Erin at the FireStation, Friday night, appearances by Doug, Bob and JOE!
Erin was relieved to be heading home tonight. They'd had a busy day of grease fires, chimney fires, and a prank alarm at the school. She'd grabbed her jacket and headed out, zipping up only after she was on the sidewalk and thinking about picking up Chinese. The number was in her phone, and she reached into her pocket to call. But her phone wasn't in her pocket. She stopped, patting at all of her pockets, and pulled out a wallet and a set of keys. It wasn't her wallet, nor were they her keys. "Fuck me running." She said as she opened up the leather and found Jake's license. "Musta grabbed his jacket by mistake." She mumbled to herself. "Just one more wonderful thing to add to the beautiful day today..." She grumbled as she turned to walk back to the station. "All I wanted to do was order Chinese and go home, but no, can't do that. Don't have my jacket. Have to go hope Jake left mine and my stuff's in it too."
Doug knew he had to get the fuck outta Dodge and if Bob wanted to bring his gimp ass he'd better start keeping up. They had to lift a car, it was as simple as that. Maybe one that wasn't too new with all the fancy alarms and shit. It'd be nice, but something old enough to break into and hotwire and new enough to get them the fuck outta town would work just fine for him. "Hurry the fuck up," he said in a low growl behind his shoulder to Bob, who was limping along at least six paces behind him.
"Fuck you," Bob half-whispered back. "You get your ass cheek sliced off and see how fucking fast you run."
Doug was just about to snort when he saw a woman walk out of the Fire station that was just a little ahead of them. Small, pretty, and best of all, alone. He glanced across the street to see which car she was heading towards. If he had the keys, he wouldn't have to hotwire... He slowed to whisper his plan to Bob who's eyes lit up at the sight of the pretty woman. Oh, this could be fun indeed. They both stopped to watch as she patted down her pockets and swore, then turned around and walked back toward the station talking to herself. They moved themselves to an alley beside the station and decided to wait. She had to come back.
Erin did in fact have to go back. She wanted to swap her jacket back around with Jake and go home. She was still thinking takeout, maybe a movie, and some warm bodied company when she walked past the alley. If she'd have been paying attention she would've seen them and they wouldn't have caught up to her.
Because Doug was the more able-bodied of the two, he attacked first. Gesturing for Bob to stay still for the time being, he moved quietly behind the woman and caught her with a fist to the temple.
Erin skittered sideways, brushing her shoulder against the concrete wall. "Ow fucker." She said confused as to what the hell was going on and where the attack had come from. "Piece of shit assholes."
Doug punched the woman in the face, trying to get her to shut up before anyone could hear, and moved to her coat. She had to have her shit in her coat, right? That's what he'd seen her pat down. When she struggled, he motioned for Bob who moved, grabbing the woman by the hair and jerking her head back before covering her mouth with her free hand.
Cornered and unable to do much without being able to see her attackers, she swung blindly. One fist connected to the midsection of one and her foot kicked back to connect with the other in the kneecap. She struggled to get her mouth free and wound up biting the hand covering it.
Doug grunted at the fist to his stomach at the same time Bob groaned at the foot to his knee. They both struggled to control her before she could get free, and finally Doug delivered a punch to her face, putting all his weight behind it and making her head snap back. She went limp for a moment and he used the time to dig into the inside pockets of her coat and grab her wallet and keys. When he held them up to show Bob what he had, he hit the "unlock" button on the keychain and a car ahead beeped and it's lights flashed.
"Fucking bitch," Bob said, throwing the woman to the ground hard enough to knock the wind out of her and deliver a kick to her midsection. He heard something crack and that made him feel good, so he delivered one more.
Erin groaned, feeling like shit more because it wasn't her stuff these bastards had taken off with. She tried to yell but it hurt to breathe. It hurt to move and as much as she'd been through with trainings and hauling gear and everything else, she just wanted to stay where she was. Fucking idiots had managed to do damage and what was worse is they were going to get away with it too. She didn't have anything she could do about it, she thought as she tried to figure it out.
Joe was working late, again, because - well, just because. He'd stopped coming up with excuses a while ago. Why bother with creating an excuse if no one was going to ask for them? Sighing, he pushed out the side door and started away from the fire house, pulling on his coat as he headed into the dark in the direction of his Tahoe. He heard voices as he neared the corner, but paid them no mind until he realized one of them sounded vaguely familiar.
