Alpha Hero - Hope Ford Page 0,1

you talked to April?”

She’s all I’ve thought about since I’ve been here. She’s my best friend’s wife, well, widow, and I know she’s probably devastated. I should have been there at the funeral for her. Fuck, I should have saved her husband.

“Yeah, I talked to her. We’ve all made our rounds checking on her…”

I nod my head, because really, there’s not a lot more I can say. I know she and Allen were having problems, but I’m sure she never expected this.

“What’s this?”

“Really, Terry? What’s what?” I’ll cut him some slack, but really, am I supposed to guess what he’s talking about?

“Did they give you a cane?” he asks me and I can hear the surprise in his voice.

I shake my head. Yeah, I sort of had the same reaction when they put it in my hand. “Yeah, they came in and worked with me on getting around and told me that would help.” I rub my eyes. I may not be able to see, but they still feel so tired. “Any more on what happened to… Allen?”

“Mack…”

Shaking my head, I tell him, “I need to know. I have tried to remember and I can’t. I need to know what happened to him.”

I can hear him take a deep breath and blow it out. It feels like the tension in the room just got higher. “He had been drinking, Mack. He had a blood alcohol level of point two. He either passed out or fell and passed out, nobody knows. But he died from smoke inhalation. We did what we could, Mack. We just couldn’t get to him.”

I take a deep breath and hold it. Not wanting to release it. I want the air to fill my lungs and stay there. When I can’t hold it any more, I release it. I feel at a total loss. Allen didn’t ride in on the truck with us. No one knew where he was, but when he showed up at the job, I assumed he had been running late. I knew he had been drinking more. But I never dreamed he would bring it on the job.

“We did everything we could, Mack.”

His soft plea about destroys me. “I know you did, Terry. I have no doubt. And well, I never thanked you all for saving me in there. If it wasn’t for you, I would have died in that fire too.”

The room is quiet and I’m waiting on Terry to crack a joke. He’s the jokester of the bunch and I know this is too heavy for him.

“So I hear you’re leaving us.”

A nurse comes in and stops somewhere in front of me.

“I need you to sign these before you go.”

She wraps my hand around a pen. Are you kidding me? I could be signing over my firstborn kid or something.

I feel a warmth and Terry’s deep voice booms beside me. “It’s legit. It’s discharge papers.”

I nod my head and sign the papers with the nurse’s help.

Now to go home.

2

Jane

I knew this was a special situation. Instead of meeting with my patient first, I met with the captain of ladder forty-nine. It is one of the biggest fire stations in downtown Knoxville. The captain broke it down for me and was completely honest at least. He told me that this was going to be a hard job. He said that Mack was used to being independent and would not like needing help with everyday tasks. I tried to reassure him and tell him that I understood and was not worried about it. I deal with patients like that every day.

But as I stand on the porch about to knock, a wave of something hits me. I almost go back to my car and sit down. I may have been self-assured, probably even a little cocky with the captain, but right now, I’m not so sure.

I roll my shoulders back and stand up taller. I’m a trained nurse. I have taken care of a number of men that don’t want to give up their independence. I know I can help him. I’ve done it before and I can do it again. I just have to make him understand that I’m here to help him so he can take care of himself. I open the folder and read through the notes again. Everything seems to be in order. It’s not missing anything, but there’s something about it that is causing me to be on edge. Could it be the fact that he lost his