Emergency: Parents Needed

by Jessica Matthews

  Better to err on the side of caution than not, she told herself as she reached for the single, low-dose injection of morphine. However, before she could retrieve the syringe, Joe’s hand covered hers.

  A nearly imperceptible shake of his head made his opinion plain and relieved her concerns. She should have known better than to think someone could deceive him.

  “Well?” Sandler demanded. “I’m dying here.”

  “I’m sorry, Mr Sandler, but I can only give you a non-narcotic analgesic. Acetaminophen, to be precise.”

  “Acetaminophen? Not good enough.” He waved his hands and shook his head. “I’m allergic.”

  Sandler’s claim was another telling sign that this man was simply trying to pull the wool over their eyes in order to get the narcotic he wanted. Whether he wanted to abuse the drug himself or sell it on the street was anyone’s guess.

  This time, when Joe appeared sympathetic, she saw his pity for the act it was. “Then I’m so sorry, but you’ll have to wait for pain relief until you’re at the hospital.”

  “What?” The man nearly shot out of his seat. “You can’t do that. You have to give me hydrocodone.”

  “I’m sorry,” Joe repeated smoothly and with a believable amount of apologetic humility, “but we don’t have the proper authorization.”

  “Then call the hospital. They’ll approve it.”

  “They know we don’t carry a dose that will give you the relief you need. Nothing in our box will touch pain that’s rated as a ten. It’ll only knock it down to an eight, give or take, which won’t help you very much.”

  “Well, it might be a little less,” Sandler backpedaled. “Maybe a seven.”

  “If your back pain is fluctuating that much, you need a physician’s assessment,” Joe said, now sounding worried. “We can’t give you anything that might mask your symptoms.”

  Maggie studied the supplies in her box as she pressed her lips together to keep from laughing. She’d never dreamed Joe could be such an actor, but he was definitely a darned good one!

  Sandler’s nostrils flared and his face turned red. “If you don’t call them or give me a painkiller, even a low dose, I’ll sue.”

  Words every paramedic wanted to hear…“We’ll have you in the emergency room in a few minutes, Mr Sandler,” Maggie said, imitating the same worried concern Joe exhibited. “That’s the best we can do.”

  “This is ridiculous,” he shouted. “I’ve never been treated so shabbily in my entire life. Just wait until I call my lawyer. And the mayor, too! I’ll tell the newspapers, the radio station. You’ll be sorry when you’re the headline on TV news!”

  “Can you get on the gurney by yourself,” Joe interrupted, “or do we need to lift you?”

  As if the man realized he’d struck out in his game with Joe, he stopped arguing. “I’ll manage,” he complained. Then, with a speed and agility that didn’t corroborate his claim of being in horrific pain, Sandler lay on the wheeled stretcher.

  Before Maggie could snap the buckles that held him secure, Sandler reached up, grabbed her collar and yanked her face within inches of his. “You’re going to be sorry you messed with me.”

  Joe’s hands immediately curled around Sandler’s so quickly Maggie hardly had time to be frightened. “Unless you’d like a ride to the hospital in handcuffs courtesy of the police officers outside,” he ground out, “I suggest you let her go.”

  Shooting her a glare, Sandler obeyed.

  After they’d slid Sandler into the back of the ambulance, Joe pulled her aside. “You OK?”

  “Yeah, sure.”

  His gaze was searching, but she’d obviously convinced him because he finally nodded. “Let’s get this guy off our hands.”

  Ten minutes later they were wheeling a whiny and less belligerent Sandler into a trauma room.

  Joe beckoned Dr. Mike into the hallway where he quietly reported their observations. “He’s a drug-seeker if I’ve seen one, right down to the supposed allergy to non-narcotics and the confrontational behavior.”

  The E.R. doctor glanced into the trauma room at the patient. “He seems docile enough now.”

  “Trust me. He wasn’t earlier.”

  “OK. We’ll take it from here. If he has a kidney stone, we’ll find it. If not…” he grinned “…I have a few med students on duty tonight. They always can use extra practice on giving rectal exams and enemas.”

