*Aria's p.o.v*
I walk into the beanery to try and get a cup of coffee. I grab one of my go to mugs and I look at the counter which has a clear glass filled with coffee inside. I pick it up and smelled it and it smelled wonderful. I poured some in my cup, but I got stopped by Travis.
Travis: What are you doing?!
Me: Caffeinating.
Travis: No, no, no, no, no.
He grabs the glass of coffee from my hand and took my mug. He poured what was in the mug back into the clear glass and I looked at him confused.
Travis: This is Medic One coffee I brewed specifically for Warren, okay? It is highly concentrated. For concentration. Can't you see he's trying to study *points at Ben*
Me: *I look over at Ben who's sitting at the dining table* Actually, I didn't see him or hear him or even feel a presence. Why does he look so creepy right now?
Travis: *whispers* He gets that way when he's thinking. I asked him about an in-field procedure literally five minutes ago. Been that way ever since.
Me: *whispers* Did he just twitch?
A couple seconds pass by and Ben suddenly hits the table causing both Travis and I to jump.
Ben: I got it! Congestive heart failure. IV lasix and give nitro *laughs*
Travis and I both look at the book for the answer and realize that he's wrong.
Travis: Mm, no.
Ben: What? No, no, no. That would absolutely work. Oh, giving Lasix and nitro is the right move for someone with CHF. I did it a bunch of times as a surgeon.
Travis: yeah, but without a chest X-ray you can't be sure. And you can't chest x-ray in the field. It says here, um, your patient could have pneumonia or a pulmonary embolism.
Ben: Yeah, I need Miller.
Me: Why? Would Miller make you not wrong?
Ben: Well, he's my actual study buddy. No offense, man, but, you know, he's-he's really helpful. Maybe it's his voice, that soothing baritone.
Travis: I made you Medic One coffee.
Me: Where is Miller anyway?
I stayed in the beanery with Travis to keep him company while he made more coffee. I finally convinced him to give me a cup and I was drinking my coffee until Vic approached us.
Vic: *whispers* My hobby proposed to me this morning.
Me: What?!
Travis: What?! *burns himself with the hot water* Ow!
Vic: *laughs* Sorry, sorry, sorry. Not the burn-yourself-with-scalding-hot-coffee kind of proposal.
We all walk to the sink and I sat down on the counter.
Travis: You've only been playing with your new hobby for a few months.
Vic: No, I know. We're not there yet, but things are good. They're...really good, and we would really love to stop being a secret hobby. And more of a "live out loud, show your hobby off in public" kind of- anyway, it turns out one way to circumvent disciplinary action is to sign a piece of paper.
Travis: A marriage license? Meaning you'd be married?
Vic: Well, yeah, not- I mean not married married, but piece-of-paper married.
Travis: Both of those things last forever.
Vic: Untrue. We could piece-of-paper break up.
Travis: That's called divorce.
Vic: Okay, look. I agree. I know it's not perfect, but there is no perfect solution here. And, uh, this one is very practical.
Travis: So is toilet paper. Is that what you want? Toilet paper proposal?
Vic: Don't call it that.
Travis: Are you really considering this?
Vic: Well, I want-I want Ripley. And I want my job. And this gets me both. I'm sorry. Do you have a better suggestion?
Travis: Yes! Okay, no.
Vic: Exact-see?
Travis: But marriage is not a transaction. Or practical. It's-it's-
Vic: Oh, look, I am not a heart and rainbows kind of girl, and you know that. I don't want all that fluffy stuff.
Travis: I'm not suggesting all that "fluffy stuff." I'm just asking if something "practical" is more important to you than...something real.
Vic: You know what? You don't know what's going on in my head, Montgomery, so stay...out of there. Stay out. *grabs the towel out of his hand*
Me: Well, I am happy for both of you *I smiled at her*
Vic: Thank you *she smiles and walks away*
Travis: That needs to go in the hamper!
Vic turns around and throws the towel at Travis making me laugh. I walked away, still drinking my coffee, and into the living room. I sat down on the couch and I turned on the tv to watch a movie. I was about 20 minutes into the movie until the alarms went off.
Dispatch: Structure fire at 436 Nelson Street. RIT assist needed from 19. Respond.
I ran down into the barn and I put my turnout on while listening to Sullivan giving us information about the fire.
Sullivan: We got a fire at a coffee processing plant! Could have been out an hour ago, which means conditions have escalated! Alert level's high! The incident commander needs us on stand-by for Rapid Intervention. Chief's already on-site to coordinate. Move!
