A Night With Medic 55

Kevin talks a jumper down from a highway overpass.  His unorthodox approach is risky. 

 

A Night with Medic 55

 

 

 

It was one of those nights when you could feel anxiety in the air and you knew something was about to happen. For Paramedics Kevin Wright and Greg Grayson, it meant they would be busy, but neither had any way of knowing this night would change their lives forever. 

Kevin and Greg had just finished checking off their rig when the tones put them into action.

“Medic 55, Engine 55, Car 55. Assist PD with a suspect. 610 East at 45 North, main slab. Possible ETOH poisoning.”

“PD can't handle a drunk?” Greg complained as they threw themselves into the unit. The Commander's car led the way as the ambulance followed the fire engine through the night traffic. The traffic was still heavy and Kevin was wary of allowing the engine get too far ahead of them. Kevin had witnessed more than once civilians driving between two emergency vehicles to break through traffic.   He could live without that danger.

“Medic 55 on the scene”, Kevin reported. 

Greg turned off the rig's siren as they arrived. The incident they witnessed was quite bizarre, in fitting with the tenseness of the evening. The suspect/patient was a young looking petite blonde. She was walking along the guard rail of the interstate.   Normally, this would not be of much concern to anyone except this guard rail was a good 75 feet above the rescuers and she waved around a hand gun large enough to make Clint Eastwood proud. She was indeed a handful and it was obvious why they had been called out in force.

“Looks like your type of woman, Kev, Ole Pal!!” Greg joked as they parked the ambulance out of harm's way.

“I believe she's more like your type, Greg. What do you say I go up there and get her number for you??” Kevin was all smiles as he approached the police commander. 

“How long has she been up there?” Kevin asked.

“About half an hour or so” came the terse reply. “That hand cannon she's waving around makes matters a bit difficult.”

“I see that, but I think I can talk her down. Are there any criminal charges against her?”

“Public drunk is all right now. I believe the piece is legal. We found her carry permit, or should I say, she threw that to us” the officer replied as he showed Kevin the permit, folded into a paper airplane.

“Okay, so let me talk to her a minute. Public Drunk is a good thing so far.”

“We have our negotiator on the way, son. Why not let him do his thing and you can pick up the pieces later.”

“If you let me do my thing, there won't be any pieces to pick up.”

“My man knows what he's doing” his captain defended. “It can't hurt to let him chat with the little lady.”

            “If she makes a move with that handgun and I mean even the slightest twitch, we do what we have to do.”

              “That won’t be necessary. I can get her off that rail, into the ambulance and we can all go home happy.”

“Okay, I’ll give you a few minutes with her before our negotiator gets here, so use them wisely.”

Kevin had Greg park their ambulance on top of the over pass so the back doors were facing the patient. She was still on the guardrail and keeping her feet and balance very well. Kevin was watching her closely as he walked steadily toward her. He carried a can of soda in both hands and acted like  he was just casually taking a walk in the night air.   He got close enough to sit on the guard rail and stretch his arms a bit.

“HI!” he said in a calm and friendly tone.

The woman turned to see Kevin not more than five feet away and casually sitting on the guardrail. Her preoccupation with the police and other emergency vehicles had allowed him to get close without her noticing at all. 

“Who are you?” she demanded as she once again turned on the railing.

“I'm Kevin. Sure is a nice night for a walk, huh??”

“Yeah, it could be if you weren't getting screwed over by all your friends.”  She twirled on the rail as she said that and Kevin almost had the chance to grab her by the gun hand when she did, but her reflexes were very good for an intoxicated person, so he decided against that action for now.

“Friends can do that”, Kevin said as he slowly took a long drink from his can of soda. “Kind of hot out, don't you think?” as he offered her the second can.

“Little bit. Thanks, but I'm not too thirsty. I've had a few to numb my brain tonight.”

“Feeling no pain right about now?”

“Just a lot of frustrations. You know, I bet I could pop at least half a dozen of those lights from here.”

