LONDON'S BURNING
Evening Star
"This is the new pump ladder," Adam Benjamin was explaining to the pretty young teenage girl who often stopped by Blackwall fire station to talk to Blue Watch.
He had no sexual interest in her. She was far too young – aside from which she was also the boss's daughter! And he had known her since she was a baby, a fact which she hated being reminded of.
"Yeah you showed me that last time. It doesn't look any different to the old one! Have you put any fires out today?"
"As it happens, there was one this morning."
"One?"
"It's not all racing round in fire engines you know," he reminded her, grinning.
"Yeah, don't I know it," she muttered. "Dad was always going on about how much paper work he had to do."
"Yeah, but I bet he loved it really."
"He loved moaning, I know that."
"Shouldn't you be at school anyway?"
"Duh, it's the holidays!"
"Oh, yeah, right. Er… well I'm sure you've got better things to be doing than hanging around here with us old farts!"
She shrugged. "Beats goin' down the precinct."
"You must have friends you can like, hang out with, or something."
"Yeah, but all they wanna do is shag and shop lift."
"Ah, I see," he grinned again.
Then she went a little shy on him as Craig Ross emerged from the BA room with a shining air cylinder slung over one shoulder. He didn't seem to notice her watching as he stored the equipment on the pump ladder. Adam wasn't fooled though.
"Yeah and I bet I know why you prefer to hang around here!"
She glared at him, her cheeks glowing. "Shut up."
He just grinned widely.
"Adam, what are you doing?" there was a woman's voice behind him.
He rolled his eyes as he turned round. "Nothing."
"Yeah I can see that. I thought I told you to clean your BA set?"
"Um, yeah you did but…"
"I think that was my fault," the teenager interjected. "I wanted to talk to him."
The woman seemed to show some sympathy towards her. "It's not your fault, Adam will do anything to get out of working!"
"Come on Steph, I'll go and clean my BA set right now then! Is it really such a big thing?"
"When I ask you to do something, Adam, I expect you to do it, now, not when you feel like it!"
"Sorry, miss."
She ignored him as he hastily made his way towards the BA room under her watchful gaze. Craig was smirking at him from the cab of the fire appliance, then he caught sight of the teenage girl who was still staring avidly at him. He blushed, and it was Adam's turn to smirk as the woman turned to the girl.
"Go home, Eve, you shouldn't be hanging round here."
"I ain't got anyfin' else to do," the girl replied. "An' you sound like me dad. He was always tellin' me what I can and can't do."
"She's not doing any harm, Sub," Craig had approached them. "And I can keep my eye on her if you want," he offered kindly.
The woman gave in. "Ok, but if we get a shout, you're leaving," she warned Eve and left them to it.
"She's a right cow," Eve muttered.
Craig grinned. "Don't mind Steph, she's just flexing her muscles a bit, that's all. What you doin' here anyway?"
Eve shrugged. "It's the holidays and there's nuffin to do."
"Yeah, I know!" he agreed. "What about the youth club?"
"You are jokin?"
"What's wrong with it?"
"Well the geezer what's in charge is a pervert innit, and he sells weed an' shit."
"Did you tell your mum?"
"She ain't gonna do nuffin. An she ain't me mum anyway."
"Oh yeah, sorry." Craig thought for a moment. "Well, it's good you're stayin' out of the way then."
"Has she gone?" Adam asked as he emerged from the BA room, looking anxiously around for Steph.
"Yeah, you're safe, mate," Craig grinned.
"I thought it was hot enough out there, never mind gettin' a roastin' in ere as well!"
Eve chuckled.
"Tell you," Adam continued. "The sooner she gets promotion the better!"
"Is Simon in today?" Eve wondered, going slightly pink again.
"He's probably posing for more calendars," Adam grinned as he took them towards the gym, where Simon Baxter was finishing a work out. "How come you get to skive in here?" Adam wondered as he pushed open the gym door.
"Who's skiving?" Simon asked as he pulled on a clean t-shirt.
"I see the Witch of the West didn't come looking for you!" Adam moaned.
"That's cos I actually work, mate," Simon grinned. "Unlike you."
