I'm sprinting across the station as fast as possible and grabbing all my equipment and clothes. I put my uniform pants over my sweats quickly and I grab my helmet. "Fuck, it's been awhile since we've had a fire this close to the station."
I rush down the pole and spot Benji half running, half putting on his uniform pants over his cargo shorts while silently cursing to himself.
"C'mon Benji! Truck's already loaded and ready to go!"
"I'm trying to Becs, but my zipper is stuck!", he yells exasperated. I jump on our station's fire truck and grip tightly to the metal arm bars built on the side of it. Benji jumps on right after getting his uniform on and we're flying through the city with the alarms blaring loud from the top of the truck.
We pull up in front of the building 6 minutes later and I jump off the truck immediately. Benji grabs the hose and they start pumping water out at the flames quick. I glance around and see a crowd of people around the building. Did everyone get out safely? How did the fire start?
The flames are getting larger and larger by the second and I can't waste any time. I see a young blonde women who looks like she's in her mid 20s, crying. I run up to her and tap her on the shoulder.
"Is there anyone else left in the building ma'am?"
She nods her head and starts speaking quickly, "M-my neighbor. Chloe. Chloe Beale. She should still be in there on the 6th floor. The fire started on the 7th floor above us and when I had realized the smoke was making its way to our floor I evacuated, but not without trying to warn her. I knocked on her door several times, yelling and telling her there was a fire, but there was no answer. I know she came home because I heard her singing at the front door! You have to save her, please!"
At this point the lady was shaking me and going hysterical.
"Please, calm down ma'am, what's your name?" I ask.
"Aubrey." she answers wiping her tears. "Aubrey Posen."
"Okay, look Aubrey, I will talk to my team and we will send people up there to save her. Can you stay here and inform those fire fighters over there if anything goes wrong?" I gently ask.
She nods her head quietly and whispers a thank you. I run back over to the truck where my team was at.
I start putting on my helmet, mask, oxygen tank, and everything I absolutely need for a rescue.
I look up and see that the water hose is doing its job and keeping the fire at bay, but not for long.
Benji rushes over and I give him a quick glance before throwing another helmet at him.
"Gear up Benji, I need you to head in and help me with a rescue. She's on the sixth floor and we need to move. Now!"
Benji complies immediately and starts putting on his equipment also. We inform our team mates quick of our rescue plan and head into the building.
We're heading up the third flight of stairs and we're both breathing heavily. Man, these clothes and equipment are freaking heavy. Good thing they have us training running up the stairs with these. As small as I am I should be passed out right now.
As we head up the fourth floor I hear Benji speak, "Becs we need to move faster. I see the smoke already and we're only making it to the 5th floor. The 6th floor should already be packed with smoke already."
I grunt and make a move to hustle. As I head up the 6th floor the smoke has filled the hall ways and the heat is overwhelming.
As I'm making my way through the halls, Benji trailing quickly and quietly behind me, I see a red headed women on the floor crawling fast towards me.
"Hey, over here!" she gasps. Me and Benji run over to her and I hand her an oxygen mask quickly. She takes deep breaths and I put my arm under her armpit to lift her up. As I let her shift her weight on my shoulders we make eye contact and wow. She has the most beautiful bright blue eyes ever. They're such a contrast to her silky red hair. What was her name again? Chloe Beale? I'm stuck staring at her until Benji hits me in the shoulder and yells loudly, "Beca, we need to go now! The top floor is gonna collapse!"
And I believe him too. The ceiling above us is cracking and it should definitely give way any minute now.
We both make a move to help the very gorgeous stranger lady down the stairs but she grabs my arm tightly, stopping me.
"My Snuffles.."
Her, what?
"Your what?"
"Snuffles, my cat."
I blink.
"She's still in there. I need to go save her. I won't leave without her. She means everything to me!"
Benji lightly guides her towards the stairs and soothingly says, "Ma'am we need to go now. The building is collapsing and we need to get you to safety." Leave it to Benji to be calm and caring in such a crisis.
"I-I can't leave M- Mr. Snuffles. She means the world to me."
And she starts crying. Right there. On the sixth floor of a burning apartment building. About her cat named Mr. Freaking Snuffles. Who even names their female cat Mr. Snuffles?
I can't believe I'm about to do this, but I really am. Not just because there's this beautiful, blue eyed, red headed stranger crying in front of me and begging me to save her cat. But because I can't stand to see her sad. She looks like someone kicked her puppy. And I guess in a way it's relatively true since we were just about to leave her pet cat Snuffles in a burning building to die.
I sigh and ask,"What room is your cat in ma'am?"
She looks up shocked and responds quickly,"604, it's 604."
