Penny's POV

I sighed tiredly as Collin called out to me to replace the hose line. I had been extinguishing the fire for four and a half hours with the same hose that Elvis and Ellie had laid out when they first went out. That was almost 20 hours ago now. It was time to avoid material fatigue. "Understood, Collin. Stop the water!" I replied to him and disconnected the nozzle as soon as the pressure decreased. I watched as he uncoupled the hose from Zeus - the Newtown Station's vehicles had the names of Greek gods - before I began to roll up the hose and set it to the side so my team could pack it up and take it back with them.

As I placed the hose and nozzle with the others we had previously replaced, I glanced at our three volunteers who were still working on containing the grass fire. After almost 5 hours, Malcolm and Mike were visibly exhausted from the constant up and down movement of the floppy shovel, while Joe still seemed to be alive and well - which wasn't surprising, considering he had brought with him a second edition of his floppy shovel 2000 from Sam's movie, which worked automatically.

I was about to turn around when something caught my attention. The wind that had just been blowing into the side of my face suddenly changed and came from diagonally behind me.

"The wind has changed. Regroup!" Collin shouted loudly to his men behind me, who immediately shifted their positions to be able to attack against the wind again, but one of them did not turn off the water, but simply turned around . He didn't notice how his full beam, which he had just pointed at the trees, dug deep into the ground and sent dirt and burning branches and sod flying up.

"Greg, stop the water!" I called to him and he jumped and immediately stopped the water as I ran to him. "Always stop the water flow when you need to move. Otherwise, you could quickly injure someone while trying to find a better place or secure footing."

"I know, Penny. I'm sorry. I wasn't paying attention."

“Is this a coffee party now, Morris?!” Collin called out to us and I saw his nasty grin. He probably thought he was particularly funny. I rolled my eyes in annoyance.

"I'd better get on with it!" Greg objected sheepishly, dragging the hose behind him so he could get closer to the fire against the wind again, when I immediately noticed what he was doing wrong.

"Greg, wait!" I said and walked towards him to push him a little further to the right, further towards the area that we had already cleared out, because before he had only had green space around him. "It's better to go over here if you have to retreat. When putting out a forest fire against the wind, you should always have one foot on scorched earth."

"Oh, right, so you have an escape route because the fire won't find any food to burn and you won't be in danger of getting trapped." I nodded with a smile as he quoted the knowledge from the books. "I think I'll apply for a transfer to Pontypandy. Yours seems to be...more educational than ours."

"At least we treat each other more respectfully for sure," I said thoughtfully as Collin asked one of his colleagues to finally stand up properly - but I couldn't find anything reprehensible about his point of view. "Don't let Collin's behavior get to you. Whatever it is, but it has nothing to do with you or is your fault. You're doing a fantastic job. You all do," I praised him with an encouraging smile and a smile immediately appeared on his face too , before turning back to the fire and turning the water back on. I gave him another encouraging pat on the shoulder before turning to do my job and roll a new hose out.

Collin's manner did nothing to boost the morale and willpower of the others to endure this ordeal. It was rather demoralizing and how grateful the others were for a compliment or a kind word gave me a lot to think about. It was so important to be valued and recognized. Isn't that what we all wanted?

I looked up suddenly when I heard a loud scream and saw Joe drop his machine. It fell to the ground and shattered immediately. I spotted a small but burning branch that Joe was stepping on. It had certainly been thrown into the air by Greg's jet of water and landed at Joe's feet. Something splattered and I couldn't believe it when, just a moment later, Joe was on fire.

“Get on the ground and cover your face with your hands!” I shouted as I ran, taking off my jacket. Malcolm reacted immediately, pushing the panicked Joe to the ground and also starting to take off his jacket. I got to Joe before Malcolm was ready, so I focused on Joe's head and torso and threw my jacket at him, smothering the flames as Malcolm did the same with his jacket on Joe's legs.

"Thanks, guys!" Joe muttered exhaustedly as we then got him into a sitting position so I could quickly check to see if he was seriously injured. They appeared to be only superficial, minor burns. Thank heavens Steele had told us to bring up our old uniforms from the basement and make them available to the volunteers in order to protect them somewhat. The material of our uniforms were made of more heat-resistant and fire-resistant material than normal clothing. Even though Joe hadn't been able to get Sam's old jacket zipped up and have had to extend his pants with an elastic band because of their girth to keep them from slipping down, it had still avoided anything worse.

