Chapter 5

The alarm went off entirely too early for my taste but I rolled over and found the empty spot where Reggie was the night before. I looked into the bathroom when I heard the shower running. So much for waking her at 6:30.

I went into the kitchen and started coffee, then did my morning thing. Walking into the bathroom, I grabbed a toothbrush and just as I started brushing my teeth, Reggie worked her way between me and the sink. She wiggled her bottom against the left-over morning wood; what a nice way to brush your teeth.

I jumped into the shower and took care of business. I was just getting out when I saw a steaming cup of coffee on the sink. Taking the coffee into the bedroom, I sipped as I got dressed.

I asked Reggie if she wanted to drive or ride. I looked up to see her in leather and immediately knew it would be a riding day for her.

We loaded up after a quick breakfast and headed out.

"When do you want me to pick you up?"

"How about 5PM? Then we can stop off and get something to eat and relax a little. What do you have going on today?"

"Not a lot, just going to Rob's. When are you getting your car back?"

"Tell Sybil I said hello. She still doesn't know about the new living arrangements does she? I'll pick up my car tomorrow."

"Ok, just let me know when and where."

We pulled into the ER parking lot and got loose ends stowed and my morning toe curler.

I gave her a long slow kiss and then headed out to Rob's place. We were going to do some work around the garage and then just relax. I pulled into his drive-way and settled the bike. Knocking on the door, I waited while I heard the door opening and got an invite to come in.

The boobs got there first but the smile on her face wasn't far behind. I got a full body hug as soon as she realized it was me. Sybil could give a hug and convert the Pope to polygamy if she put her mind to it. I heard Rob in the other room complaining about not being able to get a fresh cup of coffee unless they had visitors.

"You'd bitch if they hung you with a new rope!" I said around his wife

I went into the dining room and grabbed my coffee as we sat down and talked a little about what we were going to do today:

Sybil, Rob's wife, wanted to know who I was shacking up with.

I just looked at her and she smiled, "I smell her perfume."

"She doesn't wear perfume," I said.

"So who is she, now that you have admitted there is a she?"

"Damn, I hate a sneaky woman. How did you know?"

"I heard from a couple of guys that you were starting to mellow in your old age and that is the only reason I can think that would mellow you out."

"Ok, I'll admit defeat. You already know her."

"What do you mean by that?"

"Her name is Regina, Reggie if you must. She's smart, she's cute, but you know that already. She's 110 soaking wet, auburn hair and she likes me. She is also VERY comfortable on the bike -- sits back and relaxes with no drama. She also told me she had a couple of scenarios cooked up to break up me and Lynne if she hadn't self-destructed.

"She works at the University Hospital and I've known her a couple months and we just started to become an item in the last few days. It was her idea, which should give you a hint as to her stability. We are in the process of moving her stuff into the house now and I think I may be sunk, big time. She's smart, SCARY smart, she's VERY cute, she likes to ride and with the exception of her taste in men she seems like she has all her faculties. Oh, and did I mention she's very cute?"

"YOUR DOCTOR?!?!?! I just love that little girl to death. She has her head screwed on right; I should have known! Just watching her with you and Lynne should have tipped me off.

"I knew there was something I liked about that girl when I met her the first time," Sybil said. "I never really warmed up to Lynne. It was almost like she was just telling you what you wanted to hear so she could stay with the group. She was TOTALLY in over her head. You just knew she was a wanna-be when she didn't attempt to make time for the longer trips we all went on."

"I know, it was like pulling teeth to get her on a ride that left the surface streets. When she went off on me about getting tagged, I knew it was the beginning of the end.

"Reggie is a little younger," I continued, "but not so much that it would raise eyebrows. I took her to the staff meeting last night and got her introduced around so she isn't thrown into the shark pit Thursday."

"What does she think of that crowd? Inquiring minds and all that."

"She likes most of the folks but could care less for Gracie and her partner. She told me that before she knew what I thought of them. Everyone else is up in the air.

"As far as our relationship goes, for the most part we're just feeling things out but we'll be spending a lot of time together off the bike too. We're sharing breakfast duties so we can make sure we agree on life in general over coffee in the morning."

"WAITAGODDAMNEDMINUTE," Sybil said, "you just met this girl a couple of months ago! I know you and Lynne have not been an item for about 4 weeks so that puts you and the new one at less than a month and she is already moved in? Dang, Lynne didn't get that far in over a year."

