On Call | JENLISA

Chapter 6

Lisa kept her promise for a month.

She honestly didn't mean to break it.

For an entire month, she'd been more careful than she ever had before. She'd double and triple checked gear. She'd helped with radio calls instead of going on Search and Rescue missions where she wasn't really needed. She'd steered clear of imminent danger as much as she could and made it home to Jennie every night. But just like most things in her life, just like most dangerous scenarios, it just happened.

It was nearing the end of April and it was finally getting warmer, warm enough for Lisa to roll her windows down as she drove. She had a few bags of groceries in the back of her car since she was determined to fix Jennie a nice dinner for their date night tonight. She'd been having trouble keeping the words 'I love you' in for the past few weeks.

She felt like the two of them were finally ready. She felt like Jennie was ready to hear them.

Her heart was light, her radio was blasting R.E.M., and the sun was shining, making her mood ten times better.

But then she saw the cloud of dark smoke rising over the back of a house and her mood plummeted.

Instead of turning left toward her house, she turned right, wanting to get a good look at the situation, wanting to make sure that the guys she'd left at the fire station were taking care of it.

Instead of seeing one of their fire trucks, though, all Lisa saw was a teenage girl, standing barefoot on the side of the road with her hands waving for her to stop.

So, she did.

Lisa stopped and got out of her car, the heat from the house fire warming up the air around them.

"My sister," the teenager choked out, her finger pointing toward one of the upstairs windows where a younger girl was trying to pull open the window.

"Did you call 911?" Lisa asked, staring at the house and trying to figure out just how far gone the fire was at this point.

"Yeah, they're coming," the girl nodded, gripping onto her arm. "They'll get her right?"

She couldn't answer. She couldn't lie and say that they'd save her sister. She couldn't even hear a siren. She couldn't hear them coming, and she was worried that in a few minutes, it might be too late.

So, she broke her promise.

Without gear, without logic, without rational thought, she pulled her arm away from the teenager, grabbed a spare t-shirt from her car, and ran into the house. She kept the t-shirt over her mouth, not that it was really doing much, and tried to follow some sort of protocol. She felt the floor, not liking how incredibly hot and suffocating it felt in the house without her gear.

But she didn't have time. There wasn't time to spare, not when the fire was licking at the banister, not when it would likely ruin the stairs in mere minutes.

She raced to the second floor, yelping slightly when the fire got close, singing the bottom of her jeans. She pushed her way into the room where the younger girl was still clawing at the window.

"Hey, hey, it's okay," Lisa said, reaching for the kid. "Is anyone else in the house?"

"No," the little girl whimpered.

"Okay. Let's get out of here, all right?" She asked, trying to stay calm. She stepped back into the hallway and glanced toward the stairs, the fire even worse than when she'd raced up the stairs. "It looks like the window is our best bet," Lisa mumbled, shutting the bedroom door and heading to the window.

"It's stuck," the kid said, her voice wobbly.

"Let me give it a try, okay?" She said, tugging on the window handles. It had been painted over, making the window stick just a little bit. She pulled again, her biceps flexing as she yanked on the window.