Bondi Rescue One Shots

4: Not So Chicken Fried

Summary: While a storm hits Bondi, Reidy is struck by lightning and collapses. He's rushed to the ER, where it is revealed if he will live the same anymore or not.
Warnings: Lightning Strikes; Seizures; Direct Lightning Contact.
Third Person POV
      One of the biggest storms had yet again arrived at Bondi Beach. The clouds were an inky black, and the sea was actually going over the seaside pools on the Promenade, sucking their water out or completely covering them.
      And yet the lifeguards remained, knowing they had to keep stupid people (Jesse's words, no one else's) from drowning.
That's where it went wrong.
      Reidy was pulling down the middle set of flags as the wind roared, only because Hutz had somehow gotten Jethro's ear infection and couldn't do it. "Ooh, look at that one!" Nicola said, pointing at an impressive lightning strike on the water. Harrison was watching Reidy and the lightning, though. It was getting too close for comfort to where Reidy was standing.
"We—we should just pull him in." He said, just as the sky cracked open. Nicola cried out, ducking instinctively, as Reidy dropped like a stone.
"REIDY!" Hutz yelled, pushing past Nicola and hightailing it down the sand. Maxi ran after him, yelling behind him, "CALL 911!"
      "Reidy. Reidy, can you hear me?" Harrison grabbed Reidy's shoulders, shaking them. The older man was deathly pale and totally out. There was a streak of thin black lines arching from Reidy's shoulder down to his collarbone and across.
"What the hell happened?!" Hoppo shouted as he, Whippet, Harries, and Jake ran over. Nicola was in tears, hiding her face in Joel's chest as she cried, "What if he's not going to be okay?"
"He will. It's alright, let's go inside." He gave Harries a look, and the boys took Nicola inside, still crying.
      "Don't touch him, whatever you do." Hoppo ordered. Maxi and Harrison shared a look. "What?" Boss Man snapped, seeing this. "I…kind of already did." Harrison said.
Hoppo groaned. "Okay, that—fine. Has he woken up yet at all?"
"No."
      The EMTs pulled onto the Promenade and rushed down, and it was a whirl of activity and blurred colors for Hutz. He knew he should've pulled Reidy inside. The lightning was getting too close too fast, and it tended to jump things. No wonder why Reidy was scared, but he'd pulled the flags down anyway. They lay abandoned like toys on the sand where he'd fallen. Hutz stared at them, oddly spacy.
Time Skip
He wasn't, like, KFC fried, but he did have some neurological problems. At first. 
      The lightning fucked up the electrons in his heart, causing a Grand Mal seizure in the ambulance. Twice. His heart had already given up once. He was basically tied to oxygen. He had some scarring where the bolt hit him, but the doctor said it wouldn't really be noticeable.
      Reidy woke up on Thursday, almost three days after he came in. He was hella disoriented at first, unable to tell the nurse what day it was (understandable) and what year. That's what really threw her off.
It was 2016, but Reidy said it was 2014.
      He'd slipped back two years for some reason, and no one could figure out why, considering, for a lightning strike, everything looked normal. Then they discovered something wasn't quite…right in his head. He'd somehow fucked up something, and it damaged his sense of time very badly.
He'd also have to live with epilepsy now.
Hutz wanted to shoot himself.
      Reidy did not blame him. "It was my job," Hutz told him. Reidy shrugged. "And I did it. So what if I got a little fried out there?" He smirked. Hutz couldn't believe he was so calm. "You have epilepsy." Hutz snapped. "You're dying from a fucking seizure disorder. What happens if you have one at work because I couldn't do my fuckin' job, Reidy?!" He yelled. He knew he was being loud, knew the others would be concerned, but he didn't care. Tears filled his eyes. "I basically fucking killed you—"
      "No. Do not say that, because you didn't. Hutz, look at me." Reidy said, and Hutz looked. "I'm glad it was me and not you." His smile was sad. "Me, Hoppo, Deano—we're the older guys. We've already been around a long time. We've lived a long time, okay? If I happen to die, on my beach because of some lightning, I'm fine with that. I've done what I can in this life, right?"
"B-but—"
"Hutz, no one is immortal." Reidy said. "Not even me."
Hutz started to cry. "I'm so sorry." He cried, and Reidy pulled him onto the bed, in his arms, and cried with him. "I'm so proud of you, you know that?" Reidy whispered against Hutz's hair. "So damn proud. If I die, please remember that. I'm proud of every single one of you. Even our resident idiot."
"Maxi?"
"Good job!" Reidy teased.
Hutz and Reidy laughed.
A approaching figure made them turn. Maxi was glaring at Hutz playfully. "Why am I the first choice?"
"Could be Jethro."
"Hey!" Came from down the hall.
      Reidy was okay. He might've had epilepsy now, might've gotten struck by lightning and thought he'd die, but he was alive, and he was okay. Nothing was going to change.