Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Christopher was having the best day ever.

His school had taken his whole grade on a field trip, and his favorite teacher, Mrs. Mckullen, was even his group's chaperone for the day.

The morning had admittedly, not been too fun. They'd taken a trip to the LA Phil Harmonic, where they had to learn about classical music and listen to what he'd been told was a 'concerto'. Although he much preferred listening to Buck's playlists. But, the afternoon was to be spent at the pier, which the teachers had reminded them about every time they gotten restless that morning.

Now, it was all worth it, Chris thought, as he, Alex, and Eva, went spinning around in one of the dinosaur shaped booth rides. They saw Mrs. Mckullen, being spun wildly by Jayla and Reese a couple of booths over and their laughter intensified.

After another minute the ride slowly ground to a halt and they all stumbled out of their booths. Alex hopped out first and handed Eva and him their crutches from where they'd been on the ground outside the platform.

"C'mon guys, Mrs. Mckullen says we can go get cotton candy!" Jayla shouted, and waved them towards the exit.

The three of them quickly followed and the group walked over to the cart selling cotton candy by the game booths. The line was long, and there was at least ten people ahead of them, but for cotton candy it was worth it.

It was then, while they were waiting, that they first started to hear people yelling and screaming. To be fair, people had been doing that all day, but this wasn't the fun type of screaming that you do when you're on a ride, Christopher noted. This was the kind of screaming that happened when something was wrong, and judging by how many people were doing the screaming, something was very very wrong.

Next there were people running, he could hear them yelling something about the water and the waves. Mrs. Mckullen was looking around wildly, clearly trying to spot the danger, while huddling the group of five closer to her.

It was then that the third thing happened, a wailing siren blasted out of all of the speakers. Chris saw Mrs. Mckullen's face go white, and a look of horror pass over her features.

Christopher looked around and saw everyone running, but knew that he and Eva wouldn't be able to. He still didn't know what they were running from.

"Tsunami!" He heard someone shout, "get off the pier!"

Oh, he thought, that wasn't good.

He started looking around wildly, his dad and Buck and taught him that in an emergency the best things to find were shelter and supplies. He looked at the booth next to them and saw lifejackets hanging on the sides.

"Mrs. Mckullen!" He yelled yanking on her arm to get her attention, when she looked down at him, still seemingly in a state of shock, he pointed at the booth, "Lifejackets! We should put them on!"

That seemed to snap her out of it and she herded the kids as quickly as possible over and grabbed a bunch of them and yanked them down so the children could reach.

"Everyone! Put one on now!" She yelled over the noise.

He, Eva, Alex, Jayla, and Reese each grabbed one and started trying to maneuver their way into them. Christopher got his on in record time. He was used to wearing one, because he put it on every Saturday for his surfing lessons.

Mrs. Mckullen lifted Jayla into the booth once she'd finished getting hers on and then Reese, "hold onto each other and don't let go!" She yelled at them as she turned to help Alex get his lifejacket on.

Chris saw Eva struggling with hers and reached out to help her. "What's going on?!" Eva asked, she looked near tears.

"There's a tsunami coming," then added at her look of confusion, "it's a really big wave, but don't worry, we'll be fine. I took surfing lessons so we'll be okay!"

"Like Bethany Hamilton?" She asked sniffling a bit.

"Who's that?" He asked, he'd never heard of her.

"She's a surfer who got her arm bitten off by a shark, but she's still, like, the best surfer." She explained, "I watched her movie."

"She has a movie?" He asked, glad that Eva didn't look as upset anymore.

"Yeah, there was even a tsunami in it too!" She said excited, "I'll make my mom let you come home with us and we can watch it."

"I can't wait" he grinned at her, just as he did up the last buckle.

"You don't think there's sharks here, do you?" She said worriedly.

Chris didn't get a chance to respond, because just then the wave came crashing through, and he had just enough time to tangle his arm behind the buckles of Eva's lifejacket and yell, "Hold onto me, and hold your breath!" Before the wave took them.

Underwater was a mess. He'd felt Eva grab onto him, but then had her arms ripped away by the current. He was glad he'd tangled his arm inside her jacket, but as glad as he was that they were still held together, his arm really hurt.

He thought he felt a crack, but there was too much going on to really tell. Something hit his leg, but he didn't feel much pain. He felt Eva get a hold of him again, even though it was a hand fisted through his hair he was still glad. The two of them slammed against something big and bounced off and kept being pulled along by the water. He was glad for the extra padding the lifejackets provided.

His chest was starting to burn, and he tried to kick his way towards what he thought was the surface.

He was pretty sure the lifejackets did most of the work, despite his and Eva's best efforts at swimming, and they breached the surface of the water, grabbing onto each other's shoulders and gulping in oxygen.

They were still being carried by the water, but the pier was nowhere in sight, now they were floating down unfamiliar streets.

"MRS. MCKULLEN!" Eva cried, "ALEX? REESE? JAYLA? ANYONE? HELP!!!"

But none of their group was anywhere to be found, and any other people near them were screaming and struggling just as much as them. There was no one to help them.

He looked around while Eva kept calling out for their group and for help, and that was when he spotted it. Right across what he thought used to be an intersection, like a saving grace, sat a fire truck.

"Eva look!" He said pointing, "we need to get to that truck, then we can climb up the ladder on the back."

"Ok!" She yelled back, "c'mon start kicking towards it."

They angled their bodies and started kicking their way across the intersection towards it, luckily the water seemed to already be moving them in that direction.

They collided with the rear of the truck, hard, both of them letting out an oof, but they managed to grab hold of the railings anyways.

"I've never climbed a ladder alone before, my mom says it's not safe." Eva said looking over at him with panic, "I don't know if I can do it."

"I haven't done it either." He said. Eva, like him, had CP, and while his dad had told him that some things had to wait till he was older, he didn't think that climbing a ladder was going to be one of those things now. "But we have to, it isn't safe in the water, and the ladder is the only way up."

"But what if I can't!" She yelled, clearly about to burst into tears, and quite frankly Christopher was thinking the same thing.

"You go first, and I'll try to push you up." He explained, praying to Dios for strength like his bisabuela had taught him, "then it'll be my turn and you can grab my jacket and pull me up."

Eva just nodded, and Christopher pulled his arm out from her lifejacket letting out a cry. It really hurt, but he couldn't look at it yet.

"Ok, go!" He shouted and Eva started trying to climb, arms keeping a death grip on the railing and feet struggling to climb up the four steps to the top. Chris hooked his legs through the railing and pushed her up with his good arm. And by a miracle, she made it over the edge.

"Ok Chris, it's your turn!" She yelled and he braced himself. He hooked his bad arm through the railing up above his elbow where it didn't hurt as much.

He grabbed onto the other railing with his good arm and started the climb. He felt himself panting as Eva grabbed hold of the hook in the back of his lifejacket and started pulling. With two steps to go tears started to cloud his vision, then it was just one step and he let out a whimper as the tears spilled onto his cheeks.

He collapsed over the edge and let out a wail as the pain in his arm became too much, his adrenaline was crashing and everything was too much.

He could hear Eva crying too as the two of them clung onto each other. Everything hurt, his arm most of all, and his leg hurt, and his chest and back, and his entire body. He was tired too, way too tired to even move. Now that he had time to stop and catch his breath, he was surprised he'd made it this long without breaking down like this. He hoped his dad and his Buck would be proud of him.

I was wrong before, he thinks, this is the worst day ever.

...................................................................

This was the best day ever, Buck had decided as he'd walked into work that day. To be fair, he thought everyday was the best day ever now that he was back at work, back with his team, and back at Eddie's side where he belonged.

It seemed to be a slow day too so far, they'd only been on two calls. one being a fender bender where they just acted as traffic control and cleanup more than anything else. The second, which they were currently working, was a flower truck that had flipped onto its side and had a minor engine fire. The driver was unharmed though, and only had some property damage to worry about.

Christopher was on a field trip today, and he and Eddie would get to pick him up at school afterwards, and they had a pizza and movie night planned. Needless to say, it was a good day, he was back at work, and had plans with Chris and Eddie afterwards. All was right with the world again.

"I think the sewers are overflowing," he heard Chim call, and turned around to see that he was right.

"That's weird." Eddie mused.

"Yeah," Buck agreed easily. He hadn't even noticed the excess water on the street, having assumed it was from the hose when they put the engine fire out, mixed with the water that'd spilled from the flower truck itself.

"What do you think it could be?" Eddie asked as the group moved towards each other all eyeing the sewer grate warily as water bubbled up from it.

"I don't know, but it can't be good," Bobby said, and just then everyone's phones went off buzzing continuously and blaring the emergency warning alarm.

Hen was the quickest to get her phone out, "Oh god!" She exclaimed.

"What? What happened?" Buck asked struggling to get his phone out of its protective bag. Eddie was leaning towards him, waiting for him to get his phone out so they could look together.

"It's a tsunami." Chim breathed at the same time as he finally managed to pull his phone out and look at the alert.

He stopped breathing, and felt Eddie still beside him.

A tsunami had taken out the Santa Monica pier.

Chris had been on a field trip today.

At Santa Monica pier.

"Eddie." He breathed out turning towards him, "Christopher."

