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, but it is appreciated," 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 by the way... my boyfriend."

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

"You too."

"Anyway, we should let you get back to work... thanks again," 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."

With a nod, 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. She had no doubt that Otis had tampered with the deck of cards on the table, but she decided to play dumb and grinned as she laid her winning hand on the table in front of him.

"How?" Otis asked in disbelief.

"Talent... pure, non-cheating talent," Taylor joked as she looked over at Matt, "Lieutenant, Otis will be taking over my duties for the next two weeks and is buying the first round at Molly's after shift."

"Duly noted," Matt confirmed in amusement.

Unable to bring herself to beat Otis again, she grabbed herself a can of soda and settled on the sofa to watch the film that Mouch was engrossed in. It wasn't long before Boden entered the room and Taylor turned her attention to him, listening as he spoke.

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

The movie soon ended and Taylor made her way out to the ambulance with a plate of the cupcakes she'd made, sitting on the back of the rig as Shay finished her checks. Boden's assistant quickly caught her attention as she sauntered across the apparatus floor and Taylor watched as she threw the guys a flirty smile, jumping as Shay scoffed behind her.

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

"Finally," Shay replied.

Taylor stood up, listening as the alarms started ringing and dropping 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.

With her mask securely on her face, she ran straight in without hesitation and headed up to the burning floor with Cruz in tow. Her heart sank as they cautiously moved through the hallway, their calls being met with silence and she knew exactly what the outcome was going to be. They soon stumbled across their first victim and Taylor checked for a pulse, shaking her head as Cruz took the body outside.

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

"Haven't had one this bad in a little while," Kelly 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?" Kelly added.

"Like dipping our toes into 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," Kelly agreed with a nod.Taylor glanced up at the building one last time, before standing up and following Kelly over to where the others were gathered. As a firefighter, she knew that you couldn't 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?