COBB COUNTY, Ga. — It's been years since Cobb County firefighters saw Dan Davis - and it wasn't under the best conditions.
In 2014, Davis was involved in an accident between a car and a motorcycle on Dallas Highway. He was on the motorcycle. He survived, but never got the chance to thank the men and women who made it possible.
"I want to show them that what they do counts," Davis said. "They save lives, they contribute to us continuing on with our lives
It would be years before their paths would cross again - but they did. Davis is a member of the Georgia National Guard and was assisting with Hurricane Michael relief efforts. He met a firefighter, Michelle Ice, from Cobb County and asked her what station she was from.
"We were working really hard down at Hurricane Michael down in south Georgia - just recovery stuff," she said.
It couldn't hurt to ask, right?
Well, it was Station 13.
"We were just talking and he just said this is what happened. This is how they saved my life," she said.
Ice said he pulled up his pant leg and showed her his prosthetic leg - a battle scar that tied him to that day - and that station - for life. He'd had it ever since the accident where he endured a fractured a femur while also mangling his right leg.
"And I had no idea, it's just a small world to say I'm at Station 13," Ice said.
So his memories from that day had a physical form already. But it wasn't until that day that another memory started becoming real to him.
Ice called the chief and found out the units that responded and the times. Davis wanted to meet the people who saved his life that day - the people who made sure he didn't lose more than his leg.
"I think it's really nice as a responder," Ice said. "I've been doing this 26 years. We don't get to follow the outcome."
She explained that they do their job, but rarely learn the rest of someone's story after the ambulance drives away.
"Getting to see this after I retired - that happened 5 years ago - come Monday, this is just an opportunity we don't get an awful lot," retired Captain Chuck Baird said.
That day, 5 years later, happened on March 30 at Cobb Fire Station 13 on Dallas Highway. To most people, 13 is an unlucky number. But for Davis, it also represents something more - a chance to say thank you.