Jessica Meigs - The Becoming (2 page)

“Yeah, it’s fine,” Gray assured him. He gave him a half-shrug and a sheepish smile. “I don’t know. It’s okay. It’s just…not home, you know?”

“I know.” Theo sighed and shook his head. “I’m sorry about all that. I’ve been arguing the case with Dr. Taylor every time I see him, but he’s not budging. I don’t know what to do next.”

Gray glanced at the clock above the door. The second hand ticked inexorably toward the twelve. He sighed and headed for the trash can to jam the bag into it. “As stimulating as this depressing conversation is, I have to get back to work. I’ve still got three hours to finish up this car and get chewed out by the boss for only getting two cars done today.”

“Yeah, I’ve got to get to work myself soon, anyway,” Theo agreed.

Gray headed out the door and back into the service bays, Theo right behind him. Before he went to his car, Theo stopped him and added, “Hey, be careful going home this evening, okay? Seems like we’ve been working a lot of accidents the past couple of days. I don’t want to have to come scrape you off the road.”

Gray gave him a tight smile. While he was touched that Theo was concerned enough to say something, his brother’s overprotectiveness had become almost unbearable over the past few months.
Maybe I’m just getting used to staying by myself,
Gray thought. He wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or not. “I’ll be fine, Theo,” he promised. “It’s not like I drive like a bat out of Hell anyway. And besides, I take that route home five days a week. It’s nothing new.”

“I know, I know,” Theo said with a careless shrug. “Can’t blame me for tossing that out there anyway, right?” He patted Gray on the back again. “See you later, man.” He started to walk toward his car, but he didn’t make it more than a few steps before he turned and added, “Oh! Big Daddy at the base said he’d really appreciate it if you’d come by when you have time and take a look at one of the ambulances. It’s making that weird knocking noise again, and we’re down a truck because of it.”

Gray stifled a laugh at Theo’s nickname for the supervisor on his EMS base and waved a hand at him. “Tell him I’ll see what I can do. I’ll give him a call in the morning.” He shook his head. “I don’t know why I let myself get roped into constantly fixing those junkers for you guys.”

“Because you’re just that damn good, Gray,” Theo said. “And admit it; you’re a total sucker for a big engine.” Before Gray could reply, Theo retreated to his car, slid in, and pulled out of the lot.

Chapter 2

Whenever Theo had to work long shifts like the one for which he was scheduled that evening, he always found himself breathing out prayers for a quiet time of it. But it was Saturday, and teenagers in Plantersville had little to do besides throw drunken parties and cause problems for the police and EMS crews in the area. Considering the rumors already circulating about a party to be held at one of the houses on the outskirts of town, he had no doubt it would prove to be a
very
busy shift.

Theo found his driver, Jonathan Kramer, already sitting sideways on the passenger seat of their truck when he arrived at the base a few minutes before his shift. He took a moment to toss his bag onto the bed on which he would crash for the night, and punched in before joining Jonathan outside.

“Hey, Carter, how’s it going?” Jonathan greeted him.

Theo shrugged and ran a hand through his hair. “It’s going. How was drill last weekend?”

Jonathan gave him a shrug in return and smiled. “It was okay. The usual. Sarge was a total dick. Nothing strange about that, though.” He didn’t wait for Theo’s reply. Instead, he thrust a sheet of paper toward him and added, “New marching orders from the boss man. Some supplies have been disappearing from a few of the trucks, so he wants us to inventory everything
on paper
at the beginning
and
end of every single shift.”

Theo took the paper and scanned it over. It was a chart listing everything the state required to be on the ambulance, including the amounts, with a space to write in the number actually in the truck’s interior and exterior cabinets. And in the trauma bags.
And
in the EKG monitor’s bags. “Well, that’s all fine and dandy, but this all looks like extra work just for
me.
”

“Oh, I’ve got my own.” Jonathan held up a sheet with a noticeably shorter list on it. “Crawling in the fucking dirt, checking the psi on the tires. This is ridiculous.”

“Watch your language,” Theo muttered absently. He felt silly saying that to a man who was over ten years older than he, but he shook off the sensation and looked the list over one more time. He tore his eyes away from the paper and pulled the ambulance’s side door open, hauling himself inside. He was greeted by the sight of dirty gloves, used nasal cannulas, and plastic packaging littering the floor. Soiled linens were piled on the bench by the back doors, and the garbage can attached to the side of the bench was overflowing with everything from used supplies to takeout fast-food bags.