Kevin was relieved she did not point the weapon in the direction of the emergency vehicles. She looked at them with a shooter's eye and had calculated the range.

“Might not want to do that” Kevin said.

“Sharpshooter? I've seen him. I know I could bead in on him too, but he's probably got a quicker trigger finger than mine.”

Sarah twirled again on the guard rail. She was walking back and forth about 8 feet either direction of the exact center of the overpass. How she was keeping her balance was way beyond Kevin's reasoning. Most drunks would have fallen long before.

“Sure you wouldn't care to sit with me and share a Pepsi?” Kevin offered again.

“No thanks.  The caffeine would cause me to have to pee and I don't see a lady's room around. Besides, I'm great. I'm just buzzing away up here.”

“Did you do shooters tonight?” Kevin was trying to get a handle on the level of intoxication he was dealing with. He knew his precious time was running out as well.

“Nah, just several dry martinis, shaken, not stirred.”

“007 fan??”

“Yeah, are you?”

“Seen every James Bond movie they've made. Say, why not sit down a minute and let's talk about our favorite Bond movies, or who was your favorite Bond?”

“Only one Bond”, she protested. “After Sean Connery, the rest were copies.”

“Even Brosnan?”

“He was good, but Connery was the best of them all though.” She did another twirl on the rail and almost slipped. She bobbled for a moment then caught herself.

“Close call; why not step down from there for a bit. You are beginning to worry me.”

“Why should you care? You don't even know my name.”

“I would if you told me.” 

That statement disarmed the woman who was sure no one on earth even gave a damn about whether she was even alive, had ever been alive, much less cared about her name. She softened her tone slightly as she answered Kevin.

“I'm Sarah. You're Kevin, right??”

“Yeah, I'm Kevin and it's nice to meet you Sarah”, Kevin offered the Pepsi once again.

“Nice to meet me? If you had any idea of what I've been through, you wouldn't think that way. You have kids of your own?”

“Yes, I'm a father” Kevin replied in a very cool and calm tone. 

“Boys or girls?” Sarah demanded.

“Two girls, but they're a bit younger than you.”

“Really, you have two girls?” Her tone softened considerably when Kevin let her know he was a father of two girls.

“Sure do and I think they are the most wonderful things that ever happened to me.”

“My father didn't. He was one tough, mean SOB.”

“Sorry to hear that.”

“Couldn't stand that I was a girl”, she said as her voice trembled. Kevin knew his time to move was coming closer. A nerve had been touched. Which way she would go next was in Kevin's hands, so his next words had to be perfect.

“Took that out on your mother, did he?”

“It was so much more than that. He took it out on both of us. He never raised a hand to my older brother and it didn't matter what he did. He just followed his orders. Pure military BS.”

Now that Sarah was talking to him, Kevin knew the connections to talk her down had been made. All he had to do now was keep talking and wait for her to break. A serious jumper would have taken the jump by now. Sarah wanted help. She continued her rant, and Kevin knew he was close to making another rescue. 

“I tried to follow his footsteps”, Sarah cried. “I tried so hard! I topped the whole ROTC class, aced every test, and shattered all my brother's records. Hell, I even got appointed to West Point. Neither of them could deny that. Wasn't good enough for the old warhorse though, no sir.”

“That's impressive.”

“Yeah it would be, unless you're an old line Army Ranger. No place in this man's army for any skirts, he liked to say.”

“Sarah” Kevin interrupted, “this would only make his point for him. You can win this battle tonight against him. It may be one battle, but it's a start. Step over here and let's get you some help.”

Sarah stopped her tirade and slowly looked around. The flashing lights below looked like a carnival, and she started to feel like the side show. Kevin's presence and conversation were actually making more sense to her as the alcohol began to wear off.

“He would expect this of a skirt wouldn't he? Take the easy way out. Jump and die, be paralyzed or try to shoot myself, miss the right spot and become a veg. That's exactly what he would expect of me.”

“You're stronger than that, Sarah. I can see that. You can get through this night and come out on top again, just like you have all your life.”

