Saved By The Firefighter
Chapter 131

Joanne's Point of view.

I walk down to the fire station, I know I am going to leave whoever takes over in the lurch, so to speak, but I cannot stomach the thought of continuing to work at the station without my whip-me in the adjoining office. I will tender my resignation today, before I go off shift, for four days, giving me just three more days before I finish for good. But, I want to be a full-time granny to my grandchildren, and yes, I include Kirstie and Dante along with that. I can only hope that either Davey or Ben got the promotion, but I am keeping out of it. It could go to Alex Jones from 'yellow watch'. Well, whoever it is, I hope they understand my reasons for leaving.

I walk into the station, it feels weird not seeing Davey sitting on his sofa reading his Sunderland Echo, even as Acting Station Officer, you would replace him completing the same ritual every morning, before disappearing to his office. But, he is not superstitious at all. According to him, anyway. But lets be honest, we all know differently, and I bet if I ask 'Yellow watch', when they come back on shift, if he was there reading the paper before heading over to HQ with Ben, they will all say that he was.

I settle myself behind my desk, my thoughts wandering to Whip-me. Other than the heartache over the past weeks since that fire, along with the stress of the man I love having a heart attack, and my constant worry, that he so much as looks like he has a pain, life has been pretty perfect personally. I feel a little bit guilty, because I know Anne is struggling. However, I am pleased she is making the effort to come out tonight. Wayne would have wanted her to. She is like I was, a single mother, but her son was lost, whereas mine survived. I hope she replaces some enjoyment in the craziness Lucy, Kathline and I have organised.

Twinkle walks into my office, he has decided to stay full time with us. He never wanted to semi-retire as it was, we are still not sure why that woman forced that on him, when she wanted him dead. I guess you will never know the inner workings of a psychopath's mind.

"Do you think Anders will mind me sharing his stag do?" Twinkle asks as he slumps down on my receiving chair. He spends a lot of time in my office when not on a shout now. He misses Wayne, and I think he is still filled with guilt because it was his Mrs who orchestrated his death.

I looked at him quizzically.

"Erm, why?" I ask, as I pull out my pen, then look over at Whip-me's old desk, and wish he was here so I could drop it under and have to crawl and pick it up...I miss him in the office.

"Because my decree nisi came through this morning." He grins at me.

"What already, wow, how do you feel?" I asked him.

"Free." Twinkle shrugs.

"Well, only six more weeks and your absolute will come through and you are a fully free man then. Divorced with a capital D", I grinned at him.

"Yeah, just need to get all the financial orders done, and have that woman not receive a penny piece. I put all her designer s**t on ebay, other than the jimmy choo's she never wore. Say no if you want, but I have them here for you. I thought if you wanted them, you could have them, and that would give me the added benefit of knowing it would piss her off even more if she knew you were wearing them." Twinkle shrugged.

Do I want a pair of Jimmy Choo's...Hell Yes, what woman wouldn't? Do I want a pair of shoes that belonged to that bitch... Hell NO. Would I take perverse pleasure in wearing them to breaking point just with the knowledge it would boil her piss if she ever found out? Hell Yes.

"Okay, but only if we take pictures of me putting the rubbish out in them, or going for a walk around the lakes, with the heals deep in the mud, and send them to her prison cell." I smirk.

"Deal." Twinkle laughed, the first genuine laugh I have seen in years.

"I got a letter from her." Twinkle sighs.

"Did you? s**t, are you okay?" I ask as he shrugs at me.

"Suppose. She really hates me. She blamed me for not dying instead of Wayne. I will not spoil your intelligence about the whole thing. Her sister came to see me as well. She swears she knew nothing about her and the fires, but did own she knew she had met a man. I found out the reason she wanted me to go part time." He sighs.

I nod at him to continue.

"It was so that when she left me, I would have lost my full-time job here, and would not get it back. It apparently gave her some sick twisted satisfaction that I would be earning less money when she took half of everything. Guess her twisted thoughts progressed after that to more deadly ones when she realised how much she would get if I died at work." Twinkle sighs.

I just look at Twinkle, I mean what do you say to that? Poor guy.

"How is the house sale going?" I asked him.

"Yeah, good. Kathline is working on the searches for my new place now and said that we should exchange contracts soon. I love the new place, closer to work, away from Fullwell and the neighbours who all got a good look at the coppers searching the place, and the whispers behind my back. Plus, the house is a lot bigger. I can afford a little extra now I don't have designer clothes to buy that never see the light of day." He smiles genuinely.

"Yes, Cal said, he had a walk around Brockenhurst Drive the other day, and said it was bigger than his. You got a good deal getting the detached house for that price." I smiled at him.

"Yeah, it needs some work on it, but I have nothing else to do when I am off shift." He sighs.