“Fucking hell!” Theo exploded as his eyes took in the view. “What the fucking fuck is
this?
”

“And you told
me
to watch my language,” Jonathan joked. “Needless to say, I was less than pleased when I walked into this a few minutes ago. I figured you were going to hit the ceiling.” He tilted his head back to look up at the roof of the ambulance and made an odd snicking noise with his tongue against his teeth. “Looks like you might have left a dent in it.”

“Who the hell left it like this?” Theo asked, bypassing Jonathan’s joke. He was already freeing his cell phone from his pants pocket to take pictures of the mess for his supervisor’s perusal later.

“Probably the same douchebags who ran out of here the minute we showed up so they’d be gone by the time we found it like this.” Jonathan dropped out of the passenger seat and stretched, stepping into view of the side door. “Need a hand? I’m not averse to actually helping out around here. Unlike
some
people.” He cast a glance toward a small four-door coupe that flew out of the base’s short driveway. Theo resisted the urge to join Jonathan’s glance with a glare as he recognized one of the aforementioned douchebag coworkers. Then he snorted and turned his gaze back to the mess before him.

“Get that stretcher out of the way and grab me the broom from the backboard cabinet. I’m going to attempt to inventory all this shit while I clean.” Theo paused and sniffed the air, his head tilted back as if he were a hunting dog scenting for prey. He wrinkled his nose. “It smells like stale french fries and piss in here. You smell that?”

Jonathan snapped on a blue glove and circled to the ambulance’s back doors, flinging them open. He picked something up from the floor of the ambulance. It took Theo a moment to realize that Jonathan held up a used urinal. “Found your culprit.” He frowned at it and at the floor of the ambulance, which was on level with his waist. “Looks like it’s leaking too.”

“So not only did they leave us with garbage everywhere, but they left us with a biohazard to take care of too?” To say Theo was thoroughly disgusted was an understatement. He forced himself to stop grinding his teeth and slid open one of the cabinets, pulling out a red plastic bag. “Drop it in here and tie it off. I’ll chuck it later.”

It took Theo and Jonathan nearly two hours to scrub out and sanitize the interior of the ambulance, replace the supplies that had been used, and inventory everything in the cabinets. By the time they had finished, Theo could feel a headache niggling at the back of his head. He massaged his temples and heaved a weary sigh before he dropped into the jump seat with all the grace of a hippopotamus. “Aw hell, we’ve still got to wash the outside, don’t we?” he grumbled. “Please tell me it looks like rain so we don’t have to today.”

Jonathan cast his eyes up toward the sky and shook his head. “Nope, sorry. Crystal-clear evening sky.” He smiled. “You know, if you don’t want to wash it, I certainly won’t be saying anything to anyone if it doesn’t get done. We could probably hold off until tomorrow morning.”

Before Theo could agree to Jonathan’s idea, a burst of static came from the radio in the cab, followed by a loud, almost melodic tone. Both of them froze, and Theo’s shoulders tensed as the sound jabbed into his skull like a knife. A smile broke out across Jonathan’s face.

“Definitely not washing the outside of the truck today, my friend,” he declared. “I have a feeling we’re about to get sent on a call.” He dropped out of the back of the truck and hurried to the front, swinging into the cab to listen to the dispatcher’s message that followed the tones, snagging a notepad and pen out of his pocket in the process. He scratched out the address as Theo closed all the ambulance’s doors and climbed into the cab’s passenger seat. Jonathan turned to him with a grin. “Got a cardiac. Time to rock and roll.”

Chapter 3

The crack of pool balls drowned out the country music being piped in through speakers strategically hidden around the bar, but Gray paid the sound no mind as his eyes followed the yellow ball Jack Abernathy had struck. It rolled easily into the pocket for which Jack had aimed. Gray sighed and shook his head, taking a deep swallow from his beer as Jack tilted his head to look at him and give him his old, familiar shit-eating grin.

“Carter, you are going to owe me some
serious
money when I’m done with you,” Jack warned. Gray rolled his eyes and tugged a pack of cigarettes from the back pocket of his jeans. He pulled one free and lit it up before he bothered to reply.

