Bear Blaze

Bear Blaze “I hate her!” Jesse Haley roared. At least she looks good. “Aren’t you gonna say it, Buck?” “Say what?” “At least she looks good!” “You know, I think I’ll tell Kate what you just said,” Tom Buckner answered with a grin. “She might lock you up. Never mind – you would probably like that.” Haley looked over at Tom, and he looked at Haley – and they both chuckled. “Same s**t, different day,” Haley grumbled. “Been slow lately.” “That it has,” Tom agreed. Most people would enjoy a period of relative inactivity at their jobs – but not Tom, Haley, or any of the other Shifters of the fire department, the Forest. Tom, like the rest of the men, thrived on action and the thrill of saving lives and making a difference. It was hard to do that sitting on your ass in front of a TV screen. “How is Kate, by the way?” Tom asked. Haley grunted. “Working a lot. She likes it, of course. But doesn’t leave much for me to do when we’re not running halfway across the city to put out a fire or pull a baby from a twisted wreck. I just sit at the apartment alone half the time.” “Beats working with Crichton, eh?” Tom asked. “Another beer?” “I’d better get home, actually,” Haley said, getting to his feet. “Kate is home tonight. She’s trying to become a home cook. A chef. Make some sort of dinner. It isn’t really her forte – but she’s giving it a damn good shot.” “Sounds good,” Tom said – though in truth, he knew he would soon feel alone. He’d been feeling that a lot lately. “Check in with the other guys. They gotta be around here somewhere,” Haley said, slapping Tom on the back. “Catch you tomorrow morning. Bright and early.” Tom Buckner waved him a halfhearted goodbye over one shoulder without turning around and looked back to the TV. Jesse Haley and him had been playing that game for the better part of six months – watching news reporter Jessica Andrews on the local news. She’d first reported about who knows what, then she’d reported – and praised – Crichton’s involvement in his own fire department, and now she was reporting over the negative impact Shifters had on the New York City population. At least she looks good, Tom thought and grinned. Every time Jessica Andrews came on the screen, Jesse said how much he hated her, Tom told him how she looked good, and they went back and forth, listening to the nonsense Jessica Andrews said each and every night. Tom wondered if she meant everything she said. The past six months had led into another hard winter for the Forest. New York was covered in a thick sheet of ice and snow. Surprisingly, it had been a slow time for them, and Tom hated it. He was beginning to hate it more and more each day. Six months back, a year back even – life had been different. The Forest was his home. It had been for as long as he could remember. Tom Buckner had been the youngest member of the Forest, the latest recruit in a rigorous training process that nearly every Shifter scrubbed out on, for a long, long time. Years had passed before any other Shifters had been accepted to the team. When they did, things had changed. The new recruits were great men – Sam Carver, John Forbes, and Ryan Smith were some of the best Shifters Buckner had ever had the chance to work with. They’d also caused him a great deal of grief – something he couldn’t talk about to any of the other men. He pushed those thoughts away. The rest of the men – McCready, Peterson, Ortega, even those gone like Mooney, were men he’d depended on for years. They weren’t all there, now. Peterson had been killed by a fire set by an arsonist – his killer had received life behind bars, for that and other fires. Mooney had left. Haley had left, if only temporarily. Tom pushed those thoughts away, too. He was with the men he considered his family. Only lately – something didn’t feel quite right. Getting to his feet, he walked to the fridge and grabbed another beer. It was an off night for him, and he wasn’t on call until the next morning, so he was free to do whatever he wanted. The only problem was he didn’t have anyone else to do it with. McCready was home – with his surgeon wife, probably fussing over their child. Sam Carver, likewise, was home, taking care of his second. Haley was home with his girlfriend. Ortega, Forbes, and Smith were asleep in the bunks, as they were on call, and O’Brien was in the engine bay tinkering on something. Tom thought about going to talk his ear off, but O’Brien was a man who preferred to focus on the task at hand. He’d been different ever since the accident that had nearly killed him and Chief Rawls. That had seemed like a lifetime ago, but what had it been, really? A year? Two? Did it matter anymore? The Forest had faced adversity at every turn after Chief Rawls’ accident. Reg Sharp had replaced Rawls, and though he’d been a good man, he’d had his hands tied behind his back by politics and his second in command, Crichton. Crichton had made a bid for power, ended up getting the Forest decommissioned, and eventually created his own fire department with Jesse Haley at his side, until a series of events had led Crichton to a wheelchair for life and a jail cell, to boot. Jesse Haley had come back to the Forest, and together, led by Chief Alexander McCready, they reformed themselves into what they should have always been – a fire department, unregulated by politicians and stupid rules, designed to only help those in need. It all sounded good in paper, Tom knew, but things weren’t always that easy, especially in his case. He mulled it over and sat back down on the couch in the common room, watching Jessica Andrews report on something else that wasn’t important. Tom Buckner sat by himself in the common room of the Forest – and he felt more alone