Page 38 of Burnin' For You
He whirled around and saw Gilly racing over to CJ, who had woken up and begun to thrash around.
“He’s in pain!” This from Hannah, who stood rooted as Reuben ran to CJ.
Indeed. His face white, CJ clutched his waist with one arm, groaning, breathing hard. He let out another wail.
Gilly gripped his arms, trying to keep him from moving. “What hurts?”
CJ let out a growl, something of a curse in it, and Reuben didn’t blame him. “My shoulder—ah, crap—and my hip—” He tried to move his leg and let out a scream.
And when he looked at Reuben, so much pain in his eyes, Reuben wanted to glance away.
“Just breathe, CJ,” Gilly said.
“It’s hard—I can’t—” He reached up with his good hand, pressed on his chest. “I can’t breathe!”
“You’re hyperventilating,” Gilly said. “I know it hurts. Just breathe with me.” She leaned up, put her hand on his belly. “In through the nose, out through the mouth, breathe from your belly. Slowly.”
“I can’t—”
“Do it,” Reuben said, nothing of a bedside manner in his tone.
CJ’s eyes widened, but he glanced back at Gilly, began to mimic her.
Hannah had come closer, though still standing ten feet away.
Reuben headed back to Jed and Kate.
Jed lay on his side. Kate had gotten his jumpsuit opened up, cut it apart, and wrapped the material around the protruding metal.
“If we remove it, he might bleed out—I just don’t know.” She checked Jed’s pulse again. Then she kissed his cheek, pressed her forehead to his. “Hang in there, we’ll get you some help. Don’t die on me, Jed.”
Then Kate sat down, her hand on Jed’s body, as if assessing his breathing, in and out.
She held up her radio, fished out of her jump pants. “I can’t get hold of anyone—my guess is the mountain is causing interference.”
Reuben took out his radio, confirmed the static reception.
“We’re in trouble here, Rube. Jed’s too hurt to move and CJ—who knows how injured he is. Gilly said something about the radio being out and the transponder down before we crashed… They don’t know we’re down.” Kate looked up at him. “You gotta go for help.”
He took in her words. Yes, of course. He was the least hurt—
“Rube!”
He turned to Gilly’s voice and spied her beckoning him over.
CJ seemed to be calmer, breathing in rhythm now. Gilly got up, walked away from him.
Reuben met her.
And for the first time since the crash, he took a good look at her. A goose egg lifted right above her brow line. She’d scraped her arm—a thin line of blood traced her skin. And she’d ripped her pants, her knee bloody and a little swollen. He guessed that might be why she was limping.
But he saw none of that on her face, her jaw tight, her mouth a bud of frustration.
“CJ’s still in a lot of pain. He might have internal bleeding. How’s Jed?”
“He’s got a piece of metal in his back. Kate’s wrapped something around it to keep it from moving, but...I don’t know.”
“Hannah seems okay—in shock, maybe. And Kate—well, we know Kate.” Gilly’s glance landed on her best friend, and for a second—onlya second—weariness flashed across her face. Then she looked back at Reuben. “I saw you found Cliff.”