He did as he promised. Shane kept an eye on me during my first few calls. There was a big fire, a gas stove fire, a gas leak and a road accident. There were a lot of impressions and emotions for my first few weeks, but I treated each shift primarily as an opportunity to learn something new. I had a lot of opportunities, and Shane allowed me to develop quite freely, although the rest of his colleagues were quite reluctant to accept his enthusiasm.

However, I didn't let myself get discouraged. Not since I've come this far. And not when I found out that the second, and only, candidate left from the test Shane told me about was Justin. Now I could also spend time with him at work and everything slowly returned to normal between us. It was hard to call us a typical couple because I was still quite reluctant and Justin kept his distance so as not to waste the second chance I had given him. But I couldn't deny that we had something in common, something much deeper than just friends from the Academy and now also from work.

My new team wasn't big. The youngest, both in terms of age and experience, was me, but I was immediately followed by Justin, who in mysterious circumstances was transferred to our unit. I couldn't say whether I was happy about it or not, but it certainly made me feel better just thinking that I wasn't the youngest and I didn't have to be afraid that one mistake would ruin all my chances. Next up was our Lieutenant Shane. It was like he told me, he wasn't in command for long, but every time there was an action or we had a training exercise, you could sense a strange confidence and leadership in his presence that no one could deny he had. Apart from me and Justin, under Shane's command there were two more senior firefighters who were quite indifferent, or even reluctant, towards my presence on the team. Sometimes I felt like they despised me. However, I didn't let that stop me from enjoying what fate had given me. I was working at my dream job and everything was returning to normal in my relationship with Justin.

Today seemed like any other day. I arrived at work early in the morning, before my shift officially started. Today I was on duty in the kitchen, which meant that preparing breakfast, lunch and dinner was the first task on my list of duties. Luckily for me, I didn't have to scrub the bathrooms today, and cooking for the entire firestation seemed downright pleasant.
While Justin disappeared somewhere in the firestation, as a senior candidate he had a little more freedom than I did, I was left alone in the kitchen and surrounded by nothing but silence, at least until it started to get closer to breakfast time. Then everyone rushed to the common room, and I could no longer control what I had to complete.

However, today was still quieter than usual, and I think that's why I managed to notice that a few members of our team were missing in the room. I looked around, but no one else seemed to be paying attention except me. So I shrugged and enjoyed the moment of peace that I could spend with Justin.

"We can go to whatever store you wanted today," he suggested to me, thus breaking the silence that had fallen between us since we sat down for breakfast.

"We can try," I agreed with a smile. I dreamed of a new bookshelf and for several weeks I had been trying to find a suitable copy in a store, but only I found something that captivated me in its simplicity in a small town.

"Have you thought about this idea with this little place I found?" he added gently, but the content of his question was enough to make me look away.

No matter how much I felt around Justin and how much I loved him, I thought he was a little too hasty to find a place to live together after I told him I needed to buy a new lamp. I mean, we were still together not long enough to decide to buy an apartment. Especially since even for one with a relatively small area and far from the city center, we would have to spend at least half, if not more, of our savings, and it could take us up to half a year to accumulate a safe reserve for future expenses from the candidate's salary.
I opened my mouth to explain to him the same thing I had been doing ever since he had this brilliant idea, but an unexpected person came to my aid.

"Can I kidnap your fiancé for a moment?" My captain turned to me. Ever since Justin and I found out, quite by accident, that we were together, Shane hasn't wasted any opportunity he's had to tease us. His witty way of calling Justin and I fiancé and fiancée got on my nerves, but I couldn't say anything. Because in exchange for our agreeing to tease by him, Shane turned a blind eye that his two subordinates are dating. So we had to accept that we were causing general amusement at the fire station, at least as long as we both wanted to keep our jobs.

"He's not my fiancé," I only muttered under my breath when Justin reluctantly agreed and was getting up from the table.

"Keep up the results, Penny, and maybe one day I'll believe you," Shane called teasingly at me before he and Justin disappeared from my sight.

So I was left alone at the same table in the common room, while the rest started to go to their tasks. I envied my older friends who could wash our largest car while I could only wash the dishes.

Our fire station wasn't big, so we didn't go out here very often, which also resulted in budget constraints. In fact, since my first fire, we've gone out maybe a few times to a few smaller fires, usually roofs, trash cans, or kitchens. Nothing exciting happened, but at least I had the opportunity to test myself during training and quickly gained some basic respect as a firefighter using a few tricks I remembered from the Academy. To show me the trick of tying a double ladder knot in under a minute, everyone kept asking me to do it.
Although apart from that, my relationship with our entire team was rather cold. Only Justin and Shane accepted me openly. However, I preferred to learn and keep a low profile for now, so I didn't even complain about the lack of deeper connections in the team. The only thing I was happy about was that they didn't point fingers at me or make loud sarcastic comments, because Shane and Justin had taken all the money from the bets on how quickly I'd leave, so the rest didn't have anything to say when I lasted longer than most of their previous candidate that Shane told me about.

