Callie POV

I was sitting in the back of an ambulance, doing the inventory with Beth. Whenever we got to a new medical equipment or drug, Beth quizzed me on some of the stuff by asking me basic questions. I assume it wasn't for me to refresh my memory, but for her to make sure I know what I'm doing, thus, ensuring she can trust me with this stuff. It was also a great way to get get acquainted with the location where each medicine stood, where I could find gauze or syringes, in which box can I find Epinephrine and so on.

So far, I had put off the personal questions. The last thing I wanted was for her to think I'm too obtrusive. We will have plenty of time to get to know each other better as this was only my first hour in the new job. In the 9 to 12 hours work shifts we will not only spend countess hours out in the field helping people, a good amount of time it will be just the two of us in the ambulance driving to and from scenes and hospitals, but we will also have time when we will be waiting for our next call in the firehouse.

Once we were done checking the equipment, Beth spoke as I jumped out of the back and closed the doors behind me "Did you know, until you showed up, I was the only woman who has ever worked in this firehouse?"

"Really?" I couldn't believe my ears. I knew that mostly men are firefighters, but I had assumed that there had been woman EMT's here before me. At least in my class, there had been woman superiority.

"Yeah," Beth replied as we walked towards the firehouse "So don't be freaked out by all of the attention the guys give you. Especially Kyle, he's a player," she warned me "You know Kyle, right? The one with the perfectly hair."

"Yeah, I met him. Captain introduced me to everyone," I replied opening the entrance doors for Beth to go through first "I don't remember all of their names, but I do remember Kyle."

"It will take a few days. They are all really nice guys once you get to know them," Beth answered walking pass me, but then turned around, walking backwards to look at me "You do remember my name, right?"

"I remember you - Beth Morris," I assured her and smiled at her

"Never forgot you," I said quietly to myself, thinking back to the time, when Marcus had invited her over to the house for dinner and I met her for the first time. I had barely made any eye contact. She had tried to start a conversation with me at the dinner, but I hadn't said a single word back to her. Amy had started a new topic the second she had realized I had no plan on answering Markus girlfriend.

It was at the funeral, when Beth and I shared our very first, yet brief conversation. I still remember the day, like it had happened yesterday.

People were starting to disperse from the cemetery after the burial. Only the closet relatives and friends were left remaining. Sensing that Amy had wanted a moment alone at her husband and son graves, I walked away, just like the rest, but with no real destination in mind. That was, until I saw Markus girlfriend sitting on the nearby bench, crying her eyes out, still morning her boyfriends death. Seeing how heartbroken and how hard had she been crying at the funeral, was what made me realized just how much she had loved Markus, despite their young age.

What I did next, was very unlike me and I had no idea what had gotten into me, but I walked over to her and sat down next to her. I offered her a napkin to blow her nose out, without saying anything to her. Beth appreciated the nice gesture from me.

"It's not fair…he-they didn't deserve to die," Beth whispered after she had blown her nose out and wiped the tears that were on her cheeks.

After witnessing in how much pain everyone around me had been at the funeral, in particular Amy, I had wished I had accepted Aarons offer the other day and went to the game with him. At least then Amy hadn't lost her son, only her husband. She would be in less suffering.

I don't have a death wish, I just...if I had the chance, I would chose his life over mine. If I had known, what would happen, I would take Markus places, without thinking about it twice. Because my life is not worth anything. Markus had a bright future in head of him. He was loved by so many people. In comparison, I'm not loved by anyone and I couldn't call my future a future at all. The chances are that I'm either arrested, end up living on the street or I'm dead even before I reach 21. There was no doubt in my mind - no one would have shed a tear over my death. No one would miss me the way these people are missed.

"It's my fault," I admitted, it was a surprise to myself as well. Beth heard me and her head snapped up to me. She was looking at me with big eyes, waiting for an expectation.

"Aaron had offered me to go to the game…I refused," I continued to share despite the fact that I didn't even know her. Maybe that's exactly why I had decided to open up to Beth, because I knew I would never see her again. There would be no further disscusions about it, no follow up question, no talks about why I felt the way I did.

