☾ ⋆*･ﾟ:⋆*･ﾟ
°•. ┊ All Of The Girls ┊.•°
✧ ˚ ━ fell from the pedestal, act one
CHAPTER ONE — hang on til the chaos is through
( episode one ; pilot )
✧
We get to the backyard, Dorothea is the first one at the mothers side, placing her hands on her shoulders comfortingly. Bobby orders Buck to take over compressions and Hen starts bagging the kid, while I get the defibrillator ready. "Ready?" I ask the members of my team with their hands anywhere near the patient. The second Buck's hands are in the air, I shock him. "No rhythm." I shock him again, the mothers cries increasing, as he doesn't respond. After one more shock to his system, he begins to cough up water and Hen turns his head to the side. We all release sighs of relief, as his mother thanks us.
Our next call is a jumper; Bobby's the one to try and talk her down, as the rest of us stand on the ground, watching with worried expressions. I feel her pain, but I hope that my Captain can convince her to stay. Most people, at least most sober people, have their minds made up. There's no question about whether to stay or to go, but if we're lucky enough, we can convince them otherwise; at least for a moment. The woman rises to her feet, I inhale sharply at the action and await her next move. She talks with the Nash man for a moment, before letting herself fall to the ground. A slew of gasps erupt from the crowd, along with a few muttered protests and we all reluctantly return to our vehicles.
The second we're back at the firehouse, Bobby leaves and Buck waits a few, before taking the truck out on his own. "One of these days he's gonna get caught and my uncle's not gonna go so easy on him." Thea says, as we watch the man drive down the road.
"Yeah, especially with Chim giving him shit about giving Buck a ton of free passes." I agree, taking a sip of water. "Let's just hope we're around to see Bobby snap."
"Amen to that." She smiles. "I mean, where the hell does he even go?" The question makes me laugh, but she doesn't share the act.
"Wait, you really don't know?" I lean forward, resting my elbows against the counter and the woman shakes her head. "To hook up with random chicks he meets on dating apps. Why do you think I made that comment about keeping disinfectant in the truck?"
"I honestly thought it was a simple dig at Buck. You know, it was you calling him dirty. Like unwashed."
"Well, he's definitely that too." The two of us laugh at both the remark and at her confusion, before Chim approaches and challenges one of us to a game of Watch Dogs. Thea accepts and the pair retire to the couches, while I decide to take a nap in the bunks. I groan, when someone begins shaking my shoulder vigorously and I smack their hands away. "What?"
"Come help me prep lunch." Hen states, as I look at her through tired eyes and the woman grabs ahold of my arm, pulling me from the cot. "Come on, get up." I reluctantly rise to my feet and follow her back towards the main living area. Bobby returns, not even questioning where the truck or our team member is and starts helping Hen and I work on our meal for the night. It's only about twenty minutes of peace, with the exception of Chim's relationship rambles, until the truck is being driven back into the house and Thea grabs a drink from the fridge behind us.
"You really should've just let Vanni get a dog." She remarks, taking a seat beside Hen at the table.
"A dog would've been easier to train." I add, Cap giving me an unamused look, while I move to sit on the edge of the kitchen island. The Buckley man makes his way up the stairs, a pep in his step that makes me noticeably gag at the thought of the cause. "Welcome back, Vivian Ward."
"Who?"
"I– nevermind." I drop my head, shaking it softly at his uncultured ignorance. The blonde approaches the group, reaching for the bowl in Hen's hands and I grab a couple plates, following Bobby over to the table.
"What if we had a call?"
"I was in the neighborhood. I was just uh, getting it washed." The man defends, taking the plate of veggies from Bobby's hands, while I drop onto my chair and he rests against one of the couches. Chim makes a remark about him getting charged more for a full detail, causing Thea and Hen to snicker quietly to themselves. "Mm, yeah."
"Listen, I like you. You're a good firefighter." Bobby starts, causing Thea and I to share a look. "I know we got this thing; you call me 'Pops' and I give you a hard time for being a dumbass kid. We went to a Springsteen concert together, but this is not a family. It's not a club house. So, I'm writing you up."
"Come on, Bobby. See the fire, put out the fire. The rest is...blah, blah."
