Their grandmother had neglected them, leaving them locked in their room for days at a time and letting her asshole son, who’d lost his rights and wasn’t supposed to come near the kids again, stay at her house. When he’d decided to beat the shit out of Teddy because the poor kid spilled milk on the floor, the grandmother had left his battered little body on the kitchen floor and locked Deb in a closet where she’d screamed until her throat bled, thinking that her brother was dead. When social services showed up to make a surprise visit, they’d found Teddy on the floor struggling to breathe and his father passed out on the living room couch.
No, they weren’t going back there, Sloane decided because she wasn’t going to let it happen. She loved those kids more than anything and would never let anything happen to them. If Kim couldn’t take care of them anymore, then Sloane would. She’d take the job that Grey offered her, go back to school and get her certification, and do whatever it took to keep those kids safe. And Chase…
She had no idea what she was going to do about Chase. They were going to have to figure everything out later, but for right now, she just needed to find the kids and make sure that they were safe.
“I’m sure that they’re around here somewhere. They’re probably just hiding,” Sloane reassured her as she dropped her bag off at the desk. “I’ll check the back.”
“Thank you,” Kim said, sending her a grateful smile.
Sloane quickly made her way to the pool, checking the break room and changing rooms along the way, already knowing that she wouldn’t find the kids in any of these rooms. Deb would never make it that easy on her, Sloane thought, unable to help but smile as she thought about the little girl that lived to terrorize her.
She was probably holed up somewhere in one of the back-storage rooms contemplating world domination. No doubt, she’d already constructed her throne from stacks of old files, Sloane told herself as she passed the pool. She headed down the small corridor and–
“Help!” came the muffled scream that had Sloane moving faster, quickly checking doors until she finally found one that would open.
As soon as she opened the door, Sloane felt her stomach drop when she spotted the kids across the small room filling with smoke, struggling to stop a large metal shelving unit from falling over on top of them. Sloane was across the room a second later, moving to grab hold of the unit and push it back up, but it was already too late. Knowing that there was nothing else that she could do, she released her hold on the shelves, grabbed the kids and moved quickly.
They barely made it halfway across the room when the sounds of everything that had been on the shelves crashed to the floor along with an ominous creek seconds before something slammed against her back. Sloane barely managed to push the kids out of the way before it knocked her to the floor and–
Tore a scream out of her when she felt the bone in her leg snap only to end up biting back another scream when pain tore through her ribs. Gasping, Sloane dragged in smoke laced air and slowly exhaled as she forced her attention on the kids to find them sitting in front of her, crying.
“Are you okay?” Sloane managed to get out on a cough as the muffled sounds of the smoke alarm going off in the other room caught her attention.
“Y-yes,” Deb said as Teddy nodded frantically.
“That’s good,” Sloane said, biting back another scream when she tried to move only to have more pain tear through her body.
“You’re bleeding,” Teddy said, drawing her attention back to find him pointing to her head.
“And I’m going to be fine,” Sloane promised him, somehow managing a smile as she noted that there was a lot more smoke in the room than there had been a minute ago. “We need to get you guys out of here.”
“The door’s locked,” Deb said as Sloane shifted as far as she could so that she could look for another way out and when she saw the soft orange glow on the wall behind her, she realized that they didn’t have much time.
“What about the window?” Sloane managed to get out, but god, did it hurt to talk right now.
“I can’t reach it,” Deb said, sounding close to crying.
Sloane looked back, noting the shelving unit on top of her was pretty deep and should be enough to help Deb reach the window. “Climb on top of the shelf and climb out the window.”
“But it’s on top of you,” Deb whispered.
“It’s okay, Deb. You’re not going to hurt me, but I need you to get your brother out of here,” Sloane said, trying to ignore the pain only to add, “You have to take care of Teddy,” when the little girl hesitated.
Nodding, Deb pulled herself to her feet, grabbed hold of the shelf and–
“Are you okay?” Teddy asked when Sloane gasped as the small movement caused searing pain to tear through her ribs and down her leg.
“I’m fine,” Sloane reassured him, struggling to keep it together as Deb pulled herself onto the shelf.
“I’m almost there!” Deb said as Sloane was forced to close her eyes as she struggled not to pass out, praying that the little girl was able to do this and trying not to think about what would happen if she couldn’t get that window open.
For what felt like hours, Sloane laid there, struggling to breathe through the pain only to end up coughing when smoke filled her lungs and Deb’s added weight made it impossible to take in any more air. She bit back a pained gasp when the shelving unit on top of her shifted, causing the cold, hard metal to dig deeper into her side and leg until finally–
“I got it!” Deb announced as the pressure crushing down on Sloane was suddenly eased.
“Go get help!” Sloane said around a cough as she opened her eyes to find Teddy sitting next to her, crying and looking absolutely terrified as he struggled to breathe through the smoke.
“Okay!” Deb yelled as Sloane reached over and grabbed one of the bottles of water that went flying when the shelf tipped over.
“Take off your shirt, sweetie,” Sloane said, giving him a reassuring smile as she opened the bottle and waited.
Coughing, Teddy quickly pulled off his Iron Man T-shirt and held it out to her. She poured the water over the shirt, completely soaking it. “Put it over your face and breathe through it,” she told him, and once he did that, Sloane said, “I need you to lay on the floor and get as far away from the smoke as you can.”
“I’m scared,” Teddy whispered even as he did what he was told.
“You don’t have to be scared. I’m here,” Sloane said, struggling to stop coughing as more smoke filled her lungs.
“They’re gonna send us back to Grandma,” Teddy said as he curled up next to her as much as the metal braces on his legs would allow him to.
“No, they’re not,” Sloane promised him as she wrapped her arm around his trembling body and held him close.
“Yes, they are. I heard Kim talking to the social worker,” he said, sounding terrified and she didn’t think it had anything to do with the fact that they were trapped in a room filling with smoke.
“You and Deb are going to come live with me.”
“You promise?” he whispered after a slight hesitation.
“Yes,” Sloane mumbled, forced to close her eyes as she struggled to breathe.