Authors Note: This is my first fanfiction trembles set at the time of the DIC fire as I thought that whole thing was over and done with far too quickly and I think more could have been made of Kit thinking Noah was going to die and I'm still not buying him getting over her so quickly. Also, the actual fire seemed a bit lame to me (eg. Noah being knocked out by what seemed like a paperback book and how Max was apparently 'trapped' and all Kane had to do to 'rescue' him was tell him to walk out).

So deep breath here goes...

Noah Lawson heaved a heavy sigh and sank back into his chair. Massaging his forehead with his fingertips, he looked at the room around him. The office held so many memories, so many words.

He smiled briefly, remembering some of the too few good times at the Centre. Like when the first girl he ever counselled bought him a present to thank him – a slightly rough looking, faded pink teddy bear, with one of its eyes missing and felt dangling from its paw. It had been one of her childhood favourites, and in giving him this small token of appreciation she had made his week – even if he was slightly concerned about her insinuations with the colour. Simple things like that meant more to him than any money ever could, just to know he helped someone, had made their life that little bit more bearable.

He smirked sheepishly to himself as he remembered the time when he and Hayley had stayed up all night to finish her essay, but had ended up doing so much more. Or when he and Kit had... he mentally shook himself, stopping his trail of thought. He didn't want to go there, again.

He scuffed his feet along the floor of his former office and raked his fingers through his hair. The drop in centre was being demolished tomorrow, to liquidate Josh's 'assets'. As much as Noah hated to admit it Josh West had beaten him again, just as with Hayley. But he guessed that was the way things worked, people like him always lost out and people like Josh always won.

He picked up a stack of files from inside the desk draw and dropped them slightly untidily into the cardboard box at his side. He felt like he'd failed. Failed all the kids who had no-one and needed him so badly. After everything that had happened with his mum he felt he needed to help out kids who were in trouble, so they wouldn't have to suffer in silence like he had.

Of course, no-one knew what he went through as a kid, not really. Sure, some of them might have gotten some idea when his mum turned up in the bay, but he never told anyone the whole truth, not even Hayley, not even Jude. He could never tell anyone the real truth. He forgot about it himself most of the time, or he blocked it out, erased it from his memory...whatever.

Flynn had helped him no end during his counselling. He knew there were things Noah wasn't telling him, but let it go. Forcing it out of him wasn't going to help and he figured that the younger man would talk to him if ever he needed to.

Like Flynn, one of the reasons Noah was so good at his job was because he could relate to the kids he was helping. He wouldn't push them to tell him something but would always be there if they needed to talk. The kids liked him. He was actually interested in them as people and genuinely wanted to help, rather than just thinking of them as a number to be added to a file and sent off to the government to show how well he was doing. That was what Kit had said about him when he had helped her. Well at least he thought he was helping her, but really he knew that he'd just made things worse. Everyone else knew differently of course (including Kit herself), there was no way that she could have won her battle with the booze and lived to tell the tale without Noah.

He stayed absorbed in his memories of Kit until he noticed Jesse waving a hand in front of his face, bemusement engraved in his forehead. Noah turned his body towards his friend, awaiting a reason for this intrusion into his thoughts.

"I managed to get some helium," stated Jesse, "for the balloons," he added, seeing his friend's vacant expression, "for the party." Noah nodded.

"As in, to blow them up with," motioned Jesse, tilting his head to the side confused by Noah's blank expression. "As in, do you want me to do it now...Noah?"

"What...uh yeah... What?!" Noah questioned, oblivious to anything the older man had said in the past minute or so.

"Look, mate," said Jesse, "I know today must be difficult for you, what with the Centre closing and seeing all you've worked for come to an end, but-

"I wasn't really thinking about that."

"Oh, ok then... anything I can help with?" Noah shook his head.

"No, its cool," he replied, perhaps a little too quickly.

"Right, I'll get on with this then." Jesse gestured towards the huge pile of multi-coloured balloons.

