The Drowning Man

by Sara Vinduska

  At first, there was nothing. Then, a high-pitched cry. Eyes still closed, he turned his head towards the sound. There it was again. He opened his eyes and raced down the smoke filled hallway, leaping over the debris in his path, ignoring the firefighters headed in the opposite direction.

  His eyes watered under the mask and he could feel the heat of the flames through his suit. He thought of Lora, knew it wasn't safe for him to still be inside the building. But he could not leave anyone in there alone to die. Especially not a helpless child. He broke down the door, saw nothing but tongues of fire and dark choking smoke in the room. Then, movement in the corner, near the window. He made his way closer. The crying started again, loud high-pitched shrieks over the deep roar of the beast.

  Through the waves of smoke and fire, he saw the child, no more than two years old, standing in the corner sobbing, screaming, a tattered teddy bear clutched in his hands. One of the bear's arms was blackened and smoking. He scooped the child in his arms and used his elbow to knock out the glass of the nearest window.

  Lora turned her face up, seeing the glimmer of shattered glass falling and dark grey smoke pouring out from the window far above them.

  “He's going to be fine,” Woods said, next to her.

  They stood in silence, watching the ladder truck extend to the broken fourth floor window. She could just make out Trent in the window as he handed a small child clutching a stuffed animal to the firefighter on the top of the ladder. Then the building shook and flames shot out the window. The firefighter holding the child turned, shielding the small body with his own much larger one. The teddy bear tumbled towards the ground as Trent disappeared back inside. Lora stopped breathing as the ladder truck was forced to move away from the building.

  Trent shook his head as the shock wave from the explosion subsided. His ears rang, the sounds around him fading in and out. He stood, a hand over his eyes, and looked outside. He lifted the mask from his face. “The kid okay?” he shouted through the window.

  Ted turned and nodded, then yelled at the driver to move the truck back into position. He listened for a second, then yelled into the radio. “I don’t care how close the damned flames are to the truck … I understand the risks … understood, just get the goddamned hose crew on it.”

  “Just hang on,” he shouted to Trent.

  Trent felt the flames licking at his back. No time to wait. Too far to jump. “Go. I'll find another way out.”

  He put his mask back in place and ran through the fire, stumbling through the apartment as the ceiling began to collapse around him. When he got to where the door to the hall should have been he found only lapping tongues of fire and falling burning wood. He backtracked, finding a wall that ran parallel to the hallway. Luckily, it was cheap drywall and it only took a few strong swings of his axe to punch through. He fell into the hall, rolled to his feet, and looked around. Flames surrounded him.

  Always a way out.

  Damn, he was tired.

  He forced his legs to keep moving. This was why they trained so hard. He would have to call on his years of training and all the stamina he had left, but he would find a way out and back to Lora. Picturing her face gave him strength. He had a reason to make it out.

  Walls collapsed in front of him leaving only a small opening ahead. A loud creak was all the warning he had before more debris from the ceiling rained down on him. He ran for the stairs, one step ahead of the falling beams. Until he reached the second floor landing. Something hard slammed into him from behind, sending him tumbling down the remaining stairs.

  He opened his eyes, winced at the pain in his back, and shoved the debris off his body. He was lying at the base of the stairs on the first floor, but the hallway in front of him was blocked. He was trapped. Pushing the panic down, he radioed his location to his men. The smoke was so thick he could barely see in front of him. No time for them to get to him.

  He crawled towards a small opening. He could get through on his belly, but the metal oxygen tank on his back kept getting caught up. He stripped it and his mask off then crawled through, staying low to the ground where there was some good air left.

  Dirty rivers of sweat poured into his eyes. He kept going, feeling and sensing his way to clearer air. He felt like a blind rat in a maze. He concentrated hard, picturing the layout of the building in his mind. His lungs burned as he struggled to draw a breath, wheezing with the effort. The lack of oxygen made it difficult to think. He was exhausted, his muscles failing. It would be so easy to stop and lay down on the floor. To just rest for a few minutes.

  He made it another few feet before he collapsed onto his belly in a coughing fit. He struggled to catch his breath. No air. No strength to keep going. Then he heard Lora's voice, urging him on, telling him to get his ass up off the floor. He raised his head and blinked. Light. There was light up ahead. It was close. He crawled towards it.

  A tall rectangular shape appeared in front of him and he forced himself to his feet. Back door. Alley. Trent stumbled through it. His legs promptly gave out and he collapsed onto the rough broken concrete of the sidewalk, coughing and gasping in air. Hands grasped at him. His vision darkened and he couldn't see the two men that helped him to his feet and away from the disintegrating building.

  “He’s not coming out, Justice,” Lora said, fighting down panic as the minutes stretched on. Trent had called her last night but she'd been following a lead on Simon and had turned the ringer off.

  She'd tried so hard to not get involved. But the thought of something happening to him brought a feeling of terror unlike any she'd ever known as precious seconds continued to tick away.

  They watched the firefighters, yelling into radios, scrambling to get more water onto the doorways as they fought a losing battle. Lora's fingers drummed against her thigh.

