Chapter three

Unlike other mornings, this particular morning was filled with silence. Don did not come down for breakfast, Jessica had puffy eyes indicating that she cried last night, the children observing everything but not able to say anything because of the fear of saying the wrong thing. The children had their breakfast in awkward silence, kissed their mom goodbye and left for school leaving Jessica alone with her thoughts. She literally had a happy home the previous day. What could have gone wrong in just one day?

"Good morning, Jess." Don said kissing Jessica on her head so casually like nothing happened the night before. "Listen Jessica, I'm sorry about what happened last night. The truth is that I have been stressed for a while ever since I left the military. I went drinking because I needed to blow off some steam." He sighed "I guess I went overboard. I'll talk it out with Ronan when I get to work."

"I Don't know what to say Don, I understand the fact that you've been stressed but you were like somebody else last night. The children even got scared"

"I will have to apologize to them too" he said feeling remorseful. Again, I'm so sorry". He said looking into Jessica's eyes.

"And even if you needed space, all you had to do was say it, Don. All you had to do was just tell me." She wrapped her hand around him "We are a team, Donald. We work together and tell each other everything."

"I know and I'm sorry" he said pulling his wife into a hug. "I will fix things with everyone, I promise. I have to go to work now. I love you jess" he said while picking up the coffee Jessica made for him

"I love you too" Jessica replied.

Don smiled at her as he kissed her on her neck.

"Make up sex before you go to work?" Jessica asked chuckling as Don's kisses continued.

"I would love that but I am already pretty late." Don replied "But tonight, it's on."

Jessica chuckled.

Once Don got into his car and the first place his eyes landed was where he had kept the DNA results. With a heavy sigh, he opened it… it was still the same. He hoped the result would change but it didn't. It was not a dream. Jessica and Ronan had betrayed him and Lily was not his. Don who loved his work and was so eager to get to work, didn't not actually want to get to work this time as it would mean him having the face Ronan. He still wasn't sure how he would act around him or what he would say because he still had that rage burning within him. All he knew was the fact that he had to remain calm and play dumb for now. Don arrived at the fire station, he greeted some colleagues and went straight to his office where Ronan was already seated.

Don made a short pause at the door as Ronan looked up at him. He broke the stare and turned away as he made a long stride to his table. He wanted to speak to Ronan but mouth could not bring the words out. How was he supposed to look this betrayer of a friend in the eye and still call him friend?

"Are you good?" Ronan asked

"Mhmm." Don replied as he began to arrange his table. He picked up his family picture frowned, pulled open his drawer and slammed the frame into it.

"Don ar…"

"I said I am fine." Don shouted.

Ronan's lips parted in surprise as he rose his hands in surrender.

"Fuck." Don groaned as he folded his hands in and out of fists underneath his table. He had to control this anger. "Ronan." Don looked towards his best friend who stared back at him with pity in his eyes. This was why he could not believe that Ronan would hurt him like this, because Ronan was a good man. "I'm sorry man. I have no excuse for how I acted. I am just going through some shit." Don sighed as he tried to form more words "I…I…"

"It's okay man." Ronan cut him saving him from his lack of words. "I understand. Mid-life crisis and shit." He sweet smile.

That must be the smile that made Jessica drop her panties for him. A voice attacked. Done ignores it.

"I mean you are getting old." Ronan joked. Normally Ronan's quips at him were funny but today Don strongly fought the urge to bash his friends head in. Don let out a small smile. "How's Jess and the kids?"

"Good." Don replied "I apologised to her this morning."

"Great." Ronan smiled rising up from his chair he made his way to Don who rose also. He held out a hand to Don who grabbed it and soon they were locked in a brotherly hug. "You are getting stronger." Ronan joked as Don's hug was a little too tight. They released each other "Just Don't throw me out of your house again."

"I blame that on the alcohol" Don said running his palm over his face.

Ronan had noticed Don put away the family picture on his table. At this point his mind began to ponder. Don was one of the most mature and level headed man he knew. His best friend took alcohol a lot but never that much to fuck with his mind. The night before he looked pretty pissed at him and Jessica. Most his anger was directed at them. Ronan's eyes widened as his thoughts took his to memory lane of a long forgotten rainy night that he and Jessica had spent together. He shook the thought out of his head. There was no way Don had found out and there was no way Jessica would tell him without informing him first. Besides if the story of that night did not rear its ugly head fifteen year ago. It would not now. It could not.

"It's fine man. We all break down sometimes" Ronan added. Despite how much Ronan tried to pacify himself. Guilt he had long forgotten had begun to eat at him along with the feeling that Don might had uncovered the skeleton within the closet.

The fire alarm sound went off through the speakers breaking up the conversation with the men. They rushed to the locker room to change to their safety coverall, got their hose and other equipment ready and headed to the fire truck to meet up with their colleagues.

"What's the situation?" Don asked David who was their fellow colleague. He was the one in charge of answering the calls and giving necessary details to the fire fighters.