  As soon as he went in to his patient, Joe turned to Maggie. “What about you? Are you OK?”

  “I’m fine. He only scared me for a moment.”

  “Tell me about it,” he said fervently.

  “I was more afraid you’d give him what he wanted.”

  “Not a chance.”

  “You seemed so interested and overly concerned…” And that, she decided, should have been her first clue. While she’d seen Joe care for their patients on numerous occasions, the behavior she’d seen today had been too obvious to be real.

  “In spite of my doubts, there was a chance he wasn’t faking, so I wanted to draw him out so he’d say something that I could use as proof. To do that, I had to make him believe we were sympathetic enough to give him exactly what he wanted. But enough about our patient. How about a cup of coffee to celebrate before we head back?”

  “We probably shouldn’t,” she began.

  “I’m buying,” he coaxed.

  “In that case, you’re on.”

  As she sat in the cafeteria, sipping her French vanilla cappuccino while Joe drank a cup of French roast, she noticed the bulletin board display featuring the birthday winner of the week.

  “Joe,” she said slowly, “what day was Breanna born?”

  He thought for a moment. “April twenty-eighth, if I remember right. Why?”

  “That’s this weekend!”

  “Yeah, so?”

  She leaned back in her chair and stared at him incredulously. “So, it’s her birthday. She needs a party.”

  “A party?”

  “Absolutely. You can’t ignore her first birthday.”

  He winced. “Actually, I hadn’t thought about it.”

  “It’s a good thing I did,” she declared. “What shall we do?”

  “Who said we had to do anything? She’s too little to understand the significance.”

  She’d had no idea Joe was a bah-humbug sort, but considering his lack of family she wasn’t surprised. It saddened her to think he’d missed out on something that she’d taken for granted and she made a mental note to learn his birthday, even if she had to bribe the captain to peek in Joe’s personnel file. “Every kid needs a party on his or her birthday.”

  “Maybe when they’re older.”

  She shook her head. “Are you kidding? When she looks in her photo album, she’ll notice she doesn’t have any pictures to mark this milestone. What will you tell her when she asks why you didn’t celebrate?”

  “I…I don’t know,” he confessed. “She was too young?”

  “Dee would have marked the occasion,” she reminded him, “and don’t tell me otherwise. You owe it to her as well as your daughter to do something special.”

  “OK, OK. We’ll buy a cake.”

  “And presents.”

  “And presents,” he agreed.

  “Don’t forget guests.”

  Now he looked pained. “Guests? She doesn’t know anyone except us.”

  “Don’t forget Nancy or Dee’s neighbor, Hannah.”

  “Two people doesn’t sound like much of a party.”

  “We’ll invite more than two,” she insisted. “Between my family and the guys from the station and their families, we’ll have a houseful.”

  “Wait a minute. Your party is becoming an event, not a little get-together.”

  “You’re right, it is.” She tapped a finger to her mouth. “We’ll host it at my parents’ place. It’ll be large enough for everybody and the kids can play outside on the swingset.”

  “Maggie,” he warned.

  She
leaned over and patted his hand. “Don’t worry, Joe. It won’t be as bad as you think. We’ll decide on a theme and—”

  “A theme?”

  “You know. Cinderella, Dora the Explorer, clowns, that type of thing. Because she loves her bunny, we could decorate in Peter Rabbit or Winnie the Pooh.”

  He stared at her as if she’d sprouted an extra eye. “You’re kidding, right?”

  “No, I’m not. Gosh, Donatelli, didn’t you have any birthday parties or attend a friend’s?”

  “Not that I remember.”

  Damn, she thought, irritated at herself for her thoughtlessness. She knew his upbringing hadn’t been idyllic. The idea of a young version of Joe missing out on such a tradition stabbed her chest and brought tears to her eyes. Because he wouldn’t appreciate her sympathy, she blinked them away and swallowed hard.

  “Well, then,” she said lightly, “I’ll bring you up to speed. We’ll have a lot to plan if we’re going to be ready.”