Eddie looked like he was about to pass out, frozen in place, horror dawning across his face.

"Bobby we need to go." Eddie said snapping out of it, "we need to go now."

"I'm sure we'll get called out there, but we need to finish cleaning up here first." Their captain explained, although he also looked paler than usual. This was bad, really bad.

"No cap, we have to go now!" Buck argued.

"We can't yet," Bobby replied, "you guys know this, we'll have plenty of chance to help out there soon enough."

"Christopher was at the pier!" Buck exclaimed, "we have to go right now!"

Bobby blanched at that, he heard Hen gasp and Chim took a startled step back.

"It's alright you guys can go, I'm alright here." The flower truck driver butted in, "A tsunami is more important than this."

"Buck, Eddie, I understand, but we have to at least move the truck off the road and stop by the station to pick up the ambulance and the other water rescue supplies." He replied putting his hands out placatingly.

"Bobby that's my SON out there, I'm going now, with or without you!"

Eddie's voice was getting louder, distractingly while Buck snuck around Bobby's other side and snatched the keys from his belt.

"Eddie let's go!" Buck yelled as soon as he had them in hand and they both took off running towards the rig.

"Not so fast." Hen said blocking the door with her body. She had know what Buck was going to do the second he stepped out of Bobby's eyeline. "We are coming with you. We just need to push the truck out of the street first."

"You guys should go!" A big muscled guy said, pushing through the crowd of bystanders, followed by a group of other equally muscled people all wearing workout clothes. They must've been working out at the park across the street. "We'll push it out of the way. Go! Get your son, and help people. We can handle this, but a tsunami, that's all you guys."

"Fine, but please no one get us in trouble for this." Bobby yelled to the crowd as they all hopped into the truck.

"Wouldn't dream of it, Sir" the man yelled, and they were sent off with a chorus of 'good lucks' and 'be safe!" As the sirens flicked on and they sped back to the station."

I was so wrong, Buck thought to himself as they flew through the streets of LA, this is the worst day ever.

Chapter Text

After what felt like hours, but was probably only a few minutes, Chris and Eva calmed down. Their hysterical sobs turning into sniffs as they hugged each other closer. After another minute of just breathing, Chris had decided that it was enough. They were in a safer area, but that didn't mean that their problems were over.

"C'mon, let's sit up," Chris said, "we need to figure stuff out."

"Like what?" Eva asked sitting up and rubbing her eyes.

"First, supplies." Chris said, "my dad and Buck told me the most important things to find in an emergency are shelter and supplies."

"We have shelter." She said, already seeming calmer at the idea of a task.

"Now we need supplies," he finished giving her an encouraging smile, the same one that Buck always used when they were doing homework, "let's look in the metal boxes up here and see what we can find."

She nodded and they both scooted themselves over to the nearest one. It took Chris's good arm and both of Eva's to get it open, but they did it and inside they found several pieces of rope.

"This is good, we should tie ourselves to the truck so we don't fall off!" Eva exclaimed, and Chris nodded.

After they'd tied themselves to the back railing, but leaving enough slack to let them move around the roof of the fire truck easily, they took out a third piece of rope and tied it to the railing as well.

"What's this one for?" Eva asked, as she tied it using the knot she'd learned at Girl Scouts.

"In case someone else needs help, we can throw it to them and we can try and help pull them over." Chris explained, "like in veggie tales. With Lyle the Viking."

"I don't think I've seen that one." She said, "is it good?"

"Yeah, they're Vikings and one of them falls off the ship so they toss a rope with a floatie on the end to him and he gets back on the ship." He said, it'd been one of his favorites that he'd watched with his mom.

"But we don't have a floatie." She pointed out.

"Maybe we'll find one," he said hopefully, "and if not, a rope is better than nothing."

She hummed in agreement and they moved to open the next box together. Inside was a couple of hoses, which they deemed as not particularly helpful, but could be used as ropes if they ran out.

They were just about to open the third box when they heard a voice screaming for help.

"Help! Help me!" They both looked over the edge and saw a boy treading water desperately and heading towards them.

"Hassan!" Eva cried, and as soon as she did, Chris recognized him. He had been with Mr. Salazar that day, but no one else was with him now.

"Eva! Chris! Help!" He cried as he started trying to swim towards them.

"Grab the rope!" Chris yelled as he and Eva picked it up getting ready to throw it overboard to him.

They waited until he was less than ten feet away, neither of them being particularly good at throwing, and then they launched it towards him. It landed about a foot in front of him and started to sink.

Hassan ducked under the water and Chris held his breath hoping he'd be able to grab onto it. A couple seconds later his head bobbed back up.

"I've got it!" He yelled.

"Start pulling yourself towards us!" Eva called, "we'll pull on this end!"

With that, Eva and Chris used their collective three working arms to start pulling at the rope, but they weren't making much progress. Thankfully Hassan was close to the truck when he'd caught the rope and it didn't take much to get him to the ladder. Once he did they reached over and helped pull him up on his shaking limbs. Eventually the three of them collapsed on the roof again panting heavily.

"You two are my favorite people in the whole world right now." Hassan said through his exhausted tears, "thank you so much."

"You're welcome." Eva replied.

Chris gave it another moment for him to catch his breath before asking, "are you hurt bad anywhere?"

"I don't know, everywhere hurts pretty bad right now." He said sitting up and winced. "My ribs hurt the most though, or I think it's my ribs."

"Let us see." Chris prodded, Hassan hadn't been wearing a life jacket and didn't have the cushioning he and Eva'd had when they were in the water. Chris also noticed blood on the side of his face from a cut on his head, but he didn't seem to be bleeding too much so he wasn't too worried about that yet.

Hassan pulled up his shirt with another wince. His left side looked swollen and bruised, but otherwise okay. "I think you might've broke your ribs, but you should be ok until help gets here."

"That's good," Hassan said nodding though he was still sniffling, Chris imagined he was in a lot of pain, but the adrenaline probably helped, "what do we do now?"

"First, we tie you to the truck like us so you don't fall off again." Eva said holding up her rope so he could see. "Then, we keep looking for supplies, and if someone else comes along we throw them the rope like we did for you."

"Ok, that sounds like a good plan." Hassan agreed easily as Chris shuffled back towards them and handed Eva the rope. She was really good at knots, he noted.

Once they were all secured, they went back to looking in the boxes for supplies. It was a lot easier with four arms, since Hassan was trying his best not to move his left arm. They slowly made their way through the rest of the boxes and found a first aid kit, a folded up ladder, some of the shiny metallic looking blankets, and some waters and protein bars.

They took a break to drink some of the water and eat the protein bars. They finished three whole water bottles and two of the bars between them before Eva leaned over the side of the truck and threw up. Then, before Chris knew what was happening, Hassan was throwing up over the other side, crying out at the pain in his ribs, and then Chris was throwing up inside the box that'd held the rations they'd already taken out.

The burn of seawater was awful, and Chris felt tears spring to his eyes and run down his cheeks as he coughed it up. He figured it was better this way though, as he sat back and caught his breath with the other two, all three of them crying and panting. Stomachs probably weren't supposed to have that much ocean water in them.

Once they'd all calmed down they shared another water bottle between them and only a single protein bar. Chris had to coax the other two into sharing with him, saying that they needed the energy and that they wouldn't throw up again now that the seawater was out of their systems.

They sat in silence for a while before Hassan broke it. "So what happened to you guys? Where's the rest of your group?"

"We were next to a booth with life jackets when the siren went off." Eva started to explain, "Chris told Mrs. Mckullen that we should put them on so we did, right before the water came. Chris and I came up together and we climbed up here, and we haven't seen anyone but you since."

"What about you?" Chris asked moving towards the first aid kit and unpacking it, they'd waited too long already to deal with their injuries.

"We were waiting in line for the spaceship ride and the sirens went off," he explained, "Mr. Salazar started getting us to run, but we didn't get far, I felt his arms wrap around us right before the water hit, but I got ripped away, and I haven't seen anyone but you two since."

"I'm glad we found you." Eva said softly, "I'm glad you managed to swim for so long, I don't think I could've done it without the life jacket."

"Yeah, I'm glad you found me too." He said smiling at them, "and I'm glad my parents forced me to join the swim team."

"You didn't want to?" Chris asked. "Do you not like swimming?"

"No, I actually like swimming, but I wanted to do piano lessons instead." He sighed, "probably for the best now though."

"Maybe you can ask them to do both." Eva suggested.

"Yeah, I bet after this our parents will agree to anything!" Chris suggested.

"Like a thousand play dates!" Eva agreed giggling.

Chris pulled out a triangle sling from the pack with a cry of joy. He'd definitely need one. He'd been trying not to look at his arm too closely, but it was definitely broken, his forearm was bent funny and it was really swollen, but the skin wasn't broken anywhere, which his dad and Buck had told him was a good sign.

"Can you guys help me put this sling on." He asked folding it into the triangle shape it needed to be in to work properly, "then I can help you guys with what hurts."

They both nodded and he had Hassan hold his arm steady as he tried not to cry too much and Eva tied the sling in a knot behind his neck. After it was done he took a minute to catch his breath, wiped the tears off his cheeks and looked over their injuries.

