First, he saved me.
I lived because he was a hero.
And then he was gone.
Uprooted by the fire that destroyed our
home, my family moved away and I never saw David Andrews again.
Then, he found me.
Eighteen years later, he rescued me
again - in much simpler terms, of course. By loving me, by giving me the fairy
tale I’d always hoped for, he provided me with the perfect life.
Now, he needs to be saved.
It’s my turn to be strong, to be brave,
to be valiant.
When
flames threaten to turn us to ashes, it’s up to me to pull us From the
Wreckage.
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The cool,
crisp winter air whips through the evergreens dotting the yard. Powerful and
unrelenting, the harsh winds bend the trees almost to their breaking point.
Whirring and howling sounds crack through the night air with an almost
ghost-like quality. The black expanse of the sky is speckled with a million
points of light, some of which are occasionally covered as the clouds pass by
on the whim of a blast of wind. On a particularly gusty howl, the newly hung
Christmas lights are loosened from their window clips and they skitter across
the frosted-over window panes.
Snow
piles up thick and heavy into banks against the McCann’s small Cape Cod-style
house. The family of three – Mom, Dad and six-year-old Grace – have just
recently been welcomed into the neighborhood. Wanting their daughter to go to a
good school, Walter and Meredith fought tooth and nail in the crazy bidding war
for the house. Luckily, they won and their daughter started first grade in a
new and better school district just a few short months ago.
After her
parents tuck her under her frilly pink, princess comforter, they kiss her
forehead and wish her sweet dreams. Exhaustion washes over little Grace, who
hasn’t quite recovered from her exciting day of getting her picture taken with
Santa at the mall. Despite the blizzard brewing outside, Grace falls asleep
before her parents softly click her bedroom door closed.
She
sleeps so soundly in fact, that nothing short of the tree branch crashing
through her bedroom window wakes her from her dream-filled sleep. “Daddy!”
Grace screams from her now frigid bedroom. Tears streak down her face as her
fear-laden paralysis keeps her from moving a single inch. She calls out for her
father again – a tiny, wobbly voice shaking with tremors and chills.
“Hey,
pumpkin.” Her father bursts through the door – her knight in shining armor.
Scooping her up out of her bed into his strong arms, she nuzzles into the
safety of his chest. He kisses the top of her head. “Shh. It’s okay, Gracie.
Daddy’s got you.” She sniffles and wipes her tears on his flannel pajama shirt.
“Puppy,” she whines, reaching out for her stuffed puppy dog.
Bending
down with her tiny body still tucked into his arms, he grabs the raggedy
stuffed animal. “Of course. How could we forget Puppy? He can’t sleep in here
by himself.” She squeezes her beat-up rag doll of an animal as her daddy
carries her into his room.
“Mommy!”
Grace squeals with delight as her mom reaches out for her baby girl. Folding
back the covers and patting the mattress, Grace practically leaps out of her
father’s arms to cuddle up with her mommy. “There’s a tree in my room.” Grace’s
voice is a bit calmer, but she’s still fiercely gripping her Puppy.
“I heard
it! You’re a very brave girl, Gracie.” Her mom pops a sweet kiss to her cheek
before Grace nuzzles into the pillow. Inhaling the sweet scent of her mom’s
coconut shampoo immediately helps Grace relax even more.
Standing
in the doorway, Walter smiles at his wife and daughter. “I’m just going to go
get a tarp from the garage and cover the window up for the night.”
Meredith
nods as Grace cuddles closer to her. Her light snoring starts to filter into
the room as Walter tiptoes out of the master bedroom. Grabbing his heavy winter
jacket and slipping his feet into his slippers, Walter heads out to the garage
to grab what he needs to put up a make-shift fix for the broken window.
Twenty
minutes later, he crawls back into bed, shivering like crazy from the icy cold
air that rapidly filled Gracie’s room. Spooning up behind his wife, she nearly
shrieks as his ice cold hands grip her waist pulling her into his body.
“My God!
Walt, you’re freezing!” He chuckles into her neck and she feels the smirk
quirking his lips.
“It was
actually snowing in her room. What do you expect?” He shivers once more as he
pulls the fluffy comforter up over his shoulders. Wrapping his wife in his
arms, as she tucks their daughter into hers, they fall asleep all comfortable
wrapped in each other’s warmth.
