F | Girl On Fire (Station 19)

SEVEN

A few days have passed. Brooklyn is sat in the common room at Station 19. She's been spending the day there with Travis. As she's waiting for them to get back from a call, she decides to watch the TV. After a few minutes, Ryan walks in wearing his plain clothes.

'Hey trouble.' Ryan smiles. Brooklyn looks at him and also smiles.

'Hi.' She picks up the TV remote and mutes the TV. 'I'm sorry about the other day.'

'Don't worry.' Ryan tells her. 'How long have the guys been out for?'

'About ten or fifteen minutes.' Brooklyn replies. 'It's a fire.'

'So they could be a while' Ryan adds, sitting on the sofa.

'Yeah.' She sighs. She looks at the TV and sees the news. One of the local middle schools is on fire, which is where 19 are. Seeing this brings up bad memories. Her hands start shaking and her eyes start brimming with tears.

'Brooklyn, is everything okay?' Ryan questions. Brooklyn's breathing gets deeper and faster and she feels her pulse start to race. 'Brooklyn?' Ryan moves so that he's crouching down in front of the teenage girl. He places his hands on her upper arms. 'Brooklyn, breathe.' He attempts to calm her down. When he sees that her eyes are fixated on the TV, he picks the remote up and turn it off before turning his attention back to Brooklyn. 'Brooklyn, it's okay. Breathe with me.' He adds. 'In.' He takes a deep breath in. 'Out.' He exhales. Brooklyn tries her best to match Ryan's breathing. After a few minutes, Brooklyn is finally calm.

'Sorry.' Brooklyn laughs nervously ad she wipes her eyes. 'That was silly.'

'It wasn't silly.' Ryan shakes his head. 'Do you want to talk about it?' He sits back up on the sofa and Brooklyn turns to face him.

'It was about two and a half years ago.' Brooklyn starts. 'I was in middle school. My math teacher at the time, Mr Keys, noticed that I was "falling behind" so he offered to tutor me after school.' She continues. 'But that wasn't the real reason he wanted to keep me back.' She looks down and composes herself before looking back up at Ryan. 'He would touch me, do thing to me, make me do things to him. He had unplugged the CCTV cameras in the room, closed the blinds and locked the doors so that it looked like that no-one was in the room. One day, he forced me to go to his house where he forced himself on top of me.' She wipes the tears that have fallen from her eyes. Ryan hands her a tissues; she takes it and dries her eyes. 'This all went on for about four or five months. Eventually, I decided to tell someone after a sexual assault talk we had. He didn't like that I had told someone he cornered me and got me into this science lab. I don't remember what he said, but it's what he did. He started a fire with gasoline in the lab. He intended it to be contained in the room and burn me alive but it spread engulfing about half the school in fire. I tried to get somewhere safe but by the time I had, I had already inhaled way too much smoke and burnt my right leg, my lower back and part of my left arm.' She carries on explaining as Ryan looks at her sympathetically. 'The leg got the worst of it.' She pulls her right trouser leg up slightly to reveal the skin heavily scarred. After a few moments, she puts the trouser leg back down. 'I was taken to Grey-Sloan and didn't leave for four months. I had to be on the ICU, have intense oxygen therapy, skin grafts, physical therapy and emotional therapy. The person that I told about Mr Keys went to the police on my behalf. They came and spoke to me and I told them everything. I let them do a rape kit, examine me and take pictures.' She tucks some hair behind her ear. 'Ten kids died in that fire, many more burnt or inhaled smoke. So the police already had him on arson, murder and attempted murder and then, with my statement, sexual assault. He was sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole. After his trial, his daughter, who used to be my best friend, came up to me and told me that our friendship was over because I testified against her father. She didn't believe he had anything to do with what happend. She's part of the gang that have been beating me. After the first time, she warned me that if I ever pressed charges or tried to take further action it would make things worse and it wouldn't be the end of it all. She concluded by saying, and I quote, "I will kill you". I know what she's doing is highly illegal but I can't go through a trial again. I can't testify again. I can't risk it.' Tears stream down her cheeks. She dries her eyes again. 'Please understand that.'

'Brooklyn-'

'You can call me Bryn.'

'Bryn, what you've been through is horrific. I am so sorry that that happend to you.' Ryan sympathises. 'As for recent events, I'm not going to force you to press charges. Seattle P.D. may take action because it's such a severe case but unless you get issued with a subpoena, we will never force you to testify.'

'Thanks, Ryan.' Brooklyn smiles, slightly. 'The day that I first bumped into you was the first time that I had been inside a fire station since the fire.' She adds. 'And is the sole reason I hate hospitals.'

'I can't begin to imagine what that must have been like for you so if you ever want to talk, you know where to find me.' Ryan tells her. Brooklyn smiles and hugs him, catching him off guard.

'Thank you for listening to me.' Brooklyn says softly. Ryan wraps his arms around her and comforts her.

.

A few hours have passed. 19 are only just returning from the school fire call. As soon as Travis has parked the aid car in the barn, he jumps out and tries to find Brooklyn. Eventually, he looks in the common room and sees her curled up on the sofa, sleeping. He walks in, picks up a blanket from the corner and drapes it over his younger sister. When he turns back around to walk out, Ryan is stood in the doorway with a mug of coffee in his hand.

'Hey.' Travis says quietly.

'Hey.' Ryan smiles. 'Can we talk about Bryn?'

'Sure.' Travis nods. 'Let's go through to the kitchen.' They both walk to the kitchen and sit at the table.

'Bryn saw the news.' Ryan states.

'Oh.' Travis replies, concern in his voice.

'She had a panic attack. I managed to calm her down but then she told me what happend when she was in middle school.' Ryan tells Travis.

'She told you?' Travis asks, shocked.

'Yeah.' Ryan nods.

'She must really trust you.' Travis points out. 'She hasn't talked about that to many people. Even though she trusts you, she won't tell you everything. She doesn't even tell me everything. Don't break that trust. If you do, there's no knowing what it will do to her. When she was in the hospital after the fire, she barely talked. Her mental health took a massive dip. I don't want her going back there.' He taps his fingers on the table. 'I don't want to be pulling her body out of Lake Union again.'

~~

Here it is! Did you guess what happened to Brooklyn? If you did, well done!

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