The Nurse and the Fireman

Chapter 9

Trish splits off to find Kev. She finds him upstairs on the balcony. "Dennis needs to talk to ya."

"What? What's he said? Rosa Paknadel was here. She said he was there. Did he-

"I think you need to hear it from him."

"Yeah yeah I know. Is it weird, after all this, I don't wanna know?"

"No. Promise you'll call after? I've gotta go meet Rachel and Grace."

"Yeah. I will."

Trish leaves and Kev leans against the rail. He hears a voice and sees Liam in a tub of water. Dennis pulls him out and tries to warm him up.

"What you doing in there?"

"Sorry uncle Asbo. I didn't mean it."

"It's alright mate. It's gonna be alright."

"Asbo." Kev calls down. When Dennis looks up, he nods towards the station.

Dennis takes a deep breath and walks inside.

Charlie arrives and rushes into the multi faith room. "Hamish."

"Charlotte? Little Lottie!"

"No one calls me that anymore. What are you doing here? This is Dennis' place of work. You can't just show up."

"I haven't seen my son in three years. I've just got out and wanted to pay him a visit."

"You could've waited until his shift was over. He's got bigger things to deal with."

The door opens and Kev storms in, Dennis following behind and shutting the door. "Charlie?"

"Kev..."

"Who's this?"

Dennis' dad stands and holds out a hand. "Hamish. Pleasure to meet ya mate."

Kev ignores the hand. "Asbo, who is this and why is he wearing my tunic?"

"He's my dad, Gov." His eyes flit to Charlie. "And what Rosa said, that's right. It was me and Gog. We started the fire."

"You don't need to say anything else, son. Don't say any-"

"Shut up, dad!" He brushes past Kev and Hamish and stands in front of the small couch by the window. "I come home from training for the weekend, I was going to have an early night, but he showed up about eight. He was steaming, he kept saying, "she's taking the piss, she's taking the piss" He said he wanted to give her a scare, I thought he meant go in there, make a bit of mess, but...Anyway, we get up there and he says they're on their holidays, and I should have known then 'cause the chain wasn't on the door, but I'm just a lookout so I'm waiting outside, and it's a few minutes before I notice the pram. and that's when I realise they're still in there. So I leg it. I bolt for the stairwell and I wait there. I thought I'll wait for him, and my heart's going like the clappers, and then I
smell the smoke."

Hamish looks at Dennis with sadness in his eyes. Kev looks like he wants to kill him. Dennis looks back at Charlie with apologetic eyes. She gives him a crooked smile, blinking back tears.

"He says there was a heater on, one of them gas things, and maybe he knocked it over, only I don't know, Gov, I still don't know 'cause later, after... I thought I could smell it on him. The paraffin. And I knew the baby was upstairs and I just, I couldn't.. But by the time I got upstairs, the downstairs was alight, we couldn't get down, Gog was freaking out and.... And then you lot come in and the baby's screaming like anything, and Gog... Well, you know what happened after, but it's just... I'm sorry, Gov. I'm so sorry." He sits down, burying his face in his hands sobbing. "I wish I just had the guts to kill myself."