The halls of the school are overflowing with children as Taylor helped Tommy carry his science project into school for the science fair. For a 1st grader he went all out to make a volcano.

"This thing is heavy Tommy." Taylor said

"It has to be mom or it wouldn't work!" Tommy exclaimed

"Remind me to tell your father that from now on science projects only weigh 5 pounds." Taylor said

"Okay mom." Tommy smiled

Taylor couldn't resist that smile. They walked into the classroom and Taylor put the volcano on the table at the back of the room. Tommy puts his jacket away and then heads back to his desk. Taylor goes to leave but is stopped before she can get out the door.

"Mom!" Tommy yells

Taylor turns around as her son is at her side.

"I forgot my lunch money." Tommy had realized that as he put his backpack in his cubbyhole.

Taylor opened up her purse and pulled out a five.

"Here, but don't tell your father you forgot your lunch money again." Taylor said

"I won't. Thanks mom!" Tommy said

With that Taylor made her way back through the hallways and out of the building. Billy was working a double, but she had all day until she had to be at work. She went downtown to do a little shopping. Their anniversary was coming up and she wanted to make sure that she had something special for her husband. It was hard to believe that it had already been 8 years.

Walsh was sitting in his office doing some paperwork while the guys were milling about the firehouse. He looked up every now and again to see what they were doing.

Logan, DK, Mac, and Stu were watching the news when a reporter broke in to interrupt a story.

"We're receiving reports of some sort of explosion in Upper Manhattan." The reporter said

"Hey Billy, you hear that?" DK asked

Walsh had walked out of his office.

"Probably nothing." He said as he poured a cup of coffee

Over the scanner they could hear the box being sent out.

"Awful lot of units for nothing boss." Stu said

The alarm wasn't waiting for Walsh's reply.

"Squad 55, Ladder 100 respond for an explosion at 1821 West 149th." It called

Walsh thought for a minute. His eyes got wide and his face got white.

"What's wrong?" Mac asked

"That's my kid's school!" Walsh replied as they rushed for the truck.

On the way to the scene he tried to call Taylor.

Taylor was getting some groceries at a little bodega. Her phone was in her purse.

"Hey this is Alex. I can't answer my phone. Leave me a message and I'll get back to you." Her voice mail picked up

Walsh was frustrated, "Alex, whenever you get this you need call me. There's a report of an explosion at the kid's school. We're responding now."

Taylor finished up her shopping and then looked at her watch. "2 o'clock. I'll head in a little early." She thought to herself. She took her wallet out of her purse to pay for the groceries when she saw her phone flash "1 new voicemail." She thought for a moment,

"Hmmmm…. I never heard it ring." She said to herself.

She dials her voicemail and enters her password as she walks to the car. Suddenly she drops all of the groceries.

"Oh my God!" She yells as she sees pictures of the burning school building on a television set at a café.

It was only a couple more blocks until she was at the firehouse, she could grab her gear and go to the school. When Taylor arrived Grace was rushing in.

"I heard it on the news, are we going?" She asked

"Damn right we're going, my kids are at that school!" Taylor replied as they grabbed their gear and jumped in Adam 55-3.

The Squad began to see smoke blocks away from the school. Walsh's heart started to sink. DK leaned forward in the cab.

"They'll be okay. They are Walsh's after all." DK tried to reassure his friend.

They weren't prepared for the horror that they saw when they arrived on scene. There was a gaping hole in the side of the school; smoke and fire could be seen at various locations. The battalion chief had already called for a second alarm assignment. Walsh jumped out of the Squad and headed over for assignment.

"Squad 55 requesting assignment." Walsh said

"Well Lieutenant, think you and your men can work on search and rescue?" The Battalion Chief asked

"We're on it Sir!" Walsh said as he headed towards his Squad

"What's our assignment?" Stu asked eager to help as he watched the scared students and teachers pour out of the building.

"Search and Rescue." Walsh replied, "Mac, Logan… DK, Stu… Wolff you're with me." Walsh said

They prepared to enter the building. DK looked over to Walsh again.

