Danger Zone (File One of The First Responders Files)

Chapter Forty-Eight

I felt so horrible for Tommy during this episode, and it physically hurt to write it out. It just . . . it was a lot.

Tommy wrestles with her husband's death, and as Judd, Grace, and more try to find out what's wrong, Owen finds himself in a very familiar situation.

***

"9-1-1, what's your emergency?"

" . . . "

"Is anyone there?"

"I'm at 5674 Merriman Drive. I have a non-responsive, fifty-year-old male. No pulse. No reaction to sternal rub."

"Help is on the way, ma'am. Can you tell me if he's breathing?"

"No."

***

"Ma'am, do you know how long he's been like this?"

Tommy barely heard the dispatcher as she furiously did compressions on Charles, her husband now lying on his back on the floor. "Come on, baby," she begged. "Come on, Charles!"

"Ma'am?" the dispatcher tried again.

"No," she finally answered. "I just got home. Come on, baby, please!"

"Do you know what he was doing before he lost consciousness?"

Tommy swallowed, ending compressions and pressing her fingers into Charles's neck. "Come on, Charles," she cried.

"Ma'am, do you know if he fell?" the dispatcher continued. "Are there any visible injuries that you can see? Ma'am, is there anything else you can tell me?"

No pulse thudded against her fingers, and Tommy's heart sank when she felt no body heat radiate from her husband. She pulled her shaking hand away from Charles's neck and instead curled it around his hand, using her other to coax his fingers around hers.

"Ma'am? Ma'am, are you still there?"

Tommy swallowed. "I'm here," she managed to whisper.

"Paramedics will be with you within six minutes."

"No need to hurry," Tommy shook her head.

"I'm sorry?"

Tommy steeled herself, looking over Charles. "No pulse," she reported in a monotone. "Cool to the touch. Rigor has started to set in. Patient is beyond resuscitation."

"Ma'am, let's let the paramedics make that determination."

Tommy shook her head. "I am a paramedic," she told him. "Captain Vega, 126."

"Oh, I'm sorry . . . Captain."

Tommy looked towards the stairs, feeling tears in her eyes. "Tell the responders no lights, no sirens," she requested, her hand tightening on Charles's. "I don't want to wake my kids."

Oh, God . . . what was she going to tell her daughters?

***

She left her hair alone as she started unbuttoning her uniform shirt, pausing when she saw her wedding ring dangling on its usual chain around her neck. With trembling fingers, she undid the clasp and slid her ring from the chain, sniffling as she put it on its proper place on her finger. She twisted it anxiously, meeting her own teary eyes in the mirror. Only one thought kept thrumming through her head like a drumbeat.

Charles is dead.

She dressed quickly after that, returning downstairs in just two minutes. She crouched down next to Charles's body, muffling a whimper as she zipped up his sweater and rested his hands on his sternum, making it look like he was simply asleep. She took a deep breath and looked up when she heard a knock on the door.