But Who's Going to Save You?
Chapter 17: Anabella Sierra Sloane III
"Rescue One Portable, how's it going out there?" Vince radioed through.
"Rescue One Portable, to Rescue Base: yeah, we're fine, but we're going to be a while," Dean radioed back.
Lachie glanced up from the computer screen he was sharing with Flick. "What's up, Vinnie?"
Vince shot him a glare. "How many times to you have to be told? It's Vince. And there's nothing wrong."
"What's up, Vince?" Felicity asked. Despite what he saying, Vince's eyebrows were furrowing together in a way which indicated something was wrong.
Vince frowned. "We've got another call."
Felicity shrugged, standing. "I'll go," she offered
"Why did he answer you?" Lachie asked, staring between Felicity and Vince in disbelief.
"Because I like her," Vince retorted. "And like hell you will," he added, addressing Felicity. "You've got no one to go with you."
"You could always let me back out?" Heidi called over from her position of cleaning the glass wall of Michelle's office.
"And you could always go see that shrink," Vince shot back, causing Heidi to shoot him a filthy look. "And you can pipe down too," Vince told Jordan, who was busy sorting the files on Vince's desk, before he could say anything. Vince let out a deep sigh and pulled his headset off, tossing it at Jordan. "Jordan, you're not leaving this desk. Flick, new boy, you're both coming with me."
"Yes!" Lachie exclaimed. "Finally," he added, holding his hand up to Felicity for a high-five.
Felicity rolled her eyes, ignoring it as she stepped around him and followed Vince down the stairs.
"You're both going to fall in love with me eventually," Lachie called, hurrying after them. "I guarantee it."
"Vince!" Michelle yelled down the stairs. "Where are you going?"
"Just testing the rookies out," Vince called back.
"I'm not a rookie!" Felicity objected. "And I've been here for nearly four months."
Vince ignored her, blowing out another breath. He got to the truck, the keys swinging from his index finger as he looked between Felicity and Lachie. "Flick – head's up," he said, throwing her the keys.
Felicity caught them, pulled a face, and threw them back. "I still don't know my way around."
"I'll drive," Lachie offered, grinning at Vince.
Vince pulled a face and threw the keys back at Felicity. "I thought you weren't the rookie."
"So what's going on between you and Lara?" Chase asked. He'd been dying to ask for the past few days, but with Lachie moving in, and seemingly unaware of what was going on, for the first time (possibly ever) he decided to give his eldest brother the courtesy of waiting until they were alone before asking the question. Well, they were both treating an unconscious driver, pinned beneath their steering wheel, but it looked like that was as good as it was going to get.
"I have no idea what you're talking about," Dean told him, shortly, refusing to take his eyes from his patient.
"Of course you don't," Chase agreed with only the slightest hint of sarcasm to his voice.
Dean shook his head and reached for his radio. "Rescue One Portable to Rescue Two Portable: Lara, could you move any slower with those extraction tools?"
"I fyou want the many faster, maybe you should come get them yourself," Lara sniped back over the radio.
"Definitely nothing going on," Chase muttered, just as sarcastically.
"Chase, why don't you go and do something useful, like hurry Lara up," Dean instructed him.
"Fine." Chase backed out of the car and set off for the patrol at a jog. He was almost at it when Lara appeared from around the back, carry several pieces of extraction gear. "Need a hand?" he offered.
"Dean sent you, did he?" Lara snapped.
"Maybe?" Chase shrugged, pulling a face.
"Of course he did," Lara told him, storming past him, and ignoring his offer of help. "Maybe he should take a page out of his own book and mind his own business."
Chase held his hands up in the air, as he hurried alongside the blonde. "I'm just offering to help you carry some of that equipment," he told her.
Lara sighed, nodding, allowing Chase to take the Perspex sheet from under her arm. "Thanks," she told him, almost reluctantly.
Chase gave her a sideways glance. "Have I done something to piss you off?"
Lara quickly shook her head. "No, it's not you."
"Can I help?" he offered, awkwardly.
"I'm fine," she told him.
"I'm not on about carrying more things for you," he told her, hurriedly.
