[SEASON ONE, EPISODE ONE]

GRACELYNN JAEGER HAD BEEN AN OFFICAL FIREFIGHTER for about three months. She had gotten used to waking up, dropping Izzie off at school and heading straight to the 118. Saving lives had become almost a second nature, whether it was something as simple as a woman choking on a piece of bread or a family's kitchen caught on fire—Gracie was finally prepared.

Friends were a great bonus.

Getting close with people had been difficult, especially after what had happened all those years ago. Fortunately, the young Isabella García had helped her through that. At only ten she had confused the woman to go out and meet people. Of course, the child had meant something else, but that night Gracie had met her two closest friends; Dahlia and Sam.

They were supportive through everything, all the times she struggled with hours, whenever she needed consoling after a difficult day—they were always by her side.

Just as Florence had once been.

Fortunately, the 118 had provided emotional-support-friends all on its own. Their kindness had shocked Gracie, especially with the men she had worked with before. Chimney—whose name backstory had luckily been revealed to the girl—never failed to make the others laugh, Bobby was a great Captain and made a nice friend. Hen would—on the rare occasion—join Dahlia, Sam, and Gracie for drinks at a bar nearby. Though, the woman had noticed the lack of alcohol in Gracie's glasses.

Evan Buckley, however, seemed to make it his mission to annoy Gracie. She was tough to crack, smiling through any teasing or disagreement. He flirted with her on multiple occasions, wanting to see how upset she'd get a that but unfortunately, the woman never seemed to notice. Buck was pretty sure that was what started his drive to piss her off. He wasn't used to rejection, but he could handle it, maybe. Ignorance, however, that was new.

The man felt pride when she finally started to give him a few of her own comments, the sarcastic words would be subtle but enough for Buck to fight back with. It was fun, watching Gracie get irritated when she was biting back a cruel comment.

All of this led to Gracie hoping she wouldn't be cursed with the unfortunately beguiling site of Evan Buckley. And, in the early days of the new year—she was blessed with the lack of Buckley in her vision whilst walking into work.

"Gracie! Hey," Hen greeted the girl, placing a bowl of food onto the table that sat two others. Gracie smiled, waving her right hand slightly as she jogged up to the woman, noticing Chimney and Bobby by the kitchen.

"She's an adrenaline junkie," Gracie caught onto the last bits of what Chimney had been talking about, "So foreplay is me telling her stories about running into burning buildings and jumping into icy lakes and-"

"I'm sorry, wait. Remind me when is the last time you ran into or jumped over anything?" Hen questioned, moving her hand to emphasise her point. Gracie leaned against the end of the table, a smile on her face as she watched the conversation.

"I embellish a little," Chimney shrugged, a playful smile on his face.

"Oh, noted," Hen sassed. Gracie took a seat by the chair beside Hen, tired of standing as her smile never wavered.

"I'm telling you, the uniform is a major aphrodisiac." Chimney spoke as he walked towards the table with a bowl of salad in his hands.

"What are we talking about?" Gracie questioned as she grabbed a plate, confusion and amusement etched onto her face.

"Chimney's girlfriend and their firefighter fantasies," joked Hen, Chimney scoffing in mock offence whilst Gracie scrunched her nose in disgust. Suddenly, the sounds of the doors opening and a truck coming in sounded, faces dropping as they spotted one of their trucks enter the building.

"I was wondering where the other one was," Gracie spoke before pulling her lips into a tight line, earning a diverted smile from Hen. Bobby frowned, eyes facing down in a fatherly disappointment at the red truck, clearly upset with Buck.

Gracie had put the food onto her plate, passing the bowl over to Hen as Buck smugly made his way up the stairs. It did not take a genius to figure out what he had been doing.

Hopping forward, Buck stuck his pointer finger into the bowl, scooping up noodles as the table began to protest. "Oh, gross," Gracie grimaced, watching Buck eat the food he had taken.

"Hey, hey, wash your hands. We don't know where they've been," Hen spoke, the distaste in her tone matching the Jaeger woman beside her.

