Sudden Response (EMS #1)(3)

She felt the back of the ambulance dip as Eric climbed in behind her. "I can appreciate a woman who's willing to turn her nose up at a judicial order to be with me," he said in his deep sexy voice that had Joe rolling her eyes.

Joe turned and smoothly shoved several bags of expired saline in his arms. "You know a piece of paper will never stand in the way of our love," she said in a sweet teasing voice while she batted her eyes up at him.

Eric chuckled softly. "I see you missed me."

She nodded solemnly. "I did. I really did. When Bill called up and begged me to come in even though we just got off a twenty-four hour shift this morning I jumped at the chance." She ran her eyes down his lean well defined body back up to meet his mischievous green eyes. "You know I can never stay away from you." She reached up with both hands and pinched his cheeks, hard. "You're just so darn cute," she said, pursing up her lips.

"I'm studly, baby, get it right," he sighed heavily as if it were a burden to remind her yet again.

She placed her hands on her hips. "You're absolutely right. What was I thinking?"

Eric jumped out of the ambulance. "It's okay. I forgive you," he said as he made his way to the trash can to dump the saline. He was going to have to post something to remind crews to double check supplies when they picked them up at the hospital.

He grabbed a bottle of sanitizer and some rags before heading back to the ambulance. Joe was already completing their check list. He tossed a rag onto her clipboard. She looked up to stick her tongue out at him and went back to her paperwork.

"Did I mention that we have a third rider today?" he asked as he sprayed down the stretcher and began wiping it down.

"Great," she said, stretching out the word.

He paused mid-swipe to look over at her. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"It means I have to play babysitter the entire shift," she answered.

Eric frowned. "I don't think he's going to be much of a problem. He looked capable."

Joe rolled her eyes. "I wasn't talking about him."

Chapter 2

"Everything okay back there, Greg?" Eric yelled into the back of the ambulance.

Greg turned around in the tech seat to answer him. "Yeah, everything's fine. Um, when are we going to get a call?" Greg asked, trying to feign casualness. Eric and Joe shared a look. No doubt the kid was a whacker.

A whacker was a term they used for someone in the field that took the job too seriously and thought of themselves as Superman. They got too excited about the job and focused way too much on it when they weren't working. Most new EMT's were guaranteed whackers who came in overeager, too confident and full of their own bullshit. As entertaining as it was to seasoned EMT's, and a little annoying, it could also be dangerous in the field.

"Cause I'm ready you know. I don't really need to third ride, because I have some experience, but Bill said it was policy. He said it was up to you to sign me off early so I can get off the initial probation period. So, if you want to do that you know I wouldn't mind. I don't want to waste your night or anything," Greg rambled on.

Joe covered her mouth to keep from laughing and leaned into the steering wheel while Eric glanced around the convenient store parking lot they were stationed at.

"I, um," he forced himself not to laugh and keep a straight face, "I really appreciate the offer, Greg. Thank you, but don't worry about wasting my time. We really like the company."

Joe shook with silent laughter against the wheel. Yup, they'd been training officers for six of the twelve years they'd worked as EMT's and heard it all from their third riders. A few were honest about being nervous, the others hid it well until their first call and a few like Greg liked to bullshit their experience right from the start. Definitely a whacker, Eric thought.

"I've been working as a lifeguard at a resort since I was sixteen," Greg offered.

"Is that so?" Eric said with false interest. This was the point where Greg would brag, trying to convince the two of them that they didn't need to train him and that he knew what he was doing. It never failed to be entertaining when a third rider thought they were seasoned pros just because of one or two experiences from their past.

They had one guy outright refuse to listen to them while they were extricating a man from an overturned car and tried to correct them because he'd seen an episode of ER where they did it completely different, and wrong. Eric ended up having to punch the guy out before he paralyzed the poor bastard in the car. The jerk tried to yank the patient out of the car by his head. That patient actually thanked Eric and lied to a cop later, covering Eric's ass. Again, whackers could be very dangerous in the field.

"Yeah," Greg said, nodding to himself. "Did that for almost ten years now. I've been teaching CPR and first aid for two years as well."

Great. He taught people how to watch a video and pass a written test so he thought he was king shit now. This was going to be an interesting night.

"Ever have to use your skills?" Joe asked, twisting in her seat to look back.

The guy averted his eyes as he said cockily, "Oh yeah, you wouldn't believe the shit I saw on that job." Which no doubt meant he hadn't so much as applied a band-aid to some kid's skinned knee.

Joe gave him a smile. Her beautiful baby blue eyes sparkled. "That's good. It means you'll probably pick up on the way we do things around here quickly."