Chapter 2 shifts from the tension of the apartment to the quieter, procedural relief of getting Verity safely to the hospital — but it does far more worldbuilding than a routine transport chapter has any right to. Dean manages her pain, keeps her separated from a pursuing Manton, and delivers her into the care of Elk City Medical Center, setting up the referral system Station U relies on to get trafficking victims real help.

The chapter’s real hook, though, is the ER reunion between Dean and Ashley Moore, the Eldara Sister nurse and healing angel who was once part of his life in a very different way. Longtime readers will appreciate how the series handles this without melodrama: Dean is married to Jaz now, genuinely happily, and the old spark is treated as exactly that — old. The banter between Dean and Ashley instead does something more valuable, filling in just how much has changed in Elk City since the near-apocalyptic events referenced throughout the book, including how much of the hospital staff now quietly knows about the Unusual community.

It’s also a chapter that deepens the found-family texture of the series. Ashley’s revelation that she and Jaz have become close friends catches Dean off guard in a very human, relatable way, and it’s a small, well-observed beat about what it’s like when your past and present overlap in a small city. By the time Manton’s shouting erupts in the waiting room, the chapter has done its job — establishing both the medical stakes and the emotional stakes that will carry Book 8 forward.

📖 Start Dean’s next case — get The Paramedic’s Amazon on Jamie Davis’s site:

jamiedavisbooks.com/books/the-paramedics-amazon/

 

The Paramedic’s Amazon — Chapter 2

It didn’t take Dean long to get Verity settled in the ambulance once he got her downstairs. By the time Barry had everything packed away from their call, Dean had taken another set of vitals and started an IV to deliver an initial dose of four milligrams of morphine for her pain.

“Let’s see if that takes the edge off for you. I can give you some more if you need it.”

“Thank you, it doesn’t hurt so bad.”

The way she winced when she shifted in her seat on the stretcher told Dean otherwise. He made a mental note to reassess her pain level in another five minutes. They were about fifteen minutes from the hospital, and he could give her up to ten milligrams without having to call in for a doctor’s order.

Given how she was handling the pain so far, he figured it would be enough. They could always give her more once she got to the emergency department at Elk City Medical Center.

The door opened in the cab up front and Barry shouted back through the narrow passageway leading back to the patient compartment. “You all set?”

“We’re good to go. ECMC, nice and easy. Mind the potholes, too.”

“Already on it, partner. I’ll make it a nice smooth ride for you both.”

The big ambulance could bounce a bit on its suspension, especially on the local streets with all the potholes after this year’s heavy winter. The city was still way behind on filling in all the gaps. Barry would have his work cut out for him trying to avoid them on the way to the hospital. Luckily, they didn’t need to rush using their lights and sirens, so they could take their time.

The ambulance started forward. Behind them, Manton ran out into the street, calling for them to stop. Dean turned to the front and called out, “Keep going. He can get his own ride to the hospital.”

“I agree,” the other paramedic replied from the driver’s seat.

Dean nodded at how they’d separated Verity from Manton. It was essential to get her to the hospital alone. Dean would report his suspicions to the nurses at ECMC. The staff had an excellent relationship with local social workers and local shelters. If anyone could get her to safety and in a place where she would open up and tell her story, it was those specialized resources. Dean and Barry had done their jobs by recognizing it in the field. Now they had to follow up and send the report up the chain of care.

It took almost twenty minutes to arrive at the hospital. Barry had taken a round-about route, driving them over some of the better maintained roads rather than going the quickest way. As he backed into an open slot in the ambulance bay outside the ER, Dean gathered his supplies and prepped Verity to go inside.

He’d given her two more doses of morphine, maxing out the ten-milligram dose he could give. It seemed to be enough for now. Verity no longer winced at every movement of the surrounding ambulance.

“Verity, once we get inside, you’ll be safe. You can talk to the nurses and doctors in there and they’ll help you, with everything you might need. Do you understand? They can help with everything.”

“I do. Thank you. Will—” She stopped and looked out through the back windows of the ambulance. “Will Manton be here?”

Dean shook his head. “If you don’t want him to come back to your room and see you, they can keep him away. Just tell them what you want. No one can hurt you here.”

Verity nodded and fell silent, continuing to search the street outside the back windows.

Dean and Barry unloaded her on the stretcher and rolled her inside the ER. Dean looked to see who the charge nurse on duty was. They posted nursing assignments on the big dry-erase board by the nurses’ station. Next to the word “Charge” was the name “Moore.”

A smile spread across Dean’s face. Ashley was working tonight. He hadn’t seen her in a while, but he knew she was taking some shifts at the hospital now that she was back in town.

An Eldara Sister, Ashley was an angelic messenger of the gods or whoever the beings were that lived in the higher planes. In her case, she was one of the Sisters, a healing angel and a more than competent nurse. She had a history throughout time of helping others advance medical and nursing care. She had been one of his companions in the fight against the four horsemen months before.

He smiled as Ashely’s tall form walked from behind the counter, a broad smile on her face. “Hey, Dean. I heard Barry on the scanner announcing you were on the way. What do you have for us?”

The first thing Dean noticed was her hair. She’d cut it short, very short, in a sort of pixie cut. It surprised him. He’d never seen her without her long brunette hair, usually pulled back in a ponytail. He had to admit, though; the look didn’t detract from her angelic features. He shook himself. He was married now.