I got into the engine and I sat in the front with Andy. We're driving to the scene when I looked over at Andy who looks like she's seen a ghost.
Me: What's wrong? You look shocked.
Andy: Maya- never mind.
Me: What? You know about Maya and Jack now?
Andy: You knew?
Me: I found out yesterday. How'd you find out?
Andy: I walked in on them. In the closet.
Me: *scoffs* You're serious? In the closet?
Andy: Yup.
I shook my head and looked forward. The rest of the ride to the scene was silent. When we got to the location, we all got out of the trucks and waited for the captain's instructions. I'm with the others trying to gather up our materials when we hear Andy and Maya screaming.
Andy: Everybody back up!
Maya: Move! Move!
Andy: Everybody get back!
Maya: Get back!
Andy: Move! Move! Get out the way!
Maya: Get back! Get back now!
We all start running away from the building, following both Maya and Andy's orders. I watch as they start to hit the fire, but was stopped when an explosion happened. My heart drops as I watch Andy and Maya get blown off of their feet after the explosion happened. I ran towards them trying to make sure they were okay. Once I checked if Maya was okay, I quickly went over to Andy.
Me: Hey, are you okay?
Andy: Yeah, yeah, I'm fine. Go do what they tell you to do.
I hesitated, but I went to meet up with the others.
Chief Ripley: 19, you're my Rapid Intervention Team. As soon as we have all of our people out, we begin a defensive attack. Go.
Sullivan: We're being deployed. We have a report of 10 members of 42 being inside the building when it blew, we don't know how many were impacted by the blast.
Andy: There are no real points of reference once you're in there, so it will be easy to get turned around.
Sullivan: We move in two teams, two pairs each.
Andy: When we find someone, two of us take them to safety. The other two continue to search.
Sullivan: We use 42's hose lines as a guide to find our people. Some of them may be trying to follow those lines out.
Andy: And listen for PASS devices. Go, go!
We all ran and got our SCBA masks on. Once they were on, we all made our way into the building and we all started to look for victims. Maya and I paired up with each other. When we got inside, Andy and Sullivan had found a firefighter and we told them that we got it and that they could keep on searching for other firefighters. Maya and I started dragging the man out until a coffee bag exploded on us making us fall.
Maya: What the hell was that?!
Me: *into the radio* Heads up! Some of these bags are reaching their auto-ignition temperature. They can burst at any moment. These things are like ticking time-bombs. Everybody, be careful!
We got out of the building and Dean took the man from us and put him on a stretcher. We both walked over to where some of the others were at and we waited as each and every one of our team got out of the building. I watch as there's some commotion going around and I overheard them saying someone is still inside. I watched everything going down and I saw the Chief running back inside. I walk towards Vic and Travis and I stood beside Vic who looked scared.
Me: He'll make it out.
It's been a couple of minutes and I hear Sullivan talking into the radio. He's asking for Ripley to come in, but we get no response.
Vic: Where is he? Why isn't he out yet? Come on, come on, come on. *sniffles* Come on. Why is he still in? Come on, come on, come on. Come on. Come on.
Vic and I keep watching the doors and I could still hear Sullivan asking if he could talk into the radio so that we know he's alright. We finally hear the Chief talking and saying that he got the man and I look over at Vic who let out a deep breath. As soon as the Chief got off the radio, we saw him walking out with the man.
Once we got everything sorted out, Travis and I walked over to one of the rigs and see Vic and the Chief talking. When they finished talking, Vic walked over to us.
Me: What was that about?
Vic: I just proposed. *looks at Travis* Stop rubbing all your hearts and rainbows all over me. And stop all your stupid smiling *smiles and walks away from us*
I looked over at Travis and gave him a huge smile. I watch as he smiled back at me and we both kept on doing what we were originally doing.
We went back to the station, but later left again when Sullivan had told us we needed to head back to the coffee site to do overhaul. Travis and I were helping each other with the coffee bags when we saw Vic walking in.
Vic: Heard we got called back in to help with overhaul.
Me: What are you doing here?
Travis: What happened with, uh-
Vic: Nothing happened. He didn't show. Now I'm getting back to work, okay? I need to work.
Me: Do I need to beat someone up for you?
Vic: No. I just- I need to work.
We both looked at her as she walked away and we both sighed. We looked back at the coffee bags and kept on doing what we were originally doing.