The Tales of HTFC - Medic 4908 - Adam
Disclaimer: This story, while incorperating aspects of real events, is not a memior, in addition, while 49-08 and 49-57 are real call signs, I have no correlation with them, nor do I know who they belong to. Also, there is no Hightown Fire or EMS Deparment that I am aware of.
This is my first real story, please read, rate, and Comment!
Beep Beep Beep.....
Fire control to all hightown Fire and EMS monitors, medic 8, respond to 566 Rochester St for a car accident with a tree, prioity one. Fire control clear 0335.
Sigh, why does the drunk always have to hit a tree at three in the morning? Rolling out of bed urgency was hardly much of a worry, I could probably sleep another 5 minutes before getting up and still beat the rest of the EMS crew to the ambulance. There are certainly benefits of living in the firehouse.
But, up and at em, right? Direct from the bed to the gear rack, county issued Jacket, Check, County Bunker pants, check, red bag, with everything you suppoedly need to save someone, check. Coffee? Check.
Running down the stairs to the vehicle bay, I couldn't help but wonder how many times I've gotten a call like this one, and how they always ended up the same. Medic with ambulance arrives on scene, heavy rescue arrives on scene, heavy rescue cuts out the drunk, medic pronounces the drunk moron dead. Thats how a three am car accient has always ended, 5 years of this shit and I can tell you that.
Hey, it might be pointless, but its my job. Getting to the bey its always the same thing, the loudspeaker repeating the call, the red lights going, and the rumble of the deisel engines as furs scramble to get to thier vehicles and get to the scene as fast as they can.
And I'm one of them. Running down the line to the last bay I see my old girl, ol' 49-57, and hop in.
"John you in?"
"Nah, I'm dead, 'course I'm farking in 'ere"
Freaking wiseass, John was my partner, the EMT I'm assigned with. Normally an EMT and a Paramedic are teamed up and share a room in the firehouse on thier on call nights, John decided a while ago that the back of the ambulance was the place for him to spend the night. Not exactly my cup of tea, but it did give us one of the fastest response times in the county.
Starting up the rig I hear the passenger door open, with one of the new kids, a scared looking Doberman cimbing into the side seat.
"Um, mind if I come along?"
First EMS call I'm guessing, no clue how he got here so fast but hey, an extra pair of hands never hurt anyone right?
"Strap in kid, we dont need you going through the windshield on your first call."
His eyes went wide at that, apparently it seemed a very real possibility to him. Punching the start the engine roared to life, punch two more to pop off the electical and fuel lines that connect the ambulance to the firehouse and we rolled out of the bay.
49-57 to fire control.
Fire control on
49-57 en route with a crew of tw- scratch that, with a crew of three
Isnt it funny how we settle into our patterns? For the last 4 years I've radioed the same message to fire control, en route with a crew of two, maybe change is in the air.
Roaring out of the lot its the usual mad dash to the scene, lights going and a siren whenever we come to an intersection. Most Medics have thier own driver too, I've never been one for that. Nope, give me an EMT and have a firepolice man to drive us to the hospital once we're on scene, I'll get the rig to the scene myself.
Rochester St, not too far, probably only 4 minutes or so at 80mph. Theres something you only get with the EMS, the legal right to drive 80 through downtown. Looking over my new little passanger looks about ready to piss his pants.
"Whats the matter kid? Didn't think an ambulance would go this fast?"
He shook his head frantically, poor kid, scared out of his wits.
"Arriving in one minute John"
"Bloody drunks, in'erupp'in my 'uety sleep"
Always a bit of a joke with John, he was in the war thirty someting years ago and left with scars all over his face and arms, yet he's still convinces they'll all go away if he sleeps enough.
Pulling up on scene its more or less your normal call, police cruiser at the end of the road, closing out any non-emergency vehicles, down the road I can already see the flares around the car, Heavy rescue already working on cutting the poor fellow out. It wasn't until I got closer that My heart sank.
It was a black civic, His black civic.
Which could only really mean one thing, it was Adam inside.
