The Paramedic's Angel Read online

  “I’m not sure I can tell you,” Dean said. He turned to look at her sitting next to him. He could see the look of concern on her face. “I’m not sure you’ll want to be around me if I tell you.”

  “Dean,” Ashley said, cupping his cheek with one hand, using her thumb to brush away a tear as she did. “You have to tell me what is bothering you. I know now why I came to Elk City, why I was sent here. It’s you. You’re central to what I’m to do here, and I have to make sure that you get the chance to do what it is that you’re supposed to do.”

  She reached an arm around him and pulled him closer until he was resting his head on her shoulder. She held him there, speaking quietly. “Tell me what is going on, Dean. Start at the beginning and don’t leave anything out. I won’t leave you, no matter what you tell me. I’m here for you. I know that now.”

  Almost before Dean knew it, he was talking in a stream of words that wouldn’t stop. He talked about how he had wanted to be a paramedic, about his dreams of being the best, about his disappointment with the assignment to Station U, and then his realization that he liked it there and had become attached to his patients. Then he opened up about his meeting with Zach after he voiced his concerns over Brynne’s relationship with James. He told her that he felt tied to the ex-paramedic in some way, and perhaps his lack of reporting that tie was responsible for the horrible attack on the Wiccan woman a few nights before. He told Ashley that he was afraid for her. If she became too close to him, would she become a target of Zach and his ilk?

  All in all, he talked for over an hour about his fears and concerns. Ashley just listened, occasionally stroking his hair or squeezing his hand where she held it in her own. As he finished telling her everything, the two of them sat in the silent darkness of his apartment for a time. He looked up at her and searched her face for a hint of how she was feeling. She smiled and leaned forward, planting a gentle kiss on his lips.

  “See, Dean,” she said. “I’m still here. You didn’t scare me away. You have done nothing wrong. Having a meeting with Zach or being cornered in your apartment by him, threatening you, does not make you guilty of anything. It does tell us that he is scared of what you’ll do next, and he’s trying to influence that decision. What we have to do now is to figure out what Zach and the others with whom he is associated in this ‘Cause’ are up to. Then we can try to keep them from doing anything else to harm humans or Unusuals.”

  “Shouldn’t we report this to someone?” He asked. “I’m not able to do anything to stop this on my own.”

  “Of course you should report it,” Ashley said. “But you also need to keep doing what you’re doing to go out and treat your patients. I think that is what Zach is afraid of. You are tied to this somehow. I know that now, and what you do, day to day, in your job as a paramedic, taking care of all of us, is going to figure into how this all works out. I don’t know how or why, but you have a part to play.”

  “So, what, I go back to work, and at some mysterious point in the future, I’ll know just what to do to fix all of this? That sounds ridiculous.”

  Ashley laughed out loud. Her merriment filled the air. “Oh, Dean, have you learned nothing in your reading of the tales of our kind? Most of those stories have humans in them who do just that. It’s why we’re tied together, to live alongside each other, human and Unusual. Our lives are inexplicably intertwined, and each of our existences relies on the actions of the other. Something bigger than you and Zach is at work here. I don’t know what it is, but this is why I came here. It is why I was drawn to you. Together we’ll find the source of the problem, and together we’ll find the solution.”

  Dean was glad she was confident. He wasn’t so sure. It all seemed too much for him to deal with as a new probationary paramedic. He didn’t have her unwavering belief in destiny and divine missions. Still, he did have her, and that was strangely comforting even as he had his doubts. He knew he could keep doing his job. He could continue to take care of his patients. If that was all he had to do, he could keep doing it. He soon fell asleep on the couch, next to Ashley, comforted by her presence and thinking about what that mysterious task could possibly be.

