Burning For You - Evan Buckley

Chapter Two - Coping With Failure

Morning seemed to come too fast. Last night was fairly sleepless due to the uncovering of events that Beau buried a long time ago. Talking about losing people always brought back that guilt that just never seemed to go away. It always lingered.

Beau was back in that room, taking her frustrations out on the punching bag. It was a thankfully slow day so far. "Hey Beau," Hen spoke from the doorway, catching her attention. Hen may have only known Beau for a day, but something was definitely wrong, anyone could tell, "Are you alright?"

Beau took a moment, sighing softly before sitting on the bench, "Uh, yeah.. it's just, when I got home last night. My sister was watching the news coverage about what happened on that rollercoaster. She asked me if I had ever dealt with something like that before. It just, made me think of some things I don't like thinking about."

Hen walked over and sat next to her, "We've all got things like that. You can't help but think about the people you couldn't save."

"Yeah, and then what happened to Buck yesterday. I wish he'd let someone talk to him about it. I've tried but-"

"He keeps saying he's fine, I know, I've tried too." Hen finished the thought, standing up and making her way back to the doorway, "Anyways, I came to tell you that Bobby almost has dinner ready. Thought you might be interested."

"If it's Bobby cooking, I could eat even if I wasn't hungry." Beau laughed as she took the tape off from her hands and put her LAFD shirt back on over her tank top. "I'll be up in a sec, gonna go clean up a bit."

Hen made her way out and Beau made her way to  the restroom to wash her hands and clean her face of sweat. After that she made her way up the stairs, the smell of food finally reaching her nose. Once she reached the second floor she made her way over to where Bobby was finishing up cooking, "That smells amazing."

"You have perfect timing, it just got finished." Bobby laughed at Beau, she was already standing beside him, plate in hand, ready to dig into her dinner. Once she got her plate she sat down next to Buck. He had that distant look again, like he was far off in thought. Chimney set a plate down in-front of him, "I'm not hungry."

"This is America, Buckaroo. Eating has nothing to do with being hungry." Chimney said as he walked to make his own plate.

"Man, I was right there." Buck started catching Beau's attention, "You know, all he had to do was reach up and grab my hand."

Chimney sat down across from the two of them, "People do funny things at times like that. Sometimes they just freeze up."

"I've never lost anyone before." Buck stated feeling a bit uneasy talking about it, "Does it get any easier?"

"No." Beau said quickly, catching everyone's attention. "It doesn't."

Chimney decided to try and put it into simpler terms, "Look, people die, and that's part of the gig, right? See, your problem is, you're looking at every job like it's a long-term relationship. They're one-night stands, man. In that moment, they mean everything to you, but once morning comes.. it's on to the next one."

"Okay, I would've probably worded it differently, but Chimney's right." Beau agreed.

"Hey," Hen's voice caught everyone's attention, "Hope you guys don't mind, I brought some company to family dinner. Athena's going through some, uh, stuff at home. So, she could use a little TLC."

Bobby went in for a side hug that Athena returned and Beau couldn't help but think briefly about how the two looked good together, "Well, we don't usually allow cops at secret firehouse meetings. But, uh, I'll make an exception."