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“Alright, Green Watch,” Sylvanas calls back, and hauls herself out of the fire engine, checklist held aloft. “Caller stated the building was evacuated, Velonara and Thyala are our BA crew, let's get the water supply connected up and see what the fuck happened this time.”
“Third time this week, isn't it, General?” Velonara's voice is oddly echoey behind her breathing apparatus. “I mean, it's almost impressive at this point.”
“I'm amazed there's any lab left to burn,” Clea adds as she runs past with the hose.
Heaving a heavy sigh, Sylvanas turns to motion the pump into position, yanking her phone from her pocket and dialling as she guides them backwards towards her watch. “Hi, control, Watch Commander Windrunner. STOP THERE, THANK YOU! I'm incident commander... again... at 521 Antonidas Way. Yeah, the Dalaran Uni lab building. Fire is established and- no, Nathanos, I'm not pulling your leg. Yes, we're back again. … Well if I knew WHY, we wouldn't be coming back here every five minutes, would we? I've got- SHUT UP AND LET ME DO MY REPORT, I WAS MIDWAY THROUGH MY DINNER AND WE HAD A SHOUT AND I'M HAVING EMOTIONS ABOUT IT! ... Thank you.”
“It was a good curry, too,” Clea pipes up as she runs back past.
“It was. Anyway. Nathanos. Vel and Thyala are BA crew inside. Second pump would be helpful. As would aspirin when I get back to the station. Oh, and if you could put my poor neglected dinner back in the oven, that'd be great. I'll check back in in a bit- no, you're ugly. Bye.”
Her phone is tossed unceremoniously back into the fire engine and Sylvanas marches round the back of the engine, lips a thin line. “Clea? That second hose needs running out. AREIEL! I want this road coned off, we need police to come and guide traffic around the exclusion zone, do we know if the lab has any hazardous-”
Sylvanas' voice dies on her tongue at the sight of a window on the upper floor swinging open, and a frantic, blackened hand grabbing at the window pane.
“AREIEL! SUIT UP! NOW!” She'd sent Velonara and Thyala to establish the seat of the fire, the caller stated there was nobody inside- “AREIEL, CASUALTY ON THE TOP FLOOR!”
A whirlwind flies past her and Sylvanas only has time to catch glimpses of Areiel yanking her BA kit on as she pulls her own helmet over her head, suit up over her body, her uniform is discarded into the run-off water from the hose (fuck), their tanks clank together as they heave them onto their backs and thank Belore and all the gods Clea's already taken over as incident commander and is on the phone to Nathanos because they don't have time to talk, they have time to run.
In through the front door. Seat of the fire is off to the right. Fire door between them and any active fire. How long has it been exposed to fire, what's the rating of that fire door NO TIME stairs leading up to the casualty's last known position and Sylvanas grabs Areiel's arm and signs quickly, upstairs window, one known. Areiel nods.
They move forward as one.
Up the stairs (smoky but no visible fire damage). Floorboards hot off to her right. Sylvanas touches the door handle (cool) and pushes it open-
The casualty.
A woman, hanging out of the window gasping, cat squeezed to her chest.
Sylvanas grabs her and hauls her over her shoulder.
“TIDEMOTHER'S TITS!” the woman shrieks, but Sylvanas is already heading back down the stairs after Areiel, shoving the spare oxy mask in the vague direction of the woman's mouth, the woman immediately puts it over the cat's face as Areiel thuds to the bottom of the stairs and looks left and right and signs that it's safe to proceed out-
They thunder back out into the flashing lights and chaos.
Panting, Sylvanas kneels and lowers the woman to the floor. “Hello,” she gasps, and realises her BA mask is still on. “Oh yeah- hang on-”
It's been so long since Sylvanas regularly did BA, it takes her a good ten seconds to realise that the reason the kit isn't coming apart as it should be is because she still has her gloves on, where are the catches for the helmet they've got to be here somewhere, this is ridiculous, I look like a fucking cadet on her first day in front of-
Gentle hands nudge hers out of the way, undo the catches and her helmet is slowly pulled off her head.
By what might be the most beautiful patient Sylvanas has ever had.
Wide blue eyes. Tousled hair, streak of blonde in the front, strong jawline, anchor tattoo on her neck that Sylvanas would quite happily suckle on not the time you horny, horny creature, snap out of it. “Thank you, are you alright? Any trouble breathing?”
The woman shakes her head.
“Any burns? Did you touch any hot door handles?”
Another shake of the head.
“Good. How's- kitty? What's kitty's name?”
