I Am Morgan

Chapter 4: One Minute

"Why didn't you call Harry back? I liked him." Dawson asks me as we open the back doors of the rig to reveal a pumpkin.

"Eh, he wasn't all that."

"You have major commitment issues."

"Yeah, yeah." I roll my eyes.

"Or is it Severide issues?" She asks and I glance at her, "I've seen the way you look at him." She smiles.

"Please put this out the front." I hand her the ginormous pumpkin, "I'm gonna take this stuff to the kitchen."

I walk in and dump the huge bags of candy onto the counter while Herrmann hangs up a 'Happy Halloween' sign.

"Wow." Mills looks at the bags.

"This is for the trick-or-treaters." I tell him, "And heads up, Halloween is chief Boden's favorite holiday." He begins to laugh lightly, "Oh, I'm dead serious."

I stand on the counter and put the bags up the top.

"We can see where you're putting that." Otis says.

"Hey, nobody touches the candy, we ran out last year." I warn them all and jump back down.

"I graciously donate my in-laws' television, and I cannot get a piece of candy?" Herrmann groans and I smile sweetly at him before he playfully pushes me away.

"Engine 51, truck 81, squad 3, ambulance 61. Warehouse fire, 6620 Oak Park." The buzzer sounds and as usual we make our way on scene.

"This is the old Triskin warehouse." Casey notices.

"Looks like the door's been pried open, there could be squatters inside." says Kelly.

"Smoke's already coming out pretty quick. We don't have long on this one." Boden says. "Engine 51, give me a two and a half in the front door. Truck 81, open up the back and vent the skylights. Kelly, give me that primary search."

"You got it."

The companies do as they are instructed and we wait outdoors prepping for a possible triage depending how many squatters are inside.

A few are brought out to us and we share them across ambo's as other firehouses got the call

"All officers, take count of your firefighters. Nobody goes back in. All members out of the collapse zone. Everybody, back up. Back up." All the firefighters move back after Boden radios this through - most reluctant of them all is Mills who saw someone else inside but was ordered out of the building immediately.

I've been working at this firehouse for a very long time and I've seen a lot of firefighters try to run back into the burning building to save one last person. It never ends well.

All firemen and paramedics eventually question whether the job is right for them during a breakdown in their first couple of months after seeing something traumatic. No one knows when it will happen, but we're all waiting for Mills to not be able to handle a call. That's when we'll know if he's a good egg or a bad egg - through the way he handles himself at that time.

We carry on treating the squatters and after a few seconds of clearing the area the windows smash and a massive wave of flames spills out everywhere before turning into thick black smoke.

"Fire up the water cannons." The radio sounds as we load up our patient and transport them to the hospital.

*