Admission of the unknown

[Stephanie Taylor]

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[attr="class","lost1"]Stephanie Taylor

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Stephanie processed the fact that the chief didn’t really trust her, or even Ben it seemed. It was all she could do not to make things worse and go off on the chief again. No clearly now it was Ben’s turn. She wanted to make some sarcastic remark when Ben asked the chief what more he could possible be asking for. Steph had to swallow her anger but it showed in her face as she stared at a spot on the wall. If she opened her mouth, she knew it would only land her in more trouble.

The more Ben and Boden went at it, the more she could feel her protective nature starting to take hold. No Stephanie don’t punch him. Staying close to Ben was a better option than shoving her boss around. The one thing Stephanie didn’t like was when people raised their voices. She got anxious, and frantic. Ben had seen it many times. “Both of you. Enough.” She found herself biting her tongue. There was a frantic twitch of her eye in Ben’s direction. The closer she stayed to him the easier it would be to keep herself calm.

Stephanie didn’t want Boden’s help, and the last thing she wanted was to explain to him why she hadn’t told him much of anything. Point was, she was selective in who she trusted and maybe her instincts about Boden had been right. She just held Ben and refused to look Boden in the eyes anymore. If she did she was only going to grow angrier and do something she would later probably come to partially regret. How could Ben have so much optimism when things were crumbling around her? It was something she loved about him, he always tried to make things better. Though right now it felt as if everything that could go wrong had.

When Ben told Boden about Achilles, she almost want to smack Boden upside the head for repeating back the question. “Achilles is more than that…” Now she was sitting her defending her dog. He alerted people when she was sleepwalking, but he was also a comfort when she got anxious. Then there was her PTSD, he had a way of calming her down and diverting her attention. Something she felt that Achilles needed to train Ben on sometimes.

When Boden asked her if she was okay with bringing Achilles here she took a breath. Why was he pretending to care now? At least that’s how she saw it. Did she really trust him to recognize when the dog was being a dog and when he was trying to tell Boden something. Achilles was likely to go to Ben first. At home the Rottweiler would find Ben or Zach before anyone else.

Stephanie pulled back and looked upwards towards Ben searching his face as he asked her to say something. “He’s gonna look for you, if he can’t find you there is no telling who he would wake up.” At home, Achilles never went to find Grace. Well he had on one occasion that it was just Grace and Stephanie at home; but that wasn’t the norm. Once at the firehouse she had no idea who he might go wake up. Hudson maybe? The dog had a pretty good sense of who Stephanie trusted the most.

[attr="class","lying1"]✎ Wallace Boden,Benjamin Taylor

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[Wallace Boden]

“Don’t even go there Taylor.” Wallace replied to Ben, was this really what things were coming down to. Who’s word meant what in the house but Wallace had a job to do and this was the part he hated. The having to figure things out and it wasnt that he wanted to upset the two of them he just had to work things out to a reasonable level or he wouldnt be doing his job right as chief. He just hoped that after a cooling off period all parties involved might be able to see that. Or things would go south pretty quickly.

Wallace was about to remind Ben that the husband wasnt really counted in the fire house as no one else could bring in a partner. It only worked because Ben was on Squad too though before he could even yell about that answer Stephanie got there first. “You’re right, enough before anything else gets said that cannot be taken back.” Wallace warned, sure tempers flared all day long but Wallace wasnt about to stand for any crap this was heading toward a train wreck. At least in a war of words way, fists hadn’t been raised yet which was a good sign.

“If you are happy about Achilles coming here then it’s okay with me. If he simply alerts anyone to the fact that you’re sleeping walking that is fantastic, more than that and he comes part of the wider family here.” Wallace said trying to at least mend what bridges he could. He was trying to understand something that only Stephanie knew, what was written in a file wasnt the whole story and a file could only tell him so much. Stephanie was different to every other case of PTSD, sleeping walking and anxiousness that people suffered with.

It was unique to her with the broader strokes being left to generalisations. Wallace watched the exchange between Ben and Stephanie as he smiled and nodded. “Then we can agree on something, when you’re back bring Achilles and we can all get used to what he might do.” Wallace said as he glanced between the two of them. “You two are both an asset to this fire house and I don’t want that to change because of a file or an incident.” He stated being completely serious about that. “Thank you for telling me what you have done and my door is always open, just know that you can talk to me off the record but on it, I’m still chief.”

Wallace wasnt trying to make things worse, far from it but the two sides of the coin were different. Off the record he might have taken Ben’s comments with a pinch of salt, chalked it up to protective husband but on the record. He needed to remember he was under Boden’s command and that meant something to him. Wallace wanted to help but arguing wasnt doing any of that.

