The Obsession Ch. 03

"West side clear," Christian said through the radio, as sunlight started to break through the black shroud of smoke.

Nick grunted with the sudden loss of tension in the hose as the water turned off. As soon as they stepped outside, he pulled off the helmet and opened the coat. He breathed a sigh of relief when cool air chilled his sweat-drenched shirt. "Always the worst part isn't it Christian?"

"Oh yeah, " he said, pulling off his coat and dropping it onto the back of the truck. He grabbed the water bottles sitting on the bumper of the truck and handed one to Nick, drinking deeply.

"Mmm, much better," Nick sighed, once he had downed the water.

***

Nicola finished resetting the water pressure in the tanks and walked over to Nick and Christian as they stood behind the truck. She licked her lips as she watched Nick drink from the bottle, the strong cords of his neck pulsing as he swallowed, his sweat drenched shirt clung to his chest. Damp hair was plastered to his forehead, which gave him an even sexier appearance, and her mind strayed to whether he would be that sweaty after they had sex. Pulling her focus back to her plan, she was determined now to get him alone to talk to him.

***

"All clear inside, five minutes then we need to get back in there and check for hot spots. With all of the barrels and boxes and pallets inside, there's a lot of room for embers to hide," said the captain through the radio.

"At least we got a little break." said Christian.

"Yeah, that was a rush," Nick rolled his shoulders, the buzz from the high fading from his muscles, leaving a dull numbness.

Minutes later, Nick was back inside holding a poker, digging through the charred timber, the rich smell of burnt wood floating around kept him alert. "We won't be doing much of anything today unless we get another call out," said Nick to Christian as he poked a pile of charred paper.

"Oh yeah, feeling the burn now, but not even this is as good as last night though," Nick heard through his radio. He could hear the grin even though he couldn't see the other man's face.

Nick smiled back, as he walked over to the pallets of timber and prodded the burnt wood. Ashes flew away in the cool breeze, clearing the remnants of smoke still curling around the blackened ceiling.

A loud creak came, followed by a groan as a large chunk from one of the ceiling panels fell down. "Nick! Watch out!" Christian called too late, as the panel fell from the ceiling and struck Nick solidly on the shoulder.

Nick yelled out in pain. He heard a pop as he fell to the floor. Moaning in pain, he heard Christian through the radio. "Nick! Where are you hurt?" as he hurried over to him.

"Damn it, my shoulder, I think it's dislocated, I felt it pop and it burns every time I try to move it," Nick's face grimaced in pain.

"I'll help you up. We need to get out of here. The ceiling isn't safe." said Christian as he grasped Nick's uninjured shoulder and helped him up to his feet, as the ceiling creaked again and another large piece of panel fell against the windows.

Nick grunted, gritting his teeth against the throbbing pain burning through his body. He heard Christian talking on his radio when they got outside and another crash sounded behind them.

A hiss of pain came from him as Christian pulled him down onto the back of the fire truck. "At times like this, it's good to have a trained medic around," Christian pulled off his helmet and helped Nick remove his helmet and coat.

"Yeah, just hurry up and do it," said Nick through gritted teeth.

"Alright then, hold on."

Christian gripped his arm then worked his hands up the tense muscle. When Nick's arm spasmed and a grunt of pain came from him, he knew he had found the right spot. With a quick, sharp tug, the joint popped and groaned loudly as it set back into place. Nick roared in agony as the fiery pain seared straight down his arm and across his back.

"What's going on?" asked Nicola as she walked from around the side of the truck.

"Nick dislocated his shoulder. I set it back in place, but it's going to be a few days before he can use it properly," said Christian.

"It feels better now. It just aches," said Nick as he tried to rotate his shoulder, but thought twice, not wanting to dislocate it again.

The captain said as he approached them, surveying the scene, "That's good Donovan. That means it wasn't a full dislocation. I'll get the paperwork filled out, and I expect you to take it easy. I'm giving you medical leave. Get that shoulder better again and I'll see you on shift again in four days. I'll need an incident report for the file, Cardenas."