Kevin's confidence in her was a surprise to Sarah. She took another look around bent over to lay her hand gun on the guard rail. Kevin could see it was a match quality target pistol. If this girl had seriously wanted to do the things she mentioned earlier, Kevin had no doubt she could have just taken target practice using the flashing lights as targets. She was in a crouching position on the rail and once again, she seemed to defy gravity with her balance.

“Looks like I've gotten myself in a mess tonight. How much jail time am I looking at?”

Kevin laughed. “The only charge the police have against you is public drunk, but I believe they will drop that once you talk to the psych folks.”

Your weapon is legal, you didn't shoot anyone, you never even threatened to shoot anyone or anything and you walked here from the last bar.”

“You'll stay with me if I agree not to jump?”

“All the way to the hospital”, Kevin promised.

Sarah stood up from her squatting position and tried to take a step towards Kevin but as she tried to step off the rail, she lost her footing on the concrete. In a flash, Kevin covered the space between them and grabbed Sarah’s arm as she went over the rail. She was a small girl, but it took all of his strength to keep her from plunging to the ground below. 

Kevin felt arms grab him around the waist as Greg grabbed him to help pull their patient to safety. It seemed an eternity, but the much shaken, and now quickly sobered; Sarah was back on solid ground. In seconds, police officers were everywhere, securing the weapon and the rest of the scene. A female officer patted Sarah down for more weapons and escorted her to the ambulance. After a very brief exam and discussion with the police on the scene, Sarah was on her way to Houston Trauma for a psych exam.

“What happens now?” she asked Kevin.

“Well, we check you into the ER at Houston. They’ll clean up that scrape on your arm for you and they will have a psych resident talk to you. Only police charge might be public drunk, but I think that will be disregarded once you talk to the psych folks.”

“You think I’m nuts?”

“Not in the least. Let’s just say, I think you need some help to get past some issues in your life. You may have been here before, but maybe tonight some more buttons got switched on in places that were not touched before. And, no, I don’t think you are nuts.”

“Kevin, you didn’t have to try to save me tonight. I don’t know how it would have turned out if you weren’t the one talking me down.”

“I could not let you put a permanent end to a temporary set of problems. It cuts across my grain. I’d do this for anyone I found in your shoes.”

“Especially abused army brats?”

“This is all standard. Everyone gets this treatment after holding a midnight stroll on the 610 overpass.”

“I bet you say that to all the blonde haired army brats who ride back here.”

“Only the ones who love James Bond and high powered handguns.” The flirting tones kept the atmosphere pretty light and Sarah let down her guard to Kevin more.

“Kevin”, she said. “You are a good man. Your girls are lucky to have you as a dad. Wish my father could have been more like you.”

“Sarah, we can get you help, but we honestly need to know more about what drove you to the point you were at tonight. Neither of us can change your past, but there are many ways to put the past behind and recover from what happened to you. Let the domestic violence people step in and take care of this.”

“How” Sarah asked. “I've been through all this before. It blew up on me then, so it will just make matters worse this time around as well. You can't stop him. He has too many friends in the right places.”

“Your father?” Kevin asked. “Look, my dad's ex-military too, and he has several high ranking friends. He retired as a general, so I think I can get some calls made to help you, but you have to give us more than what we have now.”

“Go over all those graphic details all over again? How detailed do we need to be here? I've been through this, and I don't like to bring it all up again. It hurts.”

Sarah startedto show some signs of weakness as Kevin pressed for more answers. She was quietly crying at times, but soon, the whole story started to unfold. It took Kevin's promise to visit her once she let the facts come to the surface one more time.

“I'm not going to look pretty to anyone if I have to tell my side of the story again. It makes me feel so horrible when the thoughts of that night come back to mind. Even the martinis can't wash them out of my head. My best friend turned on me when I tried to confide in her, and so did everyone else I knew. Stuff like this never happens to good people. It happens to tramps, druggies and w****s. Not to nice pretty girls. No one wants to believe a decorated war hero would hurt a blonde haired all American little darling.”

