FRIENDLY FIRE: A 9-1-1 fanfiction

Part Forty: What Happens In Florida

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EMMA

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"You know..." Chimney mumbled, peering out of window with me, "when I thought of Florida, I thought of people having gators as pets and flipflops being worn in every climate." He paused, his eyes following a man in a plastic poncho, walking a Komodo dragon in flipflops during the continuing hurricane. "I hadn't realised how right I was."

"Florida does not like to disappoint," I murmured, looking at the familiar landmarks and buildings that we were passing by.

"Should we expect to find your old crew in flipflops too?" Hen joked, seizing her game of catch with Eddie, Buck finally getting his phone back from her.

I sucked in a playful breath, "Maybe?"

The fire truck shuddered suddenly, all of us jerking around as the engineer struggled down the partially flooded roads.

My face fell a little, and I bit down on the inside of my lip; 8 were all out there right now, exhausted, working themselves to the bone, trying to save people and stay alive. I really hoped that they were all okay, especially my old captain. The man was fifty-seven. He had no business being out in the middle of a hurricane.

My eyes widened as a hand landed on top of mine, and I turned my head sharply to Eddie, who continued talking to Buck about something I couldn't catch.

Hen's eyes snapped to his hand, and they widened before she hit Chimney's shoulder.

"Ow, what was—" Hen pointed in my direction, cutting Chimney off, and he turned to look at me as well, his eyes comically growing as well. "Oh!"

Hen hit him again, motioning for him to be quiet as Eddie and Buck glanced at them weirdly.

"Pulling up now!" Bobby called through the headset, glancing back at us, "It's going to be a rough descend. There's a lot of mud!"

"Roger that, Cap!" Chimney threw him a thumbs up before we all started tightening our seatbelts, Eddie's hand leaving mine.

The truck started shaking all over again, the front tilting down as we went down a hill, coming up to a large parking lot in the middle of a wood where Tallahassee's firefighters had set up base.

We hadn't even had the chance to park the truck before I was already poking my head out the window with a newfound passion, searching for 8's trucks. 

"I think I'm slightly offended by how excited you look," Chimney snorted, "are we that bad?"

"Not at all," I turned back to grin at him, "you're still the first ones in my heart."

"That is a lie, but I appreciate it nonetheless," Chimney quipped, unbuckling his seatbelt as we came to a complete stop.

"Alright," Bobby turned around, "I'm going to head out and talk to the incident commander, let him know we're here. You guys try to get settled in."

I clicked off the seatbelt, standing quickly and opening the fire truck door before jumping out. I cringed at the rain immediately, my boots hitting a huge puddle, and the wind was whipping around in every direction.