"On with what?"

Jesse just chuckled to himself and walked into the main room, deciding that Noah's mind was somewhere else entirely, somewhere completely unreachable to Jesse McGregor. "I might tell you sometime mate, when your head gets back from wherever its at right now," he shouted behind him.

Noah ignored him and once again set to the unenviable task of emptying the bottomless filing cabinet. He had been doing this for about five minutes, and had made no headway, when Alex bustled up towards him with a scowl. Noah resisted his overwhelming urge to utter the words 'wind', 'blow', 'face' and 'stick' and waited for his friends inevitable rant.

After several minutes of constant Hayley-bashing Noah was starting to get bored. The story went that Alex had apparently tried to serenade and woo his girlfriend in front of her gym class when the girl quite obviously did not want to be wooed, did Noah care about this...no. He chuckled slightly to himself as he wondered why it was that his best friends always seem to turn out to be complete jerks. Ah! he realised... they all go out with Hayley.

Maybe he was better off without her after all, he decided, it wasn't as if she'd be interested in him now that she had Alex, and it wasn't her he really wanted anyway. He wanted Kit.

No. He stopped his thoughts from drifting to her for the one hundredth time that hour. She'd rejected him after their kiss at the dance, when he'd finally decided that she was The One. So now he had to move on. But getting over Kit Hunter was proving to be much harder than he could ever have anticipated.
The Drop in Centre closing party was in full swing. Noah had said the customary words of commiseration and a toast had been made. Everyone seemed to be having a good time - in spite of the imminent closure of the building.

Hayley and Alex were oh-so-obviously back together, with lots of kissing, cuddling and all the associated look-at-us-we're-so-happy-and-in-love isms. Noah found himself strangely nonchalant to this development. Instead, he busied himself with enjoying the party and saying goodbye to all the kids, maybe he had finally gotten over his ex.

The spread of finger food and refreshments that Leah had put on was fast disappearing, her and Colleen having obviously underestimated the consuming power of hoards of hungry teenagers. Jesse volunteered to retrieve the final tray of sandwiches from the kitchen. However, as he placed his hand around the door handle he realised that it was strangely warm, and on opening the door discovered the reason behind this. The kitchen was on fire.

He closed the door and calmly spread the word to evacuate the Centre, as the smoke began to take its hold on the building. Flynn ushered the group outside and made sure that everyone was accounted for and a safe distance away from the fire.

"Is everyone out?" asked Jesse, urgency in his voice.

"Yeah, yeah I think so," replied a slightly dazed Noah, he couldn't believe how quickly the fire had spread, and dreaded to think what would happen if anyone was still in there.

From amongst the coughing and spluttering people, a distressed Colleen emerged. "Max! Where's Max?!" Immediately panic spread amongst the group.

"Max!"
"Maxie!"
"Where is he?!"
"Max! Maaaxxx!"

Noah's mind raced, he already felt enough of a failure not being able to save the Centre from the creditors, but he wouldn't ever be able to forgive himself if he let a kid die. "He's still in there, he's..." Before he actually realised what he was doing he was zipping up his jacket and racing towards the door of the burning Drop in Centre, ignoring Flynn's shouts and Jesse's failed attempts to pull him back.

"Noah! Noah!"
"Noah please don't..."
"Be careful!"

He swung his arm around his head in defence as he entered the building, and flinched as the heat immediately hit his skin and the smoke stung his eyes. "Max!" He couldn't find him.

"Noah! Help! I'm in here!...Noah! Help! Come on Noah Help!"

He hurried towards the direction of Max's voice – in the bedroom. The smoke had started to take effect; invading his lungs and making him struggle for breath. He grabbed a towel from one of the beds and moved towards Max, beckoning him forward. He heard a loud crash and felt a sharp pain in his head, and then... Nothing.

So...you like?? Any reviews would be very much appreciated, particularly constructive ones, as this is my first fic points to top and I probably still have a lot to learn.

Becky xxx