Black, sooty smoke billowed out of the storage building, and Tanner coughed, shielding his face with his arm, the sinking feeling of loss hitting him while hay bales caught fire and began to collapse. Jake was holding him back, and shouting at the crew to focus on the far corner, all of them with buckets and hoses strung from the nearby water spigot.

"Don't be an idiot and go in there," Jake added when Tanner tried to shake him off, growling. "You're already singed."

Tanner went lax, his lungs already straining from the smoke. Despite his efforts while he waited for help, the flames had spread too quickly. The minimal stream from the hose had done nothing, and he couldn't find the fire extinguishers they were supposed to have, by law, in every building on the ranch.

It had only been a bit of smoke and some small flames when he'd seen the fire and jumped into action.

"How dry is that damned hay?" Jake asked. "I've never seen a fire grow like that!"

"Your guess is as good as mine," he replied. The tightly packed round bales would burn slowly in any normal fire situation, so he was wondering the same damned question. Tanner heard the irrigation truck arriving, and strode over to guide Harry back, weaving around the haphazardly parked crew trucks.

"Rowan, move that damned truck, the fire crew will need room!" he yelled and pointed.

Rowan jumped back from a hose and ran, moving the truck out of the way. He ran for another one, reversing it back along the fenceline. Tanner jumped up on the running boards of the irrigation truck and he and Harry shared a look as Harry engaged the pump from inside the cab.

"It's not good, is it?" Harry said, looking in the mirror.

"Get your ass out there, we'll need to unbolt the sprayer manifold and direct it up along the top of the stacks, see if we can't soak them to keep the flames from reaching the roof," Tanner barked, and jumped down.

As the crew got the truck's water shooting towards the flames, they licked higher up, touching the steaming roof. It might be too late to save. A full winters-worth of good grass hay was in there. Hay they needed for the pregnant heifers currently in the acreage beside the shed, all huddled along the far side of the pasture, away from the noise.

The fire leapt onto the next stack of bales, closer to the garage side of the storage shed. Tanner mentally ran through his equipment list and where it was stored, and swore. "Fuck! We need to get in there and get the damned equipment!"

Bobby heard him and shouted at a couple of men to pull up on the door. Tanner joined them, wrenching on the bottom of it to push it up and bypass the automatic mechanism. If they could get it up, they could get in.

"Heave boys, let's go," Bobby yelled and grunts emanated around him as he wrapped his fingers around the steel bottom of the door. They lifted, and as the locks snapped, it shot up, blowing more smoke out at them, sending them all backwards onto their asses.

Rowan shouldered past them, a bandanna on his face. Tanner bolted in behind him, holding his breath. You could barely see into the garage, but he made the outline of the thresher and Rowan pushing the hitch support up so they could drag it out. He grasped onto one side of the tongue brace and nodded at Rowan who heaved with him from the other side. Something brushed his shoulder, and Jake, his t-shirt up over his nose, stepped up beside him, hands on a rake support. Their eyes met in the gloom.

"You are insane, you know that?" Jake yelled through his shirt.

"Give a good tug, it'll come easy enough," Tanner yelled back, inhaling more smoke as he did. He heard the tractor he'd ridden up to feed cattle rumbling up behind them and they all grunted and pulled towards the sound. If they could get it hitched, they could pull it out and come back for the square baler that was parked behind it.

He was so focused on the task, he didn't hear the roar of the flames, or see the wall between the hay storage and the garage buckling until it was almost too late. Jake bellowed and grabbed him just as he and Rowan had levered the hitch over onto the tractor hookup, literally throwing him out the door by his overshirt.

He skidded along the wet ground, and Jake landed beside him in a heap not long after, groaning as his shoulder hit the ground, patting at his clothes. The thresher banged and clattered as it dragged past them, inches from Tanner's nose.

"Shit, that was close," Jake coughed. "We're not getting that baler now."

Tanner rolled over onto his knees and looked up. The entire middle of the building was in flames now, the wall collapsed over top of the baler, which was also catching fire, the oil in the gears and drive chains perfect fuel. Pops and snaps from the wood framed wall echoed into the air, and several small explosions rocketed out as the nearby shelf of oil and gas cans caught fire.

It was too dangerous to go in, and Tanner's heart sunk. He hadn't caught it soon enough. It would be lost. Not exactly what they needed right now. Jake pulled him to his feet as Liz came running up to them, black soot across her face as well, bandannas in her hand.

"For fuck's sake, put these on. Shitheads," she yelled, slapped them in the middle of Jake's chest, and stormed off again, gesturing at one of the crew to hand her the hose strung from the water spigots near the feedlots.

