Fire In The Night

Prologue

"Long legs, firm breasts, fiery hair. This woman was a goddess. Utterly unbelievable. No wonder I was dreaming."

�� Drake Benjamin channeled out listening to his best friend Todd Remley's rambling about the redheaded vixen he had seen in his dream that night at the firehouse. He sat at the table that served as the station's kitchen, nursing a bowl of cereal and hiding his nose in the morning's newspaper to avoid his boasting. He didn't need to look to know Todd's hazel eyes were wide with desire for a woman he could only dream about.

In the early hours of light, both were anxiously awaiting the time to come that they could leave from their twenty-four hour post at the station.

�� As Todd loaded strawberry jam onto his piece of toast, he let out a long yawn. The company T-shirt he wore was wrinkled after a night's worth of sleep in the dormitory, if he'd gotten any sleep. Drake had spent the night tossing and turning in his cot, fighting off the images of the two car accidents they had been called to the day before and the kitchen fire they had been extinguishing until after midnight. They were fortunate that day that no one had been hurt.

�� Drake and Todd were always first out of the station. Waking up half an hour before they left was part of their morning ritual before the shift ended promptly at 7:30 a.m. There was nothing like leaving when work was done, and Todd had gotten him into the habit of exiting quickly.

�� Sifting over the wordy main stories in the business section of the paper, Drake flipped to the New York Stock Exchange's listing of what his stocks had done before the weekend. He scanned for the symbol for MicroIndex and was pleased that a plus sign was next to it. Ever since he had sold the company, his stock had done nothing but gone up. It brought a pleasing smile to his lips.

�� "MicroIndex's stock went up again. It's at 56 1/4 now," Drake said.

�� "Sweet. I owe you one for getting me to buy some of that. I should have trusted you on that. You're the business expert. Maybe I should just come and work for you."

�� Todd smiled, flashing the dimples that made him a hard working model during his two days off duty.

�� "Stick to your day job, Hollywood. You have more fun modeling. And you'll fine that dream girl faster that way too."

�� "Amen to that."

�� Both knew it was true and of all the people that worked at the station, Todd was the only one who possessed the knowledge attest to how hard Drake worked. Everyone at station nine knew Drake wore a tie to an office and ran a company during his days off, making phone calls and watching ticker tapes run across screens. However Todd was the only person who knew about the extent of the success that Drake's company had been. Since Todd had joined the station five years prior, the two had been closer than most brothers. Drake had taught him about firefighting and Todd had showed him the perks of living a single life.

�� Both heads turned towards the entrance of the kitchen when they heard shuffling noises at the door. Jack Trevor Gurry-JT as he liked to be called-scratched the shadow forming on his cheek as he sauntered towards the smell of food. His white-blonde hair was crumpled from his pillow as well as the baggy fireproof pants that clad his body.

�� "Look at that. JT actually slept in his bunkers." Drake asked.

�� "It was cold last night," JT said as he loaded the toaster with two slices of bread.

�� The corners of Todd's mouth rose. "You mean you were lazy. It's summertime in Florida."

�� "Texas is warmer," he drawled in his deep southern accent.

�� "Do you really think a hundred degrees of humidity is cold?"

�� Behind sleep weary lids, JT rolled his eyes, deciding it was too early to get into a disagreement about the weather. "Is there any coffee left?"

�� "No," said Drake sipping on his mug behind his paper. "You want me to make you another pot?"

�� He pushed the slider down on the toaster. "I wouldn't drink your coffee if it was the last thing on Earth."

�� JT drifted over to the table and sat down next to Todd. He picked up the sports section of the paper, searching for the baseball scores. Birds were chirping through the outside window, singing for the sun to rise up through the clouds and bring another day of summer.

�� "How much time is left?" JT asked.

�� Drake didn't need to glance at his watch. "Twenty five more minutes."

�� Todd breathed a hissing sound through his teeth. Twenty five minutes could feel like a lifetime sometimes.

�� Abruptly JT looked up at Drake. "Hey, I almost forgot to tell you. I ran into Becky the other day."

�� Drake remained buried within the pages of the paper. "How was she?"