"No. The system and the rules are not arbitrary. First infraction, two more, you're out." He states, grabbing the plate from Buck. "Wash your hands."
"You know, you're not helping him by going easy on him." Chim tells Cap.
"He just needs a little direction."
"What he needs is to be neutered." I say with a laugh, snorting slightly. All eyes fall upon me and I shrug, taking a bite of my lunch. "What?" Just as the conversation dies down and we all refocus on aiding our hunger, when the alarm sounds, causing a groan to fall from my lips. Thea, Hen and I pack into the rig, heading to the given address where some guy claims to have heard a baby in his walls. I fling open the passenger door, while the other two grab the bags and we all join the guys at the base of the stairs.
"Where we headed?" Chim asks, the lot of us walking towards the entrance.
"Fourth floor." Cap answers.
"Woo! I'll race you!" Buck challenges the man, entirely too hyped about the possibility of climbing four flights of stairs.
"Race yourself, Rambo. I'm fifty years old, I'm taking the elevator." Bobby remarks, causing the Buckley man to question his reference, while Thea agrees to the race. The moment we pass the threshold, the pair are rushing up the stairs and the rest of us enter the elevator, meeting them at the top. We enter the apartment, Cap checking the bathroom, as the rest of us wait in the living room. "I don't hear anything."
"Look, I'm telling you, I heard a baby crying." The man argues, looking at us. "Someone flushed a baby down the toilet. Oh, I–I'm not high." I follow his gaze to Hen who's assessing a bong and I watch Thea's head drop, assuming that we've made a completely pointless trip out here. "Okay, I'm pretty high, but it's a sativa. You know, it makes you happy. It doesn't make you hallucinate."
"Maybe we should check again." I suggest, my team's eyes falling to me. "What? If he actually smoked what he says, then he should be of sound enough mind to know whether or not he heard a baby crying in the pipes."
"It could've been a cat, right? Sometimes rats get stuck in the walls–" Chimney's sentence is cut off when a noise elicits from the bathroom, causing Cap to shush the man and ask if we heard that. We all follow our captain into the room, watching as he knocks against the wall, having Hen hand him a stethoscope. Bobby continues his knocking, listening for anything, when a whine sounds throughout the room; Cap makes a mark above the toilet, stating that we need to open up the wall. "No, no. We're being punked. It's a tape recorder or something. Right, Spicoli?"
"No, maybe he's right." Hen starts. "Maybe a mother gives birth on a toilet and flushes it."
"Okay, first of all, that's awful." The man states the obvious, causing me to shrug at his words. "Second, do you not know how a toilet pipe works? It's this piece of serpentine pipe that takes the waste from a toilet to–"
"If this is a premature baby, its bones could bend and compress like sponges." I interject, knowing damn well that we don't have time for this.
"She's right. We need to get in there." Bobby agrees and Buck is quick to charge at the wall, axe in hand. The rest of us take a few steps back, while Cap grabs ahold of the tool, halting the man's actions. "Did you even stop to consider that you might hit a baby? Yeah, I didn't think so. Go get the saw."
"Dumbass." I mutter, while Buck passes me and he releases a scoff at my words.
"Try to find some common sense while you're down there." Chim remarks. The man is quick to return, saw in hand and informs us that LAPD has arrived. Cap begins to saw through the drywall and once he's opened it up enough, the three men start ripping it out by hand.
"Guys, that pipe services a quarter of the toilets above us...that's gonna be messy." Hen informs them once the pipe is fully in view. "Which means, even with the water off if somebody flushes the toilet above us..."
"It could drown the baby." Thea finishes her thought and I take the bag from Hen, as the pair rush out of the apartment to make sure no one flushes their toilet. I watch as the guys cut out the piping and trim it as closely to the infant as they can, before Bobby asks for the defibrillator; more specifically, the lubricant. They finally get the baby free, as Thea rushes into the room, backboard in hand. "I need another set of hands."
"Go! We got this." Cap orders and I drop one of go-bags on the floor, before following Thea up the stairs. We meet Athena at the top, following her into one of the apartments and begin to assist the mother of the baby, who's only a baby herself. We quickly move her to the board, deciding against the elevator to save time and Sergeant Grant escort us out of the building; just in the nick of time.
"Hold up! Hold up!" Athena calls out, stopping the back doors from closing. "I got another one coming! Come on, let's go!"
