a chaotic mess
Buck slammed the door to his Jeep after snatching up his duffel bag. His feet shuffled towards the firehouse and into the locker room to get ready for shift. He nodded silently and waved to those in passing as he made it to his locker. Once he opened it, his mind indulged into the recent that plagued his mind for the past few days.
"I'm falling in love with you, Josie."
"Buck," Josephine could only utter out his name as her mind scattered to process his words.
They stared into each other's eyes deeply until in one swift motion Buck smashed his lips against Josephine's passionately.
Josephine exhaled a shaky breath when pulling apart. She blinked at him with tears filling in her eyes. "We can't."
"There's nothing in our way to stop us from being together." Buck assured, cupping her face with his hands. "I'm not sure when but there's always been a feeling that I've only felt with you. Whether it had been watching movies to keep us distracted through those rough patches, you accidentally telling how you felt about me, that dispatch call with that married couple, or seeing you walk down in your wedding dress at the bridal shop."
He grazed his thumbs upon her cheeks, "We're here because we always find our way back to each other. You and me. One thing that Red has taught me is to take that chance at happiness."
As his heart clenched for her response, he wasn't entirely prepared for the next words that came out of her mouth.
"I can't, Buck. I'm sorry but I can't. You should leave."
A voice pulled out of his trance.
"Buck!"
His body jolted before his eyes flickered to Eddie standing beside him with a confused expression.
"Are you okay, man? I've been calling your name for a minute." Eddie studied his best friend's face.
Buck was about to answer when he looked past the brunette's right shoulder to see Josephine had entered the room. She had already exchanged into her uniform as she threw in her clothes into her designated locker before stalking out to greet Hen and Chimney outside.
"I'm good. Didn't get enough sleep last night." Buck excused, returning his gaze to Eddie who seemed unconvinced.
"9-1-1, what's your emergency?"
"I've been kidnapped!"
Josh, who answered the call proceeded to follow up with protocol questions. "Is your captor armed or known to you?"
"They just stole my truck!"
"Wait, I'm sorry. Are you reporting a kidnapping or a vehicle theft?" He furrowed as a perplexed expression contorted on his face.
"Both. I've been truck-jacked." The civilian clarified on the line. "I'm a tree trimmer and some psycho just jumped in my truck and took off when I was in the bucket. We're headed east on La France and..." He trailed off at the sight in front of him.
"Oh, God."
"Sir, are you still there?"
The tree trimmer worker spoke up, "You might want to send an ambulance. Maybe more than one." He recommended before jumping ship out of the bucket and landing through the roof a transport company vehicle onto a bunch of packages.
Fortunately, he escaped as soon the crazed lady in the neighborhood drove through the power lines in which struck the bucket. The collision caused the power lines to split and erupt toppling the front of the truck.
The 118 rolled up to the scene after dispatched to the call. Hen and Chimney raced to aid the tree trimmer worker while Josephine, Eddie, and Buck approached the woman in the truck.
"Ma'am, LAFD. Stay where you are. Don't try to get out." Bobby called out.
"Guys, these lines are still hot." Eddie noted.
"I want you to grab dry chem and CO2 from the truck." Bobby ordered the trio and then radioed in the call center. "Dispatch, this is Captain 118. I am at the intersection of La France and Maple. I need DWP to shut down the power here."
Josh nodded along, "Copy that, 118. DWP estimate is ten minutes."
"Vehicle is under downed power lines. See if you can shave some time off that."
Getting off the line with dispatch, Bobby traveled around to the transport vehicle where Hen and Chimney were stationed. "How's he doing?"
"No broken bones. Just a couple of bumps and bruises. Maybe a concussion." Hen reported.
The delivery man standing, looked at them in bewilderment. "But he fell through the roof."
"Cardboard boxes bore the brunt of the fall. You know, stunt guys still use 'em as crash pads." Chimney explained to him.
"But aren't those boxes usually empty?" The tree trimmer worker moaned in pain.
Meanwhile, Josephine, Buck, and Eddie returned to the truck with fire extinguishers to put out the hot electric power lines.
