[PRE SEASON ONE, EPISODE ONE]

GRACELYNN JAEGER FELT AS IF SHE COULDN'T BREATHE.

Her brown hair sat by her shoulders, her grey jumper hugged her body as she stood outside the fire station. Hazel eyes scanned the building, worry hazing over them. Oh God, what was she doing? A firefighter—that's crazy! Gracie should've never chosen this, she shouldn't have applied, and shouldn't have gone through the training. She certainly shouldn't have driven to the station.

Eyes trailing over the inside of the building, Gracie desperately tried to bring her breathing back—hopefully at a normal pace. Who was she kidding, at this rate she felt like she was about to pass out.

Two firetrucks decorated the floor of the building, their bright red almost striking Gracie's eyes as they entered her vision.

She could just about see what went beyond the staircase, a red kitchen matching the colour theme, multiple tables scattered across with a few firefighters seated around them. Gracelynn felt the pit in her stomach grow deeper as they smiled and laughed together, knowing that if she just got up the courage that could be her one day. But she couldn't. Wouldn't.

Suddenly, her eyes met another pair, an older woman, who stood in a firefighter uniform as she raised a curious eyebrow at the clueless Gracelynn. Though her face was filled with confusion, a small smile settled on her lips at the site of another female.

"Can I help you?" The woman asked, having stood still in her spot away from the truck, ready to head up the stairs.

Gracie was sure her face was bright red, the heat burning near her nose as she found her legs walking without her brain. "Um, I-I'm looking for Captain Nash?" Gracie explained, a hint of question in her voice as she nervously spoke to the stranger.

A large smile broke out on the other woman's face, the awkwardness reeking from Gracie not affecting her in any way. "Follow me," she offered, gesturing her head to the stairs before walking towards them expectedly. "I'm Hen," the woman spoke.

"Gracelynn—Uh, Gracie," She corrected herself, assuming Hen had used a nickname during the introduction. Jogging up the steps, Gracie gulped as all eyes turned towards her and Hen.

"Bobby, this is Gracie, she said was looking for you," Hen spoke slowly as she sat beside a Korean man, him joyously passing her a bowl of pasta. Gracie did a quick scan of the table, spotting a man near her age, squinting his eyes from the other side of the table.

Bobby's face contorted, sitting beside the man whose seemingly flirtatious smirk deviated from the hint of a glare in his eyes. A feign of confusion spread over the captain's face as he watched the red-faced girl who had caught on to his cluelessness.

"Um, I'm starting today," Gracie crossed her arms, the vulnerability she felt overwhelming her as the people's glances seemed to never leave.

Bobby scrunched his face even more, turning to the other works as he shook his head in fictitious dubiety. They mimicked this action, catching onto the silly joke Bobby was laying on the oblivious, terribly gullible girl.

"Oh! I-I'm sorry, did you not.. did you not get told, or-"

The table erupted into friendly laughter as Bobby began to shake his head, waving his hand to deny her words. "No, no, don't worry," Gracie sighed tentatively at his words, the comforting smile across his face making her feel better. "Why don't you get changed downstairs, you can come back up and eat with us, uh," her name got lost on his tongue.

"Gracelynn! Gracelynn Jaeger," Gracie's smile was small, her face returning to its usual pale as her nightmare was over. Quickly, she bounced over towards the steps, rushing down them as she headed to the changing rooms.

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WITH A DEEP BREATH, Gracie pushed her hair behind both her ears. Closing her eyes, she steadied her breathing in order to walk straight. She had made it. Though she felt as if she was going to melt into the floor at any moment, her body had allowed itself to deal with the pain. It had to. Being a firefighter, she had to get through moments of actually meeting new people.

With the uniform now on her body, Gracie took a final breath, feeling her chest rise and fall. Moving her feet, she began walking towards the stairs, people's laughter and voices booming from around as she jogged up the steps.

A forced grin stuck to her face, Gracie reached the floor where the other firefighters sat, still eating their food as she had gotten changed relatively quickly.

Hen noticed her when she reached the top of the staircase, face brightening as she waved the new firefighter over. "Sit, we've still got some food left if Buck doesn't eat it all," the woman teased, reaching over to the pasta bowl, and placing it in front of the seat on her right.

The man in question held his arms by his head in defence, eyes quickly tracing down Gracie. If she had noticed, Gracie would have not appreciated how his eyes lingered over her frame.

Crossing her arms over her chest subconsciously, Gracie hurriedly skipped over towards the chair. Taking a seat, Gracie ran a tongue over her bottom lip nervously, reaching her right arm forward to grab the spoon inside the pasta bowl.

