D is for Dynamic Rollover

Piston Peak's National Park might only be 270 or so miles from LA, but it was a world away from what Blade was used to. Blade had grown used to being the center of attention…well not as much of a center of attention as Nick, but he still had a buzz of staff around him making sure he had everything needed to perform. Here, Blade felt like he was almost an afterthought. Most of the time Maru was up to his tines in work while Blade was in a holding pattern. And outside of the time, he spent training, the fact he was an afterthought meant that he was the helicopter was spending a painfully large amount of time alone.

Blade had done his best to try to soothe his loneliness by trying to make friends with the rest of the crew, but his efforts only got him so far. The other aircraft were kind. The Chief always made sure that Blade had someone to eat with during meals and Cabbie would occasionally invite Blade to join him for a game of chess in the evenings. But the rest of the aircraft were all planes, and they really didn't understand the social needs of a helicopter.

Blade had also tried making friendships among the various ground crew at the park. The rangers, for the most part, were willing to have a conversation with him when they had a free moment, but they always kept a professional distance. The dispatchers occasionally would slip him a piece of gossip during their brief exchanges, but never often enough to actually develop a friendship. The slagging truth was Blade hadn't interacted with any of the dispatchers enough to properly learn their names yet. Then there was the fact that Blade was pretty sure that the smokejumpers were actively trying to avoid him.

It was all starting to get too much for the helicopter. He was lonely, he was isolated, and he was starting to feel like he might have chosen the wrong career choice. So, he went to the only vehicle he knew he could properly vent to.

"I don't know if I can do this…" Blade admitted to Maru on a rare evening when he successfully pried the mechanic away from his work. "I am terrible at my job. I don't fit in. Slagging hell, I haven't even managed to make any friends."

"And what am I? Chopped liver?" Maru snorted back which got him a glare from Blade.

"You know what I mean." Blade spat.

"Do I? Do I really?" Maru pushed back sarcastically. "Because from my perspective it really looks like you are doing your slagging best not to become part of the team."

"I…" Blade snarled but Maru placed a forceful tine across his lips stopping his argument in his tracks.

"Blade, have you paused to consider that this might have nothing to do with you?"

"What?" The helicopter stammered shocked by the abrupt change in direction that the conversation had just made. "Maru, you are making no sense."

The mechanic sighed as he gave an exaggerated eye roll. "Blade, sometimes your ability to miss the obvious never ceases to amaze me."

That particular comment stung deep in Blade's engine in a way he hadn't expected…because the last time Maru had said that it had been when Blade had quietly confessed to Maru that he had feelings for Nick. Instantly the helicopter wanted to open his mouth and give Maru a tongue lashing for saying something so cruel. But then he took a good look at the tired, sad expression on Maru's face and paused. He had missed something important…and if he was going to fix things, he was going to need to figure out what that was.

"I…I don't understand." Blade finally asked, settling heavily on his tires. He looked the mechanic straight in the eyes. "Maru, what am I missing."

The little tug sighed, placed his mug aside, and then met the helicopter's gaze. "Blade, you have been so focused on your own pain, that you haven't been open to seeing anyone else's."

"I…"

"Blade, why did Piston Peak have a position for a helicopter open up mid-season?"

"Because they had a helicopter go down." Blade laid down the fact without any hesitation.

"And…" Maru pushed, and when the helicopter clearly didn't take the hint, he swore as he scrubbed his tine across his face. "Chrysler, Blade. They watched their friend die. They watched someone they cared about have a dynamic rollover crash that resulted in them going off a cliff…and then they had to respond to the crash because they were the closest firefighters." Maru squeezed his eyes shut to prevent tears from forming in them. "Blade, you had the luxury of being a bystander…imagine just how much harder it would be to respond to a fatal crash of a friend when you are the first responder."

"Oh." The word that slipped past Blade's lips was little more than a whisper. The guilt of what he had done was forming a weight that was settling deep in his engine. He closed his eyes against the pain, now knowing why so many of the base's members were so skittish…why so many had tried to keep him at a distance.

He thought about how raw his soul had been just after Nick went down…how long it had taken him to be partially functional. It had taken weeks if not months. The members of the Piston Peak's Air Attack Base had been given days to try to process the pain of losing one of their own to the Wall before an upstart helicopter and be dropped in their laps. Honestly, now that things had snapped into perspective, Blade was shocked that Cabbie and the Chief had been civil to him. The helicopter had done nothing to deserve their kindness and they must be hurting just as bad as the other members of base.

