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Travis frowned at the unknown phone number that was calling his cell phone, “Hello?” he questioned hesitantly as he waited for the unknown caller to identify themselves.
“Is this Training Officer Travis Montgomery?” the unknown voice questioned as soon as Travis had answered his phone.
“Yes,” Travis countered with ease, “who is this?”
“This is Samantha Young from the Seattle Fire Department Training Division,” she answered swiftly, “I am calling you in reference to your report in reference to your Probationary Firefighter?”
“What about it?” Travis replied, wondering why he was being contacted about his latest report on Emmett’s training.
“I needed to verify something in the report that you submitted.”
“Ok?” Travis waited for her question so that he could depart the station.
“In your report, you stated that your Captain had assigned Dixon to a Lt Gibson?”
“Yes.”
“Not to you?”
“That’s correct.”
“And, she suspended him?”
“Threaten too,” he countered with ease.
“But she had placed him with Lt Gibson?” she questioned in order to verify the situation.
“Yes,” now Travis was getting mildly concerned about the line of questioning, “what is going on?”
Samantha paused before revealing the reason for her call, “Lt Gibson isn’t a Training Officer and neither is your Captain.”
“That’s correct,” Travis replied, still not aware of why either was an issue.
“A Probationary firefighter can only be assigned to a qualified Training Officer,” she reported before she continued with her line of questioning, “Dixon can’t be punished if he wasn’t assigned to his Training Officer at the time of the incident, was there another Training Officer with him at the scene?”
“Just me,” Travis reported, “Captain Bishop assigned me to another location.”
“Without your Probie?”
“That’s right,” Travis gradually figured out that something more was going on instead of just a Probie hesitating at a fire.
“I need you and Dixon at headquarters as soon as possible,” she ordered before hanging up without giving Travis the option of responding, “damn it,” he muttered before heading back inside the station in order to grab Emmett, “Probie!” he shouted as soon as he spotted him standing with Maya, “with me.”
“He’s assigned to the PRT,” Maya interrupted.
“Not right now,” Travis countered as he glanced around the room, “me and the Probie have to report to HQ.”
“What did he do?” Maya demanded as she glared at Dixon who was standing in disbelief at being summoned to HQ along with Travis.
“Later, we need to go now,” Travis replied as he reached out in order to grab ahold of Emmett’s arm and pulled him along as he headed outside toward his car.
“Uniforms?” Maya demanded from across the room.
“As is!” Travis hollered over his shoulder to Maya as the pair left the station.
“Travis, what’s wrong?” Emmett questioned as he got into the passenger seat of Travis’ car.
Travis was silent and refused to respond to Emmett as he drove the pair to the Headquarters of the Seattle Fire Department where they were expected, “Listen, no matter whatever happens here, none of this is your fault,” Travis whispered as he glanced over at Emmett who was staring back at him with growing concern in his eyes.
“Trav, what happened?” he whispered as he reached over in order to clasp the older man’s hand in his.
Travis squeezed the hand that was holding his as he responded slowly, “there is concern about the fire yesterday.”
“Because I froze,” the dread was apparent in the Probie’s eyes.
“Yes,” Travis swallowed before pushing forward with the explanation that he deserved, “there is also a concern that Captain Bishop may have set you up to fail.”
“What?” Emmett was growing more confused by the minute at his revelation, “why?” he questioned as his attention was drawn outside the vehicle at the approaching
“They,” Travis trailed off as he spotted a group of people heading their way, “their coming,” he shook his head as he squeezed Emmett’s hand tightly before he finally pulled his hand away from Emmett’s, “none of this is your fault,” he repeated as he pushed open his door and gestured for Emmett to join him outside the vehicle. Judging by the looks on the faces of the odd assortment of personnel standing in front of them the pair glanced over at one another with the sudden realization that this wasn’t going to be either simple or quick and that they were going to be there for a long time.
