Date: Fri, 26 Jun 2009 01:45:12 -0700 From: Scott MacIlherron Subject: Firefighter Chapter 2 Disclaimer: This story is pure fiction, a work of the author's imagination. This story contains homosexual relations between men and sexual intercourse. If you don't like this kind of stuff or are under age please leave now. Etc. Etc.. Etc.. I am deeply sorry that there has been a lap between the first installment and this chapter. I have been working with the U.S. Forest Service and I just got laid off on November sixth. I immediately started writing chapter 2 to this story and I will endeavor to continue with more frequent installments. I hope you enjoy. Scott MacIlherron Copyright 2009 Firefighter Chapter 2 We arrived at the hospital and offloaded Trevor into the ER, and I followed in after with the E.M.T. and Paramedic. Once I finally got into the ER and got Trevor in a room I talked to one of the ER docs about me getting checked out because I was in the accident. I told him that I wasn't hurt that bad but that I still wanted to be checked out. He did a full check up on me and told me that I had bruises, cuts, and scrapes. He also said that I must have strained or pulled a muscle in my leg because he couldn't find anything wrong with it. I thanked him and sat down to wait for my chief to come pick me up. After awhile my chief finally arrived at the ER and we then started back to station 114 where I would call someone to pick me up. On the way back to 114 I was told that my truck had been towed to a local yard and I could go there the next day to observe the damage and take anything out that I wanted. John, my chief, told me during the ride that I was off duty until my injuries had healed and been checked out by a doctor. We got back to station 114 and I hobbled in to call a friend to pick me up and take me home. After the call was finished John asked, "Do you need anything right now or the next couple of days?" "Huhh, not right now." I replied. "Although tomorrow I will need a ride to the holding yard to take a look at my truck." "Just give me a call tomorrow and we will figure out a time to go up there OK." He said. Right after the very short conversation that we had my friend arrived and took me to my apartment. Once I got inside I popped some aspirin and went to bed to sleep off some of the injuries. By and by, about two and a half weeks passed and I finally got checked out by the doctor to return to duty. I went to the station and told Chief that I was OK and gave him the report. He then told me that I would be on duty tomorrow and back on the regular schedule. The next morning a little before 8:00 I got to work. I gathered some of the stuff that I was going to need for the day out of my back up car and walked in the house (fire station) and as soon as I had opened the door the three other guys on shift yelled, "Welcome back Crash." Well, isn't that wonderful, I just got a nickname. "Fuck off", I taunted back at them. Now most people think that in the fire service everyone acts professional and that we are all about yes mam and excuse me sir but that's wrong, at least when we are not in the public eye. If you could just take a cab ride to one of the incidents that we go on we all have foul mouths and talk and joke about the most messed up stuff. "Ahhhhh Crash doesn't like his nickname, poor baby." Rich said in a baby talk voice making a stupid face to go with the stupid voice. "Well tough, because you're stuck with it until we think of something better, Ass Hole." He finished in a `hard voice'. They all laughed at this and Keil (pronounced Kyle) just said, "Come on lets get to work." (At this point I have to explain how our engine is set up to respond to calls. We have 4 people on our shift so on the engine all 4 doors are left open. The Engineer gets the Drivers side front seat (obviously), Cabman or if a Captain is on shift gets the passenger side front seat. And the 2 firefighters get the 2 back seats. This week it was decided that I was going to be the Engineer, mostly because Rich didn't want to drive and I am the only other one on our shift with a Class B license and all the required certs. to be an Engineer. So what we do is set our turnout pants beside the door for the seat that we are assigned. Across the top of one of the boots is our hood so we have to put that on first. The boots are in the pants so all we have to do is take off our shoes hop into the boots and pull up the suspenders, fasten the front and viola you have half of your equipment on. The jacket is then hanging on the door. You throw that on and then your helmet is in the cab so you can throw that on once on scene. After the taunting we started our list of daily things that needed to get done. We started our morning P.M. (Preventative Maintenance) checks which is basically checking all the equipment on the engine as well as the engine its self. I walked out into the bay and unplugged the shore line from the engine opened the door and flipped the master battery switch. Hopped into the cab and started the engine. I