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

"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 metal 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 with nothing to do but shut the doors and follow after them.

"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," Eric pointed out as he pressed the call button by the front door to be buzzed in.

"I was sick," Greg argued, lying and further irritating the hell out of her. He'd get so much further if he just admitted he was nervous and ask for help, but he was too damn worried about his pride and that was going to be his downfall.

"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 the call she let him do all the talking.

"Good morning, ladies. Who do you have for me today?" he asked charmingly as he set his clipboard on the nurse's station counter. 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 was or he would have used it on her last night to get her to give him that half hour back massage that he demanded for making her dinner. In the end she'd slapped some scented oil in his hand and he'd given her a body massage to die for, all while grumbling and bitching of course.

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

With a murmured "thank you" he opened the file and began to fill in their run sheet with Beverly's medical and insurance information. She was about to suggest that he have 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, she thought dryly as she grabbed the stretcher by the safety bar and headed for Beverly's room. She didn't need to ask where it was. After five years of picking Beverly up for this and that she knew exactly where the woman's room 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 black, 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.

"Joe!" Beverly said, grinning hugely when she spotted her. Joe smiled in return, pushing the stretcher to the side in the small room 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 straight basket beneath the head of the stretcher and walked over to Beverly. He took both the old woman's 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 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 to 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 heavily. "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, sighing 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 the stretcher, but she barely weighed a hundred pounds. Plus, they both knew 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 other man didn't walk into the room by the time Beverly was all loaded up and ready to go.

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

Chapter 27

"Are you going to tell me where Greg is yet?" Joe asked as she perused the vending machine selection in the EMS room of Shamrock Hospital's ER. It was a place set up for EMTs to fill out their paperwork as well as swap out equipment. Some hospitals didn't have any designated areas for EMTs so they knew they were fortunate that the hospital gave them a room to work out of.

It made it a hell of a lot easier filling out paperwork in a designated area than trying to hunt down some counter space, or worse, using the stretcher. As long as they kept this room clean the hospital was happy to let them use it.

"I might if you buy me a Coke," he said, filling in the narrative section on the run sheet.

"You drive a hard bargain," she said, sighing as she purchased a twenty ounce bottle of Coke and placed it in front of him. "Okay, spill. What happened to our third rider?"

He opened the bottle and took a sip as Joe sat on his left leg and put her arm around his neck. His arm automatically went around her waist as he considered how to answer her question.

"I believe I mentioned that he went for a walk," he said, feeling his lips twitch from the memory.

"Yes, you said that," she agreed as she stole his soda and took a sip.

"Did I mention that I discovered the reason why he was acting so damn cocky?" he asked offhandedly as he took the soda back from her and took a sip.

"No," she said, pursing up her lips in thought. "I'm pretty sure I would have remembered that part."

"Do you remember USG Ambulance?" he asked, knowing that she already did.

"That ambulance company you interviewed with a few years ago?" she asked, shifting to get more comfortable on his leg.

"Well, it seems that he interviewed with them last week and had his uncle put in a good word for him. It seems that he was just waiting for their call," he said absently as he ran his eyes over her, appreciating the way her uniform fit her.

"I'm guessing he got it while I was talking to Beverly," she surmised, giving him a sexy little smile even as she gently cupped his chin and forced his eyes up.

"Apparently they're convinced that he only needs to do their two day requirement of ride along before they put him to work," he said, wondering if she'd be up to hunting down an empty hall closet and fulfilling another one of his fantasies.

"So he just walked out?" she asked, frowning in adorable confusion.

"More or less," Eric admitted with a mumble.

Her eyes narrowed on him. "What did you do?"

He blinked innocently. "I didn't do anything," he lied.

"Uh huh," she said, obviously not believing him as she stood up and stole his soda and walked back over to the vending machine to pick out a snack.

"Did somebody at least call dispatch and let them know that he quit?" she asked as she counted out enough change for a package of peanut butter cups.

"He called Bill," Eric said, not mentioning that the little bastard demanded that Joe and he bring him back to the station. He calmed the little prick down by arranging a ride for him. One that took him to the middle of nowhere and forced the little prick to walk ten miles to the nearest gas station, but he decided it was best not to mention that or the fact that the guys may have decided to give Greg a farewell gift by making it easy for him to return his uniform. So the ass**le was probably walking along Madison Road at this very moment in his boxers and boots.

But Joe really didn't need to know about that.

He finished up his report and headed for the door, pausing only long enough to give her a quick kiss and swipe the candy bar out of her hand. When she swatted him on the ass he simply ignored it as he finished off her chocolate. Why did the food he stole from Joe always taste so damn good? he wondered as he reached out and stole back his soda. He ignored her muttered promises to kick his ass and dropped his run sheet off at the nurse's station on his way out to the ambulance bay.

"I'll clear us with dispatch since you're still enjoying my snack," she said, shooting him a look that promised all kinds of pain for his poor wallet.

If he wasn't head over heels in love with this woman he'd consider dropping her for her gold digging ways. But he did love her so he was probably going to have to suck it up and treat her to the dollar menu at McDonalds.

*********

"Did you call 911?" Joe asked as she bent down to look into the adorable little boy's face.

"Yes," he said, nodding.

"Is someone hurt?" she asked, looking around the front porch and yard and not seeing anyone. Eric walked past her and looked through the window.

"Yes," the little boy who couldn't be older than five said, gesturing towards the backyard.

With a slight nod, Eric jumped over the porch railing and headed into the backyard.

"Can you tell me what happened?" she asked the little boy, deciding it was best to keep him here until Eric let her know what they were dealing with. If it was something this little boy shouldn't be seeing she was going to have to call over one of the neighbors that were now watching them to come over and watch him until they could get the police to come and handle the boy.

"Roger hurt Toby really bad," the little boy said with his little chin wobbling.

"Where's your mommy and daddy, buddy?" she asked soothingly.

"They're out. I was s'posed to be with Uncle Charlie, but I didn't like leaving Roger and Toby by themselves so I came back," he admitted, shuffling his feet nervously.

"Does your Uncle Charlie know where you are?" she asked, guessing it wouldn't be very long before the man in question showed up or the police did.

The little boy shook his head stubbornly. "No, he doesn't want me to play with Roger. He thinks Roger is bad."

"What's your name?" she asked, already noting the name Henderson on the mailbox.

"Caleb."