Roaming hands and large swells.

11.

Eddie was ready to go the fuck home and cuddle with his 8 year old who would hopefully be in a good enough mood to let him.

Today had been rough. Beyond rough, actually. Most of the first 11 hours of their 12 hour shift had been taken up by the same call, and it was a rough one.

What'd happened was, a whole load of teenagers had decided that a secluded section of abandoned beach that had not yet been cleared of tsunami debris under a smaller now semi-wrecked fishing pier was the perfect spot for a rager. On one of the few days a year in LA where they were supposed to get a storm.

Had any of them checked the radar to know that a storm was coming before hand? No.

Had any of them been sober enough or had the good sense to leave once the tide started coming in? No.

Had some of them thought it was a good idea to bring boogie boards and start riding the rapidly growing waves as the storm approached and made landfall? Yes.

Had the tide finally overtaken the area under the pier where the party was going on with sudden and strong waves among the debris field sweeping drunk kids out or otherwise injuring them on the shore? Also yes.

It was a fucking wreck. And also technically not their usual area of response, but there was upwards of a hundred drunk teenagers there who needed help, so all available houses in the surrounding area, including the 118, had been dispatched.

Once they'd arrived they were split up, Hen and Chim being sent to triage on the shore while he, Buck, and Bobby were given a rescue boat to start fishing out teenagers.

Eddie should've seen what happened next coming from a mile away. The first couple kids they fished out went by easily. They were lone drifters close to the shore who were calling for help. Soon enough though, they were approaching a whole group of kids who were much worse off.

They were further out, all bunched together, and clearly either naturally not good swimmers or too drunk to be able to swim well. Eddie's first count said six, but as they got closer he recounted and only found five.

"Caleb went down!" One of the girls screamed as they tried to pull the others into the boat.

The teenagers were all clambering on top of one another, actively drowning each other in their fight to get into the raft. Eddie had his hands full with two girls clinging onto him and still half in the water and Bobby was in a similar predicament. Buck had been sitting on the other side of the boat though, and was therefore free.

He immediately dove into the water at the girl's scream and didn't resurface. Eddie and Bobby pulled the rest of the kids in, and Buck still hadn't resurfaced. They were looking around wildly, with the storm and the tides, Buck could realistically end up anywhere.

It'd been about a minute and Eddie was about to go in after him when one of the boys screamed, "Over there!" Pointing behind them.

Eddie whipped around and saw Buck treading with the dead weight of a teenage boy about twenty feet behind the boat. He was in the water and swimming towards Buck before Bobby had the chance to turn the motor on.

As he got closer he noticed a girl about ten feet past Buck who was struggling badly. Her head repeatedly going under. She wasn't going to last more than a minute longer, and he knew Buck knew it too.

"Take him!" Buck shouted over the sounds of the sea and the storm, shoving the unconscious boy into Eddie's arms and taking off towards the girl.

Eddie had no choice but to take the boy and start swimming back towards the boat where Bobby was helping someone else out of the water. He felt for a pulse and thankfully found one. He handed the kid over to Bobby and then climbed back into the boat. Bobby laid the kid out in recovery position as Eddie switched on the motor and steered them over to where Buck was holding the other girl's head above water.