The faint siren of an ambulance could be heard in the background, and Casey closed his eyes at the bolt of panic that hit him square in the chest. The man looked al but ready to make a run for it, and Casey knew that there was no amount of pride in the world that would be able to get him through more than ten steps in his condition.
Help"s here. Just let them check you over.
"Get out of my way."
Evan, Casey thought without realizing it. His name was Evan. Stay, please Stay, please.
"Who the f.u.c.k," his voice broke, low and raspy, and Casey watched as he brought the hand that clutched at the dog"s leash against his chest, probably struggling to breathe.
Casey moved on instinct. Against al of his senses, and his best judgment considering that even if the German Shepherd looked battered, as wel , she also looked ready to attack anyone who would touch her man, Casey sidestepped Sandra and wrapped his arms around Evan"s middle. And just in time, too. Evan sagged, his leg unable to support him any longer, his face screwed up in agony against Casey"s chest.
The warmth that fil ed him at the intimate touch The warmth that fil ed him at the intimate touch stirred something in Casey that he most definitely didn"t need with an armful of troubled, hurt Evan. He took a deep, steadying breath, and let the rhythm of his heart speak for him as the ambulance stopped in the middle of the road, only two feet shy of running Sandra over.
"Final y, took you long enough!"
The two orderlies didn"t real y react to Sandra"s verbal lashing, rol ing a stretcher out of the back of the ambulance and pushing it closer to the sidewalk.
"I don"t need any of this." Evan muttered, angrily trying to shove Casey away. "Let me go, for f.u.c.k"s sake or - -"
The threat trailed into nothingness. Evan"s concussion, and the obvious effort to keep himself upright for so long getting the best of him.
As Evan melted against his chest, Casey felt the same but foreign wave of tiredness washing over him, and for a moment, he had a glimpse of a black, gaping hole that threatened to drain al the warmth out of the light summer air.
"Sir? Are we going to take him or not?"
Casey shook himself out of his trance and smiled at the two orderlies. "Yes, just -- hold on." He careful y shifted Evan around until he could hoist him up in his arms and lay him down on the stretcher, paying extra care to his leg and the side of his head.
That"s when he noticed Evan was stil holding on to the dog"s leash.
"Wait a moment," Casey intervened as one of the "Wait a moment," Casey intervened as one of the orderlies carelessly tugged the leash out of Evan"s clenched fist. "It"s his dog --"
"We can"t take animals on."
"It"s a guide dog," Sandra snapped. "The young man"s blind."
There was a flicker of emotion on the face of the orderly who had spoken, colored immediately by regret. He shook his head again. "I"m sorry, ma"am, we can"t have a dog in the ambulance."
Casey grabbed the leash from him. "I"l take her."
The dog sniffed at him and growled a little, but she was way easier on him than Evan had been. After Casey had leaned down and offered her his hand to sniff, she licked tentatively at his fingers and declared him harmless.
"Come on, Casey," Sandra climbed back into the van"s driver"s seat. "We have to head back to the office."
"What? I thought we were going with them."
"We can"t do anything else for him. He"s in good hands now."
The dog whined low, her tail wagging once before retreating between her legs. She held her paw up, her ears tucked down as she looked up at them, hurt and lonely. It broke Casey"s heart.
"I need to take him his dog."
"He won"t need it tonight. I doubt they"l be letting him out and we"ve left Leo alone, which most likely means I"l have to spend the night reorganizing the archives."
"You go ahead." Casey scratched the dog"s ears.
His heart jumped when he saw the specks of blood His heart jumped when he saw the specks of blood covering her nametag, and he tried to see if it belonged to her or Evan. She didn"t seem to be bleeding anywhere, though Casey couldn"t be sure. He wiped the blood off with his thumb, and the name "Sadie" blinking back at him. "I"l take Sadie."
"Casey..." Sandra shook her head. "Is this another one of your intuitions?"
"Maybe. I don"t know."
