Emery Begins.

chapter twenty four , Temperatures Rising

a/n : If you've watched Station 19, you'll recognize the call of this episode is from 1x09, Hot Box.

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Then

"Okay, that's-that's cute!"

Helena shakes her head and a loud but warm laugh escapes her lips which causes Emery's heart to jump into her throat. But it was a good jump. The 16 year old looks back down at her camera. The two teenagers have been friends for almost a year now. Ever since Emery took pictures of Helena and her family, Helena volunteered to be Emery's (free) model. Helena was so interested in Emerson's dream to becoming a photographer, it was all the Sharpe girl talked about.

And Helena was going to help her in making that dream a reality.

"I feel like an idiot." Helena says leaning her arm against the brick wall. Emery deadpans, "Have I ever steered you wrong?"

Helena rolls her lips into her mouth and focuses her eyes back on the camera.

After taking pictures, Helena and Emery went to get ice cream. Helena had birthday cake flavor while Emery had vanilla.

"Your flavor sounds fun."

"Well, yeah—it's like a pop, y'know?" Helena wiggles her fingers in Emery's face. The Sharpe girl pulls her face back and giggles softly. "Well, now mine just sounds boring."

Helena shakes her head, "You like the basics. That's not boring." Her arm brushes against Emery's. Emery feels her face grow hot. She rolls her lips into her mouth and Lois at the ground.

"I think that's kind of what makes us perfect." Helena looks at the side of Emery's face. Emery's heart jumps into her throat. Helena smirks, "I mean, makes us perfect as...friends."

Emery's beating heart dies down. Friends.

"Yeah, we're kind of perfect." Emery giggles. Helena smiles and scrunches her nose. "And don't you forget it, Emerson." She nudges the Sharpe girl, causing her to laugh.

Emery looks at Helena and her heart begins to beat even faster. "I'm really glad we're friends, Helena."

Helena giggles which practically causes Emery to melt.

"Me too, Em."

"Now..." Helena holds her hand out to Emery and with her other hand, she holds ice cream cone out to Emery. "...switch."

Emery arches a brow, "I can switch." they switch ice cream cones. Emery eats the ice cream, then she raises her brows. "Huh...it does have a pop of fun."

"Yeah, and this is kind of...boring." Helena teases. Emery looks at the girl with a deadpanned expression. Helena stifled out a laughter and Emery bursts out laughing.

Now

"There's nothing else in here we can use."

Emery looks over at Buck, "Well, then keep looking." Her voice was firm. She walks away from him and Buck raises his brows with wide eyes.

"Well, then keep looking." He mocks her in a nasally tone. He rolls his eyes. This girl could bring him to the edge of the most mind blowing orgasm of his life and he'd still find her irritating.

Emery speaks into her radio, "It's getting hotter in here, Han. Is that fire out yet? Over."

"Negative—we're countering some complications, but we're on it. We'll get it."

Emery inhales a breath and holds it. Wren shifts her eyes over to Emery, who was rummaging through a drawer with a frantic manner. The brunette had questions. Questions only the Lieutenant/Captain in command would know. But Emery was not wanting to talk to Wren. Not even if they were working together. Wren knew why Emery didn't want to talk to her. It's been years since they last saw each other and Emery didn't want to uproot deep memories.

Wren shifts her eyes over to the dirty blonde boy, that was muttering to himself. She walks over to him, "Hi—hey."

Buck looks at the rookie and raises his brows. "Uh, hi."

"I-I know Lieutenant Sharpe said we shouldn't worry or anything—"

"Firefighter Sharpe." Buck corrects. "She's not Lieutenant and honestly, this station would probably lose it's head if she became second in command."

Wren pulls her brows together. "She seems like a pretty good second in command."

