Amongst The Flames: A Contemporary Christian Romance (Embers and Ashes Book 1)

by T. K. Chapin

  Rick strode into the kitchen and got into the fridge. When he opened the door, I saw my picture plastered to the front of it. “What’s this?” I asked, tossing the towel over my shoulder and ripping the picture down.

  “A hero,” Brian said, striding in a few paces behind Rick.

  Shaking my head, I said, “I’m not a hero.” I crumpled the picture up and threw it into the trash.

  “That little girl turned out to be the Mayor’s daughter. She was over at a friend’s house when the fire happened. You didn’t see the news?” Brian asked, looking across the room at everyone’s faces.

  “No, I stay away from the news. Too much negativity for me,” I replied on my way out of the kitchen. As I left, I could hear Micah talking to the rookie.

  “Don’t do that kind of thing. Taylor, just like all of us, views this as our duty… We don’t think of ourselves as a hero nor do we want to be treated as such.”

  Coming into Tom’s office, I said, “Captain.”

  He set the newspaper down in his hands and took off his reading glasses. “Taylor.”

  “We okay?” I asked in the hopes of easing the tension I knew existed between us.

  He stood up from behind his desk and narrowed his look at me. “No. I’ll be trying to get you off this crew every minute of every day. I have no tolerance for disrespect in my station and the way you carried on the other day at my house is grounds for removal. I just need a reason to get rid of you now that you aren’t on medical leave. So please give me one and I’ll take care of the rest.”

  Fear shook me as I stood there staring back at my heartless father-in-law. He had no respect for my marriage to his daughter or my position at the station. Now he was gunning to cut away the one last shred of life I had left, my life at station 9. “It was you. It was all you from the beginning.”

  “What?”

  “Don’t play dumb with me! You were the one who encouraged her to leave me!”

  “I wouldn’t do that…” he said, letting the tips of his fingers graze the top of his desk.

  “Taylor,” Micah said from the doorway, interrupting our discussion.

  “Yeah?” I asked over my shoulder.

  “Come here,” he said.

  I turned and went up to Micah in the doorway and he said into my ear, “Don’t give him a reason to get rid of you.”

  “See ya later, Cappy,” I said back to him and left the office with Micah. I knew he loathed the nickname that the chief gave him after his promotion.

  “Thanks,” I said, as we went through the kitchen into the dining hall.

  “No problem. He’s out to get you, so you gotta be careful.”

  I nodded.

  A call came in requesting trucks down at a car accident later that day. When we arrived at the scene, I saw out my window that a car involved in the accident was smashed badly on the driver side. When our truck stopped, Kane and I made a dash over to the vehicle, while Greg joined the others from the engine crew over at the truck that was also involved.

  Broken glass littered the intersection as we approached the mangled hunk of metal. Seeing the blood on the woman’s head, my heart felt like it was going to pound right out of my chest.

  “Ma’am, can you move your legs?” I asked.

  She cried out as she shook her head, “No, I can’t feel them at all!”

  Grabbing the door handle, I tried to yank it open, but it was jammed. Turning to Kane, I said, “Get the Jaws.” Turning my attention back to the woman, I reached through the broken out window and put my hand on top of hers. She was shaking and scared.

  “What’s your name?” I asked.

  “Monica,” she replied as she looked up into my eyes. “You?”

  “I’m Cole, and we’re gonna get you out of here, Monica.”

  She began crying harder. “My legs… why can’t I feel them?”

  “Just try to remain calm the best you can Monica. Try not to move around.” Glancing over at the truck, I saw Rick and Ted retrieve a male driver out of the truck and the paramedics began treating him. He looked like he was going to be okay from what I could tell; a few scrapes and bruises, but nothing serious.

  Soon enough all the firefighters were over with me at the car as we tried to rescue Monica. Rick stayed back with a hose, ready to spray if the car began burning. Monica began hyperventilating as Kane got into position with the Jaws of Life. Leaning in the window, I said, “You can trust me. I’m here for you Monica, every step of the way.”