They had a lot of scratches and cuts, which was easy enough, and they all helped each other put the waterproof Band-Aids on the smaller ones. They made sure to use the gauze to dab hydrogen peroxide in each scrape, which stung, but they'd felt worse today alone. Chris was proud when none of them even teared up at the disinfectant. Dad and Buck would be proud of all of them.

"Ok, Eva, you and I have some bad cuts on our legs and Hassan you have one on your head so we are going to have to bandage those well," Chris instructed grabbing the package of butterfly bandages.

He was glad he'd tightened his glasses strap so that it was too tight around his head before he went on the spinning dinosaurs, and that he'd forgotten to untighten it afterwards. His head hurt a bit now because of it, but at least he could still see properly and could read the packages in the first aid bag.

"Hassan you first." he said scooting towards him with the disinfectant gauze. Buck had told him that head wounds were usually more concerning than wounds on the rest of the body if they were of equal severity.

"Ok after this," he explained using the gauze to clean the cut, "I'm going to put these on it," he held up the box of butterfly bandages, "these are called butterfly bandages, and they'll help you heal better, then I'll tape some gauze over it so that it's harder for dirt and stuff to get in the cut."

His dad and Buck had taught him to talk people through what you were doing so they didn't get frightened.

"How do you know so much about this?" Eva asked from where she was crouched next to him helping him unwrap things and handing him what he asks for.

"My bisabuela cut her hand one day when we were cooking, and I realized that I didn't know how to help her." Chris said, "I realized that our parents always bandage us up, but who bandages them up?"

"Other adults?" Hassan asked.

"Yeah, but what about when there aren't any around, like now?" Chris explained, "so I made my dad and my Buck teach me all sorts of first aid."

"How do they know how to do this stuff, I don't think my parents would know what half of this is." Eva said. "They've definitely never mentioned butterfly bandages, I would remember a cool name like that."

"All done!" Chris said having stuck the last piece of tape to Hassan's head, "you're turn Eva." He said turning to the gash on her leg, it was pretty deep but had stopped bleeding so that was good.

"It's because my dad was an army medic, and now he's a firefighter, which is how we met Buck." He explained trying to keep her distracted as the hydrogen peroxide stung her leg and she whimpered, "Buck is a firefighter too, and he's my dad's partner and his best friend, but he was my best friend first!"

He was smiling now, he loved his dad and his Buck, and he loved how they teased dad about how Christopher would always be Buck's first best friend.

"Ok, you're all done!" He said, "see it wasn't too bad!"

Eva sniffed, but nodded, "here, it's our turn to help you, tell us what to do."

Hassan and Eva did a good job, he thought, of taking care of the cut on his knee, it wasn't as deep as he'd thought, which was good. Everything still hurt really bad, but he wasn't crying anymore, he was bandaged up as best as he could be, and he could still move so that was good.

"Hey! Coop! Diego! Mara! Anyone? Call out!" A voice suddenly shouted and they all turned to look.

There was a woman struggling through the water, but she seemed to be keeping her head above the water alright.

"Over here!" They all shouted trying to get her attention and waving their working arms.

The woman looked over and started swimming towards them.

"Grab the rope!" Eva called as Hassan picked it up and tossed it towards her once she got close enough.

She caught it out of the air, and started pulling herself towards them. The three of them scrambled to help pull on their end of the rope, but whoever this woman was, she was doing most of the work. She made it to the back of the truck and heaved herself up the ladder.

She collapsed once she made it onto the top of the truck and caught her breath looking up at the sky. The three of them hovered, making sure she was okay.

"C'mon let's get her a rope," Chris said once they'd caught their breath and the three of them heaved open the box with the rope.

They grabbed the rope and Eva took one end and began tying it to the railing with the others and checking the rest of the knots.

"Here, Miss," Hassan said tapping the woman's shoulder and gesturing with the other end of the rope "we need to get you tied to the truck."

The woman sat up and seemed to take them all in for the first time.

"It's just you three up here?" She asked taking the rope and tying it around her waist.

"Yes miss." Hassan answered.

"Here," Eva said crawling over to them and handing her a bottle of water.

"Thank you," she said, unscrewing the cap and drinking the water faster than Chris thought possible.

"Are you hurt?" Eva asked, "we have a first aid kit, we can help you."

"No, I'm alright" she said looking at the three of them in wonder, "are you guys alright? Someone already bandaged you up by the looks of it."

"That was Chris." Hassan said pointing at him, "he's real good at it too, Miss."

"I can see that." She nodded looking them all over, "I'm not an easy person to impress, but you've certainly done it kiddo."

"This is your truck isn't it?" Chris asked, trying to hide his blush at the praise, "you were at the pier helping the man in the dinosaur costume."

"Yeah, I was." She said looking startled, "how'd you know that?"

"His dad and Buck are firefighters, so he knows lots of things." Eva cut in proudly. "Chris saved us!"

"It wasn't just me," he said, and now he definitely couldn't hide his blush, "We all helped, Eva, you did the knots, and Hassan helped get the supplies and throw the rope, and you both helped patch me up. We saved each other."

"And me." The woman said, "you three saved me too, thank you. You kids are definitely the most badass kids I've ever met."

They all burst out giggling at that.

"What?!" She exclaimed, "what's so funny?"

"You said a bad word miss." Hassan said with a grin.

"Oh, whoops." She grimaced, "when you tell people this story, just leave that part out. And my name's Lena, what about you guys?"

"I'm Christopher, this is Eva, and that's Hassan." Chris said, "Do you know my dad? Or Buck?"

"Maybe, what're their names and house?" She asked.

"Eddie Diaz and Evan Buckley, they're at the 118." He rattled off easily.

"No, I don't, sorry kid," she said and she did look sorry, "any chance you've seen anyone from the 136?"

He shook his head, "no it's just been us, and then you."

She sighed and was about to say something else when all the sudden the truck shook. "Get down and hold on!" Miss Lena yelled grabbing them and pulling them to the center of the truck against the floor.

Chapter Text

"We're going to have to split up." Buck said, as they rode towards the pier. Eddie had already called his abuela and Pepa who were trying to get information from the school.

"I know," Eddie said, "But I don't like letting you out of my sight in all this."

"Yeah, but Chris comes first." Buck replied.

"I know, I'm not arguing, just saying I don't like it." Eddie acquiesces, rubbing a hand over his face.

Just then the truck stopped and they hopped out, the road they were standing on became water only 10 feet away.

"Dios." Eddie said and Buck could only hum his agreement, this could not possibly be worse.

"Alright one of us has to go with search and rescue through the streets, the rest are coming with me and we are heading for the pier." Bobby called to them.

"I'll go with S&R." Buck called and started putting on the red waterproof suit they all needed to wear.

"Alright, keep your radio on and in contact," Bobby nodded, "and Buck, don't be too Buck about all this, please."

"Sure, cap." He said over his shoulder, jogging over to where the other team was waiting for him.

"That wasn't exactly reassuring," Chim said as they watched the boat speed off towards the streets North of the Pier.

......................................................................

Buck was standing on top of a car that was on the edge of a pile of debris stuck in a intersection with two teenagers. They both had scrapes and bruises and one of them a broken leg, but they'd both be ok as soon as they got to a hospital. They'd been picking people up out of the water and sending them back in groups to dry land where they'd be transported back to hospitals and refugee centers.

This was their third stop, the boat was across the street, picking people up from a different debris pile while Buck stabilized the two teenagers. Not that he needed to do much. As it turned out, the two had come to the pier together for a first date, and then the wave had come. The boy, Eli Carter, had broken his leg at some point in the initial wave, and the girl Elisia Lark, who he'd been informed was a lifeguard, had swam them both to the car and they'd pulled themselves up. Elisia had even already stabilized Eli's leg with a piece of wood drifting by and some scraps of her shirt.

"You did a great job." He told her and she blushed, "you should consider becoming a firefighter, you've definitely got what it takes."

"Thanks," she replied, "but I think I'll stick to lifeguarding for now, at least till I graduate High school."

"Fair enough." He chuckled then spotted the boat heading over to them, "here they come, are you two ready?"

"More than," Eli said with a grin, "dry land and pain meds here we come!"

"And an important lesson about skipping class, I hope." Buck added as he helped the S&R guys to get Eli onto the boat.

Just then the car they were standing on started to shake, and their comms started blaring the alarm letting them know there was another surge. A little bit too late if you asked Buck as the water started pouring over their legs and quickly rising.

"JUMP!" He yelled and pushed Elisia towards the boat, where Mike was braced and ready to catch her.

The force he used pushing her knocked him off balance and before he knew it he was under the water. He kicked as hard as he could trying to breach the surface, but the current was too strong and he was being pummeled by debris. He finally made it to the surface though, just as the burning in his lungs became unbearable. He gasped in breaths greedily, looking around for the boat, but it was nowhere in sight. In fact, nothing that he could see was familiar at all. He must've been dragged farther than he thought.

The water pulled him further and further until it eventually slammed him against a wall, but it was shallow enough for him to dig his heels in and wait the few minutes it took for the water to go down. He'd even managed to snag a couple people who'd been floating by too.

