Dead On Arrival

Seventeen

“Well, they didn’t get to fix the giant hole in your head, but they did a decent job with the small gash,” I said to ER Dano as we walked out of the emergency room.

He grunted.

Buzz was behind the wheel of #456, and I know ER Dano would not want any other transportation back to TLC. How fitting.

We climbed into the back and sat on the bench. Buzz turned around, gave ER a thumbs-up and then pulled slowly out of the driveway.

I felt Dano’s knees bump against mine as the ambulance took several turns. Yum. I shouldn’t be ogling an injured guy like this, but damn, I felt something. ER Dano had made a darn lousy first impression-and I am sure an impression that he thrived upon-but in the end, a different guy came through-and I liked him!

I had a sobering thought. Hopefully, he wasn’t involved in the fraud or…the stabbings, and damn, but I had a gut feeling that the two crimes were related.

In my heart I didn’t believe it was true about Dano, so I had to trust my instincts yet again. And this one was the clincher: Jagger wasn’t keeping me away from him. If anyone suspected ER Dano of anything nefarious, Jagger would know, and I sure wouldn’t be sitting here!

The ambulance stopped and before I could say a word, the back door was flung open and Buzz stood there as if he’d just stepped out of a brand-new toy box I could swear he was made out of plastic, the way he held his shoulders straight in that crisp uniform, legs apart as if at attention. And such a serious look on his face.

“Need any help?” he asked Dano, who looked at him and groaned. “Okay, sir. I’ll be here if you need me.”

I had to smile to myself as Dano stepped to the side, then turned and hurried to open the door. I leaned toward Dano and said, “He was only trying to help. Cut him some slack.”

“Cutting a kid like that slack is not going to get him skilled in this profession, Nightingale. He has to toughen up. One time he was about to zap a patient with the cardiac defibrillator, and I had to point out to him that she was still holding onto his leg. Does the term ‘clear’ mean anything to you?”

I wanted to say, “But he’s such a sweetie,” but realized Dano was correct. Buzz obviously had to toughen up. I remembered the look on his face when he’d seen Pansy.

I tried not to feel negative about his future, but I wondered how long Jeremy would last as an EMT at TLC.

Since our duty day was nearly over, I sat back on the couch in the lounge and sipped my tea while everyone fawned over ER Dano-from a distance. Obviously they were not stupid people. I saw him wince a few times, and I guessed it wasn’t from pain.

“What the hell are you smiling about, Nightingale?” he said.

“Hmm? Oh, nothing.” I hadn’t realized I was.

He eased away from Jennifer and Lilla and straddled a chair from the table in front of me. “Yeah, right. You’re loving this.”

This time I chuckled. “Okay. You got me.”

He kicked my foot with his. Just a gentle touch. A sensual touch even through my shoe. Wow.

It wasn’t easy to rein in my thoughts, when I had to work with him so near. I sighed.

He looked at me.

Damn. He knew. He knew that he was causing a reaction-the bad boy! And, the worst part was, I was losing control of my reactions.

Buzz came over to ER Dano with a cup of black coffee. “Here ya go. How you feeling?”

Whoops. I thought Dano was going to fling the mug at the poor kid. But he did take it and mumble something. I was going with “thanks.”

Dano took a few sips and then shut his eyes.

Dear Buzz could not take a hint, I thought as I bit my tongue.

“So, you know the ER doc, Dr. Richard Pringle, does not want you alone tonight. He said you need someone to check up on you,” Buzz said, clearing his throat. “Someone has to keep waking you up in case you have a concussion.”

Oh, boy. I started to send mental notes to Buzz to shut up, and even used my facial expressions to try to capture his attention before he ended up wearing Dano’s coffee; but darling Buzz kept up. Being zapped by a defibrillator would be nothing compared to what Dano might do to him.

“So, I will volunteer. I can bunk at your place, boss, and wake you up every hour or so. You know. Ask you what day it is. Who the president is-”

Before Buzz could keep rambling on, ER Dano was up and out of his seat and had Buzz’s unwrinkled tie in his hand-I think, about to yank. But Dano staggered and had to let go. He dropped back to his seat with a thud and a curse that would make a longshoreman blush.

The room hushed.

Buzz swallowed and turned pale.

And I sat motionless, waiting for my mind to catch up to the scene that had just played out in front of me.