Adam was my boyfriend. We had met years back, in high school. Back then we were just friends. He was desparatly trying to be straight, had a girlfriend who he had no real intrest in, and I was the gay freind who he would do anything not to be like. Its took a while but one thing led to another, and we had been together for six years now.
And now his car was wrapped around an old oak on the side of the road.
They say time slows down when something happens to a loved one, yeah its true, time slowed down, and the ambulance sped up. We have a bylaw that the apparatus can't break 90 unless authorized by the chief. Well, the turbo was redlining as I slammed the throttle, peaking around 150 before reaching the scene, ignoring the "bloody 'ell"s coming from the back and the terrifed little squeak of the Doberman.
I hopped out and raced to the car, heavy rescue had cut the roof of the car free and was now working on getting the door out of the way. After 4 years of this shit, I've seen a lot of bodies, a lot of blood, and a lot of stuff you should never really see, but getting to the carI saw one thing I hoped I never would, Adam slumped over the wheel his short blond hair stained with blood.
I don't really know what happened next, I might have screamed, I might have cried, I might have just stood there. the next thing I knew, John was next to me with the streacher.
"bloody 'ell..."
Thats when I went into gear, logic told me he was probably gone already. Since when has the heart ever listened to logic. Before I knew what I was doing I was on the radio.
Control this is medic 4908, requesting emergency Helicopter MedEvac
Negative 08, all resources are in use.
Shit.
John had gotten him out of the car by now, and onto the backboard. Before I had even confirmed to the chief we had been there, we were leaving. But there was a problem. There were no fire police. Getting to the ambulance I relized we had no driver, and I certainly couldn't drive.
But, we did, crew of three.
Sure enough, the doberman was still here, looked like he had seen a ghost or two, but still here.
"You, drive, NOW."
"But I don't-"
"NOW DAMN IT!"
Poor kid, probably questioning why he even showed up, protocol was you had to be at least 21 to drive a truck, he was probably bearly 16.
As John and I hoisted the streacher into the back of the rig, I heard the engine start up. Thank god, the kid managed to move his feet.
"Ready?" he said it so softly I was certain that he wasn't, but it was time for him to man up.
As he started to pull away I got my first good look at Adam. I wished I hadn't.
His face was cut up, probably from the windshield breaking, his arm was twisted in a way that an arm simply can't go, and his chest was bleeding.
"Cut off the shirt and stop up that bleeding as best you can, get him on oxygen now."
As the shirt fell away, I saw the damage. Somthing in the car had been driven into the right side of his chest, breaking ribs and probably destroying the lung too.
"bloody 'ell..."
I reached towards the hole, I don't even know why, I knew I couldn't remove whatever it was, that would have to wait for a surgeon, but touching his chest he let out the smallest groan.
Casualties don't groan, patients groan.
Getting up I rushed toward the drivers cabin.
The Kid was sitting there doing his best, but he was bearly breaking 60.
"Listen bud, lives depend on your driving. You ever play a racing game? Well play now." I flipped the siren on and pulled the hand throttle, the engine roared as we picked up speed. Looking through the windshield I saw we were still 5 minutes or so away fromt he Hospital, and Adam didn't have that kind of time.
"Buddy, your now driving with one pedal, use your brake only if you need to, otherwise keep your foot off of it"
Going back to the streacher Adam was still hanging in there.
"How's he doing John?"
"hes s'ill 'ere ain't 'e?"
Good.
Looking out the back I could see we were finally getting some semblance of speed, passing the route 9 diner I knew we were about a minute away at this speed.
I guess that was when it hit me, up until now I had been working on instinct, on impulse, now I relized, this could be the end of Jason and Adam, his life was in my hands, and that was okay, it was my job to make sure he got the hospital alive, if we did that, he had a good chance of being alright.
As the kid pulled into the bay at the hospital, we started to unload him. John had done a pretty good job stopping up the blood, but he was still critical. As the nurse ran up to me, I signed the paper. I had signed this same form probably hundreds of times, that was the point when he went from being our porblem to the hospitals.
As the nurses wheeled him away I suddenly felt so alone.