�� He tried to keep his voice from revealing the ignorant tone but he failed miserably. He hadn't spoken to Becky since she had double-crossed and betrayed him. First thing in the morning was not the time he wanted to be reminded about how lucky he was to catch onto her schemes before it was too late.

�� "She's pregnant. Very pregnant."

�� "Really?" Todd asked incredulously.

�� JT saw that Drake wasn't paying attention and continued. "Some lawyer's. He's a partner in a big firm somewhere downtown, or so she said."

�� Noisily Drake turned a page. "Good for her. She's getting what she wants. She can go bleed him dry." At least he wouldn't have to deal with her trying to do the same to him.

�� Even hidden behind the business section, he could feel JT and Todd's eyes on him. He knew they were assessing him together, silently telling each other how they didn't like his reaction to hearing about how the woman he once said he thought of marrying was pregnant, each trying to figure out who should tell him this time that he hadn't moved on yet.

�� Todd won the invisible coin toss. "You need to get out more."

�� Drake made a sigh sounded like a growl. "I go out with you guys to bars and clubs nearly every night. How could I possibly go out more?"

�� "That's not what I meant. When was the last time you were with a woman."

�� Drake thought about it. Too long. Things with Becky had ended more than a year ago. No relationships had developed since then when he said he was swearing off women and at least six months had passed since he had dated even casually. But casual wasn't for him. It never had been.

�� "I don't know," he said through a yawn. "Is my love life really that relevant at seven o'clock on a Monday morning?"

�� Both responded simultaneously. "Yes."

�� Drake set the newspaper down.

�� "You don't even look when we go out anymore," Todd continued. "I don't remember the last time you left a bar with a girl."

�� "I wouldn't think that you would notice being so busy with whatever girl your with at the moment."

�� "He has a point," JT chimed in.

�� "Besides," he continued, "a meaningful relationship will not begin at a bar."

�� "Then maybe you shouldn't be having serious relationships right now."

�� I haven't been having serious relationships, he thought. I haven't had any relationships recently.

�� It was Drake's turn to roll his eyes. JT feigned restraining laughter at the sight of it.

�� Relentless Todd continued his assault. "Come with us tomorrow night. There's plenty of good looking women at this new bar." He smiled mischievously. �� "Did I mention it's also a sorority hang out?"

�� Out of frustration he put his head in his hands. Todd's remarks might have been funny if they weren't old. "Girls and sex. Is that all you think about?"

�� "We do enough thinking and worrying while we're on duty. Besides Drake, is there anything more important to think about?"

�� "Probably not. At least not when we're off duty."

�� "Then what is it you want?"

�� "What I want is to not have to worry about you telling me I don't pick up enough girls in bars."

�� This time JT laughed outright and he kept laughing all the way to the toaster to retrieve his breakfast.

�� Drake sighed. He'd fall back asleep at the table before he would talk about relationships bright and early. "I don't know what I want."

�� "You want to get laid on a regular basis," JT called from the toaster.

�� "It wouldn't be terrible," he conceded.

�� "What could possibly be terrible about that?" Todd asked. "That's my fantasy come true."

�� "You do get laid on a regular basis," JT said.

�� Everyone laughed.

�� But that wasn't what Drake wanted. He didn't want to go searching bars for a one-night stand. What he wanted was to fall in love.

�� Just as he realized that, the alarm in the station went off.

Chapter 1

The alarm cut through the air of Tina Lerner�s hotel room. She cursed herself for drinking the sixth shot of tequila that was still infecting her head. A few hours ago she thought that her final drink would stop the ringing in her head. Now she found that the ringing had only gotten worse.

�� She pushed her black sleeping mask away from her eyes and waited until they focused the blurry surroundings of the hotel room she had been staying in for the past four nights. The clock on the nightstand next to the bed showed the time of 7:22. Then she cursed herself for having set the alarm on a day she didn't have to work. The one day she didn�t have to work. Once she clicked the familiar feeling snooze button with her hungover fingers, she turned over in bed to return to sleep.

�� Only I would set the alarm,� she said through a long yawn, hoping that sleep would return to her quickly. She pushed a few wisps of blonde hair that escaped her bedtime ponytail back behind her ears and adjusted the mask to more completely cover her eyes.

�� The ringing continued.

