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ACT ONE — CHAPTER ONE

"hey, mom, I'm gonna go for a little walk while you shower, is that okay?" Natalie asked as she walked into the living room of her uncle's apartment, after escaping Doug, Maddie decided to go here, no one besides Maddie and Doug knew of who Natalie was, so Maddie was more than nervous about telling her brother that she has a fourteen year old kid.

"Yeah, that's okay, baby. Just be careful." Maddie said as she looked at her daughter.

"I will." Natalie answered, she walked over to her mother and gave her a hug, Maddie pulled back from the hug and put a hand on either side of Natalie's face then kissing her forehead.

"You are so strong, my love." Maddie said, she knew that a child shouldn't have gone through what Natalie had been through, so everyday Maddie would remind her how strong she was.

"I'll see you in a bit." Natalie said as she kissed her mothers cheek and then waved as she walked out of the door.

"Okay, so I'm really sorry my walk took a while, I got hungry and well you know what happens when I get hungry.." Natalie trailed off as she walked into the apartment and saw her mother sitting in the kitchen and a guy standing, talking to her, it took her a second to realize who it was.

Evan Buckley.

"Who are you?" Evan asked as he looked at the girl, Maddie looked back and Natalie could tell she was freaking out, she obviously hadn't gotten to the point of telling him yet.

"Do you want me to do it?" Natalie asked but Maddie shook her head and then turned back to Evan.

"Right. Evan this is Natalie.. my daughter." Maddie said and she and Natalie watched as Evan's eyes widened in shock.

"Wait.. wait, wait, wait. What?" Evan asked as he blinked a couple of times. "Daughter, since when? How old are you?" Evan rambled. "Oh gosh.." Natalie said as she watched how Evan struggled.

"Sorry I never said anything, Evan. It's just I don't, Evan I'm sorry." Maddie spoke, Natalie walked over to Evan and held out her hand.

"Hey uncle Evan, I'm Natalie." She spoke, Evan just looked at her for a second, then he shook her hand with a smile on her face.

"Well nice to meet you, Natalie." He spoke then looked back to Maddie. "I want to know why you didn't say anything, doesn't have to be right now, but at some point." He said as he pointed a finger at her then he smiled which made Maddie sigh of relief and she chuckled, reliefed that he wasn't mad.

"Okay, so what happened to you? Because this place is nice, and clean, and you just cooked me food, actual food. That you can get some of." Maddie spoke the lost bit directed to Natalie who chuckled and followed her mother. "Is there a shallot in here?"

"Yeah, my, uh.. my boss at work is like Guy Fieri. He's been teaching me. Uh, we have not made it past breakfast, though." Evan said as he followed the two into the living room, Maddie sat down on the couch, Natalie placed herself on the floor so Evan could sit on the couch beside Maddie.

"And this is, uh-- let me show you--" Evan said as he pulled his phone out of his pocket. "This is my girlfriend's place. I'm, uh... I'm looking after it while she's out of town for a couple of moths, but, uh, she-she should be back soon. This is her." Buck spoke then handed his phone to Maddie, Natalie leaned forward and took a peak at the photo, it was Evan and a red haired woman.

"Aw. How soon?" Maddie asked as Natalie sat back down.

"Uh, I'm not really sure. Um, she was in Ireland, and now she's in Italy. Said she's looking to have an Eat, Pray, Love experience. Uh, to be honest, I don't really know what that means." Evan explained.

"But you're still together?" Natalie asked, Evan looked from Maddie to Natalie.

"Yeah. I mean, I mean, she said I should, you know, do whatever I wanted while she was away, but... what I want is for her to come back. I like the me that I am with her." Evan spoke, Natalie tried her very best to not say what she was about to say, but that didn't happened.

"She's banging other guys, dude." Natalie spoke, Maddie chuckled as Evan's head snapped over to Natalie.

"I mean, that's the 'love' part of her trip." Maddie continued, Evan threw his head back and laughed.

"Whoa! Come on." He laughed, Maddie and Natalie laughed with him. "So you did come all the way from Pennsylvania to just crap on my life? That's a thing?" He asked.

"No, I'm sorry. I'm just being protective." Maddie spoke.

"Anyway, uh, this is you guys' first time here in L.A. Gonna see the sights, hang around for a little bit?" Buck asked looking from Natalie then back to Maddie, hoping they'd at least stay for a little while so he could get to know the niece, he apparently had. Natalie knew that they could never really stay anywhere, not with Dough looking for them, which he most definitely would be as soon as he found out they were gone.

"We're just passing through." Maddie spoke, Evan's hopeful smile vanished when she said that.

"Listen, even if you are just here for a few days, uh, welcome to L.A. It was getting pretty lonely around here." Evan spoke which caused Natalie to smile.

"cheers." Natalie said and raised her glass of juice while the other had their champagne.

Natalie arrived at the 118 fire station, plastic container in hand, she asked for Evan and was told he was on the upstairs level of the fire station

"Evan?" She asked as she walked upstairs, everyone up there looked at her.

"Natalie? What are you doing here?" Evan asked.

