crash & burn - e. buckley

013

02x02

"All right, Buckaroo. If you were not a member of the LAFD, what would you be doing?" Chimney asked Buck as he and Jamie entered the kitchen.

"Uh, I don't know. I'm not getting fired, am I?" Buck asked uncertain.

"That's inevitable."

"He'd be a golden retriever," Hen commented.

"No, a bartender," Chimney added. "No, no, no, bouncer at a bar."

"A bouncer at a strip club," Hen laughed and high-fived Chimney.

"What about you, Jamie?"

"Um." She pretended to think about it, but she already knew the answer, not that she was ever going to say it. "A writer, maybe. Could sell my life story."

"We don't even know your life story," Hen pointed out.

Jamie smiled at her playfully, "yeah, cause you're not paying to hear it."

"What's going on with you, kid?" Bobby asked Buck, who was looking very down today.

"Just traffic sucks in this town unless you're driving ten tons of engine with sirens," he complained. "It took me almost two hours to get from Abby's place to the call center downtown, then back over here. Just told Maddie she needs to start ubering."

While everyone was eating the omelet the Captain had cooked, Jamie picked up a book and started reading instead. She wasn't really in a good mood today. She had woken up with a feeling that something terrible was gonna happen, but she just tried to ignore it and distract herself with reading.

She was still reading an hour later when the ground started to shake violently and the alarms started blaring. Her heart rate quickened and her breaths became shallower. She was born and raised in California but she never got used to earthquakes, she's actually terrified of them.

Chaos erupted all through the firehouse. Windows broke, things rolled away to where they shouldn't be, including Eddie who had been laying on a roller-thingy to inspect the underside of the engines. Jamie almost fell over the railing of the balcony but luckily she was able to hold on. Canisters of gas fell over and broke. People were scrambling to stay safe and to help each other.

"Anybody else back there?" Bobby shouted as Buck emerged from the dressing rooms. His reply was unintelligible with everyone shouting over each other.

Jamie ran down the stairs as quickly as her legs could manage to carry her and threw herself in her best friend's arms. He instantly started rubbing soothing circles on her back and tried his best to keep her calm in a situation he knew was terrifying for her.

"You're okay, baby, you're okay," he muttered to her. Then he quickly pulled back and started inspecting her, keeping her at arms length. "You are okay, right? You're not hurt?"

"I'm okay, I'm fine," she assured him while pretending like the nickname he just absentmindedly gave her didn't make her head spin.

They got in the truck and started speeding down the roads of Los Angeles. Everyone was quiet for a good while until Buck noticed Eddie tapping away at her phone.

"Is everything okay?" he asked him.

"Yeah. There's no service. Texts won't even get through."

"Who're you trying to get ahold of?"

Eddie looked uncertain before replying. "My son. I'm trying to reach my son."

"Whoa, you got a kid?" Buck exclaimed excitedly making Jamie smile. He loved kids, it was kind of adorable actually.