Disclaimer: All recognisable characters belong to HiT Entertainment. All OCs belong to me.

AN: This story is a rewrite of a story I wrote earlier this year entitled 'Sam's Accident'. The original story will be deleted shortly. It was rushed, due to undue pressure from certain readers, and there are many flaws in it, which is why I've decided to rewrite it. This rewrite will include many extra scenes that I didn't get to include in the original, owing to the stress and pressure I was under.

THIS STORY WILL BE WRITTEN AT MY OWN PACE, AND ANYONE WHO SO MUCH AS ASKS FOR MORE IMMEDIATELY AFTER A CHAPTER IS PUBLISHED, WILL CAUSE ME TO DELAY ANY FURTHER UPDATES BY A MINIMUM PERIOD OF 30 DAYS! THIS IS MY ONE AND ONLY WARNING!

Chapter 1

"…And did you see Boyce's face when he fell through that ice?" Leading Fireman Ryan Davies said as I followed him inside the common room at the Newtown Fire Academy. I, and five other leading firefighters from fire stations within the district, were in Newtown to undergo some advanced winter training drills. But, although the day had started well, things had become rather serious after Chief Fire Officer Boyce fell into a frozen lake during a drill. Luckily, the six of us had worked quickly and efficiently together, and the academy nurse had reassured us that Boyce would be fine after a nice warm bath.

"I hope he'll be okay," Leading Fireman Colin Forsythe muttered as he sat down. He'd only recently qualified as a leading fireman, so he wasn't used to dealing with the stress of the job like the rest of us were.

I placed a hand down on Colin's shoulder. "I'm sure he'll be fine, Colin. You heard what the nurse said."

"I guess this means that we can all go home now," Leading Fireman Scott Driscoll said hopefully as he started to unfasten the Velcro on his uniform jacket.

"Not so fast, Leading Fireman Driscoll!" a voice snapped behind us. Turning, we saw Assistant Chief Fire Officer Hughes standing in the doorway behind us. "Your training drills aren't over yet. Chief Fire Officer Boyce has instructed me to continue with the planned drills. You have five minutes to collect your BA equipment, abseiling harnesses and your ice shoes. Meet me at the training tower. If you're even one second late, you will do twenty push-ups for every thirty seconds that you're late. What are you all standing around here for? I've already started my stop-watch. Move!"

Once I was outside, I sprinted across the yard to where I'd parked Mercury earlier that morning. I took a moment to clip on my ice shoes before I ran over to the training tower carrying the rest of my equipment. I wasn't the only one who'd decided to clip their ice shoes on, but I was the first to arrive at the training tower. Panting, and with clouds of condensation coming from my mouth with every breath, I lined up in parade formation. Everyone else fell into line alongside me.

Assistant Chief Fire Officer Hughes glanced down at his stop-watch. "Not bad, everyone. Err, where's Leading Fireman Forsythe?"

"Coming, sir!" Colin yelled as he sprinted towards up. He wasn't wearing his ice shoes.

"Watch out for the ice, Colin!" I warned, but it was too late. Colin slipped over on a patch of ice, and he went skidding on his stomach straight over to Assistant Chief Fire Officer Hughes.

"Whoa!" Colin yelped. He skidded to a stop at Assistant Chief Fire Officer Hughes' feet. "Hehe! Whoops…"

Assistant Chief Fire Officer Hughes sighed heavily. "You're ten seconds late, Forsythe. You know what that means, don't you?"

"Yes, sir," Colin muttered glumly. He immediately started doing push-ups in the snow.

At that moment, I noticed a group of about twenty trainees from the academy coming over to us. Assistant Chief Fire Officer Hughes cleared his throat, and he moved away from Colin.

"Now, your next training drill isn't something you'll probably encounter in your lifetime, but you must be prepared for anything unusual. I've invited the trainees to come and watch this drill, because they don't often get the opportunity to see professional firefighters training until they go on probation. I hope you don't let them down. That's enough push-ups now, Forsythe. You may fall in on parade now."

"Yes, sir," Colin muttered sheepishly. He quickly fell into parade.

"Good. Now, as you can all see, the north side of the training tower is coated with ice. That was deliberately done last night just for this exercise. There are an unknown number of training dummies hidden inside the tower. I will now go inside and light a fire somewhere inside the tower. Your task will be to rescue all of the dummies and extinguish the fire. You may not use any ladders or the stairs to access the tower, but you may use north-side abseiling pulleys to get yourselves and any equipment you may need to the appropriate levels. You will also select a team leader from amongst you."

"Sam!" All five of the leading firefighters had spoken in unison, making me blush and glance down at the ground.

"That sounded unanimous," Assistant Chief Fire Officer Hughes chuckled. "Fireman Jones, when I give the signal, take charge."

"Yes, sir," I replied.

"Go and wait behind that building over there. I'll radio you when it's time to start."

As we made our way to our designated waiting place, I considered the task at hand. "Colin, put your ice shoes on," I gently told the young man.

"Oh, right. Of course."

"Are you a bit flustered being in Sam's presence?" Leading Firefighter Alice Williams asked teasingly.

