Hearts on Fire

by Amber Thielman

  I looked back down at my list, closing my eyes to concentrate. We had training coming up soon, but the last thing I needed was to be unprepared if a fire call came in and I didn’t know the front of my suit from the back. That could prove deadly not only for me, but for my crew as well.

  “Do you need a study partner?” My head whipped around, and I slammed the book shut, glaring at him. Kyle smirked to himself, shaking his head and muttering something under his breath. I put the book aside and got to my feet, shaking with rage as I crossed the bay. Kyle watched with mild interest as I leant down and yanked the radio cord out of the wall, ending the music abruptly. He stared at me but didn’t say anything.

  “I know that you think I’m incapable of doing this job. But you’re wrong.” I folded my arms and glared at him, itching to smack that arrogant smirk from his face.

  “I didn’t say you were incapable. I just don’t think you can do it as well as the men can.”

  “That’s sexist.”

  “It’s true.”

  I glared at him, fists balling at my sides, fingers twitching as an urge to reach out and throttle him washed over me. I took a deep breath and took a single step back to compose myself. “How would you know? You’ve never even had a female around to judge. I could be the best thing to ever happen to this department.”

  “You’d be better off in EMS, Harper, where you won’t have to worry about running fire calls you’re not prepared for. I’m sure Captain Becker would give you a glowing recommendation.” He rolled his eyes a bit at that last part, which made me even angrier.

  “I want to be here.” My clenched teeth audibly snapped together. “And not only that, but I deserve to be here.”

  “Do you?” He was in my face suddenly, leering at me, jaw set so tight I could see the muscles twitching. My first reaction was to back away, to get the hell out of dodge, but I didn’t. I stood my ground.

  “I did the same training you did, Kyle, and not a second less. I passed the PT and the written exams, and I worked my ass off to do it.” I took a single step forward so that there were a mere few inches between the two of us. “I survived my first night here. I survived my first real trauma. I survived your petty initiation—which, by the way, was inappropriate on so many levels—and guess what, asshole? I’m still here.” I took a deep, shaky breath and continued to glare at him.

  For a moment, there was only silence as Kyle and I stared each other down. I wasn’t sure if I should continue to stand my ground or run the hell away and never look back. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, a tiny smirk appeared on Kyle’s lips, and he turned away.

  I watched him go back to what he was doing, unsure of what to do next. I opened my mouth to say something, anything, when a voice behind me spoke up.

  “Everything okay in here, guys?”

  I turned to see Tate entering from the office. He was carrying his boots in one hand and his jacket in the other. He stopped to hang up his coat, still eyeing Kyle and me.

  “Everything is just peachy, Cap,” Kyle said.

  “Couldn’t be better,” I added.

  “Great.” Tate kicked off his sneakers so he could pull on his work boots. “We have some training this morning. Get dressed please.”

  Chapter 14

  Tate

  What was going on between Hallie and Kyle I didn’t know, but whatever she said to him when I walked in this morning seemed to have taken effect, because he barely glanced her way during the entire HAZMAT training we did outside the station.

  While Hallie was both determined when it came to proving herself and driven, she was not a large girl. The suit for the controlled training seemed to swallow her up. With the added helmet, hood, pants, coat, gloves, boots, and air pack, she was looking at an extra forty-five pounds or more to carry around, all the while having to drag a 145-pound dummy out of a treacherous building. But even then, even when the gear practically swallowed her into a hole of nothingness, Hallie didn’t fall behind. Nor did she waver.

  A scorching heat flooded the training area, and I forced each of my men to take a small break between training scenarios to drink water and cool down. Kyle, however, refused to slow, insisting that out in the field they might not get a break to cool down or rehydrate. When one of my recruits, Tanner, saw Kyle hold back, he took it upon himself to follow his lead, refusing to stop for water and a break. Halfway through a mock rescue session I tried to count when Hallie had last stopped. I couldn’t. In fact, she was mere seconds behind Kyle as the rest of my crew lagged behind and sipped water as they watched the two compete neck and neck as they dragged a 200-pound dummy across the gravel. My whistle in my mouth, ready to blow and pull her back, I watched Hallie fall, her body going limp in the middle of the lot.

