Disclaimer: Not mine, all Disney's. This is the first part of the "Hero" trilogy--the next one is Aftermath, and then Written in the Stars. I don't think I'll have either of those two out for awhile--I want to really work with them, make them as good as possible. This is an alternate timeline, starting at the very beginning of the In A Heartbeat episode "Hero" and going from there. Anyway, without further ado...
Hero
The fire licked at him from all around, the heat almost tangible. Smoke choked him, thick and black, rolling around him like a cloud of evil. The air was almost all gone, the flames greedily devouring any and all oxygen that remained in the smoke choked room.
Jamie Waite pressed his hand over his mouth, trying to filter the black air out, and only breath the clean air. His attempts were in vain however, as the smoke burned into his lungs, making it feel like he was being burned from the inside out.
His eyes stung and watered, tears rolling down his cheeks as he fought to see in the thick air all around him. God, where was the boy? The boy...the boy...he had to find the boy! If he didn't, then...
"CHASE!" Jamie yelled into the burning blackness, his ears straining for any sound other then the pop and fizzle of burning wood and plaster. "CHASE!"
A soft sound, barely audible, caught his attention, and Jamie turned his eyes to the sound, praying that it was the boy.
It was--a small, brown haired boy stood in the doorway, a teddy bear clutched in his arms, as he stared at the fire that raged all around him. Jamie took a choking breath, and surged forward, reaching out for the child, his fingers brushing the boy's arm lightly. He caught the child and pulled him toward him, swinging the little boy onto his waist with the ease of long practice.
Pressing the baby's face against his shoulder, Jamie whirled around, intent on going out the way he came in.
However, whoever controlled fate and this fire had decided that that would have been FAR to easy. The door Jamie had so hastily raced through only moments before was now completely blocked by a burning beam that must have fallen from the ceiling.
Trying to take a deep breath proved disastrous for Jamie, a coughing fit overcoming him. Still clutching the boy to his body, the young man began to search for a new way out, his dark eyes scanning the room for anything--another door, a window...a window!
There, not fifteen feet away, was a window! Drawing in a deep breath, Jamie began to make his way over to it, every second seeming to crawl and stretch into minutes, hours, days. The burning and the smoke and the fear and the pain were beginning to take their toil on Jamie's young body, but he pushed onward, intent on saving the young one in his arms.
Fifteen steps to the window, he guessed.
Chase couldn't be any older then Sami. In fact, Chase looked about the same age as Sami, if just a little older. He was bigger then Jamie's petite baby sister.
Thinking of his beloved sister brought her image to his mind--huge, doe brown eyes framed by long eyelashes, a mouth that forever turned upward into a smile, and long, fire engine red hair, the same shade as their mother's. Her smooth baby soft skin was flawless in his mind, and her wide dark hazel...
Somewhere in between thinking of his sister he had switched to someone he cared almost as much about. Now, replacing his sister's image, was Caitie Roth, her lips stained with dark purple lipstick and her eyes dancing with laughter.
Ten steps to the window.
Caitie's image blurred and bleed into an image of his mother, a slow smile on her face as she scanned his latest report card, noting the A in French and C's and B's in the other courses.
He could hear her laugh when he made the comment on how being around the super squad was rubbing off on him...
Nine steps to the window.
Her laughter turned into something louder, deeper, and his mother metamorphosed into Hank and Tyler, throwing around a miniature football in-between calls with him, cracking jokes about him trying out for the football team next year.
Eight steps to the window.
The jokes blurred into advice, given by a smiling, sweet blonde with sky blue eyes. Val sat beside him, trying to explain one of Caitie's almost constant mood swings, assuring him that it wasn't his fault, and that Caitie really didn't hate him.
Seven steps to the window.
Val's blue eyes changed to dark brown ones, surrounded by long dark lashes, over a gaped tooth smile. Molly beamed at her older brother, a baby doll cradled lovingly in her arms as he strummed his guitar to give her baby music to sleep by.
Six steps to the window.
Molly's joy at his playing was replaced by Jazz twirling to the music, her long black hair spinning out around her as she danced like the entire world was watching her, even though it was just her and her older brother, her Mona Lisa smile pulling at her lips.
Five steps to the window.
Jazz's Mona Lisa smile morphed into a familiar smirk, as Crimson stood with her arms crossed across her chest, her dark eyes twinkling just like his did when he was getting into some kind of trouble. She held a notebook to her body as she smirked at him, the papers in it "vitally important".
Four steps to the window.
Crimson's eyes became Brooke's as she stormed after him demanding that he get his paperwork to her RIGHT THAT MINUTE, or she was going to make him do more paper work, even though he could hear the smile in her voice.
Three steps to the window.
Brooke's voice deepened to Alex Freedmen's, as the good doctor reprimanded his "black sheep" for about the three hundredth time for doing something he knew he wasn't suppose to do, but Jamie could hear what might have been a hint of pride in the older man's voice.
Two steps to the window.
Alex suddenly was his father, Sam Waite's emerald green eyes sparkling at his only son with love and pride, as he explained the intricate inner workings of the combustion engine to his all to eager boy.
One step to the window.
Sam bleed into Caitie once more, her eyes brimming with tears, as they sat in the hospital together, waiting for any word on their friend, Brianne. He remembered every detail--every scent, every touch, every sound, everything. He remembered the way he felt. He remembered how her skin felt under his finger tips, if only touched for the barest hint of a second.
It was not Caitie's milky skin under his fingertips now, but heated glass, and Jamie sent a prayer of thanks to whoever happened to be looking over him and the small boy at that moment.
Switching the little boy to his left side, Jamie reared back with his right, and shoved it through the glass pane. The boy, and himself, would probably suffer some cuts from the shattered glass--he could feel the blood seeping out of the wounds he had just given himself, but right at that moment, he couldn't care less.
Bashing away the excess glass, Jamie shoved the little boy through first, careful to avoid cutting open any major arteries or anything of that nature. He felt, rather then saw Chase hit the ground and sprint toward his screaming mother.
Jamie beamed, and then turned his attention to his second goal--saving himself. Taking a deep breath, Jamie leaned forward, preparing to jump through the window.
He could feel the welcoming cool air on his face, could almost taste the chill of the night. Boy was he going to get it when he got out of here--from the squad, Alex, his mother, and probably Caitie too.
Jamie started thinking these thoughts too soon.
The upper floor, engulfed in fire and rapidly loosing it's support beams, finally gave way to gravity--and fell.
With Jamie under it.
As the blackness and fire and pain consumed him and the last of his life left him, Jamie screamed for the last person who had been on his mind and always been in his heart.
"CAITIE!"
A world away and across town, Caitie Roth woke up screaming Jamie's name.