Jennifer
The ride to the hospital was full of frightening thoughts. Lucas’s bravery out there, never turning away from a challenge, was inspiring and sexy hot as hell. Finding the fire raging, I had almost frozen still but had sprung into action the moment I thought of Lucas. He wouldn’t sit still, he’d help. I could help too.
I’d managed to snap out of my horror long enough to get the dispatcher on the phone to get the firefighters there, throw on some clothes, and run toward Lucas’s trailer. He was the first person I’d thought of to help me, and he had. Never hesitating, never afraid. I loved that about him. It was these things that made him special and had attracted me to him in the first place.
And what about his feelings for Faith? He’d run out there calling her name, frantic. Did he feel bad for leaving her drunk and helpless? I guess I couldn’t blame him; I’d feel bad too. The poor girl could’ve died, but he’d found her, and though she appeared a bit singed from the fire, she looked okay. I had to admit the pangs of jealously had sprung up inside me like a sleeping giant roused from its slumber. I’d never thought I’d feel such things for Lucas, but there it was, blossoming in my chest and demanding action to claim what was mine.
But Lucas wasn’t mine. He was far from being mine. If only things had turned out differently.
“Blood pressure is one hundred over fifty, dropping slightly.” The medic next to me pulled off the blood pressure cuff before placing IV supplies on Ms. Ansley’s abdomen. Thankfully, the older woman had fallen unconscious, or she’d have been in a lot of pain. The burns ran down her left side, charring her arm, leg, and most of her back. Her curly blonde hair was singed to her scalp, past her ear, and her face was covered in soot. I couldn’t tell if she was burned there or not. The medic started an IV as soon as the other tossed him a ready-made IV bag and line. I reached out to hold Ms. Ansley’s good hand where the medic had just taped the IV to upper arm. I squeezed it and leaned forward, hoping she could hear me.
“It’s okay, Ms. Ansley. You’ll be okay. They’re going to fix you up. Just hold on.” Holding her tightly, I felt warm tears flow down my cheeks as my vision blurred. I blinked them away as I watched the medics work. Ms. Ansley’s back had gotten the worst of it, but they wouldn’t assess it until they got to the trauma center in the ER. I was afraid to even ask about her prognosis. It didn’t look good, even to a layperson. I could tell she was in for the fight of her life.
A blare of alarms went off, and I jumped in my seat as the medics began yelling.
“Her vitals are destabilizing! Push the fluids in, now, now, now! I need a second line for blood. Get another bag ready.” The alarms changed, the noise getting even louder. “Get me some Epi!” The main paramedic barked commands and asked me politely to move toward the front of the vehicle to another chair. I did as I was told and watched them work on Ms. Ansley, the monitors beeping and the whole ambulance shaking as we took turn after turn out of the resort and toward the hospital.
“Epi’s in, prepare another dose. I’m calling this in to the unit so they can activate the trauma team. Plus we need help unloading her; third degree burns to most of her back. We need O-negative blood units ready and blood warmers. She’s losing too much fluid and heat.”
“Shoot! She’s in V-fib!”
“Start CPR! I need that second dose of Epi now.”
They were grabbing equipment, plastering pads onto her where her skin wasn’t burnt, and ripping open other packets and meds. I stared in horror, feeling my blood drain from my head. Feeling faint, I looked away, focusing at the wall, white and clean. Sterile. Closing my eyes, I knew I was doing all I could do for Ms. Ansley by staying out of the way. I pressed my eyelids tighter as I heard the monitor blaring and the medics pumping on her chest to try and restart her heart.
The only thing flying through my head was that I wished Lucas was there with me. I wanted to hold him tightly and breath in his familiar scent. I’d give anything for him to be close to me.
“Check heartbeat… no activity! Defibrillate her. Charging. Clear!” I heard the machines zapping the old lady, and I covered my ears, afraid to listen to any more of what was going on. Amid the chaos, I sent a small prayer to anyone who would hear it. Please, don’t let her be in any pain. Make it fast. Make it fast….
***
“Jenni!”
I looked up from my spot on a hard plastic shell chair, shivering from the cold waiting room air. There were so many people there all either sleeping, wailing, or pacing while waiting to hear from loved ones.
“Lucas.” I reached out to him as he knelt in front of me and pulled me into a hug. He, along with everyone else in the room, was covered in soot and smelled like a barbeque. “Thank goodness you’re okay. Did they put out the fire?”
He shook his head. “It’s controlled for the most part. Just some stubborn embers and some nearby trees which caught flame too, still burning away. It’s a massive mess and will take forever to clean up.”
“Any more injured or… or….”
He frowned, answering my question without words. “Yeah, a few.”
“Ms. Ansley… she… she’s gone.”
