She reached out to steady him as he wobbled. “You were saying?” A hint of humor crept into her voice. She couldn’t help being a little smug. She was tired, cranky—and she was only human. “I know you’re a tough guy, but even you have your limits. Here’s an ambulance now. They’ll take you.” She signaled to the paramedic.
“Wait. What about Scout? They won’t let me take him in the ambulance, will they?”
Jessica frowned. She hadn’t thought of that. “No. That’s not possible.”
“I can’t leave him in my vehicle. It’s going to heat up again. It’s got a temperature-activated cooling system, but during the time I’ll be in the hospital, the truck will likely run out of gas and power.” He reached for the holster on his belt and found it empty. He looked around, apparently searching for someone. Police department personnel and other first responders at the site were still rushing around, all of them occupied in dealing with the aftermath of the earthquake.
He looked back at Jessica. “I need help.”
“You just had it. The hospital needs to take over now.”
“No. That’s not what I mean. Not medical aid. I need your help with Scout.”
She bent down, let Scout sniff her hand. “May I?” she asked. When Cal nodded, she rubbed his head. “In what way?”
“Well, I can’t take him to the hospital with me. I can’t leave him in my truck here in this heat. I lost my radio in the building and, as you can see, everyone from the department is busy.” He made a sweeping motion toward where the frenetic activity still continued. “I can’t impose on them.”
Jessica continued to stroke Scout but looked up at Cal. “What about someone else? A volunteer, maybe? Someone who lives close by? A friend?” She broke eye contact and turned her attention back to Scout. “Aren’t you a handsome boy,” she murmured. “So smart and handsome.”
“It won’t work,” he said, replying to her question. “Police dogs have their behavioral idiosyncrasies due to their specialized training. They need firm alpha handlers. Scout’s no different. I only moved here recently. Besides the other cops, I don’t have friends close enough for me to turn to.” He was silent for a moment. “How about you?”
Jessica glanced up at Cal. “Me? What about me?”
“Would you take Scout until I’m done at the hospital?”
“That’s impossible.”
“You said you were finished here.” A smile spread across his face, and Jessica felt an uncharacteristic pull of attraction. That was totally inappropriate with a patient, she chastised herself.
“You’ve already proven you can handle Scout,” Cal continued. “And Scout’s demonstrated that he’s willing to accept commands from you.” He chuckled. “Not a common occurrence for a police dog.”
Jessica straightened. At her full height and in her comfortable work flats, she was only a few inches shorter than the cop. She gaped at him. “You’re asking me to take Scout home with me?”
The smile faded. “Well, you’re not giving me a lot of options, Doc, triaging me as ‘urgent.’ So, yeah.”
She started to shake her head, but he broke in before she could speak. “I have no other alternative on such short notice. You triaged me, treated me and said I have to go to the hospital. If I can’t get someone to take care of Scout, that’s not happening. I’ll just have to drive myself and Scout home, using my left leg.”
She’d been working the better part of nineteen hours now. She just wanted to get a few hours’ sleep before she was due back at the hospital. She didn’t have time to deal with a rude, pushy cop. Jessica was tempted to call his bluff, but then she remembered what had gotten Cal into this predicament to begin with. He had saved people, including the little girl, Kayla. He’d risked his own life to rescue Scout. If he cared that much about his dog, she had no doubt that he’d follow through on his threat and try to drive. If anything happened to him and the dog as a consequence, she would blame herself. She swiped impatiently at her bangs to get them out of her eyes.
She nearly agreed, then realized what she was about to do. Get personally involved and care too much about another patient. Granted, this patient wasn’t a child. And, okay, it was actually the patient’s dog. But she was a trauma doc. Her job was done. Cal could figure out what to do himself. It seemed impossible that he didn’t have anyone to turn to, someone from the police department certainly, but it wasn’t her problem.
Then Cal gave a soft command to Scout. “Ask nicely.”
To Jessica’s astonishment, the big dog sat back on his haunches and raised his forelegs in the air. He crossed his front paws, tilted his head and whined in a manner that sounded a lot like “Please.”
Jessica chuckled. “That’ll get the bad guys to drop their guns and surrender.”
“Just wait. Scout, say your prayers.”
The dog bowed his head, and covered his eyes with his front paws.
Jessica laughed outright.
“How can you say no to that?”
Jessica crouched down again and scratched Scout’s ears. “I’m sure I’m going to regret this, but okay.”
CAL RESIGNED HIMSELF to the fact that he had to go to the hospital and needed to be transported by ambulance. The doc had been right; there was no way he could drive. He couldn’t even touch the ground with his right foot without agony. Since there were no crutches available, one of the paramedics had to help him hop over to the ambulance. Getting in the vehicle was no easy feat, either.
“Hell of a night,” the paramedic commented to Cal as they made their way through the broken streets to Ocean Crest Hospital. The sun had just started to rise.
“Yeah.” Cal gazed out the window. He absorbed the chaos and destruction around them as they sped toward the hospital. Having lost his radio in the building, he hadn’t been able to hear the reports. Now he listened to the scanner in the ambulance as the salient facts were recounted.
The Rose Canyon Fault ran in a north-south direction through San Diego County. But it had never been a major concern, to the best of his knowledge, because San Diego was relatively low risk for earthquakes. The fault was known to be capable of generating a 7.0 magnitude quake, with 8.0 at its upper range.
The quake they’d experienced was nearly at the fault’s limit. Cal knew that anything above 7.0 was considered a major earthquake, likely to cause serious damage. Anything over 8.0 could totally destroy communities near its epicenter.
As he continued to survey the damage, he could readily grasp how extensive it was. Even so, it could’ve been worse. There could’ve been a lot more damage...and many more casualties. The quake had been felt across great distances—as far away as Los Angeles, he’d heard—with damage mostly limited to a hundred and fifty miles from the epicenter. And the death toll? An update stated it could have been in the tens of thousands, but they’d been fortunate to have had reported fatalities of less than a hundred.
And Cal had found one of those. He thought of Kayla and wondered who would tell the little girl that her mother was gone. Would it be the doc who’d treated both of them?
He couldn’t remember having the sort of reaction to a woman that he’d had to the doctor, not in a long time. Very long, in fact, as it would’ve been before he was married to Anna. He’d barely looked at a woman since Anna blindsided him by leaving, taking Haley with her. His brother, Andrew,