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Chapter 4 : Macey

I had a shift on the ambulance Wednesday before my first class of the day, so I was up around four in the morning and over at the firehouse by four-forty-five. My partner and Paramedic in Charge, Addy Connor, was already there, per usual, ticking off supplies on the list when I arrived. Ever the hard worker and determined soul, Addy smiled over at me as I approached, her kind expression putting me at ease at once.

“Hey, lady,” she said. “Now that the semester has started, I wouldn’t have judged you for taking some PTO, you know.”

“I know.” I handed Addy the cup of coffee I’d brought her, then took a seat next to her in the back of the ambo. “I appreciate it,” I continued. “But honestly, I need to keep my mind busy. As soon as I start taking time, nothing gets done.”

“I know that feeling all too well,” Addy said with a laugh.

“How’s Jay?” I asked, referring to Addy’s fiancé, Jay Dexter.

“He’s doing great, thanks for asking. He’s actually thinking about coming here to try out for the fire department.”

“He’d do well,” I said with a shrug. “Hansen says they’re always looking for great new recruits.” I closed my eyes and leaned my head back against the wall of the ambo as a wave of exhaustion overtook me, consuming me almost entirely. I’d been feeling so fatigued recently, but I knew the start of the semester was to blame. It almost always was.

“When is your first class today?” Addy asked as we finished checking off the supplies.

“Not until noon.”

“Are you enjoying your classes?”

“Oh yeah. Histology is the coolest class I’ve ever taken,” I said.

“Really?”

“No, not really. It’s horrible. I’m ready to be done with my undergraduate and into medical school.”

Laughing, Addy handed me the clipboard to sign off on. We were just about to hop out of the back of the ambo when my uncle, Erik Hansen, captain of the fire crew, came in through the back door, holding two plates piled with eggs and bacon.

“Who’s hungry?” he asked, balancing the plates on each hand like a world-renowned chef. “I made breakfast.”

“Oooh, thanks,” Addy said, taking one of the plates and a fork from him.

“Mace?” Hansen asked, offering me the plate. I started to reach for it, then stopped when the smell assaulted my nose, making me nauseous. Bile rose in my throat, and I looked away.

“Ugh,” I said, shaking my head. “Sorry, H. I must have had something bad yesterday.”

“More for me,” Addy said with a shrug, taking the plate he offered me to dump it onto her current one as she shoveled scrambled eggs into her mouth.

“Are you feeling okay?” Hansen asked, his eyes narrowing in my direction. My mother’s younger brother, Erik Hansen, was a handsome man. Kind. Charming. He was the guy who was friends with everybody, and we’d been mistaken for father and daughter on more than one occasion. Since my parents were back in Michigan, moving to Colorado for school had been that much easier with my uncle here, providing the support I needed to make it through. The truth was, I was closer to Hansen (as the fire department employees fondly called him) than I was to my own parents, and his unwavering support made me feel secure in this charming little district. This was home, and that’s how I liked it.

“I’m feeling good,” I lied. “Just tired.”

“Are you sleeping okay?”

“Alright, H, now you just sound like Mom,” I said with a roll of my eyes. My uncle pursed his lips with a low whistle.

“I try hard to be nothing like your mother, Mace.”

“Don’t we all?”

The alarm blared overhead, and the dispatcher’s voice came over the loudspeaker, cutting off our laughter.

“Ambulance Two, respond to 1456 Eagle River Road for reports of an injured student.”

“That’s the university,” I said, snapping to attention at once. “Hopefully, it’s not anybody I know.”

“Keep your head in the game,” Hansen said, slapping me on the knee. Addy and I quickly stored the supplies we’d been counting and closed the back door behind us, moving around to the front of the ambulance to get ready to go. Addy jumped into the driver’s seat, and I joined her in the passenger’s seat, snapping my seatbelt into place as she cranked the engine and flipped on the lights.

“Good?”

“Ready.”

It didn’t take us long to get to campus. Eagle River was a mere suburb of Denver. While we boasted our own University, fire department, police department, and medical center, we were just as small-town as anywhere else. It didn’t take long to get from Point A to Point B.

We found the victim almost immediately surrounded by worried and excited college students on the baseball field. Addy drove the ambo straight across the lawn, honking at the bystanders to get out of the way. We had barely rolled to a stop before I hopped out and grabbed the trauma bag from the side door compartment.

“Back up, please,” I called, shouldering my way through the crowd of excited onlookers. “Give us room!”

Slowly, the crowd parted, allowing Addy and me into the circle. On the ground in the grass was an unconscious man, an athlete. I dropped to my knees next to his still figure to check him.

“He has a pulse,” I said to Addy, who was pulling the EKG machine from the bag. I leaned over the man to check his responsiveness, digging my knuckles into his chest cavity with just enough force to provoke a pain response. The boy moaned and jerked his head but didn’t wake.

“Does anyone know what happened?” Addy asked the crowd, getting down on the grass next to me. “And what is his name?”

“He went really pale and collapsed,” a familiar voice said. “His name is Daniel Jacobs.”

Shielding my eyes from the sun, I looked up at the speaker, coming face-to-face with Jayce Gregory. He was dressed in his baseball attire, tossing a ball back and forth between his hands anxiously. His cap shaded his eyes, but I still noticed they were on me as he spoke, and I couldn’t read his expression. I didn’t care at that time. I was here to work.

“Was he complaining of symptoms before he went unconscious?” I asked Jayce while I prepared an IV.

“He said he had a headache and was feeling kind of dizzy. Sick to his stomach.” Jayce kneeled in the grass on the other side of his friend, far too close to me for comfort.

“Do you have any medical history on him? Do you know if he’s diabetic or gets low blood sugar?”

“No, anything like that would have been disclosed when he joined the team, I think.”

“Dehydration, probably,” I said, and Addy nodded.

“Let’s start a D5W IV and get an EKG enroute,” she said. “Maybe we can wake him before we get to the ER.”

Addy and I loaded a still unconscious Daniel onto the stretcher and wheeled him back to the ambo, followed by a few stragglers from the baseball team, Jayce included.

“Hey, Macey,” Jayce called from a few feet away. “You didn’t tell me you were such a badass.”

“Well,” I said with a slight shrug, sitting down on the seat next to the stretcher. “You never asked.”

Jayce laughed, shaking his head, those brilliant gray eyes sparkling with amusement. “You’ll have to tell me all about it when we see each other next,” he said. “Because I’m enthralled.”

“In your dreams, Gregory,” I shouted, glancing down as Daniel’s eyes fluttered open with a small groan. “I’m your tutor and nothing else. Don’t push it!”

“See you later, kid,” Jayce said with a wink as Addy shut the ambo doors behind me.

“My name is Macey,” I said to Daniel, looking down at him as Addy climbed into the driver’s side of the ambo. “I’m an EMT, and I’m here to help you. We think you’re dehydrated. How do you feel?”

“Like I got run over by a semi-truck,” the guy, Daniel, said with a strained laugh. I smiled and patted the guy’s arm, opening up the IV.

“Good. Pain means you’re still alive.”

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