Matt Foster pulled on his favourite pair of winter gloves and tapped the button on the wall to open the huge garage door of the Tobermory EMS station.

His partner, Owen Kincaid, drove their ambulance out into the blowing snow, then Matt hit the button again and ran for the passenger door. They were eight hours into their shift and had just received their next call.

“I’m looking forward to the automated doors at the new station in Pine Harbour,” Owen said as he eased the rig onto the highway.

Matt smirked. “I’m looking forward to rolling out of bed and being at work ten minutes later.”

“Take a damn shower, you animal.”

Matt laughed. “That’s with a shower. Unless I have a friend to wash my back, then I’ll need a full hour. Like this morning, for example.”

“Do you ever sleep alone?”

What a crazy question. “Not if I can help it.”

“Have you always been this intolerably cocky?” Owen laughed and shook his head. Of course he didn’t get it. He was long divorced, bitter, and raising a teenage daughter mostly on his own. He probably hadn’t been laid in ages. Months at least, maybe even a year. An unbearable length of time, no doubt. Which was an extra shame because he was still relatively young—almost forty, fit as fuck, and covered in tattoos.

Matt didn’t have shit-all to be bitter about. His life was fan-fucking-tastic. “You love me, admit it.”

“You definitely make shifts go by quickly, that’s for damn sure.”

“You’re going to miss this, admit it.” The older man was getting a promotion. Trained as both a paramedic and a firefighter, he’d be the Fire and Emergency Services supervisor at the new station. This was one of their last shifts together.

“Besides, I’m in the process of moving. My life is in boxes, so it’s only smart to sleep in other beds as much as possible.”

Since the new station was about to open in Pine Harbour, he was moving back to town so he’d be right around the corner. Nobody could say he wasn’t a reliable paramedic.

He was a rock star with rock star habits, right down to the late night parties and parade of pretty girls leaving his apartment.

What wasn’t to like about his life?

“All right, Romeo,” Owen said as he tapped the computer between their seats. “We’ve got a job to do. Hit the lights and pull up the details on Fred Carleton.”

Fred was a regular pick-up for them because of his chronic obstructive pulmonary disease—in his case, bronchitis that never went away. A veteran, he was probably ten years older than Matt’s father, but life and the military had been hard on him. He was a big, barrel-chested man who hated every single intervention into his life, even as they prolonged it. He’d called in and told dispatch that he hadn’t been keeping up with his treatments and he was having trouble getting his breathing under control.

Matt confirmed the address, then checked in with dispatch, who still had Fred on the line.

If they needed to transfer him to hospital, it sounded like they’d be heading south, all the way down the peninsula to one of the bigger medical centres, which would keep them busy for a couple of hours.

The roads were clear and they made it to Fred’s quickly. The lane at the old farmhouse hadn’t been plowed or driven on recently, though, so Owen had to slow down to make it up the lane.

“We should get the Legion involved here for snow removal,” Matt said.

Owen snorted. “Sure. Good luck finding a way to convince Fred he needs help.”

Shit. Good point.

Maybe he could just borrow his older brother Jake’s truck, since he had a plow hitch, and come out and do it himself.

“First things first,” Matt said when they parked. “Let’s get him breathing more comfortably. Then I’ll find a way to get him to let me do him a solid.”

Inside they found him on a recliner in the living room, still on the phone with dispatch.

“Tell them we’ve got it from here, Fred,” Owen said with a big, friendly grin. “And Matt had a hot date last night, so we bring good stories to entertain you as well.”

“Sure did.” Matt snapped on a pair of gloves, then quickly took the man’s vitals as Owen made easy chatter. So much of being an EMT was establishing a good rapport with patients.

Fred’s pulse was elevated and his pulse oximetry was low—his baseline was already low, so the big guy didn’t have a lot of room there before he got in distress.

“Let’s give you a bit of oxygen, my man.” Not too much. That was a risk, too. Matt just wanted to bring his levels up enough to be safe. He hooked up a mask. “Keep breathing. That’s good. Owen’s going to mix you up a sweet cocktail in a nebulizer that’s going to help you. How you feeling otherwise? Any nausea or pain?”