Travis was still sitting in the same seat nearly five hours later as he waited for Emmett to finish with his interview, he had spotted the younger man in the parallel conference room when he had finished his interview. He had been told that he could leave afterwards but he had countered that he wasn’t going to leave without Emmett. So here he was, waiting for Emmett to finish his interview with the investigators.
Emmett was still in his interview when Travis received notification that Warren, Hughes and Jackson were highjacked by a junkie, and they had been taken to Grey Sloan for health check-ups as per protocol. “Damn it,” Travis muttered as he waited for an update on the situation with the PRT crew, he was just thankful that Emmett hadn’t been driving at the time, he never would have thought he would be glad about a mandatory meeting with the Training Officers at Headquarters.
“Firefighter Montgomery?” an unknown male called out as he emerged from behind the closed conference room doors, “Firefighter Montgomery?” he called out again as he zeroed in on Travis sitting on the nearby bench.
“Yes?” Travis pushed himself up into a standing position, what on earth was happening now, he wondered to himself.
“You’re still here,” a disbelieving look crossing over his face at Travis’ appearance, “Firefighter Dixon was adamant that you would still be here,” he explained simply.
“Why wouldn’t I be?” Travis countered with ease, glad that Emmett trusted him to have his back in this situation.
“Sorry,” he shook his head in order to clear it, “my name is Tyler Grant, and I am an IA investigator, Firefighter Dixon has requested your presence in the conference room.”
“Of course,” Travis nodded his head in agreement as he moved forward in order to follow Tyler into the conference room where Emmett was waiting for them.
“Firefighter Montgomery thank you for joining us,” the Fire Chief stated as he motioned for him to take a seat at the conference room table.
“Thank you, sir,” Travis replied as he moved toward the open seat that was next to Emmett.
“What can you tell me about Captain Bishop?”
“Captain Bishop?” Travis was confused at the question as he exchanged a questioning look with Emmett before answering, “she’s been the captain at 19 for just under a year, hard-nosed, by-the-book and…” he trailed off suddenly at the interested looks entering the eyes of the Fire Chief.
“She’s what?” he demanded softly.
“She won Olympic Gold with an injured ankle,” Travis replied as he leaned forward slightly as he rested his hands on the table, “so what do you think she’s like as a Captain?”
“I think that I understand the situation now,” the Fire Chief stated as a deep frown formed across his face, “you both are assigned to headquarters until further notice, I will see you tomorrow morning at 0700.”
“Yes, sir,” the pair replied in unison.
“Do not contact anyone from 19,” he ordered.
“What?”
“Why?”
“No communication until the investigation is completed,” he continued as though never of them had spoken, “do you understand?”
“Yes, sir,” the pair replied as they pushed themselves up from their seats and headed out of the conference room.
“What is going on Trav?” demanded Emmett as they approached Travis’ car in order to go home.
“Their gunning for Maya,” Travis stated as he got into the driver’s seat, “look,” he paused before twisting slightly in his seat in order to face Emmett, “you never should have been put into that situation yesterday by her, when Probie’s have issues on scene it’s the job of the Training Officer to deal with the problem.”
“But…”
“Gibson isn’t a Training Officer, and neither is Bishop,” Travis paused before pushing forward with the explanation, “Bishop went overboard yesterday, you should have been turned over to me in order to handle it with some remedial training,” he gestured over toward the building in front of them, “which is what all that was about. A captain is supposed to know how to handle a Probie having a panic attack, which she demonstrated that she wasn’t able too.”
“That’s…that’s…” Emmett’s voice trailed off as he realized that maybe he was cut out to be a firefighter but only with a fire station and crew that was able to help him get over his panic attacks.
“Where to?” Travis asked as he brought the car to a stop at a crossroads, left would take Emmett home but right would take them to Travis’.
“Right,” Emmett stated as he reached over and placed his hand on Travis’ thigh, “let’s go home,” he offered slightly, glancing over at Travis at see if he was fine with Emmett referring to his place as his home.
“Home,” Travis smiled as he turned right at the corner.
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