“You still did wonders. Six years ago, we had three female firefighters in the entire department. Now you have three at 15 and two of them are officers. If your new initiatives pay off and any of the women in the paramedics decide to go active, we should have more female firefighters than they do in all of New York City in a few years.”
“Yeah, that’s setting the bar pretty low,” Noah mused. It was a well-known fact in their industry that New York City had a massive department of eleven thousand active firefighters, not including EMS, and not even ninety women among them.
“Hopefully, you can move more into leadership and get more women in the next double-sized class.” Haskell paused before continuing, “Where did you get Hudgens from?”
Noah had to click his teeth together. There were a lot of ways to interpret that question. “I didn’t get her anywhere. McClunis recruited her.”
“She’s officer material. Where’d McClunis find her?”
“I believe McClunis started her recruitment at a Las Vegas conference three years ago. Hudgens had two years in Seattle and then finished a year here. Firehouse 15 is full of future female officers.”
“She’s not bad to look at either,” Haskell remarked with a shrug. “Not my type. But from the recruitment standpoint, she’s a pretty good catch.”
“I don’t—” Noah began.
“Poor White guy,” Haskell cut in with good humor. “I’ll say it for you. She’s Black. I’m Black. As long as you don’t put us on the front banner of the CCFD webpage, it’s okay. You said you’d recruit a diverse group, and you did. Your photo-op at MetroGen was masterful. You had three females, two minorities, and you guys somehow dug up a Black male medical student. That’s why you’re the Chief.” Haskell poked his superior playfully on the shoulder, taking the opening to provide Noah with an appropriate amount of camaraderie, which he would not have dared otherwise.
Noah pretended it hurt and then shoved him back. “That wasn’t me. That was Hannah Fitzpatrick and Captain Williams.”
“Still, all good press. And Williams, man, he’s the trifecta. You got a single, Black, male officer who served the government and has returned home to his city. Get a lot of flak about it?” Haskell had been well aware of the opposition to Noah’s progressive policies.
“The response has been overwhelmingly positive. Though we did get a weird yahoo saying the government is interfering too much with the fire department,” Noah admitted.
Haskell chuckled, “They must not remember fire departments are government institutions. We are entering a ‘new era.’”
“You listened to the speech on repeat?”
“Nah, my wife cut it out of the paper. ThePlain Dealernewspaper comes every other day, and they finally have something fun to report on. We can’t only be known for LeBron and losing football teams. Sir, what you did isn’t bad. It’s good for the city. This is a big deal. I just want you to know that I know I’m lucky.”
“Thanks, I try. And yes, you can take the time off when you have a baby. I can’t believe you’re saddling ME with the Firefighter Ball, though.” Yet another thing on his plate. No Haskell, no McClunis, and his assistant chiefs were in the thick of the new initiatives. It would have to be Noah.
“A man’s got to do what he’s got to do. Seriously though, you should have Hudgens apply for officer at the end of the year. Who can resist a one-on-one talk from the Chief if you bat your pretty blue eyes? Tell her to apply.”
Her resisting him was not the problem. She didn’t seem like she wanted to resist and, honestly, neither did he. “That can wait. McClunis can handle it if she comes back. Or Williams.”
“Diversity trifecta aside, I assume you are familiar with Williams. I ran into him on scenes occasionally for the year he was Captain of 33. He was… intense back then.” Haskell tried to be delicate. Considering the hell Haskell had personally survived, his referral to Williams as intense was an understatement.
“He still is,” Noah conceded. “We’ll see how he does at police training. It should be interesting.”
“Interesting how?” Haskell wasn’t a close confident of Noah’s but was familiar enough to expect his chief always played the political game from all angles.
“Police Chief Reyes’s memo requested a casual training atmosphere. She wants the first-time collaboration to be a relaxed team building event between our departments. She included ‘innovation and creative interpretation of situations.’”
“Hawaiian shirt day at the firehouse?” Haskell suggested. “You’re on board with that? You don’t seem the type. Then again, you did run a three-legged race today.”
“I took them off rotation for the morning to lower the pressure,” Noah said. “Williams has been driving them pretty hard, and there was the recent Freon incident which could have been handled better.”
Haskell twisted his lips. “Williams is gonna get it, isn’t he? You’re gonna let it happen?”
“As I said today, you’ve got to adapt. He should be able to take his lumps,” Noah said, then saw Haskell’s doubtful glance. He allowed himself a crack in his usual resigned personality. “Okay, fine. It’s gonna be fucking funny.”
“That’s the spirit.” Haskell slapped his shoulder.
“You have no idea. I can only imagine what craziness his three lieutenants cooked up to torture him.” And Noah had no intention of stopping them. Williams had pushed them, and now they could push back without reparation.
Noah couldn’t wait.
Chapter 14
