F | Girl On Fire (Station 19)

TEN

Brooklyn wakes up with a splitting headache. She sits up in the bed and rubs her forehead.

'Headache?' She hears Travis ask. She looks up and sees Travis leaning against the door frame with a mug of coffee in his hand.

'Don't you mean hangover?' Brooklyn laughs softly. Travis walks into the room and sits on the edge of the bed. He hands her the coffee and some paracetamol and ibuprofen.

'These will help.' He tells her as he does. She puts the pills in her mouth and washes them down with some coffee. 'How much did you have to drink?'

'I honestly can't remember.' Brooklyn replies.

'Are you going to tell me why?' Travis asks.

'I just needed to take my mind off something.' Brooklyn responds. She then looks down. 'I know that you're not the biggest fan of me hiding things from you, but I'm not ready to share what happened yet.'

'Bryn, it's okay,' Travis reassures his younger sister, 'but turning to drugs, alcohol and partying is not going to help. If you ever need to get something off your chest or if you need to distract yourself, you can always come to me, you know that.' 

'I know.' Brooklyn nods. She puts the coffee mug on the bedside table. 

'So why didn't you?' Travis queries.

'I don't know.' Brooklyn shrugs. 'I'm sorry.' 

'Don't be sorry, Bryn.' Travis says gently. 'Just promise me that, in future, you will come to me.'

'I promise.' 

'Come here.' Travis extends his arms. Brooklyn manoeuvres herself so that she's sitting next to Travis and they hug. 'I'm always here for you, Bryn. We made that pact when mom and dad died. We promised that we'd be there for each other. Always. No matter what. I'm not about to break that promise.'

'You're so cheesy.' Brooklyn parts from Travis and puts her head on his shoulder.

'It's true, though.' Travis points out. 'Come on.' He sighs, standing up. 'Let's get some food in you and get you home. Ryan was able to get a hold of Karen and Mason, they're expecting you.' 

'Do I have to?' Brooklyn asks. 

'Bryn, you know you do.' Travis raises an eyebrow. 'You've just got to bite the bullet and get it over and done with. The sooner you do it, the easier it will be.' 

.

It has been a few weeks. Alyssa is standing outside of Station 19. When she sees Travis walking out of the station to head home, she walks up to him.

'Are you Travis?' She asks him. Travis turns to face her.

'Yeah.' Travis nods. 

'I'm Alyssa. One of Brooklyn's friends.' Alyssa introduces herself.

'What can I do for you?' Travis queries. 

'I was wondering if you've seen or heard from Brooklyn recently?' 

'I haven't seen her in a few weeks but we speak almost every day.' Travis replies. 'She went to a convention a couple of weeks ago but she should be back.' He sees that Alyssa looks concerned. 'Is everything okay?' 

'It's just - the day before she went away, I went to her house so that we could work on a presentation for school. We did it up in her room but when her foster parents got home, they came up to check on Brooklyn. When they saw us together, they got mad. Like, really mad. The next day, she didn't come to school and I haven't seen her since. She keeps declining my calls and ignoring my texts.'