  Woods cast her a sideways glance. “I like him too, you know. You two are good together.” His eyes tracked the movements of the men around the building. Several of them were racing around the far corner.

  Woods nodded to the left and Lora saw Trent, his arms wrapped around a firefighter on either side of him as they helped him to one of the waiting ambulances. She moved forward, flashed her badge, pushed her way through the crowd. By the time she and Woods got to him, Trent was sitting on the back bumper of the ambulance, jacket off, holding an oxygen mask to his blackened face as a paramedic washed his eyes out with saline solution.

  He pushed himself to his feet when he saw her. He handed the oxygen mask to the paramedic and swiped an unsteady hand across his face. Lora didn't even try to stop the tears from falling as she launched herself into his arms. A minute later, she took a shaky step back and ran her hands over his face, his chest, his arms, to make sure he was really okay.

  “I'm fine,” he said in a hoarse whisper.

  She turned to the nearest paramedic for confirmation.

  “We're going to take him in, give him some fluids, some more oxygen, check him out, he should be able to go home tonight,” the man answered.

  Lora nodded, unable to speak.

  Trent gently touched her cheek before allowing the medics to help him into the back of the ambulance. “I'll see you at the hospital,” he said, stifling a cough.

  Lora nodded again as the ambulance doors shut, closing him inside.

  “I'll drive you,” Woods said, a hand on her arm, leading her back through the crowd and towards the car.

  The ER was full. Some of the patients Trent recognized from the fire. He wondered about the kid with the bear but couldn't bring himself to ask. He'd been down that road. He'd done his job. Whatever happened now was out of his hands. He kept moving forward and went through the now familiar check in procedures then followed a nurse to an exam room.

  “Couldn't stay away, could you?” Doctor Hender asked, pulling back the curtain in the exam room.

  Trent smiled wearily. “What can I say? It's the food.”

  Hender smiled back and handed him a bottled sports drink. “Don't worry, I wo
n't even try to stick an IV in you.”

  “Thanks,” Trent answered quietly.

  “The kid you got out is going to be fine. So are most of the others.”

  Trent closed his eyes briefly. When he opened them, the doctor was looking at him thoughtfully.

  “You have a friend waiting for you,” the doctor said.

  Trent read the question in his eyes. “Yes, it's the same detective.”

  “And you want to see her? I thought …”

  “Things change, doc.”

  Doctor Hender laughed. “I see.”

  And Trent gave the doctor his first real smile in all the days they'd known each other.

  Lora had barely said a word since they’d gotten back to Trent's place an hour ago. She sat silently, arms wrapped around her knees, curled up in his recliner.

  “You okay?” Trent asked from across his living room, his voice still hoarse from the smoke.

  She'd been crazy to think she could ignore the way she felt about this man. “I'm sorry,” she said. “I just want this all to be over. If I'm distant, it's because I don't want to be distracted. I don't want to miss the key piece of the puzzle.”

  A brief look of hurt crossed his face, so she forced herself to say the rest of it. “But, today made me realize that I'm more distracted when we're not … together.”

  A slow grin spread across his face now. “So, you were worried about me.”

  Lora felt irritation rise. “Dammit, Trent, I'm not good at this.”

  “And?”

  “Fine.” She blew out a breath. “What I saw you do today scared the shit out of me,” she admitted.

  “Me too. But don't you think it would be the same for me if I saw you chasing down an armed suspect?”

  Lora sighed and stood. “Probably.” She paced the room.

  “Lora.”

  She stopped and turned towards him. “What?” she asked, fighting down emotions that were much too raw and close to the surface for comfort.

  His jaw muscle ticked. “I'll admit to taking reckless chances in the past but today wasn't reckless. Today was me doing what I knew I could do. And we saved a lot of people. Not all of them. But a lot. When I first went back to work I was glad to be alive, don't get me wrong, and it wasn't exactly a death wish, but I guess I wanted to see how far I could push that edge. But those days are over. I have you to come back to now.”

  She blinked back tears. “Don't you forget that.”

  “You either,” he said, motioning her towards him. “You already saved me once, but you saved me again today.”

  She stopped in front of him. “I don't understand.”

  “It was bad in there today. I didn't know if I would make it out alive. Then I pictured your face and it gave me the strength to keep going. To make it back to you.”

  “I haven't been that scared since I saw you in that tank and thought you were dead,” Lora confessed.

  He looked down at the floor. “If I could remember that day when you found me, I'd probably be embarrassed.”

  “I wish I could forget it,” Lora said.

  He looked back up at her. “I remember seeing your face, but that's it. At the end, those last few days, everything was pretty hazy.” He paused and his eyes searched her face. “Except for your face.” That he remembered in vivid detail. The delicate arch of her eyebrows, her soft skin, the toughness in her eyes.

  Lora didn't like thinking about that day, about the horror of what she'd seen, of what he'd been through. It hurt deep in her soul to think about how he'd suffered. She started to turn away from him.

  Trent gently put a hand on the side of her face. “What's wrong?” he asked.

  She turned her face into his palm. “That was one of the worst days of my life.”

