Chapter 4
Chet was back before the rest of the crew had loaded a length of hose to report to his captain that the center needed to find something for Frank to do to get him out of the center for a while because Mark, the man who had tried to take Chet away from Frank, strangling him in the process, was on the war path again and they wanted to separate the two. Jake, one of the workers at the center would requisition a van and have Frank at the station as soon as they got everyone else out of the street and back into the center.
As it turned out the van from the training center followed them back to the station and Chet was able to signal to them from his seat on the engine that they should pull into the back.
The engine was only backed in as far as the front apron to avoid making a huge mess in the bay and Chet hurried to greet his friend before standing back and allowing him to present himself to the Captain.
" F…F…F…Fire t…t…truck w…w…washer F…Frank D…D…Dillon r…r…reporting for duty."
There was a resemblance of a salute involved and if Hank stretched his imagination a little he could see that the man was at least trying to stand at attention, although he was bouncing up and down on the balls of his feet with such nervous excitement that it was hard to tell.
"Thank you for your assistance and welcome to 51's." Hank extended a hand that was taken by both of Frank's hands and shaken 'til his arm nearly came loose at the shoulder. "I'll put you under the direction of Fireman Kelly here and let you get to work."
Chet pointed the way to the back of the engine and Hank watched as Frank stepped up on the tail board with the same ease Kelly did and with only a few seconds of instruction was able to work his arm through the loops of the hose in the bed and pull a huge section of dirty hose off onto the floor. By the time Hank had assigned Lopez to get something going for them all to eat and offered a welcoming handshake to the man called Jake, the hose bed was emptied awaiting Mike, John and Roy to pull the clean and dried hose from the hose rack in preparation of reloading the hose bed once it had been cleaned out.
Both Chet and Frank grabbed a bucket and filled it with water and soap and while Chet took on the hose bed to get the muck cleaned out from there. Frank went straight for the front of the engine and started to wash across the face with a soapy sponge. Hank watched the young man, somewhat nervous that he was out of sight of Chet Kelly. When he rapidly soaped up the whole front of the engine Hank feared he wouldn't really clean it just go through the rabid motions. However once Frank had the front of the engine soaped up he then moved to one section near the top and began to work in earnest to get every speck of dirt off. This man, even though mentally handicapped, had learned that if you apply soapy water and give it a minute to soften up the dirt that things came clean easier and quicker. Hank sighed in relief and moved into his office to catch up on the log books and reports. Jake, seeing that Frank was being supervised as well as he needed to be by Fireman Kelly, found his way into the kitchen and offered to help Marco prepare a meal.
To Hank's pleasant surprise by the time he had filled out reports on the last two fires and updated the report on their first run with Kelly's medical report on his bite, the engine was backed into the bay and looking ready for a parade as the men were gathering together to get clean hoses loaded into the bed.
To his uncertain surprise he saw Kelly and their guest Frank climbing into the hose bed to receive the hose. As he stood and watched Hank noticed the uncertain look on his engineer's face and that Kelly wasn't giving a lot of instruction. The two men were just pulling in the hose as fast as it was being fed to them. Of course Hank had to make his way to the tail board where he could climb up and inspect the work being done.
To his surprise everything was being done just as it should be with Kelly just a little faster than Frank but not as much as Hank would have expected. Every coil, every connection was lain as it needed to be to assure the smoothest and most rapid deployment at a fire just as if this man Frank had done it a hundred times before. When he finally turned his attention from Frank's work to Kelly he was met with eye contact and a huge smile. The bed of hose was half laid when Hank's attention was drawn to the sound of an opening door. When he looked up he saw Chief McConnike coming in, no doubt to inspect their progress.
Hank carefully looked at his watch trying not to let his actions be noticed by the chief. They were well under their two hour time frame, still plenty of time to finish the engine prep and get each of his men through the shower and fed before they would have to go back in service. With one look at the Chief as he eyed the engine over Hank could tell he was impressed with their progress.
"She's looking real good there, Hank. I have to admit that after I checked into the fire you were on before you joined us at the apartment fire I was thinking I'd been a little harsh in only giving you two hours. You've done me proud as usual."
The Chief's eyes shifted to the guest in the hose bed as he stepped up to inspect his work. He too showed a certain amount of surprise in his eyes as he watched Frank tucked in the last length of hose perfectly.
"Are you going to introduce your guest to me?"
Apprehensively Hank called out, "Frank, would you please come down here."
Hank watched as Frank used the academy taught safe method of climbing down from the hose bed as Chet used a more not so recommended but commonly used jump over the hand rail onto the tail board then onto the floor.
As the two men stood before him Hank took just a moment to notice the protective nature Chet had in moving next to his friend and the absence of the bounce in said friend from when he first arrived. 'We must have tired him out a little,' Hank thought to himself before proceeding.
"Chief McConnike, I'd like to introduce you to our guest, Frank Dillon. Frank this is our Battalion Chief McConnike."
