The midday sun was relentless. Beating down on the city with unrelenting
waves of hot dry air sending the temperatures sky rocketing. When Kim and
Bobby returned from their latest run, getting out of the sun was a relief.
As they walked into the shade of the firehouse Kim turned to Bobby and
said, "I can't take this anymore. Come get me if we get a call." as she
headed towards her locker upstairs.
"Where are you going?" Bobby asked, following her upstairs.
"To take a cold shower," she replied, taking her sweat-drenched hair down from a ponytail.
Bobby nodded his head in response and headed back downstairs and looked at the dinner schedule to see whose night it was to cook. Seeing that it was his night to cook, he began to survey what was stocked to get an idea of what he could fix. After looking everything over, he decided on fixing chicken vegetable marinara and began to gather the ingredients he needed.
Kim had begun to run water and locked the bathroom door so no one would barge in on her. Once everything was ready she stood under the cold stream of water, trying to forget about the heat wave that had its grip on the city. The cold water was a welcome assault on her skin, and dreaded the moment when it would end and another call would come in. Ten minutes later she turned off the water and slipped back into her uniform and began to towel dry her hair. She lay back on her bunk after combing out her hair, placing her uniform top on the bunk next to hers. The cool air of the fan blowing next to her was relaxing as she lay there in just her undershirt and uniform pants, not wanting a call to come in and disrupt her daydreaming.
She'd noticed something was off about Jimmy and was somewhat puzzled as to why he wasn't down hanging with the guys like he always does. She heard footsteps and turned her head, just as the fan blew her hair in her face. She grumbled silently, pushing her still damp hair out of her face when she saw Alex ascending the stairs.
"Hey Alex, what's up?" Kim asked.
"Not much. Just trying to figure out what's up with Jimmy." She replied, sitting down across from Kim.
"What's he doing?" Kim questioned as she sat up, noting the concern on Alex's face.
"He's hardly said two words to anyone all day long. It's not like him to be reclusive like this." Alex replied, genuinely worried that something wasn't right.
"Who all has tried to talk to him?" Kim asked.
"Me, Walsh, D.K, Lombardo, Doc and Carlos." Alex responded.
"I doubt he'd say anything to me but I can try and see if I can get anything out of him." Kim said, hoping to ease her friend's worries.
"Would you? I just want to make sure he's ok, ya know." Alex replied.
"I can try. I won't promise he'll open up to me but I'll give it a shot and see what happens. Where is he at?" Kim asked.
"Up on the roof," Alex replied quietly.
"The roof! In this heat!" Kim asked, shocked to hear where he was.
"Yeah, we've all tried to get him to come inside but he won't listen to us." Alex said, watching Kim head for the roof.
As she opened the door to the roof, a wave of hot air bombarded her but she pushed on out of concern for her ex-husband and hoped that she could ease Alex's worries that something was wrong. She spotted him sitting on the scorching tar roof and saw the pained expression on his face.
"Jimmy?" she called out softly, not wanting to startle him.
"Go away Kim," Jimmy replied, hurt purely showing in his eyes as he looked at her.
"Tell me what's wrong," she asked sincerely, crouching down in front of him.
He looked at the worried expression on her face and said almost inaudibly, "I finally know what it's like."
"What do you mean? I don't understand." Kim replied, barely having heard what he had said, wondering how long he'd been out in the scorching heat.
"Jimmy, please. Come inside and let's talk about this. You're going to have heat stroke if you stay out here much longer. If you won't do it for yourself at least do it for Joey." She pleaded, noticing his FDNY shirt plastered to his chest from sweating profusely.
"I don't care, please just leave me alone." He said tiredly, hanging his head as sweat began to drip off his face onto the scorching roof.
"Jimmy, I'm not leaving you up here to do something stupid and not try and find out what's bothering you." She replied, becoming assertive hoping he'd see to reason.
"You've got the perfect life," he began to say, looking at her shocked expression; "You're happily married to Bobby and you have both Joey and Keira. What more could you ask for."
