Nicholas and Hailey

((Guys and Gals, this is the second installment of my Nicholas and Hailey series. This is going to have more action than my last correspondence. I thank you for reading my last two stories and the outpouring of support and praise you guys left for me on those works. I thank you for giving me a second chance. I would like to make a note if it confused anyone, that this and the explanation series are NOT related in any way. They are separate, stand alone stories, but the characters have the same name, which is a mistake on my part. I have decided that I will switch up my series, releasing one of these and then an explanation chapter, and then back to this series. I might also throw some single stories into the mix, but I am still working on those. Thank you guys for reading my writing, as well as thanks to Chunks for being my editor. Please enjoy.))

I was sitting at the table with the guys at the firehouse as we finished eating. I helped them clean the kitchen before walking across the bays to my office. I sat down and checked my email before I started on some paperwork. I saw that I had an urgent email and opened it. I face palmed as I read it. I pushed my chair over to the station mike and keyed it. "Station meeting-station meeting. All personnel report to Lieutenant White's office."

I waited for the guys. One by one they showed up, our ladder lieutenant and rescue lieutenant first, then our senior paramedic. Then the rest of our guys came in. I pulled up the email. "Okay guys, we all know it's summer so y'all should be able to guess what this is." The guys mulled it around for a few seconds before I began again. "We have to send four guys for wildfire." I let the groans of the guys go on for a while before I stopped them. "Three guys and one lieutenant have to go. I'm the lieutenant this year, and it's... Jerry's, Anthony's, and Mike's turn." The three guys threw their hands up in disgust. I smiled and put my hands up too.

"Hey, at least its three full weeks of 24 hour overtime. So, we're leaving in two shifts. Eli, you're the senior lieutenant here, so you're in charge of the station. We got... Jon to come and cover the engine while I'm gone. We leave after out next 72-hour shift. Engine... 5 is gonna be picking us up here with Bus 1. We're gonna be going with Hand Crew 16, Brush Units... 11 and 56, Patrols 17, 23, and 48, and Squads 5 and 7. Questions?"

Mike asked why God put fire on the Earth and a couple of the guys laughed.

"God did it to give your sorry ass a job, and he put you here to be a thorn in my side. Now go and do some work." After everyone had left my office, I closed my door and acknowledged the email. I sighed and leaned back in my office chair. I ran my hand through my hair and pulled out my phone. I pressed the contacts section and called my wife. She answered after three rings.

"Hey sweetheart," she said. "What's up?"

"Not much. How's your day going?"

"Alright. I just finished up with a traffic stop. What do you need?"

"Well I just got an email from the office. I'm on wildfire this month. We leave after this shift."

"Well that sucks. So you're gone for a whole month?"

"Yeah, it's a whole month. They got us going up to Montana to work a few fires."

"So, I guess I won't be seeing any of you for a while? What am I gonna do without my big hunky husband?"

"Yeah, I'm sorry. But hey, it's a lot of overtime. Total, I think it's like $10,000."

"Okay, well I get to enjoy you for a good while before then, right?"

"Well... no. We leave morning of the next shift."

"Shit!"

Before I could tell her that my intention was to make the most of tonight there were some banging noises that I had heard before. 'She's dropped the phone again,' I thought. As I waited for her to pick it up I heard a few pops in the background.

"Hailey? Hailey? Shit, she broke it," I muttered, but didn't hang up because every once in a while I heard an occasional sound from her end. I couldn't make sense of any of it, and couldn't figure out why Hailey hadn't picked the phone back up.

I was starting to get a little worried just about the time the tones dropped for us. "Babe, we got a call, I gotta go," I said, and hung up as I ran for the truck. I heard the dispatch as I pulled my bunker pants on. I snapped them at the waist and threw my coat into the rig as Patrick started it up and flipped on the lights. I climbed in and pulled up the call on the MDT computer, which told me that we had a medical call involving police and civilians. Patrick pushed the hammer down and pulled out of the station as soon as Jerry got into the back. I grabbed the truck's mike and flipped the siren on. I pressed 'responding' on the mobile data terminal as I checked the rear view mirror to see our ambulance, Medic 7, falling in behind us. I keyed the mike as Patrick pulled into the left lane.

"Engine 7 is responding, Dispatch. BREAK. Is PD advising the scene secure?"

