Breaking Down, A Story of Broken Love

Chapter Two

Monday went pretty smoothly at the Fireman's Grill. It wasn't crazy busy even though the fair was hoping. It would be busier on Tuesday, which is when all the rides open. Everyone has been cooped up for the past two and a half years because of the lock-downs. The excitement could be felt in the air as the community ached to return to the old "normal." Kate found herself in the food booth again on Tuesday. Historically, the fire department that is scheduled to man it hasn't had enough day-time help either and oftentimes volunteers from other departments filled in to help. Kate enjoyed working with her brothers from other departments. Trading stories and catching up with the gossip was always interesting. Today's stories were mainly focused on how the virus changed the fire response.

The evening crew starting wandering in around 4pm. Kate left the grill and headed back to the parking lot. Her fire department was required to man the first aid booth every evening, which required someone to go retrieve the fire trucks. If there were to be an emergency, they would be able to quickly respond from the fair grounds when they have their trucks and gear with them. She threw her black turn-out gear and helmet into the back of the first-due engine. She hung out for a while and waited for a few more people to come in. She wasn't surprised when it wound up being Jason and Mathew.

Jason was younger than Kate by 10 years or so. Mathew was the firstborn son of the current fire chief. Both were dependable, hard-working, good men in Kate's eyes. They were the ones who came when it wasn't a glorious call. 3 am fire alarms, lift assists, gas odors, things that weren't "heroic" yet still needed the fire department to show up to. It's a large part of the reason she respected them more than most of her brothers. None of them were officers, so Jason was the defacto decision maker as he had been on the department the longest. Since there were three of them, they grabbed three trucks, the engine, a tanker and one of the grass fire rigs and headed back up to the fair grounds.

They arrived back at the fair grounds and set-up to hang out until the fair shut the gates at 10pm. It didn't take Reyna long to spot Kate. The spunky brunette made a bee-line to the table and plopped down in one of the old plastic chairs next to Kate.

"Hiya stranger! Long time no see," Reyna grinned.

Kate returned the smile, furiously trying to remember the girl's name. "Hey!" she paused for a second.

"Reyna." the brown-eyed girl smiled.

"That's right! I'm sorry I'm terrible with names." Kate was great at recalling faces, but always struggled with remembering people's names. "How are you enjoying working our little fair?" It didn't escape her notice that Jason and Mathew suddenly seemed to feel the need to check out the borrowed ATV. Kate rolled her eyes mentally. They no doubt found Reyna a bit over the top and were looking for a way out of participating in any kind of conversation.

Reyna was an animated speaker, she also required very little in participation from Kate to keep the conversation going. Kate found out that she was actually adopted from the Ukraine when she was very young by a couple that lived in Chicago. The COO of the ambulance service was close friends with her parents and helped secure a job for her with the ambulance service. She had to have surgery on her leg when she was younger due to a birth defect that left her right leg shorter than the left. Her wandering eye was also due to a birth defect. Kate was interested to learn she already had a masters degree, which explained in part why she was chosen to help manage things at the fair. Overall, Kate liked Reyna, even if she was a bit extra. She was a genuinely nice girl and was making the most of her life.

"So are you on the fire department full-time?" Reyna asked.

"We don't actually have any full-time people." Kate replied. "Even chief is a volunteer. All the fire departments here are pretty much all volunteer. Davenport has a full-time firefighter on each day, but it's just one guy."

Reyna looked surprised. "So how do you make a living?"

It was Kate's turn to talk. She talked about her job, her family, her husband and how she didn't enjoy it, but it's what she needed to do to pay the bills. Reyna listened intently.

"Have you ever thought about working on the ambulance?" Reyna inquired.

"I have, but I don't think it pays enough." Kate returned. "We have seven teenagers, they get expensive."

"You know, we're offering EMT classes for free right now." Reyna beamed, "I think you'd be great at it!"

"Do you guys have information on it? It can't hurt to look." Kate replied non-committably. She didn't have high hopes that it would be feasible, but she couldn't deny it sounded better than hauling heavy buckets of water, broken concrete, and equipment. Granted working in a medical field brought it's own kinds of dirty and gross, it wasn't as physically taxing.

Reyna regained her bubbly tone as she promised to get in touch with Bob, the COO. She promised to bring the information in tomorrow. The rest of the evening passed rather uneventfully. No emergencies occurred and it seemed almost like the lock-downs hadn't occurred at all. Kate returned her truck to the station and stayed to help wash them all down.

When she got home, Mike was already in bed and appearred asleep. Kate did her best to not disturb him as she showered then climbed into bed. She was almost settled when she heard him let out a sigh. Rolling onto her right side she snuggled up against his back, wrapping her arm around his waist and tucking her left arm under her pillow. "I'm sorry, I wasn't trying to wake you."

Mike was obviously annoyed. "I can't go to sleep when you aren't here." She knew that wasn't true, but decided not to take the bait.

"I'm sorry hun. I love you." She kissed his neck, then buried her face against his shoulder. He rolled backwards enough he could bring his face around to kiss her. It was just a quick peck, part of their normal nighttime routine, then rolled back over and pulled her arm tighter against him. He quickly fell asleep as his breathing pattern became slow and steady. Kate stayed where she was for a while longer to make sure he was in a deep sleep before retrieving her arm and rolling back onto her left side, relieving the pain in her shoulder. She too drifted off to sleep before long.