Line of Duty Love

Meeting Again

He jumped into his Dodge after running down flights of stairs from his third story country apartment. He started his red truck plugging in his new LED lights and siren. Blaring them both he quickly drove into town. He was passing cars that know him well and have been pulled over for him numerous times.

He pulled into the parking lot of the tall and beautiful, just built, firehouse. He turned off his truck barely giving himself enough time to pull the keys out before running inside. Just as he was his longtime friend, Jace, was doing the same. They both went to their gear and jumped in.

"Nice day for a fire, huh Eli?" Jace was smiling from ear to ear; it had been a long time since Baldmeadow had seen something that was reported as big as this was. They loved the thrill and the adrenaline rush that fighting fires gives them, but yet at the expense of destroying someone's home, they didn't like that too much.

Eli just nodded, smiling to himself, "Only if the fire will corporate it will be." They both laughed as they grabbed their leather helmets and ran for the trucks that each would be driving. Jace drove the Ladder, and Eli the brand new Engine that hasn't yet seen a fire.

They waited for their crews to show up, Eli longer than Jace. Then they left for the fire that the dispatcher was repeating for them. Being a half volunteer station people came from all over the county to run there. Some may even have to pass the scene of the fire to make a rig.

When Eli pulled onto the scene Jace was red and he wasn't smiling anymore. Eli parked the Engine, leaving it running. He jumped out and walked over to his pissed off best friend.

"Let me guess, stove fire that they put out themselves?"

Jace looked at him and just shook his head with Eli's comment making him smile a little, "Their tree was on fire and the boy put it out with the garden hose."

Eli sighed and shook his head, "All right, lets go back to the station. The paperwork isn't going to write itself." They walked back to their trucks, a little pouty, and drove home.

After backing the Engine into its spot and getting out a junior member came up to Eli, "What was it chief? How bad was it?" She had a smile on her face. Nikkie, the first of many firsts the company got this year, was the only female junior. Since she was 17 turning 18 soon everyone's worried about having a female driver in a few years, which is what she wanted to be.

"There wasn't anything Nikkie." He saw Nikkie's face brighten up.

"That's good. That means that nothing or no one got hurt." Then she left to get her boyfriend, leaving Eli standing there thinking, God that's one weird girl. He took his bunker gear off and went to the office where he started the paper work.

Very few people bugged Chief Eli while he was doing his work. Even after everyone went home, except the night crew, he stayed there and hung out.

Eli was 14 when he first joined as a junior. Now he's 22, the youngest fire chief that they've had there. He's dating high school prom queen, who doesn't really like the firehouse too much.

Eli was sitting on the couch in the lounge when he got a phone call. He looked down at his phone as it rang, "Great." He pressed the talk button and held it up to his ear without saying hello.

"HOW DARE YOU NOT PICK ME UP!! WHERE ARE YOU! YOU KNOW WHAT! THAT DOESN'T MATTER ANYMORE!" Then he heard her sniffling, "We're done. No more you hear me! You're single now! Go have fun with your fire trucks!" Then she hung up on him. He was supposed to take her to the movies but forgot all about it because of the fire. Eli shrugged it off and put his phone away.

Eli went home around 1 in the morning. When he pulled into the building there was an extra car in the driveway, he groaned. "Damn people always parking in my spot." He parked his truck in the yard under the big oak. He'd hear it from his landlord in the morning but he didn't care at the moment.