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“A Hero’s Heart”

-“And they say that a hero can save us
I’m not gonna stand here and wait. – Hero by Chad Kroeger (featuring Josey Scott)

**~Chapter Twenty-One- Closing One Door~**

-September 21st 2001. 9:33 am. New York City, New York. Central Park West. 23rd street. Fire company Ladder Twelve.

The thick doors slam shut and he turns the lock on it, closing the fire station for possibly forever. He feels the pat of the real estate’s hand on his shoulder. “I know it’s hard for you to see this place close down. But you understand you’re helping out the city financially. With all the major budget cuts that has to be made, this city can’t support another institution economically.” The man states, his dark eyes full of disinterest.

Kevin sighs and nods his head, “Sir, I understand. I know this is the only thing that we can do at the moment. I just feel bad, it’s like I stop fighting for this station, for what this job called for.”

The real estate agent remains quiet and steps back to see Kevin tugging on the thick large metal lock that sealed the fire department. Kevin turns around suddenly when he hears the loud siren going off near by. Kevin smiles to the last red engine from their station pulling up the curb. He watches the other four guys: Nick, Brian, A.J. and Howie leap off the engine and all carried a downcast face.

“Hey guys cheer up. Things will get better.” Kevin whispers as Brian stands before him.

“Kevin you know it’s not. So just stop ok.” Brian mumbles, his ocean eyes clouded in distress.

Kevin sighs and shakes his head. He didn’t know what to do, the day had come more faster than they all had expected. The day they closed down the fire station. Calls were made to families as most of the company had already been transferred or moved to other firehouses outside the state. The remaining five had remained in the firehouse to finish cleaning up and putting things away. The day was a mess, from the moment he had woken up, he knew he was making a big mistake shutting the fire company down.

“What was I thinking?” Kevin whispers softly to himself. A.J. heard his soft statement and nudges Kevin on the arm.

“You weren’t. But that’s ok, I’ll forgive you.” A.J. smirks, his coffee eyes glittering playfully.

Kevin cracks a smile for the first time that morning and it felt good to know that even through the city’s hard times, the guys were able to lift each other’s spirit’s up. “Man, I’ll miss you.” Kevin whispers, embracing the smaller man.

“O, mmmhn, man. Breaking bones. Chuhn.” A.J. gasps and mumbles incoherently under his breath.

Kevin pulls A.J. away from him laughing, “Sorry, J. I guess I don’t know my own strength huh?”

Nick chuckles and stares at the locked fire house door. Howie sighs and places his arm around the taller man. “Nick this is it man. We gotta go. Head to the airport in a few hours.”

Nick gulps and shakes his head, “I know. I can’t believe it. This is it. It’s over. I just got here and it feels like I’m already leaving.”

Howie sighs, “I know, same here man. I’m gonna miss all you guys. I gave part of my life to this station and it’s just diminishing now.”

Brian gazes at the dreary skyline, the humid cloudy day casting a grim expression on reality. The city lies in ruins: bulldozers, paramedics and ambulances lie around the area digging alongside volunteer workers with the policemen. The remains and debris of the Towers lie scattered along miles of the sidewalks. The only sound was the bulldozers and people whispers in the atmosphere. Kevin runs his light tan hands through his black raven spikes tiredly. “Brian I don’t know if I can just walk away from this now. I’m starting to think this is wrong.”

Brian smiles grimly, “It had to be done. It’ll be fine, our lives will be different. We get to see our families and get another job back home.”

Nick rolls his ocean eyes and stare at the two cousins, “I guess we should get going then right? Everyone else from the company already left. It’s just us.”

“Not everyone left yet.” A voice joins them.

Nick smiles and sees Jalisa. “Hey you still here? I thought after yesterday’s signing of the real estate company, you’d bounced.”

Jalisa smiles, her peach complexion glittering dully on the cloudy day, “I couldn’t leave without saying bye to you all.”

A.J. smirks, “Oh girl, see now you made me all sad.” He embraces the young woman.

Jalisa smiles and steps back staring at A.J. and Nick, “You guys don’t forget me.”