Sheepishly and yes, foolishly, Buzz said, “Someone has to be there for you, Dan.”

Yikes! I started to get up to run interference should Dano attempt another attack, but he merely looked at Buzz and said, “She’s doing it.”

I looked around the room to see who’d gotten the short straw and was going to have to stay the night at ER Dano’s place, taking her life into her hands by waking him up? Ready to offer moral support and sympathy, I noticed that everyone in the room, including ER Dano, was staring at…me.

Oh…my…God.

My attempts to get out of the job of “nursing” ER Dano had failed miserably, and here I sat in my car, on my way to his place with a stop off at mine for some clothes, makeup and a check of my phone recorder (no more riddle threats for days now)-and him sitting next to me since he couldn’t drive.

Not that I needed much in the line of clothes or makeup, as Dano was not one to be impressed, but I was one to feel more comfortable, and any reason to get out of my scrubs was a good one.

I pulled into my assigned space, got out and said I’d be right back. Before I made it up my front steps, he was right behind me.

“I need a drink,” he said. “Damn shit they gave me in the ER made me thirsty.”

I paused to try and choose the right words and then thought, Oh, hell. “You shouldn’t be drinking with a head injury. You know that.”

He looked at me and kind of grinned.

Phew.

“Nightingale, I’m talking water here, and don’t try to nurse me. The last woman that attempted ended up…” He grinned again.

My heart did a tiny dance, and I smiled and opened the door to Spanky, who ran up to me and looked behind me. I think the little creature was looking for Jagger!

But the dog settled for ER Dano, who growled a bit that he wasn’t a pet lover, and the next thing I knew, he was sitting on the couch with ice water in hand and Spanky on a pillow nearby. Dano did not, however, pet him, but just sitting there gave Dano a more human quality.

And a rather tasty one at that!

I looked at the pile of clothing on my floor and felt like a teenager. Then again, what I wore was important tonight because I didn’t want to look too sexy-since I was only there as a friend and nurse. And, I didn’t want to look not sexy because, well, I was going to be there-and I was a red-blooded, single, thirty-something woman!

After much contemplation, trying on things I hadn’t worn in a while and wishing my roomies were home to give their expert opinions, I settled on jeans and an aqua long-sleeve top and stuck some toiletries into my makeup bag. I decided my slip-ons would be most like slippers and the jeans weren’t too tight, so I could sleep in them.

Because no way was I parading around ER Dano’s place in my nightie.

ER Dano’s place?

I flopped onto the end of the bed and in my wildest imagination could not think of what it would look like. That’d be one step below figuring out what Jagger’s place looked like. That is, if Jagger really lived someplace and didn’t simply drive around in his SUV.

My thoughts were that Dano’s place would have chrome and glass, and be dark, rather scary, and…male.

Since I had a “job” to do, I pushed any Jagger thoughts out of my head, took my scrubs and shoes for tomorrow and stuck it all into my gym bag. My suitcase looked too girly. Too purple. I couldn’t do purple girly in front of such a guy as Dano.

Brown paper bag might do it though.

When I walked down the stairs, Spanky was not on his pillow any longer. And he wasn’t on Dano’s lap as I’d expected. Evidently Jagger was the only one Spanky had taken a liking to other than myself, Goldie and Miles.

“All set?” I asked.

“Um.” Dano stood, wobbled a bit, and steadied himself on the couch’s arm. “Hold on.”

“Wha-”

He was out the door and into the kitchen before I could finish.

“What the heck?” I muttered, and followed.

There near the back door was Spanky eating out of his dog food dish. But not his dry food. Nope. Dano had raided our refrigerator and helped himself to morsels of leftovers that he’d given to the dog.

After my attack of muteness left, I said, “He has to watch his weight. If he gets another pound heavier, his little kneecap goes out of joint.”

Dano looked at me and then Spanky. “He needed a treat. That’s about as low-cal and wholesome as you can get.” With that he turned and walked back out toward the front.

Spanky gave me a quick look, as if agreeing with Dano.

“Shut up,” I said to him, gave him a pat on the head, looked to see no phone messages, and left. By the time I got out to my car, Dano was in the passenger seat, eyes shut and occasionally wincing.

The tough guy was in pain and despite how he felt, he had taken care of an eight-pound dog.