My Way

Ch. 8

"Honey, I know you're frightened, I am too, but I promise you I'll get you out of here. You hear me? I just need a little help from you." He wanted to look behind him to see if Joe had already taken the boy out of the room, but he was afraid to break eye contact with the girl, so he just prayed that Joe was on his way outside. It was getting too damn hot in here...

"I need you to do one thing for me.", he continued, "You don't need to be frightened, I'll be right here with you, so you don't need to be scared, okay?"

For just a second, Nash could hear the boy's voice in the background again, and it sounded like the boy was crying, even struggling against Joe to leave without the little girl. Not looking back him, trusting to Joe take care of the boy, he didn't let it distract himself anymore, and he continued carefully, yet now a little more urgently:

"Can you tell me your name, sweetheart. What's your name, huh?", he broke into a soft smile, not his eyes still burning from the hot air, but not letting that show in his face, as he smiled at the little girl, who actually opened her mouth to speak:

"I-...I'm...Amy..", she said, her voice trembling as much as she was shivering.

"Alright, Amy, I need you to do something, okay? I need you to make one step towards me? Okay? Just one step. I'm right here, I'm not going anywhere. But I need you to come towards me. Just a little bit. Just one step." he spoke, softly, urging her on, as he saw that she was indeed moving her feet just a little, almost making a step.

"Yeah, that's it, Amy, you're doing great, come on, I know you can do it. Just a little step towards me.", he smiled, and watched as Amy took one step, hesitating shortly, but making another small step forward. She was almost close enough for him to reach for her. Just one more step. One more...

Joe couldn't walk a step without shaking someone's hand or hearing: 'I'm sorry' 'He was a great cop' he'll be missed'. He looked up to the sky, the sun that had been hiding behind the clouds all day, came out and the clouds seemed to disappear. It all of a sudden became a Nash kind of day.

Nick appeared next to Joe and patted him on the back.

"You ready for this son?"

"Who ever is?" Joe replied. He watched Nick walk up to meet Lisa, Cassidy and Inger. But something in the distance caught his eye, through all the people he couldn't make out who it was.

Suddenly he realized, "Angel?" He tried to make his way over but just as he got to where he had seen him, he was gone. He shook his head in disbelief and threw his hands up in the air.

"Ah angel." Was all he could say. He went towards the site and stood next to Harvey in the line of officers that had formed, looking straight at the casket he thought 'This is the hardest day of my life'

Seeing the small step she made, Joe felt a relief in his bones that almost made him lose his hold on the boys' arm, but knowing that if he let the boy run towards the girl now, she's just freeze again and they would never make it out. So he held onto the boy, while he heard Nash's soothing voice, his encouraging words with every inch the girl came towards him, almost getting close enough to reach for her and pull her out.

'Just a little more', Joe thought, and staring at the picture in front of him, he felt his lips move, as he was silently mumbling 'come on, one more step...one more step...one more...'

Nash didn't know how much time it took for those small feet to cover the few feet in between him and the girl, but the burning hot sensation right next to him made him realize that no matter how quick the girl was, it wouldn't be quick enough.

So he leaned forward, ignoring the tiny sparks that flew onto his jacket, the hundreds of tiny burning shreds of debris falling down onto his arm, as he leaned towards the girl, telling her to reach out for him.

"Give me your hand, Amy, give me you hand...", and with every word he could feel the seriousness in his voice grow stronger, the smaller the gap between the became, the more urgently became his words, until his voice was above the calm soothing, and merely inches away from panicking himself.

He felt the trembling of her fingers a second before he even touched them, and when her hand made contact with his, he no longer cared about his calm demeanor, and did the only thing he could think of. He reached for her hand, and enclosed his fingers around it, one after another, his hand then reaching further, grabbing her whole arm, her shoulder, feeling the shivers running down her back, as he grabbed her with one arm and picked her up, pulling her towards himself.

Lifting her over the debris, only to catch her with both his arms the second she was with him, shielding her from the flames with his jacket, that he put around her, to protect her from the fiery heat. Having the terrible shaking girl in his arms, he then looked behind him for the fracture of a second, and he saw Joe at the door. His partner was waiting for him at the door, the boy still in his arms. And the heat became unbearable...