Danger Zone (File One of The First Responders Files)

Chapter Twenty-Two

Fun fact: I started writing this chapter last night, but due to having to make a hard shut-down, I lost everything I had originally written, which was 4.5K words. I was worried that screwed with my motivation. I think 10.2K words says otherwise, don'tcha think?

The 126 - and consequently 51 and the 118 - deal with the fallout of Tim's death, one natural disaster bleeds into another, and two firehouses get a call to arms that is going to lead to one hell of a reunion.

Enjoy!

***

Tim Rosewater was dead, and the entire house was quiet in mourning.

Not a sound came from Firehouse 126. Not a sound came from the kitchen, typically always with someone searching through cabinets or the fridge. Not a sound came from the locker rooms, where some firefighters had already gone to prepare for leaving. Not a sound came from the rigs, parked on the apparatus floor, waiting to be used once more.

And not a sound came from the crews of Ladder 126, EMS 126, and Squad 9 as they sat together, each of them in their own little groups: Paul and Marjan, the woman with her hand tight on Paul's shoulder, his tight on the mug she had given him; Judd and TK, the veteran of the crew with his arms holding onto a pillow and his little brother as if they might disappear at any moment; and Buck and Nancy, the paramedic with a white-knuckled grip on the firefighter's hand.

Their silence was broken when Mateo's footsteps approached, and Paul looked over as the youngest of the team walked over as if in a trance. "That was quick," he remarked.

"They didn't ask me many questions," Mateo mumbled, finding a random chair to drop like a dead weight into. "Just what I saw. It didn't feel like we were in trouble."

Judd frowned. "Yeah, why would anyone be in trouble?"

"It was a freak accident," Marjan nodded in agreement.

"I don't know," Mateo shrugged. "I guess . . . maybe I always feel like I'm in trouble."

"Hey," Judd leaned forward. "This ain't your fault. This . . . this is . . . I mean . . . " He cleared his throat, and TK cuddled closer, resting his head on Judd's shoulder. Judd rested his chin on top of TK's head, squeezing his eyes shut. "This ain't nobody's fault," he said with conviction.

"I wonder if they notified his family yet," Buck said.

"His family's in Maryland." Nancy's voice was hushed, as if raising her voice in the slightest would ruin something else. "He came out here to go to UT, and he ended up staying. He was supposed to go see them this summer, but he changed his plan when he heard we would be getting another paramedic captain for the house. He wanted to get to know who it ended up being."

"Oh, my God," TK closed his eyes, knowing that would be yet another burden for Sylvie to bear. As if the poor chief paramedic didn't have enough already.

"Why did we leave him there?" Nancy demanded, looking around the firefighters. "Why? We wouldn't have done that with anybody else!"

"Because." Owen's hand rested on her shoulder, and Nancy gasped lightly, looking up to see the captain giving her a sympathetic, sorrowful look. "When one of us gets killed on a call, another house comes in and takes care of it. It's what we do. It's protocol."

Nancy swallowed hard. "Heroic measures, right up to the hospital doors!" she argued, her tears in her voice. "That's how we've been trained! We don't call it in the field! We should've stayed, and we should've been working on him!"