Chapter Text
“Go get a plate—you’re gonna make a mess.” Simon chastised.
North licked the finger she stuck in the chili and shrugged, “Just a quality check.”
“Markus’s chili is never off.” Connor beamed grabbing her a bowl from the cabinet.
She shot him a grin and let Simon dish her up a serving.
“You been here since morning?” North took a seat beside Kara who was already sprinkling a generous helping of cheese on her portion.
“Same as Markus.” Connor nodded, giving Simon a friendly tap on the shoulder for his serving.
“He didn’t eat lunch.” Markus sighed, making Simon take the next serving who gratefully flashed a shy smile.
North gave Conner a hard look, “Playing with fire I see.”
Connor smiled with his cheeks full of food.
Markus pulled up a chair beside Simon who was blowing on his spoonful.
“I don’t know how you aren’t burning your face off right now.” Simon huffed.
Connor swallowed, “That’s what the sour cream’s for, cools it down a little.”
“Adding sour cream to chili is sacrilege.” North mumbled.
“What about cheese?” Kara piped up, momentarily distracted from pulling up the strings of melted cheese.
“Cheese is fine.” North replied, she enjoyed the offended noise Connor made between bites.
“I’m just glad you’re all getting some fiber for once.” Markus chimed in.
Connor, North and Kara all responded with knee-jerk reactions, interrupting each other with defensive retorts.
Suddenly the bell rang and the entire team sobered, half disappointed they’d be abandoning their meal, the other half nearly tripping over their chairs to get moving.
“Don’t make me wait on you like last time!” North warned.
Markus snorted, “Oh really?”
They geared up and jumped into the rig, Simon waited for the go ahead and began pulling out of the garage.
“How’d you fit everything into that tiny bag?” Kara scoffed.
“Efficiency?” Connor shrugged laughing as she rolled her eyes.
The MDT rattled off the emergency and address, casting a glow on the cabin while they drove through the night—light traffic meant they’d be there in no time.
“Arrived, standby for incident report,” North hopped out to assess the scene while Markus, Kara and Connor fitted their respirators and final pieces of gear. Simon flipped a switch and went to prep the valves.
North was back in minutes, “Looks like a slow burn for now, plenty of smoke so let’s sweep out anyone inside and douse this fucker.”
The team lined up, Markus at the front holding the nozzle, with a kick the door was open, and they disappeared into the thick smoke.
The heat wasn’t as bad as usual, a good sign. Markus immediately spotted an unconscious adult male near the couch, he began to drag him towards the entrance, and a pipe fell out of his lax hand.
“Shit is that red ice?” Connor cursed, EMT’s finished dragging him to a safe distance to start their medical assessment as they continued their search.
“We might have some narcotics burning in here.” Markus radioed.
The house was a mess with trash impeding their movements, no one in the kitchen but there was something burning in the laundry room—looked like the dryer. Markus doused it while Kara and Connor moved upstairs to complete the sweep.
The first bedroom was clear, but as soon as they approached the second bedroom it was locked, Kara yelled, “Stand back we’re coming in!” She kicked the door in and it crumbled, smoke began to vent out from the bedroom and a little girl slowly crawled out from under her bed sputtering from the smoke.
“It’s okay we’re gonna get you outta here!” Kara reassured. As Kara picked her up she noticed how sluggish she was and wasted no time heading downstairs for the front door.
Connor checked the bathroom seeing a vent that could be under the laundry room flickering with firelight. He grabbed a portable extinguisher on his pack and aimed down the vent.
“Mostly done here,” Markus radioed, “Connor’s got the last bit.”
“Done.” Connor replied grunting as he pushed himself to his feet and began to trudge to the stairs.
“Good job, no one’s dead yet.” North sighed, “Simon’s got the ventilation fans ready to air this bitch out.”
Kara came back to help with the fan set up so Connor stepped out to find North. A black car with heavy metal blasting from it’s interior rolled up behind the ambulance that was packing the adult male off for a trip to the hospital.
A man in his late thirties stepped out, golden curls falling around his face like a lions’ mane. He had some stubble growing on his jaw and was wearing a large outercoat with a brightly hideous button-up shirt underneath. Connor was glad he was wearing a respirator, as those blue eyes glanced over at him he felt his face turn bright red.
North stopped the detective from approaching the house, “Narcotics—just let us clear the air first.”
The detective nodded, giving a glance to the unconscious man.
“Connor, go check the levels!” North called, and he gave a quick nod running back into the house.
Hank watched one of the firefighters’ head back into the burnt turd of a house. He’d been keeping tabs on Williams for a while, hoping to get access to some higher ups in the food chain but he’d been unaware he had a kid…that changed things. It reminded him of Cole, who was probably up past his bedtime watching a movie with Adam, his neighbor’s kid.
He pulled out a cigarette from his pouch, making sure to walk across the street before lighting it. A blond-haired firefighter working on the firetruck shot him an unimpressed stare but didn’t say anything.
As Hank inhaled he began mentally reviewing the details he’d gathered so far on Todd.
Connor emerged from the house, having radioed the readings to North she gave him a nod of approval and he took off his respirator and moved to the side of the truck to wipe his face. Simon was calibrating something on the truck when he walked up to him.
“Can you believe this guy?” Simon grumbled subtly moving his head to indicate behind them.
Connor opened his jacket and wiped at his neck, a glance over his shoulder and there was the detective smoking a cigarette. Hot damn.
“I should go bum one.” Connor teased and Simon rolled his eyes.
“I’ll tell Markus you’ve started up again.” Simon warned.
Connor patted Simon’s shoulder, “Go ahead,” he began walking across the street to test his luck.
Hank stared as the firefighter approached him, moles dotting his face and brown eyes matching his sweaty frizzed hair. He had this look that made Hank wonder if he was about to ask him to put his cig out.
“You mind if I bum one?” Connor asked, watching Hank raise his brows for a moment to process.
“Yeah.”
Woah. His voice was gravelly and rich; Connor pursed his lips to avoid making an embarrassing noise.
The detective handed him a dart and kindly lit it for him.
“Thanks.”
“Your buddy seems ticked.” Hank remarked watching Simon send one last glare in their direction before returning to his duties.
“That’s his perogy.” Connor shrugged.
“Perogy?”
“Prerogative.” Connor corrected. “I’m Connor by the way.”
“Anderson.”
Connor made it a new objective to keep this man talking so he could hear his rumbly voice.
“So, you listen to Knights of the Black Death?”
The detective nodded with a low hum.
“It’s so full of energy.” Connor mused, glancing at Hank’s sleeve to see dog hairs covering parts of the dark fabric. “Oh, do you have a dog? I like dogs, what’s your dog’s name?” Connor could have inhaled the entirety of his cigarette in one go after that disaster of a sentence and it still wouldn’t have taken the edge off his nerves.
Anderson checked his sleeves and gave a toothy grin—He was so fucked.
“His name’s Sumo.”
“Connor are you smoking again?” Markus’s stern voice echoed over Connor’s radio and the man visibly shrank. “I will get the hose.” Markus threatened and Connor rushed to put out the cigarette on his boot, hopping to regain his balance.
“Let the detective know that it’s safe to enter.” North radioed.
Connor gave the detective a smile knowing he’d heard before running back to the fire truck just in time for another firefighter to round the corner with the fire hose in hand. He settled for helping Simon wrap it back up to store but quickly opted to throw his gloves at Connor to make his point.
As Hank snuffed his cigarette he couldn’t help but grin at the antics, he made his way to the house and checked in with North before donning his plastic gloves and getting to work.