How to survive the thunder

Chapter 01

Picking up the phone, TK did not recognize the phone number he was being called from.

He was in the middle of an extremely boring shift in which, thankfully, nothing had happened, and he still had three hours to go. Between Nancy and him they had already cleaned the ambulance from top to bottom, replenished all the medications, and set about preparing the food.

"TK Strand?"

"Who's asking?"

"I'm calling from St. David's North Austin Medical Center. You're the emergency contact for Carlos Reyes, right?"

TK dropped the knife in his hand on the counter and took a few directionless steps through the kitchen, under the watchful eyes of his coworkers. Mateo, who was lending Nancy a hand, motioned Paul and Marjan closer. Nancy approached her companion, it was easy to see that he had suddenly turned pale.

"Yes, it's my... I'm his boyfriend."

"Carlos was admitted twenty minutes ago after being involved in a vehicle accident."

"What?" TK's voice echoed throughout the barracks and the few who hadn't yet noticed that something odd was going on, like Owen and Judd, stopped what they were doing to notice him. "What do you mean a vehicle, are you saying Carlos has been hit, where is he?"

He felt stupid when the other man's voice repeated the hospital's name back to him.

"They're running a few more tests on him, but it looks like it was a minor accident. A blow to the ribs. He's come in unconscious because he hit his head when he hit the ground."

"No...no.... I'm on my way." TK spun around on himself not knowing what to do. He hated having so many eyes on him, all wordlessly asking him what was going on. "But... He said he was unconscious... he hit his head when he fell. I'm a paramedic and..."

"Mr. Strand, I can assure you that Carlso is in the best of hands."

TK nodded as if the man could see him.

After putting the phone down and after a couple of seconds feeling numb to the idea that Carlos had been run over, he listened to the voices around him. Owen offered to drive him to the hospital, while Tommy told him to end his shift and leave with Carlos.

Father and son didn't talk much during the fifteen minutes they were in the car. Owen shot several glances at TK, but his son didn't notice. He was staring blankly out the other side of the window. He had too many ideas about what had happened and none were better than the others.

If that maniac had done something to his boyfriend, TK would lose what little control he had over himself those days, seek him out and kill him. But he was sure he had had something to do with the accident. It was easier to think that the maniac who had hurt Carlos in the past, and who was now back in his life, had caused him to get run over than to think that Carlos had been clueless or any other possibility.

He got out of the car while Owen looked for parking and went straight to the emergency room. He asked for Carlos and looked around; if he found him first, he would skip any kind of security or procedure and go straight for him.

"Follow me, please." he was told by a middle-aged, smiling nurse who would normally be able to reassure him.

This was not the case, but TK agreed to follow him and, for the fifteen seconds it took to get to the box they had placed him in, TK didn't breathe; it was amazing how many movies he was able to make in his head, images of how bad his boyfriend might look or whatever the doctor would later tell him.

The nurse pulled back the curtain and TK let out a long sigh as she saw Carlos lying there. To the naked eye he was fine, but as a paramedic he knew there were a lot of injuries, a lot of internal problems that could mean getting hit by a car.