�� If only she hadn't had that last shot, maybe then she could enjoy her long awaited vacation after the magazine convention she had attended that weekend. Since the convention had been held in Tampa, the entire staff of The Bay magazine had stayed over for an extra day of rest and relaxation. Tina had been planning on spending it sleeping late and unwinding under the hands of the hotel masseuse. If anyone at the magazine deserved the break--complete with the few extra hours of sleep--it was Tina.

Restlessly she rolled over in the king-sized bed, having once been already awoken, her attempts to drift back to sleep failed. The loud clanging ring of the alarm did nothing to add to her futile efforts, although she didn't know why the snooze had restarted so early. She figured she had probably managed to drift deeper than she thought A light cough was stuck in the back of her throat, probably left over from speeches and conversations with people at other magazines the night before.

Or worrying about the rumors.

Rumors at the convention that The Bay was to be sold had led her to the lobby bar where she had flirted dangerously with the bottle of Jose Cuervo Gold that magnified the sound of the alarm clock. Even after she threw the pillow over her head, it sounded like a clanging gong in her head.

After a few more minutes of contemplating throwing her clock out the window, she found it harder to breathe in her room and the light cough began to tickle like a feather at the back of her throat. Ready to get up for a glass of water, she pushed the mask up onto her forehead and her found her eyes were stinging. A distinct odor filled her nostrils as she breathed. It was the scent of campfires, barbecues, and charcoals.

�� Fire.

�� Without another thought, she sprang out of bed and ran to the door of her hotel room. In the process of getting there, she nearly tripped over her unpacked suitcase that she'd brought with her to the convention. Her mind raced around in circles as confusion took hold on her. Tears formed in the corners of her eyes and her throat closed up, prohibiting the scream that she wanted to release.

�� A scream for help.

�� Think, she told herself. You wrote an article on fire safety once. What did it say?

�� She touched the gold handle of the door quickly to see if it was hot, and when it wasn�t she opened the door to call for help. When the door opened, the bland, beige color of the hallway wallpaper was obscured by quickly-filling, dark, dense smoke. It immediately entered her room and her lungs as soon as she took a breath. In her frantic state of beginning hysteria, they were becoming short and quick.

The emptiness of the hall scared her, adding to her fright.� She thought that it should be flowing with people as panicked as she was. Smoke occupied the hallway thicker where the elevator and stairs were, the fire obviously coming from that direction.

�� Help! Is anyone there?� she called down the hallways. There was no answer to her screams, only the closing smoke. Against the blanket of smoke moving towards her end of the long hallway, the flashing strobe light of the fire alarm became harder to see.

�� She ran next door to her friends� room and began pounding on the door, hoping that Liz and Mark weren't in the room. She waited for one of them to answer, her breath rushed by her increased heart rate. After a few seconds when no one answered, she pounded on the door again, looking at the smoke coming in on the right.

�� Despite the smoke the steadily filled the halls, she went towards the source of the stairs, desperate to get out of the building. She went to open the door to the stairwell and jolted when she touched the handle. Intense heat had made the handle burn beneath her touch. Tears formed in the corners of her eyes from the smoke and the frustration, she returned to her room, alone, afraid, and trapped.

�� Trying to keep from trembling, she closed the door to her room and went to the bathroom. She grabbed one of the white towels from the rack on the wall and doused it in cold water from the sink, then draped it across her shoulders, dampening her hair and keeping one end near her mouth to block the smoke from her nose and mouth. She didn�t know where the flames were but with the closing smoke she knew that the fire was close.

Very faintly, she heard the sirens from fire trucks in the distance. She went to the window, hoping for a fire escape and hoping that there would be a way for her to get out of the building.

�� Outside a large crowd of people was in the street, running around frantically, screaming and pointing up at the hotel. In the light of the early morning, she could tell from her ninth story window that most were still in their pajamas, and wondered how they had managed to exit the building. In a panic, she waved her arms above her head in large circles, hoping that the people below would see her to know she was there, but afraid to admit that the crowd might not be able to see her through the smoke.

�� Then she looked out the window to her right and knew why.

�� A few windows over and several floors down from hers, flames escaped into the open air outside the building with large plumes of smoke following in their wake, climbing higher in the sky with each passing second. The fire was poured out of at least four windows, leaving a rainfall of burning ash scattering in the breeze. The heat of the flames carried in the short distance, warming the hot August air even more.