  CHAPTER SIX

  The next morning when Dean woke up, Ashley was gone. For a short time, he wondered if it had all been a dream, but a handwritten post-it note stuck to the middle of the kitchen counter announced that she had an early shift at the ER. She said she’d call him later. He smiled to himself as he read the note. The sunlight coming in the apartment through the windows seemed brighter somehow, and that seemed to lighten his spirits. He got some breakfast and went about his daily routine, including mowing the grass for his landlords, Mr. and Mrs. Baxter. They were a nice elderly couple who liked having a young man renting from them and helping out around the house in exchange for a break on the rent.

  He spent the next few days doing some chores including helping Mr. Baxter clean out the garage downstairs before he returned to work on night shift. Ashley’s schedule was busy, and they talked and texted often, but were unable to see each other again as soon as he would have liked. He hoped he got the chance to see her on a trip to the ER since she was working nights this week. She had promised to come by the next morning, and they could make breakfast together at his apartment after work. He was looking forward to seeing her.

  Dean pulled into the Station U parking lot a little before six PM for work and looked around for any suspicious black SUVs that might indicate Zach or his friends were following him. That had been how Zach had tracked him down before. He didn’t see any other cars around. Nothing but a beat up white Chevy van parked on the street alongside the building. He grabbed his gear and went inside the station. Brook and Tammy, the day shift paramedics were there when he walked in. Brook, a tall, thin blonde woman in her mid-twenties was working on one of the computer workstations at the U-shaped desk to the left. Tammy, a brown-haired mother of four in her later forties, was seated in one of the recliners reading a book.

  “Hi, guys!” Dean called as he came in. Brook looked up briefly and waved from where she was working on the computer. Tammy looked up from her book, smiling.

  “You’re in a good mood, Dean,” She said.

  “Yeah, I guess I am,” Dean said, setting his duffle bag down on the coffee table in front of the love seat.

  “It wouldn’t have anything to do with your new girlfriend would it?” She jabbed smiling.

  “It might,” Dean said, “But I don’t kiss and tell.”

  “So there has been kissing?” Tammy asked. “Come on. Why do you and Brynne have to be so mysterious about your special friends? Some of us have rather mundane home lives. We need to live vicariously through you guys.”

  “What’s that about living vicariously?” Brynne asked as she came in from the parking lot.

  “Dean’s been kissing Ashley, but won’t tell us what it’s like to date a real angel,” Tammy said getting up from the recliner and stretching her arms out behind her. “I shouldn’t say it, but it’s been a quiet day, Brynne. In fact, we haven’t had much come in all week since that bad burn victim you had the other night. Bill and Lynne said the same thing about their night shift runs over the last few evenings.”

  “Ugh, Tammy,” Brynne said in an exasperated tone. “You know better than to use the ‘Q’ word.”

  “There’s no other word for it,” Tammy said, defending herself. “It’s like our patients are laying low and not calling us. Have you heard anything from James? I wondered if he knows if there’s anything going on.”

  “No, not that he’s mentioned to me,” Brynne said. “He’s been preoccupied by something else going on, but I’ll ask him. Maybe it’s just a natural lull in the action. There is nothing wrong with that.”

  “No, I guess not,” Tammy said. She grabbed her purse from the desk nearby and headed towards the door. “I need to get home. It’s parent-teacher conference night, and that always leads to some surprises. I’m meeting my husband at the school later, and I need
to make sure the kids are settled and working on their homework before I head over there. See ya!”

  Brook grabbed her stuff and followed her partner out the door with a wave. “Yep, I’m out of here, too. Have a good night, guys.”

  Brynne walked over and put her purse in the top desk drawer, leaned over and logged-in to her workstation before she turned around with her hands on her hips, looking at Dean.

  “Well?”

  “Well, what?” Dean asked.

  “Well, tell me about Ashley,” She said. “You guys must’ve had a good breakfast date. She texted me for your address while you were off. I can only guess that meant she was planning on dropping by.”

  Dean felt his face flush and Brynne laughed.

  “I knew it!” She said. “Good for you, Dean. You need a good woman in your life to keep you straight.”

