Brown: ...

Willow: WHAT?! Don’t give me fucking silence! I know!

Brown: Explain please.

Willow:…What am I supposed to say?

Brown: why him?

Willow: how am I supposed to know?

Excessive pinging made me glance at the other screen.

Haworth: Damn you two!

Giles: What the hell!

Haworth: No private chats!

Giles: I'm going to hack into it.

Willow: you know you can't get past my walls. It's a private conversation that I don’t want to explain to you two asses yet. I would end up going down there and hurting you for how you would react.

Haworth: so you will explain in time why you and Brown are having a private chat about who knows what?

Willow:…. In time. I need time to process things first.

I closed that chat and went back to Brown.

Brown: you have to love those idiots.

Willow: yea, you all are brothers to me. Though you are more like a twin.

Brown: So… Shane.

Willow: I have never felt so exposed before. His eyes bore into me… it was…. Unnerving.

Brown: wow.

Willow: I don't know really how to explain it….BTW he beat me in pool…

Brown: you're kidding.

Willow: twice.

Brown: well… you have my support since you aren't hurting.

Willow: I didn't have a nightmare last night.

Brown: because of Shane?

Willow: I guess, all I saw were those damn bright green eyes that I swear could see the pain I endured.

Brown: Well, I hope he doesn't see it all. I seriously almost lost my lunch when we found you half alive.

Willow: Thanks.

Brown: Sorry, I still have dreams of the recon, but they are sporadic.

Willow: not here. Last night was the first night that I sleep more than two hours. Luckily my elderly neighbors keep me busy with their repairs and chores. Speaking of which I have to fix Mrs. Edna's fence before I grab lunch and test my theories at dinner.

Brown: Okay. Remember. I won't criticize you like the others might. I love my wife and she helped me out so much. If this Shane keeps your pain and dreams away, don’t push him away.

Willow: Thanks, … I think.

Brown: adieu

Willow: au revoir

I closed the chat and signed off the application. Leaning back I looked at the wallpapers again. I loved my family and friends, but still I felt like something was missing. Sighing I got up and grabbed my tool belt as I walked out the door and down the sidewalk. I made my way down the street and stopped at the second house down.

Mrs. Edna was sitting on her front porch in an old rocking chair. Smiling I called out to her.

"Morning Edna!" I made sure I was loud enough for her hearing aid to hear me.

"Oh Luke dear!" she sat straighter in her rocking chair and smiled at me. "I was wondering when you were going to be over."

"Yes, sorry I was chatting with some old buddies of mine and things got a little off track. I'll get right to work on your fence." I waved my hammer at her as I walked through her gate and went to the part of the fence that her dog had escaped from. It just needed new nails, it could also use a new coat of paint but I'll let her decide later.

Two hours later I had all her picket fence straight again and the old nails replaced with new ones. I smiled sadly at my work. It wasn't much but it kept me from the memories and from causing trouble on the computer.

"Luke dear you did such a wonderful job." she cooed as she slowly made her way down the steps with said damage making ankle biting dog at her feet. It was a mutt. The fluff ball was a mix between a miniature pinscher, a poodle, and a jack terrier.

"Hey domino" I said as I rubbed his belly.

"My, my aren’t you good with him. Here is what I promised you." She said as she handed me an envelope.

"Edna I can't. I don’t mind doing this work." I said stepping away with hands up. The short frail woman who couldn't hurt a fly changed in front of my eyes.

"Luke, you will take this money. You worked hard for it and it will keep Domino in my yard and out of trouble in your yard." She had squared her shoulders, stood straighter and had firmness in her face that all I could do was do as she wished.

"yes ma'am." I said as I bowed my head and took the envelope. “But I'm painting you fence in the spring for free." I smiled as I hurried out.

"Don’t you dare Luke Willow!" she yelled after me. I waved my hand back at her as I headed back to my house. The old lady sure knew how to put a smile on my face.

Once I was inside I saw that she had given me cash.

"She learned" I muttered with a frowned. I was expecting a check I could tear up. I took the money and put in it the jar that held more cash from other neighbors who had learned that I tear up the checks. I knew there was well over five grand there, but I didn't know what to do with it. I was still getting paid from some other programs I had created that were for the military. It had improved their training simulators and kept recruits from stealing test answers, or cheating to get higher up in position.

