Honey and Glass

~8~

Trigger Warning: Flashback to a su!c!de call

I swung the door closed behind me as I climbed out of the truck. I walked over and joined Hen and Buck who were looking out over the scene.

"We've been here before," Hen said.

"When?" Buck asked.

"Before you joined us, kid."

"You're almost there!" Hen yelled as Chimney sawed down the branch a woman had used to tie a noose and kill herself. Bobby carried her over to a stretcher

"All right, watch her head." Bobby got to work starting compressions and I passed Hen the stethoscope.

"Why would she do something like this?" Her husband asked standing in the rain. Bobby stopped compressions and looked back at the man.

"I'm sorry."

"Whatever it was, we could have talked about it. I could have helped her. I loved her." Hen picked up the woman's wrist and saw a scar around her wrist.

"I imagine she wasn't eager to run into your loving arms," Hen said glaring back at the man.

"We had our differences."

"Clearly."

"Now, my wife liked to use this tree for target practice." I looked at the tree and saw a bullet hole in the trunk.

"See. It's still standing. And she's not." He turned and made his way back into the house.

Hen cut open the man's shirt, revealing a bullet hole in his chest. She covered it with a cloth trying to stop the bleeding.

"The bullet she fired at him..."

"Did it fly out of the tree when he blew it up?" Hen asked, looking over at what was left of the tree. The man wheezed and then his body went limp, his stone-cold eyes looking up at us.

Hen looked up from his body to Bobby. "Karma's a bitch."

"So I want to thank everybody for donating today. I don't know if you know this or not, but 90% of all the blood given to patients in the Los Angeles area comes from volunteers. I know that we all put our asses on the line in the field every day to save people, but today, you're saving people, and all it's taking is a tiny prick of a needle. So simple, even Mr. Buckley can't mess that up," Chimney said as Buck gave him a thumbs up. Chimney had organized a blood drive after he'd gotten back to work at the firehouse.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. You're the captain of this house, and you're the only one who didn't participate," Chimney said to Bobby.

"I don't like needles, end of story."

"Oh come on, Captain. Come on," Hen said standing up from her chair. "You gotta donate."

"I don't give blood," Bobby said as me and Buck stood up. "All right, I never give blood. When I was a kid, they tried to take my blood, and I bit the doctor." I huffed out a laugh.

"It's not funny. The one time someone tried to take my blood as an adult, it didn't go well." Bobby turned and started toward the locker room. Chimney followed after him but I stayed behind with Buck and Hen.

"Bobby? Hold- hold on. I need you to do this one thing for me. I'm alive because that rebar hit my head at just the right angle, and because I had the best damn fire and rescue team to get me to the hospital and the best surgeons in the world once I got there. But I get ten pints of blood, donated blood, given by the very generous people of this city. Now, I told you, I just... I wanted to do this blood drive 'cause I wanted to give a little something back of what I was given. And expressing my gratitude like this- it balances me out with the universe. Now, you and everybody else here asked me how they could help with my recovery well this is how," Chimney said crossing his arms as me, Buck, and Hen walked up behind him.