this thing in high winds. And then the cable suddenly failed.”
“It’s okay,” Kal said. “I’ve got you.”
Dean was working on his guy, too, so Kal could concentrate on doing what needed to be done. He attached a harness and rope to the worker, then radioed to the team to start pulling the worker up.
Dean’s guy went up just after Kal’s, but then a huge gust of wind blasted the scaffold against the steel frame of the building. Dean got caught up in the rigging and the scaffold shot him sideways, slamming him against one of the beams.
“Dean!” Kal yelled as he saw his team member go limp.
He hustled his way over to Dean to check him out. He was unconscious after that hit and Kal didn’t know the extent of his injuries. This was not good.
“What’s going on down there, Donovan?” his lieutenant radioed.
“Starling got slammed against a beam. He’s unconscious. Injuries unknown. I’m hooking on to him now, sir. Will notify as soon as we’re ready to lift up.”
“Roger.”
He put a c-collar on Dean, then hooked his harness to Dean’s and radioed the team to raise them both. They were up on the main floor within a minute, every team member grabbing on to Dean, who by now was starting to regain consciousness. They had already called down for a basket from Station 65, who’d been waiting on the ground, and EMTs were on their way up to attend to Dean.
Kal’s pulse raced as they put Dean into the basket and took him downstairs to the waiting ambulance where news crews waited to interview him and the rest of the team. As usual, the TRT was more interested in attending to their jobs than they were in answering questions. They’d let the department PR team handle that. But for some reason cameras had caught his rescue of Dean, so they’d stuck a mic and a camera in his face and asked him tons of questions about how it had all gone down. His lieutenant had told him to answer a few questions so the media would go away.
He wasn’t very comfortable being in front of cameras, but he gave a recap of the team’s rescue today, giving them a step-by-step of what the team had done and how they had done it. The fact that the media kept coming back to him, personally, irked him, but he kept it on point, making sure to note it was a team effort. Finally they seemed to have enough sound bites and went to interview the construction workers so he could continue doing his job.
Both workers were unharmed, only a little shaky, so EMTs checked them out and released them.
After cleanup, they drove to the hospital to check on Dean. Carmen was working the ER so she came over to them when they arrived.
“He’s got some scrapes and maybe a concussion. He’s in CT right now, and his wife’s in the room if one of you want to go back there and talk to her.”
Lieutenant Anderson stepped forward. “I’ll go.”
Carmen nodded, smiled at Kal and placed her hand on his arm. “He’s going to be okay.”
Kal nodded. “Thanks.”
Phil came over to him. “You know her?”
“She’s my sister-in-law. She’s the nursing supervisor of the ER. She knows her shit. So if she says Dean’s gonna be okay, then he will.”
“Thanks.” He started to turn away, then stopped. “You acted fast. You saved my partner’s life. You did good out there today, Donovan.”
Kal nodded.
“I’ve given you a hard time, thinking you didn’t deserve to be on this team. I was wrong.”
Kal knew it had taken a lot for Phil to admit that. He also knew how close Phil and Dean were. “We’re brothers. All of us. It’s what we do for each other.”
“Yeah. It is.” Phil laid his hand on Kal’s shoulder, then walked away.
They all waited, pacing and nervous for an hour and a half until Carmen came out again.
“You can all go in. But just for a minute. And no loud voices and no ruckus. Understood?”
“Yes, ma’am,” Irish said, looking to Kal as they walked quietly down the hall. “She’s mean.”
Kal’s lips lifted into a smile. He couldn’t wait to tell Carmen that later. She’d love it.
They opened the door to see Dean sitting up in bed. He grinned when the team walked in.
“Well?” Meg asked. “You gonna live?”
“I am. Thanks to Kal.”
Kal blinked in surprise.
“Yeah,” Phil said, “thanks to Kal, my best friend is going to live to swing on a