Disclaimer: I do not own Djaq, Allan or Will or any other characters I use. Or the idea really… It came to me when our class had to make up the end to the story DEUX ANS ET DEMI, and hearing some of the ideas people were throwing around :) You can laugh at the image of Will and Allan as firemen… I did :P

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Djaq was waiting, rather impatiently, for her coffee at the Starbucks a block away from the hospital. It was just before midnight as she tapped her foot in annoyance. She had to be at the hospital before her midnight shift and there was still a long line. How many people wanted coffee at midnight anyways? Letting out a large sigh, she checked her watch once again. She had 5 minutes to get to the front of the line, buy her coffee, wait for her coffee, run a block to the hospital, check in for work, and do her rounds.

The line continued to move painfully slow and Djaq debated whether or not she should just leave. She absolutely hated working the night shift and knew she wouldn't make it through the night without a coffee, so instead, she waited.

Finally, there were only two people ahead of her, but her luck seemed to end there when the customer started arguing with the cashier and demanded to see the manager, who wasn't even working at midnight… Crap! Midnight! It looked like she was going to have to have the gross coffee in the cafeteria. Sighing she went to turn around, mentally preparing herself for what she could already tell would be a long night.

Then, he walked in.

The man she'd been subconsciously hoping to see everywhere.

She looked him over, starting at his feet to prepare herself for his face. He wore a pair of red Nike shoes, dark blue old, faded, ripped jeans, a light grey v-neck, and a black leather jacket. He wore a simple silver cross around his tan neck and his blondish hair was slightly messy, he looked like he just woke up. She still hadn't looked away, hoping to see his ice blue eyes.

His eyes confidently flicked her way, as if he'd known she was staring at him. A pinkish-red stained her cheeks the moment he made eye contact and she swore she saw him smirking ever so slightly out of the corner of her eye, but it was gone as soon as it came. Their "moment" was interrupted when the owner of the shop came to the front counter, prepared to argue with the stubborn customer after coming into work past midnight on a Wednesday.

"Yes, can I help you?" His voice was laced with annoyance.

"Yes you can…" the customer paused to lean over the counter to see the man's name. "…Much…Your employee seems to think it's impossible to get my order correct." The blonde girl stuck her nose upward, crossing her arms in the process.

Djaq tried not to laugh as the poor owner tried to recover from the shock of what he'd just heard. "Umm… I... Err… Robin is one of my best employees… whatever the problem is I am sure he can fix it…?"

"No! He obviously can't!" The woman stomped her foot to emphasize her point, making her look rather foolish. "I've been waiting for 10 minutes while he's attempted to make my drink-"

The frustrated cashier stepped in front of the owner, cutting the blonde woman off. "Only because you changed your order every time I gave you your drink!"

The woman lowered her hands, which were by that point were tightly balled in fists, and opened her mouth, ready to scream back.

Djaq sighed. She just wanted her coffee.

Just as she was about to leave the store, the tall man with the metallic blue eyes stepped up to the arguing trio. "Now wait a minute. Miss what's your name?" He said in his English accent, turning towards the blonde woman.

"Kate. It's Kate." She smiled seductively at him, but he just looked away.

"What's wrong with the drink…" he looked at the cashiers name tag. "… Robin's made you?"

"It's not the one I ordered!" She shrieked in an annoyingly high pitched voice.

"It is." The big man behind her said calmly.

Kate seemed flustered for a moment before she stormed out of the store.

Everyone thought 'finally' when she left.

After that, things went smoothly, the large man ordered his drink, and then it was Djaq's turn. She nervously ordered her coffee when she realized that the man hadn't moved from the spot by the cash register.

Her eyes flickered to him then to the ground as she mumbled a quick "Thank you…" to the stranger.

He smiled down at her. "For what?"

Bravely, she met his eyes with a smile of her own. "For getting her out of here."

Laughing, he accepted her thanks. "Well it was my pleasure."

He waited with her as she waited for her coffee.

Fidgeting under his gaze, she looked at the worker making her drink.

"Sorry but I don't know your name…" He prompted.

"It's… Djaq…" She refused to meet his eyes.

"Well Hello there Djaq, I'm Allan, Allan A'dale." He tried to catch her gaze as she nervously looked over his face. "This isn't the first time I've seen you…" He started, trying to keep a conversation going.

"Oh really?" She was intrigued, maybe that night wouldn't be all that terrible, after all, she'd gotten Allan's name and he remembered her. She'd seen him many times as well. She saw him different days at the same coffee shop, but never at the same time, sometimes midnight, sometimes 2 in the afternoon. Also, she'd seen him a few times at the gym.

"Yeah… Maybe you'd like to meet me for coffee on purpose one day?" He rubbed the back of his neck, waiting for her answer.

Trying not to sound too eager by screaming yes, she just nodded silently.

