Chapter Text
Rey was sitting on the deck, watching the deer congregate by her runoff pipe to drink. She was so glad for their company, she’d decided to let the sink run for a few minutes.
The chipmunks were out in droves, pulling each blade of grass down and nibbling the seeds off the tops.
It was 6:00 pm, so she was technically done for the day with radio check ins. Although, she still had to keep an eye out for ‘smokes’. Even campfires. Campers were supposed to be using portable grills.
She could see 20 miles in all directions from the lookout, rows of blue mountains, but she’d only spotted a couple smokes all week. There was a thunderstorm on Tuesday where she’d had to sit for two hours on a wooden stool with thick, glass insulators on the legs—to prevent electrical currents from a lightning strike. To her relief, the storm ended up passing by to the east.
In the morning, she’d get to head back to her apartment—which wasn’t much bigger than the tower—but it had a shower and way more things to do.
She’d already cleaned everything. The tower was practically derelict, having been taken out of service three years ago. Paper towels. She needed to bring more paper towels next week. And more Wet Wipes. And food. And drinking water.
That firefighter was right to doubt her. She didn’t realize how much water it took to cook and bathe and duh, watercolor, and drink for a week. And the water from the pump did taste terrible and she didn’t want smelly paintings.
She could have easily forgiven his superiority complex if he hadn’t refused her handshake. He definitely saw her stick her goddam hand out.
Rey tried to sketch the doe closest to her, but the deer squatted in the weirdest way to pee. I didn’t know deer squatted.
“Hey.”
Rey screamed, dropping her pencil right through the cracks in the boards.
It was Kylo, the non-handshaker, standing on the corner of the deck, grinning, “Sorry.”
“Uh, hi,” Rey said standing up. Christ. She hadn’t seen anyone for days and she was a mess. Socks up high, pajama shorts, bed hair, no bra.
And he looked all freshly-laundered and kempt, despite wearing yet another black T-shirt.
“Just checking in. How was the first week?” He asked, leaning on the rail to watch the deer slowly descending the hill, away from the screaming humans.
“Saw a couple smokes,” Rey said. Even though they just turned out to be unlawful campfires. “I love the view up here,” she added, watching him lean, all tall and muscled. He leaned good.
“Did you call in that one?” He asked, pointing.
She thought he was playing with her, but fuck, there was a smoke. A new one. Just a wisp visible, but solid and clear.
“Oh, shit,” she said, stumbling past him around to the door. He didn’t follow, just watched her through the window as she pinpointed the fire’s location on the firefinder’s scope and jumped on the radio.
She cleared her throat and hit the talk button on the handheld. “Ersa, Moon Mountain with a smoke report.”
He smiled at her change in tone, her radio voice where she tried to sound older and not panicked.
Main dispatch responded quickly, “Moon Mountain, go ahead with your report.”
She read her notes, “Azimuth: 150 degrees, 30 minutes. Approximately 12 miles out. Titan camp area.”
Dispatch began radioing different engines and battalions to see which resources they could spare.
Rey stepped back outside, moving her walking stick out of the way from near the stairs. The trek to the outhouse was all crumbly, slippery rocks.
“I should probably get down there,” Kylo said, looking disappointed. They must have called his engine number.
“What did you come up here for again?” Rey said, trying to remember. It was an hour and a half drive. Was he refilling the propane or water tank?
“Just wanted to see if you had any entertaining first week stories,” he said, already making his way down the stairs.
She wasn’t born yesterday. Maybe his snub earlier in the week was his attempt at playing hard to get.
“Ummm,” she said, trying to think, but finding it impossible. Because Kylo the firefighter with the perfect, black hair had come all this way to see her. Kylo the firefighter who was over six feet with giant hands drove an hour and a half to talk to her. “My hand sanitizer exploded from the barometric pressure?”
“That’s pretty crazy. But I was hoping you’d spotted the cougar and shit your pants. I guess there’s always next week,” he said, talking louder as he got further away.
What. Cougar.
“Did you walk here?” She practically shouted.
“Parked at the gate!” He said, pointing a thumb over his shoulder as he walked backwards.
Oh, right. She’d locked it so the hunters couldn’t drive up and shoot her deer family.
