"Echo seventeen, responding to Sunflower Nursing home for an unwitnessed fall," he said into the mike.

"Son of a bitch," Teddy snapped, pulling out a run sheet as Eric flipped the emergency lights on.

"No one saw the patient fall?" Greg asked from the back of the ambulance, thankfully sounding a lot less nervous than he had last week.

Teddy snorted out a chuckle. "They're all unwitnessed," he said, filling in their information on the run sheet.

"What does that mean?"

"It means," Eric started only to pause as he slammed on the brakes as some dumb f**k sped through the intersection almost slamming into them as they tried to race through before they lost the green light.

He chuckled when he spotted a police car waiting in the opposite lane throw its emergency lights on and go after the prick. Eric paused in the middle of the intersection, allowing the police officer to take the turn and go after the jerk. With a wave of appreciation to the officer, Eric proceeded through the intersection.

"Holy shit!" Greg gasped. "Weren't they supposed to stop?"

"Yup," Eric said, switching the sounds of the sirens in demand for the cars in front of him to move out of the way. "You'll find that most people have enough common sense to move out of the way or stop at intersections so we can go, but there are others-"

"Assholes," Teddy added, and for once they were in complete agreement about something.

"-who will refuse to move out of the way, or will rush through the intersection whether or not they had the green, and my personal favorite are the ass**les who ride our tail when we're responding."

"Those are the ones who usually get creamed," Teddy pointed out.

"Seriously?" Greg asked.

"It usually happens when they try and follow an ambulance through an intersection," Eric explained, pulling into the long driveway of Sunflower Home.

"That sucks," Greg mumbled distractedly.

"Echo seventeen on scene," Eric said into the mike as he pulled to a stop at the front entrance.

He shut the ambulance down and pulled the keys out. Some crews left the trucks running or the keys in the ignition and he would be the first one to admit that he used to make that mistake. A mental patient stealing a running ambulance right outside an emergency room a few years ago helped him break that habit quickly.

Everyone had laughed at the crew even as they cringed, thinking that could have easily been any of them. The patient didn't damage the ambulance, but she did have a hell of a ride. Three hours later the police found the ambulance parked behind an abandoned building with the crew's lunch smeared all over the inside of ambulance. Thankfully no one had been hurt, but it could have easily gone the other way.

"What did you mean about all the falls being unwitnessed?" Greg asked when Eric opened the doors to the back of the ambulance.

"It usually means that whoever witnessed the fall or caused the injuries doesn't want to get written up so they usually report it as an unwitnessed fall," Eric explained as he jumped into the back of the ambulance and loaded the stretcher with the long backboard and the trauma bag.

"And they get away with that?" Greg asked in disgust.

"Yup," Teddy said, grabbing a handful of gloves to stuff in his pocket.

"Are we going to report them?" Greg asked.

"Can't report them unless you have clear proof or you witnessed the incident," Eric explained, hoping to calm the kid down. He knew how he felt. Sometimes it was frustrating to work in this field and see the things that they saw on a daily basis, but he knew that running to the state and reporting every little thing could actually cause more problems than they'd solve.

"So they get away with it?"

"No," Eric said, shaking his head and wishing Joe was here. She usually answered these questions and did a hell of lot better job at it than he was doing. "You have to remember that not every injury is abuse, especially when you're dealing with the elderly population. A lot of the calls you get that claim the patient fell and no one was around will be true. A lot of patients, young and old are bullheaded and hate asking for help or get sick of waiting for help and try to do things on their own that they know they shouldn't. So don't go jumping the gun and assuming abuse."

"But you said-"

"I know what I said," Eric cut him off. "The only thing that you can do is to write down every detail of the call and that includes the scene and what the staff says. Don't ever voice your opinion on a run sheet. That's the fastest way to find yourself either fired or facing a lawsuit. Stick to the facts. It will not only cover your ass, but provide your patient with evidence if needed."

"I hate to admit this, but he's right," Teddy said, helping Eric pull the stretcher out of the ambulance. "If you go around writing up staff members you're going to find your job a lot harder to do when the staff snubs you."

"Just mind your own business and cover your ass and you should be fine," Eric said in what he hoped was a reassuring tone, but judging by the nervous expression on the man's face he'd failed.

Actually, upon closer inspection he noticed the man looked a little under the weather.

"You're not going to puke are you?" he asked even as he shifted himself and the stretcher away. Teddy must have noticed the look on their third rider's face because he jumped the hell out of the way.

"No, I'm not-oh shit!" Greg said, covering his mouth and making a mad dash towards the bushes.

Eric and Teddy shared an exasperated look before they headed for the front door. He made a mental note to make the kid carry breath mints from now on.

