*****
When she woke up the next day, Macy was still a little worried about Leo as she prepared to go to work. Her day job at least. She was hoping that the fire department would not get any calls that day so that she could check in on her best friend as soon as her shift was over. She had taken an early shift…the earliest actually. It was a half past four when she poked her head through Leo’s doorway. She had given him a sedative to help him sleep after they were done cooking up a feast. That was the only way she could get him to relax after the week he’d had. It was obvious that between the marathon week he’d had showing his latest designs in New York and worrying about Andre that he’d had little to no sleep. She hated leaving him alone in that state, but in the back of her mind she knew that she had to get to work. She sighed and made her way out of the apartment. Her heart was racing as she made her way downstairs. She could not help but wonder why a love that seemed so perfect was suddenly on the rocks. She had never really been concerned about relationships except finding one that was as perfect as what Leo and Andre had.
“I guess there is no such thing as a perfect relationship,” she thought as she made her way towards her old sedan. She climbed in and secured her seatbelt before starting the engine. She waited a few seconds before the old engine coughed to life and it let out a loud roar. It might have been an old car, but she had never even thought of getting an upgrade. This was the same car she had bought the very first time she could afford a set of wheels and she had spent as much as she could trying to get the car to the standards that were acceptable to her. And while the car had a long way to go, she was still as proud of it as she had been the first time she laid eyes on it.
“I should probably call Andre,” she thought as she began driving down the street. But she could not help but wonder if she was crossing boundaries. At the same time, she knew that if things were different, that if the shoe were on the other foot, Leo would do the same thing for her. Leo was the brother she never had and it was only natural that she should want to look out for him, but it was not like he would not have done the same for her.
She had not had a clash of priorities like this in a long time. Being caught in between her loyalty to her best friend and standing up for him, which meant her probably overstepping her boundaries. She was still wondering what she was going to do when she finally got to the station. She put on her uniform and got into her bus.
“Cutting it close, Yardling,” she heard her supervisor Leroy call out and he laughed as she pulled the bus out of the lot.
“It’s only five minutes to five. I’m still on time,” she said, putting her gear into position. “You should be having this talk with Chaz. Looks like number 543 is going to be late yet again.”
She pulled out of the station and her smile disappeared almost immediately as she started on her route. Her thoughts had gone back to Leo and Andre. Their fight or lack thereof. She could not help but wonder if Andre had found someone else. But she could not imagine anyone better than Leo. He was hot and talented…everything every man and woman looked for in a partner.
She could not wait to get to the bottom of this. But it would have to wait until she got off her shift that afternoon.
*****
Macy had the perfect plan for that afternoon. Once she got off her shift, she would make her way back home and indulge Leo in a lengthy animation afternoon beginning with the widely acclaimed Zootopia. But as she was pulling into the parking lot, she heard her police scanner go off. There was a fire downtown and it was raging.
“Perfect timing,” she thought to herself as she ran to her sedan. She quickly put on her suit before she got into the driver’s seat. As she began driving down the road, she could feel her heart beating harder and louder. It was one of those days that she wished she had a siren. She could move so much faster through traffic that way.
“There is someone on the fourth floor…” She heard someone on the police scanner. “And the blaze is coming from both sides of the building. She is trapped.”
Macy felt her heart skip a beat. If someone was trapped in between the flames, that was terrible. She was still a few minutes away, and all she could do was just imagine what the person in that burning building was going through. The smoke inhalation was going to get him or her long before the flames did.
“I need to get there,” she thought as she drove even faster than she even thought possible. “I need to get there ASAP.”
She was breathing hard and fast as she pushed her old sedan to its very limits. But by the time she got to the scene, it was more horrific than she had thought it to be. She could not even tell where the source of the flame was. All she could see was a building engulfed in bright orange flames and smoke. Her car came to a screeching halt just behind one of the fire trucks.
“Didn’t expect to see you here today,” she heard one of the firefighters saying as she walked by.
“Well, I had to be here…I heard about someone being trapped on the fourth floor on the scanner.”
“It’s actually two people. A teenager and her younger brother,” the man said and she gasped silently.
“Has anyone managed to get into the building and pull them out?” she asked as she got out of the car.
The man shook his head.
“It’s too dangerous to go in. The exit has been compromised.”
“And do you know whether the kids are still alive in there?” she asked and he shrugged.
“They have been exposed to the smoke for more than twenty minutes now.”
“Which is more than enough time for them to….they could be dead by now.”
“We don’t know that for sure,” he pointed out.
“Do you know what smoke inhalation does to a grown up, let alone two kids?”
“Let us handle this.”
But there was no way Macy was listening. She was no longer the bus driver. At that moment, she was a fire fighter. And saving the two kids inside that building was more important than anything else. Her heart was racing as she looked at the building. It looked like it was going to come down at any moment. And she had everything she needed to get in and out alive and hopefully with the two kids still alive, which was a much better chance than what she could say about the kids inside. She shook her head.
“I’m going in there.”
“Macy, what do you think you are doing?” he asked as she ran in. “Macy?” he called again. “Macy!” But she didn’t care. She was already at the entrance without even knowing what her exit plan was. She could hear another man speaking, calling out to her and telling her that what she was doing was stupid, but she didn’t care. All that mattered was getting those two kids in there. She did not even know how old the second kid was and it didn’t matter. All she cared about was getting both of the kids out. Alive. Anything else was not important. She had shut out every noise and every voice as she made her way into the building.
“Are you crazy, lady?” she heard someone asking angrily as she made her way into the building.
“What the hell is she doing?” she heard another person ask but it was too late. She was already inside.