Meet me in the Middle

Chapter 47

A towel gets thrown in my face before I can catch it and I give Beckett and Jack the evil eye, trying to figure out which one of the two threw it. "You little-" I get cut off by Beckett who opens the hose on me and starts spraying me off. Jack laughs out of his belly as he moves closer to scrub me off with a broom while Beckett joins in the laughter and squirts some soap over the back of my turnouts. "Don't get mad at us because your probie axed a hole through the fuel tank while you were under it." The probie in question guiltily walks closer while apologizing again for the dozenth time since it happened.

I grab the hose from Beckett and point the nozzle to the newly graduated firefighter. She manages to run away, but not before the water hits her in the chest. "I said I was sorry, Lieutenant Bishop!" I huff at her retreating form hiding behind the car, which was involved in the car accident we were called out to. When Jack starts chuckling again, I turn the hose on him and laugh for the first time myself when his new hairstyle flops onto his forehead and the water drips from his nose. "Enough, children!" Beckett, Jack and the new probie's laughter stops abruptly and they all stand at attention when Captain Parks barks at us.

He gives me a look that he tries to sell as a stern scowl, but I can see the joy in the sparkle of his eyes. There were only a few things that the old veteran loved more than seeing his team happy. The scowl turns into a smile when I open the hose near his feet, and he has to jump out of the way. I raise my eyebrow at him in defiance when he ticks his tongue at me. "I miss my original lieutenants. The three of you together makes my house look like a slapstick comedy show." He mumbles it under his breath before barking orders to the rest of his team to get the scene cleaned up. I hand Beckett the hose back so he can make me less flammable before we head back to the station.

I was pleasantly surprised when Beckett and I walked into station 64 this morning to find Jack already in the kitchen making coffee. After Chief Ross tried to get my project shut down, the battalion chiefs didn't hold back and went over her head to the union themselves. They barely made it back to their respective stations when an email got sent out stating that the project was no longer voluntary, and all lieutenants will now be required to work with different shifts. Chief Ross couldn't say anything to change their minds after they showed her the incline in the performance stats over the last two months.

The thing that surprised me the most was when I was forced to work my mandatory three shifts with 19 a week, that Jack rather joined Beckett and myself away from the rest of the team. After Sunday lunch at the Beckett's a few days ago, I found out that Jack has embraced a kind of friendship with Beckett when I wasn't on shift with them and included him on the boys' nights out the last few times. Molly took great pleasure in my jealousy over the new bro bond that was stealing a lot of time from my Beckett time. It wasn't that I didn't love spending time with Molly and Antonio, but sometimes I just needed my person by my side.

It was never talked about again after I crawled into bed with them the night I took Carina with me to Diane's office, to confess my suicidal attempt. Just like we never talked about it when Beckett crawled into my bed after Molly told him that she wanted to get pregnant again. They were both scared of the future. I loved it even more when Molly and Antonio kicked him out a few hours later to complain about his stubbornness and I am still surprised that they included me in the debate of when they should start trying. They decided to stop using birth control the morning after we all fell asleep cuddled together. At least Antonio was ecstatic about the possibility of a baby sister or brother.

To make up for his absence the last couple of weeks, Beckett finally agreed to go skydiving with me before our Sunday lunch, and I wasn't even irritated when he invited Jack with us. It was a blast! Like, I honestly can't remember the last time I felt as free as I did while free falling from a plane. I was the only one that went to the required AFF classes and passed all my solo categories. Both Beckett and Jack had to jump with an instructor, but it was an incredible experience all around. We went out for beers afterwards and couldn't shut up about it ever since. It was so nice to have a small connection back with someone from my old team, and I was selfishly overjoyed that it was with Jack.