let the air build up to the proper pressure and then pulled out and did my morning air break checks. After the air brake checks were finished I hopped out and dropped a chock in front of the tire and then reached into the cab and engaged the midship pump. I went through my pump run up tests with the main pump and then with the aux pump. I finished that portion and had Keil walk around and check all my emergency lights and regular lights to make sure that they were working. Rich at this time was checking all the SCBA's that were in the seats to make sure that they were working right. After everything in the cab was done I made sure that everyone was clear and hooked up the cab lift controls so I could lift the cab to get to the engine. I made sure everything was secure in the cab so once I lifted it nothing would rocket from the back of the cab into the windshield. After the cab was lifted I did all the engine checks and lowered the cab back down. By this time everyone was done so we backed the engine back into the bay, hooked the shore line back up and started our morning P.T. For P.T. right now we are doing P90X workout. Some times it is hard and the yoga is very relaxing. Well we were doing the Plyometrics and were about halfway through the session when we heard a pre-alert on the radio. "Beep, Beep, Beep. Response area 111, vehicle accident, Highway 88 cross of Cooks Station." Rich turned off the DVD and we started changing into our uniforms as the tones started going out and then our pagers and plecktron (station alarm) went off. "Beep, Beep, Beep. For Battalion 14 Chief Officer and Engine 1-4-1, Battalion 2714, Engine 2763 (CAL FIRE), Rescue 1, Station 111 personal, vehicle accident, Highway 88 cross of Cooks Station. [pause] Vehicle accident, Highway 88 cross of Cooks Station; for Battalion 14 Chief Officer and Engine 1-4-1, Battalion 2714, Engine 2763, Rescue 1, Station 111 personal." We all ran to the engine and started doffing (taking off) our shoes. Threw the hood into our turnout pocket and jumped into our bunker boots, pulled up the pants and everyone but me slung the jacket on. (The only reason for me not wearing a jacket when driving is because it is easier to drive without a bulky jacket on.) We then hopped into the engine ready to go and this process usually takes about 30-40 seconds. I got into the operators seat and started the engine. As the alarms were shutting off in the engine and the self engine checks were finishing we were ready to roll. Everyone put on their headsets the first thing that I said as usual was, "seatbelts." I reached over my head and flipped the master switch for our emergency lights, reached over and released the parking break and then put the engine in drive. Once the display signified that I was out of neutral and in drive I pulled out. I pushed the button of the floor for our federal Q siren to wind up to a scream and while I was doing this Keil stood on the air horn to help clear traffic as we pulled out onto the main road. Once out onto the main road I took a right heading East up Highway 88 for about a 15-20 min. drive to the scene. I had just gotten up to speed and was almost out of Pine Grove when check back came over. "On the radio" said Keil. "Beep, Beep. Check back for units responding to the vehicle accident on Highway 88. Battalion 14 Chief officer?" "Battalion 1-4-3 in Squad 1-1-5," replied Mike. "Battalion 2714" Camino asked the CAL FIRE Battalion Chief "Battalion 2714" Responded Jerry. "Engine 2763?" Camino asked. "Engine 2763" replied the cabman on the CAL FIRE engine. "Engine 1-4-1?" Queried Camino. Keil came up on the air, "Engine 1-4-1 (pronounced one four one)." "Rescue 1?" Camino asked. Silence. (It usually takes awhile for one of the volunteers to get to the station from his work or house) "Any additional Battalion 14 personal?" Camino asked. "Battalion 1-4." Said our Battalion Chief. "All units responding at 0932 to multiple reports of a two vehicle collision, reported to be 2-3 miles east of Cooks Station on Highway 88." We were flying up Highway 88 at about 65mph and had just passed red corral when we heard some one come up on the air for Rescue 1. "Camino, Rescue 1 responding." "Rescue 1 responding at 0936." Replied Camino giving the time that they responded at. "Dam," Keil said. "They are going to beat us." "No shit," I said. "They are always going to beat us unless there is no one at the station. Plus you have 63 up at Dew Drop they are going to get there before us. I don't see what the big deal is. Now if it was down here and someone beat us to a call I would be pissed." We continued on up and were just out of Buckhorn when we heard the first unit arrive on scene. "Camino, Engine 2763 on scene, two vehicles, west bound lane is blocked, investigating." "Engine 2763 you will be the 88 IC (Incident Commander) on tac. 2." Camino instructed 63. Next we heard the continued report after a couple of minutes had passed. "Camino, 88 IC." "88 IC, Camino." Camino acknowledged. "Camino we have three patients, two minor and one moderate. Continue next closest unit and cancel the remainder." 