Chapter Text
EDY
Edy was tired. She hadn’t had a solid night’s sleep in over a week. Her first day at the 118 was today, and the anticipation had been keeping her up.
“Chris?” She pulls her hoodie over her head, careful not to dislodge the ponytail she’d spent a few minutes doing. There’s no answer, and Edy sighs. She grabs her keys and slips her socked feet into her tennis shoes.
“Christopher!” She leaves her room and goes to the other bedroom in the house. “I swear…” She mumbles as she gently opens the door.
Chris is sitting on his bed. “Can you tie my shoes?” He looks up, his blonde curls tangled. His face is soft with sleep. Edy smiles.
“Yeah, here.” Edy squats down, tying the laces on his small shoes. “Okay, buddy. It’s my first shift today. We need to leave so I can get you to school on time.”
Chris nods and follows Edy to the kitchen. She hands him a bowl of cereal and grabs a protein bar from the fridge.
She cracks her neck, bouncing on the balls of her feet. She needed a run. Or a workout. Something to dispel the nervous energy thrumming through her veins. She’d probably get that at work.
“You ready?” She asks. At his nod, Edy takes Chris’s dish and quickly slides it into the dishwasher. They leave the house, and Edy makes it to work on time.
Her first day at the 118 begins.
BUCKLEY
“Cap, that’s such bullsh-“ She cuts herself off before the swear is out of her mouth. “That’s such crap. I can’t be in the competition because I’m a woman?” Buckley’s hands were on her hips, eyes flaring.
Hen laughed. “Yeah, sorry kid.”
“That’s so dumb. Sexist is what it is. Y’know, they’re only doing it because I’d kill the competition. Who wouldn’t want to see all of this on their calendar?” Buckley rolled up her sleeve and flexed, bicep popping.
“Yes, Buckley, I’m sure you’d put up a fight. It’s policy.” Bobby shakes his head and checks his watch.
“Looks like you’d have some competition.” Hen says, arms crossing as she looks across the room into the locker area.
“What-?” Buckley turns, blonde ponytail swishing.
Her eyes narrow at the woman standing by the lockers. She’s pulling down her navy shirt, over her sports bra and her seriously killer abs.
“Who the hell is that?” Buckley says, brows drawn. Competition was right. The woman was hot. Sexy, one might say. Buckley was used to that being her title. Unofficial of course. Bobby would kill her.
“It’s Edy Diaz. New recruit.” Bobby says, smirking at Buckley. “Graduated top of her class, just this week. Guys over at Station Six were dying to have her, but I convinced her to join us.”
Buckley glances back over at Edy who’s somehow still pulling her damn shirt down.
“What do we need her for?” Buckley tilts her head, and Hen, Chimney, and Bobby all laugh.
Bobby gestures towards Edy. “She served multiple tours in Afghanistan as an Army medic. She’s got a Silver Star, it’s not like she’s wet behind the ears.”
Buckley looks at Bobby, incredulous. He can’t be serious.
Bobby laughs again, saying, “Come on, I’ll introduce you to her.”
Hen nods, impressed. “Wow, Silver Star.” She knocks her shoulder into Buckley’s as they all go to introduce themselves to the new member of the 118, voices overlapping with hello's.
Buckley stands in place, brows furrowed with a frown, all aimed at the new recruit.
EDY
Edy sat in the truck, siren blaring. She watched the streets of LA pass as they rumbled along the street to her first call of the day.
“So, Silver Star, huh?” The man they called Chimney asked. Chimney. Edy wondered where that name came from.
She turns in her seat, knee lightly bumping into the blonde firefighter’s. “Yeah.” She rubbed her thigh, eyes still on the outside. When she didn’t offer any more information, Chimney glanced around, then continued.
“You save a platoon or something?” He was grinning at Edy when she turned to glance at him.
“No, no, nothing like that. It was, uh, just a convoy.” She said simply, trying to keep it short. Chimney looked at the woman, Buckley?, next to him.
After a minute or so, she looks at Edy. “So, is your full name Edwina?”
Edy fights the urge to snort a laugh. “No.” Is all she says, meeting her eyes. She notes a small birthmark above the woman’s right eyebrow.
“People ever call you ‘Diaz’?” She asks, face… unfriendly, to say the least.
Edy shakes her head once. “Not if they want me to respond.” She looks back at the woman with a slight smirk.
The blonde firefighter shifts in her seat. “Well, something’s gotta give. We got Cap, Hen, Chimney, Buckley, we can’t just call you ‘Edy.’” Her tone is clipped, annoyed.
So, it is Buckley.
Edy’s brows crinkle. “Can’t tell if she’s being serious or not.” She directs to Hen, to which Chimney jumps in with, “I like to always operate under the assumption that nothing she says is serious.”
