Written by: Gemma

Date first published online: 26TH April 2003

Archive: Just ask me

Authors notes: This fan fic is a sequel to Ghost Watch. The storyline within Ghost Watch has been partly finished, although there's still a lot of unfinished writing on Gavin. This story is going to be based around my fictional Green Watch at Heath Green station and the London's Burning characters that are going to appear are Carole Webb and Jack Morgan alike Ghost Watch. I have some ideas ;) And a blast from the past from London's Burning's past is going to appear. But I'm saying nothing, you'll have to read to find out! I've also been pretty slow on the writing front lately, I haven't been overly inspired and I haven't had much time to write.

Disclaimer: 'Heath Green fire station' is fictional and isn't really a part of London Fire and Rescue. Carole Webb and Jack Morgan are copyright of London's Burning and all other characters are copyright to the author and are not based on anyone.

Starring: Main Station Officer Carole Webb, Sub Officer Jack Morgan, Leading Fire fighter Darren Downing, Fire figher Marc Arun, Fire fighter Bryan Phillips, Fire fighter Andy Bacon, Fire fighter Gavin Austin and Fire fighter Bob McCallum. Guest Waitress, Sian, PC Bellamy and Mr. Richards.

Summary: A familiar face in the background. Has Carole really seen 'him' or is it just a figment of her imagination?

A huge gas explosion ripped through a small restaurant on the Heath Green border, causing huge towering flames to errupt. Roaring into the air, destroying everything in it's path. The shattering of glass could be heard from the next street as gas canisters exploded heating and destroying everything in it's path.

"What bloody idiot keeps gas canisters in their restaurant anyway?" Andy asked as he grabbed a hose and rolled it out towards Gavin as he turned the water on.

"Someone who obviously hasn't got a brain," Downing added to the conversation, before yelling, "Water on!" to Bryan before making his way over to Marc who was doing a customer count with the owner of the restaurant, as well as trying to keep people as far away as possible from the building.

"Sian's missing!" a teenage waitress informed her employer as an expression of frantic worry awashed her face.

The boss' face dropped, but he didn't speak up. Marc and Downing looked to and from both of them, before Marc's attention stopped at the waitress.

"Did Sian say she was going anywhere specific in the restaurant?" he asked.

"The loo's, I think..."

Gavin and Bryan worked on fighting the flames from the outside of the building as Andy made his way to an entrance of the building as Jack and Bob kitted up in BA kits, armed with hoses and the mission of one person, Sian, who was un-accounted for.

Carole stood near the appliances, on-line on the radio constantly so she knew what was going on. As she kept fully aware with the situation, she explained the circumstances to PC Bellamy, a uniformed police officer. "Apparently," Carole began, "From what the owner has told me, the whole kitchen runs on gas. They have regular visits from Health and Safety and there's never been any problems with gas. Although," she began again, with the hint of a big but in her voice. "The owner was using a canister-run heater. It possibly went wrong, a leak maybe or it might've just caught on something."

PC Bellamy nodded at different intervals as he noted down all that Carole was telling him.

"I know people run their kitchens on gas, but this is pathetic!" Bob said to Jack as they wandered through the flame-engulfed restaurant.

"Lets just hope this bloke is fully insured or this'll be his whole living up in smoke," Jack replied as he blasted the hose in the direction of a collection of flames.

Their search carried on and a couple of gas canisters were situated in the kitchen, "BA control from Green Heath Pump Ladder 2..."

"Go ahead Bob," Andy prompted.

"I've located the gas canisters Andy, they're in the kitchen. There's a door round here, maybe Marc could give us a hand."

"Do you realise how dangerous keeping gas canisters is Mr. Richards?" Carole questions as Mr. Richards, the owner of the restaurant, stood near her moaning that his business had gone up in smoke.

"Do you realise how much I have lost?!" Mr. Richards retorted angrily, deliberately ignoring answering Carole's question.

