The world stopped rumbling slowly, until it was finally still. Ollie took a moment to catch her breath, her body aching from the force of her body hitting the ground when she had been tossed by the aftershock. For a while, she kept her eyes clenched shut, as if she could lure herself into waking up from some bad dream and end up in her nice, comfy bed at home.

    But unfortunately, that wasn't the case. Slowly, she opened her eyes, only to be met with pitch blackness. She grabbed her flashlight, flickering it on only to see that she was crammed between a bunch of debris, including a heavier piece of wall sitting on her ankle, which was throbbing in pain. Ignoring the intense beating in her chest that made her think she was having a heart attack, she clicked on her walkie, calling into it. "Cap? Chim, Hen? Eddie? ... Buck?" By the last name, she had given up hope of an answer, head falling back in exasperation and dread at her situation.

    It was ironic, really. The girl who refused to befriend her coworkers suddenly wishing that they were all there with her.

    After a moment of cursing the world, Ollie lifted her good foot, groaning in pain as she managed to kick the rubble off of her leg. Judging by the pain in her ankle, she could only assume that she had broken it in the tussle with the Earth, and she cursed slightly at it.

   Looking around, she noticed a crawl space above her head, turning very slowly to move herself onto her belly. She coughed dust out of her lungs before shaking her head, calling out into the darkness. "Is anyone down here? Hello?"

    In response, someone coughed, ending it off with what sounded like a groan. She continued to call out, only to be met with the same noises. Mustering all the strength she could, she armycrawled her way through the space above her head until she was met with a gap in the debris, her eyes landing on a turnout pinned beneath a fallen pillar.

    Moving closer, she let out a deep sigh when she recognized the face. "You're from the 221?" She asked, her eyes assessing the man for injuries as she waited for a response.

    "Yeah. Russ." He introduced himself, his voice sounding strained. His face was covered in dust and sweat, products of the day, but he managed to keep his eyes on her.

    "Bloom. Ollie," she added, continuing to look him over the best she could. "118. Where's your radio? Mine isn't working." She explained, looking back up at his face.

    Russ groaned back at her. "I don't have one. All radios were issued out. It's not my shift." His breath came short and raggedy, and her eyebrows turned downwards.

    "You came in on your day off?" She asked.

    "Yeah. Nothing new on Netflix." He joked, although his laugh came out more as puffs of air.

    Feeling bad for his condition, Ollie whipped around, placing both of her hands on the pillars crushing Russ and attempting to push them off of him, grunting and groaning. When her normal strength didn't seem to be enough, she tried using her firehook to angle it off, but to no avail. She looked around, eyes catching on the car sitting in front of them, before looking at Russ. "I'll be right back. I'm going to see if there's a jack in one of these cars, okay?"

    She stood up quickly, ignoring the excruciating pain in her ankle as she lumbered forward. Hooking the fire hook inbetween the trunk lid in the base of the car, she tried to angle it to open, huffing and puffing in frustration.

    "Don't waste your strength or your time."  Russ called, as best as he could, from behind her.

    "You don't know me very well, Russ. I'm getting us out of here, no matter what." Ollie stubbornly responded, continuing to work the hook at different angles, as if it'd budge anymore.

    "I'm not getting out of here. Fractured pelvis, flail chest, even I couldn't save me. And you don't know me, Ollie, but I'm pretty damn good." He breathed out. His voice was so weak that it made her want to punch the car, to curse the Earth for taking the good people out of it.  He was a firefighter, for damn's sake, one that had come in on his day off to save people – and this was how he deserved to go?

    The anger continued to fuel her as she pushed into the trunk. "You may be good, Russ, but I'm better." She gritted her teeth. Her assault on the car only stopped when she heard his gurgled coughs behind her, firehook immediately falling out of her hand as she moved back over to him, slowly bringing herself to her knees. "Hey, hey, hang in there. It'll be okay." She murmured, her voice suddenly a lot softer.

    Russ turned his head the best he could to look at her, and she gave him a soft smile. "I'm not gonna make it twenty minutes. Help's not coming. Not in time, any way. So, please, my kit. The morphine. Give me a bolus. Hell, give me three."

