Her first day at work had been amazing. The kids were great. The teachers were great. Everything was great. Until 4:37pm. That's when she felt it. In her bones. The items she set up on her desk last week shook. Literally rattled. The picture of her with her parents that she had a stranger to take one night when they were eating dinner out at a nice restaurant. The water bottle that was sitting on a clay coaster that one of her favorite students in Atlanta made her as a going away present. They actually vibrated. She looked around curiously knowing there were other teachers in the building that must have also heard, felt, that. Then she heard the alarms. They sounded close but not close enough to be coming from her building. Tom, the math teacher who's room was next to hers leaned in the door quickly.

"What was that?" Chloe asked.

"I don't know but it's coming from the daycare across the street." Tom said as he walked to the window in Chloe's classroom.

She stood and joined him looking curiously across the street. Her hand flew over her mouth as she watched a front window to the building explode and smoke and flames began to flow out.

"Oh my God" She mumbled against her palm. She dropped her hand and looked at Tom who looked just as shocked. "There are kids in there" Chloe mumbled as she turned back to see flames begin to engulf the building.

"Come on" Tom called as he turned to run out of the classroom.

Chloe wasn't sure what it was but something propelled her feet and before she knew it she was outside, running across the street with a hand full of teachers. She could feel the heat on her face. Kids were running everywhere. Mostly crying but some were in shock and being pulled and lead out of the building by daycare workers. Mom's and Dad's in suits and business attire who were arriving to pick up their kids were frantically shouting their kids names. Some were lucky enough to find their kids. Some hadn't been so lucky.

"Chloe?"

Her name pulled herself out of her thoughts and back to the harsh reality she was in. She turned.

"What are you doing here?" Stacie asked with a hand on her shoulder.

Chloe felt people rushing by her. They were a blur. All she could see was the building. Stacie's hand on her bicep pulling her away got her attention again. "I work across the street. We heard an ex" Chloe paused as the word fell out of her mouth for the first time "explosion."

"Okay" Stacie said softly. She could see Chloe struggling with everything that was happening in front of her. "Can you help us? Settle the kids as they come out? I'm going to set up a triage area right over there and the kids that are okay, can you help watch them till their parents come?" Stacie asked.

Chloe wasn't sure why but she nodded yes.

"Hey!"

Chloe turned in the direction the shouting was coming from.

"What are you doing? You can't go in there!" Jesse yelled.

Chloe pulled Stacie to a halt. "Tom!" Chloe yelled for her co-worker.

Tom was being pulled from the building by Jesse.

"You know him?" Stacie asked.

"He's a teacher." Chloe answered quickly.

"Jesse!" Stacie yelled. Jesse turned towards the paramedic who was waiving him towards her.

Jesse drug the man over to Stacie and another woman.

"Jesse?" Beca's voice called over the radio Stacie had on her hip.

Chloe watched as Jesse pushed a place on his chest, close to his shoulder, and spoke. "Go for Jesse"

Stacie turned the nob of the radio down so that Chloe couldn't hear but she listened as Jesse responded handing Tom over to Stacie.

"Some dude was trying to run through the front door. What's your location?" Jesse asked as he began to walk away.

Stacie turned the radio back up a little so she could hear. She pointed to an area where other paramedics were checking out kids. That's the first time Chloe took to look around at her surroundings. There were ambulances lining the streets and paramedics tending to kids and workers. There were police cars everywhere with their lights blazing. There were parents being held back and firefighters all over the place. Some were just firing up hoses and pointing the water towards the building. Some were carrying kids out of the building.

"I have 7 kids and a teacher. They were trapped." Chloe heard over the radio and she saw Jesse break out into a run towards the building. "It's still pretty hot in here. I have a couple kids with pretty bad burns and one I think has a broken leg. They were in the middle classroom. I managed to get inside but the fire is surrounding us. Any word on getting hoses in here?"

