Jamie POV

I eventually fell asleep with my head against the wall. I woke up later when the nurse came in again. "She's asleep, but they're done working on her. The doctor stitched her side up, and cleared her throat out. The only thing he think caused her throat to close up was the excessive smoke, and that maybe her helmet pushed on her throat when she fell. Two people at a time can go into her room. She'll be waking up soon."

Before she left Nate spoke up, "You'll need to give her a sea-sickness patch. She gets sick from most pain meds. Or else she'll throw up and rip her stitches."

The nurse nodded and left the room. Jewls got up, "Whose going in first?"

Everyone looked at her. Angela answered first, "We don't need to go in sweetie. You go ahead in. We'll see her in the morning. We can all crash here. I called your gramps awhile ago, he's on his way over. Go on in."

Sam and Damon were in the back corner. Sam got up to go with her but Damon held him down, "We'll stay here. Take Jamie with you. You'll be fine."

She looked back at me and grabbed my hand. For a fifteen year old, it amazed me how young she was sometimes. I led her to Emily's room.

Emily POV

I slowly came to awareness. I opened my eyes and looked around. Jewls was asleep in the chair next to my bed, and Jamie was looking at me. He smiled at me, "Hey, how are you?"

I tried to sit up and groaned at the effort, "Fine. I'm sore, but I'm fine." They still had an oxygen system running into my nose a little bit. I felt my side, "How many stitches did they have to use?"

He shrugged his shoulders, "I'm not sure, I didn't ask. The nurse said we could come in and that she'd give you the details later. Everyone's waiting in the waiting room now. Do you want me to go get them?"

I shook my head, "Not yet." I was good like this. "Just give me a minute."

He nodded and sat back down. He grabbed my hand and slowly ran circles on it with his thumb. "Is this normal?"

I laughed and winced as it jerked my stitches, "Falling through a floor?" I shook my head, "Not usually. We just seem to be having more problems lately. And because I'm the stubborn ass that I am, I insist on going into the building. At least we haven't been called out of state to a fire lately."

"Why would you be called out of state?"

"We occasionally get requests to help out forest fires, or wild fires. We're one of the best teams in the country. Most of us prefer to do that, we just work for the city in between the fires."

He looked at Julia, "And you?"

"Ever since I adopted her, I've tried to stay home more. I try not to go out into the fires, just run them from the home base. It can help a lot when you have someone who has a map of the area who is looking for specific points to stop a fire. Thankfully we haven't got called out since a few months before we started dating."

"Is it usual to go six or seven months without getting called out?"

I nodded and yawned, "Yeah. We try to only go to fires that have been raging for at least a few weeks. That way we have a better chance of actually stopping the fire because it'll have run out of ammunition at that point."

"That seems harsh."

"Yeah. But that's also the point where the locals are calling out for help. The longest we've ever had to wait to get called in was a month. When we helped stop the California fire a few years ago, people started to learn that it was best if we got there early enough." I yawned again.

"Go back to sleep. I'll wake you up when everyone wants to see you."

I nodded and fell back to sleep.

A few hours later I jerked awake when I heard yelling. I gasped and held my side in pain, "WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU THINKING?"

I took a second to catch my breath, "Hi gramps. Good to see you too."

"YOU WEREN'T EVEN SUPPOSED OT BE IN THE BUILDING IN THE FIRST PLACE!"

Julia creeped out of the room. She knew that when gramps was trying to chew me out that it could get ugly. "I know that, but I had to go in." I slowly sat up.

He threw something on my bed as I pulled the oxygen off my face. I picked it up and saw it was an advanced copy of tomorrow's newspaper. How he got these I would never know. The headline was "NYFD Capabilities Falling?" I skimmed the article.

The granddaughter of the fire commissioner was injured in an accident at a scene late last night. While attempting to save two children she fell through the floor. The children survived, but the integrity of the department did not.

I skimmed the next few paragraphs and stopped when it mentioned Jamie.

It has been confirmed that this Captain has been dating one of the sons of the Police Commissioner, who is a street officer. It is also known that the two Commissioners are not on the best of terms. Is our city safe if the people who are supposed to protect us cannot even cooperate?

He started pacing the room, "You know what the press is like, why would you consider doing this?"

I stood up and raised my voice, "Saving the lives of two children? Locating my oxygen tank so it doesn't make a bad situation worse? Or risking my life in the first place so I wouldn't have to add another person to the crew?!"

"Those are different issues entirely. Let's talk about the fact that you're dating the youngest son of the police commissioner, and you didn't tell me?! What were you thinking?"

I walked over to him, "I am 32. I am perfectly capable of making my own decisions. I was going to invite you to dinner this Saturday to introduce him to you, but I guess this got in the way."

He calmed down a little at that, "How long have Sam and Damon been back?"

"I don't know, a few hours? Jamie picked them up for me."

He harrumphed, "Did you consider how many problems dating the Police Commissioner's son would cause me?"

"Yes I did, which is why I'm dating him, and not you. I don't think the city could handle a gay fire commissioner." I tried not to smile as I heard Jamie stifle a laugh.

He turned around to face me and calmed down a little when he saw me holding my side, "How bad are you hurt?"

"Not bad. A piece of the floor must have gotten stuck in my side or something. My throat tried to close up."

He came over and helped me sit back down on the bed, "When do the docs say you can get back to work?"

"I haven't asked. I'm going to stick to paperwork for the next few weeks though. I have enough to catch up on."

He nodded, "I'll have to hold a press conference."

I looked at him and smiled, "Let me do it. I promise to be civil. But having an injured fire fighter on local television defending herself will benefit the department and make that paper look ridiculous."

He smiled, "You are conniving."

I laughed and hissed when my side moved, "Guess who I learned it from?"

He laughed and shook his head. He turned to Jamie, "So how long have you been dating my granddaughter?"

I smiled and leaned my head back against the bed. I had protected him from my grandfather for as long as I could, now it was up to him. Besides, Jamie had his gun on him if anything went wrong.