The night started off good. Olivia and Elliot had a night alone in their house without their three little ones, and then at around 8 their children were brought back by the sitter and they all headed back to bed. But as they slept, earlier than they usually do, smoke started to fill the house. From in the basement, the large and hot fire made it's way up the wood stairs and licked at the wood door until it caught on fire. As it started to attack the kitchen, the fire alarms sounded and Olivia and Elliot were woke up quickly.
"Fire?" Olivia asked as she breathed heavily from getting up quickly.
"Fire. Shit. Liv, we have to get the kids." Elliot spoke, and Olivia nodded as she quickly slipped her feet into her slippers before running from the room. Elliot ran down the hall and opened the door to their son's room, but their child wasn't in his bed.
"Roman!" Elliot yelled, as he quickly started to search the room as the smoke started to get thicker in the air. Elliot swung open the window and continued to yell for his son.
"Roman, I need to find you, buddy! Go outside if you can hear me, or find me, Roman!" Elliot yelled as he went sprinting from the room. He saw the silhouette of his wife through the smoke as she ran down the stairs with their daughters in her arms as all three of them coughed.
"Roman!" Elliot yelled again, as he started to search the rooms as the smoke got thicker.
Sitting in the linen closet at the end of the hall, with his arms wrapped tightly around his stuffed turtle, Roman coughed and cried. He couldn't find his voice, and at only 4, he didn't know what to do. He felt as he wet himself as the crackle of fire got closer to the door.
"Daddy... Momma..." Roman whimpered, but his voice was barely above a whisper and the fire was loud and filled Elliot's ears, while he continued to look for his son.
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"Oh, Elliot," Olivia whispered, as she stood on the sidewalk and watched as she saw her husband throw open windows in hopes of clearing out enough smoke that he could breathe enough. Olivia could hear as his voice got weaker every time he yelled out their son's name. The sounds of sirens were growing louder, but Olivia feared it would be too late for her son and her husband. Elliot was strong and determined to find their child, but what if Roman wasn't alive anymore and it was of no use?
"Olivia, where's your husband?" A neighbor asked as she and her husband ran across the street to where Olivia stood on the sidewalk and watched as her home burned up.
"He's inside... We can't find Roman and Elliot won't leave without him." Olivia whimpered, as her neighbor picked up little Lillian and held the toddler close.
"Give me Everly and I'll take her and Lillian back to my house. Dillon wait here with Olivia." Marcy spoke, but it took all of her strength to pull Everly from her mother's arms. Marcy ran back across the street as the lights of the fire trucks grew closer, and as Dillon turned to see how far away they were, Olivia went sprinting towards the house.
"Olivia!" Dillon screamed, but she had already entered the house.
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Inside the burning house, the heat was beyond unbearable, but Elliot had grabbed two towels and gotten water on them. He tied one around his face, and he made one more pass through the hallway. He got to the end of the hall and was about the run out without his little boy, but then he heard the cries of his wife as she climbed up the stairs.
"Roman! Baby!" Olivia cried, between her coughs.
"Liv, get back-" Elliot started, but inside the linen one last try at getting his parents' attention was heard.
"Momma!" Roman's weak cry was heard and Elliot turned around and opened the door to the linen closet as the sound of firefighters entering the house was heard downstairs.
"Oh Roman!" Olivia exclaimed as Elliot lifted their small boy up.
"He was in his favorite hiding spot." Elliot coughed, as he tied the towel around Roman's face, before going to take his own towel off to give it to his wife, as the heat of the fire quickly started to get intenser by the second.
"Time to go!" A firefighter yelled, and Elliot quickly passed Roman to his wife and Olivia ran down the hall as her chest grew tighter from the smoke.
The firefighter grabbed Olivia by her arm and pulled her down the stairs as gently as he could, while Elliot tried to keep up. As he made it to the bottom stair, everything went from fiery reds, oranges, and yellows to complete blackness.
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The sounds of beeping filled Elliot's ears as he started to wake up. He looked around the room, and he noticed it was a hospital room. He reached an arm up and ran it over his face and felt the oxygen nubbins in his nose, and he saw the white bandages wrapped around his left arm and he knew he must've been burnt in the fire that almost took the life of his son.
"He's awake." Olivia's voice whispered as she shifted a bit. Lillian was sitting on a chair in Elliot's room, while Everly was still sleeping in her mother's arms.
"What happened?" Elliot asked, but he knew about the fire but just not about what happened when he was leaving the fire.
"You almost died, Elliot. They had to do CPR on you the whole way to the hospital. You had a heart attack from all of the stress." Olivia spoke, as she walked over to him as Lillian continued to stare at her father with wide brown eyes.
"Roman?" He coughed.
"He's okay. He has burns, but he's okay. Babe, because you didn't give up on finding him, we have all four babies." Olivia spoke, and Elliot eyed her.
"We have three kids," Elliot replied, and Olivia laughed softly as she lowered Everly into Elliot's good arm when he motioned her too.
"I had to get examined when I got here and I'm pregnant. Elliot, what you did was so brave but also stupid." Olivia spoke.
"You go from telling me that we are having another kid to calling me stupid? You should be getting me my cape." Elliot teased.
The door opened and a bed the size of Elliot's was pushed into the room. Olivia was just about to say that this was a private room, but then she saw her small son laying on the large bed and he smiled at his father.
"Daddy!" Roman exclaimed.
"Hey, Ro. I'm so glad that you are okay. Next time if there is an emergency please don't hide." Elliot spoke, and Roman nodded.
"I promise, Daddy! But look, we have matching boo-boos and that nose thingy!" Roman cried.
"We do indeed." Elliot smiled. And just seeing his son alive and well made Elliot truly realize that staying in the fire to find his son was exactly the right thing to do.
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