Chapter Eight: Your Actions Did This
Gabby paced the floor of the locker room over and over again, waiting to hear the sound of her phone ring or the door to open to reveal Matt walking towards her. With every second that past, part of her worried even more and anger began to build up inside of her. How could he be so stupid? She kept asking herself. Didn't he know that if anything happened to him, she had to stop there, she couldn't think about the possibility of anything bad happening to him.
She took another deep calming breath, she needed to stay focus and not jump to conclusions. She needed something to take her mind off of where he was at this moment and what he was doing. She walked out of the locker room and headed back into the common area. Cooking was always away for her to take her mind off of things. On her way down the short hallway, her body collided with another. Her eyes looks up to apologize to the person she had ran into, but great relief spread through her like wild fire when she saw Matt standing in front of her. Without much thought, she immediately wrapped her arms around him and pulled him into her body. "Where the hell have you been?" she asked squeezing him tighter.
"I had an errand to run," he told as he placed a tender kiss on the side of her head.
Gabby stepped back from his embrace and looked into his eyes, "An errand? Then why didn't you tell me?" she asked folding her arms over her chest. She knew that he wasn't telling her the truth. As she scanned his face, she noticed his faced looked flushed and that he was developing a bruise along his cheekbone next to his right eye. "Oh my God Matt, what the hell happened to your face?"
Before speaking, he looked around the empty hallway to make sure that no one was listening, just then Otis walked out from the Common room and to the garage. Matt turned his attention back to Gabby, "No here," he spoke with low voice, "Lets go to my office," he said and then took her hand and lead her through the sleeping quarters and into his office. He didn't say anything as he shut the door behind them.
"Baby, what the hell is going on?" she asked with worry evident in her voice.
"I went to see Jim," Matt explained.
Gabby's eyes grew wide, not because she was surprised, but because of anger, "I thought that we agreed we were going to let Antonio handle this from here on out."
"I know," Matt said running his hands through his short blonde hair, "but after what happened to you the other night, I couldn't just sit back and let this asshole get away with what he did to you."
"What happened?" Gabby asked.
"I went to Jim's office to confront him and tell him to leave you the hell out of this, but one thing lead to another and it ended with me throwing a couple of punches and as you can tell he landed one of his own."
"Matt do you realize what you just did?" Gabby asked rubbing her face out of frustration. "You gave him more of a reason to come after us. We had a plan and that was to let Antonio and the police handle this before it gets completely out of control."
"I know, but after what happened last night, I lost my mind. Then when I went to his office he had the audacity to ask me if you got home safe the other night. He knew what happened and I just had to wipe that smug look off of his face."
Gabby looked at him for a moment before speaking, she knew that what he had done was coming from the right place, but she also knew that it wasn't going to help the situation. She opened her mouth to say something, but was quickly silenced by the bells ringing reminding them that they were still on shift. They both looked at each other waiting to finish the conversation, but knew this would have be finished later. Matt was the first to move towards the door, Gabby followed his lead.
It took firehouse 51, three hours to clear the burning building and to put the fire out. Gabby was leaning against the truck as she took another drink of her bottled water as she caught her breath. She could still feel the fire blazing on her face as she followed Herrmann in and out of the different rooms throughout the building.
"You did great in their candidate," Matt said as he came to stand next to her.
"Thank you Lieutenant," she replied with a smile.
"Now get us packed up so we can head back," he replied taking a drink of his own water.
Gabby nodded her head as she did as she was told. She made sure that all the tools and equipment was in their right places. Once everything and everyone was loaded, Truck 81 pulled away from the scene and went back home.
Once Cruz parked the truck into the garage each member climbed out and began to put their gear away.
"Hey Dawson what's lunch?" Mouch asked coming to stand next to her.
"I don't know," she replied slugging her jacket over her shoulder.
"Well if I may, I would like to put in a request for your famous chicken parmesan."
"I could make that," she replied as she walked into the change out room and began to put her things away as Mouch headed in the direction of the common area.
"What did Mouch want?" Matt asked as he stepped into the room behind Gabby.
"He wanted to know if I would chicken parmesan for dinner," she replied putting her jacket on a hanger.
"Are you going to?" he asked with a smile.
"I was thinking about it," she spoke as she turned around. "However, if I am going to make that, I need to run to the store."
Matt dug into his pocket and pulled out his truck keys and handed them to her, "be nice to my truck."
"I am always nice to your truck," she scoffed at his comment, which caused him to laugh at the expression on her face.
"Alright," he put his hands up in defense. "Drive safe babe," he said as he leaned in and placed a kiss on her full lips.
"Always," Gabby smiled as she stepped back and began to walk out of the room, but before she left she turned around, "You know we will finish our conversation when I get back?"
Matt held out his hand and pitched his thumb and pointer finger together, with barely any space between, "I was this close to you forgetting."
Gabby narrowed her eyes at him, "never," she spoke before leaving.
Gabby climbed into the truck and began to adjust the seat and the mirrors. She knew that Matt loved his truck and that letting her drive it always made him a little nervous. She put the truck into park and pulled it away from the curb. The truck began to excel as she pressed down on the accelerator. She was just happy the local market was only a few blocks away from the house, but as began to move further from firehouse a blue sedan pulled out in front of her. She immediately slammed her foot on the brake petal, but nothing happened. She tried again, but the truck still wouldn't slow down. The only thing she could think to do was quickly turn the wheel to avoid hitting the car in front of her, but as she moved around the car, the truck jumped the curb and slammed into a large tree.
Matt was standing in the garage with Herrmann, Otis, and Cruz they were getting ready to sharpen the blades for the saws. Matt was open the compartment door, when he heard a loud crashing sound from somewhere outside. All four of the men looked at each other and then moved out of the garage to see what had happened. As they walked down the drive each one of them glanced down the road. They could see what appeared to be an accident about a block down the road; they began to jog towards the accident to see if anyone was hurt. As Matt moved a little closer, he could see the vehicle that had struck the tree. Realization dawned on him as he continued to move closer and now at faster pace, he knew the truck that had struck the tree, it was his. Panic now surged through him as he called out her name, "Gabby!"
Author's Note
Thank you for reading this story, I hope that you are enjoying it!
Grace
