Billy lay on the floor; it looked like he was asleep. The gases in a fire do that to you. Billy had made a fatal mistake by trying to walk out of the fire. Every good firefighter knows that you get low and go. The air is much cooler and cleaner near the floor whereas it was hotter and more toxic the higher you went. This fire was feeding off of paints and fumes and it was an inferno that no one caught inside could possibly survive.

Outside the other store clerk was talking to police and the Captain of the Fire Department. By now they Captain called for a "10-75" on the radio. The whole block shared common attics and so they had to evacuate people from the surrounding structures. A crew of firefighters was put together to attempt to make entry into the building. They were better equipped to deal with the heavy smoke. They crawled inside a little at a time. Finally, about 10 feet inside the store they felt something.

"Hey I think I found someone." The first firefighter says as he follows his hand to confirm that he had in fact found a person.

His hands found a second person as well.

"I got two!" He yells

He and his partner pull the two bodies to the door where they are met by the paramedics.

"He's not breathing." The medic announces

He quickly begins to work on Billy. The fire Captain walks over.

"Billy." He questions himself looking at the teenager that he had met years before.

The medics load their patients into the awaiting ambulances and head off for the hospital. Mr. Chaney's ambulance arrives first. The doctors take him into an exam room. He has burns over 60 of his body, he's barely alive and had it not been for Billy, he wouldn't have survived the fire.

Billy's ambulance arrives at the hospital. They take him into a trauma room. The paramedics are still assisting Billy in ventilations. His arms and legs were burnt. The doctors and nurses take over. They give Billy a tube to help him breathe. Then they concentrate on the burns. Fortunately for him they were not severe burns. A few bandages later they were covered. He was given morphine for the pain and then transferred upstairs to a hyperbarric chamber. The tube had been taken out before he was put in the chamber- he wouldn't need it long in there. They felt the need to keep him sedated for quiet some time. And they felt that the chamber would be the best way to help Billy. It was a pressurized chamber that would slowly bring the oxygen saturation in his body up to a normal range by forcing the carbon monoxide out of his body. In a normal case it would take about 24 hours before the pressure would be brought to normal. He would soon be breathing wholesome air

When he awoke it was Monday morning he was still in the chamber. They would soon move him out and into a normal room. His sister was in the room watching intently. Ashley hadn't left the hospital since she had gotten there Saturday evening. The fire had occurred shortly before 5, when her brother was supposed to come home. When her phone rang that evening her heart sank. She knew that something had happened to Billy and the thought made her sick.

They transferred him to a normal room and Ashley greeted him.

"Good morning." She smiled

"Yeah, good morning." He replied, "What the hell happened?"

Everything was still a bit hazy to him. He remembered having the shotgun held to his chest, and he could recall a loud bang, an explosion. After that it was gone. He didn't remember that he had drug his boss 20 feet to near safety. He didn't remember being rescued by firefighters. Ashley filled him in on the story. He was shocked. He also wasn't prepared for the visitor that was about to show up in his room. There was a knock on the door.

"May I come in?" A male's voice said

"Sure." Billy says

"Billy, do you remember me?" The man asks. He was dressed in a white shirt and navy blue pants. He had a badge on his left chest and a nameplate on his right.

Billy looks blankly at his for quite some time. "Angus?" Billy recalled

"Yes Billy, it's me." Angus smiles

Ashley is lost in this conversation. Angus fills her in.

"Your brother here used to show up on our fire calls when he was little. And then he stopped coming around the firehouse. No one knew what had happened." Angus said

"My mom passed away and we had to move." Billy explained

"I'm sorry Billy." Angus adds

"So what brings you here?" Billy asks as the curiosity gets the better of him

"You saved a man's life Billy." Angus tells him, "I was there when they pulled you both out of the building. You had drug your boss to within 10 feet of the door before you collapsed. You drug him like a firefighter over 20 feet."

Billy is shocked to hear this. He hadn't recalled that.

"You're a hero son." Angus says, "And your bravery is to be rewarded at a special ceremony. It will be when you get better."

Billy was in shock. Ashley was proud of her brother. He looked down at his bandaged arms. Then he realized that it couldn't be all that bad. Angus wrote down the address of the firehouse and the phone number where he could be reached and gave them to Ashley. He then left the siblings to be alone.

"I was so scared Billy." Ashley cried

It hurt Billy to see his sister cry.

"I thought that I had lost you too. I couldn't bear that thought. We have been through so much together." Ashley sobs, "I was scared Billy."

Billy wanted to reach out and hug his sister but with all of the wires he was hooked to, that wasn't a good idea.

"Ashley," he begins, "I was scared too. When the man held the shotgun to my chest I couldn't help but think- this is it, I am going to die. He threw me across the room and I went numb. Then there was the explosion. Something in me knew I had to get out of there. I'm not sure that I know how I got out."

He too was crying. His sister came over and sat on the bed beside him. She hugged him the best that she could. Jenny made her way into the room.

"Hey Jenny." Billy says

"Hey guys." She replies, "Ashley, thank you for calling me."

