Rescue Me (Justin Bieber Love Story)

Chapter 1

• Justin •

Ryan's cellphone rang out with the ringtone for his wife, Rose, and I hid my grin at his groan. At six months pregnant, the calls had been increasing in frequency lately. I continued polishing the chrome on the fire truck as Ryan spoke quietly into the phone. And then his head snapped up. "She did what? You let her do that? How long has she been up there, Rosy?"

He listened for a moment and then sighed. "Don't cry, baby. I'll go talk to the Captain." He jumped up walking toward Carlisle's office. I shrugged, not understanding what was happening or who Rosy let go where or why she'd been there for so long. No doubt he would fill me in when he got back. I'd only been with this fire station for about eight weeks, having moved recently. Ryan and I connected right away and worked a lot of our shifts together. Today had been a quiet one with no calls so far, so we were washing and polishing up the fire trucks, instead of sitting around with the rest of the crew watching TV. Neither of us liked to stay still.

A few minutes later he reappeared. "Justin. I gotta go help Rosy with a situation. Carlisle said it was okay to take you with me. I might need back up. We can take his truck."

I jumped off the rig. "What kind of situation?"

"One of Rosy's girls is caught."

"Caught?"

"On a ladder. She can't get down."

I smirked a little. "Seriously, Ry?Like a cat caught in a tree? We have to go coax some girl off a ladder?"

He nodded.

I shook my head, chuckling. "Fine. But I get to drive."

"Okay, I'm just going to grab a first aid kit, in case. Rose thinks she's hurt."

My amusement stopped. "How?"

"She said she saw blood."

Now I was serious. "Let's go."

******

I stood gaping at the above before me. Rose's restaurant had three large peaked window alcoves at the front. The ceilings soared to as least twenty-four feet tall and each alcove housed a huge chandelier, dripping with faceted crystals. Rising up from the floor beside one of the chandeliers was a ladder and perched on the top of it, completely immobile, was a slip of a girl. She was straddling the top of the ladder, perched so close to the edge my heart clenched at her precarious position. One of her hands was pressed against her chest, clenched in a fist so tight I could see the white of her knuckles from where I stood, while the other hand was gripping the top ledge of the metal rungs. A dark, wet line crossed her skin, whatever she was gripping so fiercely obviously cutting into her skin, the blood leaving a trail. Her face was blank, her eyes fixed on a spot on the chandelier, her gaze never wavering.

"What is she doing up there?" I hissed. She looked as though she could fall off any given second, especially the awkward way she was perched on the top, far too close to the edge for my liking. If she passed out or got dizzy...I swallowed heavily at the thought.

"Cleaning the chandelier," Rose offered.

"Why?"

Her eyebrows furrowed. "They were dusty?"

"Couldn't you get a service in for that?"

She shook her head. "We always do it. Erin says she does a better job."

"She always climbs up the ladder? This hasn't happened before?"

"Yes. She did the other two earlier this week, no problem. But today she went up and then just froze. She hasn't moved in like twenty minutes, and I can't get her to say a word!" Her lip started to tremble.