Got Smacked around by the Bellagio

The dark circles are so, so deep beneath her eyes that there would be permanent bruises there. The 24 hour shift had been brutal, but there were few in the squad who wanted to take it over the long weekend. It left a skeleton crew working from the station on what could possibly be the most chaotic weekend of the entire year.

Mara hadn’t been an EMT in Clark County, Nevada for long, but she was sure that the saying, “What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas,” was absolutely true. In her month in Nevada, she had witnessed a landscaper fall from a palm tree and break his back, fished a tourist from the pool in the Paris casino hotel, and had watched more OD’s than she could count. 

The last kind of calls were the most difficult for her personally, especially with her own less than pristine record. And when they were kids? No one mentioned it when she would quietly excuse herself to the bathroom after they got back. 

They were currently 18 hours into their 24 hour shift and Mara wasn’t sure if she would be alive by the end of it. She could probably take a power nap or down a Redbull like the rest of her crew would be doing, but naps never sufficed and Red Bulls made her so jittery that her fingers would literally move of their own accord.

“Mara!” Their field captain, Alex, was a strong jawed, kind eyed, broad shouldered man that reminded her a little bit of Tyler, “Are you hungry?”

Mara shrugged, but followed him into their small, slightly dilapidated kitchen. Ken, their EMT-A, was at the counter making something that smelled like ginger and soy sauce and all sorts of other spices mixed together, and Mara felt her mouth water in anticipation.

“Are we going to have time to eat it before our next call?” The last person of their tiny weekend crew, EMT-B Renee, came from the direction of their lounge, where she had no doubt been taking a nap. Renee took more naps than most of them combined, but she did her job well, and her sleepy eyes made for an excellent calming presence in some of their more stressful cases. 

“We can only hope,” Ken replied and set the pot of ramen onto their table, “But eat quickly, just in case.”

It was always their luck, to get called out right when their food hit the table. But hopefully, they would get lucky-

Alex’s pager sounded off. Ken looked up to the ceiling and said a silent prayer. Mara grabbed the ambulance keys and followed Renee into the garage.

Mara didn’t mind driving the ambulance. In fact, there was something comforting about thinking that they might be on their way to save someone’s life, and even though the lights and sirens never completely guaranteed people getting off the road, they made things slightly easier. And being in the driver’s seat, after having her license revoked, after recovering from her addiction but still struggling every day, after regaining her license, passing her EMT exam, and becoming a true EMT (even if she was still green compared to any of her coworkers) gave her something to do with time that she would otherwise spend worrying and letting her guilt overwhelm her to the point of sickness. 

“We’re headed for the Bellagio, Mara,” Alex said from the passenger seat, “Looks like a fire in the kitchens and a possible car accident in the parking structure.”

“Fire Brigade meeting us at the scene?” Ken asked as he took silent inventory of their supplies. It was unnecessary; he restocked after every call. 

“Yes, they are.”

They flew along the interstate, surprisingly quickly for Las Vegas at this time of day, but Mara wasn’t about to say anything about it and jinx their luck. Unfortunately, the closer they drew to the Bellagio, the bigger the crowds of tourists and taxis and cars became as everyone and their brother drew closer to the plumes of smoke rising from the casino. 

“Alright, Mara, a little closer and park… here,” she pressed on the break, parked the ambulance, and followed the other members of her team towards the firetruck, where they would wait to learn how bad it was.

Thankfully, the fire captain, who she only knew as Captain F., walked over relatively soon after their arrival, “It looks like the car accident was partially the cause of the fire. And the fire didn’t start in the kitchen, it spread to the kitchen. We’re working on getting pedestrians out.”

“Any severe structural damage?” Alex asked.

“Not much, some paint will need to be touched up, but nothing severe,” the fire captain responded.

And because they weren’t exhausted enough, God had to prove him wrong. A blast blew them off of their feet and Mara opened her eyes to slivers of light that looked like the stars that used to decorate the Wyoming sky. But she wasn’t in Wyoming, up on the roof with Eli next to her, she was under a pile of rubble in the parking complex of the Bellagio casino.

She heard voices distantly calling her name, but she couldn’t find the breath to respond. Her lungs felt coated in dust and every time she inhaled, there was a wheeze that took the place of air. There was a smaller piece of rock next to her hand, if she could push it off, she could reach up and maybe they would see her, but that rock felt just as heavy as the one pinning her legs to the still-warm concrete they had been standing on mere moments before. 

Finally, a cough made its way out from deep in her lungs and Ken, thank god, heard her. While he looked like the skinniest of the crew, Mara had witnessed Ken bench press over 300 lbs more than once. 

When her face was uncovered, she was met with his smiling face, “Hey, Mara. You look terrible.”

Unfortunately, they couldn’t focus on her state of being at the moment. While her bad leg ached horribly, there wasn’t any other pain that seemed life-ending, and so after a long drink of water and wiping her face, she was back in the zone. 