The sound of the alarm broke me out of my thoughts. I jumped out of the chair as quickly as possible and, hearing that we were leaving for a building fire, I ran to Mars just as quickly. It was a powerful car with a huge pump also equipped with a foam dispenser and many compartments in which we kept our equipment. Due to the fact that it had a double chassis, it was not very fast and agile, so Gregor, Mars' driver, usually did not manage to make the more complicated turns. However, Mars could not be denied the seriousness and class of a fire truck, especially when it was freshly washed.
I sat down in my seat in the car and, before my friends joined me, I managed to put on my uniform jacket. Recently, my time has improved significantly and I even found myself among the fastest firefighters in our team changing our clothes.

"And Shane?" I asked, realizing that the seat in the front next to the driver was empty, even though I had no space in the back.

"A call is a call," replied the oldest of us, Antony. "Sometimes you have to go without a commander," he explained to me.

"And who will be in charge?" I looked at him, wanting to know.

"Oldest experience," he said briefly.

"Don't worry, it probably won't fall for Gregor, as usual," Max said teasingly, sitting next to me.

"Because I'm about to drive you, Max," Gregor growled, deliberately using the closeness of Max's and Mars' names. In fact, he always did it because his younger friend couldn't miss an opportunity to annoy him.

"Both of you calm down!" Antony spoke again, but this time in a much sterner tone than he had used with me. "I'll be in charge since you two can't get along."

We received a call for a fire, but when we arrived there were no visible or invisible signs of open fire.
Everyone got off Mars surprised, including me. I have never been on a call where I didn't know what to do with myself from the very beginning. Usually someone told me what to expect and who to watch out for. Now I saw neither fire nor smelled smoke. And even the oldest member of our team looked like he didn't know what was going on.
Out of confusion, I searched for Justin's hand before realizing that Shane had taken him with him this morning. So I had to go ahead on my own.
But all uncertainty quickly evaporated, and all that was left was confusion, when around the corner we saw Shane and Justin leaning against what my eyes were deceiving was a fire truck. It was much smaller than Mars, but just as red. Its wheels looked more like the tires of an off-road vehicle, but the car still had quite a large water tank at the back, even equipped with a water cannon on the roof.

"If this was a timed exercise, you would be cleaning Mars' landing gear right now," Shane said sternly to us. He pushed away from the car, looking at his watch. "You're at least three minutes late."

"It's not my fault, Shane, that Gregor and Max had to argue again," Antony explained. "By the way, this wouldn't have happened if you hadn't left us on our own, without telling us anything."

"Is it?" Shane asked with a smile. "Penny knew," he winked at me knowingly, but I looked at the ground.

"That doesn't count," Gregor protested. "She is not a full member of the team. Candidates do not have the right to vote."

"That's where you're wrong," Shane said teasingly, pointing a finger at Gregor. "Both Justin and Penny end their time as candidates today," he smiled and I looked up in surprise. "They will still have to prove what they are capable of, but let them do it as firefighters, not candidates."

"Just don't rush it," Gregor muttered grumpily under his breath.

"What's gotten into him?" I asked in a whisper, leaning slightly towards Antony. However, I couldn't take my eyes off Gregor, who was looking at the new car with his hands in his pockets.

"Same as usual," Max whispered in response, giving Antony and me a cheeky smile.

"Where did you even get this car?" Gregor's question broke me out of my thoughts. I watched with curiosity as he opened the hood and examined the engine, then peered inside to look at our commander with surprise. "And what is this even supposed to be?"

"Like what? Our new car," Justin explained excitedly. "And it's great."

“See,” Shane teased. "Listen to the young man."

"Everything's great," Gregor muttered halfheartedly. "But Shane?" Added the Mars driver. "Who's going to take this little..." he grimaced as if calling the vehicle a fire truck was beyond his strength, "something to the fire station?"

"You can, Gregor," replied tall Mark, who was actually sitting next to me in Mars.

“Let Penny get in,” Shane suggested, turning in his seat to look in my direction. "Let her show me what she can do," he encouraged me. "If you, Gregor, won't even let her look behind the wheel of Mars," he teased, and the rest of them burst out laughing. "Come on" Shane suddenly appeared right next to me and held out his hand to me. "You can see that there is no shortage of people willing to do so," he added jokingly when I reluctantly followed him out of Mars.