Fire Born (Firehouse 343) (3 page)

…a
nd Calvin’s daughter.

“
Sonofabitch
,” he muttered darkly. His spirits lifted only a minor fraction when it became clear that Sam and
Karalyn’s
rig would be carrying the elderly man to the hospital. It meant that she’d be gone in minutes.

“Football, Terry—” he started to say, but the men had already headed back toward the hellhole they’d just left.

“We’ll get them, LT,”
Football said simply. Chris had been about to go inside hi
mself this time now that Engine 14’s line
was under another firefighter’s control, but he’d assumed temporary command of the ground crew the moment their captain had entered the building. Although he hated not being able to search for Calvin personally, his responsibility was still out here, coordinating the scene
until the city fire marshal arrived
.

He
nodded to their backs as they entered the building. Minutes later Football cursed loudly. “
Sitrep
!”
he demanded
.

“
Fucking step gave out under my foot
,” the former NFL all-star replied angrily.

“
I’ve been saying
you
’
re getting fat, Football
,” Logan cracked.

Football snorted.
“
Like you’re one t
o talk.
We call you ‘Airborne’
because
of your former profession
, pal—
not
as
a reference to how light and fluffy you are
.”

Terry cursed then and Football shouted along with him. “
Shit’s getting real up on three, LT
,” Terry reported tersely.
“
Heading to 3C now
.”

“Like the boss said—get in and get out,” Chris replied.

“
Airborne, get ready to receive us.
I don’t want to risk those stairs again
,” Football said. “
Fire’s made them too damn hazardous to traverse, especially with added weight
.”

Chris knew he was talking about the probability that he or Terry would be carrying their captain out of the apartment. Sweat trickled down his spine along with a thin thread of fear.
No
, he told himself firmly.
Don’t go there. Calvin will be a
l
l
right
.

Calvin Maynard was more than just his boss. He was a mentor and a friend, and to lose him was not a possibility he cared to entertain. The women in his life—Tonja and
Karalyn
—would be devastated, and the men under his command would be leaderless. Chris knew that personally, his death would feel like losing a member of his own family.

“
Fuck. Oh, shit man
.”

Chris felt his heart squeeze painfully in his chest
at the tone of Football’s voice. It was an effort to force enough air through his suddenly too-tight throat to say, “Talk to me, Curtis.”

It wasn’t often that anyone i
n the unit called Football
by his given name. When they did
,
it meant they were trying to keep their head on st
raight, and Chris had
found himself on the verge of losing it with those four little words.

His first response was a heavy grunt. “
Cap’s hurt bad
,” he said at last, causing the fist around Chris’s heart to squeeze tighter. “
Ceiling beam crashed down on him and the girl along with half the ceiling—looks like it happened as he was pulling her from the closet. He shielded her with his body but the fucking beam caught him in the neck, right between his helmet and his air tank
.”

Chris swore in the most colorful language he knew—his native
Lakota
.
“Status?”

“
He’s completely out of it, but I got a weak pulse and his breathing is shallow
,” Football replied.

“
The little girl is uncon
scious, but breathing
,” Terry added. “
Looks like her worst injury might be inhalation. Cap saved her life
.”

“Get out of there
, guys,” Chris told them.

“
Already hoofing it toward apartment A and Airborne’s magic ladder
.”

Chris grunted in response
, the tension mounting in his neck and shoulders until he caught sight of Terry in the window
in front of Logan
. Logan
had
shut off the nozzle
and reached
to take the child from Terry’s arms, lifting her over his shoulder and holding tightly to her legs as he began a backward trek down the ladder’s length. When Terry had maneuvered himself through the window, he turned to accept his captain’
s limp
body from Football. The weight of a 200-lb. man plus 70 pounds of firefighting gear on top of what he carried on his own body would make his going much slower than
Logan’s, but Chris had no doubt
that Terry was up to the task. The crews of each platoon trained in full gear regularly, a
nd carrying heavy weights while so dressed
was a
regular part of their regimen—
preparation for just such
an incident as this.

“Football, when you come through that window, I need you to take over the nozzle,” Chris ordered.

“
And the captain
?”

Signaling to the remaining medical teams, Chris replied as they ran over to the side of Ladder 12 with spine boards
, gurneys,
and trauma kits, preparing
to receive both Jessica and Calvin.

“The medics will have him in a minute. All we can do until we get this under control is
wait
.”

It wouldn’t be ea
sy. Though he commanded
B
-
Shift
out of the
c
ity firehouse, Calvin Maynard
was someone that every man and woman who worked for the Gracechurch Division of Fire respected and admired. He
was an example to all of them for
his lifetime of dedicated service as a firefighter, and although his first marriage hadn’t worked out, he and Irene were still friends and
together they
had raised a fine daughter—who had taken a page out of her father’s book and become an emergency medical technician.