88 IC said. "Camino copies at 0952 on incident number 1149." After a short pause we heard the cancellation come over the radio. "Beep, Beep, Units still responding to the vehicle collision on highway 88 you can cancel with exception of Rescue 1. Battalion 1-4?" "Battalion 1-4." Chief said. "Battalion 1-4-3?" Camino asked. "Battalion 1-4-3." Mike said. "Engine 1-4-1?" Camino asked us. "Engine 1-4-1." Keil chimed in. "Battalion 2714?" Camino asked the CAL FIRE Battalion Chief. "Battalion 2714," said the B.C. "All units canceling at 0952 on incident number 1149." Camino came back with. I took my foot off of the siren button and as the siren was winding down I reached up and turned off the emergency masters to shut off all of the lights. "Well guys how did you enjoy your scenic drive?" "Very funny," said Forrest. (The other guy on our shift.) "Well let's head back to the station and start some training." We arrived back at the station backed into the bay doffed our turnouts and set everything up for the next call. We all headed back inside and sat down to do some classroom drills on being an Incident Commander for a call of some kind. After about 20 minutes our station phone rang. I jumped up and grabbed it and said, "Station 114, Engineer Patterson." "Hi, my name is Seth and I was wondering how would I go about joining your department?" "Well, I have a couple of questions first." I said. "Ok," Seth said. I started my battery of questions. "Do you live in the Pine Grove, Pioneer, or Buckhorn area?" "Uh, yea I just moved to Pine Grove a couple of weeks ago and I was on a volunteer fire department down where I used to live," he said. "Ok, so how much fire experience do you have?" I asked him. "Well it's been about a year and a half to two years that I have been on a volunteer department. I just recently got my firefighter 1 and Class B license." He told me. "That's a good start. Well if you have a chance sometime this week if you could stop by our station I could give you an application and then you could fill it out and start the process that could take a couple of weeks." I told him. "Ok, will I have time now so I will be there in just a couple of minutes." Said Seth. "Cool, see you then." I said to him. "Talk to you in a bit," he replied. I hung the phone up and told the guys that they could take a break because I had to gather up an application packet that someone was going to pick up in a few. They all thought that was a good idea for the fact that they had been sitting for awhile. I started gathering up the application packet and putting it together when there was a knock on our door. One of the guys got it because I was still in the office gathering the info together. Forrest poked his head into the office and said, "Hey Crash, the guy that called is here." "Wow, that was fast. I thought I was going to have a bit of time before I got everything together." I said to Forrest. "Well you were wrong," retorted Forest. "Well send him in." I told him going back to getting the packet together. Forrest retreated from the door and a few seconds later Seth walked in. I stood up and reached out to shake his hand. "Dan Patterson, I talked to you on the phone." I said. "Seth Porterhouse." He said reaching to shake my hand. God was he hot and built. Wide shoulders narrow waist big guns for arms and pecs. I am not talking body building big but big. He stood about six foot and had a pretty strong face. I don't mean bad or ugly but chiseled not square but defined jaw line, very masculine. He had dark blue eyes and sandy colored hair that was cut short but long enough to style with gel. He was wearing a striped polo shirt that was tight on his upper body and a pucca shell necklace around his neck. Acid washed jeans to look old and flip-flops. He was tan and everything about him screamed I am a guy and don't fuck with me and here I am ladies. "Could you please close the door behind you and take a seat and we will get things started." I asked him. He turned around walked the two steps to the door and pulled it closed turned around walked back and plopped down in a chair across the desk from where I was sitting. Oh my god his back side was delicious as well he had a defined back and nice ass with big powerful looking legs. We started talking about firefighting and I set him up with the application that he had to fill out and as he was filling that out I was on the computer printing out another form that I couldn't find in the file cabinet. Once everything was filled out I collected everything and put it in our box for mail to go to the Battalion Chief. We stood up and I asked him if he would like a tour of the house where he would be working. He said sure so we started our tour where we were and I showed him the inside. We moved to the outside and I was showing him the bays when we broke another call. I told him sorry to cut it short but we had to go. It was just a medical aid. So instead of getting in our turnouts we just threw them into the