Unfinished Business - Short Story First Line Challenge

Flashing emergency lights reflected off the windows of the surrounding buildings, created the illusion there were more vehicles on the scene then were actually present. Chris was long past caring now. He walked away from the scene. No one tried to stop him, not even his partner Pat.

*****

Chris and Pat were more than partners. They had just managed to get married before the governor outlawed same-sex unions.

"You ready?" Chris looked weary. Pat smiled.

"We can't honeymoon forever." Pat was smiling, but looked nervous. They were paramedics with the Fire Department. Aside from the usual crap about AIDS, their status as "real men" was constantly being tested.

*

"Look everyone, The Newlyweds are back. It's like Disneyland with all this fairy dust floating around." Sergeant Perry twirled to his desk.

"Enough!" Lieutenant Marks never sanctioned such behavior. But Chris had no illusions about Marks. They'd just have to tough it out until the transfer to California came through.

"Banks, you're with Cooper today, his partner got burned last night."

"Yes Sir" Although a paramedic, Chris was still a trained firefighter. Chris glanced at Pat.

"Don't worry Banks", taunted Perry, "your wife's gonna be just fine."

"Perry, one more remark and I'm writing you up!" Marks looked genuinely angry. Perhaps Chris had misjudged him.

"Banks, Mr. Kellogg will have an EMT assigned to him immediately." The Lieutenant turned those angry eyes on Chris.. Apparently he did not like his firehouse disrupted by anyone.

Chris was going over his fire gear meticulously when Pat appeared.

"Chris, we've got a big problem."

"What are you talking about?"

"Cooper's partner's fine. I just saw him across the street at the hardware store, big as life, buying a new drill. I don't think he saw me." Pat was shaking.

Pat had been the victim of hate crimes before - he'd been beaten severely. Ironically, that's how they met. Chris had been the paramedic on the scene.

"Pat, you don't really think they plan to hurt us?"

"I don't know Chris - it just doesn't make sense to put you on fire duty and stick me with Casey."

"What!? Casey! Everyone knows he's homophobic."

"I know. That's it exactly. There's something wrong.

"I think it best that we don't panic, Pat. We can get through this. As Paramedic/Firefighters we're in the public eye. . Nobody outside our station knows we're married. If anyone threatens us, we threaten to go public. Marks would never stand for that."

"Then there's the tape that gets mailed if anything should happen to one of us. You know, the one I made in the men's room when I overheard those threats made against us?" Pat took advantage of the not too clandestine eavesdroppers and raised his voice just a tad.

"Chris...?"

"Pat! We can handle this. We will not be bullied because we wanted to be married!"

"Chris, I'm still scared." Pat was a handsome man: 5'11" with a runner's build. From a small distance the scars on his face, and arms weren't even visible. But the internal scars ran deeper.

"I know. But it will be all right." Chris wished he believed that. This was a bit much for coincidence: Pat's partner a known homophobic and Chris's well, Cooper was just plain unpredictable.

The fire bell rang - everyone ran. The fire engines sped toward the burning building. It was one of those high-rises with glass windows for walls.

They went in full gear. Almost immediately they were joined by more. Dozens of firefighters worked on the ground and in the air to put out the blaze, while the others labored inside.

The first of the survivors was brought out. Pat and Casey tended to them. Pat kept looking out for Chris. He knew those tanks only held so much oxygen and the smoke was so thick; the firefighters who had just come out couldn't go back in.

Finally, near panic, Pat grabbed one of the recovering firemen. "Where's Chris! Why hasn't he come out?"

"Captain Cooper ordered him onto the next floor to search for survivors."

Pat looked to his left to see Cooper sipping water and taking oxygen nearby. "Alone?!" Pat howled.

Cooper's head snapped around. The firemen immediately stop talking to Pat.

Pat directed his full attention to Cooper. "You ordered Chris to an upper floor alone and then got yourself to safety? Are you trying to murder him?!" He got a meaty fist in the mouth for an answer.

For a moment, no one moved.

"Get him Cooper, and I mean now!" Lieutenant Marks was livid. A prank he had agreed to, not attempted murder.

Five minutes later, Chris came staggering out, holding a little boy. Pat went running over.

"Baby you're burned. How's your breathing? Are you doing okay?" But Pat was a trained paramedic. He knew the signs: severe smoke inhalation, burns around the mouth and nose. "Oh baby, no, please, please don't."

Chris just reached for his hand and whispered, a strained, horrible, raspy sound that only burned lungs could make. "Tape real - Sheila, Bev" . A terrible coughing fit overcame him.

"Enough baby, enough. I'll use it, I swear, I'll put them down like dogs! I love you Chris - so much. I'm so proud of you!"

Pat wasn't quite sure when he lost Chris. He didn't close his eyes. Pat remembers crying, alone, in a crowd of people, for a hero who had just died saving a child. A hero who was murdered for getting married.

*****

Pat kept his promise. Everyone involved in the conspiracy surrounding Chris's death went to prison for negligent homicide due in no small part to its hate crime nature.

There never was a tape. But those who had overheard Chris's dying declaration ratted out the rest as if there were.

Pat stayed strong through the entire process.

That's why it had been so easy for Chris to walk away that night. He knew Pat would make sure there was no... unfinished business.

©TSW 2007