His statement floored Kim. She had no idea what had happened to him but for him to talk like that it must be serious.
"Jimmy get yourself up from the roof and come inside with me so we can talk about this. I don't know what happened to put you in this state, but please let me help you." Kim said, praying he'd listen to her for the millionth time.
Reluctantly he pushed himself off the ground, but was unsteady on his feet from the heat stroke and early dehydration.
"Here, lean on me and let me help you," she replied putting his arm around her neck and wrapping her arm around his waist trying to support his massive frame. She slowly helped him inside but knew there was no way she could maneuver him down the flight of stairs to the bunks. When they were inside, she propped him up against the wall and called out for Alex.
"Alex! I need your help, hurry!" she called, feeling Jimmy starting to sag, wondering how much longer she could support his weight on her own.
Alex heard Kim's plea and ran to the stairs and saw her trying to support Jimmy. Quickly running up the stairs, Alex took Jimmy's other arm and put it around her neck and together the two of them maneuvered him down to the nearest bunk to the stairs. After getting him situated Kim said to Alex, "Can you go get me several cold cloths, a bottle of water, cup of ice and a tympanic thermometer?"
"Got it," Alex replied, taking off to get the cloths first before getting the rest of the stuff Kim had asked for.
She returned with several cloths soaking in a small container of ice cold water and then ran downstairs to get the rest of the items. Bobby saw Alex rush past him into the supply room carrying a bottle of water, cup of ice and leave carrying a thermometer and plastic cover for it. Puzzled as to what her hurry was he called out to Lombardo in the next room.
"Hey Lombardo, can you come here?" He asked, stirring the sauce and turning down the heat on the stove.
"What you need Bobby?" Lombardo asked, sauntering into the kitchen.
"Can you keep an eye on the sauce? I gotta run up stairs for a bit." He asked watching the sauce simmer slowly on low heat.
"Sure thing," he replied, watching Bobby leave the room.
Kim placed the cloths on Jimmy's forehead and the back of his neck, hoping to cool him off. While she was alone she asked him softly, concern appearing in her voice, "What happened between you and Brooke?" figuring it had something to do with her.
Jimmy took his hand and placed it on Kim's cheek and said hoarsely, "I finally know how much I must have hurt you," his voice trailing off at the end.
"What did she do?" Kim asked softly, placing her hand on top of his.
"I went over to her place this morning to pick her up since we were supposed to go out for breakfast. I used the key she gave me but as I opened the door something didn't feel right. As I walked through her apartment I found her with someone else." Jimmy explained sadly, unable to look at Kim.
Alex returned with the rest of the supplies Kim had asked for and saw the hurt expression on her face.
"Kim, what's wrong?" Alex asked softly.
"I found out what's wrong with Jimmy." She said somewhat dazed, pushing all the memories that came flooding back out of her mind.
"What happened?" Alex prodded gently.
"He caught Brooke sleeping with someone else this morning. They were supposed to go out for breakfast but when he went to pick her up at her place and walked in on her." Kim said pushing back the memories she'd worked through when she went through the same thing with him.
"Oh my!" Alex exclaimed softly, looking over at a heartbroken Jimmy lying on the bunk.
Kim picked up the tympanic thermometer and put the plastic cover over the earpiece. In a matter of seconds it gave her a reading, confirming her fears that he'd had extreme exposure from the sun which had elevated his temperature to a dangerous level.
"God, he's still burning up," Kim said looking at the reading; the display read 108° F.
"Alex, turn the cold water on all the way in the shower, we've got to get his temperature down fast." Kim said, getting ready to try and help Jimmy to his feet.
He was so disoriented he could hardly stand on his own and just about knocked Kim to the floor. Right about that time Bobby came up the stairs to see what Alex had been in such a hurry over. As Kim tried to counterbalance herself with the sudden weight Jimmy had placed on her, she saw Bobby race forward and helped steady him, keeping her from hitting the floor.
"What's wrong with him?" Bobby asked, alarmed at Jimmy's condition.
