It was a mostly quiet day in the Station – both Audrey and Nathan caught up on paperwork. Nathan could sense Audrey's annoyance by the amount of times she stopped writing to rub her stomach, massage her hand or twist her wedding and engagement rings around her finger.
"Nate, sugar," a voice finally came through from the intercom "there's a fight by the moors – Chief wants you to sort it out."
"I'm there," Nathan replied, standing up and slipping his jacket on.
"Urgh," Audrey groaned and slammed her pen onto the desk, leaning back angrily.
"No, you cannot come," he said before she even opened her mouth again.
"I know, I know," she snapped "you don't need to tell me what I can and can't do." She pouted angrily. Nathan smiled and kissed her on the forehead, knowing it was useless to try and bring her round while she was still annoyed.
"See you soon," he whispered "Love you." Audrey just looked away and pouted, leaving Nathan to depart with a chuckle.
The fight hadn't been that bad – just two teenagers fighting over a girl. The threat of spending the night in a jail cell took them down a few notches. It barely lasted half an hour. Nathan was driving back to the Station when he felt something was wrong. It was when he rounded the corner that he saw the smoke rising in sickly billows from the corner where the Station was.
"Oh, God," Nathan choked out before he pulled up behind the fire engines and burst out the truck. Firemen were everywhere, spraying jets of silver water onto the crackling flames, trying desperately to put the flames out.
"Audrey!" Nathan called, straining to see the top of a blonde head, the flash of blue eyes, someone walking with a waddle. Anything "AUDREY!"
"Nathan!" the voice barely made it over the clamour of the firemen. Nathan spun round, aware somewhere in the back of his mind that the voice was too deep to be Audrey's, but still hoping, despite logic.
"Audrey?" the words were barely out of his mouth when he saw a dark head approaching. Duke seemed to be everywhere Nathan was that day, but Nathan was too worried to care "Duke! Where's Audrey?" Nathan saw his expression and paled "She's not," he gasped, his chest suddenly tightening "oh, God, Duke, tell me she's not –"
"No, no," he interrupted "she's alive, but –"
"Where is she?" Nathan gripped Duke's arms tightly – if anything had happened to her – or the baby! The smoke, what would the smoke have done to the baby? They were both so fragile, so delicate.
"She's been taken to hospital," Duke said in a would-be calming voice "but, Nathan, I've got to warn you, she's pretty bad."
"What do you mean? What happened?" Duke led Nathan away from the centre of activity and into a quieter area.
"There was an accidental fire – we don't know what from yet – and Audrey was caught in the middle of it. The firemen got her out a few minutes ago and got her straight in an ambulance and away."
Nathan didn't even hear the last bit. He was already running towards the truck, barely aware of Duke right next to him. He had the engine started before the door was even closed.