“It doesn’t matter,” I murmured, groaning as I pulled myself into a sitting position.
“You’ve breathed in quite a bit of smoke, so your throat will be sore for a few days,” Toby said, interrupting as he packed up his gear. “But your lungs sound okay and the rest of your vitals are good. I would recommend going to hospital to be checked out, and then resting at least for today—”
“Can I skip the hospital and just do the resting part? We’re meant to be traveling to Dallas,” I stated.
Toby shook his head. “With what the two of you have been through, I would definitely recommend getting checked out. But if you don’t want to go to hospital then you need to get some sleep and travel tomorrow. Make sure you’re at least near a hospital, so if your lungs worsen during the night you can get the help you need. The last thing we want to do is see this happen again a few miles down the road because you fall asleep behind the wheel. Or worse, have breathing problems and you are nowhere near medical help.”
“Is that what happened to her?” I asked, my mouth falling open.
Toby gave me a sad smile and nodded. “She’s a new mom, the baby is only a few weeks old. Doesn’t sound like she has much family around. Been doing it all on her own. She fell asleep, almost killed the both of them and you two.”
My heart hurt for that woman. Not because of what had happened, but because she was struggling so much and had no one around to help her.
“Excuse me, sir,” an older woman police officer said as they knelt down beside Eagle. “She’s awake now, and the ambulance driver would like to get her and the baby to the hospital.”
I could see Eagle’s reluctance to give up the sleeping infant in his arms. Finally, he looked over at me. “I just want to see for myself she’s okay,” Eagle said, pushing to his feet, the officer beside him rising too. He looked at her. “That okay?”
She nodded. “Of course.”
“Don’t go anywhere,” Eagle ordered, narrowing his eyes at me as if I was going to dive into another burning vehicle while he was gone.
I waved him off. “I’m fine, I’ll see if I can get a hold of Leo. He said Hadley would have his phone on her.” We’d now been sitting in that field for what was close to an hour. We’d given our statements to the police, albeit through an oxygen mask in my case. Now that we’d generally calmed and I felt better, the oxygen had been removed and I was having one final health check by the EMT before they left. And with Toby recommending rest, it sounded like we would head to a motel for the night.
Before Eagle walked away, he turned back to me and crouched at my side, his hand cupping my cheek. He pressed his forehead against mine and the both of us closed our eyes. “Don’t do that to me again,” he whispered, his voice so serious and filled with emotion, that I didn’t dare joke about how he’d already said that.
“Okay,” I whispered back, my voice hitching.
Then he brushed his lips against mine and backed away, still cradling that life in his arms.
A life we’d saved.