Free To Protect & Serve by Staci Stallings

made eye contact with the first paramedic that broke through the crowd. That one look stopped the young man cold. The paramedic, several inches shorter than Jeff and looking like a cocky jock with his hat turned backward, halted and then approached on soft feet. A silent conversation passed between them, and the paramedic nodded his understanding of the situation.
    “You don’t understand,” Parker said from the edge, and both gazes snapped to him.
    “Then help me,” Jeff said softly. “Help me understand.”
    Before he even heard the words, he heard the tears. “I go there every day… and every day, it’s the same thing. They hate me so they push me down, and they call me a maggot and a faggot and they say the only thing I’m really good at is being a punching bag.”
    Jeff looked across at his partner in this rescue, and the ache bled through his eyes as well.
    “They pull my shorts down in P.E., and they throw my clothes out the window, and I never did anything to them. I swear I didn’t. I tell them to stop, but they just think it’s funny, and they make more fun of me. I told one of the teachers, but he said to suck it up and be a man. Well, I’m tired of being a man. I’m tired of hurting all the time. They can just find somebody else to pick on from now on.”
    “And they will,” Jeff said slowly. Instantly his partner looked over at him in fearful shock. For a second, a question ran through his face, and then Jeff knew he understood. “When you’re gone tomorrow, they’ll find someone else to pick on, and they won’t even remember you. Is that really what you want?”
    “He’s right,” the paramedic said, matching his soft tone. Parker’s gaze swung around to him as Jeff’s heart caught in his throat. “He is. If you jump, you give them the last laugh. Checkmate. They win.” The world and Jeff’s heart screeched to a halt. “Is that really what you want, man?”
    A gust brushed past them, and Jeff held his breath.
    “No,” Parker finally said like a breath. “I don’t. I don’t know. I’m just so confused.”
    “Then this’s no time to be making a big decision like this one,” Jeff said, sensing the tri-bond that had just formed between them. He took a small step forward. “Come on, Parker. Take my hand and come back across. We can work this out. I promise.”
    “It’s just so hard,” Parker said, and Jeff saw the hand on the other side release.
    “Parker?” He held his hand out palm up. “Just take my hand. Okay? Just take my hand, and we’ll talk about this.” One agonizing inch at a time, the hand came across, and finally it touched Jeff’s. He could feel the life flowing through that hand—its potential. “Good. Good, man. Okay, careful.”
    One foot at a time, Parker scaled the concrete wall separating them, and when he was back in the land of the living, Jeff breathed a grateful sigh of relief.
    Slowly Parker slid down the concrete to the asphalt as fatigue crowded over his features. Jeff sat on his heels next to the paramedic as the other rescue personnel worked to disperse the crowd. He laid a gentle hand on the bony shoulder of the young teenager. “How you doing? You okay?”
    The nod was there but barely.
    “Good, these guys are going to take care of you now. Okay?”
    Sad, frightened eyes looked up at him. “You’re leaving?”
    “No,” Jeff said without hesitation, “but I don’t think you want me checking you out. Doctoring’s not really my department.”
    Two other paramedics broke in as Jeff stood and stepped over to the railing. It was then that he saw the news trucks and the gathering that was now dispersing beneath the bridge. One life. Hardly noticed to this point, and yet when the possibility of it leaving the earth arrived, everyone else stopped to take notice. Why was that? Why doesn’t anyone stop until it’s all over? He breathed out against the air that was blowing in his face.
    “He was lucky you were here,” the voice said from