"She yelled at you." Buck chuckles. "And she's not really giving us any orders, to me it seems like she's freaking out more than—"

"Okay, she's like your commanding officer right now. Should you really be insulting her like this?" Wren looks around nervously. Buck rolls his eyes with a smirk on his lips. "Yeah, I'll be sure to respect her..."

Wren scoffs. This dude was kind of a dick.

"Okay, well I wanted to ask you about how likely it is for us to get out of here, but—"

"Couldn't you have asked your sergeant that?" Buck raises his brows.

Bobby walks over to the muttering girl and stands beside her. "Emerson. What are you doing?"

Emery lets out a huff, "I'm looking for some kind of tool to help us out if this shit hole."

"I mean, what are you doing as Captain?" Bobby asks.

"I'm not the captain, sir." Emery looks at him. "I'm a...I'm not even a lieutenant." she lets out a weak breath. "I'm...I can't do this."

"Yes. Yes you can." Bobby's voice was gentle and quiet, so no one but her can hear him. "I wouldn't have given you this chance to lead, if I didn't think you could do it."

"And you can do it."

Emery swallows and nods her head. "Okay, uh, thank you, Captain." She looks back into the drawer, her confidence still shaky.

"Aha!"

Everyone turns to the wife. She makes her way over to Buck and grabs the pouch from his hands. "Here they are!"

Emery snaps her eyes over to Wren, noticing that she and Buck were talking beforehand. She squints her eyes and her anger spreads across her chest. Calm down...

Emery taps each of her fingers against her thumb. She exhales a groan and walks over to the soon to be ex-wife. "My tools!"

Buck frowns, "I envisioned tools that were bigger than this—don't know how those are gonna help."

Emery squints her eyes, thinking. Almost simultaneously, Wren and Emery have the same thought.

"Wren." Emery looks at the brunette. The rookie nods her head, "All ready ahead of you, Captain—er, Lieutenant."

"Firefighter. She's neither Lieutenant or Captain." Buck voices.

"Shut it, Buck." Emery and Wren snaps.

Buck looks at Wren with squinted eyes. "I don't even know you."

Emery holds the small tool kit out to the brunette. Wren grabs the kit and makes her way over to the trunk of the car. She pulls out two tools and begins to pick the lock.

"Looks like coffee shirt's got a petty criminal record." Athena voices, crossing her arms.

"Coffee shirt?" Emery arches a brow and looks at Athena.

"Th-that's not important right now." Wren nervously chuckles.

Emery looks at Athena and the Sergeant nods, saying "I'll explain it to you later".

Wren gets the trunk open and she smiles. She looks at Emery, hoping for some kind of reciprocation of a smile. Emery just huffs and rummages through the trunk. She grabs the Jack and raises her brows. "Got it!" Emery holds it out to Buck and he grabs it. Buck carry's it to the garage. Emery speaks into her walkie, "Han, you got the jaws ready out there? Meet me in middle bravo."

"That's an affirmative."

Buck places the Jack under the crevice of the garage.

"If we can unhinge the door up just enough to get the jaws under it, we may have a shot." Bobby says.

"All right, ready when you are, Sharpe."

"Ready!" Emery shouts through the door. "One. Two. Three!"

Everyone tries to lift the garage door up Em with their hands, while Buck uses the jack. Emery pats Buck on the shoulder, "Switch."

Buck grabs the halligan from Emery's hands and she grabs the jack.

"You guys ready?" Emery asks everyone.

"One..."

"Two..."

"Three!"

Everyone begins to try and pull the garage door up again. Emery's arms begin to feel week and she pulls away from the door and so does everyone else.

"It's not working—dammit!" Emery exhales and she speaks into her mic again. "Back to the drawing board, Han."

☆

Then

Helena rushes down the halls of the high school, shoving past the laughing assholes of this school. All of these kids were assholes.

All Helena remembered was laughing with Emery at lunch. Some jock ass hats, who used to be Helena's friends came over to talk to her. They hadn't hung out with her in a while because she was hanging with Emery. Helena noticed how uncomfortable Emery was when the guys sat next to her and started touching Emery's straightened hair. So, Helena told them to scram.

