New team

4.First Training

Sam, listening to an advise Chief Fire Officer Boyce left him, gave his five new firefighters one whole week without any training to let them settle and get to know each other better. Just to be on the safe side when it would come to forming a real team from them. On the first day Sam noticed that the boy from Cardiff Fire Academy - Liam was the most reserved, yet still confident, from the five of them. It was clearly visible that what was written in his file was true. Sam could barely imagine someone else being a team leader here. The other four from Newtown had their flaws, but, as Chief Fire Officer Boyce promised they were the best from the best. Eddie and Tony quickly found themselves at the sea rescues while Julia and Chris were competating with them in the mountains. They found themselves quickly in Pontypandy, but Sam as station officer, knew there is still a long road ahead of them. They still had to learn how to coorporate together and use their strenghts against each other weaknesses. And that was what Sam planned for them today. 

Unconventional methods had always been the one he liked the most at the academy, so today he prepared something no one would have guessed. When the area underneath the training tower was prepared, the only thing missing were the students. The nights were calm and so he let them have free shifts until they get to know duty so good that they would be able to survive whole night. 

"Good morning, sir!" A voice of Julia brought him out of his thoughts, when he had just ended securing a rope to the training tower's wall.

"Good morning" Sam replied to the three firefighters, who were already wearing their uniforms. They must have somehow sneaked into the firestation without paying his attention to themselves. 

"Unfortunately firefighter Jackson can't be with us today, but..." Sam announced. "Where's Tony?" He asked after he counted people standing before him for a second time. 

"He is late, sir" Eddie replied politely. "Uhh, what is that, sir?" He wanted to asked, after Sam nodded his head, but someone ran into his back, making Eddie's question hard to hear. 

"What did you wanted to say, Eddie?" Chris leaned down to look at his friend grumpy face, while he chuckled. 

"I was about to ask what is that for?" He pointed to few ropes and leathers put together in one big mess. "Is that supposted to be any kind of art, sir?" 

"No, Eddie" Sam tried to play indifferent. "Actually this is an exercise for you today. You have to walk through this, working together. You don't have to use any special technic. It is an exercise for cooperation and quick thinking. Go on" Sam encouraged. 

With the first time it walked quite smoothly, but after a lunch break, Sam tried to develop his exercise so much that it ended with total failture. Chris and Tony got stuck between the ropes at the top of one of the leathers, and the only thing that turned out of it was that Eddie and Julia did something together for a first time without an argument. 

"Do you continue to train kung-fu?" Chris complained, rubbing the back of his forearm where she kicked him when he was about to fall on her from the trap. 

"No, but ones you learned it, you cannot forget it" she sent him a cheeky grin. 

"I guess we all have enough for today" Sam rubbed the bridge of his nose. "Tommorrow you'll train your firefighting skills" he sighed resignatelly. "You can go home now".

"Roger that, Station Officer Jones" they briefly saluted in responce, before they turned around and walked slowly to their lockers. 

They gathered their things in silence, but as soon as their station officer was away from the hearing sight, Eddie let go off air he was holding.

"What was that? We didn't learn anything important"  he complained grumpily. He didn't show much symphathy at the beginning towards his station officer's unusual methods, but that quickly changed. However today he could say: "I said that!".

"Complain. We learned. That girl can hit pretty hard too" Chris rubbed his shoulder at the place where Julia had hit him in the training. 

"It looks for me as Station Officer Jones doesn't know what he's doing sometimes. It is our third week here and we didn't propelly trained even ones. He didn't know what to do today when we did so good at his innovation" he put last word in the quote sign in the air "exercise. It took as quicker than that obstacle course we had to train at the academy" Eddie noticed. 

"I don't know, guys. Aren't you going too hard on Station Officer Jones?" Julia disagreed, sitting opposite three boys. "I see it as he tries to learn us his way". 

"Something wrong?" Bronwyn asked, overhearing the conversation coming from their table. The new firefighters were regular clients of Whole Fish Cafe in last few weeks. 

"We can't figure out our Station Officer yet" Chris explained honestly, despite his friends silent protests. "It's just... he smiles on our training, but then all of sudden his thoughful and grumpily answers any question we have" he added when Bronwyn looked sceptically at him. 

"He wasn't like that before" she stated mysteriously.

"What do you mean, Mrs.Jones?" Chris asked curiously. 

"Ten years ago, Sam was a living legend. People called him Pontypandy's hero next door, but he denied it. He was just too modest I guess. He is still, but not in the same matter that made him him back then" Bronwyn explained.

"Sorry, but I still don't get it" Chris shook his head in puzzlement as did Julia and Eddie. Only Tony seemed not so confussed. 

"Does that have something to do with the few farewalls on the Pontypandy Planet" Tony handed Bronwyn his mobile phone to let her read. 

"I didn't realized Sarah posted it, but you're a pretty smart boy, Tony" she ruffled his hair playfully. "Tony's right. They were the five that made the only team here that could be called a team. It was ten years ago" she put Tony's mobile phone on the table to let the others see the group photo of the team she was so close to. 

"Why they left then if they made so good team?" Julia asked, returning the mobile phone to his owner. 

"Only them alone knows that. We only know why Elvis left few weeks ago and therefore why you are here, but maybe there's a deeper meaning to it".

"Don't try to explain it any other way, Bronwyn" Charlie showed his head in the doorway from the bastement. "It is all too comlicated for that, but I know one thing for sure. What had broken my brother, had broken the whole team" Charlie interrupted, but luckiky the firefighters were too busy wondering what happened in his wife's version of the story. 

"It doesn't matter for me" Bronwyn shouted after him, before she continued. "Elvis moved to Newtown" Bronwyn  showed on the phone, ignoring her husband loud spoken annoyance towards her action. "when he became a dad five years ago, but he didn't transfered. But even such a loyal friend couldn't handle Sam's moods anymore. Let alone that even Charlie stops talking to Sam from time to time". 

"And what about the rest?" Chris caught up with Julia's question. 

"It started from Penny. She left first without the word and Pontypandy was full of rumors. No one knew for sure, neither I nor Charlie, but probably it started from argument between the team. Then Ellie left to look for Penny but she got engagded in the argument quickly as well. And I guess she just couldn't handle the atmosphere anymore. It got worse and worse when Tom had an accident and he could no longer be a pilot. It broke the team down up to the bones" she sighed in resignation. "Some time passed by in seeming peace, but it was calm before storm. After the storm that came to Pontypandy from Newtown, Station Officer Steele realized it can't go on like that any longer. He tried to put the team back together, but..." Bronwyn hesitated. 

"What was next, Mrs.Jones?" Chris' voice was barely heard from an anticipation. 

"The gossip said he tried to talk with Penny and Sam, but they didn't want to. Ellie also refused to come back" Bronwyn lowered her head in unspoken grief. "I don't know what happened there for real, but no one later could stick the team back up. Arnold and Elvis as the last one left and ten years after Pontypandy finally got an real team" she smiled weakly to young firefighters whose jaws fall down from surpruse how much dark things happened before. 

Hi! I don't have anything planned for Halloween yet, so this is something to fill that gap. I hope you had interesting time reading the story here, and you won't kill me right now. It will get more interesting, promise ;)