Sudden Response (13 page)

waist. A s she tried to figure out a way to help Greg deal with his nerves she snuggled closer to Eric. He pressed a kiss to the

top of her head as he wrapped an arm around her and pulled her closer.

"I'm not sure if a week's enough time to help him," she said as she absently traced circles over Eric's chest and stomach, loving

the way the light dusting of hair felt against her fingers.

"No, it's not. Normally I'd offer to grab a few extra shifts, but with you injured," she rolled her eyes at that, "and the Fireman

Muster games this weekend we won't have a chance. I'm hoping Bill will give us until next Friday before he makes his

decision."

A s bad as she felt for Greg her mind had moved onto another pressing matter. She couldn't believe she almost forgot about it,

especially since she was competing again for the first time in four years. "We're going to kick ass this year," she said, knowing

it was true.

For years they competed together in the ambulance portion of the Muster, a competition between neighboring fire departments

to put their skills to the test, they always won. The last four years she got stuck behind the scenes helping out, but she was sick

of that and told Bill he could find someone else to deal with the venders because she was going to kick some ass instead.

Eric gently ran his fingers through her hair, careful of her cut. "A re you sure you're up to it?" he asked softly.

She snorted her disbelief. "Hell yeah, I'm up to it. We are so going to kick some Blackford ass this year!"

"They kicked out asses last year and the year before," Eric pointed out.

"That's because I wasn't competing," she reminded him.

"There is that," he admitted, pressing a kiss to the top of her head. "Get some sleep, Joe. Tomorrow's our twenty-four hour shift

and I have a feeling we're going to need every minute of rest that we can get."

Frowning, she tilted her head to look at him. "Why do you say that?

He sighed heavily as he pressed a kiss to her forehead. "Because we have Greg for the entire shift," he announced, making her

groan and bury her face against his chest.

"I'm demanding a raise," she muttered against his chest.

"Damn straight."

*******

"Wow, you look like you got your ass handed to you by a psych patient," Jeff said brightly as he held the side door open for

her.

Joe shook her head as she walked past the man. "No, this is what Eric did to me when I talked back," she said with a shrug.

"She needs to learn her place," Eric informed Jeff with a straight face.

"They all do," Jeff agreed quickly, earning a playful glare from Joe.

He followed Joe to their bunkroom, wondering how exactly he should tell her. He'd considered making a run for it while she

was in the shower this morning and leaving her a note, or send a test message, but he knew that would just piss her off more.

Maybe he should just tell her.

It was probably for the best that he just tell her and get it off his chest where they had a modicum of privacy for the fight that

would no doubt follow. No doubt she'd be pissed at him, but he could make her understand and he would. This was only

temporary anyway, well hopefully it would be.

A ctually, he hoped to have her the hell out of this line of work and somewhere safe soon. He was still hoping against hope that

Nathan would change his mind and let Joe come work for him, but if that failed, and it probably would, he would find

something else for Joe. If worse came to worse he could, and probably would anyway to help out, move in with Joe and take

over her bills while she figured out what she wanted to do for the rest of her life.

If she wanted to go back to school that was more than fine with him. He'd take care of her, pay off her regular bills and take as

much overtime as he could get to help pay for college. Hell, if she just wanted to relax for a few months he'd be more than fine

with that. A s long as she didn't have to worry about her any longer he'd be more than fine with whatever she wanted to do.

He closed the door behind them as Joe began the tedious job of making her bed. She sent him a questioning look, but thankfully

didn't say anything as she tucked the top sheet in. A fter a minute he realized there was no point in putting it off any longer.

She'd find out soon enough and really it was better that they handle this in private.

Praying she wouldn't kick him in the balls, he said, "You're on light duty."

She paused mid-tuck. "What did you just say?" she demanded without looking back.

"I said you're on light duty," he repeated, trying not to wince when she abruptly stood up and glared up at him. "For the entire

shift. You're not allowed to lift or drive," he quickly explained, mentally kicking himself for not wearing a cup.

"If I'm not allowed to lift or drive then what the hell am I supposed to do?" she asked evenly as she walked over to him,

crossing her arms over her chest as she waited for his answer.

"Rest?" he suggested seconds before she slammed her foot down on top of his. When he leaned down to check his poor abused

foot she shoved him out of the way and stormed out of the room, probably to track down Bill and give him a piece of her mind.

He just hoped the man didn't sell his ass down the river and inform the grouch that it had been his idea to keep her on light duty.

Of course the man would rat his ass out. His only hope was that Joe didn't turn her anger on his balls.

Chapter 14

"A re you still in a pissy mood?" Eric asked as he sat next to her on the couch and threw his arm around her shoulder.

In answer, she rammed her elbow into his side. "Shit!" he gasped as he bent over and sucked in a breath.

If she wasn't stuck on light duty she might feel bad about it, but she was. Some people might enjoy light duty, but she was not

one of them.

Neither was Eric. It was boring, incredibly boring and now she was stuck on it for at least this shift, a twenty-four hour shift,

she'd like to point out.

The only thing she was allowed to do for the next twenty-four hours was sit around, walk with Eric and Greg to get patients.

She wasn't allowed to drive, help with the stretcher, move a patient, or even fill out paperwork, because apparently that would

be too strenuous, she thought dryly. Hell, if they ended up with a heavy patient she wouldn't be allowed to help them. They'd

have to call for a lift assist, another ambulance or an available supervisor would be asked to come help lift the patient, while

she stood around feeling useless.

