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Mo’s face was pinched with worry. “I only heard it, but it didn’t sound good. I was only still here because I got a call. I think everyone else left for the restaurant.”
Dani nodded. “Mind going to see if the truck driver is injured?”
Mo squeezed her shoulder as he got to his feet.
She bent closer to Sean’s head. “Sean? Can you hear me? I need you to wake up.” She placed her hand lightly on his shoulder. “Come on, Riddick, you stubborn asshole, wake the fuck up and do something annoying.”
A low groan from deep in his throat.
The surprised sound she made was part laugh and part cry. “That’s it. Wake up now,” she said.
Mo returned to her side. “Driver said he’s not hurt.”
Dani nodded up at him. “Sean’s coming to.”
Mo’s eyes went wide and he dropped to his knees. “Come on, son. We need you awake,” he said, voice gritty with concern.
On a grunt, Sean stretched out one of his legs and dragged a hand up as if he intended to push off the ground.
“Good, that’s good, Sean. But don’t try to move too much,” she said, relief a tidal wave rolling through her. He wasn’t paralyzed.
His fingers fumbled at his helmet. “Off,” he croaked.
Just then, EMS arrived, a team she knew from seeing them at the ER—Mike Garcia and Erin Bronson. Dani let them know what she could—and who they were working on since there was a decent chance they’d know him, then backed out of the way enough to let them do their jobs.
“Whoa, whoa, Riddick,” Garcia said as Sean tugged at his helmet. “Easy. Let us evaluate you first.”
“They need to check out your neck and spine, Sean,” Dani said, still kneeling in his line of sight.
“They’re fuckin’ fine,” he said, almost making Dani laugh. Such a stubborn asshole.
She knelt closer. “Well, they’re gonna fucking check. So fucking cooperate. Okay?”
He made a noise like a laugh, but it quickly turned into a cough. In a burst of effort, he shoved the helmet off. “Can’t…breathe.”
“Damnit, Riddick.” But that was all Dani could say when she saw the giant crack that jagged all across the helmet’s visor. A piece of the clear plastic had caved inward, and Sean had a corresponding bloody slice all along the side of his nose and running under his eyebrow. Jesus.
“We’re going to turn you over using a spinal board,” Garcia said.
Sean made a sound deep in his throat. “Fuck that—”
Bronson placed the board at Sean’s back, her blond ponytail falling over her shoulder as she worked, and he elbowed it away and turned himself over, eliciting concern and protests from their whole group.
“Don’t need it. I’m tellin’ ya my spine’s fine,” Sean said. “All ten fingers and toes are doing their thing. It’s just, you know, everything else that fuckin’ hurts.”
Mo bent over so that he was staring down directly above their friend’s bloodied face. “You listen to me, son, and you listen good. You’re going to cooperate with these fine people or the second you’re upright again I’m going to beat the shit out of you.”
Sean groaned. “Fine.”
The word pulled Dani back into their earlier exchange, which she felt even worse about now. Shit. “Why do first responders make such terrible patients?” she snarked, smirking at Sean to try to distract him from everything else.
Garcia slanted her a glance and winked. The blue-eyes-and-dark-hair combo was just one of the reasons he was popular at the ER. Luckily, he was also damn good at his job, which Dani was seeing firsthand. “Doctors and nurses aren’t much better,” he said.
Sean laughed and nearly coughed up a lung again. “Always did like you, Garcia.”
“Shut up, asshole.” Garcia grinned as he threaded an oxygen line under Sean’s nose and around his ears.
The good-natured banter rushed more relief through Dani. Sean was moving. He was talking. He was being his usual sarcastic self. She’d never been happier about that.
“My vision’s all fucked up,” Sean said waving at his bloody eye.
While Bronson patched up Sean’s hands, Garcia flashed a light in Sean’s eyes and frowned. “Unilateral dilated pupil, left side.”
Dani bit back a curse. Given his injury, she wasn’t surprised, but that wasn’t great.
“Fuck, that doesn’t sound good,” Sean said, echoing her thoughts. “What does that mean?”
“What can you see?” Garcia asked.
“It’s all blurry on that side. What’s it mean?”
Garcia secured gauze over the eye. “It’s common when there’s trauma to the eye. They’ll be able to give you more info at the hospital.”
“Fuck, Mike, I gotta be able to see the fires to fight ‘em.”
A rock sank into Dani’s gut as Mike replied the only way he could: “We’re gonna take care of you, buddy.”
The EMTs stepped away to get the stretcher, and Dani leaned in. “All I want you thinking about is staying calm and getting better. We’ll figure the rest out.”