  She hit the ground with impressive force and didn’t get back up. Kyle, dropped his own dummy as soon as he saw her fall and looked over at me, while he removed his mask. Jake and I darted towards them, panting in the heat, and I slid to my knees next to Hallie. Jake removed her mask and we checked her pulse. He nodded as he found a beat, although she was out cold and unconscious, the heat and the strenuous work had taken down her slight frame.

  “Here.” Kyle grabbed a bottle of water from Tanner and unscrewed the lid, dumping the liquid onto Hallie. She shot upright with a gasp, eyes bleary as she tried to focus on us. I reached my hand for her cool and clammy skin. She blinked twice, wiping the water from her face.

  “What happened?”

  “I think you passed out,” I told her. “Heat exhaustion probably. How are you feeling?”

  “I’m—okay.” Ignoring my outstretched hand, Hallie climbed to her feet, swaying a little on the spot. I had my hand out in case she fell to steady her, but she continued to pretend it wasn’t there.

  “Nice fall, girl,” Porter called from the shade under a tree. “If this was a drill to practice fainting, you would have won.”

  “Enough.” My snaps shut him up. Hallie’s fingers shook as she unbuttoned the heavy suit and let it fall to the ground around her ankles, allowing her body to breathe. I noticed the weighted vest, strapped over her shoulders and around her midsection but couldn’t make sense of it. It would have weighed in at about one hundred pounds, even without the suit.

  “Dude, why do you have that on?” Jake asked her before I could even process it.

  “I thought we needed them.” She looked down at the vest strapped to her body.

  “Who told you that?” I asked. Hallie glanced, just briefly, towards Tanner Rey, who met her gaze with a smirk, but she looked away just as quickly and shrugged.

  “It’s my bad. I didn’t know we weren’t supposed to have it on.”

  “No wonder you passed out,” said Jake. “I think any one of us would have.”

  Hallie shrugged off the weighted vest and let it fall to the ground, swaying again where she stood. Rage simmered in my chest as I looked from man to man, ready to rip them apart for putting a fellow squad member in physical danger.

  “Training is over for the day,” I said through clenched teeth. As Jake and I helped Hallie gather her gear to put it away, she leaned over in the parking lot and vomited, skin now ashy with fatigue and nausea. I took one of her arms and Jake took the other as we stepped towards the station to get her into the cool. Behind me, Tanner and Porter were gathering their things to come in after us.

  “Not you,” I said, turning back to them. “Tanner, Porter, and Kyle, you’ll run another two drills. Don’t come inside until they’re done and done well.”

  Tanner cussed under his breath and Porter rolled his eyes, but Kyle just smiled that shit-eating-grin and nodded at me.

  “No problem, Cap. We can handle it.”

  As the rest of my men trudged upstairs to shower before dinner, I helped Hallie put away her equipment in the ambulance bay, mostly there to make sure she wouldn’t pass out again. Her hair floated wild about her face, cheeks streaked with dirt and grime, movements stiff and weak.

 
“I wish you wouldn’t have done that,” she said, not looking at me as she pulled sweaty hair off her neck.

  “Done what?”

  “Made them keep going.” She looked at me for a fraction or a second before looking away again. “You’re just giving them more reason to hate me.”

  “I know it was one of them.” I folded my arms across my chest. “They can’t get away with it.”

  When she didn’t answer, I pressed the conversation further.

  “How are you holding up?”

  She shrugged and sat down so she could kick off the boots.

  “Exhausted.”

  “I meant about the call yesterday.”

  Hallie hesitated then, the muscles in her jaw flexing. She didn’t look at me.

  “I knew what you meant, Tate, and I’m still exhausted. I’m exhausted thinking about it. Exhausted wondering if there was something I could have done to save that little boy’s life.”

