient who is bleeding out,” she yelled, her eyes fixing on her friend Jolie who was the nurse manning the nurse’s station today. Jolie’s eyes widened as she stood and ran to the first exam room, emerging a second later with a gurney.

“What’s the injury?” she asked, pushing the gurney toward the door. “Why didn’t you call ahead? I’d have had the doc on standby.”

“I’m not in the medic truck, and it’s a guy who was gored by a bull. We had to get him here quick. Which doc is on duty?” Sunny asked, as she took the head of the gurney to help Jolie negotiate the turn through the front door.

“Fox,” Jolie replied with an eye roll and groan that Sunny wanted to mimic.

The female physician was cutting-edge knowledgeable. She knew just about everything there was to know about the human body, and how to fix it. But that knowledge made her just as arrogant as she was smart. Nobody knew better than Dr. Melanie Fox, or questioned her unless they wanted to be made to look like an ass in front of everyone.

All of the nurses and medics at this hospital gave her wide berth, and absolutely hated being on shift with her. But this particular patient was probably damned lucky she was on shift. He needed her expertise.

Sunny and Jolie rolled the gurney to the truck door, and she grabbed the handle. When she pulled open the door the coppery smell of blood hit her in the face. The cowboy-medic’s worried gray eyes met hers. “I don’t want to let up on the pressure, but we need to get him out of here. I’ll hang blood before we try to move him, if you get me a pint of O.”

“Dr. Fox isn’t going to order that until she examines him,” Jolie informed.

The medic’s lips pinched, and Sunny saw a storm brewing in his gray eyes. “Well you go tell Dr.
Fox
that he may not have a patient to examine if I take my thumb out of this wound, before we hang blood,” he growled.

“
Her
…” Jolie corrected, huffing a breath. “She’s with another patient with a compound fracture, and I’ll get blasted if I interrupt her.”

“I’ll take one for the team,” Sunny said, knowing Jolie was telling the truth.

Sunny didn’t have to work there full-time or face the consequences of crossing Dr. Fox for weeks after the infraction. Jolie did. The most Melanie Fox could do to Sunny was blast her then call her uncle, the Fire Chief. Silas knew how this woman was, he dealt with her often, because she was the station’s medical director too.

Turning, Sunny strode with purpose back through the doors and down the hallway. A tech scurried out of Exam Room 1, flinching at the howling yells that echoed down the hallway behind him. Sunny had a feeling that’s where she could find Dr. Fox. At the door, Sunny knocked loudly but didn’t wait before she walked right inside. Dr. Fox looked up from the other side of the bed, her full lips flattened and her dark brows pinched.

“What are you doing in here?” she demanded.

“I just brought in a critical patient. He’s bleeding out and needs a pint of blood before we can transfer him to the gurney to get him inside.”

“Well, as you can see I’m currently treating a
critical
patient—oh, wait, maybe you can’t see that since you interrupted me.” The patient howled, and the doctor looked back down at his obviously broken femur. “I only have one set of hands, so your patient will just have to wait. My nurse is on the lam evidently.”

Sunny ground her teeth, and didn’t smart off, because she knew that wouldn’t get her the pint of blood she needed. “I’ll help you, what do you need?” she asked walking into the room, knowing she was walking into the lion’s den voluntarily. But helping out Foxy might get her the help she needed quicker. And it might also take some of the heat off of Jolie.

“I’m trying to get him into a traction splint to ease the pain, which should have been done in the medic unit.” The accusation in her tone and the hot glare Dr. Fox sent Sunny told her that the Chief would be getting a call about that oversight. Because she was second in command at the station, Sunny was a little surprised that Foxy didn’t stop what she was doing to take it up with her right now.

Not waiting for her to help, with a grunt Dr. Fox lifted the man’s leg to slide the brace underneath. Fists clenched, the man’s back arched off of the bed as he let loose a bloodcurdling scream. Sunny ran to the bed to get into position to help, then between them, after two more screams, the bone was back in place and the doctor secured the brace.

The patient dragged in quick, heavy breaths, his whole body rigid then after a shuddering sigh he finally relaxed, and so did Dr. Fox’s face. She patted his arm then put the call button in his hand. “I’ll be right back, Mr. Lemon. I’ll send the tech back in, but if you need something in the meantime, just press that button.”

