11. Hallie

11

HALLIE

H allie strides into the station the next morning with a slight bounce in her step and a smile playing on her lips. Kaia's forgiveness—and the hours they spent tangled in a mess of sweaty limbs afterwards—last night has made her feel more secure in their relationship than any she's been in before.

They had had their first real fight and have come out the other side stronger than ever.

Hallie greets Art warmly as she joins him for their first morning coffee together in weeks, having promised Kaia that they could skip one-on-one training for the day.

Just as she's raising her mug to her lips for that first, searing sip, the alarm blares, its shrill tone echoing throughout the entire station. Hallie sprints after Art as they both rush out to the garage, her good mood evaporating as she takes in the grim faces of her fellow firefighters.

"We have a major emergency at the Desert Oasis Resort," Captain Hewitt announces in his booming voice. "The blaze has engulfed the twenty-fifth floor of the western high-rise. Numerous civilians suspected trapped inside. Let's move people, we need to act fast."

Hallie hauls herself into an engine, conducting a silent head count of her crew and making brief but loaded eye contact with Kaia.

The Desert Oasis is a mammoth resort, with a complex layout and capacity for hundreds of guests in the western high-rise alone. This is going to be a monumental operation; they can't afford any mistakes. She can only hope that Kaia understands everything she is trying to say in that look.

Please, stay alert. Please, stay with your team. Please, stay safe.

Kaia gives her a small nod, eyes blazing with that familiar determination, before turning away. Hallie understands her response, they can't afford to worry about each other today, they have to be one hundred percent focused.

When their convoy of engines pulls up at the resort, Hallie blanches at little at the sight. Even with all her years of disaster experience, it never gets easier to face a lethal crisis like this head-on.

Thick, black smoke billows from the upper floors, darkening the sky, and the sound of screams and shattering glass fills the air. She leaps out of the truck without giving herself even half a second to feel afraid, bellowing instructions to her crew.

"Alright, listen up! We're splitting into containment and evac! Squad 3 you're on evac with me, keep your ears open, I'm running comms from the ground!"

The rookies nod, jaws set beneath their helmets. Hallie can't help the pang of fear that pierces her gut as Kaia joins her teammates activating her breathing apparatus and readying to enter the blazing tower. She knows Kaia is a capable firefighter, and fiercely brave, but the thought of her in danger still sends an icy chill down the lieutenant's spine.

As the minutes tick by, Hallie monitors the radio chatter, systematically guiding her squad through their evacuation operation on the upper floors. So far, it's going smoothly, but the fire is spreading fast, and they're running out of time before the structure becomes too unstable for the rescue team to stay inside.

Then Hallie's worst fear is realized.

A distressed call out from Cochran crackles over the radio. "Lieutenant, we have a problem. Montgomery has separated from the group."

Hallie's chest seizes as she struggles to choke down a breath. She immediately barks into her radio, her voice hoarse with tension, "Montgomery, return to your squad immediately! You have not been authorized to move into any area alone."

A few, agonizing seconds pass where Hallie hears nothing but static, before Kaia's response comes through, breathless but controlled. "Negative, Lieutenant. We're moving too slowly. Civilians are running out of time before this whole place comes down. I can speed up the rescue by tackling twenty-eight alone."

The lieutenant's grip tightens so much on her radio, it's a wonder it doesn't crush into pieces.

She knows Kaia is right, time is against them, but branching off alone in this kind of disaster zone is against every bit of protocol Hallie has drilled into her rookies since the day they stepped foot on her training ground.

"Dammit, Kaia," she mutters under her breath, before raising the radio back to her lips. "Cochran, Richards! Assist Montgomery on the twenty-eighth floor, she shouldn't be up there alone."

"No can do, Lieutenant," Cochran's sharp response has a churning nausea growing in Hallie's gut. "Twenty-seven isn't clear yet, we have civilians in tow. We have to get them out first."

Before the lieutenant has a chance to respond, Kaia's voice rings out again, this time noticeably strained. "Structural damage on the east side of twenty-eight. Do not attempt rescue, it's too unstable. No survivors found."

Hallie's stomach falls straight through her feet. "Get clear, Montgomery! Evac is winding down."

"I'm working on it, Boss."

The lieutenant's fierce resolve begins to well and truly crumble. Kaia sounds like she's struggling more than she's letting on.

And her crewmates are making their way down twenty-seven floors to the ground, getting further away from her with every passing second.

"Montgomery, confirm self-evac, now!"

"Negative, Lieutenant." Kaia's response is the most feeble Hallie's ever heard her voice. "Obstructed descent. I'm trying to clear a path."

