I Survived The Storm

3. Mistakes were made

Four weeks ago

Andy and Vic were sat on the roof terrace overlooking Seattle. It was quite the sunset that evening; the orange sky merging with the blue and pink.

The day had been quite eventful. Travis was injured from the last shift with a bad wrist. It was minor though. A couple day's rest would do the trick. So thanks to that, they had a sub.

A knock came to the door of the roof. It was the sub.

"Hey Herrera, heads up I've filed the incident report from this morning."

"Thanks, Ruiz is it?"

"Yep, call me Theo though."

"Alright, Theo. You tell that to the captain though, not the luitenant," said Andy, getting comfortable in her deck chair.

"You're not captain? Sorry, I just figured you would be, because of your dad and all..."

"We thought that too," cut in Vic.

Ruiz nodded and backed off looking smug.

"God! What a weirdo," said Andy, laughing.

"I know, what station was he at before?"

"I don't know but I sure hope I don't end up there any time soon!"

When they had seen the sun go down, they headed back downstairs to find everyone else. There wasn't much longer of shift left and no one had called in for a while now.

"I'm gonna head home. Little Pru needs her dad," said Dean. "The nanny will quit if I don't."

"Ok go," said Bishop.

Dean skipped through the door home to his daughter.

One by one, each of the crew went home and dissolved into B-shift.

Vic was in the locker room clearing up her things when a crash came from further down. She slipped her top on and went to investigate. Theo stood there with a bag in his hand and an exhausted look looming in his eyes.

"Here let me help you with that," Vic offered. She was on her knees tidying up the mess before he could protest.

He sighed. "Thanks."

They had a moment of silence before Theo made an unexpected suggestion.

"Listen, I know it's early" - it was seven am - "but do you want to grab a drink?" he said with a hopeful grin smeared across his face.

Vic contemplated for a moment. Was this really a good idea?

"Sure," she finally said, "I'm all about day drinking."

She gathered her things, said her goodbyes and left. With Theo.

"Listen, I don't know you that well, but I just wanna say that the way you handled that man on fire today was truly masterful," said Theo.

"Ok, I see what this is," said Vic, "but don't just compliment me so you can get me into bed or something."

"Whoa whoa whoa! Is that what you think is going on here? Is that what you think of me?"

"Yeah, actually."

They both laughed it off and got a table at a bar. It was empty at this time of day and the bartender looked confused as to why they were there. They got drinks and sat down.

"So, why'd you become a firefighter?" asked Theo.

"My will to save people took over and a bit of feminism. How about you?"

"Kind of a thing in my family to prove each other wrong, so this is where life took me."

She laughed and sipped her drink.

"What station were you at before?"

"23. Used to be captain actually."

"Wow, you guys suck over there," Vic joked.

"Not when I was captain. Things ran smooth and perfect."

"What happened?"

"There was a guy on my force and I made a wrong call and," he took a breath, "well, he died."

"Oh."

"Yeah."

They sat in silence thinking about what Theo had just said.

"23 then. I'm surprised I haven't seen you before," said Vic, breaking the silence.

"Well it's a big city."

For hours, they talked rubbish about all sorts of things. By the time half nine came, they had created a whole new friendship.

Vic yawned. "I better go. This has be fun. Hopefully I'll see you another time."

"Unless, you think I am too drunk to get home alone and you invite me back to your place for coffee?"

"Only for coffee?"

"Only for coffee."

They walked out of the bar and to Vic's place.

In the present

"And then what happened?" asked Andy over the phone.

Andy had called to check in and Vic had ended up telling her everything.

"I think you know."

"Wow. So you're pregnant with the sub's baby? You really screwed that one up."

"Well I don't know that that's what it is. I need you to bring me a test."

"Alright. I'll make sure I'm the one to bring your next shopping load."

She hung up and Vic picked up the remote, putting on whatever she could find and rested her COVID swept eyes.

The next day appeared out of nowhere when a knock woke Vic.

"Coming!" she shouted at them, presumably it was Andy.

She opened the door and stepped back to social distance. By now it had become force of habit. It was Andy with a test. She took the bag of groceries and thanked her.

The test was pink in a small box. Having never used one before, she took it out of the packet and thoroughly read the instructions through twice, hands shaking. The next half an hour was a blurry mess that Vic could only remember parts of. Like when the test read positive.