Swiping her forearm over her brow, Dr. Fox walked around Sunny to the door where she stopped to remove her latex gloves and throw them in the trash. “Damned nurses calling in sick. They all need to be replaced,” Foxy grumbled as she pushed through the door, which Sunny caught to follow her to the nurse’s station. The doctor walked behind the nurse’s station to push through a heavy wooden door into the medicine room, but Sunny didn’t dare follow.

Relief flowed through her when Dr. Fox walked back out with a unit of blood. “Where’s the patient?” she asked impatiently.

Turning, Sunny double-stepped toward the entrance with Dr. Fox hot on her heels, hoping things hadn’t gone downhill in the ten minutes it had taken her to get the blood. When she walked outside, Jolie was leaning on the truck door with her arms crossed, smiling at the man inside. Sunny elbowed her aside, and moved the gurney aside so Dr. Fox could get into the back of the truck.

“Took you long enough,” the cowboy grumbled, as Foxy put her foot on the door frame about to get into the back. “No need to hurry now, he’s probably dead.” Sunny’s eyes flew to Jolie’s and both gasped, then stared at Foxy’s stiff back.

This should be good, Sunny thought, biting back a laugh. She had a feeling Foxy was about to give the cowboy what she’d been wanting to give him all afternoon. Exactly what he deserved for his arrogance.

Foxy knelt and crawled inside the doorway. “Well, if he doesn’t die from you sticking your unsanitary, ungloved hand inside his wound, I think he’ll live.”

“It’s called arterial pressure, if you don’t remember that from med school,” the cowboy growled, shoving over to give Dr. Fox room, but not removing his hand from the wound. “My thumb in the wound is the only reason he hasn’t bled out, since you were too much of a control freak to send the pint of blood I asked for.”

“It’s my job to be in control around here, and to act in my patient’s best interest. That would include not allowing an uneducated, probably unlicensed, moron administer blood to him before I examine him.” Dr. Fox pulled a clamp out of her pocket, and she and the cowboy engaged in a battle of wills with their eyes. “Get the hell out of my way so I can treat him,” she finally snarled, and with a huffed breath the cowboy-medic pulled his hand away to sit back on his haunches.

Sunny watched blood flood the trench of the wound and hoped Dr. Fox got it clamped off quickly, because she still hadn’t started the unit of blood. With a throaty rumble, the medic grabbed the bag off of the floorboard and quickly replaced the fluids with the blood.

“I didn’t tell you to do that,” Dr. Fox said without looking up.

“I didn’t ask your permission. This man has lost over half of his blood volume. He needs the damned blood.”

“He does need it, but I need to stop the flow so that unit of blood doesn’t just come out of the wound again.”

“Then clamp it off!” the medic shouted, and Sunny tensed, waiting for the nuclear explosion that was brewing inside of the back of her truck. Dr. Fox’s back stiffened, she reached into her pocket and came out with a roll of silk tape. Ripping off the end with her teeth, she secured the clamp then crawled back out of the doorway.

“That is exactly what I was doing.” Dr. Fox put her hands on her hips, and skewered the medic with her eyes. “I don’t know who you report to,
Skippy
, but if it’s Silas Gleason, I can assure you that you’re going to be unemployed tomorrow.” She turned to Sunny and Jolie. “Get the patient inside, but don’t bring that blowhard dumbass in with you,” Foxy ordered, as she breezed by them to go to the front entrance.

“I can’t stand arrogant, know-it-all females with a superiority complex,” the cowboy grumbled, as he slid out of the back of the truck to stand, before leaning back in to shift the backboard. “That woman is a prime example why I don’t like working with women. Give them a little power, and they think they own the world and every man in it.”

The hackles at the back of Sunny’s neck raised, along with her anger. He didn’t seem to remember, or care maybe, that he was standing in the presence of two females, one of which, although he didn’t know it, was a female Fire Captain. She dealt with this kind of attitude daily at the station from the men she commanded.

Sunny moved up beside him to help shift the backboard. “And give a man a set of balls, which is the only thing that differentiates him from those women he loathes, other than a lower IQ, and he thinks he owns
them
. Dr. Fox is one of the best doctors in this state, and one of the smartest women I know—a helluva lot smarter than you—and she deserves your respect.”

