Extinguished

~7~ Facade

Ellie's POV

Liam and I are sitting on the couch watching a movie, when my phone lights up. Jessica has tagged me in a picture on Instagram. That's weird. I open it and see what it is. I chuckle to myself and roll my eyes. How did she manage that? Is she a stalker, or did she actually run into him at the hockey game?

Either way, I'm good. I wasn't kidding when I said I'm not a jealous person. I know she's just trying to get under my skin though—That part bugs me.

I simply reply back— @JessMoss looks like fun! Drink a beer for me!!

She isn't going to make me become a raging, jealous girlfriend. So he took a picture with her—that doesn't mean ANYTHING.

After the movie gets over, I make Liam go to bed. It's around 9:00 pm. One part of his punishment, we decided, is an early bedtime. Liam absolutely hates going to bed early. He's a night owl like Alex. Having his mommy make him go to bed at 9:00 pm at 17 is humiliating for him. So, being the wonderful mother I am, I use that punishment often.

He surprisingly doesn't put up any fight. Taylor's warning before he left must have caught his attention. He still isn't sitting comfortably tonight, so I highly doubted he wanted a repeat of yesterday. 

I rarely have the house to myself, or rather control of the TV, so I turn on my favorite show, I Love Lucy. The boys always make fun of me, so I don't usually get to watch it.

I get several episodes in before I must have drifted off to sleep. Suddenly, I hear Taylor's key turning the knob.

"Hey!" He says, surprised when he sees me on the couch. Unlike my son, I'm NOT a night owl. At all. I'm actually not even a morning person. I'm kinda like a 10-6 type person.

"I told ya not to wait up for me," he says as he comes over to the couch to give me a kiss.

"I didn't. I was watching TV and I fell asleep."

"Sorry I woke you," he says as he scoops me onto his lap and holds me. "Watcha watching?"

"Ugh! Really?" He scoffs once he sees what's on.

"You just don't appreciate real humor"

He quietly chuckles as he strokes my hair. "Did you have a good time?" I ask, changing the subject.

"I had a good time with Greene, but then Moss showed up out of nowhere and annoyed me the rest of the night." 

I hear the truth behind his words, and I know for sure that the picture really didn't mean anything.

"You look like you're about to pass out baby. Let's get you to bed," he says as he picks me up and carries me to the bedroom.

I don't argue. I'm bushed.

As I fall asleep that night I have a dream about Jessica—trying to steal my man.

The next couple of days go by quickly, and before I know it, it's time for another shift. We drop off Liam at the precinct with Alex. With him being suspended from school, we decided to have him spend the day with Alex. He's going to keep him all night, and then we will pick him up in the morning.

Hopefully he enforces our punishments, but I doubt he will. I'm sure he's gonna get a free pass tonight.

Our morning has gone by slowly. I decide that I'm bored and I want to pull a prank on somebody. Unfortunately for Keegan, he's on my hit-list. I go and find the supplies I need to execute my prank.

While I'm searching the supply cabinet, I spot Jessica in Taylor's office with the door closed. Taylor is smiling at her a little bit, which is odd. He can't stand her. It's even odder that the door is closed. Taylor never closes the door unless it's something important. Weird.

I shake off that nagging feeling and finish up before I'm caught.

Once I've done what I needed, I run to find Keegan.

"Keegan, Keegan!!!" I yell, drawing attention from absolutely everybody. I've got them right where I want them.

"What's wrong Freeman?!" Keegan is out of his seat and running over to me in an instant.

"What the hell did you do to the toilet?!! Its smoking!!!! Come quick!!" I scream.

This has everybody's attention. Keegan grabs a fire extinguisher, and makes a mad dash to the bathrooms. I see Jessica and Taylor now, and they start running to put out the fire too.

Once Keegan gets to the bathroom, he stops and bursts into a fit of laughter. I mean, he's almost choking he's laughing so freaking hard.

"You had me, kid. Where the heck do you come up with this shit?" He asks, giving me a high five and rolling his eyes.

"It's a gift" I say, smiling sweetly.

Everybody files in to see what I've done.

I had one of the toilet lids closed, with two rolls of toilet paper sitting on top to look like eyes. I then took an empty paper towel roller and stuck it in between the seat and the lid to make it look like the toilet was smoking a cigar.

The amount of laughter coming from everyone would make you think we were drunk. Some of these men are laughing until they have tears in their eyes. Nobody has seen Keegan run that fast, ever.

Taylor is standing in the corner, laughing. As I'm walking out of the bathroom he follows me. "I would love to have a peek into your mind and see how you think of these things, Ellie Jane."

He winks at me and goes back into his office.

I see Jessica watching our exchange as she waits for me to turn the corner. Once I do, she goes back into Taylor's office and shuts the door. I wait for him to open it back up. But he doesn't. It stays closed the entire time.

Over the next few weeks, I feel my "I'm not a jealous person," facade crumbling. I'm getting jealous, and I hate it.

Taylor tries to keep his distance from Jessica, but Jess has really been worming her way into his life. I think they might actually be starting to become friends.

What really got the ball rolling was an amazing save Jessica made during a call a couple weeks back. There was a man trapped in a building that was on fire. There was nobody around to help her, so she somehow managed to get him unpinned all by herself, and pulled the man out of the building, without any help from anyone.

I'm not taking anything away from her, it was an amazing save. However, it was so impressive, that she officially had the attention of everybody as a serious firefighter that belonged here; She could hold her own in a fire.  

Taylor went up to congratulate her for a job well done, and she ran with it. They've been friends ever since, and sometimes it seems like the lines are starting to blur a little. I know Taylor still loves me. However, he's flirted back a couple times. I'm not sure if he's even noticed, but I have.

It's starting to worry me.