"Maru…" Blade tried to speak past the guilt and pain that was trying to squeeze his throat shut. "Maru, what do I do?"

"You listen…" Maru paused to pick up his mug and take a long draw of the now cold coffee. "And you speak. While it's impossible for you to fully understand their pain, just as it is impossible for them to understand how Nick's death shook you to the bottom of your soul, both of you understand death and loss. All of us are grieving."

Maru didn't say another word as he rolled out of the dingy hangar that Blade currently called home. He left Blade alone to process his thoughts at his own speed on his own time schedule. The helicopter wrestled with his emotions and personal demons long into the night. Only when the first glimmers of dawn began to dye the morning sky pink did Blade finally come to a decision.

The drive to the main hangar for breakfast was one of the longest ones that Blade had ever made. Rolling along the familiar tarmac he had to keep his focus forward so that he didn't reverse and head right back to the safety of his hangar. He knew that he had been running from this conversation for far too long, but that didn't make broaching the topic any easier.

Most of the team had already gotten their food and were chowing down on the meal when Blade arrived. He carefully got a tray of his own and placed it in the spot between Cabbie and the Chief. Once his food was safely stowed on the table, Blade took a deep breath and asked the first question. "Cabbie, can you tell me a little bit about the helicopter I replaced?"

The silence that instantly engulfed the hangar was so thick it could have been cut by a knife. For a few moments Blade thought he was going to be crushed under the eyes of the vehicles he worked with. Then Cabbie spoke. "Why do you ask?"

"I…" Blade swallowed hard. While Cabbie's words were innocent enough, Blade could clearly hear the hint of danger on the edge of his voice. "He was an important member of the team…and in many ways, he is still an important member of the team that I will never be able to replace and I just…I just wanted to understand him and my team better."

"And why are you asking now?" Cabbie's eyes stared straight into Blade's as though he was daring the helicopter to look away.

Blade closed his eyes for a moment, then he leveled his gaze to match Cabbie's. "I don't know what have seen or read in the tabloids, but I am pretty sure most of you know why I am here." Grief threatened to close Blade's throat, but he swallowed hard. "I watch my best friend, my partner, my other half go down. I watched him hit the ground and explode in flames. Maru tells me he died on impact, but in many ways, that doesn't matter. I watch Nick's death and I was utterly powerless to do anything." Blade felt the prick of tears forming in the corner of his eyes, so he took a moment to close them a breath. "Since then, so many vehicles have fixated on Nick's death, that they forgot he was a person. They have forgotten his smile, his laugh, everything that made him, him." Blade cast his eyes across the entire team. "So, I want to get to know your friend, not as the helicopter I replaced or a picture on the wall. I want to know him as a person…will you help me do that?"

There was another painfully long silence, and then Cabbie let out a huff. He leveled a look at the Chief then a moment later he turned his full attention to Blade. "Hugh…Hugh enjoyed painting in his spare time. He especially enjoyed landscapes, but he would paint anything that would sit still long enough for him to capture an image."

"God, forbid you fall asleep on the tarmac." The Chief took up the next piece of the story. "One moment you would be dozing and the next thing you knew, you had a bright yellow helicopter peering intently at you, paintbrush in mouth."

The stories kept pouring out from there. Soon there was laughter and there were tears memories were shared. That day passed quickly, and though none of the planned exercises were completed, something more important had happened. Blade slowly became part of the team. He didn't earn everyone's trust all at once and it took some time before he could consider any vehicle other than Maru a friend, but Blade was no longer a vehicle that needed to be pushed to the side because he was now part of the fabric of the Piston Peaks Air Attack Base. Just like every other firefighter that had come before him and every firefighter that would follow.

Term – Dynamic Rollover – This phenomenon is one of the most dangerous incidences that can happen to a helicopter on the ground. A dynamic roller over occurs when a helicopter is near the ground during takeoff, landing, or loading. To occur, one of the landing touches or gets stuck on the ground causing the aircraft to pivot and rotate around the landing gear. The main rotor thrust then becomes unbalanced causing the vehicle's banking angle to increase. Once the banking angle has exceeded the helicopter's center of gravity, the helicopter tips causing its spinning rotors to hit the ground causing catastrophic engine failure. This type of accident can happen in both wheeled and skid helicopters.