"Oh, you've got to be kidding me!" Mike threw his bag on the ground and just looked at the slashed tires on his truck, not one, not two, but all four tires had long gashes.
"Mike, everything okay man?" Joe, one of his neighbors called to him from the staircase.
"Someone slashed my tires," Mike responded. "Joe, can you give me a ride, I've got to get to the station for my shift."
"Don't you wanna call the police?"
"I'll do it from the station. I can't be late."
"Okay, hop in," Joe moved toward his car. Mike grabbed his bag and jogged over to the passenger side. He took one last look at his truck as Joe pulled out of the parking lot.
Chet paused as a strange car pulled into the fire station parking lot. He watched as Mike got out of the car. "What happened to your truck, Mike?"
"Not now, Chet," Mike was in no mood for any of Chet's sarcastic comments.
"What'd I say?" Chet asked defensively as the Engineer moved past him and into the station.
Mike went into the locker room and dropped his bag on the floor. He kicked off his tennis shoes and put them in the bottom of his locker. Chet came into the room. "Seriously, man, what happened to your truck?"
"Someone slashed my tires," Mike grumbled, as he pulled his shirt over his head.
"What? Seriously? It wasn't just a flat from running over a nail or something?"
"All four tires, with 2 inch gashes?"
"Man, what'd you do to who?"
Mike gave Chet a dirty look as he stripped off his jeans and folded them up to put in his bag. He pulled out his uniform pants and slid them on as Marco entered the room.
"Hey, Mike, I didn't realize you were already here. Where's your truck?"
"Someone slashed his tires," Chet said.
"Seriously?"
Mike just looked at them both, shut his locker and walked out of the locker room, still buttoning his shirt.
Marco and Chet exchanged looks.
Mike glanced at his watch. He'd wait to call the police after roll call.
E
"Alright, any questions?" Captain Stanley asked as he finished roll call.
"Yeah, what are we gonna do about someone messing up Mike's truck?" Chet asked.
"Drop it, Chet." Mike said.
"Did you tell them about someone keying your truck?" Johnny asked.
"Someone slashed the tires and keyed your truck?" Marco looked shocked.
"Slashed your tires," Roy and Captain Stanley said in unison.
"Not now, guys, really, I gotta call the police and make a report before we get a run," Mike said, moving toward the kitchen.
"Mike, why don't you use my office," Captain Stanley offered.
Mike nodded and moved toward the Captain's office. "You guys think this is still related to the incident with the teenage boys?" Captain Stanley asked Johnny and Roy.
"What incident with teenage boys?" Chet asked.
"Mike got home Saturday night to find some teenage boys getting ready to drink beer in the parking lot; they were like 16. Mike took the beer," Roy explained.
"So you think they slashed his tires and keyed his truck?" Marco asked.
"Sounds like something teenagers would do," Johnny said, heading for the coffee pot.
"I hope that's all it is," Captain Stanley said.
"What else do you think it could be, Cap?" Chet asked.
"Nothin'."
"You're thinking about Tim, aren't you?" Roy asked.
"How'd you know?"
"Cause it was the first thing I thought of when I saw Mike's truck yesterday. I know it's stupid, Tim is gone; but I guess it's the first deliberate act against any of us since all those incidents," Roy admitted.
"Like you said, Tim's gone," Johnny said. "I'm sure this is gonna turn out to be nothing more than teenagers trying to pay Mike back for taking their beer."
"You're probably right," Captain Stanley said.
Mike joined them a few minutes later. "They're gonna send over a patrol officer to look at my truck and then come here to take my statement."
"Did you tell them about Adam and his friends?" Captain Stanley asked.
"Yeah," Mike shook his head. "I confronted Adam yesterday and told him to talk to his friends. That's probably what got my tires slashed." Mike sat down at the table feeling dejected.
Marco slid a cup of coffee in front of him.
Mike nodded his thanks.