"Heat stroke. Help me get him in the shower, his temp is 108 so we've got to get it down before any permanent damage is done." She replied, grabbing his other arm.
The two quickly got him situated when Alex said, "There is no way he can stand in their on his own, someone is going to have to go in there with him."
Judging by the faces of Alex and Bobby, they weren't about ready to volunteer so that left her.
"Fine, I guess that leaves me then." Kim said, slightly annoyed, leaving to get a change of clothes from her locker.
When she returned carrying a change of clothes and getting a folding chair for him to sit in, she saw Bobby was about ready to say something to her, and said, "Don't start with me Bobby." before he even had a chance to say anything. She placed the folding chair in the shower since there was no way she could support his frame on a wet floor. After getting situated and changing out of her uniform into the outfit she'd brought with her, she began to remove his shirt and pants, leaving the underwear just to appease the look Bobby was shooting at her. The three of them got him in the shower and in the chair under the cold stream of water.
Kim looked back at Alex and Bobby and said, "I'll let you all know when I need help getting him out of here." before pulling the curtain closed. Alex and Bobby waited outside the door, sitting on one of the bunks so they could hear when they were done. Kim found several towels lying outside the shower and picked them up, holding them under the cold spray of water. After completely soaking them she wrapped the towels around Jimmy's shoulders and chest. The cold water had begun to cause goosebumps to form on her skin as she began to shiver a bit. "If I get sick from this, Alex and Bobby are in for it," She grumbled to herself.
Twenty minutes later she yelled for Bobby and Alex to help her get him out and over to the bunks. They wrapped a blanket around him and guided him over to his bunk and pulled the covers back and eased him down. Alex reassessed his temperature while Bobby wrapped a blanket around Kim's shivering shoulders, before she headed to change out of her wet clothes. Jimmy's temperature had dropped down to 100° F, which was a low grade, non- life-threatening fever. Bobby left to relieve Lombardo from watching the marinara sauce and got ready to put the chicken on to cook.
Alex left to get some more ice when Jimmy began to come to after having his fever drop. After getting his bearings he tried to sit up but was still very disoriented and saw the room begin to spin.
"Jimmy, just lay back and rest." Kim said softly, gently pushing him back down on the bunk.
He didn't fight her when she pushed him back down; instead he turned his head towards her voice and looked at her. She was still huddled under the blanket Bobby had put around her, sitting there watching him to make sure he was ok. He weakly grasped her hand and moved her closer to the edge of the bed.
"Just rest," Kim said softly, gently squeezing his hand.
He wrapped his arm around her waist, in hopes of making the room stop spinning. Once things stopped spinning his eyes locked onto hers and he said, "Thank you for taking care of me."
Kim began to feel uncomfortable having his arm around her and opened her mouth to get ready to say something. Jimmy silenced her by placing his index finger against her lips.
"Jimmy, I can't." she began to say before he sat up and placed a tender kiss on her lips, cutting her off.
Unable to believe what was going on, her mind couldn't process the fact that her ex-husband was kissing her. She was too in shock to hear the footsteps coming up the stairs until it was too late.
Bobby had finished fixing the chicken vegetable marinara and the guys downstairs had already begun to help themselves to dinner. Bobby headed upstairs to let Kim know that dinner was ready. As he climbed the stairs he got ready to call out to her to let her know about dinner, what he saw as he crested the stairs hit him like a ton of bricks. He closed his eyes, hoping he'd been seeing things, but it wasn't so. He quickly headed back down the stairs and went to sit outside the firehouse. Darkness fell upon the city and Bobby was still seated outside, elbows resting on his knees while holding his head. Trying to rid his mind of the images he'd seen earlier.
Alex and the rest of the guys sat around talking and eating when D.K said, "Why hasn't Kim come down? Didn't anyone tell her that dinner was ready?"
"I thought Bobby went to get her." Alex replied puzzled.
"That's what I thought too." Walsh replied, looking around the table.
"I'll go up and check on her." Alex said, getting up from the table.
