Chapter 8

EIGHT

Booth dug for Rico, pulling burning hot timbers off the pile and tossing them behind him.

"I'm here." Eric coughed. "I'm here. Go! Get Nova! I'll dig!"

"You left Nova inside?"

Eric tried to speak but started coughing again. He leaned over and braced his hands on his knees. The coughs came—raspy, hacking coughs that meant he had inhaled far too much smoke. The poor guy'd barely got himself out.

"I'll be right back." Booth handed him his water. "Nova! Can you crawl to the southeast window?"

"I'm all turned around," she yelled. "Go to the kitchen window!"

"Okay!" He didn't bother telling her that was the southeast. As he rounded the corner, Nova popped her head up, coughing and gasping. "It's okay. I got you."

"Someone…there was…someone…else." Nova's every word was followed by a cough.

He reached through the window and lifted her under the arms. She all but collapsed into him. He pulled her to his chest and dragged her over the windowsill. "See? I've always got your back."

When her feet hit the ground, she wobbled.

"Easy there. Give yourself a second. You breathed a lot of smoke."

"I…I'm…" Nova's eyes fluttered and rolled back.

He caught her before she fell, then lifted her into his arms. Her head lolled back and bounced as he hurried around front.

Eric, still coughing, had uncovered enough that Booth could see Rico's boot and part of his leg. And bone.

He lowered Nova to the ground and did a quick assessment.

Eric tossed a board aside. "She okay?"

"She's breathing. Strong pulse. I think it's smoke and heat inhalation." Booth ran over and grabbed one end of a beam. "She'll be fine, but we need an evac quick."

"You called?" Eric lifted the other end, and they laid the beam off to the side.

"I radioed for help." Booth's muscles screamed in protest, but he managed to move a broken support beam weighing down the other stuff on Rico. "We saw the fire jumping down the hill. Rico ran to help you guys, but the porch collapsed on top of him."

The heavy pounding of rotors filled the air.

"We've got incoming," Eric said.

Booth paused long enough to see the helicopter pass over and circle back, lining up the approach. He turned back and kept working to uncover Rico. "Help's here, buddy. Hang in there a few minutes longer."

Nova coughed. "Wh-what happened?"

Booth glanced over his shoulder. "You passed out."

"How'd I get out?" She worked herself into a sitting position. "Where's Eric?"

"Right here," Eric said with a cough. "Booth pulled you out and called for evac."

The helicopter set down in a field of sage brush as they pulled the last board off Rico. In a matter of minutes, the trauma team unloaded, and two men ran over with a basket to load the patient and heavy duffel bags.

Booth told them about the cave-in. "Rico has a pulse, but his leg is hurt bad. We didn't want to move him. Eric here breathed in a lot of smoke, but Nova the most. She was drowsy and confused when I pulled her out. Passed out a second later."

One of the medics shone a light in each of Nova's eyes. "Did you hit your head?"

"No," she coughed. "What happened to the person we saw in the cabin?"

Booth flicked a glance at Eric, who flattened his lips. "We never saw anyone else."

The trauma team extracted Rico. They placed him on a stretcher and ran to load him on the helicopter.

Booth and Eric packed up what little gear they could find. Moving slowly, Nova dug Rico's PG bag out of the rubble. A few minutes later, sweaty and out of breath, they climbed in beneath the turning helicopter rotors.

Once aboard, Booth sat next to Nova and buckled his seatbelt. "How you feeling?"

She lifted her oxygen mask. "Woozy but fine. Are they taking us back to the fire?"

He laughed. "You're joking, right? Rico is going to the hospital and so are you."

She squinted at him. "The town of Snowhaven is at risk, Booth." Nova's words were stuttered with coughing. "Who knows how big the fire is now? Three thousand acres? We need to be in there."

Stubborn woman. They could've been killed, and she was ready for more.

All he could do was placate her for now. "I know. So put your mask on and let's get you cleared to go back to work."

"Fine." She pulled the oxygen mask over her nose and mouth, crossed her arms and looked away.

The sun sank low in the hazy sky, setting the whole landscape alight in a fiery orange glow. In a cloud of dust and flying debris, the helicopter lifted clear of the ground.

Booth stared out the window. Below, the fire rolled like a wave over the historical mining claim they'd been sent to save.

The fire that might have cost Nova her life if Booth hadn't been there.

Nova inhaled a long, slow breath and promptly started coughing. She closed her eyes, but all she saw was Booth beside her, determined to be her hero.

"Looks like all the burns are first-degree. I've prescribed some topical antibiotic ointment, but I imagine you have loads of it at home already." The doctor, who'd introduced herself as Dr. Zamudio, flipped her stethoscope over her head and let it drop around her shoulders. "We're going to need a chest X-ray to check your lungs for smoke damage. You were pretty lethargic when you came in."

"How long is that going to take?" Nova scissor-kicked her legs on the edge of the table. The white sanitary paper crinkled.

"We're backed up. Could be an hour."

"An hour!" Nova knew that meant two or three. She'd already had the few burns treated.

