The Eternal Flame of the Heart

Summary: When Rhiannon set off the Screaming Jelly Baby experiment, the consequences were not severe. But what if they had been? And how would the lives of Sue and Simon have changed because of the fire that had been caused?

Disclaimer: Waterloo Road belongs to the BBC.

Chapter One

Barry Barry and Rhiannon Salt gazed open mouthed in the direction of the closing door, along with the rest of their class, but Sue Spark, the newly qualified teacher who had caused the distraction, hardly noticed the look that she was being given, and gave no thought to supplying a reason for her sudden departure from the classroom. For now, she just needed a moment alone.

A near run in with George Windsor, the patronising languages teacher, led the woman to end up in the cupboard where she kept her scientific supplies, leaning heavily against the door with a sigh, while she fought to choke back a sob. She felt across the wall for the light switch and within a moment, the enclosed space was flooded with light. In the glass of the conical flasks, Sue could just about see a vague reflection of herself. She did not need it to be any clearer, as she could see that she looked a mess.

'Just a minute more.' she told herself, trying to calm her nerves at the thought of returning to the rabble in her classroom. 'I can't let them beat me. Twinkle was right, I have to pull myself together. I can't let him down, not when he has tried so hard to help me. And Dad, as well. I have to do this for them.'

But as she reached her hand down to touch the metal of the door handle, which had barely cooled from the last time she had held it, she lost her nerve, and walked two short strides in the opposite direction, absorbing herself in thinking of the chemical symbols for each solution on the shelf. It was something she often did when trying to prevent herself from crying, a technique that she had discovered just after her mother had passed away, around fifteen years ago, where she had tried to name each non-metal on the Periodic Table to force the tears away. Since then, there had been many occasions on which this technique had come in handy.

'I have to go back now.' she told herself forcefully, wiping the tears away once again. 'I've left the experiment alone, after all, and you should never leave students alone with any experiment that will explode, especially something like the Screaming Jelly Baby. It has to be specifically controlled, and they won't know that. If one person decides to mess around with it, it could hurt someone, and then even Dad couldn't save me from being sacked.'

And so she forced another few deep breaths of air into her lungs, trying to calm herself sufficiently, so that she could re-enter the classroom without being ridiculed further by the students. She knew that she did not really have time to do this, as anyone could enter her classroom at any time and see her class unattended, realise that she had abandoned them and run to the supplies cupboard. They didn't know the trauma she was going through, only Simon would understand her, and even if by some miracle it was only him, she would never be able to stand the look of disappointment in his eyes.

Satisfied that she had calmed sufficiently, Sue redirected her thoughts to the lesson she had abandoned, trying to trace her train of thought, so that she would not look like even more of an idiot when she returned to the classroom. It took her around thirty seconds to recall that they were learning about different enzymes and the reactions they catalysed, and with another few deep breaths under her belt, the young woman felt that she was just about ready to return to her classroom.

However, in that same moment, the blissful silence was broken by a loud piercing shriek. It was not a person that had made the sound, as it was clearly mechanically generated sound, almost like an alarm. It only took a split second for Sue to realise that it was not only like an alarm, it was one.

Swiftly, the redhead crossed the cupboard, reaching her hand out for the door handle and pushing it downwards, intent of escaping as quickly as she could do and dealing with the consequences of leaving her classroom a little sooner than she would have wished. But immediately, she realised that something was wrong. The handle would not turn fully, which meant that she was trapped.

Trying, and failing, to force herself to remain calm, the woman began to bang on the door, hoping that, even through the alarms, someone would hear her and come to her aid.

"Hello?" she called, hoping that her voice was loud enough to be heard over the wailing of the alarm. "Hello, can anybody hear me? Somebody, please! Let me out!"

By now, she was in tears once again, pounding on the door like a woman possessed as she heard the footsteps and the chattering of the students fade into the distance. Finally, as silence fell outside the door, Sue fell up against it, sobbing openly as she saw the pale smoke pour in under the door.

The smoke was thickening by the second, clouding the small room and steaming up the flasks of the chemicals with its heat. The redhead began to cough as she inhaled a lungful of smoke, and when she finally had to take another breath, she found herself choking on the heavy gas, unable to breathe properly any longer. The room was so filled with white now that she could hardly even see the hand in front of her face, and an orange glow began to shine under the door. The fire was drawing nearer, but Sue didn't know that anymore. Her breaths were short and quick, and she pounded heavily on the door for someone to save her.

'Simon will come and save me.' she tried to assure herself, as her head swam and she began to sway from side to side as her balance failed her as well. 'Simon will realise that I'm gone and then he'll come to get me. He's probably on his way right now. Just a little while longer and he'll be here, holding me in his arms and telling me it's alright. He'll come and save me. He will...'

But Sue did not even have a chance to complete her own thought, as the smoke, the heat and her unbridled fear combined to take her consciousness from her. Her legs caved in beneath her, and she twisted as she fell so that she landed with her back towards the door. As the world faded to black, the heat the only thing that remained as the flames began to lick their way beneath the door, the redhead found only one word on her mind, one conscious thought before she slipped away.

'Simon.'

A/N: I don't know when I thought of this idea, but I think it would have made everything very different if there actually had been a fire. The next chapter and probably the next few after that are going to be from Simon's point of view, for reason that'll become clear when you read them, which I hope you will. Anyway, please review!