�� Tina coughed again, the heavy sound coming from deep within her chest. She covered her mouth with the towel as she coughed, scared from knowing that breathing too much smoke would kill her before the flames reached her.

�� As best as she could, she leaned her body out of the window and flayed her arms into the air, waving to anyone who might see her. Frightened screams were muffled and stopped short by constant coughing and pain in her throat and lungs. Over the roar of the flames less than twenty-five feet away from her she could barely hear her own cries for help. And the heat only intensified. Terrified, what she needed was a hero.

��

�� As the fire truck moved through the streets of downtown Tampa Bay, Chief Spartan turned around and alerted the crew that the engine response was to a multiple alarm fire at the Charter Hotel. Drake shook his head when he heard the location. Hotels meant more than a blaze to worry about; they meant a lot of people in danger as well. By the time they got there, it would be chaos in the streets as residents of the hotel left the building, leaving an unknown amount still inside.

�� Hotels were the worst.

�� Todd, this is going to be a mess,� he said to the man sitting next to him in the truck.

�� Yep, can�t wait,� agreed the Todd, putting on his helmet.

�� What�s so bad about hotels?�

�� Drake and Todd both turned towards Pete, the newest member of fire engine company sixteen. A new face had not come to the company since Todd had five years earlier, and the company was still ambivalent about having the probation officer on board. Barely twenty-one, Pete showed obvious signs of fear and Drake knew he was the only one calm enough to deal with questions during the times that proceeded crisis.

Drake remembered what it was like to be the new kid.

�� There�s going to be a lot of people at this scene, Pete,� Drake said calmly. �People are going to be running around outside like crazy and there will be god knows how many more inside. Plus the news crews will be fast to cover this.�

With a deep exhale, Drake leaned back against the bench of the truck, watching the trees pass in the early morning light. It figured there would be a fire before the 7:30 shift change, he was ready to leave from the graveyard shift and most of the next rotation hadn�t arrived yet. They weren�t short-handed, but all of them were ready to go home.

�Too bad the next shift didn't get here,� Todd said to him, reading his thoughts. �We could probably use them.�

�Aw, poor baby,� Drake whined. �Can't handle morning calls anymore, Todd?� he joked, smiling at his friend. Years of working with Todd on the night shifts told him his friend was amazingly irritable during calls that got him up bright and early. A lot of the time, he was old friends with the feeling. His remark was a weak attempt to lighten the tense mood that had sunken in on the truck.

�And when was the last time you saw me in a good mood in the morning?� he retorted to Drake sarcastically.

�The last time you woke up with a woman in your bed," he replied with a smile. "When was that again? Two nights ago? Three?�

Laughter broke out through the truck by all of the firefighters hearing the joke. There was a brotherhood among them; a trust that came from leaning on each other in time of crisis. And with that trust also a close friendship most men never experienced in a lifetime. But a bleak silence came over men as the blaze came into view.

The truck turned and slowed when they reached the Charter Hotel, and Drake was leaping off of the fire truck before it had even come to a full stop. He looked up and saw the fire coming through the windows. Part of the outside of the structure had already begun to char, flinging burning ash into the sky. It appeared to be contained within the few rooms whose windows it burned through, but he could�ve easily be wrong. The alarm went off at the station nearly fifteen minutes ago, and there was no saying as to how many floors it could have eaten through since then, or if it could make a collapse probable.

The rest of the men jumped off the truck and formed a semi circle around their chief who readily gave the orders as to how they would handle the situation. A man with a pin reading CONCIERGE came over to the circle to alert them that there was no telling how many people could still be inside.

Spartan surveyed the scene systematically. "Drake, take Todd. Check the lobby and we'll work from there."

The two men immediately went to the nearest hydrant to set up the hoses they would take with them inside the building. However the movement of a figure standing in a window out of the reach of the fire distracted Drake�s attention. It was a woman waving her arms. Even through the obstructing smoke, he could tell that she was coughing violently, one hand consistently moving from the air to her face to cover her mouth. With the hoses secure, Drake and Todd went to set up the rescue ladder when a woman and man came running over to him.