"It should have been instead of Markus," looking across cemetery to Amy, who still stood by their graves alone, crying over her loss, I added in a whisper "If I could, I would take his place - it would have saved so much pain, so many tears. No one would have cried for me..." Seeing Amy cry, hurt me more than I could ever imagine it. I had never thought I would have such strong feelings for my foster parent. This wish or desire to protect Amy from any kind of pain, was new to me.

Harold had come up to us at that point, which had put a stop to our conversation - my confession.

"Behold, the room where you will spend most of the time!" Beth announced as we entered the break room

It was a large room, looked more like a hall actually. Very high ceiling. Hard wood floor. Three large windows shed lifght into the room from the left side. At the far end, was the kitchen part. It was separated from the rest of the room with kitchen counters. One of the firefighters was making himself a sandwich there.

On the right, there was a sort of a lounge area. It had two soft armchairs and a large couch. Kyle along with two others firefighter were watching some reality TV show and laughing about how silly it was. After getting a better glance on the screen, I recognized the show as the Bachelor. It was the last rose ceremony. They were now discussing, more like arguing about, who will the bachelor keep from the two remaining ladies.

To my left was a long table. The squad team guys were sitting at the far end of it, playing cards. Poker to be exact. On the wall, by the large table, there were bunch of photos of the whole firehouse team and what looked like cuts from newspapers and web pages where the firehouse had been mentioned. There were two photos that stood out as they looked more like a memorial. The two men who were in those photos, were photographed in their full uniform and they had a plate underneath their photo frames, along with a name and two dates - birth and death.

Beth and I sat down at the free end of the table. I had walked around the table so I would be sitting facing the whole hall as I wanted to take in the room a little bit more to get accustomed to it, but Beth sat oppose me.

"Scott Ellis," she said to herself as she watched me closely "Scott?" Beth emphasized raising her eyebrow up a little. I was sensing that the name had started to stir up some old memories

"Yep," I said averting my eyes back on my partner trying to sound as casual as I could. Unintentionally and unknow to my own knowledge, I had started to play with the old leather bracelet around my wrist, which I had gotten for Amy's birthday. I had one with moms name on, but mom had one with my name on.

"Why you ask?" this was the perfect set-up for me to clear the air. To let her know, how we had met before. I don't believe there would ever be a better time to do so. Simply blurring it out, didn't seem like a nice way to do it.

"Nothing," she looked down to her hands, I had a feeling she got slightly scared of the possibility that I shared some sort of connection to her ex-boyfriend "It's just-"

Beth couldn't finish her sentence, because the alarm rang out. The dispatcher called out, which emergency workers were needed. Truck 36 and Ambulance 27. That meant this was going to be my first call on the job.

"Let's go!" Beth was up to her feet first, while all I thought at the moment was - crap - for the perfect moment was ruined. But job called and I couldn't ignore it, so I got up as well and followed my partner close behind. The firefighters got into their suites and boots, while we went to the ambulance.

As I started the engine, I felt oddly calm and confident that I'm going to do good job on my first call. I had trained for this. I felt prepared and as of right now, I didn't feel scared at all. We had everything we needed in the back of the ambulance to help people. In case I had any doubt, I knew I could turn to Beth for guidance.

I drove out of the hanger with a small, barely visible smile on my lips feeling like I belong here. Yes - this is what I was meant to do! I'm in the right place.

It was a gas leak. While our colleagues, went inside with gas masks to stop the gas leak, Beth and I remained outside the building and aided to the residents of the apartment building, who had ran outside. Thankfully, there weren't a lot of people home at the time. Mostly older people and women with small children. We checked everyone out to make sure no one needed a ride to the hospital. Most of the people had gotten out pretty fast and had avoided inhaling the gas for too long. Though, there was only one older woman, who was wheelchair bound and had had trouble getting out on her own. She had inhaled the gas for a bit too long and needed our medical attention. We took her to the nearest hospital, for further medical attention, before driving back to the firehouse.

