Chapter 22
MILES
The alarm sounds throughout the firehouse and interrupts the not-so-clean dream I’m having about a particular blonde with freckles that dance across her cheeks when she smiles.
I’m in the final twelve hours of my forty-eight hour stretch at the firehouse before I have a few days off.
The last day and a half have been pretty uneventful, mostly lower level calls or fender benders during rush hour.
Something about this call feels different though.
Maybe it’s because it’s the middle of the night or maybe it is some internal gut feeling I’ve developed over time.
But this call feels bigger, more severe, than the ones we’ve been getting over the last few weeks.
I tear the blankets off and jump down from my bunk, heading for the apparatus bay.
Several other bodies move next to me in the darkness as nearly everyone on duty heads in the same direction.
It takes us less than ten minutes to get our gear on and load up before we’re flying down the street heading towards the location of the call.
A dispatcher explains the details of the emergency through our headsets as King skillfully navigates the engine.
Thankfully for us, there’s hardly anyone on the road with it being the middle of the night and it doesn’t take us long to arrive.
The closer we get, the more the blaze comes into view.
My heart picks up as we near the scene of the fire.
Single family home, a one eleven as they’re called, currently burning bright and hot.
The source seems to have come from the garage and has quickly spread to the roof and other areas of the home.
A small group of people, assumedly the occupants, stand huddled together outside.
I call out orders to the men and women under me, directing them on how to handle the situation.
Once they get to work, I head for the group of people watching our company take control.
“Hi, my name is Miles Adler, we’re here to help,” I start to introduce myself.
An older man steps forward and takes my hand.
His eyes are waterlogged and I do my best to try and keep my demeanor neutral.
The last thing this man and his family needs to know is that the person here to help them is also fighting back the same amount of panic they are.
“Is anyone inside?” I ask, glancing between the four people standing in front of me. The older woman answers first.
“We have a pet cat inside somewhere, please save her,” she begs, taking my hand and looking at me with pure desperation in her eyes.
I nod my head, trying to reassure her. “A cat, that’s good to know. What’s your cat’s name?”
“Millie,” the little girl hugging the woman’s leg answers. She hugs the blanket she’s clutching tighter to her chest. I’m sure I look intimidating in all my gear so I take a second to kneel to be on her level.
“Millie, that’s a good name,” I say kindly. I need to get back to my company members and help but taking care of the people in crisis is half the job and I refuse to rush it. “What’s Millie look like? Does she like to hide anywhere in the house or have a favorite spot she likes to sleep?”
“In the basement,” the little boy answers. He’s older than the girl and doesn’t seem as timid. “She’s brown and white. She likes to hide in the basement behind the washing machine. She also likes to sleep in my room, it has bunk beds.”
“That is very helpful information, buddy, thank you for telling me. I’ll tell my friends to try and find her, okay? We’ll do everything we can to help you and make sure Millie is okay.”
I stand then and give a hopeful nod to the adults before turning away. I grab my two-way radio and speak into it so everyone can hear my update.
“Heads up, there’s a cat in the house. Name is Millie, brown and white, prefers to sleep in the bedroom with bunk beds. Family said to check the basement behind the machines too.”
“Going in now,” I hear Carter’s voice crack over the line.
Then, from the front yard, I watch as he and Trevor run inside the house together.
Watching them go, my heart begins to race, feeling like a car spinning out on the road.
While several of my crew get the line hooked up and are working to put out the flames, I stand and watch, feeling my legs begin to wobble.
Don’t do this. Not now. Get it together. I close my eyes for a second, trying to calm the anxiety eating away at my chest. This isn’t like the last house fire. This isn’t like the one where we lost him.
Flashbacks from that night threaten to make me heave right in the middle of the lawn when a different image comes to mind.
One of Hanna, sitting on the floor of her apartment, smiling at me while she kicks my ass at checkers.
The thought of her brings a sense of peace to my nervous system, the swirling thoughts that were once there begin to dissipate.
Focusing on the thought, I conjure up a different image.
