Chapter 26

CHAPTER 26

" L et me get that for you, Joe," Greg said, reaching past her to pay the cashier when Eric stepped in front of him, forcing him back and making Joe wish that she'd banged out today.

Their shift only started two hours ago, but she already wanted to bitch-slap them both. Not a good sign when she still had fourteen hours to go before her shift ended. She really wasn't sure that she'd be able to handle this pissing contest for that long.

In Eric's defense, Greg really did seem to be going out of his way to piss him off. It was pretty obvious that Greg hadn't appreciated being put in his place this morning and was trying to use her to piss Eric off. Every five minutes, he seemed to be hitting on her, but only when Eric was around. The only thing it was doing was giving her a headache.

She really didn't need this. All she wanted to do was work. If he wanted to be trained, then she would be more than willing to help him. He was too damn cocky to realize that he didn't have what it took to do this job, but instead of just admitting that and cutting his losses, he was being an asshole.

Eric handed over the money for their order and grabbed the bakery bag and cardboard tray with their drinks. "Get your food and meet us at the truck," Eric said as he headed outside, completely oblivious to the glare that Greg was sending him.

After twelve years, she really should be used to working with guys hellbent on pissing each other off. She just wasn't in the mood for it today.

"Are you okay?" Eric asked as they climbed into the ambulance.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Joe said, forcing a smile as she accepted the hot chocolate and chocolate-frosted coffee roll from him. She took a sip before placing it in the cup holder and shifted until her back was against the door and used the steering wheel to rest her elbow as she nibbled on her coffee roll.

"I think Nathan's still pissed at me," Eric said, sounding pleased.

"Can you blame him?" Joe asked, inwardly wincing on Nathan's behalf.

After Amber stormed off, Eric decided to make his brother's life a living hell by taking Alice aside and explaining that Nathan felt left out and would really like her help finding someone special, but he was too embarrassed to ask. Unfortunately for Nathan, Alice was eager to get started and if she wasn't afraid of drawing Alice's attention, she would have said something.

Maybe...

The whole thing did promise to be rather entertaining so maybe she'd just sit back and see where this went. She had a feeling that Nathan wouldn't be able to sidestep his mother's efforts as easily as Eric had. He was a pushover, so he'd probably end up taking at least a few of them out to please his mother. Of course, she'd have to tag along, and she'd bet every last cent that she had that Eric would be more than happy to join them.

"Did you know that Teddy tried signing Greg out of third riding this weekend?" Eric asked, drawing her attention.

"He can't sign him out," Joe said, wondering what the hell was wrong with Teddy.

"Bill already ripped him a new one," Eric said, taking a bite out of his coffee roll.

"Why would Teddy do something so stupid? With his luck, he'd end up with Greg as a partner and he'd be forced to do all the work. There's no way in hell that Teddy would willingly screw himself over like that."

"I think he was hoping that Greg's uncle would put a good word in for him for the supervisor job over at the 603," Eric said with a shrug as though he hadn't just said something truly frightening.

Teddy as a supervisor? She prayed that never happened. Bill wouldn't allow that and thankfully, the city council didn't have a say when it came to promotions. She knew that Teddy wanted a supervisor position to get off the truck and sooner or later, he'd realize that would never happen as long as he worked for the city. A private ambulance company was a different story.

As much as she loved her job, she wasn't sure that she could ever go the private route. From what she'd seen, there was too much drama and backstabbing. A few years ago, when overtime became tight, Eric looked into working part-time for a mom-and-pop ambulance company. The guy had been an asshole with a chip on his shoulder against Bill and had spent the entire interview trying to convince Eric that Bill was an asshole. Halfway through the interview, Eric got up and walked out. They found out later that Bill fired the guy for stealing equipment from the city.

"Never going to happen," Joe said, shaking her head as she popped another bite of coffee roll into her mouth. She looked towards the coffee shop and saw Greg leaning against the counter, talking up one of the servers through the large storefront window.

Eric cleared his throat, drawing her attention to find him absently toying with his coffee roll. "What do you want to do tonight?" he asked, throwing her a nervous glance.

"What I do every Tuesday night after our shift," she said slowly, wondering what the hell was going on with him.

"And, ah," Eric cleared his throat, looking uncomfortable, "what are your plans tomorrow?"

"Unless I get overtime, I thought I'd clean the house and relax for once. Why?"

He cleared his throat again. "I was thinking that maybe we could-"

" Echo seventeen ?" dispatch chimed in over the radio, cutting off whatever he was about to say.

Shooting Eric a sideways glance, Joe grabbed the mic. "Echo seventeen."

" Echo seventeen, I need you to take a priority three call at Hillsmith Nursing Home for an unknown medical ."

"Priority three at Hillsmith nursing home for an unknown medical, received," Joe said, returning the mic to the dashboard. She placed her half-eaten coffee roll in the bag and handed it to Eric, who looked surprisingly relieved. She was curious about that, but it would have to wait until later.

She started the ambulance and gave the horn a little push to get Greg's attention. He held up his hand, indicating that she should wait while he finished his conversation with the cashier. Shaking her head in disbelief, Joe threw the ambulance in reverse and headed for the road.