�� Please sir," the woman screamed through tears, "my friend is trapped up there! She needs help!�

The woman was crying uncontrollably, her voice strained by the fear that gripped her despite being safe. A man stood behind her, his mouth open with fear and aftershocks of the adrenaline rush, his hands on her shoulders in an attempt to keep himself calm and cease her cries. Both had the gray marks of smoke left on their faces and her tears left streaks down her face. �Please do something! Please, save her!� She begged him as she looked up at the woman in the window.

�� We'll get her. Please Miss, move farther away from this area so we do our job,� Drake said urgently, pointing to an area across the street where the chief had everyone congregating.

�� Todd looked up and saw the woman in the window and the fire and smoke closing in on her and quickly assessed the situation. Within a minute, the final few cranks of the wheel the ladder positioned it on the side of the building, a foot lower than the window. They got the folded ladder into position and adjusted their breathing regulators over their faces. To his left, water was beginning to pour out in a forceful stream from the hoses connected to hydrants and held in place by JT and Pete.

When both nodded to each other that they were ready, Drake began the ascent up the ladder with Todd close behind him. That was where the trust came in, going in after another man had gone down.

Old habit took them up briskly, neither missing a step nor focusing on the fire. Drake only saw the woman in the window, a short distance away from where a blazing fire was burning and being put out. The distance between himself and the woman closed with every step on the ladder as well as increased his height from the ground. In the length of less than a minute he had put nearly one hundred feet between himself and the stone pavement.

�� Drake had done this many times before in the past, and experience had taught him the valuable points of rescuing. Never did he look down at the ground because it would only remind him of the increasing height and that this wasn't a practice drill. Neither did he ever look into the fire. He knew how to stay rationally calm to reason with those who had been too gripped by terror to listen and do what he said.

�� As he looked to the woman whose shape became more defined with proximity, he hoped this would not be one of those times that he needed to exercise that knowledge. Even through the smoke he could see the horror in her face.

Queasiness from the smoke and the heat were getting to her head and her fears were jumping to life. When she looked down from the window, she saw a man cloaked in black rising out of the smoke. Thankfully she let out a long breath she wasn�t aware that she was holding, that ended in a cough. Her dizziness increased knowing that the fire was eating away at the building, and while her room was doors over from where it was burning, it didn�t mean the flames wouldn�t find her. And she didn't want to be in the building any longer.

�� Through the smoke she saw the firemen approaching her up the ladder and let out a silent prayer that her fears would end, but they increased when she saw his protection and glanced down at her own. The man climbing towards her wore a black, heavy, flame-repellent coat that went down to his hips, with brightly colored stripes going across his chest and down his sleeves, and black pants with the fluorescent stripes going down the sides. Black gloves covered his hands, and he wore a helmet that had a shield to protect his eyes. As he got closer to her, she could make out the letters T.B.F.D surrounding the number sixteen on the metal plate in front. A large mask covered his face keeping him breathing fresh air.

All this compared to her flannel pajamas and sock-covered feet.

She thought that she had heard him scream something to her when he was within fifteen feet, but she couldn�t be sure over the crackling roar the fire made. The air was growing thicker with smoke and she didn�t know how much longer she would be able to take breathing it.

As the thought became completed in her mind, the fireman reached her window. His body was silhouetted with the sun behind his back, leaving the rest of him to the shadows and swirling smoke on the wind. His shoulders took up the entire width of the window frame of the window, his own size considerably larger from the heavy coat. The way his mask made him look like an alien space creature startled her and she began to back into the room. She was so taken with the presence of him she didn't even see the other man climb through the window.

�� Drake took in the sight of her, hair damp from the wet towel she had flung over her, face stained with black smoke. Her eyes were half-closed and her skin was visibly pale in color, as the blood had drained from her face long before he had arrived. In her eyes he saw her fear, and prayed that there was hope behind them. ��

�� Is anyone else that you know of in the building?� Drake asked quickly.

�� She shook her head. "I don't think so. I'm not sure."

�� Drake didn't like the panic and uncertainty within her. It could make things difficult. Todd strode past her and went to the hallway. She knew he saw the emptiness that she had seen earlier.

