ONE

"What's the gossip?"

Zoya Jadhav questioned as she stepped in to her apartment in Los Angeles, one that she shared with a friend who often had a lot of gossip to tell from her job.

The Jadhav woman took off her jacket from off her shoulders and threw it on to the kitchen counter beside her, kicking off her shoes wildly, not too bothered in which direction they went in.

Her friend and housemate laughed, reaching forwards towards their coffee table to pour another glass of red wine out in to a glass for the Indian woman.

"Athena shot a guy in the arse."

Evelyn Alborn chuckled to herself as she remembered hearing about one of the most trusted police officers in the Los Angeles Police Department who had shot an armed suspect in the arse.

Her British accent stood out as she spoke, her blonde hair loosely tied backwards as she was relaxing in a pair of sweats and bright pink fluffy socks upon her pale and very cold feet.

"Did he deserve it?" Zoya let a small smile fill upon her face, trying to imagine what it would have looked like and felt like to be shot in the ass.

"He attacked a paramedic with a knife."

"That's a yes."

Evelyn laughed, her head rocking back slightly which meant that her hair was tickling at the base of her neck which was quite an unusual and strange feeling.

As the sofa shifted with the added weight of a second person sitting down, the two friends each pulled out their mobile phones in order to scroll through multiple food delivery companies since they did not want to cook themselves.

A small notification sounded from the phone of the Alborn woman, with her immediately opening the notification of which was a text message, to see that there had been a fire at a residential property not too far away from their apartment.

It was a relatively new apartment that they were living in, but that was only because their original apartment had been completely and utterly destroyed by an earthquake that had hit the city, causing that much damage that an entire high rise hotel had shifted and had been at a sharp angle.

They remembered seeing that on the news and wondering how the firefighters were able to rescue anybody from it.

"Diaz messaged, saying that the fire is spreading to the adjoining buildings, we have to prepare that we could be needed to evacuate." Evelyn muttered, sadness in her tone since she didn't want to have to evacuate, she quite liked this current apartment.

"Tell him that we said that if we were to move, he would have to carry us." Zoya smirked, having loved annoying the man that they called Diaz.

Diaz, was Edmundo Diaz who was a firefighter with the 118 at the LAFD, and was one of the very firefighters that had managed to rescue people from the high-rise during the earthquake.

Zoya didn't often get to communicate with the firefighters or the police officers, since she was working at the dispatch centre for the emergency services, but it didn't mean that she didn't like a bunch of them.

The 118 firefighters were great, and with the Captain of that station being in a relationship with the very same police officer that had shot somebody in the ass, she was able to mix her social circles just enough.

"He's saying that he'll evacuate you out of the window." Evelyn cackled, loving how the man they were talking to loved to tease her friend just as much as she did to him.

It was no common secret that Zoya was terrified of heights, in fact, many of the firefighters, especially Diaz had made jokes about it if she were to ever need to be rescued from a fire and was up high yet he knew that if they were in danger from a fire, he would make sure that she got to safety even if it meant making her face her fear of heights.

The duo of girls stood up from their sofa to head towards the window, having seen the burning orange color of a fire lighting up the night sky.

It wasn't close enough for them to panic, but it was eery as they watched the fire engines, the flashing blue lights, the emergency workers running towards the scene and the ambulances leaving the scene presumably with patients inside of them.

"If we lived in that building, we could be toasting marshmallows." Evelyn spoke suddenly, her intrusive thoughts making an appearance as she pointed to the building opposite them that was a lot closer to the fire.

"You do worry me, sometimes." Zoya rolled the brown of her eyes as she turned her body around to walk towards her bedroom. "I'm going to have a nap, wake me up if we need to evacuate."

"I'll get Diaz to do it, don't worry."

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"You the new firefighter at the 118?"

Athena Grant asked as she noticed a still figure standing outside of the fire station of the 118, their chocolate brown hair tied back in to a ponytail with only a couple of loose strands hanging down their face to frame it.

It was a woman, who wore charcoal grey cargo trousers, and a navy blue sweater, black trainers upon her feet and held a grey gym bag which was thrown over her shoulder.

The Grant woman approached the woman cautiously, her police uniform showing that she meant no harm, her arms raised slightly in a surrendering motion, noticing how the figure nodded their head up and down.

"Yeah, I was trying to work up the courage to go in."

The woman smiled sheepishly, lifting her left hand up to rub at the back of her neck, lowering her head to look down at her shoes.

"Athena Grant." The policewoman introduced herself, holding her hand out for a handshake. "They're not a bad bunch, I can introduce you to them if you're worried, honey."

"Thank you, ma'am." The new firefighter nodded, accepting the handshake. "I'm Tomasa."

Tomasa followed the police officer in to the fire station with caution, eyes scouring the area for any signs of threats and all possible escape routes and places to hide.

She couldn't help it, but she did that with every single room that she entered, she even did it whenever she entered her apartment and she hated that she couldn't stop doing it, she didn't even know when that had first become a thing that she would do.