Eventually, the water got low enough that they could all sit down and catch their breath. There was six of them including Buck, Four adults and one kid who looked about a second away from bursting into tears. He took a quick inventory of himself, but he seemed ok, some scrapes and bruises for sure and he was sore as hell, but he'd be okay.

"Is everyone alright?" He called out turning to look at the others, "I'm a firefighter, I can help."

They all seemed to be fine though, which was a miracle. That led him to his next question.

"Have any of you guys seen a boy, Christopher Diaz, he was here with a group of kids on a field trip, they were all wearing bright orange school shirts. He's got crutches and red glasses."

"Maybe," one of the men said looking at him. "I saw a group of kids and an adult in orange shirts in line for the Ferris wheel about twenty minutes before the wave. They were probably on it when the wave came. It's still standing, look you can see it." He added pointing, and sure enough, it was still standing out in the water. I don't know if the kid you're looking for was with them though, I wasn't paying too much attention to be honest."

"Thank you!" Buck said, "Thank you so much! Everyone, you can stay here and wait for help or you can start making your way inland and see if you can find it there, but stay together!" this was the first piece of information he'd gotten that he could work with all day.

But how to get out to the Ferris wheel? He thought, as he stood at the edge of the water, which had retreated part way but not completely, not yet anyways. Then he spotted a surf board in a pile of rubble, he thanked every god he could think of for the girl he'd met at Virginia Beach who taught him to surf and the SEALs training he'd gone through before he dropped. He grabbed the surfboard and started paddling out to the Ferris wheel.

.........................................................................

The water was rocking the truck and water was splashing them, soaking their clothes through all over again. Everything was loud, really loud, but not loud enough to not hear the screaming.

There was a man screaming for help, Christopher saw once he ducked his head up enough to see over the rail. Hassan sat up on his knees and grabbed their extra rope.

"OVER HERE!" He called as the man got closer and looked towards them.

"GRAB THE ROPE!" Chris and Eva chorused as Hassan threw the rope towards the man.

Miss Lena gave up on trying to get them to get down again and grabbed the rope. The man managed to grab the rope before it sunk too far and they started pulling. Chris and Eva grabbed on behind Lena and Hassan and tried to help pull.

They managed to get the man to the back of the truck and he started to heave himself up the ladder.

"Look out!" Lena called, but before the man could even turn around, a pile of debris slammed into him and knocked him back into the water.

"NO!" Hassan screamed and Eva and Chris let out screams too.

They didn't see the man again.

Eva was crying now. And Miss Lena was pulling them back down against the roof of the truck and telling them to hold on and it would all be okay.

Chris was pretty sure it wouldn't be.

.......................................................................

They'd found one of the teachers, Mrs. Rosales, and two of the students, Kayden and Allison huddled on a floating pile of debris. They'd loaded them onto a boat and had them transported back to the VA hospital that'd been set up on Sawtelle, but not before Eddie had asked if they'd seen Christopher.

Mrs. Rosales had informed him that she'd seen a group on the Ferris wheel before the wave, but had been too far away to be able to tell which group it was. He thanked her and as soon as they were sent off, he called the school.

"Hello, this is Edmundo Diaz, I am Christopher Diaz's father, have you heard anything about him?" He asked, knowing what the answer was before he got it.

"I'm so sorry, Mr. Diaz, but we haven't heard anything about your son." The voice on the other end said, he thought it might be Ms. Rice, the school's secretary.

"Let me know when you do, but that isn't the only thing I called about." He said, "I work as a firefighter and I'm out at the pier right now and I wanted to let you know we just picked up Edna Rosales, Kayden Rider, and Allison Mitchell. They've been sent to the old VA hospital on Sawtelle. You can let their families know that they can find them there."

"Thank you so much, Mr. Diaz, you are a true miracle. We will let you know as soon as we get word about Christopher, I promise." The secretary said through the phone sounding incredibly grateful, "Please stay safe out there and let us know if you find anyone else."

"Will do." He said and hung up.

Bobby was steering their boat through the streets and out towards the coast so they could get to the Ferris wheel. Eddie hadn't even had to tell him, as soon as they'd heard what Mrs. Rosales had said, it had been decided what their next destination was.

Not ten seconds after the last call had ended, his phone lit up again. It was Ida Joyce, she was one of Chris' friend's moms.

"Eddie Diaz." He answered.

"Eddie, are you working today, are you down at the pier?" Came Ida's frantic sounding voice.

"I am, but Ida I haven't seen Eva anywhere." He said gently.

"Oh god. Have you found Christopher?" She asked.

"No, I haven't yet, but we're looking, Ida," he said, "and I promise I'll do everything I can to find her and if I do you'll be the first call I make, alright, but I have to go now."

"Ok, thank you!" She sobbed into the line and Eddie hung up. He felt bad, but he really had needed to go, the Ferris wheel was rapidly approaching.

Bobby cut the motor as they got close and they saw a group of people floating on a raft of debris at the foot of the Ferris wheel.

"Are you guys okay?" Bobby shouted looking them over for obvious injuries.

"estamos bien!" One of the men shouted back.

"Who helped you guys?" Bobby asked, because he doubted they'd climbed down on their own.

"El bombero." The man yelled back, and everyone turned to Eddie for a translation.

"The fireman." He said shrugging and then a third voice joined in.

"Hey, I could use some help up here." Their heads whipped up, and there was Buck, apparently free climbing the Ferris wheel.

"Buck?!" Hen yelled, "Is that you?"

"Oh, hey guys! Didn't realize that was you!" He called back.

"Buck get down here and get some proper gear on right now!" Bobby yelled, he looked like he was about to have an aneurism.

"Ok!" Buck yelled, and that was all the warning they got before he leaped off the Ferris wheel and down into the water.

His head popped up a couple seconds later and he swam over to the boat and they helped pull him in.

"Jesus, Buck, I meant climb down, not leap forty feet into the ocean during a tsunami!" Bobby yelled exasperated.

"Whoops," Buck said shrugging unapologetically.

"Where's the rest of the S&R team we sent you with Buck?" Hen asked, "why are you out here alone, they didn't leave you, did they?"

"Uh no, the second surge got me while I was helping some teenagers on some debris. I got them onto the boat but then I fell in." He explained, "I washed up with a couple others against a wall on, I think Rosa street, but I'm not sure."

"Are you injured?" Hen exclaimed, "dumb question of course you are, where are you injured?"

"I'm fine, Hen!" He assured her and at her pointed look acquiesced, "I'm fine enough to finish helping at the Ferris wheel, then you and Chim can go full paramedic on me, promise."

Hen allowed it.

"If you washed up on land, then what're you doing out here?" Chim asked.

"Some guy told me he thought there was a group of people with orange shirts on the Ferris wheel," he explained, "It isn't him by the way. They're from the school, but it wasn't his group." He added looking at Eddie with sorrow in his eyes.

Eddie felt his stomach drop, he'd hoped against hope, but it wasn't his son. He was also concerned about Buck though.

"Buck how'd you get out here?" He asked.

"I Uh" he cut himself off looking down and not meeting anyone's eyes like he knew he'd get in trouble for what he was about to say. "I swam..."

Buck looked up and met his eyes, imploring him to understand, but Eddie was frozen.

Buck had been dragged under by a tsunami wave and washed up, definitely in some way injured, had heard a rumor that there were people out here that might have Chris with them, and then he'd swam all the way out here and free climbed a goddamn Ferris wheel.

Eddie could barely hear the conversation around him.

"You swam all the way out here?!" Chim exclaimed.

"I had a surf board" Buck tried defending himself, "well most of a surf board."

"Most of a..?" Chim questioned sarcastically, "Maddie's gonna kill you! Scratch that, everyone's gonna kill you!"

Blood was pounding in his ears. He got it, he finally got it. Buck loved Chris, he knew that, but he hadn't known that he loved Chris like this.

He loved Chris like how Eddie loved Chris.

And oh, OH, Eddie finally figured out something else too, the final piece sliding into place.

"Enough!" Bobby yelled over the bickering of the other three, "we'll deal with this later. Buck, Eddie get harnesses on and start getting people down. Hen, Chim, start getting people in the boat and checking them over. I'm going to get us backup."

Chapter Text

The shaking stopped eventually, and where the water had been roaring in their ears, it was now quiet. The four of them slowly got up and looked around. The water was gone, and the street was a wreck.

"Ok guys." Lena said getting their attention, "I want everyone to drink some water and we are going to eat some of the protein bars, then we are going to start heading inland. See if we can find some help, ok?"

She handed them all a water bottle and spread the protein bars out in front of them, grabbing one for herself.

"Um, Miss Lena," Eva said sheepishly, "Chris and I can't walk very well without our crutches."

"How well is not very well, sweetie." She asked looking them over.

"We can sorta walk but not for very long, and we're pretty slow." Chris explained, "it's better if we have crutches or even a railing to hold onto."

"Would it help if you two held my hands?" Lena asked, knowing she couldn't carry them both, especially with the probably broken ribs she was trying to hide, "we can go as slow as you need and take breaks, but the further inland we get the better off we'll be."

"We can do that." Eva said as they both nodded in agreement.

"Are you alright to walk, Hassan?" She turned to him.

"Yes, ma'am." He said.