" P…P…P…Pleased t…to m…m…m…meet y…y…you, s…s...sir," Frank responded and respectably extended his hand to shake the Chief's as Hank set his back teeth tightly in anticipation of the acceptance his Chief would show to this special man.
"Frank Dillon, you say?" The Chief continued to hold Frank's hand. "Are you by any chance the same Frank Dillon who helped evacuate the apartment building that caught fire this afternoon?"
" N…n…no, I…I…I, j…j...just h…h…helped everyone g…g…get ou…ou…out of the b…b…burning b…b…building."
Hank knew if Chief McConnike didn't already know the special nature of their guest he must surely know now. Then Hank realized what the Chief had said and turned to his guest with surprised pride.
"And carried Molina Agiler from her burning apartment and then returned to get her portable oxygen tank before the fire department arrived?"
"N…n…no, I…I…I c…c…carried Mollie ou…ou…out. H…H…er a…a…apartment wasn't b…b…burning a…at f…f…first j…j…just s…s…smoky. I…I…I r…r…remembered t…t…to s…s…stay d…d…down n…n…n…next to th…th…the f…f…f…floor. I…I…I d…d…didn't g…g…go b…b…back f…f…for ox…oxygen. I…I u…u…used t…t…t…the e…e…emergency t…t…tank b…by the d…d…door."
Hank stood amazed at what he was hearing and noticed the look of wonder on his Chief's face as he stood there nodding his head and listening patiently to what the man before him was telling him. Hank also realized that the Chief knew the special nature of said man before he arrived at the station and that he had come as much to find and talk to Frank as he had to check on the progress of their clean up.
"I've heard lots of stories from the people you helped get out of the building. It would seem to me that you are a real live hero there, young man." Chief McConnike proceeded to praise the young man. "I've just filled out the paperwork for you to get an award that will tell anyone who looks at it just how much of a hero you are."
"NO!" Frank cried as he hid his head with his arms. "No, no, no, D…D…Dad w…w…will be m…m…mad."
"It's okay, Frank." Chet stepped up to try and calm his friend. Carefully he placed a hand on Franks back as he talked. "Its okay, your dad's not going to get mad at you, he'll be really proud of you."
Frank went down to his knees and Chet with him as Hank motioned to Roy with the shake of his head to get Jake from the kitchen but Jake had heard Frank call out and was on his way to see what happened. His first thought when he saw Frank on his knees with his arms over his head was that he had gotten injured and he was quickly at his side, opposite of Chet, trying to understand the crisis.
"No, no, d…d…d…dummy's d…d…d…don't d…d…de…deserve a…a…a…awards."
Jake understood. "Is this about him turning in the apartment fire earlier today?"
"That and helping to evacuate the building as well as carrying out one of the residents." Chief McConnike didn't understand the trauma he had caused. "I just told him he was being submitted for an award and he got all upset."
Jake nodded his head and then pulled Frank tighter against himself as he started to rub his back. "It's okay. Frank. This is a special award that they give to everybody who is brave and saves other people. We'll just treat it like all of your other awards and put it in your file in case it will help you later on, okay. Your father will never have to see it."
Everyone looked on in confusion, even Chet, Roy and Johnny. they had been aware that Frank and his father had issues, that was why Julie had been given custodianship over him, but none of them could understand being afraid of receiving awards.
Under Jake's understanding Frank calmed down quickly as Jake changed the subject to how wet his clothes were and perhaps he should change into the dry clothes they brought with him.
"Well, if he brought clean clothes then he should get a shower just like the rest of us," Chet spoke up while giving his captain a look that seemed to be asking permission.
"Lunch is ready," Marco announced. "You better hurry up and get showered or it'll burn to the bottom of the pan." Somehow there was an implication that Frank, Jake and of course Chief McConnike were to be fed as well as the six crew members of Station 51.
"Come on, Frank, let's hurry up." Chet motioned to his friend, "It's my turn to do the dishes tonight and I don't want to have to scrub the pot if food has been burned to the bottom."
That seemed to be all that Frank needed to overcome his fear as Jake offered him the keys to the van so that he could go get his change of clothes.
Once Frank was out of hearing range Chief McConnike touched Jake's shoulder to get his attention. "Is it going to be a bad idea to turn him in for this award?"
Jake took a deep breath and thought his words through carefully. "He won't enjoy receiving it, but it will be good for him and the award can help him a lot when it comes to getting placed in a housing program for people like him in the future. Due to patient confidentiality regulations I can't explain the why of any of this."
"I guess I can understand that." The Chief withdrew all of the questions he wanted to ask.
"Our director should be informed about where and when you want to present this award as soon as possible so that we can prepare him to receive it."
As they all showered everyone noticed the healed over welts on Frank's back and they all guessed that they had something to do with Franks earlier reaction.
They all enjoyed Marco's dump stew and the huge batch of baking powder biscuits that Jake had whipped up from scratch. Afterwards Frank and Jake helped Chet with the dishes.