Tag: Stephanie Taylor & Benjamin Taylor

[Benjamin Taylor]

Ben glared at Wallace utterly speechless for it ‘don’t go there’ comment. This was his family, Stephanie was family and Boden thought that it was okay not to go there. Ben was about two seconds away from yelling at the chief when he heard Stephanie say enough. He knew he should have realised that raising his voice would never help and make things worse for Stephanie but it took her to call time on their argument. He found himself giving her an apologetic look for a moment as he saw the frantic twitch of her eye as made sure he had his arm around her.

Wallace spoke again and Ben had to bite his lip to keep him for saying anything stupid. He had a lot of things to say and none of them he would take back. First of all was to leave Stephanie alone and second would have been to stick things where the sun never shone but he realised that was the worst idea. His attention went back to Stephanie as he realised she was holding him and not looking Boden in the eyes. “It’s okay, it will work out.” Ben said sure of that, it hardly mattered what way it worked out.

All that mattered to him was that Stephanie was happy and safe. Ben simply glared at Wallace again, “Stephanie means that Achilles knows what to do before things get bad. He can help Stephanie more than just waking one of us up.” Ben said though explaining all of this, he had no idea where to start with it all. Even if Stephanie wanted to explain it, Ben was hardly in a position to spill the beans on what Achilles could do. Ben knew a little of how Achilles worked, find him and Ben could try and help Stephanie which was normal for home now.

Zach too but given Zach was a teenager it was hardly a good idea to have him working at the fire house too. “Sure, I’ll make sure to be there Stephanie as much as I can be.” Ben said smiling at her, “He will find someone, anyone but we can ask someone else to step in if you want. Just in case I’m not there. As long as he wakes someone to come and get you.” Ben said not minding who it was just as long as Stephanie was safe and alright. Ben knew that Achilles never went to find Grace though Ben was unsure how Grace would handle any of it.

As much as he was learning so was Grace though her handling it all. Ben was just happy if Stephanie was happy. Ben ran his hand down her arm slowly as he nodded. “Told you it’d be okay.” He said smiling though when Boden spoke again, Ben was unsure what to make of it all. Keeping his mouth shut might have been the smart idea but Ben, well he was hardly one for smart all the time. “Stephanie doesn’t need a chief, she needed a friend.” Ben stated simply, “I get you’ve a job to do but...”

Ben stopped there as he gazed at Stephanie, if he said anymore he was likely to get fired though for her Ben would do that. Instead he just decided to go with what he understood so far as smiled. “It all works out.” He said glad that it seemed to have worked out so far. Unless of course there was another issue he was unaware of though right now he was just glad to have a resolution to the first issue.

Stephanie Taylor, Wallace Boden,

[Stephanie Taylor]

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[attr="class","lost1"]Stephanie Taylor

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When Boden got after Ben, Stephanie did well to hold her tongue. Steph was protective and right now she was already on thin ice with Boden. She just nodded, and didn’t say anything to anyone. She was acknowledging the both of them but nothing more. There was nothing Boden could do to just win her trust. Stephanie’s attention was on Ben. Then it was on the clock behind him. Oh crap, she was going to be late to take Zach to his dentist appointment. Not that she really needed to be doing all the running around but Ben had to work, it wasn’t like Boden needed two firefighters missing on squad right now. Plus she didn’t think Ben would last too long in the dentist office with Zach. That was oil, water, and fire.

“I gotta go. Zach, dentist.” Stephanie mumbled to Ben. Boden already knew, not that it mattered at this point as she was not technically on duty right now. However, she was in his office. She knew she should wait until she was dismissed but really there was no time for that. She quickly half heartedly apologized before managing to get herself out the door. Mrs. Independent wasn’t going to take any help. With the aid of her crutches she headed for her truck after she mentioned seeing Ben back at home. Home, the place where she had time to dwell on everything.

Slamming the car door to her truck one she pulled herself up in it, she stared at the steering column completely lost in thought. Angry at Boden, Trying to hide things from the kids, wanting to talk to Ben later, and on the verge of tears she clenched her fist and shoved the steering column out of park and into reverse. She turned over her shoulder and backed her truck out after making sure she wasn’t being babied or that she wasn’t going to run anyone over. Turning up her radio loud, she tried to drown everything out. There was stuff to do and the world didn’t stop because she was having a bad day. It was time to find something to distract herself.

[attr="class","lying1"]✎ Exit Stephanie

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