Inferno

~11~ The Truth

Liam's POV

Last weekend was heavy. I was relieved to get to go home to my own apartment. I love my family, but I was ready to be home.  The next morning at shift, Taylor called me into his office.

"Yeah Chief?" I ask as I go in and sit down. It used to be really weird calling him that. It's not now. It's easy to switch between personal and professional.

Taylor shakes his head

"Take off the professional hat for a minute, Liam." He says, sadly.

I just nod.

"I am so, so sorry for what happened this weekend. I promise you that it will never happen again. How's your arm?" He asks, looking at it.

"It's sore, but I'll be fine."

"Thank you for jumping in and protecting him" he says with a catch in his voice.

"You woulda done it for me."

"Yeah I would have. Thank you for doing it for him."

"Love you Taylor. All's good with us," I say as I give him a hug.

"I love you too, kid—Ok, hats back on. Let's get to the morning meeting, Lieutenant," he says, clapping me on the back.

"Yes Chief"

We get a call for a car accident. We get the driver out easily, but he's in a bad way. Rhodes and Wilson are working on him, but I'm not sure if he's going to make it. As I'm watching Nora, I'm actually thinking about my mom, and how she was on the job.
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It was my second shift on the job. My first shift mom wasn't there, the twins were sick and she stayed home with them. It was a house fire, but it was filled with fireworks. The house was literally exploding. Taylor got the victim out and put him on the gurney. It was obvious that they were not in a safe spot, and we all needed to move quickly. The guy wasn't breathing though, and we were running out of time.

"Megan, start the ambulance," mom says as she literally gets on top of the gurney and straddles the guy as she starts chest compressions. "Get us in" she says to Taylor. Taylor nods and he and Greene lift the gurney with mom and the victim into the ambulance.

"Let's go, Candidate," Greene says, motioning for me. I nod and get in, shutting the door.

Once we're all in, Megan starts driving.

"What do you want us to do, Freeman?" Taylor asks quickly.

"Greene, grab that bag right there, Preston, take over" she says as she uses Greene's shoulder and pushes herself off of the gurney in one graceful swoop. I still don't know how she did that. She hurries and gets what she needs from the bag and gets the man intubated. She checks for breath sounds and then nods. "I'm in" she says as she checks his blood pressure.

"Insane job, Freeman," Greene says, patting her on the shoulder.
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I didn't work with mom long. We only worked together for a couple months until she left. But it was enough to see how truly amazing she was. I took her for granted. Taylor was right. She was great at her job. To think I once tried to get her fired.....

The rest of shift goes quick. A few days later I head to mom and Taylor's for dinner. I haven't seen my dad in a few weeks, so I'm excited to see him. I get to the house and dad and Lilah are already there.

Lilah gave birth to their son, Colton, 9 years ago. Lilah had trouble getting pregnant, so Colton is their only child together. Dad was fine with it, but Lilah has always wanted more.