A thought came to me while staring at the jar. Quickly I grabbed a wide stripe of white duck tape and put it on the front of the jar. With a permanent marker I wrote 'Molly's Adventure Savings' Nodding in approval I stepped back. Molly already had a college fund that Anthony had set up for her, but when she was done, she would now have this spare money to see the world before being an adult completely.

Taking a nap on my couch after reading a book, I dreamt of nothing but those damn green eyes. Noticing I had missed lunch and Alison would be getting off of work soon I got off the couch and made my way to the shower.

I took a quick shower and then ordered a pizza after shooting a text to Jake saying I would pick him and Molly up. They were already planning to have dinner with Alison, but I felt like I needed to attend. I had to see for myself if I was seriously that affected by Shane.

I made my way to my sister's house and picked up Jake and Molly who chatted non-stop about her day. I made one more stop to pick up Alison's favorite pizza before the short trip to her firehouse.

Once there I parked near Alison's Dart. I could still see her face when we all gave that to her. She was so happy to have that thing. The girl had a secret thing for speed.

We walked in the front door and I watched as Molly bolted for the EMT bunk room. I shrugged and started to open the bottles of soda. A few minutes later Molly was skipping out but Alison wasn't with her I frowned and stared at the door as I leaned against the counter. Soon she emerged in only a tank top and a smile on her face.

"There she is!" Jake said from the table.

"Hey sis" I said sternly. She should be wearing her uniform shirt.

"Hey Jake, Hey Luke, what did you two bring me?" she said smiling as she opened the box.

"Just cheese." Jake said with a shrug.

"Don’t you mean extra cheese?" she smiled wider and I swear she was about to drool.

"Only the best extra cheese for our little mooch." Jake chuckled as he sat down and took a piece for himself. I shook my head at them but stopped when movement caught my eyes. I looked back at the bunk room and felt the breath freeze in my lungs.

"Is that pizza I smell?" Shane said. Holy shit. I felt my breath pick up as I stared at him. He was tan all around and he was all muscle. Who knew firefighters could look that good. His broad shoulders led to a trim waist. A small patch of hair was above where his belt buckle was, but what had my attention was that his hair was ruffled and his eyes were twinkling with mischief.

"Dude where is your shirt?" Alison chuckled after a bite of pizza.

"You said it was wrinkled so I took it off and sprayed it down with wrinkle remover. I did yours too since yours was just as bad as mine." He shrugged and walked to my side. He bent and I watched his muscles ripple as he grabbed a soda from the fridge. I noticed an EMS symbol tattoo on his left bicep had the initials ‘QPC’ in it. I frowned at it but ignored it because he had closed the fridge door. When he stood back up he was smiling at me.

"Hey." He said softly before he went and sat at the table. I joined and was ending up sitting beside him across from Alison.

My thoughts, the little that were in my head with Shane being so close and being shirtless to top it, were interrupted when Alison caught our attention.

"So I was thinking."

"What?" Jake said cautiously while I frowned at her hesitance.

"Thanksgiving is in two weeks, and I thought that instead of just me, Molly, and my brothers, I could invite a few friends to help liven things up." She was looking between Jake and I.

"Like who?" Jake asked before I could get anything out.

"Well, Tiffany of course and then there's Mary. Her family lives to far away for her to travel after work and still get there in time. Then there are a few others I wouldn't mind joining us. And then I thought that we could make amends with the Clearwaters by having them over." She was just about at a whisper when she mentioned the Clearwaters. I had glanced at Shane when she was speaking about others, but he wasn't focusing on her. His eyes looked misted over but as soon as I saw the mist it was gone. Was that pain in that mist? Alison mentioning the Clearwaters had me frowning at her.

"No." I said sternly. All they would do is cause trouble, or ruin the holiday.

"Why?" she frowned at me.

"Because they Harassed you when you were a kid, and now you want to invite them for thanksgiving?" I was so confused but pissed at the thought. Alison surprised me though when she smiled and winked at me.

"Marcus has changed and I thought that Jason would enjoy seeing Brad and Nick cower." She shrugged "and then there is always the game that we used to play as kids." I saw the gears turning in her head.

"Oh this might be fun." Jake chuckled from beside her.

"If he-"

"Don’t!" Alison half growled half barked at me. "Sorry baby, Uncle Luke was pushing Mommy's buttons." She cooed Molly who had jumped in her seat. I just didn't want Marcus hurting her when he came over, or try to embarrass her.