Howie breaks into a soft smile, “Sweetie, nunca te voy a olvidar.” (I’ll never forget you.) And playfully pushes the young woman into his arms.

Nick grabs Jalisa and laughing gives her a friendly hug, “I guess I never told you, the first day I met you. You were the only woman who made me nervous. And that’s quite a feat.”

Jalisa laughs at the remark, as she passes her peach fingers through her dark brown locks which today were tied up in a low ponytail. “You were a mess when I met you. I thought it was cute though.”

A.J. claps his hands to catch everyone’s attention. “Ok guys. It takes about a good hour or so to get to the airport and our flights are all leaving at close times. I think Howie’s flight leaves first. So we should all get going. It’ll the last time we might get to spend with each other.” His voice cracked at the end, the sadness overwhelming, but he tried to remain strong. His coffee eyes gaze slowly at the pavement as he feels Jalisa’s hand tugging on him.

“I think we should all get on the van, my friend is gonna drop us off at the airport now, k.” Jalisa whispers to the group. The men nod their heads and grab their belongings, each carrying their suitcases and backpacks full of clothes and other necessaries.

Brian sighs and grabs onto Kevin’s arm, “This is gonna suck so much you know that.”

Kevin licks his lips softly and nods his head as he follows Howie and boards the open van waiting to take them to the airport. Brian and Nick follow behind and A.J. and Jalisa board last. A.J. turns his head back to look at the fire station one last time. One part of his life closes as another will hopefully open. And with that, the sad faces of the five men and one woman wave bye to the station as the van pulls away from the corner of the sidewalk and down the street.
~*~

-September 21st 2001. 9:40 am. New York City, New York. Central Park West, 25th street. Fire Company Twelve Adolescence section.

She sighs and flops back on the bed staring at the white ceiling fan twirling around lazily. She hears her name being called out, “Rain? Are you finished yet? We gotta be at the airport shortly. Chief Li sent the first group already. Looks like we’re the next getting called on.” Anita whispers sadly, her dark eyes big and wide in exasperation as she enters the room. She passes her light chocolate hands through her red one shoulder tank top and down her black jean shorts. Her hair lies in one braid across her right shoulder. Fingering her gold necklace around her neck, she gazes at Rose.

Rose lifts her head up from the bed and rolls her sapphire eyes, “I can’t believe it.”

“I know girl. I feel ya. This is it. After we were getting good training and would become firefighters, we have to get sent back home to try to pick up where we left off before we left. It’ll be such a mess.” Anita whispers as she sits on the edge of the bed carefully, her eyes and mind off somewhere else.

Rose sits up in the small bed and throws her arms around Anita’s shoulders, “Nity, I’m gonna miss ya.” She states fighting back the stinging in her eyes that would later result in tears.

“Girls! Time to go now. Your flight leaves in three hours.” Chief Li shouts from down the hallway.

Anita turns to look at Rose and sticks out her lower lip, “I guess you won’t see Nick anymore then. I’m sure they’re already at the airport either flying back home or waiting for their flight.”

Rose smiles as the lump in her throat rose, she shakes her head, “I guess not. We could have been a cute couple. Don’t ya think?”

Anita smiles and pulls on Rose’s stray golden locks that lie loosely on Rose’s shoulder’s. Rose snowy complexion glittered in the cloudy morning as she tugs on her navy blue boy shorts and black thin strapped tank top. “Put on your sandals and let’s go. You know the chief gets all mad if we’re late.”

Rose grins and slips into her flip flops, “I think she changed. I mean since the incident, she’s a different person. The whole Tower thing changed her attitude with us.”

“I think it changed all of us don’t you think?” Anita whispers getting up and swinging her big blue back pack onto her back.

Rose gets up and grabs her small suitcase, rolling it on its wheels across the room and out the hallway. “Yup, it sure it. Come on. Let’s go.”

“Wait!” Anita yells and reaches into her backpack, pulling out a small camera. “Girl take a picture with me. It’ll help me remember who you are later on as we age.”