I smiled sheepishly and just shook my head. "Reggie is a force of nature you have to experience to appreciate."

"Well she must be doing something right if she's moved in already. What does this mean to you?"

"Well it means no more drunken orgies, and I can't have too many sleep-overs."

"Not even me?"

"You can ALWAYS sleep over and you know it."

"What about me?" this was from Rob.

"What about you?" Sybil shot back, "we sleep over half the time anyway so nothing changes."

We talked a bit more and I let them both know that they would be invited next weekend for a BBQ and we'd have a couple of steaks.

Rob and I left to go home. He was on his 1998 Wing and I was on the Cherry Bomb. I do have a tendency to name things but I try not to go overboard about it. We were chatting on the CB and generally griping about the mentality of the cage drivers we were stuck with. We had just finished laughing about watching a girl doing 70mph on the freeway, putting on mascara, talking on the phone and attempting to sip a Starbucks at the same time. Rob wanted to slide up next to her and hit her with the air horns but thought better of that idea.

We had just moved over two lanes to get away from her when we were passed by two sport bikes. Ok, we're big and shiny, we're doing 70mph and some half life blows by us like we're sitting still. We just laughed and kept on going. We were not in a big hurry to get to the house and were just enjoying the ride.

We had gone another 5 miles when traffic started to back up. We saw the brake lights up ahead and moved to the number 4 lane when we decided it would be good to take surface streets around a clog.

We were just about to commit when Rob just keyed his mike, with "OH SHIT, follow me."

Since he was leading, I asked what was going on.

"I hope you have your first aid kit."

I watched as Rob moved between two cars and white lined between a couple of trucks. I followed him not really understanding until he came on the CB with the info that we had bikes down. We cut between two other cars and came to a stop in the number 2 lane.

A girl was still in her car crying hysterically, Rob went to her to make sure she was ok. I hit the emergency flashers and set the bike across the lane. I got off and went to the downed sport bike. There was a tangled mess that used to be a motorcycle. In the number 1 lane was a pick-up truck with his flashers on. The driver was outside leaning over a body on the ground. As he was reaching for the helmet strap I stopped him and told him not to take it off. He started to ignore me when I grabbed his arm and pulled him away. I told him to leave the helmet on. There might be a neck injury. He said ok and then asked me what to do.

I went to the bike and got my first aid kit and a couple of old towels. I lifted the visor of the helmet to see who was inside. He was a young kid, no more than 20, out cold. I checked for a pulse, and found it. I unzipped his jacket, and checked as well as I could for bleeding but couldn't find any. I spread a space blanket over him and rolled up the towels to act as a cushion on either side of his head. I asked the truck driver to kneel with his knees on either side of his head to stabilize it and stay with him. I also told him NOT to remove the helmet. Just let me know if he started to move and yell for one of us.

The two of us made sure the downed biker was secured and not moved. Rob had moved on to the other biker in the median.

I went to help Rob with the second biker that was lying against the cement median. He had his first aid kit opened. We both got to work on this one. How he got his helmet off I'll never know. In fact, I didn't see a helmet. He was skinned up on his face and had a bleeding head wound.

Rob broke out a sealed bottle of water and poured it directly onto the head wound. It was still seeping when I handed him a battle dressing (Kotex) to put on and self clinging gauze to secure it.

I saw blood coming out of the arm of his leathers. There was nothing to do but break out the leatherman. I hated to do it but I cut his leathers right up his arm. I didn't want to move him more than necessary. I peeled back the sleeve and got sprayed with blood. I clamped down on the bleeder and broke out another battle dressing, pressing it directly against the wound. It immediately absorbed all the blood and I applied another, holding it in place.

I heard a call from biker number one and looked over to see the truck driver arguing with a bystander. Rob said he'd cover the bleeder and I went over to the altercation.

"Don't touch his helmet! The guy there said not to take it off!"

The bystander kept trying to get to the helmet until I pulled him away from the unconscious biker. He tried to get by me again saying he can't breathe and I just did a body block into him to knock him on his ass.

"Stay there or I'll make it permanent," I threatened.

I went back to the number one biker and thanked the truck driver. I took the kid's pulse again and it seemed ok. I was just replacing the space blanket over him and put his feet up on my helmet when a cop pulled up on his bike. He asked what was going on.