"Alright good, you three finish up and I'm gonna pack the first aid kit to take with us." She nodded and went to do just that.

A few minutes later Lena tossed the bag over the edge and climbed down after it, "alright one at a time, Chris you first." She watched as his legs appeared over the side and she grabbed his hips helping him down.

Once he was settled on the ground she turned back towards the other two, "alright Eva, you're up." And she helped her down the same way and got her settled.

"Alright Hassan, you know the drill." She called up to him and watched his legs appear over the ladder.

Once they were all settled on the ground she picked up the med bag and slung it over her shoulder, wincing and letting out a hiss as it strained her ribs. She hoped the kids didn't notice.

They did.

"Miss Lena are you hurt?" Eva asked worriedly, three pairs eyes trained on her.

"I just hurt my ribs a bit, but I'll be alright." She assured them.

"Oh, which side?" Hassan asked.

"Uh, my left?" She replied, not sure why it mattered to them.

"We can be matching!" He exclaimed.

"Wait, Hassan, did you hurt your ribs?" She asked worriedly, "let me see."

He pulled up his shirt, biting his lip and whimpering at the strain. His ribs were definitely cracked, she noted, but he'd probably be fine until they got to the hospital, and she said as much.

"Ok kids, I want a list of your injuries." She said, kicking herself for not asking earlier, "also any medical conditions."

"Hassan's ribs are hurt, and he had a pretty bad cut on his forehead, but it stopped bleeding. Eva has a bad cut on her leg, but it also stopped bleeding. And I have a cut on my leg and a broken arm, other than that it's just scrapes and bruises. Oh and Eva and I have CP, that's why we need crutches."

"Ok, that's not too bad," she said, "here let me check you guys out a bit."

She did a quick concussion test on Hassan, he seemed alright. Then checked each of their deeper cuts, and finally took a look at Chris's arm. "Yikes, little man, that's gotta hurt pretty bad, but you guys did an amazing job patching yourselves up, and those knots were pretty badass Eva."

She figured a little praise couldn't hurt, and then they all started giggling again.

"I did it again, didn't I?" She asked sighing when they all nodded, "damn it. Wait no! You didn't hear that."

They were all laughing now with big grins on their faces. Whatever, she thought, I'm not their parents, and if this keeps them happy and their minds off everything else, then I can swear a bit.

"Alright guys," she said holding out her hands to Eva and Chris, "time to get moving, and remember we keep the swearing out of any future story telling." They all giggled at that and Chris and Eva each grabbed a hand as Hassan started a slow pace in front of them.

It was slow going, but after an hour and a five minute rest stop the came across a group of three people. They were camped out by a pile of debris and as Lena approached them she saw that they were injured.

"Alright guys," she said, "we're gonna take a break here and I'm gonna see what the story is with these guys."

They let go of her hands and she walked over towards the closest man, "hello Sir, are you injured, I'm a firefighter, I can try and help."

"Yeah, my legs, I can't feel 'em" the man said.

She took a quick look, his legs seemed relatively fine, probably a spinal injury. "Can you try wiggling your toes for me?"

He tried, nothing happened, "alright sir, does anything else hurt?"

"No Ma'am," he replied, "just can't feel my legs."

"You probably have some sort of a spinal chord injury." She explained, "I can't do anything to help you right now. After I check out these other two, just try not to move and I'll go try and find you some help, alright."

"You got those kids with you?" He asked, nodding over her shoulder.

She turned around and saw them crouching near one of the men and apparently trying to splint a broken leg with a piece of pcp pipe and what seemed to be the buckles off of their lifejackets, which they'd apparently taken off.

"Yes sir, I do." She replied, deciding to leave them to it, the third guy seemed to have a much more gruesome injury and she'd rather they just see a broken leg.

"Smart kids." He said.

"Yes sir, they are," she replied, "they pulled me out of the water, but they're just kids, I gotta get them out of here."

"I understand," he said, "Go. We'll wait here for help."

She nodded and moved onto the next guy. He had a deep puncture wound in his arm that he was putting pressure on, but he seemed a little woozy when she tried to talk to him.

"Alright sir, I'm going to hand you some gauze and I want you to keep putting pressure on the wound." He just nodded and took the gauze. "Now I'm going to put a tourniquet on you, this'll hurt."

She slipped it on and started to tighten it. The man screamed.

"Miss Lena!" The kids shouted turning towards her. She tried to block the man from their vision with her body.

"It's alright, don't come over here!" she called over to them, hoping they listened, "just keep doing what you're doing."

After another minute the man collapsed panting and she was done. "I can't do anymore for you, I'm going to go get help, keep pressure on that wound." She explained and then stood up and turned around to go grab the kids.

...........................................................................

Another group had come and dropped off a second boat with them, but couldn't stay since they had their own calls to respond to. That was fine though, they had enough room to fit everyone on the Ferris wheel. The second boat was full, but the first still had space for another group.

"Buck, Eddie, you two take the second boat back to the VA, and get Buck checked out while you're there." He ordered and when they looked like they were going to argue, explained, "I hear it's getting pretty crowded, you can check for Christopher there."

The group they'd rescued off the Ferris wheel had no clue where any of the others might be, or even if they'd survived.

"Alright Bobby." Eddie agreed, cutting off Buck, who was about to argue anyways, probably about getting checked out. He'd give Buck a pat down when they got there, and if he seemed fine then the doctors could wait.

"And no splitting up!" Bobby yelled after them as Buck started the engine and headed towards shore.

"Alright guys, I need everyone's names so I can call the school." Eddie said to the group from Chris' school as he pulled out his phone already dialing the number.

..............................................................................

They kept walking until about twenty minutes later they came across a group handing out waters and running a small first aid tent outside of a storefront.

The sun was setting and it was starting to get dark, but Chris could still see that the area was being run by a group of older kids wearing lifeguard uniforms.

"Hey guys, here's some water." One of the boys said jogging up to them. "Are any of you hurt, we've got a first aid tent right over there."

"We're already all patched up, but thank you for the water." Lena said, "do you know where we can go to get to a hospital or a refugee center?"

"They set up at the VA hospital on Sawtelle, they told us to send everyone there." The boy replied. "Do you know how to get there?"

"Yes, I do." She replied, "thank you, and there's three immobile but alive men about four block south of here, near the corner of Calle street and Aleppo, can you guys call it in please, I lost my radio in the wave."

"Yeah, of course, is there anything else you need help with?" The boy asked.

"Have you seen any other firefighters from station 136?" She asked, and Chris thought she looked almost a little desperate, "we were on a call at the pier when the tsunami happened and I haven't seen any of them since." She explained.

"No, I'm sorry, I hope you find them." He said, Chris hoped she found them too, he knew his dad would be really sad if he couldn't find Buck or anyone else from the 118.

"Thanks, and if you do see any of them, my name's Lena Bosko. Can you let them know I'm alive and where I'm headed."

"Of course." The boy nodded.

They sat down for a few minutes and drank their water.

"Miss Lena, what're the lifeguards doing here?" Eva asked.

"Lifeguards are first responders too kiddo, particularly in this case if they work for the county like these guys do." Miss Lena explained. "I used to be a lifeguard in Florida when I was younger and sometimes when there were hurricanes we stayed and worked at the shelters."

"Oh wow!" Hassan said, "Are hurricanes scary?"

Miss Lena laughed, "not unless they're crazy big" she replied, "most of the time it's just like a normal afternoon in the summer. Some people even throw parties and barbecues during them, they're called hurricane parties."

"That sounds fun!" Chris piped up, "I wanna go to a hurricane party!"

"Tell you what, kiddo." She said ruffling his hair, "If we get a hurricane here, I'll throw a hurricane party and invite all three of you."

Chris and the other two giggled at that, and they sat there for another minute or two before Lena announced it was time to get up and keep moving.

As they walked Chris noticed more and more bodies. It wasn't that they hadn't been there before, he just had been purposely not paying attention to them.

Except now that he started taking note, he couldn't stop, he started to sniffle a bit. What if no one else in his class was alive. What if they were all dead and he'd never see them again, just like mommy.

Had his mommy died with the same fear that the man had on the fire truck. Miss Lena had tried to convince them that he could still be alive and that he might've swam to safety elsewhere. But Chris had seen the man's eyes roll up into his head before he'd collapsed, he'd been unconscious when he hit the water, and unconscious people drowned.

He knew better than to say any of this out loud, they had to keep going and sharing his thoughts would've upset Eva and Hassan. So he sniffed again and then put all his focus into the conversation Miss Lena was trying to keep up.

Chapter Text

It was getting dark by the time they made landfall. Buck and Eddie got everyone out of the boat and started herding them inland. Luckily no one was too injured and they could all walk alright.

"We are on dry land Cap, headed to the VA on foot now." Eddie called over the radio.

"Glad to hear it, We'll be about half an hour behind you, we just fished some stragglers from the water." Bobby's voice responded through the radio, "stay together you two."

"Affirmative." Eddie replied, and that was it.

It was a mile and a half to the VA hospital from where they were, and the group began the long trek ahead of them. They passed through streets searching for signs of life, or more specifically signs of Christopher.