Rose giggles softly and waits as Anita runs next to her and holds the small camera in front of them. “Ready? Smile!” Anita states as the bright light flashes before them capturing their moment. The picture will be a reminder to both of them of their friendship, it’ll show both young women of different cultures coming together maybe for the last time for the same purpose. Rose smirks knowing the picture will be sweet, the picture will show both girls hugging each other laughing. Rose figured at least when she will look at the picture, that they were both smiling and not crying. Though she’ll know the crying will come later on as they leave on separate planes to go home.
~*~

The ride on the highway was long and quiet. It seemed the conversation stopped the moment they all boarded the van to get them to the airport. Jalisa sighs and leans her head on the glass pane, watching the buildings whirl by quickly. Nick yawns and settles into his seat as he watches Brian write something down in a notebook.

“Rok, you’ve been writing since we boarded the van. What are you writing anyway?” A.J. asks leaning over Brian’s shoulder.

Brian covered the notebook and clutches it to his chest, smiling, he responds, “You’ll see. Be patient, I’m almost done. I’ll show you when we get to the airport.” And he continues writing down on paper.

Kevin smirks and watches the conversation between the two men. “Howie, what are you gonna do when you get back home?”

Howie sighs and leans back in his seat, he gazes his coffee eyes lazily at Kevin. “You know I didn’t think about that. I guess I’ll be with my family before applying for a job. Don’t know what job? Maybe I’ll go back to training as a paramedic. I’ll see.” He nibbles on his lower lip softly.

“What about you?” Howie asks to Kevin who’s sitting across from him.

Kevin plays with the tips of his raven spiked hair, pulling on it out of pure boredom. “Don’t know. Go into acting I guess. I like being on stage you know.”

A.J. smirks and speaks up, “Not for nothing but I liked being on stage since that day we sang. Hey maybe we can be a singing group or something? You know, be famous?”

Nick laughs, “There we go with the famous thing again. A.J. if we were a singing group, we would need a name. What would we call ourselves?”

A.J. shrugs his shoulders, “Dude, I don’t know. How about since we’re always in sync with everything we do, we could call ourselves in sync but drop the ‘I’ in it.”

At this remark, Jalisa and Howie burst out in laughter followed by the others. A.J. rolls his eyes and sighs, “Man please whatever. Why don’t you try coming up with something?” He states smiling with a hint of annoyance.

Kevin laughs and stares out the window, “How about since we’re always fighting fire out on the streets, we involve that in the name.”

Nick grins, “Oh ok, how about Flaming Street Men?”

At this another roar of laughter erupted in the van. “Or better yet, how about 98 degrees, the human body temperature and you know since we’re firefighters, we can make people’s temperatures rise!” Nick continues, causing the laughter to float in the van.

Nick continues on with the joke, “How about Street Fire Boys?”

Howie crinkles his nose, “Eww, no one would ever buy our cd with a name like that Nick. That kind of sounds like Street fighter Boys or something.”

Jalisa raises her hands as she giggles, “Oh guys please stop. I’m sure a name would pop up if you don’t think about it.”

Brian looks on with flush cheeks as he calmed down his laughter, “She’s right. Leave the name alone. Maybe if we think back in the days when we were in the street as boys, a name could be formed.”

A.J. narrows his eyes and mouths the sentence Brian just said, smiling A.J. throws his arms around Brian’s neck, “Dude you’re freaking genius! Why didn’t I think of something like that?”

The others look on in confusion as A.J. continues, “How about Backstreet Boys?”

Kevin laughs, “J, none of us here are exactly considered boys anymore.”

A.J. rolls his eyes, “Man whatever you guys, I tried.” And he leans back on the soft seat closing his eyes with a grin on his tan face.

Brian smiles in Nick’s direction and winks at Jalisa. Nick noticed it, but figured whatever it was will be told to him and others soon. And knowing Brian, he knew Brian wouldn’t say anything about what that wink was all about. So he leans back enjoying the air conditioning of the van, breathing in the cool wisps invading his warm body and closes his eyes. He didn’t want to think about when they would reach the airport cause it’ll be emotional to leave another family he formed throughout the months he stayed in New York.
~**~

**~To Be Continued…~**