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Her lips parted, and he sucked in a breath. “Open your eyes. I want to see those beautiful green peepers.”
But her eyes stayed closed. The siren was on them, and red and blue lights flickered on her skin. Someone dropped to a squat beside him.
“Hey, Dog. Who’ve we got here?”
Dog glanced over his shoulder and recognized another classmate from high school, Joe. Dog had seen him around over the years and was sure Joe had heard about his fights. He was keeping his distance and looked at Dog like he might blow any minute.
“Don’t know her name. Was helping her change a tire when she keeled over. She held her head before she fell.”
Joe moved forward and rested a hand on Dog’s shoulder. It surprised him that Joe had the nerve. Normally, it was a reason for a beat down, but Dog didn’t have the fight in him.
“Can you move back so I can examine her?”
“Yeah.”
Dog placed her head gently on the asphalt and stepped away. Another paramedic rushed in. They checked her pulse and blood pressure.
“180/120,” Joe said to the other man. “Get the gurney.”
They lifted her onto the stretcher and loaded her in the vehicle.
“Where are you taking her?” Dog yelled.
“Mission,” Joe shouted as he slammed the ambulance doors.
***
The ambulance turned south on Main Street and headed toward Asheville. The woman’s purse and phone rested in the lot where she had fallen. Dog scooped them up, locked her car, and jogged to his bike. He stowed her stuff in his saddlebag and jetted after the ambulance.
Within a few minutes he’d caught it, the siren drowning out the sound of his engine. They wound down the mountain roads to the highway and into downtown Asheville. The ambulance drove straight to Mission Hospital’s ER entrance. Dog stopped in Patient Parking nearby, snatched her purse, and ran for the door, sliding in right behind her gurney. She was strapped down like a mental patient, had a needle in her arm attached to a bag of clear liquid, and Joe held an oxygen mask over her face as he pushed the stretcher forward.
Dog followed him into the exam room. A nurse gripped his wrist. “Are you her husband?”
Everyone was moving so slow, staying so calm. It was like they were stoned or something.
“No. I was just with her when she dropped.”
“Then you can’t be in here.”
Dog jerked his arm free. “The hell I can’t.”
“You’ll do her the most good by getting out of the way of the doctors. Don’t make me call Security and have you removed.”
Dog swept his hand toward the exam room. “What fucking doctors? She’s in there with Joe who can’t help her!”
Another nurse approached him. “You were with her when she collapsed? You need to calm down and tell me what happened.”
Joe and the other paramedic shifted the blonde to a hospital bed. Joe locked the side restraints.
“She grabbed her head, fell to the ground! That’s all I know. Now get in there and help her!”
Joe and his partner wheeled the gurney past him, but Joe stopped. “Dog, you gotta calm down, man. The people here are good at what they do. Tell them what you told me and then let them do their job.”
He rolled the stretcher down the hall, and Dog released a shuddering breath before he spoke to the nurse. “She was talking normal, a little nervous but normal. Then, all of a sudden, she squeezed her eyes shut, held her head, and said, ‘Oh my god, it hurts,’ then she was out cold. She wasn’t drunk or nothing, so I called 911. That’s it. That’s what I know.”
The nurse smiled. “You did good, Mr. Dog. Thank you for your cooperation. Now, if you’ll step into the waiting room while we examine her.”
“Jesus, woman, it’s just Dog.”