  “I thought it was the worst day of mine. I thought that for a long time because I didn't want to be alive.”

  Lora closed her eyes against the pain and the tears, against the overwhelming flood of emotion she tried so hard to avoid.

  “But I was wrong,” he said softly. “It turned out to be one of the best days of my life. Because of you.”

  She opened her eyes and studied his face. “Oh, Trent,” she said. She couldn't put into words what it was like for her to have him here with her, alive and whole. And hers. She wrapped her arms tight around him, pressing the side of her face against his heart. Was what she felt love? She hadn't known she was capable of feeling anything this powerful anymore. It felt good. It felt right. And she'd enjoy it as long as it lasted.

  She let her body collapse into his arms. Maybe they both took too many risks. But for him, she'd risk it all. She'd risk her heart. And maybe that was the biggest risk of all. It sure as hell seemed scarier than risking her life in the line of duty.

  She pulled back to see his face.

  The intense look in his eyes matched her own. Without a word, their bodies came together and sank down to the couch.

  Trent was asleep minutes later, exhaustion finally overtaking him. When she'd found him that day in the tank she hadn't realized that she'd also found something else. Something she never expected to find. She'd found love. There was no hiding from that anymore. And that thrilled her as much as it scared her. She didn't want to go through another day like she had today, wondering if he'd come out of a burning building alive.

  But he was right, they both had dangerous jobs. They were also both people that would continue to push the envelopes of those jobs. Could she live the rest of her life in constant worry that he wouldn't come home at night? Could he? Then Trent sighed and reached for her in his sleep and she knew she was willing to give it a try.

  Chapter 35

  Drowning Man Finds Love With Cop That Rescued Him

  Lora cringed as she read the headline in the paper the next day at her desk. Underneath the headline was a picture of her embracing Trent at the back of the ambulance as the buildings burned in the background. Evidence of her weakness, and her inability to stay away from him. She fought the urge to crumple up the paper and throw it across the room.

  “You know the reporters are already calling here looking for you,” Woods said.

  “Tell me why in the hell this is news?” She studied the black and white image in front of her. “I mean, for God's sake I look pathetic.” And weak and desperate, she thought but didn't add.

  “You look like a woman in love,” Woods said.

  She started to argue, but a commotion at the front of the station had them both on the alert and turning towards the sound. She cursed under her breath. Trent was slowly making his way towards them, receiving numerous claps on the back and handshakes along the way, looking none the worse for the wear, despite his most recent brush with death. Lora tried to ignore the thrill that passed through her body at the sight of him. The last damn thing she needed was her coworkers to see her drooling over a man.

  “The man of the hour,” Woods said, shaking his hand.

  Trent waved him off and turned to Lora. “Lunch?” he asked.

  “Give me a minute.” She slammed the paper into the trashcan next to her desk.

  “I'll wait outside.”

  “You okay?” Trent asked after they were seated at a corner table with glasses of water in front of them.

  She stabbed at the lemon wedge with her straw then looked up. “I'm fine. I guess I just wasn't expecting to see myself in today's paper.”

  “I'm sorry. I fucking hate that whole 'Drowning Man' shit.”

  “It's not your fault. I've just managed to avoid making the paper until now.” She paused and smiled. “Well, except for the whole thing about saving your ass.”

  “Well, thank you for that.”

  She cocked her head to the side. “It is a nice ass.”

  He gave her a half-smile then glanced down at the table. “I signed up to take swimming lessons at the Y.”

  “That's good.”

  “It scares the hell out of me.” He took a breath, looked into her eyes. She was the only o
ne in the world other than Nate he could admit that to.

  She took his hand under the table. “I think it's a very brave thing to do.”

  He cleared his throat and concentrated on his food. He stood and tossed a few bills on the table as soon as they finished eating. “Let’s walk.”

  Trent took her hand and they slowly wandered down the familiar blocks, oblivious to the city noises around them. The comfort of having her next to him blocked out all other sights and sounds. He knew she wasn't sharing everything about the investigation with him. Or her partner, for that matter. He also knew firsthand what Simon was capable of and he didn't like the risks. She wouldn't listen. She wouldn't be the woman he cared so much about if she did, yet he had to say the words anyway.

  “I think you should stop investigating Simon. Let someone else handle it.”

  She stopped walking and pivoted towards him. “Would you, if it was the other way around?”

  Trent didn't answer. He didn't have to. They both knew the answer.

  “Do you ever think about what you'll say if someone asks you how we met?” Lora asked, moving forward again.

  Trent wasn't about to argue with her change of subject. “Thanks to the K.C. Daily everyone around here already knows the story.”

  “But what about someone else, some random person not from around here. I don't know, like the person sitting next to you on an airplane.”

  “I'll tell them it's none of their goddamn business.”

  Lora laughed. “You would, wouldn’t you?”

  “Besides,” Trent continued, “No one would believe the real story anyway. Hell, I wouldn’t.”

  “I’m sure plenty of people meet in stranger ways.”

  He raised his eyebrows.

  “Woods’ cousin married her skydiving instructor.”

  “No shit,” Trent said.