The men stayed quiet for a moment, not sure what to say to cheer Mike up. They didn't have to wait long as the klaxons sounded calling out the station to a multi-vehicle accident.
E
"How are you doing, really?" Ainsley asked Meg as she set a cup of coffee in front of her. Chief was sitting next to her, his head on her lap. Meg was absent-mindedly stroking the dog's ears.
Meg gave her a small smile. "I'm doing okay, really. I just miss my dad. I keep thinking that I'm an orphan now," Meg brushed at the tears that stung her eyes.
Ainsley put a hand over hers. "I can't imagine how hard that must be."
"I was so angry when I lost my mom," Meg said. "In some ways I think that was easier. Now I just keep thinking of all the things I'm gonna miss. You know what the worst part is, my dad's never gonna meet the man I marry. He's never gonna be able to walk me down the aisle. When I first went home, I let myself believe that maybe Mike and I would work out and at least my dad would have met my future husband."
"Mike met your dad?" Ainsley asked, surprised by that statement.
"Yeah, my dad came down for Memorial Day. It wasn't a formal meeting, we just happen to run into Mike at the hardware store, dad was helping me install a screen door on my back porch. We didn't talk long, Mike and I had only been on two dates and I didn't want it to be this "meet the dad" event. I just introduced them, they chatted about the benefits of one screen door over another and Dad said maybe he'd see Mike again. Dad asked about him when I first got there, I didn't have the heart to tell him that I ended things because I left to take care of him."
Ainsley wiped at a tear that slid down her cheek.
"Don't you start crying too," Meg said, trying to laugh.
"I can't help it," Ainsley said, reaching for a Kleenex. "These pregnancy hormones have me balling like a baby."
"Baby," Hunter repeated and patted Ainsley's belly.
"Very good, Hunter," Meg said. "That's your new baby brother or sister."
"Baby."
"He's so smart, Ainsley. Are you looking forward to having an extra four-months home with him?"
"Yes and no. I love that I have more time with him; but I'm gonna miss having my students. I walk into stores and see all the crayons and pencils and I want to start getting stuff ready for my classroom; but being due just a few weeks after school started, it just made more sense to stay out until January."
"You're so lucky; Johnny loves you so much, and you've got Hunter with another baby on the way," Meg teared up again. "I ran into Mike with his new girlfriend last night."
Ainsley handed Meg a Kleenex. "So you met Caroline?"
"You've met her?"
"Just this weekend," Ainsley admitted. "We ran into them down at the pier on Saturday."
"She's very beautiful," Meg said, quietly.
"So are you," Ainsley told her.
"Is she nice?"
Ainsley shrugged.
"It's okay, Ainsley. I want him to find someone nice. Mike's a great guy, he deserves someone special."
"So do you."
Meg shrugged. "I'm probably not in the best place for a relationship right now. I just keep thinking about all the what if's with Mike. What if when I told him we should stop seeing each other while I was gone he would have said no? I was really hoping he would. I didn't want to put him in a position where he felt like he had to wait for me, but I really wanted him to tell me that he cared about me and wanted to wait and give us a chance. It's stupid, I know, but I'm a little angry that he didn't give us a chance. He'd known her less time than he'd known me when I came back, why did he choose her over me?"
"Don't think of it like that, Meg. Mike really liked you, but he didn't want to push you into something you weren't comfortable with."
Meg just nodded. "I really should be going. I just wanted to stop by and see how you were feeling. I didn't mean to dump all my issues on you," Meg said, as she stood up.
"Meg, stay, have lunch with me."
"No, thanks, Ainsley. I need to go get my class supplies and start getting ready for the new school year. Thanks for the coffee though."
Ainsley made it to the door in time to see her friend pulling out of the driveway. "Poor Meg," she said out loud.
E
"Do you know the names of any of the other boys that were there that night?" The police officer asked Mike.
