Chapter Four – Reconcile

"Raven, come in!" Blade called into his radio. He heard only static coming back. "Sky, do you read me?" Still only static. Damn it to hell!

"Blade?" Dusty circled around him. "What's wrong?" His eyes traveled to the tunnel, and his eyes widened to see it blocked. He quickly switched radio channels. "Sky! Sky, come in!"

"She can't hear us!" Blade snapped. "The walls of the canyon are too thick."

"What do we do?" Dusty asked.

"Get back in formation and finish putting out the fire." Blade ordered, already starting to fly that way. "At least in there, they're safe."

"Safe?" Dusty repeated with a scoff. "They're trapped! They might suffocate!"

"There's nothing we can do about it right now." Blade argued. "Nick is with them. He'll report back to me and we can keep tabs on them. For now, we have to keep our focus on the fire. The sooner we get it out, the sooner we get them out."

Dusty looked back to the canyon. "But—"

"Do not argue with me, Crophopper!" Blade snapped. "Get back in formation!"

Dusty couldn't argue when Blade went into full Chief Mode. "Yes, sir." He reluctantly went back to working on the fire. Every now and then, he would try and ping Sky over the radio again. The only response he got was static.

Blade divided his time evenly between giving orders for the fire and waiting for Nick to return to him. But as the minutes ticked by, Blade grew more and more anxious as Nick failed to appear. Why wouldn't he check in with me? Blade wondered. He can go right through the walls. What's going on in there that he can't come give me a report on what's happening?

The rest of the firefighters quickly caught on what happened. Dipper and Windlifter, when they returned from refilling their retardant tanks, would make drops near the entrance to the bridge tunnel. Drip made sure to save some of his energy for cutting through the logs blocking the tunnel. Dusty stayed in formation, but kept slowing down when he got to the tunnel entrance. He had no idea what was happening in there, and it terrified him.

Blade's anxiousness transitioned to frustration when Nick still didn't appear to talk to him. How could Nick not come up and check in? What's holding him up?

Several agonizing hours later, the fire was contained and the Jumpers took their positions to stir on the flames until it went out completely. Dipper and Windlifter started back to base. Dusty, however, kept circling around the canyon.

"Champ, return to base." Blade ordered.

"I'm waiting here for Sky." Dusty said.

"That was not a request. That was an order." Blade snapped.

"I want to help." Dusty protested.

"How? What could you possibly do right now to help?" Blade demanded. Dusty didn't respond. "The best thing you can do is wait back at base until we get back. I'll bring Sky back, Dusty, I promise."

Dusty sighed, reluctantly turning tail and heading back to base. Blade stared back towards the tunnel. He tried calling Sky again. "Chief to Raven. Come in, Raven."

Static.

"Sky, please answer me."

Static.

"Would you quit pacing, Dusty?" Maru demanded. "You're going to put a rut in the ground."

The racer/firefighter had paced back and forth in front of the garage for three hours. "How can you be so relaxed at a time like this?" Dusty demanded. "Why is no one else freaking out over the fact that neither the Jumpers or Blade are back yet with Sky and Nick?" Indeed, it seemed like only Dusty was worried. Dipper was sunbathing and Windlifter was weightlifting logs.

"We're not freaking out because we're trying to get our minds off how worried we are." Maru said. "We know these things happen, and maybe we don't look it, but we are worried. But we don't gain anything by being worried. We just have to prepare for whatever happens."

Dusty could see Maru already prepared. He had first aid supplies for both vehicles and humans set out and ready to go. "This feels like the climax of a cliché movie." Dusty sighed. "Of course the moment Sky gets killed is after she and I are on bad terms."

"Well it's your own fault." Maru huffed, reorganizing his things again.

"My fault?" Dusty scoffed indignantly.

"Yeah, and it's Sky's fault too." Maru nodded. "Because you two were so prideful and hung up on your anger that you didn't take a minute to actually talk to each other."

"But every time we do talk, we get into an argument." Dusty protested. "How am I supposed to talk to her about my concerns for her when she's constantly getting mad at me for being concerned?"

