AFTERSHOCK! ━ 911.

three.

   The sound of chatter and monitors surrounded the large space, interrupted by the swishing of curtains and the rolling of gurneys. The ER was busy, as it tended to be, thankfully. A slow emergency room was a dangerous one. It just meant that something big was on the horizon, like the clouds pulling over the sun before a thunderstorm.

But it was Ellis' home. She loved the thrill of running around, of testing her knowledge on every patient that stepped through the sliding doors. It had been her sanctuary as an intern, a place where she could shut her mind off and focus on other people's pain, not her own. It was almost morbid, the glee she found in broken bones and internal bleeding, but it was all she had known.

And tonight she was running the whole thing.

Setting the phone down at the receptionist desk, the doctor raised her hand to wave over a couple of the surgical interns, grabbing gloves off of a box on the wall and sliding them onto her hands with an ease only developed by constant practice. "Let's page anyone available, especially pediatrics, plastics and neuro, please. Motor vehicle collison. We have a seven year old coming in with a suspected TBI and possible internal bleeding, along with more victims and a few casualties that will need to be called. Let's call up the ORs and get them set up for traumas, along with the burn unit and the blood bank." She instructed the nurse behind the desk, dipping her head.

Ellis stepped closer to the automatic doors of the ambulance bay, grabbing a trauma gown and situating it over the front of her body. Her hands moved to her ponytail to tighten it, tucking a few strands away as she stepped outside, waiting for the familiar song of an ambulance siren. As soon as it pulled in and the back doors opened, she got to work, pulling the ambulance gurney outside with the help of the paramedics and directing it towards a trauma bay.

Children coming into the emergency room were always hurtful to her heart, especially when they came in without parents. Sometimes it was something as simple as them falling out of a tree and breaking their wrist. Sometimes it was something diagnosed that'd spiral their whole, unlived life. It was always a toss-up and it always broke her heart just the same.

Deciding to let the other doctors take it for the sake of her sanity, she pivoted on her heel, making her way back towards the doors. Her eyebrows raised high when she noticed the familiar face of Chimney, brow furrowing. The firefighter-paramedic worked alongside Ollie and it was not very often that she saw him in the emergency room; unless something bad happened.

Her feet were moving before she knew it, her heart thrumming harder against her rib cage. "Chimney? Are you okay? Is it Ollie? Buck? Eddie?" The names flooded out of her mouth before she could stop them, eyebrows furrowed. "Please tell me you all are okay."

The 118, despite being the firehouse that Ollie worked at, had become sort of her own family, too. They had taken her in with open arms, even if she had to pry herself into their lives first. She joined the team when they met up for birthdays and celebrations, and even invited them to her and Ollie's apartments when she felt like her social quota hadn't been met.

Specifically, she invited Eddie Diaz over. Since the day the firefighter had stepped foot through her apartment doors, looking for Ollie and yet coming face-to-face with Ellis for the first time, he had yet to not be a nagging topic on the corner of her mind. A childlike crush, she assumed it was. After all, he was handsome. And sweet. And handsome. Being around him just had a way of making her turn dumb, saying stupid things and hating herself for them later.

Chimney turned to look at her at the sound of her voice, knocking her out of her trance, although she was surprised to see that his face was alight with joy. At Ellis' anxious expression, it sobered for a moment, eyes widening above his face mask as he held his hands out to calm her. "Oh, no! Everyone's okay, Ellis. Don't worry. Maddie went into labor!" He chirped, his voice slightly squeaking with elation. "Have you seen her, by any chance? She was rushed in, so I thought she'd be here."

A deep sigh made her shoulders fall, all the butterflies in her stomach dying at the news. "Oh, my God, Chimney, way to make a girl have a heart attack." She huffed before beaming, reaching out to pat his shoulder. Looking around, she shook her head. "I don't think she was brought here, especially not with everyone we're getting with the pile-up. She probably already got checked in with the maternity floor."

Nodding, he looked around, a bit dazed before he snapped out of it. "Okay, okay. I gotta go. Thank you." He turned to leave, making it only a few steps before pivoting again. "Hey, come see the baby when you're done with the pile-up victims, yeah? I'm sure Ollie will already be up there."

She laughed softly, nodding. "I'll be there, Chim. Now, go! Congratulations!" With a wave of her hands, she sent him off, taking a moment to sigh happily before snapping back into work mode.

Luckily, there was a lot to do to keep her occupied. People from the pile-up just kept rushing into the emergency room, one after the other. There was anything ranging from third degree burns to simple lacerations spread out throughout the entire floor, the volume rising from about an eight to a ten before she even knew it. Her feet ached with the strain of rushing around, but it only fueled her more.

Ellis had just finished stitching up a nasty arm laceration when she was called by an attending to the ambulance doors, her brow furrowing. Last she had heard, everybody had been pulled out of the wreckage on 170. She'd assumed that the rush that came with it would've slowed the ER for at least a moment.

Oh, well. More things to do.

With a polite goodbye to the gentleman she had been tending to, she ripped off her old pair of gloves, replacing them with new ones as she found her way outside. Cool air nipped at her cheeks and nose as the ambulance pulled in hastily, a gust of wind brushing over her as it did so. She was just stepping around to the back of the van as the doors were pulled open, revealing Eddie and Hen.

"Eddie? Hen?" She called, grabbing the side of the gurney and helping them pull it onto the ground. "You got another one?" The question came out just as she pulled out the penlight from her pocket, thumb pulling up the eyelids of the young man on the gurney so she could inspect his pupils.

"It's Chimney's brother." Eddie breathed, his face covered in dirt and who knows what else. If the words he had spoken hadn't stunned her, the way he looked in his gear would have. She hadn't seen him in it before, surprisingly, and it was enough to make her breath catch temporarily in her throat.

Shaking the thought out of her head, Ellis grabbed onto the edge of the gurney, helping the paramedics guide it into one of the trauma bays. "Fill me in," she demanded. As soon as he got next to the monitors, she hooked him up, placing leads on his chest and a pulse ox on his fingers. Her eyes moved up to the monitor to take note of his BP and pulse, mentally jotting them down to help her out later.

"Hypotensive and tachycardic, BP sixty over thirty, suspected internal bleeding. Coded on route, but we got him back with compressions and epi. Intubated in the field." Eddie droned the information off easily, hovering near the wall as doctors joined around her, helping her pull off what remained of Albert's clothes. Despite the worried look he gave the man on her gurney, the information was given seamlessly, letting her know everything she needed to.

She nodded before moving towards him, hand finding his arm comfortingly as she forced him to make eye contact. "I got him, Eddie. Someone will be out to update you all shortly, but you have to let me do my job. I'm pretty good at it, you know," she teased.

The man seemed to snap out of his trance, looking down at her with a twitch of his lips. "I know you are." He followed up the response with another look at Albert and a stiff nod, turning and making his way out of the door.

Taking a moment to catch her breath before jumping into the hysteria, she watched him go towards the reception desk to fill out paperwork. Her empathetic heart panged for just a moment before she turned around, jumping right back into the mess that was helping Albert.