The Fighter

Chapter 47

I couldn't keep myself from laughing. "John, this is Greg's older brother P.J." I forced a smile. "Oh, that explains it." John got up and stood there. "Come on, let's go to my house. We'll get some ice for your hand." I looked at P.J. And walked toward my truck.  We got to my house and got him ice. I started laughing when I handed it to him. "What?" He laughed and asked. "Nothing, no one has ever stood up to John like that. I mean, I have because I wasn't gonna take his abuse. I just thought it was funny." I was still laughing. "He deserved it. I'm pretty sure it was something my brother wanted to do. I was just the messenger." He shrugged. "Well, thank you. It made my day." "You're welcome. Are you hungry? You wanna go grab a bite to eat?" "Well, you're lucky, because I am really hungry. You wanna drive my truck?" "Sure, you should straight stack this thing." "Um, no thank you." I laughed and followed him outside.
"So, if you get called out, can we run the blue light?" "In town no, but up in our district yes. Chief'll have my ass." "Isn't your grandfather the chief?" "Yes! That doesn't mean anything! I don't get any exceptions." "Well, that sucks. You should at least have some pull." "Yes, I know! That's what I've been saying the entire time!" I laughed.
Kyle called me and said that he and Jet were bored out of their minds, so we invited them and they met us downtown to eat. We all sat at a booth. It was Jet and P.J. one one side, Kyle, and I on the other. My phone went off. It was a text from county. We had an EMS call. "If it was a good call, I was gonna kick all of your asses." I laughed looking at my phone. I reached down to the side and turned my pager on. Apparently, it was off. "We don't do EMS." Kyle laughed. "I know, if it was a MVA we would probably go." Jet cleared his message.
         "Probably. If there was entrapment. I just don't want to pull any other members of my family out of a wreck." I sighed and rolled my eyes. "Your family? Who did you pull out?" P.J. turned to me and asked. "My father." "Right, I think Greg told me about that. He passed shortly after that right?" "Yeah, he was bad when we pulled him out. I was surprised that he made it to the hospital." I nodded and thought back to that pleasant experience."He didn't make it much longer. My brother Gavin took it the hardest. I think he was always hoping we would all be a family again. But, I wasn't." "How's Avvy doing with Gavin?" Kyle asked, he misses her a lot, almost as much as I do. "She's actually doing really well. She's got straight A's and she's student of the month. She's happy, and that's all I ever wanted." I sighed. "Mickie, are you thinking about giving Gavin guardianship?" Jet asked, but I think he already knew the answer. "Yes, I think that it would be good for her to stay with him. Since, I am reckless and self-destructive." I laughed a little when I said used Ky's words. "Don't forget impulsive!" Jet added. We all laughed. "I can see why you didn't want to leave here." P.J. smiled. "Yeah, these are my best friends, and I don't know where I would be without them." I shrugged.
Later that night, I was in bed and it was quiet. Way too quiet. Then of course, it wasn't quiet anymore the pager started beeping and then squawking. "Hale Country to Clarksville. Structure fire at your station, smoke visible." I heard that and jumped right up. Papa was already to his truck so, I slipped on my bunker pants, grabbed my helmet, and coat and was out the door with him. I jumped into his truck, no time to screw with mine. My head was racing, and my heart was breaking. Our station, our home was on fire. I was praying to God that it was savable.
We got to the station and I immediately put my coat, helmet, and gloves on. I ran around the building following Papa. "Pack up!" he yelled. Jet and Kyle were right behind me. I went and put my air pack on. I grabbed a line and headed toward the back where the smoke was coming from.
"We got water!!" Ray yelled manning the pump. I put braced myself, so the pressure wouldn't knock me on my ass. One of the younger guys ran over to back me up. "Mickie, hit up there!" Papa commanded pointing to the lower part of the roof. I opened the nozzle up and set it to fog pattern. Papa had the guy who was backing me up use a pike pole and tear off the siding and the roof of the station where we were. Papa then got behind me and had be spray the spot. Smoke and flames came out as soon as they removed the siding. I shut the nozzle down letting them get into the side of building more. No more flames were visible, but they had us soak it again just to make sure.

Then, Papa had me take the line into the kitchen where the fire had started. I walked in and saw some flames on the wall behind the stove. I was instructed to spray over the top of the stove so, the water would reach down under the stove. After a little while, my air pack started going off. I was getting low on air. I looked at the officer for one of our neighboring departs and he told me to go. I walked out and walked over to the other firefighters. I took my helmet, nomex, and my mask off. "You good?" Kyle asked. "Yeah, just ran out of air. You want to help me change it?" I asked turning my bottle off, and then releasing the left over air. "Yeah, come here." Kyle smiled. "Hey, you take a break yet?" Jet came over and asked. "No, I just came out. I ran out of air." I unzipped my coat. "Here. Take a break and drink this." he handed me a bottle of water. When Ky was done, I took the pack off and set it down next to me. "This is crazy." I sighed watching them tear more into the side of our station. I was inside so long, I didn't see everyone come to help us. There were a lot of people. People from 7 different departments were there. Even some members of our department who weren't active or in anymore.

The brother hood was alive and well and it made me want to cry. It was so overwhelming, all the love and support. Trust me, I thank God everyday for the amazing save, for all the support, and for all the brotherhood. It's home to many of us and everyone comes out when it's your home. I looked at Ky and then at Jet, they both smiled and it made me feel better. These two have had my back since day one, and I don't know what I would do without them.