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“He’s in the hospital.” The officer didn’t sound too broken up about that, either. “You kids coming or what? I’ve got real criminals to book.”
Gabriel was ready to face Michael in the waiting room of the police station.
He wasn’t ready for the firefighters.
More than a dozen men, plus Hannah and one other woman.
Most of them, including Hannah, were wearing fire pants and suspenders, their faces smudged with soot, though a few just wore Tshirts with the fire house insignia and jeans.
Gabriel stopped short in the doorway and swallowed. He glanced at Michael, standing at the counter and signing a form.
No answers there.
Then some of the firemen separated, revealing a guy in a matching T-shirt in a wheelchair, his leg in a Velcroed cast from ankle to thigh. He glanced between Nick and Gabriel. “Which one of you is the kid who pulled me out of the house on Winterbourne?”
Then Gabriel recognized him. This was the guy who’d fallen through the floor. Gabriel didn’t know what to say.
Nick hit him in the shoulder, shoving him forward. “He is.”
The guy held out a hand. “Thank you. I owe you a lot.”
Gabriel couldn’t move.
This time Hunter shoved him in the shoulder. “Shake his hand, you idiot.”
Gabriel reached forward, not feeling like he deserved any thanks at all. He hadn’t been enough. He should have been able to stop the fire.
The man’s hand closed around his. “I heard about today, too.
How did you do it?”
Gabriel shrugged. “Just lucky, I guess.” He glanced back at Hunter. “I had help.”
“Luck doesn’t last forever, kid.”
Gabriel snorted. “No kidding.”
The fireman didn’t let go of his hand. “No more playing fireman. Promise?”
“Yeah,” he said, thinking of Calla Dean and her vow to lure the Guides here. He wouldn’t be able to stop if she kept this up.
But he lied, because what else could he do? “I promise.” He moved to pull his hand back.
The fireman held fast, surprisingly strong despite the fact that he was stuck in a wheelchair. “I’m serious. You want to walk into fires, go through school and do it for real.”
“You know,” said Hannah, “you can start fire school at sixteen.”
Fire school? He’d never considered making a career out of his abilities. “I’ll think about it,” said Gabriel.
Nick clapped him on the shoulder again. “No, you’ll do it.”
Layne stared at the ceiling in the emergency room and listened to her parents bicker. For the second time in less than a week.
She was wearing a hospital gown, so they knew her scars were gone.
And unfortunately, it had turned into one more point of argument.
“Well, David,” her mother snapped, “obviously you haven’t been paying attention to the children if you weren’t aware ”
