Sudden Response (EMS #1)(31)

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.

"Are 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.