"Engine 7 from Dispatch, no. PD says single patrol unit involved in a traffic stop was fired upon. One PD casualty recorded. PD advises you stage."

I paused. I looked at Patrick and yelled at him through my headset.

"I THINK THAT'S HAILEY'S CAR! GO!"

I grabbed the mike. "Engine 7 copies, Dispatch." I felt the engine gain speed rapidly as I grabbed for the box of medical gloves.

Our engine was a paramedic assessment engine. That meant that all three people on the engine were paramedics. We carried advanced life support equipment along with the normal firefighting equipment. My operator, or driver, was Patrick and my firefighter was Jerry.

I put on a pair of medical gloves and tucked two more pairs into each of my cargo pockets. I turned to Jerry and addressed the guys.

"Okay, we got at least one PD casualty and at least one civvy. The civvy opened fire on PD and hit one. I think it's Hailey's car and we don't know which officer is hit. Jerry, grab the ALS bag; Patrick, take the drug box and I'll take the trauma bag."

I grabbed the mike again as we came to within a couple of blocks of the incident, still in a safe staging area, but Patrick just blew through the intersection. As we approached the scene I saw a patrol car with the driver's side door open parked directly behind a white Cadillac, which had both doors open. I saw another patrol car and two officers behind its open doors, side arms drawn. The third car that I saw was an unmarked black Ford Crown Victoria with no officers near it. I toggled the mike.

"Engine 7 to Dispatch, we are on scene with Medic 7 and PD."

I pressed the 'on scene button' on the MDT and jumped out before Patrick had even stopped. I got the trauma bag from the medical compartment and I ran to the patrol car parked behind the Cadillac. Its windshield was riddled with bullet holes. Hailey's partner was shot in the neck. Jerry rushed to get to her while I checked the immediate area for Hailey. I heard a moan as I pressed deeper into an alley.

"HAILEY??? HAILEY!!!"

I heard another moan as I ran over to a dark figure lying on the ground. I stopped and dropped to a knee. She had a pool of blood around her. I ripped open the trauma bag, then I ripped her shirt open. Buttons flew everywhere.

"You've never been this wild in sex before," she said. Good old Hailey. She always was one to lighten up a situation. I looked back in the direction of the scene. I couldn't see the rigs, which gave me a bad feeling. I grabbed my radio and keyed it.

"Engine 7 White to Engine and Medic 7. I have a PD patient in the alley, details to follow." I said that there was a blood ring around a hole in her bulletproof vest. I cut the straps and peeled it back and saw that she had a small entrance wound. I rolled her onto her side and saw that she had a moderate exit wound.

I pulled bandages out of the pockets of the bag and ripped them out of their packages and applied them to her back. When I finished that I set up an IV in her right arm and got a unit of O-negative blood flowing. As I started to tape down the gauze I was applying to her entrance wound, I heard someone behind me.

"Game over, assholes." I didn't know what to do. I put my hands in the air and heard the guy laugh. I wasn't sure whether Hailey was still conscious. As I started to move my hands to her, knowing that it was the end, I heard a shot and immediately jumped to cover my wife, to protect her from whatever it was. I knew I was dead.

But then I heard someone yell clear. I turned around and saw that the guy who had threatened us was dead. He had taken a round right through his head. The squad brought a backboard as I picked myself off of Hailey. They got her onto it and then Jerry knelt down next to me. "Hey, L-T. Your girl was a good shot. She killed one of them without even getting out of the car."

I looked at Jerry and smiled my thanks. "I just hope she'll be okay."

He chuckled and patted me in the back.

"Relax, she one tough chick. She married your sorry ass. If she can survive that..."

He got up and waked off. I looked down and saw her blood in a pool in the ground. My gloves were also red. I squatted on my heels and looked at my reflection in her blood. When I saw drips in the blood I realized that I was sobbing.

I spent as much time as I could with my wife. I was able to take some leave from work and stay with Hailey. Throughout the Wednesday that she got shot, she was unconscious, and somehow, eventually, I slept as well. I was awake when she regained consciousness on Thursday, and she smiled when she saw me. When I asked her how much she remembered, she said everything until she blacked out after I covered her with my body.

As the eve of the wildfire crew departure grew nearer, Hailey said, "Nicholas."

I stood up and grabbed her hand. "What is it sweetheart?"

