"You ever feel like you missed your calling, Cap?" Asks chimney, stuffing his face with omelette.

"What are you thinking?" Asks a curious Bobby. "Michelin-rated restaurant or short order cook?"

"I was thinking TV chef. I mean, what you do, it's like performance art."

"Mm-hmm, and much like
watching cooking on TV, we never get to taste anything." Hen replies, making me laugh out loud.

"Usually by the time it hits
the table, the bell goes off." I add on.

"All right, speed round. If you weren't doing this, what would you be doing?" Asks bobby

"Fighter pilot. Topgun.
Call sign: shogun."

"Bit of a mouthful there chim" I giggle before sipping my coffee.

"What about you, Hen?"

"Editial cartoonist, The New Yorker. I have a lot to say."

"You draw?" I ask curiously.

"No, it's a dream. It's not supposed to be attainable. Topgun? You can barely drive, you rebar head." She responds, making me shrug.

"Fair enough."

"What about you stass?" Asks Bobby

"Oh, for sure a music producer. Singing and creating are one of my many talents." I respond proudly with a cheeky smirk on my face.

"you got that right." Says chim with a mouthful of egg. "Hey. All right, Buckaroo." He greets buck after entering the firehouse.

"If you were not a member of the LAFD: what would you be doing?" Asks chim.

"Uh, I don't know. I'm not getting fired, am I?" He asks curiously.

"That's inevitable." Chim replies.

"He'd be a golden retriever." Chimes in hen.

"No, a bartender. No, no, no, bouncer at a bar." Chimney responds.

"A bouncer at a strip club." I respond, smirking.

"Oh, for sure." Reply chim and hen in unison before both high fiving me, proudly.

"What's going on with you, kid?" Asks bobby, averting all our attention to buck.

"Just traffic sucks in this town." He huffs out."unless you're driving ten tons of engine with sirens. It took me almost two hours to get from Abby's place, to the call center downtown,
then back over here. Just told Maddie she needs to start Ubering."

"How's your sister settling in down there?" Asks bobby.

"Well, she's a Buckley. Practically running the place."

And that's when hen, chim and I all drop our cutlery and walk off with our plates in unison, with an "are you serious?" Look on our faces.

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"Ok buck, so you're telling me, that if Abby isn't back by the end of the week, you'll be over her and moving out?" I clarify in the locker room, between buck and Eddie.

"Well yeah, I mean I can't be waiting around any longer." He says like it obvious.

"Well good on you buck. I mean, from what I've heard, this woman doesn't sound like the type of girl you wanna get over so fast." Replies Eddie, shutting his locker and sitting in the chair beside us all.

"But I'm trying to heal, and if I don't get over her soon, I don't think I ever will." Replies buck, before walking out to go do whatever he was up to.

"My bet he won't be over her by the end of the week." I smirk.

"You're on,I've got faith in him." Says a snarky Eddie, before I sit down beside him.

"So, tell me about yourself. I feel like we should become better friends." He says before turning towards me.

I take a deep breath and huff.

" well, I'm... I'm the middle child of five girls, and my mamas a single mum that raised us in mexico, but... then when dad died in the war, we moved to Texas, and then I got asked to work here. So...that's what I did." I say in a sluggish 'I don't like talking about myself tone'.

"Ahhh, so that's how you knew so much about bombs, and my full name." He replies.

"Sí" I giggle

"What about you?" I ask before turning my full body towards him.

"Well, I was in the Afghanistan war before coming back home to look after my son. I'm also from Mexico, and then Texas. And I'm a single dad, don't really have anything to say about myself really." He shrugs.

"What's your sons name?"

"Christopher. He's the only thing I care about."

"That's sweet. You'll have to bring him a round one day so we can all meet him." I empathise.

"Yeah, that's actually a good idea, right now I can't really find anyone to look after him while I work, so I've been letting my tia pepa and abuela look after him. But it's getting heard, you kn-"

but before he could finish his sentence, a big rumble breaks out and I can feel the whole room shake before the glass walls shatter, causing me to fall on top of Eddie with his arm around my waist.

"Earthquake." He exclaims, distraught.

"That's gotta be at least a six point five." I exclaim before looking in between us and hoisting my self up to dust myself off.

"Are you okay?" I ask before giving him a hand to help him up.

"Yeah, are yo-" and before he could finish his sentence, the bell rings and we run out into the truck.

God just doesn't want him to finish his sentences, does he?

As I hoist myself into the drivers seat and put on my headgear, I can sense an awkward silence brewing.

"What?" I ask turning around to see everyone staring between Eddie and I.