Blinking, the woman glances down at the cat held tightly in her arms. “Kinndy,” she says, voice low and melodic. “This is Kinndy. I... realised she was still inside, you see, and-”
Oh, for the love of fucking Belore. “So you went back in,” Sylvanas says, and runs a hand over her forehead. “And created two casualties for me to rescue.”
“I'm sorry,” the woman murmurs. “I knew where she was and I thought I'd be able to get out before-”
“Before you both became crispier than a Kul Tiran seaweed crunch,” Sylvanas finishes, and scritches Kinndy's orange cheek; the cat immediately rubs herself against Sylvanas' fingertips, purring wildly. “Well. You're both fine now. I'll get the acting incident commander to call a vet, just in case. But don't fucking do it again. Which, actually, speaking of again, brings me neatly on to my next point-”
“Oh! Professor Jaina Proudmoore, senior chartered fire engineer,” the woman declares, and holds her hand up for Sylvanas to shake. “Lovely to meet you.”
Slowly, Sylvanas takes it. “Sylvanas Windrunner. I run at fire for a living.”
“Charmed,” the professor says, pumping Sylvanas' hand up and down with far too much exuberance for a woman who has just been rescued from a burning building. “I'm working on a new design of fire-resistant cladding. Unfortunately, all of my prototypes seem to explode.” She turns back towards the smouldering ruins of the lab, corners of her mouth downturned. “This is definitely going to impact my research grant.”
“It nearly impacted your life,” Sylvanas points out.
“Well, yes, fair point.”
“And Kinndy's.”
“Also fair-”
“So could you maybe stop doing it?”
“What? No! No need for that. I'm sure my next iteration will be the one. I've learnt so much from these past few days.” One arm still clutching a bedraggled Kinndy to her chest, the professor starts to heave herself up, groaning. Sylvanas rises with her, a hand on the professor's elbow to steady her. “It's actually been very informative! I've made some very novel observations about the properties of foam when infused with different types of-”
“Professor Proudmoore,” Sylvanas says, and yanks her BA suit down. The professor's eyes drop to her torso. “I would really appreciate it if your experiments could end there. Permanently. Please.”
Those big blue eyes snap back up to hers, and the professor looks as though Sylvanas had just squirted her in the face with the hose. “But I-”
“No buts. This is the third day in a row that my watch and I have had to come and extinguish your lab.” Sylvanas throws an arm out towards Green Watch, still busily working on the fire within the building. “We are a very busy service. We do not have time to tidy up after rogue science experiments, and the University should really have its own retained service if they want to continue with these types of-”
“I didn't get to see you like this the last two times you came,” the professor says.
Sylvanas' brows furrow. “Like what? Pissed off and hungry?”
“No,” the professor says, as though it were obvious. “Undressed. Just in your vest and leggings.”
Sylvanas' cheeks flush.
“You always turn up in your firefighting kit!” Excitedly, Jaina ducks down, leaping back up with Sylvanas' BA suit clutched in her fist. “The properties of which I would no doubt be able to talk you through at length, but it didn't do much for your figure.”
“I'm a watch commander, not a fucking model,” Sylvanas snaps.
“Oh, no, you misunderstand me! My point was, it's too long in the torso for you, and the front plating is flat- whereas you're not. It's not designed for bodies with breasts. I would love to work up a prototype for you, and see if we can improve on the design.”
Sylvanas stares at her.
“It would be my pleasure!” The professor bounces up and down on the balls of her feet, eyes gleaming. “I love designing new prototypes- I wonder what sort of inefficiencies I'll find hiding in here? Oh, wonderful! Shall we say 5pm tomorrow at the University library? I'll have it all worked up for you there and then- this is brilliant! Looking forward to it already!”
“I'm on sh-”
“5pm it is!” the professor cries, and Sylvanas squeaks as she's hauled forwards into a slightly sooty hug. “I'd best head home and get this coat in the wash. Come on, Kinndy! Time for your din-dins!”
And she bounces off, past the two fire engines, two pumps and three police cars all parked haphazardly outside her lab, through the cones Cyndia is still partway through setting up, and away down the road, singing merrily to herself all the way.
Sylvanas stares wordlessly after her.
“Uh... Sylv?” Areiel takes a step closer, glancing between Sylvanas and the professor with wide eyes. “Do you, uh... need a blanket?”
She gestures wordlessly at the soggy pile beside the fire engine.
“Your uniform, uh... it's a bit... a bit wet,” she finishes, rather lamely.
“Yes, I know, just my fucking luck that that was where the run-off was, but why would I need a bla-”
And it finally hits Sylvanas as to what the cold feeling on her legs is.
“She's taken my fucking BA suit!”