Walsh was searching the abandoned building. He was alone, separated from DK. He was in the basement- or at least he thought that he was. It was pitch black, the flashlight shining from the hook on his coat barely cut the blackness. He stepped in a puddle of water. He heard the splash. He continued searching the area he was in, he couldn't smell any smoke or hear anyone calling for help.

He could only imagine how long he'd been inside, 10 minutes felt like 10 hours in this darkness. He felt a chill that made its way through his gear straight through to his bones. It was cold in this building. He could see his breath.

"DK?" He called out but only heard the echo of his call.

He heard water dripping from a pipe somewhere or something. Perhaps his coworkers had found fire and were fighting it on the floors above him. He looked around for the stairs to lead him back up but found nothing in the darkness. He was lost! And in the world of firefighting that is not something that you want to be. Your partner was you lifeline and DK was nowhere to be found.

He heard an explosion. Rather, he heard a series of explosions. It was a controlled demolition and they were bringing the building down on top of him! He felt trapped, he tried to run but he couldn't. How could they have forgotten that he was in the building?

He screamed, "Somebody help me!"

Walsh sat straight up in bed. His gray FDNY t-shirt was soaked with sweat. He was breathing heavily. The room was dark. He turned on the light next to his bed. He lifted the white sheet and blue comforter off of him and sat at the edge of the bed for a moment. He brushed his hair back with his hand and then stood up and walked into the kitchen. Maybe a glass of water would help.

It had been a long time since he had had a bad dream let alone a nightmare. And this one was definitely a nightmare. It was 2 AM and he didn't feel much like going back to sleep. He went to his couch and sat down. He turned on the TV and watched Sportscenter. Somewhere around 3 AM he drifted back off to sleep.

He woke back up around 7 AM. He had time to take a shower and eat breakfast before he had to go to work. He had a 24-hour shift today. He put some toast down and made some coffee. He slipped on a pair of sneakers and then walked downstairs to get the newspaper. He came back upstairs to find smoke drifting out of his apartment. He quickly opened the door and made his way to the toaster and popped his toast out of the toaster. The smoke alarm started to beep.

"Great!" He said when the smoke alarms in the building started to sound.

He knew that his building would soon be surrounded by fire trucks. He picked up the phone to call the dispatch center to alert them that it was just toast when he heard the screams.

"FIRE!" a woman screamed.

He looked out in the hallway and saw that the smoke wasn't coming from his apartment, but rather one down the hall. His instinct kicked in and he rushed towards the apartment.

"Help me!" A female voice cried.

Walsh felt the door, it was warm. He knew better than to go into the apartment without his gear on, but there was someone in trouble and he was there.

"I'm coming!" He yelled just before he kicked open the door.

There was fire in the living room and kitchen area.

"Where are you?" He called

"I'm in the kitchen, please hurry." The woman cried.

He knew that the woman who lived in this apartment of an elderly widow. He fought his way back to her, moving furniture out of the way to leave him an open lane for an exit. His skin felt like it was burning from the heat, but he was the only chance that this woman had. He got to her in the kitchen.

"Are you okay?" he asked

"I fell and knocked the pan off the stove." She cried

"Okay, I'm going to get you out of here." He said

The firefighters should be arriving soon. He picked up the woman and started to make his way for the door. The fire had other plans. It flared up and he had to back away. Both he and the woman were coughing. He looked around quickly. He then ran back the hallway.

He headed into the bedroom and shut the door. He took a blanket and shoved it under the door to seal off the smoke. He went to the window and raised it up. They were about 7 stories up in the building. But he could look down and see firefighters looking around. He leaned out the window.

"Up here!" He yelled

He could see firefighters pointing up to where he was.

"Hang on Mrs. O'Reilly, help's on the way." He tells her

The smoke was beginning to filter under the door despite the blanket. He could only hope that they would be in soon to get them out. He looked up to find a firefighter coming down via rope from the roof. He also saw a Tower Ladder truck being positioned down on the street below.

