Meant to Marry Me
Paramedics

By the time they reached the parking lot, Trent's legs were burning. Not from carrying Bree. She was light as a feather, but he had walked through the fire to get her out of the room, and he was pretty sure he'd sustained some damage because of it. He couldn't slow down until he was sure she was out and safe, though.

As soon as he saw an ambulance, he rushed over to it. The paramedics immediately moved to help Bree. Trent didn't know if she was burned, too, but he had a feeling she must be. Everything started happening so quickly. She was laid on a gurney as the EMTs started to check her over, and he was rushed over to the back of an ambulance. An oxygen mask was fixed to his face.

"Where does it hurt?" one of the ambulance workers asked.

"Mostly my legs," Trent replied, not taking his eyes off of Bree. He could see that she had an oxygen mask on as well, and it looked like they were bandaging her hand. The idea of something happening to her fingers scared the hell out of him. She'd never play the guitar again! "Is she okay?" he asked the paramedic.

"I'm not sure,” the man said. "But right now, I'm worried about you. You have second degree burns on your legs. We need to take you in and treat these."

"Second degree?" Trent knew his legs were burned and they hurt, but he had no idea it was that serious.

They wheeled Bree over toward the ambulance he was sitting on as more pulled up. There were several others treating patients with smoke inhalation. Zach had some burns, too, from the looks of it, but as far as Trent could tell, it didn't look like anyone else had been burned.

"We need you to get into the ambulance. Can you do that under your own power?" another EMT asked him.

Since they were loading Bree up already, Trent nodded. "Yes, I can do that."

"Good. We'll take you to the hospital and have you checked out. Hopefully, both of you only have minimal injuries, and you can be released within a few hours."

Trent also hoped that was the case. He had so many questions. Why would someone set a fire right outside of their hotel room? Had it been Cat? Surely, she was still in jail for tampering with the electricity at the club. Was it possible she got out, and she had done this?

He couldn't think about that as he looked over at Bree and saw that she was struggling. The paramedics were working on her, and he heard one of them say, "This should help with the pain," as she put something into an IV they must've hooked up when Bree was still outside of the ambulance.

"Are you okay, Bree?" he asked, wishing he could reach over and touch her.

Her eyes were slitted, her nose wrinkled, and she looked as if she was fighting back tears. When she turned her head to look at him, he winced. She tried to hide it, but her eyes couldn't lie to him. She was in agony. "I'm okay. Just burned my hand somehow."

He'd thought her hands had been tight around him, or around the wet washcloth. How had that happened?

"We're going to go ahead and start an IV before the ambulance starts to move," one of the paramedics who had been bandaging his legs told him. "It might make you a little tired. Hopefully, you won't be in pain much longer. "Okay," Trent said, but he knew there was nothing they could do about the pain he was feeling, the pain he felt in his heart at seeing Bree in such a state. If someone did this on purpose, that person would have hell to pay. Someone closed the ambulance doors, and Trent felt the vehicle start to move forward. He closed his eyes, doing his best to listen to the paramedics as they discussed how both of them were doing, but he knew the medicine was taking effect because he was so tired. He never would've imagined when he'd gone to bed a few hours ago, Bree in his arms, that he'd be waking up to something like this.

Opening his eyes, he looked over at her one more time. She appeared to be asleep. He prayed she was, that she was resting, and that when she woke up in the hospital, everything would be okay. The idea that she might never play the guitar again hurt him almost as much as the idea that somewhere out there was someone so evil they would purposely endanger the lives of hundreds of people sleeping in a hotel. That kind of evil needed to be locked up and the key tossed away where it could never be found again.