"LAFD, if anyone can hear us call out or make some noise!" Buck yelled, they'd been taking turns calling out as both they're voices were starting to get a bit too rough and scratchy to be comfortable.

Some people joined the group, and none of them had any serious injuries so far. It seemed like this area had already been cleared of anyone who needed serious medical attention or immediate transport. That or they were dead.

Eddie spotted something orange behind a pile of rubble and he took off towards it.

"Christopher!" He called out, and he could feel Buck right on his heels, but when he came around the other end of the pile it wasn't Christopher.

"Everyone stay back there!" He ordered.

The kids from Chris's school didn't need to see one of their classmates dead. Laying against part of the rubble was a little girl, who's name Eddie thought might've been Shelby, run through with a large chunk of wood.

Buck knelt down and felt for a pulse, even though it was clear she was dead. It was protocol, after all.

"C'mon Eds," he said after letting out a long sigh, "nothing we can do."

They kept moving.

........................................................................

They'd been walking for what felt like forever, Chris thought. They'd taken a few breaks, and they'd stopped to help some people along the way, but their first aid kit was becoming dangerously empty.

Chris wasn't sure how much longer they could keep going. Eva was stumbling every other step and he wasn't doing much better. Hassan's pace had slowed more and he looked like it was taking everything he had to even put one foot in front of the other.

Eva stumbled and fell for what must've been the third time in the last twenty minutes and promptly burst into tears.

"Hey, sweetie, it's ok, we can take a break here." Miss Lena said placatingly then moved to take a look at her scraped knee, "here, let me see."

She fished out some of the Neosporin and their last Band-Aid. "You'll be alright, just a little scrape."

"How much farther is it?" Hassan asked collapsing next to Chris.

"Only about another mile," Miss Lena promised, "we are more than halfway."

Eva's tears intensified at that, "I-I don't th-think I'll m-make it." She sniffed.

"Nonsense kiddo," Miss Lena said, "we are all gonna make it, and we'll find you're parents and get you checked out by the doctors so they can bandage you up properly, and then I'm going to go try and find my team."

"You'll find them." Chris said trying to reassure her, he couldn't imagine if he'd been out here all alone, "they survived, I know it. They're firefighters, they can survive anything."

"I'm not so sure about that, kiddo." Miss Lena sighed, "this would be a lot to survive."

"I know they did, they're firefighters." He repeated trying to make sure she understood, "like my dad, he got shot three times, and my Buck got crushed under a fire truck, and they're both okay now. I promise they can survive this."

"I heard about the fire truck." Miss Lena looked surprised and a bit odd, "he's really ok?"

"Yup, he's working today and everything." Chris assured her, "You're teammates survived, I believe it, so should you."

Miss Lena still looked a bit doubtful but she nodded anyways, "alright, let's keep moving guys."

She stood back up and grabbed his and Eva's hands again. Eva had thankfully stopped crying a couple minutes ago, and Hassan began picking his way through the street again.

Just then they heard the sound of motors from behind them and they turned around to see a group of headlights heading towards them.

"Let's step over to the side guys." Miss Lena instructed, and they hobbled out of the way.

It turned out to be a couple of ATV's, a group? A herd? A pack? Chris wondered what to call them. They pulled over next to them. Chris could see that some of them already had passengers who seemed to be people they'd picked up off the street, while others just had the drivers.

"Would you guys like a ride?" One girl called out, she looked to be about 16 or 17 and her ATV had purple flames on it, "we're headed to the VA."

The four of them chorused 'yes's' and 'please's' and the girl hopped off her ATV and came over to help them up onto the back.

"What're you kids doing out here?" Miss Lena asked, though she sounded more curious than anything else. "You aren't with an official group."

"No ma'am, Corey's dad is a fire captain," she said nodding to one of the other boys, "and he'd heard his dad mention that they were having trouble getting vehicles through here to pick people up. And, well, we figured they're called all terrain vehicles for a reason." She said with a laugh and patted the side of her ATV, "figured we'd use them for something other than a weekend activity this time."

"Your parents don't know you're out here, do they?" Miss Lena said with a sigh, "as grateful as we are for the help, it's dangerous, you should go home after this. You've done a lot of good already, I'm sure your parents are worried."

"Only if they catch us." The girl said turning back to grin at her from where she'd just started the engine, "I promise we'll be safe though, thank you for the concern."

"Alright, but before you go, I'm picking you up a radio so you can call for help if you need it." Miss Lena allowed, Chris thought that she didn't have much ground to stand on considering they'd all been in the tsunami and were still helping people all day.

"We'd appreciate that, thank you." The girl said, then turned to look at the four of them, "everyone hold on, we're gonna go slow but it's still a bumpy ride."

As promised, it was a slow ride, but Chris figured it was still a lot faster than they'd been walking so he wasn't going to complain. They stopped every once in a while to pick up some more people who were hobbling along the street.

Eventually though, there were lights in the distance and they slowly got closer until they could see the VA hospital that was flooded with people.

"We have arrived." The boy at the head of the, Chris had decided it was a pack, of ATVs pulled up to the entrance and the rest fell in line behind him. "Everybody head into the entrance and find the nurse with a clipboard to check in with."

The girl, Aisha, she had told them was her name, hopped off and helped Miss Lena lift the three of them onto the ground.

"Here, wait with them real quick and I'll get you that radio." Miss Lena said and jogged over to a supplies tent for the first responders.

"Thank you for the ride." Hassan said looking up at her and Chris and Eva chorused their 'thank you's'.

"No problem guys." She said smiling softly down at them, "I'm just glad I could help!"

Miss Lena jogged back over and handed Aisha a radio. "It's set to channel 16, keep it there and call it in if you need help or you find someone you can't move but is still alive. Also if you find anyone from the 136, let them know I'm alive and where I am please."

"Of course!" Aisha nodded, "now go get these kids taken care of."

With that she hopped back on her ATV and the pack took off.

"Alright guys, let's go check in and get you checked out by someone." Miss Lena said offering her hands to Chris and Eva, "maybe we can even find you two some crutches."

The four of them made their way in through the busy entrance and over towards a line that was forming in front of a nurse with a clipboard. Chris was looking around at all the people and the cots. It was chaos. People were hobbling around, doctors and paramedics were sprinting through the crowd and there was crying and coughing and yelling coming from every corner of the building.

They'd just given their names to the list and were making their way over to an empty cot when he spotted them, it was his dad, and his Buck, standing at the other end of the room trying to sort out a group of people by the looks of it.

"Daddy! Bucky!" He called out, but they didn't seem to hear him in the chaos.

He tugged on Miss Lena's hand and she was already looking around trying to figure out where he saw them, "which ones are they Chris?"

He pointed to the back corner, "right over there."

Miss Lena looked up and seemed to spot them, she took a deep breath, grabbing her ribs at the strain and bellowed louder than Chris thought possible, "FIREFIGHTER DIAZ! FIREFIGHTER BUCKLEY!"

That got their attention, and they turned to find the source of the yelling, and made eye contact with her over the heads of the crowd.

"OVER HERE, NOW!" She yelled again and turned to sit Eva and Hassan on the cot.

His dad and Buck must not have seen him yet, because they looked confused as they made their way over to them.

"Daddy! Bucky!" He called again trying to stumble through crowd, and they heard him that time.

"Christopher?!" His dad yelled, and he and Bucky broke into a run towards them.

"Oh my god, Chris!" Buck yelled as they broke through the crowd.

His dad was on his knees and hugging him harder than Chris thought possible, and he cried out in pain.

"Be careful, he's got a broken arm." Miss Lena said wincing.

"Oh mijo," Dad said pulling back, "are you alright?"

Buck was kneeling on the ground with a hand on his shoulder next to dad and Chris moved to hug him too, "I'm ok, I promise, but I lost my crutches."

"That's ok." Buck assured him rubbing his back, "that's what the spares are for."

Buck pulled Chris back to look him over, "alright buddy, you gotta let your dad check you over."

"Ok, but daddy, you gotta check over Eva, Hassan, and Miss Lena too!" Chris instructed looking behind him.

It was then that Chris saw the two of them notice the others.

"Eva sweetie, your moms going to be a very happy woman to hear that I found you." Eddie said smiling at them, "I'm sure that your parents will be happy too, Hassan. Are you kids alright?"

"We're ok Mr. Diaz and Mr. Buck." Eva answered, "just a bit banged up."

Buck looked up at the woman who had called them over. "Miss Lena?" He said and looked her over seeming to realize something, "you're Lena Bosko, with the 136."

Miss Lena seemed to perk up at the recognition, "have you heard anything about my team?!" She asked quickly.

"They're all accounted for. Alive. You were the last one." Eddie said with a smile, "your captain was wheeled into surgery, but he was conscious and talking before, and the rest of your team is conscious and mobile if not a bit banged up too."

Miss Lena let out a relieved sigh and her eyes teared up. "Oh thank god." She muttered wiping a hand over her face.

"I told you they'd be okay!" Chris said grinning up at her.

"Yeah, you did, kiddo." She smiled back at him and ruffled his hair.

"Thank you." Eddie said looking up at her and Buck was nodding next to him, "for saving them."

"Oh, I didn't." Miss Lena said with a chuckle, "they pulled ME out of the water, figured least I could do was help them get back here."

