Lights and Sirens

The Beginning of the Long Road

"Jamie! Hunny, wait up!" Gabby called as she raced after her son, Matt following her rapidly.

"Jamie!"

They followed him until he ran into Matt's office and slammed the door. Casey continued slowly forward towards the door when Gabby said his name. "Matt." She paused, her eyes glittering.

"Give him a minute to himself. He needs to interpret what he saw." Her voice was soft. Kind. He believed every word that she said.

"Gabby for all we know he could be crying so hard in there. He shouldn't have seen that." He didn't raise his voice but he wanted to go into that room so bad. He felt like he needed to see his son and comfort him.

He looked up and Gabby's big brown eyes were scanning him. He could tell that she was reading him and he wasn't going and hide how he was feeling. He new that Gabby was probably one of the most badass people in the whole world and not just at being a paramedic or a mother. Reading a person was one of her many talents and he loved watching her work. Whatever it was she always did things with such grace and he couldn't stop thinking how long it would have taken her to get this far. She began to walk slowly towards him. He felt his pulse quicken and struggled to keep his hands down by his sides. She was standing inches away from him and all he wanted to do was reach out and touch her. His hands twitched as they longed to be placed gently on her hips and pull her close into a warm embrace to help her get through what she had seen.

"Are you ok?" He croaked. Not what he had intended.

Gabby smiled before she answered. It was one of the smiles she did whenever he caught her off guard, which was barely ever. She was smiling down at the floor before she looked up and answered.

"I could be better but that hug that you gave me really made me feel better." Her eyes were still glittering with the imminent prospect of her bursting into tears.

"I'm glad that I could have been of service." He replied, his voice coming out more confident than before. She pushed his shoulder playfully.

"Did you want to go in and check that he is ok?" she asked.

"I thought you were never going to ask!" Matt replied with a big smile as he turned and started for the door.

__________________________

Danny was sitting on her bunk staring down at her hands. She couldn't stop thinking about the call they had only a few hours ago. Scenes where running through her head. The body being dragged out by the firefighters; the girl being carried out; shocking the mother. She slammed her fist into the wall beside her making Gabby look over from outside Casey's office. Her face changes from a motherly smile to a worried panic as she made her way over to Danny's bunk and sat on the edge.

"You ok Hun?" Gabby asked.

Danny looked up and let a tear fall gently down her face. Gabby leaned over and pulled her close, Danny wrapped her arms around her PIC's shoulders. "Dawson. I'm sorry; I shouldn't be reacting like this."

"Don't be silly!" Gabby said softly as she pulled away and looked Danny in the eye. "It was your first call. You were unlucky for it to be something as serious as that. My first call was to a kid at a school that had broken his nose." Danny chuckled. Gabby smiled and placed a hand on her shoulder. "You're just lucky that you have someone like Kelly that understands this whole world of 'first responding'."

"Guess your right. You're lucky you got Matt."

Gabby turned and looked over to Matt's office. The blinds were down and the door closed. She knew that Casey was great with Jamie but she needed to know what was going on with him. He had been acting up lately and that was way out of the ordinary for her son. Jamie was the most delightful boy to be around and he was always brilliantly behaved but Gabby knew there was something up and it was something more than him wanting his parents to get back together.