I told him we had two down, both unconscious, one bleeding badly. I saw an ambulance pull into the breakdown lane and the paramedics jumped out. One of the Medics came to where I was. I told him we had a bleeder over there, pointing to Rob. I was promptly ignored as they rushed to where Rob was putting a fourth battle dressing on number 2. Another medic came over to tend the first biker, I gave him the pulse and respiration observations and the fact that the victim was unconscious. I also told them I had not moved the head but packed it to keep it stable.

I didn't know where the helmet was from number 2. He had one on when he passed me 5 miles back. The medics had taken over and were trying to get things organized to transport the two guys. The CHP officer was taking statements when he asked me what I knew. All I could add was what I had told him before. I did not see the crash, neither had Rob, but we did have first aid training and kits on the bikes so we did what we could.

I gave him a business card with contact information on it and asked if we could leave. After getting our information, he expressed his thanks and gave us each his card if there was anything we needed or remembered about the day.

I stripped off the latex gloves I didn't remember putting on, and went to the paramedics and asked if they had a biohazard bag I could drop them in. Rob was next to me with his. The first medic out of the ambulance held out a red bag and we put them in. He told us to hold on a second, and handed us a box of gloves as replacements. We thanked him and started gathering up our decimated first aid kits. Repacking what we could and just wrapping up towels and such we'd take care of when we got home.

We got our gear on again and as we were leaving the CHP officer held traffic for us and we headed south again. We took longer gathering our gear than we did actually working the accident.

We increased speed a little and made it home in good time. We went into the house and I headed for the spare refrigerator. I grabbed a Dos XX and opened it up. Getting one for Rob I tossed him the phone and told him to call Sybil. Normally I don't drink, especially if I'm stressed, but there is a time for everything.

Rob was just saying goodbye to Sybil when I grabbed a second beer. I know it's before noon, but it's also AFTER noon somewhere and that was the clock I used today.

Rob handed me the phone and said I should call someone also. I looked at the phone and didn't know if I wanted to start this particular conversation. I sucked it in though and made the call. I got the clinic where Reggie worked and left a message for her to call me at home at her earliest convenience.

Five minutes later the phone rang and I saw it was Reggie's cell number. I answered in my best Ted Baxter voice. Only to hear an I Love You come out of the phone. I asked what brought that on.

She had just heard about a motorcycle accident on 15 South. She didn't know what was going on since she wasn't on call for the day. She went down anyway and saw two guys being taken into treatment rooms by the ER staff. As she saw the paramedics go to the admitting desk, she overheard one of the paramedics talking about the two bikers who were on scene, administering First Aid. "Almost like they rehearsed," he said.

"They said, the bikers had the two guys stabilized, bleeding stopped and gave all the info they would normally give to the ER docs when they brought someone in."

"I asked if they knew who they were and they said that the CHP officer got the info on them. So I went to the CHP officer that accompanied the paramedics in. I asked if he had gotten the names of the two good Samaritans. He pulled your card out and another from Rob. I was never so proud to know that you were there.

"Did you know that the one in the helmet has a broken neck? I'll probably be seeing his friend soon, too. It seems he has a compound fracture and a totaled knee. They were pulling 80mph wheelies when one lost control and drifted into the other and they both went down. They still haven't found the one helmet. I think he lost it when he hit the center divide.

"The paramedics said the two of you probably saved their lives. Personally I think the gene pool needed a little Clorox but I'm a doc and I'm not supposed to think like that.

"Will you be picking me up?"

"Of course why would I not pick you up?"

"Well you may not feel up to it in a couple of hours. But if you do feel ok, come on up and I'll be ready. I'll be waiting. I love you."

What just happened? She said she loved me (twice) and we've only been together for four days. What a rush. I reached for the second beer that was getting warm.

I was going to tell Rob to settle in, I was going to lie down. I looked over at the couch and Rob was already crashed. I went to the bedroom and stripped down to underwear. I laid down and was out immediately.

The alarm was ringing. I looked at the clock and it showed 4 PM. I had to get up and get Reggie. I stuck my head under the shower and pulled on my Levi's. I looked in the living room and saw Rob still crashed. I called Sybil and told her Rob was toasted and to come on down; we'd order out for pizza or something.

I threw a blanket over Rob and left a note on his beer. I pulled into the ER lot right at 5 PM. Reggie came running out as I got off the bike. As soon as I took my helmet off, I was wrapped up in a bundle of loving softness.

