Kate cried out as she reached closer to the edge of building, she felt her body reach the edge and held onto the snapped rope as she dangled out of building.
"Kate just hold on" Eddie called out
Kate barely nodded, she could breath breathe, all she could feel was the pressure of her body dangling from her arms, her own weight was becoming to much to bare.
She felt a strong hand around her arm, "I got you" buck called
He pulled Kate back into the building, she landed on her back.
Buck tied a rope around her, he noticed the the protruding glass from her stomach. He tired the rope around her as tight as he could and helped her to her feet.
Her noticed her pale complexion, not sure if it was due to the glass in her side.
"Kate are you-..
Kate turned away from buck, throwing up from fear alone. Nauseous at the idea that she was dangling from a building seconds ago.
Kate wiped her mouth, "sorry"
"No, no it's okay
Kate barely let out a breath "I just.. I was—... shit"
"Uh Kate..."
Kate looked down, she noticed the glass that embedded itself inside her, "oh wow"
Eddie managed to pull ally back into the room, he secured a new rope around her and she began to climb again, after a few seconds of not wanting to moves.
Kate didn't feel much of the pain right now, she assumed her adrenaline was masking as much as it could but In due time it would run out.
"Alright be careful, Im gonna help you out of here" Buck spoke calmly
"I'm okay Buck, it doesn't even hurt that much" she reassured
"That will be the adrenaline which runs out eventually"
After a few minutes, all four of them had safely left the room. The climbed up the hallway, Kate's stomach slowly beginning to throb.
"Kate you okay?" Eddie asked, looking over his shoulder for a second.
"Just some glass, I'll be fine" she reassured her friend.
They reached the door to the stairs, Eddie climbed through and helped the woman who had introduced herself as ally; Buck followed and carefully helped Kate through the door.
"6 flights down, not too hard" Kate Hoped
*
What felt like at least over a half hour passed, it was taking longer to get down due to Kates recent injury and ally's hesitant steps.
Her adrenaline had definitely warm off, her stomach now feeling like it was on fire and being poked with thousands of needles all at once. The sudden realisation that she was dangling from a building was slowly setting in.
"That's it. You're doing great., You've, uh, you've done this before, haven't you?" Eddie coach, testing a bit of light humor.
" Yeah. It was, uh, my major at the Rhode Island School of Design." She retorted "Sorry. Sarcasm is my fallback for pretty much everything."
"me too" Kate nodded
"You okay kate?" Buck asked, carefully helping her down the steps.
"No" she exhaled, "but I can keep going"
Ally came to a stop, her mind tracing back to man falling from the window "You think he'll still be on the sidewalk when we get down there?" She asked, her eyes full of fear.
She looked back at Buck, hoping for a good answer
"No. And we're not going out that side, anyway." Buck reassured
"Let's hustle up. We don't want to be here for the next aftershock" Eddie urged the three.
"Wait, what do you mean, the next aftershock?" Ally asked, her voice raising.
Kate kept as calm as possible, but she was almost joining ally in her shrieks.
Eddie ignored ally's panic, he made his way across the fallen bar and turned to help ally across.
"Come on. There we go. You're gonna be fine." Eddie spoke calmly, reassuring her if everything.
"I'm here if you trip okay" Kate said, not that she was in any predicament to be catching anyone.
Ally took a few more steps, a few small cries escaped her lips as she trembled with fear.
Eddie turned to continue making his way down, a sigh falling as she seen the build up of rubble and rocks "oh come on"
"Are you serious" Kate groaned, the sudden movement sending a striking pain up her body.
"What now?" Ally asked
"Back up" Eddie replied, staring up at the flight of stair.
"Back up?" Ally questioned, unsure of his statement.
Before anyone could respond, the radios on their chest began to crackle.
"Ladder , respond. This is Captain Nash. I need a head count." Bobby's voice came through the radio
"Ladder responding. Diaz, Buckley, Quinn, we're good" Eddie counted.
"Cap. Castillo and Jackson responding. MAN: Paulson, Marcus and Riley responding."
"Chimney responding."
"Hen, do you copy? Hen? This is Captain Nash for Henrietta Wilson. Do you copy?"
A silence fell among the four, a silence that never meant anything good.
Kate mumbled under her breath, letting her head rest against the wall.