Bobby laughs, Edy following suit. Buckley gives Chimney a nasty look, then directs her gaze out the window to where they’re pulling up to the call.
BUCKLEY
They pull up to a call where a man has an air nozzle stuck in his ass cheek. Buckley fights the urge to laugh, knowing that it’s serious, but c’mon.
They gather around the man and Buckley surveys the area. “It’s a hundred pounds per square inch of air pumped through his entire body.” She pulls away from the metal pole, standing by as Hen gives a quick check of his vitals and condition.
It's not looking good.
“The air pressure is collapsing his organs,” Bobby says from on the ground. “We need to get in there and drain the fluid. Buckley,” He points at her, “I need you to get a 14-guage angiocath. We need to start decompressing the pleural cavity.”
Buckley nods and drops down, rummaging through her bag. “Okay, okay,” she says to herself, pulling it out. She moves towards the man, doing her job, when Edy’s hands stretch out.
“Want me to help?” A strand of dark hair falls in front of her face. Buckley fights the urge to smack her hands away.
“I got it.”
Edy backs off, giving Buckley some space.
From above, Cap tells Hector, the man, to hang in there.
“I’d go lower.” Edy interrupts Buckley, pointing at Hector’s chest. Buckley’s head snaps up.
“What? Um, no. Second intercostal space. Midclavicular line.” Her voice has a snarky lilt to it.
Edy shakes her head, the piece of hair moving. “The chest wall is thinner at the fifth intercostal at the anterior axillary line.”
Their faces are close, Bobby leaning down between them.
Edy continues, “There’s a decreased chance of injuring any vital organs. I’ve-“ She looks over to Cap. “I’ve treated guys with collapsed lungs in combat.”
“Do it.” Cap’s voice is steady, and Edy reaches her hand out.
Her eyes meet Buckley’s. “Please.”
She says thank you before Buckley’s even handed the thing over.
Buckley leans back on her thighs, chest tight. Her jaw clenches as Edy preps.
“Can you help me out with the shirt?” She asks, eyes focused. Buckley nearly scoffs, but settles for an eyeroll as she undoes the guy’s shirt.
She cuts the undershirt, inserts the tube, and Buckley watches as Hector deflates right in front of them. Bobby gives a sigh of relief, and Buckley looks over at Edy.
Her eyes are sharp and focused, brows drawn.
Buckley frowns again.
They load Hector into the ambulance and the team congratulates Edy on the call. Cap claps her on the shoulder, and Buckley watches from behind. She walks up, a bit too close to Edy, and says in a low voice, “Yeah, good call.”
She walks off, tension still building in her chest.
EDY
Edy walks into the small gym area in the station. She adjusts the straps of her gloves, rolling her bare shoulders. She lines up in front of the punching bag, getting into position.
She can hear a few light grunts coming from behind her where Buckley is doing rows.
Edy starts to hit, getting in the zone. She’s been boxing for as long as she can remember, since before Chris was born. She’d always needed an outlet of some kind, and a punching bag was the safest, most widely-available option.
She twists and gives it a well-placed kick. Buckley walks close behind her, grabbing a heavier plate.
Chimney joins them, making his way through.
Edy continues, hitting and dancing around the bag, light on the balls of her feet.
Buckley pulls out a selfie stick, and Edy bites her lip as she glances behind her. She pauses as Buckley poses, flexing the bicep on her tattooed arm, grinning at the camera.
“You’re in the wrong light.” Edy points out, feeling sweat drip down her temple.
Without a glance towards Edy, Buckley fires back, “Some of us don’t need lighting to look good.” She continues to shift and pose. Edy turns back to her punching bag.
Chimney drops down from his triceps’ dips and walks over. “Hey, Edy, what did you mean about ‘the wrong light’?”
Edy turns to the shorter man and gestures to the light in the ceiling. “The light in this room is flat and blue. Makes you look soft.” She’s still breathing hard. “If you want to look lean, and muscles to pop? You need warm side light.”
She notices Buckley set down the selfie stick. “I’ll show you,” she says to Chimney. She leans down and grabs her phone, unlocking it.
“My niece took these of me a few months back. Her mom, my sister, wanted some pictures to commemorate my time at the Academy.” She swipes through a few photos of her in her gear.
Chimney whistles. “Your niece did this?”
Edy nods, smiling. “Yeah.”
“You think she’d be willing to take my submission pics for me?" Chimney gestures at himself. “I’m told I photograph like an Asian Fabio.”
Edy turns to look at Chimney. “Oh, for the firefighter calendar thing? That only the men can join?”
Chimney laughs, nodding.