"Great!" I'll see ya here tomorrow, 8pm!"

She once again nodded without saying anything.

"Not bein' funny, but whatcha doing here at midnight anyways?"

Her eyes got impossibly wide. "I'm late for work!" She turned to run out the door, but he followed, easily matching her quick pace.

"What do ya do?" he still tried to talk to her.

"Doctor." She stated.

By then they'd reached the hospital parking lot and he stopped following her. "Don't forget! 8 o'clock!" He yelled after her as she entered the doors, the only confirmation he got that she'd heard was the quick wave she sent him.

Her first assumptions of the night proved to be wrong. Things were relatively calm, as calm as things can be working as the head doctor in the emergency floors, and a bonus, no one died or was near death that night.

Every doctor under her noticed the change in her behavior, the constant smile she wore all night, her very energetic personality shining through until the first rays of sunlight, when she only seemed more excited. The nurse she was currently training, Marian, teased her about it all day.

Not bothering with taking the bus after work that morning, Djaq instead decided to walk the 15 blocks to her house. Walk not being the appropriate word; she practically skipped all the way home.

Deciding that looking like she'd been up for over 24 hours would not be a good first impression, she made her way to her bedroom in an attempt to get some sleep before going to meet Allan. Her roommate, Eve, had already left for work and now Djaq had the whole apartment to herself.

Flopping onto the bed, Djaq tried to sleep, but every time she closed her eyes, she saw the dancing blue eyes of Allan A'Dale. Eventually, she fell asleep to the image of his mesmerizing eyes.

Her alarm clock proved to be unnecessary as she woke up 3 hours before her date.

She felt more rested than she had in a long time as she stretched and slowly made her way to the kitchen. The butterflies in her stomach seemed to disagree with the idea of food, so instead she made herself someone tea and forced herself to have a piece of toast.

She didn't want it to look like she'd put too much effort into her outfit, but in all truth, she spent all the time she was in the shower thinking about what would look best.

Knowing it was just a coffee date, she decided to wear flats, dark jeans and a tight, dark grey sweater. She left her apartment and started walking to the same little Starbucks.

She'd been ready for awhile, knowing she didn't want to overdo it or look like she'd tried too hard, making it to the Starbucks 5 minutes before 8.

Where she waited, fidgeting, for what seemed like forever…

OoOoOoOo

As confident as he seemed, there was something about that girl that made Allan doubt himself. Finally, he'd worked up the courage to talk to her. She'd looked so adorable, blushing and continuously tucking her short hair behind her ears. She'd seemed just as nervous as he'd felt. It was reassuring. He'd never felt that way about a girl before, he'd always just seen women as flings, objects he could use for his amusement and personal pleasure, but she was different. He'd wanted her in a different way.

After hearing her agree to go out with him, he'd been ecstatic. He'd even made it to work on time! That never happened! The only reason he didn't get fired was because he was fantastic at his job, and he looked amazing shirtless for the yearly firemen calendar. He really didn't like his boss and would've left long before then if it hadn't been for Will. His boss was a rude simple minded man named "Tuck". It was almost like he didn't care about the people they helped but only about the reputation it brought them, which was another reason he kept Allan, because he attracted a lot of female attention.

Will was so young and innocent, and Allan had unknowingly become like a big brother to the kid. Along the way they'd become best friends and Allan really didn't want to hurt Will by leaving. He cared too much about him. It was weird. He'd never been tied down to anyone like that before, and even weirder was that he liked the sense of stability and family that came with it.

Every man at the fire house noticed the change in Allan's attitude that night. The bounce in his step, the brightness to his thrilling blue eyes. It was no secret that he'd met a woman, but it was special that time.

The shock on Will's face was evident when Allan had told him that that time it was serious.

Allan was half way through his shift when Tuck informed him that he could go home until noon before returning and working until 7:30.

He was pissed beyond belief, but he agreed in the end when Will was put on the same shift as him. It was odd but they always wound up working the same hours.

He left to get a few hours of much needed sleep before showering and looking over his clothes. He didn't want it to look like he'd tried too hard but he wanted to look decent. He put a pair of light blue jeans and a green pullover sweater into a bag before dressing in sweats for his evening shift.

He spent the whole walk to the firehouse praying that nothing would happen that night and he'd make his date.

It seemed like everything was going to work out for him, it was 7:30 and he was getting ready to leave.

Too bad things NEVER went his way.

At the last moment the fire alarm sounded and seeing as half of the other team had yet to arrive, the men from the last shift dressed in what seemed like record time.

Allan was driving and aside from the serious matter at hand, Will couldn't help but tease his friend. "Slow down!"

Allan shot the young kid a glare. It was true that he was driving much faster than any of them normally would.

"Where's the fire?" One of the more obnoxious men in the group screamed from the back of the fire engine.

They pulled up to a bakery on the corner of one of the busier roads, which was completely engulfed in flames.