"I do work!" Adam argued. "It's just that I do it so fast that no one notices!"
"Yeah, mate, that'll be it," Simon replied sarcastically. "You're just pissed cos she doesn't fancy you!"
"I reckon she's… you know, one of them."
"One of what?" Craig wondered.
"You know," Adam insisted.
"No."
"Never mind."
Simon grinned again. "Hey Eve," he noticed her lurking in the background, slowly turning a shade of pink which suddenly turned to crimson as he addressed her.
"I've got a job for you anyway," Adam interjected.
"Oh yeah, what's that?" Simon inquired. "I ain't strippin' again! Lexi will probably chuck me out! That's if she doesn't murder me first!"
"She was up for it last time!"
"And it was only cos you chickened out!"
"You were gonna strip!" Craig sniggered.
"No, I wasn't!" Adam argued. "He was. The Watch's resident Mr January, or whatever you are."
"March," Simon grinned. "And you are jealous, I knew it."
"I am not."
Simon just shook his head.
"I thought you liked publicity anyway."
"I don't think I want anymore fan mail, I get enough of that," Simon winked at Eve, who blushed again.
"Fan mail?" Adam echoed. "Yeah right."
Simon shrugged. "This is what you have to put up with when you join the Fire Brigade, Eve."
"Yeah? So it's just like being at school then?"
Simon grinned. "She's learning," he told Adam.
"Yeah, I don't see what she could learn from you, 'cept how to be an arse!"
"Well, you know, if you've got it."
"You sayin I haven't?"
"I'm not saying that mate, I think the birds who voted for me and not you are saying that!"
"You rigged that."
"Yeah, yeah, course I did. Face it, Adam, I am so much better than you are when it comes to pullin' birds!"
"Are you two arguing again?" they were joined by another woman, who was holding several brown envelopes.
"Who's better looking, Don, me or Adam?" Simon challenged.
"Uh…" the woman paused. "I think you're both dickheads, how's that?"
"That's not answering the question." Simon reminded her.
"Can I choose none of yous?"
"No."
"Isn't it a waste of time asking me anyway, I thought I was meant to be a lesbian!"
"Who said that?" Adam demanded.
"You did, last time I was here in fact!"
"No, I said Stephanie Bates was a lesbian."
"You think every woman who doesn't want to have sex with you is a lesbian. Your post," she passed the envelopes to Adam.
"What? Oh yeah right," he took them.
"Sign," she passed him a clip board.
He scribbled his signature on the attached paper and handed it back to her.
"See, you have no charm," Simon discarded the hand towel he had been using to wipe sweat from his face as Donna left them. "You need to turn on the charm for women like Donna Marshall," he advised.
"I think she'd slap me if I tried that."
"Yeah, she probably would!" Simon agreed.
"Why don't you try then, if you think you're so clever!" Adam challenged.
"Ok," Simon grinned. "Watch and learn."
"Hey, Donna," he caught her up as she approached the Brigade car she had parked in the station yard. "So," he started casually. "How's things?"
"Not too bad," she replied.
"How come you're on Buggy Duty?"
She shrugged. "My turn I guess."
"Oh, well it's a big loss putting someone like you on this duty. I mean, you're much sexier in firefighting gear!"
"How's your wife, Simon?"
"Well, she's um…" Simon noticed Adam and Craig smirking behind him. "She's fine, you know."
"I haven't seen her for a while."
"No, well, she doesn't go out much these days."
"We should fix something up then, a girls night out."
"I'll tell her."
"Do you want something Simon? Or are you just trying to take the piss?"
"No! But, well, it's just that…"
"What?"
He lowered his voice. "You do know Adam fancies you?"
"Oh, so that was a test before then was it?"
"What? Oh… that, no, he's just jealous cos I got chosen for this calendar."
"So would he have been if you hadn't have sabotaged his entry."
"How do you know about that?"
She grinned. "That's for me to know, and Adam as well, he has a right to, don't you think?"
"You dare!"
"What you gonna do to stop me?"
"I'll er… I'll think of something!"
"I don't mind if Adam does fancy me. By the way, I'd choose him over you any day, least he's honest! Now go away, I've got work to do."
