Hold My Hand

The smell of bacon woke Taylor up the next morning, causing her stomach to turn and sending her running to the bathroom. Sat on the floor with her head resting back against the wall, she groaned and looked up as someone knocked on the door.

“Hey,” she mumbled, offering Antonio a small smile and watching as he crouched down in front of her.

“Morning, here... take these,” he replied, handing her some painkillers and a glass of water.

“Whoever said that drink helped you forget was a liar,” Taylor grumbled, placing the tablets in her mouth and washing them down as Antonio chuckled lightly at her comment.

“It helps you forget for a little while, until you sober up and realize that the things you wanted to forget are still there,” Antonio stated, “Alcohol is also supposed to make people more honest.”

“It was just the drink talking,” Taylor said, not wanting to talk about anything she had said the night before and pushing herself to her feet.

“Tay...”

“I don’t want to talk about it, can we just eat please?”

“Sure.”

Sat at the table, Taylor pushed her food around the plate in silence and thought about everything she had said to Antonio. It seemed easy to lie to him and blame it on the alcohol, but she couldn’t lie to herself.

She arranged to meet Kelly for lunch and headed home, grabbing a shower before making her way to the diner. It didn’t take her long to spot him as she walked through the door, smiling as he looked at her and pressing a quick kiss to his lips in greeting.

“Hey,” he said, “How’re you feeling after last night?”

“Better than I did when I woke up,” Taylor replied, “I’m sorry for disappearing on you...”

“It’s fine.”

The rest of the day was spent in front of the television, watching old movies and eating takeaway. Walking into the firehouse for her next shift, Taylor put her bag in her locker and joined the others in the rec room.

“What can I put you down for, Tay?” Cruz inquired, motioning to the whiteboard he’d set up and watching her expectantly.

“A house fire, a freak accident, and a couple of nuisance calls,” Taylor stated, taking a seat at the table and listening as everyone else made their predictions for the shift.

“I heard that the guys on shift yesterday got a cat stuck in a tree call,” Mouch informed them, “Apparently it took them two hours to get the damn thing down.”

Taylor chuckled and finished the coffee that Herrmann had placed in front of her and went to deal with the equipment check. She had been on shift for nearly two hours, when Otis called her from the apparatus floor and she joined him to find Mrs. Caswell’s son waiting for her.

“I’m sorry for the intrusion,” Harry said as Taylor approached him, “I know that you’re busy.”

“You’re not intruding,” Taylor replied with a smile, “What can I do for you?”

“I just wanted to say thank you again for everything that you did for my mom, the family wasn’t able to be with her as much as we would have liked and I know that she loved having you around.”

“It was my pleasure.”

“We’re hoping to have the funeral next week, but I will let you know as soon as a date has been set,” Harry told her, hesitating momentarily before continuing, “Please don’t feel as though you have to say yes, but would you say a few words at the service?”

“I’d love to.”

“Well, I’d better get back to the house and finish helping my brother sort things out... it was really nice seeing you again, Taylor.”

“You too and, once again, I’m really sorry for your loss,” Taylor said, hugging Harry and watching as he left.

It was another hour before the first call came in and, with everything that was going on, Taylor was grateful for the distraction that it offered. The scene was absolute chaos when truck arrived, shortly followed by squad and the chief.

“That balcony isn’t going to hold,” Matt shouted as the metal groaned loudly, “We need to get everybody back across the street.”

They were pushing back the last of the steadily growing crowd, when a cry of panic cut through the air and Taylor looked up just in time to see a boy break free of his mother’s grip. Tracking his movements, she was quick to spot the stuffed dinosaur that he was heading back for and broke into a run as the balcony gave way above him.

“Taylor,” she heard numerous voices shout in concern, but there was no turning back and she refocused on the present danger.