than ever. He took a drink of his beer and watched TV. “Wake up,” a voice said from far away. “Wake up, Buck.” He felt something grip his shoulder and shake. Tom opened his eyes slowly. Looking around the room, he saw McCready standing above him, watching him with concern in his eyes. “What?” Tom said, stretching his arms and legs out. His foot hit something, and he heard the sound of bottles cascading down, falling over onto the concrete floor. They rolled away as he sat up and watched, but none broke. “Fun night?” “I drank that much?” Tom muttered, rubbing his eyes. He had a kink in the back of his neck that wouldn’t go away no matter how many times he rubbed it. Slowly, stumbling with tiredness, he got to his feet and grabbed a handful of beer bottles. McCready did the same. What happened last night? He remembered sitting on the couch, watching the news, and drinking. He supposed that he must have just kept drinking and eventually dozed off on the couch. “Guess I had too much free time,” he told McCready. “You good?” “Good,” Tom confirmed. “Just tired, is all.” “You’re on call – but if you’re not good, then I’ll have someone replace you.” “I’m good, Chief, thanks. Just didn’t sleep worth a damn here. A shower will wash away all the pain.” Tom reached down and grabbed the last bottle from the floor. He’d lost count of how many he’d already picked up, let alone how many McCready had grabbed, too. “You okay, Tom?” “Said I was, didn’t I?” “I mean – are you okay?” McCready asked again. “You’ve been kind of quiet here lately.” “Yeah,” Tom lied. “Of course. Just kind of slow around here, you know? Don’t like it much.” McCready gave him a look but nodded just the same. “Alright, we’re up today. Get a shower and meet us in the kitchen. Ortega promised to cook us up some breakfast before he calls it a day.” “Can do, Chief,” Tom said, giving McCready a mock salute. The other man laughed – but Tom didn’t as he turned and made his way down to the locker room. Tom plodded along the hallway. He didn’t feel bad. The good thing about Shifters was that their metabolism was high – it took a lot to get drunk, which was also a bad thing, depending on how you looked at it. He might have caught a buzz last night – pretty unlike him, if he had to admit it – but it was long gone. The night of sleeping on that damn couch had left a worse impression than the beers had. He was in no rush as he stripped down and climbed under the scalding spray, trying to heat up the kinks in his body. He took a long shower, took longer getting dried and dressed into his fire gear, and even longer to make his way to the kitchen. The rest of the men were all there, every last one of them. Ortega was laughing at the stove, heating up something that Tom had to admit smelled delicious. McCready was talking to Haley and Ortega both, and then McCready and Haley were laughing at whatever Ortega was laughing at. O’Brien was there in body – but he was dozing sitting up, still covered in grease from the night before. He’d probably worked all through the night. Carver, Forbes, and Smith, who were always thick as thieves, were discussing something in low tones of the newspaper. No one noticed him come in. Tom sat down at the end of the table and grabbed the morning paper. He perused it with little interest. “Looking forward to another fun filled day, Buck?” Haley finally asked. Tom looked up from the paper and grunted. “We’ll see, I guess. How was dinner last night?” Haley laughed. “I gotta say – Kate can cook. I was nervous at first. She’s good at her job – but I didn’t think she would be able to cook, too. She been takin’ lesson from you, Ortega?” The cook laughed, as he always did. For some reason, it made Tom grind his teeth. “Maybe she has been.” “Well, keep at it, then!” Haley said. “You know, I never thought it would happen. Never thought I would find someone and settle down. But life’s kind of funny, that way.” “Look at me,” McCready said. “Same boat.” “What about you, Carv?” Haley asked. “What?” Carver replied, looking up from whatever it was the three of the rookies were discussing. Tom corrected himself – they weren’t rookies anymore, not exactly. They’d been with the Forest a couple of years now. They might be the newest – but they weren’t rookies. “Ever thought you’d get tied down?” Carver shrugged and said, “Well, not like it happened. Glad I met Brooke, though. Can’t imagine things without her.” Tom looked over at the younger man. He liked Carver, and he liked Brooke: she was Sharp’s daughter, if only by marriage, and she’d been forced to come teach at the Forest. She’d taught for a while, taught some of the new recruits, but in the end, she’d went back to teaching at elementary schools – just like she’d always wanted. It had worked out for Carver and Brooke. It had worked out for McCready and Carrie, who was a renowned surgeon. It had even worked out for Haley, who – though Tom loved him like a brother – was the hardest man to get along with he’d ever met in his life. He’d met, or as Tom corrected himself, got shot, ran over, and arrested by Officer Kate Poole, and somehow they’d fallen in love and now had an apartment up the street. Tom had overheard Carver, Forbes, and Smith talking – both Forbes and Smith had serious girlfriends now, for what it was worth. Ortega and O’Brien – well, they were like Tom Buckner – they didn’t need girlfriends. They had the Forest and their brothers, and that was enough. Only now, for Tom, that wasn’t enough. Not even close. He sat there, and not for the first time and not for the last, somehow felt utterly alone. “Shifters? Good Samaritans? Or the local neighborhood menace? You be the judge. “This is Jessica Andrews, signing off. Back to you Bob.”