engine and left. I looked in my mirror as we pulled out and there Seth was just standing there outside watching us leave. We flew down the road to the medical aid and got on scene shortly after. "Camino, Engine 1-4-1 on scene." Keil said to the dispatch center. "Camino copies at 1324." Camino came back with. We grabbed our gear and walked up to the house while we were putting our gloves on. Forrest knocked on the door and called out, "Fire Department." We heard a reply from inside the house, "Come in the doors unlocked." We opened the door and walked in and found the lady that the call was for. I kneeled down and said, "Hi my name is Dan, what's your name?" "Gale," she replied. "So what seems to be the problem today?" I asked. "Well my chest started hurting and so I called 9-1-1." Gale said. "Ok, well I am going to have one of these guys take your blood pressure and some vitals while I ask you some questions, alright." I said. "Ok," she said. Keil reached into the med bag and retrieved a BP (Blood Pressure) Cuff and a stethoscope to start taking the vitals. "So, how long would you say that you have had this pain?" I asked. "Well I would say about a half hour." Gale told me. "Did it start suddenly or was it gradually brought on?" I queried to get a better idea as to what was happening. "Well, It kind of just started suddenly." She said. "Does the pain move anywhere other than in your chest?" I asked, stacking up the questions that could possibly find out if she is having a heart attack. "Just up into my neck a little bit, but that's it." She told me. "BP 174 over 110," Keil told me. "With a pulse of 104, irregular." I wrote that down as I said to Gale, "Well we are going to give you some oxygen to see if that helps you any, Ok." "Ok," she said. Rich reached into the bag and grabbed out our O2 cylinder and put a non-rebreather mask on it. He turned the liter flow up to 15 l.p.m (liters per minute) and put it on Gale. About the same time we heard Battalion 14 arrive on scene over our radios. "Sorry Gale but I forgot to ask how old you are?" I asked. "62," she told me. "Ok," I said. "Have you had this pain before or is this a new experience?" "No I haven't had this before." She said. "Ok, are you taking any medications or supplements." I asked. "Yes, they are on my bathroom counter." She told me. "Is it Ok if I send one of my firefighters in to get them so we can see what you are taking and so when the medics get here they can also have a look?" I asked her. "Sure," she simply said. "I know this seems like a lot of questions but we need to ask them." I told her. "Its ok, you guys are just doing your job," She said waving her hand in an arch gesturing to all of us. I chucked at that point. "Are you allergic to any medications incase they have to give you any?" "Not that I know of." She said. "But of course I could be and don't know about it." "Now does that oxygen seem to be helping any?" I asked. "A little bit," she said. "But I still have the pain." "On a scale of one to ten with ten being the worst pain you have ever felt how would you rate this pain on that scale?" I asked her trying to get more info out of her. "Oh," she said thinking. "I probably would say its about a 7." "Ok," I said writing down everything she was telling me. "How would you describe the pain? Dull, stabbing, burning." "It feels like indigestion but it is going into my neck and feels like a real bad ache." She said. As she was answering that question the medics arrived and came in. "Well Gale the medics are here and they are probably going to ask some of the same questions and some different ones." I told her. "Ok," she laughed. I stood up and went to talk to the medic about what info we had gathered. I said, reading off of the sheet, "This is Gale and she is 62 years old complaining of chest pains that radiate into her neck. We got a BP of 174/110 and a pulse of 104 and irregular. We put her on a non-rebreather at 15 and here are the meds she is taking." I said handing the medics the bag of medications. "She has had this pain for about 40 minutes now and rates it as a seven." "Ok," The medic named Dave said. "Thanks Dan." "Well we will get the gurney and spike a bag for you." I told him. We walked out to the ambulance and ended up having to turn it around so that it was facing out and ready to load and go. I started spiking a bag as Rich and Forrest were grabbing the gurney and Keil was getting some of the stuff out of the ambulance to replace what we had used on the call. I finished spiking the bag as they came out with Gale on the gurney and the medics started loading her up. "Thanks guys," Dave said. "No problem," I replied. Keil grabbed the O2 bottle back from the EMT on the ambulance and put it back in the med bag. We all started walking back to the engine as we heard over the radio, "Camino, Battalion 1-4, all units available returning." "Camino copies at 1409 on incident number eleven fifty- eight, 1-1-5-8." Camino said to us. We got back into the engine and got back to the station flipping on the emergency