I nod and look at Benji. In my most authoritative voice I say, "Take her down the building and outside. When you get out there I need you to quickly inform the team to get the ladder from the truck to the window of room 604. Do you understand me?"
Benji gapes at me. "Are you kidding me Becs?! Now is not the time to play hero! You could die going to get that cat!"
Honestly I could. But something about this stranger strikes a chord in me. Like, I would do anything and everything to keep her happy at all costs. Weird? Nah. How about crazy.
"Just trust me Benji. I'm okay. Now go. Please." I plead with as much force as possible.
He looks at me once more before shaking his head. "Be safe Becs." And he grabs Chloe by the arm and rushes her down the stairs. I could hear her yelling thank you over and over again before it became a distant echo.
Don't thank me yet dude. I need to find this Snuffles and I need to find her quick.
I run through the halls looking for room 604. The smoke is making it significantly harder to spot the room numbers, but when I finally spot room 604 a part of the ceiling behind me collapses and I lunge quickly in front of me to avoid the burning debris. "Shit, that was way too close." I get up and quickly rush into the room.
Immediately I start to hear a strained meowing. Mr. Snuffles.
"Where are you Snuffles? C'mere kitty."
I'm running around frantically and I'm pouring buckets of sweat at this point.
Fuck, it's hot. If this stupid ass cat doesn't come out I'm gonna leave its furry ass to burn.
Flashing bright blue eyes blur my vision for a second and I remember that this isn't just any cat.
This cat means the world to her and if I don't save it then I'm gonna really feel like shit for a while.
I roam the room for a bit and I finally find the fat fur ball. It's wedged in between the wall and the table that's holding the TV.
"Come here Mr. Snuffles."
I don't even care if she attacks me. These gloves and sleeves are so thick that she'd just be wasting her time taking her claws out on me.
I pick her up easily, surprisingly, and hold her against me.
"It's ok buddy. I've got you." I say reassuringly. She just meows and I run over to the balcony door opening it. A rush of cool air hits me and the smoke rushes out room and into the air. I look over the railing to see Benji raising the ladder to the balcony. I also see the stunning red head waving frantically and yelling something.
Just as I put my foot over the metal railing ready to land on the incoming ladder the whole 6th floor collapses. And not just the 6th floor. The 5th floor too and even the 4th one. It's like a domino effect. One after another the floors fall. Taking me along with it.
I felt myself fall off the railing when the 6th floor collapsed, missing the ladder by inches. It was almost like everything was in slow motion. Like a movie. God, I hate those things. So predictable. But who could predict this right?
Me trying to play hero and help the damsel in distress. Maybe take her out to get coffee or dinner. Get a chance to know her.
But no. I'm gonna get a face full of gravity and concrete. Death is a high possibility too.
I wrap my arms around Mr. Snuffles and brace for the impact. If I'm gonna die let's hope I die saving this cat. Hopefully me being a meat shield pays off.
I feel myself falling for a bit and just when I'm sure I'm gonna hit the ground.
Poof
Wait, what? Poof? Wasn't it supposed to be splat? Or like, crunch?
I look down and around me and I realize it's a big, inflatable freaking bed thing. It's really big. How did they get it inflated so quickly?
I get off the inflatable quickly and Benji quickly rushes to me with a mask on. There's debris everywhere. On the floor, bits of it in the air, and lots of smoke.
"Oh jesus, you're okay. You're okay, right?"
He's already taken my helmet off and he's unstrapping my gloves and heavy equipment from my body while I just stand there with Mr. Snuffles tucked in between my arm and body.
"Beca?" he questions and stops moving.
"I almost died.." I mumble.
I'm still in shock, but then a hard impact pushes me on the ground and I'm knocked out of my daze.
"MR. SNUFFLES!" Chloe yells while prying said cat out of my arms and hugging her like no tomorrow.
Man, that cat has quite a tolerance.
As Chloe peppers her with hugs and kisses she just meows and blinks slowly.
It should actually be me getting those hugs and kisses. I almost died for that fur ball.
I make a move to get up, but next thing you know I'm being pushed down again by an overly excited Chloe. She's hugging me super tight and yelling,"Thank you so much! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!" and lands 3 quick successive kisses on my cheek. I blush and rub my cheek. Chloe smiles brightly at me and grabs my hand to help me back up.
Benji comes up from behind her and smiles.
"Good thing Chloe's best friend had quick thinking or you would've been paint on the concrete Beca."
"Chloe's best friend? Who?" Before I could start looking around for that person the blonde woman from before walks up to me and smiles. I remember her. Her name is Aubrey.
"Thank you for keeping your word and going in to save my best friend."