"You need to get packed and ready to go on your excursion."

I squeezed her hand and shook my head. "No way, baby. I'm staying with you."

She shook her head. "No way. You go. I'm already off work, so we need you to go back to work. Besides, you heard the doctor. I'll have made a full recovery by the time you get back."

I let my grip go on the rail of the bed and lightly tapped it with my fist. "Yeah.... Yeah..." I kissed Hailey on the forehead and smiled at her. I grabbed the bag of stuff that I'd packed for the hospital vigil and left her room after telling her that I loved her and would see her in a month. I felt a tear run down my cheek as I slowly walked to the elevator. I later found out that Hailey had lost it and sobbed for hours.

I got home and packed my stuff up. I grabbed all of my regulation gear and some of the stuff that I usually went camping with and loaded it into my truck. Then I got into our bed and lay there wide awake for the entire night, wondering about Hailey and twisting my wedding ring around my finger. When dawn broke through the clouds, I got out of bed and got into my truck.

When I got to the station I saw that I had two envelopes on the door. One was addressed to me, and the other was Hailey's. I read mine. When I went into my office, I found that the guys had all signed my very first helmet. I smiled and walked out to set my gear up. When I walked into the kitchen the guys all quickly turned to see who it was, but they didn't acknowledge me at all. Then I saw our battalion chief come into the kitchen carrying a key ring. He didn't say anything either.

This was really getting to me. My entire station wouldn't look at me! I angrily went to pack my stuff. When I felt the knob not turn, I grabbed my key and inserted it even though I knew that I had kept it unlocked. When I tried to turn the key, the door still didn't open. I saw the chief there with a coffee mug leaning against the wall. "I thought I told you to take time off and be with your wife. You don't belong here."

I was shocked at this. My own Chief thought I didn't belong working. "She's fine," I said. "And I don't belong here? THIS IS MY STATION. IF YOU DON'T LIKE IT, LEAVE."

He told me that he thought I wasn't emotionally fit to be working, but he let me prove to him that I was by doing my job. When the bus picked us up, the Ladder 5 lieutenant and I gave the usual "You only get one bench seat. Personal gear goes in the luggage bins, along with the equipment that you are responsible for," lecture.

After we met up with everyone else that was going with us we headed out for Montana, which was a few days' drive. I plugged in my ear buds and put on my Oakley sunglasses and we rode through America to do battle with the beast. I fell asleep thinking of Hailey.

When we got off at the correct exit a few days later I knew that we weren't far out. I grabbed two sheets of paper. I used one to write a quick love note to Hailey and used the other to make an envelope. I pulled out my wallet and grabbed a stamp. I flipped through my pictures and found a good one of Hailey wearing my sunglasses with the family. I smiled and put it in the zippered pocket of my Kevlar pants.

Hailey was also in the next wallet picture, which I had taken around dusk. This was one of my favorite pictures of my wife, for many reasons. She was sitting up on a picnic table with her hair pulled back. She had been looking out towards the lake, but at the last moment her eyes had shifted to look towards the camera. Her little blue dress showed off tons of 'big tit' cleavage, and was also dangerously close to revealing her naked cunt. I remembered that as one of the best times that I have spent with her. We shared a very romantic weekend and managed to consummate our marriage several more times.

I smiled remembering the weekend but it was bittersweet as I thought about leaving my wonderful wife in her time of need. I knew there wasn't much that I could do, but it still hurt. As the convoy stopped, we all dismounted. The officers went over to the battalion's car to get their assignments while the other guys changed into their firefighting gear and checked the equipment.

After the chief gave us our orders, I walked over to my guys. I made sure to drop my letter home in the mailbox that was set up next to the bathrooms. Then I faced the troops and pulled out the note card I had used to record the briefing info.

"Okay guys, listen up. We have a smaller fire, so CRFD has it alone. The weather looks good, but the whole valley is dry and ready to burn. We're going to be taking the eastern part of the fire. It's gonna be us along with Brush 11, Patrols 48 and 72, and Squad 7. Airdrops are going to be coordinated here at the IC. Okay? Check your shit, we're gonna blast outta here in 30 minutes."

I grabbed my backpack and my Pulaski, a tool used to dig fire lines. I grabbed an emergency shelter and laughed while praying that I wouldn't need it. I got a folding chair and my tent hooked on. I made sure that my CamelBak was topped off. When we were all ready I left the parking lot, leading the guys down a small trail that was going to be part of our fire line.