Overall, my first call had ended on a good note. The gas leak was stopped, everyone was alive and safe, no casualties. Our Captain praised us the job well done afterwards.

Once we returned to the firehouse, the firefighters, who hadn't been called, had made dinner for everyone. Mashed potato's and meatballs, with salads on side. I would have never guessed these guys were good cooks, but once again I was reminded to never judge a book by its cover. These men were all strong, big guys, who could break down doors and carry you through fire to save you if necessarry, but as I learned during the dinner, most of them were real softies on the inside. Jokes and laughter seemed to be a integral part of daily life and something they couldn't live without.

Sadly, our dinner was cut short as another call came in. This time it was only for the ambulance. It was a man, who had fallen down the stairs and broken a leg. As we arrived there, we secured the leg, got him in the ambulace and then took him to hospital so the doctors and nurses can take care of him.

Besides my colleagues at the firehouse, I met a lot of new people at the hospitals. Beth seemed to know a lot of nurses and doctors who worked there. She had shared a brief conversation them for a minute, introducing me to them as well, before we left. Those were short exchanged, but it was a great pleasure to meet other people, who work in this field and who I will probably get to see a lot in the near future.

We returned back to the firehouse, but we had only gotten a 10 minute break till we got the next call about a man, who had collapsed in the middle of the street. Afterwards it was a kid, who didn't have his insulin with him, but then we were called to a local school where a football match had been going on. In the heat of the game, one player was tackled so hard that he had been knocked out unconscious.

In the end, after receiving those back to back calls, it turned out to be a very busy first day and I didn't get a good chance to continue the conversation I had with Beth in the firehouse.

We were in the dressing room, changing into casual clothes after taking a shower, when I no longer could take it. I closed my locker and turned to Beth, who was now putting her necklace back around her neck after taking it off for shower.

"You don't remember me, do you?" I blurted out, unable to stop myself from avoiding this conversation further on. I didn't want this 'secret' between us. I just wanted to clear the air between us. Talk it through, so that I don't have to carry it around with me anymore, thus, allowing me to focus more clearly on the job, not personal stuff.

"I'm sorry?" Beth turned to me, perplexed by my sudden statement. I bit my tongue afterwards, because this is exactly what I had wanted to avoid in the first place. This awkward moment, this stare down. All of a sudden, I got cold feet and asking her about it, no longer felt like the right choise. I wasn't even sure, why this thing was bugging me so much to begin with. It felt like I was in American rollercoaster, going up and down, up and down, not being able to come up with decission.

I tilted my head down and averted my look on the tiles beneath me "You know what…forget it," slowly I shook my head kicking myself mentally for even starting this topic "I'm sorry I said anything. It's probably best to not bring up the past. I'll see you in the morning," I picked up my bag from the bench and walked pass her to the exit

"I know who you are!" Beth called, when I had opened the doors to the hallway, making me stop dead in my tracks. I let go of the door nub and turned to her. The doors shut close behind me.

After a long silence and a stare down between us, Beth spoke "You're the kid Markus parents were fostering, before..." she stopped mid sentece and choked up, unable to say it out loud

Maybe I wasn't so unforgettable after all or maybe something gave me away. My surname for one, or the bracelet around my wrist or maybe it was those few glances had thrown at her, that were a second too long, when I wondered if she remembers me, or all the times, I had looked like I wanted to say something, but didn't, because I got scared of the conversation to come.

I took two steps closer to her "Do you have plans tonight?"

"No, unless you call falling asleep by TV a plan," Beth chuckled softly at her own line. Once the smile dispered, she became a lot more serious and warily asked "How is she...I mean, Amy? How is she doing? Is she still a cop?"

"Want to go for a ride?" I asked, hiding a suggesting that I take her to see her so she can ask for herself. I was sure, mom would love see her too. Not only for old time sake, but also to meet the person, who I was working with side by side and who is suppose to have my back out in the field.

Beth picked up my hidden agenda and a smile slowly grew on her lips, before she nodded her head, understanding what I was asking her.

Little did I know, that Beth was going to see not only Amy again, but meet a lot more people.