"Not in the mood for any more of his bullshit, I take it," Eric mused as he pulled out a run sheet and began filling in their information.

"Not even a little bit," Joe said when she spotted Greg in the side-mirror running out of the coffee shop.

When she came to a stop, she heard the backdoor open. It slammed shut as she pulled onto the road. She didn't bother waiting for Greg to buckle up as she headed for the nursing home. It wasn't her job to wait for him. If he wanted this job, then he needed to be prepared to drop everything that he was doing when a call came in and he really needed to drop his attitude while he was at it.

"The next time you ignore a call, I'm writing you up," Eric drawled lazily as he continued filling in their information. Greg didn't say anything, and she wasn't exactly surprised. Eric might appear to be relaxed, but she knew that he was truly pissed and Greg must have picked up on that as well.

Five minutes later, Joe pulled the ambulance into the long driveway and parked behind a chaircar van. She called them on scene, turned the ambulance off, and pocketed the keys. By the time she made it to the back of the ambulance, Eric was already pulling their stretcher out and gesturing for Greg to move his ass.

"Can I drive?" Greg asked as he hopped out of the ambulance.

"No," Joe said with absolutely no hesitation.

"Driving's part of the job. How can I do my job if you won't let me drive?" Greg pointed out.

"Because you haven't learned to do the most important part of the job yet," Eric drawled.

"What's that?" Greg said, moving to walk past the stretcher.

Eric pushed the stretcher in his direction, cutting him off. When Greg only frowned, Eric gestured to the stretcher. With a glare, Greg grabbed the front handle and gave it a pull in the direction of the double doors.

"You need to learn how to deal with patients and run a call. If you can't do that, then there's no point in learning how to drive an ambulance because you won't be working here," Eric explained as he took the rear position of the stretcher, leaving her to shut the back doors and follow them inside.

"I know how to handle a call," Greg argued. "I've been doing it for several weeks now."

"No, you haven't. The only thing you've managed to do is ride along and puke your guts up," Eric pointed out as he pressed the call button by the front door to be buzzed in.

"I was sick," Greg bit out, further pissing her off.

"I don't really care what the problem was. Just do your goddamn job so that we can do ours," Eric said as they were buzzed in. Greg's face turned red, but he didn't say anything else as they walked inside.

Since Eric was the tech for this call, Joe let him do all the talking.

"Good morning, ladies. Who do you have for me today?" Eric asked charmingly as he set his clipboard on the counter at the nurses' station. She noted that several of the nurses blushed and she had to bite back a smile. Eric really had no idea how devastating that bad boy charm of his really was or he would have used it on her last night to get her to give him that half-hour back massage that he'd demanded for making her dinner. In the end, she'd slapped a bottle of scented oil in his hand and left him with no choice but to give her a body massage, all while grumbling and bitching, of course.

"Beverly needs to go to the emergency room to have her central line replaced," Margaret said as she placed Beverly's inch-thick medical file on the counter for Eric.

With a murmured, "Thank you," Eric opened the file and began filling in their run sheet with Beverly's medical history and insurance information. She was about to suggest that he let Greg do it when she spotted the man in question lounging lazily in a chair by the nurses' station.

Great. Just what they needed, another Teddy to deal with, Joe thought dryly as she grabbed the stretcher and headed for Beverly's room. She didn't need to ask where it was. She was a favorite patient of theirs and every time they had to return a patient here, they stopped by to check on her. Beverly was barely five-foot-nothing and was one of the sweetest women Joe had ever met. If Joe could, she'd adopt the woman as her grandmother in a heartbeat.

"Joe!" Beverly said with a warm when she spotted her. Joe returned the smile as she pushed the stretcher against the wall before she walked over to help Beverly gather the things on her lap and move them to the nightstand.

"Are you here for me?" the older woman asked, smiling sweetly up at Joe.

"I'm here for you, darling. Joe's just tagging along," Eric announced as he walked into the room. He tossed the clipboard on the basket beneath the head of the stretcher and walked over to Beverly and took her frail hands into his. "Are you ready to run away with me yet, sweetheart? Just say the word and we can be in Vegas in a few hours, making our love legal."

With a soft laugh, Beverly playfully swatted Eric's hands away.

"Is this your way of denying our love once again?" Eric asked, pouting.

"I'm afraid so," Beverly said matter-of-factly as she grabbed her reading glasses and a paperback novel and hugged them against her chest.

"What if I beg?" Eric asked, lowering the bed's side rails.

"You already have," Beverly pointed out with a smile.

Eric sighed dramatically. "It's because you want a younger man, isn't it? I've grown past my prime and now you're done with me."

Beverly nodded solemnly. "I'm afraid that's it."

"I don't think I'll ever recover," Eric said as he leaned over and scooped Beverly up into his arms. Normally, they would have placed the stretcher against the bed and worked together to shift Beverly onto it, but she barely weighed a hundred pounds. Plus, they both knew that she got a kick out of being swept off her feet by a handsome man.

"Probably not," Beverly agreed as Eric gently placed her on the stretcher and began strapping her in.

"Where's Greg?" Joe asked when the man in question didn't walk into the room by the time Beverly was loaded up and ready to go.

Eric's lips twitched as he said, "He went for a walk."