Ride Along Page #10

Chloe sees Kevin walk right past the nurse station, without ever

looking up. He goes towards the ER doors he came in from and

sits on a BENCH near the door. Chloe looks at Frank. Frank looks

at Chloe and then at Kevin. He nudges his head forward, as if to

indicate to Chloe to go over to him. Chloe does.

Chloe:

Hey!

Kevin looks up. Chloe see’s something flicker in his eyes.

Kevin:

Hey! What are you doing here?

Chloe:

We both have shifts today. Remember you

drove me? And I think I’m gonna hitch a

ride back to your station.

Kevin:

Why?

Chloe:

I’ll tell you later. Anyway I heard

about your two calls. Very cool if you

ask me.

Kevin:

Yeah, I guess they are. Bringing a baby

into this world is pretty cool.

Chloe:

Yeah, it totally is! You hear stories

of EMTs that deal with death, but you

never hear stories of those that bring

life into the world! You’re just giving

a giant middle finger to death.

Chloe laughs. Kevin blows air out his nose.

Kevin:

He may get the last laugh though.

Kevin looks over to the room the man is in. People are

frantically moving in and out. It doesn’t look good.

Kevin (cont’d):

This doesn’t have a happy ending.

Chloe:

You want to talk about it?

Suddenly we here a flat line sound and someone say “we’re losing

him”. Chloe turns to see it is Kevin’s patient’s room that it’s

coming from. Chloe sees Kevin walk past her and towards the

patient’s room. He stands in the doorway, watching. He sees the

man hooked up to a bunch of machines, a lot of doctors and

nurses working on him. Nurse Williams is holding pressure on the

wound now.

Young Doctor:

Clear!

Everyone steps back from the patient, including Nurse Williams,

while the doctor defibrillates the man. The doctor looks at the

heart monitor. Nothing.

Young Doctor:

Alright I’m calling it. Time of death

16:
09.

A bunch of nurses walk past Kevin, removing their gloves. Kevin

looks to his left to see Thompson, standing there with him.

Thompson:

He needed an operating room an hour

ago. There was nothing any of us could

have done.

Thompson walks up to the patient. He grabs one of the man’s

hands with both of his, and brings his head down to his hands.

Thompson:

Until next time, my friend.

Thompson then releases the man’s hand and walks out of the room,

without even a glance at Kevin. Kevin walks into the room, and

up to the man. He looks at the man’s face for a few seconds.

Chloe walks up behind Kevin.

Chloe:

You want to talk about it?

Kevin:

You know, this is the first time I’ve

seen the man’s face. I’ve been holding

gauze to his side for close to an hour,

but never looked at his face. . . Or

even learned his name.

Chloe opens her mouth to speak, but before she does Kevin turns

around, and walks right past Chloe. Chloe closes both her eyes,

sighs, and drops her head.

54. INT. AMBULANCE 96- DUSK.

Thompson, Miller, Chloe and Kevin are all in the ambulance.

Thompson driving, Chloe riding shotgun. Kevin in his normal

seat, and Miller laying down on the bench in the back of the

ambulance, a jacket over her face. Thompson has the music on up

front, but it’s barely audible from the back. Kevin is staring

out the back window of the ambulance, no expression on his face.

There is dried blood still on his uniform.

55. INT. FIRE STATION 9- NIGHT.

You see Thompson, Miller, Chloe and Kevin walk through the door

leading from the garage to the main section. They all walk to

the kitchen to find it empty, with half a pizza waiting on the

kitchen table. You can hear some conversation echoing down the

hall.

Miller:

I’m not hungry.

Miller walks towards a door labeled “Bunks”, and goes in.

Chloe:

Me neither.

Thompson:

Pffh, if there is ever a day so bad

that I don’t want pizza at the end of

it than I better be dead. You hungry?

Kevin:

No.

Kevin walks away.

Thompson:

More for me.

56. EXT. KEVIN’S CAR- NIGHT.

Kevin and Chloe are in his car. It is pouring down rain outside.

Chloe:

We should talk.

Kevin:

I agree.

A prolonged silence.

Chloe:

Uhh, yes Kevin?

Kevin:

Oh I was waiting on you. Alright, no

matter. So are you at that point where

the hospital no longer smells like a

hospital? I walk in it and nothing, no

alcohol, no cleanser, no latex. It’s

weird. To be expected I guess.

Chloe:

You know what I meant.

Kevin:

Well I’m not a f***ing mind reader. How

am I supposed to know the exact topic

that you wish to discuss?

Chloe:

Quit dodging! Let’s talk about your two

calls today.

Kevin:

Well what’s there to talk about? I

helped deliver a baby, and then

couldn’t save a man that fell on a

chandelier.

Chloe:

Stop being so cavalier.

Kevin raises his voice:

Kevin:

Alright, you want to know the honest to

God truth?

Chloe:

I think that would be pretty f***ing

good.

Kevin suddenly turns into a parking lot, hardly slowing down. He

then slams on his breaks and gets out of the car. It is pouring

down rain. Chloe follows suit. Kevin screams at the top of his

lungs:

Kevin:

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

Chloe just watches.

Kevin:

There, I let it out. Happy!?

Chloe says nothing.

Kevin (cont’d):

I mean, what the f***. Look at me. I’m

covered in blood. And I probably have

amniotic fluid in my hair. On TV they

dramatize what an EMT actually does,

because let’s face it, if they truly

tried to depict an average day of an

EMT of TV, it would be the most boring

thing on Earth. Or so we’ve been told.

Jesus Christ, there was a pool of blood

on that man’s floor bigger than any

pool I’ve ever seen in a slasher movie.

I see it every time I close my eyes. So

I don’t want you to try and show me the

light and calm me down at every f***ing

turn because NONE OF THIS IS F***ING

OKAY!

Chloe:

Don’t you DARE yell at me. Sure, your

day was pretty f***ing awful, but today

I’ve been called sweetheart, sweety,

and b*tch more times I can count. It’s

disgusting, but before you can tell me

I’m just being paranoid, and I should

get thicker skin, let inform you that

my preceptor, the person that is

supposed to mentor me, painted a very

clear picture about how he’ll never let

me get hired by the county, ever, just

because I was smarter than he was. So

we both have problems. Let’s join the

f***ing club.

Chloe walks in front of the car and sits down. Kevin watches

her. He sincerely says:

Kevin:

I’m sorry.

Chloe:

Do you want to know a secret? I almost

quit the program after that man died in

the park. I stayed home from school,

drowning in self-pity, and just

thought. Thought about what I really

wanted, what this program really means

to me, and what I was going to say to

Mr. Broman, and to you especially. I’ve

had nightmares about that day. I don’t

know why I stayed to be honest. This,

right now, is about as far from what I

want as it gets. So, tell me Kevin, why

the f*** am I still doing it?

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