Lori Avocato - Dead On Arrival

The room roared.

As I reached the door I heard Dano growl-in an amazingly sensual way.

In order to get away from the embarrassment, I had headed for Lilla’s desk.

She sat there filing her nails, and I knew that all her work was already done and now her day would consist of answering the phone, directing visitors and snooping. Lilla was a dream!

“Hey,” I said, sitting down opposite her. “What’s going on?”

“Morning, chéri.” She leaned closer and smiled. Very sexy, but I knew it wasn’t as if she were flirting with me. Nope. It was more as if she knew something.

“What? What’s going on? You have some info?” I set my tea on the edge of her desk.

“No, but you do.”

“Hmm? What do you mean, Lilla?”

With her sexy smile switching to a sexy grin, she whispered, “I see you have made love.”

I blinked. Had to. Maybe her accent was confusing me, so I chuckled. “This is funny. I thought you just said I’d had sex-”

Waving a bright red polished handful of long nails in the air, she said, “You heard correctly, my chéri. Which one?”

“Huh?”

“Dano or Jagger?”

I choked on nothing. My hands, sans any long nails or bordello polish, flailed in the air, sending my tea mug spilling over. “Geez! Sorry!”

Lilla laughed, pulled several tissues from her container and said, “Relax. It only shows to women like moi, who are astute in those matters.”

“Oh, yeah. That makes me feel much better.” I took some tissue and wiped the desk. Luckily the mug had only been half full and there were no papers nearby to get soaked. The closest one only got a beige splash of a stain. “Sorry.” I picked it up and couldn’t help but glance at it. Oh, boy. I was correct.

Dano had a similar run sheet to this one-only a few of the medication charges were different-and I could swear the date, times and names were the same. I explained what I’d found to Lilla, and she showed me all the papers that recently had come in to be filed.

One more was the same. Identical information except for the final numbers-so one had to have been doctored.

“I have to go back to Dano’s tonight-”

Before I could finish, Lilla was up and wiping vigorously at my scrub’s top, which wasn’t even wet.

“What are you-” I asked.

“Don’t worry, chéri, that will come out. You use some…”

I know she kept talking, kinda wildly actually, but then I looked up to see a reflection in the glass partition behind Lilla’s desk.

“That’d be okay with Dano,” ER Dano said, standing behind me, “but he wonders what for.”

Oh, no! I smiled, Lilla wiped and then I said, “We had a date, silly, or did you forget?”

Thank goodness for Lilla’s fast actions and my quick mind!

I slowly turned around, pushed Lilla’s hand away because she was so flustered she kept wiping at nothing, and I didn’t want Dano to notice. “Oh, hey. I’ll bring dinner. How’s that? Sure. I’ll bring the eats.”

That implied I’d cook it, but before I could clarify it’d be takeout, Dano agreed and hurried past us.

I flopped backward in my chair and said, “I have to call my mother to make my dinner.”

Lilla laughed, but I wasn’t feeling very jovial.

I sat in the back of #456 while Buzz drove at top speed. Premature labor. That was the call, and I prayed the baby would calm down and decide a Friday was not a good day to be born. Specifically this Friday.

At least I’d had some time to call Stella Sokol before we got the call. It took several minutes to clarify that I didn’t have time to stay and eat, but would she make me a take-out dinner for two? Mom made the same menu on the same day of the week forever. Even before I was born. That’s how far back forever went.

Since today was Friday, my mother was making potato pancakes. Not exactly a sensual gourmet aphrodisiac.

I looked up toward the window between the cab and the back of the ambulance and noticed Dano’s hair just about touching his neckline. Damn. He looked hot even from the back.

I really wished he wasn’t involved in the fraud or…gulp…the stabbings.

Relying on gut instinct had gotten me through years of nursing and saving lives. Right now my gut said Dano wasn’t involved. I decided I’d be looking for evidence to clear his name instead of convicting him.

And besides my gut-I had Jagger.

If he’d thought Dano was guilty or a threat, he wouldn’t let me go in alone. I’d convinced myself of that.

So, if he thought so, it would be revealed tonight, if Jagger showed up.

Dano had joined me in the back of the ambulance, since the patient really did appear to be in labor. Her husband was at work, so before we left, I had called him to tell him to meet us at Saint Greg’s while Dano and Buzz worked on Angie in her living room. We’d called the ER, gotten orders from Dr. Pringle and were now following them as best we could.

However, I knew these little ones could have a mind of their own.

Dano adjusted the IV while Buzz pulled the ambulance out of the parking lot of the condo complex where the woman, Angie, lived.

Her eyes glistened with tears as she looked up at Dano and asked, “Is my baby…my baby going to-”

Dano touched her arm. “Naw. I’m taking over. This kid is going to stop running the show and let us pros call the shots from now on.”

Tears formed in my eyes. Not only did the gruff, burned-out paramedic do his medical treatments to perfection, but also, when push came to shove, his bedside manner adjusted to meet the needs of, and to calm and relax, the patients. I could still hear the ER nurses fawning over how he always put in the IV with a saline lock, his paperwork was always in order and he taped the IV with a “V” shaped piece of tape-all of which made their jobs easier.

What a guy.

He couldn’t be involved. Just couldn’t be.

Angie smiled, and then grimaced. “Oh. Oh. Oh, God.”

“What?” Dano asked, feeling her abdomen and listening to the fetal heartbeat. He turned his head to the side, so she couldn’t hear, and cursed. “What is it, Angie?”

“I think, well, I’ve never had a baby before, but I think my water broke.”

Dano and I looked at each other. I’m sure a similar curse word came to both of our minds, but we held back.

Dano banged on the window to Buzz. “Step on it!”

“Right, boss,” he said, and swerved so hard, I toppled into Dano’s shoulder.

But neither of us could say a thing because, with Dano’s hand still on Angie’s abdomen, and with her facial expression, I knew she was heavily contracting.

Just like I knew this baby was going to be born today-soon.

“Hold on, honey.” Dano assured Angie.

She looked from him to me and said, “I can’t.”

Dano kept talking softly to her, getting her to pant through contractions so she wouldn’t push, and checking the fetal heartbeat.

I examined her to see if there was any sign of the baby and looked up at Dano.

“Black hair,” I said so only he could hear. “I see a bit of head crowning.”

“Shit,” he mouthed and before I knew it, he was banging on the window ordering Buzz Lightyear to pull over to the side of the road.

And then the fun began.

Buzz hurried to the back of the ambulance, but it proved to be too close quarters for him to get near Angie too. Besides, Dano said there wasn’t anything for him to do other than radio the hospital and be the go-between.

At first Buzz looked pissed. I guessed he wanted in on the excitement of a delivery, but since I’d worked OB for many years, Dano kept me assisting.

I followed his instructions of what to grab from where. Although I’d been in delivery for hundreds of babies, I didn’t know the setup of the ambulance well enough yet, and this little one might be way too little without any NICU (Neonatal Intensive Care Unit) equipment or staff here.