She wanted to watch Kylo walk down the mountain—she could see almost a mile of the road—but she needed to continue updating dispatch on the fire. But the fire didn’t have shoulder blades and fucking thighs and cute, turny-in feet.
Still smiling, she walked back inside to get more specific directions for the crew and engine on their way.
——————————
That night, Rey drew the shades. She knew she was alone. It was just paranoia. But somehow it still felt like Kylo could be outside, looking in.
Laying awake, she wondered at how quickly Kylo had spotted that fire. They still hadn’t determined how it had started. It was just oddly coincidental. She briefly wondered if he was even a firefighter. He could have bought that ax.
Her worries were quickly proved false the next week when four Ersa County Fire Department fighters came on a visit, putting a couple new hires through their paces with a ‘pack test’. The new recruits were being made to haul a 50lb pack up the steep mountain road, under the apparent supervision of Kylo and another man.
Rey remembered when she had to do the same. It was wilting in all that gear in the California heat, the oxygen running thin.
Kylo seemed to be the good cop, offering words of encouragement, clapping, while his chubby partner played bad cop, shouting about a hypothetical fire nipping at their heels and how he could walk faster than they could run, which she highly doubted.
She watched with binoculars until they made it to the gate, then fixed her hair in the mirror and pretended to be reading a book when they arrived, sweaty and collapsing at the ‘finish line’ of the helicopter pad.
“Did they make the cut?” Rey asked Kylo from the stairs, eager to see if he was going to be friendly today. But the other man answered.
“Poe and Finn? Oh, sure. I was just giving them some motivation, sorry about the yelling,” Chubby said, coming closer to offer his hand. “I’m Snap. And you must be Rey. I hear you on the radio.”
She recognized the name Snap from dispatch as well.
“I’ll let them rehydrate and get out of your hair,” he continued, but she was looking at Kylo. He hadn’t even broken a sweat and Snap was red as a tomato.
It was almost 5:00 pm. Maybe his time would be his own soon, she thought, watching his hair rip about in the wind and his eyes linger on hers, reminding her of his secret visit, however brief.
God, this man. She didn’t know if she loved him or hated him. Didn’t know him well enough. It was definitely going to be one or the other.
Snap walked back over to the new recruits to give them five more minutes of recovery time before they started back down and Kylo slid sideways to whisper. “I’d stay and chat, but Snap wants to get back down before this storm that’s coming. While the roads are dry.”
“Oh, okay,” Rey smiled, happy to hear that he wanted to stay, but also peeved. She only ever seemed to get a few minutes with him at a time. Fuck, come on, Universe.
“Hey, I was wondering-,” he started, but one of the new recruits stood up and came running over with what little energy he had left.
“Poe,” he said, still gasping, shaking her hand. “Are you the Rey from the fire back in like 2012?”
He must be from Elara or Glendale. Those fire stations knew her story. Her tragedy preceded her.
“Yeah,” she said, determinedly avoiding Kylo’s eyes. He was probably wondering what Poe was talking about.
“I’m so sorry that happened to you,” he said. “My dad was one of the fighters on that crew. So terrible.”
“Oh, thank your dad for me,” Rey said, wishing he would drop it. She didn’t feel like telling Kylo her sob story. She wanted to know what he was wondering before he was interrupted.
“Let’s go!” Snap called. “Quit flirting with the lookout!”
Poe and Rey laughed. Kylo didn’t.
“I know he’s kidding. But could I get your number?” Poe asked, rather boldly, in front of Kylo. Maybe it was the lack of time as the others started walking away.
Rey glanced at Kylo as his jaw tightened and his back turned.
“No, I’m not really dating right now,” Rey invented, nodding through Poe’s apology, a waste of his waning lung power.
As the team headed back down, she wished Kylo had heard her response. Perhaps he’d ask Poe what she said.
Running back up to the tower, she grabbed her binoculars and did a quick smoke scan around the deck, then watched the group wind their way down the mountain. Almost half a mile away, they went through a clump of trees and she only saw three of them. They were missing one dark-haired, black T-shirted fireman.
Her stomach did a flip. Maybe he was coming back.