She liked staying busy during her shifts, especially during her twenty-four hour shift. It made the time pass by quickly. A s much

as she loved her job, and she did, it could get a little boring when there was nothing to do and it appeared that she had nothing

to do for twenty-four hours.

"Such a baby," Eric said, sighing heavily as he stood up, grabbed her hand and yanked her to her feet so that he could steal her

place on the couch and yanked her back down onto his lap. "There. That's much better," he mused as he settled back into the

corner of the couch and got comfortable.

Most of the guys were used to their odd relationship and didn't care enough to tear their eyes away from the game. Greg on the

other hand wasn't and every few minutes sent them a questioning look that she decided to ignore. She was pissed and in no

mood for any bullshit today.

She swore if he asked her out again she was going to stomp on his foot, too. The only thing she wanted to do was sulk all day.

Of course she also wanted to get the bastard who was absently running his fingers over her arm back for yet another betrayal.

She couldn't believe he'd sold her out to mom, but this worse, much worse. This was twenty-four hours of boredom and he

knew damn well that she did not do well with downtime. He knew that and it pissed her off like nothing else that he'd gone

behind her back and did this to her. He was her best friend and was supposed to have her back, not screw her over.

With a muttered groan she climbed off his lap, barely resisting the urge to ram her elbow into his stomach. She ignored his

questioning look and walked away.

"Uh oh, looks like someone's in trouble," one of guys said, but she ignored him and the snickers and snorts of laughter that

followed and walked outside.

With nothing else to do she walked over to the picnic table on the side yard and sat down on the table. Barely an hour into her

shift and she was already feeling useless. She thought about washing the ambulance, but Eric already did that and when she

tried to help he actually had the nerve to shoo her away.

True to his stubborn word he hadn't allowed her to do anything. She hadn't been allowed to grab more run slips, check the

ambulance out, get more supplies, or make the stretcher. Standing around watching them work had been boring and kind of

embarrassing.

She could do this job and they both knew it. A simple little head injury wasn't going to interfere with her job and he knew it,

but he was being so damn stubborn and she didn't know why. Being overprotective of her wasn't exactly something new, but

he'd never gone this far with it before. The only thing she could think of was that the other night had thrown him through a loop

and he felt responsible for her injury, which was really stupid.

Getting injured was a hazard of the job and he knew that. Well, he used to know that. Now he was just hell bent on pissing her

the hell off.

"A re you mad at me?" he asked with a little pout that she refused to find cute so she pointedly looked away from him.

"Yes."

"You know you shouldn't even be at work right now," he said as he sat down next to her.

"I'm fine," she gritted out and she was. Her head didn't hurt as much, she could see straight and she was no longer wobbling

when she walked. In her book that more than constituted fine.

"It's just for a little while," he said, sighing as he reached over and took her hand into both of his.

She yanked her hand away as she turned to glare at him. "What do you mean by 'for a little while'?"

His eyebrows arched slightly in confusion. "Bill didn't tell you?"

"No."

"Oh, well," he cleared his throat, "you're on light duty until the stitches come out," he said, giving her a reassuring smile that

pissed her off.

"You......bastard," she bit out evenly.

He went to put his arm around her shoulders, but she shrugged him off. "I don't want you to be upset about not participating in

the muster this year. There's always next year," he explained.

"What the hell do you mean I'm not participating?" she demanded, coming to her feet to better glare at him.

He noticeably winced as he looked past her. "You didn't tell her?"

"I thought you had," she heard Bill mutter like a coward.

She turned her glare on her boss. "I'm on light duty for a week? Really?"

He shot a nervous look at Eric before nodding. "I'm afraid so. You suffered a head injury and we don't want you to strain

yourself. I'd rather you stayed home on medical, but-"

"Fine," she said, cutting him off.

"What?" Bill asked, frowning.

"Fine, I'm on medical. I'm going home. I'll be back in a week after I get cleared medically," she said, heading inside to grab her

things and fighting the urge to stomp her foot like a child.

There was no way she was going to come in for a week and put up with this bullshit. One twenty-four hour shift of twiddling

her thumbs was bad enough. There was no way she was going to do that for an entire week. Since she would be getting paid no

matter what she did, she decided that she'd rather take the week to get some work done at her house and run some much needed

errands.

"Joe?" Eric said, but she didn't stop. She walked past the guys, who were either too focused on the game or recognized a

woman on a war path and left her the hell alone.

She walked to the bunkroom, grabbed her belongings, not bothering to fold them, and stormed out of the bunkroom and back

through the break area and stormed past Bill, Eric, and Greg. For a moment she almost felt bad about Greg, but she knew she

really wouldn't be much help if she couldn't help him by showing him how to perform his job.

It would probably stress the hell out of him to be forced to interact with the patients. To be honest, if he couldn't suck it up and

try over the next week then he didn't belong in this field. He seemed like a nice enough guy, but she wasn't exactly a miracle

worker.

"I'll see you in a week," she said to Bill and hopefully Greg. She'd like to see him pull through, but it fell on his shoulders now.

She heard someone sigh behind her and didn't need to look back to know that Eric was there. "I'll swing by and check on you if

I get a chance."

"Don't bother," she said, unlocking her door.

"Fine. I know you're mad. I'll see you in the morning," he said softly.

She shook her head as she climbed into her car. "Don't bother."

*******

Joe continued scrapping the garage as she ignored the man who wouldn't take a damn hint and go away. She'd been doing this

for two hours, hoping that the hard work and the sun would exhaust her and dull some of her anger, but so far it hadn't. She was