"He's 'oing ta be alrigh'"
Turning I saw the big bear, the one who I've worked with for so many years, slowly walking towards me, he put a huge paw on my sholder.
"He's 'oing ta be alrigh'"
We were standing there for probably a minute or two before anyone said something.
"Erm, excuse me?"
Turning it was the Doberman, still shaking in his shoes.
"Is there any way I could get some pants in there?"
Looking down, the poor kid had pissed his pants.
"Yeah, you did good kid."
"Righ' good innit"
Walking towards the door it dawned on me.
"John, go deal with him, I've got to take care of something."
Walking to the Ambulance I found my Red Bag. Reaching inside I found what I was looking for, a Picture of me and him, and a cellphone. I flipped open the phone and dialed a number that hadn't been called in years.
And it rang.
"Who the Hell is this, do you know what time it is!?!?"
"Hello, Mr. Fonta, its Jason Daner."
"YOU FUCKING LITTLE FAGGOT, FIRST YOU STEAL MY SON FROM ME AND MAKE HIM INTO A FAG, AND NOW YOU CALL MY HOUSE AT FUCKING THREE IN THE MORNING!!"
"Sir, it's about Adam, he was in a car accident"
"what...?"
"We don't know the details but he hit a telaphone pole in his car. He's in critical condition at Hightown Medical Center"
"My god..."
"You can come down if you like, but you probably don't be able to visit him for a little while."
"..."
"Are you alright sir?"
"Yeah, thanks Jason."
As I closed the phone I almost hoped that he would come down, that he might decide that we're not horrible people, that there's more to his son than who he loves. A guy can hope, right?
I closed up the ambulance and walked towards the hospital door, keying in the passcode the doors opened. John had probably found the doberman some new pants and would probably be heading back to the station soon.
As I walked into the ER everything was frantic as usual, furs rushing around, loud beeping and a handful of orders being shouted. As I walked towards the waiting room, I felt a small hand on my shoulder. Turning I saw it was a Sarah, an otter I knew in high school, and Adams last girfriend. She was a nurse here and I saw her from time to time, she had recognized the name on the paperwork and had been looking for me. There wasn't anything to be said, just a touch on the shoulder said everything.
As I walked over to the seating area and sat down, John and the doberman came walking over.
"'ow ya doin' 'ere bud."
"Been better" Looking to the doberman, "find pants?"
"yeah, sorry 'bout that"
"Don't worry, ya did good kid. Whats your name?
"Seth"
"Nice name, well, thank you Seth, without you we probably couldn't have done it."
"Thanks"
"You do know now, if you stick around with the fire department, you're legacy of pissing your pants on your first call will stick around too, right?"
"Yeah, I kinda figured."
"So, JohnI assume you're headed back?"
"eah, we beta 'ou s'ayin'?
"Course, see you two later"
As they walked off I had nothing to do but sit back and wait. I suppose at some point I must have dozed off, being woken at 3am will do that to you, because the next thing I knew I was being woken by Sarah.
"Wake up sleepy head"
"I'm not sleeping, I'm resting my eyes."
"Whatever, Adam is going to be fine, he got out of surgury about an hour ago and is awake now, you can see him if you'd like"
"oh thank god"
Niether of us talked as we walked down the hall, he was still in intensive care but he was more or less out of the woods, so thats all that matters.
As we came to his door, I couldn't help but cry a bit, I walked in and there he was, bright eyed and bushy tailed as ever. We smiled when he saw me.
"Ayy, theres the man I'm looking for"
Chipper as ever, gotta love a fox.
"How are ya feeling there man?"
"Oh outstanding! A hole blown through your chest really wakes you up in the morning!"
"Heh, I bet."
"Ooh, ooh, Sarah, where's the thing?"
"You mean the one they dug out of you?"
"Yeah!"
"Umm, here."
As she handed it to him I noticed it was a little box, probably 2" by 2".
"This is why I was out tonight."
I could have sworn the little guy had lost his marbles.
"Jason, Will you marry me?"
As he opened the little box I realized what it was, a little gold ring sat in the blood stained box.
"Of course"