  It took a full minute before he lost his dumbfounded expression. “OK. We’ll organize it over dinner on our date tomorrow night.”

  “It won’t matter if Breanna hears us talking,” she pointed out.

  He folded his arms. “If you want a party for her, we’ll discuss it over dinner. If not…” He raised an eyebrow.

  She smiled. “You’re on, Donatelli. I can wait until tomorrow.”

  As they returned to the E.R. on their way back to the lot where Maggie had parked their ambulance, Dr. Mike stopped them.

  “I’m glad I caught you,” he said, his expression impassive on his craggy face. “Saves me from making a phone call.”

  “What’s up?” Joe asked.

  “You know that man you brought in with the kidney stone?”

  Maggie braced herself for bad news. “Yes.”

  “I’m sure you won’t be surprised when I tell you he balked at having tests run,” he said wryly.

  “Let me guess,” Joe said. “He’s already had them and his doctor has the results.”

  “He could also quote the radiology reports verbatim,” Dr. Mike added. “I don’t mind telling you, I was impressed with this guy. He’s definitely a smooth operator. If you hadn’t warned me, I might have bought his story.”

  “He’s good, isn’t he?” Joe remarked.

  “Too good. The truth is, he’s probably had kidney stones in the past or knew someone who did. Lucky for us you gave a heads-up. I told him that if he wanted a prescription on my watch, considering how much pain he was in, we had to be absolutely certain we didn’t miss anything. With malpractice being what it is, I was legally bound to leave no stone unturned. Pun not intended.” He winked.

  Maggie grinned. “What did you do?”

  “What I’d normally do for anyone reporting the pain he’d described. I ordered a CT scan. And if that didn’t show anything, I told him I’d order a full-body scan, colonoscopy, the works.”

  As he paused for effect, Maggie couldn’t wait. “And?”

  Dr. Mike smiled broadly. “He skipped out. After the nurse left to contact Radiology, he pulled a disappearing act.”

  Joe chuckled. “No kidding?”

  Mike nodded. “He’ll probably try the same stunt somewhere else, but he won’t be getting his drugs from us. Not today, anyway. You made a good call.”

  Joe’s satisfied smile matched Maggie’s. “Thanks, Doc.”

  As they headed outside to their parked ambulance, Joe had a definite spring to his step, but before they separated—Maggie to the driver’s side and Joe to the passenger’s—he swept her off her feet and began twirling her around.

  She clutched his shoulders as a giggle bubbled out of her chest. “What are you doing, Joe? Someone will see us.”

  “No one’s around and if someone was, I don’t care.” He stopped turning in circles but kept her anchored against him. “We scored a point for the good guys, Maggie. I know it’s a small thing and won’t stop this guy from trying the same trick again, but it felt good to stop him. Even if we only manage it once.”

  “You have every right to be proud for seeing the truth.”

  “And you thought I was making a mistake.”

  “I did,” she admitted.

  “Let this be a lesson to you, Randall. Never argue with your partner.”

  “Unless he’s wrong,” she replied pertly.

  He laughed. “OK, maybe then.” He paused. “I couldn’t have asked for the day to end better.”

  If Maggie had ever wondered what drove Joe, she knew the reason now. Like her, Joe needed to be needed. Whether he was saving the world from a drug abuser, watching over his colleagues as they fought a fire, or looking out for a derelict, Joe simply had to prove his value. To him, being a paramedic wasn’t a job but a calling.

  It also explained why he hated to commit to a long-term role in Breanna’s or any other woman’s life. He simply wasn’t convinced that anyone needed him, or that he could fill an empty space in someone else’s life.

  “Sure you could,” she teased. “You could have snatched some fellow from the jaws of death. Leaped tall buildings with a single bound. Saved the world from nuclear holocaust.”

  “Too flashy,” he said as he stared into her eyes with a gaze so heated she curled her toes inside her boots. “Only one thing would truly end this day on a perfect note.”