�� Drake stuck his head out the window and gazed at the fire that was burning to his right. Below him more companies were positioning themselves to get the fire out and rescue others inside. As he was coming back into the room, Todd announced over the radio link that there was no one in the hallway.

�� "Come on, Miss. Let's go."

�� Tina backed away from him. �Are you crazy?� The fire was outside, she thought to herself. She wasn't going anywhere near the fire. She wasn�t about to climb a ladder that many stories down. Not even with a fireman.

�� Drake walked closer to her and extended his hand towards her. �I�m going to need you to trust me."� His voice both deep and soothing called to her gently, mesmerizing her, even though he was shouting loudly, allowing her to hear him over the deafening alarms of the building and roars of the fire. �We have to hurry before it moves any closer.�

�� The thought of the fire moving closer to her undid the little bit of strength she had left in her body. She put her hand down on the bed and her body sank on to it. Smoke was coming in through the open window and her coughing was getting worse. At the moment, the safest place she could think of was her bed, where she could go back to sleep and wake up from this nightmare.

�� The fireman walked over to her and knelt down in front of her while she sat on the front. Drake knew he had to get her out of there and he didn't want to waste anymore time trying.

�Hold on to me,� he said, placing her arms around his shoulders. If she wasn�t going to help him out then he'd drag her out of there--kicking and screaming if he had to--if she continued to be stubborn. He'd done that before. The jerking movement he made rising to his feet and bringing her up with him made her light-headed, and she coughed violently over his shoulder.

�� That was the last thing she remembered before the world went black.

�� "Shit." Drake didn't like the sickening feeling of her body going as loose as a cooked string of spaghetti. As if it were possible the color drained even more from her face and her lips turned a pale shade of pink.

�� The helmet and regulator were swooshed over his head so he could administer CPR to her on the bed. He checked to see if she was breathing and he could feel her weakly breathe on his cheek. He checked for a pulse and found it quickly, her heart beating fast and steady, a grateful sign instead of it being slow and faint. He picked up the mask and placed the straps around her head, adjusting the mouthpiece over her lips so she could breathe into it.

�� Todd strode back into the room as Drake was tightening the straps around her head.

�� "What happened?"

�� "She fainted. It'll make things easier."

�� Todd watched as Drake fastened the mask better over her face. "Drake, what are you doing?"

�� "She needs it more than I do." Drake rose to his feet. "Anyone else here?"

�� "The floor's deserted. But I can't say about the rest of the place. Backup will help."

�� Effortlessly, he picked her up and draped her body over his shoulder. When he adjusted her weight, she murmured softly in his ear and knew had only fainted. He would need a free hand to keep his balance with her extra weight on the ladder. Now that she was not going to protest or panic at the height or being even closer to the flames, it would make his job easier.

�� "All right. Let's go."

�� Todd hoisted himself easily up through the frame and started the descent down the ladder. Drake climbed over the windowsill after him and set down the ladder carefully as not to drop her. With his right hand on the ladder and his left arm supporting her weight over his shoulder, he went down the ladder with skill that only comes with routine and practice. Every couple of steps he checked the mask for signs of her breath. He wasn�t satisfied with how uneven her breathing was, but he couldn�t do anything about it while climbing down a ladder.

�� Climbing down he heard the sizzling sound of water hitting and extinguishing the flames. With the flames and rising smoke now above them, the most dangerous parts of the flames had missed them. With the weight of the woman and the equipment on his back, he watched as the distance between them and the safety of even ground lessened with every step.

�� Once on the ground, Drake shifted her body from over his shoulder to cradling her like a baby in his arms. The bottom part of the mask was fogged up with her breath and Drake took it as a positive sign. At least she�s still breathing, he coaxed himself. Her air was also a hell of a lot cleaner than his was, he decided between his coughs. But that was only part of the job. As he looked up and saw two familiar paramedics wheeling a gurney towards him, now he could finish his more favored part of the job.

�� As Drake laid the unconscious woman in his arms down on the gurney, he nearly doubled over from a vicious cough escaping his throat. The paramedic with the stethoscope listening to the woman's heartbeat tossed a condescending look at him.

�� "What the hell were you thinking, Drake?"

�� "I was thinking that she needed clean air, Rick. She fainted from the smoke."

