F | Girl On Fire (Station 19)

EIGHT

It's a couple of days later. Brooklyn is on her way to school. Looking at her watch, she sees that she'll be forty-five minutes early so she decides to call into a diner to get herself a coffee. She stands at the counter and waits to be served. As she's waiting, she looks around the diner and spots Vic at a table with Lucas Ripley, her boyfriend, who also happens to be the Fire Chief of the Seattle Fire Department. She waits to order her drink and pay before she walks over to their table.

'Hey, Vic.' Brooklyn smiles. Vic looks up at her best friend's younger sister and smiles back.

'Hey, Brooklyn.' Vic greets her. 'What brings you here?'

'My new school is a couple of blocks away. I'm still trying to figure at the best time to leave to be on time. At the moment, I'll be about forty to forty-five minutes early.' Brooklyn replies. She then looks at Lucas. 'Chief Ripley.' She nods.

'Sorry, have we met?' Lucas asks, confused.

'You don't remember me, do you?' Brooklyn questions. 'Lakefront Middle School? About two and a half years ago?'

'Oh god!' Lucas' eyes widen with realisation. 'You were in the lab.'

'Yeah.' Brooklyn nods.

'I'm so sorry.'

'It's fine.' Brooklyn assures him. 'You've been to a lot of rescues since then.'

'I'm lost.' Vic states.

'Do you remember the fire at Lakefront Middle School?' Lucas asks Vic and she nods. 'And it was started by a teacher to stop a student reporting him to the police for rape?' Once again, Vic nods. There's a few minutes of silence until Vic realises what Lucas is trying to say.

'That was you?' Vic looks at Brooklyn.

'Yeah.' Brooklyn sighs and nods. 'I don't really like to talk about it though.'

'How are you doing, anyway?' Lucas asks Brooklyn.

'I'm good.' Brooklyn nods. 'Thanks for asking.' A waitress walks over to Brooklyn and hands her a coffee cup. 'Thanks.' Brooklyn smiles at the waitress. The waitress nods and walks away. She turns her attention back to Lucas. 'Still going through therapy for it though. The doctors think I have PTSD since I've been having a lot of flashbacks and nightmares recently.'

'Does Travis know?' Vic queries.

'No.' Brooklyn shakes her head. 'So please don't say anything to him.'

'I won't.' Vic replies.

'Now it's my turn to be lost.' Lucas says. 'How do you two know each other?'

'She's Montgomery's sister.' Vic informs him.

'Really?' Lucas gasps, surprised. 'It really is a small world.'

'Yeah.' Brooklyn laughs and nods. 'I better get going. It was nice to see you again, chief.'

'Call me Lucas.' Lucas smiles at her. She nods and turns to face Vic.

'I'll see you soon Vic.'

'Bye.' Vic also smiles. Brooklyn then goes to walk away but Vic stops her.

'Oh! Brooklyn.' Vic calls out. Brooklyn stops and turns back to face Vic and Lucas.

'Don't worry. Your secret's safe with me.'

.

At school, it's lunch. Brooklyn is sat at a table in a cafeteria by herself. She plays with her food with her fork. She's so lost in her thoughts that she doesn't realise a couple of people have sat in front of her until one clears their throat. She looks up at them.