“What? No….”
“She got caught in the fire, and she got hurt really bad. I watched them try to revive her. The smoke inhalation got to her. They said she had a weakened heart already from a previous attack, and that got her before the burns did. That didn’t help at all.”
“Oh, man.” He ran his hand through his gritty hair, looking grey from ash under the lights of the waiting room.
“Are you okay? Smoke inhalation is very dangerous. Some of the people who helped came in and had to get treated too. They were getting sicker without oxygen.”
“I’m okay. Trust me. We got some masks from the firefighters. It was a madhouse, but someone got them to all of us pretty fast.”
“Oh, good.” I hugged my chest, feeling the chill of the waiting room again.
“When did they say she passed?”
“About an hour ago.”
He peered around the room, his eyes sad and tired. “Let’s get out of here. You need to warm up, and this air conditioning is going to make you sick.”
“Okay,” I took his hand as he helped me up. We made our way past the maze of people, some looking up, hopeful that we might be doctors or nurses presenting to announce something, but looking away once they realized we were nothing of the sort. The despair flowing about the room stuck to me like tar, and I couldn’t shake it off until we exited the automatic sliding doors and emerged into the crisp night air.
“She was my tenant, you know,” I finally managed to whisper to Lucas, my voice shaky and uncertain as we made our way through the parking lot. I shivered even though the late summer night was still warm and tepid. It made me rub my arms furiously as I felt warm tears blossom in my eyes. I wanted to run and hide, like that time by the lake so long ago when my insecurities had gotten the best of me and I’d fled into the forest only to get lost in its deep, dark embrace. This was worse than that.
“She was?” Lucas turned toward me, confused. “I didn’t know you owned her cabin too.”
“I got both cabins in my parent’s will. I was going to try and sell it, but that was going to be tricky since she was still living there. I was going to tell her personally that I was going to have to put her in danger of being put out if the new owner didn’t want a permanent tenant. But then I met her, and I couldn’t do it. She had no family, no relatives, nothing. That resort and her friends there were her whole world. How could I do that to her?”
He reached over and rubbed my shoulders, giving them a squeeze. The warmth radiating off his arm eased the cold, and I found myself snuggling in for more.
“You would’ve decided what was best. I’m sure Ms. Ansley would’ve understood. Trust me. She may not have family, but the friends and acquaintances she had at the resort were her family. She was happy, and plus, she had so many friends, she might’ve just moved in with one of them. Like one of her gentlemen friends.”
I felt the rock in my chest lighten as he said this. Blinking past the tears, I wiped them off with the back of my hand and turned toward him, smiling. “Thank you for that. You always know what to say to make things right, Lucas. How do you do that?”
“It’s my superpower.” He widened his smile, flashing a rack of white teeth reflecting light from the parking lot flood lamps.
“Well, you’re my hero.”
“I’ll be your hero anytime. You know that, right?”
I nodded, turning away as we headed toward his truck. I had no ride home, and hopping into the truck with him was a relief. It’d been such a long night, and we both reeked of smoke and ash. I was ready to wash the last of the night’s horror off my skin. I’d never forget the terrors I’d seen, and the smell of burnt bodies would forever linger in my mind like a raging nightmare. There were things one could never forget, no matter how hard one tried.
Arriving back at the resort, a moment of panic filled me. “Her house is next to mine.” I swallowed, closing my eyes. “I don’t want to be there alone tonight.”
He nodded and glanced my way. “I can stay over, on the couch of course, if that’s okay?”
I exhaled. “Yes, that’s fine. Great, actually. But I don’t have any extra clothes you can wear.”
“Do you have extra towels?”
I turned toward him, throwing him a funny look. “Uh… yes, I have extra towels.”
“Good. Just let me grab some of my clothes and stuff from my place, and then we can head toward your house.”
Relieved, I let my shoulders drop as I watched the cabins, trailers, and camp sites flash by as we traveled down the road. The place was eerily quiet after the chaos of the evening. The air still smelled of smoke, and I was sure everyone was far too much in shock to commiserate. I didn’t blame them.
As I waited in Lucas’s truck for him to get what he needed at his trailer, I hoped this wasn’t the end of something at the resort. In fact, I hoped we were all phoenixes about to rise from the ashes and flames, more alive than ever before. This fire would not define this place. In fact, if it was anything like when I was a kid, this place would join together and get the hall back up in no time, with a festive party to celebrate its reopening.
In the meantime, the funerals and sadness would linger, but we’d never allow it to define us. People from Endings weren’t like that. We were made of tougher stuff, and as I watched Lucas hop down the steps off his trailer and make his way back to the truck, I swore I’d make this place proud. I would be brave. My mistakes would not define me; only what I did now would shape me. The past was in the past.