  She nodded.

  Pulling back, I watched as Kane worked to rescue the woman. A man from the crowd behind me said, “I was just walking down the sidewalk and heard a car flying down the road.” I turned to him and nodded as he continued, “Then… I like, looked up and bam! The truck flew through the intersection and smashed into the car! Dude, it was the craziest thing I’ve ever seen!”

  “Have you talked to the police?” I asked.

  “No, I wasn’t sure if I needed to do that,” the guy replied whipping his unusually long and braided hair back behind his shoulder.

  “Go give them a statement; that’d be helpful.” I turned my head and looked over at the fire trucks and saw Tom on the radio as he looked my direction. It was a brief look, and then he turned away as he started talking with one of the paramedics.

  Seeing they were about to pull Monica out, I dipped down through the window and shouted over the sound of the equipment, “I’ll be right back.” She nodded.

  Jogging up to Tom and the paramedic, I said, “I’m going to grab a gurney.”

  “I’ll help you with that,” the paramedic said, joining my side on the way over to the ambulance.

  Pulling it out from the back doors, we dropped the wheels to the pavement and wheeled it towards the car Monica was in. “Some wreck, huh?” he said over to me.

  “Yeah, pretty intense for the first time back on the job,” I said.

  “McCormick said you were coming back today. Were you pretty nervous coming down here for the accident?”

  “Not any more than usual. Every time a call comes in, no matter if it’s been ten years or ten minutes, it sends your heart racing.”

  He nodded. “Same here, I didn’t know it was the same for you guys.”

  “Yep, sure is. Never get used to it.”

  As we came over to the car, they were about to have Monica freed. We brought the gurney in close, the firefighters all moved out of the way. Kane and I slid the red stretcher off the gurney and pulled Monica out onto it. Then we transferred her directly onto the gurney.

  Wheeling her back over to the ambulance, Kane said, “You’re lucky you didn’t die today ma’am.”

  She smiled as her neck was held in a brace and her cheeks were pushed up to almost her eyes. She said to both of us, “Thank you!” as she was lifted up and into the ambulance.

  The paramedics shut the back doors and flipped on their lights and sirens as they took off down the street. Kane patted me on the shoulder. “Not bad for your first day back. I think she was digging on you. She was cute.”

  Shoving him in the shoulder away from me, I said, “You’re twisted, man… I’m married.”

  “Woah, Taylor, I was just playing… Plus word around the station is you and Megan are having problems.”

  Getting up in Kane’s face, I grabbed his jacket in a moment of anger. He looked terrified as I looked him in the eyes. Looking back towards the other firefighters, I released him and walked away. Taking off my helmet, I headed back towards the ladder truck.

  “What’s gotten into you, man?” Kane asked, joining my side.

  “I just can’t take your twisted humor right now… You can’t talk about my wife like that.”

  “I didn’t mean any disrespect. You know that… I’m just trying to lighten the tension I know is going on in your life.”

  I stopped and looked at him. “Well, I don’t need it.”

  “Whatever man… You can be there for me, but I can’t be there for you?” he repl
ied turning and walking away from me. He headed back over to Rick and the others as I continued walking to the truck. They were all staring at me while I sat in my seat waiting to leave.

  I felt like an idiot for snapping on Kane, but it caught me off guard. I knew the rookie blabbed about Megan and me, but I didn’t expect to hear about it. I never brought up his mother to him. I punched the back of the driver seat in front of me.

  Back at the station, I kept pretty much to myself outside of dinner. Meals weren’t something to mess around with. We ate together, no matter how tense things became between the guys. It was just an unwritten rule I wasn’t going to ignore. After the meal, I headed into the workout room to get a light workout in to help get that strength back I had lost. As I was on the butterfly machine, Micah came in.