"What happened, Joe?" I asked him immediately.

"There was the branch. I didn't even notice it until it got so terribly hot on my foot. I was so frightened that I dropped the floppy shovel 2000 and the gasoline from it sprayed on me," he said sheepishly. I just nodded. I almost thought so. I looked at the clock.

"Why don't you finish up and get in the vehicle? Our transfer team should be here soon. You all look tired. You did a good job," I suggested to him, Mike and Malcolm, who were gathered in front of us. Like me, they looked back at the former green space they had worked on this shift. It was perhaps at most the size of half a soccer field and looking at the fire that was steadily spreading, none of the three were probably satisfied with their performance. But at the moment no one could boast of having had more success than others and every meter counted at the moment.

"Is this going to happen today, Morris?!" Collin called out to me and I helped Joe to his feet before going back to Zeus to get a new hose and a new nozzle.

I was just about to take a hose out of the compartment in their fire truck when Collin suddenly stood next to me and he leaned with his hand next to me against the hose that I had just wanted to take out. I looked up at him skeptically while he looked down at me, grinning.

"Well, baby. You seem tired. Shouldn't we find a quiet corner later and help us both relax a bit?" he murmured, reaching with his free hand to grab a strand of hair that had come loose from my braid. to twirl it between his fingers as he looked at me with a pretty definite grin and ran two fingers of his other hand across my cheek. A chill ran down my spine.

"Thanks, Collin, but I prefer to relax alone," I simply replied and grabbed his wrist to push his hand away so I could finally do my job and get away from him. I felt anything but comfortable in his presence. "And don't call me baby!" I asked him while I took out the hose.

"What, still as prudish as back then? Life here in the country isn't good for you to finally unwind, is it?" he laughed quietly and I looked up at him. This idiot antagonized me more and more.

"It actually does me a lot of good, Collin, thank you. It's probably more because of your cold demeanor that you don't make me melt," I replied flippantly and was about to leave when he got in my way again and forced me again to take a step back. Unfortunately, our colleagues were all standing on the other side of the vehicle, so no one could see us. Too bad. I had a bad feeling that I could really use a witness.

"You never complained when I kissed you. Maybe we should start with that?" he replied, coming closer to me.

"Don't you dare!" I warned him through gritted teeth as I turned my head and dodged to the side.

"Hey, what? You owe me something after you just ran away and didn't get back in touch," he interjected gruffly, and that stopped me in my tracks.

"I don't owe you anything, Collin. I told you my reasons. There's nothing more to say!" I snapped after turning around to face him and was about to turn around again when he grabbed my arm.

"Stupid reasons! Do you think I took you out to dinner all the time and just feel okay with it without getting anything in return? I have needs too!" he protested and I sensed that his frustration was slowly getting to him. So obviously he still hadn't gotten over it?! After all this years?

"Which you got well satisfied back then. With someone else!" I simply objected and withdrew from his grasp again. "Besides, you only took me out three times back then and if you're so sorry about your money for it, I'd be happy to return it to you. Even with interest. As long as you leave me alone," I complained to him as I finally wanted to go back to my work, but he stood in my way again.

"What's wrong with you, Penny! You weren't so cold before!" he practically growled.

"Oh, I think if you'll ask my colleagues about the characteristics of their team leaders, the word cold would be the last thing they would think of to say to me. With your team, however, things are certainly different," I simply replied to him and his Look darkened.

"What does that mean?!" he murmured and there was a warning in his voice, which unfortunately came too late because he grabbed my upper arm again, but this time so hard that I flinched. Now something like fear flared up in me.

"Collin, you're hurting me!" was all I could say to him. If he forgot himself like that, I would probably better not irritate him in the future. I knew that now.

"Do you have a problem with my leadership style?" he growled again and gave me a small shake - probably to emphasize how much stronger he was than me. That made me angry. How could someone take advantage of this like that?

"I have, indeed. You could put aside your callousness and show a little more humanity," I replied to him with a look at his hand on my arm and he at least loosened his grip a little.