"Yo, is that mother? No! Screw her!" Buck shouts, as we approach the vehicle. "Look what she did!"
"She's bleeding out!" Athena yells right back at him. "She's a child!" Bobby comes over, trying to dissolve the situation, confused as to why we're not on our way to the hospital yet.
"Buck." I breathe, not in the mood to argue with him over this and Cap takes over for me, helping Thea hold up the backboard. "It's my damn rig, now either shut up or hand the baby over and get the hell out." The sour expression on his face grows, but he keeps his mouth shut as we get the girl on the gurney.
"If this baby dies, it's on you." The man snaps at Sergeant Grant, causing my eyes to go wide and I wait for the doors to close, before smacking him upside the head. "Am I wrong? You're lucky I'm not putting this on you."
"Excuse me?"
"You heard me." He responds and Bobby is quick to shut down the interaction, returning our attention to the baby and her mother. We pass the kids off to the ER doctors and Cap has to stop the Buckley man from following the infant inside, as my gaze falls upon Athena who does not look happy. I stand on the other side of Bobby, as the woman approaches us quickly.
"Hey! You do not get to choose who lives and who dies."
"Really? Cause I was under the impression that kinda was my job." He argues, his tone dripping in arrogance and I have to fight the urge to slap him.
"That mother was no less of a child than her baby." Athena tells him. "You're gonna get someone killed."
"Well, maybe, but not today."
"Yeah, you keep making jokes. I promise you, the next time you screw up...it'll be your last." The officer gives each of us one last look, before heading back to her vehicle. Being on Athena Grant's bad side does not sound fun, but watching Buck put himself there? Made my day.
"It had to be snakes." I mutter, cringing at the sight of them and keeping a tight grip on Dottie's jacket. I see one of them move out of the corner of my eye and jump slightly, pressing my body against the woman's in front of me. It seems as though I'm not the only one who wants to be anywhere else in the world because Chim starts going on about some movie that scarred him for life.
"Dude, as far as I'm concerned the world began the day I was born." Buck says, taking a closer look at one of the reptiles.
"Wow, that explains so much." I smile, as he tries to discreetly flip me off; failing miserably, as Cap scolds him for the childish action. "Yeah, grow up." I remark, sticking my tongue out at him.
"That's mature." Thea laughs quietly and I shrug, before the Buckley man shoves me towards one of the creatures. I gasp loudly, returning to Thea's side and grabbing hold of her jacket once more. "Will you relax?"
"No." I whisper, as we finally reach the woman in distress. "I don't do snakes. Why people own them is lost on me. Same as people who have tarantulas as pets, it does not compute."
"We gotta help her get some air, guys." Cap says, while trying to pull the snake off of her and Chim remains closest to the exit, halligan in hand.
"Bobby, it's no use. That thing is like ten feet long." Hen starts, as the man puts on gloves and continues his efforts. "Its constriction strength is like fifty pounds per square inch."
"Oh my god." Chimney cringes at her words. "I'm gonna start calling you; snake-ipedia. Stop it."
"All I'm saying is that you'd stand a better chance at tearing down a cement wall with your bare hands."
"Why don't I just punch it in its face?"
"You can't punch it in the face, Buck." Cap tells him through jagged breaths. "It's a snake. It's not some guy at an El Torito happy hour."
"Vanni, you promised." Buck turns to me with a whine and Bobby looks at the two of us through furrowed brows.
"Did that actually happen?" Dottie questions with a laugh of disbelief.
"I didn't say anything!" I defend, raising my hands. "That was just a wild, yet amazing coincidence."
"Look, I have dilaudid." Hen reaches for her bag and opens it up. "We can inject the snake and it'll pass right out.
"How much time is that gonna take?" Cap asks rhetorically. "Minutes. And minutes we don't have."
"Just kill it." I suggest, Chim agreeing, while Hen and Thea are quick to shut us down. The reptile begins to tighten its grip on its owner and Bobby's strength isn't a match for the snakes. Various voices begin to shout over one another, as I focus on the woman's depleting breath sounds and snap out of my tunnel vision, when Buck quickly passes by me. I watch as he takes an axe to the snake's head, my team members scolding him loudly and release a sigh when the creature's grip loosens. "Thank god it's over" Thea smacks me on the arm, as Buck flirts with our victim. Bobby and I share a look of disapproval, before the rest of us exit the house and return to the truck. Not even a half hour later, Buck is taking the truck out once again, but this time it doesn't go unnoticed by our captain. When the pair return, Cap disappears into his office and Buck heads for the lockers. "I gotta grab something."