Jimmy had drifted off to sleep and Kim sat across from him, running her hands through her hair nervously. She heard another set of footsteps coming up the stairs, which sent her heart racing for the second time that evening.
"Kim? How come you're not downstairs? Dinner's ready." Alex said.
"Really? I didn't know that." She responded, thinking about the set of footsteps she'd heard earlier.
"That's weird, because Bobby came up to get you." Alex said back, taking a seat next to Kim.
"What!" Kim exclaimed, feeling like she was going to faint.
"Please God, don't let it have been him coming up the stairs earlier," she said fearfully to herself.
Alex saw the color drain from her friend's face and knew something was wrong. Kim began to shake as she sat next to Alex, realizing who had come up earlier. She got up and headed towards the window and looked outside at the darkened city, on the verge of tears.
"Damn it Jimmy! Why couldn't you have listened," she whispered almost inaudibly, looking at Bobby sitting outside the firehouse.
Alex walked over towards her and looked in the direction of Kim's gaze and said, "Please. Tell me what's wrong."
"Do you remember when you went after more ice?" Kim began to say.
"Yeah, I remember." Alex replied, not sure where this was heading.
After taking in a shaky breath, she continued.
"Jimmy tried to get up, but said the room was spinning. I told him not to get up and to rest. He put his arm around my waist, with the hopes of getting the room to stop spinning. I began to feel uncomfortable and got ready to say something when he silenced me. Putting his index finger over my lips to keep me quiet. I finally managed to say 'I can't do this' but the next thing I know, he's kissing me. I remember hearing footsteps, then instantaneously hearing them disappear. I couldn't process through what was happening, it was like I was frozen and couldn't move." She finished, biting back the sob that was on the verge of coming out.
Unable to withstand the pressure, she fled to the roof and let the tears fall. Alex gave her some time to herself before going up to check on her.
Several hours later Jimmy awoke to an empty room. He tried to stand on his own but was too weak and sat back down.
"Kim, do you want me to try and talk to him?" Alex asked gently.
Tears shone in her eyes as she replied, "It won't do any good."
"Let me at least see what he says, you never know it might not have been him." Alex said back, hoping to make her feel better.
"If it wasn't him then why is he just sitting out there." Kim replied as Alex left.
Alex knew Kim was probably right. It had to have been him that came up earlier.
Jimmy heard footsteps coming down from the roof and saw Alex heading to go downstairs.
"Alex!" Jimmy called out weakly.
She turned around and saw Jimmy trying to get up.
"Lay down. I'll bring you up something to eat." She said, not letting him stand.
"Where's Kim?" he asked.
Alex winced as he said Kim's name when he said, "Is something wrong with her?", forgetting that he'd kissed Kim earlier.
"You don't remember do you." Alex asked.
"Remember what?" Jimmy replied, somewhat confused.
"You kissed Kim earlier tonight." She said as Jimmy cut her off.
"I what! I think I'd remember if I kissed my ex-wife Alex." He replied.
"Bobby walked in on the whole thing. She's been up on the roof for the past thirty minutes crying over this." Alex interjected, narrowing her eyes at Jimmy; "Stay put. I'll get you something to eat and bring it up here."
Alex left and warmed a plate of food for Jimmy and took him a bottle of water.
"I need to talk to her and sort this out." Jimmy said when Alex returned with dinner.
"Leave her alone Jimmy. I doubt she's in the mood to talk to you right now." Alex replied, turning to leave to talk to Bobby.
Jimmy began to eat what Alex had brought him and she left to talk with Bobby. She was on her way past the T.V room when D.K said, "Hey Taylor, is Kim ok?" Not wanting things to get spread around the station Alex replied, "Yeah, she's fine.", praying the guys believed her.
As she approached Bobby, she called out softly, "You ok?"
"Please Alex, leave me alone. I need some time to think." He replied quietly, looking over at her.
"Ok. If you want someone to talk to you know where to find me." She replied, heading back inside.
Kim pulled herself together long enough to call her mother to see if the kids could stay with her for the evening. She didn't go into details as to why but her mother assumed it was work related and said it would be fine.
