Set Fire To The Rain

Just A Couple of Hours

Noe

I sat waiting in the hospital corridor of an intensive care unit, knowing I had blown past visiting hours, but not feeling ok enough to leave Riley behind. 

The nurse had just told me that he'd come out of surgery on top and stable, but with a rough recovery ahead that would take him off the job for several months.

First Shepherd, and now Riley? 

That meant two guys knocked off my shift in a matter of days. Two sudden and unplanned vacancies on our truck that I'd have to scramble to ask guys from other houses to fill. 

Unusual was an understatement. 

Either we were the most unlucky firehouse in the city, or there was something shadier going on here that'd put a target on our backs. 

And as I began running the idea through my head, trying to put a face to who it was any of us might've pissed off on a call, a bouquet of mixed sunflowers, yellow and white daisies, and baby's breath dropped into the seat next to mine. 

I saw the big, yellow Get Well Soon balloon first, and then Alyson hiding behind it as she unraveled the balloon string from around her wrist so that she could sit down next to me without it whacking her back in the face. 

"Hey, you," she touched my shoulder lightly. "How you doin'?"

"Hey," I greeted her softly, the fatigue hanging on my voice telling her instantly that I hadn't slept all night. "You got my message."

"Yeah, in the midst of a very deep beauty sleep."

"I'm sorry. I couldn't call my mom about this. You know how she gets every time she hears about somebody getting sent to the hospital," I said. "I didn't want to put this on her tonight." 

"It's cool. I don't mind. I'm here for you guys," she assured me. "Is Riley alright?"

"Just got out of surgery. He's in bad shape. Looks like he'll pull through."

"Are you alright?" she inevitably asked me next.

"I'm lucky to be alive. I can't ask for better, so I guess that means I'm fine." 

"You don't look fine," she countered me. "You look like you could use a break from sitting in this hospital. You wanna walk around with me a bit? Maybe talk about it?"

"I just don't get it," I said, barely hearing her offer over my own racing thoughts. "I'll never understand why the kid did it. I can't piece it together."

"I don't know," she sighed. "There's so much anger in this world now. So many people who are unhappy with their lives. I don't know why they take it out on innocent people who have absolutely nothing to do with their problems. It's just fucking cowardice. It's like that Columbine incident that happened a couple years ago. You never know what's going through kids' heads these days. What they're dealing with. It's not the same as when me and you were growing up, you know? They just snap in the worse way."

"This felt like more than that. Personal, in a way. I just got this sick feeling that this wasn't some random act of violence this kid pulled," I told her. "I think this kid was looking to be placed in our house...I think he was after me." 

"You don't know that, Noe. The guy who did this was a mentally disturbed fuck. We don't know what he was thinking," Alyson tried to assure me. "And you didn't know the kid, did you? Why would he come after you, specifically?"

"Because it's not the first time someone's pulled a gun on me lately," I told her. "When I got called out to the Harris Fire, I ran into the guy who started the fire. Said if I talked, he'd make my life hell by coming after the people I care about to shut me up...Cassie convinced me to come forward and speak to the chief about it. I was waiting to catch him in his office...Until this happened."