She lightly tapped the tips of her fingers as she waited for her new colleagues to arrive, chewing on her bottom lip nervously.

"This is Captain Nash."

Athena introduced the new arrival to the captain of the fire station, hoping to ease the nerves of her, and it also meant that she could spend some time with Bobby.

"You must be Tomasa, it's a pleasure to have you here at the 118."

The man that was her new captain smiled at her, his figure tall, towering over her and creating a slight shadow. His hair was a shade of light brown, his face cleanly shaven and Tomasa estimated him to be around the age of fifty.

The frantic sounds of footsteps sounded as the rest of the 118 arrived to meet the new arrival, with four people coming to a halt beside their captain.

The first one to make it beside their Captain was a tall man with dark brown hair and tanned skin, his shirt tight around his arms and a friendly smile upon his face.

The second one to make it beside their captain was another tall man with lighter hair and what seemed to be a red birth mark near to his eye, muscles clenched and a friendly but reserved look upon his face.

The third one to make it beside their captain was a black woman with black glasses upon her glowing skin, her smile appearing the brightest and most friendliest, her head bald and free of hair. Tomasa had a hunch that she would be the easiest to get along with.

The last of the four to make it beside their captain was a short man who appeared to be Korean, his smile bright and his face flushing with what seemed to be tiredness, maybe from being out of breath from the battle to get to the newbie first.

"This is Diaz, Buckley, Wilson and Chimney." Captain Nash introduced his team to the newbie, smiling slightly at the Grant woman as she stood next to the new firefighter, something which did not go unnoticed by her.

"Hi!"

The four of them spoke at the same time, waving lightly, glancing between one another as all of their voices blended together in to one strange and distorted voice.

Captain Nash nodded his head towards the young woman, signalling that she should introduce herself, which caused her to clear her throat, having been trying to muster up the courage to introduce herself.

"Tomasa Diaz."

The tanned man who's name was also Diaz widened his eyes at the woman's last name, before an awkward smile fell upon his lips.

"Eddie Diaz. Where you from?" Eddie smiled as he offered her a handshake, noticing how she held a strange glint within her eye.

"El Paso, Texas." Tomasa responded instantly, accepting the handshake, seeing his face fill with surprise.

Tomasa had been born in El Paso, Texas, according to her birth certificate, and whilst she barely remembered any of her childhood, she somehow felt a connection to the place that was her hometown.

She vaguely remembered having two sisters and a brother since she could picture herself playing games with the three, but she they were a distant memory and her parents never mentioned any other kids, which she found strange.

Her parents never spoke about her childhood, they never spoke about her birth, in fact they barely spoke about anything of her life until she was around the age of thirteen, having repeated nightmares that she eventually confided in them about.

She had no aunts, no uncles, no grandparents, all that she had were her parents who were originally from Mexico but who moved to El Paso in Texas just before she was born.

Eddie furrowed his eyebrows together in slight confusion, swallowing thickly and stepping backwards to regain the composure that he seemed to have lost.

She vaguely looked familiar but he couldn't place it.

"I'm Buck. It's nice to meet you."

Evan Buckley smiled as he introduced himself properly, shaking her hand and being friendly, albeit whilst holding back a little bit so that she would not be able to read him like an open book.

It was strange for Buck, it had only been a little while since they had welcomed Eddie to the team and now they had another newbie, who also happened to be from El Paso.

Why was everybody fleeing from there?

"It is nice to meet you." Tomasa gave the young man a half smile, a strange feeling on her gut having appeared since she had spoken to the man who's name was Eddie.

"I'm Hen, it's great to have another woman here."

Henrietta Wilson grinned as she greeted the woman, standing beside her so that she would not feel like an outsider, noticing how the girls shoulders immediately relaxed as she did so.

Her boys were great, of course, but Hen missed having another woman being around. It wasn't the same with Athena popping round every now and again, she felt like she needed another woman to help balance the testosterone levels within the station.

Plus, it would be nice to gossip with another woman, instead of just Buck and Chimney.

"Well, I hope to be sticking around." Tomasa chuckled awkwardly, eyes darting around once more for an escape route or quiet area.

"We have faith that you will."

Chimney reassured her, his usual friendly smile on his lips, patting the woman upon her shoulder and walking her further in to the station along with Hen.

"You are Chimney, no?" Tomasa questioned, seeing the Korean man nodding his head with a small smile. "What a weird name."

"It's a nickname. My real name is Howie but that doesn't sound anywhere near as cool." Chimney noticed how she giggled at that, wrinkles forming around her eyes.

"Howie sounds cool when you're a firefighter. In this job, even the most boring names sound cool, but Howie is not one of those." Tomasa muttered, hearing both of the people beside her begin to laugh.

"Oh you are definitely staying."

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A/N

Introduction chapter is here, I'm just getting a feel for the story and then they will be a bit more interesting

What do you think?

Anyway, I hope that you all enjoy this chapter and I'll see you all soon for the next one,

I'm so proud of all of you, my loves

Love you all,

-RUBY 🇵🇸🇨🇩