The anger Bobby felt finally began to take over. He stormed off towards the stairs to confront Kim about what he had seen.
"Where are you going?" Bobby asked, following her upstairs.
"To take a cold shower," she replied, taking her sweat-drenched hair down from a ponytail.
Bobby nodded his head in response and headed back downstairs and looked at the dinner schedule to see whose night it was to cook. Seeing that it was his night to cook, he began to survey what was stocked to get an idea of what he could fix. After looking everything over, he decided on fixing chicken vegetable marinara and began to gather the ingredients he needed.
Kim had begun to run water and locked the bathroom door so no one would barge in on her. Once everything was ready she stood under the cold stream of water, trying to forget about the heat wave that had its grip on the city. The cold water was a welcome assault on her skin, and dreaded the moment when it would end and another call would come in. Ten minutes later she turned off the water and slipped back into her uniform and began to towel dry her hair. She lay back on her bunk after combing out her hair, placing her uniform top on the bunk next to hers. The cool air of the fan blowing next to her was relaxing as she lay there in just her undershirt and uniform pants, not wanting a call to come in and disrupt her daydreaming.
She'd noticed something was off about Jimmy and was somewhat puzzled as to why he wasn't down hanging with the guys like he always does. She heard footsteps and turned her head, just as the fan blew her hair in her face. She grumbled silently, pushing her still damp hair out of her face when she saw Alex ascending the stairs.
"Hey Alex, what's up?" Kim asked.
"Not much. Just trying to figure out what's up with Jimmy." She replied, sitting down across from Kim.
"What's he doing?" Kim questioned as she sat up, noting the concern on Alex's face.
"He's hardly said two words to anyone all day long. It's not like him to be reclusive like this." Alex replied, genuinely worried that something wasn't right.
"Who all has tried to talk to him?" Kim asked.
"Me, Walsh, D.K, Lombardo, Doc and Carlos." Alex responded.
"I doubt he'd say anything to me but I can try and see if I can get anything out of him." Kim said, hoping to ease her friend's worries.
"Would you? I just want to make sure he's ok, ya know." Alex replied.
"I can try. I won't promise he'll open up to me but I'll give it a shot and see what happens. Where is he at?" Kim asked.
"Up on the roof," Alex replied quietly.
"The roof! In this heat!" Kim asked, shocked to hear where he was.
"Yeah, we've all tried to get him to come inside but he won't listen to us." Alex said, watching Kim head for the roof.
As she opened the door to the roof, a wave of hot air bombarded her but she pushed on out of concern for her ex-husband and hoped that she could ease Alex's worries that something was wrong. She spotted him sitting on the scorching tar roof and saw the pained expression on his face.
"Jimmy?" she called out softly, not wanting to startle him.
"Go away Kim," Jimmy replied, hurt purely showing in his eyes as he looked at her.
"Tell me what's wrong," she asked sincerely, crouching down in front of him.
He looked at the worried expression on her face and said almost inaudibly, "I finally know what it's like."
"What do you mean? I don't understand." Kim replied, barely having heard what he had said, wondering how long he'd been out in the scorching heat.
"Jimmy, please. Come inside and let's talk about this. You're going to have heat stroke if you stay out here much longer. If you won't do it for yourself at least do it for Joey." She pleaded, noticing his FDNY shirt plastered to his chest from sweating profusely.
"I don't care, please just leave me alone." He said tiredly, hanging his head as sweat began to drip off his face onto the scorching roof.
"Jimmy, I'm not leaving you up here to do something stupid and not try and find out what's bothering you." She replied, becoming assertive hoping he'd see to reason.
"You've got the perfect life," he began to say, looking at her shocked expression; "You're happily married to Bobby and you have both Joey and Keira. What more could you ask for."
His statement floored Kim. She had no idea what had happened to him but for him to talk like that it must be serious.
"Jimmy get yourself up from the roof and come inside with me so we can talk about this. I don't know what happened to put you in this state, but please let me help you." Kim said, praying he'd listen to her for the millionth time.