  “You okay, Taylor?” he asked as he took a seat on the bench next to my machine. I stopped and wiped my brow with the towel that hung around my neck and nodded.

  “I’m fine. I’m just a little agitated that people know about Megan and me.”

  “We’re all brothers here. You know that…” He placed his hands on my shoulders and I glanced at his face. “McCormick went through that messy relationship a year ago and we helped him through it… That’s what we do. We poke a little bit at each other, but that’s just part of being one of the guys. You taught McCormick that when he showed up here. And he confided in you about his mother not too long ago.”

  I nodded. “I know…” I sighed as I turned around and began wiping my machine down of the sweat I had left behind. “I just feel on edge for some reason.”

  “It’s okay, Brother. You just started back up at the station. You’re missing your wife, missing your kids and your boss is trying to get you fired. It’s understandable to be a little on edge right now.”

  “Yeah,” I replied, turning around to him. “She doesn’t understand what we do… we save lives and risk our own to protect complete strangers. But she doesn’t even care.”

  He shook his head. “Don’t lose focus, Brother. The issue isn’t about what you do here. The real issue between you two is about what you haven’t been doing at home and what you need to do. You got to lead that family!”

  I raised my hands up. “There’s nobody at home to do anything for! My house is empty!”

  He nodded. “Just keep praying and reading your Bible. God will come through for you.”

  I felt my tension ease at his encouraging words. “Thanks, Freeman. I’ll go apologize to McCormick.”

  “I’m sure he’ll be happy.”

  I left the workout room and I found Kane out on the balcony off the dining hall by himself throwing a baseball up in the air and catching it. I took a seat next to him in a lounge chair. “Hey.”

  “Taylor,” he said, keeping his eyes focused on the ball he was tossing up. I reached over and caught the ball, causing him to sit up and look at me. “What do you want?”

  “I’m sorry about earlier, man. I was caught off guard… But that’s no excuse. The way I handled it was wrong.”

  “It’s cool,” he replied. He looked down for a moment before re-establishing eye contact with me. “I could have gone about it differently… but things are pretty rough with ya two?”

  “Yeah… she’s in Seattle with the kids… I don’t know when… or if she’ll ever return, and it’s really hard.”

  “That’s jacked,” he replied.

  “I know,” I said, lying down onto the lounge chair as I continued, “I tried to get her to come home and we could work on things but she said she’s done trying.”

  “I didn’t even know you guys were having issues,” Kane replied as he lay down in his lounge chair beside me.

  “Me either!” I laughed. “She’s done when I barely realize there is even an issue…”

  “One thing I know about you, Taylor, is you don’t give up. Remember that fire down on Francis at that grocery store?”

  Grinning, I replied, “Yeah…”

  “You brought two people out, one over each shoulder and went back for more!”

  “I know, and ignored Sherwood’s command to not go back in.”

  “He was so upset that day,” Kane laughed. “But you wouldn’t give up on those people inside.”

  Nodding, I said, “I know… It’s not in me to give up.”

  “That’s right. Failure is not part of our vocabulary in the brotherhood at station 9.” He raised his head to look off the balcony in the distance as he continued, “I don’t know Megan a whole heck of a lot, but I know you, Taylor, and this fire won’t kill you.”

  Smiling, I said, “Thanks, man. How’s your Mom?”

  He shrugged. “She’s living… I try to get up there on my days off. It’s hard… but Ashley’s really being there for me.”

  “The bakery chick?” I asked.

  He nodded. “She’s unusually easy to open up to. I don’t see her being a long term relationship or anything, but I definitely enjoy the companionship right now in my life.”

  “Does your sister get up to see your mom?” I asked.

  “Yeah. She’s up there right now.”

  I nodded. “That’s good.”

  My comrades at the station were thicker than blood. My own brother who lives twenty minutes outside of town knew less about me than even the rookie did. That’s just how the brotherhood at Station 9 works, though. I just lost sight of that in a moment of weakness. We weren’t just a group of guys who worked together. We were putting our lives in each others’ hands every day, and that brought a closeness you just don’t find very often in life.