Chapter 13

"What do you think you're doing, young lady?"

Pasting a smile on her face, Joe turned around and tried not to wince under the maternal glare that was being sent her way. She seriously wondered when that look would lose its effect on her. Probably never, she thought with an inward groan.

"I was just looking for something to read," she lied, hoping Alice would go back to whatever she was doing so Joe could find the backup set of car keys she had lying around somewhere in her office/guest room.

She'd already searched through her small desk, the pullout couch, and her bookshelves to no avail. The damn things had to be here. She definitely remembered tossing them in here when she had them made up last year.

"If you were looking for something to read than why are you dressed?" Alice demanded, arching a brow, silently challenging Joe to lie to her.

"I was cold?"

"It's eighty degrees in here, sweetheart," Alice pointed out the same time that she stepped to the side and gestured for Joe to get her butt back to bed. It was a small gesture, but one she recognized nonetheless.

There was no point in arguing, Joe decided grumpily. She'd already tried that for the past five hours and failed miserably, considering Alice had simply ignored her and shoved green jell-o down her throat for "sustenance" as Alice liked to put it. She'd made damn sure that jell-o stayed down, knowing the next step in Alice Parish's home care treatment was beef broth.

She couldn't even stress how much she hated beef broth.

"Where are you going?" Alice asked when Joe veered to the left instead of heading for her bedroom.

"I'm going to get a cold drink," and think of a way to get back at Eric for this. They were supposed to be partners and best friends. After all the shit they'd gone through and the times she covered for him she couldn't believe he did this to her. Granted, he probably knew without Mom here she'd find a way to get to the fire station.

Damn him.

"I can get it for you, sweetheart. You should be resting," Alice offered. "I can make up some broth if you think you can handle it."

Joe couldn't help it, she cringed. "No, that's okay, mom. Thanks."

Her stomach growled viciously, reminding her that she hadn't eaten anything since yesterday morning and she sure as hell wasn't counting the nasty green goop Alice practically shoved down her throat as food.

"You want more jell-o? I made a big bowl."

No, she wanted the delicious steak that Eric owed her, but probably wasn't going to have anytime soon thanks to her babysitting detail.

"No thanks, mom," she said, grabbing an ice cold Coke and heading back to her room. "I think I'm just going to lie down and take a nap," she said, knowing that she didn't have a choice in the matter.

"That sounds like a good idea," Alice said, following her anyway as if she didn't trust her, which would actually hurt if she hadn't been caught trying to climb out of the bathroom window two hours ago.

"Do you need anything?" Alice asked as she pulled back the covers and fluffed the pillows.

She needed to get to work, but Alice wouldn't be happy to hear that so Joe forced a smile and said, "No, I'm going to take my pill and get a little more sleep."

"Okay," Alice said, smiling pleasantly as she picked up the pill bottle and held it out to Joe, expectantly. Again with the trust, Joe thought with an inward sigh as she took the bottle and downed a pill.

"You don't have to stick around, mom. I'm most likely going to sleep well into the night now," Joe said, hoping Alice would take pity on her and leave. It was bad enough to be stuck in the house, she didn't really enjoy being fussed over on top of that. If she was going to be stuck here then she'd rather do it in peace and quiet so she could contemplate all the ways she was going to get back at Eric.

"Well, I do have a few things I have to do, but I promised Eric that I'd wait around until he got home," she said, looking at her watch. "I guess he got held over."

Joe nodded absently as she pulled off her sneakers. "It happens, but he'll probably be here soon," she said, not knowing if that was the truth or not and not really caring. For all she knew it could be hours before he got here and she had the pleasure of kicking his ass out.

"I'll stick around for another half hour, but then I have to go before the grocery store closes," Alice sighed.

Joe frowned as she sat down on the bed to pull her sneakers off. "Berkley's doesn't close until ten," she pointed out.

Alice waved her hand impatiently through the air. "I can't go there anymore."

"Why not?"

"Camie," she said as if that would explain everything. Sadly enough it did. She looked at her watch again, looking anxious.

"Mom, you can go. Don't worry about it. If anything happens I'll call one of the guys."

She looked like she was about to agree, but reluctantly shook her head. "No, I'll wait around a little while longer. If worse comes to worse I'll go to Berkley's and deal with those rather disturbing glares."

Knowing there was no point arguing, Joe sighed heavily and headed for the bathroom, grabbing Eric's favorite tee shirt, an old faded...well, she really wasn't sure what the hell it was, but she knew that it was Eric favorite. Ten minutes later she was curled up in bed and drifting off, wishing it was Eric's arms around her instead of his old tee shirt.