"I thought these truck cabs are supposed to be grounded. Why does her hair look like that?" Buck asked curiously, pointing out the woman's fried hair.
"High-voltage events can emit an awful lot of static electricity." Josephine quipped.
The civilian in the driver's seat clearly in a daze from the electric shock, sported a lazy smile. "You came for the tree murderers." She sang out.
Buck scoffed in amusement, "Yeah, yeah, I don't think that's who they're here for."
"I can see she's got subdermal tissue damage from the strike. We need to transport her. Any update on when DWP's gonna get the power off?" Eddie said, looking over at his Fire Captain.
On cue, the power box sparked from above.
"There's your answer. Let's get her out. Carefully." Bobby motioned then radioed in the call center once again. "Thanks for the quick work on the power, Dispatch."
"I'd say you're welcome, but our updates show they're still four minutes out." Josh informed.
Bobby cocked his brow, "If you didn't shut the power off, who did?"
The answer came into light when a car accident occurred at the end of the street that half of the city's power had gone out.
"Seriously?"
Eddie and Josephine were guiding the woman out of the truck when Buck departed from the trio. "I'm on it, Cap!" He told Bobby as he ran off to the end of the street.
Bobby watched the firefighter, letting out a sigh. "This is going to be a long day."
With the abrupted power outage, first responders had their hands full in and out on the field. Maddie stationed at her desk finished answering a call to tap into another one.
"Yeah, Hi. I'm over at Wholesale Meat & Fish on Laurel. Did the power go out or something?" A man pondered on the line.
"An accident caused an outage. DWP's working on restoring the power. We recommend that people shelter in place until the power's restored." Maddie thoroughly explained the city's current predicament.
"Oh, I'm not going anywhere. That's sort of the problem. I'm trapped inside." He mentioned to her as he paced back and forth. "You think you could send someone to get me out? It's getting pretty cold."
Maddie paused, "Where did you say you were?"
"I'm in the walk-in freezer."
"You're stuck inside the freezer?"
"Yeah."
Taking in a sharp breath, Maddie typed along on the log. "Okay. What's your name?"
"Gordon. Gordon Johnson."
"Okay, Gordon. I'm Maddie." She introduced herself. "There should be kind of emergency release knob inside the freezer. Have you looked for it?" She read through one of several manuals on the screen for this type of scenario.
Gordon listened, traveling towards the entry of the walk-in freezer. "It's frozen over. Tried whacking it with a chateaubriand, but the ice is pretty thick. Any idea when you can have someone sent out?" He tapped his foot anxiously, feeling chills upon his skin.
"Power's out for half the city. It might take some time. Can you tell me how large the freezer is?"
He scanned the space, "Probably about 15x30."
"Good. That's enough cubic feet of oxygen to last you a few hours."
Gordon's eyes went berserk, "Hours? I can't be in here hours." He shouted in a frantic tone.
"No, no, no. Gordon, don't panic. The faster you breathe, the more air you'll use. So, you need to slow your breathing." Maddie instructed in a calm tone.
He deeply exhaled, nodding vigorously. "Okay. I don't wanna end up another frozen piece of meat in here."
"That's why you need to conserve as much of your body heat as possible."
"How?"
"Okay, I want you to look around and tell me everything you see that isn't frozen meat."
A few hours surpassed as Gordon managed to find plastics to secure his body and head while Maddie remained on the line with him.
"How we doing, Gordon?"
Gordon was seated on the floor, leaning back on the boxes. "Pretty cold. Tired too." He answered as his eyes started to droop.
"No don't feel asleep. I need you to stay awake. Okay?" Maddie demanded urgently. However, silence brewed on the line merely concerning her when she called out his name. "Gordon?"
As the cold seemed to take over Gordon's body, the 118 had arrived at the dark establishment. Bobby led his team to the walk-in freezer. He peeked through the small window seeing the man fallen to the floor unconscious.
"LAFD. Gordon?" He knocked on the window to receive no response. "Okay, he's out. Probably hypothermic. Let's cut him out now."
Eddie stepped forward to cut through the hedges for the equipment to die out. "Saw's dead. Need another battery." He looked over his shoulder at Buck.