Carole sighed, "Mr. Richards, keeping canisters is dangerous. Keeping them near a lighted flame is dangerous. Once your insurance company knows the cause of the fire, I'll be very surprised if they will actually insure you!" Carole paused for a moment and was about to begin with another rant, when she remained quiet, noticing a familiar figure in the distance. The familiar figure grinned at her, but Carole glanced away for a brief second and when she turned her head back, the figure was gone.

Andy informed Marc on the situation and he made his way around the outside of the building to the door as Bob passed the canisters through to Marc with the help of Jack as Bryan and Gavin worked outside tackling the flames.

As the last canister was moved outside, Jack walked out of the kitchen where the flames were beginning to die down. The gas had been turned off at the mains on the Watch's arrival, although the flames were taking a while to calm down due to the large about of cooking fat and flammable materials that were scattered all around the place.

Jack walked through the restaurant. Tables remained it the positions that they were in before and chairs laid scattered across the floor. "Sian?" Jack asked as he walked around chairs.

Sounds of faint coughing came from ahead of him and he walked forward until he came to a door. "Hello? Sian?" Jack asked as he listened in at a door. It didn't feel too warm, there was probably no flames on the other side, just a chambre of smoke. "Sian?"

Jack lent on the door and slowly forced it open, noticing a young woman crouched on the floor, coughing and spluttering. "Bob!" Jack yelled loudly, before going radioing BA control, "BA Control from Sub Officer Morgan, I've found the girl Andy..."

"Flaming cowboys," Andy muttered as the Watch got out of the appliances back at the station. "People like him shouldn't be allowed to own a house, let alone a business!"

"Some people just don't seem to have brains," Bob added, "Who in their right mind would run a huge heater on gas in April during this nice weather?!"

"Someone who happens to like the smell?" Marc added.

"If he does, he's probably high for most of his working day!" Gavin grinned.

The Watch made their way up the stairs and towards the mess, where their lunch had already been prepared and was near-enough ready to be dished out.

"How's the second job going Gav?" Downing asked across the table to Gavin.

Gavin had been working for a taxi firm for about a month in between their shifts. It wasn't exactly brilliant, but it gave him a bit more money. Money that he truly needed. It also occupied his time, which took away a lot of thinking time, which stopped him thinking about the past and all that had happened in the last year.

"It's going alright," Gavin replied casually, "You know how it is..."

Downing nodded slowly, as did other members of the Watch.

"It's giving me a bit more money," Gavin carried on, "Enough to start repayments into an account, which I'm going to give to Ellen."

"And she still knows nothing about it right?" Bob added.

"No..." Gavin confirmed, "... And I dunno how I'm going to get her to except the money, but I'll have to think about it when the time comes." He looked up at Bob and Downing, then at the other Watch members briefly. "Maybe I could say it was from Craig... A sort of insurance thing..."

Jack sat up in his office, his lunch sat partly finished on a plate on his desk as he sat filling out a report from the previous shout. His computer sat on, Outlook Express loaded. Jack looked up from the report, placing his pen down on the desk as he took hold of his fork and stabbed it into some of his pasta. Bryan had been appointed the new mess manager and seeing as his wedding was far approaching, he wanted to look his best for his big day. So this meant healthy food and he had forced the Watch to follow.

Jack took a mouthful of pasta, cringing slightly, he never did like that stuff and couldn't understand how anyone could actually eat it. He dropped his fork back down onto his plate and glanced down at the scribbled attempt at the report, before rubbing his hands tiredly over his face and glancing up at the computer screen.

A new email appeared visible at the top of the inbox

From: Stephen Morgan, Subject: Hello Dad!

Jack quickly grabbed his mouse and double-clicked on the email, opening it in a new window...

Carole sat in his office in a daze. Her chair facing the window as she gazed outside at the yard and busy street.

Did she see him? Was it really him?

Carole shook her head, sighing. It couldn't be him, he was in Canada, he had thankfully walked out of her life six years ago. But what if it was him? If it was him her worst fears would have come true. During their last conversation he had threatened her, if she dared report him, he'd...

Carole closed her eyes...

"Guv!"

Jack opened Carole's door quickly, catching Carole's attention immediately, as she opened her eyes quickly and she jumped with frigh so high that she nearly fell off of her chair.

