❝ melisa becomes a firefighter at house fifty-one, finding her second family ❞
❝ amy took the intelligence job in chicago to
solve her parents' murder, falling in love
...
chapter fourteen; viral [ season one, episode sixteen ]
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THE FIREFIGHTERS on truck grabbed two ladders and put them against the wall of the building, outside the window. A family was trapped inside and waiting to be rescued.
Casey, Cruz, and Hermann went up. They helped down a family of three— a daughter and her parents. Otis and Mouch were holding each ladder.
The family was taken to the paramedics as soon as they were down. "What about Hudson?" The little girl asked them. "You have to get him."
"The dog," the father added, explaining who Hudson was.
Cruz was still on the ladder and heard the girl call out to her dog. He switched ladders, getting on the first one. "Wait a minute!" He called out. "I can hear him!"
"Cruz!" Boden yelled when the firefighters entered the building. "Get out of there!"
A few moments later, the dog appeared at the window, and he was alone. Something must have happened. Melisa put her mask on and went up the ladder to go after him in case he was in danger. Mouch went with her.
They spotted Cruz lying on the floor after a while. And they rushed over to his side. They called out to him. He laid still for a moment before reacting. "Are you okay?" Melisa asked him, worried.
"Yeah, yeah, I think so." Cruz got back on his feet. As they were leaving, a small part of the floor gave out, and Mouch was thrown back by the fire.
"I'm okay!" Mouch told them. He got back up.
"This way!" Melisa guided him around the small fire, and the three of them started off to the exit.
"You guys okay?" Gabby asked Melisa and Mouch once they were outside.
"Yeah," Melisa answered, nodding. Mouch gave the same answer.
Cruz turned to Mouch. "You sure, man? Let 'em check you out."
"I'm fine," Mouch insisted. He and Melisa went over to the other firefighters on truck.
Hermann was especially not happy with the situation. Cruz was reckless, and he could have gotten someone hurt or killed— himself included. "This is out of control," he had told Casey.
꧁ ꧂
"FIFTY-SIX hits in less than an hour," Otis stated. He was referring to his podcast. "Just tell me this thing's not going to go viral."
Gabby joined him, Melisa, and Hermann at their table. They were at the firehouse. "Glad to see Mouch's near-death experience can help drive traffic to your podcast." She sat down.
"The whole point of the podcast is to show people what we really do."
"You're supposed to be looking up how-to videos on taping drywall. We gotta get back to fixing up the Bombardier, all right? We're behind schedule."
"We should change the name," Melisa suggested. "Not a fan of Bombardier. Not sure the locals are either." Gabby voiced her agreement.
"May I propose Mustache Pete's?"
Gabby shook her head at the idea. "No, you may not. We need something simple. A single, evocative word, like, uh... Solstice, or Perception, or, um—"
"Pretentious. Or we could call it something fun, like Mustache Pete's." Otis smiled at them.
Hermann cut in. "You can name the place Out Of Business if we don't get back on schedule."
"Okay, okay, here we go." Otis grabbed his tablet. "How to tape drywall. Part one of... fifteen." He glanced at Gabby. "Gee, you know who I bet's really good at drywall? Casey. Too bad somebody got on his bad side by fraternizing with one Detective Voight."
꧁ ꧂
HERMANN HAD FOUND a safe in the bar the following day. And the day after that, Melisa, Gabby, and Otis were trying to convince him to open it.
"I read the whole thing, front to back." Otis held up the papers. "There's no codicil in this deed about any safe."
"We bought the bar lock, stock, and barrel," Melisa added. "That means the safe rightly belongs to you, me, Otis, and Gabby."
"Along with whatever's inside, whether it's an old stamp collection or bearer bonds or gold doubloons!"
"You're outvoted, Hermann," Gabby told him. "Three to one."
Hermann was standing by the kitchen counter. "We didn't buy the bar hoping to find buried treasure. We bought it as an honest investment." He sat at their table. "And for the first time in my life, I feel like I'm onto something good and real. Now, whatever is in that safe, somebody put that in there and locked it away for a reason. Why don't we leave it alone and get in with our plan?"
Melisa nodded along. "I'm gonna go ahead and ignore everything you just said."
Gabby agreed. "Yeah, we're opening the safe." Otis voiced his agreement as well. Hermann was annoyed by this, but they didn't care.
They went to the bar the next day to open the safe. What they found was a box. Gabby opened it.
"We never should have opened this," she uttered upon seeing the inside of the box.
