An Alphabet of One Shots

H Is For 'High'

Ben was sitting at the front desk finishing a call with a woman who was determined that the raccoon that kept coming into her garden was trying to kill her. As he placed the phone back onto the receiver, the door to the station flung open and two panic-stricken women came rushing to the desk.

"Woah there! Slow down!" Warren was quick off his seat, ready to attend to whatever emergency the pair were having.

"We brought some ..."

"Is our tin of ..."

Both women began to ramble at the same time.

"Stop!" Ben realised that he wasn't going to get any helpful information out of the pair without intervening. "I need one of you to speak slowly so that I can understand the issue."

"You saved our home from burning down last week." The taller of the two women began. "So, my wife and I decided that we would bake some brownies as a way of saying thank you." As she finished speaking, the woman looked sheepishly at her wife.

"Okay ..." Warren was somewhat confused by the pair before him. "I'm not seeing what the problem with baking appreciation brownies is." His brows furrowed.

The wives shared a concerned look before the shorter woman began to speak. "I had made some weed brownies, earlier on in the afternoon, for some friends, and it seems ..." The woman's voice trailed off. "Well, it appears that I got the tins mixed up and I may have brought the weed brownies here instead." The taller woman finished.

As the women finished speaking, Warren quickly rushed up to the beanery knowing that 'A' shift had just gotten back from a call, and there was nothing hungry firefighters loved more than some sweet treats. The pair of women were quick to follow the firefighter, hoping they would be able to stop chaos from ensuing.

As the trio entered the beanery, it was clear that they were too late.

"WARREN!" A chorus of cheers erupted amongst the team.

"We had brownies and they were soooooo good." Vic skipped over to the man, placing her hands on his shoulders as she spoke in a sing-song tone.

"Too good for us to leave some for you, Man. Sorry." Gibson's tone was as far from remorseful as it could be.

"Okay. I need to call in help with ... all of this." Warren threw his hands in the air as he tried to take in the scene before him.

"LET'S SLIDE DOWN THE POLE!" Andy squealed in a childlike tone as the team was quick to agree.

"NO!" Warren's voice boomed through the beanery. "Nobody leaves this beanery, understood?" Warren took his 'Station Dad' status seriously in times like this.

The chorus of "understood" was muffled as it was grumbly echoed throughout the room.

"We are so sorry." The older of the two women spoke as she looked to her wife who shared the same remorseful look.

"Look, don't worry about it. Just take your tin and leave. You'll want to get out of here before this gets worse." Warren's voice was stern, but he knew the women had not meant to cause any harm.

—

Carina had arrived at the station as quickly as she could after a rather ominous call from Ben Warren. Whilst he had assured the woman that her wife and the rest of the team were fine, she was still concerned at the urgency in the man's tone. As she made her way to the beanery, she couldn't help but stifle a giggle.