"We got a three, story building on fire. The source of fire is currently unknown and we got four people trapped inside the building" David replied while giving Don a pat on his back. "Good luck out there" he continued and with that, he walked back into the fire station leaving the fire fighters. They said a short prayer as they always do before every mission and drove to the scene.

Even before getting to their destination, the fire was already so huge that it could be sighted. When they finally got there, they were almost pushed be people begging to save their families and friends who got stuck in the building. They then discovered that the source of the fire was a leaked gas in one of the flats. This was a very dangerous mission as other flats still had their gas in them. They immediately got their equipment ready and started the mission. Don, Ronan and eight other firefighters were to go inside to rescue the people while the rest would help from the outside with water. Don and his colleagues were split further into groups of twos.

Among the group, Ronan and Don were paired together. When they were Done splitting in groups, they headed into the burning building. They were ordered to check all the rooms as the locations of the victims were known. Ronan and Don and a particular side to them and so they began to search.

They began to search every room looking for victims still trapped inside. They heard someone coughing and shouting for help. They ran towards the voice coming from one of the flats. When they got there the door was locked. Don and Ronan tried to open the door but it would not even bulge. They decided to ran it down, with aligned timing and both their body strength, the door stood no chance as it came open. Inside of the house was on fire and covered in smoke. They called out to the voice they heard but there was no answer.

"Most have passed out from all of this smoke." Ronan pointed out. "We split up and search."

Don nodded.

"Don! I found him" Ronan yelled while trying to pick the victim up on his shoulder. As assumed, the victim was already unconscious. Moments later, Don came in holding a hammer in his hand.

"Come help me out Don. We need to hurry! I spotted a gas cylinder in here. We are literally seconds from being blown a…" Ronan's words were cut short by the sharp pain he felt on his knees. He fell to the floor and then looked up to see Don with hammer in hand and a frown on his face.

"I know about the gas. This is where you die Ro" Don said while hitting Ronan again on the knees again.

Ronan screamed as the hard head of the hammer made continuous impact with his knees. The outside of his orange suit had already begun to spot blood stains.

"Don." Ronan cried as he tried to get away but failed, most of the room was on fire and the only paths not covered in fire hand Don. "Fuck." Ronan cried as he tried to grab unto something, anything at this point the pain was killing him. "Broth…"

"Brother." Don laughed "Does a brother fuck his brother's wife?"

Ronan's eyes widened.

"I found out." Done sighed

"Man, Don, listen to me." Ronan looked around the room. The fire continued to rage angrily. "It was a one-night thing. We were both intoxicated. I swear it never happened again. It wasn't nothing but a lustful moment. I'm sorry." Ronan said in pains literally begging for his life. "Look you can hate me all your life but please Don't let me die in here."

"Like it is that easy." Don laughed as he made to pick up the unconscious man who lay beside Ronan. "Your intoxicated one night stand created my daughter. I had a DNA test Done." He sighed "Congratulation, my daughter is yours, HOW COULD YOU!!!"

"Don this house is going to ex…." Rona screamed as Don's leg made impact with his broken knees.

Don held unto the unconscious man and turned away from Ronan who continued to call out to him.

"Don." Ronan called "Donald." He cried "Brother"

Don did not turn back as he continued till he made it out of the building with the victim and it exploded seconds later. His colleagues who were outside quickly assisted him by taking the victim off him and straight to the ambulance. Luckily, all victims had been brought of the building before the explosion so the fire team was happy. Knowing that all the victims were safe, Don knew the next thing would be roll call. So he decided to act his role before anyone could find out about Ronan.

"Wait, where is Ronan?" Don asked looking around for Ronan. He was going to put on a good show even mourn the fucker. "We parted ways in the building to look for the victim. He said we would meet outside. Has anyone seen Ronan?" Don yelled while looking around for Ronan.

His colleagues began to ask around if anyone saw Ronan coming out the building. Unfortunately, no one saw him come out. When Don heard this, he started running towards the building which was still on fire from the explosion. Luckily, his colleagues caught up with him and pinned him down. After he had calmed down, he was asked to go back to the station while the rest continue to fight the fire but he refused. He told them he would wait and that Ronan would come out but deep down, all he wanted to do was to make sure Ronan did not come out and be sure that he is dead

After an hour the fire finally went off. The fire and the explosion was so serious that the building could not be saved but the important thing was that the victims were safe and the fire fighters prevented the fire from spreading. The community thanked them and with that, they packed up and went back to the station.

Everyone had gloomy faces on as they had just lost one of their own. They were all mourning but no one could tell how Don was feeling. He sat down by Ronan's table just staring into space. No one could bring themselves to talk to him. meanwhile, on Don's mind, he couldn't believe he just killed his very own best friend. It was a tough battle going on in his head.

He felt guilty about what he had Done but he also felt what he did was not bad as Ronan deserve it for sleeping with his own best friend's wife. While still in his own head, one of his colleagues finally gathered up the courage to talk to Don.