"Uh huh." The Nash woman responds, flipping through the magazine in her hands, while I rise to my feet and descend the staircase. I approach the room cautiously, while watching the man sit in front of his open locker. I tap on the doorframe, making him aware of my presence, before digging through my own cubby and reaching for the portable charger in my duffle.
"V..." I glance at him over my shoulder, concern washing over me at the use of a nickname not many people, definitely not Buck, calls me. "I just got fired."
"Fired?" My brows knit together, as I shut my locker. "Wow, honestly that took longer than I thought."
"You're hilarious."
"I'm sorry. Too soon." I apologize, moving to straddle the bench beside him. "Don't worry about it, okay? You could always get your EMT certification and come work with Thea and I...it's super fun."
"Says the woman who's a certified EMT and firefighter." He looks over at me. "Which is why you tend to act like you're some superhero and no one can argue with it."
"No one can argue with it because I follow orders, when I'm supposed to. And break them when it's absolutely necessary, but Bobby tends to take my ideas into consideration, so it's not often." I tell him with a soft tone, placing a hand on his shoulder, where the joint meets the base of his neck. "But you forgot to mention the fact that I also went through the FBI academy a few years back, so I am allowed to fancy myself Wonder Woman." A smile breaks out onto his face, just when the alarm sounds and I am quick to rise to my feet.
"Hey, Vanni?" I turn back to look at him, his hand gently clasped around my wrist. "Do you think you could talk to Bobby for me? You know, seeing as he listens to you."
"Vanni." Bobby pokes his head in the room, interrupting my response and glancing at Buck, before turning his attention to me. "Let's go." I nod my head and look back at the blonde once more, giving his hand a gentle squeeze, then exiting the room. Our next call is a car crash; pretty standard, minor injuries.
"Van!" Hen calls me over and I leave Dottie to finish checking the patient. "Can you get Buck on the phone for me?"
"Sure, why what's going on?" I question, pulling my phone from my pocket and clicking on his contact, putting it on speaker as it rings. She tells me that Athena needs assistance in locating an active home invasion where a little girl is trapped alone with the intruders. He answers on the second ring and I fill him in on what's happening, before Hen orders him to take one of the trucks out to the neighborhood. "Don't be an idiot. You're not Clark Kent."
"Of course not. Clark Kent was a geeky reporter." He states matter-of-factly. "I'm a lot more like Superman." And with that he hangs up, causing me to huff and roll my eyes. Well, he's Athena's problem now; I wish her the fucking best with that one. We finish up the call and return to the house, waiting for the end result of Buck's adventure.
Bobby, Hen and I are standing on the ground floor, watching the Buckley man pull the engine in and hop out. "I know what this looks like."
"It looks like you took the engine out in your street clothes." Bobby approaches him and Buck argues that he didn't have time to change. "Athena Grant called me. Wanted to tell me what an asset you are. I told her she was half right."
"You giving me another chance?"
"You've used all your chances; so have I." He says. "Because somehow I have failed to communicate with you how lucky we are to do what we do."
"You're wrong, Bobby." Buck calls out, as Bobby begins to walk away from him. An expression of shock and amusement falls onto my face, as Hen and I watch the interaction in anticipation. "I absolutely do get what a privilege it is to serve here. And you know what? You were right to fire me. I was a punk...I still am. But I'm a punk who understands what he lost. Just need you to know that."
"I hope you mean that." Cap responds, his back to us. "Go get dressed."
"I think I'm not fired." Buck turns to the two of us and we share a look.
"Your shift's not over yet." Hen remarks, causing a laugh to fall from my lips, before she walks away.
"So, does this mean that you're gonna be less of an asshat?"
"To Bobby." He shrugs, leaning against one of the vehicles. "I'm always gonna be your asshat, Fun-Size. Don't you worry."
"Oh, joy."
[word count: 3524]
lexi's letters; this isn't proofread—