Lara forced a smile. "I know."
"I don't know why Chase hated doing this," Jordan sighed, relaxing back into Vince's chair, setting his feet on the desk.
"I'd tell you, but then I'd have to kill you," Heidi told him. She walked over, setting the cleaning solution and the rag on the desk beside Jordan's feet. "So what are we doing tonight?" she asked, giving him a suggestive wink.
Jordan cleared his throat, setting his feet back on the ground as he sat upright. "That depends."
"Depends...?" Heidi started, but trailed off with a frustrated groan. "Seriously, Jord? It's been three days. How long are you going to keep withholding sex from me?"
"I dunno," Jordan shrugged. "How long are you going to avoid seeing that psychiatrist?"
Heidi's eyes narrowed as she snatched the spray and rag up. "Fine, we'll keep playing this game, but I guarantee you, I will win, Jordan Zwitkowski." She turned on her heel, marching straight back to Michelle's office, where she proceeded to spray the window she had just cleaned.
"It's not a game," Jordan muttered, watching her go.
"Okay, we have a kid up a tree," Vince informed the other occupants of the patrol car as they pulled into a park. "This should be fairly straightforward, even for you two, so try not to cock it up."
Felicity nodded, following the path along until they reached a rather frantic old woman, waving her arms at them. The three of them got out of the car, Vince focusing on the woman, while Felicity and Lachie scanned the treeline for the child.
"Are you the one that made the call?" Vince asked her, giving her a dazzling smile. She was an attractive woman in her mid forties, with curly brown hair... and a scowl on her face.
"About time you guys showed up. I called half an hour ago," she growled at Vince.
"Sorry, Miss," Vince responded, slightly taken aback. "We got here as fast as we could."
"Might have gotten here a little faster if you'd have been using your sirens," the woman told him darkly. "And it's Ms. Don't be patronising me by calling me Miss."
"So where's this kid?" Lachie asked, figuring he was helping Vince out.
"There is no kid. It's a Munchkin," the woman snapped at him. "It's Anabella Sierra Sloane III."
Lachie glanced at Felicity, who shrugged back at him, just as confused. "I thought you couldn't call them munchkins anymore," Lachie muttered. "Isn't it politically incorrect."
"I am not talking about little people," the woman cried, stamping her foot. "Anabella Sierra Sloane III is a pedigree, you imbecile!"
Felicity squinted up at the tree. In between the budding leaves she finally made out what the woman was referring to. "Did you call us out here to get a cat out of a tree?" she asked, slowly.
"Of course she didn't, Flickety-Split," Vince told her, before turning to the woman. "Because that would be wasting Rescue's time," he added in a warning tone.
"Do not look at me like that," the woman told him, wagging her finger at him. "None of you firemen ever take me seriously, but Anabella Sierra Sloane III is a pedigree."
"So you said," Felicity muttered, catching Vince's expression as the woman referred to them as fierys. She brought her hand up over her eyes, staring up at the cat. "Is that a kitten?"
"It's not a kitten. She's a Munchkin. It's a pe-"
"Pedigree," Lachie finished. "We know."
"Look," Felicity sighed, turning her attention back on the angry owner. "I know it's a big tree, and a rather small cat, but trust me, if a cat can get up there, they can get down as well. You just need to wait her out."
"I'm not waiting anything out," the woman told her, haughtily. "You are going up that tree and you are getting Anabella Sierra Sloane III out of there. She's all alone. If she falls, the fall will kill her."
While Lachie tried (and failed) not to laugh, Felicity rolled her eyes and looked to her supervisor, waiting for him to chew the owner a new one about wasting the time of the emergency services... but he folded his arms, smirking somewhat, and turned to his waiting team members. "So, which one of you is going up?"
Lachie quickly stopped laughing as Felicity's mouth fell open. "Seriously?" Felicity questioned in disbelief.
Vince shrugged. "I still need to see Lachie in action before I let him out with you lot, so let him practice on a cat."
The owner rounded on Vince, furiously. "Anabella Sierra Sloane III is not just a cat. She is a pedigree!"
