Page 60 of Never Forget
Rosie's frown deepened. She looked at me with suspicion. "What joke?"
I hadn't prepared for this. "What do firefighters put in their soup?"
Rosie waited.
"Fire crackers."
Silence. Rosie stared at me like I'd lost my mind.
"That's not funny."
"I know." I shrugged.
Jamie snorted. Actually snorted, which made Rosie giggle. Jamie's laughter followed—it was real and beautiful.
Rosie didn't fully believe us. It was all over her face. But she accepted it anyway.
"Can I have a snack?" she asked.
"Sure, sweetheart." Jamie stood and took her hand. "Let's see what we've got."
I followed them into the kitchen and leaned against the counter while Jamie rummaged through the cabinets. Rosie climbed onto her stool and waited with the patience of someone who knew good things were coming.
And just like that, the afternoon continued.
The proposal took longer than we expected to finish.
Jamie and I had been working with Megan and Danny to put it together, and now we finally had something to show. Thirty pages of recommendations, backed by data, grounded in what other departments across the country were already doing. Nothing radical. Nothing that hadn't been done before. Just the kind of changes that might keep the next firefighter from dying the way Jack did.
The plan was to start with Captain Sutton. If we could get him to listen, maybe he'd point us toward someone higher up the chain. And if not, at least we'd know where we stood.
"I hear you," Cap said when we finished. "But this isn't how things work around here."
"How things work around here is outdated," Jamie said. "It puts firefighters' lives at risk."
This was what I'd been afraid of when she first brought up the proposal. That she wouldn't be taken seriously. That the department would dismiss her before she got a word out.
"There hasn't been a line of duty fatality since 1965," Cap insisted.
"So we wait for another one before Havensworth decides there's a problem?"
Cap leaned back in his chair. His shoulders dropped, just slightly, and he rubbed a hand over his jaw. I'd seen that look before. It was the look of a man who'd run out of arguments and knew it.
"You want this to go anywhere," he said slowly, "you can't just be two people with a document. You need more firefighters willing to stand behind it. Get enough of them together, maybe you've got a shot. Maybe."
"We can do that."
I turned to look at her. I wasn't sure anyone in this department would stick their neck out for something like this.
She doesn't need you to protect her from a fight. She needs you to be in it with her.
Anna's voice echoed in my head.
"I can't guarantee anything," Cap said. "I'm not putting my name on this. But I'm not going to stop you either."
"Thank you for your time, Captain." Jamie stood. "And for being willing to listen."
We walked out of his office.