"Roger that Mitchell. We are working on it but the building is unstable. We are trying to figure out how to get to it without the building crumbling around you. Are you secure?"

Chloe didn't know whose voice that was but it sounded authoritative.

"Negative. I need to get these kids out. It's too hot and there's too much smoke." A crash and some screams were heard over the radio and immediately Chloe watched a swarm of firemen run towards the building. Jesse was about to knock out the front door of the building with his axe when it finally blew knocking him off his feet and throwing him backwards through the air. Chloe watched it happened in what felt like slow motion as he landed on his back and instinctively covered his face as debris landed all over him.

"We're coming out. Northwest corner of the building." Beca's voice was heard and the firemen who weren't running that direction stopped and headed to where she instructed. Chloe saw Stacie run in Jesse's direction screaming for help from anyone. She couldn't watch anymore. 'How could this be happening' was the thought that was running through her head. "We need to help those kids" Chloe said to Tom. She grabbed his arm and pulled him in the area that Stacie had pointed to earlier. She needed to be busy doing things. She couldn't look at anymore burned kids being pulled from the building. She needed to pretend she was helping with a dismissal or something normal because this was not normal and she was losing it.

XxXxXx

Before she realized it was almost dark. The sun was setting. She forced herself to pay attention to the kids to not turn back towards the building. She felt a small weight lift every time she handed a kid over to their parents. She watched them hug. She watched the parent's faces. They were relieved as they held their kids tight but their faces were pained. Pained for what could have happened to their kids. Pained for the parents that were being told bad news by the cops. A weird mixture of relief and pain.

"That's the last one." Tom said as she came up from behind her after re-uniting the last child with their parent.

Chloe allowed herself to turn back to the building for the first time since she saw Jesse be blown off his feet. "How did this happen?" She whispered as she started to cry.

She felt Tom grab her by the shoulders and turn her towards his chest wrapping his arms around her.

"Hey Chloe, are you okay?"

She pulled away from Tom and turned toward Stacie who looked tired. "Yeah. I'm okay" Chloe barely whispered.

"Are you sure? Do you need me to take you somewhere?" Stacie asked.

Chloe shook her head.

"I can take her home." Tom offered.

"Stace?" A voice called. Chloe recognized it from the radio.

Stacie, Chloe and Tom turned towards the source of the voice.

"How's Jesse?" Beca asked. She was in her trousers and boots but her coat was off. Her red suspenders hung down and Chloe noticed that she was hot. Like she could see the steam radiating off of her.

"He's okay. CR will bring him back to the house tonight. Nothing's broken. Just pretty bruised up from where the door flew off and hit him." Stacie answered. "How about you? Do you want to go in a get checked out?"

"No. I'm okay." Beca answered as she came to a stop in front of them. She recognized the redhead. She'd seen her before.

"You're bleeding." Stacie said taking a step towards Beca.

Beca pushed her hand away insisting, "I'm fine."

Stacie turned back towards the teachers, "Beca this is Chloe and?" Stacie paused not knowing the man's name.

"Tom" He supplied.

"They teach across the street and I asked them to help get all the kids situated as they were coming out." Stacie explained.

"Hi. Thanks for helping out." Beca said to the two teachers. She watched as Tom put his arm around Chloe's shoulder, giving it a squeeze.

Chloe was lost. She didn't know what to say. She didn't know why but she was tongue tied by the brunette. She barely registered that Tom's arm was around her. "I'm just glad that you're" She corrected herself, "that everyone is okay."

Beca smiled and Chloe melted a little bit. Chloe noticed her face was covered with a mixture dried blood, sweat and soot. But when she smiled, even ever so slightly, Chloe noticed her red lips and bright smile. How could all of that exist at the same time. Chloe shook the thought from her mind as the two brunettes began talking again.

"We are finished here." Beca said. "Headed back to the house?"

Stacie nodded.

"Need a ride?" Beca asked.

"I'm gonna make sure she's okay" Stacie pointed over her shoulder to the redhead who stood uncommonly still. Statue like in Tom's embrace. "I'll catch a ride from another unit."