"Should I be nice to them? That doesn't motivate them. It just makes them weak and we can't use weakness in our job."

"You have absolutely no idea," I replied coolly and wanted to leave, for real this time. For me, the conversation ended there. I didn't want anything to do with people like him. Neither privately nor professionally, if it could be avoided.

"I'm not done with you yet, Morris!" he hissed at me and pulled me back by my arm, only to slam my back against the emergency vehicle in the next moment, knocking the wind out of me. The hose fell out of my hand and I saw Collin push it aside with a movement of his foot to stand so close in front of me that his body pressed me against Zeus.

"I think you are!" I heard a familiar voice and I breathed a sigh of relief when Collin let go of me and turned to my team, who stood behind him and looked at him angrily.

"This is a private conversation!" he replied to Elvis with a growl.

"That's the end of it!" Ellie chimed in now, glaring at Collin as she pulled me away from behind him.

"It's definitely not! Not yet!" he growled as he stalked away, shouting for his team to move, some of whom had already been relieved by the Pentref unit working with my friends.

"Thanks, guys!" I sighed in relief, still trying to digest the shock of how hot-tempered and dangerous Collin had become. He had always been ambitious, but clearly his leadership position had not changed him for the better.

"Should I drive you back?" Ellie asked me worriedly and I smiled mildly.

"It's okay. You're needed here. I'll ride in the other vehicle and just try to stay out of Collin's way."

"You should talk to Steele about it. He'll assign you to another unit," Arnold suggested.

"I'll think about it. At least now I know what to expect from him."

"That won't help you if he attacks you again and then we might not come."

"It's all good, Ellie. Please take your hoses and the nozzles, that we had replaced, with you later, okay?" I reminded her with an encouraging smile and Ellie and Arnold nodded, although the concern didn't leave their faces. All I wanted was to drive back to the station and get some distance from Collin. Above all, I wanted to be with Sam and see how he was doing. "Good luck to you and take care of yourselves," I said again and gave them a curt wave before I went to the second emergency vehicle named Ares and got in. I didn't care whether Collin took note of this or what he thought of it. He had been an idiot from the moment he got here. It didn't surprise me that he behave to me like he already had. I thought back to everything that had happened in the last 20 hours as Greg drove us back.

I had been anything but happy when Steele had not let me go out with Mercury to my team, but had instead called me in to meet with the team leaders of the first units that had arrived. Collin had been so confident that now that Newtown was here, they would be able to handle this. Well, he had been far from it so far.

I was even less happy to learn that because of the time that had passed, I had been placed on a different team and under Collins' command, of all things, while my three colleagues were out there alone fighting this hell. It had been frightening to see how Collin treated his team, almost as if they were all no good and as if he was the only one who could be used here. Sure I didn't have many good memories of Collin, but that wasn't how I remembered him at all.

Collin had been so different back then. He was a newbie, just like me, but he had graduated from Cardiff. He had been ambitious but good-looking and very accommodating to me. He was the only one who didn't treat me like I was out of place in the job, and I guess that impressed me - at least until I caught him in a bar with someone else. He had tried to downplay it at the time, but I couldn't understand at all what was not understandable with him kissing a woman and pressing her against him in such a way that it looked as if he wanted to examine her tonsils and as if he wanted to seduce her right on the bar counter.

I had already been tranfered to Pontypandy a few times at the time and quickly realized that I received more recognition for my performance there than for how well the uniform looks on me, and I found my colleagues there to be much more likeable - especially Sam, who had always been highly praised by Boyce and was therefore quite well known in the Newtown district. On the other hand, I had no idea that over time I would fall in love with him as much as I did, while Collin had awakened the fear in me of getting involved in something new, only to be disappointed again. It was one of the reasons I had never confessed to Sam how I felt about him.

After the second mission, I had gotten used to Collin's stupid sayings and promised myself that I would talk to Boyce about it when everything was over and the hustle and bustle had cleared up. It was definitely out of place to start something like that in this situation, especially since we needed every hand. On the way back to the station I had the second shock and setback of the day because I had seen clouds of smoke rising from afar and I asked Collin to stop there briefly.

"Why should I? Our colleagues will take care of it," he replied boredly.