"I couldn't care less if she was a tiger," Vince finally snapped back at her. "Calling Rescue for a cat extraction from a tree is wasting our time. I should call the police and press charges, so thank your lucky stars I'm letting these two go up."
The woman flapped her mouth opened and closed. "Fine. But she's going up," she said, pointing at Lachie. "Anabella Sierra Sloane the Third doesn't like men. He's just going to scare her away."
"I can't believe we're entertaining this," Felicity muttered, as she and Lachie headed to the boot to grab the rope and harness.
"Well, Anabella Sierra Sloane the Third is a pedigree, you know," Lachie pointed out, mimicking the woman.
"Is she really?" Felicity asked with mock amazement. "I thought she had escaped from the Wicked Witch of the West." The two looked at each other and then burst out laughing.
"Are you even going to be able to reach the lower branches?" Lachie asked, sniggering.
"Yes," Felicity replied, backhanding his arm. "I'm not that short."
"You're like four foot, nothing," he pointed out.
Felicity stared at him. "And just when I was starting to like you. I'm five foot six, thank you very much," she added, giving him a withering glare before storming off to the tree.
"What do you mean, 'starting' to like me?" Lachie called after her.
"These windows are looking pretty good," Michelle muttered at Heidi as she made her way to Jordan. "How's it going?" she asked him.
Jordan glanced up. "Rescue One are packing up now."
"And Rescue Two?" Michelle queried.
Jordan sniggered. "Cat, not kid. Flick's up a tree, now."
Michelle's lips pressed together in a thin line. "They're pulling a cat out of a tree?" she repeated, half convinced she had misheard Jordan.
"That's what Vince said," Jordan agreed.
Michelle shook her head in disbelief. "You tell Vince I want to see him when he gets back," she muttered, returning to her office.
"Are they really rescuing a cat?" Heidi asked as soon as Michelle had shut the door behind her.
Jordan sat at the desk, drumming a pen against the surface, before finally addressing his girlfriend. "Is withholding sex really not going to work?"
"Jordan, I am not going seeing a shrink!" Heidi exclaimed. Suddenly she didn't even care what Rescue Two were up to. She threw the rag at Jordan, not even waiting to see it hit his face, before she had headed straight for the stairs.
"Heidi!" Jordan called after her, running down the stairs, catching her by the lockers. "Heidi, where are you going?"
"I don't know," Heidi told him, angrily. "But I've had enough of this."
Jordan stepped in front of the redhead, stopping her from taking a step towards the door. "What is going on with you? Why is it so important to you that you don't go see a psychiatrist?"
"Why is it so important to everyone that I do?" Heidi shot back at him.
"Heidi, whilst I love you for saving my life, you could have killed yourself in the process. Just take a step back for a moment and look at it from anyone else's point of view," he said hurriedly. "If any other member of the team had done the same, do you not think they'd need to speak to someone about it?"
"Any other member of the team isn't in love with you," Heidi told him, stamping her foot. "I am. The thought of losing you..." she trailed off. "If I go see someone, and explain why I did what I did – that's it. We're out in the open and one of us is getting transferred out of here, or worse, put on opposing shifts. We'll never see each other."
"There's protocol in place for a reason, and you didn't follow it," he said, as gently as he could. "I know you're scared about Michelle finding out about us, but you need to talk to someone. If you won't do it for yourself, do it for me. Please?" he begged. "Surely an hour with a psychiatrist is better than day after day of cleaning?"
Heidi stared up into his brown eyes and finally sighed. "Fine."
Felicity wasn't afraid of heights. She also enjoyed climbing trees – she had been something of a tomboy (much to her father's disappointment) in her younger years and because of her slim frame, had an ability to wrap her body around a tree and beat the other boys to the top. However, this Bay Fig she was climbing was easily over forty feet high, and swaying quite heavily in the spring breeze. She had used the rope to anchor herself to the trunk, with Lachie taking her weight below, but the damn cat had made its way to the outer branches, and despite the fact its owner was adamant it liked women, it was hissing and spitting at her.
"Here kitty, kitty," she muttered, inching her way along the branch.