  CHAPTER 12

  The crisp morning air was refreshing as I stepped out onto the balcony at the fire station with my cup of coffee in hand. It had already been four weeks since my return back to work and everything was back to a normal routine for me, as far as work was concerned. As I came outside that morning, I found Micah, as usual, deep in his Bible. He was already out at one of the tables on the balcony, so I joined him there with my cup of coffee.

  “Beautiful day, isn’t it?” Micah asked, shooting a glance over the balcony railing at the sunrise that was coming up over the Spokane cityscape. There were blues, pinks, and reds all woven elegantly across the early morning sky.

  “So far, so good,” I replied, taking a sip of my coffee.

  “So much evidence of God’s beautiful design when we only look for it,” Micah said with a smile.

  “I agree,” I replied with a nod. Hearing the sliding door behind us, I looked back to see Greg walk out with Gus. “Good morning, Phillips and Vance,” I said with a nod their direction.

  “Morning,” they replied. They both went over to the checkerboard table a few tables down from us and began to set up a game of checkers.

  “What’s the latest with you and Megan?” Micah asked. “Yesterday was pretty busy with drills and all. Didn’t get much of a chance to ask how the weekly call went.”

  Shaking my head, I replied, “Nothing new. She’s still in Seattle… But I’m just working on myself and trying to get closer to God right now. That’s all I can do and I’m really okay with that.”

  “Well, at least you got the right thinking going.”

  I nodded in agreement as I took another swig of my coffee. “How are you doing with Jasmine’s new boyfriend?”

  Shaking his head, Micah said, “I met the kid the other night. Had him over for dinner…” His lips tightened as he shook his head again. “I don’t like him.”

  “Was he rude or something?” I asked.

  “Nah, it wasn’t that… I just know how it is to be a thirteen-year-old boy… And I don’t like it. I don’t like it one bit.” Micah’s serious look continued as he paused for a moment, then his face relaxed and he sighed. “But I raised her with morals, God and the truth of the scriptures. Now I have to hope and pray we sowed the proper seeds, because this will be the reaping.”

  “Well, you and Denise can keep tabs on her and curb anything bad she might want to do, can’t
you?”

  Micah shrugged. “To a degree we can… but if a child wishes to rebel, they’ll find a way.”

  I nodded. “And she has a cell phone?”

  Setting his coffee down, he nodded. “Oh yeah… she’s had that for a couple years now.”

  Shaking my head, I tried to picture in my mind little Bradley or Justin with a cell phone and being that old. “I can’t even imagine my boys being that old…” I said.

  “It’ll happen in a blink of an eye; just you wait!” he replied.

  “It’s crazy how fast kids grow up,” I replied.

  “Blink again,” Tom said from behind us as he walked out from the sliding glass door. “And they’re graduating high school, another blink, they’re getting married.” Tom joined us at the table. Sitting down, he took a deep breath and said, “Another blink, you have grandchildren… The funny part is it seems just like yesterday Cindy and I were just a couple kids in love.”

  “Grandchildren… I bet you feel old, Cap,” Micah said.

  “I do,” he replied with a hearty laugh. Looking over at me, he said, “Our children are the world to us and that doesn’t stop after we give them away.” Micah must have sensed something because he got up and left Tom and me alone to talk at the table. As he went back inside, Tom turned more to me and said, “I know we don’t like each other very much…”

  “Uh huh…” I said softly, turning my eyes over the railing towards the cityscape.

  “But I’m worried about my girls.”

  “What do you mean?” I asked, looking over at him.

  “Mike called me last night and told me that Megan and Amanda were out until three in the morning. He was stuck with all the kids.”

  “What on earth were they doing?” I asked. My heart rate shot up as I worried about Megan being away from the kids.

  “He said bar hopping, but I don’t really know…”