Trouble Don't (File Two of The First Responders Files)

Chapter Eleven

Frank's eyes widened in alarm and just as quickly narrowed to slits. "What?" he growled.

"That was Buck and TK's reaction when they found out why I moved to Austin," Sylvie gave a wry smile as she traced the rim of her mug. "I know how lucky I am, Frank. I don't know what twist of fate made me meet Buck and TK at the train derailment in Los Angeles the summer prior, but it was that connection that had Owen calling me after TK pitched me as the potential riding paramedic for their new squad rig. After Kidd threatened me, they were the first ones I called. I was out of Chicago and moving to Austin in no time." She snorted and started ticking off fingers on her hand. "And since I moved to Austin, I have been shot at with a crossbow, under fire from a volcano, crashed a helicopter into wildfires, leapfrogged across a minefield, been forced to improvise surgery at gunpoint, chased a serial arsonist, had my firehouse blown up . . . and I've been shot by a sniper."

"Jesus, Mary, and Joseph," Frank shook his head in disbelief, taking a gulp of his coffee and wishing it was spiked with something stronger than caffeine.

Sylvie lifted her mug in a mock toast. "And people wonder why I'm called a danger magnet," she quipped. "After that, I went back to Chicago for a friend's medal ceremony and got threatened again . . . but Matt overheard everything. He recorded it, and the very next morning, she was booted out of the CFD and blacklisted from joining any departments ever again. I got with Matt and Kelly the night after shift, and then Kelly and his former crew almost lost their lives in a diving rescue off Navy Pier. Eddie and I had to dive in and help them. The one constant we had the entire time? The backing of this house and the people attached to it." She folded her hands and sighed heavily. "People can find it humorous that we call ourselves a family, but we mean it," she said. "No matter our situations, we've found a way to pull through it together. That's what family does for each other. I'm lucky I had Owen, Buck, and TK when I came to Austin. I'm lucky I ever found Nolan at all, and I'm so, so lucky Jack rallied everyone around Matt and Kelly when they fought for Griffin and Ben. This day, this ceremony, means more to some of us than others realize. The fact that we get to see this day, that so many have come to help us celebrate it, is a reward we will never forget."

The coffee suddenly tasted bitter in the back of Frank's throat, and he swallowed hard as he stared at the woman who had gone through so much darkness and came out shining brighter than the sun. "I had no idea," he whispered, feeling his head spin as he tried to process just how much he had not only been wrong about Nolan, but also the prosecutor's little sister.

"How could you?" Sylvie gave him a kind smile. "You've only been with the 2-7 a few months, and even then, Dixon and Bernard don't know most of what we've been through. You just started building bridges with the DA's office, and take it from me, I know Nolan is tough to crack. You're hearing everything we've been through the past year and half in a few days. You're doing awesome with all this getting dumped on you."

Frank laughed, his discomfort starting to disappear in the face of Sylvie's encouragement. "That makes one of us."

"Put it this way," Sylvie crossed one leg over the other and grinned at him. "The 126 members are magnetic. There's just something about its members that draws others into their orbit. The Strands did that for me and Buck, we did it with Eddie and Maddie, we did it with Matt and Kelly, and it just keeps rolling on and on. We don't leave anyone behind. Elliot said it when Eddie and I were shot . . . this family doesn't bleed red or blue. We bleed purple. You and Nolan . . . we both know to say you butted heads on the job would be an understatement, right?"

Frank winced at the reminder. "No kidding."

"I don't care about that now," Sylvie said bluntly, making Frank stare at her. "No one else is going to, either. Everyone has made missteps in the past, things that on any other day would send up red flags left and right. What has mattered to us, in the end, is what gets done in an attempt to make us . . . not necessarily forget those missteps but allow us to see those missteps are not who we are. You're doing that, and we can see it. The rest of the 126 will, too." She grinned. "Think you can handle a crazy family like that?"