Caught in the Flames

Chapter One Hundred Seventy

As always, none of this is mine. I'm just the perv who want to make our beloved Twilight characters swear, drink, and go at it like horny rabbits. This story will be a combination of love, suspense, some violence and steamy, sweaty sex.

Chapter 170

EPOV

Emmett texted me that Garrett had finagled shifts once he found out I was coming to the house. The crews I normally worked with were now going to be on Friday so I could truly enjoy being at the house without having to worry about getting up for school. The second shift was more than willing to get back part of the weekend. I said I'd be there after my afternoon appointment with Molly.

The house was planning a huge cookout for the returning of the prodigal son. Bella even coordinated with Kate, Claire and a few of the other house wives for some sort of pot luck thing. She told me not to worry about it and to focus on my studies.

Which I did. Harold was a fucking bull dog with this damn project.

So, I took over because the guy was driving me batty with his constant texts, emails, phone calls and instant messages. The rest of our group was grateful and we managed to get the first part of our project completed after our anatomy lab on Thursday. We only had two more parts and the presentation to finish and those weren't as labor-intensive as the first section.

After our lab on Friday, Harold approached me. "Edward?"

"No, Harold," I snickered.

"Come on! You're the only one who understands the inner-workings of the kidney," he whined. "I have to be successful at this. I don't want to let down my family. My girlfriend!"

"Look, Harold, I respect you for wanting to be so studious. I just can't drop everything when you want to study. Again, I have plans today. I have physical therapy ..."

"What for?" Harold asked. "You're huge and muscular. You're not into steroids are you?"

"No. I used to be a firefighter and I was critically injured. I had some significant lung damage along with a case of sepsis," I said. "I'm trying to rebuild the strength I lost. And I'm not huge. You should have seen me three months ago."

"Really?"

"Yeah. On top of that, I have a newborn daughter and I'm planning my wedding," I explained. "I'm very busy, obviously. I'm more than willing to help you, but you have to give me time for my family. For me!"

"I'm sorry, Edward. I just thought that you were like the rest of us," Harold frowned. "An overwhelmed med student."

"I am, but my stressors are slightly different than yours. Compared to the life a firefighter, this is easy. And I'm saying goodbye to that life tonight." I checked my calendar, seeing that Bella had her appointment for the first fitting for her wedding dress tomorrow at noon. "If you want to come over to my place a little after noon, I can help you with the kidneys and give you tips and tricks. I will have Marie, my daughter, with me, but that's the best I can do. Okay?"

"That works," Harold said, giving me a relieved grin. "Text me the address." He jogged toward the med school dorm as I walked to my car. I drove to physical therapy where Molly kicked my ever-loving behind. I was now walking on wobbly limbs because of sheer amount of work I did, not healing and coping with weak muscles. I drove home and darted up to shower since I knew I was rank. Bella teased me as I flew past her.

"Did you roll in a stinky patch, Edward?" she laughed.

"I'm working on it," I called back to her, jumping into the shower and scouring every inch of my body. Once I was clean, I dressed in a pair of jeans and one of my Chicago Fire Department polo shirts. I frowned, going to take it off since I wasn't a member of the Chicago Fire Department anymore.