"You guys were awesome. The paramedics and the cop said you two kept the guys alive and did everything right. The kid with a broken neck is looking at some rehab but he'll walk again thanks to someone not allowing his helmet to be removed. The other kid will be seeing stars for a long time. He has a concussion but he's alive and will probably make a full recovery." All this before I could lower her to the ground.

I told her we had a guest crashed on the couch and we'd order out for pizza if she wanted.

"So I'll get to meet more of your friends?"

"Well you know Sybil and Rob and you met a bunch of them last night. You also know JJ so you are ahead of the game. I only know your family."

Driving home during a rush hour (read snails' pace) is enlightening. I pointed out all the folks who just trudged along. You can tell the seasoned commuters. They are the ones who have the A/C going or they are singing to tunes that they have with them. You always run across a couple of folks that just have to get there first and we let them. I don't care; when you are on a bike you get close to your fellow commuters and you see the ones that are frowning and not paying attention and you avoid them if possible.

I hit the garage door opener as we pulled into the drive. I noticed Rob's bike in the garage and a '54 Chevy on the street. Sybil must be here. I warned Reggie that she was going have 44DD's wrapped around her head in a few minutes. She looked at me weird like I was from Mars.

"Seriously, Reggie, you will have them wrapped around your head. You know Sybil is rather well-endowed and she's a lot taller than you. So just enjoy and hold your breath. If not, you'll surely suffocate."

We got off the bike and went into the house. Just as we entered the kitchen, I saw Sybil coming towards us. She grabbed me in a warm hug (Did I mention she's built?) and enveloped me. After being treated to a full body embrace, she backed up and looked at Reggie.

"Damn girl, you're cuter in leather than you are in scrubs!" she complimented.

Sybil pulled her into another full body hug. Sure enough, the size difference just about suffocated Reggie as her head sank between Sybil's considerable rack.

"I couldn't do that at the hospital so I did it now. How are you and why did you hook up with this fuzzy faced old fart?"

Taking her by the hand, Sybil just pulled Reggie along to the living room, "Tea is in the living room, Dom. I'll set the table for pizza."

Sybil does take over if given the chance. Reggie told her to have a seat, she'd get the table but Sybil just said, "Reggie, you've been working all day so take the load off. Besides I probably know more about Dom's kitchen than he does."

Reggie had a seat on my lap as she sipped her tea. "Is she always like that?"

"Yes, she is, and she likes you. She's also a lot like you in more ways than one. She saw Rob one day when we were on a ride that crossed into Arizona. We were just going to Yuma for lunch. When we left, she was on the back of his bike and they haven't been back since."

"How long ago was that?"

"Fifteen years ago."

"You mean, you have known Rob for 15 years?"

"Closer to 23 years; we've been riding buddies for that long. We both had two of the first GoldWings in California when we were stationed here. I have known him since I graduated basic and he was a newly minted Ensign. We have been stationed together about half the time believe it or not. We've actually tried to get separated but it didn't work."

"So Sybil hitched a ride on the back of Rob's bike and they have lived together happily ever after."

"Well not really, her husband was really pissed off until she paid him to file the papers and they made it final. But, that took a couple of years. We didn't know we were wanted in Arizona for kidnapping until the news hit San Diego. We got a hold of the local authorities and let them know what happened and we all had a good laugh. Sybil hasn't been out of California since, unless it was on the back of Rob's bike. She got in touch with her husband and he was more than a little angry. She just said to get over it and file, she'd sign. All she wanted was her clothes."

Sybil came in about that time and asked for 30 bucks for the pizza. I just looked at her and she said it was either give the child a good tip or flash him and she didn't want to cause a heart attack for one so young.

Sybil paid off the kid then she woke up Rob with a long slow kiss. As Rob was getting up Sybil looked at Reggie and said not to wake me up that way. She did it once and I almost knocked her head off. The best way to wake me up is to kick the bed and run.

Reggie said the alarm works wonders as long as she's in the shower first. It's just a matter of timing and when did you ever try to wake Dom up like that?

Sybil just smiled and said she was a very friendly type of person.

This caused a smile from both of the ladies to be exchanged. (Note to self, defuse the situation tonight before she jumps to conclusions. Remember, her daddy carries a gun.)

We gathered around the table and talked about what was going on at our respective jobs. Reggie retold what the prognosis was for the two youngsters we had encountered that morning. Rob was happy to hear about the recoveries.

Sybil said that was the down side of riding. Now that I had a girlfriend who was a Doc, maybe I could get REAL battle dressings instead of embarrassing myself by purchasing Kotex.