They didn't like that. So before they left, they 'accidentally' spilled milk over Emery's hair. She ran out of the lunchroom before Helena could catch up to her.

Helena pushes open the bathroom door. Her eyes land on sees the girl with frizzy hair with smudged eyeliner. Emery looks at the girl and her embarrassment rises. "Oh, God—"

"Em, are you okay?—"

"Fine. I'm fine." Emery wipes the eyeliner from her eyes. "I'm gonna call my mom. Ask her if she can pick me up."

"Don't do that." Helena huffs.

"Why not?!" Emery snaps, turning to her.

Silence settles into the bathroom and Emery presses her hands against the sink and lowers her head. "I didn't mean to yell—"

"No, you're fine." Helena folds her arms. "I'm sorry this even happened to you in the first place."

"I don't know why I'm crying..." Emery grips the end of some of her milk-soaked frizzy hair.

Helena cautiously walks over to her. "Does...your mom make you straighten your hair?"

Emery gnaws on her lower lip to keep herself from crying. "Yeah." She shrugs. "For as long as I could remember."

"I remember my mom used to do that too." Helena states. "Said it would be easier to get through school if I could at least look like the people I went to school with."

"What changed?" Emery asks, her eyes still on the mirror.

"I learned how to do my own hair." Helena bunches her shoulders and softly smiles. "Made sure I didn't have to rely on her with that aspect."

Emery looks at Helena with her brows raised. Helena looks at the girl. "They shouldn't have poured that milk on you. It was stupid."

Emery rolls her eyes, "I thought having no friends was a good thing. But who knew it was something people could use against me..."

Helena's throat tightens, seeing Emery tear up again. "Don't call your mom. I'm gonna help you with your hair."

"But, my hair is gonna smell like milk. How are you gonna fix that?"

Helena bites the inside of her cheek and smiles softly. "Well, Sharpe. I have many skills." She takes her backpack off and unzips it, revealing the hair products.

Emery pulls her brows together. She blows hair out of her mouth. "Uh—"

"I always bring mg hair products with me."

Emery's chest tightens with an urge she usually was able to shake. But not this time.

She cups Helena's face and pulls her into a timid closed mouth kiss. Helena freezes with her heart banging against her chest. Emery quickly pulls away from Helena and looks at her. Helena opens her eyes and smiles softly with her face brushed with pink.

"Sorry." Emery chuckles nervously. "I smell like milk and I didn't want this to be our first..." she trails off her sentence and shakes her head. "Sorry."

Helena lightly bites her lower lip. She takes a step closer to Emerson. "Hey, Em?"

Emery hesitantly turns to the girl and she's greeted with a soft kiss. She inhales a soft breath and her head begins to feel light-headed but she kisses Helena back.

Helena slightly pulls her lips away from Emery's. "You don't have to apologize." She whispers on Emery's lips.

Emery's head starts to feel fuzzy but she smiles. "O-Okay..."

Helena pulls away from Emery and pulls the flap of her bag back. "Okay, let's see what I've got."

Emery watches as Helena rummages through her bag. The Sharpe girl smiles softly, she then pulls her brows together; noticing Helena's hand. "Whoa..." Emery gently grabs Helena's wrist and looks across her bloody knuckles. "Did this just happen?"

Helena smirks and shrugs a shoulder. Emery's shoulders sag, "Helena, you didn't have to—"

"Those dumb jock straps had it coming." Helena cups Emery's neck. She swipes her thumb across Emery's jawline and smiles softly. "I don't want anyone messing with you...except me of course."

Emery's face gets hot and she rolls her lips into her mouth, trying to contain her smile. But Helena could see right through it.

She always could.

Now

"Temp's rising quickly."

Emery pulls the jacket of her turnout gear off. She grabs her radio, "Han, status check—how's it coming out there?"

