Sudden Response (9 page)

you've been taking your pills."

His eyes shifted to her quickly before shifting back to Tyler and Eric. "They're lying. I've been taking my pills."

"Did you take them tonight?" Eric asked.

"Yes!" A dam said without any hesitation.

"No, you didn't, A dam," Donny scolded from the doorway, obviously feeling braver with the three of them separating him from

A dam. "You refused your pills tonight."

"Shut up!" A dam screamed, taking a threatening step towards Donny. Joe automatically shifted to the right to block the man. "I

took my pills!"

"No, you didn't take your pills, A dam, and if you don't take them they're going to-"

"Stop," Joe said firmly, cutting off Donny's threat. She kept her eyes locked on A dam who now looked tensed and ready for an

attack. "We're not going to do anything. We were simply asked to come here and see if you've taken your pills."

A dam snorted. "They don't send the police or an ambulance over pills."

"You're right. They shouldn't have called us over this," Eric said, no doubt giving Donny a pointed look.

"Why don't we go downstairs and sit down and talk this through?" Tyler offered.

A dam looked like he was considering it when Donny opened his mouth. "He's not allowed out of his room. He's on room

restriction because of the pills," he pointed out.

"I took my pills!" Adam screeched, leaping from the bed to attack Tyler. It took Joe a few seconds to react. She honestly hadn't

seen this coming. She'd been prepared to take him to the ground, but for an attack on Donny who couldn't seem to shut the hell

up.

"Shit!" Eric snapped as he attempted to pull A dam away from Tyler, but the much smaller man wouldn't give up his hold. He

swung, kicked, and bit Tyler while Eric struggled to pull him off.

Joe moved low and grabbed A dam's legs, hugging them close, ignoring the brutal kicks to her ribs and stomach. "Get him

down!" she yelled, squeezing A dam's legs together before she dropped her weight to help bring him down, but only managed

to anchor his legs against her.

"Oh my God, he's got a gun!" Donny screeched from the hallway.

Her eyes shot to the doorway in time to see Donny running down the hall, shoving patients and staff out of his way while he

made a mad dash to safety. The rest of their audience wasn't too far behind.

"Someone call for backup!" Tyler demanded above her. She turned her head and felt her eyes widen as she watched both Tyler

and Eric struggle to pull A dam's hands away from Tyler's holstered gun.

"Get out of here, Joe!" Eric yelled as he struggled to take A dam to the ground and away from the gun.

Joe would have rolled her eyes at his over protectiveness if they weren't busy at the moment.

"Let go!" Tyler groaned as he worked at tearing A dam's hands off his gun.

Somehow over the loud grunts and panting she heard the snap of Tyler's gun holster giving.

"Shit!"

"Run, Joe!" Eric yelled again, sending her a pleading look as he fought to keep A dam's fingers away from the trigger as he

started to pull the gun away from the holster.

She couldn't run and leave him. A t that moment she was more afraid of what would happen to Eric if she let go of A dam's legs

and ran.

"Get the fuck out of here, Joe!" Eric bellowed.

Holding A dam's legs down was the only thing stopping him from kicking away and getting his hands on the gun sooner, but Joe

knew it was only a matter of time before he managed to pull the trigger and shoot someone. He was out of control, acting feral,

and the two large well trained men above her were having a hell of a time getting him under control. If they didn't do something

soon he was going to get that gun clear and pull the trigger.

"Please, Joe, let go!" Eric pleaded, breaking her heart.

She knew he wanted her to run and save herself, but she couldn't do it. She wasn't on some bravery kick. No, she was

absolutely terrified.

She couldn't leave this room and leave him behind. Joe was scared out of her mind that if she left now she would never see him

again and she couldn't risk that. She didn't know much, but she knew she couldn't live without Eric.

Taking a deep breath, she did what she had to do. She let go and in the next second she shoved to her feet, hard. A dam hadn't

been prepared for her sudden movement and Joe used his surprise to break his hold on the gun with her head and shoulders,

slightly cringing when her head slammed into the butt of the gun, but she didn't stop until she broke A dam's hold.

Then all hell broke loose.

A s Tyler stumbled back, A dam turned his anger on her. With a feral screech he pulled back his fist and slammed it into the

side of her face, knocking her back onto the ground.

Just as she prepared herself for another strike A dam released a cry of pain and was slammed down to the ground with his arms

twisted behind his back. She absently wiped at the hot liquid dripping near her eye as she watched Eric place a knee in the

middle of A dam's back, ignoring the smaller man's cry of pain he leaned in to whisper near his ear.

"If you ever touch her again I will fucking kill you," he said in a cold lethal tone that sent chills down her back. "You so much

as look at her and I will kill you."

A dam squeezed his eyes shut so he wasn't looking at her. She might have laughed if she wasn't truly frightened. She'd never

seen Eric like this before and was a little worried about what he might do.

"I got him," Tyler said, gesturing for Eric to move over. A fter a slight hesitation he moved off A dam, but held his arms back

so he couldn't move. He looked over at her and frowned.

"Joe?"

"Huh?" she said in a daze. When had she closed her eyes? A nd when exactly had her head started to pound?

"Gets a couple of head injuries and she passes out," she heard Eric mumble. "Such a girl."

Chapter 10

"I want him written up!" the social worker demanded, again.

Eric ignored her as Bill tried to calm her down. He didn't give a rat's ass what they did to him. The only thing he cared about at

the moment was behind those double gray doors, being examined.

He rubbed a shaky hand over his face. She'd really scared the hell out of him tonight. Over the years they'd been in more fucked

up situations than he could count, but none of them like tonights.