"Nothing." They all shrug in unison before I honk the trucks horn and flick on the sirens, making our way up to the emergency.

"Is everything okay?" I ask before turning back around to face the road.

"Yeah. There's no service. Texts won't even get through." Replied a worried eddie.

"Who you trying to get ahold of?" Asks buck.

"My son. I'm trying to reach my son."

"Whoa, you got a kid?" Asks chim, taken back.

"Christopher. He's seven." Replies Eddie, holding a photo of Christopher on his phone out to a curious buck.

"And super adorable. I, uh, I love kids."

"I love this one. I'm all he's got. His mother's not in the picture." I empathise with Eddie understanding how hard it is. My mother raised an extra four more by herself.

"He's at school?" Asks hen

"Yeah."

"Hey, I'm sure he's fine." I turn around looking straight at Eddie, letting him know I meant it.

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"You guys ever deal with anything like this before?" Asks Eddie as we all look at the tilted building towering over after hopping out of the truck.

I silently pray under my breath.

Lord, protect us as we walk in there, not knowing what will happen when or if we come out. I have faith and trust that you will lead us through right path. Amen

"No. I have to get back in there. No, you have to let me back in there!" A distraught husband yells as I look over to see what's going on.

"My baby's in there!" The mother yells.

"Please, our daughter is still inside!" Shouts the dad.

"She's eight years old"

"No, my daughter's inside!"

"Kat. Her name is Kat!"

"You have to let me in there!"

"She's all alone! Stop it!"

This poor parents.

"They seriously think
that's gonna hold it up?" Buck asks in disbelief as I look over to see people putting up poles to stop the tower from crumbling again.

"Pssh. This is all a joke." I scoff in disbelief.

"Let's go find the incident commander." Exclaims a pre occupied bobby.

"Any word from Athena?" Asks hen, worried.

"Haven't been able to get ahold of her." He replies. "She texted me she was on the freeway before the earthquake hit." I reply.

"What about you? Karen? Denny?" Asks bobby

"Same. Cell phones are toast everywhere. The system must be overloaded."

"what if I get home and my poor dogs are dead or ran off from how scared they were?" I ask chim.

"I'm sure they're fine stass, worst comes to worst they ran away but they've done it before, remember? Don't worry about them." He empathises.

"Thanks chim."

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"Captain. Chief Williams,
incident commander." Greets chief Williams.

"Captain Bobby Nash. How can we help you?"

"Hotel manager said they were between checkout and check-in when the quake hit,so they were light on guests. We've made contact with most of those. Multiple evac operations in progress.All but 12 of the 68 stafhave been accounted for. It's been pretty chaotic."

"The family back there said their little girl is still missing." Worried hen.

"As long as it's still safe to do so, we'll be looking for any survivors." The chief replies

"What do your engineers have to say?" Asks bobby.

"Looks like we had a brittle failure in the prestressed concrete section
of the building's underground parking garage, causing it to pancake at an angle. Right now the reinforced steel is the only thing keeping it from completely collapsing." She says while the whole building creaks. "One good aftershock..."

"And the whole thing could come down." I finish her sentence in disbelief that this is even happening.

"A high-rise is supposed to
be the safest place to be when an earthquake hits."

"Not when you're built right
on top of a fault line." The chief sighs. "This quake was a 7.1."

"Ha, I told you!" I whisper in Eddie's ear.

"Northridge was just a 6.7." Says hen.

"7.1... that makes the largest in SoCal in 20 years. And the last one was in Joshua Tree." Calculates chimney.

"How many crews do you have in there?" Asks bobby.

"Not enough. We've put in a request
for Heavy Rescue 3, but they're on their way to a freeway collapse.
We can use every hand we can get."

"Athena." Bobby and I say in unison quietly.

"Thank you." Bobby says to the chief.

"Yeah." She says gratefully.

"Okay, listen up." Bobby turns around to face us all after taking a look at the damage. "Here's how you make it to the end of the day.
You don't worry about the things that you can't do anything about.
Focus on one task at a time."

He's takes a deep breath in and out.
"I can't order you guys to go inside that building, and I'm not gonna judge you if you decide not to."

"Hen, you got a kid, so..." chimney leads on.

"Yeah. And I'd hope if someone
whose job it was to save him had the chance, they'd do it. No matter what."

"Amen." I high five her.

"Where do you want us?" I ask cap

"Hey. You guys will want to see this." Says an officer that just walked up to us.

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"We could set up a bag street-side in case that window gives." Suggests chimney as we all look up at a man lying on window on the tilted side just above us.