"Still working hard with the diamond saw and the Jaws of life and inside the house—well, the fire's started to spread."

"Copy."

"This room's like an oven." Wren wipes her forehead and pulls her jacket off.

"The fire in the house is approaching closer by now just by the feel of things in here." Buck voices and pulls his jacket off. "It's not like an oven—it is one."

"Until they control that fire..." Buck shakes his head.

Wren puts her hair in a ponytail and huffs. "You're probably so eager to face that fire, aren't you?"

Buck chuckles, "I've only known you not even a day, and yet you know me so well."

Emery squints her eyes at the two and she forces out a scoff. Her right eye twitches but she rubs it. She speaks into her radio again. "Han, copy. Do you have an ETA?" Her voice was more impatient. With the heat, everyone looking to her for orders, and a certain envy rising in her body; she was getting pissed off."

"Hey, guys...might be another minute."

Emery wipes at her forehead and chuckles bitterly. She grabs her oxygen mask, "We need to reserve our air. Each of us take a hit."

"Smart move, Captain." Wren nods.

"I'm not..." Emery closes her eyes and hangs her head low. "Whatever." She makes her way over to the wife and lets her take the first hit of the mask. All the firefighters begin to share their oxygen masks with everyone else.

After about 30 minutes, Emery gives the mask back to the soon to be ex-wife. The wife takes in a deep breath and Emery tenses. "Easy, easy. Just takes sips, otherwi—"

The mask rings and Emery growls. "And now you're out of air."

Another bell goes off, "This one's out too." Bobby voices.

"I was so focused on keeping people out, I didn't even think about people needing to get in."

"Well, maybe you should have." Emery snaps. She closes her mouth and silence fills the garage. She looks at the wife and scratches under her left eye. "I-I'm sorry. The heat is just...it's just the heat—"

"All right, look, everyone just needs to think cooling thoughts." Bobby says. "All right, the body can self-regulate."

"Well, everyone has their breaking point." Emery voices.

"It's 110 degrees in here."

"Wow! Thanks for that, Wren. You are making everyone feel so much better!" Emery laughs.

"Emerson." Athena's tone was firm, but approachable.

Emery ignores Athena and looks at the wife. "Audrey, there's got to be something. Is there an air vent or—or I don't know. An attic or—or a crawl space?"

"No. The whole unit is fortified six inches thick."

"Why would you—" Emery stops herself from yelling and covers her sweaty face. "Okay, okay..." she sniffles. "If they're not getting us out from there..."She points at the garage door. "...we got to figure out a way to get out from in here."

"First things first—the coolest place in this garage is on the floor." Emery voices. "So, that's where we're gonna be. Everybody drop."

Everyone gets in the floor, either sitting or laying in their backs.

"Okay, if we get out of here..." Audrey speaks while laying on her back of the garage floor. "I'm gonna take the entire station out for drinks. Okay—just all the drinks."

"I don't drink." Bobby voices.

"There's got to be something that can get us through that door." Emery sighs.

Buck pulls his brows together, his eyes in the car. "I've got an idea..." he stands up. "Is there a screwdriver in here?" He grabs the small toolkit. He opens the car. "Wren, get over here."

Wren complies and gets in the passenger seat while Buck gets in the driver seat. Emery stands up and so does everyone else.

"Buck—"

"I need you to hot wire this car for me."

Wren pulls her brows together, "What?"

"That's a stupid idea." Emery snaps.

"We can use the car as a battering ram. All we need is a dent to compromise the integrity of the door from in here to help our team outside." Buck explains.

"You've seen how tough that door is." Emery scoffs. "It won't work, and then we'll be trapped in here with a damaged car releasing carbon monoxide."

"It might work." Buck replies.

"Buck—"

"We have to try everything." Buck cuts her off. "What if this could save us?"

"It's too dangerous." Emery shakes her head and wipes her forehead.

