Thanks to lunky for his review.
Welcome to engine 55
Veronica POV
When Veronica finishes the station tour she walks down the ground floor to prepare all her gear. Close to the entrance are located the gears lockets, but before suing one of the emptied ones, she thinks to herself that is better to ask which one she can use, just in case, she don't want to use one assigned to another firemen.
So she walks to the reception desk and finds Frank sitting and reading the newspaper again.
-" Ehmmm… Frank Right?" ask Veronica a little bit shy.
-"Yes? Rookie" Smiles while dropping the newspaper in the desk.
-"I just want to know which locker is empty, in order to get ready my gear properly"
-"I'll show you, in fact let me help. You, rookies always comes to work, eager to enter in your first fire and always forgets to take care of the equipment"
Frank rises from the desk and walks Veronica to the lockers, and starts to explain how the gear has to be prepared, in order to spend the less time possible to get dressed, when they finish with the gear Frank continues with the mask and the tools, like in a brief tutorial. Veronica feels that getting all this information first hand from an active firefighter is way better from any lesson from the academy.
-"Ok, rookie that's all. And let me give you a friendly advice, I know that all the new firefighters wants to jump in action at the very first sign of fire, but remember kid, don't be a hero, dead firefighters can't save no one, so stick with the procedures and follow your lieutenant orders to the letter." He finish with his speech and goes back to the front desk.
Veronica spends the rest of the time reviewing all the tools and gear until the Engine 55 returns from their assignment. As the fire truck enters in the station, Veronica can see that the truck is very old, rusty and very bumped and the sounds on the engine, clearly states that is a very unreliable one. Basically Engine 55 is a piece of junk. Once the truck stops five firemen exits it. But before doing anything else, the alarm sounds.
-" Engine 55, Ladder 49, house on fire on 35th Roywood Street, Engine 55, Ladder 49, house on fire on 35th Roywood Street".
Then everybody runs to the trucks, Veronica is frozen, nothing ever prepares anybody to this thing, even with the fire drills, this is real life.
-"You rookie wake up, move your ass quickly" Says one of the 55th firemen.
Veronica then moves fast where she left her gear and stars dressing her bunker pants, heavy duty boots, grabs her bunker coat, helmet and runs to her designated truck. She is the last one to sit inside and at the very moment she closes the door, the fire truck starts moving towards the firehouse entrance, with the sirens already on Veronica feels the rush of the thrill and smiling she salutes the other firemen.
-"Hi I am Veronica Mars, I'm the new firefighter ".
-"So you are the new rookie, Terrence Kahn". Says a tall blonde man on her left, then a man with light dark skin who is seated close to Terrence continues with the presentations.
- "Lionel Bradford, but everybody calls me Burr"
-"Pep Clemente" finish a beautiful Latina woman, "The driver is Joe Musto and the Lieutenant is Connor Fahey".
-"Pep?"
-"Yeah, mi complete name is Maria Jose Clemente, the diminutive is Pepa, but Pep is way cooler, so you can call me Pep"
-"Ok boys and girls quit the chat, we are arriving and we have reports of house on fire, somebody is having fun with the matches and the gasoline, so be ready for the unexpected; Mars, as soon we arrive to the fire you follow me understood? "Not waiting for an answer continues "Joe about three more blocks, Right after North Avenue".
-"All right, boss" says Joe Musto the driver while honking the fire truck horns.
-"Move out of the way, asshole!" Starts shouting Joe when they approach a crossroads full of cars moving out of the fire trucks way, and then looking back to the passenger area says to Veronica.
-"How you feelin', kid?, It's your first fire, are you ready to break your cherry?"
-"Ok, we are there, ´Burr´ that one, grab that plug!" points Lieutenant Fahey to one of the fire hydrants
-"Got you, boss". Then Lionel Bradford jumps from the fire truck carrying a hose coupling and goes to the end of the truck.
-" We have a three-story brick building, flames showing second and third floor, Kennedy, do you know were Captain Pridgen is?" asks Lieutenant Fahey by the walkie talkie.
When Bradford grabs one of the fire hose from the truck he starts yelling "Go! Go! Go! Go!"
The fire truck moves towards the building in fire were Ladder 49 is already deploying the aerial ladder. As the Engine 55 stops all firefighters jumps off the truck and move quickly, Veronica moves closer to Lieutenant Fahey.
- "Mars, Your helmet!"
Way to go Veronica, my first fire and I already forgot to carry my own helmet
-"Sorry Boss" finally says Veronica with an apologized face.
-"Don´t be sorry, today you are the pipe man".
Ok ok ok , take it easy Veronica, breathe and follow the Lieutenant.
Veronica moves closer to Lieutenant Fahey who is grabbing the nozzle of the fire hose that Bradford is attaching to a fire hydrant. Veronica quickly picks the bulk of the fire hose and moves to the front door.
-"Slow down. Slow down. You're getting tangled up. Let it go, let it go." Starts yelling Lieutenant Fahey while he is following Veronica and undoing all the rookie mistakes she is doing.