Benji jumps in immediately after and tells me that Aubrey was the one that told the team to inflate the air bed when she spotted it at the back of the truck.
"She said she could tell the building was going to collapse any time soon and its best if we be safe rather than sorry."
"I could just tell." She laughs lightly,"I mean who couldn't? The building was coming apart."
Benji cuts in and excuses himself.
"If you don't mind ladies I have to bring Becs over to our medical team over there to get a check up. Although she looks fine we need to make sure."
"Oh, she looks fine alright." Chloe winks at me and smiles flirtatiously.
I almost choke on my dry spit as Benji drags me away.
I was half way to the medical team when I hear Chloe say to Aubrey, "Wow, she's cute with a bonus hot factor." I see Aubrey lightly pushing Chloe's shoulder and laughing before leaning in to say something.
After the medical check up I'm sitting on the back of our fire truck chugging a water bottle as I watch my fellow crew mates roll up the hose and pack up. Through the corner of my eye I see Chloe hand Aubrey Mr. Snuffles and starts making her way towards me.
I clear my throat and sit up a little straighter. God, why am I so nervous?
Phew! C'mon Mitchell. Game face on!
I put my water bottle down beside me as Chloe comes up and faces me.
"Hey Chloe," I say as I smile and make eye contact with her. Now that we aren't in a smoke filled building I can finally focus fully on her facial features. Her eyes are the darkest yet brightest blue ever and is a complete contrast to her bright red hair. God, she's so pretty. "Beca?" I wonder if she's single? "Hey Becs, are you there?" I should ask for her number. "Hello?" And maybe- wait. Her face is so close. I'm knocked out of my shock, "Oh my god, you're so close. I mean, uh, what were you saying?"
Chloe smiles softly at me and bites her lip. Wow, that's hot.
"Well, now that I have your attention. I wanted to thank you for saving my cat again. Aaaand…"
I blink and look up to finally meet her eyes. Oh no. She totally noticed me staring at her lips.
"And?" I ask nervously after a few seconds.
She's full blown smiling now and she grabs me by the hands and pulls me real close. Like super close. Like one centimeter kissing proximity. I gulp. That was a loud gulp crap. I can see her eyes flicker downward towards my lips and I can't help but find myself doing the same again.
She looks up at me and whispers, "And I've been wanting to do this.."
She leans in the last bit of distance and our lips touch.
I immediately feel the warmth and softness of her lips and I close my eyes and lean in a tad bit more.
I can feel her smile against my lips and I smile a bit too.
I guess asking for a number wouldn't be so awkward now that I know this attraction is mutual.
She pulls back first and I feel a little dissapointed. I open my eyes and I see her staring back at me. Smiling almost amusingly to seeing me enjoy the moment so much.
I feel this burst of confidence and I just blurt out, "Does this mean I can take you out to dinner sometime?"
She looks a bit taken back by my outburst but quickly recovers.
"Absolutely. I would like that a lot," she says enthusiastically.
"That's great! Can I get your number?" I ask with more confidence now.
"Oh, yeah, you can," she digs in her pocket and gets her phone out.
"Just give me your number and I'll save your contact," she says as she types in my digits while I recite my number by memory.
She puts her phone back in her pockets and I begin to wonder.
"Hey, do you have a place to stay? I mean, do you and Aubrey have anyone you can call up to stay with for awhile?"
Oh god, I hope that didn't sound like me trying to invite her to stay over at my place. Wait. It did sound like that, crap.
"Oh yeah, I contacted my parents awhile ago and informed them of what happened. Aubrey and I are gonna go stay with them for a little awhile until we find a new place to move into."
Oh okay. Phew. She has a place to stay, that's good.
"That's good, if you need help with anything at all, just call me."
"I'll definitely call you if I need help with anything Miss Firefighter," she says flirtatiously while winking at me. Oh my god. That was hot.
Benji runs over and informs me that we're done here and heading back to the station.
I nod back at him and refocus my attention to Chloe.
"So, text me later for updates on the date?" I ask.
She smiles and nods, "Definitely," she leans in for a peck and I find myself leaning in for more.
She laughs lightly and shoves my shoulder a bit, "Play your cards right on the date and there will definitely be more of that."
I chuckle and I hop off the truck to get into the passenger seat as Benji starts the engine.
"Get ready to be amazed Miss Beale!" I say as I open the door to the passenger side.
"Oh, I'm counting on it Becs," she responds as she walks backwards towards Aubrey and her car.
I laugh to myself and hop in the truck.
Benji immediately drives off and halfway to the station he looks over and sees me smiling like a love struck high school girl.
"Landed yourself a date?" he asks good naturedly.
"Oh yeah man. Landed myself a date with the most beautiful girl ever."