"You wildland firefighters crack me up." Dr. Zamudio simpered—a closemouthed, high-pitched laugh that gave her a girlish quality. "Girl, you ever heard of ‘rescuer safety first'? You're no good to nobody if you collapse out there in the woods. Your buddies don't need to be worrying about you while they face a fire themselves neither."

Dr. Zamudio was right, more than she probably knew. But Nova couldn't tell her just how bad things were out there. They were calling in teams from Alaska and Canada to come and help. News like that would cause a panic. Better to let an evacuation order come down from forestry service.

"You all come in here smellin' like a backyard barbecue and expect doctors to slap a Band-aid on your burns and send you back out there. Uh-hum." The black bun on top of her head wobbled when she shook her head. "Not good enough."

"Okay, I get it. Can I at least go check on Rico, see how he's doing?" The rookie smokejumper was her responsibility.

"Because my staff want to chase you down all over the hospital when it's time for your test?" The doctor's brow furrowed. "You don't need to go on a wild-hog chase. He's headed to surgery, hon."

It was worse than Nova realized. She'd seen the open fracture where the bone stuck out of Rico's shin. Thinking of it sent chills up her spine. "That bad?"

The doc held up an index finger, then used the same finger to slide her clear-framed glasses up her nose. "Now, you know I can't go telling you his medical information until he signs a release. Unless you're his next of kin, of course."

Nova shook her head. "There's a release in his file. We all have them so you can give status updates on our condition in emergencies."

Dr. Zamudio nodded and walked to the rolling computer cart.

Her fingers clacked the keyboard. She paused and pushed her glasses up her nose again. "Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Okay."

Nova swung her leg, hitting the back of her boot on the table.

Dr. Zamudio clicked the mouse around, then used a keystroke combo to lock the computer. "So, I see I can give you updates. I'm sorry, but your friend Mr. Torres has multiple fractures and a collapsed lung. We have him listed as critical."

Nova caught her lower lip between her teeth while she considered the words. Rico could've been killed trying to save her. Shoot, Eric could've been killed—her too. All because she'd tried to save someone who wasn't even there.

But they had been there. She'd seen them with her own two eyes.

There was a light knock on the door. A woman in scrubs peeked in. "I'm Stephanie. Here to take Miss Burns to radiology."

"Oh, look at that. They're moving faster than I thought." Dr. Zamudio patted Nova's knee and winked. "She's all yours."

Stephanie smiled. "Okay, if you'll follow me Nova."

Nova followed the nurse through a maze of corridors, wondering if the doctor had done that on purpose. Told her it would be an hour just to get a rise out of her. She did want to go see Rico, but where was Booth? Probably checking on Crispin.

She still couldn't believe Booth was a federal agent living in hiding.

He should've picked a job that didn't require him to drop everything at a moment's notice to run and fight wildfires if what he wanted to do was solve his case.

Whatever the case was anyway.

"Here we are." Stephanie held the door to radiology open.

Thirty minutes later, nurse Stephanie led Nova back to her room. The sound of her boots squeaking with each step was drowned out by shouting. It sounded like Booth.

At the next hallway intersection, Stephanie turned left, but Nova turned right.

Stephanie followed Nova. "Your room is this way."

"I know. Thanks. I can find it from here." She coughed. "I need to talk to my friend."

At the end of the hall, Booth gripped the nurses' station with both hands.

"Where is he?" His neck flushed red up to his jawline.

Nova hurried over. "Hey, what's wrong? Who are you looking for?"

Booth looked at her for a full beat, as if surprised to see her standing there. "Crispin. He's not in his room."

"Maybe they took him for some tests."

"No!" His voice clicked up in volume. "That's what I'm saying. They lost him! They said he was here this morning, but when they went to do rounds, he was gone. I don't understand how they can lose a patient."

Nova slipped her hand around his arm and pulled him to face her. "Hey, yelling isn't going to do anything except disturb the other patients and get you kicked out of here. You got your phone back from Houston, right?"

Booth nodded.

"Good. Let's leave your number with the nurse. She can call you if Crispin turns up. Meanwhile, take me to his room, and we'll see if he left a note or something."

Booth worked his jaw, then nodded. He turned back to the nurse. "Look, I apologize for being rude. Do you have something I can write my number on?"

The nurse pushed a blank piece of paper toward him and dropped a pen on the counter. Booth clicked the pen open and scribbled his digits. "Sorry. Please call me if you see him."

She looked unconvinced but nodded.

Nova took Booth's hand as he led her to Crispin's room. Inside, she let go of Booth and closed the door.

The hospital room was the basic setup. Closet. Bathroom. Hospital bed with the sheets tossed back. A blue-green couch underlining the windows on the far wall. Booth was right. Crispin wasn't here.

"Is it possible Crispin just walked out of here?" She pretty much cringed as the words came out. It sounded stupid. The man had a gunshot wound.

Booth was pulling out the drawers on the nightstand. "Sounds like him. Could he really unhook his monitors and walk off without the medical staff knowing?"

"I saw a patient in a wheelchair, sitting outside with her IV pole and smoking a cigarette." She shrugged.

He walked to the closet and peered inside. "His clothes are gone." Booth crossed the room and sat on the couch.

