NAOMI REID
"We have a four-car accident here with multiple victims. We're going to need three more ambulances and," Naomi hears the chief radio in to dispatch as she and Avery pass him. The scene before them was one of their more serious car collisions for the week thus far. Two cars wedged together off to the far right, one jammed into a light pole and the other at the center of the road, hood destroyed and smoking.
"Shit, what the hell happened here!" Avery comments as they wheel the gurney over to a victim who'd thrown himself out of his wrecked car. As they tend to him, she could hear their new lieutenant and Chief delegate responsibilities, splitting up the crew.
"Reid, I need you over here!" She hears Josh call to her over the radio.
"Copy that, on my way lieutenant," she replies, giving Avery a nod before moving. As she heads over to the silver wrecked car, the commotion of a revving engine and shouts fill the air. Turning to her side, all Naomi sees is Parker sprinting at her, tackling her to the ground as the wrecked car drags past - Crashing into another. Firefighters run to the car, yelling and fighting at the driver who still had his foot on the gas, burning out the tires as he accelerates into the other vehicle.
Not sparing her a glance or a word, Parker gets up off the floor and heads to his crew. Knowing there wasn't time to linger, Naomi pushes herself up and runs the rest of the way to the silver car. Hose and Geo give her a lift into the vehicle through its window before passing her the medical bag. "We're trying to get the door off!" Hose comments in passing. She begins working quickly, not wanting to stay in the wreck longer than necessary. "Send in the backboard, we could extract her through the window, she's stable to be moved." Naomi shouts to Hose.
"Smart thinking, get on it fellas." Josh says surveying the scene. Let me get in there to help you load her onto that thing!" Josh says as he begins climbing into the vehicle, not waiting for her response.
"I'm smelling gasoline, pick up the pace in there you two," Geo shouts to them.
With help from Josh, they manage to get the driver onto the board and out of the vehicle smoothly. "You first, come on." Josh instructs, grabbing her hand to help her maneuver to the window.
Naomi moves carefully seeing Geo's hand waiting at the window. pulling her hand from Josh's, she accepts his, allowing him and Hose to pull her through the car's window, Josh exiting right behind her without any assistance.
"Great work in there," Josh comments walking up to Naomi.
"Job's not over yet," Naomi replies to him before heading over to Avery.
~
Pulling into the firehouse, Naomi parks the ambo in its usual spot. "Crazy call that was. I'm exhausted." Avery comments. "Whose turn was it to cook today, I'm starving." She says as they exit the ambulance.
"Not sure. I think it's Truck's week for kitchen duty." Naomi replies, walking alongside her. "Grab me a plate of whatever, I'm heading to the lockers for a sec." She says to Avery before heading in the other direction.
As she reaches her locker, she could hear the faint sounds of a hushed argument. As she rounds the corner, she sees Parker and Josh, their exchange looking pretty heated. Cringing and not wanting to interrupt, Naomi spins on the balls of her feet, hightailing it out of the room. Entering their common area, she takes a seat next to Avery who raises an eyebrow questioningly. Leaning in close to her friend, she whispers, "Parker and Josh are getting into it. Both of them look beyond pissed."
Avery sighs and shakes her head in response, "Parker better be careful, Josh is still his superior, no matter his feelings. He could get himself written up."
"Mhm," Naomi hums in agreement, turning her attention to her food.
"Wonder what it could be about," Avery mumbles out, loud enough for her to hear.
"With the way Parker hates Josh, It could be nothing worth arguing in the first place."
"Battalion25, Engine 21, Truck 61, Squad 6, Ambulance 31, Multiple vehicle accident -"
"WHAT? ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!" Geo shouts out to the side of them as everyone rushes to their respective vehicles. "It's like people are just forgetting how to drive these damn days!" He huffs out angrily before jumping into his gear.
~
"Oh shit, this one looks worse!" Avery comments and Naomi pulls up alongside the crash site.
"Definitely," Naomi mumbles in agreement. As she and Avery exit the ambo, their Chief and Josh begin giving out orders.
"Squad. Check on that car!" Their chief yells out, receiving a "You got it Chief" in return
"61, we got the truck. Let's move, let's move!" Josh orders.
Everyone runs off, racing against the clock to get to the victims. "WE NEED THE JAWS OVER HERE!" Someone from Squad yells as they gather around the vehicle. "Driver's leg is trapped!"
"Hey, we got a fuel leak. Grab the extinguishers! You guys know the drill!"
"Shit, Shit! We got flames! Where are those extinguishers? Get a move on people!"
"That's a negative, Chief. We have barrels here. Don't know what's inside, they're unmarked." Josh informs.
"Good catch, lieutenant. Alright, everyone, back off now. All companies back it up, fifty feet, and let's get two lines running!" Their chief orders.
"WHAT CHIEF ARE YOU KIDDING!" Parker begins incredulously. "We almost have the victim, are you seriously letting what Kennedy -"
"WATCH IT CADDEL!" Their Chief yells, referring to Parker by his surname.
"No! He's wrong! We could get the vic out. Hose, come help me, man!" Parker yells back before running to the truck - The flames beneath it growing bigger and more erratic by the second.
"CADDEL STAND DOWN!" Their chief yells at Parker who blatantly ignores him.
"Is Parker crazy? What is he doing?!" Naomi comments to Avery as they watch on in anxious shock. No sooner had Parker reached the truck did a bright flash of red envelop the vehicle - Taking Parker in its embrace as well.
"No!" Naomi gasps out, all the firefighters running forward to the explosion. Parker's pain-filled scream reaches her ears above the sounds of the raging flames and panicked calls for extinguishers by the men.