"No!"

My radio crackled into life. "Leading Fireman Jones? You may commence the training drill now."

"Copy that, sir," I replied into the radio. "Right, everyone. I want Alice, Colin, Scott and Ryan in BA gear and harnesses. Adam? I want you to monitor the BA board. I'll go up first with a couple of ropes to pull the equipment up. We'll need hoses, extinguishers and harnesses for the dummies."

"Roger that, Sam!" my friends replied, and they scattered in all directions.

Working together as an organised team, it only took us about ten minutes to complete the entire exercise. We managed to extinguish the fire in less than three minutes, and we were able to rescue all eight dummies, although we knew that if this had been a real emergency, three of the dummies would've been fatalities. It was a sobering thought for all of us as we looked at the dummies laying side-by-side in the snow.

"Well done, everyone!" Assistant Chief Fire Officer Hughes praised. "You all worked well in difficult circumstances, but most importantly, you worked as a team. Leading Fireman Jones, I'm going to be recommending to Chief Fire Officer Boyce that you be promoted to Sub-Officer at your station. You're too good to be a lead fireman. Your skills would be much better used in a higher capacity."

"With all due respect, sir, I'm not ready for a desk-job yet," I replied.

Assistant Chief Fire Officer Hughes chuckled. "You'll still be on the front line, but only during serious emergencies. Someone else at your station can take the leading firefighter exam, and if they pass, they can take over from you."

Alice sniggered. "Good luck with that, sir! Everyone knows that Sam won't accept a promotion without a fight. He's already turned down an offer from Chief Fire Officer Boyce once, and that was for the position of Station Officer in charge of the Rapid Response Unit."

"Yes, you'll have to drag him kicking and screaming into a promotion," Ryan added, winking at me.

"Uh, I wouldn't go quite that far, Ryan," I muttered with embarrassment.

"Why don't you just give him another commendation or a medal?" Scott teased.

"Sir, may I be dismissed?" I asked Assistant Chief Fire Officer Hughes. "It's getting late, and I need to start heading back home."

"Of course, Sam," Assistant Chief Officer Hughes agreed, dropping the formalities. "All of you may use the showers before you go. You're covered in soot! I'll send reports through to your station officers in the next few days."

We saluted our senior officer before heading inside the main academy building to freshen up.

…

Dusk was just beginning by the time I finally left Newtown aboard Mercury. I was both mentally and physically exhausted, having been pushed to my limits all day. All I wanted to do now was to get home to Pontypandy, check in with Station Officer Steele, and go to bed. I had a twenty-four-hour shift to do the next day, so any amount of sleep would be more than welcome.

Because Newtown and Pontypandy are so close to each other, each fire station operated on different radio wavelengths. Shortly after leaving Newtown, I turned my radio back over to Pontypandy's channel. I was expecting Station Officer Steele to check in with me on my way home. He didn't have to, but it reassured him to know exactly where I was. In many ways, he was like a surrogate father to me.

In the distance, I could see clouds gathering on the horizon behind Pontypandy Mountain, meaning that we were set for another snowstorm to hit us in just a few hours. I accelerated Mercury a little, because I was anxious to get home before the sun set.

The peaceful serenity around me was suddenly interrupted by Station Officer Steele's voice coming over the radio. "Station Officer Steele to Fireman Sam."

"Reading you loud and clear, sir," I replied into my helmet's microphone.

"Are you on your way back yet?"

"Yes, sir. I left Newtown about fifteen minutes ago."

"Good, because this snowstorm is blowing in quickly. You didn't see Trevor's bus in Newtown, did you?"

"No, sir. Did he go there?"

"Arnold said that he was intending to travel there, because some of the women wanted to go to the post-Christmas sales."

"I see. Well, if I see them on my way back, I'll let them know about the storm, sir."

"Good. Oh, wait. There's an emergency…"

I maintained radio silence while Station Officer Steele dealt with the incoming emergency callout. It wasn't long before he was back on the radio.

"Sam? Are you still there?"

"Yes, sir."

"Mike Flood's van is stuck in a snowdrift near the stone bridge. Do you think you can pull him free on your way back?"

"Of course, sir."

"Excellent! See you soon then. Out."

I activated Mercury's siren, and I accelerated again. I knew that Mike would want to get home as soon as possible, just like me, so the sooner I rescued him, the sooner we'd both be home.

As I drove Mercury over a rise in the road, I applied the brakes slightly for the downhill descent. Or rather, I tried to. For some strange reason, no matter how hard I squeezed the brake lever, Mercury's brakes failed to come on. I was going much faster now as Mercury raced out of control down the descent. Seeing the sharp left-hand turn at the base of the slope rapidly approaching, I made the decision to jump clear, rather than try to turn Mercury around the corner at speed, or worse still, crash head-on into the wall.

Leaving it until the last possible second, I jumped off Mercury, throwing myself off to the left-hand side of the road, which didn't have a wall. Unfortunately, I didn't land as well as I'd been hoping to. I landed heavily on the side of the road on my left-hand side. My left arm took the full force of my weight. I heard a sickening 'CRACK!' immediately before I blacked out.