Reluctantly he pushed himself off the ground, but was unsteady on his feet from the heat stroke and early dehydration.
"Here, lean on me and let me help you," she replied putting his arm around her neck and wrapping her arm around his waist trying to support his massive frame. She slowly helped him inside but knew there was no way she could maneuver him down the flight of stairs to the bunks. When they were inside, she propped him up against the wall and called out for Alex.
"Alex! I need your help, hurry!" she called, feeling Jimmy starting to sag, wondering how much longer she could support his weight on her own.
Alex heard Kim's plea and ran to the stairs and saw her trying to support Jimmy. Quickly running up the stairs, Alex took Jimmy's other arm and put it around her neck and together the two of them maneuvered him down to the nearest bunk to the stairs. After getting him situated Kim said to Alex, "Can you go get me several cold cloths, a bottle of water, cup of ice and a tympanic thermometer?"
"Got it," Alex replied, taking off to get the cloths first before getting the rest of the stuff Kim had asked for.
She returned with several cloths soaking in a small container of ice cold water and then ran downstairs to get the rest of the items. Bobby saw Alex rush past him into the supply room carrying a bottle of water, cup of ice and leave carrying a thermometer and plastic cover for it. Puzzled as to what her hurry was he called out to Lombardo in the next room.
"Hey Lombardo, can you come here?" He asked, stirring the sauce and turning down the heat on the stove.
"What you need Bobby?" Lombardo asked, sauntering into the kitchen.
"Can you keep an eye on the sauce? I gotta run up stairs for a bit." He asked watching the sauce simmer slowly on low heat.
"Sure thing," he replied, watching Bobby leave the room.
Kim placed the cloths on Jimmy's forehead and the back of his neck, hoping to cool him off. While she was alone she asked him softly, concern appearing in her voice, "What happened between you and Brooke?" figuring it had something to do with her.
Jimmy took his hand and placed it on Kim's cheek and said hoarsely, "I finally know how much I must have hurt you," his voice trailing off at the end.
"What did she do?" Kim asked softly, placing her hand on top of his.
"I went over to her place this morning to pick her up since we were supposed to go out for breakfast. I used the key she gave me but as I opened the door something didn't feel right. As I walked through her apartment I found her with someone else." Jimmy explained sadly, unable to look at Kim.
Alex returned with the rest of the supplies Kim had asked for and saw the hurt expression on her face.
"Kim, what's wrong?" Alex asked softly.
"I found out what's wrong with Jimmy." She said somewhat dazed, pushing all the memories that came flooding back out of her mind.
"What happened?" Alex prodded gently.
"He caught Brooke sleeping with someone else this morning. They were supposed to go out for breakfast but when he went to pick her up at her place and walked in on her." Kim said pushing back the memories she'd worked through when she went through the same thing with him.
"Oh my!" Alex exclaimed softly, looking over at a heartbroken Jimmy lying on the bunk.
Kim picked up the tympanic thermometer and put the plastic cover over the earpiece. In a matter of seconds it gave her a reading, confirming her fears that he'd had extreme exposure from the sun which had elevated his temperature to a dangerous level.
"God, he's still burning up," Kim said looking at the reading; the display read 108° F.
"Alex, turn the cold water on all the way in the shower, we've got to get his temperature down fast." Kim said, getting ready to try and help Jimmy to his feet.
He was so disoriented he could hardly stand on his own and just about knocked Kim to the floor. Right about that time Bobby came up the stairs to see what Alex had been in such a hurry over. As Kim tried to counterbalance herself with the sudden weight Jimmy had placed on her, she saw Bobby race forward and helped steady him, keeping her from hitting the floor.
"What's wrong with him?" Bobby asked, alarmed at Jimmy's condition.
"Heat stroke. Help me get him in the shower, his temp is 108 so we've got to get it down before any permanent damage is done." She replied, grabbing his other arm.
