Burning Desire

When It's Just Not Enough

I followed the smell of bacon and eggs down the hall towards the canteen, yawning and rubbing the sleep from my eyes. I was in desperate need of coffee.

"Morning." Heidi greeted me with a warm smile as I entered the room.

"Morning." I replied, attempting a smile, but yawning instead.

I heard her laugh, reopening my watery eyes to see her pouring steaming water into a mug.

"Here, just how you like it."

She slid the mug across the counter and proceeded to make another mug up right after.

"Thanks Heids."

I was about to lift it to my lips, when she hurriedly reached out a hand to stop me.

"Whoa, it's too hot." She warned, sternly.

Chuckling slightly, I took hold of her hand and nodded.

"I know, that's why I was about to blow on it," I smirked, "But thanks for looking out... Mom." I added in a teasing manner.

She picked up the tea towel from the side, swinging it at my head and bursting into laughter when I managed to dodge it.

"Less of the 'Mom' comment there Mister. I'm not that much older than you."

"True, but somehow you're still the mother of the Watch." I argued back, dropping into a chair at the table, whilst she finished adding more toast to the rack.

"Well, in that case, care to tell me why you're up so early? Especially after last night." She asked, fixing her curious gaze in my direction.

I shrugged, taking a sip of the hot coffee and letting the hit of caffeine help wake up my system. It had been a long night, we'd all just about climbed into bed when the alarm went off. There was a small fire out the back of a restaurant, it looked like someone had tossed a lit cigarette into the rubbish. We finished up there pretty quickly, only to get another call out an hour later, which turned out to be a hoax. Supposed car fire out on the high street, but when we got there, there was no car to be seen, let alone a fire. Unfortunately it didn't stop there, another hoax call half an hour later, was then followed by a shout that ended up taking us up until dawn to put out. By the time that we all got back, and crashed in our beds, I just wasn't able to sleep.

"Couldn't sleep. The in and out all night made it hard to switch off."

She ducked behind the wall, presumably to place the food in the oven to keep it hot for when everyone else woke up, and then joined me at the table, her own mug of steaming coffee, clutched in her hands.

"Sorry love." She said sweetly, "I'll still never understand what possesses people to pull those hoax calls." There was a venomous undertone to the rest of her sentence, one that was rarely ever heard from Heidi.

"Me neither."

I leant back in my seat, resting my arm on the table, and my other elbow on the back of my chair. Heidi took a slow sip of her coffee, watching me over the rim of the mug.

"So, how's Lacey settling in?" She asked.

"Great. She's a damn good firefighter." I answered honestly.

Every shout that we'd worked since she'd joined Red Watch, she'd held her own well, and proved to be a great team player, we all thought of her as part of the family already. My only issue with her, had been the fact that each passing day seemed to show me something else to like about her, and it was getting even harder to resist the building feelings that were creeping up on me.