by Amy Briggs
I pulled out my phone to text her,
Morning, beautiful. When are you coming by?
I sat and waited for her to reply. I know she doesn’t have a call, because I’ve been listening to the scanner, and I would know if there was a fire or an EMS call in her district. After what seemed like forever, but probably was a few minutes, she replied.
Hey, there. After my shift I can swing by.
Everything okay?
I ask.
Yeah, why wouldn’t it be? I’m just working. Like you.
You’re working where we both know you shouldn’t be.
I was going to be honest. She definitely shouldn’t be there.
Look, I’m just working. Please don’t give me a hard time.
I’m protecting what’s mine.
I don’t need protection, I’m just working. I’ll be by after my shift around 4. Now settle yourself ;)
Okay, I got the wink, so she wasn’t pissed.
Just be careful. I miss you. ;)
I don’t care if I sound like a pussy, I do miss her.
Be careful too.
And then she sent a second text,
I miss you too.
I grinned like an idiot and stared at my phone. She missed me and I loved it.
The tones dropped, and I hopped up and shoved my phone in my pocket. I was listening for the dispatcher to announce where the call was and what we had in store for us today.
“Engine 23, Ladder 23, Visible Smoke in the area of North Orange and Virginia Ave,” I heard over the intercom. I was wearing my duty radio, so I replied on my way to my new Chief’s truck. “Central, 2300 responding.” The rest of the guys were racing to their trucks, and they also responded accordingly.
Normally we’d have an actual address, but since it was the middle of the day, someone must had spotted smoke, and called it in. That meant we’d either have to find which house it is, or it would be really obvious which house it is. Because it’s a home on the end of town, the neighboring town’s trucks were called as well. We all went lights and sirens to the scene, something I'll always love. The rush of excitement that comes with getting to the scene is something you just can’t describe unless you’ve done it. I arrived first, and immediately saw which house it was and called it into dispatch. I threw my jacket and helmet on, and walked around the house doing my 360, sizing up the scene.
The other trucks arrived shortly after I did, and I instructed them where to set up. It looked like there was a fire somewhere in the back corner of the house, probably the kitchen. The smoke alarms were audible now, and I could see a lot of smoke in the kitchen window. It appeared that no residents were home, but we still needed to do a search. My guys ran like a well-oiled machine. I went back to my vehicle to set up command, and instructed the ladder to set up and conduct a search to make sure there was no victims in the house. Then instructed the engine to attach to the nearest hydrant and prepare to go in the back side of the house. The interior crew reported that there was no visible fire, however there was smoke coming from the wall near the oven.
I sighed. That meant that if they didn’t find the hot spot with the TIC (thermal imaging camera), they'd have to start ripping the wall apart looking for the fire. That could go a lot of different ways for us, and get complicated. In a concrete block house, you couldn’t exactly just rip the walls apart obviously, and it could be a little trickier to find the source of the fire. Also, our job was not just to find the fire and put “the wet stuff on the red stuff”, but we had a moral responsibility to try not to do a bunch of damage to personal property as well. The house had an addition to it, so it wasn’t traditional cement block like most homes in Florida. It definitely had a truss roof construction on the addition of the second floor, and I was pretty concerned there was fire in the addition walls making its way to the roof. In central Florida, most of the homes start as one story cement block, and they’re on relatively small plots of land. The only way to have a bigger house is to move outside the city, or build up. This house had done that, and it wasn’t looking good for the likely pricey addition. I called for additional personnel to the scene, it was definitely a fire and we’d need reinforcements. It was going to be a long job.
I heard Station 23 get tapped out for what sounds like might become a real fire. That made me a bit tense. The thing is, firefighting isn’t really what you see on television. There aren’t that many fires in real life. Yes, in a city, there’s more than our fair share, however it’s not racing from one fire to the next, so when you do have a legitimate fire, it’s a big deal. Brian knew what he was doing and those guys are really the best around, so I was sure it would be fine. It’s unlikely for me to get called there, it’s all the way on the other side of town. I decided to listen to the call on the radio to stay up-to-date.
I’d been avoiding Danny all morning, who wasn’t supposed to be on the schedule, and yet somehow miraculously was on shift. He’s up to no good, and while I probably should talk to him to make arrangements to get a few things I left at his place, I’d almost rather buy new shit. He approached me this morning when I got in, and I told him I needed to go check my duty rig. I was not riding a fire truck today, I was medic du jour today, and my partner was another girl who’s also a per diem. I didn’t know her that well. Her name was June, and she was a tiny thing, about three inches shorter than me, and I’m only five foot four, and she means business. I'd partnered with her before, and she was a nice chick and not competitive, which was a wonderful change of pace in a medic partner. I prefer when everyone just shows up ready to do their job and that was definitely June.
We hadn’t had a call all day, and so we were sitting in the engine bay listening to Brian’s call. They called for additional staff, so there was definitely a fire. I loved hearing him on the radio, he sounded gruff and sexy. I felt myself grinning hearing his voice give orders and provide updates.