Buck stood beside Gracie's chair, making a point of chewing his food, smiling at her scrunched-up face. Gracie lightly pushed him away, the man chuckling as Bobby walked towards the table.

"What if we had a call?" The man questioned, a strict frown present on his face as he rounded the corner of the table.

"I was in the neighbourhood," Buck defended himself. "I was just uh, getting it washed." Gracie rolled her eyes when he stole the bowl of greens from Bobby, clearly lying.

"They charge you extra for the full detail?" Chimney had caught on to the blatant lie as well, Buck settling on the edge of the couch as he repeated 'yeah,' with a mouth full of food.

"Listen, I like you. You're a good firefighter," Gracie couldn't help the small smile from finding her face as she knew Buck was about to get a telling-off from the man. Luckily, she had yet to be on the receiving end of one of Bobby's reprimandings. Which was, to most who knew her, a shock. Though regret could bubble inside her quickly after, Gracie's actions were rarely ever thought through, only a 'right now, right there' adrenaline rush.

"I know we got this thing—you call me 'Pops,' and I give you a hard time for being a dumbass kid." Gracie covered her mouth, fork in hand, to hide her laugh when Bobby called the man a 'dumbass kid' earning a small kick on the back of her chair from Buck. "We went to a Springsteen concert together. But this is not a family. It's not a clubhouse. So I'm writing you up."

Gracie turned her head to face the two at the sound of that, her smile gone as she intently watched Buck's sorrowful face as he began to speak. "Come on, Bobby. See the fire, put out the fire. The rest is blah-blah," Hen and Chimney gave each other a look as Buck talked, Gracie's head still turned to face the two.

"No, the system and the rules are not arbitrary. First infraction. Two more, you're out." Bobby declared strictly, Gracie's eyebrows furrowing before she spoke up.

"This is definitely not his first," the woman had no teasing hidden behind her words. She held a concentrated face as she recalled the many times Buck had done something similar—flirt with strangers on the job, she was even sure he had gone into a vacant spot to hook up with somebody a few weeks back—Bobby had simply ignored it.

Looking up from the floor, she saw Bobby's eyebrows had raised and Buck's face was contorted with offense. "Sorry," Gracie quickly spoke before focusing back on her food.

"Wash your hands," Bobby ordered, before walking to a vacant spot beside Chim and sitting down.

"You know you're not helping by going easy on him," Chimney said.

"He just needs a little direction," Bobby spoke, sending a small nod to Gracie as she passed him a salad bowl.

Yeah, one away from women. Gracie kept her thoughts to herself, knowing anytime she commented on Buck's 'sexual activities' he turned it into something about jealousy. Which she was not feeling. That would be gross. It was more disgust for how little Evan Buckley cared for his, and the women he slept with's, dignity.

"Anyone want to pass me a spoon, so I can serve myself some salad?" Bobby spoke, a smile on his face as Chimney began to pass the man a spoon. The sound of the alarm ringing resonated across the station, Gracie rolled her eyes as she shoved a carrot into her mouth before standing. A chorus of groans filled the table as each firefighter stuffed as much food as they could into their mouths before leaving.

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"9-1-1, what's your emergency?"

"Yeah hi, I live in an apartment on 876 Mcain.
I'm in my bathroom and I think I hear a
baby crying. In the wall."

"How's the baby on the wall?"

"No, no, no. Not on the wall. In the wall. There's a baby inside my wall! I think someone flushed a baby down the toilet."

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THE FIRE ENGINES arrived at the location they had been radioed, the 118 quick to exit as they readied their equipment. Gracie walked ahead of Buck, her bag situated on her shoulder as they headed towards the large gate. Her blue button up cling tightly to her, matching uniform as everyone except Buckley, who wore his LAFD t-shirt.

"Which floor?" She questioned Bobby, their steps fast as they headed towards the building.

"Fourth," the man responded, still facing the apartment complex.

Buck let out a whoop, jogging slightly to let himself in front of Gracie, "I'll race you," his words were directed toward the Captain as they headed up the stairs, Gracie's attention directed at the tall trees scattered around as she tried to recall the name of them.