Half of the men worked on putting out the bakery and the other half worked on putting out the fire that had spread to the houses to the left of the shop.

Everyman was suddenly serious and completely focused on the task at hand.

The flames were becoming harder to control and the group that Allan and Will were in- the one working on the bakery- were about to give up on putting it out and trying to focus on keeping it from spreading, when a horrified cry came from behind them.

It wasn't an unusual occurrence for people to panic when they saw a fire become uncontrolled, so no one paid any attention to the screaming woman.

Until her words reached them.

"MY SON! HE DIDN'T GET OUT!" The police were holding her back as tears streamed down her cheeks.

Will and Allan wasted no time leaving the hose with the rest of their group and running into the burning shop.

This was nothing new for either of them and as much as Allan liked to treat Will like a child, he was the most focused man he'd ever seen when in the field. And as much as Allan loved to mess around, he knew when it was time to focus.

Carefully and efficiently they made their way through the thick fog of smoke and the burning embers covering the floor. Every noise warning them of the dangers that surrounded them, the possibilities that the roof could collapse on them at any moment, or that the fire could trap them inside, or worse that they wouldn't make it to the injured or dying man.

They both sped up as they received the warning call over their radios, screaming at them that they were losing what little control they had over the fire and that they needed to get out.

Neither was willing to except that they hadn't used every possible second searching for whoever was trapped in the burning building.

It was getting hotter in the already unbearably hot store as they felt the last door they could get to- they had to except the fact that going into the cellar or attic was too risky. It was hot, but it wasn't as hot as it would be if there was a danger behind the door. The doorknob was too hot for either of the men to touch- even with their gloves- without burning their hands, so Will used the axe he always carried with him to quickly chop down the door.

It was just as they'd thought. There was a slight fire burning but nothing more serious than the rest of the shop. The smoke had become too thick for either of them to be able to see well and with a defeated guilt both turned to leave.

With one final look over the room, Allan exited the room first, slowly followed by Will. Will was almost completely out of the area when something weakly touched his ankle. He almost didn't feel it, but it was enough to make him doubt himself, making him look down.

There, latched onto his pants, was the man they'd been looking for. He was black from the smoke and was pinned under a heavy board. Will felt the man's hand go limp as it fell to the ground. "ALLAN!" he dropped to the ground in front of the man and took off his oxygen mask, placing it over the man's face.

Allan was back in a second and swiftly dropped beside Will. They tried to turn the man onto his back to perform CPR, but soon found it impossible due to the beam holding his lower body to the ground. More disturbing than the position they had to force the man into to make him breath was the pole sticking out of his upper thigh.

The pressure was getting to both of them as Allan tried to stop the bleeding and Will tried to perform CPR. The voices of the men on the outside screaming at them to get out weren't helping either.

Finally Will got a reaction out of the now breathing man. He allowed himself a small moment of victory before standing and going to help Allan.

"We need to get the beam off!" Allan screamed over the sound of more of the building collapsing.

Nodding, Will got up and him and Allan tried to lift the beam. It was much heavier than it looked and they both worried that they were maybe doing more damage than good every time they had to put the beam back down.

Finally they were able to roll the large beam off of the man, and Allan suspected that they'd broken a few of the bones in his legs.

Will was coughing by then- hard work in a burning building without oxygen normally wasn't a good combination- so Allan took off his own oxygen mask and handed it to the younger man. Will looked like her was going to object to it so Allan quickly put it over his mouth and told him in an extremely serious voice, "You need it more than I do right now." Leaving no room for argument.

Will agreed, if only to get the man out of the building sooner.

Will checked the man's breathing, finding it very irregular, while Allan examined the placement of the pole in his leg.

Thinking it was away from any major arteries, he asked Will to pick up the man's upper body while he pulled the leg off of the pole.

Even though the pole hadn't hit a major artery, it still bled a lot, so much that Allan had to remove his coat to wrap it tightly around the wound, slowing some of the bleeding. "How did he react to being moved?"

Will was still watching the man's breathing. "Not good but he's not in shock and his neck isn't broken. We need to get him out now."

Nodding, both men picked up the unconscious man and carried him out of the building. The way out was much harder than the way in. The ground was almost completely covered in debris and they constantly had to make sure the floor wouldn't give way under their weight.

Finally they made it out, all three of them looking terrible. They were black from head to toe and covered in cuts and blood from the injured mans wounds. Paramedics immediately rushed towards them with a stretcher, allowing Allan and Will to carefully place the man on it.

They hadn't even realized how much their 20 minutes inside the burning building had taken out of them but both men sighed in relief the moment the men left their possession.

Behind them, they could hear the building collapsing.

The building was completely destroyed, but the houses around them seemed to be in better condition.

