"Hey rook, you think about whatcha makin' for lunch?!"

Shawn scoffed as he scrubbed the breakfast pans clean. "I don't since we just finished three cartons of eggs, four pounds of bacon, and four loaves worth of toast. Maybe something light, like my five alarm chili." 

He was met with laughter and more than a groan or two. "Rook the last time you made that crap I couldn't speak it burned so much."

Shawn dried his hands on a towel as he walked toward, what could be loosely called, the living room.  "Whatcha watching?"

"Ain't nothing on worth anything."  Shawn pursed his lips as he walked around the couch where three of his squad were perched and not really paying attention to the television, but as soon as Shawn grabbed the remote they all looked up and smiled almost evilly at him.  "What do you think you're doing rook, you know you ain't allowed to pick the channel."

Shawn wiggled his eyebrows and took off through the station all three hot on his trail.  He frantically pushed buttons on the remote effectively flipping the channel and turning the television's volume to near deafening levels. "You'll never catch me!!!"  He laughed manically as he jumped over the couch and damn near fell when his foot caught on one of the cushions.  A loud bang signified the door to the Captain's office slamming open.

"What the hell you doing rook?"  Shawn spun and froze just long enough for him to be tackled by one of his pursuers.  The man sat on his chest as the other two helped hold him down.  "Oh poor rook, you know what this means don't  cha?"  Shawn watched in horror as his boss started to remove a filthy boot and started to come closer to Shawn's face with his sweat stained sock.  "Smell it rook, smell it!"

Shawn tried to open his mouth to breathe that way but the man on his chest grabbed hold of his head and made sure his jaw stayed shut. "Sorry rook, rules is rules. Smell it!"  Shawn struggled and felt his cheeks puff out as he tried to hold on to any sort of oxygen.

He was just about give in when the alarms blared on the wall followed by the voice of the dispatcher.  The whole sock smelling thing was forgotten when the words explosion and unknown cause were said.  Everyone but Shawn started to gear up. "Rook gear up!"  Shawn looked at his captain like he had grown a second head. "We're goin' need everyone on this, rook. Gear. Up!"

Shawn grabbed his unused, spotless gear and threw it on in record time, he had just slammed the door shut on the rig as it pulled away. He had been a rookie for three weeks, doing small calls but nothing that meant someone was going to die if he wasn't quick about it.  He felt his pulse quickening as looked around the cubby that he and six other guys were crammed in, all of them doing things like praying and kissing photos. "Who's that?"  Shawn pointed at the Captain who was about to stuffed a photo in his breast pocket.

"My daughter, she'll be ten in three days." He showed the picture to Shawn, who smiled.  A little girl in a tutu was smiling a toothless smile at the camera holder, her blonde curls falling in her face and obscuring her blue eyes.

"Good thing she looks like her mom, huh?"  The captain laughed loudly as he secured the photo in his jacket.

"Yeah......oh my god!" Shawn craned his neck and saw what everyone was looking at, he muttered a curse under his breath.

"Sonofabitch!"

"Jesus Christ, almighty!"

"Fuck!"

"Grab the axes, O2, and make sure your damn strobes are on!"  The men worked almost mechanically at the Captain's words till a loud roar snapped their attention to the sky. "Holy shit!"

The eight men, along with the hundreds on the street, watched in horror as a low flying airliner slammed into the already burning building's twin. "GO,GO,GO!!!!"   

Shawn ran for all his worth and was in the front lobby before the utter shock turned to stunned realization. "Rook!"  Shawn spun and saw his captain hot on his tail. "Didn't know you could run that fast."  The Captain talked into his radio and listened to dispatch; soon the rest of his fellow firefighters joined them. "We're taking the elevator as high as it will go and then we'll start the evacs." 

The elevator was scary quiet as they rode it up, the only noises were the sound of oxygen being sucked in through their masks and gear rattling as they checked their own and each other.  Shawn didn't know what floor they stopped at but as soon as those doors opened it was like the sun was blotted out, strobes were flicked on and high power flashlights were brought out and they began their search. Shawn went to go up but was stopped by a strong hand on his shoulder. "Stop, rookie. We're going down." 

He gave his captain a pleading look, he was sure the man knew he was giving it although he couldn't see it. "But there are people, up." 

"I know rook."  There was a moment of silence as the older man sucked a breath or two. "A plane hit this building, a plane, we know it's safe down, we can't go up." 

"Can't or won't?"  The hand on his shoulder momentarily tightened and that was the answer the man gave him before he started his decent with the rest of the squad.  Shawn closed his eyes and probably for the first time in his life he actually welcomed his father's voice in his head. Sometimes, kid, the hardest thing is recognizing a lost cause when you see it.  Shawn opened his eyes and steadied his nerves, after what he saw he knew every floor above them was hopeless, the structure damage was too severe. "Dammit." 