Simon shrugged as she got into her car and drove away. "See, charm," he told Adam.
"Yeah, right, that was charm was it?"
"Well, she didn't slap me, I'd call that a result."
"You didn't sleep with her either."
"Yeah, well I ain't gonna do that here am I!"
"You're not gonna do it at all."
Simon grinned. "That's what you think," he made a move towards the stairs.
"Yeah right," Adam muttered. "He's got about as much chance of sleeping with her as I have of being the next Prime Minister!"
The basement was cold, dark, and lonely. Above all else it was lonely. And scary. Flames shot high above her as smoke curled round the open floors and out through the open roof into the night sky. Through the dense grey mist, she could just make out the sky. Stars twinkled against the navy blue blanket, most of them obscured by the dancing orange flames that crackled and hissed loudly around her.
She remembered how her father used to tell her about the stars at night when she was a little girl. He would stand at the front room widow as dusk fell and before closing the curtains on a clear night, he would point out the many constellations to her. His breadth of knowledge had fascinated her. Sometimes, admittedly, he may have been a little eccentric though.
He was fascinated by local history, an interest which his daughter failed to share. She didn't really care how long Blackwall fire station had been standing for, or which parts of London were bombed during the war. Nor did she care for trips to the Imperial War Museum. Ok, it had been fun the first few times when she was like 5 years old, but by the time she reached 8 she wanted to do different things like go to the park and play with her friends. Her mother had agreed and eventually her father gave in.
He showed her how to feed the ducks on the pond. He even tried to row a boat and had almost fallen in the lake while trying to retrieve her favourite teddy bear. She had fond memories of her father, and her mother, but her favourite one was, and always would be, the stars.
She could see two bright stars looking down at her now. She wondered if that was her parents, just like her father had told her all those years ago. Stars were the souls of people looking down from heaven. They were watching over her in her hour of need. They were there to make sure that she would be safe.
Somewhere above her, rotten wood creaked and the fire crackled loudly. Far away, someone was shouting that they couldn't get through and would have to go back. She wanted to scream to tell them where she was, but she couldn't move.
The stars vanished momentarily as the fire suddenly blasted through the roof, sending a shower of splintered wood and debris hurtling towards her.
Another visit to the fire station found fifteen year old Eve playing pool with Adam and Craig. Simon was supposed to be playing, but he kept going off to "flex his muscles" as Adam put it. He reckoned Simon was disappearing frequently because he was loosing, Craig had then pointed out that Adam and Simon were on the same side!
"Yeah, well I'm only loosing cos it's two against one here!" Adam argued back.
"Stop making excuses!" Craig grinned.
"Are you playing this or not?" Adam asked as Simon entered the rest room again.
"What? Oh right, nah mate, I've got things to do."
"Oh yeah like what?"
"Just things, you'll see."
"Right," Adam put his pool cue down. "What you up to?"
"Nothing for you to be worrying about!" Simon grinned.
"You're trying to get Donna in the sack, aren't you?" Adam challenged.
"Me? I'm a happily married man!"
"Yer right," Adam muttered. "Where are you going now?" he demanded as Simon backed out of the door again.
"Fer a Jimmy. You don't mind do you?"
"It's your shot!" Adam moaned.
"Yeah yeah, take it for me, I'll be back when I've had a whiz!" he left the room.
"He's up to something," Adam informed Craig and Eve.
"He's always up to something!" Eve reminded him. "Like you are!"
Adam grinned.
There was a soft knock at the door. They all looked round to see Lexi, Simon's pretty young wife. Adam stood up from the pool table and turned to face her as she entered the room.
"Hey Lexi."
She smiled and looked round the room.
"He's gone for a slash," Adam told her.
She rolled her eyes.
"He won't be long," Adam assured her. "You any good at pool?" he motioned the cue in his hand.
She shook her head.
"Ok, well this is a very important shot," Adam informed them all as he lent over the table again.
He took the shot and potted a red ball as Simon returned.
"Hey," he greeted his wife. "What's up?"
She communicated with him using sign language to explain her presence on the station. Simon frowned as she finished, then remembered something.
"Oh shit yeah, I forgot!"
