Stand By Me

Six

The next few hours were slow at the firehouse and Taylor was in the middle of a game of cards with Otis, when Herrmann walked in.

"Taylor, there's someone to see you out on the apparatus floor," he informed her, causing Taylor to frown and set her cards down.

"Do not even think about looking at my cards, Otis," Taylor warned, heading out and smiling when she saw who it was, "Cameron..."

"Hi," Cameron replied with a smile, "I know that you're working, but I just wanted to come by and say thank you."

"It's not necessary," Taylor added, accepting the flowers and chocolates that he handed her, "How'd it go at the hospital?"

"It went great actually, I spoke to a doctor there and he's going to refer me to a therapist," Cameron told her, motioning to the boy standing beside him, "This is Corey... my boyfriend."

"It's nice to meet you, Corey."

"You too."

"Anyway, we really need to get to class," Cameron stated, hugging Taylor and walking towards the exit.

"Hey Cameron," Taylor called, causing the young boy to stop and look back at her, "I know that life can get hard sometimes, but it'll get better and in time you'll figure out that you're worth so much more than some people believe."

Nodding, the boys left and Taylor returned to the kitchen. Finding a vase to put her flowers in, she sat back down at the table where Otis was still waiting and picked up her cards to resume their game. Knowing that Otis had tampered with the deck of cards on the table, she decided to play dumb and grinned as she laid her winning hand on the table in the front of him.

"How?" Otis asked in disbelief.

"Talent... pure, non-cheating talent," Taylor joked as she looked over at Casey, "Lieutenant, Otis is taking over equipment check for me for the next three shifts and is buying the first round at Molly's after shift."

"Noted," Casey confirmed in amusement.

Grabbing herself a can of soda, she joined Mouch on the sofa and settled in to watch the film that he was currently engrossed in. Spotting Boden as he entered the room out the corner of her eye, she turned to in her seat and listened as he spoke.

"Just a reminder that Saturday is the firehouse barbecue and I expect everyone to be there."

Putting some of her cupcakes on a plate, she took them out to the ambulance and sat on the back of the rig as Shay finished her checks. Looking over as Boden's assistant sauntered across the apparatus floor, Taylor watched as she threw the guys a flirty smile and jumped as Shay scoffed beside her.

"I'm going to ask Severide to the barbecue," Taylor announced out of the blue, biting into a cupcake and looking over at Shay for her opinion.

"Finally," Shay replied.

Standing up, Taylor listened as the alarms went off and dropped the empty plate she was holding on the table as she rushed to get ready. The fire was already bad by the time they arrived, ripping through the third floor and taking out anything it touched.

Putting on her mask, she ran straight in without hesitation and headed up to the burning floor with Cruz in tow. Calling out, she felt her heart sink as no one responded and pushed on with the search. Stumbling across their first victim, she checked for a pulse and shook her head as Cruz took the body outside.

It was a further ten minutes before they had finished their search, finding two more fatalities and removing them from the blaze as Boden called for them to evacuate. Dropping onto a small grass bank as engine dealt with the flames, Taylor ran a hand over her face and looked up as Severide offered her a bottle of water.

"This was a bad one," Severide commented as he crouched down beside her.

"Yeah," Taylor mumbled, taking a deep breath and shifting her gaze to the ground as she continued, "Do you want to go to the barbecue with me on Saturday?"

"Like a date?" Severide added.

"Like dipping our toes in the water, before jumping into the unknown," Taylor said, glancing over at him and seeing the smile on his face.

"That sounds good to me," Severide agreed with a nod.

Getting to her feet, Taylor stared up at the building and followed Severide over to where the others were gathered. She knew as a firefighter that you couldn't possibly save everyone, but that didn't make the ones you lost any easier to accept and her brain swam with the usual what if questions. What if they had gotten there sooner? What if she had searched quicker? What if she was better?