Hallie clenches her eyes closed against rapidly encroaching tears. Every instinct in her body is screaming at her to rush in, to save the woman she's grown to care about so deeply, even when her recklessness infuriates her beyond measure.

But the lieutenant knows the risks. The tower is on the verge of collapse, she would never authorize re-entry for any other members of her squad.

She opens her eyes again to assess the sight before her, torn between everything she knows as a veteran firefighter and everything she feels as Kaia's partner.

Because that's what she is now. Her partner. Inside the department and out.

In the end, there's no choice to make. Hallie throws on her own breathing apparatus and sprints towards the building, alerting her team on the radio to complete their civilian evacuations and immediately join the containment squads. They had to put out this blaze.

The heat grows more overwhelming with every level Hallie races up the service staircase. The damage appears to be less severe on this side of the tower, but she knows what she'll be up against once she tries to navigate to the side of the twenty-eighth floor where Kaia is trapped.

Every muscle in Hallie's body screams at her as she keeps climbing and climbing.

She clutches at her breathing apparatus and gasps through a few deep inhales before attempting to radio Kaia again.

"Montgomery, report!"

"Ceiling cave-in meets collapsing floor. It's quite the circus up here, Lieutenant. I'm making my way across as fast as I can. Stand by."

Hallie bites back a sob. Kaia should have waited for her entire team's assessment of the integrity of the higher floor before rushing in alone.

"I'm coming, baby," she whispers to herself, clambering up more steps with renewed vigor.

Finally, Hallie reaches the twenty-eighth floor, forcing her way through the service door to encounter the disastrous reality of what's left of it.

She immediately spots Kaia, maybe twenty feet away, maneuvering too slowly across the obstacle course of exposed steel beams and crumbling plaster from all sides. The lieutenant assesses the expanse with sharp eyes, weighing their painfully limited options.

Just then, her gaze snags on a gaping hole in the floor between them, on a half-collapsed bed visible from the floor below.

"Kaia, you'll have to jump!" she shouts across the roar of flames and fire hoses. "I'll head down to twenty-seven and pull you out."

Kaia raises her head beneath her helmet, her face too obscured for Hallie to make out if she's surprised to see her. She hesitates, glancing down to the floor below and then back to her formidable lieutenant.

She doesn't move.

"Kaia! You have to trust me! I won't leave you here."

The smallest sigh of relief escapes Hallie's lips when Kaia finally gives her a timid nod. She barrels back through the door she came through and leaps down a flight of stairs, 3 steps at a time.

When she bursts through the service door on the floor below, Hallie can only just make out Kaia's figure through the steadily rising smoke. She sprints towards the mattress and yanks it towards her, desperate to find an area of floor that might bear the weight of Kaia's descent.

Ready in her position, she radios Kaia, terribly aware that they may soon run out of seconds before they can kiss their shot at escaping goodbye.

"Now, Kaia! Jump now! I've got you."

Kaia hesitates for another agonizing moment until a flaming beam crashes down behind her, forcing her to lurch forward.

If she doesn't move now, it'll be too late.

"Come on, baby," Hallie pleads under her breath.

Then Kaia jumps, hurtling through the air as ash and debris flutter around her.

She lands on her hands and knees in the center of the sagging mattress. Hallie immediately reaches out to grab her arm, hoisting her across the trembling floor and towards the relative safety of the service exit.

When they both collapse in front of the door, they pant for a few seconds in tense silence.

Suddenly, a deafening creak pierces Hallie's eardrums and her stinging eyes widen in pure terror as more of the ceiling starts to give way. She doesn't stop to think as she throws her body over Kaia's, just as huge chunks of plaster rain down from above.

The impact knocks the wind from Hallie completely, clanging through her teeth and battering her spine and legs with brutal force.

Kaia starts to crawl backwards, dragging her lieutenant with her until they make it through the door to stairs. Without a word, she pulls Hallie to her feet and throws her arm over her shoulders, supporting her trembling weight as they begin their hurried descent to the exit.

Each floor passes with a dizzying blur. It's all Hallie can do to keep moving, keep breathing through the acrid, soot-laden air that gets sightly clearer the closer they make it to the ground.

At last, they tear through the exit, neither of them daring to slow their pace until they make it to the engines a hundred yards from the building.

They both collapse forward and heave, hands braced on their knees as they try to choke down air. The pure adrenaline coursing through Hallie's veins seems to collect like a swirling vice around her stomach. But there's nothing in there for her to throw up.

She removes her helmet tossing it to the ground as she struggles to right herself. Looking up, she catches sight of Kaia's soot-smeared face, her dark eyes boring into Hallie's with unrestrained rage.

Before Hallie can cough up the words to ask why Kaia looks so angry, they're each whisked away by paramedics for check ups and fitted with oxygen masks at different ambulances.

