Drake Sisters 04 - Dangerous Tides

terror gripped him. Utter shock. He was suddenly free-falling. No warning whatsoever, simply tumbling away from the stokes, away from Drew and down onto the jagged rocks below. Time slowed. He felt as if he were falling in slow motion. He heard the roar of the ocean and realized it was the sound of his own heart thundering in his ears. He saw the horror in Sean's face and then his vision blurred as his body tumbled and the rocks grew larger.

    "Fuck! Oh, shit. Hold! Hold! Hold! Rescuer just fell," Sean blurted. "Damn it, rescuer just fell."

    There was a moment of stunned, horrified silence. Of comprehension.

    Brannigan came back all business in an attempt to stay calm, to keep everyone focused. "What about the vie?"

    Sean stared down to the rocks below. At the blood seeping everywhere. At the still body crumpled practically at the feet of the second rescuer who stared back at him with horror on his face.

    "Say again. What about the vie?"

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    Sean swallowed the fear in his throat and forced his gaze—and his mind—away from the broken body below. "Victim is still there. Stokes is swinging. Move left."

    "Hang on. I'm stopping the swing."

    Automatically the rescue crew gripped whatever was closest as Brannigan maneuvered quickly over the victim in mid-swing.

    "Stokes is stable," Sean reported.

    "Do I put the victim down?"

    Sean took a deep breath. "No, let's just move him over to the clearing."

    Doug broke radio silence. "Rescuer one is in bad shape. He's bad."

    "Do what you can, rescue two," Brannigan said. "We'll be right back. Command, are you getting all this?
    We need a firefighter to disconnect our victim for us. We'll need another stokes and another med helicopter. Ben, how far out are you?"

    "Ten minutes."

    "Ground crew standing by. Will D.C. vie in clearing."

    No one looked at Sam. He sat in silence, his face grim, shock and horror in his eyes. No one spoke as they waited for the victim to be disconnected so they could get back to their fallen crew member.

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Chapter Three

    "THAT'S my last patient, Evelyn," Libby told the nurse with a faint smile. "It's home for me."

    "Did you hear all the commotion in the ER, doctor?" Evelyn asked.

    "I heard two helicopters arrive," Libby replied, "but I was too busy to check out what was going on."
    Two helicopters were unusual, so she'd guessed there was an accident on the highway.

    "I've only managed to hear a word here and there, but it sounds like Drew Madison was climbing the cliffs out by Sea Lion Cove and fell. They called in the rescue helicopter and something went wrong."

    Libby drew in her breath. "Drew? Are you certain? What on earth would he be doing out in this kind of weather? And what would he be doing on the cliffs? He knows how dangerous they are." The cliffs were extremely hazardous, fractured by huge cracks, weakened by the ever-eroding sea, rock crumbling away without warning. Even without the signs posted up and down the coastline, all the locals knew better than to risk their lives climbing the treacherous, unstable rock faces. "How bad is he hurt, do you know?"

    "Orthopedic is with him now. You'll have to check with the ER docs, Libby. We've been so busy here in surgery today I haven't had a chance to really hear much."

    "Thanks Evelyn. I'll go see him on my way out."

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    Libby tossed her gloves into a trash can and lifted a hand as she hurried down the hall toward the ER.
    She had known Drew his entire life. He wasn't a kid who did stupid things. He'd grown up in the small town of Sea Haven and he certainly knew the hazards of the crumbling cliffs due to the continual pounding of the sea and natural erosion. It made no sense to her that Drew would be out in the rain on a dangerous cliff when he had worked so hard to keep his leukemia in remission.

    The ER was bustling with more than usual activity. The moment she set foot in the emergency room, she felt her body respond to the call for healing. Her stomach lurched and her temples began to throb.
    Somebody was in bad shape. Normally she didn't feel the call to heal so urgently, but this time every cell in her body began to crackle with energy. Her palms grew warm.

    One of the ER nurses was Linda Bowers, a friend from high school. "What's going on?"