LET YOU DOWN.
chapter two.
HUNTER GROANED IN annoyance as she walked away to look for survivors. Bobby had officially side lined her in the most gentle way possible. Hen was afraid Hunter may have a possible concussion from hitting the bus too hard and Bobby wasn't going to take any chances.
"LAFD!" She yelled out, looking into the barely visible window of the house. Hollywood Hills was quite literal in the hills. The neighborhood was in ruins, and that was putting it lightly. No house remained untouched from the mud slide.
Hunter swung the ax around in her hand as she kept looking around, walking on top of a roof. "LAFD, anyone here?"
The blonde jumped down as she began to move further west to the next house. Looking behind her, she could faintly see Buck and Chim talking. Hunter's head snapped around as she felt her ears strain, unsure if she was just hearing things but then she heard it again, "Mommy."
Hunter began to pick up the pace, "Hey, hey, come on, where ya at, buddy," She softly but loudly called out while looking around.
The sun was beginning to go down and Hunter wanted to beat the clock. "Please, help..." it was a small voice, clearly a child.
Hunter ran towards the sound, "Can you tell me where you are?" she yelled out, knowing she was close but still couldn't see.
"I don't know," the boy called out, "I can see the sky."
The sky, the sky. Looking at the house next to her she nodded, the roof was intact meaning the boy was outside. Hunter groaned as she threw her ax down and began looking at the concrete. The hair, she could see the boy. "I'm here, I'm here, buddy," She called, running to kneel next to the boy. Looking down at him, she sighed while pulling opening her bag.
"I'm going to need back up, west of the blue house" she called into the radio, slightly breathlessly, "I need a backboard, and a jack."
"Comin to you," Mitchell responded over the radio.
"How are you feeling?" she asked the boy, trying to smile to him but it was hard. The little boy was pinned under a slab of concrete and Hunter didn't think his lungs were in good shape based on his breathing pattern. He hadn't responded. "Do you know what happened to your parents?"
The boy shook his head, "I... I was with my friend."
Hunter frowned, the boy had been left by somebody else's parents. "What's your name?"
"Noah," he answered.
"Noah, I'm Hunter," she told him with a smile, he couldn't have been past first grade. Hunter checked his pulse as she looked for Mitchell, he still seemed too far away.
Standing up, Hunter looked down at the boy, "This might hurt honey, but I know you're strong. Okay?"
Waiting for the boy to nod, she prepped herself by grabbing onto the concrete. Once he had responded she began pulling. It was clear they needed a jack and from Noah's cries she didn't know how bad the damage was.
"They didn't have any back boards," A voice called out, making Hunter turn her head.
Hunter nodded at Mitchell, grabbing the jack from his hands, "We'll deal with that later," Hunter looked back down at the crying child, "Noah, my friend Mitchell and I are going to help get you out of here. We need you to lie really still, can you do that for us?"
Noah nodded, "Yeah," he used his one free arm to wipe his tears, "I want my mom."
Hunter sighed, "I know you do," she sympathized, "and when we get you out of here we'll make sure to give her a call."
It was a good idea to keep Noah distracted, maybe then the entire situation would be less traumatic for him one day. Placing the head of the jack underneath the rubble she looked over at Mitchell, "I'm going to have you slide him out when I get this up high enough. Be careful, I don't know what we're looking at down there."
Not waiting for a response, she began manually jacking the concrete up into the air. Wincing as she heard the cries of Noah but she didn't stop. Stopping could risk cutting off the blood flow, a little boy didn't need to lose his legs today.
"Almost there, buddy," she promised. She wished she had air bags instead of a jack, lifting just one side of the rubble meant this would taking longer than necessary.
"Mitchell, now," she commanded, moving over slightly as she grabbed the legs of the boy to help move him to the side.
Hunter sighed in relief looking down, no blood was a damn good sign. Feeling down his legs, he cried harder when she touched his knee. "Noah, you might have a broken bone. Is it all right if I carry you?"
Noah nodded, holding tight as Hunter leaned over him to pick him up off of the ground. "Let's go," she whispered, Mitchell walking behind her as she headed back to the command point. Hunter turned the flashlight on her helmet on as she stumbled over the rough ground. The sun was long gone now, having taken longer to extract Noah than she had thought.
Mitchell had gone ahead, walking faster than she was. "Did you make a new friend?" she heard a voice ask from somewhere next to her. Looking over, Hunter gave a small smile to Chim and Buck.
"Hey, Chim. My friend Noah here needs some help," The shorter man responded nearly instantly, springing forward and taking the small child from Hunter's arms and heading towards an now available stretcher.
"How was your search and rescue?" Hunter asked the other blond, coming to stand next to him.
"Let's see," he trailed off, pretending to think, "Chimney went down a chimney and found four pregnant ladies locked away... How about yours?"
Hunter sighed, "Family fled and left the son's friend behind. Got to use the jack to get him from a fucking slab of concrete," she cursed, slightly pissed at the situation, that was evident from how she was ripping her gloves and turnout jacket off.
"Ready for the shift to be over?"
Hunter looked up at Buck with a blank face. He swallowed hard before giving her a smile, "right, dumb question."
"We'll be back at the station soon enough," Hunter sighed, walking over to the 118 engine truck, Buck following in suit as they met Eddie.
Eddie looked over at them with a tired face as he shut one of the storage doors, "Not soon enough."
"Amen, brother," Hunter sighed, nodding in the Diaz's direction while loading herself into her seat, the two men following her actions. It was clear all three were ready to sleep.
If Hunter was unhappy with Chimney staying at Buck's, Albert's presence was even worse. Hunter was happy that Chim would be able to live with Maddie again but she just wanted some time without a Han sibling.
"Buck has a lot of rules," Hunter could here Albert complain over facetime as she walked into the kitchen.
"Uh, are you really complaining that I said we're gonna split chores evenly?" Buck scoffed, coming into the screen view.
"Hey, to be fair, I hate that rule too," Hunter defended Albert with a laugh, throwing her arms around the shoulder's of the men.
Chimney laughed from over the screen, "Hate to break it to you. Albert doesn't do chores."
There was a slight blush of embarassment rising to the face of the youngest Han, "I contribute in other ways. I make a great cup of coffee."
"Oh, I can attest to that," Maddie said with wide eyes at the same time Hunter spoke, "There's no lie there."
"I thought you're not supposed to be drinking coffee," Buck pointed out with a confused grin.
Maddie sighed out with a glare Hunter could feel from the miles away, "It's one cup a day, people. Back off," Hunter laughed as she watched Chim's eye's widen, that was a fight he'd lost one too many times.
Luckily for Buck, he was saved as his iPad began vibrating with a facetime call, "Uh, sorry, gotta go."
Hunter took Buck's seat at the counter as he ran up the stairs, ignore as Maddie yelled, "And you know what, stop being so secretive about your new lady friend. I wanna meet her!" The pregnant lady groaned in frustration before staring Hunter down, "What do you know about her?" she asked, accusingly.
Hunter raised her hands in defense, "I've been sworn to secrecy-"
"So it is a lady friend," Maddie yelled out, acting as if she had caught him.
"Maybe, maybe not," Hunter said, standing up to walk away, "But you won't hear a word from me."
I thought it would have
been too mean to kill
Noah off so he's gonna
be okay :)