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“We’ve got a crashed helicopter,” Bobby said, and Buck winced a little.
Ever since he had started dating Tommy nearly six months ago, Buck had started to worry every time he heard anything about a plane or a helicopter being in trouble. But Tommy wasn’t working today, and he also wouldn’t be out with his private helicopter because that one was at a routine check with a mechanic at the moment.
“Pilot and co-pilot have both been unresponsive for the past couple of minutes,” Bobby continued, and Buck watched how everyone around him in the engine prepared mentally for what they’d find.
“Any reports on what caused the crash?” Hen asked.
“Collision with a drone,” Bobby said darkly. “It’s one of our own helicopters. Should’ve been transporting a patient, but they were still en route to the patient.”
Buck winced. Tommy was friends with every single pilot working out of Harbor, no matter the shift. Over the past couple of months, Buck had met them all. That meant whoever was in that helicopter, Buck would know them. And it was possible that at the end of the day, he’d have to tell Tommy that one of his friends or even two hadn’t made it out of that crash.
“Who called it in?” Chimney asked over the radio. He was driving one of their ambulances following the engine.
“The pilot, I think. No sign of the owner of the drone. But that will be LAPD’s problem.” Bobby turned to look at them. “I know there is a lot of crossover between us and the 217, especially lately. So some of us might know pilot and co-pilot. Prepare yourself now to put that aside and concentrate on the job.”
Buck nodded along with everyone else. Then they pulled up at the crash side, and Buck jumped out of the engine right behind Eddie. There was smoke rising from the helicopter, so Buck grabbed one of the fire extinguishers before he hurried over to the crash side. The pilots had somehow managed to put the bird down in a spot in Griffith Park without any people around, though by now there were some onlookers gathered who had probably seen the helicopter go down from afar.
The first thing Buck noticed was blood inside the front window. He made a face and forced himself to turn to the back of the helicopter, where the smoke was coming from. The window in the back was shattered and the door opened easily enough, giving Buck and Eddie access to the source of the smoke. Buck didn’t recognize what was burning there, and he really only cared for the fact that it didn’t take much time to put it out.
“Both front doors are blocked!” Chimney called out. “Buck, Eddie, can you get them open from the inside?”
Buck turned and his stomach dropped as he got his first proper look at the two people in front of the helicopter. He recognized them both immediately despite their helmets.
“Fuck,” Eddie hissed beside him. “It’s Tommy and Lucy!” he called out to the rest of their crew outside.
Buck was frozen in place as Eddie pushed past him and reached for the door on Lucy’s side. The helmets were undamaged and where they were supposed to be, but both Tommy’s and Lucy’s faces and upper bodies were full of blood. There seemed to be blood everywhere, and Buck couldn’t say where it was coming from.
He felt nauseous.
Buck had never before had a problem seeing or dealing with blood and other bodily fluids at a scene. One of the other four Evans of his class at the academy had eventually dropped out of the academy because he had soon learned he wasn’t able to deal with the blood of especially messy wounds, not even the fake blood they’d used at the academy. Buck had always felt proud that he had never even once had any kind of adverse reaction distracting him from his job.
Until this very moment.
The door on Lucy’s side of the helicopter opened with a loud screech, and Buck flinched. He rushed forward and pulled his glove off so he could press his fingers against Tommy’s pulse points. It was there, though weak and irregular. With his other hand, he fumbled at the door until he managed to unlock it and push it open, too.
There were cuts all over Tommy’s face and every other place where skin was exposed. In some places, Tommy’s flight suit was torn up, blood seeping through from cuts beneath it. Buck didn’t know where they came from, and for the moment, that didn’t matter. Hen came into the helicopter from the side and pushed Buck’s fingers away.
“Buck!” Hen said sharply and he turned his gaze from Tommy’s bloody face to her. “If you can’t help me, get out and let Ravi take your place.”
Buck shook his head. “I can help.”