A hand
slaps across his face. “What the hell?” More than startled, Walt shakes his
head and lets out a grunt.
Somehow,
Meredith manages to choke out her words through the thick, black smoke that’s
billowing under the door. “Can’t breathe. Walt…”
Suddenly,
his senses go on high alert. He coughs, lungs like razor blades. His eyes tear
as he tries to rub the soot away from his brow. “Mer… where’s Gracie?” he
manages through the pain.
Reaching
out in front of her, Meredith sighs in relief that Gracie is still curled up
against her. “I’ve got her, Walt. We need to get out of here.”
They
clasp hands as they roll to the floor. Meredith stretches Walt’s hand up to
Gracie’s tiny body. “Take her…. I don’t know if I can.”
His
strong and capable arms encircle his daughter’s still sleeping body. Secretly,
he prays that it’s actually sleep keeping his daughter so still. Who knows how
long the smoke was filtering into their room.
Remembering
the most basic lessons of any fire safety class, Walt drops to the floor,
cradling his fragile baby girl in his arms, hoping to avoid the thickest of the
smoke. Reaching out, he finds Meredith at his side. Lacing their fingers
together, he communicates what doesn’t need to be spoken.
They both
crawl, army-style, to the door where the smoke is almost unbearable. Again,
calling on common knowledge, Walt reaches up to the doorknob and skims it with
the back of his hand. Recoiling instantly, he chokes out a “Fuck!”
Pressing
his cheek up to the door might be unconventional, but it lets him know that
there is most definitely a fire raging on the other side of his second floor
room – one which he is not willing to let his wife and daughter withstand.
“The
window, Mer…” More coughs and choking, but she understands his instructions.
Crawling
back to the other wall of the room, Meredith reaches behind her to make sure
that she never breaks contact with her daughter and husband.
If they don’t survive, then I don’t survive.
Though it
offers little solace, she repeats the mantra in her head – over and over again
–until she rams into the wall that she just can’t see.
Reaching
up to the window frame, she tries to slide the lock open, but her fingers just
aren’t working. “Help me…” She can’t even finish her sentence. The smoke is so
thick and the fire, which was once raging on the other side of the door, is now
racing toward them.
With time
no longer on their side, Walter pulls off his shirt and wraps it around his
fist before using it to break the glass. Precious oxygen pours into the room as
Meredith desperately realizes that Gracie still hasn’t said a word.
For all
the times she wished her life was a little bit quieter, for all the times she
wished Gracie would just grant her five minutes of freedom, she prays for a
loud wail, a scream, something to let her know that her daughter is still
alive.
But
nothing comes.
Walt
climbs across Meredith’s frail frame, hefting the weight of his daughter’s limp
body across the floor. “Let’s go, Mer.” He manages to hack out those words
through the thick fog of soot that’s crushing down on his lungs.
Somehow,
she registers his voice through the crash and bang of beams collapsing down in
the hallway. The sound of wood splintering sets Meredith into high gear.
Curling her slender fingers around her husband’s bicep, she clasps onto him for
dear life. Somewhere in the back of her oxygen deprived brain, she registers
the sounds of Gracie’s pained coughs.
“Mommy,”
she rasps out. Clinging to both Puppy and Daddy for dear life, Gracie is roused
from her deep sleep as the bitter winter air bites at her exposed skin and her
lungs gasp for precious and clean air. “Daddy,” she wails as she curls Puppy
into her chest.
Gracie is alive.
That’s
all Meredith is capable of registering as Walt slips from her grasp. Realizing
she is suddenly all alone in her fire-encased room, Meredith cries out in fright.
“Noooo! Walt! Wait for me!”
Lifting
her body up and over the window frame, Meredith gashes her belly on a jagged
piece of glass. Clasping her hands over the gushing wound, all she hopes is
that the brand-new baby growing inside is still safe and sound.
“Walt!”
she cries aloud as he reaches back through the window. With all of his
strength, he lifts his wife’s body through the window as he gently lays his
daughter down on the deck built to the side of their bedroom.
The smell
of burnt plaster and carpet fibers infiltrates his nostrils as the
smoke-induced vomit rises in his throat. By the grace of a God who he now
questions, Walt stands from the slumped form of his family and hacks out the
blackest, filthiest spit he’s ever seen in his life.
