Inferno Part 3

~150~ Keeping Them Warm

Ellie's POV

Megan, Lilah, and I are in the other room, watching a FB live from our local weather station. They've now upped the snow total to 20 inches, and the ice will start in the middle of the night. The concern is that with as much snow as we're getting, along with the 1/2 inch of ice we're supposed to get, it's going to be disastrous with the already blizzard-type winds.

As the weather lady just said, "being outside in this would be catastrophic."

"I'm really thinking about going to the station," Taylor says to me when he comes in.

"What on earth for?"

"Ellie, there's people who will need help with this. I'm just sitting on my ass in my somewhat not cold house."

"Don't you dare. What if WE need you? Don't you dare leave. For once, you're putting this family over being Chief."

His eyes tighten. "That's not fair at all. I ALWAYS put this family above everything."

"You left us for the fire," I spit without thinking.

"Eleanor, I can't believe you just said that. My literal job is fighting fires...Of course I wasn't going to run away...."

"Ok, but your job is NOT to fight the snow."

"Ellie, I made an oath to protect the city of Trinidad."

"Taylor, there's already a Chief there on shift. I know he's not as high up as you are, but he still does a good job. I'm telling you that I don't feel good about this, and you're staying here."

He looks at me a long moment, ignoring the stares from Megan and Lilah.

"When has she EVER asked you to put her needs above other people?" Lilah hisses out.

"Didn't ask for your opinion, Lilah. Mind your own business," Taylor snaps, still staring at me.

Finally he nods. "Ok"

He turns around and leaves, going over and putting some more wood on the fire.

Liam comes over to me and shakes his head. "Mom, the twins are literally shaking it's so cold in here. What can we do?"

The fear in my son's eyes immediately tells me that we all need to be here, together. It wasn't Taylor's night to work...It was his night off. Maybe I'm being selfish, throwing a fit and making him stay with us, but sometimes it's ok to be selfish. I'm determined that this is one of those times.

"Ok, my dad taught me something once when we had a bad snowstorm. Go grab all the baking sheets I have," I say.

"Luke, where's the terracotta pots?"

"I'll get them," he says as he goes in the sunroom. Once Liam and Luke bring me the things, I go over to the floor in the living room.

"What're you doing, Ellie Jane?" Taylor asks as he kneels down next to me.

"My dad taught me a trick to get the house warm," I say as I set the first cookie sheet on the ground. I take several of the tea lights Nolan got, and light them. Then I take a small terracotta pot and put it over the lit tea lights.

"I need something metal to cover this hole....quarter or something," I say as I look around the room.

Wes gets in his pocket and hands me a quarter. I put it over the hole on the terracotta pot, and then put a bigger sized pot over the top of that one.

"Now what?" Liam asks with skepticism.

"Now you guys make several more of these, and place one in the kitchen and sunroom, and another one in here. Don't let the kids touch them; they'll be insanely hot soon. It should last about 4 hours, and then we'll have to light new tea lights."