Staying on a call to see it through to its end
had never before been
a question for any of them, because that’s what a firefighter did. But when it was one of their own being carried off to receive medical attention, each one found concentrating on the task at hand that much more difficult. Or maybe, Chris mused as he observed Calvin’s still form being loaded into an ambulance, it would make them that much more determined to put this bitch down.

He said another sile
nt prayer of thanks that Kara
and Sam had left the scene
with the elderly gentleman from second floor
even before her father’s injury had become known
. The two EMTs had been far too immersed in their treatment of the old man to pay any attention to the
fact that Calvin wasn’t anywhere to be found, let alone that he had been hurt. Kara would find out soon enough, and he hoped like hell that Sam or someone else she knew would stay with her whil
e they waited for news of hi
s condition.

And he dreaded having to make the call to tell Tonja. Calvin’s fiancée
Tonja Webber
was a firefighter herself, and soon to be transferring from Glasgow to Gracechurch where she would work and live with Calvin once they were married. She knew the risks of the job as well as any of them, but that didn’
t mean hearing
her soon-to-be
hu
sband had been hurt would be any less devastating.

“Come on, boys. Time to show the fire
who’s
boss.”

***

Six hours. That was how long it had taken 23 men from three different stations to put one three-story fire out. And of course, the job hadn’t ended there. Although the boys from Alton and
Summerford
had been dismissed after the fire had been declared extinguished, City’s own from A, B, and C platoons had stayed on-site to do a walk-through of each apartment, che
cking for pocket fires the water
might have missed. Just walking inside, Chris had known the building was a total loss, and if the rumo
r mill was to be believed,
the owner of the management company had a lot to answer for. He walked apartment 3C himself, along with Football and Logan, and
was not ashamed to admit—at least to himself—that he’d had to stop and catch his breath when he saw the ceiling beam that had crashed down on Calvin and the little girl. Terry had been right—their captain had saved that girl’s life. Had he not shielded her, she surely would have been crushed.

Robert Dresden, the city fire marshal, had arrived on scene shortly after the ambulance had departed with Calvin. He’d listened silently to Chris’ verbal report of the incident to that point,
then
said he was leaving him in charge and that he’d b
e heading to the hospital to learn
for himself how serious Calvin’s injuries were. By the time the fire had been put out and the building inspected, he had called with only one report:

Due to the severity of his condition—including three fractured cervical
vertebrae and
swelling
of his brain
—Calvin was being airlifted to the Level 1 trauma center in Billings, where he could receive the
best treatment for his injuries.
Karalyn
had gone with him and Tonja had been notified. Bob said he’d be driving her to Billings himself because she was in no condition to make the trip alone.

As soon as the
Breckon
Apartments building had been sealed with police caution tape, Chris and his crew returned the engine, ladder and rescue vehicles to
the station, where the men of C
Platoon set about readying them for their own shift without complaint. Then each man from B showered in reco
rd time and piled into
Football’s Lincoln Navigator
(the only car available with room for six)
and headed for Billings.

“No, baby, we don’t know anything yet. He’s still in surgery.”

Chris listened with half an ear as Football spoke quietly to his wife on his cell phone. Vonda had been calling every half hour since 1 a.m. for updates. It was now almost 4 a.m.

The waiting room
on the surgical floor
at St. Vincent’s was
not comprise
d
of a great deal of space, and room to maneuver had been
significantly red
uced by the presence of more than
a dozen largely built firefighters and other personnel from
Gracechurch’s
first responders professions. Sam Temple,
Karalyn
Maynard’s EMT partner, was there with his older bro
thers Simo
n (one of the boys from City’s D
Platoon
) and Scott (a Gracechurch police detec
tive) as well as
his cousin Blake (a Central Township
firefighter).  All of
B Platoon from Gracechurch was
present as were some of A Platoon and guys from
Summerford
, Alton, and Newport townships.
Calvin’s parents were retirees living in Florida and would arrive by plane later that morning. His sister Sharon was in Hong Kong on a business trip, but would return home as soon as she could.

Every single firefighter, as well as Sam and Scott Temple, had offered to donate blood should Calvin need it. Even though some of those present did not know him well, they felt he was one of their own. Chris
had
never felt more like a part of a brotherhood—a family—
with men and women he wasn’t related to by blood than he did when his fellow firefighters rallied together in support of one of the fallen.

Calvin’s daughter was huddled next to her mother, her head on the older woman’s shoulder as silent tears fell down her face. I
rene had driven over from Bozeman
to sit with her even though
Karalyn
was far from being alone, and she sat with one arm around Kara
’s shoulders
while her other hand was grasped
tightly
in
one of
Tonja’s
. Against the odds, the two women—Calvin’s first wife and his soon-to-be second—had become friends. Chris had observed them numerous times over the three years that Cal and Tonja had been dating
, and knew that they had bonded over mutual love and affection for Kara and respect for Calvin. He was sure Irene still loved her ex in some way—she had to if she could
s
it here comforting not only her child but her former husband’s new love.