"Nobody works under that
side of the building. Somebody's gonna have to get him from the inside." Demands bobby.

"Buck, you say that's the 11th floor?" Eddie asks

"I would. I bet we could take the
ladder to that fourth floor. Cut the distance in half." He suggests as they both look over to bobby.

"Head on up." He gives them the all clear.

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"Okay bobby, I've made it down I'll let you know if I need a hand, apart from that I'll meet you outside." I speak into the radio as I get into the rubble in the car park.

"L.A. Fire and Rescue! Can you hear me? Is anybody down here? Hello?
L.A. Fire and Rescue. Anybody down here?"

"Right here!" I hear a small but echoey voice yell out from behind a blue Ute.

"Ok, ok. I'm coming!"

As I get behind the tuck, I meet eyes with an old man, looks to be about late seventies, early thirties. He has a crowbar stuck in his stomach."

"Hi sir, what's your name?"

"Warner." He replies.

"Ok Warner, I'm stassy. I'm gonna help you get out of here."

"No, no. Wait. My wife is in the front. Get hire first please."

"Ok sir."

As I walk over to the front I see a woman around the same age, I'm with her head on top of the dashboard and her arms outside of the broken windshield.
"Ma'am. Ma'am, can you hear me?" I ask, worried.

That's when I hear a grunt and I'm racing to get her out of the car. Luckily she had already taken her seatbelt off, I'm assuming to get out of the car before the earthquake hit.

"Ok guys, it's just you and me down here. So we're gonna work as a team. This car park could collapse any minute now. So the quicker we get out of here, the easier it will be to help you guys. Okay?"

"Sounds good." Replies Warner.

"Ok ma'am. What is your name?"

"Leanne" she replies in pain.

"Ok Leanne, let's get you out of here so we can help your husband." I role before pushing my hand under her forehead and reclining the chair back with the other.

As she lies back, I check out the damage. A broken hip. " ok Leanne? You have a broke hip and shoulder. I'm gonna have to pop it back in place in order to get you out of here. Is that ok?"

She's now much more conscious than when I first found her.

"Oh, yes please. Anything to help Warner and make sure we're safe."

"Ok Leanne, this will only hurt a bit. And then you'll be all better." I say before grabbing a hold of her hip and pressing extremely hard down on it for it to pop back in place.

Leanne groans before I grab ahold of her shoulder.

"Have you ever broken anything before Leanne?" I ask to divert her attention away from the pain.

"Oh just my ankle when I was about your age, but I don't remember the pain being this bad."

"What pain?" I ask as she looks down grinning at her shoulder that I had already put into place without her noticing.

"Ok Leanne. I'm gonna help you out and then you're gonna help me get Warner."

"Ok stassy." She replies the happiest I've seen her this whole time. But as soon as I help her up and out of the car, the first aftershock hits and the car gets squashed on the front passenger sit, where she was sitting by a specific area of the ceiling.

As we look at it in shock, I quickly rush over to Warner to see how he's going. "Ok Warner. This is gonna be tough but in order to help you, it will really hurt. Is that ok?"

"That's fine stassy, as long as we both make it out ok." He replies.

" ok, I need a chainsaw and stretcher down on the lower Westside of the parking garage. ASAP." I yell into my radio.

"Qurtez, what are you doing down there?" Asks a worried Eddie over the static.

"My job."

"He seems like a great partner. A concerned partner is always better than an ignorant one." Says Leanne as she leans down with me to check on her husband.

"Oh we're not- thanks." I say before checking out the back of the ute.

"Ok, Leanne. I'm gonna need you to come and give me a hand. We need to find something to cut the crowbar in half, and something for him to lie on that we can lift or pull on, ok?"

"Ok." She replies as we rummage through the vmback fo the truck to find anything that could help us.

"You know what this reminds me of?" Asks Warner as Leanne and I rummage through the suitcases and object is the back of the car.

"This reminds me of 9/11. We were both a couple of blocks down, in the supermarket, when I helped her run away from the collapsing building."

"Is that how you both met?" I ask

"It sure is. He was the biggest gentleman I had met in years. He was my hero." Replied Leanne as she went and sat down with him.

"Well today, the tables will have turned and youll be able to save him." I reply before whipping out a bow saw from the back.

"Now, why is there a bow saw out here?" I ask the now giggling couple.

"Oh, Warner and I love gardening, we always have something in the back to use in case we find some pretty plants." She replies.

"Well I have never been more happier to hear of a gardening couple than right now." I reply before turning Warner on his side and sawing the front part of the crowbar.

"Leanne can you please hold his head and back while I work on the front?" I ask her before grinding for what gel like forever to get more than half of this crowbar off of him.

