Quarter Life Crisis: a 9-1-1 buddie fic

My fingers are clenched, my stomach's in knots

"That's Athena Grant. She's the best cop in California and Cap's girlfriend. She comes over for lunch at least once a week." Buck whispers to me and I shift to the right to create some distance between our chairs.

It's not that I don't like Buck, I just don't want to get close with anyone at work.

I know my boundaries.

As soon as Cap turns the stove off and starts plating the chicken, the alarm on the ceiling starts ringing.

Great.

Another call and no lunch.

Sometimes this is work life and it is normal.

Once Chimney and I reach the bottom of the stairs, we hop in the truck together.

"According to the dispatcher, the location of the call is at Rosemary Elementary School...." Captain Nash begins to talk as the team all climbed into the firetruck and put their headsets on before the ground could move even more.

Buck has his headphones on but is too focused on his phone to pay attention to Cap's instructions.

Since I am his mentee, I am assigned to sit next to him.

I glance over at his phone for one second and see that he keeps trying to get cell phone service to call the elementary school's secretary number.

Then it all clicks in place.

Amelia goes to Rosemary Elementary School.

"I'm sure she's fine. She's a strong and brave girl." I take my headset off and whisper to Buck even though he couldn't care less right now.

The elementary school is quite far away from the station so we have to speed through traffic build-up to get there quicker.

I watch Buck get out of the truck as soon as it stops in front of the building and run towards a crowd of children and teachers.

"Buck!" Cap yells while getting out the masks that protect us from chemicals and smoke.

I watch Buck as he asks multiple teachers for a sign of Amelia.

I can tell that this was a life-or-death situation for him.

If this was Chris' school, I'd be freaking out.

A school fire and his kid could be inside.

"Has anyone seen Amelia?" I can hear Buck say to a principal as we walk up the building with oxygen masks on and med kit bags with us.

We have to be very careful because the fire may restart or spread toxins and smoke we breathe in.

We cannot all go to the school to assess the fire and damage.

Then we risk all of us getting crushed.

"Excuse me sir, are you the fire captain?" Hen, Chimney, Cap, and I walk up to a group of students who made it outside safely to a shelter cabin with their teachers.

"The fire started in the art room. It was a small fire according to Ms. Mills, the art teacher. It keeps coming back and the fire alarm went off. We got everyone but a few students are still two missing from our headcount. I can give you their names and descriptions. Please be safe." I see the principal walk up to Cap while she's trembling.

While Cap listens to the Principal about the kids' names and descriptions, I hear her say Amelia Buckley and watch Buck try to run into the school.

"Alright, Hen, set up triage. Chimney are on hose duty. Buck, you are in no shape for this call, help Hen set up triage if you can in the corner of the sidewalk. Eddie, you are coming inside with me." Cap immediately ordered to us once he heard that the children were missing.