"Ah, race yourself, Rambo. I'm 50 years old, I'm taking the elevator," Bobby told the man beside Gracie.

"Who's Rambo?" Buck questioned, Gracie snapping her head from the tree on her left to face the man, only now realising he was walking beside her.

"John Rambo is a character from different action film, usually called Rambo, he's played by Sylvester Stallone and—" Gracie goes to continue before she meets Hen's eyes, the woman shaking her head 'no'. The brunette closed her mouth, pressing her lips tightly together before they reached the doors of the building.

Buck leant against the TV stand, Chimney and Hen to his right at the door, Gracie sat on the floor by the kitchen area, her back against the counter as Bobby inspected the bathroom. A baby in the bathroom was new but, the team found it hard to believe the man—especially with the looks, and smells, of his apartment. Gracie had almost immediately noticed the bong that placed itself on the counter above her, as well as the old cigarettes lying around.

"I don't hear anything," Bobby spoke as he exited the bathroom, joining the team in not believing that a baby had been flushed down the toilet.

"Look, I'm telling you, I heard a baby crying," The man sighed, seated on the sofa on the other side of the room. "Someone flushed a baby down the toilet!" His eyes made contact with Buck's, obviously believing himself as he gestured to the room, definitely frustrated the firefighters were sceptical. Gracie knew he wasn't lying, it was an easy tell. He certainly believed he heard a baby crying in his walls.

His eyes shifted to above Gracie's head, causing Gracie's head to turn to her left, noticing Hen inspecting something on the counter—most likely the object she had spotted when walking in.

"Oh, I'm not high," he defended himself, Gracie face him again, raising an eyebrow at his state. The man was very much on something. "Okay, I-I'm pretty high, but it's a sativa. You know? I-It makes you happy. It doesn't make you hallucinate!"

"Actually—"

"It could've been a cat, right?" Chimney cut off Gracie before they were stuck listening to her speak for the next three minutes instead of leaving. "Sometimes rats get stuck in the walls."

"Shh," Bobby interrupted the man, his hand moving out as he heard a small noise come from inside the bathroom. All heads turned to the room the man was facing. "Did you hear that?" A baby. Crying.

Gracie placed her right hand on the floor, quickly coming to a stand. Unfortunately, this resulted in the twenty-four-year-old whacking her head on the countertop. Quietly, she winced in pain, rubbing the spot as she heard Buck chuckle almost secretly as they entered the room, the man receiving a rare scowl from the Jaeger woman.

Bobby pressed his ear above the toilet, suspecting that's where the incoherent mumbles of a young child had escaped from. Gracie stood on the left of Chimney when they entered the room, curiously watching Bobby request a stethoscope. Placing the object against the wall, he knocked lightly, receiving a muffled response from the baby.

Gracie's eyes instantly softened, her stomach dropping as she came to the conclusion someone had flushed their baby down the toilet.

"Give me a pen, give me a Sharpie," Bobby ordered Gracie, who instantly reached into her right pocket to retrieve a Sharpie. She normally had a pen in there, or a packet of gum. Buck had once noticed a Polaroid photo in the other pocket consisting of two women—one of striking resemblance to Gracie herself, but he didn't care enough to ask.

After Gracie had chucked over the Sharpie, Bobby caught it with ease, holding it in his right hand before he noticed the brightness of it. He furrowed his brows, looking over to the girl with 'Seriously?' written all over his face at the sight of the pink Sharpie. Gracie shrugged 'All I got.' Bobby huffed facing the wall as he tapped a few times to check before drawing a pink 'X' across the the right spot.

"Hey!" The caller protested the marking on his wall.

"All right, we need to open up this wall." Bobby's words were immediately responded to with Chimney's rejection. "No, no. We're being punked. It's a tape recorder or something. Right, Spicoli?" Chimney faced the stranger.

"Why would he do that, Chim?" Gracie's words held genuine confusion as she looked at Chimney.

"Maybe he's right. Maybe a mother gives birth on the toilet and flushes it," Hen explained, pointing towards the toilet.

