Chapter Two
Sharon's twelve-hour ride along was passing quickly. Before she knew it, she was at hour nine. She honestly felt sad, enjoying the practice of medicine outside the hospital environment. In the dayroom, she sat on a couch. Next to her was the laziest dog she had ever met. One of the firefighters sat on a recliner across from her, reading a book. "Is he always this lazy?" she asked, pointing at the dog.
The man chuckled. "I've only ever seen him get up once." He looked off in the distance, as if remembering.
She couldn't tell if he was pulling her leg or not, but she nodded, petting the dog on the head. When the man politely returned to his book, she looked at him. He seemed unnaturally quiet compared to Kelly, who had floured Gage's gear earlier. "I don't know how Captain Stanley does it." She thought, thinking how difficult it would be to balance the loud Kelly and the stoic man. She had no idea of the bond the stationmates shared. She couldn't see it. This Kelly seemed to annoy everyone, especially Gage, more than be actually helpful. But, she hadn't seen the engine crew in action. Gage and DeSoto were surprised at the fact the engine and squad hadn't run a single call together. She remembered a conversation they had coming back from Rampart earlier in the day.
"I don't like it." Gage said from his seat in the squad. She looked at him in confusion, there was no preamble to his statement. She looked at Roy, wondering if he was just as confused. He wasn't.
"I know..." Roy trailed off.
"The EMS gods are messin' with us Roy." Roy nodded, not saying anything. "It's not like they've been sitting doing nothin' either, they've been plenty busy." Johnny continued. Sharon looked back and forth at them in utter confusion.
"I know." Roy repeated.
"Alright, I'll stop tempting 'em." Johnny said, resting his chin on his fist. Sharon looked at them, wondering if they, or she, had gone crazy, or if she was just missing something. Aside from the mystery, she was impressed and annoyed at the fact they didn't need to use full sentences with each other, seemingly reading each other's mind.
Roy happened to catch her confused look. "Johnny?" Roy said, tilting his head at Sharon. Using only one word to explain that he noticed Sharon's confused face and wanted Johnny to give some background.
"Oh." Johnny said. He glanced at Sharon and grinned. "Well you see," he said, launching into a brief lecture of running calls with the engine, EMS gods, and superstition.
Sharon startled at the sound of a pot clanging. Jumping slightly, she looked up. Captain Stanley had put a pot on the stove. The man sitting across from her put his book down. "Want some help Cap?" he asked, standing and stretching.
"Sure Stokes, can you wash the green beans? They're in the fridge." Sharon put her nurse's textbook down.
"Can I do anything to help Captain Stanley?" she asked, standing.
Hank answered over his shoulder, "No need Sharon, you're a guest." He muttered something under his breath to the man helping and he chuckled. She was pretty sure she heard something along the lines of "That's why I'm cooking and Kelly isn't."
Sharon sat back down and guiltily opened her book up again, listening to the ambient noises of a busy kitchen. She wondered where everyone else was. She occasionally heard shouts from the bay, or a compartment door open and close every so often, but was still curious. "Is this what a regular shift is like for you?" she asked the busy men, abandoning her book.
"Well," Captain Stanley said while pouring something white into the pot. "Pretty much. It's strange we haven't run a call with the squad yet, but generally, yes it is." He shrugged his shoulders, his back still turned to the couch.
"That's what John and Roy were saying." she replied. Stanley made a general guttural response and Sharon smirked. "Superstition." she thought. Superstition existed in the hospital, but not to the extent it did here. Before she could think any further about it, alarms blared, longer than the normal tri-tone.
"This is IT!" someone yelled from inside the bay.
"Finally!" someone else echoed.
"This is what?" Sharon thought. She stood and followed Captain Stanley, who ran out of the kitchen, after turning the stove off first. "It's just a call." she thought, not understanding the excitement. She did not possess the sixth sense that everyone in the house had, she did notice the alarms hadn't stopped yet.
Johnny was standing outside the squad bouncing on the balls of his feet, "Come on." he said urgently. Once she slid into place, he jumped in after and slammed the door. He drummed his fingers on the dash as Roy pulled out of the station, the engine following. "It's that apartment on Collington Ave." Johnny said, "The one we inspected a couple weeks ago." Roy nodded. Sharon looked out the window at the dark city streets. She thought the squad was going a little faster than normal.
"What's the call for?" Sharon asked, in all the noise of the fire truck's and the squad's engines starting, she hadn't heard the dispatch reason. The squad's radio hadn't turned on fast enough to hear the repeat dispatch.
"An apartment fire." Johnny said, he was adjusting the chin strap on his helmet. To Sharon's surprise, he was loosening it. Despite her curiosity, she didn't ask. The atmosphere in the squad was different to that of a medical call, so she remained quiet. It wasn't tense, but it was heavy. Running a fire call hadn't even crossed her mind, thinking only about the medical side. Logically she knew it was bound to happen, it wasn't called the Fire Department for nothing. Just before they arrived on scene, Johnny turned to her and said, "Stay in the squad unless someone tells you otherwise." He said it with such an air of command and seriousness, she could only nod as a response. Inwardly, she hoped no one would need help, especially them.
On scene, Johnny and Roy hopped out. As directed, she stayed in the squad, watching her surroundings. Out of the passenger mirror, she watched Gage dress, putting a mask over his face, then strapping his helmet on. "Oh." Sharon said, now understanding why he loosened it earlier. To her left, Roy opened the door suddenly, his face mask was hanging around his neck, his helmet under his arm.
"Here." he said, reaching his arm in and adjusting the radio channel. "Now you can listen."
"How will I know if I'm needed?" she asked, silently afraid of having to use the radio.
"One of us will be here, or someone will find you." he said, closing the door and talking through the open window. From a distance, they both heard Captain Stanley yell for them. Roy turned to her again, "Stay inside. No. Matter. What. Okay?" he waited for her to nod before he jogged off, putting his face piece on as he went.
"Wow." she breathed. Up until now, she hadn't been faced with a fire scene. She looked around, only seeing the engine and squad there. "Where's everyone else?" she asked out loud. The radio was silent, then it crackled to life. Initially, she had problems understanding it, but after a while, she could hear.
"HT 51 to Engine 51." The radio crackled several seconds before the voice came again, "First floor's clear," there was a pause in speech and a 'whoosh' as Roy took a breath. "Heading up to the second now." Roy's voice sounded muffled, making it even harder to understand. She slid over to the driver's side and looked out at the six story apartment building. She spotted a small crowd of people slowly pouring out the doors, a police officer directing them. With a nurse's eye, she looked them over for injuries, already putting a few tricks she learned from Johnny and Roy into use. Spotting movement going the opposite direction, she noticed two firefighters pulling a charged hose. She assumed it was Lopez and Kelly, seeing as no one else was there yet. She had been introduced to them earlier in the shift, but didn't know anything about them, other than their names and that one liked flour. Sharon watched with fascination the process of carrying and lugging the heavy hose until they disappeared through the doors. Then she waited, twiddling her thumbs, wishing she could do something.