“We were—I was ch-choking him and… and he… he passed out! He never sa-safeworded, so I thought…. He seemed fine, and then he just… passed out,” she stammers.

Rowan kneels down next to the man and grabs his wrist to feel for his pulse. It’s weak, but there.

“Did he ever stop breathing after he passed out?” Rowan asks her.

“Yeah. Shit, yeah, he did. I was so fucking scared, but I did CPR on him for maybe a minute? Maybe less? I don’t know, it all happened so fast and—”

“Hey, it’s okay,” Addison soothes. “You did good. He’s breathing now, okay?”

The woman nods, covering her breasts with her arms and shrinking in on herself as if only now realizing she is nude.

“Did he fall or hit his head when he passed out?” Rowan asks, doing a once-over to check for physical injuries.

“No. We were already on the floor, and he fell forward into me. I laid him down.”

“That’s good,” Rowan says. “Oxygen.”

Addison grabs the emergency oxygen cylinder from her kit and fits the mask over their patient’s face, then turns on the flow. The man’s eyelids flutter at the rush of oxygen. A promising sign, but he’s still not out of the woods. They’ll need to get him in the ambulance and to the nearest hospital to find out if there’s any lasting damage from the lack of oxygen.

“Has he had any alcohol or drugs tonight that you’re aware of?” Addison asks.

The woman shakes her head, then adds, “Well, we had a couple drinks before this, but I think he only had two glasses of whisky. No drugs, but I guess he could’ve taken something before we met. I don’t know.”

Rowan lifts his eyelids and shines a flashlight on his eyes to check his pupil response. Still intact—another good sign. It looks like he’s going to be okay, but they still need to get him to a doctor.

“They don’t allow it here,” the woman says, almost to herself. “Choking. But he said he’d done it before and knew how much… how much he could handle, and….”

“We’re gonna help him,” Rowan promises, setting up the stretcher next to the man and grasping his legs. “Move on three. One, two, three.”

They quickly shift the man onto the stretcher and cover him in a wool blanket from their kit before strapping him in.

“Do you want to come, ma’am?” Addison asks the woman as she and Rowan raise the stretcher.

She shakes her head. “I only met him a few hours ago. I don’t even know his real name….”