"Is that a friend of yours?" Ally asked
"Let's keep moving." Eddie instructed
*
After what felt like forever, they were back on a floor. Kate wasn't sure which one, she wasn't sure of anything apart from the pain she was feeling.
Buck pulled Kate through the door, small whimpers escaped her lips. She wasn't doing such a good job at hiding or anymore.
"How bad is it?" Buck asked
"I'm fi-.."
"Kate, how bad?" He asked once again, giving her a stern look.
"Really bad" she confessed, letting out a breath
Buck looked over his shoulder to Eddie "Eddie I don't know how much longer she can do this" he worried
"Maybe if you pull out the glass?" ally suggested
"No, no that will make it worse. right now that glass is keeping her from excessively bleeding"
"Are we gonna make it out of here?" Ally asked "the odds don't seem very strong"
"Let's not.." Kate exhaled a tired breath "let's not meet the devil half way"
"we got this, Abby. We'll get you out of here." Buck assure her
Kate looked at him confused, before she could say something Ally did.
"Ali." She corrected
"What?" Buck asked
"You called me Abby. My name's Ali"
"Uh, yeah. Sorry. Um, Abby is my... It's complicated." He said, still focusing on Kate
"Isn't it always?" Ally asked
"Uh, she's in Europe. She's traveling. For the first time, I'm glad she's not around. - I don't need the worry." He grunted as he made his way through the hall
"Having someone to worry about sounds... nice, actually." Ally grabbed a mini bottle of vodka,
"All I do is work." She said, before drinking from it.
All three firefighters gave her a look, kind of judging her.
"What? It's after 5 It's not like it slowed us down." She shrugged
"Hold on, that might work" Buck nodded, "pass me one"
Ally threw over a shot bottle of vodka, Buck caught it; he placed it in his pocket and gently leaned Kate Against the wall.
"What are you doing?" She asked
"Uh, Buck I think I hear someone"
"Go, I'll be there now" he waved.
Eddie listened, he left to follow the voice.
Buck kneeled down, now eye level with her wound. He ripped the material around it.
"At least take me to dinner first" Kate joked, her body aching from the small laugh.
Buck chuckled at her joke, at least her sense of humor was still in tact "alright T, this is gonna burn like hell"
Kate sucked in a breath and braced herself for the pain, in a matter of seconds she felt like someone set her wound on fire. She felt her hands grip tightly around bucks shoulder as she cried out in pain.
"I'm sorry, but we gotta keep it clean" he apologized
"Oh god, is it almost over" she moaned
Buck nodded, he stood up and dropped the empty bottle "all done"
"God I could pass out" she almost cried.
"Let's try and keep you awake" Buck joked , he slung Kate's arm over his shoulder, helping her through the remains of the hallway, Ally followed beside them.
They reached an open room, assuming Eddie had found someone. Buck let Kate rest against the wall and slid down to where Eddie waited.
"He needs a backboard to get out of here" Eddie told him
"You see anything?" Buck asked, looking around the room
"Guys. What about this?" Ally pulled out an ironing board.
"Could work, but how are we gonna get him down the stairwell?" Eddie asked
"Maybe we don't use the stairwell" Buck suggested.
He led them to the nearest elevator, explaining his plan on the way. It was the only thing that could possibly work; everywhere else was blocked off and if they wanted to leave, this was how
"At least we're not blocked by any debris. Or an elevator."Eddie pointed out, staring down the elevator shaft.
"Um, how much do you think that weighs" Ally asked
"2500 3000 pounds?" Eddie guessed.
"I like our chances." Buck popped his head through.
Eddie went first, brining batari with him. The plan was to open the doors to the floor below them, things were actually working out
"Buck take ally with you... I'll be fine on my own" Kate insisted, her words separate as she took in a few Breaths
"Noway, you'll make it worse" he refused
"Yeah.. and she's not trained" Kate pointed out
After a few minutes you arguing, and a lot of convincing on Kates end; Buck finally agreed to take ally and let Kate come down herself. He wasn't happy with the plan but right now it was the only option available.
Kate slowly slid down, whimpering quietly as the pain only made things worse. Buck stayed above her, holding a tight grip of Ally.
"You doing okay kate?" Eddie called up,
"I'm alive aren't I" she replied, continuing to carefully slide down.