Lexi rolled her eyes and signed something else to him.
"What's this?" Adam grinned as he leaned over the table for another shot.
"Dinner with the in-laws!" Simon muttered.
"Yeah? Maybe you should invite Donna!"
Simon glared at him. "Maybe you should shut your face!"
Lexi, however, had lip read the conversation, and was now demanding an explanation from Simon, who looked a little sheepish and tried to shrug it off. He signed to her to say it was just Adam having a joke. He used sign partly so that Adam wouldn't be able to butt in and make things any worse. Fortunately, Lexi seemed convinced.
"Look," Simon guided his wife out of the room. "Can we like reschedule or something?"
She shook her head widely and used her hands to express negative feelings about that idea.
"Well it's just…" he sighed as he couldn't think of an excuse to get out of dinner with Lexi's parents.
"I need you there," she signed to him.
He nodded. "Ok, I'll be there, promise."
She smiled.
Eve had been watching them closely through the small window in the rest room door. She thought Lexi was very lucky to be married to a cute guy like Simon. Although he did put on a stupid bravado act sometimes, he wasn't a bad man. She thought that he only pretended to sleep with other women in an attempt to make Adam jealous, a tactic that never seemed to fail. She also knew that Lexi didn't believe he was really like that. Eve guessed Lexi wouldn't be married to him if he was.
Eve wondered if she could ever find someone to love her and look after her the way Simon looked after Lexi. He had taken the trouble to learn sign language so that he could talk to her, and to show her that he was for real.
Adam was still love sick for Donna, who hardly seemed to notice that he was there, and Craig was very much backward in coming forward where asking a girl out was concerned. Eve had given him some tips, like don't listen to Adam, but they didn't seem to have worked.
She thought both Craig and Adam were cute, but they were much too old for her. They were much more sophisticated than the boys her age. Her friends had invited her to a party to introduce her to some college boys, but she wasn't sure if she would go or not. These boys were friends of Mandy Millar's brother, Tony, who's life consisted of smoking weed and drinking beer and occasionally going to university when he felt like it. He wasn't even good looking. Eve doubted that his friends would be any better.
Stacey Andrews, Eve's supposed best friend, had pointed out that Eve was the only one of the group without a boyfriend, and she had made it her mission to change that. Eve knew that, although Stacey had the right intentions at heart, her ideas about boys were usually way off track.
Her thoughts turned to her godfather as she continued to lie very still amongst the rubble of the burning factory. She could still catch odd glimpses of the two stars shining above her. It made her feel safe to know they were there watching over her. As long as she could see them, she knew nothing would happen to her.
Her godfather was called John, and he lived on a canal boat. He was a bit strange, but very interesting to talk to. She liked going to his boat to talk to him, about her parents, school, or anything really. Best of all, she liked to hear his silly stories about what he got up to during his time in the Fire Brigade. He would tell her about the daft pranks he used to play, and the ones he had played on him.
He told her about the time he worked with her father, and about how he was always such a stickler for the rules. She could relate to that one. Her dad didn't like to let her out of his sight. He seemed to consider lots of things to be inappropriate for her, like her toys. He once took a talking book back to a shop to demand a refund because he thought it was shouting profanities at him, telling him to stick squashed bananas up his arse or something.
She told John about that. He laughed. He had been there to support her throughout the tragic events that had taken place during her young life. He helped her settle with Tom and Joan, who, slowly, became the new mum and dad. They all made sure that she never forgot her real parents though.
She wondered if John was a star now, up there in the night sky with her parents. She still remembered the time when she found him. The last person she felt she could talk to had left her life for good.
It was one evening after school. She was late because she had been kept behind in detention by Mr Humphries the History teacher because she hadn't done his homework. She hated history. She remembered thinking that she would be glad that she didn't have to take it as a GCSE the next year.
She approached the boat and called for John, but he didn't answer. She invited herself aboard the 70 foot cruiser. She saw him down the far end, slumped against the cushioned seating that lined the wall of the boat. She thought he was sleeping as she approached. She tried to wake him, but he was stone cold. She ran away, ending up at Blackwall where she confided in Adam, who sorted everything out for her.