"Well how is she supposed to talk to you about it when you're only focused on being worried about her?" Maru asked.

Dusty didn't think of that. "When did you get so smart and perceptive?"

"I'm a mechanic and medic." Maru shrugged. "The problem is with both of you, Dusty. You guys just don't know how to communicate when it comes to problems. You can talk racing strategies and improvements in your jobs, but when there's a serious problem that affects you mentally and even emotionally, neither one of you know how to talk about it. Makes me wonder how long you've had that problem."

"Who knows?" Dusty sighed. "Maybe we've never really known how to talk about it."

Maru tapped Dusty's wing comfortingly. "It's not too late to change that."

"Let's hope not." Dusty said.

Maru wanted to say something else, but Blade's voice called over the radio. He sounded rather urgent. Maru quickly answered. "Hey Chief, what's up?"

"Listen very closely, Maru." Blade had a no-nonsense tone. "Tell every single firefighter on base—Patch and yourself included—to write down what happened during the fire. I mean it, Maru, I want your statements in writing."

That didn't sound good to Maru. "You got it, Chief."

"Tell everyone that Raven, Nick, the Jumpers, and I are down at the lodge with Jammer." Blade added. "We'll be back sometime tonight."

"Where's Cad?" Maru asked.

"Cad's in jail."

"Cad is in jail?!"

"What?!" the entire base shouted when they heard.

"That's all I'm going to say right now. I'll explain everything when I get up there." Blade said. He hung up before Maru could ask anything else. Unfortunately, Dipper and Windlifter and even Patch were coming towards him to get answers.

"Look, we'll find out what's happening when Blade gets back. Just get your statements down." Maru ordered. The team hesitantly and confusedly obeyed, wondering what could've happened while they were gone.

Dusty went to his hanger immediately and began writing. He wrote down everything from the moment the siren went off to when he returned to the base. He made sure to include every detail, such as the moment he found out Cad was in the fire and when he guided Sky, Nick, and Cad to the tunnel at Augerin Canyon. He had to rewrite a few things to make everything clear and easy to understand, but he managed to finish in about ten minutes. Sometimes it surprised Dusty how eloquently he could write vs. how he spoke.

Dusty gasped. "That's it!"

About an hour later, Blade returned with Sky, Nick, and the Smokejumpers in tow. Sky jumped out of Blade's hoist hatch and marched straight to the cliff edge where she and Blade liked to scout for spot fires. Nobody dared to stop her when they saw that look of fury in her eyes. Blade barked an order for everyone to gather, and nobody disobeyed that either.

"All right, listen up!" Blade spoke for everyone to hear. "There's been an interesting development. Maru, you get all those statements?"

"Yep!" Maru nodded.

"Good. We'll take those down tomorrow morning." Blade said.

"Why did you need our statements?" Dipper asked.

"Because Cad is under investigation for causing that fire." Blade replied. After everyone gasped and before they could start asking questions, Blade spoke again. "Skylar discovered Cad was responsible for the fire, and we took the matter to Jammer. There is evidence that the fire was started purposefully and not by any storm or unattended campfire. So Jammer called the police, and will need our statements to him so he can talk with them tomorrow. As you can see, Skylar is unharmed and safe. Hiding in the tunnel saved her and Cad's lives. Cad is injured and at the hospital. I wanted you all to know what was happening in case an officer comes up here asking questions. Answer honestly, and we'll see how this affects Cad's position here at Piston Peak."

"But he will be fired, won't he?" Dusty said. "I mean, he's going to be arrested anyway."

"The only thing we know for sure is that Cad won't be here much longer." Dynamite said.

"Just be prepared in case someone comes to talk to us." Blade said. "Nick, come with me. We need to talk."

"Sure." Nick said in a rather glum tone. While the firefighters dispersed, Nick followed Blade into the chief's hanger. Blade shut the door to give them privacy.

The fire chief glared at Nick sternly. "You understand why I'm mad?"