“Central, place all companies in service, and request back-up EMS. Active fire in progress.” I heard him demand over the air. This perked me up, that’s pretty serious around here. Suddenly, our tones dropped too.
“Rescue 19, EMS Fire Response to North Orange & Virginia for active fire.” My partner and I hopped up and headed to our duty rig. I replied immediately over the air. “Central, Rescue 19 en route.”
The fire was actually about fifteen minutes in traffic away, it’s a congested area, and even with lights and sirens it’s difficult to get through it. It was “my treat”, which basically meant, my partner drove, and I got the first patient. In those situations, you took turns unless a call was something that was the one thing that you “just can’t” and you made a deal. In this case, it was just my treat, so I rode shotgun, and laid on the sirens, a lot. I was a little anxious knowing that Brian was there. It would be the first time I’d see him since everything that was going on, and we were both working. It was never an issue when I had a mad crush on him from afar, but I felt invested differently. I was there to do a job, so that’s what I’d do. I was actually relieved that he wasn’t interior fighting the fire himself, although all of my other friends were.
My partner knew that Station 23 had command, and that it was my old station. "Hey, do you know if it’s your old shift on today?” June asked.
“Actually, yeah they are on today. It’s Matt, his brother, and our friends inside right now.” I laid on the queue hard, people drive like assholes here and they needed to get the hell out of our way for Christ’s sake.
“Must be a fucking mess for us to get called all the way out here. I didn’t think the county was that busy today, although I was napping this morning, so what do I know?” June laughed.
“It’s actually busy as hell today, I think all the other rigs were out and that’s why we got called all the way over here. You’d think it was a full moon or something. I’m actually more than happy to get out of the station today. At least we can sit outside and watch the firefighters.” June knew about Danny, and commented this morning o
ver coffee why he was on the schedule when he wasn’t supposed to be. She never cared for him. The more time that passed it seems nobody really liked him. We were rolling up to the scene, and I saw my dad’s old truck, now Brian’s truck.
June pulled up next to Brian and yelled out the window. “Hey, Chief, where do you want us?” He had a serious look on his face, and when he looked up, he looked right at me and smiled.
“Pull back out in front of my truck. Thanks for coming,” He went back to what he was doing; he had several guys around him providing reports and waiting for orders. It was such a turn on watching him. He had on his Class B uniform, but he had his turnout coat and helmet on and was pointing at the rear of the house where you could see brown smoke puffing out of the roof seam steadily. He looked so commanding, and honestly, it was making me wet. I was definitely staring at him.
He looked up and waved us over once we'd parked, and had our equipment in hand. We were really on standby, there were no active injuries at this time. “Meadows, Cruise, thanks for coming. Looks like a busy day in EMS, and fire too it seems. You can hang out here for now, we already have a rehab unit set up in the neighbors yard over by the B side of the house. I’m hoping not to need you…for EMS.” His gazed locked with mine. Damn that was smooth. I felt myself get hot, and not from the fire.
“Sounds good, Chief,” June replied, and we wandered a few yards away to watch the scene and stay out of the way. We stood off to the side of Command, where Brian was and watched the crews go in and out of the house, listening to the ops channel on the radios we were wearing. The ops channel is the channel you switch to once your scene is active, so you’re not clogging up the dispatch channel. Everyone on the scene switches to that channel so you can talk to each other about what’s going on with your job, what you need, all of that kind of thing.
The interior crew was able to find active fire in the attic, which was part of what looked like an addition to me. The fire probably started in the electric in the kitchen, it was an old house, but had two stories, which is not at all traditional for Florida homes. I knew Brian knew all of that, so I just minded my own business, I was there as EMS support, and with a different station. He’s the boss and it was his show. He was kind of always the boss, since he was ahead of most of us at the academy and all, but I have to say it was strange to be at a mutual aid call like this and not see my dad running Command. It made me a little sad.
June seemed pretty bored, and to be honest, if it weren’t for lusting after Brian, leaned up against my ambulance, I’d be pretty bored too. She wanted to see if we could leave after we’d been there about an hour. “I’m gonna go ask Command if we can get out of here; it’s been over an hour and our shift is almost over. They can get a crew that’s closer by now, you cool with that?” she asked me.
“Yeah, that’s fine,” I actually wanted to stay and more or less stare but she was right. We could leave then, sit in traffic, and probably get to our station just in time for our shift to end. That would mean I could totally avoid Danny today. She walked over to Brian, and although I couldn’t hear the conversation, he glanced at me, and he looked annoyed. I didn’t know what he wanted me to do, they didn’t really need us here since by now the scene was secured, the fire appeared to be out, and they had another crew that was doing rehab that could be assigned. He was going to be there for awhile, but that wasn't my job today.
