Thanks to everyone who read and to Ghostwriter and MelsieR for reviewing.
"You're going to Wyoming to visit Alex's parents who have a farm," Brooke said slowly.
"A farm with goats," Val added.
She and Hank were staring too, and Jamie groaned. He'd only answered Brooke's question about where he was going next week because anyone who knew her knew that being evasive would lead to an investigation to rival that of a serious journalist. And not that he didn't appreciate that quality about her most of the time, especially since it had saved his place here back during the whole wallet-stealing dog mess, but he could have happily lived his life without that interest ever being pointed in his direction.
"I mean, they were all words," Hank said after a minute. "English, even."
"Oh, for—" Jamie shook his head. "I'm going to go write a report or something."
"Not a chance." Hank grinned and wrapped an arm around Jamie's shoulders as he tried to stand, pulling him back down onto the couch. "No way you can just leave us hanging like that."
"Yeah, how do Alex's parents have a goats? Like...that Alex?" Val jabbed a hand in the general direction of Alex's office.
"How would I know? I haven't even met them yet. Why don't you go ask him and leave me alone?"
"Because you can't tell us to get back to work," Brooke said cheerfully. "Do you have pictures?"
"Of Alex's parents?"
"Of the goats, duh."
"Why would I have pictures of…?" Jamie shook his head. "What about cleaning? Shouldn't we be cleaning something? Or counting something? More IV stands? Literally anything—"
The alarm cut him off, and everyone was suddenly a professional again, and Jamie couldn't help a sigh of relief even as he hurried to grab his jumpsuit and followed Hank and Val out to the garage. He should probably feel a little bit guilty about someone else's emergency, but...later. After his shift, when he'd escaped his coworkers.
The odds of whatever emergency it was lasting for another four hours were pretty remote anyway.
Hank was in the driver's seat as usual while Val was on the radio with dispatch when Jamie jumped up into the back, and he yanked the door shut behind him and dropped down onto the bench seat. "What's the story?"
"Dispatch says the call came in from a babysitter," Val reported as Hank hit the lights and pulled out of the garage. "A six year old girl slipped while she and her sister were playing in the sprinklers, landed on her wrist, and won't stop crying. Nothing more specific—apparently the babysitter herself was pretty panicked when she made the call—but figure the wrist is sprained or broken, and we should check for a concussion, too, just to be safe."
Jamie winced a little in sympathy, remembering his own twisted wrist earlier this year, but at least it wasn't an emergency emergency.
When they got there it was pretty obvious that that little girl hadn't gotten as lucky as he had since even to the naked eye he didn't think that someone's wrist could sit like that unless it was broken, and the babysitter was only about Brooke's age which meant that Jamie got the task of calming her and the eight-year old down while Val and Hank stabilized the six-year old's wrist and did whatever other checks they needed to do. But once that was done the novelty of an ambulance ride was enough to distract all three of them, and the mother of the girl with the broken wrist must have broken some laws on her way to the hospital because she pulled up at about the same time as they did.
Hank was still exchanging pleasantries with the emergency room team—Jamie wondered sometimes if Hank would stay with EMT services one he'd started college or if he'd get a couple more certifications and maybe switch over to emergency room volunteering on the path to becoming a doctor—when another call came over the radio, and Jamie and Val exchanged glances.
"Hank, got to go!" Jamie called, sticking his head out the back.
He immediately detangled himself from the group and hurried back over. "What's up?"
"Office fire down on Mitchell Street." And now Jamie did feel kind of guilty, because a fire was the sort of thing that could keep an emergency team busy for a couple hours. Several emergency teams, even.
"Oof, what do you all run into?" Alex asked, halting his approach towards the three of them and waving a hand in front of his nose.
"The office fire we responded to wasn't an office fire," Val said, still trying to blink the tears from her eyes without actually touching her face. Jamie had already proven that that was a really bad idea. "Someone set the dumpsters from the strip mall on the other side of the fence on fire, and the wind was blowing the wrong way. Between the old fish from the seafood mart and the everything from the pet boarding place…."
"And we had to go back three times," Hank added. "At first there was just one guy who was having a bad reaction—well, I mean, aside from the gagging reaction that everyone was having, because that was vile—so we took him in figuring that he must be allergic to something in the smoke. But then they called again because another guy got dizzy and tripped and hit his head on a desk—"
"Probably from trying to hold his breath," Jamie cut in. Unlike the fire crew they hadn't even been able to park their vehicle out of the path of the smoke because of the way the fence cut off the parking lots between the two buildings.