"Let's move, let's move!" Naomi rushes out to Avery as the men manage to spray Parker with the extinguishers. Reaching his side, Naomi drops to her knees, Avery following suit. - Frantically opening their medical bag.
"Get his gear off, I need an arm!" Naomi orders out blinking away the tears as she worked - Forcing her hands to be steady.
"We need to intubate!" She calls out, Avery handing her the tube in an instant. Getting on her stomach for a better angle, she begins the process - Doing her best to tune out the scent of Parker's burnt flesh and his pained cries. "Dammit Parker," She mumble softly as she works on him. Three-quarters of his face was burned, his once familiar face looking unrecognizable.
"Check for lung sounds."
"You're in."
"Grab the bag for me".
"All right, we're okay to move. Guys on me," Naomi begins, grabbing a side of Parker's uniform to assist with the lift and transfer to the gurney. "One, two, three, lift." As gently as possible, they place Parker on the gurney, wheeling him to the ambo.
"Av, take the wheel."
"I'm riding with you!" Josh says jumping into the ambo behind Naomi.
~
Speeding away from the scene, Naomi continues to tend to Parker, constantly blinking her tears away. At one point as she reaches over him, Parker's weak hand grabs onto hers. Looking at his face, she could see the pain and the fear swimming in his eye. "It's going to be okay, Parker. I promise you're going to be okay," she whispers to him, keenly aware of Josh hovering over them.
Letting go of him, Naomi gets up, leaning forward to speak to Avery, "How much longer Av?" She asks, the rapid beeping of the machine cutting Avery off before she could answer.
"HE'S CRASHING? WHY'S HE CRASHING?!" Avery shouts out instead at the sound.
"I DON'T KNOW. HE WAS STABLE A SECOND AGO! SHIT! AV, DRIVE FASTER!" Naomi replies in a panic as she prepares a needle. "No, no, no, no, no," She mumbles out, the drug having no effect, the monitor now flatlining.
"What's happening?" Josh asks grabbing her arm, interrupting her movements, holding her back.
Shrugging him off roughly, Naomi reaches over for the paddles, setting the voltage on the machine, "Shocking," She calls out to Avery. "Clear!" She says making sure Josh had moved away before delivering the charge. Parker's body jumps with the voltage but the monitor continues to flatline.
"GOING AGAIN!" She calls out before repeating the process, still not getting any results. "GOING AGAIN!" She shouts, her voice cracking with emotion.
"Naomi, it's too late," Josh begins, holding her arm, only for her to shove him away.
"Again, increasing voltage to"
"Naomi, he's gone!" Josh Interrupts.
"Ignoring him, Naomi sets the machine and calls out clear, delivering the shock to Parker's body. "Come on Parker, come on. Please! Don't do this!" She cries, delivering yet another shock.
"That's enough, Reid. That's an order." Josh says stopping her from going to the machine again. the long hum of the machine filling the ambulance as Naomi stares in shock at Parker's body.
"He's gone. I'm sorry, Naomi."
~
Back at her loft, Naomi paces the length of her living room angrily - Papers in her hand and strewn across her little coffee table. To the side, sitting silently on her couch was Avery - Wiping the tears that escaped her eyes ever so often.
"It doesn't make sense!" Naomi groans out in frustration, her hands turning to fists, inadvertently crumpling the paper she held. "What am I missing? What am I not seeing?!"
Avery's ringing phone doesn't distract her, letting her friend answer the call as she continues to stare at the papers and pace. "Nomi, I have to head out, something's come up," Avery says to her with a sigh - Her voice sounding drained and weary.
"What's wrong?" Naomi asks in return, stopping to stare at her friend, "What's that look, I know that look." She says scrutinizing Avery's expression.
"I'll...tell you about it tomorrow," Avery begins, grabbing her purse. "Drop the Parker thing Nomi... it feels sudden, I know. It hurts but there's no way there's something suspicious brewing behind it. Today was just another bad day with an unfortunate accident. We lost him, there's nothing we can do about it now." With that, Avery hugs Naomi goodbye and lets herself out of the loft. And despite her friend's words, Naomi picks up where she'd left off, pacing and going through her incident reports.
~
Grabbing her laptop and phone, Naomi drops herself onto her couch. Searching up the numbers for T.C. General, she begins making a series of calls - Determined to get some answers. A knock at her door interrupts her latest call, which was just being on hold for the past five minutes. Rising from her seat she heads to the door, glancing through the peephole before opening it. "Jensen," She greets in shock, not expecting his arrival.
"Avery texted." He supplies, stepping into her home, pulling her along as he moved, shutting the door behind them. "Something about you obsessing, spiraling...conspiracies?"
Naomi lets out a huff as she rolls her eyes, "Well she misled you," Naomi begins, leading Jensen to the couch. "I'm not spiraling or obsessing, I'm simply trying to find answers. And it's not a conspiracy, it's a situation where things aren't adding up."
"Who are you on hold with?" He inquires, as he sifts through her reports.
"The coroners at General," She responds with a sigh. "They've been redirecting me and putting me on hold for half an hour now. No one is giving me answers."
"Nai-"
"His death wasn't natural."
"Naomi-'
"He should have made it to the hospital. The doctors would have patched him up. I look away for one second and he's flatlining? No! Josh's reports are useless but I'm telling you! Something isn't right here! I know I'm not crazy, Jensen."
"Okay," Jensen begins, his voice soft and level - His calm demeanor a stark contrast to Naomi's. "Come here," He says holding out an arm to her. Moving to him, Naomi lets Jensen pull her into him, cuddling into his side as his arms wrapped around her.
"Tell me." He says simply, his fingers lightly drawing patterns along her arm.
"Hmm?"
"Start from the top. And we'll comb through every detail." He says smiling down at her.