"Yeah, okay" Beca agreed. She cleared her throat and Chloe's eyes were on her in a second. She hadn't seen their color before now. Now they were focused on her and they were the bluest thing that Beca had ever remembered seeing. "Thanks for all of your help today Chloe."

Chloe nodded.

"And Tom" Beca added.

"Okay. See you soon." Stacie said breaking up their moment. Beca backed away and towards the firetruck.

XxXxXx

It had been a weird first week of school, to say the least. But it was finally over. It was finally Saturday. Aubrey was working a double at the hospital and hadn't been home since yesterday right at Chloe was walking in from school. This morning she got up, went for a jog to hoping to elevate some stress and was now standing in line at the coffee shop Bree had brought her to the day after she moved. The local paper caught her eye as she stood at the counter. 'Accident or Arson' the headline read. It had a picture of the daycare right underneath it. Chloe grabbed the paper and paid for it and her coffee. She made her way through the line to the table that she and Aubrey had sat at previously. She was half way through the article when she noticed shoes standing just to her right. She looked up slowly, the navy pants, black belt, white button up short sleeve shirt. She took notice of the logo right side of the chest. It was a standard fireman's shield with symbols and pictures. On the left chest she noticed the name. Lt. Mitchell.

Beca stood in front of her with her hands in her pockets watching Chloe read the newspaper. "Hi. Chloe right?" Beca asked as Chloe finally looked up at her.

"Yeah." Chloe answered slowly.

"Beca" Beca said as she pulled a hand out of her pocket and pointed back towards herself.

"Yeah, Hi." Chloe perked up trying not to seem weird. She knew she was failing miserably. "What are you doing here?" Chloe asked. As soon as the words left her mouth she knew she was an idiot.

Beca smiled. "Coffee run. You can only drink so much crappy firehouse coffee before you need the real thing."

Chloe saw Beca look down at the article she was reading. She followed her gaze their before looking back up quickly. "Was this on purpose?" She asked.

Beca frowned slightly. "I don't know. Maybe. Seems as if Lucas Bowers thinks it might be." Beca said reading the author of the newspaper article's name.

"Do you think it was?" Chloe asked looking at her with bright blue eyes.

"I don't know. I hope not." Beca answered softly.

"Who would want to hurt little kids?" Chloe asked.

"The water heater blew up." Beca said quickly. "It exploded and the gas from the leaking lines is what ignited. It was probably an accident."

"Yeah." Chloe said looking back down at the article that had explained as much. "But the owner of the daycare said the water heater was just a few months old."

"I don't know, sometimes things like that happen. Maybe the owner is just covering his ass." Beca said looking away and back at the line. "Anyway, I just wanted to say hi and thank you again for your help that day." Beca said sliding her hand back in her pocket.

"Thank you for" Chloe stumbled, "everything you do." She shook her head at herself.

"Yeah. Okay, well I'll see you around maybe" Beca said with a cute smile. "Oh, tell your boyfriend thanks again." Beca.

"Boyfriend?" Chloe questioned but Beca had already made her way to the door and was out of ear shot.

Chloe continued reading the article where she had left off. Reading through conspiracy theories offered by the author of the article. Unfortunate accident was covered, then the maintenance schedule of the machine, then the owner lying to cover himself and finally arson. What if the water heater was tampered with to fail? On purpose. Chloe sat reading the words over and over again trying to imagine the type of person who could possibly want to put kids in danger. To hurt innocent kids. She noticed the door to the coffee shop open and Beca walked out with a coffee in one hand and two coffee carriers filled with four more each stacked on top of each other in her left hand.

"I don't have a boyfriend" Chloe said timing it perfectly as Beca walked by.

"You don't?" Beca stopped and asked. "I thought that guy at the daycare was, you know." Beca shrugged.

"No. Co-worker." Chloe answered plainly.