"No, Adam was the only one I'd seen before. I talked to him yesterday and he didn't seem to think any of his friends would have done it."
"Of course he didn't," the officer said.
"Everything I know about Adam, he's a good kid," Mike said.
"Who is 16, had somehow illegally obtained beer and was going to drink it with his underage friends in a parking lot," the police officer stated.
"He's a typical teenager, but I don't see him as the type to be destructive."
"Well, we'll see what happens when we talk to him and his parent's," the officer said, closing his notebook.
Mike just nodded. He felt bad it had come to this, but these boys had to learn they couldn't behave like this.
Mike had just walked the police officer out, when Chet called out to him to tell him he had a phone call.
"Stoker," Mike said, taking the phone from Chet.
"Hi, Mike."
"Caroline, is everything okay?"
"Yes, I just had a minute and thought I'd give you a call and see how you were feeling this morning. I know you work until tomorrow morning, but I'm off on Tuesday and have the opportunity to use a sailboat for the day. I wanted to see if you wanted to sail to Catalina for the day?"
"Caroline, I'll be honest, it depends on," the klaxons sounded, "Caroline, I've gotta go." Mike hung up the phone before she could respond.
Caroline looked at the phone after she heard the click and realized Mike had hung up on her. The drawback of dating a fireman was his job was always going to come first. She wasn't sure if they were on for Tuesday or not.
"Caroline?"
Caroline turned to look at the head librarian.
"We still have all those microfiche sheets that need to be cataloged. Can you go into the back and start working on that project?"
"Sure, happy to help," Caroline smiled at the woman, but when she turned away Caroline could not help but roll her eyes. That woman could not grasp Caroline's actual position and kept asking her to do these menial tasks.
Caroline moved into the back room and looked at the stacks of flat sheets of converted newspaper articles. Cataloging it meant reading each microfiche sheet, documenting what was on each sheet and then creating a card for when people searched for those items. Caroline sat down and pulled the first sheet from the pile. She slid it into the machine and the first images came up on the screen. She wrote down the name of the newspaper, the date and then read the first title to document that as well. The article was on a rezoning meeting that had gotten heated over the budget for changes to one neighborhood's request to add sidewalks. "This is going to be a very long, boring project," Caroline said out loud as she looked at the stacks and stacks of flat sheets. She really hoped Mike could go sailing tomorrow, she needed to look forward to something.
E
"Can one of you give me a ride home?" Mike asked, his voice raspy from lack of sleep. It had been a crazy night with one call after another.
Johnny yawned, "Sure, you're not too far from me, I'll give you a ride."
"Thanks."
The guys walked out to Johnny's Rover. Johnny closed his eyes briefly before he started the Rover, the bright sunlight making them water slightly. He couldn't remember the last time he had not gotten any sleep on a shift. They had done 20 runs in 24 hours; Johnny would not have even guessed it possible. Most of the time, they had never even made it back to the station before getting called out again.
"It was a rough night," Mike said, covering a yawn.
"The worst I remember in a long time," Johnny said, starting the Rover and maneuvering to pull out onto the road towards Mike's apartment.
"All I want to do is climb into bed and sleep the next 10 hours," Mike agreed.
"There are many, many benefits to having a wife," Johnny said, as he stopped at a red light. "But days like this, I appreciate the fact I will drop my bag by the back door, she'll have a hot breakfast waiting for me and then I can climb into bed. When I wake up, my laundry will be clean and everything ready for my next shift."
"Just rub it in why don't ya Gage," Mike growled. "I'm gonna actually go home, and not eat a hot breakfast and crawl into bed, but eat a bowl of cereal while on hold with an insurance company for an hour trying to get my truck fixed."
"Sorry, man. But, who knows, maybe someday you'll be going home and Caroline will be taking care of you."
"Woah, hold your horses, man. We just started dating, no one's talking, or even thinking marriage," Mike held up his hand, in a stop motion to Johnny.
