Sudden Response (EMS #1)(63)

If he wasn't head over heels in love with this woman he'd consider dropping her for her gold digging ways. But he did love her so he was probably going to have to suck it up and treat her to the dollar menu at McDonalds.

*********

"Did you call 911?" Joe asked as she bent down to look into the adorable little boy's face.

"Yes," he said, nodding.

"Is someone hurt?" she asked, looking around the front porch and yard and not seeing anyone. Eric walked past her and looked through the window.

"Yes," the little boy who couldn't be older than five said, gesturing towards the backyard.

With a slight nod, Eric jumped over the porch railing and headed into the backyard.

"Can you tell me what happened?" she asked the little boy, deciding it was best to keep him here until Eric let her know what they were dealing with. If it was something this little boy shouldn't be seeing she was going to have to call over one of the neighbors that were now watching them to come over and watch him until they could get the police to come and handle the boy.

"Roger hurt Toby really bad," the little boy said with his little chin wobbling.

"Where's your mommy and daddy, buddy?" she asked soothingly.

"They're out. I was s'posed to be with Uncle Charlie, but I didn't like leaving Roger and Toby by themselves so I came back," he admitted, shuffling his feet nervously.

"Does your Uncle Charlie know where you are?" she asked, guessing it wouldn't be very long before the man in question showed up or the police did.

The little boy shook his head stubbornly. "No, he doesn't want me to play with Roger. He thinks Roger is bad."

"What's your name?" she asked, already noting the name Henderson on the mailbox.

"Caleb."

"Okay, Caleb. I need to call my dispatcher and have him call your uncle. Do you know your uncle's phone number?"

He nodded.

"What is it?'

He squished up his face in thought. "It has a five in it."

Okay.......

"Do you know where your uncle lives?"

"Uh huh," he said, wiping his nose on the back of his arm.

"Can you tell me?" she asked patiently as she pulled her cell phone out and started to scroll down until she found dispatch's phone number.

"That way," Caleb said, pointing in no particular direction that really helped her.

Biting back a sigh she dialed dispatch.

"Dispatch," Hank said in way of answer. If she'd called the emergency line he would have told her that the line was being recorded, but thankfully she didn't have to deal with that.

"Hey, Hank, it's Joe. Um, I have a Caleb Henderson at that call you sent us on. Has anyone by chance called looking for him?" she asked, wondering what was taking Eric so long. He should have at least given her a head's up by now.

She heard him sigh in relief. "We have police and fire scouring the town for him. Is the call his home address?"

"Yes."

"There should be a police unit there soon. Is the boy hurt?"

"Doesn't appear to be. He called for his friends. Eric's checking now I should-"

"Holy shit!" Eric suddenly shouted, startling the hell out of her. Seconds later he came running back around towards the front of the house. He paused in his mad dash only long enough to throw Caleb over his shoulder and grab her by the hand and drag her towards the ambulance.

"Joe? What the hell is going on?" Hank demanded, sounding nervous, which was good because that meant that she wasn't the only one.

"Is that dispatch?" Eric asked as he ushered her and Caleb into the back of the ambulance.

"Yes."

He didn't say anything else to her as he grabbed the phone from her. "Hank? Call animal control," she heard him say as he paced in front of the ambulance, but thankfully didn't close the doors.

"I think Roger is going to be in trouble," Caleb said sullenly.

A sneaking suspicion crawled up her back. "Caleb, who is Roger?"

"He hurt Toby," Caleb mumbled sadly.

"Is Toby a dog?" Eric asked, still pacing as he kept an eye on the house.

Caleb nodded. "He's big."

"That's what I figured," Eric said, turning his back to talk quietly into the phone.

Sick of being left out of the loop, she climbed out of the ambulance, motioning for Caleb to stay where he was and walked towards the back of the house. She hated not knowing what the hell was going on.

Eric knew that and she had a sneaking suspicion that he was going a little overboard with trying to protect her. If he was still hell bent on getting her off the truck after everything they'd gone through in the past week she was going to......going to.........

Why was that really thick yellow and white hose moving? she wondered.

More importantly why was it coming towards her? she wondered as she registered Eric's hand on her arm as he yanked her away and pulled her into a run.

She swallowed hard as they ran towards the ambulance. "Was that a snake?" she asked, unable to hide the disgust in her tone. She hated snakes, absolutely hated them, which was probably why Eric didn't tell her what it was. He knew she'd freak out.

"Yup. Looks like a twenty foot python and that large lump is probably Toby," he said, giving her a gentle push to get her to climb back into the ambulance.