The two quickly got him situated when Alex said, "There is no way he can stand in their on his own, someone is going to have to go in there with him."
Judging by the faces of Alex and Bobby, they weren't about ready to volunteer so that left her.
"Fine, I guess that leaves me then." Kim said, slightly annoyed, leaving to get a change of clothes from her locker.
When she returned carrying a change of clothes and getting a folding chair for him to sit in, she saw Bobby was about ready to say something to her, and said, "Don't start with me Bobby." before he even had a chance to say anything. She placed the folding chair in the shower since there was no way she could support his frame on a wet floor. After getting situated and changing out of her uniform into the outfit she'd brought with her, she began to remove his shirt and pants, leaving the underwear just to appease the look Bobby was shooting at her. The three of them got him in the shower and in the chair under the cold stream of water.
Kim looked back at Alex and Bobby and said, "I'll let you all know when I need help getting him out of here." before pulling the curtain closed. Alex and Bobby waited outside the door, sitting on one of the bunks so they could hear when they were done. Kim found several towels lying outside the shower and picked them up, holding them under the cold spray of water. After completely soaking them she wrapped the towels around Jimmy's shoulders and chest. The cold water had begun to cause goosebumps to form on her skin as she began to shiver a bit. "If I get sick from this, Alex and Bobby are in for it," She grumbled to herself.
Twenty minutes later she yelled for Bobby and Alex to help her get him out and over to the bunks. They wrapped a blanket around him and guided him over to his bunk and pulled the covers back and eased him down. Alex reassessed his temperature while Bobby wrapped a blanket around Kim's shivering shoulders, before she headed to change out of her wet clothes. Jimmy's temperature had dropped down to 100° F, which was a low grade, non- life-threatening fever. Bobby left to relieve Lombardo from watching the marinara sauce and got ready to put the chicken on to cook.
Alex left to get some more ice when Jimmy began to come to after having his fever drop. After getting his bearings he tried to sit up but was still very disoriented and saw the room begin to spin.
"Jimmy, just lay back and rest." Kim said softly, gently pushing him back down on the bunk.
He didn't fight her when she pushed him back down; instead he turned his head towards her voice and looked at her. She was still huddled under the blanket Bobby had put around her, sitting there watching him to make sure he was ok. He weakly grasped her hand and moved her closer to the edge of the bed.
"Just rest," Kim said softly, gently squeezing his hand.
He wrapped his arm around her waist, in hopes of making the room stop spinning. Once things stopped spinning his eyes locked onto hers and he said, "Thank you for taking care of me."
Kim began to feel uncomfortable having his arm around her and opened her mouth to get ready to say something. Jimmy silenced her by placing his index finger against her lips.
"Jimmy, I can't." she began to say before he sat up and placed a tender kiss on her lips, cutting her off.
Unable to believe what was going on, her mind couldn't process the fact that her ex-husband was kissing her. She was too in shock to hear the footsteps coming up the stairs until it was too late.
Bobby had finished fixing the chicken vegetable marinara and the guys downstairs had already begun to help themselves to dinner. Bobby headed upstairs to let Kim know that dinner was ready. As he climbed the stairs he got ready to call out to her to let her know about dinner, what he saw as he crested the stairs hit him like a ton of bricks. He closed his eyes, hoping he'd been seeing things, but it wasn't so. He quickly headed back down the stairs and went to sit outside the firehouse. Darkness fell upon the city and Bobby was still seated outside, elbows resting on his knees while holding his head. Trying to rid his mind of the images he'd seen earlier.
Alex and the rest of the guys sat around talking and eating when D.K said, "Why hasn't Kim come down? Didn't anyone tell her that dinner was ready?"
"I thought Bobby went to get her." Alex replied puzzled.
"That's what I thought too." Walsh replied, looking around the table.
"I'll go up and check on her." Alex said, getting up from the table.
Jimmy had drifted off to sleep and Kim sat across from him, running her hands through her hair nervously. She heard another set of footsteps coming up the stairs, which sent her heart racing for the second time that evening.
