The Family We Choose

Chapter 16

Emelia never watches the news, she usually just scrolls through the articles on her phone if she ever wants to keep updated. Which is not often to begin with but when the news of the bomber made the headlines, the young girl found herself glued to her screen.

How could you not? The simple curiosity was enough to check once and while, never mind having you dad and rest of your family on the front lines of these bombings.

It breaks her heart and scares her all at once. Although it feels like one in a million to actually be a target she can't help the nagging voice in her stomach that is telling her something is about to happen. She ignores that feeling the best she can, she already lost her mom and she wasn't planning on attending anymore funerals anytime soon. But when she gets the text from May that there's a bomb sitting on her front porch. Her heart stops.

Everything around her grows still and she can't remember how to breathe until she hears her voice over the phone. Reassuring her that everyone was okay. That May was okay.

"I'm okay," May says the second she picks up the phone.

"You're okay?" She echos back. Unable to stop her heart from beating right out of her chest.

"I'm okay," Emelia still has to convince herself of that fact but she can actually breath now. "My Dad caught it before anything had happened. I'm heading the station for a bit, but I'm okay. Promise."

It does little to soothe her anxieties. One wrong move and she could have died. The thought alone scares her more than she can describe. There's a little voice in her head screaming at her to go to May and see for herself that she is in fact okay. But she doesn't.

Instead she spent the next two hours driving herself crazy reading those damned news articles while the LA news played in the background. The sun had set a while ago and Chris was still at Abuelas. Leaving Emelia sitting in the dark, alone, when it happens.

The television screen cuts to breaking news. There's a ladder truck flipped on its side with bodies flown across the concrete. Walking in the open intersection is a teenage boy, a hefty vest on his chest. Emelia tries to focus on the voice speaking to her, describing the scene but everything goes blank as she sees the number on the side of the truck.

118.

There is no use for false hope or guessing games, she knows Eddie is there. He has to be, his shift doesn't end until the following morning. Which means Buck is also there. And by the sight of the ambulance Hen and Chim are there too.

She is standing now, walking across the living room and around the coffee table to stand right in front of the screen. Unsure how she hasn't collapsed yet but she manages to look at the tv. Scanning the small screen until she can clearly see Eddie tucked behind one of the other trucks. Hen and Chim are there beside, it only takes another second for her to realize that Buck wasn't with them.

When the cameraman pans to the blonde stuck beneath the truck, she can see clear as day that it was him. He looks like he's still breathing and she swears she sees his eyes open but it looks like he's dying.

It feels like she's dying.

The phone glued to her hand starts to vibrate and part of her expects it to be Buck or Eddie to tell her this was all some big misunderstanding or bad dream. She picks it up without thinking.

It's May, who usually has her smiling before she can even answer the phone but Emelia doesn't know if she's feeling anything right now.

"Don't look at the news." May says without greeting, her voice the only thing keeping her calm. Soothing her in all the ways she was broken.