  “I’m not talking about this, Brynne,” Dean said. “I’m a gentleman. Ashely and I are getting along and are planning on seeing each other again. That’s all I’m going to say.”

  “Ok, fair’s fair, Dean,” She said. “I don’t share my private life with James with anyone either. I know that dating an Unusual comes with some secrets. Still, if you need to talk about it, I’m all ears.”

  “There is one thing I need to tell you, Brynne.” Dean started. He didn’t know how to broach the subject other than to jump right in. He crossed the room and sat in the desk chair opposite hers. “The other night, I know you saw your ex-partner Zach in the crowd. I overheard you talking to Chief Ari about it. I saw him, too.”

  “How do you even know what he looks like?” She asked. “He was long gone before you got here. That was the first I’d seen of him since he left.”

  “Zach contacted me and asked me to join him, to pass him information on our patients.” Brynne stiffened at this but didn’t say anything as he continued. “He’s mixed up in some group called “the Cause” that wants to expose the Unusuals in our community. He calls Unusuals monsters, and he wants them gone from Elk City.”

  “Why didn’t your tell me, or the Chief, or Mike at the Academy?” Brynne asked. “Zach’s bad news, Dean. He got really jealous of James and I. He thought our dating was an abomination. His words, not mine.”

  “I didn’t know what to do at first, and I was shocked by some, uh, aspects of your relationship with James. I didn’t know how I felt about that.” Dean said. “I should have said something. I know that now. Maybe that burn attack would never have happened. He all but admitted to me that he had something to do with it. He said it was because she was a Wiccan. He claimed she was using her powers to take advantage of humans and steal money from them.”

  Brynne waited when he paused, searching for the words to explain what he needed to get off his chest.

  “Brynne,” Dean continued. “He came to my apartment a few nights back, after our last day shift, and threatened to expose me as part of their movement. He claimed that he had evidence that could tie me to him, and he wanted to me to keep working with him. I have tried to avoid him, but he was waiting, in my apartment, when I got home from work.”

  “You should have called me, Dean, or called the police,” Brynne said.

  “I know, but I was too upset by all of it,” Dean said. “That’s when Ashley came to find me. She said she could tell I was in trouble. She was the one who urged me to talk to you. So, here I am. What do I do?”

  “I’ll report this to Chief Ari,” Brynne said. “Not to get you in trouble. He’s aware of The Cause. That’s the group that Zach is tied up with. They are determined to root out the Unusuals in our community and drive them from the area. I’ll tell him that Zach is trying to draw you in and that you reported it to me. That should clear your name. In the meantime, don’t have any contact with him and report to me if he tries to confront you again as he did at your apartment.”

  “I will,” Dean assured her. “I just don’t think that he’s done with me. I get the feeling that he’s got some way to use me in this situation. That he wants me to do something, to take some direct action against you and James and our patients.”

  “That may be true,” Brynne said. “You need to keep telling me what’s going on. Another thing, too. Don’t let him know about your relationship with Ashley. That could make her a target. I don’t know if he knows her identity as an Eldara, but he might. Tying her to you might give him leverage over you. We don’t want that.”

  “She says that I have a part to play in the situation with Zach and The Cause,” Dean said. “Ashley was sent here for a purpose, and now she thinks that I am tied in to that, somehow.”

  “Did she say what she knows?” Brynne asked.

  “No, she acted like she was discovering her role as things went along,” Dean said. “She just had a feeling.”

  “That sounds typical for the Eldara,” Brynne said with a snort. “They’re the Gods’ messengers, but deciphering the divine meaning of a message is tough even for them. At least, that’s what James has told me. They’re less messenger and more like a change-agent than anything else.”

  “That sounds right, based on what she was willing to share with me,” Dean confirmed. “Ok, so what next?”

