The First Day Of The Rest Of My Life

chapter 1

Maya Bishop was the captain of Station 38 in Los Angeles. She'd lived in Los Angeles all her life, trained and worked hard to achieve this goal; when she was younger, she'd won an Olympic medal in the ten-thousand-meter race, then enrolled at the Los Angeles Fire Academy, becoming a probie, then a lieutenant and finally a captain. 

All she'd ever thought about was her professional life, ever since she was a little girl. Today she had just turned thirty-four, she had been captain for three years and tonight was her district's firefighters's ball. It was then that she realized that she was alone. Much lonelier than she'd thought. She didn't usually go to this kind of event, she always made sure she was on call, but her Battalion Chief had asked her to make an effort because she never came.

-"Good evening Captain Bishop, I see you've come for once. How refreshing!"

- "Good evening Fire Chief Smith, yes I've come at last, I think it's about time."

- "indeed. And where's your plus one?" 

- "I came alone"

- "why's that?"

- "because I had no one to bring... I wasn't going to bring my brother or one of my parents... Everyone I know is a firefighter... And practically everyone I know is there accompanied or on call." 

- "okay, try to enjoy Maya"

- "thanks chief"

She had gone to sit at a table in her station and the chair next to her had remained empty, so empty that one of her firefighters had asked Maya if one of their friend could take the seat between them to chat. 

Every one of her firefighters, every one of her colleagues had come accompanied, all except her. They all had partners, some even had children. She hadn't had anyone to dance with. Yes, there were single firefighters, but no one to her liking. 

She'd been very lonely. 

When she'd returned home after having been around long enough for her liking, she'd looked at herself in the bathroom mirror. 

She had looked all around her. A single toothbrush in the jar, a perfume, a bath towel, everything was in one piece. She looked in the mirror again. At her age, her parents were parents, her former classmates were all parents or at least couples, her firemen were practically all with someone else. 

She had put her hand on her heart and felt panic overwhelm her. Even now she was alone, she was having a panic attack and she was alone, no one could calm her down. 

She had turned around and stooped to sit down, letting herself fall along the single-bowl vanity in her bathroom. She sat there for a while until her panic attack passed.

She then went to bed. She'd had trouble falling asleep. 

The next day, when she woke up, she had found her panic attack, her existential crisis of the previous day, ridiculous. 

She got up and went for a run. Sport had never let her down. 

A few days later, while this idea that had seemed absurd the next morning was running on a loop in the corner of her mind, she had gone out on an intervention with her team. They arrived at the scene of a house fire. Maya was dispatching firefighters when she saw a man run out of the house carrying two children, drop them on the grass in front of the house, and then run back inside before any firefighter could catch up with him. 

The blonde had asked her firefighters to search the house for the man, while others had gone to check on the children. 

They eventually found the man and came out with him, carrying his wife while another firefighter carried a wheelchair.