It was true. Casey real y had no idea what it al meant. It had never happened to him before, and surely not to the point of missing the person so bad it was actual physical pain. He looked into the deep brown eyes of the German Shepherd, and she blinked back at him, her tongue lol ing out as she took a half a step closer and nuzzled his leg.
"Al right, al right." She sighed and pushed the door open, stepping out of the van. "Go on. I"l get Leo to pick me up."
Casey"s heart skipped a beat, and he beamed. "You sure?"
"I"m sure. Go on." She gave him an affectionate pat on the arm, which was probably the only point of him she could reach without straining. "Your sense got you this far, after al ."
That was true, Casey thought as he got in behind the wheel, Sadie barking happily away in the back of the van.
His sense had led him to Evan, and Casey knew that even if he"d wanted to turn his back on him and run as fast as he could in the opposite, and safer, direction, something or other would always pul him back there.
It was just easier to hold his breath and take that leap.
Chapter 3.
It took forever for Casey to convince the nurse at the admissions desk to let him and Sadie both through.
Apparently Casey"s hawk sight was a great deterrent to his argument for bringing a guide dog in, no matter how much Casey tried to explain that the dog belonged to an ER patient who was, in fact, blind, and in need of his guide if he wanted to ever make it home without being hit by a bus.
Casey hated red tape. How could anyone not understand that you could not separate an eyesight impaired person from his guide? It was f.u.c.king absurd.
You"d think Casey was trying to lead an angry bul by its horns, with al the fuss they were making. Stil , be it because they were tired of his continuous arguing or because Leo had final y rubbed off on Casey, lending him some of his natural charm, he final y managed to pa.s.s the keeper of the holy gates with Sadie"s leash in one hand and a slip of paper with Evan"s room number in the other.
Or not.
The room they pointed him to had an elderly lady with her arm in a cast, reading a copy of GQ GQ. Confused, Casey looked down at Sadie, who tilted her head to the side with an expression that could only be labeled as puzzlement. "What do you say, baby girl," Casey said, puzzlement. "What do you say, baby girl," Casey said, lowering himself to be eye-to-eye with the dog. "Can you help me find him?"
The dog licked his nose as though she understood.
She wagged her tail once, and took off (surprisingly fast, considering she was limping only moments ago), Casey hot on her heels. The ER was crowded no matter what day, time, or season it was, and most of the staff turned their noses up at seeing Sadie sniff around corners, and despite the lack of outward comments, Casey could feel their disapproval as loud and clear as a CNN broadcast.
Sadie barked and suddenly broke out in a run.
Casey nearly tripped over his feet as he tried to keep up with her, trying not to care about the stream of negative energy bouncing from every angle in the ER crowd.
Sadie pul ed him around a corner and down a long corridor, past patients in wheelchairs and on rol ing beds and IV drips stands, obstacles of a dangerous nature for someone as accident p.r.o.ne as Casey was. Sadie lunged forward, yanking the leash out of his hands and running al the way down the corridor until she rounded the corner and disappeared.
Casey cursed under his breath and tried to fol ow her, doing that half run half walk that earned him more disapproving stares and mutterings as he tried to keep up with Sadie.
And then he heard him.
"Girl, c"mere, c"mere. Good girl. Good girl. You found me. It"s al good, baby. Just a scratch. Are you hurt?
Did they hurt you? C"mere. Here we go. It"s al good now."
Did they hurt you? C"mere. Here we go. It"s al good now."
Casey smiled to himself. He could hear the slight tremor to Evan"s voice, the touch of vulnerability he would"ve hated for anyone to witness. He gave it a minute before loudly tromping around the corner, choosing to give Evan fair warning of his approach rather than sneak up on him, only to stop dead in his tracks at the sight he was met with.
Evan was sitting in a wheelchair, only a pair of sweatpants over the temporary cast on his leg, his chest bare, stripes of gauze going round and round his mid section and his jacket thrown over his shoulders in an attempt to keep warm. The wound on his head didn"t look much cleaner, and there was stil congealed blood at the side of his face.
"Who"s there?" Evan snapped, sounding almost nothing like the man who"d just been whispering to his dog.
