Rue "You know," I said. "You really shattered all of my illusions when you told me you wear clothes underneath your flight suit."

Cleo chuckled as he walked down the long white hallway that led to the heli-pad.

We were at Life Flight headquarters, and were going out to do the 'first check' of the morning.

The first thing Cleo had done when we arrived was find me a flight suit that fit me.

He'd studiously ignored the glares of the man, Alonzo, as he went into the man's office and started pawing through the closet where all the extra suits were held.

"Sorry to burst your bubble," he winked. "It just gets hotter than h.e.l.l in that enclosed s.p.a.ce. When you're in route to the scene, or you have someone back there, you don't necessarily feel the heat. But once you're done, it finally hits you. If I'm not wearing anything on underneath, then I wouldn't be able to pull the suit down."

I gave him a mock glare. "Still. I had these visions of you and all of them were centered on you having nothing under your suit."

He rolled his eyes at me, and then pushed the door open that led outside.

"I'm flying today. Ross Bradley's the flight nurse today. He's new, so I don't know much about him other than he's just started this job, and he's young. Maybe twenty five or so."

"Is he cute?" I teased.

He looked down at me, and even though he had on gla.s.ses, I could tell he was glaring. "Keep it up."

I winked at him. "Okay, I'll see what I can do."

"You do that, see what you end up with," he growled, and then gave my a.s.s a sharp slap.

I squeaked and jumped forward. "Agh!"

He grinned and walked in front of me, leading the way to the large white and green helicopter that was in front of us.

"Would you let me fly sometime?" I asked.

I was genuinely interested in learning to fly. I wanted to see why Cleo liked it so much.

"Yeah...no. This is a multimillion dollar machine, and there's no way I'm going to let you fly it. You'll have to take actual lessons before I ever consider it," he said, no bulls.h.i.tting for my man.

Not that I didn't respect his decision, though.

In fact, it impressed me.

He wouldn't think of compromising himself or me just because I wanted to have fun.

"Normally, what I do when I first arrive on shift is do a check of the helicopter. I check my equipment, make sure everything is in proper working order. When I'm piloting, my partner's the one who's supposed to do the check of the supplies we have on board, but I'll do that so I can show you what we normally do," Cleo said as he opened the back doors of the helicopter, turned around, lifted me by my hips, and set me on the platform in the back of the helicopter.

He followed up behind me and sat down on the bench beside the cot where the patients were strapped down.

We were in there for twenty minutes as he showed me around the area before his partner came out.

The man was young; really young.

He must've gone into nursing school right out of high school.

He couldn't even grow a full beard yet; and he still had the whipcord lean body of a youth who didn't have the bulkiness of an older man.

He was cute, though.

There was no doubt about that.

"Hey," the man said, holding out his hand to Cleo. "My name's Ross Bradley. Nice to meet you."

I raised my eyebrows at Cleo when Cleo stared at the man for a few long moments. "Are you any relation to Grayson Trammel?"

I blinked.

Now that Cleo had mentioned it, Torren (Grayson was his real name) and Ross did look incredibly alike.

Ross shook his head. "No, never heard of him. I actually just moved here because my ma's in bad shape. She's seeing a specialist here."

Cleo stayed silent for a moment too long, so I intervened. "I'm sorry to hear about your mom. I know it's not good losing a loved one. My Nonnie's in a.s.sisted living with Alzheimer's. It's like I lose her every couple of weeks."

Ross looked at me with sympathy. "I'm sorry to hear about that."

"I'm just showing Rue..." Cleo started to say when a loud sound from the radio on his shirt interrupted him.

"Air Medic 1," a disembodied voice relayed. "MVA on Interstate 20. South bound and East bound lanes are being shut down right now. Two year old male with major injuries to the right leg, right hand, and head. Sending coordinates to your navigation system."

My stomach knotted as the implications of my decision to ride with Cleo meant for me.

I'd be watching a little tiny child fight for his life.

The next thirty minutes happened quickly.

It took us less than two to take off, and eleven to arrive on scene.

I'd been on an airplane before. However, a helicopter was an entirely different experience.

