all you have is your fire

two

Fire burned under Derek's skin and shame swirled in his gut as he stalked out of the room, the nurse from earlier chucking under her breath. He'd never, never been so completely and utterly embarrassed in his life.

Okay, there was that one time, when he was ten years old and climbed a tree to rescue his cat, only to have it dash past him. That wasn't even the worst part. He could have brushed it off if that had been the only embarrassment he'd suffered that day. But it had quickly gotten worse. So much worse.

Even with the memory of that day forever in his mind, this ranked well beyond that.

The warm air hung thick with the mingled scents of pine cleaner, old books and lavender as Derek made his way into the large common room. Over a dozen women gathered in groups near the walls. Immediately he remembered the last time he saw grandma, sitting in her rocking chair with a book on her lap and a pencil in her shaking hand as she pondered the solutions to the New York Times crossword puzzle.

But now... he never expected to see this.

Instead, the sight that greeted him was that of a pale figure, curled up on thick carpet with a bundle of yarn near her outstretched hand.

Panic gripped his chest as he inched closer. "Oh my God... is she breathing? She's not dead, is she? Wait, am I going to need to do CPR? I've only done it once, on a practice dummy, and wait, what if I break her ribs? She's not going to sue, is she?"

A faint grunt escaped the old woman's lips and she opened her eyes slowly before blinking them shut. "Oh for the love of Pete, someone shut that kid up before he talks me to death."

"But-" Derek took a step back, confusion plastered on his features as he glanced first at the nurse, then at Stiles who had just entered the room behind him, his arms crossed in smug satisfaction. "But why were we..."

"Just a precaution." The nurse stepped aside and Stiles walked past Derek. Like he'd probably done more times than he could count, Stiles lowered himself to the floor and rummaged through his EMT bag for his stethoscope and blood pressure cuff.

"What the hell-"

"Dude, calm down." Stiles turned to glare at him with exasperation. "She has a history of fainting, they've called us like a dozen times when she feels a little weak and she's always fine." He turned away, then pressed his stethoscope to the inside of the woman's arm while inflating the blood pressure cuff as if it were something he did every day. Which, truth be told, he probably did.

And the whole time, Derek stood there, frozen like an idiot while Stiles checked the rest of the woman's vitals, helped her to her feet, and basically did everything that he should have done.

Once everything was done and the paperwork complete (without a single paper cut, thank goodness), Derek made his way down the hallway, following Stiles towards the exit. He wanted to believe that Stiles would keep this little incident between them, that he wouldn't let the other firefighters know. That Stiles would have just a shred of decency and keep his already bruised ego intact.

Ha! Like a paramedic possessed even a shred of integrity.

The moment they left the building, Stiles clapped Derek on the back and shouted loud enough for everyone to hear, "It's okay, Derek... Maybe next time you won't choke. Or at the very least, stop talking long enough to know what's going on before you start jumping to conclusions."

It was all Derek could do not to slap that smug know-it-all with his annoying laugh. If he did, he'd get suspended, or worse, expelled.

So he held it back, did his best to keep his emotions in check and block out the growing laughter around him on his way back to the ambulance.