Chapter Text
They're 7 hours into a 12-hour shift and they’re currently having dinner when the alarm goes off. Everyone gets into gear and into the truck. “So, what are we dealing with this time, cap?” Kyle’s the one to ask the question.
Charlie wasn’t really a big fan of Kyle when he first joined the team. Kyle’s the type of guy who looks like a classic popular guy in high school, blonde hair and blue eyes and in great shape. Couldn’t be any bigger of a cliche. But he turned out to be a really great guy actually. He’s only been on the team for six months but he’s already doing well and getting along with the team. In fact, after Kyle found out that Charlie was a lesbian, he felt safe enough to let her know he was actually a trans guy. She was happy to know that Kyle felt like he could tell her that. That made Charlie and Kyle get along great.
Charlie’s team overall has the more diversity than any other team in the Los Angelas Fire Department. Their captain, Alan Morrison is a genderfluid woman. Laurie Kask is from Estonia and also aroace. And Harri Morgen’s an Indian man.
“It’s a house fire.” Haven’t had those in a while.
They’re finally at the scene and are preparing to enter the building. “Charlie, Harri, you two are going to make sure the building is empty of civilians. Everyone else will work on putting out the fire.”
Charlie breaks down the door and rushes inside. Harri goes to check the second floor and Charlie check the first. The fire has completely taken out the kitchen. It might be the source of the fire, but she doesn’t have time to check it out.
The house is filled with smoke, so if someone’s in here they need to find them quickly and get them out. She’s checked the whole floor and is about to leave the building, when she notices a door. She opens it and then she notices the stairs leading down. It’s a basement. She runs down the stairs. At first, she doesn’t notice anything with all the smoke, but then her eyes set on a figure on the floor near the wall.
There’s a woman chained to a pipe on the wall. She pushes down the button on her radio. “Cap, I found a woman in the basement, but she’s chained to the wall. I need someone to bring me the saw.”
“Got it! Sending Laurie to you now.” Charlie starts checking her vitals. The woman is unconscious; breathing’s shallow and pulse weak.
The radio comes on again.
“Firefighter, we are unable to bring the saw to you. The entrance just collapsed. You need to evacuate.”
Shit.
“Negative cap, I need to get the woman out of here first.”
“How the hell are you supposed to get her out if she’s chained to the wall?”
Charlie thinks for a second and then she remembers. She’s in a basement. There has to be some tools around here somewhere. “Just give me a minute, cap”
She starts looking around the basement, but she can’t seem to find anything. The only thing she ends up finding is an old sledgehammer. That will have to do.
She decides to use it to break off the pipe.
She takes a swing.
One hit.
Another swing.
Two hits.
And on the third hit the pipe comes off.
She quickly picks up the woman and she’s about to run upstairs when suddenly she hears a loud noise which sounds like something collapsing. She tries to open the door, but it won’t budge. Something fell in front of the door and is blocking it from opening.
She’s starting to panic now, desperately looking for a way out. It’s only then that she notices a window. Small, but it should be big enough to fit a person through.
“Hey, cap I need someone to come to the basement window on the east side of the building.”
She puts the woman down for a second and gives her own oxygen mask to her. She then picks up the sledgehammer and uses it to try and break off the window. Her lungs are starting to hurt from the smoke, but she can’t let it stop her now.
Before she has a chance to take a swing at the window, she sees her team appear behind the window. She then hears a sound that can only be a saw cutting through the window edges. They remove the window, and Charlie lifts the woman to the window for her team to drag her out. And after she's out, the captain helps her lift herself out the window.
The fresh air hits her immediately. She didn’t even notice just how hot it had been in there and how much her body needed to cool down. But it’s okay. She’s out and so is the woman. She still has no clue why the woman was down there but, Charlie let’s herself take the win for now.
After the shock passes, Charlie starts questioning the whole situation.
Who lives in that house?
How did the fire start?
Was the fire on purpose?
Why was the woman chained in that basement?
But most importantly...
Who put her there?
The paramedic is checking Charlies vitals to make sure she didn’t inhale to much smoke while she had her mask off. And although she probably did, she doesn’t have the time nor patience to get checked out at a hospital. She just wants some damn answers. After finally somehow convincing the paramedic she’s fine, she excuses herself and goes straight to the captain.
She already knows something’s wrong because the police have been called and she can see officers questioning the neighbor’s and people surrounding the crime scene.
She finally makes it to her captain only to find her talking to sergeant Grant and Natalie.
“Hey Charlie, I thought they were taking you to the hospital to get you checked out.” Melanie Grant. She’s a middle-aged black woman with short curly hair. She and her husband Richard have been the parent figures in her life that her bio and foster parents failed to be.
Melanie found her sleeping in her car. Charlie had left her foster parents the day she turned 18. She couldn’t take living with them anymore. So, she worked 2 jobs to earn enough money to start a life for herself. She wasn’t planning on sleeping in her car for too long, just until she could afford an apartment.
But Melanie being the saint that she is, decided to offer her a place to stay at her home. Her family welcomed her and helped support her until she could afford to move. She never quite understood how someone she had never met offered her more love and care than her own parents. But she was always grateful for it, and one day she’ll try to repay for all she has done for her.
“Hey, yeah no I'm fine. It would just be a waste of time. What’s going on though?”
“What do you think? They’re opening an investigation to figure out why that woman was in that building and how it got on fire.” Mel seems annoyed, she’s usually not this snappy.
“We’re currently asking around the neighborhood to see if anyone noticed anything weird.” Natalie’s writing something down about the case.
“I’m assuming you two got the case.” She’s glad the case is handled by someone she knows and trusts.
“Yep, we sure did.”
“Great, have you heard anything about the owner yet?” They would obviously be the main suspect and also probably the one who did it.