“No. Sorry to have you kids come out…” Fred tried to cough and his entire body strained with the effort. “On such a…shitty day.”

Kids. Matt grinned at that. “Ah, we were fine. Love the snow, don’t we, Owen?”

His partner gave him a look that said he was being too obvious and he should get back to talking about the woman he spent a few hours with last night, but lingering on those details wasn’t Matt’s style.

Charm got him further than most, and it was going to work on doing Fred a solid here with his driveway, too. “You know what I do for fun sometimes?”

Fred weakly lifted one shoulder. “Two girls at once?”

Owen guffawed out loud.

Matt rolled his eyes. “I use my brother’s plow attachment and make a giant snow hill for the kids in town.”

“Long time…since I went sledding.”

Matt grinned. “You see right through me. After the kids are home for the night, I’m sliding down that thing myself. Or with a friend.”

That got him a weak, wheezing laugh.

“Hey, next time I do that, would you mind if I swung by and plowed your drive?”

Fred shook his head. “I do it…myself. Sorry ’bout today.”

“Nothing to be sorry about.” Matt let it drop as Owen administered the bronchodilator.

Fred’s breathing eased a bit, but he still looked unwell. Once they were in transit, Matt could administer other drugs which would kick in later at the hospital, but this was the most they could do for immediate effect.

Really, Fred needed to not be alone in a farmhouse, but recommending the vet move to a retirement home was beyond Matt’s scope of practice.

Owen went over the options, making sure Fred was the one who made the decision to pack up and head to the hospital, even though it was a pretty obvious choice given his circumstances.

“My bag is…in the closet.”

Matt nodded gently. “I’ll grab it. Smart to have it ready to go.”

Painful that after a life of independence, the man had to be constantly ready to be admitted to the hospital at any time.

Matt took Fred’s bag and their gear back to the rig, then came back inside and helped Owen get him standing. They wrapped a blanket around him to keep him sheltered from the bitter cold, then carefully moved as one, three men stepping in unison.

“Just like in the army, eh, Fred?”

The older man didn’t reply until he was carefully settled in the back of the ambulance. Matt clipped the pulse oximeter on Fred’s finger, took another set of vitals, then started to prep the other meds he could deliver.

“Are you still parading with…the infantry in Wiarton?”

“Sure am, sir.”

“Don’t call me that,” Fred said with a smile. “Never made Warrant.”

“Yeah, well, neither will I, so you’re in good company.”

“What rank are you now, son?”

“Just made sergeant. And will be forever, I think. Hard to take the time off from this for the courses I’d need to progress further. Besides, I’m thinking of doing some advanced training for paramedics, like Owen did. Except cooler. Maybe I’ll be one of those people on the helicopters who do trauma response, yeah? I’ll get all the girls that way.”

“Rumour has it you…get all the girls…now.”

Matt smiled. “I do okay.”

They talked army shop-talk the rest of the way to the hospital, and the drive was uneventful. Owen got the direction to head all the way into Owen Sound, so they did that, and by the time they pulled up at the Emergency department, Fred’s oxygen levels had lifted a bit and he was breathing more easily.

“You’re going to have a good night here,” Matt promised as they wheeled him in the side entrance. “I made sure they’d have the prettiest nurses on shift for you.”

“Can’t say that anymore,” Fred whispered, his eyes drifting closed.

“Sure you can,” Matt said, winking at the nurse and doctor who approached. “You just gotta read the room first. Always good if you can encourage them to make the first move. Consent is sexy, Fred. Just remember that and you’ll go a long way with the ladies.”

“Never had any problem there.”

“I bet not.” Matt shifted gears and gave a quick, thorough report to complete their handover to the ER staff. “Okay, we’re out of here, Fred. You have a good one.”

Instead of heading outside, where it was damn cold, Matt and Owen ducked into a side room to complete their paperwork on the call. As they were finishing up, a code blue was called over the overhead announcement system, to a location just around the corner.