It felt incredibly weird to take off from a flat surface, straight up into the air.

It was loud, and we had to wear helmets to hear each other speak.

I watched from my perch in the Captain's seat in the back, caddy corner to Cleo, who was awe inspiring.

The man's movements were so smooth and controlled He looked hyper focused on the land that was speeding by beneath us.

He had on aviator sungla.s.ses; paired with the large white helmet that was covering his head, there wasn't much I could see of his face.

Somehow, though, I knew that he was having fun.

He loved doing his job. That had been why I'd been so upset that he quit his job.

Sure, he could've easily been a paramedic, but he wouldn't have gotten that sense of satisfaction from any other job.

He wouldn't have been in his element as he was at that very moment.

I started noticing the interstate within five minutes of our flight, and then I saw the ma.s.sive amount of backed up cars.

"Catching up to the backed up cars normally means we're getting close," Cleo's deep, voice rumbled over the airwaves.

I kept my eyes on the traffic, flabbergasted as we pa.s.sed mile after mile, car after car.

It must've been an extremely bad wreck, and the closer we got to the scene, the more anxiety I started to feel.

"Was there only one victim?" I asked.

Cleo's eyes didn't move from the direction we were moving, but I could feel his attention shift towards me. "No, not necessarily. We're really only called when there's one that needs some major help. Most likely, they'll just ground and pound the others, if they haven't done so already."

"Ground and pound?" I asked, finally spotting the emergency crews a couple miles ahead.

"That's short hand for them running lights and sirens on the ground in an ambulance," Ross said distractedly, watching the scene coming up on us very quickly.

Cleo slowed exponentially, and I felt my stomach float up into my throat before it settled back down in the correct spot.

Then we descended.

I watched the ground as we moved closer and closer to the asphalt road of East Bound I-20.

"Holy s.h.i.t," I said as my heart started to pound.

I saw Cleo grin out of the corner of my eye, but my eyes were glued to the large, cleared area that Cleo was in the process of setting down on.

"Nothing like it," Ross said as he started to gather his supplies.

The moment we set down, everything went into motion.

Cleo kept the helicopter running, Ross opened the back doors, Cleo was there to get the stretcher, Ross went out. I went out. And I tried to stay out of the way, not wanting to interrupt their seamless partnership.

The scene we arrived on was a nightmare made in h.e.l.l.

There were three cars involved, two of which no longer even resembled any vehicle I knew.

The last one was a van, and the most chilling was the car seat sitting on the sidewalk, straps cut, showing where the first responders had removed it from the vehicle.

There was a crowd surrounding the back of the ambulance where Cleo and Ross were headed, and they parted like the sea as soon as the two men made it up to them.

My first look at the tiny child was overwhelming.

Although I'd been an ER nurse for years, nothing could compare to the rawness of seeing it in the field.

The transfer of the child was quick and relatively painless.

Ross listened to the report from the ambulance crews as Cleo and another fireman started strapping the child down onto the helicopter's stretcher.

Three adults stood off to the side, crying and watching the scene unfold.

There was no telling which car they'd belonged to at one point, but it was nice to see that there were survivors from that awful crash.

Cleo started back towards the ambulance with Ross close on his heels, running and shielding his eyes against the blades of the helicopter.

As soon as they were close enough, I climbed back inside, doing my best to stay out of the way as Cleo put the patient in the back.

Once the stretcher was locked into place, Cleo stepped back, letting Ross inside; Ross sat and immediately started making himself busy.

The doors behind us slammed shut, closing us in.

That was when I finally understood why Cleo did it.

This was his pa.s.sion.

He literally had the lives of three people in his care right now.

How empowering that must feel, and what a gift it was when a pa.s.sion and an occupation came together.

Rue "My head feels like it weights fifty pounds," I groaned when my head met the pillow twenty four hours later.

Cleo grinned and fell back on the bed beside me.

His bed, might I add.

I hadn't been back to my apartment in over two days now.

Which, if I were being honest, was okay with me.

It was nice not to be alone.

It was even nicer to have someone take off my shoes and pants for me when I was too tired to do it myself.