"We'll find them." He said

The medic and police units began to arrive on scene. The medics immediately began triaging and treating patients. There was an area where those who were not severely injured were led. This helped to clear the way for treatment of those who were severely injured. It was chaotic as firefighters worked to battle the flames, others carried students and teachers to safety, and still others had the grim task of bringing out the deceased.

Taylor pulled the bus on scene and quickly jumped out, searching for Tommy and Carly.

"We'll find them. They'll be alright." Grace said

"I'm not panicking yet." Taylor said

They began working their way through the crowd of wounded towards EMS Command, who was none other than Kim.

"Boy am I glad to see you guys." Kim said

"Not to complicate matters, but have you seen my kids?" Taylor asked

"No I haven't." Kim replied

"Okay, where do you need us?" Taylor asked

"Help with treatment for now." Kim replied

"Got it." Taylor replied as they set off towards the treatment area.

They began to work on helping the injured. Taylor worked quickly to establish an IV in a teacher who had part of a chair leg that had gone through her thigh. Grace was helping a student who had partially amputated his arm. Soon the members of Squad 55 were emerging with more injured children and teachers. Taylor looked on to see her husband carry out a young teacher. She rushed over to help.

"She's having trouble breathing." He said

"I'll take it from here." Taylor replied

She began to check the woman over. "Airway, breathing, circulation." Taylor reminded herself.

She opened the airway and checked for breathing- none. Taylor checked the pulse and found none there as well. She quickly black tagged the patient. Taking one last look she realized that it was Tommy's teacher. Her heart immediately sank. She became anxious. She looked around quickly and moved on to the next patient.

Walsh and the probie Wolff were searching the same area that they had found the teacher in. It was dark and the smoke was making it that much harder to see.

"Did you hear that?" Wolff asked

"Sounded like someone was coughing." Walsh replied

"Fire department!" Wolff yelled out

"Over here! Help!" A little voice cried out

The two firefighters quickly made their way over to the sound of the voice and found a little girl stuck under some fallen ceiling tiles.

"It's okay, we're gonna get you out." Walsh told the little girl

"Where's Amy? She was right beside me." The little girl said

"We'll find her." Walsh said as they began to move some of the rubble.

They had just about freed the little girl when the building shook and rumbled. Walsh quickly wrapped the child in his arms and covered her as a fireball raced through the area. The remaining windows were blown out.

On the outside everyone heard the same rumble. Some people screamed and wailed in fear. Taylor looked up and watched the fire spit out of the windows. The building was slowly becoming a nightmare- make that even more of a nightmare.

There was a shadow standing over Taylor. She turned to look.

"Carlos! Don't scare me like that!" She said

"Sorry." He replied

"Start treatment of the seriously injured." She replied

Taylor knew that she didn't need to tell Carlos how to handle a mass causality incident, but she told him anyway. Levine had already set to work checking patients. Carlos was soon working on back boarding a probable femur fracture patient.

There were news cameras all around the scene; the news helicopters were hovering above them. It was mass chaos, loud, and overwhelming. An hour had passed and the firefighters were still bringing the injured out of the building. Still, there was no sign of her kids.

Walsh and Wolff made their way down a long and debris filled hallway. They scanned through the rubble looking for anyone still trapped inside. Stu and DK were searching an area that used to be classrooms when they saw a sneaker.

"Hey, what's that?" Stu asked

"Looks like a shoe." DK replied

"And where there's a shoe…" Stu replied

"HELP ME!" screamed a child

"There's a kid." DK finished as they quickly started to remove the debris that was piled on top of the child. Soon they had uncovered a small boy.

"Tommy?" DK asked

"Uncle DK!" The boy grabbed DK

DK wrapped him up in his arms.

"We've been looking for you." DK smiled

"I've been waiting for you guys." Tommy said

DK stood back up and he began making his way out of the building with Tommy. It seemed like forever to them as they worked their way through the debris. Finally though, they saw daylight.

"Taylor!" Stu yelled

Taylor looked up and saw DK and Stu coming towards her.

"Tommy?" She asked

The two firefighters continued towards her.