Alex was on the phone with the neighboring station when she took her place at his side, “-don’t understand, part of the Bellagio literally just blew up. Captain Fugishima and one of my crew got caught in it.” He glanced down at Mara and a look of relief flashed over his face before it went back to professional neutrality, “My crew member is out, but the captain is M.I.A.”

Captain F.’s lieutenant had stepped in, apparently, as he was barking at the remaining members of the crew, demanding who had forgotten to turn off the gas main.

“Thank you, see you in a few,” Alex threw his phone into the passenger side of the ambulance, unphased when it bounced off and hit the floor of the cab, “The Henderson and Summerlin EMS crews are on their way.”

“They’re not running skeletons today too, are they?” Mara’s voice was gravelly with leftover dust and Alex looked at her in surprise, gesturing to the water bottle still in her hand.

“No, thankfully they’re not,” Alex said, “I’ll be talking with the Chief about that tomorrow. I want you to grab the med kit from the back and work the little things. Renee and Ken can handle big things until the other crews get here.”

Alex wasn’t much older than her, maybe a few years, possibly Andrew’s age (the comparison between Alex and her own brother made her blood boil, but she pushed it away), but even with the slight age gap, she replied, “I’m fine, sir. I don’t need special treatment, I’m not hurt.”

“Adrenaline,” Alex answered, “And I don’t care if you end up really not having any lasting damage, I don’t want to risk it. You can set up shop right here, we’ll shuttle the cuts, bumps, and bruises to you.”

Mara later refused to admit it, but she was glad that Alex shoved her to the sidelines. About ten minutes after their conversation, after the Summerlin crew started showing up and people were being escorted out of the building and towards the EMTs, Mara felt the headache coming on. Despite the small explosion, there weren’t many people who needed help, and so she could sit on the pop-up medic table between bits of gauze taped on small lacerations and single-use ice packs given out for bruises and sore spots. 

When they were finally released from the scene, carrying one elderly man there for his weekly gambling session, she felt nausea welling up in her stomach the second she turned the sires on, and she promptly threw up out her door.

“Do you need someone else to drive?” Alex asked.

Mara shook her head and buckled herself in, “Maybe on the way back to the station. I’m okay right now.”

Ken stuck his head up between the seats, “You’re an excellent EMT, Mara, but a terrible liar, so I’m going to call bull on you.”

“Shut up and attend to our patient, Ken,” she grumbled, even if he was right. But if she focused on something else other than the sirens overhead - like the smudge on the rearview, the stitching on the steering wheel, or the lucky dashboard doll that Mikey, one of the other EMTs in their crew, had bought as a joke. 

They got to the hospital without incident, and Ken promptly pulled her from the driver’s seat when she turned the siren off, “Go back there and relax for a bit. We’ll check you out when we get back.” 

And it was a blessing that they were so close to the hospital, because even though she hated naps, their shift was technically done in 10 minutes, and the exhaustion was starting to hit her full force. 

“Alright, Sleepy, we’re back,” Renee poked her in the shoulder with a small smile and helped her out of the ambulance, “Go in on the couch, we’ll be right in.”

The concussion tests that Alex had her complete weren’t long, but Alex decided that she did have a minor concussion and would need a day or two to start healing, “I’ll talk with the Chief about getting someone to cover. I’ll drive you home to make sure you get there.”

She nodded in response; words seemed so hard at the moment, and so instead, she zombie walked to the changing room to grab her bag.

Mikey was buttoning up his shirt when she entered the room and he laughed, “Wow, what the hell happened to you?”

“Got smacked around by the Bellagio,” she muttered, unsure if she could speak any louder, “Ask Renee or Ken. ‘M going home.”

“You might want to wash your face,” he suggested, “or take a look in the mirror.”

She blinked slowly as her brain tried to catch up, “Okay?”

“Okay,” Mikey threw his zip-up on and walked into their lounge, “Talk later, Mars!”

Mars? She hadn’t heard that nickname in a long time. Her heart twinged uncomfortably in her chest and she rubbed the tattoo on her collarbone as she walked to the bathroom. 

And honestly, Mikey hadn’t been lying. If she had thought the dark circles around her eyes were bad earlier, now they were stains that wouldn’t be washed from her skin no matter how hard she tried. She still had bits of plaster and cement in her hair and there were bruises forming along her hairline and chin.

But it could’ve been worse. She could’ve broken something or had internal bleeding or have had something infinitely worse happen than a concussion and a couple of bruises. Matt had a concussion and he had lived through it. Her friends had always been scattered with unexplainable bruises and they had healed. Nothing terribly horrible to worry about, other than wondering how her paycheck would be affected this pay period. Did you get sick days after a month into a job?

But right now, it didn’t matter. That was future Mara’s problem, and current Mara had the captain knocking on the door to take her home. For now, she was just looking forward to taking a nap.