“If you can teach me to do that, sure!”
“She taught me. She can teach a lunkhead like you too,” Theo would chime in. “Bet no one else on in the department can field a team with skills like these.”
“You two doing the city basketball tournament in February?”
“Possibly if 15 fields a team. It’s co-ed,” Theo would say innocently. “A woman must be on court at all times, and teams can be any combo of shift or firehouses.”
Kwon found herself suddenly in high demand at 13. Within a week, all three shifts were playing basketball, and she stopped by once a day to play with the other shifts. She showed a surprising amount of grace after getting floored on several occasions during pick-and-roll drills. Her popularity increased when she declared basketball acceptable physical training and bought an indoor basketball hoop with ten new basketballs.
Overall, the basketball and decreased competition made 13 more tolerable. But Erin still longed to return to 15 and was counting the days till the new year.
Near the end of their Christmas Eve shift, Kwon stopped by to have a conversation. Erin was practicing her jump shot while Theo showered between calls. Kwon watched her shoot a few times and said, “You’ve made us a force on the court. Want to be on our team?”
“It’s your team, not mine. Knight wants to do one at 15—even if she sucks at it,” Erin said. Vanessa sent regular text messages from 19 plotting how they’d own the court.
Kwon had a quizzical expression. “Not that team. This team. You want to stay here?”
Erin missed her jump shot. “Not go back to 15?”
The lieutenant caught the rebound. “Hudgens, there isn’t going to be a 15. This isn’t normal holiday scheduling.”
“Because there’s construction.”
“Wrong. Firehouse 19 wants Knight to stay there. HQ’s keeping Rodriguez.”
“How do you know this?” Erin asked and bounced her next shot off the rim. Her new schedule of nine a.m. to nine p.m. limited her to seeing Noah on the weekends only because he was working late too. He hadn’t mentioned any of this.
Or maybe she avoided talking about it beyond basic info on the improvement of the Luckies. Rather than dwell on that, they’d been having fun together. They’d tried cross country skiing in his neighborhood; Erin was better on a basketball court. Then they’d made snow angels and built a snowman before returning to the hot tub.
“Captain Isaac got Cordova’s permission to discuss this with you.”
“Cordova’s not battalion chief. Baker wanted to keep the women together at 15.”
“Yes, Chief Baker’s initiative for recruiting women. Cordova said Baker says there’s no reason it can’t be done here. The Luckies were the first firehouse in Cleveland to accept women,” Kwon said.
“My team…”
“Who’d put Luna Rodriguez on active duty after she destroyed a second rig? If 15 opens back up, you’ll be lucky to keep an engine let alone get a new ladder.”
“The second one wasn’t her fault.” Erin’s protest sounded weak in the light of the situation.
“Hudgens, if you stay at 15, you’ll never advance. Cordova’ll install some ass-kissing White guy as your officer. Here, though… Baker’s got to have his eye on replacing some of the battalion chiefs. Isaacs plans on taking an opening at bat chief or in admin in the next couple of years. If you apply for lieutenant to my new job as captain, you could be my right-hand woman.”
“Left-handed woman.” Erin went for a left-sided layup and missed again. “Besides, I haven’t even decided if I want to be an officer. I can’t apply until summer.”
“Don’t you see the writing on the wall? Baker made noise about promoting women. Unless you’re a dumbass who can’t pass the civil service exam, you’re a shoe-in. Look what you did here.”
“It’s the power of heart,” Erin said, catching her rebound.
“The power of heart?” Kwon missed the reference.
“Captain Planet. Made from the power of Heart, Earth, Fire, Wind, and Water. Heart makes people get along and animals follow you around.”
“That’s lame,” Kwon scoffed. “I’d pick Fire. Point is, Baker wants to promote women. My application for lieutenant was in limbo for a year, and—BAM—the second he became Chief, I got promoted. Take advantage while the momentum is on your side before the old brass rebels.”
Erin closed her eyes for a second and thought about Noah – no, the Chief. Should she apply for promotion, they’d have to end things.
All along, the warning had been there. They were risking their careers, but Erin didn’t want to hear it. Was she going to ditch her career because of a three-month forbidden relationship?
