Page 99 of Up In Smoke

He hugs me back awkwardly in my turnouts, but I still appreciate it.

“Excuse me, Mr. Firefighter,” Katerina says loudly. I let Jesse go and see where my neighbor is pointing. “Maybe fight fire first, then hugs. Okay?”

“Oh, shit,” I say. The blaze has clearly progressed farther in her place compared to mine for whatever reason and is licking at her bedroom door. I jump on the radio. “This is Flores,” I say as I spin around and lean back out of the window, waving my free hand to get the attention of anyone looking my way. “I’m on the fourth floor in the third apartment with two civilians.”

“And a dog and a cat!” Jesse adds.

“And some four-legged civilians,” I amend with a tweak of my lip. “In need of immediate evac. Can we get a ladder up here? Some H2O would really be great as well.”

“On it, Lieutenant!” Captain Valentine responds.

“Come on, we need to get ready to leave,” I say, moving over to Katerina’s bedside. “Are you able to move, Ms. Petrova?”

She narrows her eyes at me. “Talk like this to me again, you see how fast I move.”

I back up with my hands raised as she throws her bed covers back and swings her legs over the side of the mattress. She’s wearing a big, fluffy dressing gown over her night clothes and slips her feet into a sturdy-looking pair of slippers.

“Okay, then,” I say, glancing out the window to see a lot of movement going on, and not just for us.

The crews are steadily helping more people to safety as gallons of water continue to pour onto the flames wherever they can be reached. Gene is maneuvering the ladder from the truck our way, but we’re not out of the woods yet.

“We’re going to have to climb down,” I explain.

“What about Klaus and Noski?” Jesse asks.

I nod and quickly weigh up the options. “Lochlan will be there to help Katerina. So If I carry Klaus, do you think you can manage the cat? Does that case have a strap you can use to secure her across your body?”

“Let me check,” Jesse says, approaching Katerina. She’s got the bag clutched to her chest defensively. “I promise I’ll take care of her,” Jesse murmurs, holding out his hands.

My neighbor frowns at him and me but then holds out the mesh case. “Very precious, yes?”

“Yes, of course,” Jesse tells her, quickly assessing the various straps he has to work with. “Yep, I should be fine,” he says, adjusting one then fitting it over his shoulder. “Don’t worry kitty, we’ll get you out of here.”

For a second, my breath hitches and my heart flips just looking at this wonderful man of mine show such compassion to a scared little creature and her anxious owner. But then I’m swiftly reminded that this is still an emergency and I should be doing my damn job.

“Fast, please!” Katerina cries, holding up her hands as flames finally start edging their way through the top of her door, clinging to the ceiling and amping the temperature up in the bedroom. “Go fast!”

“Yes, good idea!” I tell her.

I can appreciate my husband later. For now, we survive.

I check out the window again, relieved to see that the ladder has almost reached us and Lochlan is racing back up it toward us.

“I’ve got you, Lieutenant!” he yells. “Let’s get the hell out of Dodge!”

“Amen to that,” I mutter. “Okay, Katerina. You ready?”

Her lips wobbles as she looks around her bedroom. But then she marches over to the window. “The handsome firefighters will help me, yes?”

“Yes, they will, ma’am,” I say with a chuckle.

I offer her my hand as Lochlan reaches into the room to also assist. As we work to carefully get her onto the ladder, I see Jesse grabbing Klaus’s leash and ushering him off the bed. It looks like Katerina has gathered quite a few possessions there, and Jesse makes short work of gathering them up in the duvet. Then he looks around before studying the end of the bed closer.

“It’s an ottoman!” he cries, grabbing the handle and heaving the top half up to reveal storage space underneath.

“Jesse, you have to go!” I urge him as the fire crawls closer to us overhead.

But he takes an extra second to push aside some spare bedding and place Katerina Petrova’s lifelong keepsakes inside before closing the bed again. “Maybe they might make it in there,” he says with a small smile as he runs over to me. “She’s lived a remarkable life. She shouldn’t lose it all.”