Honey and Glass

~14~

        Another day, another whacked-up, incredibly vague call. Great. The truck stopped on the curb and we all filled out of the truck. Civilians stood around the building watching in horror and curiosity.

"LAFD! Step back!" Bobby yelled.

"Please help me! Please help me! Someone help me!" A man yelled. We all made our way standing in a spot we could get a view of what we were working with. A man had fallen through the gap between two buildings and was stuck between the walls on the Delta and Bravo sides of the buildings.

"Whatever you do, brother, don't suck in that gut," Chimney said trying to lighten the mood.

"How we doing, George?" Bobby asked once we made our way to the top of one of the buildings. Eddie and Hen looked down at him through a window in one building and the rest of us stood on the roof of the other.

"I can't- I can't feel my legs. And I think my ankles broken," George said, clearly in distress.

"Sir, do you have any idea how long you've been down there?" Hen asked.

"I saw the sun come up."

"Damn," I said looking at Bobby.

"Well, he's wedged in there pretty good," Buck said looking at the man.

"How's your breathing?" Hen called down.

"I can't really take a deep breath."

"Hey George, can- can you show us how high you can reach?" Buck suggested. "If we can drop you a line we may be able to pull you up."

"It's alright, slow and steady," I coached. His hand inched up slowly and moving one centimeter too far, he screamed as he slipped down the wall just a bit.

"Whoa, easy. George just keep hanging in there we will get you out," Bobby told him.

"What are you thinking Cap?" Chimney asked moving away from the lead.

We made our way down to the truck and grabbed our heavy-duty tools and made our way to room we could use to get George out of the alley. Bobby banged on the door and a mid-aged woman answered it.

"Yes?"

"Ma'am we need to access this unit. Let's go start with the drill," Bobby said as we walked past her.

"Uh, I'm in the middle of a private showing," She complained as Chim slipped past her. Bobby lined up the drill and poked a hole through the wall. On the other side I heard George's panicked screams.

"A little high, Boss," Hen said through the radio. Bobby took a sharpie and drew an X on the wall about a foot below his first hole.

"That's your target," He said as Buck flipped down his helmet shield and grabbed the hammer. Buck got into position and swung the hammer at the X, holding on hand at the base of the hammer and sliding it down the handle, giving more strength to the swing.

"Why couldn't you go through the wall of the other building?" The woman asked Bobby.

"Ma'am as I explained before, the wall in the other building is twice as thick. It would take twice as much time. And this is all gonna be taken care of," Bobby explained somehow not losing his patience with how insensitive this woman was being.

"Yeah, it's good to go, Cap," Buck said once the hole was big enough for us to work with.

"All right, George, I'm gonna need you to control your breathing and take shallow breaths," Eddie coached from the roof as Bobby smoothed out the edges with the drill and got the hole long enough to reach George's feet.