Troublemaker | Station 19

18. Bringing Up The Past

"Excuse me. We are not finished." The chairman said as the whole team of station 19 walked inside the barn.

"Commission, I'm Captain Maya Bishop from Station 19, and I'd be doing this department a disservice if I didn't bring our team here today to fight for our battalion chief the way he has fought for us so many times before," Maya said as she stood in front of all of them. Robert was certainly surprised to see them all there for him. "Robert Sullivan is an excellent firefighter. He's one of the best. He's committed to the job. He's patient with his time and leadership."

"He made a mistake,"  Vic said.

"He made some mistakes," Maya continued to say.

"Because he was suffering from pain from an injury he got on the job," Vic said.

"Putting others' lives before his. He's one of us," Travis said.

"He's one of us. He's one of the good ones," Jack said.

"He's one of the good ones, both as a human and a firefighter. And I've seen a lot of people who are terrible at both." Andy said.

"He was in chronic pain. He needed drugs to treat it. And, yes, he became dependent on those drugs. He became desperate." Jack said.

"My husband died because of a crappy captain who didn't know how to ask for help. Sullivan is nothing like that guy. He made a mistake, but he's asking for help." Travis said.

"Robert Sullivan lost his parents in a plane crash, and he still became the high school valedictorian. He lost his wife in an accident, and he still climbed the ladder to battalion chief," Andy added in.

"In our job, when you go down physically, we rehabilitate you. He went down physically. Addiction is a treatable, chronic disease, so we rehabilitate him. We do not throw him out with the trash," Maya said.

"At SFD, we take care of our own," Ben started. "Dixon? He was never one of us. He was out for blood. He wanted everything that he put us through to come down on someone else's head. That's not justice. Losing a damn good firefighter is not justice!" Ben shouted in emphasise.

"Let's take a recess, please," The chairman said as Robert nodded at the team.

"Thank you all, you didn't have to do that," Robert said as he walked over to them and they all walked out of the barn to let the commission discuss.

"We did," Maya said. The team all nodded in agreement.

"We meant what we said, you're a damn good firefighter," Jack told him. "You made a mistake, but that doesn't mean you should lose your job over it,"

"And we would hate to see you not be one anymore," Travis said.

"Thank you all, it means a lot to me!" Robert said as he stared at his wife, this 90-day separation was tough for them both. "Where's Miller?" he wondered.

"Uh, he hurt his knee so he's upstairs icing it," Vic explained, not mentioning the fact that Dean didn't want to join in with them all. Robert nodded in understanding.

"Alright, since the film is over, do you want to help me make dinner?" Carina asked once the film was finished, she was pretty relieved to not have the clown jump up on the screen again, she was definitely not a fan of horror films.

"Sure," Maddie nodded in agreement.

"What shall we make?" Carina wondered. "I bet that your mom will be hungry when she returns from work," she added.

"Umm... Lasagne?" Maddie asked.

"I think we can do that Bambina," Carina agreed as they got to work making dinner. "Alright, let's put the blankets away and we can go make a start on dinner," she said. Maddie nodded in agreement, folding up the blanket to the side and joining Carina in the kitchen.