  “Next, I contact the chief,” Brynne said. “Then we just do our jobs. I’m going to ask James about what Tammy said, about things being slow lately. Maybe he knows if there’s something going on that’s keeping the Unusuals from calling us. If there is something, he’ll tell me and maybe there is something we can do about it. For you, Dean, reach out to Mike Farver. He might have some insights on this. He was doing this before I was, and he might know more about the Eldara than I do. I shouldn’t talk to him directly. We have some history that is uncomfortable. Shoot him an email and see if has time to meet up with you instead.”

  “I’ll do that,” Dean said. He was glad to have something to do and know that there was a plan in place to back him up. He turned around in the desk chair and tapped in his login information to the workstation in front of him. He clicked on his secure company email account and opened up a new email to Mike, his old Academy instructor. Mike was not just a knowledgeable instructor; Mike was a former Station U paramedic. He knew a lot about Unusuals and could offer some insights into his situation. Dean was clicking the send button on that email to Mike when the first call of the evening came in.

  The tones alerted on the speaker overhead in the squad room. “Rescue Box 734, pedestrian struck, in the vicinity of 1322 Hopewell Road.”

  The two paramedics jumped up as one and headed out, Dean following Brynne through the door to the ambulance bay. She walked to the driver’s side as usual, and Dean crossed around and climbed into the passenger seat. He reached up and keyed the garage door opener while his partner fired up the rig’s diesel engine. As they pulled out into the parking lot, Dean picked up the mic and put them on the street responding.

  “U-191 responding, Rescue Box 734.” He reached up to close the garage door and checked in the side view mirror to make sure it was coming back down as they drove away to the call. He then reached down and switched the radio over to the response channel and waited for the dispatcher to contact them with any additional information from the scene as they sped through the darkening streets and night fell on Elk City.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  The dispatchers didn’t have much additional information to offer on the patient as the two paramedics sped through the night in the ambulance. All the dispatcher had to say was that it was a female victim found on the side of the road after an apparent vehicular hit and run. The patient was alive but unresponsive. The dispatcher also reported that another, unidentified responder was already on the scene. That caused Dean to look over at Brynne with a confused look on his face. Who could that be? She just glanced his way with a raised eyebrow and kept driving.

  It took them seven minutes to get to the location, and as they pulled up on the scene, they saw other red flashing lights in the night. Dean was surprised to see they were coming from a beat-up, w
hite Chevy van pulled off the side of the road. There was a little portable, suction-cup mounted, rotating flashing red light mounted out the driver’s side window to the roof. The curly cord stretched back inside, and Dean guessed it plugged into the old van’s 12-volt cigarette lighter plug. He’d seen such lights in catalogs used by local volunteers and security services.

  Dean and Brynne had gotten to know each other well enough to have a routine for their calls at this point. Dean jumped out of the passenger side on their arrival and pulled out the trauma and oxygen bags from their side compartment. He knew Brynne would climb in the back and grab the heart monitor/defibrillator. Because they were on the side of the road, he took a moment to don a reflective, fluorescent yellow vest, too, before he proceeded to find their patient. He was not prepared for what he found as he rounded the parked white van.

  There, in the tall grass on the roadside, was the twisted body of a young female. She looked young based on what he could see from the light of the van’s headlights. Bent over her, apparently treating her wounds was a heavyset person wearing a light blue uniform-style shirt with no collar insignia or shoulder patches he could see. The person was wearing navy blue cargo pants similar to his own, and the pockets appeared to be bulging with first aid supplies like bandages and trauma shears. He approached and asked what was going on. The other responder turned and looked his way.

  “Oh, Dean, it’s you. Thank God!” Gibbie, a middle-aged vampire said. Gibbie had been a frequent patient of theirs since Dean had started on the job at Station U. He was usually simultaneously frumpy and flamboyant. He was not, to Dean’s knowledge, an EMT, paramedic, or any other kind of first responder.

  “Gibbie,” Dean said. “What are you doing here?”

  “I’m trying to help this Fairy girl, what does it look like I’m doing?” Gibbie said frantically. “She’s all busted up with a broken leg, and it looks like one of her wings is messed up although it’s hard to tell because she’s got it folded under her shirt.”