"Why would someone do that." Chimney mocked Gracie's previous sentence. "First of all, it's awful. Second of all, do you not know how a toilet pipe works?" I do, Gracie kept quiet. She was pretty sure when she was nine she memorised most of the plumbing details of her house whilst her stepdad was drunk and her mom was at work. Just in case. "There's this piece of serpentine pipe that takes the waste from the toilet to—"

"If this is a premature baby, its bones could bend and compress like sponges. Okay? We need to go in there," Gracie scrunched her nose at the thought of a baby's bones bending and compressing like sponges.

"Stand back." Gracie's eyes instantly widened when she saw what Buck was about to do, "I got this."

The team launched into action almost immediately, Hen and Chimeny jumping backwards as Gracie grabbed Buck's arm to stop him from his next action. He turned to her in confusion before looking towards Bobby, who had his hand on the weapon Buck was prepared to slam into the wall.

"Did you even stop to consider that you might hit a baby?" Buck's shoulder dropped at Bobby's words, Gracie could feel it from her grip on his arm. My grip on his arm?—in a, definitely not, too fast move, the Jaeger woman removed her hand from the Buckley man's bicep. "Yeah, I didn't think so," Bobby responded to the look of regret on Buck's face. "Go get the saw."

"Okay, I'm, uh, I'm just gonna-" Buck shamefully stuttered on his words as he ran out to fetch the saw. Gracie watched him leave, ignoring the blush that still settled on her face from when she'd noticed her firm grip still on his arm after he was no longer at risk of harming the baby. It wasn't like she had a crush or anything, that's stupid. Sure, Evan Buckley was attractive but that didn't mean he wasn't a complete asshole. He continuously slept with women, as much as Gracie wouldn't hate being one of those—

"Try to find some common sense while you're down there," thank God for Chimney always interrupting the brunette otherwise she might've finished that god-awful thought.

Buck had returned with the saw, and Bobby began to break down the wall to see the pipe behind it. Buck and Bobby started to use their hands to remove the wall as fast as possible. Hen and Gracie had stepped back, neither wanting to be in the area when they busted it open.

"Guys, that-that pipe services a quarter of the toilets above us; that's gonna be messy," Hen spoke, a matching grimace on her face to Gracie's.

"Full of shit," the woman to her left nodded a small smile on her face before catching on to her wording. "Not you! The pipe, the pipe will be full of shit. It'll be worse if someone flushes—" Gracie froze when she realised what could happen when someone above flushes. She turned to face Hen, the Wilson having come to the same conclusion as her.

"Even with the water off, if someone flushes a toilet above us, it could drown the baby," Hen worded what was running through both of their minds. The two immediately began to sprint off, Hen dropping her bag whilst Gracie had abandoned hers in the kitchen when they arrived.

They began to run through the halls, Gracie's breathing was heavy as the two repeated, "LAFD. Do not flush your toilets!" After chorusing it through their floor, both women started to jog up the steps, Hen repeating the sentence as many people left their apartments to see the chaos.

"No one flush your toilets!" Gracie yelled as they reached the top of the stairs, Gracie's favourite police officer coming into sight. Both firefighters slowed their walks once Athena Grant came into view, a small smirk across her face as she realised the two were going through a similar hell as she was.

"Hey, girls. How's your day going?" Athena joked, walking slowly around the corner.

"Athena, peachy," Hen responded.

"Typical Thursday," Gracie shrugged sarcastically, still trying to keep her breath from the running and shouting. How she hated exercise, especially ever since her friend, Sam, had started forcing her to go jogging in the mornings when she stayed over. Being friends with a fitness trainer most certainly had its cons.

Athena shook her head with a light laugh, continuing her walk through the building as Gracie and Hen began to yell the same sentences through the corridors again. "LAPD," and "LAFD," continuously overlapped each other.

A man with brown, slightly greying hair stood outside his door, hand on his bare hip, blue eyes glaring at both firefighters as he watched them yell through the halls, disturbed by the noise. "Hey! Hey! What the fuck's going on?!" He questioned Gracie, whose eyes immediately widened at the sight of the shirtless man. Woah.

