Hi Mum, it's Sammy (clone 59 - part 9)

Well Mum, take a look at my three fellow firefighters. Maxius, Sophie and Ryan. A more worthless set of coworkers would be hard to find.

They work out frequently and hang out a lot but have yet to stir a finger when it comes to an actual emergency. Oh no, emergencies are left for me.

I was working on the alarm system when two things happened. First the ground was shaking under my feet. An earthquake? That can't be good.


The second was that the alarm went off while I was still working on it. I have got to work out a way to disable it if I want to maintain it. That alarm is ear splitting if you are anywhere near it.

One of the large, expensive homes at the edge of town had been extensively damaged. A neighbor spotted smoke pouring from the house so that was my destination.

My first priority was to free the people who had been trapped by debris.

It took some careful lifting to remove the fragments without causing other pieces to shift around and hit the victims. Both girls showed a lot of sense by running out of the house the moment they were able to stand.

My next priority was to get the fire under control. It seems more ferocious than usual, why was it burning so hot?

I was interrupted by a faint cry. There was still someone trapped in the house.

"Help me. I can't move."

"Where are you?"

"Outside, balcony."

That wasn't much help for this house, there must have been like 4 or 5 balconies that I'd seen already. But I kept the man talking while I tried to follow his voice.

"Easy, Buddy, I got you. You'll be out in a just a couple of minutes."

"Thanks, that fire was getting close. Did you get the gas off yet?"

"Umm, soon. It's next on my list. Do you know how many were in the house?"

"Just me and a couple of girls."

"Couple as in two or couple as in not too many?"

"Two, only two."

"They are out and safe. And," with a final heave the last board was off him, "you can go join them." He also ran straight out of the house.

Once I knew there was a leak, it didn't take long to find. The gas pipe to the stove was a twisted wreck, spewing gas into the air.

Ok, maybe not the brightest idea to cause sparks in a gas leak but nothing blew up. Including me.

"And then the terrible claw rose out of the pit. It was coming to..."

"oooohhh"

"...tickle Donna." Donna is still very ticklish too.

Sunny is having good fun at home with Donna.

Poor Charlie and his quest to find a potion is just not going well. He has yet to mix anything that works and when it fails, it fails quite badly. Fortunately, he's not injured but a quick shower is usually required for a complete cleanup.

I finished putting out the fires around the first house and made contact with the station.

"Fire out, people safe, gas leak fixed. Time for me to head home."

"That is a negative. We have reports of another home damaged by the earthquake, you must respond immediately."

Damn, so much for going home nearly on time.

This time, I went looking through the kitchen first in case there was another gas leak. There was, the pipe had been torn lose from the stove. It didn't take long to fix.

Then I went around the house looking for anyone trapped by rubble.

Better than the average workout, pulling all the debris off a person.

This was a much smaller house, there were only two people trapped. Plus the fires were actually small and didn't take long to control.

I told the station that I had finished this house and I was going home. They replied to me that a third house had been damaged in the quake. My assistance was again required.

I went home. It's past 11 at night. I'm tired and I'm starving. Let one of my useless coworkers take care of things.

I've never done this but I really just don't care about consequences now. Demotion or being fired, doesn't matter. It's a risk for me to try to keep going, I'm so exhausted by the two emergencies I've already handled.

I grabbed a bowl of something from the fridge. It was food, that's all I noticed as I wolfed it down. I was about to stagger to bed when I realised I heard the baby crying.

My poor little princess was hungry too, and her mum was sound asleep.

So Donna was let out of her crib. I went and fetched a bottle for the baby. Nearly fell asleep on the carpet, it was looking very comfortable to a man in my state.

I staggered off to bed. Sunny later told me that there had been a phone call at 3 in the morning about me going home. Since this was the first time I'd ever left work before everything was settled, I was getting a few demerit points. It would slow down my next promotion, but not by a lot.

I could potentially argue about it at work. But it's not worth it at this point. They surely know that I'm by far the best in the department, they can't really fire me.

The next morning, Sunny spent some time reading with Donna. Would you believe that Donna is nearly ready to start school? Where did the time go?

I love watching the two girls in my life together. I hope the new baby is a girl too. Mia is hoping for a boy. Well, one of us is definitely getting their wish.

Charlie tried hopscotch before school.

He's depressed because he's really quite bad at it. He never remembers where the marker is so he jumps wrong every time.

While I was still home to watch Donna, Sunny went to the park to earn a few tips.

Later she told me that I might not see a lot of Sophie  at work. She's going on maternity leave.

Sunny also found that the father is Sophie's boyfriend, Travis, who is also Sunny's big brother. The expectant parents seemed quite happy, both in the park and with each other.

One of these days, my coworker might also become my sister-in-law.

"Charlie?"

"Yes Dad?"

"The T rex dinosaur was definitely not known for climbing trees."

"Dad! They were also bigger than me. I get a better dinosaur eye view from up here."

"You have a point. Don't spend too long though, your sleepover guests should be arriving soon."

Charlie was having several of his school friends spend the night. I hope we don't regret letting him set it up.