Shock rocked Sunny when she realized she was defending Foxy. She’d had her own run-ins with the woman, very colorful ones, but this wasn’t about Dr. Fox or her abrupt manner. It was about women in authority being disrespected by men like this backwoods jackass cowboy.

Sunny stood back while he slid the upper half of the backboard out of the truck, then took the foot. Their eyes met and held, his beard-shadowed jaw worked as he ground his teeth, but he didn’t say a word as he lifted the patient and they carried him to the gurney. The three of them worked to remove the backboard, then strapped him to the gurney.

The cowboy-medic pushed the gurney, but Sunny stopped it. “Dr. Fox said you need to stay out here, and I agree. Help me, Jolie,” Sunny said shouldering him aside.

“She doesn’t own this hospital and can’t tell me where to go,” he replied, and Sunny wanted to laugh again, because he sounded like her four-year-old son, pouty and petulant. “This man is my ranch hand and I have every right to make sure he’s taken care of.”

“If you walk inside that door
you’ll
definitely be taken care of,” Jolie said dryly, as she pushed the gurney toward the door. “Dr. Fox will call security and you’ll spend the night in jail.”

“She can’t do this. I don’t have a ride back to the ranch, and my phone is in the barn.”

“Sounds like a problem—
Skippy
,” Sunny said with a harsh laugh, as the automatic door swooshed shut behind her.

Sunny didn’t care if the bastard had to hoof it the sixty miles back to that ranch. He deserved every blister he got for being an asshole to her
and
to Foxy. After helping Jolie push the gurney into the exam room, she and Jolie situated the patient on the bed. Dr. Fox came in with the surgeon and shooed them out into the hall.

“You have a pair of scrubs I can borrow?” Sunny asked, looking down at her filthy business suit. The only one she owned. She’d have to have it dry cleaned before she rescheduled her interview with the board. Hopefully, the dispatcher had called them to let them know she got a call and couldn’t make it like she’d asked her to do.

“Yeah, in the med room,” Jolie replied moving around her. Looking back over her shoulder, she laughed. “Not sure we have giraffe length though.” But a minute later she came back out of the med room behind the nurse’s station and handed Sunny the green suit. “We had one pair of extra-longs left. I think Betty ordered a few extra sets just for you, because she knows you always come in here elbow deep in shit. The shower is open if you need to decon.”

“The cowboy got most of it since he treated the patient. I’m just dusty, so I’ll just change, but thanks.” Sunny had tried not to notice his tightly muscled, blood-smeared bare chest when she helped him unload the patient or anything else displayed by his heavy, blood-soaked Levis which sagged on his hips. The man might be damned good looking, but he was damned arrogant too, a lot like her brother, who also happened to be a cowboy. That kind of negated the looks in her opinion.

As if reading her mind, Jolie said, “Even though he’s an asshole, he’s pretty cute, huh? Cowboys make me weak in the knees, the fact that he’s a medic too…” Jolie fanned herself. “Where’d you pick him up? He a new hire?”

“Hell no,” Sunny replied with a laugh. It would be a cold day in hell before she hired a man like him at the station. “He was at the ranch when I got there. I guess he works there. Says he’s a licensed medic, but I didn’t see his card so I can’t vouch for that.”

“Talked like a trained medic,” Jolie replied with a shrug. She waggled her eyebrows over excited brown eyes. “You should hire him since you’re short-staffed at the station.”

Sunny laughed. “Like that’s gonna happen after the way he treated Fox. And I’m a female in charge, remember, he loathes me?” Sunny shook her head. “I have enough egotistical males working at the station. I don’t need more. In fact, when I’m Chief, I may just get rid of a little testosterone and hire a few females.”

“You got the job yet?” Jolie asked with interest.

“Not yet. I was headed to my official interview when the ranch call came in. I’m the only one applying so it should be a done deal after the interview and testing. Uncle Silas isn’t committing until the board give me a thumbs up and I pass the exams.”

“Well, I’d say you’re a shoe-in then, since you’re the only one applying, right?”

“Not really. I’ve got to convince seven
men
that I’m the right
woman
for the job, and pass those tests. If that doesn’t happen, they’ll post the job on national registry sites. I hope it works out, because I need that job for Billy. We need to get our own place. It’s pretty crowded since Rand moved home.” Sunny hitched a thumb over her shoulder. “I don’t want my son ending up like that guy in the exam room, or like my brother.”