His eyes were narrowed, his glare aimed straight at Casey, even if he couldn"t see him.
"My name"s Casey." That was a good way to start.
Now what? I"m the guy who found you in that alley I"m the guy who found you in that alley didn"t didn"t seem the best way to start the conversation. "How are you feeling?"
"I know you." Evan scowled. "You"re the one who sent me here."
That wasn"t real y the reaction Casey was expecting.
He recovered quickly then, and took one step closer.
Cautious but steady. "How are you feeling?"
"Super, that"s how I"m feeling," Evan snarled, his shoulders hunched over. Defensive. "What the f.u.c.k were you thinking?"
Casey frowned. "You were hurt."
Evan snorted. G.o.d, such bitterness, Casey could taste it, hanging around the air like a black cloud. He almost took a step back, but managed not to. Barely.
"I"m fine. I can take care of myself." Evan got to his feet, swaying a little as he clutched Sadie"s harness. "Now if you"re done helping, get out of the way."
"You can"t leave yet -- your head --"
"I"m fine," Evan gritted out as he fought to put on his jacket. G.o.d knew what had happened to his shirt. "I just need to get home. I f.u.c.king hate hospitals."
Evan tried to move past Casey, but Sadie dug her claws into the floor at Casey"s feet, whining.
"Come on, girl," Evan muttered, tugging at her harness. "We"re going home."
Sadie whined again, then woofed and jumped up on Casey"s leg, nearly throwing him off balance.
"What the hel -- Sadie!" Evan sounded unnerved.
"Come on." He tugged on her harness again, but Sadie didn"t budge.
Casey crouched down on the floor, and quietly scratched Sadie"s ears. "She"s very cute."
"Careful. She bites strangers."
Sadie barked and licked at Casey"s face, making him giggle. "I can tel ."
Evan pouted, and Casey"s heart skipped a beat.
Even if his eyes were staring somewhere off to the side of Casey"s face, there was no denying how gorgeous Evan looked. He realized with a pang that Evan was probably completely clueless about his own appearance.
"She was very worried about you," Casey said as he looked up.
Evan"s expression was unreadable. "You brought her here?"
No, she walked ten miles and caught an elevator.
"Yes," he decided to say instead. "She was pining away for you, so I thought it"d be better to reunite her with her master."
Evan"s expression didn"t change. Casey didn"t know what to make of it. He wondered if maybe he could try and reach out to him, but at the same time he was scared -- he didn"t want Evan to close up on himself completely, and pushing to get through to him would do more damage than good in the long run. "If you -- uh, if you"re sure you want to go home, I can hel -- I mean, you can get your paperwork sorted now and um. I have the van," Casey said. "I can give you a ride, maybe?"
"Sure."
Casey"s arms erupted in goose b.u.mps. This couldn"t be good. There was something odd to that bland acceptance, especial y coming from the same man who fought tooth and nail to stand on his own broken leg. Stil , though. At least he would get home safe.
Casey squared his shoulders and stood, smiling a little and hoping it could be conveyed through his voice.
"Let"s go, then."
It turned out Evan was living not far from where Casey and Sandra had found him. Three more blocks, and he"d have been safe. It made Casey"s stomach churn.
He pul ed over in the visitor parking of the dilapidated four story condo, stealing a secret glance toward the pa.s.senger seat. Evan was holding Sadie"s leash tight in his fist, the dog curled at his feet.
"Here we are," Casey said, trying to sound cheerful, and not like the tension between him and Evan was pushing at the back of his neck like a ton of bricks.
Evan opened the door, al owing Sadie to jump out first. Then he turned his head slightly, chin touching his shoulder as he looked -- not looked, Casey chastised himself. Not looked, but addressed Casey. "I"m fourth floor."
Casey blinked. That was something else that came unexpected. Casey wasn"t used to surprises. His sense didn"t mean that he could predict the lotto or anything like that, but after the powerful connection he"d experienced with Evan, not knowing what was going through his head was unnerving.
Evan closed the door of the van, and Sadie barked.