hurts too much,” she said, her cramps obviously far too intense for her to stay upright.
With the fire raging, there was no way Joe could drop low enough to the cabin in the helicopter to get near them. Besides, in her condition, Tammy couldn’t climb a ladder, which meant Sam needed to get them to an open patch where Joe could land.
Pulling out his radio, he said, “Joe, I’m heading northwest with a pregnant woman and her daughter. First open spot you can land, we’ll need pickup for transport to the nearest hospital. Radio me when you choose your spot. And keep it close.”
Reaching under Tammy’s knees and shoulders, he hoisted her into his arms. “Wrap your arms around my neck and hold on tight.” Turning to Piper he said, “You look like you’re pretty fast.”
“I am.”
He smiled at the pretty little girl. “Good. Let’s get out of here. We’re going to hitch a ride on a helicopter.”
Moving as fast as he could without jarring Tammy, they eventually made it past the cabin to the stream that ran adjacent to the property. The acrid smell of fresh smoke hung in the air, and he instructed them to cover their mouths with their shirts.
Joe radioed with news that he’d found a meadow a half mile up from the cabin. It was a steady slope to get from the valley to the meadow, but even pregnant, Tammy didn’t weigh much.
As they began their ascent, he checked in with the brave little girl. “How are you doing, Piper?”
“Good. I’m going fast, aren’t I?”
“You sure are, Piper. Tammy? Am I moving too fast? Am I hurting you?”
She had stopped crying and he sensed that she had turned her entire focus to making it to the clearing, to getting up in the helicopter and flying to the hospital.
“Please, just hurry,” was her reply.
He hadn’t seen blood on her clothes or the couch when he’d picked her up, and he was praying that her cramping hadn’t yet turned into a full-blown miscarriage.
He’d been too late with his own child. He had to save this one.
“Everything’s going to be all right,” he promised, hoping like hell that he was telling the truth.
He couldn’t hear the helicopter yet, though, only the sound of hot flames already feasting on outbuildings. Could he get the three of them off the hill before they were next?
And then, thank God, he heard the whir of the helicopter’s blades above them.
“Joe’s coming to get us now,” he said, and a couple of minutes later, when they crested the hill, the helicopter was already on the ground, waiting for them. Together, the two men lifted Tammy into the aircraft.
On the way to the hospital, another helicopter was heading in with a full load of water. Squeezing Tammy’s hand, he smiled and said, “If the crew works fast, the fire may not move beyond your outbuildings and they’ll be able to save your house.”
“I don’t care about my house,” she said, her voice even weaker. “All I want is a healthy baby.”
It was all he’d wanted for himself, too. “I know,” he told her. “We just need you to hold on a little longer, okay?”
Piper was holding tightly to her mother’s hand. “You’re going to be okay, Mama. And so will my baby sister.”
He swallowed hard, the ache in his chest threatening to split wide open. If things had turned out differently for him, he would have had a kid Piper’s age.
Seconds later they arrived at the hospital and Sam was incredibly glad to see that there was still no bleeding. A nurse came to wheel Tammy away, but Piper remained standing beside him.
“You saved my mom. And the baby sister I’m going to have, too.”
Her smile was a ray of sunshine and then, suddenly, her skinny arms were around his legs and her face was pressing hard into him. Just as quickly, she released him and was gone, running down the hospital hallway after her mother and the nurse.
Everything was going to be all right. Tammy and her husband would be the proud parents of a new baby girl. Piper would be a great big sister.
But still, something dark and hard squeezed his chest, the dull pain he’d never been able to crush completely.
He found Joe chain-smoking in the smoking area in the side parking lot.
“I can’t decide if what you did today was incredibly brave or mind-numbingly stupid,” Joe said. “That fire was moving fast. What if it’d run right over you before