"I'd like to make sure the cat isn't hurt," I said simply as we got closer and closer to the house. I couldn't and wouldn't tell him that it was my house.

"You want to waste the valuable time we get to rest because of some remorseful cat? Absolutely not!" he growled angrily and I looked at my colleagues, who all looked down in embarrassment. They made it very clear to me that they disagreed with him, but no one even dared to contradict him.

"What an ass you have become!" I growled back and turned to the door to open it since we had just passed my house. As hoped, Collin immediately slowed down and yelled at me, but I ignored him as I jumped out and ran towards my house. The fire was extinguished and I exchanged just a few brief words with the team leader of this unit and thanked them briefly before running into the house. Miss Pawdry was the only thought I could think of. Even though I only had her for a few weeks, I had grown so fond of her that I didn't want to lose her. I already worried enough about Sam. I didn't want to add my cat to this list. The house, on the other hand, and everything in it was replaceable and as far as I could see, not too much was broken. The glazier and the roofer would certainly be happy about the work and the rest was just a little cleaning out, renovating and, above all, airing out beforehand so that it could dry and the smell of smoke would disappear.

Miss Pawdry was nowhere to be seen no matter where I looked or how much I called her. Fortunately. She didn't seem to have come back into the house through the cat flap after I let her out this morning. I left the house and that's when I heard her. Dirty and sooty, she hid in a bush that was somewhat spared from the flames and she looked miserably at me. One look was enough and she came running towards me. I was relieved to see that she wasn't limping or injured anywhere when I picked her up. Collin had waited and only snorted disparagingly when I got back into Zeus, but at least he didn't say another word about it. So I had at least one thing to be thankful for for once.

We reached the station and as soon as I entered the hall, my first glance immediately fell on the infirmary. I froze when I didn't see Sam there on his lounger, was already expecting the worst and scanned the hall for him with my eyes to see if he was lying somewhere else when Helen passed me at some distance.

"Helen, where is Sam?" I called to her as I made my way through the loungers that were standing so close to another. I saw her cheeky grin as she approached and acknowledged it with an annoyed look. I knew that not such a decent thought was going through her head at the moment, but that calmed me down at first. If Sam had gotten worse, I'm sure she would have reacted differently.

"Your Prince Charming is upstairs!" she replied with a grin and I asked her with a quick and frightened "Shush!" to be quieter with such statements as I looked around to see if anyone - in the worst case, even Sam himself - had heard that. The air seemed to be clear.

"What is he doing upstairs? Eating?" I asked, visibly confused.

"He took over the radio surveillance for Steele. He just announced over the loudspeaker that you were coming in and that some others should get ready."

"Why can't he just rest for once?"

"You know how Sam is. I'm sure he'd feel useless just laying here. Plus, I think it makes him feel like he's at least with you in some way, even if it's just listening to your radio messages ", she replied with a smile and turned towards the hospital ward, where Joe was already sitting with his legs bare and his shirt unbuttoned, while Lizzie was holding his hand next to him and they were obviously waiting for the ointment that Helen had in her hand. I thanked her briefly, wondering what surprised me about Sam not being out of work, and decided to take a quick shower first. I felt like I could still feel Collin's touch on my face and arm and I desperately wanted to get rid of that feeling. I didn't feel comfortable with it myself, but I didn't want to look into Sam's eyes with that feeling even more.

When I entered Steele's office almost half an hour later, I paused and looked around in confusion. The room was literally wallpapered with pieces of paper. I shook my head curtly at the strange idea before turning to Sam. He was sitting on the chair and the headset on his head had slipped while he was lying with his upper body, head and arms on the table. I walked over to him worriedly and was a little relieved to see that he was just sleeping. But the fact that he kept squinting his eyes, panting as if he was having a hard time breathing, and his fingers kept clenching, worried me. I knelt next to him and gently shook him with my hand on his shoulder as I called softly to wake him.

The third time he jumped, and immediately winced again, groaning, as his arm obviously caused him pain from the jerky movement. He instinctively clutched his arm as he tried to shake off the tiredness and figure out where he was - if I interpreted his confused look correctly.

"It's just me Sam!" I said quietly and put a hand on his knee. I was still crouching in front of him and he looked down at me. "Why did you get up? You should have rested," I then asked him worriedly.