Hank nodded. "And then the third time was because they finally decided to send everyone home for the day since even if the fires were out by then the building was still really smokey, and a woman had an asthma attack on the way to her car."
"I don't know why they didn't close the building as soon as the smoke started blowing their way," Val said. "It was so bad that on our last trip the emergency room crew wouldn't even let us in the building. They told us to leave the stretcher outside the door."
Alex's lips twitched. "I can't say that I blame them. I'm tempted to tell the three of you to hose off out here before I let you near the station's showers."
Jamie was pretty sure that he wasn't the only one who glared about that idea, and Alex shook his head and stepped aside.
"Fine. But straight to the showers, and get those uniforms into the washer first thing afterwards. Actually, I'm going to go back in too and let the backup team know that they're on primary until you're fit for human company again."
"Can't we just burn the jumpsuits?" Val asked. "Not that I haven't had enough of burning today, but that would at least be a good use of fire."
"We'll call that option two. And after you're all cleaned up, I want that ambulance bleached—thoroughly—because I can only imagine what it smells like right now."
Jamie didn't have to imagine, he'd been in it. There was a reason that it was parked on the drive instead of in the garage. And forget fire, he figured that nuking should be on the table.
Hank and Val nodded and headed past Alex and towards the door, but Alex stopped Jamie before he could follow. "Did you need to use your inhaler?"
"No. Or I guess technically I used it, but mostly just in case when we were on our way back for the third time." It was kind of a little iffy to use an inhaler like that, especially one that was supposed to be a rescue inhaler, but considering that they'd been called in for an asthma attack in a known-smokey area and the team was already down one person, he'd figured better safe than sorry. "I was never coughing any worse than anyone else, though."
"Are you sure?"
"Yeah."
"All right. But if you do start having problems, let someone know, okay?"
Jamie nodded, mostly because he wouldn't get away with anything else.
"I'm going to go let Erica and her squad know what's up, but after that I'm headed for the bank and the hospital, and I'm not planning on coming back here today. You're good to get yourself home after your shift, right?"
"Yeah, I've got my bike."
"Good. And don't forget, Sonja rescheduled to come by tonight so you need to be home and..." He paused. "Home and presentable by seven or so."
Like Jamie wanted to spend any more time than he had to smelling like this. "I'm probably just going to go straight home after my shift anyway," he said. He'd talked to Caitie some this past weekend, but it wasn't...he still didn't feel much like hanging out right now.
"I'll see you for dinner then. Now, shower, please."
Jamie snorted, but it wasn't like Alex was wrong. And after his shower he felt a lot more confident in taking deep breaths, something that had nothing to do with his asthma and everything to do with how gross that smoke had been. Unfortunately there was only so long that he could linger inside afterwards, and after a slow walk around the station he sighed and headed back to the ambulance. His spare clothes were nothing special, but he didn't really think that they were going to be improved by getting back inside that thing. And there wasn't another change of clothes waiting for him until he got home.
"Do you think if we turn on the hoses from out here we can just sort of slowly approach and chase the smell out ahead of us?" Hank asked, and if he'd gotten back out here more quickly than Jamie, he also didn't seem to be in a particular hurry to get started. "I'm assuming that anything that's any kind of fabric is going to have to be thrown out or run through the washer anyway." He made a face. "And there's no way I'd ask someone to take a pill that was inside that thing."
That idea almost made Jamie gag, and he shook his head. "I'm more thinking that Tyler gets back this weekend, and it's no fair if he gets to miss out on all this."
Hank grinned. "Tyler gets back on Friday, if I remember right, but I somehow don't see Alex letting us leave the ambulance sitting out here for that long."
Jamie was pretty sure he would if he was the one who had to clean it, but that was the kind of suggestion that would get him a look even if he was at work, and he sighed and went to start unrolling the hoses.
Val joined them as they began their approach, and by the time their shift ended the ambulance was at least clean enough to put back in the garage. Unfortunately they'd all started to re-acquire a certain scent, and Jamie waved a quick goodbye to Hank and Val—Hank and Val and Brooke, who didn't look too thrilled at getting at the idea of getting into a car with her sister—and made a beeline for his motorcycle. He was very glad he'd ridden rather than take the bus this morning. Probably so was anyone else who had to ride the bus.
His second shower once he got home was much longer than his first, and he was just stuffing his clothes into the washer with slightly more detergent than was recommended when he heard Alex come in. "Jaim?"