  Awareness sparkled like the stars in the night sky. “Not enough time,” she remarked. “It’s two minutes until midnight.”

  “Darn it,” he said snapping his fingers. “I knew we shouldn’t have stopped for coffee.”

  “Wouldn’t matter. You really don’t want to make love in the back of an ambulance, do you?”

  His grin was lopsided. “It has possibilities.”

  “Not when we’re due back at the station.”

  “True. I guess this means I’ll have to go to Plan B.”

  As his gaze landed on her mouth, she unconsciously parted her lips. “What’s Plan B?” she asked, already anticipating his answer.

  Without a word, he swung her around in front of him. Then, in the empty parking lot with the Emergency sign acting as a beacon in the darkness, he slanted his mouth over hers and kissed her.

  CHAPTER NINE

  JOE debated for the rest of their shift as to where he should take Maggie on their first date. The Courtyard was an option, but too ostentatious for his purposes. Fast-food restaurants were out and the other, middle-of-the-road establishments were nice, but after they ate, what would they do for the rest of the evening? He’d seen the movie theater listings and wasn’t eager for a repeat of horror shows and chick flicks, but he didn’t want to waste this opportunity to have Maggie to himself by taking her home early.

  In fact, he’d like to take her home with him.

  As it turned out, Maggie suggested his favorite eating establishment, Lefty’s Bar and Grill, where the big-screen television was permanently set on the sports channel, the burgers were thick and juicy, and the potato skins were to die for. Considering they were fried in oil loaded with the trans-fats that were bad for one’s heart, his description wasn’t far off the mark.

  After a melt-in-your-mouth steak dinner, he negotiated the terms of Breanna’s birthday party, giving Maggie carte blanche for the cake design and trappings associated with it but drawing the line on the other items.

  “Are you sure you won’t budge on your ten-guest limit?” she asked.

  “Breanna doesn’t like crowds so we’re limited by the number who will fit comfortably in my house.”

  “The guys’ wives will be disappointed,” she warned. “Everyone was looking forward to meeting her. And remember the offer still stands to host the party at my parents’ house.”

  “Can’t be helped,” he said, although Maggie was right. He’d received a sudden flurry of invitations to drop by for a beer or to watch a baseball game. Although he appreciated being included in the personal gatherings, he’d declined. He wasn’t going to overwhelm Breanna with more new peopl
e until she’d grown accustomed to the old ones.

  “I wonder why they want to meet her so badly,” he mused aloud.

  “Face it, Joe, they can’t quite see you as a family man and they’re trying to reconcile the Joe Donatelli they think you are with the real guy.”

  A family man. Yeah, that’s what he was. At least for a few more weeks. Which was also why he didn’t want to make a big deal out of his new status. He might be growing into his responsibilities while Breanna was doling out more of her shy smiles and trusting hugs, but he still had a lot of fatherhood skills to learn. It was simply hard to predict how the situation would ultimately end and he didn’t want to be in the position of having to give awkward explanations.

  Although he had to admit that his life was rolling along better than he’d expected. The turning point had come when Maggie had refused to move in with him, which honestly hadn’t made sense at the time. And yet, if what he was seeing unfold in his own house was love, he understood why she refused to settle for anything less. Why, during the odd moments, he was half-convinced to give love one more chance, especially if it meant his current state of happiness and contentment would last.

  “They’ll have to be curious for a little longer. But now that we’ve decided on the party stuff, would you like to shoot some pool or do you want to go?” He mentally crossed his fingers and waited for her reply.

  “How long did you book your sitter?”

  “Until ten.”

  She smiled. “In that case, I’d love to shoot pool. I’m not very good, so don’t expect a lot.”

  Yes! he wanted to shout his excitement that the evening wasn’t ending before it had had a chance to begin. “Not to worry. We’re playing for fun.”

  Minutes later they were standing next to a billiards table, cues in hand as the jukebox played the latest country and western tune. “Would you like to break or shall I?”

  She answered with a heart-stopping smile. “Go ahead. Breaking isn’t my strong suit.”