Ross had been in more than a few dicey situations. He’d done crowd control. He’d been in some shootouts. He’d dealt with drug runners and the occasional trafficking ring. He’d never once sat in a room and waited for the worst.
He tried to play it cool and pretend faith was a thing, but every little creak and sound in the old house was a death sentence. “At least we don’t have anything in our stomachs,” he quipped.
Ash chuckled, surprising him. “Right? I think I’d have puked by now. And that wouldn’t help anyone.” He scratched Porthos behind his ears. “It’s weird though. I’ve been in this kind of situation a few times. You never get used to it.”
“You’ve sat and waited for a house to fall on you?” Ross frowned and looked over at Ash. “How does that even happen?”
“Bombs, mudslides, bombs again. The usual. It’s a thing. But it’s like…I’m still jumping at every little sound.” Ross’ radio squawked, and all three of them jumped. Ash gave another nervous laugh, and even Porthos looked a little sheepish. “Yeah, just like that.”
Ross reached out from their little blanket nest to answer the call. “Huber here.”
“Huber, this is Sgt. Dixon. We’re probably about a mile away from your location. What’s your situation right now?”
Ross let out a sigh of relief. A mile wasn’t far at all. “That’s great news, Sergeant. Um, we’ve turned off the electric and gas to the structure, but we can’t kill the mains at the street. The roof has about five large holes along with some bowing. The snow load is significant, but there is no water damage on the first floor as of yet.”
“Any injuries?” Dixon didn’t let any emotion come through in his voice. That was standard procedure, and most people complained about it when they were in Ross’ shoes. Ross found it helpful. He could focus.
“The civilian has some old injuries that affect his ability to participate in rescue efforts,” he reported. Ash elbowed him in the side with his good arm. “His bout of carbon monoxide poisoning doesn’t seem to have had any lasting effects, though.”
“Excellent. We’re going to do everything in our power to get to you before that thing goes down, okay? Sit tight. It shouldn’t be long now.”
“Yes, sir.” Ross exhaled. He could see a light at the end of this long-ass tunnel. “Hear that, Ash? It won’t be long now.”
Porthos wagged his tail, thumping it against the floor. Ash nodded, but he just looked away. “Sorry. I’m not going to be comfortable until we’re actually out of here and we get to someplace safe.” He managed a shaky grin. “Force of habit, I guess.” He looked down for a second. “What’s your plan for after we get out of here?”
Ross knew he was changing the subject. It made sense, even if Ross didn’t want to think about it too much. Ash was the guy who got to go in and cover the stories when everything that could go wrong, had. He’d play along with Ash’s attempt to not think about things, though. He understood the impulse. “I’m going to shower,” he said.
Ash raised his eyebrows. “You’re not going to go get a cheeseburger or something?”
Ross chuckled. “Gave up red meat, actually.”
Ash dropped his jaw. Ross couldn’t help but think about all of the things he wanted to do with that jaw, but he kept his mouth shut about it.
“You gave up red meat?” Ash pulled his head back a little bit. “I can’t believe it. Why would you do something like that?”
“My dad had a heart attack a couple of years back. He’s over it, he’s doing a lot better, but it threw a scare into the whole family. So no more red meat, we’re all exercising a lot more, eating our vegetables—just trying to think about heart health a lot more.” Ross squirmed. “I know it sounds stupid.”
“No, no, not at all. It sounds smart. It must have been rough on you being cooped up all this time, not able to move around the way you wanted to.” Ash bit his lip and looked away.
“Yeah, maybe.” Ross huffed out a little half-laugh. “Maybe that’s part of the reason I flew off the handle so much. I’m a lot more even tempered when I’m able to work out.”
“Yeah, well. That’s normal.” Ash rested his head on Ross’ shoulder, and it felt like heaven to him. “It’s good you’re making those changes while you’re still young, though. And I’m glad your dad’s doing okay.”
“Oh, he’s better than okay. He’s set to run his first marathon this year. You know my dad. He never does anything by halves.” Ross took a chance and slung his arm around Ash’s shoulder. “So yeah, I’m going to have a shower, and then I’m going to get something to eat. Then I’m going to sleep in a real bed, somewhere with real heat, and I’m going to love every second of it. You?”
Ash chuckled. “Well, my boss has officially absolved me of making that trip out to the ski area. Which I appreciate, by the way. I’m going to head back to the hotel. I’m going to take a shower, like you said. I’ll find some food, and then Porthos and I are going to curl up for like a year. Maybe I’ll see if we can teach from the bed, you know, remotely.” He grinned wickedly. “Oh, and I’m banning all tinfoil from the house, when I find one.” He shook their reflective blanket. Even Porthos looked at it with disdain.
