Authors Note: I didn't realize that I was starting another series until I sat down in front of my laptop and started writing again. The first story set in Oak Hills is The Reunion. So, if you would like to start there, please feel free to come back to this one afterwards. If not, welcome to my Hot Tails in Oak Hills. I hope you enjoy this next installment. GEV
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It was late October and it had been raining non-stop for the past two weeks, drenching the small Oregon town of Oak Hills in a heavy downpour, the deluge causing the creek to flow over its banks and flood one of the main roads in and out of town with three feet of muddy water. The fire department was forced to close down all access to the old highway with four more streets on the watch list, leaving some of the residents in the low lying area of town nervous and filling sandbags or seeking refuge with friends that lived on higher ground. The fall storm was completely unexpected and if the local satellite reading could be trusted, the storm wasn't weakening anytime soon, keeping all of the first responders in town and the neighboring communities on their toes for emergency calls. And with Halloween just a day away, they had to be prepared for any and all pranks gone horribly wrong and the nasty weather outside only added to the dangerousness and stupidity of drivers as they tried to navigate the streets in the downpour instead of staying inside. As if dealing with Mother Nature's unpredictable wrath wasn't bad enough.
Spencer Jennings drove his GMC Sierra 2500 through the standing water in the fire station's front lot that just happened to be situated along the overflowing bank of the creek, the windshield wipers trying to keep up with the heavy rainstorm, and parked along the side of the building, praying that his oversized tires were still on the asphalt. He hopped out of the cab, his booted feet splashing in the standing water and shut the door behind him before running for the office door in the pouring rain. He took cover under the small ineffective overhang, hastily punching in the code that unlocked the door in the darkness, his partially numb fingers barely able to hit the right buttons. After the third attempt, the lock beeped and he turned the handle, pulling open the heavy steel door and quickly stepping into the cool building as he shut the biting cold and blowing rain out behind him with a click of the latch. He shucked off his jacket, shaking the rainwater from it as he walked down the dimly lit hall towards his office, unlocking the door marked lieutenant and blindly hanging his jacket on the hook just inside the doorway before continuing down the hall to the kitchen in the back part of the firehouse. The pounding of the rain on the roof was more annoying than it was soothing at six in the morning, adding to the chilliness of the old brick building, and he shivered as he stopped to adjust the thermostat on the wall, the heating system quickly kicking on but slow to raise the temperature to a comfortable level.
He yawned as he poured several scoops of high octane ground coffee into the basket before pushing it under the spout on the coffee maker sitting on the counter, pushing the brew button. In a matter of minutes the aroma of strong black coffee filled the small kitchen, bringing him out of his state of half-grogginess, and not bothering for the pot to finish, he pulled the carafe out from under the spout and poured himself a mug of steaming hot life-giving brew. Whoever was asleep upstairs on the night shift would be up soon and in need of coffee also, so when the pot was done brewing, he moved the carafe to the hot plate, turning it on and shoving a spare one under the brew basket, starting a second pot. He took a cautionary sip as he walked down the dimly lit hall to his office, turning on the light as he stepped inside, removing his drenched navy blue baseball cap and hanging it on the hook with his jacket. He walked around to sit down behind his desk, taking another long drink of his coffee before setting the mug down within reach. He pushed the button on his computer, bringing it out of hibernation and sat back in his chair, waiting for the out-of-date system to come back to life so he could go over the week's rotation schedule to make sure he had enough people on duty to deal with all the emergencies.
Not counting himself and his older brother, Daniel, who was the station house captain, there were six full-time firefighters and paramedics that worked out of the house on a twenty-four hour rotation with three more volunteers that were more or less third-year students gaining hands-on experience. And all of them had only one thing on their minds, being the first one to get Emily into bed. That was the one difficult task Spencer didn't want, trying to keep fifteen hot-blooded males ranging in age from twenty-one to forty away from his eighteen year old niece without his brother finding out in the process. There never had been an issue in the past with her constant presence around the station ever since her mother had been killed in a drunk driving accident when she was six, she spent most of her time in either her father's office or his doing her homework or sitting in front of the TV in the rec room until she went home with her father after his shift. But as soon as she turned eighteen, that was when everyone became fully aware of her presence and he soon learned of the bet that all of the guys had going on within the stationhouse.
It was two months ago, a week after Emily's eighteenth birthday, when his brother had been out teaching a class at the local community college that Spencer had finally become completely aware of the situation that had been developing right under his nose. Even though it was summer, Emily was still in and out of the station house on a regular basis and on that hot summer day in particular, her volleyball team was having a carwash in the empty lot beside the firehouse to raise money for their new uniforms. It was a slow day at the station and he couldn't find any of the firemen or technicians downstairs when he came back from lunch but their personal vehicles were in the lot along with the buses and trucks in the garage. He went upstairs to the sleeping quarters to find all of them staring out the windows, ogling what he assumed were the fourteen athletically toned teenaged girls in shorts and bikini-tops washing the vehicles in the lot but rather their eyes were focused on one girl in particular, his niece. Kevin, the senior technician, was taking down names and bets as fast as he could on a notepad, as to who was going to be the first one to take his niece's innocence and when. As he listened from the doorway as they all put names and amounts to dates, their eyes never leaving the girls outside, his anger mounted and his blood started to boil until he saw red.