"I was just teasing you man; but marriage is great, you should start thinking about it."
"I'm not against marriage; I'm just not at a point to be thinking about it with Caroline," Mike mumbled. He wasn't sure why not, she was beautiful, fun and exciting, it just seemed too soon.
"I am not rushing you. It's got to be right," Johnny said, pulling into Mike's parking lot. "Man, that is a sad sight," Johnny said, taking in Mike's truck.
"Tell me about it," Mike said, shaking his head. "I really shoulda just let them drink the beer."
Mike got out Johnny's Rover, glanced again at his truck and just headed toward his apartment.
Johnny couldn't explain why, but he felt the need to stay and make sure Mike got into his apartment. Once he opened his door, Johnny took one last look at Mike's truck and headed home. He could feel his stomach pulling in from hunger and briefly wondered what Ainsley would make him for breakfast.
E
Johnny pulled into the driveway surprised Chief was not outside. The house actually looked locked up tight. Johnny went to open the door and was surprised to find it still locked. He used his key to unlock the door; Chief bolted past him and ran out into the yard to use the bathroom. Johnny looked at the dog and quickly moved into the house. "Ainsley?"
When he didn't hear any sounds, he felt the worry creep into his chest. "Ainsley!" Johnny called louder, as he dropped his bag and moved into the house. Dinner dishes were still stacked in the sink, there was no breakfast waiting for him, Johnny bit back a curse as he stepped on one of Hunter's blocks. Toys were strewn all over the living room and hallway. "Ainsley!"
At his louder call, he heard Hunter start screaming. Johnny raced through the rest of the house to Hunter's room. "Thanks a lot," Ainsley said sarcastically, she was sitting in the rocking chair in Hunter's room, the little boy now sitting up on her lap crying loudly.
"What's goin' on?" Johnny asked, looking at the mess in the room.
Hunter just proceeded to scream louder.
Ainsley struggled to stand up, but couldn't do it with the little boy laying on her. Johnny reached over and picked up Hunter, kissing his forehead. "Hey, he's running a fever."
"I know," Ainsley said, still struggling to stand up. She groaned as she finally got to her feet and stretched. "I think he's got an ear infection. Every time I tried to lay him down last night he started screaming his head off. I've been giving him children's Tylenol since about 6:00 PM last night. I'm gonna go call the doctor's office right now and see if I can get him in."
"Why didn't you call me?" Johnny asked, trying to soothe Hunter as he followed Ainsley out of the room.
Ainsley turned around for just a moment and gave him a look of 'you know why'.
"We are not Joanne and Roy; you need to call me when there are problems," Johnny said.
"No, you do not need to be distracted by small problems you can't do anything about when you're on shift. There wasn't anything you could do. And I'm not incompetent."
"I coulda told you if he needed a trip to the Emergency room."
"It's an ear infection, Johnny. He doesn't need to go to the ER. He's your son, not a patient."
"I know about medical issues, Ainsley."
Ainsley picked up the phone and looked over at him. "I know you do, Johnny. But, he has an ear infection, his fever has stayed low on Tylenol and I will take him to the doctor this morning. I didn't need to worry you at work. And before you get all huffy, I did call Dixie and give her all the symptoms, she confirmed he could wait to this morning. Now if you don't mind, I won't be able to hear the receptionist at the doctor's office with Hunter screaming his head off. Will you please take him in the bedroom while I call."
Johnny walked Hunter back toward his room. He passed the little boy's room and glanced into their bedroom. Just as he suspected, the bed was still neatly made, Ainsley had never made it to bed last night, no wonder she was cranky. He walked back into Hunter's room and sat in the rocker, hoping to help the little boy relax; but Hunter kept softly crying and pulling at his ear. "It's okay, bud. You'll feel better soon."
Ainsley came back in the room and Johnny took in the dark circles under her eyes. "The doctor can see him at 9:00 AM. Can you change his diaper while I change my clothes? I need to leave in the next 10 minutes in order to make that," Ainsley was already walking away toward their bedroom.
