Author's Note: This story prompt was suggested by ShuTodoroki
F is for Fire
Concussions do really strange things to a person's sense of time and location. This was especially true for aircraft for whom a sense of time and location were just as much of a part of their sense of self as their tails or wings. So when one Blade Ranger managed to get a major concussion as his first injury on the job at Piston Peaks Air Attack Team, the base mechanic (and Blade's best friend) took it upon himself to personally keep the helicopter's concussion watch.
It ended about as well as one would expect.
When Blade had first arrived on base, the Chief had tried to add him to the cooking rotation. It had taken a total of one breakfast for everyone to agree that the helicopter should be exempted from cooking duties as Blades firefighting management skills clearly didn't extend to the kitchen. Normally he was banned from doing anything in the kitchen other than helping with clean up or grabbing prepackaged snacks. But when Maru asleep 72 hours into his solo concussion watch and with Blade's cognitive abilities lacking, the helicopter somehow came to the conclusion that he should make dinner while the rest of the members of the base were off fighting a fire.
He must have lost track of time somewhere in there because he could have sworn that he had just put the pot on the stove a moment ago, but now the contents of the pot were in flames and the hanger's smoke alarm was screaming.
Water…water was the first thing that managed to make its way through the fog in his head. So, without a second thought, he moved quickly to the sink, filled his mouth with water and sprayed it all over stovetop.
Blade didn't even have a chance to feel relief, because the moment the water hit the pot the flames exploded into an inferno much larger than he had started with. Now the fire was moments away from setting a nearby kitchen cabinet on fire and panic was really starting to settle in. Blade was trying to figure out something, anything to get the fire he had started under control…then he felt himself being violently pushed away from the flaming pot. The next thing he knew, Cabbie was between him and the flames, then as quickly as the fire had started, it was extinguished.
Once everything was safe, the old plane turned angrily towards the helicopter, but his expression quickly softened when he saw just how disoriented Blade was.
"Are you okay?"
"I…" Blade managed to stammer out before tears started to pool up at the edge of his eyes.
Cabbie sighed heavily, rolled to the now open hanger doors, and shouted for the mechanic. "MARU, I NEED YOU IN THE MAIN HANGER NOW." When there was no reply Cabbie closed his eyes, muttered something under his breath and rolled back to Blade. "Can you move over there for me?" He motioned out of the kitchen. "I need to get to the panel to turn off the fire alarm okay?"
Blade blinked up at the big plane for a few moments before the words finally gained some traction in his brain. Then the embarrassment hit and even though the helicopter was clearly hurting he moved as quickly has he could out of the plane's way. This allowed Cabbie to turn off the blaring alarm.
Now that the hanger was finally quiet, Cabbie finally had a chance to look over the charred mess in the pot. "What in the world were you trying to cook?"
"I…" Blade tried to form the words, but his brain was still in too much of a fog to translate concepts to words effectively.
"Never mind." Cabbie dismissed the question with a spin of one of his propellers. "Let's locate Maru and have him check you over."
Cabbie shepherded Blade around base before eventually finding the exhausted mechanic snoring dead to the world in the hanger Blade had been assigned to. It didn't take long for the plane to put all of the pieces together.
"Maru fell asleep during his concussion watch, and while he was asleep you got it in your head to make dinner, didn't you?"
Blade gave an embarrassed shrug to of his rotary wings.
"Well, I guess it can't be helped." Cabbie leaned over and sharply poked Maru awake. Once the startled mechanic was blinking up at him, the plane gave precise instructions. "Maru, Blade just set the kitchen on fire. I need you to look over him and keep an eye on him until some else on the team returns to base from fighting the wildfire and takes over Blade's concussion watch. Can you do that?"
"What?"
"Can you keep an eye on Blade until…"
"I got that part." Maru blinked away the last of the haze of sleep. "But a fire in a kitchen?"
"From what I can tell he was trying to make dinner." Cabbie explained. "And it ended about as well as you think. So, while you take care of Blade, I am going to go deal with that. Understood?"
"Understood." Maru sighed as he scrubbed his tine across his windshield.
"Good."
Cabbie ended up ordering enough pizzas to feed everyone on base. He paid for all of the pies out of his personal account because Chrysler knew there was no way that the base's tight budget could manage the expenditure. Both Blade and Maru made clumsy attempts to pay the old bird back. Cabbie shrugged them off each time.
"Did you learn something from the experience?" The C-119 said with humor warming his voice. Both Blade and Maru vigorously indicated that yes, they had learned. "Then that is payment enough for the meal as it will safe us all grief in the future."
With that, the base settled into their evening routine, but unlike in previous days, Blade and Maru were no longer fighting against accepting help. And that made all of the difference going forward.
