Chapter Text
Hailey Blake does not really remember what brought her to Los Angeles.
Maybe it was the dying relative that had three months left and had Hailey spending every moment making sure she was comfortable.
Maybe it was because the weather was much more consistent than Melbourne, Australia.
Maybe it was the desire to live.
Maybe it was all three.
It was only meant to be a quick trip to the store.
Until it wasn’t.
Though she was stuck in her head, which she is most of the time, the L.A noise was much more than enough to bring her back. At least while learning some different road laws, one thing is the same: Always stop at a red light.
Hailey noticed it a good 25 meters away and slowed at 15.
The person behind her properly noticed it at 7.
The screech of tires did not last long, or it did and the strong bump from the back that sent her head to hitting the dashboard -not hard, but hard enough to cause damage- made her mind focus on that.
The noise was gone, replaced by the loud ringing in her ears, there was probably a line of cars behind her honking while they wait as the light turns green.
The only thing that Hailey hears is the loud sirens of a firetruck and ambulances. At first it is only in the distance, but as Hailey blinks, trying to make sense of the situation, she realizes that they are coming closer. The noise was not the biggest give away- the reflection of soft blue and reds becoming hard is what she shifted her attention to.
After a minute, Hailey hears the opening and closing of doors, boots hitting the ground and someone calling to their team, she tried to focus on the voices.
“Buck, Hen, front driver,” the first voice said with full confidence.
There was a mix of “Got it,” and “On it” but both ended with “Cap.”
“Eddie, Chim, back driver,”
Hailey did not hear the responses because two people were already jogging to her car.
The passenger door opened and someone came in.
“Hey, can you here me?”
Hailey blinked thinking of what to say, not trying to over complicated things and ended up with a small quiet, “Yeah.”
“Okay, that’s good. My name is Buck, what’s yours?”
She took a small breath, “Hailey”
“Hi Hailey,” the way he said it was reassuring. Calming.
Trusting.
“We are going to get you out, then we will check you over and make sure you are alright, but before we do any of that i just need to see what kind of condition you’re in.”
Hailey continued to stare straight ahead, “I-I’m fine,” she shuffled to take off her seat belt.
“Hey,” Buck put his hand on Hailey’s arm to stop her from moving. She did not mean to go rigid, but sometimes people don’t have self-control.
“You will be fine but i still need to make sure you’re all good, okay?”
Hailey gave a small nod
“Okay,”
“Any pain in your head or neck?”
“My head… A bit,”
“Okay, we can deal with that” His voice was steady, like this was just a minor inconvenience, it properly was and Hailey was just freaking out over nothing.
And for the first time since the impact, Hailey just let herself breathe.
“Buck,” someone was on the passenger side, but out of the car, “What do we have?”
“Only visible injures is on the forehead, and probably bruising at the seat belt.”
“Okay,” the voice said, “Hey, I’m Hen, we are going to get you out of the car,”
Hailey moves to take of the seatbelt, she did, wincing while she turned.
Hen moved to the other side and opened the door, “Okay, I’m going to grab your hands and pull you up.”
Hailey nodded and reached out her hands, Hen grabbed them, and as she said, she pulled Hailey up and out. As soon as Hailey is out, all the noise rushes back to her: the honking, yelling and the sirens. The only thing that cut through the chaos was Hen detecting her the the curb, “Okay, lets go over here.”
As she is checked over, she realizes that this might not be the only time she meets these people.
And that’s how this all starts.