Ross gaped. “You don’t have a place to live yet?”
“Nope.” Ash sighed. “I haven’t been back here very long, remember? The whole reason I didn’t realize a state of emergency had been declared was because I hadn’t reset my phone to get the alerts here. So yeah.” He picked his head up off Ross’s shoulder.
“Where’s the studio you’re working at?” Ross’ mouth went dry.
“It’s right downtown. I can’t afford to live downtown. I don’t think anyone can. But I’ll look at some places in, say, Somerville. There’s a good-sized Latin population there.” Ash toyed with the hem of the blanket.
“You can stay with me,” Ross offered. “I mean I know it’s not perfect. It’s a little further out than you probably wanted and it’s not a place of your own, but at least it’s got a yard for Porthos.”
“Thanks for the offer,” Ash told him after a second, “but I’m not sure that’s a great idea.”
Ross looked down. “You know I’d have stopped seeing those other guys if you’d have been willing to come out for me, right? I meant that when I said that.”
Ash looked away. “And I might have come out for you if it hadn’t been for the whole cas—” He stopped himself. “If it weren’t for the whole multiple partners thing. It was too much of a risk, when I still depended on my family for things like housing and book money, but I’d probably have taken it if I was your one and only. I wasn’t going to do it and live with that constant jealousy, you know?”
Ross pulled Ash in a little closer. “I never understood—hell most of the time I didn’t know you were jealous. You didn’t say.”
“Well, I’d agreed to be with you under those conditions, right? I didn’t feel like I had any right to say it. But it bugged me, ate at me.” He grinned. “I’m older now. I know better. I know I can speak up for what I need, and what I can and can’t handle. But I was willing to give it a try. I loved you that much.” He smiled a little. “I think that’s important, you know? I know now that it’s not right for me, but I didn’t know that then. And I wanted to be with you, so I made the effort. In hindsight, I think I can be kind of proud of that. I didn’t just reject it out of hand.”
“And I don’t need to be with more than one person anymore.” Ross chuckled. “I’m not judging folks who do. It’s fine, and it was fine for me back then. But people’s needs shift over time, and that’s okay too.” He swallowed. “I don’t want to lose contact when we get out of this place, Ash.”
Ash met his eyes. Ross saw a lot there—hesitation and mistrust, but also hope. “I want to stay in touch. I want to—” He stopped and tilted his head as Porthos slipped out from under the blanket. “Did you hear that?”
Ross groaned. His instinct was to suggest this was just one more way Ash was trying to avoid an emotional discussion, but Porthos’ behavior told him there was something more. “What is it? Is there a rat or something? That’s all we need.”
“It wouldn’t surprise me,” Ash said, struggling to his feet. Ross followed suit. “There was a groan.”
“That was me.” Ross shook his head, but he tensed up anyway. He could feel the change. Something was very, very wrong.
The next sound was so loud even Ross heard it. “Get down!” Ash tackled Ross and Porthos to the ground, covering them with his own body. Ross felt fur as Porthos burrowed in beside him and then, less than a second later, little bits of plaster dropped around him.
“Is that it?” He asked.
The crash that followed was like thunder.
Ash woke up with a pounding headache. For a second, he couldn’t quite remember what had happened. Everything around him was dusty, and he was pretty sure that wasn’t right. There was a warm body underneath him, though, and Porthos was next to him, so dust and a mess didn’t matter so much to him anymore.
Then Porthos groaned and coughed, and Ash remembered. The warm body underneath him wasn’t there because he had some fun last night. It was there because Ash had thrown him to the ground. Awesome. I tackled a cop. How’s that going to go? The pain in his chest and in his arm came from impact. If he had to guess, he’d say he had a head injury.
Crap. Porthos. He blinked until he could more or less see straight and checked on his dog. Porthos was in relatively good shape, as near as he could tell. The fluffy dog woke more fully as Ash ran his hands over him, looking for injuries. He didn’t find any spots that made Porthos yelp, and he didn’t find anything damp or bloody, so he figured they were good.
He pushed himself off of Ross. Ross was alive. Ash knew, because he’d felt his pulse underneath him, heard him breathing. It was too dark to see much, thanks to the time of day, but Ash could tell Ross was still out cold. It wasn’t a great sign.
He took a deep breath and coughed immediately. Between the cold and the dust, the air was an unholy mess. When he tried to stand up, he hissed with pain. Some of the falling debris had cut into his calf. He’d need stitches, and he would need to look into getting a tetanus booster. He wasn’t going to die from this, though. He ripped a chunk from his already torn shirt and used it as a makeshift bandage. Then he turned his attention back to Ross.