"Oh. Okay. Well I'm sorry for assuming." Beca said as she turned to look in the direction she needed to walk. "I'm gonna" She pointed with her head.

"Do you want some help with that?" Chloe asked pointing to the coffee trays she was carrying.

"Um" Beca contemplated.

"Here let me" Chloe said as she stood and took the top tray off carefully. "Where are you parked?" She asked.

"I walked."

"You walked?" Chloe asked.

"Yeah, the house is only 3 blocks that way." Beca said turning towards the street she needed to walk down.

"Your house?" Chloe asked.

"The station. Firehouse." Beca replied. "We just call it the house. It's not my house." She rolled her eyes as she rambled.

"You don't live there?" Chloe asked. "Sorry, for all the questions. I've never met a fireman before." She stopped and looked at Beca with big eyes, "Firewoman. Lady fireman? I don't even know what to call you."

"Firefighter" Beca clarified with a smile.

"Firefighter." Chloe repeated with a slight head nod.

"And no. I don't live there. I live in an apartment. It's called the house because when we are working we do live there. We eat there, shower there and all the firefighters and paramedics we are all like brothers and sisters. We're family." Beca explained with a smile as she thought about all her friends.

"How many hours do you have to work or whatever?" Chloe asked as they continued walking towards 72.

"It's usually three days on and then two off." Beca answered. "Sometimes you get lucky and get a two on and three off but those are pretty rare."

"So are you like in charge?"

"No." Beca answered with a laugh.

"Sorry. I don't know how it works." Chloe said a little embarrassed.

"We have a Chief and he's in charge of the house. He gets to handle all the administrative stuff with the Captain of the LAFD. When he's not there me and the other Lieutenant will supervise the house and the other firefighters. Chief will come out on calls and direct the scene but mostly he will leave stuff like that up to me and Bumper." Beca glanced over to Chloe to see her fully engrossed in what she was explaining so she continued. "Bumper is the other Lieutenant in our house. He rides Engine Company which means he leads the other firefighters in putting out fires. I'm on squad and we operate the Ladder Company and the Tactical Response Truck."

"Rescue squad" Chloe clarified.

"Um, yeah. Some people call us that."

"Stacie told me."

"Oh. I'll coordinate the rescue operation at different scenes. We can help with extinguishing a fire but our first responsibility is to reduce the number of casualties. We also take calls that don't involve fire. Car accidents. Car submersions. Impaling's. Building collapses. Chemical spills. Oh" Beca perked up, "I once did a rescue for a hiker who was trapped in Santa Monica Mountains. That was different."

"How long have you been a firefighter?" Chloe asked looking up to see the firehouse a few yards away.

"I joined the academy right out of high school so 8 years." Beca answered. "Thanks for helping me." She said as they stopped in front of the large door that was open. Chloe looked to see a huge garage with two firetrucks and an ambulance parked in it.

"It's about time."

Chloe and Beca turned to see a group of firefighters dressed like Beca come and claim the trays that they held in their hands.

"Do you want a tour of the house?" Beca asked turning back towards the redhead.

"Really?" Chloe perked up.

"Yeah, come on." Beca invited.

Chloe followed Beca into the large garage. She noticed how the space was clean and tidy and not only the trucks and the ambulances. The garage was spotless. Not one thing out of place.

"So this is my truck." Beca said as she pulled the latch on the door opening it for Chloe to see. I will always sit here. Those are my pants and boots and my jacket's always hung right there. When the call comes it, we all just head to the trucks and start getting ready. So I have my gloves and hood in the pockets of my coat and my helmet is always in my seat." Beca explained. "You can climb in." She said holding her hand for Chloe to take and help her step up into the truck.

Chloe looked around at how each firefighters gear as set up. "You always have it like this?" She asked as she climbed down.

"Yeah. You never know when you're gonna have to go so everyone will set it up the way they like it." Beca answered.

"Do you slide down a pole?" Chloe asked with an amused grin.