"Thank you anyways." Buck said, "we really appreciate it."

"Miss Lena, you saved us too!" Eva called, apparently not willing to let her be modest, "we'd still be up on the fire truck without you! Plus you helped all those other people along the way!"

"Alright, let's get you kids checked out!" Buck said, lifting Chris up to sit on the cot next to the other two and his dad waved down a nurse.

Chapter Text

Eddie couldn't believe it. He'd been helping part of the group they'd come in with to get sorted out before he and Buck were going to head out to continue the search. Hopefully before Bobby caught them.

The list hadn't had Christopher's name on it. It hadn't had Eva's on it either. He'd given the nurse the school's number and told her that they could contact them with anyone who came in from the school.

Then amongst the din, an unfamiliar voice had called their names. A woman was standing across the room and they could barely see her, but the order she gave to head over towards her brokered no arguments.

And then Christopher was with her. Hurt but alive, and Eddie felt like he could breath again for the first time ever.

Gracias a Dios. I'm never letting this kid out of my sight again.

Now they were standing with Lena Bosko, who was another miracle reappearance of the day, as the three kids were checked out.

"So, do I even want to know what happened?" He asked giving her a sideways glance. Buck perked up next to him clearly wanting to know the story.

"Absolutely you do." Bosko said, "you're kid, all three of them actually, are fucking heroes. No, seriously! I'm going to harass city hall until they give them a goddamn medal. From what I can tell Eva and Chris managed to get themselves on top of the 136's rig, they secured themselves with DIY rope harnesses, then they managed to pull Hassan out of the water. They raided the entire trucks worth of supplies and had already patched themselves up and set up camp up there by the time I came floating by, and they pulled me up too."

"Holy shit." Buck breathed looking over at the kids. "You can't be serious."

"None of that first aid was me," she said gesturing over to the three, "I checked it over, obviously, but that was all them. Plus they helped more people on the way here. Seriously I was putting a tourniquet on this one guy and I turn around to check on them and, with their collective 4 working arms mind you, they are putting a splint on this man's broken leg. Correctly, too. I think I'm gonna quit, just let 7 year olds run the world. I can't top that." She grumbled the last part, but Eddie could tell she was proud of them.

"I don't even know what to say to that." Buck said, he looked a bit taken aback.

"From what I can tell, it's thanks to you." She shrugged, "I think I've heard just about everything about you two, and all the stuff you've taught him about first aid and stuff. You guys raised a hero, you should be proud."

"We are," Eddie said, speaking for both of them, "I think we're just also in shock."

"Fair enough, I certainly didn't know what to make of it at first." She laughed, "sorry about any swear words they might've picked up by the way, the first time it was an accident, but then it was the only thing I could do to make them laugh."

"It's alright," Eddie grinned at her, "Chris has definitely picked up some Spanish ones from me."

Chris had apparently tuned into the adult's conversation in time to hear the last few comments.

"Mierda!" He crowed happily, grinning up at them.

"No! Chris!" Eddie said, "we did not need a demonstration, thank you!"

Buck had turned around to hide his laughter, but Eddie could still see his shoulders shaking. He sighed. Bosko just grinned.

"You're invited to, like, every family dinner ever, by the way." Eddie said looking over at her, "seriously, I bet my abuela and tía Pepa will adopt you on sight."

She just laughed more.

"Miss Lena! Can we invite my bisabuela and tía Pepa to the hurricane party! They make the best food!" Chris asked, and then the three kids were talking about plans for a hurricane party.

He raised an eyebrow towards Bosko who just shrugged and continued planning with the kids. Buck joined in easily enough, talking about the hurricane parties he'd apparently been to.

He stepped away and pulled out his phone, pulling up Ida's contact and hitting the call button. It barely rang once before her breathless voice was on the other end.

"Eddie? Is it...?"

"I've got Eva, she's alive. I don't want to say she's ok before the doctors clear her but she's awake and talking." Eddie said.

"Oh thank god!" She exclaimed and it sounded like she was sobbing, "Jack! Jack! Eddie found her! Where are you guys Eddie?"

"We are at the VA hospital on Sawtelle, do you know where that is?" He asked.

"Yes, yes, we'll be there as soon as possible!" She exclaimed, still sobbing with relief.

"We are in the entry room, I'll let you know if they move us." He said.

"Ok thank you! And Eddie?" She said voice softening suddenly, "did you find Chris?"

"Yeah, I did." He said voice choking up a bit, "they were together, they came in with another kid from their class, Hassan, and one of the missing firefighters."

"Oh thank God!" She exclaimed, "that's such great news Eddie. I'll let you go now, we'll be there soon."

They hung up and Eddie quickly wiped a tear out of his eye and turned back around.

"Hey, Hassan, buddy, do you know your parent's phone number? So I can call them to come get you." He asked softly, crouching down in front of him.

Hassan nodded and rattled off a phone number to Eddie who hit the call button and took a few steps back.

They picked up after a few rings, "hello? Who is this?"

"Hello, I am firefighter Eddie Diaz, am I speaking to the parents of Hassan Amin?" He asked.

"Yes! Yes!" The woman said on the other end, "Is he ok? Did you find him?"

"Yes, we found him. I can't say if he's ok or not until the doctors finish checking him over, but he is awake and talking." He explained, "we are at the VA hospital on Sawtelle, do you know where that is?"

"Yes, I do! Thank you so much!" She exclaimed, "you're Christopher's Father, right? Did you find him?"

"I am, Chris and Hassan came in together along with another girl from his class, Eva, and one of the missing firefighters." He explained.

"Oh that's good! I'll be there soon!"

"Ok we are in the entrance hall, I'll let you know if they move us." He said and hung up.

He turned back around, "alright kids, everyone's parents are on their way. Bosko, is there anyone I can call for you?"

"Just my team." She replied.

Buck snatched the radio off Eddie's belt and with a wide grin said, "this is firefighter Buckley, anyone from the 136 sound off."

There was a number of affirmations from the radio, and Bosko looked immensely relieved to hear their voices.

"Firefighter Bosko has been found, she's up and moving, we've got her in the entrance hall of the VA." Buck called over the radio.

Lena snatched the radio from him, "are you guys alright?"

"Bosko!" Came a triumphant voice from the radio, along with a couple other happy sounding voices.

Eddie pretended not to see her wipe away a tear.

"It's good to hear from you firefighter Bosko, but everyone needs to keep the main channel clear." Came the voice of the commander.

The radio went silent after that. The incident commander was a stressed out woman on a good day, no one was going to try crossing her today.

Right then another woman in paramedic gear came flying through the crowd and her eyes found Bosko.

"Lena!" She shouted, pushing towards her.

"Mara!" Bosko yelled turning towards her just in time to be engulfed in a hug.

Then the woman, Mara apparently, was leaning back and planting her lips right on Bosko's. She pulled back just as quickly and said, "I think I'm in love with you."

Bosko had enough time to let out a soft "oh", before her knees gave out and she fainted.

"That's cute." Buck said taking a sip out of his water bottle, as they watched Mara heave Bosko's dead weight and mutter something about her being dramatic. The kids were all giggling watching the two.

It was in that moment that he decided to be Edmundo 'fuck it' Diaz. He'd realized something when he'd found Buck on that Ferris wheel, and if there was a day for acting in the moment it was certainly today.

"I'm in love with you." He stated calmly, as if he was talking about the weather, looking over at Buck.

Buck choked on his water, some of it coming out his nose. As soon as he was done coughing and sputtering he slowly looked up and met Eddie's eyes.

"Me too." Buck said sounding a bit awestruck.

"Are you going to faint too if I kiss you?" Eddie said smiling a little, hand finding the juncture of his shoulder and neck.

"I don't know, maybe," Buck said with a grin, "I've lost a lot of blood."

"Oh, shit, we never got you checked out." Eddie said pulling away from him a bit and looking around to flag down another nurse.

"Shut the fuck up, Eds." Buck said rolling his eyes, "some things are more important."

Buck grabbed him by the back of his neck and crashed their lips together. It was a bit painful with the force of it, but the kiss was also perfect in a weird way.

"Ewwwww!" Came a chorus from the kids who'd decided to, ever-so-kindly start fake gagging and covering their eyes.

"Ok guys! We'll stop." Buck said laughing and taking a step forward only for his leg to buckle a bit, but Eddie caught him easily standing him back up straight.

"Smooth Buckley!" Came a voice from the other bed.

"At least I didn't pass out, Bosko!" He called over to her and she just stuck her tongue out at him.

She looked happy, Eddie thought, her and Mara sitting on the cot holding hands and smiling softly at each other.

"Are you hurt?" Mara asked her.

"No, I'm alright." She said, "nothing too bad."

"Don't lie Miss Lena!" Hassan called over to her, "Miss Mara, she's matching with me. She hurt her ribs on the left side too."

Bosko groaned, "hey kid, snitches get stitches!" She called, but she was smiling at them.

The three kids looked at each other and started giggling, "but Miss Lena, I already got stitches!" Hassan laughed pointing to his head.

"Yeah, I guess you did." Bosko laughed, "guess you're in the clear for now."