"Oh, and that was the last battery pack. Too many car accidents in one day." Buck huffed out.
Chimney made his way to the door, looking inside. "Couldn't we just break open this window?" He motioned.
"Even if we could get in that way, how do we get him out? It's too small." Hen argued.
"The unit should have an electronic emergency door release and without power..." Bobby trailed off.
"Inside of that door is a frozen block of ice by now."
"Yeah, well, so's Gordon if we don't get him out."
Josephine's mind scattered as the members of the 118 were in a bind to find a resolution. Gordon's current state soon became time pressuring. No power. No significant safe entry or exit. Josephine stared at the power box that ultimately held the answer to their problems.
Her face piqued after a light bulb sparked in her head. "Maybe it just needs a jump." She gravitated everyone's attention before mapping out a plan to them.
Bobby had the paramedics wheel in the stretcher with a defibrillator. Hen and Chimney were detaching the pads while Josephine focused on the power box with Bobby's assistance. The two cut and rewired to connect to the defibrillator.
"All set here." Josephine announced to the duo on the floor.
"Charging." Hen took the initiative to switch on the machine. "Clear."
A spark ignited from the box merely showcasing it was working.
Bobby narrowed at Hen, "Can you hit it again?"
"Clear!"
Another spark lit up yet the sound of electricity within the freezer turned on as the door slowly pushed open to the team's relief. They transported Gordon onto the stretcher where Hen, Chimney, and Eddie worked on him.
"Pumping warm fluid."
Chimney checked his temperature, reading out. "89.9."
"Dispatch, we got to him in time. Think he's gonna be all right." Bobby happily radioed in before they rolled out Gordon towards the ambulance.
Outside of the establishment, Eddie left Hen and Chimney's side where a pair of paramedics waited for them. He crossed over to Josephine storing equipment in the firetruck compartments with Buck.
"Kind of surprised to find out you're some expert in electrical engineering, Josie." Eddie began, smirking down at the brunette.
"She's quite the computer hacker too." Buck humored lightly causing Eddie's eyes to widen in shock.
Josephine shrugged, "Let's just say it was a lifetime ago." She smacked her lips together and then shut the compartment door.
All units, police, and fire RA, clear channel two. Switch to Tac Channel 50. Officer on open mic in distress. Needs assistance. 727-L-30 at Studio Self Storage.
Josephine listened to the message voiced on their radios the second she stepped away from the firetruck. Both Buck and Eddie weren't far behind her as they've halted upon hearing the said officer on the line. The grunts and echoing sounds of the officer wrestling the perpetrator caused everyone else at the scene to pause. Because they knew this officer in distress was Athena.
"Bobby!" Hen yelled for her Fire Captain.
"Take him to the hospital and everyone else, on the engine, now, let's go." Bobby instructed in a haste to jump in his seat on the truck.
All of them continued to painfully hear Athena's struggle on the line. Bobby stared ahead remotely gripping on his seat to his wife hurting. He couldn't do anything. He felt powerless. And his heart tugged picturing the scenery of Athena being shoved or hits thrown in her way. He knew that Athena wasn't one to cave into defeat yet the anticipation of any possible outcome formed a lump in his throat that was hard to swallow.
"Cap, they're telling us to switch to Tac 50." Chimney chose to speak up in following the orders.
Bobby refused to comply, and nobody could blame him. The rest of the team sitting in the back shared worried looks. No words were spoken to what felt like the longest ride of their lives. The ounce of hope that Athena will prevail was the only thing they could cling onto.
When a gunshot sounded off on the line, bodies were startled in their seats to catch their breaths.
By the time they pulled up to the scene, the parking lot had been flooded with flashing blue and red lights. Bobby jumped out of the firetruck and grabbed an axe on his way into the storage building.
"Sir, the building's not clear." An officer told him.
Neither Bobby nor the rest of the 118 listened to the officer walking inside the dark building. More officers filled the hallway. The 118 stumbled upon the perpetrator who had a bloodied and bruised face. He was handcuffed to a pole as he glowered at them. Josephine who noticed her Fire Captain clutching tightly to the axe placed a hand upon his shoulder to steer him from any anger urges to attack the man.
