rescue;

Nah, I wouldn’t pass a drug test even if I wanted to. 

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That’s sad, man. Don’t ya got kids?

Yeah? Well next time our bonfire gets a ‘lil out of hand, I know who I’m blaming. 

That’s interesting, man. Were your parents zookeepers then? And yeah, I’ll honestly keep you in mind. I wanted him or his sister to be into music so bad - I begged ‘em to pick up instruments their entire childhoods. Sailor sings for fun, but Lily’s not into any of it. 

Not me, that’s fa’sure. 

Lil man? Oh fuck no. I haven’t gotten in a fight in a minute, but I will if you don’t lose the nicknames. I’m twenty-two, bro, and I like running the Speakeasy. Crowd isn’t always the best, but it’s good, clean money. I don’t let anyone deal down there. 

Twenty-two and five-foot-two, at best, lil man. 

Really? You’ll make me Dad of the Year, man, and I’ll make sure we get some good footage for ya. Have girls knocking down the fire station’s doors if you know what I mean. 

-

Love what you’re doing here, Gage, but I don’t need help getting girls. Besides, I’m focusing on me and my sister for right now. 

Does Ma know you’re a pyro? 

But, yeah. He’d love that. Sailor’s my adventurous one. Snowboarding, skiing, sports, things with wheels - anything boyish he loves. It’s not entirely my vibe, but I try to be a good dad and enjoy what he likes too. 

I mean, I don’t think so but I kinda thought it went without saying. I’m a firefighter, of course I got a few pyro tendencies in me. 

Man, I’m not working anywhere where I’ll be called a probie. Fuck that. 

It’s only for a little while. Like three months! Six months max if it’s a slow subdivision. 

Yeah. I’ve been trying to make the Speakeasy more fancy ‘n less trashy, but with the crowd upstairs who always ends up coming down for a drink or five, it’s just a disaster. They pay the bills though, so, can’t complain. 

There are other ways to pay the bills, lil man. Also you live at Nora’s rent free, so... you do have options. 

I really want to, man. We always want to branch out, you know? I know not every viewer loves to see what’s going on at Nora’s, so however we can pull in more people to watch, we’ll do it. Plus, firefighters are cool as fuck. My boys would love to go on and explore a firetruck. 

Giving tours of firetrucks is like... part of my job description as the new guy on the team. 

You guys, uh, hiring? At the fire station or whatever?

I think so. You should come apply - we need a new probie around! 

Yeah, you responded to the fight outside’a Tiny’s last weekend. Bunch of idiots. Sorry ‘bout that. 

Oh, yeah. Those calls are.... not fun. Hate dealing with a bunch of drunks. 

You went to the middle school last month, didn’t you? Sailor talked about it for the rest of the day. He likes to hyper-focus on new, entertaining things for a couple ‘a days at a time, so he was on a fireman kick for a good week. Now it’s back to soccer, I think. 

Uh, yeah... we go to a lot of schools ‘round here. It’s easy work, though. We usually pick a couple of kids to race us in putting on the gear. It’s a good time. If your boy is ever interested, we take some middle school kids as Junior Fire Rangers for a weekend program... They go like... camping or some shit. I don’t know. They don’t let me near ‘em cause I like playing with matches.

If you want more excitement you can always interview with us and tell us some cool or gory stories, man. I’m sure there’s some viewers who’d like to hear that instead of what we normally give ‘em.

Oh, hey, I did mention to my Cap that you were interested in doing a special on the firehouse. He seemed pretty busy so I didn’t push it, but I did bring it up. So we’ll see if ya can come!

S’all good. I don’t think I’ve eaten a big family meal in there with everyone since my first night. The kids are just kinda…squeaky.

Why not? I mean... gotta be more than just squeaky kids.