lights so we could back into the bay safely. "Camino, Engine 1-4-1 in quarters station 114." Keil said into the radio. After a short pause Camino came back saying, "At 1413." We got out and set up our turnouts again to once again be ready for the next call to hit. The rest of the night and the next day and night until 8:00 am that Thursday rolled around we had 6 more calls none of great importance. I got off at 8:00 am after a short briefing to the oncoming shift as to what we did and things that needed to be done. Great it was my Friday this Thursday. Now I have four days off until I have to go back to work again. I went home and lounged around just watching T.V. and browsing the internet just looking at nothing really. I was really bored so I decided to go out and do some Geocaching. Now for those of you who don't know what geocaching is; basically it is a worldwide high-tech treasure hunt using a GPS. You go onto the sight www.geocaching.com and sign up for a free account. You set a profile and your zip code and you can then see the closest caches to you. You get the lat and long coordinates and load them into your GPS and just it until it says you are here. Once there you have to use the clues that are given on the web site and find the cache. Some are very hard to find and some are easy. Once found they all have a log and you sign it and the date you found it. Some have little toys or prizes now to take one you have to leave one so I just usually go for the hunt and could care less about the prizes. So I hopped into my old beater car that I had for a replacement until I got my truck fixed. I started driving and following my GPS. I ended up doing this for about three to four hours when I had found 7 caches and decided to call it quits. Went back to my house and logged them all onto my account as found and left messages on all of them such as: Good hard find. TFTC, TNLN, SL. (Thanks for the Cache, Took Nothing, Left Nothing, Signed Log.) After awhile of once again puttering around doing nothing it was about nine o'clock so I decided to go down and frequent a bar and have some drinks. I took a short drive to Sutter Creek where I went into the bar called the Anex and started drinking. After awhile I had been talking to some people and bought a few drinks and had a few drinks bought for me. I felt pretty good. That's when someone came up behind me and said, "Hey Dan, how's it going?" "Pretty good right now, you." I said as I turned around on my bar stool in my semi delirious state and saw Seth, the guy that came in the other day at the fire station. "Ehh," he said shrugging his shoulders. "But that's why I am here, isn't it." He said with a chuckle. "Well, take a seat," I said. I turned to Seth and said Boiler Maker ok for you. "Sure." He said. I turned back to the bartender and said, "Two Boiler Makers please." As the bartender was making the drinks I turned to Seth and asked, "So how did you find out about this place for being here for such a short time?" He grabbed the lipped counter and leaned back slightly in the stool and said, "I was talking to some people and they suggested that this is one of the best bars in the county. So I decided to come down here and give it a go." As he finished saying that the bartender set down our drinks and walked away for another order. "Well," I said sliding one of the beers and a shot of whisky over to him. "Cheers." We clinked the shot glasses together and dropped them into the beer and downed them. At almost the same time we both belched and then we gave looked at each other and gave a short laugh. "Next round is on me." Seth said. So we got another round and another and had a few more shots. By that time everything was really catching up with me. "I'm drunk," I said to him in delirium as I wobbly turned to face him on the barstool. "Yea you are," he said giving a laugh. "Come on lets get you out of here." He helped me count out the money to pay my bar tab because at that point I couldn't count very well. He paid his and we both left generous tips. He helped me up the stairs to the outside where the cool night air helped a little bit with how I was feeling but not much. Seth pulled out his cell phone and dialed a number. A bit later someone pulled up and Seth said, "Come on, get in." At this point I did as he said knowing that I sure as hell couldn't drive and he shouldn't either even though he was a lot less drunk than me. "Where do you live?" Seth asked me after he helped me into the car. "Piinee Grrove." I told him slurring my words. "Up 88 andd thenn yooou go up tooo toboo. I meeean tabbb boooo. And, and and." I said showing him in the air with big gestures with my hands. "you gooo upp andd II amm the firest housse on the leffft." He laughed and got in. We started driving up Ridge road and up to Pine Grove when I passed out. The next morning around Twelve o'clock I woke up in my bed in boxer briefs and that was it. "Ohhhh." I said sitting up holding my forehead regretting the drinking I had done last night. `Last night, Last night.' I