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AB stormed into the common room from the kitchen where she’d been putting away dishes. “It wasn’t my recipe. Baker, don’t you dare say I told you how to make that casserole. I never said you should leave the chicken on the counter all damn day while we were doing drills.”

I chuckled at her ire. She was a spitfire, and I already pitied the guy who married her. He was in for the roller coaster ride from hell because our AB was tough as nails.

“Calm down, everyone. Scanlon went home, so we’ll be short for the rest of the shift. If the tones sound, I’ll call for backup. In the meantime, let me know if anyone starts feeling sick.”

I went back to the office and dove back into the summary of our shift activity when the sound of boots stomping through the bay echoed. The squeaky men’s room door opened and closed several times, so I hopped out of my chair to check what was happening. When I walked into the men’s room, the inglorious sound of purging echoed off the greige cinder block walls.

“Guys? What’s going on?”

Unison vomiting in the stalls, in the urinals, and in the sinks. Suddenly, I rushed to the trash can and lost my lunch as well. My stomach emptied itself in unison with the rest of the men on my crew. The next step on the food-poisoning flow chart was worse than anything I’d ever heard in my life. I was grateful we had enough stalls to accommodate those on duty.

Without any fanfare, the tones blasted. Why wouldn’t they?

Fischer, one of our EMTs, raced into the men’s room. “LT? What do we do?” He looked as if he wanted to vomit with the rest of us. He, however, hadn’t eaten the chicken and rice because he was a vegetarian.

I stopped projectile vomiting long enough to bark at the man. “Call Torres at Station 1 and have them take our call. Tell him our whole team’s come down with food poisoning. Call dispatch and tell them to route any activity to neighboring stations. Find Cap and ask him what he wants to do.”

That was all I got out before I was overcome once again.

For the rest of the night, we all moved from one symptom to another, covering the gamut from chills and fever to fatigue with all the other disgusting bits in between.

At four in the morning—two hours early—Team Three arrived to relieve us, and as soon as the rest of us could get our asses off the commode, we crawled to our vehicles and headed home.

When I got there, I saw Jordan had already left for the hospital. I sent him a text.

I’m sorry I missed you. I’ll be there to pick you up when you text me that you’ve been released. Don’t worry. You’ve got this. X

Once I hit send, I rushed to the bathroom with a gut explosion that nearly blasted me through the ceiling of my bathroom.

Good times.

Chapter Eleven

JD

“Jordan? Jordan, sweetie? Are you awake?”

There was a gentle pat to my shoulder and a kind voice in my ear. My body was floating, but I didn’t know where or why.

I opened my eyes to a blinding light. “Fuck, that hurts.” My words came out in a harsh whisper. I was surprised anything came out because my throat was parched like the desert.

“Oh, there you are, handsome. How’s your pain level on a scale of one to ten?” The nurse had a ponytail of bright-red hair that swung around like a horse swatting at flies.

“Uh, negative two,” I responded. I giggled for no reason whatsoever.

The nurse giggled in return. “That’s perfect, Jordan. I’m going to help you up in fifteen minutes and take you for a walk to the restroom to void your bladder before we get you dressed. Do you have someone picking you up? If so, call them and tell them you’ll be ready in an hour. Can you do that for me?”

I giggled as she’d just done. “If I can find my phone.”

She went to a closet and pulled out a large bag containing my clothes. She opened the bag for me, and I found my phone in the pocket of my sweats.

“Okay, dear. I’ll go work up your orders and get the doctor to sign off. I’ll be back with some juice in a few minutes.”

“What’s, uh, what’s your name, nice lady?” She was a very nice lady.

“I’m Diana. You’re a rock star, you handsome man. I want tickets to your next show, JD Horn.”

I couldn’t stop giggling. “Front row, Nurse Diana. Thank you for taking care of me.”