It’s weird, feeling the heat from the fire baking one side of my body while the rain still falls down on me. It reminds me of the old days, when no matter what some wind would kick spray from the hoses back onto my gear and face while I was at a scene.

I’m scared shitless, but instead of letting it stop me I feel the surge of adrenaline in my body as I run up the steps to Chrissy’s front door, hitting it with a shoulder and breaking it in. The smoke’s intense, roof timbers already starting to burn as I cough, looking around. “Chrissy? CHRISSY!”

I can’t see anything, but I hear the groan of more timbers as I proceed, looking. I keep yelling out her name, and finally see her in her painting room, on the ground and trying to crawl but something’s holding her back. “Chrissy!”

“Here…” she says weakly before collapsing to the floor. I run over, trying to free her and see the problem. One of the roof timbers has already fallen, the log not burning yet but still pinning her ankle to the ground.

I push, but the damn thing doesn’t move. “What’s the point of all those workouts if you can’t move a fucking log?” I groan at myself as I slip my hands under the beam and lift. It’s heavy, and the wood’s already getting hotter, but I get it up. When I’m half standing I heave it to the side, where it lands on what looks like her easel maybe. I don’t care, I only care about getting Chrissy out of here, I can already feel the heat growing. This cabin’s made of pine, and has been here for a long time. It’s going to go up like a rocket, and if I don’t move, we’re going to be inside it.

Chrissy groans when I pull her up, and she might have some form of internal injury, but I need to haul ass. I throw her over my shoulder and move, running out of the house just as the front door frame collapses in a shower of sparks. I take the steps in two big jumps and get her away from the fire, the rain feeling like a baptism as I set her down on the soaked ground.

“Chrissy?” I ask, checking her, but she’s out, not breathing. I slap her cheek, but there’s no response. “Chrissy!”

Instinct takes over, setting aside the fear and I almost automatically go into firefighter mode. Ignoring the pain in my body, I check her heartbeat before starting rescue breathing, watching her chest in between breaths. I don’t know how long I’m there when I hear sirens and the fire department pulls up, their single truck running lines. Looking up, I scream at the nearest one I see. “I need help!”

“We got her, we got her,” one of the firefighters says, bringing up a paramedic kit. “EMS is on the way. You need treatment?”

“I’m fine,” I reply before coughing. I keep hacking, but get out of the way while the firefighters take over. Tears run down my cheeks when Chrissy coughs too, relief or happiness I’m not sure.

It doesn’t take long for the EMS to get there, but in that time a lot of Chrissy’s cabin goes up. The torrential rain and the Lakeville volunteer fire department might try, but that wood’s too dry. I don’t care, Chrissy is all I care about and when EMS loads her in the back of the ambulance, I follow without a word. One of the EMS looks like he’s about to argue, but a single look in my face shuts him up.

The back of the truck is a silent cacophony, machines and terse comments from the EMTs filling the air as we race to County General. It’s not a great hospital, but the only one in the area. About halfway there, one of the EMT’s brushes against me and I hiss in pain. “Are you okay?”

“Fine,” I grunt. “Chrissy?”

“We’re taking care of her,” he says. “It looks like she hit her head.”

I nod, not knowing about that. When I’d scooped her up I didn’t have a lot of time to check her for other injuries. “Her ankle? She was pinned by a roof beam.”

“We’ll see at the hospital,” the EMT says. They go back to work on Chrissy, who stays unconscious the whole time. When we get there she moans thickly, but doesn’t wake up as they haul her out of the truck. As I’m climbing out, one of the nurses sees me.

“Sir, you’re injured,” she says, but I wave her off. “Sir-”

“She’s your priority,” I growl. “If you want me treated, do it while I watch over her. I’m not… I won’t leave her again. Not until I know she’s safe.”

There’s no way this would fly in a town like Chicago, the staff would just call the on duty security guard. But this isn’t Chicago, this is a tiny county hospital with a nighttime ER staff of about five. Still, after a pleading look from the attending doc I wait out of their way, watching as they go to work on Chrissy.

“Smoke inhalation… possible concussion… what caused the fire?” the doc asks, looking back at me.

“Lightning strike on her cabin,” I reply tersely, the adrenaline leaving my system and my own injuries starting to hurt. My left knee aches, I think I hit it on something when I set Chrissy down, and my hands are screaming, with large blisters forming on my palms. The beam must have been hot already, I just didn’t notice or care. “Is she going to be okay?”

“We’ll see… might be some carbon monoxide in her system,” the doc says. “That’s very common in situations like this.”

I hear a voice behind me, and the sound of sneakers running towards us. Turning, I see Willow, who looks frantic. “Chrissy? Oh my god, I just heard from a friend on the fire department… is she?”

The doc stops, rolling his eyes. “I’ll be able to treat her a lot more effectively if I don’t keep getting asked. Now, will you two please let me do my work?”

I sit back down, staring at the doctors working until they step away, and the clear, measured beat of the heart monitor next to her relieves me. “She’ll be okay,” the doctor says, turning to Willow and I. “I want to keep her for awhile, she has some burns on her back so we sedated her. She’ll have a nurse nearby though in case of head injury, but I think she’s unconscious due to the smoke inhalation more than anything else.”

“Thank you,” Willow says, taking the doctor’s hand and shaking it. “What can we do?”

“First… we need to get you treated, sir,” the doctor says. “Don’t tell me you don’t feel those burns.”

I shake my head slowly, never leaving Chrissy’s side. “I don’t care about them. I care about her.”

Willow comes over, kneeling down next to me. “Dan… I’ll watch her. Make sure she stays safe. And you can stay in the ER to get treated.”

I blink, finally looking over at Willow. “I didn’t even think. Nothing about me, just her. Willow… you have to watch her close. I need her. I… I love her.”

Willow smiles, nodding. “I will, stud. And tell the doctors that you’ve solved one long term health issue.”

“What’s that?” I ask, getting up.

Willow punches me lightly in the chest, making me wince, I guess I’m burned more than I thought. “Ouch.”

“You deserve it for taking so long to pull your head from your ass. Go get taken care of.”