a dog's best friend
"So, how do you like it here so far?" Josephine closed her book once becoming fixated on Eddie across the countertop. She watched him produce two bowls of ice cream after offering for one.
Eddie scooped the last of the caramel ice cream into the bowl, "The city or the 118? Coming from Texas to here was quite overwhelming but I don't regret it. Being welcomed by you guys has made it better." He placed two spoons in the bowls before handing one to Josephine and sitting next to her.
"Maybe that will convince my cousin to move here." She amused in a joking matter, diving the bowl for a scoop of caramel ice cream. "He lives back in Texas as well."
"Where?"
She took a bite, peering at him. "Austin. He's a cop. Of course, my favorite cousin lives far away from me. He likes Los Angeles but doesn't see himself living here as much."
"My family thought moving away from there wasn't ideal. I do miss them, yet this is what I think is best for Christopher and I." He casually mentioned his son, who Josephine became aware about from learning more about the newest recruit in previous conversations.
Josephine nodded in agreement, "Not everyone is going to agree with the decisions we make, but at the end of the day it's our life and choice. For example, my mom being against the idea of becoming a firefighter." She disclosed as she felt an instant bond and trust with the man since speaking to him.
He leaned in, compelled about that fact of the brunette. "That sounds like a story I would want to hear."
"Oh, it is. Although, we can spare that heartache of a story when you entertain me about your estranged wife living in this city?" She quirked her eyebrow. "Besides, I am a woman with some baggage."
Eddie pressed his lips into a thin line, surrendering. "All right, another time. Don't get me started with my baggage." He joked, causing them to fall into laughter.
While sitting upon a comforting silence and devouring their bowls of the slightly melting caramel ice cream, Eddie spoke up. "By the way, did I do something to upset Buck? Or is he usually like that?" He questioned the coldness from the blond-haired firefighter on a few dispatch calls.
Josephine stifled a giggle, immediately shaking her head. "I swear anyone here can tell you that he's the opposite of what you've seen so far. He's friendly and kind, though impulsive and a bit egotistic. But always has high spirits and driven on the job. Sometimes, an idiot." She pursed her lips together. "So, don't take it to heart. I think he's just adjusting to a lot of changes, and you seem to be a part of that."
"Like his girlfriend breaking up with him?" He retorted, earning a bewildering look from the brunette.
"T-They're not-" She tried to correct, though his knowing gaze caused her to refrain. Everyone in this firehouse is well aware to the fact that Abby is unlikely to come back. It's the anticipation of seeing when Buck will come to that realization of her indefinite absence means their relationship has come to an end.
She sighed, "To Buck, they're still together and going strong with this long-distance thing. He really loves Abby as it's his first committed relationship. With keeping that spark alive and then seeing you pop up as the new eye candy of the 118." She poked Eddie, rolling his eyes at the label. "He's a little bit territorial like a dog. Just wait and see then he'll be your best friend."
"Like a dog?"
"Everyone's best friend." Josephine smiled.
Josephine jogged the staircase after a workout and hitting the showers to see Hen and Chimney on the couch with an opened laptop on Chimney's lap. Her nosy self flopped on the couch next to Hen. "What are we looking at over here?"
Chimney closed the laptop quickly and rose to his feet, "It's nothing." He deadpanned with a slight frown on his face.
While Josephine scrunched her face in confusion, a remorseful sigh escaped from Hen's mouth trailing after her best friend stalking away. "Chim..."
He cut her off and continued to drag his feet remotely feeling foolish at the idea of winning this calendar contest. "No, I don't know what I was thinking. I can't compete with these guys. Maybe ten years ago. And that's only because they'd be 12."
"Don't tell me he's talking about that calendar contest?" Josephine grimaced, confronting Hen besides her.
Hen blew through her lips while bracing a solemn expression that answered her question. "He tried to ask my opinion about his pictures which wasn't him. Just forcing into the standards of those beefcake calendars. It was overwhelming." She truthfully told. "But to Chimney this is important because he never got the representation growing up like a firefighter. I just feel bad for not reciprocating well to his satisfaction in all this."