“Sure she would, yeah.” Edy huffs a laugh, and Chimney brightens.
“Yeah?”
From the other end of the gym, Buckley curls a large weight, other hand braced on her thigh. “You know, you really shouldn’t get his hopes up like that.” She grunts out.
Both Edy and Chimney look at Buckley for a moment.
“No offense Chim.”
“No offense taken, Eva.” Chimney says before walking away. At the name, Buckley’s head snaps up. She sets down the weight and mumbles something to herself.
Edy looks around for a moment, deciding whether she should say something. She runs a hand through her dark hair and makes her way over to Buckley.
“What’s your problem, dude?”
Buckley looks up slowly, eyeing Edy. Her eyes trail over Edy’s bare arms and the black tank top that’s sticking to her sweaty skin.
Buckley nods for a second, then rises slowly. “Okay. You.” She rises to her full height, a few inches taller than Edy. “You’re my problem. Your comfort level. You’re- you’re not supposed to just walk in here like you’ve been here for years.”
Edy quickly spots the emotion behind Buckley’s words, hiding. She looks at her through her sweaty hair, chest rising and falling.
“It’s meant – meant to be a getting-to-know-you period.”
Edy bites her lip as she surveys Buckley.
“You’re meant to respect your elders.”
“You’re not her elder, Buckley.” Chimney juts in, back at his dips.
Both look at Chimney, then turn back towards each other. Edy raises her hands in surrender, “Look, I in no way meant to, uh, be too familiar or step on anybody’s toes.” She gestures towards Buckley. “I know you’re going through some personal stuff right now.”
Buckley stiffens, leaning towards Edy. “What, what personal stuff?”
“I know your boyfriend recently broke up with you and you’re coming to terms with that.” She says, matter-of-factly.
There’s silence for a moment. “No, I’m not.” Buckley gives a half-smile. “And he didn’t break up with me. Who told you that?” She turns an accusatory gaze towards Chimney, voice tightening.
Chimney does another dip. “21.”
Sensing tension, Edy turns back to Buckley. “I’m just saying I hear you’re a good person, and I’m sorry you’re going through pain, but you don’t need to take it out on me, or be threatened by me. We’re on the same team.”
Buckley gets closer, eyes flashing. “Why would I be threatened by you?”
Edy takes a breath. “Exactly. There’s no need to be.” She meets Buckley’s eyes. “We do the same thing. I’ve just, done it while people are shooting at me is all.” Edy light claps her hands together as she turns and walks away.
Buckley, from behind, says, “We’re not broken up.”
“Alright,” Edy concedes, turning fully away. She can hear Chimney laughing.
BUCKLEY
They respond to a call with a guy that’s got a grenade in his leg. People get up to some crazy shit.
She helps load the guy into the ambulance where Edy pulls the gurney in.
Edy was pissing Buckley all the way off. Who did she think she was, coming into her station, talking about her personal life.
Bobby stops Buckley. “Buckley, I want you to travel with him to the hospital. Keep him stable.” Buckley looks at her Captain, the red lights of the ambulance making him glow in the dark.
“Copy that, Cap.” She says, eyes about to roll yet again.
“Hey, you got to learn how to play nice.” He says sternly. “It’s one team, Buckley.”
The man on the gurney leans forward. “Hey Nash, am I gonna be alright?”
“These ladies have got you. But you might want to consider switching to collecting baseball cards after this.”
With that, the doors of the ambulance are shut, leaving Buckley with the man and Edy.
She watches Edy warily as she grabs some supplies from one side of the rig.
Sirens blare as they make their way to the hospital, checking him over.
“I guess you’ve seen a lot of shrapnel wounds.” Buckley bites out.
“My share.” Edy replies stiffly, checking the man’s vitals.
“You ever seen a guy with a length of rebar stuck through his skull?” Buckley looks up at Edy, confident in what her answer will be.
Her face is stoic. “What are we measuring here, Buckley?”
That shuts her up. The man groans and Buckley turns back. Edy juts her chin forward.
“Need to change those dressings, they’re soaking through. Hang in there Charlie, almost there.”
Buckley sighs and grabs more dressings. “I’m just saying, working the streets of L.A. is not exactly stress free.” Edy’s comment from earlier about being shot at while doing her job was nagging at her. “May not be the same kind of pressure you have in a war zone, but…”
Suddenly, Edy’s grabbing at Charlie, looking into his leg wound. “I thought you said this was a practice round.”
“It is.”
Buckley feels anxiety curl in her stomach. “Uh, what- what- what’s going on?”
Edy’s standing, legs braced. “You see that cap?” She points at the wound. Buckley looks. “Practice rounds have blue caps. Gold caps are live.” Urgency fills Edy’s voice. She bangs on the front of the ambulance, hard.