"Is he okay?" She asked as she rushed towards them

"Looks like he has a few cuts and scrapes, but I'm not a medic." DK said

Taylor quickly checked her son. "I was worried sick about you." She said

"Awe mom!" Tommy said as Taylor wiped some of the dirt off of his face

"Does anything hurt?" She asked

"My ankle." He replied

Taylor looked at her son's ankle. "You might have broken it." She said

"It's okay mom. At least it's just my ankle." He replied

"You are so much like your dad." She laughed as she turned to DK and Stu. "Thank you!"

Kim made her way over to them.

"Is he okay?" Kim asked

"Looks like he broke his ankle." Taylor replied

"Next bus that leaves, make sure he's on it too." She said, "By the way, I found Carly. She's not hurt, just scared."

Soon Carly was standing there with them.

Walsh made his way towards his family. He quickly knelt down and hugged them.

"Thank God you're both alright." He said

"We've been blessed." Taylor replied

It seemed like hours when all of the patients had finally been transported to the hospital. Taylor sat in the waiting room at Mercy, Tommy was in her lap and Carly right beside her. Things were finally quieting down in the ER as well. Dr. Hickman made her way over to them.

"Has he been to X-ray yet?" She asked

"Not yet." Taylor said

"I'll have Mary take him to get it X-rayed so you don't have to sit around here any longer." Dr. Hickman said

"Thank you." Taylor replied as she brushed the hair back off of her son's face.

Walsh made his way into the ER. He looked around and quickly found Taylor. He sat down and put Carly in his lap.

"Everything all cleaned up?" Taylor asked

"Fire's out, they released us. Figured I'd come over here to see how you guys were doing." Walsh replied

"Mom's on her way down to pick them up once Tommy gets checked out." Taylor said

Mary Proctor came over with a wheel chair. "One ticket to X-ray." She said

Taylor put Tommy in the chair.

"I'll bring him right back." Mary said

"See you in a couple minutes." Walsh smiled at his son

"Did they ever figure out what caused the explosion?" Taylor asked

"It started in the boiler room." Walsh replied

"That's an awful big explosion for just the boiler room." Taylor responded

"Not if they had a leaking gas line." Walsh replied

"That's a shame." Taylor replied

"Out of 400 students and staff, 50 criticals, 200 moderately injured, 18 DOA, and 132 minor or uninjured." Walsh said

"That's fortunate." Taylor replied

"Someone was looking out for them today." Walsh said

Carly had fallen fast asleep in his lap. He took Taylor's hand.

"I was scared that we had lost them." He admitted

"I was too. I don't think I could have handled it if we had." Taylor let a tear fall down her dirty face

Walsh wiped it away and smiled.

"What?" She asked

"I love it when your face is covered in filth." He laughed

"I haven't had time to think, let alone wash up." She replied

"I think it's cute." He smiled

"Do you now?" She asked, "Some of us haven't had time to take a shower yet."

"Hey, I didn't take a shower. I came right down here once we got back to the house." He argued

Soon Mary returned with Tommy.

"We're going to put him in Exam 1." She said

Walsh and Taylor stood up. Walsh carried Carly back the hallway to the exam room. Dr. Hickman soon entered.

"Well, I guess I don't have to tell you that it's definitely broken." She said as she put the X-Rays up on the light box. "We'll get him in a cast, give him some crutches and get you out of here."

"Thanks" Walsh said

"Hear that kiddo? You're getting a cast." Taylor said

"Cool!" Tommy replied

Taylor shook her head and laughed, "You are too much like your father."

"Hey!" Walsh protested

"Don't you argue with me." Taylor started

"That's right, you haven't gotten to shower yet so you're all hot, and sweaty, and sexy." Walsh laughed

Taylor stared at him. "You are so going to get it when we get home."

Walsh smiled, "We gotta get out of here first."

"True." Taylor joked as she playfully slapped Walsh's arm.

Tommy laughed

"What you think that was funny?" Walsh asked as he began to tickle his son.

Carly awoke to the laughter and soon was joining in.

"I wish I had a camera." Mary said when she entered the room to put Tommy's cast on.

Mary put the cast on Tommy and set up his crutches for him. Soon they were leaving the ER and heading for home.

"Thank God for tiny miracles." Walsh said quietly as he looked over his family.