"Then let's send in a picture to show the real firefighter Chimney Han is." Josephine enlightened as Hen formed a puzzling expression. "I have an idea where we can find one."
The 118 reported to a dispatch call at a mansion where a young man's head was cemented into a microwave. By the time they arrived, they all rushed out of the vehicles in a haste to snatch up the tools. One of the young men named Mitch at the house raced up to Chimney, "Quick. They're in the back." He started leading the group to the staircase that led to the backyard of the mansion. "We put a tube in so he could breathe. I think the cement smushed it."
"What is it, a YouTube prank?" Chimney questioned in a baffled tone.
The young man defended, "Don't judge. Followers equals cash."
Once they reached to the backyard, they saw another young man keeping his friend's head alleviated with the heaviness of the cemented microwave attached to his head. "What's his name?" Bobby inquired.
"Jessie." Mitch answered.
Bobby crouched a little bit in front of the man as the rest of his team surrounded. "Jessie, this is Captain Nash, LAFD. Can you hear me?" Receiving no answer, he started to take orders to resolve this life-threatening situation. "All right, he is totally cut off in this thing. Let's get some screwdrivers, try to get this frame off."
Hen came up to the civilian's side to wrap a blood pressure cuff. On the other side, Josephine used a power drill to unscrew the top of the microwave as an opening to their procedure. Bobby directed his eyes onto Hen. "What do you got, Hen?"
"Pulse 120, BP 150/110." She answered.
Suddenly, Jessie snatched his arm from Chimney and Hen's grasp to his neck.
"He's panicking." Buck indicated.
"All right, he's starting to choke." Bobby assumed.
Hen quipped, insinuating the cause of the matter. "Saliva's probably aspirated through the breathing tube."
Abruptly, Jessie rose to his feet in a complete frantic startling everyone else. They all shouted and placed their hands on the microwave as Jessie began wobbling by the heavy weight on his head.
"Hold on one second."
"Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey. Relax. Okay, calm down. Hey, hey!"
"Whoa, whoa, whoa!"
Jessie ended up falling into the deep end of the pool due to the microwave. The newfound friends Eddie and Buck jumped into the pool to rescue the young man. They worked together to lift the microwave and swim up to the surface while Bobby, Chimney, Hen, and Josephine waited for them. As soon as they saw the duo, they all ran to the other side and assisted cautiously under the pressure of the limited time.
"Let's go, let's go." Hen hassled the boys, "Come on. All right, step." She guided them slowly then helping situate Jessie.
Buck piped, "Easy."
"All right, watch his neck." Bobby reminded his team as they settled Jessie onto the cushioned platform.
Eddie pressed his fingers onto Jessie's neck, "His pulse is weak."
"I have no respiration." Hen looked at him, using a stethoscope.
Chimney looked over his shoulder at the two young men. "Is there a plastic bag in there or something?" He asked curiously.
One of the two, Shay visibly frightened spoke up. "Yeah, we put it on his head before we poured the concrete. Please don't let him die. He's my best friend since kindergarten." His response caused Josephine to scoff at his lack of common sense before resuming to use the power drill on one of the sides of the microwave.
"I can't get in there." Chimney pronounced.
"Yeah, we had 30 minutes to get him out of there. Now we got 30 seconds." Bobby stated.
Chimney began examining Jessie's body. "No response to sternal rub."
"Pulse is fading. Still no respiration." Hen yelled out.
Amid Josephine moving at a rapid pace using the power drill with the help of Eddie and Buck on the screwdrivers, Bobby announced. "All right, Buck, once we get this frame off, you and I are gonna go hammer and chisel on that block."
Buck nodded, "All right."
Chimney shouted, "Starting compressions." He started performing CPR to keep Jessie stable while the rest of the team are working their way to get Jessie out of the microwave and block of cement.