thought. `What the hell happened last night?' I was thinking about this when things slowly came back to me. "Holy shit." I said out loud. I had passed out at some point in the car and that was the last I remembered until now. "God dam it," I said once again out loud. `Seth must have brought me home and unlocked my house and brought me here and stripped me and put me to bed.' I thought. `Oh god, hopefully I didn't do something stupid.' I got up and shuffled to my bathroom to let loose a horridly long stream of piss. I rummaged through the medicine cabinet and popped a couple of Tylenol to take care of my raging headache. I was a slug for about two hours and slowly got dressed and ate some food. After I was finished I sat down on my couch and was just closing my eyes and leaning back when I heard a knock on the door. I got up and walked to the door and opened it to see Seth standing there. "Hey," he said. "Feeling better today?" "Just starting to," I told him motioning for him to come in. "Just stopped by to see if you were still alive." He said jokingly. I walked over to the couch and plopped down and he took a seat in one of the chairs. "What happened after I passed out in the car last night?" I asked him. "Well, we got here and half helped you and half lifted you out of the car and you were mumbling about what, I couldn't tell." He told me. "I asked you for the keys and you just stood there leaning against me with a death grip around me. So I had to get them out of your pocket and brought you inside. I asked you where your bedroom was and you pointed back there." He said pointing towards where my bedroom was. "So I took you in there and you wouldn't let go of me. I kept telling you that you were home and that you could go to bed now but you kept mumbling something about staying here. Finally I got you to let go and sat you down on the bed." "So how did I end up in just my underwear." I asked embarrassed of the situation that I put him in. "Well I wasn't going to put you to bed in everything you were wearing so I took off your shirt and pants and put you to bed." He said nonchalantly. "I'm so sorry," I said to him. "Sorry I wasn't better company." "Hey you were drinking when I got there and you continued to drink until you stated that you were drunk and we left. No big problem." Seth told me. `Crap,' I started thinking. `If he put me to bed, he had to see the pictures on my nightstand and on the wall of me and my former boyfriends.' No they were not just pictures of me standing there with a "friend". They were of us holding hands, kissing or cuddling. The one on the night stand was taken by a friend of me and my last boyfriend sitting on the couch, him holding me and me turning my neck around and kissing him. `Crap, Crap, Crap, CRAP.' I thought. I mean I know that when I go into peoples houses and they have pictures on the wall, I look at them, so he must have. I must have started blushing at that point because he said, "What?" "Nothing, just sorry about the whole situation." I told him. "Don't worry about it." He said. "Believe me when I say that I have been that drunk before. I have ended up in my place and other places and don't remember half as much as you did of the night." We started talking about this and that and I thought either he saw the pictures and doesn't care or he really didn't see them. Or he was drunk and doesn't really remember the pictures. Ahhh I don't know. "Hey," he said. "I'm starving, I haven't eaten lunch yet you want to go grab a bite and pick up your car?" "Well, I just ate a little something about an hour ago but I am still hungry. Sure why not." I told him. "Just give me a few to grab some shoes and my wallet." I went into my bedroom and grabbed a pair of socks and shoes and went in search of my wallet. My wallet? Hmmmm. I checked in my pants from last night. Not there. On the night stand. Nope. On my dresser where I usually put it. Nada. I walked out into the living room where Seth was. "Just a minute, I can't find where I put my wallet." I said as I started to search around again. "You mean this one?" He said holding up my wallet and waving it back and forth. "Where was it?" I asked. "Don't know how but it ended up in my friends car, but it did. I saw it and grabbed it when she dropped me off at my house last night." He said recounting how it had come to be in his possession. "One question. How did you get here if your car was in the same place as mine?" I asked him. "This morning the same friend gave me a ride down and I picked up my car." He told me. He tossed me my wallet and we headed out. Once again I am so sorry that it took so long for the next chapter to come out. After I got laid off as a seasonal firefighter with the U.S. Forest Service I have finaly had a chance to work on this. Before the next chapter comes out for this series I am currently working on the fifth chapter for Alistair's Story. Hopefully the chapters will come staggered and somewhat closer together than they have been in the past. Remember to send me in e-mails. Love, Scott MacIlherron