Dex ARe Read Online Free

in not two minutes after she took the call. The first patient, a twenty-year-old white male, had coded on the way over and a young EMT ran alongside the gurney trying to keep up chest compressions. The victim looked gray and as soon as I got to him, I pulled the girl off him and leapt up to straddle him. This kid was going fast and it might already be too late to do any good. The EMT was young, blonde, fresh faced and looked scared out of her mind. I had half a thought to introduce her to Gleason’s new partner when the dust settled. She better get over her own deer-in-headlights look quick. I put the odds at less than fifty percent that she was going to last. As it was, she reminded me of someone. A little like seeing a ghost and for a moment, I didn’t know what it was. Then it hit me.
    She was me. I was this girl not so very long ago. She was cutting her teeth in the back of a rig hurtling down the interstate. I cut mine on a sand-swept battlefield near Baghdad. In spite of all the chaos, I couldn’t help smiling to myself. I could think of about five army doctors who sized me up the same way when they met me. Maybe there was hope for this one too.
    “Rookie!” I shouted as two nurses took the gurney with me and the victim on it at a run.
    She looked up, shaking. “You did good. Go do more of it!”
    Her smile faltered and she smoothed a strand of hair away from her face. I saw Endicott shake his head as I rolled by.
    ***
    The kid on the gurney didn’t make it. After they code, they usually don’t. It’s not like it is in the movies. That was the bad news. The good news was that everyone else in that church van looked like they would make it. Out of twelve people, that wasn’t a bad outcome. The driver died too but somehow that seemed like justice.
    “Good work today.” Dr. Endicott took a chance waltzing into our locker room. It also made me like him that much more. He was one of the few doctors I worked with who understood this floor was a team. I wiped the sweat from my brow and threw my scrub top into a plastic bag. Joleen and Misty were the only other people in here and all three of us looked like we had been the ones in a car wreck.
    “You too,” I said. He smiled, tapped his fist against one of the lockers and turned to leave.
    “Not so fast,” I called out. “Eddie’s labs came back. They’re up at the station. You want to check for yourself or do you trust me?”
    Endicott shook his head and slumped his shoulders. “As long as you’re not going to gloat.”
    I smiled and threw my backpack over my shoulder. As soon as I did, I felt my cell phone vibrate against my hip again. Like it or not, I was going to have to cowgirl up and answer it.
    “No gloating. But between you and Officer Gleason, I’m going to be one well-caffeinated woman tomorrow.”
    Endicott put his hand over his heart as if he’d been shot. “Do I even want to look? How close were you?”
    “.323.” Misty shouted it out then lifted her knuckles for me to knock.
    “ Price is Right rules: she who comes closest without going over. I win,” I said as I walked past the doctor and patted him on the shoulder in consolation.
    “Next time, Olander,” Endicott shouted after me as I headed for the double doors to the parking lot and the first whiff of fresh air I’d taken in more than twelve hours.
    My phone vibrated again and I had to contort myself sideways to reach it. I couldn’t avoid it anymore. The screen was still flashing when I pulled it out. My heart fluttered when I saw the caller ID. I blew a breath out to steady myself. This wasn’t Chris the pharmacist.
    Sly .
    I hesitated, hovering my thumb over the screen before I answered. Taking another breath, I finally swiped the screen and lifted the phone to my ear.
    “Hey,” I said. “Are you up super early or super late?”
    Rich laughter filled my ear, loud enough I had to hold the phone out for a second. “Maybe I just like to start my day to the sound of your