LifeOverLimb by Stephani Hecht

After a patient tragically dies while under his care, mobile trauma nurse Tanner withdraws into himself. No longer working out in the field, he’s stuck on the midnight shift at St. Anthony’s Hospital and with each passing day, he sinks deeper into depression.
    Ricky loves his job as a radiology tech. While he enjoys working with patients, the highlight of his day used to be when Tanner would bring a patient into the hospital. Although the nurse’s flirting was sometimes over the top, Ricky found himself growing attracted to the man. So when he learns that Tanner has taken a full-time job at the hospital, Ricky is excited…until he realizes that Tanner is a shell of the man he used to be. Ricky vows that no matter what he has to do, he will bring Tanner out of his depression. Will Ricky be able to make Tanner want to embrace life again? Or will Ricky lose the nurse to his own inner demons?

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    This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
    Life Over Limb
    Copyright © 2011 Stephani Hecht
    ISBN: 978-1-55487-990-8
    Cover art by Martine Jardin
    All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, is forbidden without the written permission of the publisher.
    Published by eXtasy Books
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    Life Over Limb
    EMS Heat 11
    By
    Stephani Hecht

    Chapter One
    Ricky picked up the plate of sad looking lettuce before he shook his head and put it back on the buffet line. Next, he debated over the soggy spaghetti, then the runny mashed potatoes before rejecting both for a hamburger that appeared to have been made two decades ago.
    It was moments like this when Ricky wished he’d taken his mother’s advice and gone into banking instead of becoming a radiology technician. At least then he might be having his lunch hour at a café or something instead of the cafeteria at St. Anthony’s hospital. Then again, since he worked third shift and it was four in the morning, he had to take what he could get.
    Breathing deep, he took in the scents of industrial cleaner and greasy food. What a yummy combination, cue sarcasm. Were it not for the fact that he was diabetic and needed to eat regular meals, Ricky would have been tempted to ditch the place and skip his meal altogether.
     “Well, that’s something I never want to see again,” a voice drawled from beside of him.
    Ricky jumped in surprise. The place was pretty deserted so he hadn’t expected anybody to be talking to him. When he noted it was his friend, Ben, Ricky smiled. Ben was holding up a plate full of what might have once been lasagna. At the moment, it looked more like the Blob’s younger, uglier, red-encrusted cousin.
    Ricky turned and let out a sigh of relief. “I’m so glad you’re here. I was just trying to decide what would be less likely to cause me to hurl. Maybe you can be my food taster for me.”
    Ben and Ricky had been friends since they’d been five years old. They now were roommates and worked at the same hospital, although Ben was employed as an RN in the ER as opposed to the radiology department.
    Though they were both gay, they’d never been romantically involved. Sure, Ben was good looking enough. Since his mother was