"I um.. I baked cookies, mom thought that I should share some with you and your team, said you'd love them." She spoke as she walked over to the kitchen and placed the cookies on the table and opened the container. Evan smiled and grabbed one taking a bite, his eyes widened.

"Oh my.. you made this?" He asked, his mouth full from the whole cookie he just put in his mouth.

"Yeah. I love baking and cooking, I cooked dinner a lot at home, learned to love it." Natalie spoke. Evan smiled and took another cookie.

"You guys, need to taste these." Evan said, everybody smiled and walked over and took one, all of them had the same reaction as Evan.

"Now, Buck, who is this very talented young girl." A man asked.

"Oh yeah, Bobby this is my niece, Natalie." Evan explained to this man, Bobby.

"Well, Natalie, it's nice to meet you." Bobby spoke and shook her hand with a smile.

"Yeah, you can come back anytime with more of these cookies." Another guy spoke, he looked like he was on his third cookie (he was eating his sixth).

"Chimney." Buck said giving him a look.

"Right sorry, you can also just show up without the cookies, and just come say hi sometimes." Chimney said as he gave Buck a look back, Natalie chuckled at the interaction.

"How about we make a deal." She said, Chimney and the others all looked at her. "When I want to try out a new recipe, dinner, lunch, cookies, cake, anything, you'll be my testers, you'll get to taste it, and tell me if it's good. Deal."

"Absosutely." Chimney spoke, the others nodded and agreed, which made Natalie smile.

"Also you ever need a young stand in or whatever to go out on calls with you, my schedule is wide open, I'd love to." She said as she walked back down and out of the fire station.

Natalie was sat in the living room, she could hear her mother take a phone call, Natalie didn't pay attention until she heard her mother grunt in frustration and throw something at the wall, she quickly got up and into the kitchen to see her phone on the floor.

"Jeez, mom, what happened?" She asked, she could see the tears in her mothers eyes and the panic. "Mom? You okay?" She asked as she walked over to her mother.

"It was Doug. He was the one who called. Natalie we can't stay here, he'll find us." Natalie's heart dropped when Maddie said that.

"Oh my god.." She spoke, she then pulled her mother into a hug, one that they both desperately needed.

When Buck came back home, Maddie and Natalie were sitting on the couch waiting for him.

"Leaving already?" He asked as he walked into the living room.

"Road ahead awaits." Maddie said, tried to laugh it off.

"I'm more concerned with the road behind you. Maddie, what really happened with Doug? Why are you running away from him?" Buck asked, Natalie look away from him when they made eye contact.

"No. I'm not gonna bring my little brother into this." Maddie spoke, she looked at him for just a second before looking away again.

"Standing in between you guys and anyone who thinks they can hurt you is exactly where I want to be standing." Buck said, he walked closer to them and sat down on the table in front of them. "Maddie, are you two in some kind of danger?" Maddie took a deep breath.

"The stuff Mom and Dad hated about him, that you picked up on even as a teenager, it all got worse. Much worse over the last year or so. And when I threatened to leave, he threatened to kill us." Maddie spoke, Maddie was crying by now "And he meant it."

"You know, when women in abusive relationships used to come into the hospital, I got to be honest, I would pass judgment. Like, 'why don't you just leave him?' Now I get it. It's like, you can't even believe it's happening." Maddie spoke, it broke Natalie's heart to see her like this, and the reminders of what has happened to them it made her cry now too.

"But you two broke free. And I'm proud of you." Buck said as he looked between his sister and his niece. "But now is not the time to be alone, all right? So-so-so you... you guys should stay here. All right? I-I got... I got plenty of room, and-and, hey, if Doug comes looking, then... I know a lot of cops."

"He won't. He doesn't know you live her. He doesn't know what you do. It's a real benefit to being married to somebody who doesn't ask any questions." Maddie said.

"Okay, well, that's perfect. You guys can start over. I can help you. I can help you get a great nursing job at one of the hospitals." Buck spoke but Maddie shook her head.

"No. I really miss helping people, but I can't do that job every day, looking over my shoulder, wondering who's walking in the front door." Maddie explained.

"Okay. So you want to help people but not deal with them face-to-face." Buck spoke. "Yeah." Maddie said.

"I think I might have an idea." Buck said and Maddie looked at him.

"And Natalie, I can help you get into a great school." Buck said as he looked at her, Natalie groaned at that. Maddie chuckled.

"She's home schooled, she hates public schools." Maddie said, Buck looked over at her.

"All right then, how about I talk to my captain Bobby about the you helping out, I can't promise anything, but if it's allowed you can come work with me as long as you do your school work too." Buck suggested, Natalie smiled wide and hugged him.

AUTHOR'S NOTE —

Alright so I know that, the whole, Natalie working with the fire fighters thing is very unrealistic but come on, it's a fanfic just go with it alright. I just don't really know what to do other than that because I feel like it would be very boring for both me writing and for you guys to read, about her being in school and little moments outside of school.

So just for the sake af the fic, ignore that it's very unrealistic for a teenager to work with the fire fighters cause I'm not changing my mind.

Alsooo, I'm gonna try to fit a whole episodes in one chapter, but chapters will be very different lengths depending on the episode and stuff, but I'll be trying my best for one chapter to be all of one episode.

Any opinions on the first chapter?