We got everyone set up in a line and found our safety zones, should something go wrong with the winds and we needed to pull back. We then set up camp as it was already dark. I checked what little information that I had about the fire and was upset because in my opinion we didn't have enough information about the weather and the conditions. I grabbed three other guys and walked down a ways to see if we could see if we could figure out the fuel conditions. We walked back to camp after we'd gotten what we wanted. I set up my tent along with Anthony, then got my chair out and walked away from the guys. I set the chair up and sat down and looked out over the canyon, gazing mindlessly for a while, then inevitably began to think once again about my injured wife. I took out the picture I'd brought along, smiled, and sighed. Hailey would love to be out in the sticks where we were, if not for the fire. When the orange light the fire was emitting started to die down I didn't even really notice. I looked at Hailey's picture and smiled, thinking about how I was the luckiest man alive and how I knew that she was the most important thing in my life. I felt that I was doing something wrong by leaving her in her time of need. I felt a hand on my shoulder, and turned to see Anthony.

"Hey, look man, I know you love her, and you want to be with her. We all want to be with our families right now. But hey, she's gonna be okay. And she loves you and she's not gonna want to be without you. So you know, if you get yourself killed, she's gonna want me to beat you up." I laughed and shook my head. He patted me on the shoulder and went off to get into his tent.

I knew that Anthony Smith was a really good guy. He was an experienced firefighter and one of the guys with the most time at our station. He was a tall, muscular African-American guy who was well-liked by the officers and his fellow firefighters. But he'd never made an emotional connection like this with me before.

I kissed the picture and put it back into my shirt pocket, then got up and walked to my own tent. Once inside I changed my mind, took the picture back out, and tucked it into the tent rigging so that Hailey could look down on me while I slept. I climbed into my sleeping bag and took my baseball cap off and stared at the ceiling of the tent and thought about life. My life with Hailey, my job, our families, the important things.

I knew that I didn't sleep much that night, but when morning came I was one of the first ones up. I put on my sunglasses and my baseball cap as I stepped out. We waited for everyone to be up and then ate a quick breakfast. I used my iPhone to take a picture of Hailey's picture looking out over the canyon, then one of me holding her picture. I put my baseball cap into a cargo pocket and put my hard hat on and got my pack ready. We got ready to roll and everyone got into their positions. I got into one of the front positions and started to clear the vegetation on the line.

We worked for a while and then took a quick break as everyone tuned into the weather report for the day. It would be cooler, allowing us to work with less stress and move faster, but the humidity was down, meaning that we had less moisture in the air and the fuels would catch fire faster. We cut along the trail as the sawyers worked to cut the trees down to stop the fire from jumping the line. Most of the day was uneventful as we worked to continue cutting the line. We worked our asses off like that for most of the rest of the month. On the second to last day of our tour of duty it happened.

We were working before lunch at around 11:30 AM. We had made good headway in the past few days cutting the line in. We had 65-75% containment, and we kept working. Suddenly I felt a chill on my right arm. I knew that the wind had been coming out of the East, which was on our left, and our line was working close to the fire. I had rolled up my right sleeve because the fire was getting hot. I felt goose bumps on my arm. I looked up at the guys and saw that a few of them had caught onto it. We were starting to get gusts of wind, and the willows were starting to burn. I knew that we were in for it. I dropped my Pulaski into the loop on my waist and yelled for the crew to pull out. I grabbed the radio that was hanging from my neck and keyed it as we headed to the safety zone.

"Hand Crew 1, Hand Crew 1 to Command. We have gusts of wind and we are going to start toward our safety zone. Advise all crews on the western side of the fire to pull back." I didn't listen for a response. I knew that the safety zone was grass, and it was open, so we had to do a bit of clearing it, but it was the only suitable zone. We were about a quarter of a mile away.

We arrived in the grassy area. I started to clear some of the grass away as I saw an orange cloud approaching. I knew that was bad as that meant the fire had crowned and was coming toward us much faster and much more dangerous. I stepped back about 100 feet and cleared off a small space as the fire spread into the grass. I hoped that the very thin line that we had cleared would hold as I quickly deployed my emergency shelter. I grabbed the portable radio and keyed it.