Five Little Words

Part 2

"Hey Lex! You want a cuppa?"

Alex turned his head in the direction of the kitchenette in their station and smiled brightly at his colleague.

"If you're making one" he agreed, batting his eyelashes and laughing as Tom rolled his eyes good-naturedly while he flicked the switch on the kettle.

The two paramedics were currently taking full advantage of their (so far) uninterrupted meal break on their night shift, and had been watching Saturday Night Takeaway on the TV while they ate their dinners.

It was Tom who had brought up the subject of hoping that they got to see the boys again soon. Alex had immediately spluttered on his curry and exclaimed that his partner shouldn't jinx these things.

Tom had just chuckled and - in the ad break before the Ant vs Dec started - gone up to fix them a cup of coffee each.

Bringing the mugs back to the sofa just as the show returned, they both settled down eagerly to watch how this week's challenge went down.

They had cheered on the boys as they'd climbed and clambered around the various obstacles in their paths, before the most exciting part of the challenge arrived: the zip wire.

Both of them gasped when Ant had leapt off the platform and rocketed towards the ground, and then Tom stood and went to put his mug in the dishwasher, when he heard Alex exclaim loudly behind him.

"What happened?" Tom questioned, drying his hands on a towel and walking back into the sitting area.

Alex sat - literally - on the edge of his seat, mouth open in shock and green eyes wide.

"Dec just took one hell of a whack on that platform - landed smack on his neck!"

Tom winced and leaned against the back of the sofa worriedly, both men captivated by the scenes playing out on the screen.

They saw the camera pan over to the huddle of army personnel around Dec's limp form - lying vulnerably on its side and breathing very shallowly. They saw their colleague Paul bend close and whisper some sort of reassurance to his patient - although Tom and Alex could both guess how well that worked. They saw Paul direct one of the army supervisors into establishing manual stabilisation, and their hearts leapt into their mouths. They watched as a cervical collar was pulled out of its plastic covering and slowly wrapped around Dec's neck. They saw Stephen whisper in Ant's ear, and they saw the horror dawn on his features, before he hurried off-camera and Stephen fumbled through some impromptu link to take them to the break.

"Our meal's just finished, hasn't it?" It wasn't really a question, more of a statement.

Sure enough, Alex's pager chose that exact moment to go off.

43y/o M, traumatic fall, suspected spinal injury.

Sharing an equally grim look, Tom grabbed the truck keys from Alex and they headed out to the car.

"Shit....." he couldn't help but mutter as he grabbed the radio to call 'on case'.

*****

Dave, their camera operator, put his phone back in his pocket and turned back to them with a tense look on his face.

"Ambulance is on its way, Paul" he announced quietly, staying back a few feet - not wanting to add to the crowd now huddled around the boys.

Ant had - by now - reached them and was now sitting by Dec's shoulder, rubbing his thumb over the joint in some attempt at comfort.

Dec couldn't really feel his friend's touch, but he appreciated the gesture.

He had more pressing concerns at that moment though: mainly, his breathing - which was getting more and more difficult as time went by.