He became her new shoulder to cry on in her lonely life. She worried that someday, he too would be taken away, just like everyone else.
Eve was very apprehensive as she approached Mandy Millar's house with Stacey and Ben. Kathryn and Shaun were in tow along with Dominic and Rebecca, who kept stopping every five minutes to stick their tongues down each others throats. Ben was Stacey's boyfriend, he was older than they were and his greatest ambition was to travel into space. Eve thought he was a jerk, but would never say so to Stacey, who, strangely enough, seemed to share his interests.
As Eve had predicted, Mandy's brother, Tony, was in the process of rolling a joint. His parents were away for the weekend, so he was in charge. Eve thought Mandy's parents must be very stupid to leave an idiot like Tony in charge of their house, and their fifteen year old daughter. Mandy, however, didn't seem to care. She was busy licking the inside of boyfriend Troy's ear. Eve showed her disgust and turned away.
"Right," Stacey took charge of her. "What you drinking? Carling or Fosters?" she asked shaking two cans of lager in front of Eve.
"Er, can I just have like orange juice or something?"
"No way! This is a party, tell her Ben."
"Huh?" he was too busy guzzling a bottle of Jack Daniels.
"Here," Stacey forced the Fosters into Eve's hands. "Drink and relax. Tony's mates will be here in a bit."
"Yipee," Eve muttered sarcastically as she looked around Mandy's front room for somewhere to hide the can, which she had no intention of drinking.
"Cig?" Tony asked, pushing a roll up towards them.
Stacey took a drag and passed it to Eve, who looked at it and wrinkled her nose. Stacey gave up and passed it to Ben, who almost choked on it.
Tony laughed at him and slapped him hard on the back. "You gotta suck it innit, like this," he took a long drag on the roll up. "Fuck me that's good…" he fell backwards into an arm chair and dropped the spliff on the floor, which made the carpet smoulder.
Eve quickly stood on it to snub it out, a movement which didn't take her away from her position next to the sofa. No one noticed her as loud music began to blare and the alcohol started to get consumed.
"You got a drink?" Mandy asked Eve, who had now perched herself well away from Tony on the sofa on the opposite side of the living room, having stuffed the full can of lager behind the side cushion.
"Um, I don't like lager."
"That's all Tony buys," Mandy grinned. "Do you want a lemonade or something?"
"Yeah ok."
Mandy was then dragged away by Troy, but she managed to make it to the kitchen and returned with a glass of orange juice.
"I know how you health freaks like this sort of stuff," she grinned, handing the glass to Eve.
She started to sip it, as four, very rowdy, young men gate crashed the party.
"Yo, Tone, wassup ya muppet," one of them greeted Tony by punching him in the side of the head. "Giz a drag," he snatched the roll up Tony had just made. "Oi Jimbo, you got a light?"
A tall guy with short dark hair stuffed his hands in the pockets of his scruffy jeans. "No, you nicked it you wanker."
"Boz, give me a light," the lad with the roll up rounded on another of his crew, who coughed up. "So," he continued. "I thought you was inviting some fit women to this bash?"
Tony nodded towards Eve, who adjusted her top to make sure that it didn't reveal anything. It wasn't even her skimpy shirt that she was wearing, it was Stacey's. As was the short denim skirt she had been forced to wear with the knee high boots.
The boy approached her and sat down next to her, she tried to look away, not wanting to talk to him.
"What you drinkin?" he asked, taking the glass from her and sniffing it.
"Orange juice," she replied.
"You serious?"
"Yeah."
"Ere, Tone, she's drinking fuckin' orange juice, man. What is this? A fuckin' slumber party!"
Stacey swooped on them at that moment. "Jez, this is Eve, a friend of mine," she introduced them.
"She's drinkin' fuckin' orange juice for fuck's sake," Jez repeated.
"So? Leave her alone. Don't you have some seven year old you can go and bully?"
Eve looked at her as Jez slouched away, leaving the half glass of orange juice on the floor beside the sofa. "These are the people you wanted me to meet?"
"Not him, he's a wanker. Bozzy's kinda cute, don't you think?" Stacey pointed to a short guy who was desperately following Jez around in a vain attempt to rescue his cigarette lighter.