"Just go to bed, Ains, I'll take him," Johnny moved the little boy to the changing table and began changing is diaper.
Ainsley said nothing and Johnny could hear her continuing to move down the hall. He was a little surprised she didn't at least thank him for his offer; he was exhausted too. Johnny finished the diaper and grabbed the diaper bag from the closet. Ainsley appeared in the doorway. She had changed clothes, brushed her hair and put on a little bit of make-up. "What are you doing?" Johnny asked her.
"Taking Hunter to the pediatrician," Ainsley said, her voice exasperated.
"No, you're going to bed and I'm taking Hunter." Johnny said, slinging the diaper bag over his shoulder.
"I can tell you haven't slept all night, Johnny. You're exhausted. Just go to bed, I've got this," Ainsley argued.
"I know you haven't slept all night either and you're pregnant."
"I want to be there," Ainsley argued, looking at her little boy who looked so miserable.
"I know you do," Johnny said, moving over to her. "But, I can't take care of our unborn baby, only you can. So you go take care of that baby, and I'll take care of this one."
Ainsley hesitated.
"I'm not gonna let you drive considering how tired you look," Johnny said. "So either you're gonna go to bed and get some sleep and when you wake up I'll trade you places; or we're both gonna go, get even more exhausted and be cranky all night long."
"It doesn't make me a bad mom not to be with my sick little boy?" Ainsley said, looking up at him.
"Your trusting your husband to be able to take care of one kid, while you take care of the other. Let me take care of you and that baby by taking care of Hunter, okay," Johnny leaned forward and kissed her forward.
"Sorry I was cranky when you got home."
"Get some sleep," Johnny jerked his head toward their bedroom.
Ainsley moved toward the bedroom, but was doubtful she would be able to sleep worrying about Hunter, and knowing Johnny was so tired. She laid down planning on just closing her eyes until he left and then she told herself she'd get up and make him a nice breakfast for when he got home.
E
"What time is it?" Ainsley asked, as she walked down the hallway.
"4:20 PM," Johnny answered from the kitchen. Ainsley saw that he had cleaned up all of Hunter's toys, washed the dishes and she could smell dinner cooking while Johnny had Hunter sitting in his booster chair, feeding him his dinner.
"I'm so sorry, sweetheart. I intended to get up and take care of all this while you were at the doctor's office. How's Hunter?" Ainsley looked at her little boy, who already looked much better.
"You were right, ear infection. They gave him an antibiotic, we've already had two doses. We came home and Hunter took a 3-hour nap. I got the house picked up and managed to get in an hour nap on the couch myself."
"Why didn't you come to bed?" Ainsley sat down on the chair behind Johnny and leaned forward to rest her chin on his shoulder.
"Because you'd obviously planned to get back up and had laid diagonal across the bed," Johnny turned his head so he could kiss her temple.
"Sorry," Ainsley said again.
"I'm glad you got some sleep. If you don't mind taking over feeding Hunter, our dinner is almost done. I figured we'd eat an early dinner and then I'd go to bed."
Johnny stood up and Ainsley followed suit so she could sit where he had been. Before he moved toward the oven, she wrapped her arms around his waist. "Thank you for taking such good care of Hunter and I."
"Thank you for taking care of our new little one," Johnny said, rubbing her belly.
Ainsley leaned up to kiss him. "I love you so much."
"I love you too."
"Waube you," Hunter said.
"We waube you too," Johnny and Ainsley said in unison and then both laughed.
E
Meg looked at the clock and sighed. She should have just asked Ainsley to have Johnny check on having the station participate in the assembly. Mike hadn't called her back. Probably too busy with Caroline, Meg thought.
She debated trying to call him, but was afraid Caroline would be with him. Meg let herself get angry, he was just like every other guy, she couldn't count on him. Tomorrow she'd call Ainsley and ask Johnny to see if the station could help out.
