Burning Flames ¦ Evan Buckley

Chapter 35 - The Return of Daphne Johnson

Buck returned to work a few days later only to be met with cold looks and no words from anyone on the team apart from Hen who came to welcome him back. When the old team seemed to be together, Buck couldn't help but notice the lack of El, "Hey, erm...where's El?" He asked.

"You haven't heard?" Chimney questioned with his usual air of sarcasm.

"Because of your stupid lawsuit, El got put on forced leave, congrats Buck" Eddie spoke bitterly, already missing having one of his closest friends.

Buck went to speak however the bell sounded and he was told to stay put so not only did he have the coldness from his team, he was now the reason the girl he liked was out of a job. He pulled out his phone and texted El straight away.

'I just heard. El, I'm so sorry. Please, let me make it up to you x'

Nothing.

'Hey Mikey, how's El?'

Mikey put down his phone and turned to El who was only focused on her laptop. "I know it sucks, being fired but you can talk to me you know?" Mikey spoke, for once being serious about something.

"I know, I know." She said, "I'm just making sure I have everything ready for Daphne when she arrives, which is in, an hour, okay" El spoke and closed her laptop, taking a second to breathe.

"How do you know this big fancy lawyer in New York, anyway?" Mikey questioned.

"We go way back" She shrugged, "Don't worry about it"

"You should talk to Buck.." Mikey spoke, knowing she wasn't going to like what he said, "Maddie is keeping me informed and he's sorry Ellie, he really is, and he likes you...a lot"

"Yeah well you don't backstab a Rhodes" El gave him a look before getting up, "I need to get ready, do you have anything useful to say?" She sassed, starting to become bitchy again, which was a side that Mikey and the 118 hadn't seen in a while, especially since Buck's accident.

El got herself ready and headed over to LAX to pick up Daphne. She pulled up in her jeep just outside the terminal and her eyes instantly laid upon Daphne. She looked so out of place.

Since the last time Daphne had seen El, a lot had changed. Daphne had gone from a newly qualified lawyer taking pro-bono cases to gain exposure to one of the top attorneys in New York City. Her life was everything she wanted it to be all those years ago but she was still grateful for how she got to where she was, so the minute El called - Daphne made the relevant arrangements to come and assist El with whatever she needed.

Daphne landed at LAX and walked her way through the first class passport control where she noticed her old friend waiting to pick her up. Daphne lifted her designer sunglasses off of her face and placed them onto her head.

"You're still driving that thing? Didn't the money stretch to a new car?" The brunette said, flashing El a smile.

"You know, I just spent the last of it flying you out here" El grinned and leant over, opening the door for her.

Daphne chuckled "Good job I'm worth it. Brief me on the way, we need to jump on this as quickly as we can" She stated, climbing into the car, careful not to scuff her Louboutin boot on the way.

El nodded and stepped on the gas, "So, Buck's lawyer did some digging on me, brought it to the attention of the LAFDs lawyer, and now I'm on forced leave while they look into it. It's all because of the fucking phsycward"

Daphne took a pen from her bag along with an embossed notebook and began writing a few bullet points "Right.. and how did they even obtain any of this? Wasn't it classified years ago?" She asked.