"In here."
"Hey," Alex greeted, sticking his head in as he shut the washer. "I picked up some Thai for dinner, if you're hungry. I figured you could use a treat."
"Yes," Jamie agreed. "That was so gross. Like regular smoke, whatever, I don't care about that, but...yech. And also I think you might be almost out of hot water now, sorry."
Alex smiled. "Under the circumstances, I'm okay with that. Did you say that someone deliberately started the fire?"
Jamie shrugged and trailed Alex towards the kitchen. "That's what it sounded like since it was actually three or four dumpsters in a row that all went up, but the guys from the fire department didn't exactly spend a lot of time talking to us once they'd confirmed that it was just smoke blowing through the fence and into the offices." He snorted. "Probably because they could stay upwind after that."
"Once again, I can't say that I blame them. And that seems like such an odd thing for someone to do. What were they hoping to accomplish?"
He wasn't actually looking at Jamie for an answer, and Jamie figured that there was no reason to mention that he and Kenny had tossed a few matches into a few trash piles over the years just to waste time. And occasionally to watch cool sparks. Not that they'd ever caused even one dumpster-sized problem never mind a whole string of them, and they'd certainly never triggered anything on level of nasty today had reached, but Ken—he shook his head and forced down those memories. It was easier if he just didn't let himself think about it.
"Grab us some drinks, would you?" Alex asked, setting the takeout bag on the table.
Jamie poured a couple glasses of water and took them and a pair of plates to the table. He'd had a sandwich at the station, but that had been pre-callouts. And it looked like Alex had gotten banana pancakes to go with a couple of curries and some fried rice.
"Other than that mess, was the rest of your shift was pretty quiet?" Alex asked as they traded cartons between them. "I didn't see you kids in and out too much."
"Yeah, we didn't have any callouts at all for first couple hours, and then there was one for a little girl who fell and broke her wrist. We were just dropping her off when the call came in about the fire. Um, I did sort of tell Brooke and Val and Hank about going out to visit your parents next week, though. Before everything, when they asked where I was going to be."
"Ah, right, I suppose they would be more interested in your vacation than they have been about mine in the past."
"Well, they might be interested in yours now. Brooke wants pictures of the animals."
Alex smiled and shook his head. "You'll have to take some for her, then, because I don't have any lying around."
He didn't seem upset that Jamie had told them, which was a relief. Jamie hadn't been sure that he was supposed to, even if he still didn't think that he'd had a choice. But he could take his camera along, now that Alex had mentioned it...it might be kind of fun. Most of the pictures he took were just random shots of his friends.
"Did you ever find your sneakers?"
"Oops. I forgot to look." He didn't think that he was going to find them since he hadn't exactly enjoyed gym class and had tossed almost everything associated with it as soon as it was done, but if Alex said that he needed some he should at least make the attempt.
"Do that soon, all right? It turns out that I need a new pair of boots, so if you need shoes too we can combine errands this weekend before we start packing. And make sure your duffel bag is in good shape too. I think I've got a spare suitcase small enough to fit in the overhead if you need it, but it's buried somewhere in my closet and it might take some digging to get it out."
"Okay." Not that he was worried about his duffel, but the other thing that Alex had mentioned last week that he was pretty sure needed replacing were his swim trunks. One of the foster families back in middle school had been required to get him some, but he was pretty sure that those had been lost years ago. And even if they hadn't they weren't likely to fit anymore. But hopefully those he could pick up somewhere cheap, because it wasn't like he spent a lot of time at the pool.
There was more than enough food to fill them both up and still have some leftovers for lunch tomorrow, and when they were done eating Jamie grabbed one more pancake to munch as he loaded the dishwasher while Alex wrapped up the rest of the leftovers and put them in the fridge.
"It looks like we've still got some time until Sonja gets here," Alex said, shutting the door and glancing at the clock. "Do you want to play cards?"
"Yeah, sure. I…." He hesitated.
"What's up?"
"She's just coming to chat, right? Like she's not going to say no or anything." Not that he wouldn't be fine here by himself for a week, obviously, and not that he was entirely comfortable with the idea of meeting Alex's family anyway even if his mom seemed nice, but he'd sort of...he was used to the idea that he was going, now.
Alex smiled. "No, I've already got all of the paperwork and everything. Not to mention the tickets. But apparently it's procedure, making sure that I'm not kidnapping you against your will or something."
Jamie snorted. Knowing the foster care system, most of them would probably be happy if he got kidnapped.