Once she's cleared by the medics, the lieutenant makes it back to her rig, shocked to find Kaia furiously pacing with her arms crossed tightly across her chest. The absence of her jacket reveals Kaia's sweat-slicked arms are marred by various scrapes and bruises. Hallie's heart clenches at the sight of the bandages encasing one of her hands as well as her bicep.

Kaia glances up at Hallie's approaching, instantly storming over to her and wrapping her fingers around her shoulders in a bruising grip.

"What the fuck was that? Why did you come up there?" she hisses, shaking Hallie slightly in her grasp.

"What do you mean? I had to get you out," Hallie answers, bewildered by Kaia's demeanor.

"You should have left me, dammit! Christ, Hallie, what about protocol? You could have died trying to reach me!"

"Protocol?" the lieutenant spits back. "You want to talk to me about protocol? The only reason I had to come and save you in the first place is because you abandoned your fucking squad!"

Their hushed argument is beginning to draw an audience as more of their crewmates return to the engines, the remainder of the evac teams relieved of their duties.

"Drop whatever this is and get your ass on the rig, Kaia. I won't be snapped at by a rookie in the middle of a live operation."

Kaia chews her cheek, the ticking muscle in her jaw indicating to Hallie that she's biting back a retort. But she eventually strides away, hauling herself into their engine without a second glance at her perplexed lieutenant.

Hallie stays on sight to oversee the containment squads until the inferno is completely extinguished and the relevant city departments have arrived to determine how they're going to safely bring down the teetering, burnt out structure.

By the time she makes it back to the station, she has almost completely forgotten Kaia's outburst. That is, until she enters their locker room and finds her pacing again, glaring at the ground as if it's personally offended her.

"What's going on?" Hallie asks calmly, just overwhelmed with relief that they both made it through the day alive and unharmed.

"I'm losing my mind, that's what's going on! You put your life at risk to save me. You can't do that, Hallie! You're supposed to be Queen-fucking-Protocol! How could you just chuck that away and run right into a crumbling high-rise?"

"Why?" Hallie grits out through clenched teeth. "Maybe because my fucking girlfriend got herself trapped when she ignored orders to stick with her squad!"

"Well, you should have left me to deal with my own choices!" Kaia snaps back. "Not made me almost responsible for your death."

They stare at each other, almost panting with restraint as they try to keep their furious tones hushed within the privacy of their women-only space.

"You don't get to make your stupid choices my problem, Kaia. I saved your life because I couldn't bear to lose you," Hallie rasps around the rising lump in her throat. "But I'm getting tired of trying to reign in your reckless instincts. I've done everything I can to teach you and you still barrel in, guns blazing, without a second thought for your squad or your own safety."

Kaia's eyes widen at Hallie's admission, shame darkening her cheeks as she drops her gaze to the ground.

"I was trying to give my all to the rescue. I was sure we could be doing more," she mumbles in the direction of her feet.

Hallie heaves a deep sigh, though it quivers in her chest as she tries desperately to hold back tears. "I know you were, Kaia. Your drive and your bravery are admirable, incredible even. But you don't know everything. And a lone wolf will never belong on my squad."

"What are you saying?" Kaia's face snaps up, panic stricken.

"I'm saying you better fall in line or I'm recommending your transfer to another station," the lieutenant responds. "And I think it's best for both of us if we end our relationship now, before we both get hurt."

Hallie inhales a shuddering breath as the first tear breaks free and snakes down her cheek. The shock and hurt in Kaia's face is a kick in the gut she struggles to take.

Kaia just gapes at her, clearly lost for words at the direction their argument is taking.

"You—you're breaking up with me? Because I ignored an order?"

"No, Kaia. I'm ending this because we should have never started it in the first place." Hallie tries to swallow around the emotions that are slicing her up from the inside, fighting to voice her decision in a more level tone.

"You're right, I could have died today because I was so desperate to get you out of there. We can't afford to be distracted by our feelings when lives are at stake."

She grabs her bag from her locker, deciding she'd rather drive home covered in the grime of today's disaster than stay in this room with Kaia for another second.

The devastation would crush her in seconds, and she'd take it all back.

"I'm sorry, Kaia," she chokes out, turning to grip the door handle with shaking fingers. "We'll just have to act like none of this ever happened. It's safer for both of us that way."

Without daring to glance back, she strides from the locker room.

Somehow managing to make it the entire drive home before breaking down, Hallie pushes open her apartment door in a daze. Only when she's closed it behind her and turned the lock does her composure finally crack. She collapses to the floor in her hallway as silent tears stream unbidden down past her clenched jaw.