"Don, my man. We will get through this." Don's colleagues, Stefan said while taking a sit next to Don. "We need to contact his family. I know it's hard, I'll come with you. We wanted you to stay back while we tell his family but we feel like you would want to be there and-"

"I'll go. I should go. I owe it to Ronan and his family. I should face his wife and tell her I'm the reason her husband is dead"

"It's not your fault Don" another colleague said trying to console Don.

They all tried comforting Don in their own way. The boss told Don to take some time off and console him one last time and then left. Don packed his things said his goodbyes to everyone and headed to his car. He entered his car, drop his bag by the passenger's seat and then rested his head on the steering. I really just killed somebody, my very own best friend" he thought to himself. He drove past the places he hung out with Ronan and remembered when everything was good, how they talked and laughed together. He never saw it coming that he would kill Ronan.

Shortly after, he arrived at Ronan's residence. He stood at the door for a while because he couldn't bring himself to deliver the bad news. He thought about leaving the call to someone else but he also couldn't do that. After what seemed like eternity, Don finally knocked on the door.

"I'm coming!" Valerie said heading towards the door with a huge smile on her face. She opened the door and Don went in. he hated the fact that he was about to take that smile away from her face.

"Hello Don! Good to see you here, it's been a while. Where is Ronan though?" she said headed towards to kitchen

"Oh wait, what can I offer you?" she said looking at Don cheerfully

"Valerie, you might want to sit down for this" Don said thinking it was now or never to tell Valerie

"Oh… uh…. Okay. What is going on, Don? And where is Ronan?" Valerie said with the smile on her face slowly wearing off.

"Ronan is gone, Valerie. I'm sorry and it's all my fault." Don said kneeling down facing Valerie who was in shock hearing such words come out of Don's mouth. There was a fire we had to put out. He…"

"No! it can't be!! He said he was coming back. He is not dead."

"Vale-"

"No! It can't be, Don. My Ronan isn't dead" Valerie yelled while pacing back and forth. Don, for the very first time actually felt guilty for killing Ronan. He did not realize how badly it would hurt his wife and child but there was no going back.

He tried his best to console Valerie for a while. When he was sure she had calmed down, he said his goodbyes and left. While driving home, Don began to think of all the good times he had with Ronan. He wondered how things had gotten to this point. He also wondered how he would go home to face his wife and children.

Don did not know he had gotten to his home because he was lost in thought. The soft knock on his car glass broke him out of his thought. He looked up to see Jessica smiling at him. "I bet she has not heard" he thought to himself. He packs his bag from the back seat anfd then stepped out of the car

"Hi honey, what's wrong? You do not seem happy." Jessica said while taking the bag from Dons hand and walking inside with him

"Jess, Ronan is dead" he said breaking down to the floor. The bag Jessica was holding fell on the floor as she could not believe what happened. Before either of them could say anything, they heard a loud thud. They both looked up to see lily on the floor and Erwin standing both with teary eyes.

"Uncle Ronan is dead? Oh no. mom, dad, can I please go over to their house, I need to be there for Ruben." Erwin said trying to compose himself.

"I will come along" lily said standing up and cleaning her face

"You can go but no driving. Spend the night they if you have to" Don replied knowing that lily was still in shock and could not talk the children hailed a taxi and then left for Ronan's residence.

Back to the house, Don explained everything to Valerie. "We were both assigned a particular flat and decided to split up to be faster. I found the victim and hurried out of the flat assuming that Ronan was out of the house, when I got outside and realized that Ronan was still in but it was too late. The flat had blown. I killed him, jess"

Don cried.

"Don't say that, you didn't kill him my love. Still, I can't believe he's gone" Valerie answered her husband. She was broken by the news but still tried to stay strong because she couldn't imagine how he must be feeling after losing his best friend.

It was a sad night for everyone. Both Jessica and Don could barely sleep because they were thinking about Ronan. After some many hours of being awake, the couples finally slept.

Morning finally came and Jessica decided to pay Valerie a visit and also get her children back home. Don refused going saying that "it would remind of Ronan and how he would feel guilty. He decided to stay back and drink away the guilt he felt

Shortly after, Jessica arrived a Ronan's residence. She practised what to say to Valerie when she sees here but unfortunately, she broke down in tears when she got into the house and saw Valerie. She hugged her so tight as that was all she could do and cry. Lily and Erwin were with Ruben who by the way was he a terrible state as he was so close to his father. Erwin and lily tried their best to console him.

The Ackers stayed with Valerie and Ruben for a while and made sure they were perfectly okay before leaving. Jessica told Valerie to call her if she needed anything at all and with that they headed home.

Don was seated on the dining table lost in his thoughts. He did not even hear his family come in. no one dared say a word as they were all grieving. Lily hugged her dad causing him to break out of his thoughts. He looks at lily and began to wonder how things would have been different if she was his or wasn't born at all. He realized the kind of thought he had about his princess and facepalmed himself mentally for daring to have such thoughts.

He kissed lily on her forehead and gave her a hug. He then looked at his family and said "We will be fine and we have to stay strong for our family and Ronan's. they all engaged in a group hug and went to bed hoping to wake up the morning realizing everything was nothing but a dream.