Take on the World

9.

A/N:
i decided to be nice, enjoy:)

"Andy, you have to breathe." Maya stated, holding her best friend by her shoulders.

They'd heard the building creak and start collapse in some places, and that only sent Andy further down the spiral she was already going down. They had already tried to vent the roof, but it was already too unstable, meaning Robert, Vic, and Travis had ran straight into a hot box without knowing it. Maya tried to calm her down, but nothing seemed to work. Multiple times they had to hold her back from running in, Dean holding her back most of the time considering he was the biggest and probably the strongest of the small group outside.

"Maya," Andy said, trying to catch her breath. "I need them to be okay..."

"I understand that, but..."

"No you don't!" Andy snapped, throwing Maya's arms off of her. "You're not a mother, my child is inside of that building, not to mention her father, and the man I very much would like to see walk out of there alive. So no, you don't understand."

Maya was left speechless, not really sure how to respond. Andy was right, she didn't truly understand, she could just take a guess on how the brunette was feeling, judging by her body language, but did she completely and absolutely understand how Andy was feeling? Not in the slightest bit...

Back inside, Robert was working on taking his mask and oxygen off, Travis and Vic not daring to say a word. They thought they'd seen the worst of this man, the harsh tone he'd take with them when he was giving orders, or just how his normal voice sounded like he was mad at the entire world. But they saw a different side of him just now, the side of him that was already taking the role of a father, when he'd only been in the little girl's life less than a month.

"Montgomery, Hughes," He addressed them, one of the few times he had since they went inside. At this point he had successfully gotten his mask, oxygen tank, and his turn-out jacket off and placed them all on Luna the best he could, considering they were all much too big for her tiny frame. "You two can get out of here easier than the three of us could, take her, and get out."

"But captain..." Vic tried to reason with him, knowing that if they followed his wishes, he most likely wouldn't be coming out.

"That's an order Hughes!" He cut her off, already coughing from the small amount of smoke he had already taken in.

"Daddy, no!" Luna cried, her voice muffled by the mask. "Don't stay in here, come out with me!"

"Princess, I'll be okay. But I need you to get out of here first..."

Before anything more was said, they heard part of the roof come down from the other side of the building. That's when Travis stepped in, wanting to get all of them out alive, but he knew his captain wouldn't be coming out unless Luna did first.

"Alright, time to go with Uncle Trav." He said, picking the little girl up and holding her tightly against him, she fought and cried out for Robert, but Travis and Vic had already started their way back out of the building.

They knew it was wrong to leave Robert in that building, especially considering he had no gear and the building was about to collapse at any given moment. But he was their captain, they had to obey the order he gave.

As they pushed through the door, Andy ran over and practically attacked them, taking Luna into her own arms. She threw the mask and jacket off of her and just held the little girl as close as she possibly could.

"Mommy, you have to go back in!" She cried, clinging to her mother. Andy finally looked up and noticed that Robert didn't come out with Travis and Vic.

Then it hit her, Luna was wearing his oxygen mask and turn-out jacket... He was in there with no gear or anything.

"You left him in there?" Andy asked, looking over at the two who'd just come out of the building. "You left him in there, with no gear or anything... Are you kidding me?"

"Andy, he told us to get Luna out." Vic replied, her tone a lot calmer and definitely not as harsh as Andy's was. "He said it was an order..."

"I don't give a damn about an order!" She yelled, Luna burying her face into the crook of her mother's neck, not wanting to watch the scene that was about to go down. "You don't leave a member of the team inside, ever!"

They all stopped everything and turned to the building, the roof had now completely started falling, from the back of the building to the front. Last Travis and Vic knew, they were somewhere towards the back, without gear or oxygen, Robert couldn't have made it far.

Luna refused to remove her face from Andy's shoulder, but Andy could hear the little sobs coming from her daughter, and it broke her heart.

"He'll be okay," Andy said, more to herself than anyone. "He has to be okay."

Andy had one of those moments, where you think everything in your life was falling apart right when you thought you had it together. The amount of tension in the air was unsettling, no one could move or say a word, which was definitely against everything they should've done, but this whole call all they did was break multiple rules and ignore every single protocol in the book. She felt numb, everything was falling apart around her... And she felt absolutely nothing.

The only thing that brought her back to reality was Luna trying to squirm out of her arms, when she looked up, Robert was stumbling out of the building, covered in soot, coughing from the immense amount of smoke he inhaled.

Andy placed Luna back on her feet, the second she did the little girl ran off to her father. He didn't hesitate to catch her just as she jumped into her arms. Andy went over to the aid car, grabbing an oxygen mask, then walking over and handed it to him, which he gladly took.

"Told you I'd be careful," He said, earning a glare from both Andy and Luna. "Oh come on, don't look at me like that."

"Daddy, you almost died." The little girl said, lifting her head up from his shoulder. Andy nodded, silently saying she agreed.

"But I didn't," He replied, placing a kiss to the top of Luna's head, then wrapping his arm around Andy and pulling her into his chest. "I'm here, we all are. That's all the matters."

A/N:
i know this isn't realistic literally whatsoever but anyways it's just for the plot so aha. i'm not a firefighter and have no idea how this situation would've actually been handled so i just winged it and went with how i needed it to go for the storyline.