Jake handed him one and he stuffed it in his pocket. Sirens were coming, which meant they would soon have to clear out and let the firemen do their job. He doubled over and coughed again.

Jake gave his arm a shake. "Nothin' we can do now. Crew's got it in hand with the water. Let's get you to the truck."

Tanner staggered forward, and Jake shored up around his waist, half dragging him. He sat him down in the open door, searching the back seat, coming up with a water bottle, half full.

"Here, drink this."

Tanner swallowed the water, and it burned down his throat. He coughed, wiping his mouth, then fishing out the bandanna to wipe his face. It came back black. He'd inhaled quite a bit of that crap and his chest hurt like he'd been sat on by a horse. He looked back at the scurry of the firemen jumping off the truck that was backing into the open area in front of the building, the helpless feeling growing.

"Fuck. I couldn't put it out before it spread," he wheezed. "There were no fire extinguishers along the wall like normal, the brackets were empty."

"Gone?" Jake asked, shock in his voice. "I just had every single one taken in and recertified last month, and put back. I swear I did!"

"Doesn't matter now. We'll look later. Don't worry about it. Likely wouldn't have been enough. That fire is hungry."

"You two need a paramedic?"

Tanner looked up to a fireman in full uniform, complete with face shield and helmet, the Marshall striding over as well, and Tanner shook his head. "No, we're good. Just inhaled a bit of smoke, s'all."

"There any chemicals in that shed?" the Marshall asked as he reached them, and the fireman ran back towards the trucks.

"Just oil and gas cans, likely some lubricants, chain oil. It was a maintenance shed for the—"

"Get some foam on the garage side, Gavin, there's oil and gas cans," the Marshall barked into his radio, and a '10-4' crackled back at him. Two firemen ran towards the building unrolling another hose from the side of the pump truck, and bright white spray fanned out towards the open garage door within moments. They surged forward, targeting the side where the flames had now fully engulfed the wall.

"Confirming what your crew said when we arrived that the building was empty of people, but is anyone in there now?"

"No, we're all accounted for," Jake replied quickly, his eyes roving over the crowd. "The shed's not normally occupied this time of day."

Tanner slumped in his seat, his chest aching, his eyes watering, his heart pounding. He felt like he was breathing through chili-spiced soup. He looked around and counted his crew, and everyone was there, relieving him.

His eyes found Rowan, who was leaned over on the hood of one of their trucks, his father patting his back. Harry looked up and caught his eye. "Get some help for that one over there, maybe," Tanner wheezed, patting his chest. It was the same feeling from yesterday at the hospital, and he tried to take a deep breath like Liana had shown him. None came, and pain sliced upwards like a sonofabitch.

"Oxygen, over here, now!" the Marshall bellowed, and a paramedic came running from an ambulance that Tanner hadn't seen drive in. Another paramedic ran for Rowan, a portable tank on a dolly beside him.

"You two again," the paramedic said amiably, and stood in front of him. "How's your other brother doing?"

"He's good. Just a concussion," Tanner said weakly. It was the same guy as yesterday that had shouldered past him when they found Brady. Suddenly, that felt like years ago. He was glad Brady wasn't here to see this.

"Let's get you looked at, string some oxygen into you. Good to walk?"

Jake shouldered him again and nodded. "We're good. Just need a little perk up. Got any injectable morphine in there? My shoulder is killin' me."

The paramedic chuckled and escorted them over. It was all becoming a blur, and as Tanner eased himself up into the ambulance, he looked over towards the hive of activity in front of the shed.

The flames were roaring out the top of the building now, and the hum of the engines from both the irrigation truck and the county pumper truck drowned out everything else. Liz was shouting and pointing, hosing down the crew who were close to the building. They were lined up on the end of the irrigation truck manifold they'd unbolted to spray right onto the building. Bobby and Kevin were at the back together, braced to keep the spray headed into the opening. He should be out there helping and he got up to go, the entire world spinning as he did. It was his fault, he couldn't stop the fire in time before it spread.

"You've got a capable crew here," the paramedic said as he pushed Tanner back towards the bench. "Let them do their job."

Tanner turned back to the man, who was holding out a face mask, cold air hissing out at him, and he blinked. The sounds were getting further and further away, the edges of his vision fading to white, his breath rattling. Was he having another damned panic attack, right now? He was better than that. But as he tried to take another breath, he realised maybe it was that, plus the fact that he'd waded into a burning building and inhaled god knows what.

"Tanner, sit the fuck down," Jake said, a hand out on him.

"Shit, I think I'm gonna—" was all Tanner got out before he slumped forward headfirst into the paramedic's arms.