The ambulance rattled around the curves, hopping slightly as it joined the freeway. Paramedics grabbed blindly, expertly for their supplies. The lights were blue and came from many angles providing good visibility for the technicians and the driver. Diana could no longer move, no longer hear. She watched as an EMT said something to another she could not see. There was a small indescripit feeling in her arm, then nothing. Diana was going numb. It was difficult to think, to concentrate, to remember. What had happened?

--

Suddenly Diana felt different. Everything was clear. The air was rushing by. The metal beneath her was textured. She could tell the night was frigid from the crisp feel of it moving her blonde hair, but she did not feel cold. The cars didn’t see her, sitting there staring at the stars on the back bumper of a speeding ambulance. Snowflakes began to effervesce out of the air, flashing red and white in time with the emergency lights.

She watched a cloud ghost over the moon and remembered. By now it was Sunday, possibly her last day. Hopefully her last day, but for once she felt oddly content. In a fit of despondency she had allowed her family’s home to go up in flames, blown up the car, and landed herself in an ambulance and subsequently the hospital, then another ambulance when the hospital wasn’t equipped to handle her wounds. That’s where she was now, well sort of. Diana new she should be inside watching perfect strangers fight to save her life in a mobile emergency room, but she wasn’t. She twisted a curl around her middle finger as she imagined the warmth of the explosion.

The fire department had been there for hours already. The house was a total loss, but they were still attempting to put out the fire and save the garage and barn. Diana didn’t care that it had been her carelessness that had started the fire. She had left an over-stacked crate of newspapers too close to the hot water boiler. Wytvill Fire Department had been winning until Diana decided that it might be warmer in the barn. The wool blanket she was huddling in wasn’t much protection against the far below subzero temperatures. But opening the door had changed too much. Despite the night being cold enough to freeze Engine pumps solid and turn the road into a sheet of thick black ice, the fire was intense and that one opening was more than enough. Diana didn’t notice at first, and when she did she just sat there, undecided about what to do. The decision was made for her when a firefighter grabbed her by the waist and began to run from the building. For whatever reason she remembered clearly that his jacket said his name was COLINS. Maybe it was because it was the last thing she saw before her mother’s new hydrogen hybrid exploded. If she hadn’t been ok, then he probably wasn’t either. Some small part of her felt bad about that.

Diana stopped thinking and closed her eyes. After a few moments she wondered idly if they had put out the fire yet. Sighing she opened her eyes. Diana was dully surprised to find herself back at her home, or what used to be her home. The house and garage had been reduced to smoldering heaps. The barn was now ablaze, but even a blonde like herself could tell it wasn’t going to last long. By dawn everything would be gone. No more noticeable than she was. Looking around again, Diana decided to go listen in to the conversation a few firefighters in white helmets were having.

“I’ll be glad when this night is over. I wish we could just leave that barn to burn out. There’ve already been two good men lost tonight.”

“One good man and one good woman, Brizbin. Tara Colins is the strongest person I know, but she’s still not a dude.”

The third man held up his hand, silencing his companions. “Now’s not the time boys. If Adrien Digger can be that close to Evan Wells and keep it together, than so can we.” He sighed. “I’m not supposed to know this, and neither are you, but I think it will make you feel better. They’ve transferred the girl to County General because they don’t have the right equipment at North Landing. That means the whole damn place can concentrate on Colins and BW.”

“Any news on them?”

“Not yet. Said they won’t know something for several more hours. Stewart’s going to call us if there’s any real change.” He sighed again. “I’m surprised more people weren’t seriously hurt in that blast. I’m gonna go check on rehab.” He turned and left the group. Diana followed, curious.

They approached an ambulance with a broken headlight and a large dent in the roof that should have broken the windshield. The light bar didn’t appear to work, but a slowly flashing yellow light was duct taped above the driver’s door. A young woman in black bunker pants and a navy T-shirt was sleeping against the rear tire on the same side, her head tilted back into the wheel well. Diana crouched down close to see her face. She had strawberry blonde hair and a large wound running down her face and separating half an inch of tissue between her ear and her face. The laceration was clotted over with a thick crust of dry browning blood. The girl snored ever so slightly and Diana was relieved; she was definitely alive.

“… broken arm and Sara over there nearly lost her ear pulling him down.” A small, heavily pregnant EMT was gesturing at Diana. No; at the sleeping girl. No one seemed to notice her, business as usual. Sometimes it was like she was invisible. Wait.

Diana walked over and waved her hand in front of their faces. No response. They couldn’t see her. And how had she gotten back here? Was she dreaming? Or was she finally dead?

“Sherman?” the paramedic asked. A passing state police officer stopped and turned to her.

“Yeah, Rita?” His white hair belied his voice, which was healthy and strong. She made a motion with her hand and he walked to the open back of the dilapidated ambulance. Diana climbed inside to se better. There was a man, perhaps twenty seven years old, strapped to the gurney. His shirt said he was from Montrose Fire. He was unconscious, twitching slightly. His face was pale, freckled, smudged with soot. His lip had been bitten through. Pink drool dripped onto the gurney’s white sheet. He was contorted in the straps, as if he had fallen asleep mid struggle.

“…had to strap Roger down. Is that legal?”