Hen stared at him for a moment, then she nodded. She started ordering him around, and Buck concentrated on following her orders instead of focusing on his fear and nausea. He helped Hen put a c-collar on Tommy, then he opened Tommy’s harness. His hands shook as he helped Hen and Ravi get Tommy out of the helicopter and onto the stretcher.
When they pushed Tommy to the ambulance and Buck turned to Bobby, he didn’t have to say anything.
“Go with him,” Bobby said with a worried smile. “You’ll be off duty as soon as you arrive at the hospital. Keep us posted on them, okay?”
Buck nodded silently. Hen banned him from the back of the ambulance, and Ravi pushed him to the passenger side, taking over driving the ambulance himself. Buck only registered when they arrived at the hospital that Eddie had driven the other ambulance with Lucy and Chimney to the hospital.
After Tommy and Lucy had been rushed away by the personnel of the hospital, Eddie and Ravi helped Buck get out of his turnout gear. Then Buck stood alone in front of the hospital while the rest of his crew returned to the station to finish their shift.
Suddenly, there was nothing to keep his nausea at bay anymore, and Buck barely managed to get to the next trash can before he threw up.
***
The first thing Tommy noticed was the distinct taste of blood in his mouth. It was a familiar taste since his childhood, but he still hated waking up to it. It was so strong this time that he even thought to smell it, but the smell of disinfectant lying over the smell of blood told him the blood might just be a sense memory.
He was in a hospital, Tommy thought. He had no memory of where the taste of blood came from or what had happened. His last memory was kissing Evan goodbye in the morning when Evan had gone on shift.
“Tommy?”
That was Evan’s voice, quiet and weak and worried. Tommy’s hands switched, and he noticed that someone was holding his hand.
“Hey.”
Evan’s voice again, and a hand in his hair.
“Can you open your eyes?”
Tommy wanted to say ‘yes’, but his mouth wouldn’t move. Opening his eyes took too much concentration, too, but eventually he managed to somehow drag his lids open. Evan looked at him with a hesitant and sad but at the same time relieved smile.
“There you are,” Evan said softly. “You lost a lot of blood. But by some miracle, no major blood vessels were hit. It was just the number of cuts that led to so much blood loss. And they think you might have a concussion from the crash.” He wet his lip and his gaze dropped for a moment. “Lucy wasn’t so lucky. She was in surgery until an hour ago and is in the ICU now. It’s still touch and go.”
Tommy stared at Evan. Lucy had been hurt, too. But Lucy was supposed to be on shift, and Tommy had a free day. Didn’t he?
Finally, Tommy managed to get his mouth to cooperate. But all he managed to say was “blood” because the taste of blood became more unbearable with every moment.
Evan frowned. “What?”
“Everything tastes like blood,” Tommy whispered.
Evan’s eyes grew wide. “Oh. I have ice chips here. I hope that’s enough. I don’t know…”
Evan kept rambling, and usually Tommy enjoyed that. But now he couldn’t manage to keep following anything Evan said after a little while. The voice was still calming, and so Tommy hummed from time to time in agreement just so Evan wouldn’t stop talking.
Then there was a nurse and Tommy needed to concentrate on that for a while. It was exhausting to answer the questions, to talk at all. He was so very tired.
But some of his own questions were at least answered while the nurse bothered him with hers. He had been in a helicopter crash, for some reason. Lucy and he had flown the helicopter, a medical transport that had still been empty. But Tommy couldn’t figure out why he had flown that helicopter at all on his free day.
Eventually, they were alone again.
“I’m so tired,” Tommy murmured.
Evan sat beside his bed again, one hand tightly holding onto Tommy’s hand, the other carding fingers through his hair steadily. “That’s the blood loss.”
“I don’t remember what happened.”
Evan sighed. “Yeah, I figured. Noah got food poisoning, and they called you to take over his shift.”
Tommy nodded slowly. “Makes sense.”