"No."
"What about Sebbo?"
"Why have they all got stupid names?"
Stacey sighed. "Who gives a crap what their names are? Relax and enjoy yourself."
Eve had already decided that she had no intention of doing that. She picked up the orange juice and started to drink it again.
The boys continued to shout and swear at each other and the music continued to blare as she slipped off the arm of the sofa and into the seat without realising. She felt light headed as the party wore on and the room began to spin. She wobbled dangerously as she tried to stand up. She wanted to lie down and sleep. She managed to make it upstairs and collapsed onto Mandy's bed.
She heard someone enter the room after her. It was a man.
"What's all this then? You leavin' so soon?" he asked.
He sounded familiar.
She wanted to stop him, but she couldn't do anything as he joined her on the bed and put his hands up her skirt.
"How about we get rid of this then?" he removed her skirt and dropped it on the floor. "Ooh, nice underwear, love, did your daddy buy it?" he grinned as he took her knickers off as well. "Ahh, untouched by man… well till now anyway!"
The bedroom door opened and another man appeared. "Oi, Jez ya fuckin' cock, what ya doin!"
"Piss off Jimbo, I was ere first!"
"Fuck you," Jimbo approached the bed and pulled Jez away.
"Yeah, you wanna fuck 'er then do ya!" Jez challenged.
"No one's fuckin her, just leave her alone."
Jez picked himself up off the floor. "Whatever man."
"What did you give her?"
"Nuffin, you interrupted!"
"I mean what did you put in her drink, you must have done something to get her in this state!"
"She needed to relax, I was helping!"
"Fuck off Jez," Jimbo kicked him out of the room and locked the door.
Eve wondered if Jimbo was going to carry on where Jez left off as he approached the bed. But he simply threw the covers over her.
"Sleep," he told her. "You'll feel like shit in the morning!"
She couldn't argue with him as she closed her eyes. She didn't trust him not to do anything, but she couldn't do anything about it if he did. He sunk down in the large inflatable chair next to the bed and fell asleep himself.
James had been her knight in shining armour that night when he rescued her from the evil clutches of Jez, who was now doing time in Walworth for something or other. James assured her that he hadn't done anything to her that night, but she wasn't convinced at first when she woke up to find him asleep next to her.
He looked away as she pulled her clothes back on. Then she left him lying on Mandy's bed. She yelled at Stacey during school for leaving her. Unfortunately Mr Humphries overheard and put them both in detention for fighting.
Stacey had told her that James was incapable of doing anything in the bedroom anyway. She considered James to be boring, especially compared to Ben. Eve had heard enough about how wonderful Ben was. She told Stacey exactly what she thought of him, and that was the cause of their falling out.
Mandy had revealed that she had slept with Troy that night, and was then in tears because Troy had dumped her. Eve hadn't liked Troy either. He was always boasting that he had slept with most of the girls in the year group. Stacey invited Rebecca and Kathryn round to Mandy's to cheer her up. Rebecca then invited Eve and reckoned she and Stacey should make up. Neither had been interested in a reconciliation at that moment.
However, when they got to Mandy's, Tony's mates were there again. Jez, it seemed, wasn't speaking to James, who seemed not to care less. Eve wondered why James was even hanging around with these freaks. He told her it was the only way he could think of to see her. She smiled.
"You do believe that I didn't do anything that night?" he asked.
She nodded. There was something about him that made him different to the others. Stacey didn't like him, so that was a good start.
"Is that because you didn't want to?" she asked.
He shrugged. "Not without your permission, and you weren't in any state to be giving consent to anything!"
"I don't remember anything about it, except Jez was there."
"Don't worry about him, he didn't do anything either, he didn't have a chance."
"I didn't thank you."
He shrugged again. "That's ok. That shit can fuck you up."
"What was it?"
"I dunno, E or some shit. You're all right though aren't you?"
She smiled and nodded. "Thanks."
"Good. You're friends are a bit wild aren't they?"
"I don't think you can call them my friends anymore. They're only interested in shagging and drinking!"
He grinned. "But you're not like that."
