Her AU Book Two

A Heavy Weight

*At Firehouse 51: Inside the Briefing Room*

"We all knew that when we signed up. A firefighter dies in the line of duty, we are shocked. Our hearts are broken. But in some dark corner of our mind, we are bracing ourself for that possibility." Chief gazed around at each of the first responders in front of him before turning and grabbing Jones' helmet from where it had been resting above her turnout coat on a nearby chair. "But a firefighter takes her own life? That is not a contingency that we can prepare for. We can't change what happened. But we can learn from it. We all missed the signs here. And we can never let it happen again. So you reach out to each other. You be there for each other. Not just for today, or this week. . . always." Ana looked down and interlaced her hand with Kelly's at that. "I never want to see another member of this family slip through the cracks. Let's go to work."

"I'm gonna go check on Bloom." The Squad Lieutenant murmured, quietly before making his way over to their crew. "Let's go for a ride."

*On the Apparatus Floor: A Little While Later*

"Pony up, Gentlemen." Ana smiled, placing a boot down on the Squad Table.

"I talked to Bloom's old battalion chief in Denver, and I got an idea how to help him out." Kelly explained, pulling out some cash and dropping it in. "First step, we fill up this boot."

The other three men proceeded to mimic their Lieutenant's actions. Capp was the first to drop a bill into the boot and the Captain's face fell a bit at the value.

"You can't spare more than 5 dollars, Capp?" She prodded, gently.

The bald man just silently shook his head which, in turn, pissed Kelly off a little.

"Okay, do you guys know the warehouse fire that derailed Bloom's career?" He inquired, angrily.

"Yeah, ten guys got killed." Peter nodded.

"Because of a tough call he had to make." The Lieutenant elaborated.

"He was the incident commander?" The younger guessed, quietly.

"Correct." Ana confirmed, putting the boot on the ground so her husband could sit in his chair.

"Fire was in the structure. He had to give an order; no one else goes in. He made those guys stand there and listen to their brothers dying over the radio. They spit in his face, tried to go around him. He wrestled a few of them to the ground, and that's how he hurt his back." Kelly revealed. "He was trying to protect them, but the way they saw it. . . he abandoned all those guys inside and got 'em all killed."

"That is A Heavy Weight for a man to carry around, don't you think?" The Captain pointed out, softly.

Capp opened his wallet to show the couple that he literally had no more money on him.

"We can stop by the ATM." The Lieutenant offered, standing up and heading over to talk to Leslie who was waiting patiently a few feet away.

Ana watched Peter and Tony cough up a couple more bucks before heading over as well.

"Hey, I know why you two are doing this, but this guy's gonna keep letting you down." The blonde reasoned. "You know that, right?"

"Uh-huh." Kelly nodded, turning to face her once they were far enough behind the Squad Rig.

"But you're gonna try anyway." The paramedic realized.

"When Jones first arrived at 51, I made it clear that I wasn't someone that she could come to for help." The Lieutenant confessed. "I thought she needed a little tough love."