"That's enough out of you." Mara said pushing her back to lay on her right side. "I'm sure you and your potty mouth have already been exposed to these kids too much."

"Have not!" Lena protested as Mara unbuttoned her shirt to check her ribs, "at least buy me dinner first." She quipped groaning when Mara's fingers prodded her ribs.

"Miss Lena says we are badasses." Eva announced, and the three of them grinned.

Mara quirked an eyebrow at her, "Uh huh, I'm sure she did."

"Ok, but they are!" Bosko argued, "seriously, Mara, they pulled me out of the water all on their own, I've never met anyone more badass! I'm seriously considering letting the world be run by seven year olds!"

The kids were in hysterics at this point and Bosko was about to continue but Mara put a hand over her mouth, "I apologize, her brain to mouth filter is usually better than this. I think it got swept away along with everything else." She jerked her hand away from Bosko's mouth who was grinning and had clearly just licked Mara's hand.

"Hmmm," Mara said grimacing and wiping her hand on her already filthy uniform, "maybe we'll go out tomorrow and search the debris, see if we can find your filter."

The kids were laughing harder somehow, and wheezing a bit in Hassan's case, which was a bit concerning Eddie noted, but not abnormal considering the two cracked ribs the nurse had said he'd had. Buck was standing next to him also grinning and chuckling.

"Alright, you!" He said grabbing Buck and pushing him onto a cot behind the kids who had started to calm down, "you've gotten out of a check up long enough."

Buck groaned as Eddie flagged down a nurse, "Excuse me miss, could you check him out, please," he said gesturing to Buck, "he got caught in the second wave and then swam out to the Ferris wheel and free climbed it."

The nurse looked at Buck with wide eyes who looked back with a sheepish grin.

"And he's on blood thinners." Eddie added, and the nurse rushed over and started taking his vitals.

"Damn, Buckley." Bosko whistled.

Mara sighed, facepalming.

"That's pretty..." she continued regardless.

"Don't say it." Mara reprimanded.

Bosko gave her a shit-eating grin, "Badass." She finished.

The kids burst out laughing and this time not even Mara could stop herself from grinning.

Chapter Text

Bosko, apparently, had not been kidding about getting the kids awarded.

It was the night before the ceremony and Buck, Eddie, and Chris were at the dinner table eating the home made raviolis that Buck had made for them. Chris had been pretty quiet that evening, and Eddie and Buck were starting to get a little concerned until he finally broke the silence.

"Daddy, when you got your medal, did you save everyone?" Chris asked looking up, no judgement found on his face, just determination.

Eddie took a deep breath, and Buck squeezed his knee in support. "No, I didn't, mijo."

Chris just nodded and went back to eating.

The two adults shared a look, "why did you ask, Chris." Buck said gently.

Chris seemed to ponder that for a while, "I wasn't sure if it was allowed." He said finally.

"If what was allowed?" Eddie asked, he wished they didn't have to have this conversation. As incredibly proud as he was of his son, Chris never should've been at the pier that day.

"If you were allowed to be a hero if you didn't save everyone." Chris said.

"Chris, buddy, there were thousands of people at the pier that day, no one could've saved them all." Buck said softly.

"I know, but I didn't mean everyone like that." He explained, "there was a man, during the second wave, we managed to pull him to the side of the truck, but some debris hit him before he could climb up, and we didn't see him again."

Eddie took a breath and tried for a reassuring tone, "He could still be alive, mijo, just because you didn't see him again doesn't mean he didn't keep swimming and find shelter somewhere else."

"That's what Miss Lena told us," Chris said sighing, "and I think Hassan and Eva believed her so don't tell them, but I saw his eyes roll up. He wasn't awake when he went in the water. He couldn't have swam."

Chris was crying now, letting out sniffles.

"Mijo, come here." Eddie said moving around the table to pull him into his arms, Buck beside him rubbing circles on his back.

They let him calm down a bit until he leaned back and wiped his eyes.

"No matter what happened to that man, you still helped a lot of people, buddy." Buck said placing a kiss on his forehead, "you're still a hero, I promise."

"Like you and daddy?" Chris asked looking up at him.

"Just like us." Buck confirmed, nodding.

"Do you want to know what one of the first lessons they taught us when we trained to be firefighters was?" Buck asked and Chris nodded.

"It's that you can't save everyone, but that doesn't mean you aren't still doing good." Eddie answered.

"I think it's one of the hardest lessons I've ever had to learn." Buck added, "but I promise it's true."

"Buck is right, you just have to focus on all the people you did save." Eddie said, "and if you ever feel like you didn't do good enough, then you talk someone about it."

"Your dads right," Buck said giving him a smile, "sometimes we all need someone to remind us that we did good."

"Ok," Chris agreed, "I'll do that."

...........................................................................

The next day Chris found himself sitting in the front row of an awards hall along with Buck, his Dad, Eva and Hassan and their parents, and Miss Lena and Miss Mara. His bisabuela, tía Pepa, and Carla were there too. The whole 118 had shown up along with Mrs. Grant, Mrs. Wilson, Denny, Harry, and May. The 136 was also there for them, and had thanked them all for saving Miss Lena. There were also a couple of people who Chris recognized as people they'd helped along the way to the VA. Mrs. Mckullen was there too, in a wheelchair but alive, along with Jayla and Alex and their families.

Reese hadn't made it home to his family that day. Chris hadn't known him very well, but he still wished the lifejacket had been enough for him too.

They ceremony started off by having him, Eva, and Hassan go up on the podium and have the medals pinned to their shirts. Everyone clapped and shouted out praise for a while after that. Chris saw his dad and Buck holding hands and smiling proudly up at him. Miss Lena was hollering louder than anyone and Miss Mara was clapping loudly and splitting her grin between the three of them and Miss Lena.

After that they sat down in their seats and people started going up to the podium one by one to talk about the day.

First was Mrs. Mckullen. She wheeled herself up the ramp, someone handed her the microphone and she stopped herself to the side of the podium.

"I remember standing on the pier in line for cotton candy with my group when I realized the wave was coming. People were running and yelling to get off the pier, but I knew we wouldn't make it." She said, "I was with a group of kids who were my responsibility, none of them could run very fast or at all. As a teacher, I am trained for all sorts of things, first aid, cpr, even a shooting, but my training failed me that day. I froze, I didn't know what to do, I didn't even think there was anything I COULD do."

She paused to clear her throat and wipe away a tear.

"But then Christopher yanked on my sleeve and pointed out the lifejackets at a stand nearby. Told me we should put them on. I don't think I ever would've thought of that, but he did, and we put them on. I think that's what saved us. I looked up the statistics afterwards, people on the pier had a less than 20% survival rate." She paused and took a deep breath. "84% of our group made it home that day. And it's all thanks to Chris."

She ended her speech there, and Chris didn't think there was a single dry eye in the crowd after that. He looked over to his dad and Buck who both beamed proudly at him.

After that a couple of people made speeches of their own. Chris didn't know any of them too well, but they talked about how the three kids had crouched on the ground beside them and helped bandage their wounds. How grateful they were that they had been there and even how the doctors and nurses had complimented how well they had done in patching them up.

The last one to go was Miss Lena, who gave them a wink before she got up to the podium.

"My name is Lena Bosko, and I am a firefighter with the 136." She stated proudly, and there were a few whoops from the 136 firefighters in the crowd. "My team and I were on a call at the pier when the tsunami hit. We got swept up by the wave, and when I finally managed to come up for air I couldn't find them. That's how these three found me, I was being swept down a street calling out for my team and I heard someone else yelling. I managed to spot some people sitting on top of MY fire truck, and if that isn't fate then I don't know what is, and they threw me a rope and helped pull me up so I could climb up on top of it. You can imagine my surprise at finding 3 seven year old's up there with supplies already out and organized."

There were a couple chuckles from the crowd at that last comment.

"I am, to this day, in awe of these kids." Miss Lena continued, "They had themselves tied securely to the truck with some sturdy knots. I can personally confirm that Eva's Girl Scout training paid off, by the way." She nodded to Eva's parents and that got a couple more chuckles from the crowd.

"They'd also managed to patch themselves up completely. I think Chris was the one who knew how to do it, but Eva and Hassan did a lot of the work too, because between the three of them they only had four working arms. They'd managed to raid the truck for supplies by the time I got there, they gave me water and a protein bar, and offered to patch me up too. They had an entire system going, they didn't even need me."

That got a few more chuckles from the group and she sent the three of them a proud smile.

"After the water washed back out, we got off the truck and started making our way inland. You all already know most of these stories. As we travelled we would stop and I'd have them sit down and take a breather while I went to help some other people. Except when I turned around to check on them while I was helping someone, they'd be patching up someone else. They were doing it correctly, too, it was really impressive. Chris, I'm proud of you for remembering everything your dad and Buckley taught you. Eva and Hassan, I'm proud of you guys too. You two didn't know anything about first aid, but you kept your brave faces on and you helped people anyways."

She sent another smile their way.

"And no matter what happens," her grin turned a bit more mischievous.

"Oh no." Chris heard Miss Mara mutter, and he Hassan and Eva all grinned back up at her, already knowing what was going to happen.

"I want you to remember that you three are absolute-"

Miss Mara facepalmed.

"Badasses."