Rescue Me(90)
Senator Starr stood among them, and Sam wanted to raise his hand, tell the guy that Quinn had probably saved his life. Twice. But a nurse ordered the crowd to stay in the lobby and escorted them to the ER bay.
“Deputy Brooks, we’re all pulling for you,” she said.
To his knowledge, he wasn’t dead yet.
Given the activity in the ER bay, perhaps he was worse than he supposed. Nurses hooked him up to an IV, attached a blood pressure monitor and an oxygen cannula, and stripped him of his shoes, his jacket, his shirt.
“He needs some morphine,” Gage said.
“No,” Sam said to a nurse approaching with a bag. “Not until I know they’re safe.”
Apparently, no one ever argued with Nurse E. Hudson, because she just quirked an eyebrow at him.
“We’re waiting to hear from Pete,” Gage said. “He’s—”
Gage’s walkie jumped to life.
“Brooks to Base, come in.”
Sam practically lunged for Gage’s walkie. Gage shook his head but handed it to Sam as Miles, back at the PEAK ranch, answered.
“Base to Brooks, what’s your status?”
Please.
“We’re at the location. Met up with Jess and Ty, but there’s no sign of Willow or the kids.”
What?
“Sam,” Gage started, but Sam had already toggled the radio.
“Pete! What are you talking about? Are you sure you’re there? It’s about two hundred yards southwest of Bowman Creek, a couple miles from where you found me.”
He closed his eyes, willing Pete to be in the wrong place.
“That’s affirmative, Sam. We found your campfire and the shelter blown down into it. But the camp is abandoned.”
Sam wanted to throw the walkie across the room.
How could Willow have left?
He should have gone with Pete.
“He’s hypotensive. Let’s get him on an EKG.”
“No! I have to go—” Sam dropped the walkie and reached for the IV neatly taped on his arm. Before Gage could stop him, he pulled it out.
Nurse Hudson shrieked, and the ER doc grabbed a gauze pad as blood spilled down his arm.
“Are you out of your mind?” Gage yelled as he pressed his hands to Sam’s shoulders. “You’re not going anywhere!”
“I promised Willow I’d come back for her!” He knew he sounded unraveled. “Willow is out there in the storm, and she needs . . .” Me. She needs me. “Help. I am not abandoning someone that I care about again.”
He pushed himself up from the table.
“Sam—sit back down!”
The voice arrested him, and he looked around, found Sierra thundering into the room, her eyes dark. “Get back on that bed.”
His bare feet landed on the floor even as he stiff-armed Gage.
Swayed.
Gage caught his arm.
Ian supported the other side. “Sam! Get back in bed!”
“Listen, Pete’s not going to give up,” Gage said. “You’re not the only one who can save these kids, Sam. You did your part. Let your team—your brother—do the rest. Trust us. Trust Pete.”
Trust Pete.
Right.
At that moment, Sam’s knees buckled. He landed on the floor.
Then, with a violent rush of heat and pain, he threw up.
Blood. It landed on the floor, gurgled out of him.
Sierra screamed, and it seemed everyone moved at once. E. Hudson shoved a pan under his chin, Ian and Gage dragged him up to the table.
“I think he’s got broken ribs,” Gage was saying as they pushed him back, pulled up an ultrasound machine. Gage picked up the walkie.
“I’m fine.” But Sam coughed so hard blood pooled in his throat, choking him.
“Get that oxygen mask back on him!”
“You’re not fine!” Sierra stood at the end of the bed, angry tears streaming down her face. “You’ve got to stop trying to save the world, Sam. Let someone help you!”
The ER doc put cold gel on his chest and ran a wand over him. “We have blood in the pleural cavity. He needs a chest tube right now. Tell surgery we’re on our way.”
Sam was shaking, his entire body turning cold. He grabbed the walkie from Gage. His voice had turned raspy, and he forced it through his closing lungs. “Pete!” An anvil sat on his chest. “Pete,” he said again, his voice low, fading, “don’t come home unless you find them.”
Silence in the room, save for Pete’s reply on the open line. “Affirmative,” the voice said, dark and quick.
Gage regarded him with a sad look. “Nice, Sam.”
Sierra shook her head, her face a mess of anger and fear. “One of these days you’re going to figure out that you need to be rescued just as much as the next guy.”