"So, do you only go by Gracelynn, or do you have a nickname?" Buck spoke up, Gracie's head whipping up from her food at the sound of his voice. "I mean we've got Hen, Chimney, Bobby, Buck," he pointed at each individual as he spoke.

"Chimney?" She repeated, eyebrows furrowing at the name.

"It's a long story," Chimney spoke up, at least—she assumed he was Chimney. The final man at the table to "introduce" himself.

"A very long story," Hen seemed to get other people snickering at her prolonging of the word—enticing Gracie's curiousness more. "I'll tell you later," she reassured the girl, the ends of Gracie's lips curling up into a wide smile.

"You ever go by Lynn?" Buck continued his previous question, clearly wanting to find something to call the new girl. Just a few seconds before he had been checking her out, now he seemed to be irritated by her very existence. This man's mood swings were on a whole other level, Gracie was not prepared to figure this out.

"No," Gracie shook her head, eyebrows raising slightly at the sound of the unfamiliar nickname. She had been called many things, but never Lynn. "I've always been called Gracie." Her first lie at the 118.

Gracie could lie easily. Any lie slipped off her tongue so simply she could probably convince herself anything was true. It was one of the things Francesca always noticed about her. However, her flaw was always the reason for the lie. The secret. When a secret was formed and said anywhere near Gracelynn Jaeger, she would freak.

Fortunately, she found comfort in covering her ears with her hands and mumbling the first nursery rhyme that could come to her head.

(It was usually Mary Had a Little Lamb).

"Well, Gracie, we're happy to have you on the team," Bobby smiled, Hen and Chimney nodding along as they all ate their food.

Hen notably eyed the girl's face, questioning her, "How old are you?"

Gracie's cheeks grew rosy at the random question, finishing her mouth full of pasta before fiddling with her fork. "Twenty-four," she confessed, understanding her age difference with most people at the table.

Chimney and Hen shared a look, both their jaws slack at the new information. "I'm near the regular age range for a young firefighter," Gracie defended herself for no real reason.

"I know," Hen nodded, "it's just, rare to see a woman so young join the team. It's rare to see a woman join the house overall," She shook her head, a small smile on her face.

"Times are changing," Gracie shrugged, a warm smile spread across her face, lips matching the tint of her cheeks as she bit into her food again.

Blushing had always been a large problem for Gracie. The smallest bit of embarrassment or feeling would leave her pink, her light complexion gone within seconds. Growing up, she got teased less for it. And when she was younger, Francesca had always been by her side, biting back at whoever laughed at Gracie. Sometimes, she'd take 'bite' too literally.

"Yes, they are," Chimney laughed, taking a bite out of a vegetable from the table.

A bell rings across the station, signalling them of an Alarm. Hurriedly, they placed down their forks, grabbing anything else they needed as they began to leave the table.

"Would you look at that, we almost get to finish eating for once," Chimney smiled at the lack of food on everybody's plate, their usual meals coming to an end by the bell whilst halfway through.

Hen, Chimney, and Bobby led the way, leaving Buck and Gracie trailing behind. "Let's see what you got, Lynn," Buck muttered into her ear, the teasing smirk spread across his face as he watched her face scrunch in both confusion and annoyance at the nickname.

"That's not my name," She kept her voice at his low volume, walking to the truck with him beside her.

"Agree to disagree."

"No, I don't agree. That's not my name," Gracie was hard to take seriously when she tried to talk strictly, her soft voice trying to cut the words sharply, only sounding as if she was playing along to Buck's teasing.

"Whatever you say, Lynn," Buck continued, hoping into the truck as Gracie trailed along after him, eyebrows now knitted together in a foreign sense of rage for the stranger. Just another reason why she shouldn't have decided to be a firefighter.

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author notes —
Hii! I hope you enjoyed this sneak peek at the book. My writing isn't the best, but it hopefully will improve as this book (and my others) go on.

Rewatching Buck Begins and seeing this ain't greatly accurate but whatever.

I've already planned some future chapters/plot lines and I'm so excited. I'd just like to say now, that there will be some hints towards other shows (Grey's Anatomy especially) because of who Gracie's character is based on. She's basically me, Lexie Grey, and Spencer Reid mashed into one human being.

Sorry this is so short—it's only a prologue so you can get a first insight on Gracie and her first day at the 118. This takes place around November 2017 due to a random Tumblr timeline I found that only goes up to season 5.. after that, I'm gonna have to improvise.

I will focus on love interests for Gracie during this book, but the main reason I wrote this is because i LOVE the found family trope in 9-1-1. How all the characters grow, love and care for each other will always be special to me and I thought why not write a fanfiction to highlight it even more

Don't forget to comment and vote, it always motivates me to create more chapters 🫶🏻

Anyways,
Byee </3