"Sir, do not flush your toilet!" Gracie instructed as Hne continued to jog up a new set of stairs.

"Why, you wanna take my shit or something?" He sneered, though his lips held a small smirk, signifying he had seen Gracie's eyes trail down his body.

"No, gross, just don't flush!" Gracie prepared to run off again, wanting to accompany Hen before the shirtless man started to speak.

"Listen, I got a lady in there and all this yelling is a pretty big turn off so don't you think—"

"I don't see how that concerns me at all. It has nothing to do with the toilet—I hope—so simply, don't use it." Gracie ordered firmly, shocking herself by the sternness in her voice before following the trial Hen had gone. Leaving behind a smirking, yet startled man to watch her jog up the stairs.

Once done, Hen and Gracie returned just in time to watch the men free the newborn, Bobby telling the two women to prepare the ambulance. Both stood by the gate when none other than Evan Buckley holding a baby came running down the stairs.

"Careful, Buck," Hen's voice alarmed as the man advised them to get ready. Gracie hopped into the ambulance, ready to accompany Buck with the child—something she'd done before when a two-year-old had needed help, though that time it was with Bobby's instruction.

"Hold on! I got another one coming." Gracie recognised Athena's voice, brows furrowing at the mention of 'other one ' before she focused on the infant Buck held.

"Yo, is that the mother? Screw her! Look what she did," Buck voiced, pointing towards the crying baby as they brought in the teenager. Gracie gulped, eyes darting between the teenage mother and the infant child. Jeez, this was a fucked up day.

"She's bleeding out! She's a child!" Athena screamed back, Gracie tensing up at the loud yelling coming from both sides, regretting her choice to step inside the ambulance.

"Hey, hey, hey, what are you waiting for?" Bobby rushed down the stairs. "You gotta go!"

"What, He's refusing to take her?!" Athena shouted.

"He doesn't get a say," Gracie quickly yelled facing Buck before watching Bobby hold the teenager in his arms, the man to her right still protesting. Chimney and Bobby joined the three people already inside the vehicle, Chimney aiding the woman as Buck angrily spoke to Athena, "Yo, if this baby dies, it's on you."

Gracie clenched her jaw, facing Buck as his rage-filled face was dangerously close to hers, causing the man to back up before facing the child.

When they arrived, after a close call for the baby, they began to exit, Buck repeating comforting words to the infant, a whole new demeanour from when he had been yelling at Athena Grant.

"Get the baby to the NICU," the doctor voiced before wheeling both children into the hospital.

"Come on, let's go," Buck began to follow after them, Bobby pulling him back. Gracie wasn't focused on their conversation, only facing the approaching police car.

"Ooo, Buckley, someone's in trouble," she smiled as Athena stormed over.

"Hey, you do not get to choose who lives and who dies."

"Really? 'Cause I was under the impression that kinda was my job," Buck sassed, causing the woman beside him to look away, not wanting to see the rage emitting from the police officer.

"That mother was no less of a child than her baby. You're gonna get someone killed."

"Well, maybe, but not today," Gracie faced Buck this time, tilting her head up to look at the man who held a death wish.

"Yeah, you keep making jokes. I promise you, the next time you screw up, it'll be your last."

Oh, how right Athena was.

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"9-1-1, what's your emergency?"

"Help... Can't breathe..."

"I can't understand you.
Are you saying you can't breathe?"

"777 Detroit Avenue... It's choking me."

"I have the fire department on the way.
Who is choking you? ... Do you know him?"

"My snake."

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author notes —
End of chapter one!!!

This isn't a great start, I can't lie but I needed to write it. I was going to include the whole snake bit but it would've been too long so this episode is split into two chapters.

Also, the apartment guy may be
a little easter egg...

I hope you enjoy reading, my writings not the best but I try, I take feedback but any unkind behaviour will not be accepted here. To me or others.

Don't be a silent reader! Votes and comments always help :)

Anyways,
Byee </3