The hospital had a code team to respond, but that didn’t stop Matt from sprinting out the door.

That wasn’t just any location, that was where they’d wheeled Fred to.

Owen was right behind him, not that it mattered. By the time they were in the corridor, there was a nurse and a doctor working on the retired vet, with two others in support. Owen dragged Matt out of the way, holding him against the wall as they watched for twenty agonizing minutes as the team tried to bring Fred back to life.

But the old guy wasn’t having any of it.

He was gone.

When the doc called time of death, Matt heard himself almost protest. No.

Instead, he stalked back to the room where they’d left their gear.

“What did we fucking miss?” he asked when Owen closed the door behind them.

“Nothing. It was just one of those things.”

“Fuck that. That’s—” Matt turned and kicked at the nearest thing, which happened to be a chair that went flying. “Jesus.”

His chest was tight, like his uniform was suddenly too small, and he couldn’t breathe.

“Come on,” Owen said quietly. “It happens. We know that.”

Yeah. It happened. It happened when they saw it coming, when it was a code four out of the gate. He knew how to manage a trauma call.

This was…Jesus Christ. The last thing he’d said to the man was advice on how to pick up women.

Matt’s phone vibrated in his pocket.

Blindly, he shoved his hand at it and silenced it.

A few seconds later, it went off again.

Yanking it out, he glared at the screen. He’d missed a couple of texts from his older brothers—one from Dean, two from Jake.

Shit.

He scrubbed his hand over his face and pulled himself together. “Sorry,” he muttered in Owen’s direction. “Gotta call my brother for a sec.”

“No worries. I gave dispatch the heads-up that we’d probably stay off air unless needed. We’re fine.”

Matt dragged in a rough breath, then called Jake, who answered immediately. “Matt.”

“Hey, what’s up? Now’s not a great time.”

“Where are you?”

“Owen Sound hospital.”

“Are you with a patient?”

“Nah. Just with Owen in a break room.” His mouth was dry. He needed water. He needed to sit.

“Are you— Can you talk?”

“Not really.” He sighed. “Look, we’re pretty much at the end of our shift. Can I call you back later?”

“Uh…” Jake groaned. “No. This is shitty, but it’s really time sensitive. Is there any way we can pick you up there?”

“We? Who’s we? What’s going on?”

“It’s Sean.” Their youngest brother was serving a tour of duty in northern Iraq. A captain, he was officially there in a training capacity. Unofficially, they all knew otherwise.

The corners of Matt’s vision turned dark and a dull roar started in the distance. “What happened?”

“He’s hurt. That’s all we know.” Jake’s voice cracked. “Dean was at the armouries when the CO got the call. It’s being kept under wraps…”

The roar got worse. Matt heard individual words. Investigation. No media alert. Dad. “What was that?” he asked hoarsely.

Jake repeated himself. “Dad pulled rank and got Dean cleared to meet Sean in Germany.” The American medical base. Holy fuck. But it also meant Sean’s injuries couldn’t be treated by the medical teams on the ground.

The room spun angrily, and Matt tried to suck in air.

No.

No.

“Tell me he’s okay,” he said hoarsely.

There was a long pause. “I don’t know. We don’t know anything yet. Dad’s working on getting us more information.” Their father might be a hard-assed, bitter motherfucker, but he’d also been a colonel in the Canadian Forces, and that changed things. For once, Matt was grateful for that advantage. “Fuck, I’m sorry, bud.”

“I’m with Owen right now,” Matt repeated, feeling dumb. They were already off air, he didn’t need to do anything, but he was in the middle of a hospital. And he wasn’t sure what he could tell his partner if there was a media blackout and his father had to pull rank just to get a family member at his brother’s side.

“Tell him you have a family emergency. Dean’s flying out of Toronto first thing tomorrow. I’m driving him to the airport.”

“I want to go with you. I’ll be waiting here.” He hung up the phone. “Fuck.”

Owen didn’t miss a beat. “What do you need?”

For the first time in his entire life, Matt had no idea.