�� Rick went to work taking Drake's regulator off of her as he and his partner and wife Jill wheeled the gurney into the ambulance. As Drake was handed back his mask, he thought a lung would follow his coughing out of his throat.

�� "You don't sound very good," Jill said. "Why don't you hop in and we'll check you out."

�� "I'm fine," he retorted. He slipped his helmet off and rearranged the oxygen tank on his back, coughing the entire time.

�� "You don't sound fine. Get in and take some oxygen.�

�� "I'll take some by the trucks. Get in the bus, Jill."

�� "Drake,� she reasoned, �they've got three companies here already and the entire battalion will be here if they aren't already. Get in."

�� He heard the demand in her voice and his lungs weren't about to argue with her. As he climbed into the back of the ambulance, he saw the woman who had pleaded with him to rescue her friend and the man who was standing behind her coming towards the ambulance. Both had navy blue blankets draped over their shoulders and the man was holding onto the woman as she cried harder now than a few minutes before.� He was sure the image of him carrying her unconscious friend in his arms out of the burning building did nothing to silence her tears.

�� As the Rick closed one door, Drake waved a hand over at Todd, who was setting up the ladder hose. Todd gave him a questioning glance when he saw Drake inside the ambulance and Drake shrugged his shoulders in an obvious gesture that stated he had no idea why he was in there. Todd nodded and set back to work at setting up the hoses.

Drake had never rode to the hospital before and he didn't want to be there then, regardless of how much smoke he had breathed. He'd been in smoke for longer amounts of times and every time he remembered made him cough a little more. And then there was the unconscious woman being worked on while she lay on the gurney.� If she didn�t make it, he would blame himself.

Still he shouldn�t be going in the ambulance. If he wanted to visit, he could go later when everything was under control. That was what happened in the past.

He looked around for the spare oxygen mask, witched on the button that released clean air and placed it over the woman's mouth. Then he picked up his own regulator and began breathing the air deeply from it. It was best to stay out of the their way, he thought and he moved as far as he could from the door opening in the back of the van.

Outside he heard the man ask Rick where they were taking her and he gave him the name of the hospital before going up to the front to drive. Jill then climbed in and shut the door behind her, then immediately went to work on her patient. As the ambulance pulled away from the fire he could hear the sirens blaring overhead from the inside. Jill inserted an intravenous line through a vein in Tina's wrist and had her hooked up to monitors that beeped her heart rate.

�� When it was being registered as normal by the blinking and beeping monitor on the left wall, Drake looked down at the woman he had saved. The translucent mask that covered her nose and mouth mostly covered her face, but it didn't hide the fact that she was an attractive woman.

Her face was still stained by the smoke, but a healthy tan and rosy glow was once again returning to her high cheekbones. Blonde wisps of hair still damp from the towel fell toward her eyes in soft waves, settling over her defined jaw. Her nose was slightly upturned and gave her a little girl appearance, though he guessed her age at around twenty-five. He found her naturally beautiful, not needing the makeup he found that too many women were accustomed to wearing.

And as he gazed at her soot-stained face, he found an unruly desire rising within him. As much as he hated himself for responding sexually to an unconscious woman, it was the first time blood had been sent to his groin in a while. It felt good to have that part of him working again, even if he should be damned for it. Todd was definitely getting to him, he decided. A fast turn of the ambulance jolted his attention away from her, stopping him from staring.

�� Is she going to be all right?� he asked Jill, who had taken to watching the monitors she was hooked up to.

�� Her blood pressure a little fast but still in normal range. Her breathing doesn't sound good, almost as bad as your cough. She must have inhaled a lot of smoke. How long has she been out for?�

�� Drake thought about how she had sank onto the bed and then into his arms. Her coughs had been like his, violent, raking through her body as she had gasped for clean air. �A couple of minutes maybe. She was wheezing when I got to her and she fainted before I could get her out. She should've left with everyone else. It didn't seem like they were finding many other people inside."

�� He looked down again at her, wondering what had kept her in the room. Between her tied back hair and the wrinkled flannel pajamas, it appeared that she had been asleep--and alone. But surely no one could sleep through the loud alarm that rang through the hotel. Until they reached the hospital, that thought repeated through his mind, along with why his unruly body was responding so greatly to her.

