Things You Save in a Fire

Cassie is as determined to avoid the rookie as she is to avoid Diana, but the captain keeps pushing them together. She gets to know the rookie better as the captain asks her to help him practice essential medical skills. She learns, for example, that, though he has many good qualities for being a firefighter, he faints at the sight of blood. He collapses while trying to draw blood from her, and she helps him up and promises not to tell anyone, for which he is grateful.

During their first few weeks on the job, the rookie sees several traumatizing incidents, and the crew pranks him harder to help keep his spirit up. Cassie has a recurring nightmare about suffocating and goes to the kitchen to get water, finding the rookie cooking confidently in the middle of the night. He asks about her nightmares, and she is surprised to find herself revealing details of her private emotional life to him. He makes her an omelet so good that she thinks he could be a professional chef. He also tells her things he has heard about another crew member, DeStasio, whose wife recently left him after his drinking got out of control and led to a car accident that killed their son.