“The first step is always the hardest, even if you have taken it before. The rest will be much easier.”

“Am I attractive to you? Do you think I look pretty, cute? Am I a good looking woman?”

Kevin was not too surprised by the question. Sarah was a petite young girl with a well proportioned body, a light natural tan and very blonde hair. Her eyes were a deep, deep violet and were very expressive. She was very attractive and very disarming.

“I'm no beauty contestant judge”, Kevin said, “but you are a very beautiful girl. My partner agreed with me on that note.”

“My ex-boyfriend told me I was the most beautiful girl he ever laid eyes on. Then I told him the truth. I told him I wasn't a virgin and I told him why.”

“That took some guts, Sarah.”

“Guts? It was stupid. You want to know what he called me when he broke up with me.”

“Let me guess. He called you a fat ugly s**t.”

“You're good, Kevin”, she said. “You are really good. You hit it right on the head.”

““This isn't the first time I've heard a story like yours and the ending is usually the same. He couldn't handle your past, so he copped out on you.”

“I've been called fat and ugly by my father all my life” she said. “Can you imagine how that makes a girl feel? He encouraged my brother to call me names, encouraged him to play rough with me. God, there's no good place to start. It went on all my life.”

Kevin listened with some amazement and disgust at the life Sarah described to him. The name calling was one thing, but the abuse by proxy was something else. Sarah told Kevin about her father teaching her to ride her bike and how her brother knocked her down so many times her knees and elbows were covered in scrapes and cuts while her dad laughed off her complaints and protests and made her get back on the bike over and over until she could barely stand or hold her head up. She was allowed no comfort from her mother if she cried after being hurt.

She could not remember ever getting a hug from her father. Sarah was almost completely isolated from any emotions except abuse and cruelty. It wasn't just abuse, but also the emotional neglect she had suffered. It's a wonder she made it through life to this point at all. The first positive emotions she could remember happened in first grade. After another military transfer, she was a new kid in school once again. She showed up with those scraped knees and bruised arms from severalbike crashes. Her teacher at once took her to the school nurse's aid. She cleaned her up and bandaged the scrapes, all the while talking softly to her and encouraging her to tell her what had happened to her. She held Sarah in her lap while the school social worker secretly talked to Sarah about her family. She helped Sarah find some jeans to cover her knees and walked with her back to her class.   

“She was always there for me. I could see her whenever I needed to talk or just get a hug. She was a stranger, but she showed me hope. I missed her terribly when we got transferred again.”

Sarah was quiet for the rest of the trip. She closed her eyes trusting the man who had just risked his life to save hers. Upon arrival at HT, Kevin stayed with her as he promised. She answered the questions posed to her in a quiet and matter of fact manner.

“What do you think?” Kevin asked the psych resident.

“She's pretty mixed up inside but I think we can get her back on her feet. You got her to take the first steps tonight.”

“She's pretty strong. I'm going to drop one of my cards with her if you don't mind. I think she might be a candidate for our karate program.”

“Great idea”, agreed the resident. “That could provide her a place to physically work out some of these demons.”

He went to the small holding room where Sarah had been placed. Her cuts and scrapes were all cleaned and covered with white gauze. She was sipping a soft drink in a slow and deliberate manner. 

“My white knight returns!” Sarah said. Her violet eyes lit up brightly as Kevin entered. “When can they let me out of here?”

“I think you can count on a couple of days upstairs. I want to leave this card with you. The karate club I belong to has a program for those of us who could use some stress relief. I think you would be a perfect fit.”

“Think so?” Sarah asked. “You think they'll let me out of here before I'm old and grey?”

“Absolutely. I give you two to three days in here tops. But be sure you call when you get out. Ask for me or Laura. We'll give you the tour and get you set up. No fee.”

“I could use a place like that. You're a good man, Kevin. I'll call. Maybe even to get a ride out of here. Say, how about telling that psych resident I'd like to talk some more with her. I've kept you from your job long enough.”

