Disclaimer: I'm attempting to write this chapter to be realistic, yet honor Sacrifices Made on February 26, 1993:

Thursday February 25, 1993

Walsh packed some boxes slowly. The smoke damage to his apartment forced him to have to move out temporarily. Since he had to pack up anyway, he decided that maybe he would just buy a house. He had some money saved back so he could do pretty well. Plus then he didn't have to worry about going out any 7th floor windows while he was off duty.

He didn't mind if he'd have to buy a house that needed some work. It would give him something to do in his downtime, to relax. He had rented a storage unit so that he could keep his things there until he was ready to put them in his new home. DK had volunteered his couch for Walsh to stay on, and well he didn't really want to stay there too long.

DK walked into Walsh's apartment.

"Wow, talk about your fixer upper." He cracked

"Yeah, very funny." Walsh responded.

DK was helping Walsh move. Hey, what were friends for anyway? It meant that Walsh would spring for food, and DK was all about that.

"Everything's packed up." Walsh said as he marked the last box.

DK looked around the room. "How can one person have this much stuff?" He joked

"It's my bachelor pad." Walsh cracked

DK went to pick up a box, "What the hell you got in here? The kitchen sink?"

"Nope, just a box of books." Walsh laughed

"Wow, books. You surprise me now." DK replies

"Why because I can read?" Walsh cracks

"No because you do read." DK responds

Walsh picks up a box and follows behind as they head for Walsh's Explorer. The carefully fill the Explorer with boxes. All that was left was the furniture, and Walsh had rented a moving van for that.

Walsh drives up 3rd Ave. There were some houses for sale, and they weren't really in a bad area. He pulls up in front of one and meets the real estate agent.

"Mr. Walsh." She extends her hand and he shakes it. "I think you may like this place." She smiles

She opens the door and they walk through the house. He notices a few little things that need fixed, but overall he is impressed with the place. It fits into his price range too.

"Well what did you think Mr. Walsh?" she asks him

"I think that you can go ahead and make an offer on it." He replies with a smile

"Okay, I will let you know if they accept it." She shakes his hand again and they leave.

He looks at his watch, it was 1:30. He had an hour and 15 minutes before he had to be at work. He drove around for a bit before he headed to the firehouse. He pulled up in his parking space and grabbed his bag. He walked into the house.

"You're here early today." Lt. Johnson noticed

"Yeah, well you know, don't really have a home to hang out at." Walsh replied

"Thought you were staying with DK." Lt. Johnson said

"Well I am. I had some things to do today and I just decided to come in a little early." Walsh replied

"That's fine with me." Lt. Johnson smiled

The rest of the squad arrived and they all relaxed in the lounge. There wasn't much to do. They sat back and watched a hockey game on television. But other than that it was a very quiet shift. They all retired to bed.

Friday February 26, 1993

The squad arose. Rested from a full night's sleep. That was a rare thing for this bunch. They still had a couple hours left in their shift, which ended at 3.

Walsh, DK, Jimmy, Lombardo, and Tommy Doyle sat around the kitchen table. They were all eating lunch- they had decided to have sandwiches for a change.

"Well we got 2 hours and 45 minutes left to a perfectly quiet shift." Lombardo says

"Shhhh… don't say that too loud." DK laughed

"Yeah I wanna make it out of here today without any incidents." Walsh responded

"Yeah I got Knicks tickets tonight." Jimmy replied.

They hadn't finished bantering amongst themselves when the alarm sounded.

"Squad 55, Ladder 100, Adam 55-3, Boyd 55-3 respond to Box 8084" it called

"Hey, ain't that the Towers?" Walsh asked

Suddenly it clicked to all of them. They were being called to respond to an alarm at the World Trade Center. They rushed for the Squad. For both medic units to be dispatched on it along with them, it had to be something big. And it was.

"Reports say a bomb went off in the garages below. There's smoke being reported all the way to the 77th floor." Lieutenant Johnson briefed his Squad

Soon enough they were on the scene and watching people pour out of the North Tower. There were thousands of people wounded. The bomb had knocked the power out in the tower and so the 50,000 plus people inside the tower were now without lights.

The Squad worked their way inside to help and evacuate the people. The smoke made the darkness much darker. If not for their masks, they would have been turned away. They felt bad for the people who were trapped in the elevators, but there was no way of knowing what floors those elevators were stuck at. The first task was to get the people out of the offices.

There were calls for help from firefighters. They soon stumbled upon one who was complaining of chest pain.

"DK, Walsh, help get him out of here." Lt. Johnson instructed as he led the rest of his Squad on.

DK and Walsh carried the firefighter back down the 30 flights of stairs that they had just come up. They met the medics outside who immediately began to check him out.

One of the Battalion Commanders saw them preparing to go back in. He approached them and said that he had reports of a firefighter down on the third floor. There was heavy fire and all of the firefighters were tied up fighting the flames.

"Any idea where he is?" DK asked

"From the reports we got he's on the third floor in office 3044." The Commander said

"On our way." Walsh replied

The Squad continued to work with other units on the scene well into the night. At 2:25 AM the incident was declared "under control." The Squad was thankful that they had gotten a full night's rest the night before. And that the "Monster" was finally taken care of.

They were quiet on the way back to the house. They had picked up additional members of the Squad; their relief had met them at the Towers. Together the two shifts worked side by side to help save lives. They were all exhausted though.

"I'm proud of you all." Lt. Johnson turned in the seat. "Good work today. I'm proud of you all."

At 12:17 PM on February 26, 1993 the terrorist group al-Qaeda attacked the Twin Towers. The plan of the bombers was for the bomb that was planted in the basement to crumble the foundation of the North Tower. They had hoped that this would cause the building to collapse onto the South Tower and bring them down. They FAILED.

There were thousands injured, including 105 firefighters. 6 People lost their lives that day:

IN MEMORY OF

John DiGiovanni

Robert Kirkpatrick

Steve Knapp

William Macko

Wilfredo Mercado

Monica Rodriguez Smith

GOD BLESS AMERICA!