"No. Our house is one story." Beca answered with an equally big smile. "Come on."

Chloe followed Beca through a door and found herself in a large room with a large table and chairs surrounded all sides of it.

"That's the kitchen." Beca said pointing over towards the large commercial size kitchen.

"Do you cook?" Chloe asked.

"Not really. Right now our Probie cooks all our meals on shift." Beca answered. "And we all eat here. Lunch and Dinner mostly."

"What's a Probie?" Chloe asked.

"A probationary firefighter. He's new. His name is Benji and he's just out of the academy. He gets most of the shit jobs like keeping the garage clean and the equipment mounted and organized. Um, he will sometimes have to do laundry. Cook. Things like that all while learning how to be a firefighter. It sucks being a rookie. But we all go through it. But for the most part we all have different chores we have to do to keep the house clean."

Chloe continued to follow Beca, "we watch TV in here at night sometimes." Chloe looked in the room and kept going.

"Work out room. Locker room." Beca said and then rounded a corner, "And these are the dorms."

Chloe stopped when Beca stopped in front of a door. "This is my room."

Chloe stepped inside the small room. It had a small desk, a locker and a twin size bed. "It's small." Chloe whispered.

"Yeah. The other firefighters share a room with someone on an opposite shift but Lieutenants have a room to themselves."

"Fancy" Chloe teased.

"And that's about it." Beca said standing awkwardly in her room looking at the redhead.

"Walk me out?" Chloe asked. "I should be getting home."

"Is your car at the coffee shop?" Beca asked as she led Chloe out of the dorm area and back through the dining room.

"No. I actually was out running today and ended up there." Chloe explained.

"So where do you live?" Beca asked. "I mean you don't have to tell me I was just wondering how far it is."

"It's fine. I live on Canyon Run."

"That's like 8 miles from here." Beca said suddenly.

"Yeah, I guess. I mean I was just out running. Thinking. And before I knew it I was almost to the coffee shop." Chloe explained as the made their way outside the firehouse.

"Can I drive you home?" Beca asked. "It's the least I could do for you helping us at the daycare and for carrying those coffee's today."

"No. You're working. I'll be fine." Chloe said with a sweet smile.

"I'm off actually. I just ran out for coffee for the shift change. Let me grab my bag and I'll drive you home." Beca said again. "If that's okay."

"It would be great. Thanks." Chloe accepted.

Chloe waited a couple minutes outside while Beca ran back into the house. She had turned back to admire the architecture of the building when Beca ran back out. "Ready" The brunette asked with a back pack hung over her shoulder.

"Yeah." Chloe replied happily. She followed Beca over to a Jeep. She watched the brunette toss her back pack in the back seat and then climb up into the black wrangler.

"So" Beca said as she backed out of the parking lot and pulled onto the street. "You teach at Hidden Hills."

Chloe nodded.

"Are you from around here?" Beca asked.

"No, I just moved a few weeks ago actually. From Atlanta." Chloe answered.

"That's it." Beca said as the lightbulb went off. "I saw you at a party a few weeks ago. I couldn't place where I had seen you before."

"Um, yeah. I saw you there." Chloe admitted.

"Why did you leave Atlanta?" Beca asked as she drove.

"Just needed a change." Chloe answered simply.

"And how do you like it?" Beca asked as she turned onto Chloe's street.

"4th house of the left" Chloe instructed. "It's good. Monday was" Chloe searched for the appropriate word as Beca pulled into her driveway. "Hard. But LA is growing on me."

"Well, here you go."

"Thanks for the ride." Chloe smiled as she climbed out of the jeep. "And for the tour."

"Anytime." Beca smiled as she watched Chloe walk up to the door. The redhead waived just before unlocking the door and disappearing behind it.

AN: So, I don't know anything about firefighters or fire stations so I had to do some research. I hope this came out okay. I don't know why but I'm still unsure of this but I'm going to try and keep going. Your comments/thoughts/suggestions help a lot. Please comment ...