Happily Ever After

98: Recklessness

May, 2028

Sarah (20), Lucia (13), Maya (40) and Carina (44).

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Recklessness (noun): lack of regard for the danger or consequences of one's actions; rashness. 

Lucia would never consider herself a reckless person. She was someone who put great thought and care into her actions. Every decision she made was one that had been weighed heavily, debated pros and cons... 

But sometimes, people can get pushed. 

And carnage would remain. 

It was a hot day in May; swelteringly hot, according to the radio. Summer was still a ways away, but the weather had already gotten very warm. The humidity made everyone tired, so the team was blasting the air conditioning in the station, enjoying the coolness of their environment and dreading any further calls. 

Luckily, it was a quiet day and they had no calls, meaning they could stay in the comfort of the station. Unfortunately for the group, the station became the place where many civilians came to escape the heat. It essentially meant that for the entirety of the day, all of the firefighters were busy trying to hoard all the civilians away from where they shouldn't be, which was quite the difficult task.

"No, you cannot go in the engine!"
"Please come and sit in the lobby- no, don't touch that!"
"How did your flip flop melt to your foot?"

Given how busy both the station and Grey-Sloan usually were during heatwaves, a group of doctors decided that the kids would stay at Maya and Carina's place, which was a good sized bungalow, meaning the heat stayed relatively away due to it rising. 

Due to a thunderstorm the night before, most of the city still had no power. 

Luckily, Maya being someone who insists on preparedness, had gotten battery powered fans during the last heatwave, and kept spare batteries fully charged, meaning that despite the lack of power, the kids stayed cool.

That was all they could do. But kids would be kids, after all. 

———

Meanwhile, Lucia had been taking an interest in running. 

She'd been thinking more seriously about firefighting, and track would be a great way to make sure she was physically prepared. 

Maybe it was residual nerves, or a combination of things going on in her life, one of which included a couple homophobic kids at school being generic assholes, but the teen had begun to obsess with running. 

Speed, technique, time... all of it becoming the most important thing. Lucia found herself in the midst of a funk, becoming a different person entirely. She snapped, she was quiet and sought solace from the business of her mind with running. 

So, Lucia had been running religiously, a fact that Maya was not pleased about, given how Lucia would refuse to budge on the frequent training schedule.

The current heatwave was really frustrating her. 

For the past couple of days, it had been humid and blazing hot, which meant she had to delay her running. The more she waited, the more agitated she got. Mentally, Lucia was also nervous because her time was going up, rather than improving. 

It was nerve-wracking how she was taking longer to run the route she'd been taking for weeks now.

Lucia huffed impatiently. The fact of the matter was she was tired of waiting, and with a nod of her head, she decided she had enough.