"It's not a problem." Ashley responds, "You needed to know."

"Thank you. Billy I am so sorry that I wasn't here sooner, I just wasn't sure that I could bear seeing you in that machine." Jenny replies

Ashley hadn't mentioned the chamber to Jenny on the phone, so obviously Jenny had been at the hospital. She didn't want to cause any confrontations; she didn't want to upset her brother. Ashley took the opportunity to head off and get some coffee.

"I'm going to head off to get some coffee." Ashley says

"Thank you." Billy says, "I love you."

"I love you too little bro." She smiles as she leaves the room

Jenny moves in next to Billy on the hospital bed. She strokes Billy's head. He enjoys the specialized attention that she is giving him. Hopefully he wouldn't be kept in the hospital long.

"I'm sorry I wasn't here Billy." She says

"Like I would have known anyway." Billy cracks. He was right though; he had been in a chamber and unconscious for quite some time.

"I heard that you are going to get an award." Jenny smiles

"Yeah." Billy responds

"You saved a man's life." Jenny restates

"That's what they keep telling me." Billy responds.

He was really too tired to want to talk. He felt very comfortable just having Jenny beside him. He held her hand. He fell asleep with his head on her shoulder. She sat with him for some time before Ashley returned.

"He fell asleep." Jenny states the obvious

"How did you know about the chamber?" Ashley found this a perfect opportunity to ask

"I came in yesterday." Jenny says

"I never saw you." Ashley replies

"I didn't stay. I just checked to see if he was going to be okay." Jenny responds

"Do you love my brother?" Ashley questions

"Yes I do." Jenny adds

"Then why do you only spend a half hour with him, he falls asleep, and now you were getting ready to leave." Ashley interrogates

Jenny bursts into tears. "I cheated on him."

Ashley becomes furious.

"I felt guilty and I couldn't be around him. " She sobs, "I really do love him."

Ashley doesn't want to hear anymore.

"I came into the hospital and I saw him lying in that thing, and I thought that I would lose him. I was afraid and I left. It happened before the explosion." Jenny cried and turned and ran out of the room, down the hall and to the elevator before Ashley could say or do anything. She knew that her brother would be devastated at this news.

Ashley walked back into the room where her brother was sleeping. She sat for a few moments before the doctor came in. She didn't know whether or not to wake her brother.

"Good afternoon Ms. Walsh." The doctor said and Ashley returned the sentiment.

"Your brother is doing remarkably well considering what happened. I think it's best to keep him for observation tonight, and if he doesn't show any changes for the worse, release him tomorrow." The doctor tells her

"Thank you doctor." She replied

That was great news for her. She knew that he wouldn't stay down long, he never did. When he had broken his wrist as a kid he was back to being his normal self in no time. She thought back to that incident and chuckled. He had jumped from the tree house to the ground because he had been dared to. It wasn't a long fall but he had done it for pride's sake and when he hit the ground he looked up and all he could say was "Oops." He didn't cry he just said "Oops."

She turned her focus back to her sleeping brother. She was just glad to know that he was okay.

It was two weeks later. Billy was getting ready for the awards ceremony. He tied his tie as Ashley walked in.

"You never could tie a tie straight." She laughed as she fixed her brother's tie.

"Thanks." He grinned

He sat nervously on the stage in front of some many men and women. Some of them were wearing blue dress uniforms. He was in front of a room of firefighters and some political leaders, and his sister was there too. He sat during the awards ceremony as other men and women received awards for there heroics. Finally, a man walked to the podium, it was Angus.

"Tonight we have a special guest with us. This young man risked his own life to save someone else. He forgot about the danger that it posed to him as he rescued his boss from a fire. He made his way through heavy smoke and flames to safety." Angus recalled the event. "For his troubles he ended up in the hospital to cover from smoke inhalation and burns. But, his instincts saved the life of Alexander Chaney. We would like to present William James Walsh with a medal to mark his achievement and dedication to helping make this daring rescue. William would you come up here please?"

Billy nervously stood up and walked to the podium where Angus proudly shook his hand and then placed the medal around Billy neck. Everyone claps in honor of his achievement. Billy looks around the room and sees his sister wipe a tear from her eye.

After the ceremony Billy and Ashley walked through and talked to many people. Angus walked up to Billy, as did a few other FDNY Brass.

"Billy, you ever think of becoming a firefighter?" Chief Williams asked

"No sir." Billy responded

"After your love of fire trucks as a kid, you never thought of being a firefighter?" Angus was surprised

Billy thought about it when Ashley pulled something out of her purse. It was Billy's fire truck that he had been so proud of as a child. Billy was taken aback. He held it in his hands and admired it once again. He had thought that it was lost forever when he was younger. Turns out that Ashley had found it while she was going through some old things of hers and she thought that now would be a great time to give it back to him.

"Well son, the FDNY would be proud to have you." Chief Williams invited the young man to respond.

Billy looked off to his sister who nodded and replied, "How do I sign up?"