"Yeah." Nick sighed. "But Blade—"

"You didn't check in. You didn't tell me what was going on." Blade said. "Nobody had any idea what was going on in there! You were our only connection inside, the only way we could know for sure that everyone was all right. But you stayed in there and didn't come out for even two seconds! Why not?"

"I was afraid for Sky!" Nick finally snapped. He stumbled over his words a little in his desperation. "She almost got hurt and I was afraid something would happen to her and I didn't want to leave her because I was scared!"

Blade's glare softened ever so slightly. "Nick, you truly have no idea how terrified I was when I found out Sky was trapped. If anything happened to her….." He sighed. "When you asked to be part of this team—to be better integrated into our base—I put you as a scout for a reason. You give us an extra pair of eyes to track fires. You can go through debris and find trapped civilians. As a ghost, you can do things we can't do. That's why I rely on you so much to do those things. We are able to do our jobs when we work together, and you help us by doing your part."

"I didn't want to leave Sky's side." Nick protested softly. "Cad was freaking out."

"So were we when we couldn't reach Sky through the radio." Blade countered. "Everyone was worried, and we can't be worried when we have a fire to put out. I understand you have deeper, more personal feelings for Raven. But when there's a fire to put out and a job to be done, you need to put those feelings aside and focus on your work, or else someone might get hurt. Do you understand?"

Nick sighed. "Yeah. Yeah, I understand."

Blade sighed too. He didn't like pulling the Chief Card on his surrogate brother. "Look, there's nothing we can do about it now. The good news is we're all home and we're all safe. But next time you're in a situation like that, you report back to me and then go back to watching out for whoever is trapped. That's how we keep communication strong in dire situations."

"Got it." Nick nodded.

Blade gestured to the door. "Raven should be back later. You should talk to her about what happened in there."

"Right." Nick agreed. "Will do."

Dusty gave Sky a few minutes to herself before approaching her. "Hey. You okay?" It was a rather dumb question, which he realized right after he asked. Sky glared straight ahead, her shoulders trembling.

"I'm fine." Even Sky's voice was shaky.

"Sky, just talk to me." Dusty pleaded. "I promise I won't say a word. Just talk, and I will listen."

Silence echoed around them for a tense moment.

"We managed to get into the tunnel." Sky finally said. "But when we tried to get out the other side, it was already blocked. We tried to go back out, but we were too late. The debris was too heavy for us to push through it, and it was still burning. Cad started driving around all crazy-like. I jumped on top of him so I could use my powers to knock him unconscious. I figured that would be easier to deal with and it would cause us all less harm. In order for me to knock him out, I had to get into his mind and coax it into going to a state of sleeping. While I was in his mind, I heard him cursing himself over his terrible plan of setting the fire to get revenge on us. He blames us for getting fired." She took a few calming breaths, and that's when Dusty realized she didn't tremble in fear. Sky shook with anger. "He started that fire because of his petty anger. He did something so stupid, without any regard for the safety of the park and the people who work here. Someone could've died. One of us could've died, and it's all his fault."

Dusty waited until Sky finished, and he let her take a few minutes to breathe calmly. "That doesn't sound like the only reason you're mad."

Sky scoffed. "You got that right. Jammer tells me that my mind-reading skills as a psych-man may not be enough to convict Cad. This happened to Harley once. Apparently entering Cad's mind and hearing his honest thoughts isn't a 'reliable source' in some courts. Like some lawyers will try and argue that I didn't even hear it and lied about hearing anything at all. As if I would lie about something so serious. Jammer keeps telling me to just be prepared in case my contribution isn't enough, but he's apparently confident Cad will be convicted anyway. Yeah right! You really think Cad will just openly admit to that? He might get away scot-free, all because some defense attorney is going to paint my testimony as 'unreliable.'" She sighed heavily, finally relaxing. "You really don't have to listen to me rant, Dusty. I know there's nothing I can do about it."

"You're right, there isn't anything you can do about it." Dusty agreed. "You can only give what you can and hope it sticks. Now maybe you're right. Maybe Cad will get away with it. But you can walk away from all this knowing that you're a better person than he is."