Back on the ground, Lachie pulled his attention away from Felicity, lost in the branches, and to his superior. "Vinnie, you want to take the anchor for me?" he asked, not giving Vince the chance to object to Lachie's name choice, before he had unhooked the rope and thrust it at Vince. Ignoring Vince's protests, Lachie found his footing and hauled himself up onto the first branch, making his way up to where Felicity was clutching at a protesting cat as she tried to get back to the trunk.
"What are you doing up here?" she asked in alarm.
"Helping you, goldfish" he grinned. "You want to give me Anabelle Sierra Sloane III to me?"
"Happily," Felicity told him, returning the grin. The cat fought her every step of the way, and didn't let up when Lachie took it from her.
"You can have it back!" Lachie yelped as it dug its claws firmly into triceps.
Felicity climbed down a few branches below Lachie, found a grip, and reached up (reluctantly) for the cat. "Okay, ready."
"Just a sec," Lachie requested through gritted teeth as he prised the cat free from his arm. He refrained from throwing it away from him, and instead handed it to Felicity, then, he made his way below her. Finally, he was standing on the ground, Felicity on the branch above him, trying to pluck the cat's claws from her ribcage.
"I hate this cat!" Felicity exclaimed.
"It's not a cat!" her owner objected. "She is a pedigree. She is Anabella Sierra Sloane the Third!"
"And her initials spell ASS!" Felicity yelled down at her, yanking the cat away from her. It yowled, swiped at her drawing blood on her cheek, then with a final meow, jumped down and into her owners arm. The movement unbalanced her, sending her tumbling from the branch. The rope tightened, halting her fall, just as Lachie caught her.
"Saving you again," he smirked.
"The rope saved me," Felicity told him, spluttering. "Vince saved me."
"Vince did save you," Vince agreed, looking less than impressed. "Because you abandoned your position, Lachie. So put Flick down and gather the rope in. And get used to it, because you and the ropes are going to get very well acquainted over the next few weeks. Flick, don't help him." He gave Lachie another unimpressed look before marching over to the now delighted cat owner.
"He seems pissed," Lachie mused.
"That's because he is. Which, for the record, so am I," Felicity grunted. "Put me down."
Rescue Two backed into the station minutes behind Rescue One. Felicity got out of the truck quick enough to witness Vince storm upstairs, followed closely by Lara – both somehow wearing matching dark expressions - while Dean and Lachie marched into the changing rooms, looking equally as pissed.
Chase walked over to Felicity, joining her in leaning back against Rescue Two. "What the hell is going on in this station?" he asked her.
"I'd go for which two Gallagher brothers are asses, for $500," Felicity shrugged.
Chase turned his head and gave her a puzzled expression. "I thought you and Lachie were getting on?"
Felicity pulled a face. "Lachie is a cocky ass."
"Lachie's a sound guy," Chase told her.
"Maybe he is," Felicity told him. "But for someone who was in the army, he has trouble following orders. Hence, Vince's bad mood. So he's grounded, hence his bad mood."
"Ah," Chase muttered, scratching the back of his head. "Any insight into Dean and Lara?"
Felicity let out a dry bark of laughter. "Yeah – don't get involved unless you're asked. That's a whole other kettle of fish."
"Two brothers in a bad mood," Chase sighed. "How would you feel about a couple of games of pool in the pub?"
"My other option is planning a wedding. I'm in," Felicity hurriedly agreed.
Firstly, apologies for my disappearing act (again). Alas, this does tend to be a frequent habit. Secondly, thank you for the alerts, and the messages me prompting me to update sooner. It really does kick the guilt in and work, so really - thank you!
retardedgazelle - I'm with you on season 3. Definitely my favourite - and definitely because of Lawson and Josh. That episode in the forest was BRILLIANT! You'll have to see with the wedding.
Rescuelover - Over 70 reviews is phemonenal! I can't believe people like my story! I'm sorry I'm being so sucky at updating. I'm already working on the next chapter :)
MMC Gang - LOL, don't worry - I'm just sorry for the long time between updates!
Spbabe9 - I really do feel bad about going so long without updating! But thank you!