"Captain Nash, she's over here!"
Bobby raced to where officers surrounded Athena sat up against the wall. She shown to put up a good fight by the bruises and blood on her face as well. Hen and Chimney didn't hesitate to attend to the Sergeant and her wounds. Eventually, the team managed to transfer Athena onto the stretcher and into the back of the ambulance where she softly called out for her husband.
Relief washed over the members of the 118's faces as they watch the ambulance drive out to the hospital.
"Athena is stable. She's in rough shape but she'll heal just fine."
The doctor informed the group of firefighters standing in the waiting room. Josephine stood with Alexis by her side after the nurse learned about the situation. Bobby had yet to leave Athena's side since joining her in the ambulance. The team departed the scene minutes after the ambulance left to show their support for the couple.
Josephine graced a half smile, "Thanks, Will." She expressed to Alexis' boyfriend who was currently working the shift when Athena was brought in.
"No problem." He waved off to the firefighters and his girlfriend before attending another patient when his pager rang.
Everyone began returning to their seats when Alexis snapped her head at her best friend. "Do you need anything?"
"I was going to get a coffee. You should get back to work anyways." Josephine nudged.
"Are you sure?"
Josephine stifled a laugh, nodding. "Yes, I'll be fine. We're probably going to be here for a while until Bobby sends us back to the firehouse. I'm sure it'll be the end of shift by then." She assured that the blond had nothing to worry about.
"Fine. I'll see you at home." Alexis embraced her before bidding her goodbyes to the rest of the 118 in the room.
After volunteering to pick up coffees or snacks, Josephine wandered off to the cafeteria. She produced four cups of coffee placed onto the plastic holder while carrying one with her free hand. As soon as she began to retreat to the waiting room. She bumped into Buck on the way back.
He curled a friendly grin, "Hey, thought you could use a hand." He motioned to the cups of coffee to which Josephine handed him to hold.
The duo proceeded to walk down the hall with the awkward silence brewing between them. With the sudden power outage that caused a hectic day for them, there had been no time for a casual conversation or the one to rehash from a night of a love confession. Unknowingly, they both opened their mouths speaking at the same time.
"I've—"
"So—"
Josephine and Buck couldn't help but laugh. Buck gestured his hand to the brunette to go ahead. "I've been meaning to talk to you but with the chaos of the power outage there hasn't been time." She drummed her fingers against her cup. "I want to apologize for the other night."
"There's nothing to apologize for, Josie."
"But I sent you away before I could explain to you." Josephine countered, coming to an abrupt stop in her steps where Buck followed. Her face softened when they locked eyes, "The thing is, I-I did the falling in love with my best friend before. We both know how that ended. And yes, we reconnected until...he died, and I found his body at that dispatch call."
She swallowed thickly, glancing down briefly. Speaking about Bryan's death continued to be a hard pill to swallow for her. Although, his death will always be on her mind every day.
"W-What I'm trying to say is I've lost so much within the past year, even myself. My track record with relationships isn't that pretty and our friendship means too much to me to jeopardize it." Not only did she think about Bryan but the way her relationship ended with Mark. She thought of those months drowning herself because of the recent losses nearly broke her.
"And you think my relationship track record is perfect? You're talking to the king of screw ups and I'm still trying to get it together." Buck retorted. He inhaled sharply, taking Josephine's hand. "Look, I meant what I said that night. I treasure our friendship enough to trust that being together will be the best thing in my life. Tell me that I'm not crazy that you have feelings too, Josie."
Josephine blinked rapidly, pursing her lips. "Whatever I say won't change the fact that I prefer us to remain friends." She said quietly and pulled away her hand from his to continue back to the waiting room.
-Writer's block hit me when it came to this book, my apologies. I always find it funny whenever I structure a chapter from the beginning to end, it ends up differently. Poor Buck got rejected not once but twice. Josephine wants to find happiness and even served on a silver platter it is hard for her to grasp. Hope you like it! Tell me what you think! Don't forget to vote and comment! Stay tuned!-
WRITTEN: 2/21/23
PUBLISHED: 2/22/23