Halo shrugged. “I don’t know. All I heard is that she walked out of jail without even having to see a judge for an arraignment.”
Lieutenant Braun stopped by the table with his plate in hand. “Halo?”
Javier Suarez, called Halo at the firehouse, looked up at Braun. “Yeah, Lieutenant?”
“Careful what gossip you share, hmm?”
Halo frowned at him. “First Responders are a crazy kind of family. We’re going to hear about what’s going on, right?”
Braun nodded. “Sure. Just be careful what you say. We don’t want to hurt people’s reputations.”
Halo shook his head. “It’s what everyone is saying. And we all know Crois. He’s not a bad guy.” He turned and grinned at the table. “He’s making some of us look bad with that beefcake photo on social media.”
Harmony felt her cheeks heat up with the reminder.
“We don’t know what’s going on with that case,” Braun continued, “just be careful, okay?”
As he finished speaking the door to the kitchen and common room opened up and a couple appeared, looking around with a measure of excitement in their eyes. “Uh, hi.” The man looked around the room and lifted a hand in a wave. “Sorry to bother, but…”
The woman beside him picked up the thread of the conversation. “We heard that you offer tours of the firehouse?”
Braun set his plate down on the table and walked over to the couple. “Absolutely, as long as we’re here in the house. Did you want someone to show you around now?”
“No…” the woman shook her head. “We… we were coming in to see about scheduling something for our son’s Cub Scout Pack.”
Braun nodded. “Absolutely. Let me take you to the office and you can schedule something with Leona Carissa. She’s the Fire Chief’s secretary. She handles all things scheduling and she’ll give you all the information you need.”
Harmony smiled as the couple followed Braun into the administrative offices of the fire house.
When she looked back at Halo she saw his hesitation.
Rock gave him a knowing look and nodded his head.
Harmony was still feeling a little… off.
She picked up her plate, moved into the hallway, and continued on to the apparatus floor.
She set her plate down on the table and pulled out her phone.
She dialed Crois’ phone and it rang through to his answering system.
That didn’t bother her. She knew he was on shift.
At the beep, she left a message for him. “Hey, it’s Harmony.” She smiled, wondering if she should have called herself ‘Harm.’ “Just wanted to check in and see how you’re doing.”
She hesitated there, trying to decide if she should say more.
Then decided against it.
“Okay. I’m… I’m on shift so-”
The klaxon system came on. “Ambo Nineteen. Truck-”
“Looks like I have to go. Bye.”
She dropped her phone into her pocket, left her plate where it was and headed across the floor to their ambulance.
Vega came running across the floor a half a moment later. When he climbed into the cab and into the shotgun seat, he put a paper towel wrapped sandwich onto the console between them.