“PULL OVER!”
EDY
The ambulance had stopped, both Edy and Buckley climbing out. They were now looking at the X-ray of Charlie’s leg. Edy surveyed it, hands clasped in front of her.
“Uh, I thought this thing already went off.” Buckley’s voice was light but confused.
Edy gestured at the scan, explaining. “The launch grenade has two components: gunpowder which makes it travel and an explosive charge that makes it go boom.” The red lights of the ambulance flashed in Edy’s vision.
Buckley’s eyes were drilling into Edy. “Okay, so why didn’t this one go boom?” Edy meets her gaze.
“It’s fitted with a proximity fuse. It’s a little smart sensor that tells the cap it’s traveled a safe enough distance from the shooter to explode. From his hand to his leg probably wasn’t far enough,” Edy shakes her head.
Cap grimaces. “Well, we can’t bring him inside a hospital full of people, not with that still stuck inside him.”
The bomb squad guy braced his hands on his hips. “We called the military for help.”
Buckley shifted, “The military,” she huffed a laugh. “Uh, can’t you do it? You’re the bomb squad.”
The guy looks at her dead in the face. “You can’t defuse a grenade. We need to find someone who knows how to pull that thing out of him without setting it off. They’re sending someone up from Pendleton, should be here within the hour.”
Buckley’s head is already shaking, “He doesn’t have an hour.”
Edy waits a beat. “I can do it.” Buckley turns sharply to her, ponytail swinging. “If he doesn’t go to surgery soon, he’ll die.”
“You’ve done this before?” Cap asks, and Edy doesn’t like the look on his or Buckley’s face.
“Well, no one I served with was dumb enough to shoot a live round in themselves, but I’m familiar with the ordinance.” Edy’s voice is full of confidence, most of it false. She knew what to do, but knowledge is not experience.
“I’m in.” Buckley states, firmly. They both look to their Captain, who nods.
The next thing Edy knows, she’s strapping up in a bomb squad vest, being handed the tools needed to deal with the round.
As she walks past Buckley, also being suited up, she gives her a nod. “See you inside.”
Buckley nods back, lifting her chin so the guy can secure the vest.
She can hear the conversation behind her.
“All right, listen, Buckley, you don’t have to do this.” Cap says, and Edy slows her stride a bit.
“You think I’m gonna let the new girl have all the fun? Besides, you wanted us to bond. We might end up real close.”
Edy smirks. Wouldn’t that be something?
Edy hands Buckley the container and lets her climb in first.
She climbs in after her. “How you feeling, Charlie?”
“Like a world-class idiot.”
Charlie rambles some more as Edy and Buckley get prepped.
She turns to Buckley, jaw tight. “You ready?”
Buckley meets her eyes, intense. “Yeah.”
Edy pulls back the wrapping, revealing the wound.
Buckley inhales in a hiss. “He’s losing a lot of blood.”
“Keep pressure on it,” Edy replies, calm. Buckley pushes down. “Not-” Edy glances at her. “Not too much pressure.
Edy reaches in and grabs the round with the clasp. “There it is.”
“Alright so, pull it out, come on.”
“I got to be careful.” Edy’s teeth grit. “The sensor measures the distance traveled based on how many rotations the shell made after the launch.” She bites out, hisses of breath between each word. Her arms are strained, muscles clenched.
“The key is not to turn the shell while we pull it out.”
“Okay yeah, so don’t turn it.” Edy grunts. “C’mon, you got this.” Buckley encourages.
“Gonna have to just…” Edy can feel sweat on her forehead. “A bit…” She groans as the shell pulls out. “Get the box.”
Both women breath sighs of relief as the round lands safely in the container. Buckley grins up at Edy, and it’s awfully endearing, the sharp points of her canines peeking out.
They wheel Charlie out of the ambulance, handing him off.
Edy wipes her forehead with her forearm, sweat sticky.
She turns to Buckley. “You’re badass under pressure, you know that?”
Buckley’s face is surprised, dropping into a half-smirk. “Me?”
“Hell yeah,” Edy says, looking Buckley up and down. “You can have my back any day.” Her voice softens a bit at the end, and Buckley straightens.
“Yeah, or you know,” Her dimples pop. “You could… you could have mine.”
Edy snorts a laugh, teeth showing. “Deal.” They shake hands.
“Nice work ladies,” Cap interjects. “I’m glad you both made it out of there.”
Edy turns her smile to him.
“The woman’s a professional, Cap.” Buckley says. “I was never really worried.”
The ambulance explodes and they all flinch away.
After a moment, both Buckley and Bobby turn to Edy, shock on their faces.
She smiles. “You guys hungry?”