-"Single line, single line. Come on. Let it go. You are tangling the fire hose"
Veronica tries to follow all the instructions but she is clearly nervous and the Lieutenant is repeating all of them like she is a baby and in need of guiandance, not that Veronica disagrees, she really needs all the help she can get.
When she reaches the front door another fireman is already there kicking the door open.
-"Mars, Go in low" continues Lieutenant Fahey as soon as she enters in the house
-"All right, stop here. Mask up"
Then Veronica removes her helmet an prepares her breathing mask, and before she put her helmet back on she can hear the Lieutenant yelling charge the line.
-"Charge it!" somebody repeats the order to the firemen in charge of the pump.
-"All right rook we have pressure. Go! Go!" Veronica feels the fire hose now is ready and she continues moving to the stairs towards the first floor, at the moment she reaches the first floor Veronica hears her Lieutenant move the fire hose over the side, to avoid getting stuck, but at some point she can hear her own breathing rhythm better than the Lieutenant orders.
-"Slow down!, continue to the second floor, the first one is clear"
The same happens at the second floor, but she can see that smoke is coming from the floor upstairs, one indication that somewhere in the third floor is an active fire. Veronica continues moving and at the moment she reaches the third one the smoke is coming from one of the apartments.
-" Just keep goin'." Says Lieutenant Fahey and reaching the door, he touches it with his hand to check the increase of temperature that clearly indicates active fire inside.
-"You ready?" checks Lieutenant Fahey, and with the nod of approval from Veronica, he opens the door.
-"Move it in!, Come on, move it!"
Oh my…. Starts thinking Veronica at the sight of the fire inside of the house, covering one of the sides and the end of the apartment. The first reaction is open the nozzle but before she can do it her Lieutenant says to her.
- "No, not yet. Not yet."
-"When? When? Ask Veronica eager to use the fire hose.
-"Move in. I'll tell you, Move in."
They move deeper into the middle of the house, closer to the fire, and with a tap in her helmet, he indicates she can start opening the nozzle.
-"Now, now!"
-"I got it, Boss, I got it!"
- "Easy, easy. Hit it! Hit the fire".
Lieutenant Fahey feels the nervousness from Veronica and starts reassuring her, that he is with her, that she is not alone.
"Ok Mars, you are doing great, Hit it it high!"
- "I'm trying, I'm trying!"
- "Good. Move in. Now, now!, we have to go closer"
One more minute the fire stars to fade, is almost gone and veronica is smiling through her mask
-"You did it, kid. Good job."
When the fire is extinguished Veronica comes down to the ground level and clearly overexcited and the rest of the firemen starts to clap and yell in emotion, many of her colleges come and huggers her, some even ruffles her hair. A new firefighter is baptized.
In the way back to the firehouse Veronica stays in a cloud of happiness, like she don't touch the ground, the day is brighter, the sky feels more blue than usual, everything is way better.
-"Mars I need to talk with you in my office" Says Lieutenant Fahey when they arrive.
She follows him to his office, close to the Captain's and pointing to one of the seats close to the desk she sits on it.
-" Ok kid, you did a good job today, not every firemen gets actual action in their first day, so consider yourself lucky".
-"Thank you sir, I was very nervous at the beginning"
He smiles while picking a folder "imagine my surprise, when I check your name with the police, I do always with the recruits, and I got this…" Veronica starts panicking.
-"solving credit card fraud, finding missing father, catching two guys in a confidence scam, finding missing pregnant neighbor, infiltrating in a peace-loving cult, arrested for selling fake IDs, some mess with the Russian mob, exonerated a fellow classman from trying to bomb your school, solving a kidnapped dog case, solving the Jackie Cook murder, PI license at seventeen, emancipated at the same age, and this goes on and on…." Finish dropping the folder in the desk.
-"I don't get it, you have a Hearst college scholarship, and here you are, playing with fire."
-"If you have read the entire file, you will know that my father died with an unidentified woman in a fire, in a house in the middle of the desert. I want to study criminology so I can become an arson investigator, so deads like my father´s won't be catalogued as unfortunated accidents".
-" I understand the need of investigate the dead of you father, my brother died six months ago in a fire, and I think it was arson, but at some point you will have to let it go, for your own sake Veronica."
-"I know, but I can't let it go for now, not until I have a chance to investigate it".
-"Ok one last thing, we can't change the fact that you are so tiny, but we can make you a little bit stronger, Clemente is going to put you in shape, she is already waiting for you, boxing kickboxing or whatever, I never understood what she is doing with the punching bag"
-"by the way I was exonerated for selling fake IDs". Says Veronica smiling, before leaving the Lieutenant office.
In Spain we use a lot of diminutives from the names, one example is Francisco whose diminutive is Paco, and the same is Maria Jose, which I used in the chapter.
The Firefighters from Engine 55 are borrowed from the movie Firehouse Dog.
The dead of Keith Mars is a modification from the events in Welcome Wagon.