The Fighter

Chapter 17

We got to the scene and there was smoke visible, but no visible flames. I went and got an air pack. "Mickie, you're going in with the guys and the hose." Harry directed. "Greg, I need you to man the hose from the outside." He turned to Greg. I went in with John and Jet. Kyle was nowhere to be found. I would probably be outside manning the hose with Greg if Kyle was here. It's not like him to miss a call, especially a fire. "Ready?" Jet came over to me. I glanced around the scene one more time to make sure that Kyle didn't come last minute and then nodded. "Let's go guys!" John yelled to us and we took the hose and walked. John had the thermal imager looking for hot spots and Jet and I had the hose.

We walked around the house. John was in front of us. "Are you getting anything?" I asked yelling up to John. "Nothing! Are you guys okay back there?" He looked back at us. "I'm good." Jet answered first. "Me too." I paused for a second. I was looking around the room. "Hey, guys does the smoke look a little brown to you?" I asked. "What?" John stopped and so did Jet. "It is brown." Jet looked at it for a minute. John walked forward. He was going to open the bedroom door. I saw a quick orange glow/flash underneath. "JOHN NO!" I yelled but it was too late. He opened the door and we had a flash over. "Get out! Now!" John yelled and we ran towards the front door. The heat was on our backs and I was sweating buckets. "What was that?!" Greg asked when we got out. I ran over to switch air packs. "That was a Backdraft." I took my mask off. "Like the movie?" "Yeah, but not as bad as the ones in the movie. This was a small one, thank God." I put my mask back on and went back to the hose. Harry looked very concerned when we went back up front. "You guys okay?!" he yelled over to us. "Yeah, I think I need to change my bunkers!" John laughed. "I had my heart attack for the day!" Jet laughed too. "I have never ran so fast in my life!" I joined in.

We were at that house for a total of two and a half hours. Back the station, they had Jet, John, and I checked out by one of our paramedics. We were in the office getting examined. "You guys look fine to me. No noises in your lungs, blood pressure is good, heartbeat sounds good, and you're not light headed or anything. You guys check out." Ray smiled and went to tell Harry. "You probably saved our lives Mick." Jet spoke up. I put my bunker pants and boots back on. "No, I wish I had seen it sooner." I sighed. "Mickie, if you hadn't seen it when you did, we wouldn't have been able to handle it. Sure, it was scary, but when you yelled I went to close the door. Even though it was too late. It would have been worse." John put his hand on my shoulder. He was being sweet. "Thanks guys." I sighed. "Hey, your Grandfather is going to be pretty impressed when he hears about this. You were trained to notice and handle things like this. You did great." Jet put his hand on my other shoulder. "Thanks guys." "We're going to finish cleaning up. Are you coming?" John asked. "Yeah, I'm going to call Gavin and see how my dad is." I grabbed the phone off the desk. "Okay, oh and who did you come up with? You're truck is not here and you are." Jet teased. "Greg. We were hanging out. Go clean up!" I rolled my eyes.

Greg walked in when I was calling Gavin. He smiled and stood next to me. "Hello?" Gavin answered. "Hey Gavin, its Mickie." I knew he didn't recognize the number. "Hey! I text you like an hour ago. I thought you were ignoring me." He sounded more cheerful after I told him it was me. "No, I wasn't ignoring you. We had a call and it turned out to be pretty bad. I left my phone at the house. Was it important?" "No, it was just asking what you were doing and how you were." "Okay, yeah next time I will try and remember it. How's dad?" "The same as earlier, there really hasn't been any changes. He does have some internal injuries and as far as they can tell right now, there is no internal bleeding." "Okay, do you need me to come up?" "Not right now. I mean you can if you want to, but I know how you and hospitals are so it's up to you. I won't hold anything against you." "Thanks Gav. I'll be up in the morning. Unless something changes then call me and I'll come right up." "Okay, I can do that. I'll call or text you in a little bit and update you." "Please and thank you." "Okay, no problem. I'll talk to you in a little bit." "Okay, talk to you then." "I love you." "Love you too. Bye Gavin." I hung up and put the phone back.

Greg pulled me close to him and hugged me. "Hi!" I smiled being in his arms. "Hi!" she smiled back. He kissed my head. "How's your dad?" he asked. "Same as before. Nothing has changed." "Oh, and how are you? Harry kind of rushed you three in here to be checked out." "I'm good. Everything is normal. Were you scared?" "I was actually. You scared me." "I'm sorry, hurry up and take fire fighter one and then you can come in with me." "I don't know about going in...." he seemed very uncomfortable with that. "It's not as scary or as bad as you'd think. Circumstances aside, it's pretty cool. And, I will be in there to protect you Kid." "Watch it with the kid shit." He laughed. "I'm older, so you're a kid to me." "Not by much! Only half a year." "More than half a year!" "Shut up." "Make me!" "I'm just kidding." He pulled me closer and grabbed both my hands with his. "You better be." "I am." "You'll get sick of me. Everyone does." I warned him. "Nope, never." "If you say so." I looked up at him. "I do." He leaned in and kissed me.

We were in the truck on the way back to my house. "So, what is this?" I asked. I don't know why, but I was kind of afraid of the answer. "This is us." He looked over at me. "There's an us?" "I want there to be an us. Do you?" "Yeah, actually I do." "Okay, so that settles it. You are officially taken and untouchable. You're mine." "And you're mine. Don't forget it." "As long as you don't." he smiled and I did too. I was honestly so very happy. He made me so happy.

I have a boyfriend now. Me, Mickie Ann Duke. The one who swore up and down that she didn't want or need a boyfriend. I can't wait to hear what Kyle has to say about this, if he ever freaking answers me or shows up at calls. He's becoming more distant and it's making me really nervous and uneasy. He was the one who warned me not to date Greg. I can't wait to prove him wrong.

We pulled into the drive way, he parked, and shut his truck off. "Are you hungry?" I asked. "A little bit." "Come on in, I'll make you something to eat." I suggested. "Okay." He smiled and came inside with me. We put our gear by the door and I started something that I found in the cupboard on the stove. He came up and held me from behind. I loved it.