"Kim? How come you're not downstairs? Dinner's ready." Alex said.
"Really? I didn't know that." She responded, thinking about the set of footsteps she'd heard earlier.
"That's weird, because Bobby came up to get you." Alex said back, taking a seat next to Kim.
"What!" Kim exclaimed, feeling like she was going to faint.
"Please God, don't let it have been him coming up the stairs earlier," she said fearfully to herself.
Alex saw the color drain from her friend's face and knew something was wrong. Kim began to shake as she sat next to Alex, realizing who had come up earlier. She got up and headed towards the window and looked outside at the darkened city, on the verge of tears.
"Damn it Jimmy! Why couldn't you have listened," she whispered almost inaudibly, looking at Bobby sitting outside the firehouse.
Alex walked over towards her and looked in the direction of Kim's gaze and said, "Please. Tell me what's wrong."
"Do you remember when you went after more ice?" Kim began to say.
"Yeah, I remember." Alex replied, not sure where this was heading.
After taking in a shaky breath, she continued.
"Jimmy tried to get up, but said the room was spinning. I told him not to get up and to rest. He put his arm around my waist, with the hopes of getting the room to stop spinning. I began to feel uncomfortable and got ready to say something when he silenced me. Putting his index finger over my lips to keep me quiet. I finally managed to say 'I can't do this' but the next thing I know, he's kissing me. I remember hearing footsteps, then instantaneously hearing them disappear. I couldn't process through what was happening, it was like I was frozen and couldn't move." She finished, biting back the sob that was on the verge of coming out.
Unable to withstand the pressure, she fled to the roof and let the tears fall. Alex gave her some time to herself before going up to check on her.
Several hours later Jimmy awoke to an empty room. He tried to stand on his own but was too weak and sat back down.
"Kim, do you want me to try and talk to him?" Alex asked gently.
Tears shone in her eyes as she replied, "It won't do any good."
"Let me at least see what he says, you never know it might not have been him." Alex said back, hoping to make her feel better.
"If it wasn't him then why is he just sitting out there." Kim replied as Alex left.
Alex knew Kim was probably right. It had to have been him that came up earlier.
Jimmy heard footsteps coming down from the roof and saw Alex heading to go downstairs.
"Alex!" Jimmy called out weakly.
She turned around and saw Jimmy trying to get up.
"Lay down. I'll bring you up something to eat." She said, not letting him stand.
"Where's Kim?" he asked.
Alex winced as he said Kim's name when he said, "Is something wrong with her?", forgetting that he'd kissed Kim earlier.
"You don't remember do you." Alex asked.
"Remember what?" Jimmy replied, somewhat confused.
"You kissed Kim earlier tonight." She said as Jimmy cut her off.
"I what! I think I'd remember if I kissed my ex-wife Alex." He replied.
"Bobby walked in on the whole thing. She's been up on the roof for the past thirty minutes crying over this." Alex interjected, narrowing her eyes at Jimmy; "Stay put. I'll get you something to eat and bring it up here."
Alex left and warmed a plate of food for Jimmy and took him a bottle of water.
"I need to talk to her and sort this out." Jimmy said when Alex returned with dinner.
"Leave her alone Jimmy. I doubt she's in the mood to talk to you right now." Alex replied, turning to leave to talk to Bobby.
Jimmy began to eat what Alex had brought him and she left to talk with Bobby. She was on her way past the T.V room when D.K said, "Hey Taylor, is Kim ok?" Not wanting things to get spread around the station Alex replied, "Yeah, she's fine.", praying the guys believed her.
As she approached Bobby, she called out softly, "You ok?"
"Please Alex, leave me alone. I need some time to think." He replied quietly, looking over at her.
"Ok. If you want someone to talk to you know where to find me." She replied, heading back inside.
Kim pulled herself together long enough to call her mother to see if the kids could stay with her for the evening. She didn't go into details as to why but her mother assumed it was work related and said it would be fine.
The anger Bobby felt finally began to take over. He stormed off towards the stairs to confront Kim about what he had seen.