  “You know that’s not how it works.” I took a seat next to her, resting my elbows on my thighs. “There was nothing anybody could have done, that’s just the cold truth. He was gone before we even got there.”

  “He had a pulse.”

  “That doesn’t matter.” I cleared my throat and shook my head. “We did everything we could, okay? There was nothing else to do.” When she didn’t say anything, I changed the subject, hoping to find a more stable territory. “I heard you and Kyle arguing earlier. What were you guys talking about before I showed up?”

  “Nothing much, we were just discussing the training.”

  “Was he the one who told you to put on the vest?”

  “No.”

  “Really?”

  “Really.”

  “How come I don’t believe you?”

  “I never asked you to.” Hallie stood up, arching her back like a cat as she stretched the tired muscles.

  “Is he bothering you?”

  “More than usual? No. He’s fine.”

  “You’d tell me if he was harassing you, right?” I pressed.

  Hallie’s lips curled in a sneer, but there was no humor on her face.

  “I can handle my own, Cap. I thought I told you that.”

  “Yeah, but—”

  “Yeah, but nothing.” Hallie smiled, but it was forced. “What’s for dinner?”

  Before waiting for an answer, she got to her feet and hurried towards the kitchen, dodging whatever possibility there was of me pestering her with more questions.

  “You’re going to need to back off, Captain,” someone said behind me. I turned as Jake Finn leaned up against the wall, folding his arms. It was the first time that day I’d really looked at him, seen the tired lines in his face, the exhaustion behind his eyes. His red hair was in disarray. He was a lanky little thing, Jake was, but he had the drive he needed to excel here, and that’s all I could hope for.

  “What do you mean?”

  He smiled just a bit and scoffed. “Hallie is a bad ass. We both know it. But the more you push, waiting for her to break, the more likely it’s going to happen.”

  “I’m just concerned is all.” I kicked off my own boots and set them aside, rolling my head to release the kink in my neck.

  “Concern is good. But she doesn’t need it. Just...let her do her job. That’s what you hired her to do.”

  I walked with Jake back to the kitchen where Hallie was in the middle of boiling a pot of noodles. Garlic bread was warming in the oven, and the heavenly aroma of dinner wafted in the air. I was about to offer my help until I remembered Jake’s words, so I flashed her a smile and sat down instead. She seemed to be managing just fine.

  “Ah,” Kyle said, coming into the dining room, his hair still wet from the shower he’d taken after their last drill. He looked and smelled much better than any of them had moments ago. “Now, there is where a woman belongs, in the kitchen.”

  “Right next to your mom, Kyle.”

  “Oh shit.” Tanner scoffed, and Kyle glared at her, his lip curling in a nasty grin.

  “Can’t say you didn’t deserve it,” I muttered as he went to the fridge for a bottle of water. He rolled his eyes but, fortunately, didn’t offer anything back.

  “Dinner smells good, Hal,” Jake said, reaching for a plate. The rest of us got in line behind him to dish up some spaghetti and garlic bread before taking a seat at the dinner table. Hallie sat down last, but she looked pleased with herself.

  Everyone seemed too tired to speak, so we ate our meal in silence, and for once no one seemed to be walking on eggshells or standing on a ledge. It was nice to be able to have dinner with my crew without the constant sound of bickering and the throwing of insults back and forth.

  At around ten that night, as the crew showered to prepare for bed, the alarm rang, the tone bouncing off the walls. Stillness fell over the building, as the team stood erect, listening for details.

  “Ladder One, Engine One, respond to 1867 Harrison Street for reports of an office building fire. There are reports of possible trapped victims, Ambulance Two is already en-route. More information will be provided when available.”

  I looked at Hallie, who in turn watched Kyle, who had the stupidest grin on his face as he pulled on his second boot.

  “Damn right,” he said. “I love a good rescue mission.”

