Cinders

~47~ Forging

Mom is short with me this morning. "You step out of line once, you're not gonna be having a good day, Liam Alexander," she warns as she throws some things into her bag.

"When dad gets to the station this afternoon, you're apologizing—You were so out of line," she continues.

"Fine," I snap.

Mom chuckles and looks over at Taylor, who is getting his things together too. "I'm just abnormally cranky, right? I'd have to be. There's no WAY I actually just heard an attitude out of him right now."

Taylor raises his eyebrows and looks back to his bag—He's not getting in the middle of this one.

We get to the station and mom and Taylor hurry to get to their morning meeting. While they are gone, I start looking around.

My next plan is to get mom into so much trouble, that she has to quit.

I climb into the back of the ambulance and start messing things up. I put the medical bag into a different spot, and then I rearrange the supplies inside of the bag. I take out all of the smaller gauze and replace it with bigger ones. I then take out several vials of something and hide them in a corner of the ambulance.

After that's done, I go over to the reports that are neatly stacked on the desk. I start going through them, changing info—I'm pretty good at forging things, I do it all the time with detention slips. I'm able to change several words to make them others.

These people have already been helped, so I don't feel like such an ass. I'm starting to feel funny about messing up the ambulance, though.

Everybody gets out of the meeting, and no one has a clue that I just destroyed the ambulance. An hour or so later the bell goes off.

DING
*Truck 80, Squad 10, Ambulance 20, car accident, 232 Jefferson and Camp

They all rush out, and suddenly I'm feeling really guilty. Messing up the reports was one thing, but I really should've left the medical equipment alone. I change my mind and decide to tell mom real quick, but everybody is already in the trucks and the ambulance is already leaving.

I'm such an idiot

They get back about an hour later, and I get a sinking feeling in my stomach—The guys on squad and truck look really unhappy, and the ambulance isn't back yet.

"What was that?" Greene asks Taylor with an attitude. "Have you ever seen the girls so unorganized? That guy could've bled out."

"I have no idea—I'll talk to them when they get back. I'm not even technically their boss, so I really shouldn't, but Chief is pissed— I probably better just do it," Taylor says, shaking his head as he takes his turnout gear off and puts it back where it goes.

Mom and Megan finally get back, and they both look really mad. Mom goes back into the rig and starts looking around. I go over to the ambulance, acting like I'm doing homework at the desk so I can snoop.

"Did you put the defibrillator here?" Mom asks, really frustrated.

"No...And look, the morphine is in this compartment. What the heck?" Megan says.

"Last shift must've dropped the ball. We're gonna have to go through this entire thing," mom says as she roots around, inspecting the disaster further.

Taylor walks up to them with a nasty scowl on his face. "What the hell you two?"

"I'm sorry—I don't know what happened. The ENTIRE rig is messed up," mom says.

"You were here for two hours before our first call, you didn't think to check your equipment first?" Taylor asks in full 'Lieutenant' mode.

Mom didn't appreciate that. "Did I think to check and see if the defibrillator got taken off of its spot, or the morphine got shoved into the drawer? No, Lieutenant, I didn't."

"Don't get an attitude, Freeman. You two messed up, and Chief is pissed. I'll be surprised if you guys don't get written up for this. Check your stuff from now on before you kill somebody."

"Yes sir," Megan says before mom can say anything nasty to him.

Mom doesn't even look at him, she's too busy rummaging through the gauze now.

"Look at this," she says to Megan, ignoring Taylor's fiery glare. "The gauze is completely messed up. Here! The stupid clamp is here. Why is it with the gauze? I can't imagine last shift really left it like this."

"Could someone have broken in?" Megan asks, turning her attention from Taylor and looking at mom.

"And not have taken the morphine? That doesn't make any sense."

"We done here, Lieutenant, or do we need babysat the rest of shift?" Mom spits out.

Taylor clamps his teeth together, and his face looks like it does when I'm about to get the belt. He holds her glare for a long second before he turns around silently and walks away.

Mom and Megan spend several hours going through the entire rig and fixing things. By the time they get done, they're both still SUPER mad.

"What do you think happened?" Keegan asks, giving mom a hug.

"We have no idea. I talked to Riley before we switched out this morning, and he told me that all was good. Meg and I were just glancing over the list, and everything's there—I don't understand," mom says, looking at the checklist and showing Keegan.

Keegan takes it from her and looks at it too. "Something's going on," he says, looking at Greene.

"Riley checked it all off—He restocked the rig last night. Somehow between shifts, the whole thing got messed up. I wonder if some kids snuck in and did it for a prank."

"And left all the drugs that we have?" Mom asks again.

"Yeah, that doesn't make sense either," Greene says, joining the conversation.

"Just let it go, Freeman. Your quick-thinking saved his life. Focus on that," Greene says as he squeezes her shoulder.

Taylor is listening to the whole thing, but hasn't said a word. He's a stickler on his paperwork and his equipment, so this is completely inexcusable to him.

"FREEMAN!" Chief booms, coming out of his office.

"What now?" Mom mumbles quietly as she walks over to him.

"Chief?"

"What the hell is this?" He asks, waving the reports in her face.

"Umm, my reports?"

"You're telling me that the dog bite case was actually a shark bite? WE DON'T EVEN LIVE NEAR A FREAKIN' OCEAN! Or, my personal favorite, that the person in tachycardia had a heartbeat of 1,000 bpm?"

"What?" Mom asks in complete shock as she takes the reports out of his hands and starts skimming through them herself.

Everybody is watching as she processes what Chief is talking about.

"What the heck is going on? Are we in the freakin' twilight zone today? This isn't even my handwriting. You can tell where it's been altered," she says as she really analyzes the paperwork.

Uh oh

She suddenly gasps a little, and her face goes from confusion to ferocious. "I know who's handwriting this is, though," she says as she scans the group until she sees me.

Once her eyes lock on me, I know I'm a goner. Taylor is out of his seat in a minute, ripping the reports out of her hands and looking at them himself.

BIG uh oh

He looks at me for a minute before he speaks. "Chief, I'm going out with Liam for a bit, and I'm putting Mack in charge of squad until I get back."

He never takes his eyes off of me as he says "I'm sorry, Ellie Jane," over his shoulder. He grabs me by the arm, hauling me out of the fire house.

I can feel everyone's stares on our backs as we leave.