"A couple more minutes and we'll be out of here." He told Mrs. O'Reilly

Walsh looked at her and then realized that something was terribly wrong.

"Mrs. O'Reilly? Mrs. O'Reilly!" He gently slapped her cheek.

Then he remembered the ABCs. Airway, Breathing, Circulation. He quickly tilted her head back and gave her two breaths because she wasn't breathing. He looked up at the window quickly then back to the task at hand.

"We're coming." A firefighter said

Walsh looked up, "She stopped breathing!" He yelled

Soon the top of a helmet could be seen in the frame of the window.

"Hang on Billy, we're almost there." A familiar voice said

"Logan, I've never been so glad to see you in my life." Walsh smiled as he picked Mrs. O'Reilly up and carried her to the window. He handed her over to Logan.

"Get in." Logan said as Walsh climbed from the apartment, coughing.

Heavy smoke was beginning to fill the room.

"Going down." Logan smiled as the bucket to the ladder was lowering them to safety.

The medics were waiting at the bottom. They immediately began CPR on Mrs. O'Reilly. Walsh stood and looked up at his apartment building, then looked at his watch. There was absolutely no way he was going to make it to work on time. He coughed some more.

"You should get that checked out." Logan suggested

"Yeah, but I really need to get to work." Walsh said

"I already called the house, told Lt. Johnson you probably weren't going to make it in." Another voice said.

"Captain Taylor, sir. Thank you, but I really want to get to work." Walsh said

"No, you're going to go to the hospital and get checked out. You can't go to work until you're cleared. It's just not safe." Captain Taylor said.

"Yes sir." Walsh knew better than to argue with a Captain, especially this one.

The rush of adrenaline was wearing off and suddenly Walsh felt something new- pain. He looked down at his arms and legs and saw the red blisters. He'd been burnt and hadn't realized it. He worried about getting Mrs. O'Reilly out and didn't feel his own pain. He walked over to a waiting medic unit where a medic was standing with her back to him.

"Hey, I need a little help here." He said

To his surprise the medic turned around. "Billy Walsh?" She asked

He couldn't believe it. "I thought you were a firefighter."

"I am, but until I get off light duty, I'm stuck on the medic unit. I am a paramedic you know." Alex Taylor said

"Okay." Walsh stumbled through the word.

"Oh." Taylor said, "They look pretty nasty." She said referring to his burns, then she heard him cough. "And that doesn't sound good either."

"It'll be fine." Walsh tried the macho approach.

"Get in." Taylor said

"What?" Walsh asked

"Get up in that medic unit, now." Taylor ordered him, "You need to go to the hospital."

Walsh did as he was told. He sat on the stretcher while Alex put him on a heart monitor and gave him oxygen. She took his blood pressure and put dry, sterile dressing on his burns.

"Hey!" Walsh protested in pain

"I gotta do it." She replied, "I can give you a little medicine for that."

"Okay." Walsh agreed, he watched Taylor prepare the IV. "Wait, I gotta have needles?"

She laughed, "Well yeah, that's kind of the point."

"I don't like needles." He replied

"Stop being a big baby." She said as she carefully started an IV in his right arm. She then got on the phone to telemetry.

"This is Boyd 78-2 I have a firefighter with burns to approximately 9 of his body. Requesting an order for 5 of morphine. IV established in the right AC." She got the okay and immediately gave the morphine.

"Okay your pain should ease up here a bit." She told him

She looked at the pulse ox, his saturation was rising a little bit with the oxygen.

"How are you feeling?" She asked him

He stared off into space.

"Billy, I need you to talk to me." She said seriously as she suddenly realized what was happening. She took her fist and rubbed his sternum trying to elicit a response. "Damn it!"

Walsh's breathing had slowed and his pulse became thready. Taylor checked his pupils, which had constricted. He was having a reaction to the morphine. She looked up to see how far they were from the hospital.

"I need you to drive FASTER." She yelled to her partner, "He's having an anaphylactic reaction."