Burning For You - Evan Buckley

Chapter Eight - Safe

(Because I don't want to rely on a translator and so everyone can understand what's being said)

(Underline = Spanish)

Staying safe seemed so much easier said than done. Between work and trying to keep an eye on her sister, Beau left like she was losing her mind. Athena's visit this morning was weighing on her mind. Sherri seemed to be getting even more reckless, she didn't care about getting caught or even possibly dying. So, what was stopping her from showing up at any time?

Once she got to work, they all agreed that Jean was sticking with everyone all day. That meant she got to ride in the engine on every call. It was Bobby's idea, he didn't want to take to chance on leaving her with one or two people at the firehouse. He felt like the more people around her the better.

Their first call was a car accident. Jean stayed in the truck and watched as everyone piled out, rushing over to the scene. There were three cars, it looked like car number three wasn't paying attention and ran up on a red light. Sandwiching the minivan in the middle pretty bad. Beau went to help the driver from the first car, them only having a few scraps and bruises. She could overhear Hen and Buck trying to communicate to the driver of the minivan. It was a woman who was maybe in her early thirties, and Beau could hear that she was crying hysterically, speaking Spanish.

"Ma'am, I need you to take a deep breath. Everything is going to be okay." Hen tried her best to reassure her, but the language barrier was proving to be an issue. Beau walked over, asking Hen to let her try, "Are hurt anywhere, ma'am?"

The woman looked relieved, finally being able to communicate with someone, "Is my son okay?"

Buck and Hen exchanged a shocked glance, not knowing that she was fluent in spanish. It caught them both by surprise. Beau looked back at the two of them, "She's asking about her son."

Hen was quick to answer, "He's fine, just a bump on his head."

Beau nodded before smiling at the mother, "You're baby is safe. Now, let us make sure you are so you can go see him."

The mother breathed out a relieved sigh before nodding her head, "Okay, thank you. Thank you."

Beau was putting away the few tools they used as the last ambulance drove away. Buck walked over, "I didn't know you spoke spanish."

"Yeah." Beau smiled softly, "Eddie taught me when we were deployed. It passed the time. I know french too, well, cajun french. My grandma taught me."

"So, you know three languages? That's insane, I barely know the one." Buck easily returned her smile.

She laughed softly at his statement before explaining, "It comes in handy in this line of work. I'd love to learn another one."

"Yeah? What's the next language on your list?"

Beau thought to herself for a moment before deciding, "Well, it would be good for me to learn Portuguese. I've noticed there are a lot of people in California that speak it and it's not that far off from Spanish. But, I've always wanted to learn Mandarin too because it's also a very common language. Just, way harder to learn."

"You could always just learn both, definitely go for the easier one first." Buck suggested as he closed the hatch on the truck after they put away the last tool.

Beau started walking around the side of the truck, Buck following close behind. "Yeah, maybe. If I can ever find the time."

The two of them climbed into the back of the fire engine, taking their seats and buckling in. Jean was patiently sitting in the seat next to her sister, waiting to hear how everything went, "Smooth call?"