Standing beside the RMP, Jimmy heard the explosion and saw a ball of fire spew out a window on the seventh floor.

"Sweet Jesus!" he mumbled. He grabbed his cell phone as he ran toward the building and dialed the fire house. His friend and fellow fireman D.K. answered.

"D.K., It's Jimmy!"

"Jimmy? How's Kim, what's going on?" D.K. asked, confused

"She's inside a building that just exploded." Jimmy replied, panic in his voice.

"Where are you? We're coming." D.K. promised

"112 Arthur and 6th apartment 7B, hurry!" Jimmy exclaimed as he hung up the phone and darted up the stairs.

********************************

Inside the apartment, Alex sat up and shook her head. She'd been thrown across the room and her head throbbed. Remembering where she was, she started to call out for her friends,

"Kim? Bosco? Ty? Answer me, someone!" she began to crawl around amongst the flames.

'When is this day going to end?' she thought, exasperated. She regained her focus when she heard a groan from the other side of the room. She crawled over and found Bosco crumpled in a corner.

"Son of a…" he started.

"Glad to see you're ok Bos." She said. "We have to find the others and get out of here, this fire is going to burn fast!" Bosco heaved himself to his knees and followed Alex around the apartment.

"This wasn't exactly what I had in mind when I told Doherty he could come in if the building caught fire." He commented sarcastically.

"Doherty's here?" Alex stopped.

"Yeah, outside." Bosco replied.

"Thank God! He will have seen the explosion and called FDNY." She sighed a huge breath of relief.

"We still have to find everyone else." Bosco dampened her hope. "Faith! Davis! Kim!" Bosco finally found Faith; she'd been thrown backwards into a small hallway. She lay on the floor unconscious.

"Faith, wake-up!" Bosco yelled. "C'mon Faith, you have to wake up." He pleaded more quietly as he tried to get her to open her eyes. He wasn't aware of the blow she'd received earlier that had knocked her out, making her more susceptible to a severe head injury.

'What the hell are you waiting for Doherty? Get your ass up here!' Bosco thought.

*******************************

On his way up the stairs, Jimmy ran into a man whose hands were behind his back.

"Sir, are you ok? Were you hurt by the explosion?" Jimmy asked, not realizing who the man was.

"Yes, I'm fine, I was there but I wasn't hurt." The man replied.

"You should probably get checked out by the paramedics on your way out." Jimmy suggested as he tried to push his way past, but the man wasn't letting him through.

"I have to get up there, people are in trouble." Jimmy looked confused as he tried to get by again.

"I don't think you should do anything heroic." The man replied.

"What are you talking about?" Jimmy asked, increasingly bewildered.

"You think you can save all those trapped people Mr. Hero?" the man taunted

"What is your problem? Let me by!" Jimmy didn't want to hurt the guy, but his temper was beginning to get the better of him. The man, still in his way said,

"Look Doherty, this time you won't be able to save them, but if you want to hear the screams, then be my guest."

"How do you know my name?" Jimmy asked quietly, realizing the man must be the one who took Kim, Alex and Faith. He grabbed him and was attempting to secure him to the railing. As he leaned down, the man pulled his leg back and kicked Jimmy in the face with his knee. Jimmy's lip split open on contact and began to spill blood on the floor. His hand instinctively reached for his mouth and the man began an awkward escape down the stairs, his hands still secured behind his back. Debating whether to go after the kidnapper or not, he continued his sprint up the stairs when he heard Alex scream.

*******************************

"Ty! Oh God, no, please wake up!" Ty lay motionless and partially upside-down against a wall. A coffee table had slammed into him in the explosion and his position was reminiscent of a rag doll. As the fire continued to spread around them, Alex worked to lay him down and felt for a pulse. She sighed with relief as she felt a weak pulsing in his neck.

"Bosco, we have to move them somewhere safe." She said, referring to their unconscious friends. She grabbed Ty under his arms and dragged him into the bathroom. Bosco followed first with Faith, then with a partially conscious Kim who was handing onto his arm and mumbling something no one could make out.

"We don't have much longer before the fire will have destroyed this apartment." Alex told Bosco. "We have to work on the door while we still can." The pair headed for the front entrance and started to kick at the door. Their exhausted bodies could not make it give, but all of a sudden they heard what sounded like someone trying to knock it down from the outside.

"Jimmy?" Alex yelled through the roaring flames.

"Alex! Hang on, I'm coming. How bad is it?" He replied.

"He used a chemical accelerant. Faith and Ty are unconscious and Kim is really out of it." She informed him. "Hurry, we don't have much time."

"Stand back from the door." Jimmy commanded and they obeyed. From the bathroom Kim could hear Alex and Bosco talking to someone. She stumbled into the living room and approached the door. When she heard Jimmy's voice she ran the rest of the way.

"Jimmy!" she yelled and plastered herself next to the door. Alex and Bosco had to use all their strength to pry her away so Jimmy could knock it down.

"Kim, I want you to stand back ok? I'm coming." Jimmy tried to calm her. Upon hearing how upset and delirious she was, and realizing she must have hit her head pretty hard because she wasn't making much sense, he re-doubled his efforts to break into the room. Bosco leapt over flaming debris to the bathroom to check on Faith and Ty as Alex started to vent the room. Jimmy kept up a steady stream of small talk with Kim to keep her calm and to reassure himself she was still ok. Suddenly Jimmy couldn't hear he anymore as she mumbled,

"Wow, my head really hurts," and slumped to the floor.

"Kim!" Jimmy screamed. "Kim, answer me!"