30 minutes passed and another subtle aftershock hit as we were getting out two suitcases and duct taping them together to make a stretcher.

"Ok leanne. We're gonna roll him on his side and then back on his back on the board."

"Ok." She replied before helping me hoist him onto the board. After a couple minutes, we got Warner on the board and decided it was finally time to get him out of this hell but before we could leave, the next aftershock hit and this time, it was massive.

Concrete ceilings came rumbling down and blocked us off from getting out. As it tumbled, we luckily had a space to sit around and move without being crushed.

"Are you both alright?" I asked worried.

"I'm alright." Replied Leanne, but there was no response from Warner.

As I crawl over to him, I can feel a pulse so I start compressions.

"We're not letting you go today Warner." After a good five minutes of non stop compressions, he finally coughs out and turns to see Leanne come over and kiss him on the forehead.

"Oh, youre ok, Warner. Stassy has us." She says before turning a round to give me a hug.

"Ok guys, we're stuck under a collapsed ceiling on the south west side of the parking garage." I speak over the radio.

"Stass, hen will probably be under there, start looking. We're all coming down to get you guys." Replies a serious bobby.

"Copy that." I say before turning to Leanne and Warner. "Okay guys. Help us on the way. Warner, how you feeling?" I ask.

"Tired, but I can push through."

"That's my boy." Says Leanne, kissing him ont he forehead.

"That's the way. In the meantime, my best friend, henrietta is also somewhere here with us and a little girl named Kat. Let's call out and see if they can hear us."

"Ok." They both say in unison.

"Hen, Kat! Henrietta! Kat, hen! Can you hear us?!" After yelling for what felt like five minutes, a little fog comes running towards us and out behind it is a dusty hen and Kat.

"Oh dear lord, thank you!" I pray before hugging hen like it's the last thing I do.

"Hey sweety, how are you?" I ask the gorgeous little Kat.

"I'm ok."

"I'm stassy and this is Leanne and Warner."

"Hey honey." They both say in unison.

"Ok guys, let's get out of here." I say before pushing on the wall of rubble next to us, grunting.

"Ok stassy, we've all made it down here, any sign of the girls?"

"Yes cap-"

"Stassy, you there? Stassy"

"Shivers." I say under my breath, trying not to swear in front of Kat our Warner and Leanne.

"Ok guys, all we have to do is yell as loud as we can for them to hear us. They're right behind this wall, we just need to let them know we're here." Says hen in a confident tone.

"We're not backing down now." I add on before taking a deep breath in and yelling. After about a minute if yelling, the wall opens a smidge and decompresses some of the concrete built up together.

The dog runs off and we all decide to follow it. Leanne and Kat not go first and the. Hen and I take Warner and carry him through all the rubble.

When we get out, we're met with about fifty pairs of eyes just staring at us.

"My truck!" Yells out Warner as he takes a look at the Ute the firefighters must have used to puss us out.

Hen and I giggle before two people take over and grab Warner and walk him out before Leanne follows behind.

"Oh thank god, says chim as he desperately runs up to the both of us to bring us in to a hug.

"We though we lost you." Says a worried buck joining in on the group hug before the rest of the 118 all join.

"You canr rid of us that easily." I giggle before we all take off standing next to each other, walking towards the exit.

"You had me scared." Whispered Eddie as he leant down, softly just touching his lips on my ear. A shiver runs down my back again.

"Glad to hear that you think of me." I smirk before leaving the group and walking up to Leanne's and Warner sitting in a tent.

"How are you guys?" I ask scanning over the both of them.

"Oh stassy, thank you so much. You're the reason you're steal here with us." Replies a scratched up Leanne.

"Hey, I'm just glad you guys are okay. Now you can say you lived through two devastations together." I smile before Leanne stands up from her spot and pulls me in for a hug and a kiss on both of my cheeks.

"I hope we see each other again one day." I empathise.

"Oh you can count on that replies Warner, before I wave goodbye to them behind the truck they're now placed in to get ti the hospital.

"They're very lucky." Says a familiar voice from behind me.

"I'm just glad they're safe." I turn around to face Eddie

"Let me drive you home." He insists before taking my hand and leading me to the truck to get to the firehouse and then home.

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Eddie hops out of his truck on the driving side and runs through the windowed hallway of the school to reunite with his gorgeous son.

God he's beautiful.

And I'm not just talking about Christopher.

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Ok this was a very long one but I'm glad I got it done with.

Leanne and Warner are like her parents away from parents and I'm here for it.

3794 words whattttttt :)

Xoxo phia