The
clawing at his calf brings him back to the here and now. “Take her…. Please…”
Meredith calls as she gasps for air. Hefting his daughter over his shoulder, he
claps her on the back, trying desperately to wake her up. “Come on, baby girl.
Cough for Daddy,” he calls out almost frantically as Meredith rises to his
side.
Curling
over the gaping wound at her belly, she mumbles, “Gracie,” before collapsing to
the wooden slats, which lie beneath her feet. Off in the distance, Walt hears
the screeching sirens of fire trucks and ambulances as they race down the
block. Kneeling beside his injured wife, Walt notices the bloodstains on her
nightgown. The scarier sight, however, is the fire licking at the window frame.
It won’t be long before the fire reaches the deck. They needed to move. Now.
“Come on,
Mer. Can you walk?” His question is only met with low groans, which are quickly
followed by hacking coughs. When she doesn’t move, Walter scoops her up and
over his shoulder. The thick snow makes it difficult to walk across the deck,
but somehow, Walt easily manages the weight of the two most important women in
his life as he makes the icy trek.
Luck,
however, is not on his side as he begins his descent down the stairs. Fire is
raging behind him, blasting from the window through which they just escaped.
The loud crackling distracts him momentarily and he loses his footing. Before
his skull crashes into the step, Grace and Meredith fly out of his arms. As
unconsciousness claims him, Walt realizes that both of his girls have slid down
the entire flight only to land in a snowdrift piled high against the house. His
eyes close, but not before he hears the frantic calls from his neighbors.
When he
comes to, he’s laid out on a stretcher with an oxygen mask secured over his
nose and mouth. It doesn’t take long for reality to settle in. The house is
wildly ablaze. Despite the spray of multiple hoses, flames pour out of each and
every window. The entire west side of the house, where their bedrooms used to
be, is incinerated and nearly gone. The deck, which used to be visible from the
front yard, is no longer there, having been consumed by the fire. That’s when
the panic sets it.
Walt
tears the mask away from his face and with strong arms levels the paramedic,
who was just taking his vitals, down to the ground. “The girls…where are they?”
His voice is thick with emotion even though speaking feels like swallowing
razor blades.
Righting
himself beside Walt once again, the paramedic replaces the oxygen mask when
Walt begins coughing in frenzy. “Please calm down, Mr. McCann.” The paramedic
drapes a blanket over Walt’s chest, but it does nothing to warm the bitterness
blooming in his heart.
Clenching
the collar of the paramedic’s navy blue uniform in his balled-up fist, Walt
stares pleadingly into the young man’s eyes. “My wife and daughter were with
me. I dropped them…. My God, I dropped them.” Overtaken by sobs, he barely
hears Meredith’s small and broken voice call out to him.
“Walt…Gracie?”
she cries out as her stretcher rolls alongside his.
“Mer…” he
gasps her name, but he only feels partial relief at knowing that his wife is
okay. He needs to find Gracie.
That’s
when the sweetest sound in the entire world rings out through all of the chaos.
“I found her!” David Andrews, their ten-year-old neighbor calls out, but before
Walt can look up to see where he is, he’s gone. The only sight he catches is
that of the paramedics racing away from him and his wife to the side of the
house where the deck used to be.
Needing
to feel contact with him, Meredith wiggles her hand under the blanket on Walt’s
stretcher and laces their fingers together. “They’ve got her, Walt. It’s going
to be okay.” Her last words are barely choked out past the lump of emotion
clogging her throat.
“I
dropped her...” he repeats over and over again as guilt sits heavily on his
chest. Grace has to be okay. She has to survive. He won’t be able to….
Pushing
down any thoughts of a life without his daughter, Walt squeezes his wife’s hand
as they wait for Grace to emerge from behind the wreckage that used to be their
home.
It takes
forever, but finally, the paramedics round the corner of the yard. Grace is
wrapped in a thick, grey wool blanket. Her lips are blue and her skin pale, but
she’s alive. She stretches out her tiny arms when she catches sight of her
parents next to the ambulance.
“Mommy…Daddy…”
Grace’s teeth chatter and her body shakes with chills, but she practically
leaps out of the paramedic’s arms to go to her mom.
Wrapping
her arms around Grace, Meredith buries her face in her daughter’s hair. Though
it may be singed a little, she can still smell traces of the strawberry scented
shampoo she’d used on her earlier in the night. “Shh…it’s okay, Grace. We’re
all okay.”