How she looked as I carried her from the bathroom floor and laid her in bed.
The way her arms felt wrapped around my neck as she let me take care of her.
The more I think about her, the more my heart rate slows and I start to feel more relaxed in a moment of pure chaos.
She doesn’t even need to be in proximity to be able to bring me a sense of calmness I rarely felt prior to meeting her.
“We found Millie! Coming out with her now!” Carter’s voice over the walkie pulls me from my thoughts and I open my eyes.
Exhaling, I wait and watch the front door for him and Trev to come out.
When they do, the little girl bursts into tears seeing that her beloved pet is out of harm’s way.
EMS rolls up to the scene and a couple of uniformed people jog in our direction.
My team has nearly put the fire out at this point and while the house is worse for wear, it’s not going to be a complete gut job like many house fires are.
Carter and Trevor walk towards the family to hand them their pet and I move to meet them there.
“Here ya go, safe and sound,” Carter says with a smile, handing the cat over to the woman. She kneels down so her kids can reach. They both hug and kiss the animal who, to them, is another member of the family.
“Thank you so much,” the man says, taking Carter’s gloved hand into his.
“That cat is a fighter, let me tell you. She wasn’t going to let anything take her out,” Trev says, nodding at the man.
“That’s our Millie girl,” he says, smiling at the cat.
“We’re going to do our sweep and make sure everything is out entirely,” I start to explain.
“If you and your family want to take a seat, Billie will be happy to show you where you can rest on the back of the engine. I’ll be back to get some details for our report that you can then send to your insurance company. ”
The family nods in thanks and moves to wait for us to finish our job. Once they’re out of earshot, Trev smacks me on the chest and laughs.
“That cat nearly took Carter’s head off when he found her. Latched onto his mask and helmet and wouldn’t let go. You should have seen him trying to pry it off before coming out.”
I stifle a chuckle because laughing on site isn’t the most appropriate thing. But picturing my brother running around with a ticked off cat attacking him is almost too funny to be able to contain myself.
“Next time, you can be the one to rescue the family pet,” Carter sneers in Trev’s direction, looking miffed.
I shake my head at the two of them and move to check in with my team. They did a good job putting out the fire and I want to congratulate them on their hard work. What we do is important. I never want someone to feel like they aren’t appreciated for everything they do.
Once we finish our final inspection and I get the information we need, we load back into the truck and take off.
Back at the firehouse, I stay up to file the paperwork, not finishing it until almost six in the morning.
Turning to look out the window, I notice how the sun is coming up and making the river shine and sparkle as it breaks over the horizon.
Yawning, I stand from the desk to do my final rounds as a new day means the end of my forty-eight hours on.
Tired and ready for a nap, I drag myself back to my apartment to crash.
While I wish I could sleep the day away, I have a therapy session to get to in a few hours and no matter how exhausted I am, there’s no way I’m missing it.
“Miles, welcome back. Come on in, I’m ready for you” she says, stepping out of her office and into the lobby where I’m waiting.
Before crashing on my couch once I got home, I set my alarm one hour sooner than I needed to so I had time to shower, shave, and get my ass here on time.
I promised her before that I wasn’t going to go anywhere and that includes showing up for our weekly sit-downs.
Pushing up from the chair, my body starts to feel the middle of the night emergency and subsequent lack of sleep.
“Late night?” she asks as I step inside the room.
“Just got off a forty-eight hour stretch. There was a fire last night that—” I stop mid-sentence when I see what’s waiting for me inside her office.
Sitting in the middle of the room is a small table and two chairs that aren’t usually there. On the table is a fully set up checkers board, black and red pieces poised and ready to be played with.
Eyeing her, I smirk. “You really meant it when you said we would be playing checkers today.”
“Trust me, I never kid when it comes to playing board games,” she says lightheartedly, tucking her chin into her shoulder and grinning up at me. “You want red or black?”
“Mmmm, I’ll be red again.”
“You sure? You lost last time you were red,” she points out, raising her eyebrows at me. Yeah, because I let you win last time.