She sat beside him and rested her forearms on her knees, matching his posture. "Were you being serious about…you know…WITSEC?"

He didn't look up but twisted his hands. "Yeah."

"How long?"

"Three years."

"You left everything behind? Your friends? Family?"

He nodded.

"Were you…married?"

He breathed a short laugh. "Nope. Never married. No kids. Not many friends in the job I had either. The team here is the closest I've had to friends in a long time."

"What about Crispin?"

"He was dead. We were partners, and I thought he'd been killed."

And then he'd seen his friend, back from the dead, right here in Booth's town. Nova couldn't imagine what that might feel like.

"The rogue CIA faction. Hillbilly militia. Terrorists. Crazy Henry…" She looked at him. "They're not made-up stories to tell around the campfire, are they?"

He shook his head. "It all happened. I might have changed a few names here and there, but the events are real."

"Okay, but a military dog who needed a bodyguard from some guy making chemical warfare bombs?" She gave him the side-eye. "Come on. That's got to be embellished, right?"

"Nope. That dog is still considered a high-value target to this day."

Nova sat back and pulled one leg underneath her. "Will you tell me how you ended up here? As a smokejumper?"

"Okay, let me think where to start. The entire team was under suspicion because someone was feeding intel to a rogue CIA faction about the location of a missing nuke. Everybody was pointing fingers at everyone else, so Henry planned an off-the-books takedown meant to draw out the mole. At the last minute, I got a call that my mother had suffered a cardiac episode and had to go to the hospital."

"Oh no."

"It turned out to be an artery blockage. While I was at the hospital with her, they moved forward with the takedown. The whole operation went wrong somehow. There was a huge explosion that supposedly killed Crispin." His thumb traced the red scrapes over his knuckles. "I knew everyone would point fingers at me. I mean, Crispin's dead, Henry's disappeared, and the nuke is nowhere to be found. Nobody knew who the mole really was."

Nova nodded. "And you were the last man standing?"

"Right." Booth scratched his beard. "I was still at the hospital with Mom, planning to confront the supervisors the next day and explain why I wasn't at the takedown. I wanted to help figure out who was responsible for my friend dying in the explosion.

"A delivery messenger came to the hospital and handed me a manila envelope," he continued. "Inside was a note saying that when I walked back into work, I'd be labeled a terrorist and charged with treason. Possibly killed."

"You'd be the scapegoat," Nova added. She was starting to see how complicated this case really was and why Booth was so invested.

"The note said I should go into hiding here in Ember and wait for Henry to contact me. It was a part of the failsafe plan Henry'd had all along."

It was starting to make sense. Booth was hiding out, waiting for his redemption. "Something I can't quite figure out is why you became a smokejumper."

"I was a volunteer wildland firefighter in high school, helitack crew in college, then parachute infantry in the Army." Booth shrugged. "I needed a job."

She'd heard of worse reasons.

It occurred to her that if he was in WITSEC, then he probably had a false identity. "Is your name really Booth Wilder?"

He angled to face her. "It is now. The old me is legally dead. I was given a new identity and sent here."

"That would be so…I don't know." She leaned forward. Ran her thumb over the soft bristles of his beard. Heard him swallow.

If Sophie hadn't interrupted them, Nova would've kissed Booth right there by the horses. She'd imagined it. Tried to talk herself out of it. Even avoided him so she wouldn't be tempted. Other people might not know who Booth was, but she was pretty sure that she did.

"You know…" Her eyes dropped to his lips. Lingered. "I've never kissed a stranger before."

Booth leaned in. "There's a first time for everything." His voice was low.

A shiver tingled down her spine. "I've never been one to back down from a challenge."

"Why stop now?" He slipped his hand around the back of her neck and hesitated.

Nova waited, the soft warmth of his lips a sliver away.

The air between them sizzled.

She couldn't stand it anymore. Nova tilted her head and kissed him. Her hands went up to cup his jaw, pulling him closer for a lengthy kiss.

Everything she hadn't said but wanted to, everything she wanted to ask him but hadn't—it all passed between them in that moment.

The trill of a cell phone drew them apart. They both reached for their phones.

Booth was on his feet. He found a flip phone in his front pocket. "It's Crispin." He snapped it open and put it to his ear. "Where are?—"

His whole body stiffened.

"I swear, if you—" He pulled the phone away and stared at the screen. Snapped it closed and stuffed it in his pocket.

Nova crossed the room to stand beside him. "Who was that?"

"The man who has Crispin. He wants to meet, but he has some demands for an exchange." He turned and started to leave.

"Where are you going?"

"To save Crispin and get my life back."

Nova stepped in front of him. "Wait, you can't leave. It could be a trap. Let the police?—"

"I am the police," he said.

Then it dawned on her. "You never cared about this team from the beginning. You were just here to live out your giant lie."

Booth took a step back as if her words had physically shoved him. "Yeah, well, if I didn't have to always watch your back, then I would have been able to solve this long ago."

Nova stood there and watched him walk out the door. Her fingers touched her lips. Part of her couldn't blame him.

He wanted to save his friend and maybe save the world.

Start a new life.

One that didn't include her.