Tears
well in Walt’s eyes and stream down his cheeks. His girls are safe. He’s safe.
Nothing else matters. Through the fog of everything going on, Walt hears some
of what the paramedics say. Grace has mild hypothermia so they wrap her in
heated blankets and let her lie next to Meredith, hoping that her body heat
will help as well. All three of them suffer from smoke inhalation, but it seems
as if they will all recover just fine.
“Puppy!”
Grace cries out.
“It’s
okay, baby. Puppy will come in another ambulance. Don’t you worry.” Meredith
presses her lips against her daughter’s cold skin. Her little white lie will go
a long way to keep Gracie calm.
Walt goes
in one ambulance, but the paramedics promise that his wife and daughter won’t
be far behind. Meredith and Walt exchange a brief, but relieved smile as they
unlace their fingers. When a paramedic begins wheeling Meredith and Gracie to
their ambulance, a giant ball of nerves forms in Meredith’s belly – the belly
in which she hopes her baby is still alive and well. She hadn’t even had the
chance to tell Walt yet, wanting to wait until Christmas next week to give him
the present he would never forget.
Meredith
grabs at the paramedic’s arm. “It’s okay, Mrs. McCann. We should be at the
hospital in ten minutes.” Her calm voice does nothing to soothe Meredith’s
concern.
Turning
away from Gracie, so that she doesn’t hear anything, Meredith faces the
paramedic, whose arm she still hasn’t let go of. “The baby…I’m…pregnant.”
Meredith registers the look of surprise on the woman’s face. Quickly checking
her reaction, the paramedic gently pats Meredith’s hand and readjusts her
oxygen mask.
“We’ll
get you all checked out when you get to the hospital,” she reassures.
“But the
cut…the glass. There was so much blood.” Meredith’s words fall to a whisper as
Grace squirms beside her.
“We
looked at the wound, Mrs. McCann. It should only require a few stitches, but
the injury is far from where the baby would be positioned at this point.” The
paramedic’s kind eyes crinkle at the corners as she conveys this information to
Meredith. Relief washes over her. Maybe things will be okay. “We’ll do an
ultrasound and some blood work when we get to the hospital just to be safe,
okay?” She brushes Meredith’s soot-covered hair out of her eyes and Meredith
nods in response.
Meredith
pulls Gracie to her side as a few other paramedics help load them into the
ambulance. The bumping and shifting causes Grace to stir at Meredith’s side.
Gracie pulls at the child-sized oxygen mask strapped to her face. Her lips are
less blue and as she coughs up some of the smoke she inhaled, some of the color
returns to her plump cheeks. “It’s okay, Gracie. We’re going to be okay.” For
the first time since this horrible experience started, Meredith actually
believes those words.
The
McCann’s spend the night in the hospital for observation – just as a precaution
the doctors tell them, but Walt knows the real reason. They’ve got no home to
return to.
The next
morning, after Meredith is wheeled out of the room for a few tests, Walt and
Grace watch some cartoons and wait for her to return. He’s concerned that they
still need to run tests on his wife. Maybe her smoke inhalation was far worse
than his and Gracie’s. Or maybe it was the cut to her side that has the doctors
worried.
A half an
hour later, Meredith returns with tears streaming down her pink cheeks. “What’s
wrong, Mer? What’s the matter?” Walt stands from his bed and practically runs
over to his crying wife.
“The
baby…” is all she can work out past the lump in her throat. Walt’s initial
worries instantly morph into elation and then raw fear.
“What did
you say?” he whispers, shocked by this news. Unable to speak past her sobbing,
Meredith cries into the blankets. Walt looks up to the doctor who came in with
Meredith, hoping that she can offer some small sliver of information –
something to make his mind stop racing.
Extending
her slender hand to him, Dr. Meyers introduces herself. “We performed a routine
ultrasound this morning to check on the baby, to make sure everything is okay.”
“What
baby, Mer?” He skims his knuckles across his wife’s cheek, brushing away the
flow of tears. “Please talk to me,” he begs and she wraps her fingers around
his hand. Bringing his hand to her lips, she plants a soft kiss there.