“Yeah, but you should probably undo them now that he’s asleep. He won’t be dangerous when he wakes up.” The officer climbed down. “Sleeping is good for settling emotions. I would have taped him and Adrien together; bein’ so close to guys who blown up and all. Course their slick; I wouldn’t put it past them to hop a fence duct taped back to back to save their significant others.” Everyone conscious smiled at the image. “I see you’ve lost Adrien anyway.”

“No, Digger’s keepin’ it together,” white helmet said, pointing off in the direction of the fire. Diana found herself turning away with a brief flash of shame. They were standing in the middle of a little medical circle made up of porch furniture from the neighbors. A firefighter with his jacket open was laying on a bench, on arm thrown over his eyes, the other in a sling.

Rita was speaking again, “Mitchell’s got a broken arm and I sent Clive Valentine from Big Town front seat in one of the ambulances.”

“What happened ta him?” a gruff voice asked. An older man was rubbing his eyes and patting around his plastic chair looking for something.

“Compound femur fracture. Let me get you some more water, Farmer.” The man was picking sleep out of his eyes when the brunet EMT handed him a cup of water. She yawned.

“Get some more sleep if you can Eli,” white hat addressed the man, “we may need you again.”

“Sure thing Chief.” Eli farmer drained his water and hunkered down. He was out in just a few minutes.

Diana followed the Chief for the rest of the night. He checked on every firefighter. Many had earned broken fingers, cuts and scrapes, sprained and strained muscles, dislocated joints, and one from Montrose even had a broken nose. The vehicle explosion had done a lot more damage than the slender teen could ever have imagined. Those who were concussed did less strenuous jobs until they could be ferried to the hospital by law enforcement. The numbers of more serious injuries dwindled as the ambulances returned to take them away circulating without stop.

As the fire trucks returned to the station Diana learned that none of them had slept properly in the last three days. The volunteer department had been flooded with emergency calls stemming from the sudden bout of extreme weather, sometimes not even returning to the station. With the trucks parked it was like a weight had been lifted. The firefighters began to drop like flies, falling asleep mid step or mid word. The Chief didn’t even make it out of the Engine, snoring moderately, only half out of his seat belt.

For the first time Diana decided to see if she could pass through an object. She slipped through the door with surprising ease. Looking down at Eli farmer who had wiggled partially under a truck for the darkness, her blue eyes landed on her feet. She only owned white socks; the ones she was wearing were red, stained with blood, her blood. She walked forward staring at her feet.

A small firefighter was sleeping curled up with another’s jacket, like a child with a teddy bear. Diana walked around behind him looking for a name. DIGGER. Oh. I wonder… She moved the collar of the little warrior’s jacket to get a better look. The first thing she saw was a large nearly healed burn and chocolate brown peach fuzz. Then she moved what had to be Evan Wells’ jacket out of the way. This face was smeared with soot just like many others, but it was also streaked with tears. Adrien Digger was a girl. And apparently very in love with a man Diana had gotten blown up. If she had cared about herself, she would never have needed to be rescued.

She looked around the truck bays. All these people did this job for nothing but injuries. The man labeled Tonkin had managed to get all the way to putting one shoe back on before he slumped over into his locker. Number 37 was about to do a back swan dive off the top of an engine. Pelletier’s helmet made his neck bend strangely, showing off a bruise as wide as the entire side of his jaw. Diana hoped briefly that no one had tried to go to the bathroom.

And that thought bred another. These were just people, just like her. They were good, human and good. And Diana was human, so maybe she could be good too. Maybe not this kind of good, but still good. Maybe she could matter to someone like they all mattered to her now.

The sound of a backup alarm caught Diana by surprise. The ambulance had returned from its last run to North Landing. “I can’t believe how many departments we had to call. I’m exhausted.”

“Yeah, I know. Whose idea was it to blow everybody up? Damn Hydro cars. Boy all nineteen of em’ are knocked right out.” This EMT walked right through Diana. He shivered. She looked to see if the other had notice, but he was asleep already, leaning against the side of the ambulance. “I’ll get the lights.” You’re talking to yourself. She closed her eyes suppressing a laugh at the joke, even though no one was awake to hear here even if they could, settling instead for a smile.

--

When she opened her eyes Diana was with the ambulance again. Standing on the wide rear bumper and holding on with one hand, she looked up, appreciating the unique experience. Snowflakes swirled, street lamps flicked by overhead, and four lanes of traffic went along blissfully unaware of the blue eyed blonde having an out of body experience. The wind whipped harder as they went over the bay bridge and Diana decided it was time.

Stepping back into the rolling ER, Diana stopped, watching for a moment as the EMTs strained to revive her body. She stared into her own face, which was beginning to bruise. Her right cheek was thoroughly scraped. Everyone snores sometimes. I wonder if, when I start breathing again, I’ll snore as cutely as Sara does. She touched the tip of her own body’s nose and closed her eyes.

When she opened them again a young red haired paramedic was grinning at her. “You gave us quite a run for our money. I was afraid we’d lost you for a little while there.” Diana smiled as best she could through her injuries. She would have said something but her chest ached too much and all she really desired was… to sleep.

***

Author's Note:

I may make this more action packed when I'm more awake, but that really isn't the point.
Please review. I love to hear about what you think I screwed up. Or what you liked. Whatever floats your boat.