  “It sounds like we’re not needed yet.” I saw the expression fall slightly from Hallie’s face with my words. She was running ambulance with me today, but according to the dispatcher, a neighboring station had already responded with their bus. I looked from Kyle to Hallie as Jake Finn and Tanner Rey rushed past us to start the engines. “Harper, do you want to ride with Kyle and Porter on this one?”

  “Seriously?” she said and jumped to her feet. “Hell yes I do.”

  Chapter 15

  Hallie

  The tension pulsed in the air as I followed Kyle and the others into the bay. Tate and a fellow medic, Jeremy Daniels, stayed back at the station in case they were called on later, and I crawled into the squad truck with Kyle and Jake Finn. Behind us, Tanner and Porter followed in the second engine.

  The police were already on scene when we arrived, as was Ambulance Two from a neighboring station. As soon as we pulled up, Kyle and Porter were out of the truck and getting a brief from the police officers. They had dressed down on the ride there, ready to get in there and search the unit. As I helped Finn steady the ladder, I overhead one of the cops say that they estimated people might still be in there, more than just one. They’d already put the order in for a second bus, so I knew Tate would be joining us soon.

  “We’re standing by for any victims,” said a pretty redhead paramedic as she opened the ambulance doors for the stretcher. Her partner rummaged through the trauma bag. The red head glanced at me, and I swore a stormy expression clouded her face. “Where’s Tate?”

  “Right behind us,” Kyle muttered.

  The flames in front of us were massive. In fact, so large, that I took three steps back, as a tightening squeeze gripping at my chest like a metal vice. I’d been trained for this sort of thing, of course, but seeing it up close was a whole other ball game. I’d never seen anything so terrifyingly beautiful in my entire life.

  “What do you want me to do?” I asked, breathless. Kyle and Porter were already pulling on their SCBA’s.

  “Stay out of the way,” Kyle said.

  “We need to vent the building, don’t we?” Finn called, but Kyle wasn’t listening.

  “There may be people in there,” he said, but not to anybody in particular. He looked at Porter, who nodded, and before anyone could stop them, they headed into the flames.

  “Jesus. Shouldn’t we try to secure the building first?” I asked.

  “It doesn’t look like they’re playing by the rules.” Finn grunted as he heaved the hose from the engine. “Here, help me with this.”

  Over the radio, through the static and crackle, I heard Kyle tell Tate that they’d just entered the building.

 
“We’re a few minutes out,” Tate replied. “Until I arrive, nobody else enters that building.”

  Trembling with a mixture of adrenaline and fear, I helped Finn hook up the water supply. In just a few minutes, we had enough of a stream bellowing from the hose that we could put it on the building in a steady flow. With every pop of the fire and crack of the foundation, I flinched, just waiting for the building to fall while Porter and Kyle were still inside.

  “Kyle, any survivors?” Tate asked into his radio. Finn and I took a deep breath to listen; if the building was clear, they were safe to come out.

  “I think it’s clear in here, Cap,” Porter said. The static of the radio blurred his voice. “We’re getting ready to come out.”

  “Keep that water on the building, Finn,” Kyle said. “—and d—”

  An ear-splitting crack echoed through the air. I flinched, covering my face as three of the windows on the third floor shattered, spraying glass at our feet. Flames bellowed from the now-open windows, roaring as the heat licked at the ledges of the building.

  “Jesus.” I straightened up, brushing debris from my gear.

  “Kyle?” I said into the radio. Only static greeted us.

  “Hallie, what happened?” Tate asked. “We’re a couple minutes away.”

  “I think—I think they’re in trouble.” I pushed talk on the radio, repeating Kyle’s name again, panic rose in my chest. There was nothing, no answer except for the irritating buzz of static.

  “Shit,” Finn and I said together. I took a deep breath and clicked my radio again.

  “Captain, I think they need help. I should go in after them.”

  “Absolutely not.” His tone was sharp, the edge in his voice slicing through the air. “You will not enter the premise until you hear my order to do so—do you copy?”