Hold My Hand

Taylor’s answer seemed to frustrate Greg, his expression turning to one of anger and his free hand balling into a fist at his side. Unable to get a read on where his head was at, she watched as he paced around and waited for him to speak.

“I never wanted it to come to this, but you’ve left me no choice...” he said, stopping in front of her and cupping her cheek.

“I...” Taylor began, hearing a noise behind her and shouting out in fear as Greg grabbed her.

“I’ll drop it,” Greg warned, spinning her around and wrapping his arm around her throat as several police officers cautiously approached with their guns drawn, “Don’t come any closer.”

Dangerous situations were a part of being a firefighter, but she wasn’t in control this time and that scared her. The officers quickly froze at Greg’s threat, but the pressure on Taylor’s windpipe didn’t let up and panic began to set in.

“You don’t want to hurt her,” one of the officer’s stated, keeping his attention on Greg and motioning for his colleague to get the other people out, “Why don’t you put down the lighter and we can talk?”

“That’s the best idea I’ve heard all day,” Greg replied calmly, smirking and releasing the lighter from his hand.

Taylor struggled against Greg’s vice-like grip as the lighter fell, hitting the ground and igniting the gasoline that surrounded their feet. The heat was intense and the flames seemed to dance around them for a few seconds, before something solid hit them.

Thrown backward onto the floor, Taylor scrambled away from Greg until her back hit the wall and brought her knees up to her chest. It wasn’t long before Matt rushed in with the rest of truck, ordering the crew to take care of the fire and moving to crouch in front of Taylor.

“Hey, are you okay?” Matt asked, earning a nod from Taylor and helping her to her feet, “Let’s get you out of here.”

Shay was at her side as soon as they stepped outside, leading her over to the ambulance and checking the burns on her arms. She hadn’t even noticed that she was hurt, until Shay took hold of her arm and she hissed.

“How’s it looking, Shay?” Boden inquired.

“She’s got some minor burns on her arms, so she’ll need to take a trip to Med and get them checked over properly,” Shay replied, holding her hand up and cutting Taylor off before she could protest, “They need to be cleaned and wrapped.”

“Fine,” Taylor mumbled.

“Head back to the firehouse once you’re done,” Boden instructed as he shut the back doors.

Sat in the back of the ambulance, Taylor remained silent and stared at her hands. The ride over to the hospital wasn’t all that long and she climbed out, following Shay inside.

“Taylor,” came Will Halstead’s voice from behind them as they walked along the bustling corridor, causing both her and Shay to spin round, “What happened?”

“I got burnt,” Taylor told him, holding up her arms and showing him the damage.

“Come with me,” he added, handing the folder he was holding to a passing nurse and leading Taylor into an empty room. He cleaned her up without a word, before wrapping them up and giving her some painkillers, “All done.”

“Thanks,” Taylor said, offering the man a small smile and standing up.

“The dressings will need to be changed daily and the burns will need to be cleaned to ensure that they don’t get infected, but it shouldn’t affect your ability to work.”

Everyone was at the firehouse when they pulled in a little while later, including squad and a concerned-looking Kelly. Not in the mood for the endless bombardment of questions she had coming her way, Taylor retreated to the bunkroom and wasn’t surprised when Kelly joined her a few minutes later.

“How’re your arms?”

“Will cleaned them up and gave me some painkillers, so they’re fine at the moment.”

“Do you want to talk about it?”

“Not really... things are pretty messed up right now,” Taylor answered honestly, “I just want to pull the covers over my head and wait until the world makes sense again, but I know that I can’t do that.”

“I’m sorry that I wasn’t there,” Kelly added, wrapping his arm around her shoulders and kissing her head as he gently pulled her into his side, “The hockey match that you got me tickets for is this weekend, but I’ll cancel and give my ticket to someone else if you need me to be around.”

“No,” Taylor told him, before he could say anything else, “What I need you to do is go to the game, Matt really needs some time away from everything he has going on and you deserve to have an amazing birthday... I’ll be fine.”

“You know I love you, right?”

“I love you too.”