Hold My Hand

Taylor had been sat in the rec room for nearly an hour, when chief Boden entered and asked her to join him in his office. Unsure what was going on, she followed him and took a seat as he motioned to the seat opposite him.

“What’s this about, chief?” Taylor inquired, sitting down and anxiously waiting for him to answer.

“I’m not going to beat around the bush, we received an anonymous accusation that you have been on active duty whilst under the influence of drugs.”

“Wait, what?” Taylor stated with a frown, “I would never... what happens now?”

“I know that you would never do this, but we do need to show that this accusation has been taken seriously and dealt with in the appropriate manner,” Boden explained, “So, we’ve arranged for you to take a drug test...”

“Am I being removed from active duty?”

“No, this is not an official investigation and I’ve seen nothing that would give me any reason to doubt your ability to do the job.”

After a short conversation, Taylor was dismissed and headed up to the roof; ignoring the calls of her name. Sat on one of the deck chairs that had been set up, she stared at the sky and ran a hand over her face.

“Hey,” came Kelly’s voice from behind her a while later, snapping her from her thoughts, “I saw you with Boden, is everything okay?”

“Yeah, he was just checking up on me after everything with Greg,” Taylor lied, not wanting to burden him with her problems and shifting the conversation, “How are you?”

“I’ll be okay.”

Most people would call him a liar, especially after losing someone that he was trying to save, but she knew that he was telling the truth and wouldn’t push. It was usual for the initial grief to linger for a while, but it eventually faded and the ghost would be added to the mental list each of the crew had created in their heads.

“I’m here if you want to talk.”

“I know,” Kelly replied, offering her a small smile and wrapping his arms around her as she hugged him.

The moment was quickly interrupted by the alarm ringing out and they both rushed back down to the apparatus floor, getting into their turn-out gear. Flames rose into the sky from the top floor of the apartment building and Taylor assessed the situation for a couple of seconds, before grabbing her mask.

“Taylor, Ferguson, Herrmann, I want you with me,” Matt instructed, “We’re going to work from the bottom and conduct a primary sweep.”

With a nod, Taylor took the lead and headed inside. The first few floors were clear and they continued to the top, splitting up to quicken the search. She had just entered the first apartment, when she spotted the body of a man sprawled on the floor and went to his side. He was breathing, but it was shallow and without hesitation, she removed her mask; placing it over the man’s face.

“Deep breaths,” Taylor said as she helped him sit up, coughing as the smoke hit her lungs and getting the man to his feet, “Let’s get you out of here.”

It took them ten minutes to get out onto the street and Taylor handed the man over, putting her mask back on to re-enter the building. An hour later, they had cleared the scene and engine had put out the fire.

Sat on the truck on the way back to the firehouse, Taylor stared out the window and covered her mouth as she was hit by a coughing fit. She knew that it was down to smoke inhalation, but she had done what she had to do and a man was alive because of it.

“Tay,” Matt stated, “Get Shay to check you out.”

“I’m fine,” Taylor argued, causing Matt to roll his eyes and shake his head as he made his way into the rec room.

“Stubborn.”