Ride the Lightning (Eddie Diaz love story)

Lightning

Allie had wanted to be a firefighter for as long as she could remember so straight after high school she went to the academy and then joined the 118. Her life story was complicated and painful but she found her family with the 118 but more than that she found love even if it was just one sided. Why was she thinking about this now? Well the answer to that is quite simple...she was questioning every life choice she had ever made that brought her to her current situation. Why she had even volunteered to go up this ladder is beyond her. She hated climbing this thing especially in the rain and heavy rain at that, but here she was reaching the top and questioning everything. She had been a firefighter-paramedic for 4 years and had somehow managed to successfully avoid the ladder until today but again this was her own fault. Now that she's at the top she stops for just a second to catch her breath and that's when she hears it. It's a strange fizzing kind of sound coming from directly above her, she knows exactly what's about to happen because she suddenly realises that she's basically standing on top a lightning rod. She quickly looks down to where she knows Eddie is standing because if she dies she wants his to be the last face she sees granted she can't actually see his face but she knows it's him and that's enough for her.

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It happened so fast it took his brain a few seconds to catch up to what he was seeing. One moment Allie was at the top and looking down at him and the next she was hanging over the edge of the ladder. Once the initial shock wore out Eddie was up that ladder faster than you could blink. He couldn't believe he let her go up there it was supposed to be him but she had insisted and he had learned a long time ago that arguing with her was a pointless endeavour, ultimately she always won.

Once he reached the top he felt sick to his stomach. Just seeing her hanging there so lifeless, knowing the odds of her being dead were very high, the thought of it made him want to hurl. He cared about her in a way he couldn't quite explain and the thought of a world without her physically hurt.
Eddie looked down to see everyone scrambling to get her down, he could hear Buck screaming instructions at everyone and then heard Chim over the radio say he was ready to  lower Allie down. Eddie used the slack on the rope to gently but quickly lower her to the ground, he knew time was of the essence and as he did so he sent a silent prayer up.
Once she reached the bottom he sat there for a second watching everyone swarm around her. Hen started chest compressions while everyone else scrambled to get the gurney into the ambulance.  They needed to get her to the hospital and they needed to get her there soon.

———-

The waiting room was quiet as everyone sat silently waiting for news. Bobby sat there observing his team, his family: Hen was sitting next to him with her head on Karen's shoulder, Buck was at the front desk trying to get any information he could out of the poor nurse who looked like she was just about ready to kick him out of the hospital, Chim sat opposite him holding Maddie's hand a little G sleeping on his lap. Athena was sitting on Bobby's other side, she was on the phone with Allie's grandparents who were currently spending their retirement touring Europe. Eddie was sitting the farthest away from everyone, he was on the floor in the corner with his head in his hands...tear streaks staining his face. Bobby knew about Eddie's struggle with his feelings for Allie, they had had a long talk about it a few months ago. His heart broke for Eddie, he couldn't take another loss like this. His heart broke watching his whole team, Allie was everyone's kid sister. They all loved and protected her fiercely, they wouldn't know what to do without her. He sighed quietly to himself as he got up to get some coffee, he knew it was going to be a long night and he wasn't going anywhere until he knew Allie was going to be ok. She had to be ok. He didn't think his heart could take a loss like this either. May had once joked that Athena had brought two kids into the Marriage and Bobby had brought two kids into the Marriage; Buck and Allie. Both him and Athena had laughed but they both knew that May had been right. Bobby loved them like they were his own and that was never going to change.
As Bobby was waiting for his coffee he saw everyone get up almost all in sync. They were all facing the doctor who had just walked in and the look on her face told him everything he had feared...Allie wasn't ok.

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Eddie stood silently as the doctor walked away. He was trying to process the information he had just heard, Allie had died...again. He knew she had been officially dead for a few minutes while on the way to the hospital but knowing that she had died two more times while the doctors were working on her broke him a little more but she was still alive and that is all that mattered. He had spent the last 5 hours trying organise his thoughts, trying to figure out how he felt about her. He thought back to the first time he realised he felt more than just friendship towards her, they were in the kitchen at the firehouse. It was just the two of them everyone else was asleep. Allie was teaching him how to make her famous hot cocoa except she made him look away when she added the her secret ingredient. As he watched her take a sip he realised he loved her, he wasn't in love with her but he loved her more than a friend should. After that he became distant and cold towards her. He knew it had hurt her when he stopped talking to her. She didn't deserve to be treated the way he had been treating her these last 18 months.
Now as he walked into her room and saw her on life support he felt guilty. The last thing he had said to her had been a snide remark about how she always had to have her way, it wasn't true and he knew it wasn't but he had said it anyway and the look of hurt and confusion in her face will haunt him for the rest of his life....especially if she died. Yes she was alive now but only because machines were keeping her that way but that also meant there was a small glimmer of hope. He sat down in the chair next to her and took her hand and it was only then that he let himself fully break down and repeatedly apologised hoping she could hear him. He was still crying when Buck walked into the room an hour later. Buck put a reassuring hand on his shoulder and sat down next to him. They spent what was left of the night just sitting in silence, lost in thought and reassuring themselves that she would push through. She was stubborn and had never let death win before, she couldn't let it win now. She still had so much life to live. It wasn't her time. Not yet.

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Author's Note:
This was the first chapter. It's not perfect so I might just go back and change a few things but I'm happy with how it turned out.
I hope you liked it and stay tuned for the next chapter?