Hey guys! I'm so sorry I didn't update this weekend, life's been HECTIC (please note the all caps here) and I did a little change up in this chapter. Thanks to my reviewers...I think you guys will like this chapter... ;]
Chapter 4:
Kings Country Station 15's morning started out like most of the other stations at Base Camp #2…well almost.
First there was a screech followed by, "Riley?!"
The pale, blue-eyed firefighter grinned to herself as she pulled her boot laces tight, "Yes?"
Abel stormed across the tent where 15 had spent the night holding her boot by one shoe lace, "What. The. Hell. Did. You. Put. In. My. Boot?"
Laddy shrugged innocently, "There's something in your boot?"
Liz Abel dropped the offending piece of shoe leather, "Don't give me that. I know you put something in here, now get it out!"
"Chow's up," Rita Meadows' voice reached through the din to her crew, "Everybody ready?"
"Yep," Steph Austin replied.
"Yes, ma'am," Gabriella Giordano added, stretching as she stood up from her bunk
Julie Chrysler "Affirmative, Cap."
"I'm ready Cap," Riley said, standing, "but I don't think Liz is."
Liz looked beseechingly at her Captain, "She put something in my boot, Cap."
Cap looked between the boot and the two women, "Laddy, what's in the boot?"
"I don't have any idea wh-"
"Come off it, Riley. We all know that the 'Specter' thinks she's struck again. Well, I don't care at this point," Abel flung her boot at Laddy, "get what ever is in there out!"
Riley stepped to the side and watched as the boot tumbled harmlessly to the ground. Out of it fell a small gray mouse-ish looking thing, like a cat toy. "Well, look at that. Guess your cat left you a little surprise," Laddy Riley smirked.
"I don't have a cat."
Cap threw up her hands, "Alright you two, let's just move on, shall we? We're gonna miss chow if we don't leave now."
Abel sat back down on her bunk to pull her boot on while Chrysler waited and the rest of Station 15 trailed after their captain. "-I'm gonna catch her in the act one of these days. Stupid Specter. I'm sick and tired of these pranks!"
"You thought it was pretty funny when she glued Gabriella's shoes to the floor of her locker last week," Chrysler offered.
"That was different!" Abel snapped, standing up and grabbing her jacket.
"Because you weren't the victim of the Specter?"
Abel glanced around before lowering her voice, "You know how I feel about rodents."
"You're afraid of them."
"Shh!" Abel glanced at a couple of men heading over to chow. After determining that they weren't listening, she continued, "It's not like I don't have a good reason."
"It's not a good reason, especially in this case. I hate to break it to you, but it was just a toy."
"It is a good reason!" Abel protested, completely circumventing the toy comment.
Chrysler rolled her blue eyes, "You moved into an old house with mice when you were seven. One ran across your foot. It scarred you for life."
"I could have been exposed to the Bubonic Plague! Rats-"
"It was a mouse," Chrysler patiently reminded her partner.
"-are carriers of the Plague. Something about fleas that bite rats. You know how many people have died from the Plague?"
Chrysler repressed the urge to sigh deeply, "Alright, alright! Let's go get chow before there isn't anything left."
A thick cloud cover covered the sun and the air was thick with humidity. There promised to be storms before the end of the morning. After chow, the night shift returned and climbed into bed as the day shift got their various assignments.
"-Engine 51, Kings County Station 15, Kings County Truck 123, Station 325, and Truck 8. You'll be up on East Canyon Road working the both sides of the canyon. We need to keep the fire from spreading over the ridge and down into the Weston neighborhood. Last nights crew reports about forty percent containment," the base commander consulted his notes before turning to another group, "Truck 45, Station 32-"
Station 15 worked their way over to the engine and Riley elbowed Abel in the ribs, "Hey, did you hear who we're working with?"
Abel frowned, the earlier offense of the cat toy not forgotten, "Um, yeah. I was standing there."
"Station 51?"
"What of it?" Abel shrugged, tugging on her turnout coat.
"Those paramedics, the ones that we met yesterday?" Riley urged.
Abel clamored up into the back of the engine, hopping to shake off Riley. "Will you get to the point, please?" she sighed.
"Come on, didn't you think there was anything weird about them?"
"Weird?"
"Like familiar weird."
"That doesn't make any sense," Abel muttered, turning away so that her colleague couldn't see the lie on her face. She and Julie had been discussing the same thing just the night before…
She'd had the question on the tip of her tongue since that afternoon, but she didn't have a chance to say anything to her partner until they stood at the end of line for the showers, waiting tiredly for the men's room to become the women's room. "What did you think about those paramedics?"
Julie glanced at her partner, "I thought they were nice enough…good at their jobs. Why? You aren't thinking of asking that Johnny out, are you? I thought you weren't dating firemen anymore after-"
Liz held up her hand, "No, no, no. I'm on a sabbatical from dating of all kinds. I meant them. Didn't it feel weird talking to them?"
Brushing her hair back from her face with her fingers, Julie shook her head, "I wasn't that focused on them. I was more curious about their job?"
"Their job?" Liz asked, momentarily distracted, "What about it?"
"It seems…fulfilling."
Liz looked confused, but moved back to the original topic, "So, you're sure there was nothing that reminded you of…yourself…or any of the other girls?"
Julie looked deep in thought for a second, "Nope."
She turned around and headed to the showers for her turn in the showers. "You're hopeless," Liz muttered to the closing door, "There was definitely something about those paramedics…and the rest of their crew, too."
The ride to East Canyon Road was quiet. Everyone was tired and getting into the zone for another long, hot day of work. The engine stopped at the end of the road and Abel was the first one out as usual, feeling unusually energized. She grabbed an armful of hose along with Gabriella Giordano while Austin took the engine a little farther up the road.
Station 15 set up at the far end of the road next to their fellow Kings County station, Truck 123. "Hey, beautiful!" Rich Cutler, fireman with Truck 123, waved at Liz Abel with one hand on his hose.
"Hey, ugly!" Abel waved back happily.
Morgan Dawson, the captain from 123 grinned at Abel's comeback and slapped his comrade on the back, "OK, Mr. Lady's Man, get back to work. This fire ain't gonna put itself out."
"That's what I was hoping for," Abel called, "What I wouldn't give for some rain."
"Amen to that!" Rita Meadow's booming voice echoed from behind Abel, "How's it lookin' this morning Dawson?"
"The same," came the reply.
Engine 51 rolled slowly past the two Kings County trucks with just the engineer Stoker aboard. Hank Stanley's long strides carried him over to where the other two captains were discussing the progress of the fire.
Abel turned back to her hose, but couldn't help but hope that she'd get to see the paramedics today along with the engine crew. She had a theory to prove.
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