It was only the first two that seemed to have any damage. The House closest to the bakery looked charred but the frame was still standing and there were people walking inside it so it just needed to be cleaned and refurnished. The house beside that had minimal damage and looked like only part of the wall needed to be cleaned and anything that was hanging on that wall on the inside would be melted.

The ambulance with the patient rushed off towards the hospital while the other stayed behind in case there were any other injuries. Tuck told Allan and Will to be cleaned and checked out by the remaining paramedics, and both men were too tired to argue.

Once it had been determined that there were no serious injuries the paramedics stepped back to allow someone in training to clean and dress their minor wounds.

Allan made quick work of figuring out her name while he tried to get her to rush, hoping that Djaq hadn't left the café yet. Marian, the paramedic in training, finished Will first then moved onto Allan, who found that she was painfully slow.

Will was finally relaxing while Allan was growing tenser when the screaming mother-who'd been denied access into the ambulance because it was too crowded- walked up to them. "Roy's life will be forever indebted to you… thank you." She took both men's hands in her own as she gave them her full-hearted thanks.

"Don't worry about it." Both Allan and Will smiled through their exhaustion for her benefit.

She smiled one final time before leaving to get into her car to go to the hospital.

Finally Marian finished working on Allan and he quickly stood, trying to figure out the fastest route to the Starbucks.

After asking Will if it was ok for him to leave he started towards the main road and jogged towards the coffee shop. He felt bad leaving Will alone to deal with the families of the houses and the rest of the team to put out the remaining simmering ashes of the bakery, but he had a beautiful lady waiting for him. Hopefully…

0o0o0o0o0o0o

He ran into the shop, still dirty, sweaty and reeking of smoke, only to see that even though the shop was crowded, not one of the people there were her.

OoOoOoOo

Djaq had waited for 1 hour hoping he'd just been late, but he never came.

It was a huge blow to her self-esteem.

He hadn't even shown up for their first date…

What had she done wrong?

At first she'd thought she might have had the time wrong or the wrong location, but she knew those were lies.

Finally, with her head hung low, she left the café.

Djaq was not ready to go home to an empty house after being so obviously stood up by the man who'd had her awestruck for months, so she took the back alley way home, which took an extra 15 minutes and avoided all main roads.

As she got closer to her street she could see the smoke and hear the sirens.

Now in a panic, she ran the last block only to see her fears confirmed.

There were fire trucks, ambulances, police cars and news crews. The smoke from the bakery-what was left of the bakery- was as black as the night as it flowed high in the sky, obstructing the stars that normally shinned brightly at this time of night.

She hoped no one had gotten hurt; the owner of the bakery- Roy- was a nice enough man and she prayed he made it out alright.

The closer she got to the debris, the more panicked she became, noticing that the police tap wasn't just around the bakery but also encircling hers and her neighbors houses.

Running up to the dirty fireman standing near the tape, she felt fear bubbling in the pit of her stomach.

She grabbed the tall mans arm and he turned to look at her in shock; clearly he hadn't heard her approaching.

"W-What happened?" She stuttered, frantically looking around the wreckage.

"Which house is yours?" He said calmly- obviously used to dealing with this.

Instead of speaking, not trusting her voice any longer, she pointed to the house directly behind him.

He smiled a comforting smile. "It's alright. That one actually doesn't have much damage. It will just need a good cleaning on the eastern wall," He pointed to the wall with the dark black stain. "And if you had anything on the inside of that wall then it might be a little charred, but nothing permanent or serious."

She sighed in relief. "Can I go in?"

He nodded and led her into the house. After a quick and satisfying look around she smiled her thanks to the young fireman. It was only then that she realized how tired he looked. "I'm sorry to have wasted your time…"

"Don't worry; I was staying here either way." He smiled again.

Returning his smile she turned towards the door with him close behind. "I never got your name…?"

"It's Will…" He whispered. "And you?"

"Call me Djaq." She smiled at him another time.

0000OOOoo-

So in case you didn't get that: Allan and Djaq run into each other frequently and both kind of have a little crush on the other, and finally they talk to each other, setting up a date. Both are super excited for the chance to prove themselves to the other but last minute Allan gets called out on a job with his best friend Will. It's Djaq's house that was near the fire- the one that didn't have much damage- and while she's waiting for Allan, he's saving the baker and trying to keep her house from catching fire. He leaves Will alone to deal with the families while he tries to catch Djaq at the Starbucks. Djaq has obviously left but she took the back alley way home, meaning she didn't run into Allan when he ran the main road way to the café. Allan gets to the café and she isn't there, so he goes home upset. Djaq gets home and sees all of the chaos going on. Will was waiting for the families to explain what had happened so Djaq goes to him for an explanation. In the end both Will and Djaq introduce themselves, which is the start of something, but I'm leaving it up to you to decide what.

Poor Allan! Talk about ironic… He never gets what he wants :(

Any questions? Feel free to ask :)