“I said I liked playing. I never said I was any good at it. Besides, you’re probably just going to give the cash back anyway, like you do pretty much every time we play.” He propped the end of his pool cue on the floor and leaned on it, dragging on his cigarette as he watched Jack take entirely too long to line up his next shot. “You going to take that shot anytime soon, or are you too busy waggling your ass for the ladies at the bar?” Jack laughed and tapped the cue ball. The green ball for which he’d aimed bounced off the table’s side before rolling to a stop in the center of the table. Gray heaved a sigh of relief and ashed his cigarette into the tray on the edge of the table, then lifted his stick from the floor. “‘Bout damned time.”

Jack smirked and leaned against the edge of the table as Gray began to slowly circle it, trying to choose his best line of attack. “I don’t think you’ve noticed, G, but I’m not the one the ladies at the bar are staring at,” he said. “That hot brunette near the end has been watching you the entire time we’ve been in here.”

Gray stretched over the table to line up his shot, resting the pool cue against his hand, and cut his eyes upward in the direction Jack mentioned. He huffed out another impatient breath. “Come on, man, there’s like three of them down there,” he said casually, though a jolt of recognition wormed its way down his spine as his eyes met the girl’s in question. He stuck his cigarette between his lips again and exhaled a puff of smoke around it, feigning casualness, before taking his shot and missing miserably. It was an easy shot, and Gray could only account his failure to make it as a bad case of sudden nerves, brought on by the eyes that, even now, he could have sworn he felt on his back.

“The one in the skirt and red top,” Jack replied. He passed behind Gray to get to the other side of the table, slapping him on the back in the process. Gray flinched and side-stepped away from him, gripping the pool cue he held tighter. “You should go talk to her, see if maybe you can get laid,” he suggested. “Then maybe you’ll quit being so damned cranky all the time.”

Gray shrugged and cocked his hip against the edge of the table. He took his cigarette out of his mouth and snagged his beer bottle from beside the ash tray. “I don’t know, man. Do I look that desperate?” He took a deep swig of the beer before he added, “At least let me wait until after the game is over before you start trying to hook me up with random bar chicks.”

Jack snorted. “Hell yeah, I’ve got to hook you up! God knows you can’t manage to get the pretty girls on your own,” he joked.

“If we weren’t in the bar right now, I’d so kick your ass,” Gray muttered. He jabbed his cigarette out in the ash tray with more ferocity than necessary and finished off his beer.

“But you can’t, because then Smitty would call the cops and your brother would want to know why you were in Smitty’s in the first place when you should have been at home
and
why he was bailing you out of jail. He’d probably get all paternal on you, and I’d never get to hang out with you again.” Jack sank another ball and looked up at him. “What’s with him, anyway? He acts like you’re twelve or something.”

Gray shrugged and grabbed his empty bottle, setting his pool cue on the edge of the table. “I don’t want to talk about my brother,” he replied.
Especially since he’d have my head if he knew I was here,
he added mentally. “And don’t talk about him that way. That’s between me and him.” He nodded toward the bar. “I’m going to get another drink.”

Gray didn’t wait for Jack’s reply. Circling the table, he tossed his empty bottle into the trash can as he passed it and headed to the bar. He stopped a few feet away from the girl Jack had pointed out, the girl who’d been staring at him. The girl who’d given him such a rush of feeling the second he’d laid eyes on her that he’d felt the compulsion to sit down in a daze. He flagged down the bartender—the esteemed Smitty himself—and asked, “Can I get another beer, please?” He glanced at the girl out of the corner of his eye and added, “Make that two beers.” Once he had the two chilled bottles in hand, he slid onto the stool beside the girl, cracked the top off one of the bottles, and set it gently on the counter in front of her. “Hey, April. Long time no see.”

The girl looked up at him, and a wide smile spread across her pretty face. The sight of it sent a pang of melancholy through him. “I was hoping you’d take the hint and come over here,” she admitted.

Gray hadn’t seen April Linder in almost five years, not since before they’d graduated high school and gone their separate ways. Thinking about that still made him a little sad; two years was a lot of time for a teenager to spend with one girl. He returned April’s smile and added, “You’re looking great. What have you been doing?”