"I...I wanted to do something useful. Nobody here can get enough rest. Then why should I?" he replied hesitantly.

"Because you've been through the most out of everyone here?" I simply stated and looked at him questioningly. Experiencing something like he had couldn't possibly leave even a man like Sam cold. He couldn't possibly have forgotten that and if I were to bet, I'd even bet that he just had a bad dream about it.

"It's okay," he just mumbled.

"That's why you fall asleep sitting here!" I stated skeptically. It suggested that his body still needed rest and he knew that as well as I did. "Did you have a nightmare?" I then asked him so as not to put any more pressure on him. I certainly wouldn't be any different in such a situation and would also want to help where I could.

"You could call it that," he replied awkwardly and avoided my gaze for a moment before he looked at me again and obviously wanted to change the subject. "How was your mission?"

"Okay. We've now narrowed the fire down to 5 hectares," I replied with a smile, stood up and leaned against the control panel of the computer unit.

"That's still a big area," he replied thoughtfully.

"It used to be over 10," I told him, which he probably hadn't noticed because he was unconscious and his eyes widened in shock before he looked down and apparently needed a moment to let it sink in.

"Helen told me that you...well, your house...I'm sorry, Penny," he then interjected after a minute of silence and looked up at me again. I could see in his eyes that he was really, really sorry. Me too, but I had lost only worldly goods and everything was replaceable. I was much happier that I still had him and Miss Pawdry.

"It's okay. It's not completely destroyed. A few small repairs and a few weeks of airing it out and it'll be like new again," is all I said instead of saying all my thoughts out loud.

"At least something. Where do you want to live until it's habitable again?" he then asked me and I shrugged my shoulders.

"As long as the forest and wildfires are raging, I don't have to worry about it, but I think that after that I'll definitely be able to occupy my parents' guest room for a while."

"You could have mine too. Then at least your way wouldn't be so far to get to work," he offered me and I saw a slight blush appear on his cheeks - just like mine at the thought of living with Sam for a while.

"That's very kind of you, thank you Sam," I replied to him, still touched, before I thought of something to cover up my embarrassment, which was certainly not lost on him. "Besides, I could keep an eye on you too, so you will rest well. How practical," I added with a smile and gave him a quick wink. I immediately noticed this wonderful sparkle in his eyes. It worked and cheered him up a bit.

"If you're going to take care of me like that, you'd better be careful that I don't confuse you with my Mom!"

"St. Florian help me! I'm not that old," I replied with a laugh before I straightened out his wireless headset and pulled him off the chair by his left hand while I grabbed the clipboard.

"Where are we going?" he asked me confused as I linked arms with him to pull him with me.

"To Dinner. I think you could use a little fortification and I haven't had anything since someone handed me a bowl of soup after we brought you here."

"Then it's really time. The last thing I want is for you to pass out on me out there from hunger and weakness! I couldn't live with that. Not after you saved me!"

"That's why you're saving me now and keeping me company while we eat. My hero!" I replied with a grin and he rolled his eyes with a grin as well, but laughed with me about it as we reached the top of the stairs and rounded the corner, only to see Collin and his team eating at one of the additional tables that had been set up. I stopped laughing in an instant when I met Collin's curious but appraising gaze and saw from the corner of my eye that Sam noticed this. His gaze switched back and forth between me and Collin before he put his left arm behind my back and led me to the next table, where were still a few seats available. We had barely sat down when Bronwyn served us two bowls of a stew that looked like it would fill me up twice, because it was so thick. But it smelled very tasty.

"Thanks Bronwyn!" I heard Sam say to her and I copied him with a smile. Bronwyn was about to leave again when she stopped.

"What's that Penny?" She asked me as she was about to stand up again and pushed the sleeve of my shirt up a little. I immediately put my hand on my arm and pushed the sleeve and with it Bronwyn's fingers back down. I had already noticed after the shower that Collin's grip was tighter than I had already thought, because it had left obvious bruises.

"It's nothing," I mumbled embarrassedly and took the spoon in my hand to concentrate on my food. I really didn't want to talk about it here and now, especially since the person who caused it was sitting diagonally next to us and I could always see him looking in our direction out of the corner of my eye. Collin had shown me how quick-tempered he could be. There was no need to know more until we saved the city.