“I’m so
sorry I didn’t tell you. I wanted it to be a surprise, but I’m…Walt, I’m
pregnant.” Giving herself over to her emotions, she wraps her arms around his
neck and hugs him as tightly as she can.
“So then
the tests came back okay?” His words are muffled by her soft, brown hair. He
sees the doctor nod as she steps away from the stretcher to give them a minute
of privacy.
“Yes,
everything is okay, for now. I’m so sorry I didn’t tell you.” Her chestnut-colored
eyes beg for forgiveness, but there’s nothing to forgive. They’re going to have
another baby.
“Shhh,
sweetie. There’s no need to apologize.” He kisses her temple.
Before
she leaves, the doctor goes over a few last minute instructions – no heavy
lifting, drink plenty of water and see her regular doctor in a week or so for a
follow-up ultrasound, at which they should be able to hear the heartbeat.
Grace is
too entranced by the television to even notice that her mom has returned, so
Walt and Meredith decide not to mention anything about the baby to her, just in
case.
The rest
of the morning is spent making arrangements to move in with Walt’s brother
until they can find an apartment of their own. Meredith calls Penny Andrews,
her neighbor and newest friend, who promises they’ll be up there shortly with
some new clothes. Hating to rely on others for support, Walt almost tells them
not to worry about it, but they’ve got to rebuild everything. Somehow, refusing
a few new items of clothes when they don’t even have a roof of their own seems
somewhat foolish.
An hour
later, the Andrews come to visit and in addition to the clothes they’d promised
to bring, David beams with pride as he hands Grace her ragged and charred
Puppy.
Grace
leaps out of the hospital bed. “You found Puppy!” She squeals with delight as
she tears the precious stuffed animal from David’s hands.
“Sure
did. It was right next to where I found you.” He’s grinning ear to ear, utterly
pleased with himself for being such a huge help last night.
“You
found me?” Grace asks, disbelief lacing through her words. When David simply
nods and smiles, she says, “Wow. You’re like a hero!”
Wrapping
her tiny arms around his waist, Grace squeezes David. The two sets of parents
watch in silence as the happy exchange occurs before them.
Letting
go of David, Grace tips her chin over at the TV that she was just watching.
“Wanna watch Frosty the Snowman? The
nurses just put it on for me.” Grace doesn’t even wait for David to respond
before she pulls him over to the bed. She’s determined never to let her hero
move from her side.
“We
really can’t thank you guys enough, especially David. He really is a hero.”
Walt shakes hands with John Andrews as Penny and Meredith squeeze the life out
of each other – well, as best they can with Meredith’s still-sore wound.
“We’re
glad to help out,” Penny says as she hands over the bags of clothing and
toiletries they’d picked up on their way over. “So what will you guys do?”
Penny asks cautiously, not wanting to upset Walt and Meredith.
Pulling
his wife to his side, Walt kisses the top of her head. “We’ll be all right.
We’re going to go stay with my brother for a bit while we figure things out.”
“Will you
come back to the neighborhood?” Penny and Meredith have hit it off pretty well
and she would hate to see them leave for good.
Shrugging
and fighting back tears brought on by uncertainty, Meredith looks over at David
and Grace watching TV. “I’d like to, but we’ll just have to wait and see.” She
swipes a tear away from her cheek and looks up at Walt – her rock, her savior.
“Come on,
Pen, let’s leave them be for a while.” John extends his hand to Walt, who
thanks him for helping them out. “It’s time to go, Dave.” Penny calls for her
son and smiles warmly at the sight of little Gracie staring in awe at him.
“See you
around, Gracie.” David ruffles her hair as she holds Puppy tightly at her side.
If she
would have known that was going to be the last time she’d see David Andrews,
she would have done more than wave lamely at his retreating back as he exited
the room.
Melissa
Collins has always been a book worm. Studying Literature in college ensured
that her nose was always stuck in a book. She followed her passion for reading
to the most logical career choice: English teacher. Her hope was to share her
passion for reading and the escapism of books to her students. Having spent
more than a decade in front of a classroom, she can easily say that it’s been a
dream.
Her
passion for writing didn’t start until more recently. When she was home on
maternity leave in early 2012, she read her first romance novel and her head
filled with the passion, angst and laughter of the characters who she read
about it. It wasn’t long before characters of her own took shape in her mind.
Their lives took over Melissa’s brain and The Love Series was born.
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