    She stared down at him for a moment, weighing the whole situation in her mind as she fought back the sting behind her eyeballs, tears threatening to slip out of her eyes. Turning, she located his bag, pulling it onto her lap and unzipping it. "You get one, to keep you comfortable. I don't give up, Russ." Her hands rummaged through his bag, eyes narrowing as she looked for what she needed.

    The other firefighter had no comment on her stubbornness, instead staying silent for a heartbeat or two before he spoke again. "Are you married, Ollie?"

    "I'm not." Ollie responded earnestly, pulling out his kit full of vials, searching diligently for the morphine.

    "Anyone you love?"

    The question made her hands shake more than they already were, grabbing the correct vial and a syringe. She was quiet a bit longer than she should have been, silence hanging in the air along with the dust around them. "I don't know, Russ." She finally answered, looking over at him with a small smile. "I'm not really the lovable type, you know?"

    This coaxed another weak laugh out of the man. "Everybody's the lovable type, Bloom, they just have to find the right person. There will always be someone... someone who loves you for who you are, no matter what you try to do. Love can be stubborn." He sighed, his breaths becoming more and more strained by the minute, each one another strike to her heart.

    "Yeah. I've been noticing that recently. Love is like a leech." She grumbled, holding up the vial and slowly inserting the syringe, pulling it back so that it filled slowly with the morphine. "But I don't think I'm ready for it. Everyone I love leaves, one way or another, anyhow."

    Once her sentence ended, she turned to give the man his medicine, just to realize that his strangled breaths no longer traveled to her ears, his eyes staring blankly at the sky. Reaching out, she shook his shoulder gently. "Russ? Russ. Russ, no, man, come on." She begged, hands clutching at his turnouts. "Please. Don't do this." Her voice turned into a whimper when his eyes still didn't move, syringe clattering to the ground in defeat.

    Ollie's head moved back to knock into the pillar behind her, closing her eyes to avoid the tears threatening to spill over onto her cheeks. Deciding being angry was better than feeling sad and hopeless, she moved to continue cramming her firehook under debris, attempting to move anything enough to get out of the stuck position she was in. Her ankle pain had settled into a slight throb, although pain shot up her calf the minute she forgot about what had happened to it and accidentally stepped on it.

    It felt like hours of her pushing and prying at rubble before she finally managed to unsnag a piece, letting out a soft sigh once a hole opened large enough for her to fit through. To her surprise, her flashlight caught onto something white and furry running at her, before it let out a soft bark.

    "You don't belong here." She mumbled softly, moving to sit down on the ground, breathing heavily as the dog moved to situate itself on her lap. Her fingers scratched at the dog's head until she could hook her fingers into the collar around its neck, glancing at the tag hanging from it. "Paisley. Hey, girl. You don't happen to know the way out of here, do you?" She murmured, letting her hands fall to her sides.

    As if understanding her, Paisley hopped out of her lap, moving to disappear into the same hole that she had met Ollie at. Rolling her shoulders, the firefighter got back down on her stomach, crawling through the hole until she was in a spot where she could stand. She kept limping after the dog even when her brain told her that it wasn't a good idea, that there was no way a rat-looking white dog was smart enough to tell her how to get back to her team or out of there.

    "Come on, move a bit slower for the injured lass, would you?" Ollie grumbled as Paisley kept up a brisk pace in front of her, climbing over a large piece of concrete as fast as she could with deadweight for a left leg. She raised her flashlight to look around, eyes widening at the sight of a child huddling under the rubble. Voice softening, she moved the light so it wasn't directly in the kid's eyes. "Kat?" She asked tentatively.

    The little girl grabbed Paisley like she was her lifesaver, clutching her to her chest and staring at Ollie with wide, scared eyes, which was definitely expected in her situation. Ollie moved to crouch in front of Kat, moving closer slowly as a small smile pulled at her lips. "I've been looking for you, honey. Your parents are, too." She murmured. "I'm Olivia, but you can call me Ollie, okay? Are you okay?"

    Kat shook her head, squinting at Ollie. "No, but I fell." She murmured, her voice slightly shaky.

    Ollie laughed, nodding. "Yeah, me too. Here, I think I have something that belongs to you." She tucked her hand into the pocket of her turnout, pulling out the shoe she had found an hour before and holding it out. "I think you'll need that."