The familiar voice shouted and he recognized it as Erin just as the deeper, male voices responded, yelling in turn. Picking up his pace he hurried around the corner just in time to see - a slumped over form on the sidewalk and two figures running toward a car with blinking tail lights. "Erin!" Pretense lost, his quick walk turned into a run. Heat boiled in his gut, he'd known about the attacks, had heard, but had never thought...never Erin.
She recognized his voice. He was always around the station it seemed and for once she was glad to have him coming by when she didn't really want to see anybody. She probably looked like shit based off of ow she felt. Her side ached as she tried to yell to him but her voice sounded weak. "Jake's car. They're taking it." She hoarsed out not much above a whisper.
Doug heard someone else running up to help the woman and he grabbed Bob's arm, dragging him along as they ran to the car. Bob, being injured, couldn't keep up and he tripped and fell. Doug didn't even slow. Bob might be his friend and he might be hurt, but you know what? Doug looked out for number one.
"Get your gimp ass up!" he yelled over his shoulder. "Or when I get to this car I'm fucking leaving you here!" Bob stood and the gash on his ass had reopened, blood running in a smooth river down his leg to leave a bloody trail as he ran to catch up to Doug, who was already at the car.
Doug fumbled for a moment with the keys before starting it up and pulling out, barely giving Bob enough time to get inside and get his door shut.
His bag slipped out from under his arm, he didn't stop to get it. He raced to her side, falling to his knees beside her. "Erin," rage exploded through him, the demon he always tried so hard to keep under control unleashed, calling for the blood of the men who'd dared do this. He looked up, pinning the distant car with eyes that flickered unnatural light. The tires started to smoke and metal popped and squealed as it heated.
Doug could smell rubber burning and thought that it could be simply because he'd pulled out so fast, but it got stronger and there was smoke all around them. Suddenly, there was a loud popping noise and he saw flames in his rear view mirror. The fucking thing was on fire! "Shit!" he yelped, almost crashing into a light post as he swerved, trying to get out of the car. "It's on fire! Get the fuck out, the car's on fire!" Bob groaned and swung open his door, falling out onto the concrete and hearing the thump of Doug doing the same and he jumped to his feet, groaning at the tug of the wound on his ass.
"Run!" Doug was shouting as they took off down the alley.
They ran, Joe wanted to follow. He wanted to give them a taste of what they had to look forward to in hell, but Erin was here, hurting, needing help. He turned his focus to her, looking down at her with eyes that still glinted inhumanly though his tone was soft. "Erin, honey," for once he didn't worry or stumble over a simple endearment. "Can you hear me? Stay with me. I'm calling help, they'll be here." One hand dipped into the pocket of his coat, fumbling for his phone, the other reached out to brush at her hair, trying to push it back so he could assess the damage. He didn't realize, didn't stop to think, what the fire had done him, how scorching his touch would be - that he would put her in more pain.
She couldn't distinguish which way was up or down right now. She just knew she was hurting and curled into a ball on the ground. It was cold and getting darker and Joe was there with her, or did she imagine that? Had he even called her honey? It must be just her imagination she thought, then he touched her and she sucked in her breath. He was scorching, or she was freezing. Realistically, it was a good combination of both. "You're hot." She said after she flinched a little out of the way and hissed as her ribs protested again.
He swore, loud and uncharacteristically. He snatched his hand back, apologizing. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry, Erin. I didn't mean-" He finally jerked his phone from his pocket and looked down as his thumb brushed over the keypad. The phone made an odd sound and he could see his thumb leaving smudges in the plastic and metal and he almost dropped that too. He jammed a button quickly and brought it to his ear, hoping someone would pick up before he destroyed the damn thing. A voice squeaked through the receiver and Joe relayed what had happened quickly, tersely, and hung up again, stuffing the phone back in his pocket. "They're coming," he told Erin, voice strained as he wanted to hold her, but knew he couldn't. Within moments a door was banging open across at the firehouse and firefighters, brothers in arms, were racing over.
"'s okay, Joe." She said softly. It didn't hurt anymore, where he'd touched her that was. In the moments of his call, her eyes closed, she tried to concentrate on doing what she needed to do. Tried to remember what these guys looked like and concentrated on shallow breathing so as to not aggravate her ribs any more. She heard more people talking and footsteps falling beside her. Then Erin felt them pick her up and carry her away from where she was. Where she was going she didn't know but she knew she was safe and being cared for. She hoped the guys that'd done this didn't get away.
Minisummary: Erin gets attacked and Joe rescues her. Thanks to Jen for playing the badguys ;)