Just as things seemed to be going smoothly, the second aftershock of the day had hit as they were all making their way down.
"is the building vibrating?" Batari asked
"Eddie, Eddie kick the door open!" Buck yelled
Batari swung in and out of the hall for a second, before Eddie was able to get him to safety. As the walls around them shuck, sparks flew from the elevator which was progressively getting closer.
"Let's go, come on Kate. I got you!" Eddie yelled
Kate reached the door in a matter of seconds, the idea of being crushed by an elevator pumped enough adrenaline to keep her moving.
Eddie pulled her in, she landed on the ground. Her chest moving up and down as she fought for air.
"Let's go, Buck! Move your ass!" He yelled
"All right, here we come. - Here we come!" Buck slid down the wire, he swung into the hallway just before the elevator came crashing down.
"I told you I liked our chances" he panted,
"You okay kate?" Buck asked
"Like a million bucks" she cracked a joke "seriously though, can someone get us out of here"
*
After the longest day of Kates life, she was finally free of that building. She sat in the back of an ambulance, a bandage over her fresh wound. Turned out it wasn't as bad as if could have been, keeping the glass in there was a good idea, along with cleaning it.
"You look better" Buck walked over to her
"What are doing here, I thought you were helping Bobby?" She asked
"Everyone is down there, they don't need me" he shrugged.
He took a seat next to Kate, nudging her with his arm "you doing okay?"
"I dangled from a building" she blinked, "like I hung from a rope out of a collapsed building"
"Yeah. You did" buck nodded, "are you going to be okay"
"Yeah" she nodded "I'm not gonna lie, that was the scariest day of my life but it reminded me why I chose this job in the first place"
"I'm glad you are okay" he smiled
"You hear anything from Abby?" Kate asked, glancing at the phone in his hand
"No, and not just because we have no signal" he sighed,
"Look, I'm still new here but by the sounds Of things, you are the only person left in that relationship. Maybe it's time you consider yourself" she gave advice, not being too pushy as she didn't know alot about Abby or what happened between them.
"You give good advice T" Buck nudged her
"Really, still with the T" she groaned
"Well I know how much you love it" he teased
Kate rolled her eyes, a yawn snuck up on her after "I think it's been the longest day of my life"
"Will you be okay tonight, I speak from experience. Days like these can cause long night"
"I've been true worse and I've dreamt about worse. I'll be just fine"
"Okay but If you need anything call." He said, almost firmly
Kate smiled softly, she hadn't a friend like Buck since she left Ireland "I'll be okay, if I'm not I'll call and that's a promise"
Bucks radio crackled before Bobby's voice came through "we have her, she's alive and well. Hen is okay" he announced
Kate let out a relieved breath "thank goodness"
*
Evan was right about one thing, the nightmare that came after Kate's day sparked a feeling she had forgotten about.
It was a feeling of relief and terror all wrapped up in one, she was glad to have been pulled from the debts poised dreams but knew it would only be a matter of seconds before the exhaustion snuck up on her and she'd crave the very thing that scared her
Kate had been through significantly worse in her life, she wasn't expecting a small stab wound and memory of a collapsed building to cause her so much pain
Kate sighed, she dialed Evan's number with hopes of an answer
"You okay?" He asked
It took a few seconds for Kate's mind to Defog, she blinked a few times before exhaling a shaky breath "you weren't joking about those nightmares" she cracked a small joke,
"What happened?"
"I just keep sliding and after longer than I imagined I'm right next to that man on the footpath" she explained "or I bleed out, or I fall down an elevator shaft. It's kinda the best of three right now"
"about a year ago, we got this call about a teenager who was dangling from a rollercoaster, I climbed up and secured myself and tried to convince him to take my hand, but he wouldn't. He was terrified and rather than be saved he let go and he fell"
"Oh Buck" Kate sighed, "that's awful"
"Nightmares after that hit pretty hard for the first few days, and I was waking up alone. I know you don't like being taken care of but you're my friend and I care about you"
"I'm fine, I'll be fine in a few days. Nothing I can't handle.." she reassured "but until then, I guess you could come over tomorrow after shift. I was told to stay home, recuperate for a few days. Possibly because I was stabbed"
"Did you just agree to some help" Buck gasped
Kate rolled her eyes, not that he could see "come over tomorrow after your shift, bring food"
"Yes ma'am"