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Charlie and I fight through the waves of heat surrounding us. We move together down the hallway when the floor begins to shake. I scan the area and know with everything I have, this house will go down any minute. “The west side of the second floor is about to go, Cap,” I say over the comms. “If we go any further, we’ll go down with the house.”
“Then get out of there,” Tucker replies.
There’s a bedroom door a couple of steps away, and knowing there could be a baby in there, I take a chance in checking it before we get out of the house.
When I get the door open, the smoke from the hallway pours into the small space. My eyes land on a crib across the room, and I move toward it. A tiny bundle lies in the middle of the bed. “Cap, I’ve got the baby.” I scoop them out of their crib and cradle them to my chest.
“We need to get out, Sam,” Charlie says.
“Baby is secure. Let’s go.” We hurry back toward the guest bedroom where the ladder is waiting for us. Charlie goes down first. She offers to take the baby from me, but for some reason, I can’t let them go.
I hurry down the ladder and rush over to Tyler and Jason. The minute they take the baby, they start them on oxygen and check on vitals. The little pink blanket makes me wonder if it’s a little girl.
I rip my mask off to get a breath of fresh air. The sound of wood cracking has me looking toward the house. The entire west side collapses in on itself. Something in my chest cracks. The parents had to have been home. The baby wouldn’t have been by herself. Could I have gotten them out in time? If I’d passed the baby to Charlie and gone back for them, would I have been able to find them?
The hard truth is I probably would’ve died in that fire if I’d gone back. My weight would’ve likely caused the house to be unbalanced and collapse faster.
I hang my head. As much as I love this job, it fucking sucks in these moments.
A hand grips my shoulder. “You did the right thing, Sam.”
“I know, Cap. Doesn’t make it any easier, though.” I look up at Tucker and see the anguish in his eyes. We take a moment to think about the parents and then get back to our jobs. We have to ensure the fire doesn’t spread to the other houses in the neighborhood. It’s going to be a long afternoon, and all I want to do is hug Carter.
Unfortunately, I can’t even hug him tomorrow when I’m off. He’s going to Greensboro for his monthly team meeting, which means he’ll be gone all day.
I’ll be left with my thoughts, and that’s never good. I’ll have to settle for a phone call when we get back to the house.
It takes us hours to get the fire put out, and Chief calls in the county investigators to get an idea of how this fire started. We found the parents on the main floor in the living room. They were already gone by the time we got to the house. I haven’t decided if that’s a good thing or not. At the very least, it solidifies that the choice I made was the right one. I wish I knew what happened. How could they have slept through a fire alarm going off?
It doesn’t make any sense, but the investigators will find out what happened. When we get back to the house, everyone is subdued. I find Taylor later on to ask him about the baby.
“The smoke damage was intense. Since she’s so young, they’re not sure how well she’ll recover. It’ll be a waiting game.” Taylor curls his lips in and pats me on the shoulder. What happens next? Does she go into foster care? Maybe she has other relatives somewhere. I hope that’s the case. She’s going to need someone to give her extra love and care after everything she’s been through.
Feeling adrift, I make my way to my bunk and call Carter.
“Hey, Smoky.” Just his voice makes the tightness in my chest ease a little.
“Hey.”
“You okay?”
I sigh. “We had a really tough call today. I just… needed to hear your voice.”
“Want me to listen or distract you?”
I find myself smiling at how good he is at reading a situation. Instead of giving me empty platitudes, he’s giving me the chance to decide what I need most right now. “A distraction, please.”
“Hmm. Oh! I never told you what happened after my conversation with Nolan at dinner the other night.” His laugh alone takes away some of my stress. Then his story about Nolan’s bisexual experiment does exactly what I needed and allows my mind to focus on something else.
“Turns out, my suggestion about imagining giving a blow job backfired. It was all Nolan could think about, and when he gets fixated on something, he can’t let it go. So, he asked one of his friends to experiment with him. I made sure Nolan was upfront with the guy before he did anything, of course. And as it turns out, Nolan is definitely not bisexual, per his words.”
“Can you imagine Nolan touching some guy’s junk as an experiment?” I ask. If it was anyone else, I’d think they were being insensitive. But Nolan is such a genuine guy in everything he does. I know he must’ve had some serious doubts about his sexuality.
Carter snorts. “Absolutely not, but I wish I could’ve been a fly on that wall. I hate that he was worried about it, though.”
“At least he felt comfortable coming to you with questions.”
“Yeah, that’s true. And that he found a dude who was both kind and secure enough to let him explore.”