Rick and Jill wheeled her into the hospital emergency entrance, telling the doctor that greeted them that she was stable. The doctor told the medics that took over wheeling her to put her in one of the examining rooms. Drake hopped out of the ambulance and paced around near the entrance, watching solemnly as she was wheeled away. He sent a prayer with her for her health to return, hoping that if she wasn't going into an emergency room that it was a good sign.

He glanced around at the bustling lobby of the hospital where people waited to see doctors and didn't want to be here. He didn't belong there, he repeated over and over again to himself. He was supposed to be at the fire, helping to put it out and rescuing anyone else who might have been trapped in the building as well. He wasn't supposed to be pacing around in the hospital, and yet he wanted to be with the woman he had saved.

When they had reported their patient to the doctors, Rick and Jill returned to where Drake was standing.

"You want a ride back to the station?"

"Actually, I think I'm going to stay here."

"You sure?"

"Yeah. How is she?"

"She should be fine," Jill said with a sympathetic smile. "Last chance for a ride."

"You two go. Get back to the fire. Someone else might need you."

With that he watched the two walk off together hand in hand. As they turned to smile at each other while walking through the electric sliding doors, he felt a longing for that type of togetherness with someone. Togetherness, and someone who would understand the hell he had to see everyday.

After a few minutes of walking around the waiting room area, Drake turned down the main corridor of the hospital. No one questioned his presence in the halls that were usually restricted to family, but no one could dispute a man who saved as many lives as the doctors did to walk around. After a few rooms, he passed by a room with an open door and saw the girl he had rescued lying in the bed. Drake walked through the door and closed the door behind him.

The room she was put in was small, square, and a shade of white bright enough to blind. Near the bed, he pulled up a chair where he took off the heavy jacket and placed it with his helmet. Underneath the fireproof clothes, he wore a simple white T-shirt, which was stained with sweat both from physical activity and the blistering heat of the fire.

Then he went over to the bed and looked at the woman he had saved. She appeared frail and weak like a soft flower that had been trampled on. He took a cloth from the cupboard on the wall, wet it at the sink, returned to her and gently wiped the smoke stains from her face. When the backs of his finger brushed her cheek accidentally, her skin felt smooth and warm.

Drake smoothed a silky, flyaway tendril away from her face, tucking it neatly behind her ear. He touched the outer rim of her ear, smoothing it gently with his fingertip, feeling how soft it was. He stared at her, hoping that she would be all right, and wondered if all of her was that soft.

�� Shaking his head at the thought, he closed his eyes and turned away from the bed. He ran his hand through his hair to steady himself from thinking that she was a woman he could hit on at a bar. Dealing with losing people was an occupational hazard in his profession, and even when it was other�s losses it never got easier. He had done his job by getting her out of the building and to safety.

But she still wasn�t safe, not until she regained consciousness. If she didn�t, he knew it was because he didn�t get there in time. He couldn�t bare the thought of losing someone, not this girl, not now that he knew his body was responding to her in ways which had him hating himself to admit.

He glanced at the clock hanging on the wall and found his shift had ended for that day almost an hour ago. The thought that he would need to call the office and let his secretary know he would be late crossed his mind, but then again, she was used to his being late for unannounced reasons the morning after he had a shift. And he wasn�t going to leave this girl, not only for needing to know when she awoke, but also for something more that he couldn�t name. It wouldn�t be until she opened her eyes that he would feel at peace with himself for saving her, and he didn�t want to think that knowing she was all right wouldn�t be enough for him.

�� He brought the chair in the room closer to the bed, allowing him to sit and watch her closely. She looked delicate asleep in the bed, and he couldn�t pull his eyes away from her face. With her lids still closed, he wondered what color they were. From his chair, he traced the line from her eyebrow to her jaw. Her warmth called to him in the most feminine of ways and his body answered, an aching in his body he had been missing for too long.

�� The girl began to stir in the bed, moving against his hand, pressing her face into his hard palm. When he felt her lips turn into his hand, his eyes closed and he let out a breath that ended in a groan, forcing himself to refrain from thinking about where else he would like her lips. ��

�� Shh, go back to sleep,� he said, caressing her scalp with his free hand, his deep voice soothing her even in sleep. �You�re safe now.�

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