It was a few weeks before the arrogant probie made his first mistake. I was inside an abandoned building that was up in flames. "Boss, what's it like?" Nate said. With a fire this bad it was imperative to stay in contact as much as possible. I looked around for Roman. The four of us at the training center had agreed that he would only be partnered with us; we couldn't put the rest of the team at risk. I tried to have him with me as much as possible to keep an eye on him.

"It's bad. We need to do one more sweep, and then we'll come out." Probie was lagging further and further behind. I yelled at him, "Get up here!"

I ducked as the fire flared up. I coughed as smoke got in my mask. The fire flared up again, and I could hear the building creak. My radio fizzled in and out. "Boss…status…..location….-ger." I coughed some more and backed towards the window. I knew that if I needed to get out fast, that was the safest way. Outside my team could get the ladder over to me. I assumed probie was following me, but he was in the opposite direction; the worst place to be in a fire. I motioned for him to come over here, but he couldn't see me. I skirted my way over to him, stopping whenever I heard the floor creak. It would give away any second.

I reached him, and he was bent over coughing. Jesus Christ, he was going to get both of us killed. I hooked his arm around my shoulder and led him towards the window; except there wasn't a window there. It was a poster of a window. Shit; how were we going to get out of here now?

I started coughing more and more. We shouldn't be coughing this much; our oxygen supply prevented that. I cursed again and looked at our tanks. Mine was bordering on empty, and the probie's was almost as bad as mine.

"Chief, I need your location now. Where are you?" Thankfully the radio was clearer now.

"We're up against the far wall; the fire's gotten worse. We can't scan the building any more. We need to get out. Our oxygen's almost gone." Immediately I heard the appropriate codes go over the radio. It meant firemen in danger, get them out now.

"How close to a window are you?"

I coughed some more, "I'm not sure." I could barely talk there was so much smoke, "Find our heat signatures." If we were as close to them as I thought we were they would be able to tell the difference between our heat signatures, and the heat of the fire on the infrared.

I waited a few minutes and turned us towards the wall. I hoped that we could use the oxygen that would naturally seep through separations in the walls. We were laying flat on the floor, nearly on top of each other.

"Boss I got you! You're close to it!"

"Which direction?"

"South. To your left. Get up and go, the fire's moving towards you."

Great; I really wish he hadn't told me that. I pulled us up and moved towards the window. I stayed to the side of it, and broke it open. The flames reared up for a second, but then died down a little. I could see Angela on the ladder, and I moved probie towards her. He climbed up on the ladder, and started moving down. I looked back at the fire and saw it getting closer. I knew we were supposed to have someone on the ladder to help us across, but there wouldn't be enough time between getting probie all the way out of the way, and then climbing up safely. I propped myself up on the windowsill and jumped. I started to fall down the ladder, but I caught myself. My arm wrenched and I cried out in pain. I didn't want to move it in fear of it being broken.

John rushed up the ladder to help me disentangle myself, "come on. The fire's coming out the window's now."

He tried to steer clear of my arm, but it was impossible. You couldn't climb down this ladder one handed. He had to help me the entire way down. At the bottom I was sweating more from pain then from the heat of the fire. Nate started to come over but I motioned for him to take over command. I couldn't do anything more. I was still coughing, and I was sure my arm was at least dislocated.

John pulled his arm from around my shoulders when I sat down on the ambulance. Immediately they took off my helmet and put the oxygen mask to my face. With my good arm I held that up while they worked my coat off of me. About five minutes later it was finally off. They started feeling the extent of the damage.

An hour later the fire was almost out. Another crew had arrived with more support. Nate let them take over and walked towards me. "How bad is it?"

The paramedic answered, "It looks fine. She shouldn't be out more than a week or so. It was just a bad sprain."

I pulled the mask away from my face, "Who the hell didn't fill the oxygen tanks?" I seethed.

Nate put the mask back on my face. "You know who."

"Fuck. We would've been out of there sooner if it wasn't for that." I shook my head and tried to calm down. "Where is he?"

Nate stopped me from getting up, "At the other ambulance. I told him not to talk to you until we got back to the station." That was a wise choice. It wouldn't be good to rip him a new one in front of reporters, or the public.

I asked the paramedic when I could leave. He said now as long as I took it easy tonight and would go to the hospital if I felt any signs of oxygen deprivation. He also gave me a sling for my arm. I headed back to the truck, and didn't even look at probie. He knew he was in for it.

The moment we got back into the station I said, "Everyone beside's Roman upstairs." I turned to look at Roman as they all walked up the stairs, "And everyone fill up their own oxygen tank tonight!"

Angela walked over and grabbed my tank, "I got it boss." She pulled it over to the refilling station, and they all got to work. Thankfully there were enough recharging stations that they could just leave them and come back later to unplug them.

Roman looked up at me, "I'm sorry-"

I cut him off, "Stop. I don't give a crap if you're sorry." I took a deep breath to try to calm myself. "Not only did you almost get yourself killed, you almost got me killed. I have given you multiple chances here."

"But you never wanted me here."

"That doesn't matter," I shook my head, "I didn't originally want Jack here, but he's proved me wrong more times than I can count. You earn a spot on my team, and you fight to keep it."

He nodded, "What do I do?"

I sighed, "One more mistake and you're out of here." He nodded, "From now on you will only be paired with me, or you will stay by the truck. Any funny business and you're out."

He hung his head again, "Yes boss."

I could see he was still ashy from the fire, "Now go shower. Don't come in for your next shift, you'll need the rest."

He nodded and proceeded to fill up his oxygen tank. As I walked up the stairs I could see him checking every tank in the garage to make sure it was 100% full.

I walked up the stairs to the rest of the crew, "I'm heading home. I'll be in the next few days for paperwork, but other than that only call me in if there's an emergency."

Angela walked over to me, "Go home boss. We've got it here. Don't come in for the next few days."

I looked at my watch and saw the date. Shit, it was September 11.