Meg took the strip of pictures out of her pocket and looked at them. She and Mike looked back at the camera in three of the pictures. In the fourth picture, they were kissing. "Thanks for nothing," she said to the picture, tossing it into the wastebasket next to her desk.
E
"You coulda called."
"I'm sorry. We were out on runs all day and all night. I was completely exhausted. I had to call the insurance company and arrange to get the truck towed and make sure the repair shop knew the truck was coming and the name of my insurance agent. By the time I got off the phone, I was too tired to even see the numbers on the phone to make another phone call."
"Meaning you forgot all about me, and just went to bed."
Mike sighed and moved the phone to his other ear. He'd love to deny the statement, but knew it was true. All he had wanted to do when he got off the phone with the mechanic was go to bed. "I didn't think the sailing was a set plan because we'd never confirmed it."
"You could've at least called me and said we couldn't see each other. I sat around waiting for you all day," Caroline was frustrated that Mike had just blown her off and hadn't even bothered to call her. It was noon on Wednesday and she had called him. He hadn't called her at all on Tuesday and she was willing to bet he hadn't slept 24 hours.
"When I got up, I had to shower and go to the mechanics to take care of paperwork to get the truck fixed. I had to do laundry, grocery shop and clean the apartment and then yes, I went back to bed. I was gonna call you tonight when you got off work."
"You could've called me here," Caroline pouted.
"I don't think about calling people at work Caroline, because it really isn't something people should be doing to me when I'm at work."
"So you're mad at me for calling you at work on Monday and this was your way of getting back at me."
Mike ran a hand through his hair. "No. I don't play those kind of games."
"Oh and I do?"
"Caroline," Mike let his frustration show in his voice. "I'm sorry. I should've called. I'm not used to being in a relationship. But, there are things about my job that make traditional expectations unlikely. I work 24 hour shifts. When we do brush fires, sometimes we can be on shift for 36 hours. It's an extremely demanding job, and when I get off sometimes I just want to do what I absolutely have to do and then crash for a full-day."
Caroline sighed. "I'm sorry too. I guess I have a lot to get used to when it comes to dating a fireman. Can you forgive me for being so pouty?"
Mike smiled. This was the Caroline he knew. "No one's perfect. I forgive you, will you forgive me?"
"No one's perfect," Caroline said back. "All is forgiven."
"How about dinner and a movie when you get off work?"
"Sounds good, I'll swing by your place after work."
"Okay, have a good day," Mike said, and then hung up the phone.
He needed to contact Meg too. Mike looked up the school's phone number and dialed quickly. He thought he might have a chance of catching her while her class was on lunch.
"Hi, is Megan Trask available; this is LA County Fireman, Mike Stoker."
"Hold on Mr. Stoker, as a matter of fact she's right here," the receptionist put his call on hold. "Meg, phone call for you. From what sounds like a very handsome fireman."
"He's just calling about the assembly, Sally. Don't get too excited, he's got a girlfriend." Meg picked up the phone. "Hello."
"Hi, Meg. I'm sorry I didn't call yesterday. We had a really busy shift on Monday and I just crashed. Captain Stanley is supposed to meet with Chief McConnike today; he'll find out if we can participate in the assembly. If he calls me tonight, I'll give you a call. Otherwise, I'll call you from the station Thursday."
"Thanks, Mike. I appreciate the phone call," Meg felt guilty for getting so mad at him last night. "I have to get going, my class will be back from lunch in a minute."
"Talk later," Mike said, quickly ending the call, understanding the need to get back to work.
Meg hung up the phone, grabbed the mail out of her teacher's mailbox and moved back toward her classroom. She felt bad for thinking Mike unreliable last night. His job was one that required more than a 40-hour work week. She wished she hadn't acted out of her anger, she frowned as she entered her classroom.