“I’m…hurting,” she answered in a tiny, strained voice. “I…don’t think I can stand.”
“Stay still. We’re coming to get you,” Cisco promised.
Mason was already on his mic, alerting the team members they’d left behind to bring climbing gear, a Stokes litter, and to call for an ambulance. They’d learned from Doug—who knew this section of forest well—that there was an old logging/fire road only a few hundred yards to the north that would give the emergency crews access. It must have been how Cottins had made it onto the property, and where he’d stashed his truck.
“Cold,” Hilly called up the one word.
Even though the temperature was in the low seventies, Cisco knew Hilly was probably in shock.
“We’ll get you a blanket,” he promised. Still on his belly, he turned his head to Mason and Alvi, both of whom had squatted next to him. Alvi was already digging in his ever-present medic’s pack.
“I’m going down,” Cisco told his boss.
Nel let out a pained howl as Mike continued to hold her back.
“No,” Mason barked. “You’ll wait for our gear. I’m not having two rescues here. And if you miss the ledge and fall into the ravine, you won’t be doing Hilly any favors.”
Fuck. Mason made sense, but Cisco couldn’t just lay there and do nothing…
Alvi thrust a small bundle at Cisco. It was a lightweight, thermal rescue blanket. “Throw this down,” he said. “It’ll keep her warm while we wait.”
Cisco took it and leaned as far over the edge as he could. “I’m sending down a blanket, Hilly. Wrap yourself up in it until our climbing stuff gets here and we can make it down to you.”
“Okay,” she agreed shakily. Her voice was losing what little strength it had.
Cisco didn’t want the blanket dropping into the void, or even out of her reach. He needed to get closer, and the thermal covering would be his excuse
“Hold my ankles and lower me down,” he told his team members who were standing over him.
“Fuck, Cisco,” Welker huffed. “What if we drop you?”
“You won’t,” he answered with certainty. He trusted his team with every molecule in his body.
Mason must have agreed. “Let’s get some light over here, people,” he ordered.
Almost immediately, eight or ten flashlights were illuminating the area. “Welk, you and Moira get on his right leg,” Mason clipped, thankfully not trying to dissuade Cisco. “Talia, you’re with me on the left.”
Cisco felt hands gripping his calves and thighs, and wiggled his center of gravity forward until he reached his tipping point, then…
He almost free-fell for a foot or so before they had him under control, then they lowered him slowly. Stretched out as far as he could go, Cisco’s arm length of approximately two and a half feet, added to his height of six-two, brought him down to nearly nine feet. Which left only three between him and Hilly.
“Hi, sweetheart,” he choked out.
God, from what he could make out, she was a wreck. Her face was battered and bleeding, her top lip swollen, and there was a nasty looking bruise on the side of her neck. And that was just the damage that Cisco could see. Who knew what other injuries she’d sustained to her body before she’d gone over the edge and when she’d landed?
“Here,” Cisco managed as she looked up at him with one good eye. “Take this blanket.” He let it drop from his fingers, and it landed only inches from her head.
She dragged it close, grappled with the protective sleeve that held it for a moment, then managed to extract the blanket and cover herself.
“Better?” he asked.
She made a small sound, and he could see her attempting to grin. “Better…would have been…following our original plans for tonight,” she managed.
“Original…?” Cisco barked out an anguished laugh. She was talking about sex, and her amusement was either because she was the world’s best actor, or she was fucking good at ignoring her pain. “Oh, Hill,” he lamented. “I promise a whole lot of those nights after we get you out of here and well again.”
“Are you sure?” she asked, her tone low and heart-breakingly tentative.
“I’m so sure,” Cisco answered without hesitation. There was a lot more he wanted to say, but there were…
Why the fuck not?
Screw the audience.
Cisco wasn’t going to hold back any longer. His worry over Hilly’s fate had reminded him just how short life could be.
He cleared his throat. “I know this is really stupid timing on my part, Hilly, but I… Something’s been festering inside me for weeks, and I have to say it.” He took a deep breath. “Hilly Duncan, I love you. I’ve been in love with you since you showed up at my house one night, all sassy, to take care of my injuries.” He knew he should stop there, but nerves had him rambling on, blurting out all his doubts. “I know it’s too soon; I know you’re scared, but I’ll do everything I can to make you—”
“Cisco,” Hilly interrupted him with a quiet, but bold groan of his name.
“Yeah, sweetheart?” He swallowed hard. Maybe he should have kept his mouth shut.
“I love you, too,” she rasped.
There were whistles from above and one very loud, “Well shit. Another one bites the dust.”
“Shut up, Welker.” Moira, their sheriffs’ department teammate chastised him grumpily. “You wouldn’t know love if it bit you in the ass.”
“Ahh, you want to sink your teeth into my fine glutes, Bliss?” came the instant reply.
