Author's Note: This prompt was suggested by Sangrette...it is also my favorite story that I have written for the collection so far so I hope that you will enjoy it!
F is for Firefighter Calendar
From his normal perch, Blade stared out across the park like a king surveying his kingdom. With his eyes slightly squinted towards the horizon and his body held rigid, he excluded power and control. It was like a scene straight out of an action movie…right up until the scene was broken by a high pitched catcall of a whistle.
"You are not helping." Blade slowly turned to glare at his giggling audience, much to the photography team's chagrin.
Patch was the only vehicle who actually had enough common decency to look mildly embarrassed. Dynamite and Maru just stared up at him with complete amusement. Honestly, the right now Blade's only saving grace was that the photoshoot was early enough in the season that he didn't have an entire audience of smokejumpers catcalling him.
"Don't you three have anything better to do?" The Chief sighed with exasperation.
"Nope." Maru managed to say around a mouth full of popcorn. The grinning the tug plucked a kernel from his bowl and tossed it in Blade's general direction. "Now go shake that sexy tail boom."
"Well, I would like to leave." Cabbie mumbled around with his mouth full of lighting equipment. "How much longer is this going to last? I do have actual work that needs to get done today."
Blade gave the photographer a long look, only to get a shrug in reply…which didn't help the situation. Honestly, if the firefighter calendar wasn't a charity project pay for treatment for kids in burn units, Blade would have never let himself be dragged into this whole situation…but Dusty had done it last year and the charity had discovered that having a 'celebrity firefighter' on the calendar cover significantly boosted sales, and the next thing anyone at Piston Peaks Air Attack team knew a flood of children's notes flooded Park's PR office asking of Blade would be in this year's calendar. Blade had limits, but he also wasn't heartless and he wasn't going to say no to an organization that managed to send him a large stack of crayon drawings asking for help.
It was only when the day of the photoshoot arrived that Blade Ranger realized the bait and switch that had occurred. As a professional makeup artist added extra contours to his paint job it because crystal clear that while children would benefit from the sale of this calendar, this was not a children's calendar. Instead, he gussied up to become eye candy anyone who wished to hang his imagines on the wall. Unfortunately, it was far too late to back out by that point, which meant that Blade was stuck getting with a photographer and two assistance on his base making him pose like he was still in Hollywood.
"You were only here for half a day when you came a photographed Dusty." Blade did his best not to make his voice sound like a whine, but they had already eaten a day and a half setting up scenes and snapping away on their cameras.
"Well, Mr. Crophopper's was already in photo-ready paint and his publicist was very helpful and organized the shots before we showed up instead of making us create everything on the fly." The photographer countered pointedly before having Blade strike another pose. At this point it seemed like Blades only saving grace was that the photographer had stop trying to make him smile after he realized that 'charming' was probably not the best direction of the shoot. Since then the team had tried create stoic or mysterious atmospheres, but the still didn't seem happy with their end product.
It was Cabbie who finely put his tire down as the sun started to slip towards the horizon. "I have a national weather service radio net that I have to participate in 38 minutes…" The old plane left the words hanging, but photography team had gotten the hint and wrapped up the photoshoot four minutes before Cabbie's deadline.
Unfortunately, the photographer wasn't happy with the results so he insisted on sticking around base for another two days to catch candid pictures in the hope that he might get lucky. They were among two of the longest days of Blades's life.
Seven months later…
Chief Blade Ranger was dozing by the fire in Cabbie's hanger while Maru bickered quietly about something while playing a game of chess. It was a comforting sound that did little more than place this moment in time, and it let him sink deeper into the comforting heat. While this time of year wasn't a relaxed as the depths of February or March, the happy little Christmas Tree in the corner Blade could forgive the steady stream of park visitors his team had to put up with.
"Blade." A sharp poke to the Chief's flank startled the helicopter fully awake.
"What?" He yawned, not really wanting to move.
"You have a video call."
This fully got Blade's attention, video call especially at this time of night were a rarity for the helicopter. Most people who wanted to get ahold of him would either do it contacting dispatch or simply calling over the radio. Also, given how relaxed Maru was, it seemed like it was a social call.
"Who?"
"Dynamite." Maru grinned back. "And you need to get your tail into gear so you don't keep her waiting."
Blade made a harrumphing sound and gave his rotor's a good shake before heading over to Cabbie's computer console.
"Hey Chief, I just wanted to call and check in." Dynamite greeted him as soon as his face appeared on the feed. The two vehicles had a good ten minutes of relaxed catching up, before the ATV broached the real reason she had made the call. "So, I was wondering if your Christmas gift from me had arrived yet…"
At the question, Blade looked over at Cabbie and Maru with a bit of panic in his eyes. At his reaction, the C-119 gave a little chuckle and nodded the affirmative.
"I knew that you were dead set on not letting them send you a free copy of the calendar, so I thought I would do you a favor and get you one as a gift."
He tore open his open Christmas present from Dynamite to come face to face with the dreaded firefighter calendar. Given the photoshoot complications Blade wasn't too surprised that he hadn't made the cover shot, hey had chosen buff and smiling Quint for that, but that meant that he had to flip through the pages to figure out what month they had dumped him on. Along the way he spotted a lot of the photo gimmicks that they use on him and it made him even more nervous about the photo they picked of him.
Then he made it to November and the photo nearly made Blade's engine skip a few beats...It was a picture that had clearly been taken the night that the photography team had arrived and before they had started setting up their equipment.
Blade had been helping Maru determine which maps needed to be replaced to get ready for the field season. They were spread out around him in mechanic's hanger and he had been tracing a route with his tire, but the photographer had caught him in a moment that he had paused from his work and glanced up with quiet intensity at their base's wall of fallen. It had been close to sunset and while part of Blade was in shadow, the photos of the aircraft who had given their lives were fully aluminate by the last raise of the dying sun. Instead of a kitschy statement or firefighter joke, the picture was graced with the following statement.
A FIREFIGHTER NEVER TRULY DIES, FOR PART OF THEM WILL ALWAYS BURN BRIGHTLY IN THE LIVES THEY HAVE TOUCHED
"I thought that you might approve of what they picked…" Dynamite finally drew his attention away from this piece of artwork. She then paused, letting her words sink in for a moment before continuing with a wink. "Plus, you really do have a nice aft." With that she turned off the feed, leaving survive Maru's good nature teasing about who he was going to have to buy the calendars for the rest of the night.
But as his two companions started to drift off, Blade couldn't help but look at the image again and smile…Nick would have approved.
