On Call | JENLISA

Chapter 6

When it only budged slightly, Lisa started to push at the top portion of it, trying to get it open. And as she pushed, she started to feel a sense of panic, a sense of dread wash through her. Because suddenly, she wasn't twenty-eight. Suddenly, she was seventeen and slipping down the side of a mountain, trying to reach someone who was already dead.

The window finally creaked open, the paint splitting on the base of the window.

"Got it, see?" Lisa said, trying to keep her voice relaxed despite it being an octave higher than usual.

She peeked out the window to see a large group of grass and bushes on the ground. It wouldn't be a fun drop, but it wouldn't hurt too much with something to slow their fall slightly.

"You ready?" Lisa asked, picking up the kid and the stuffed animal she was holding.

With a slight nod from the little girl, Lisa climbed out of the window onto the small edge of the roof. She wrapped her arms as tightly as she could around the little girl, keeping her head pressed to her chest.

And then she jumped.

The thorns in the bushes ripped at her bare arms and made the little girl scream out in pain. The wind was knocked out of Lisa's chest, her shirt was torn up from the thorns. Her ribs and her back immediately hurt, and the back of her arm ached.

But she was on the ground.

She was okay, and the kid was already up and running to her sister.

"Manoban, is that you?" came an alarmed cry, making Lisa sit up slowly and wince in pain. She blinked her eyes open and saw Frank storming over, his face clouded with worry, with a slight undercurrent of anger.

She shot him a thumbs up, unable to speak just yet after so much smoke and such a heavy fall. Her breath came out in ragged coughs and quick inhales of short breaths.

But without a doubt, she knew she was screwed. She could hear Frank's tone of voice. He sounded just like he had when she'd climbed up a rock face without a harness her first year on the force. It was the same tone of voice he'd used when she'd stepped in to stop a fight and gotten elbowed in the nose two years ago during New Year's. It was his dad voice, and she hated being on the receiving end of it.

"What in the ever-loving hell are you doing jumping out of a burning building?!" Frank asked in a harsh voice, bending down next to Lisa and checking her for major injuries with quick pats and squeezes to her arms and legs.

"You didn't get here fast enough. She was gonna die," Lisa wheezed, rolling onto her stomach and revealing the back of her arm and the gash she'd gotten there.

"Shit," Frank gasped, pulling off his coat and then the long-sleeve shirt he had on underneath, leaving him in an Anchorage FD t-shirt. He wrapped the long-sleeve shirt around her arm, cringing when she hissed in pain. "Let's go. You need medical."

"But-"

"Absolutely no buts out of you, Manoban. You don't get a say when you do dumbass things. While that was heroic, it was dumbass nonetheless," Frank interrupted, helping Lisa to her feet and over to the truck.

"She's gonna kill me. Jen is going to actually kill me," Lisa groaned, running a hand over her forehead and feeling her skin sting at the marks the thorns had left. "I have freezer stuff in the car," she added quietly, knowing it wouldn't change anything.

"Tough shit," Frank replied.

Frank left the rest of their co-workers at the house and took Lisa's car keys, driving her to the hospital and parking right outside of the E.R.