“Lucy and you were on the way to pick up a patient,” Evan continued softly. “Then a drone crashed into your helicopter.”
Tommy frowned. Drones had become a huge problem in any airspace over the past couple of years. He’d had collisions with drones in the past, and while that had always been a scare and most often a critical moment, it had never led to a crash for him in the past.
“I’m not sure how, but it somehow crashed through one of the windows in the back. And then you had practically a projectile with a dozen sharp blades going crazy inside the helicopter.”
“Oh.” Maybe he did remember some of it, after all. He remembered the feeling of knives cutting into his face and his throat, and he thought Lucy had cried out at one point. He remembered blood spraying all over the window in front of him.
“You got the helicopter down mostly intact, somehow,” Evan said. “It’s still a crash, but that’s mostly because you went down at a place where you really didn’t have enough space. But the blood loss caused you both to pass out before you could give dispatch any real information.”
“What happened to Lucy?”
“She got a pretty nasty cut on her throat. Nicked her artery there and damaged her larynx. I was told that if she gets through the night, she should make it. Her parents are with her. One of her brothers came by earlier to check on you and update me.”
Tommy inhaled deeply, trying to stay calm. Since he had transferred to Harbor, he hadn’t ever lost someone from his shift. The thought of losing Lucy to such a freak accident because some idiot had needed to play with an expensive toy was maddening.
“She is strong,” Evan said. “I’m sure she’ll pull through.”
“Do we know the owner of the drone?” Tommy asked.
Evan shook his head. “I don’t know. Bobby said the LAPD is investigating this. I don’t think we’ll hear about anything for some time.”
Tommy just nodded and yawned.
“You should probably sleep some more.”
“Will you come back tomorrow?”
Evan huffed. “I’m not leaving this hospital room for tonight. They even put a bed in for me. Mostly because they saw me throw up and don’t quite believe me that I didn’t hit my head at one point while rescuing you and Lucy.”
“What?” Tommy tried to sit up so he could make sure Evan was okay, but Evan grabbed his shoulders and pushed him back.
“I’m fine,” Evan whispered. “Physically, at least. When I got into the helicopter, there was blood everywhere. The drone caused it to spray all over the place and made it look like there was a lot more blood than there actually was. But it was still a lot. I … I managed to keep it together until we had brought you and Lucy here. But I really … For a moment I thought you were dead, Tommy.”
Tommy squeezed Evan’s hand, but he couldn’t say anything.
“There was just so much blood. I felt like throwing up right there. But then I got your pulse, and I had something to hold onto.” Evan chuckled wetly, and there was a single tear running down his face. “I did throw up once you and Lucy were with the doctors.”
“Evan,” Tommy murmured. “Are you sure it was just…”
Evan laughed and leaned over him to press a much too short, sweet kiss against his lips. “Yes, I’m sure. Turns out seeing the man I’ve somehow madly fallen in love with nearly bleed out is kind of the limit of what I can bear. I’m so glad you’re okay. And it’s horribly selfish, but I’m so relieved that you’re here and not beside Lucy in the ICU.”
Tommy blinked in astonishment. Then he somehow managed to raise the hand Evan wasn’t holding onto to grab the front of Evan’s shirt—an LAFD T-shirt, as Tommy noticed in this moment and remembered for a moment that Evan should be on shift. He pulled Evan back for another kiss. “I love you, too.”
Evan’s answer was a startled laugh. “That’s not how I wanted to tell you for the first time.”
“I think it’s perfect,” Tommy whispered. He blinked, barely able to keep his eyes open at all.
“Sleep,” Evan whispered. “I’ll be here whenever you wake up. And when you wake up, we’ll have to make some plans about postponing our six-month anniversary date. Because you aren’t making that date in two days.“
Tommy grunted in protest. He could be out of the hospital in two days. But he fell asleep before he could say anything, content with holding Evan’s hand and the knowledge that they were on the same page concerning their relationship.