"it's okay." Molly whispered.

There was tension around the table as everyone stayed silent. I kept flexing my fist on my leg while I drank my drink. I didn't like the idea of those guys near Alison, but maybe they did change like she said. I haven't seen them since we moved so I don’t know what happened with them.

A hand on my clenched fist made me pause. I glanced down and saw Shane's hand covering mine. I blushed at the spark that went up my arm from his warm hand. I peeked a glance up at him and was trapped him his green eyes again. But this time they were asking for me to relax. Slowly I did and Shane smiled and looked away. I turned my hand over and let my fingers be intertwined with his. I felt the heat in my cheeks grow when his thumb started to gently caress my hand. I squeezed his hand in return and did the same back letting him know I was calm and distracted from the Clearwater problem. Being so distracted I didn't even notice when Alison left with Molly and Jake. Shane released my hand and started cleaning up. Silently I helped him as I tried not to watch his muscles ripple while he moved.

"So how long you staying tonight?" Shane broke the silence when he stood in the doorway to the bunk room.

"Until Alison is done her shift." he nodded and then went into the room. He came out again in his EMT polo shirt and it fit snug over those muscles he just hid. The knot in my stomach grew at the sight of him in the uniform.

"So what are you going to do until then?" He said walking up to me.

"Not sure." I murmured

"Want to see something?" he said with a saucy smile. I hesitated. "I promise it’s nothing bad… Well… it's actually photos of people we have saved." my eyebrows shot up in surprise.

"Sure." I walked into the Bunk room and frowned at the system.

"What?" Shane said looking from me to the computer.

"Your computer is way outdated." I mumbled as I walked up to it. I sat down in the chair and got the main screen up. This thing had to be six years old. I opened the command box and started typing in codes.

"What are you doing?" Shane's voice was in my ear. My fingers faltered and I had to go back and correct my code.

"I'm updating your computer so that it won’t be slow, and so that whatever is on it that is important, won’t get stolen or lost." I muttered as I went into the world of numbers and codes.

After a few minutes I was satisfied with the efficiency report it gave back to me so I exited out of the command box and turned in the chair. I froze at the sight of Shane leaning against the bunk looking at me with a raised eyebrow, but the rest of his face didn't give anything away. Another unnerving thing about him. I was trained to read people, but I couldn't read Shane.

"Um… nothing’s changed except that no one will be able to hack into it and steal documents, and it will run faster for you." I felt heat rise to my cheeks when he continued to just stare at me impassively.

"Thank you." Shane finally broke the silence and I watched as his face transformed into a smile. “I have been bugging the boss to get a new system, but we don’t have the extra funds yet."

I shrugged off the thanks and stood up. Shane took the seat and opened a folder. I leaned down beside him and looked at the slideshow of people. There would be a group of photos of the accident, photo of the injured person or people, and then there would be a photo with Shane other EMTs and the recovered patients. At the end of the slide show there was a photo of a four door sedan that was on its side. A photo showed Alison climbing inside, then her being lifted out with an infant in her arms. Then in the back of the ambulance with the mother, baby and Tiffany. The last picture of the group was of a tall man that I could see being military, standing beside Tiffany and Alison. Alison was holding the little boy again and smiling as her arm hung around the young woman who was in the ambulance in the previous photo.

The next group had my heart racing, Alison was approaching a house and a gun in the doorway was obvious. The next picture surprised me more. She was saluting. By the end of that group of photos I loved my sister more dearly for her kind heart.

"She is crazy." Shane said softly "But she has a heart of gold."

"Yep. That's why she is good at her job." I said leaning away from him.

"Jim was about to rip her head off." Shane chuckled as he pushed away from the desk and stood up. Again I felt small.

"I would have dragged her ass back and locker her in the damn truck before she got that close. How did she get that close?"

"She sneaked around the cops who were too busy organizing a plan to notice her. The others were getting a gurney ready. I was on the fire truck that time." I tilted my head at him.

"You aren't just an EMT?" he smiled at me and chuckled heartily again.

"Nah, I was a Firefighter before I was an EMT. I've only been an EMT for a few years." I noticed that his eyes looked pained again. I wonder why.

"Why did you become an EMT?" I asked in pure curiosity. His whole body tensed and I watched as his pupils dilated.