Firehouse 51

The Last Time

Afghanistan, 4 Years Ago

"Good. What does AR 670-1 cover?"

"It covers the wear of Army uniforms and insignia." Brittany answered with confidence.

They had been driving for over three hours now, and Sergeant (Sgt.) Rose was asking Brittany questions to study for the upcoming board. She was only a PFC, but it was good to be prepared. Brittany was a high speed soldier, and Sgt. Rose was determined to get her up to Sgt within the next two years.

"Very good, Pierce. You never cease to amaze me. I only gave you this stuff to study a couple days ago and you haven't gotten one question wrong."

"What can I say, Sgt. I'm motivated, hooah." Brittany laughed, knowing that her Sgt probably caught onto the fact that she was making fun of her.

"Ha ha very funny. Okay next question. What is the third.."

BOOOOM.

Brittany stepped on the brakes and they came to a complete stop. A roadside bomb had gone off at the front of their convoy. After about ten seconds, another bomb went off, this time hitting a humvee that was about two humvees away.

"Go Pierce. Get out and find cover."

Brittany could barely hear her Sgt over the ringing in her ears. Sgt Rose pushed on Brittany's shoulder, guiding her to open her door and climb out. The convoy was being hit with indirect fire now, so it was important that they got to cover right away. Brittany was crawling on the ground, scrambling to the closest place where it would be safe to hide until the rain of bullets subsided.

People were screaming, the humvees that were hit were on fire. Sgt Rose had climbed out of the truck and ran over to where Brittany was taking cover with a couple other soldiers. She had to calm the girl down and fast, because in a couple minutes they'd need to tend to the wounded soldiers.

"Pierce I need you to look at me. It's go time alright. We need to stabilize the soldiers that were directly hit with the roadside bomb. We have reinforcements on the way but I don't know how much time they have. I got the humvee in the back, you go up to the one in the front. Take someone with you so you have some cover."

Brittany nodded, and had one of the soldiers that was taking cover with her cover her as they ran for the humvee that led the convoy.

The door was blown off, but there was no sign of the driver. She looked down to see a trail of blood leading to the ditch that was immediately to their left.

"They took cover in the ditch. Come on. I don't know how bad the wounds are. We'll move on three. Ready?" The boy nodded. "Three."

They moved towards the ditch and Brittany slid down the embankment, with the boy following behind her. She spotted the soldier laying face down about five feet away. She immediately ran over to them and saw the puddle of blood that was becoming very large.

"I'm gonna turn you over alright?" Brittany turned the soldier over only to realize that it was Quinn. "Fabray."

Brittany ripped her ACU top off so that she could see the wound better. Her wounds were pretty bad, the left side of her body was just wounds. There were pieces of metal embedded in her skin. She didn't know how deep they were. Brittany started wracking her brain for treatment methods. She wasn't about to lose her. Brittany did what she could, she applied a tourniquet above the huge gash on Quinn's left arm, hoping that would help with the bleeding. Then she wrapped and covered the wounds that she could so that it could control the blood loss.

"You're gonna be alright, you'll be alright."

Brittany turned back to the boy and grabbed him by the arm.

"I need you to go and get Sgt. Rose or SSG. Flynn. Now. And move."

He took off running back towards the humvees.

"P-Pierce.." Brittany looked down at Quinn, who was trying to grab onto her hand. She took Quinn's in hers, and squeezed tightly. "Thank you. F-For everything."

"Hey don't be talking like that, Fabray. We're gonna get you outta here."

Sgt. Rose had come running with the boy and sat next to Brittany.

"What's going on, Pierce?" Brittany was still holding onto Quinn's hand.

"She needs to be taken to the hospital. She has multiple metal shards embedded on her left side and I don't know how deep they are."

"Alright. I already called it in, but she'll go because the other soldier that's wounded isn't as bad as she is." Brittany looked back at Quinn, making sure that she was still conscious. "Go with her."

Once at the hospital, the doctors took over and got Quinn into surgery. Brittany stayed within the hospital and assisted where she could. She wanted to stay until she knew what was going to happen to Quinn.

"PFC Pierce." Brittany turned to see the doctor waiting for her by the doors. "You did a fine job. You saved her life. If you didn't take the course of action you did, she wouldn't have made it. She's not awake yet, but you can go see her."

Brittany followed the doctor down the hall to Quinn's room. She was hooked up to all kinds of cords and machines. Her left side was wrapped tightly, with no sign of blood or anything coming from it.

"Your Sgt got in touch with us, a truck will be coming for you in the morning." He checked Quinn's vitals one more time before leaving the room. "The cafeteria is open all night so you can head down there whenever you're ready."

Brittany waited all night for Quinn to wake up. She understood that her body had gone through a great deal of shock so she may not wake up for a couple days. She only left the room to get some food but she came back immediately. Only to find that Quinn hadn't woken up. She dozed off once in a while, but never fully went to sleep.

Morning came and Sgt. Rose and her First Sgt. had come to pick her up from the hospital. Before leaving, she wrote Quinn a note and left it on the desk near her bed.

And that was the last time she saw Quinn Fabray.