Story 1 - First Alarm Love

 

"Something sure smells good. Hope we get time to eat whatever is cooking," Cheryl stated to one of her coworkers.

"You and me both," replied a guy named Ted. "It's Tony and Mike's turn to cook and they're making a big pot of chili.

 

Cheryl was a firefighter, and she was already pretty exhausted not even midway into her shift as her engine company has been responding to back-to-back emergency calls all morning. While many people think that firefighters just sit around in the fire station, just basically waiting around for an emergency, it's really an almost non-stop working job. In addition to responding to calls, you had to keep equipment and supplies constantly stocked, there is the transporting of patients to the emergency rooms, and then there was also the constant meetings and training in-between all of that. Being a firefighter is a very mentally and physically demanding vocation, and more often than not, your shifts were in constant work mode with very little time to relax. Therefore, you ate when you were able to, and grabbed a quick shower whenever you were able to during a shift. Additionally, every crew had station duties, including rotating kitchen duty. Today it apparently was Tony and Mike's turn on kitchen duty, and both were quite skilled in culinary creation.

 

Cheryl was glad that there was a pause in the constant stream of emergency calls, and while her stomach grumbled with intense hunger, her body itched for a quick hot shower to wash away the several layers of soot and sweat from the mornings calls. Cheryl grabbed her bag and headed toward the women's locker room for a shower. On her way, she passed through the kitchen area where Tony gave her a brotherly slap on the shoulder. "Hey, you're not boycotting my famous chili are you?" he said laughing.

 

Cheryl lightly punched Tony in the arm, "Hell no. Can't wait to dig in. Just need a quick shower before chow."

 

As Cheryl showered, she thought back on how far she has come with her relationship with her coworkers. She has been with the New York Fire Department for ten years now, and the first few years were admittedly rough. Cheryl has a beautiful tomboy look about her, naturally blond hair, and a tight, toned body. The guys in the firehouse initially would give her a hard time, as well as hit on her, every single shift when she just started working. This was partly because they were testing her, just like they would any other new rookie on the department, and partly because they were.....well, guys. Cheryl was extremely nervous about how much to reveal about her life at first, because you can't be part of a firehouse crew and be elusive. A firehouse crew is your family. Cheryl spent the first couple years proving her capabilities as a firefighter, and talked about her family just as any other guy would. However, she masterfully managed to skirt around the dating and relationship questions by answering them ambiguously, while at the same time finally making it clear that she wasn't about to date one of her fellow male firefighters. It was during her third year that she finally felt comfortable enough to disclose to her shift coworkers that she was a lesbian, and when she did, it went much smoother than she could have hoped for. They kidded her, of course, but nobody stopped respecting her, nor did anybody start harassing her. In fact, Cheryl's relationship with the guys has progressed so well over the years that they treat her like a sister, and they even try to set her up with other women. A gesture Cheryl finds endearing. They are all very much a family, close knit and happy together. No-one ever gets left behind, and work doesn't always feel like work when you work with people who you cared about and they cared in return.

 

Cheryl managed to get in her shower, and the crew even found time to sit down to Tony's famous chili. They were eating and chatting when a call came in for an apartment fire. They all jumped into work mode as silverware was dropped and gear was quickly being put on, and the crew was pulling out of the station just a couple minutes later driving towards the address of the call. The sirens squealed as their trucks skillfully snaked their way through the busy streets of New York. They arrived to find utter chaos at the location, and police crews closing off streets and trying to manage crowd control for the fire trucks to make access to the fire hydrants and the apartment building. Cheryl and her crew immediately went to work to put out the fire, as well as search and evacuate any tenants that may be in the building. Thankfully the fire was contained to just one apartment, thanks to the crew's quick and skillful actions, yet there was still a significant amount of work to be done after the fire was extinguished to remove the heavy smoke that snaked its way through the apartment building hallways, as well as do a secondary search to make sure there were no physical injuries sustained by anybody. Cheryl remembered seeing a small dog in one of the apartments during her initial search, but when she tried to rescue it the dog kept running away from her. She went back up to search for it and Cheryl found the little dog cowering under a bed in one of the apartments that was still pretty heavily filled with smoke. He wasn't hurt, but probably did have some smoke inhalation. And, he was definitely scared, which was evident by his poor little body shaking against her arms. She took him out and down to the fire truck and gave him oxygen and some water to drink. As Cheryl was tending to the dog, a woman who appeared to be its owner came running up to her.

 

"Oh my God! Max! Is he okay?" she knelt down beside Cheryl, inspecting her dog.

 

"He's fine, just a little scared. There was a fire in one of your neighboring apartments, but your dog wasn't injured. I just gave him some water and oxygen, because of the smoke inhalation." Cheryl informed her.

 

After ensuring that her dog was ok, she introduced herself to Cheryl as Max's mom, Tina. Tina was grateful that somebody cared so much for a little dog that they would go back up into a smoke filled building to rescue it. She found herself instantly attracted to Cheryl, whose soot stained face and thick protective gear around her body couldn't hide the fact that she was beautiful. She was the sexiest firefighter Tina had ever seen. Genuinely grateful, she thanked Cheryl profusely for going back up for her dog. She then retrieved Max from Cheryl's arms, letting them linger for just a moment, along with what she had hoped was telling eye contact, and then she left leaving Cheryl to finish up on the scene with her crew.

 

Though Cheryl was on duty, she couldn't help but acknowledge the stirring in her loins because of her encounter with the dog's owner. Not only was she gorgeous, but she was obviously compassionate towards animals, and very nice and engaging. Cheryl tore her mind away from Tina and returned to help her team with their clean-up activities. That night, after her shift was over, Cheryl headed home to her own apartment with thoughts of Tina filling her mind all through the night. She found herself inexplicably intrigued by her, and she just had to see her again. Fate always has a way of creating circumstance for paths to cross. Was today's moment at the apartment fire fate's way of ensuring that their paths crossed? Cheryl wasn't sure. She wasn't even sure if Tina was a lesbian. But, she was determined to find out.