Carole's face immediately turned to a frown as she moved round on her chair to look at him, "Can't you at least knock?!" she asked incredulously, causing Jack to eye her suspiciously, she never usually was that touchy.

"You ok?" he asked softly, lowering the tone of his voice immediately.

"Yeah... yeah... I'm fine," Carole dismissed herself, the last thing she needed was to have him fussing. "What do you want?"

Jack could tell something was wrong, but in the years he had known her, he knew that he shouldn't pry, he should wait until she came to him, unless he had a death with. "I got a message from Stephen, I uh... thought you'd might like to know seeing as you were the one who taught me how to use the email thing."

Carole nodded slowly, her sighting from earlier was still bothering her and she felt like she couldn't possibly match his enthusiasm. "That's good," she replied finally, forcing a slight smile.

Jack stood with a smile on his face, as Carole remained sitting in her chair. She sat silently for a moment, before looking down at her watch, then up at Jack. "Can you get the Watch down in the yard in ten minutes for drill?" she asked, looking up at him, before looking out of the window.

"Yeah... sure," Jack replied slowly, watching her carefully. "Are you sure you're ok?"

Carole turned her attention away from the window again and glared at him. "I'm fine!" she yelled, catching his gaze, "Honestly," she added, softening her tone, "I'm fine."

"Drill in ten minutes lads!" Jack announced, walking into the mess with his partly finished lunch as the mess table was cleared.

Sighs echoed throughout the mess. "Oh come on!" Jack said loudly, "It's not like you did one last week! The last one you did properly was ages ago!" He looked at all of them one-by-one, "Five minutes!"

As Jack left the mess, the Watch turned to look at each other. "This has probably got something to do with the Guv's sudden mood," Andy noted, "She looked bloody miserable on the ride back from the shout this morning."

"Maybe she's got bloke problems or something," Marc suggested.

"Or it's just her time or the month," Gavin grinned.

"Or she just thinks we haven't trained much lately," Downing added, walking out of the kitchen and into the mess, his comment partly in Carole's defence. "Well we haven't!" he replied loudly, noticing the glares from the other Watch.

"Listen to the Leading Hand!" Gavin enthused, "We'll make an officer out of you yet!" he smiled, patting Downing on the back.

Down in the yard, the Watch stood in line, fully kitted in their fire fighting gear...

"I want team A and team B," Carole started, "Step forward when I call your names please... Leading fire fighter Downing, Fire fighter Phillips and Fire fighter Austin - Team A. Fire fighter Arun, Fire fighter Bacon and Fire fighter McCallum - Team B."

Carole stepped forward, "As you see, I've taken the liberty to set this all up," she said, pointing to various ladders, hoses and equipment, which was spread around the yard, as well as the appliances. "I want each item of equipment placed in it's correct position, on the appliance, before you work, in your teams, to free our casualty from the Watch tower."

"AKA - Annie the dummy," Jack added, "Who," he added, taking over from Carole, "Is manic-depressive and is scared of heights."

After the explanations finished, Carole and Jack walked backwards, leaving the Watch to carry out their task...

"What's wrong?" Jack asked quietly, as he and Carole stopped in a position so they could watch the Green Watch complete the drill.

"I've told you already," she began slowly, anger noticible in her voice, "Nothing is wrong." She glared at Jack, trying to make him believe that she was certain to the fact that nothing was wrong. Desperation of her wanting him to believe her was almost visible in her eyes. The truth was, she was terrorfied, if it was him, she was scared of what he might be capable of.

Carole looked past Jack and out across the yard and out of the station's gate and to the opposite side of the road.. He was there again, standing with a smug grin on the' opposite side of the road from the station. He was clearly visible through the gates. It was definitely confirmed then.

He wasn't in Canada, he wasn't thousands of miles away from her, he was metres away and worst of all, he knew where she worked.

Martin was in London.

Jack noticed Carole's face drop and turn a pale shade of white as her gaze stared out of the station's gates. Jack turned, catching Carole's gaze line but by this time Martin had gone.
Of Past Regrets and Future Fears - Chapter 1 - Gemma Lambourne© 26-Apr-03