"Does that make me boring?"
"No, that makes you a sensible young lady and not a silly little girl. I like that."
She smiled again.
She didn't know how long it had been since she had fallen from the blazing roof beams several floors above, which she had been forced to cross in a failed attempt to rescue a casualty, whose fate she was now unaware of. The force of the explosion had ripped her away from the lifeline she had been attached to and had dragged her into the dark basement, so far down below, dropping the beams and other debris on top of her.
She lay still, unable to move. Her torch light had flickered and died long ago. The breathing apparatus kit she had been carrying was whistling loudly as the distress unit attached to her tunic beeped constantly. None of these distress signs seemed to be meeting the ears of her would-be rescuers, who were still no where in sight, but she could hear them calling above her.
"Shit, the bloody floor's gone…"
"Someone get the short extension ladder…"
"Eve? Eve! I can't see her…"
"I can hear the DSU, and her air's running out."
"Yeah thanks Einstein, note the obvious why don't you. Where's that ladder!"
"I was only sayin…"
"Well don't."
She recognised the voices of her rescuers. Simon Baxter and Craig Ross, with them was Stephanie Bates, who was obviously commanding the operation.
She wondered if James knew what was happening to her right now. She wondered if he would have been told. Was he worrying that he would never see her again? She was worried that she would never see him again. She knew he would be thinking the same thing.
"Can you manage there Si? Stephanie was asking.
"Yeah, give us a hand to shift this shit."
There was some crashing above her as Simon and Stephanie tried to move some debris to clear a path.
"I can see her," Simon suddenly informed them. "Looks like she's in the basement…" he paused. "Shit," he muttered.
The two stars twinkled brightly above her. She gave them one last look. Were they telling her something? Did they want her to join them? She felt as if she was floating up to them. They were her parents, they were speaking, but she couldn't hear them until she got closer.
"You know when Mum and Dad died?" Eve asked Adam one day as he made her a cup of tea in the mess at Blackwall fire station before his shift that morning.
"Yeah?"
"What happened?"
He paused. She had never asked for details before. He joined her at the table. "Do you really want to know?"
She nodded.
He sighed. "Do you remember anything about it?"
She shook her head. "I know you were there."
"Yeah, well…" he started. "Your dad, Geoff, he wanted to retire from the Brigade you know. He reckoned he was getting passed his sell by date or something, I don't even think he had one to begin with!"
She smiled as he continued.
"He was driving, your mum was in the front, and you were in the back. They were at a mini roundabout when a truck ploughed into the car, it was pinned against a wall. Geoff took the full force of it, he died at the scene, there was nothing we could do."
"And my mum?"
"We got her out, but she died in hospital. You were lucky, there wasn't a scratch on you."
"Then why don't I remember it?"
"You were too young."
"I was eight years old."
He shrugged. "I dunno, I guess when shit happens you kind of block it out. I know there's lots of shit that I'd like to block out."
"It just seems that everyone I care about is being taken away from me. First Mum and Dad and then John. Zoe is still living in New Zealand with that paramedic guy, Lawrence. They don't even have a phone there you know."
"They don't?" he asked amazed. "How do they phone for pizza? Morse Code!"
"Probably."
"But you're all right with your foster parents?"
She nodded. "They're ok, they remind me of mum and dad in some ways."
"Do they like trips round the Imperial War Museum as well?"
She smiled. "They prefer National Parks."
He grinned. "Well I'm not going anywhere."
"You can't know that."
"I guess not. I have no intentions of going anyway, not yet anyway."
She wondered if that was a promise he would be able to keep.
"What's going on?" another familiar voice had joined the show. "Have you found her?"
"Yeah," Simon yelled back. "Can't get down there though, there's too much stuff in the way."
"My crew are trying to get in through the basement, but it's a bit of a mess, it might take time," Stephanie told them.
"We haven't got time, I think this is our best way in."
"Well, if you want to take charge here, Adam, I'll go and brief the DO and continue to gain entry through the basement. If you do get to her this way, you're not going to be able to get her out, you don't know what injuries she's got."
"Yeah, ok, I know. Will someone get Donna down here?"