“I'm glad you decided to work with her. She's got your back, so be sure you help her get you the help you need. She might be young, but she's good and she cares.”

Kevin found the psych resident and let her know Sarah was ready to talk more with her.” I believe she's about to make a breakthrough. There's a lot going on in that head.”

“I'm hoping for enough to issue an arrest warrant”, she said. “The domestic violence case worker got the order of protection while you were doing your thing, so that should give her some confidence in what we want to do.”

“Well, I got her here so she's in your hands, Doc.”

The dispatch tones sounded and they were off on the call that would set the wheels in motion that would dramatically change the rest of his and Greg's life.

“Medic 55; Engine 55; unknown trauma. PD enroute. Westheimer at Kirby. Reported gun involved. Unknown shots fired. Approach with caution and hold at South Shepherd and Westheimer for PD to secure.”

“We're off again, partner” Greg said as he slid behind the wheel. “Let's rock and roll.”

“55 enroute Westheimer at Kirby. Acknowledge unknown trauma and unsecured scene”, Kevin said as he flipped on the lights and siren.

“We're less than 4 miles from there. We'll be there in less than 5 minutes. What's PD's ETA?”

“Medic 55 to dispatch, we have a 4 minute ETA, request update on PD.”

“55, PD on scene, 2 patients, multiple GSW and knife wounds. PD advises step it up.”

“55's on the scene” Kevin replied as they parked beside the patrol cars. “Backup requested STAT.”

“Copy Medic 55” dispatch replied. “Back up STAT requested. Medic 71, Medic 71. Assist Medic 55 Westheimer at Kirby.”

“71 Responding from ClearLakeER”

“They’re 20 minutes out” complained Greg. “There’s not a unit closer?”

“Put out a blind call for any ambulance close by”, Kevin told the nearest officer. “We don’t have 20 minutes with either of these patients.”

Reviews

[DarkAngelWriter]

OoOoOoOoOoOo... Okay, here's the deal...

You entered this in my "Books" contest (duh), and out of the three I've *attempted* to read, yours is the first that I was able to make it all the way through the first chapter...and enjoy it. And I want more.

Just so you have a little insight on how I'm going to do the contest (if you care), I'm gonna up the ones I can get through and enjoy, then go back and finish the finalists to narrow them down. As of now, this is definitely a finalist. I can't wait until I've read the other 41 chapter ones so I can get back to this one! ^_^

[Kara Emily Krantz]

Nice job - i agree, it's a well-planned out beginning.

"She was in a crouching position on the rail and once again, she seemed to defy gravity with her balance."

the best part of this chapter was the way you described her ability to balance- i felt like it said much about the character. i dont know, i just found that part the most in depth adn intriguing.

some of the dialogue seemed a little contrived, a little stiff. especially some of the pscyh stuff. you gotta watch out for that - it's easy to do, but not natural. especialy if this is something the guy talks about or is familiar with on a regular basis.

there was a brief switch where you go from the guys point of view to the girls. it was abrupt, and i dont belive you even stayed there long. I liked being in her head for aminute, but if you don't plan on doing it for a bit longer, and making a clearer cut from his to her thoughts, it might be better just to keep it in the same person? just a thought.

their long conversation in the car was confusing to me, too. i guess i didn't follow very well how they got in the car, or that she was difinitively going with him, rather than with the ambulance or whatnot. so i was confused that they had the time to talk so much about everything. and her sharing, especially in the beginning, seemed so quick. i dont think she would have given in so fast; at least describe some resistance? just a thought.

i know i'm being critical, but only because i really did like this. i never read stories/books on here, mostly poetry, but i'm definitely interested in reading more.

hugs

[Gary H]

Well planned out start to the story. The James Bond bit was quite funny as everyone says the same thing which must be very disconcerting for all the actors that followed Sean in the later films. Anyway, that was an aside and a neat way to integrate the characters in the story. By the time I had finished the part one I had a very distinct idea in my head as to what they are all about. Off to the next part now.....