“He seemed grumpy about it, but he released us from the scene. The fire is out anyway; they don’t need us loitering.” She hopped into the driver seat, and as I was climbing into the passenger seat, I caught Brian’s eye. I gave a little wave and got in my rig. He didn’t wave back, and that made me sad, even though we were at a scene. Well, I’ll just have to deal with it later, I’d text him or something when I got home. He wouldn’t be done here, and back at the station when I got done, so there was no point in planning to stop by. Based on his scrunched up face, I’d be hearing from him sooner rather than later anyway, and that was alright with me. Watching him in action today, made me feel proud, like he was my hero.
Even though I didn’t need Jo and her tiny partner on scene anymore, I was still annoyed when they left. I looked at my watch when Cruise came over, and immediately realized that I wouldn’t be done here by the time Jo was originally planning to stop by and see me. Both myself and my cock were very disappointed. I grabbed my cell off the tailgate of my truck, and sent her a quick text and then put my phone in my pocket.
I’m still getting my hands on you tonight.
I didn’t wait for a reply, I really wanted to wrap it up here, and I needed to go take a look inside the residence so I could write my reports up. Jack was very serious about maintaining records, and that is something he taught me very early on. He said that it could save your ass if a resident came back and thought we did something wrong, or needed to use our report in court to back up their claims against a shitty contractor, or a million other reasons. He made it very clear that complete concise reports, even for fires, not just EMS, were critical.
I felt my phone vibrate in my pocket, and knowing it was her gave me a stiff dick. I couldn’t wait to get the hell out of there and see her. But I still had some work to do.
We finished up about two hours later, and it was hot. I was sweating from the Florida heat, my guys were exhausted, and it was finally time to head back to the station. I checked my phone to see what Jo’s reply was, and I grinned at the screen.
Hope you’re thinking of a creative way to make that happen, Chief.
Oh I most certainly was. I couldn’t stop smiling, and Matt came over to me as we walked back to the trucks to leave. “What are you all smiley about? You look like an idiot,” he laughed at me.
I quickly shoved my phone back in my pocket. “Ah nothing, just a girl.” Well, it wasn’t a lie, it was a girl. It was my girl.
“Oh, you’ve got a new one do you? What’s she look like? Got a picture of this one?” he asked and leaned in to nudge me to take my phone back out, which obviously I wasn’t going to do.
“No, but you know she’s hot.” I laughed and walked off to my truck. Fortunately for me, this was pretty typical banter between us when it came to the opposite sex. Matt and I really don’t discuss these things outside of your typical chiding. None of us has been in a real relationship for as long as I could remember, so our conversations were always pretty superficial. I didn’t even think anyone in our little circle even tried seriously dating anyone. That made me think of Jo and I, and how this would all play out. I was already completely unwilling to let her go. That was pretty much the long and short of it, she needed to be with me always, and I needed to figure out how to make that happen. In any event, she would be stopping by to see me later, and the nice thing about working twenty-four hour shifts at a giant firehouse is that there are plenty of places to disappear to when you needed some “alone time.” I’d be making sure we had some of that one way or another.
In the meantime, I also had another little surprise for Jo. I wasn’t sure she’d love it, but I thought she'd be open to it.
I was just getting out of the shower when I got a text from Brian letting me know they were back at the station finally. It really did take forever to clean up a scene sometimes. I was already home, and fussing with myself over how I was going to play this tonight. Was I going there as a casual friend stopping by? What was my real excuse for coming there? I didn’t really want to come off suspicious. This whole sneaking around thing in public was a little harder than I anticipated.
I texted back that I’d be there in a half hour or so. I kept fussing with my hair, which was short and black, and had kind of a messy pixie thing happening which I actually loved in my general line of work, it was never in my way. I stared at myself in the mirror, swiped on some red lip gloss, and called it a day. I was going to the firehouse, not out to dinner. I had on ripped up jeans that even I thought made my ass look pretty good, a white t-shirt that was probably a little more snug than it had to be and
a black bra, since I was feeling a little feisty. Fuck it. Time to go.
The anticipation of seeing him was making me nervous and excited at the same time. It seemed every time I thought of him, I got tingles and butterflies, and I could already feel myself getting wet in anticipation. I didn’t know if I’d be able to touch him at the firehouse. I mean it’s definitely not something they encouraged, fraternization. Whatever, Brian is the Chief now, and I’m just stopping by to “talk”. I actually giggled to myself like a teenager. I was literally giddy with anticipation.
I pulled up to the station and parked in the visitor parking in the back of the building. The bay doors were open, so I walked around and entered that way; where I ran into Matt.
“Hey, what are you doing here?” he asked genuinely surprised. Usually I tell him what I’m up to. Since the thing with Brian started I actually haven’t talked to him that much. I’ll have to catch up with him later, it’s only been a couple days.
“Oh, I’m just here to talk to Brian about my dad’s stuff. I saw him at the fire today, and he said he’d be doing paperwork and stuff tonight if I wanted to stop by since it would be convenient,” I lied innocently.
“Ah, that’s cool. Well, I’m going to the day room to watch a movie and hopefully fall asleep in a recliner. Text me later and we’ll catch up,” he laughed.