Line of Duty Love

The Call

Eli got his pack on as his driver was running lights and siren to the house. When they pulled up they saw it was fully involved. He looked to his crew and told them that they were going in. The driver parked the engine and Eli went right to where the family was. He confirmed that there was someone still inside.

He went to the truck, got his three best interior guys and they all grabbed the stuff they thought that they would need inside. Eli looked at Dallas who was holding command now that he was going inside, "If we're not out in 20 send another group in for us."

Dallas looked at him quickly and nodded, "Alright, you better come back for both of our sakes. Bianca will kill me if you don't." They both smiled at each other.

Eli nodded seriously and slapped dallas on the back, "Will do boss." Then he and his men jogged to the door with their heavy packs. The popped it open hidden behind the wall away from the opening in case of a flashover. Nothing happened, so to the civilians they looked like idiots, but they were keeping themselves safe. Eli realized the fire was mainly on the second floor, he told his men about it through his mask and he also told them to make sure it's not under them. They had to test the floor as they walked along the wall. They slowly made their way to the building calling out the name for the man that was lost within.

Bianca sat on the couch in the lounge with her hands cupping her nose and mouth with her leg shaking. She was scared, she knew her father was on the call as well as Eli was, but she had a bad feeling about this one.

She sat there for what felt like forever till she heard her father over the monitor saying that he was taking over command and Chief Young was taking a crew inside and would be radio contact. Bianca started to shake when some other women came in laughing. They saw her sitting there and stopped.

A blonde looked at her and smiled, "You must be Eli's new girl." Bianca nodded. "Well, welcome to the fire wife/girlfriend club." She walked over to her sitting at her side. "oh, ladies she's shaking. Get a blanket for her please. I'll try to calm her down." She looked at Bianca and smiled warmly. "It'll be okay. They always over exaggerate things over the radio. They always come home safe. Your man makes a point for that. He's one of the best chief's that this company has had."

The blonde made Bianca feet a little better; she nodded and looked at her rubbing her shoulders. Someone had put a blanket around her shoulders, "Thank-you" She whispered, "I'm Bianca."

The ladies all smiled, "We know. We read your articles, and we know your dad." the blond said, "I'm Sandy, the main driver of the engine's wife. These two are Kendra and Megan. Their men are on the crew Eli took in with him. Mine won't be inside so I don't know how you feel, but I used to. Come on let's go get some coffee."

Bianca looked at them, grateful, "Thanks, I'd like to but I'd rather stay here and listen to the monitor."

Sandy nodded, "Alright, we'll bring you one back. Let us know what happens." She smiled, patted her hand, then the girls left.

When they left she could hear the monitor better. She heard Eli talking to command asking questions around the house and where the man might be. She smiled at this, she wondered if this was what he did to save Bailey.

All of a sudden things started to get heated in the radio she heard Eli saying that the floor was too soft then there was another firefighter on the radio saying something that Bianca didn't want to hear, "Mayday! Mayday! Firefighter down!"

She heard her father come back on and say something else that she didn't want to hear, "If you can get to him drag him out, if not leave him and get out, it's not safe. The hoses aren't working anymore. Pull out, pull out."

Bianca didn't realize it but she was standing after she heard the mayday. When she heard her father talk she had collapsed to her knees and started to cry.

When Sandy and the other two women walked into the room they were laughing, but when they saw her crying, they stopped. "Oh no" She looked at Kendra and Megan. "End the reunion. You know what to do, get food started in the kitchen. I'll stay in here and take care of her." Sandy put her arms around Bianca and pulled her up to the couch. Sandy held her in her arms, "Do you know who it is."

Bianca started to shake her head as she talked, "I think it's Eli." She started crying again. He was talking then all of a sudden he wasn't, someone else was." Sandy held Bianca right to her and listened to the speaker.

The crew all came out of the building but the down firefighter. They sent the RIT Team in after him after they had the fire more stable. They called for an ambulance but by the time the RIT got there it was too late and they called the coroner. Bianca started sobbing. Sandy pulled her tighter to her and tried to get her to quiet down. It was no use though.

The other girls came into the lounge when the food was ready and everyone was gone. They sat on the other side of Bianca, rubbing her back and listening too. Kendra heard her husband's voice as the one who took over when the Mayday went down. Megan didn't know where hers was, she had a feeling it wasn't him though just by what Bianca said and how she was acting. The two women went and brought her comfy clothes to get out of the dress to relax. Bianca changed and resumed her position on the couch with the girls on either side of her.

A few hours later the men were back from the call. The fire took a while to put out, after they lost their man, the men lost their will to fight the fire. They felt like they couldn't go on. He was their leader, the one that was always in charge, making sure that everyone came home safe. Now he's the one they have to prepare a funeral for. Irony in the fire service sucks.

When they got back, as soon as she heard the backing up noise, Bianca ran out to the bay barefooted and went to Eli's rack, hoping to see him, hoping he had just gave the radio to someone else because they found the man, but he wasn't there. His gear wasn't there. She stood there staring at it when someone came up behind her and put his helmet on the rack. It was burnt up and bubbly looking. Seeing his helmet in this start made her knees buckle. She fell to the ground and started to cry again.

Her dad came up from behind her and put a hand on her shoulder. He looked down at her, "Baby girl, I'm sorry, we did everything we could for him." What she did next surprised him.

Bianca stood up and started hitting him on the chest, "How could you let him go in there! How could you let him die! I loved him! Bailey loved him! We had plans." She whispered the next part, "Now that's all taken from me." Her father put his arms around her and looked at the growing crowd of firefighters. He shoed them away as she held her.