More of the debris had fallen on Ross than on Ash, just out of pure dumb luck. Ash couldn’t see clearly enough to tell for sure, but it looked like there were some big chunks of roof and beams on his legs. He bit his lip. Thanks to the condition of the building, he could hear the snow removal machinery working its way toward them. Should he wait for people in better condition, who could help Ross better than he could?
Porthos squirmed. He was trapped too, even though he didn’t seem to be hurt.
“Screw it.” Ash grabbed the piece of drywall boxing his dog into the debris. “Never stick around and wait for someone else to save you. You never know, they might need saving themselves.”
Porthos barked, twice, and bounded out of his prison. He climbed gingerly to the top of the snow and rubble pile and barked three times. Ash knew what the barking meant. It was a signal, telling rescuers there were people over here who needed help. He didn’t know if the rescuers would understand Porthos, and he didn’t care.
He had work to do.
He couldn’t move his right arm well on the best of days, and today was one of the worst. Still, if he didn’t get Ross out from under that junk, Ross might lose his leg or worse. Ash could live with a little bit of pain. He grabbed on to the item on top, put his back and his legs into it, and heaved.
It took him two tries, but he got the heavy chunk of beam off of Ross’ leg. It wasn’t much. It certainly wasn’t everything, but it was a start.
He moved a chunk of iron pipe next, and then a piece of drywall. His chest and his arm screamed in pain, but he kept moving. By the time he finished with those pieces, sweat soaked through every piece of clothing on his body. He was used to running, and to carrying a heavy pack, but this kind of work was far beyond his capabilities.
No, it isn’t. He ground his teeth and dug in for more. It clearly wasn’t good for him, but he was able to do it when he had to. And with Ross in this shape, Ash had to do it.
Another three pieces of debris in brought an unfamiliar face over to their space. The ruddy face and wide-brimmed hat identified the visitor as a state trooper, like Ross. “Holy shit,” he whistled. “We heard the thing fall, and we had no idea what happened next. Are you guys okay?”
Ash stood up as straight as he could. Everything in his body hurt, and the sweat was turning cold in the open air. “I’ve got a head injury—probably a mild concussion. Ross here is in bad shape. He’s still out cold and I think his leg’s hurt, but I can’t get to it under the rubble. I need more people down here, and I’m going to need help stabilizing his legs at least when I get this crap cleared.”
The trooper scrambled down the heap of debris, radio in hand. “I’m Sgt. Dixon. I’m a friend of Huber’s.” He clicked his radio on. “I’ve got two injured men and one very protective dog. He’s a good dog, so don’t get twitchy, but don’t make any sudden moves either. We’re going to need a backboard for one of the injuries.”
Ash almost sagged with relief, but there wasn’t time. He grabbed another piece of debris and pulled it off Ross’ leg. Now he could see the injury itself, and while his eyes were still blurry, he could see that Ross was going to have a rough time of it. That white blob sticking up out of his calf was almost certainly bone. The snow had turned red with his blood already.
Porthos barked, warning Ash of more people coming in. Two men in what were probably EMT uniforms appeared. Ash knew he should feel something, gratitude or wonder or relief. Right now, he was just numb. He’d tried to stop Ross from getting hurt, but it hadn’t helped.
“Hey, aren’t you the guy who leaked to the media about the tow truck driver?” Dixon asked, while the EMTs got Ross strapped to the back board.
Ash couldn’t tear his eyes away. He could almost hear the helicopter in the background, except there was no helicopter. They wouldn’t MedFlight a guy for a broken leg and a concussion. “Technically no. I’m the media.” He held out a hand. “Ash Machado.”
Dixon gave him a wry grin. “I should be mad about it, but they’ve raised over half a million for that guy’s family. I can’t be too upset, I guess.”
Ash smiled a little. “Then I guess some good came out of all of this, right?” He ran his hand through his hair. “It feels like we were in there for a year, you know? And I’ve been through worse, but it just…it felt like forever. I’m having trouble believing it’s over.”
Dixon tilted his head as the EMTs carried Ross out. “Army?”
“Combat reporter.” Ash waved a hand. “I’ll get over it. We always do, you know? I’m just kind of stunned.”
Dixon put a hand on his back. “Well, the head injury might have something to do with it. Let’s get you checked out and see what we can do for you. Do you want to wait for the EMTs or do you want to try to walk out on your own?”
Ash moistened his lips. “Do you think I can try to walk out myself?” He moved to climb out of the rubble pile, but Dixon hurried to his side.
“No need to take risks you don’t have to. Why don’t I go with you?” He smiled and took Ash’s arm, keeping him steady. Their ordeal was finally over.