Cassie arrives early for her first day of work, but Captain Murphy criticizes her anyway. He calls the team together and begins to introduce Cassie and a rookie firefighter who was supposed to join the same day, but he quickly realizes the rookie is missing. The rookie—whose name, Owen Callaghan, is not revealed until Chapter 17—comes from a long line of Boston firefighters and is currently being hazed by his new crew. Two of the men carry him in a moment later, cutting him free from the bonds they used to duct tape him to a basketball hoop and hose him down. Cassie is horrified and wonders whether she is having a heart attack, but when the rookie looks up, she is immediately attracted to him and can’t look away.

The captain starts to introduce Cassie, and the crew looks around the room confused, not expecting the other new firefighter to be a woman even though she is the only one in the room unaccounted for. Even though she is in uniform, one of the crew members admits that they all thought she was a stripper. As she is being introduced, all crew members but the rookie complain about the fact that she is a woman.