    The girl grabbed her shoe from the firefighter with a smile, sliding it back on her foot. After she was all situated, Ollie held out her hand to her, ignoring the ache in her foot as she helped Kat hop on her back, holding onto her legs as she took a look around.

    Now that she had more to worry about than just her own life, she was set with a newfound determination. With Paisley leading the way, she continued to explore the cavern, both hands holding Kat up as the child rested her head on her back. The beam from her flashlight was the only thing lighting up the cavern, wreckage blocking any light from the outside from reaching her.

    It seemed like ages of looking around the maze of broken concrete, moving what she thought was a different way just to see what seemed like the same thing. At some point, a frustrated groan left her lips, causing Kat's head to raise from where it had been laying against her. "It's okay, Kat. We're gonna get out of here, okay?" She reassured, rubbing gently along her calf as she took a deep breath and continued trudging forward.

    As she was turning to look for another way out, Paisley took off into the darkness, causing Olivia's heart to heighten into her throat. The last time the dog had scampered off, she had found Kat. So either Paisley was about to find another straggler, or Ollie was about to end up with someone else to save.

    Moving closer to where the white dog had disappeared off to, the sound of her own name reaching her ears and bringing a large smile onto her face. She stayed quiet as she moved towards the lights pointing towards her, exhaustion taking over every bit of her body as she slowly helped Kat to her feet, ushering her towards the large crowd of firefighters waiting for them. "Hey, guys. What took you so long?" She joked, although her voice admittedly cracked near the end, grateful to be out – and alive.

    Ollie coughed as she helped Kat out first, finally scooting until she was face-to-face with Buck, her own grateful smile reflected on his face. She turned to look around at all of the firefighters staring at her, tears building in her eyes again as she noticed how many people had assisted in getting her (and Kat and Paisley, of course) out, her heart feeling like it could burst out of her chest.

    She didn't have much time to bathe in the attention and adoration before she was being ushered out of the building, nodding as she started to follow everyone. Tiredness weighed down on her shoulders as she walked, limping on her injured ankle. She had half a mind to collapse right there on the floor before a warm hand was skating along her shoulder blades, familiar cologne hitting her nose.

    "Hey, let me help you." Buck murmured, his arm moving to wrap around her, hand holding onto her waist. Too tired to care, her own arm went around his, leaning into him to try and get some pressure off of the aching limb and put less work into actually walking. He helped her get outside before slowly walking her towards the ambulances lined up on the street, the fresh air feeling nice on her dust-covered face and hair.

    She stopped where she was and watched with a small smile as Kat ran towards her parents, being scooped up into their arms as they pressed kisses all over the face of their daughter. Buck stopped with her, and she could feel his eyes boring into her as she stared straight forward. After a moment, she looked up at him, smile twitching when his free hand moved to brush some dust off of her cheek. "You did that, you know." He murmured, grinning back down at her.

    "At what cost?" She joked, letting out a feeble cough and looking down at her ankle. Her throat felt sticky, her body ached in ways it had never ached before, and she felt absolutely disgusting all over. She didn't even argue when Buck just continued ushering her towards an ambulance, sitting down a bit too heavily on the end of it as she immediately shed her helmet and turnout.

    Buck sat beside her, acting as silent moral support  and keeping his distance as an EMT rushed over to Ollie, doing the normal, routine things like checking her blood pressure, checking for a concussion and making sure she was alright. After her ankle had been bandaged, she was given a clean bill of all her other health, the EMT rushing away and leaving her stuck with Buck.

    Both of them stayed silent for a moment before she sighed, staring down at her wrapped ankle. "I saw a firefighter die." She murmured quietly, picking out the dirt and grime from beneath her fingernails like it was the most important thing in the world. "I was talking with him and then he was just gone. I know I saved Kat, but I didn't save him. He came in on his day off a-and he died." Her voice cracked, emotions boiling to the surface. "He could've stayed home. Made house repairs. And instead, he tried to do the right thing, and he died for it. And I could've died, too. Just gone."

    It didn't take long for everything to weigh on her, an ugly sob ripping through her throat and a hand immediately moving towards her mouth to cover it. The moment of vulnerability is what led her to leaning into Buck's side as soon as his arm was around her again, burying her face into his chest as her body shook.

    "It's okay," he murmured, "I got you. I'm right here, Ollie."

    And for once, that was a reassuring thought.