Absolute FireFIGHTER ~ Chapter -- 9

Ruth was unsure of what to do, she wanted to see her husband but she couldn't stand his moods. She tried talking to him as much as she could for the remainder of the week, but got nothing accomplished except her losing her temper and becoming more frustrated. Bridgette on the other hand would go in his room when he was asleep, but at the sign of a stir, or beginning of a nightmare she bolted out. Dr. Hanson did say that the Zoloft wouldn't work right away. But the longer his moods dragged on, the worse off he was becoming.

Another week had passed, and Bridgette couldn't sit by and keep her mouth shut anymore. Sitting in his room holding the firefighter teddy bear in her lap, she nervously twisted its paw in her hand, waiting for him to wake up. About an hour later his eyes fluttered open slowly.

"Hi." Bridgette said quietly.

He didn't answer her, instead he looked around the room.

She gritted her teeth to keep from crying, "Why won't you talk to me? You know I'm here. I'm not going anywhere."

Lieu was getting annoyed now. He didn't want to talk to anyone, they didn't understand and they wouldn't understand even if they tried to. What did Bridgette know? Nothing about what he was going through at all. She couldn't relate, he didn't even want her to feel sorry for him.

Deep down inside Bridgette knew what was eating at him. It was the first thing that he said to her when he finally woke up and realized what was going on, "It's not your fault." she spit out, while she tried not to cry.

His eyes darted away from the wall and directly to her. She knew that look he was giving her. It's the same look she got when she was little, when she did something horribly wrong and she was in deep shit. That look struck fear into her every time it was shot in her direction, but this time she fought it away.

"Taylor didn't listen," she said sternly, "She didn't listen. There wasn't a damn thing you could do about it."

He let out a sarcastic sigh, as if she was stupid and had no intellegence about the situation what so ever. He did it on purpose and she knew it. That was his thing lately, make her feel like he wasn't listening, and she didn't know what she was talking about, so she would shut up. Not today though, "Dad if you could do it over again, what would you do that's so different it would change everything? Huh?" he didn't answer her and she shot, "Exactly.....NOTHING."

"You weren't there." He said angrily.

"And ya know what?! Even if I was there, I'd still be sitting here telling you the same God damn thing! Dad it's done, it's over! There's nothing you can do about it! Why are you dwelling on it? It's not going to change anything!" Bridgette exclaimed.

"You're really started to piss me off." He snapped.

She didn't care, she continued her truthful rant, "What were you gonna do? Climb on the car and pull her off? Then what? She'd still be dead, and you would too! Is that what you want?!"

He rolled his eyes at her, continually trying to make her think that she was wasting her time.

"Answer me!" She shouted.

Quietly he replied, "Can't say I'd mind compared to all this shit."

Bridgette felt her heart drop as her eyes widened and filled with tears. Unable to process what she wanted to say, she somehow spoke while her tears flew, "After 9/11 you kept telling us how lucky and grateful you were to be alive, and now you're gonna sit here and say you wouldn't mind being dead?!"

Wendie knocked on the door quietly, not sure what she was walking in to. Bridgette looked to the door and acknowledged to her that she could come in.

"Physical Therapy got changed, instead of going in an hour it's not for another 2 hours." She said politely.

Bridgette nodded to her and she left the room. Lieu then spoke, "I'm not going."

"She told you that you're going she didn't ask you." Bridgette said firmly.

In a moment where Lt. Johnson had no concept of what took over him, he angrily shot to his daughter, "Yeah and I didn't ask for you as a daughter either!"

Bridgette froze in place as her temperature rose beyond any degree that could be read on a thermometer. Not even thinking about the words that were coming out of her mouth she shouted before bolting out of the room, "And I didn't ask for an asshole firefighter for a father that's so selfish he blames himself for other people's stupidity when they get themselves killed!"

DK was walking to the water fountain a few feet from his room when Bridgette came storming out. Looking up he saw the tears steamrolling down her face, and he knew something was horribly wrong. Before he could open his mouth to ask her what had happened, she broke down into hysterics and collapsed in his arms.

"I want my dad back! That's not my dad!" she sobbed.

"Woah, woah, woah. Ok, Bridge calm down." DK said, without the slightest clue in the world what was going on.



A lightswitch then flickered in Lieu's head as he listened to his daughter's hysteria from where he sat. He closed his eyes for a minute, while reality took over and he realized what he had done. Taking a deep breath, and with ever intention of making things right, he carefully slid himself around and off of the bed, then started taking small steps towards the door.

Bridgette continued to shake and cry, "He said he didn't ask for me as his dau...daugh......daughter!!!! He said he would rather be dead!"

DK's eyes widened, as he tried to calm down the shaking 19 year old that sobbed in his arms, "Bridge. Bridge come on calm down. You know he didn't mean it."

"If he didn't mean it he wouldn't have said it!" She exclaimed.

By this time, Lieu had made his way to the door. Holding onto the wall for support, he watched horrified at his sobbing daughter. She was sobbing because of him. What he had said, what he had did. Since she was born, he tried his best to make sure that no one hurt his little girl, and now he had gone and done it himself. DK looked up in time to see Lieu standing at the door, looking on at a complete loss for words. DK shot the same look right back at him, along with a look of, "What the hell did you do?!"

"Bridgette." Lieu called.

Her head popped out from where it was, burried in DK's chest, and the second she spotted her father she took off down the hallway in the opposite direction.

"Bridgette!" DK shouted, but she had already reached the staircase, and wasn't about to turn around. Giving a confussed but almost angry look to Lieu, he then took off after her while Lieu stood in the doorway, completely heartbroken at what he did.

DK literally jumped down the first flight of stairs, trying to catch Bridgette who was two ahead of him, "Bridgette stop!" he shouted, but she kept going, "Dammit Bridgette I'm a firefighter you're not gonna outrun me!" he exclaimed as he gained on her. She was still a flight ahead of him, when he jumped onto the railing and slid down a flight of steps landing on his feet right in front of her, "STOP!"

"DK leave me alone!" she shouted.

"Bridge listen to me," DK said, grabbing both of her shoulders so she was looking directly at him, "I know you're pissed but he didn't mean it. Trust me he didn't mean it."

Bridgette ripped away from him, "DK just leave me alone! I don't wanna be here just leave me alone!"

He knew at that point, there was no way in hell she was going to stay. Bridgette stood there giving him the most evil look she could produce. It was a familiar look. The same "Johnson death look" that Joe Lombardo got from her father, the night he shot a potato off the roof of the firehouse, and broke Lt. Swersky's window. DK knew there was nothing he could do, so he sighed and let her go. She took off down the remaining flights of stairs, and exited the hospital like a bat out of hell. DK climbed back up the steps to Lieu's room. Lt. Johnson was still standing at the door looking worried and concerned. DK shook his head slowly, looking disappointed that he couldn't stop her. Lieu then turned and made his way back into his bed.