"That doesn't look like nothing," Sam remarked seriously as he put his hand on my arm and pushed the sleeve back up to look at it thoughtfully. "Who was that, Penny?" he then asked me.

"Let it go, Sam. We really have other things to worry about right now, that we should focus on. I..."

"It was him, wasn't he?" he said, almost growling as his gaze passed me and I wouldn't hesitate to bet that Sam noticed Collin because he kept squinting over at us.

"I..."

"Penny, why do you want to protect him?" Bronwyn asked me confused and put a hand on my shoulder.

"I'm not protecting him. I just don't want to open a barrel. He's not worth it!" I replied grumbling. I didn't like their form of care at all.

"Can I decide that?" Sam asked me seriously and I looked up at him in surprise at his tone and choice of words. "I'm the supervisor on duty right now." Great. I needed that too. Another person whose rank got to his head. I sighed quietly and gave in.

"Collin and I went out a few times when I was new in Newtown, but it never went any further because I caught him making out with someone else."

"I'm sorry, Penny," Bronwyn objected, visibly affected, and placed a hand on mine, and Sam also looked at the table in front of him, concerned. It was bad enough for me to talk about an ex, but doing it in front of my crush felt wrong. Especially when Collin had become such a creep. What did Sam think of me, that I used to be interested in guys like that? He couldn't know what Collin had been like before.

"I don't. When I see what a disgusting person he has become, I'm glad I didn't fall for him even more back then," I just mumbled so that no one but the two of them could understand me.

"How did this happen?" Sam asked me, pointing to my arm.

"He said I owed him something. One word led to another and he got a little angry because, to put it nicely, I didn't allow myself to be seduced by him," I simply replied to them and felt a blush creep into my face. I hated drawing such attention to myself, so I just looked at my bowl in front of me.

"He got mad because he couldn't get you into bed?" Bronwyn asked me in surprise, as if she wanted to make sure she had heard me correctly and I flinched.

"That's what you could call it, Bronwyn," I muttered in embarrassment and glanced sideways at Sam, who was visibly shocked but clenched his fist on the table.

"Did you hit him for doing that to your arm?" Bronwyn objected harshly and I couldn't help but smile.

"I didn't really get around to it. But Ellie, Arnold and Elvis came and got me away from him. It's all good!"

"At least this will cost him his job," Sam grumbled in a tone I'd never heard from him before.

“What does that mean, at least?” I asked confused and Sam obviously decided that he would now like to concentrate on his stew.

"That means that he'd better never run into Sam alone," Bronwyn replied with a grin and a cheeky wink before walking away.

"Sam?" I spoke to him after a moment's thought. "As much as I'd like to see you give him his due... no matter what, I'd rather you hold back until this is all over. "

"But Penny, he..."

"He screwed up and not just by treating me like that. He's also terrible to his team. I'll report it to Boyce. But first we have to save the city and I'm afraid we can't do that without each one right now," I revealed to him my thoughts from before and put my hand on his arm. "Please, Sam. I especially don't want anything to happen to you. You still have to be careful."

"Okay, Pen. Then I'll let the hero sleep for once. But just for your sake," he stated a little disgruntledly, but the fact that he mentioned the hero showed me that he was at least trying to take it with humor.

"I'll wake him up again when we need him. I promise," I replied with a smile and finally spotted one on his lips again. It was good to know that Sam was there for me and wanted to stand up for me, but even more so that he agreed to put everything else aside and put his health first - even though I had to ask him to. "Thanks, Sam."

We ate mostly in silence. I asked him about Steele's system with all the pieces of paper and I had to laugh when he told me that it took Steele an hour to explain a system that took me less than 5 minutes to understand. We had just finished when Sam grabbed the headset, apologized to me, and jumped up to go back to the office. I heard him announce that he would immediately alert a reinforcement team, but I decided not to follow him. I would hear what was going on out there soon enough in just under four hours. I really needed to get some sleep. I hadn't found any rest during the former breaks because of Sam and had been on my feet for almost 30 hours now. My body demanded sleep.

So I took our bowls away to the sink before heading downstairs to finally get some rest, no matter how short it might be.

To be continued...