Finally, the trio managed to open the sides of the microwave open. "All right, got it." Bobby turned to pick up the tools. "All right, Buck, I'm hammer, you're chisel. Let's go." He went to pass the blond the chisel.
Instead, Buck took the hammer. "I can do this." He assured.
"All right." Bobby rested the chisel onto the cemented block as Josephine and Eddie stepped back to watch Buck lunge with the hammer.
"Again."
"All right."
After a couple attempts, the cement broke into pieces enough to remove. They moved towards an unconscious Jessie to push away the plastic bag and the block pieces while Hen placed a silicone resuscitator on his mouth. With a few good pumps, Jessie straightened up with a ripple of coughs of relief leaving his mouth.
"Good job." Hen said, patting his back.
Standing by side feeling at ease and erupting with excitement, Shay and Mitch reflected to the phone to press record. "Hold still, hold still." Shay said before raising the phone up in the perfect angle with himself and Jessie in the frame with the 118 members
"Shay Reed here, fans. And today's Shay-nanigan is maybe out most intense yet!" He exclaimed, garnering irritable expressions from Josephine, Buck, and Bobby.
"Are you filming this?" Bobby shouted in disbelief.
"Yeah, bro. If we didn't film it, it didn't happen." Shay argued.
Buck interjected, "You were just crying like two minutes ago."
"Yeah, two minutes ago, he was gonna die. Now he's gonna live and be a legend." Shay optimistically spoke. Josephine's face hardened with fueling infuriation as she couldn't tolerate his reckless actions. More specifically, leading one of his supposed best friends to death. Between the horrid of having to experience failed dates with terrible men to responding to this call was the last straw.
Shay fondly glanced to the side at the brunette, "Say hello, Shay's Army." He shoved the camera to Josephine's face.
Josephine huffed, enforcing a smile. "Hello, Shay's army." Her smile faltered when she stole the phone from Shay's grasp. "Good-bye, Shay Army!" She waved off before thrusting the phone into the pool which wavered everyone in shock.
"Dude!"
She whipped her head at Shay almost charging up to which Buck and Eddie were about to pull her back. Yet, she stopped when the man coward by the threatening look. "Idiota." She spat out then headed to the exit.
Bobby suppressed a laugh as he remained professional and checking in on Jessie with Hen and Chimney.
Shay's eyes followed the brunette firefighter to the exit. He switched over to Buck and Eddie going to grab the tools. "Hey, do you think she'll go out with me? She's hot."
Buck and Eddie shared a questionable look before shaking their heads and snickering. They ignored him and continued to pack up.
"Okay, what about "G.I.?" Like G.I. Joe. "Hey, G.I." Buck suggested to Eddie while observing him playing the ball pin machine. "You know, that's a great nickname." He pointed out in his following attempts of the never-ending nicknames.
Hen working on her crossword puzzle at the table, commented. "Sounds like gastrointestinal." A laugh left Josephine's mouth sitting across from the woman while reading a book.
"Yeah, I don't think so." Eddie declined.
"All right, everybody, listen up. I've got an announcement to make. I just got off the phone with the people from the calendar, and they have made their choice." Bobby emerged from the staircase to the second level seeking his team together.
Buck looked at Eddie, "Well, no hard feelings, no matter who won." He told and raised a fist to bump with his new buddy.
"Awe, cute sportsmanship, Evan. You should get a ribbon for that." Josephine cheekily said, earning a snort from Hen and Eddie as Buck rolled his eyes at her.
Bobby chuckled out, "That's good, Buck, 'cause they didn't pick you."
"Well, it's obviously a fix. No, congratulations anyway, G.I.!" He happily praised Eddie.
"They didn't pick him, either." Bobby added.
Buck repeated then pointed at him. "No? You?"
He shook his head, "No."
The room fell into silence as everyone pinpointed the possible winner until the sound of a loud celery crunch in the kitchen. Chimney nonchalantly noticed their eyes had landed on him. He turned back to check anyone else behind him. "No way. You got to be kidding me."