"I'm here," she called from behind him. "Scuse me guys."
"Si, I'm sending Donna down to you."
"Right," was the reply.
The stars had been calling for Eve. She saw her parents' faces reflected in them, just as she remembered them before they died. Her mother smiled, but her father remained serious.
"You're not ready to end it all," he told her. "It's not your time, get back down there where you belong."
She looked down to see her own body, still and lifeless and buried under a huge amount of rubble. She looked back at her father, but he remained adamant that she wasn't to join him just yet. Her mother nodded in agreement.
"Go," she whispered. "You need to make sure your baby is safe, and make an honest man out of James."
She wondered how they knew about James, but she guessed they had been watching over her, just like her father told her they would, every time they looked at the stars together at night when she was little.
"What baby?" she questioned, but her mother just smiled.
"Go," she repeated, blowing a kiss to her daughter. "We'll stay until they get you out."
She smiled at them. She felt comforted to know they were with her. But she couldn't help wondering about her mother's comment as she was reunited with her injured body. What baby was she talking about?
"I want to be a firefighter," Eve told her Career's teacher, who raised his eyebrows.
"Oh? Why's that?"
"I want to help people."
"Well, that's very commendable, Eve, but…"
"I know what's involved, you know. I understand all the risks and that."
"It's a very demanding job you know."
"Yeah, I know the guys on Blue Watch, they tell me all about it."
"Maybe you should think about trying other careers first?" her teacher suggested.
"You sayin' I can't do it?"
"No, not at all. I just want to make sure you've thought about it."
"I have."
"At least think about it some more?"
"Yeah, I will. I'm not stupid you know."
"I didn't say you were."
"I'm gonna be a firefighter anyway, it doesn't matter what you say."
"Well I can see that it really means something to you."
"Yeah it does."
"Ok, then I trust it's not something you'll just jump into with both feet?"
"It's not."
"Good."
"Is that it?"
"I guess so, unless you have any questions?"
"No."
"Right then, you're free to go."
She left his office. James met her outside the gates after school.
"How was school?"
"Shit, how was uni?"
"I dunno, I didn't go."
"I thought you always went."
"Yeah, usually I do," he grinned. "But I didn't have any lectures today!"
She punched him in the arm. "Muppet."
"I thought you might fancy going to the pictures tonight or something?"
"I dunno, it's a school night and Joan doesn't like me staying out late. But maybe you could come round to mine?"
"Won't Joan mind?"
"She's going to Bingo and Tom's going to the pub."
"So you could go out?"
"Yeah, but I don't want to. It's my sixteenth birthday today, did you know that?"
"I seem to remember you telling me about five hundred times yesterday."
"You know what that means?"
"What does that mean?" he put his arms around her waist.
"That we would be legal to, you know… do it."
"Yah and you wanna end up like your friend Mandy do you?"
"Unlike her, I do know what condoms are for!"
He grinned. "Maybe we should see how it goes?" he suggested. "I don't think we should rush into anything. Just cos everyone else is having sex, it doesn't mean we have to!"
"I know, I just thought you might want to, that's all."
"I do," he assured her. "When it's right, for both of us."
She smiled and let him walk her home.
"Can you get down there, Don?" Simon was asking as Donna tried to reach Eve.
"Yeah, I've got her… can't find a pulse… hold on…"
"What?" Simon asked frantically.
"I've got it, it's weak and she's freezing."
"Let's shift some of this stuff off her," Simon set about moving some of the debris.
"Careful," Donna warned as the rubble was disturbed. "She's out of air," she removed the BA mask from Eve's face and replaced it with her own. "I can't reach the cylinder," she explained to Simon.
"Don't let the Guv see you!"
"I'm sure he'll understand why I'm chucking procedures out of the window!"
"What's going on?" Adam called from above them.
"We've got her, Sub," Simon called back as Stephanie's crew emerged from the darkness to help with the rescue.
"Good work," Stephanie congratulated them as Eve was eventually pulled free of the rubble. "Let's get out of here before the whole thing comes down!"
They made a hasty exist from the basement via the route Stephanie's Blue Watch had been working to clear. The stars in the sky vanished as dawn began to break.