He followed the strobing lights and helped with the clearing out.  Shawn didn't know how long they were doing the evacs but the group whittled down as each man had to take an injured party down and out.  Soon the captain and him were the only ones left. "Rook, you see that?"  The older man pointed at a young woman trying her hardest to hop down the steps. "Go get her, rook, I'll continue my sweep."

"I'll be back, capt, I promise."  The older man waved at him as he entered another floor.

Shawn nodded and hurried down to get to her. "I'm Shawn and I'm going to help you."  The woman nodded and coughed roughly. Shawn took off his helmet and mask to quickly affix it to the woman. "Breath deep." Another nod and then they hobbled down flight after flight of stairs till they hit the exit.  Several EMTs were around so he passed the woman off, put his mask back on and ran back in. 

For someone's whose memory was so good he had no idea how far he had climbed till he met up with the captain. Before the man could say anything to acknowledge Shawn's presence the world shifted and  then Shawn knew only blackness.

He woke up to a world of pain, dripping water, and flashing light. "Capt?  Capt, can you hear me?!"

Groaning was the first thing his ears perked to followed by cussing and coughing. "Rook? That you?!"

"Yeah."  Shawn tried to shift from under the debris but the pain that shot through his leg man him yelp and his vision to darken.

"You ok, Shawn?"

Shawn didn't know what surprised him more the caring tone or the fact that the man used his first name instead of the nickname, rook. "No, turns out having a building land on you isn't good for your health."

The man chuckled and then groaned again. "Don't make me laugh, please."  Shawn heard the pain in the man's voice and felt his pulse rise.

"How bad is it?"

"Bad."

Shawn dropped his head back and almost blacked out from the pain that radiated from a single spot on his skull. "Tell me about her."

"Who?"

"Your daughter."

For what seemed like hours the two men traded stories till the pain became too severe, the exhaustion too much and slowly they gave in to the unconsciousness that had been trying to claim them for too long. Shawn woke up to rhythmic thumping.

"Cap?"

"Welcome back, Shawn, and you can call me by my first name."

"Eugene? Ummmmm.....rather not."

"Ok."  The thumping began again.

"That you?"

"No."

Shawn felt relief. "So they're close."

"We can hope."  The man's voice was becoming weaker by the second.

"How long do you think we've been here?"

Shawn heard the other man shift and curse. "Well my watch is smashed but my strobe is still on so less than thirty-six hours."

"That's good."

"Yeah."  The exhaustion was overwhelming and surprising that it happened that fast but Shawn didn't question it, he just gave in.

Something was hitting his face but it wasn't uncomfortable, it was actually pleasant. He took a deep breath and realized that he was able to take a deep breath of air that wasn't stale. His eyes shot open and he saw light, it was artificial light, but it was light.  "Rook?!"  Shawn had never been so happy to hear that nickname before in his life, so to let them know he was still alive he nodded and tried to answer but only a squeak came out. "Ohmygod!!! We got a live one!" 

There was activity all around him and hands were grabbing, poking, moving.  He was vertical, then horizontal and being strapped onto a board. "Hold on, rook, hold on. We have you."  Shawn reached out and grabbed the hand closest to him.

"The captain....near me."  He felt the grip tighten on his hand and then let go.

"We'll get him too, rook, we'll get him."

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"We were in that hole for ninety-six hours before they found us."  Shawn swallowed. "The captain didn't make it, that's where the money went. I gave it to his daughter for college."

"Shawn you don't have...."

"Yes, I do." He took a deep breath. "My leg was broken in two places, skull fracture, dehydration, broken ribs, internal bleeding.  I was in the hospital for ten weeks."

Henry felt tears threaten. "Why wasn't I contacted?" Shawn didn't point out the emotion making his father's voice thick and raspy.

"I was under mom's maiden name and I told them not to." Shawn closed his eyes. "I didn't want you to know that I was a disappointment again."

"Shawn...." Shawn sucked in a deep breath and cleared his throat.

"Ummmm.....I'm going to go toward the road and try to see if there's a signal there." Before Henry could say anything else, Shawn was up and hiking toward the road.

"You're not a disappointment kid." Henry closed his eyes and allowed for two tears to slip past before he wiped them away with his good hand.  He knew his son did some crazy stuff while he traveled but he never imagined that while the world watched on his son was in the thick of the greatest tragedy he had ever seen.  He cursed under his breath when he remembered a discussion, or really a lecture, he had with Shawn when he was just a kid. Can you even name a famous fireman, Shawn?  He opened his eyes and sighed. "Because I can."

Shawn made it to the road, with more than a little trouble and unlocked his phone.  He walked down the rocky road hoping to find some sort of signal, about three minutes of walking a blinding pain crossed through his eyes and he fell to his knees. Skull fracture.  The pain was something he would never forget and he was surprised that it took him this long to figure out that's what was going on. He put his hands out in front of him and allowed for the nausea to take over as he threw up on the dirt. Once the worst of the throbbing died down a bit he opened his eyes and saw that he had thrown up more blood and noticed more dripping from his nose. He groaned loudly as he stood and starting searching for a signal again.