"No. Congratulations, Chim. Or should I say Mr. April?" Bobby proclaimed in a cheerful tone.
Everyone beamed in delight for their fellow member as they came around to celebrate his victory. "No way. Are you serious?" He couldn't believe nor process this moment.
"Chimney!" Eddie chanted.
Bobby strolled up to the kitchen. "You're a calendar boy, now."
"You serious?" Chimney still perplexed.
"Mr. April, buddy." Bobby exclaimed, giving him a high five.
Josephine shared a smirk, leaning on the countertop. "30 days of Chimney for the ladies." She sang out.
Buck came around to high five the man. "Congratulations."
"You did it." Hen smiled at her best friend.
Chimney grinned in return, "Thank you."
"I hope I'm not interrupting anything." Athena's voice gravitated the 118 members as she paved her way up to Bobby meeting her halfway. Ignoring the audience behind at the kitchen, she placed a hand on his arm and glanced up with sincere eyes. "Hey. I'm sorry." She cupped his faced and concealed an apologetic kiss.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa." Chimney uttered as him and the boys' jaws were dropped by this scenery.
Meanwhile, Hen and Josephine on instinct shared a smirk in amusement.
"All right." Bobby responded, pressing a small kiss onto his girlfriend's lips again. He faced his team darting the couple. "What are you all looking at? There's no more announcements." He told in a firm tone.
Both Hen and Josephine swiftly spun around to the guys with the hands out. "Pay up." They said in unison clearly elated.
The trio groaned in response as they dug into their pockets after losing the bet to them. "Ah, never disregard a woman's intuition next time." Josephine elicited a devious smile.
Bobby and Athena stood there in bewilderment. "Wait a minute, wait a minute, you two knew?" He asked the two women.
"Sir, first you two were happy at the same time," Hen began.
Josephine finished, "Then you were both pissed off at the same time. It wasn't hard to figure out."
"And, uh, you good with this?" Athena inquired, uncertain of their opinions about her relationship with their Captain.
"Girl, I'm just mad at myself for not fixing you up in the first place." Hen said.
The brunette nodded in agreement, "Also, I'm thankful because we can delete his terrible dating profile that he had me edit." The three women burst into laughter.
Once given the money, the group dispersed from the kitchen. Josephine happily counted the money in her possession like a little girl prancing on the sidewalk with money after a day of selling lemonade.
"Care to spare me that cash for gas money?" Buck pivoted and sat on the back of the couch, folding his arms.
Josephine scoffed, "That's a foul excuse, Evan. I won this cash fair and square. That's your fault. Besides, I'm going to treat myself to wonderful date with myself after enduring horrible dates. Possibly ask your sister to join me. I like her better than you." She teased with a sly smirk.
Buck clicked his tongue, "Yet, who's the one that calls me over for those movie nights? Or came to my place the other night?" He hummed to spite her back.
She playfully shoved him, "Hey, you didn't mind when your ass was planted on the couch watching Shark Tank. You should be thankful I keep my door open for you."
"Ah, like a dog right?" Eddie encountered, throwing an arm around Josephine's shoulders after introducing himself to Athena.
"Indeed." They chuckled out while earning a glare from Buck.
Chimney came up to pull her away from the boys to speak to her privately. "Hey, Hen told me what you two did. I wanted to say thank you for that." He gushed when Hen entailed the picture they sent in from a dispatch call last year.
A school bus accident on the 710 freeway where an AP photographer caught a significant moment of Chimney. He carried a little girl across the freeway to safety. The essence of that photo showed the real Chimney Han they knew.
Josephine shared a warm smile, "Despite my thoughts about this calendar, it was important to you which I understand that. We're family, and are willing to help each other fulfill our dreams. Now, that you're a part of that calendar- it's going to inspire a little boy like you to see himself." She paused, "Or satisfy a woman's fantasy."
"Both works for me."
-Hope you like it! Tell me what you think! Don't forget to vote and comment! Stay tuned!-
WRITTEN: 7/28/21
PUBLISHED: 7/29/21