When that little bastard went after Tyler's gun he swore his heart stopped. The only thing he could think of was getting Joe out

of there before he pulled the trigger. A ny other woman would have made a run for it, but had Joe?

Oh hell no, not miss, "I'm one of the guys." She not only stayed, but she just had to risk her life. That damn gun could have

easily gone off when she decided to use her body to knock A dam's hands away.

He dropped his face into his hands. He did not want to think about how close he came to losing her. What in the hell had she

been thinking?

It had been sheer luck that the gun hadn't gone off when she slammed into A dam's hands.

It was fucking selfish, that's what it was. She could have gotten herself killed and left him all alone. Did she even think about

what her dying would do to him?

No.

It was so fucking important to her to be one of the guys that she never once stopped to think how it would affect him if

something happened to her. If something happened to her he would-

"The three of them attacked him! He was forced to defend himself," the social worker declared loudly, drawing the attention of

everyone in the crowded waiting room.

"Ma'am, you don't know the full story," Bill said, keeping his tone polite, but Eric knew the man was pissed. Not even an hour

ago he'd been in the nurses' break room when Bill stormed into the room after seeing Joe and slammed the door shut. Then for

good measure he kicked a few chairs across the room.

A fter a rather loud shouting match between them and two nurses running away from the room in a panic they calmed down

enough for him to tell Bill what went down. Hearing what happened only seemed to enrage the man more and set off another

bout of chair kicking.

Eric would have joined him if a doctor hadn't shown up at that moment to ask about Joe's closest relative, nearly taking twenty

years off his life. A fter explaining that they needed permission to treat her because she was still unconscious he reluctantly

explained that she didn't have any relatives.

He certainly didn't count her mother since no one had seen or heard from her in almost fifteen years. When the doctor refused to

explain what was wrong or what they needed to do, he of course lied and told him that he was Joe's medical proxy. A lthough

technically it wasn't lying since they had filled out the paperwork, but they forgot to have it notarized.

It took a few minutes of arguing and Bill flat out lying to back him up to convince the doctor, but finally he relented. They'd

already ruled out a spinal injury as well as a skull fracture, but he was positive she had a concussion and they required

permission to treat the deep gash along her temple. He quickly gave it and obediently followed a nurse to the waiting area to

fill out her paperwork.

The paperwork hadn't provided the distraction he needed. In less than five minutes he had it filled out and returned to the triage

station. He'd hoped it would take longer so he didn't have to think about Joe being helpless and alone.

"I know that three so called professionals took it upon themselves to gang up on a helpless man," she said with an indignant

sniff. "Thanks to their brutal tactics that poor man is in there getting his broken arm fixed."

Yeah, he broke the little bastard's arm. Did he care? Not one fucking bit. He knew without a doubt that if the little bastard had

gotten his hand on the gun he would have shot them and everyone in that house. Throw in the fact that he'd attacked Joe when

she was bleeding and down and would have probably killed her with his bare hands if Eric hadn't grabbed him then he would

say the guy had got off pretty lucky.

"If they'd done their jobs properly my client would not be-"

"A nd if you had done your job," Eric snapped, sick of her bullshit, as he got to his feet, "then you would have known that

facility was not providing him with proper care and that he needed a medical intervention. If you had done your fucking job we

wouldn't be here right now and my partner and an officer would not be stuck in this hospital getting patched up."

Tyler had suffered dozens of bites, scratches, and punches requiring god only knows how many stitches and shots. By the time

backup had arrived he'd looked like he went ten rounds with a tiger.

"Eric," Bill said tightly, "I'll handle this."

"How dare you?" the social worker hissed. "It's not my fault that my client was attacked. He has several neurological problems

and you were well aware of that fact. You knew he has bipolar and schizophrenia! Knowing that you should have-"

"I'll be sure to tell his family that you took the time to announce his private medical information to a roomful of strangers. I'm

sure they'll appreciate that," Eric drawled, cutting her off. He ignored her outraged sputtering and headed for the double doors

of the emergency room.

He was tired of waiting.

The double doors abruptly opened just as a nurse called out. "You can't leave!"

Eric sighed long and loud as he watched Joe storm, half stumble, into the ER waiting room with her light blue uniformed shirt

untucked and bloodstained, her boots untied and a large white gauze pad taped to her forehead, barely covering the large bruise

peeking out to complete the ensemble. He'd like to say he was surprised that she was trying to haul ass A .M.A . (against

medical advice) this early in the game, but sadly he wasn't.

Nothing pissed Joe off more than being told what to do, which of course meant he was going to have to resort to lying and

manipulation to make sure that her sweet ass never touched the tech bench in the back of an ambulance ever again.

Joe leveled a glare on him when she spotted him. She pointed an accusing finger in his direction, barely righting herself as she

stumbled on her own two feet. "Don't think you're getting out of buying me a steak dinner tonight, you cheap bastard!"

*******

"Mmmm, this was a really good idea tonight," he said, taking a sip of her beer.

"You're dead to me," she groaned just as another wave of nausea took over. Slapping a hand over her mouth, she quickly

crawled off her bed and made a mad dash to the bathroom. She just barely made it to the toilet when the ginger ale Eric had

forced her to drink ten minutes earlier made another appearance.

Her head pounded, sending a fresh wave of nausea to her stomach. She gripped the sides of the toilet and held on for dear life

as she lost the rest of the contents of her stomach. Dizziness took over, from the local anesthesia that had upset her stomach in

the first place or the searing pain behind her eyes, she wasn't sure.

"Let's get you into bed before you slam your head and I end up having to bring you back to the hospital for more stitches," Eric

said in a soothing voice as he gently picked her up and carried her back to her bed.

She couldn't help but glare at the take out container that held the remains of her juicy steak. "You could have waited until