“What owner?” Natalie seems genuinely confused by what she just said.
“The owner of this house. Wouldn’t they be the main suspect?”
“The house doesn’t have an owner.” Wait, what?
“It’s been abandoned for years”
The case is basically a dead end. Anyone could have accessed the building which makes it impossible to narrow down the suspect. They’re hoping one of the neighbors noticed something since any evidence in the house is probably burned to a crisp and their victim and also main witness isn’t conscious right now. And who knows if she ever will be. Of course this is the case Natalie had to end up with.
Thanks to Charlie they at least have a chance of talking to the victim. She might not have gotten out if it wasn’t for Charlie.
“It’s a tough case. Our best chances at solving it is if we get to talk to the victim.” Melanie says to make sure everyone’s on the same page.
“Not if the neighbors saw something” Alan finally chimes in on the discussion.
“I highly doubt that.” Melanie doesn’t usually have such a negative view. Something is definitely going on with her.
“Not necessarily. A lot of neighborhoods have a nosy neighbor. They would definitely notice something.” Charlie has a point. She seems eager to help with the case. Especially since she refused to go to the hospital, when she obviously needs to get checked out.
It’s not a first for Charlie to ignore her injuries while working. It’s the one problem with her. It’s impossible to get her to go to the hospital. But most fire fighters seem to have that problem. If you’ve ever worked in a hospital, you would know that fire fighters are one of the worst patients. Usually because they are impatient or overwork themselves while still healing from their injuries.
“Exactly, doesn’t hurt to hope.” Alan probably also noticed Melanies bad mood and is trying to help her think positively.
Melanie lets out a sigh. ”Yea, sure alright. Let’s just hope for the best right now.” She seems to mostly be telling herself that.
“Nat, please go gather the witness statements.”
“On it, Ma’am!” ‘She starts moving over to the other officers, but does it slow enough to overhear the conversation ending.
“And Charlie, go to the hospital and get yourself checked out. That’s an order.”
All the witness statements were pretty much the same. They were either doing something or weren’t even home. Either way, no one seemed to notice anything. The victim barely survived the surgery and is in a coma right now. So, basically the case is pretty much a dead end as predicted. The forensics are still checking out the crime scene for evidence, but they probably won’t find much to get this case going.
Natalies phone rings. A picture of Charlie appears on the screen. It’s a picture of Charlie wearing a dark red tank top, a leather jacket and black jeans. She also has some glitter on her face and is laughing over something. It was taken on Lauries birthday party. Nat wasn’t aware she even took that photo until checking her gallery the day after. Charlie hated that picture, so Nat decided to put it as her contact picture, purely to annoy her. And it worked.
Without hesitation, she picks up the call. Charlie was inside the building, maybe she noticed something that would help with the case.
“Hey!” She greets her.
“Hi, just wanted to see how the case is going.”
“Just as well as excepted. Unless the victim wakes up, this case will probably end up unsolved.” Nat hates unsolved cases. It’s just another criminal escaping the consequences of their actions.
“I was actually going to ask you if maybe you noticed anything weird when you were inside the building.”
“Besides the woman chained up, which you already know about, not much no. Although I don’t know if it says much, but the fire seemed to have started in the kitchen.”
“I guess it should be a bit helpful to the case. Hey, did you smell any gasoline when you were in there?” It’s the most common thing used in arson cases.
“Actually, no I did not, which now that I think about it, feels weird. You think maybe the fire wasn’t intentional?”
“I don’t know, maybe.” As if the case isn’t already confusing enough.
“Have you gotten the forensics report yet?” She’s about to say no, when there’s a knock on the office door. “Come in!” she yells out. Melanie enters the room. “Hold on Charlie, I got to put you on hold real quick. Don’t hang up!” She puts the phone down.
“Good news, Nat. We finally got the forensics report.” Speak of the devil.
“What did they find? Any leads?”
“Not really, they just found a bunch of empty beer bottles and maybe faint traces of some kind of drug.” Not really helpful. “But they were able to find some fingerprints on the bottles. Apparently, they belong to Peter Mayhem. Does the name ring any bells?”
It does. “Yea, he was one of the neighbors we questioned.”
“Well then, we better pay him a visit. Let’s go.”
Nat raises her phone to her ear. “Sorry Charlie! I’m going to have to call you back later. I believe we just got a lead on the case.”
“Police, open up!” It takes a moment but eventually the door opens. The man looks like his in his mid-thirties. He has short fluffy brown hair and hazel eyes. He seems to be hung over. Fits with the fact that the bottles had his prints on them.
“Peter Mayhem?”
“Yea, that’s me. Everything alright sergeant?” The man seems to be confused seeing them here. “I already gave my statement for the house.”
“Well, we are here for a new one. And maybe this time tell us the truth.”
“I don’t understand. What did I do wrong?” The man looks back and forth between her and Mel.
“We found alcohol bottles in the house, and they have your prints on them. Care to explain?” Nat’s not sure why Melanie took her with her, seeming that she’s doing all the talking.
The man looks down like he was just caught in a lie. I suppose he was.
“Ok yeah, I have been in the house, but I swear I had nothing to do with that woman. I didn’t even know she was there.”
“Why were you in the house then?” Natalie finally gets to ask a question.
“I go there drinking sometimes. I suppose it’s kind of my drug den.”
“You’re aware that this makes you a prime suspect right now, considering you're the only known person to have been in that house.” Melanie takes over the questioning again.
“Wait, no hold up.” The man starts defending himself. “Yes, I have been at the house, but I'm not the only one who has.”
Melanie shoots her a questioning glare. “Who else has then?”
“Everyone, everyone in this whole god damn neighborhood. It’s like a hang out spot for them all.”
Well, this just took an interesting turn.