He and Ashley had a history, once, long ago. But that was in the past, and Dean had moved on. Now, she and Jaz were close friends, which was more than a little awkward for him at times.

Dean shifted his mind back to his patient. He nodded to the woman on the stretcher beside him. “This is Verity. I’m pretty sure she fractured her arm. She also might benefit from a room with some privacy because of some special concerns.”

Ashley’s eyes narrowed a little at the request for a room isolated from the others. He hoped she trusted him enough to follow his lead until he could explain the situation.

Ashley smiled at Verity and said, “Take her back to room sixteen. It’s near our break room in the rear of the ER, which should be off the beaten track enough to keep her from any prying eyes.”

Dean nodded. With Barry’s help, he rolled the woman to the room at the back corner of the emergency department.

Another nurse, Barbara, came in as they moved their patient over to the hospital bed. She took Dean’s verbal report on Verity’s injury. He didn’t expound on his suspicions here. He’d fill in Ashley out front and let her handle the relevant referrals. That was her job as the charge nurse.

“Verity, Barb here will take good care of you from here. Don’t be afraid to share anything you want with her, or any other people on the staff. You can trust the folks here to take care of you.”

Barb was one of the nurses who knew of the existence of Unusuals living among the human inhabitants of Elk City. She’d protect Verity’s Selkie identity from the normal human patients in the ER. She’d also work with Ashley to get the girl the help she needed.

Dean and Barry took the stretcher back around front. On the way, Dean heard a familiar voice shouting in the waiting room through a pair of double doors. It was Manton, and he didn’t sound too happy and being told to wait there.

“Barry, you got the stretcher and the supply restock? I want to fill Ashley in on the situation with the noise out front. We don’t want Manton barging back here without someone to stop him.”

“I got it. I’ll see you back out at the ambulance.”

Dean nodded and crossed over to the nurses’ station. Ashley and the others had heard the commotion. As Dean approached, Ashley hung up the phone on the desk in front of her.

“Hey, Ash, that guy shouting out in the waiting room was at the scene earlier. He says he’s Verity’s boyfriend. Something weird is going on with them and we had a hard time separating him from her.”

“I just called security down. Do you think he’s got some kind of charm going on or other magic?”

“Not sure. My gut reaction is she’s a victim of human trafficking or whatever you call the Unusual version of it.”

“They’re all humans, Dean,” Ashley chided him. “You know that.”

“Yeah, I do. Sorry.” Dean of all people, having recently found out he was half-Eldara himself, should be more careful with his words. “Anyway, if you can, I’d keep them apart until you can get her to open up about what’s going on.”

Ashley nodded. “I’ll get back to see her myself once we get the guy out front calmed down. I don’t want him upsetting anyone else.”

“Officer O’Malley came to the scene and dealt with him there. You know him?”

“I do,” Ashley turned to one of the clerks seated next where she stood. “Jack, see if you can call in to ECPD’s station U team and get O’Malley to stop by if he’s in the area. Tell them we have a situation and individual here he just handled at an ambulance call.”

Jack nodded and picked up the phone to dial in.

“Uh, I haven’t seen you since just after—” Dean said, trailing off.

“What? The end of the world?”

Dean couldn’t hide his wide-eyed expression. He looked around at the nurses nearby to see if they overheard.

Ashley laughed, “Don’t worry, the whole shift today is clued in. Most of the ER staff is at this point. There was no way to contain everything the four horsemen caused without explaining about the supernatural world all around them.”

That surprised Dean. He hadn’t heard that before. “Okay, somebody should’ve passed that down to us.”

“I’m sure it’s much the same for your colleagues in the Fire Department.”

Dean thought about it and nodded. When he’d first started on the job just over two years before, he’d been part of a very small collection of responders and health professionals who knew about the secret world all around them. Since the near apocalypse, it was less of a secret. Having the living dead walk the streets opened more than a few eyes.

Still, the vast majority of the Elk City population had bought the health department line about a viral encephalitis outbreak that caused violent behaviors in those infected.

Deciding to change the subject, Dean pointed to Ashley’s head. “I like your hair. When did you cut it?”

“Not that long after things settled down. It has been so long since I’ve had short hair. It’s been at least a thousand years. I’d forgotten how light it makes my head feel. I’m surprised Jaz didn’t tell you about it.”

“Why would she?” Dean hadn’t known Ashley and his wife had been in contact recently.

“Jaz and I have lunch every week or so when she’s not traveling. She likes to keep up on what’s going on in town from a supernatural perspective.”

His wife had not told him about it, and Dean wondered why she hadn’t mentioned it.

Ashley must have spotted the perplexed look on his face. “Don’t get annoyed with her. No woman likes to remind her husband of an ex-girlfriend, no matter how safe she knows it to be. Don’t worry. We didn’t talk about you, at least not too much.”

She said the last with a little giggle and picked up a tablet computer from behind the nurses’ station as two security guards entered through the doors leading to the rest of the hospital. “I have to go help these two deal with the disturbance out front. I’ll see you again. I’m on shift all week while a few of the regular charge nurses are at a conference.”

“That’s nice to know. It’s always a relief knowing you’re here when we bring in critical patients.”

As Ashley left, Dean checked his watch as he headed out to the ambulance. The shift was almost over and that meant he could get home and see Jaz. She’d returned that afternoon from a week-long trip to check on her company’s European operations. It would be good to have her home again. She was supposed to be in town for a few weeks this time around. The apartment would be much less lonely with her there.