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And then I noticed the blood. He was covered in blood, there was a crack in his helmet, and…
He tilted his head at me in confusion, and suddenly I remembered it was fake blood, a fake crack in the helmet.
Fuck, I was losing it.
I flashed him the “okay” gesture with my fingers which he repeated immediately.
And finally, finally, I had my hands on him.
“C’mere,” I grunted, clasping his wrist and ignoring the slight tremor of fear still in my voice. “You okay?”
He was pale and shivering, but I thought it might be more from fear than the actual temperature.
“M’okay,” he murmured, reaching out for me with both hands and one leg.
I worked quickly to connect his harness to the longline, taking a moment to inspect the harness webbing for any weaknesses. I’d brought an extra just in case we needed it, but it looked like his was still in good shape. As my hands ran around the webbing along his upper thighs and between his legs to make sure, I heard him suck in a breath.
Do not lose focus, I warned myself. Remain professional, asshole. Get the job done.
It wasn’t easy. But since I knew from firsthand experience that loss of focus during a rescue often proved fatal, I did what I had to do to get him connected to the hook and untethered from the rock face.
When Lucky finally came away from the rock, he clung to me, and as much as I hated to admit it, I clung to him just as hard.
I never wanted to let him go.
I whispered words of reassurance so softly, I wasn’t even sure he heard them. The flight back to the meadow went by in a blink, and suddenly we were standing on firm ground. Even once I disconnected us from the line, Lucky held tightly to me until I pulled back enough to grab his chin and peer into his eyes to make sure he was still all right.
He gave me a weak smile. “Thanks for the ride.” He cleared his throat. “It was a good experience. I learned a lot.” It was clear Lucky’s intent was to pack away his earlier emotion and return to our ridiculous roles of trainer and trainee.
That wasn’t happening.
But before I could inform him of the change of situation, Tag’s voice came through my helmet. “More weather coming. Load up and let’s get the hell out of here.”
After that, it was all business. We disconnected the line, stowed equipment, and loaded up for the flight back to the hangar. Johnny took the time in flight to make sure Lucky was in good health and didn’t have any first aid needs.
It turned out that some of the blood on his face was real. He’d scraped his cheek against the rock somehow, resulting in two thick parallel scratches along one cheekbone. I clenched my hands into fists to keep from running a finger along his cheek to make sure that was the worst of it.
It wasn’t until the helicopter’s wheels touched the ground that I felt like I was able to take my first real breath. As Lucky prepared to disembark, I found myself reaching for his arm. “Go wait in my truck while I help Tag and Johnny with post-rescue stuff. I’ll take you to the hospital to get checked out.”
“Hospital? I don’t need to—”
“Yes you damn well do,” I yelled. The chopper’s rotors had slowed enough that yelling was no longer necessary but I was doing it just the same. Lucky’s back stiffened as his lips pulled into a tight frown. It almost felt like he was… disappointed in me. But he didn’t respond. He just turned his back on me and climbed out of the helicopter. Within a minute, Tag was ordering me to do the same thing.
“I’m fine,” I told him.
“You’re distracted!” Tag snapped at me. “How many times do you need to prep that same rope?” I looked down and sure enough, in my hands was a bright orange rope that I’d been winding and unwinding over and over again. I opened my mouth to tell Tag I was okay when his eyes met mine. “Go,” he said more softly this time. “Make sure he’s okay,” he added with a jerk of his head in the direction Lucky had gone. If I hadn’t been so desperate to take him up on the offer, I would have spent more time obsessing over how much Tag understood about my relationship with Lucky versus him believing I was just a trainer worried about one of his students.
I snagged the rope Lucky had been using and stuffed it into my duffel bag, then searched for Lucky’s gloves so I could examine them more closely for the chalky substance Lucky had been talking about. I gave up the search for the gloves after just a few seconds and hurriedly made my way to my truck. What was left of my control pretty much snapped when I saw the empty cab.