"What about your dancing? Do you not want to continue with that?" I asked, because as much as he denied it, we all knew he loved it.

"Not got a partner. I mean, I doubt I would get back into the competitions now, but it would be nice to dance with someone." Twinkle let out another sad sigh.

I nod my head, bless him he is going through the mill at the moment.

Cal pokes his head round my office door.

"Hey, the kids drew these for you. One I thought was hen party appropriate. It is apparently supposed to be a pink rocket ship." He laughs, handing me a couple of pictures to put onto the side of my filing cabinet, with the others drawn by Kirsty, Dante and even little Andy for me.

I take a look at the giant pink rocket, that looks suspiciously like a giant p***s, and throw my head back laughing.

"Your daughter has high expectations." I giggled away, laughing at it.

"In rocket ships," Cal laughs.

"Are you sure you don't mind having all the kids tonight?" I ask him for the umpteenth time.

"Not at all. Andy is great to have around, and Kathline deserves a good night out. Also, she has agreed to watch my two next week. I have a date." Cal grins at me.

"Wow, really, so who is the lucky woman?" I grin at him.

"User 34713 goes by the name of Single and is ready to mingle. Just hope she is like in her pictures." Cal laughs.

"Oh wow, so not a relationship seeker with that name then." I gave him a questioning eye.

"Nope, but I don't want a relationship, just some fun once in a while. I am still young, and now have the advantage of a firefighter's uniform." Cal winks at me.

I shook my head laughing. Yes, he is still young, only 20, a single dad, who is brilliant with his kids, he deserves a mingle with the single 34713.

I stick my giant pink rocket 'c**k' picture up on the filing cabinet as Twinkle leaves my office. I wish I could do something to help him.

The morning drags, as the guys are out on a shout. Fortunately, it is nothing more than a cat stuck up a tree, so nothing to worry about with that one. Ben and Davey finally get back to the station. Both of them laugh and joke about. I crane my neck up to see if I can work out who got the job, as Davey walks back into the office with a wide smile.

"Best get used to me Joanne." He winks.

"You got it!" I exclaimed, happy for him, but also sad that my son didn't get Whip-me's job. It would be a weight off both Lucy and my mind to know that he would be behind the desk, not going into the flames anymore, unless absolutely necessary. Still, it is what it is, and I am pleased for Davey.

"Yeah, I did." He grins.

"Actually, not to put a dampener on things, but...." I say, my voice trailing off as I hand him my letter of resignation.

It is no surprise to him, he knows I have been thinking long and hard about this for the past weeks.

"So you are doing it then?" He smiles.

"Yes, I will leave in two weeks. It is time." I sighed. It is definitely the end of an era.

"Yeah, I know. I accept, because although you are brilliant, I cannot have the mother of the enemy in my office." He states, as Ben walks into my office, his normal stoic face beaming with joy.

"What do you mean?" I ask with a confused look on my face.

"Station officer Bishop, when do you leave for your crappy new station?" Davey asks.

I look up at Ben with my mouth wide open.

"You got Marley Potts!" I declared, jumping out of my seat and hugging my son.

"Yeah, so much easier to get to." He grins at me.

"Have you told Lucy yet?" I ask him.

"You bet I have she was the first call I made when I left HQ. She cried. She was that happy." Ben grins.

"So proud of you Son." I smiled up at him, my chest swelling with pride, not that I need these chestical's swelling anymore than they are already. Seriously, Kelvin loves me to eat, and I have no self control, so I have put more weight on, most of which has gone straight to my boobs, making them even bigger!

The rest of the shift passed quickly. I would like to say I worked hard, but that would be a big fat lie, all I did was sort out all the c**k straws, then blew up a load of bobbie balloons, for Ben to bring tonight with the blow up dolls.

“f*****g hell Joanne, my home is full of c***s and now the office is full of t**s!" Davey exclaims as he pushes past the giant balloons, one bouncing back and hitting him in the face as he passed through the door into the common room, to get some food Cal and Headache have made.

My phone dings with a message and I pick it up and see it is Anne.

What time should I come to your house to get ready?

I will be home in half an hour. We can have pre-drinks with the girls. Whip-me is meeting us after he has finished. I quickly replied.

Great, I am actually looking forward to getting my dancing shoes on. Xx Anne tells me

Oh, dancing shoes... a thought springs into mind, as I look through the office door window and see Twinkle, stuffing his face with some big c**k biscuits Josie has brought in, to celebrate her hen night.

I smirk wickedly, as I text back.

Yeah, Twinkle was saying he was looking forward to dancing as well xxx

That is good. I will dance with him. I know Wayne would want me to dance for him as well. I am actually looking forward to this. xxx

Well, what do you know? Mission dancing partners is a go!