"More than half the people in this country are better than him." Sky snorted.

"Yeah, but not all of them are firefighters." Dusty chuckled. "You hated Cad, that's evident. You've always hated him. But despite your feelings about him, you still went in there and risked your neck to save him. You did your job, and you did it right. You're a hero, and that alone makes you a better person. That's what you have to focus on. Cad will have to live with what he did for the rest of his life, and it's going to sink his career even farther down. You've boosted your own life by doing what you do best."

Sky slowly began to smile. "Thanks, Dusty. I really needed to hear that. And I really needed to rant and rave to somebody, so thanks for the open ear."

"Anytime." Dusty said. "We haven't really had a chance to talk about what's been going with us, huh?"

"Well we don't really talk well when it comes to personal issues." Sky shrugged. "I guess we're not good at that."

"So I've come up with a solution." Dusty said. "Anytime there's a personal problem between us—a problem we can't talk about because we end up fighting—we won't talk. We'll write to each other. We can explain ourselves better in writing than in speaking because we'll have time to think about what we want to say. That will cause less fights. At least I hope it will. What do you think?"

Sky thought about it for a moment, and then grinned. "That's a really good idea, Dusty."

"What? Like I don't come up with good ideas all the time?" Dusty asked teasingly.

Sky laughed. "Seriously, Dusty, we should give this a try."

"Okay." Dusty agreed. "How about tomorrow we each write out what's been bugging us and we'll exchange letters? Then we'll keep writing to each other until we're all settled and everything's good again."

"Sounds like a plan." Sky agreed.

"Great." Dusty sighed in relief.

Sky stared off into the distance, that smile still on her lips. "Hey Dusty?"

"Yeah?"

"Thanks for not giving up on me."

"Thanks for not totally disowning me as your friend."

Again, Sky laughed. This time, Dusty did too.

Due to the extra stress on her mind, Sky decided to delve into a book she packed when she and Dusty flew out to Piston Peak. So engrossed in the novel, she didn't even notice Blade drifting off to sleep.

Nick nudged Sky before she could settle down to sleep herself. "Hey Cuervo. Can we talk for a minute?"

"I did want to ask you something, Nick." Sky said. "Back in that tunnel, you didn't leave to let Blade know what was happening. You stayed right by me the whole time."

Nick didn't like to remember those terrifying moments in the tunnel. The moment when Cad hit a wall and threw Sky off him. Or the moment when Cad nearly ran over Sky in his fit of hysterics. Or the moment when Sky nearly passed out from the heat. Nick thought he would die all over again.

"Nick?"

The ghost jumped when he realized Sky was repeating his name to get his attention. "Sorry."

"You still haven't answered me." Sky said.

Nick looked down. "I just…I was afraid to leave you. I thought something would happen if I left."

Sky frowned a little. "You know I can—"

"Yeah, I know, you can take care of yourself." Nick assured. "But that won't stop me from being there for you. That won't stop me from doing everything in my power to prevent you from getting hurt."

This level of dedication was different from what Sky saw out of Dusty. This seemed almost desperate, like Nick was ready to lay his life (if he had one) on the line for Sky's safety. Dusty would've locked her away to keep her safe. Nick would use himself as a shield. At least, that's what it seemed like.

"Thanks, Nick." Sky said. "But don't think that you have to keep protecting me. I'm ready for any kind of pain that's thrown at me. Heaven knows I've experienced all kinds."

Nick nodded in understanding. "It's just my job to have your back, Sky. That's all."

"That makes sense." Sky said. "We are a team, after all. We look out for each other." Nick nodded. Sky yawned a little. "Well, goodnight."

"Buenos noches." Nick said. He settled down in his own corner to sleep. He made sure Sky couldn't see him as he silently berated himself. 'It's just my job'? Did he seriously just say that? He didn't mean it. Of course he didn't mean it! Why did his tongue get all twisted when he tried to tell her the truth?

Man, I'm doomed. Nick groaned.