"So is this heat!" Buck raises his voice. "So is sitting in here, losing energy, hoping someone can make it through that door! We have to try. We have to try something!"

"No, no. Em's right." Wren speaks.

"It won't make anything better. It can only make things worse." Emery exasperates.

"I disrespectfully disagree." Buck seethes. He pops open the compartment under the steering wheel.

"I don't care if you disagree. I'm Captain here and I am telling you to stop!" Emery points at him.

Buck snaps his now fiery eyes on Emery's shaky ones. "You're not my lieutenant. And you're sure as hell not my captain."

"Buck, listen to me—"

"I don't know why Bobby gave you a chance to give orders. You can barely control your emotions enough to keep us alive—"

"Fuck you!" Emery snaps.

"Hey, you two—cut it out!" Bobby snaps. Buck cuts the wires and looks at Wren. "Look, if you don't help me, I might actually blow us up. So..."

Wren tenses, she looks at Buck then at Emerson, and Wren's heart drops into her stomach. Emery's brown eyes were already on the brunette's and she could see hellfire in them.

"Look, do you really want to die not having tried everything to get us out?"

Wren swallows and looks back at the wires. She knew that if she did this, she would be in even deeper shit with Emerson. Wren curses, "Give them to me." She grabs the wires and tied them together. The engine revs and the car starts. Emery takes a step back and slicks her hair back while an unstable laugh escapes her lips.

"Buck, turn it off!" Athena shouts over the engine. "You won't dent the door, you'll just severely damage the car—"

"Please don't do that." Audrey voices.

"—for nothing."

"We can't risk the fumes or the carbon monoxide. Turn it off!"

Buck's jaw clenches and he faces forward, his eyes on the garage door. He reluctantly pulls the wires apart, turning the car off.

"Well, maybe the next plan can work on getting us out of here instead of killing us faster." Emery barks.

"At least I'm willing to try something, Lieutenant." Buck gets out of the car and walks toward her. Emery snaps her eyes up at Buck and squints them.

"What have you got?"

Emery clenches her fist and unclenches it. She turns away from Buck and paces the room. Emery scratches above her brow, "I've got nothing, is that what you wanna hear?" She then picks at her brow. "I have no plan, but you know what? At least it's not a plan that'll kill everyone in here—who have families. Listen to me, right now, Buckley..." She stands toe-to-toe with him, her patience thin.

Everyone in the room watches in silence as the two glare at each other, too afraid to get in between them. "Just because you don't have any communication with your parents, doesn't mean other people are willing to risk dying without talking to theirs one last time."

Buck looks away from Emery and laughs. "Oh, that's rich coming from the girl who just started a relationship with her parents again."

"All right, you two—"

"Wait, what?" Wren speaks, walking over to Emery. "You lost communication with your parents too?"

"That's none of your business." Emery speaks, her eyes still on Buck's

"And her sister."

"That's none of her business!" Emery barks.

"You guys—"

"Em, Amaya is your everything—

"Wren, I swear, you need to walk away from me, okay?" Emery looks at her steel toed boots.

"Em—"

"You're not my best friend anymore!" Emery snaps, turning to Wren. The brunette's back straightens. "And you're not Helena's best friend anymore, she is gone and you should've stayed gone too—why are you here?!"

"Just leave me alone!"

"That's it, Em, you're done!" Bobby speaks. "I'm taking control again."

Emery snaps her eyes over to Bobby. Her mouth twitches and she points at Bobby. "I told you I wasn't ready."

"I know you did. And I'm not only disappointed in myself, but I'm also disappointed in you personally." Bobby speaks. Emery's jaw clenches and she holds her hands up. "They're all yours again, Captain." She then chuckles and sits back down on the floor with her hands in her hair. Her breathing begins to shake and tears blur her vision.

"I just wanted to forget you today..." Emery whispers.

But you're all I think about.

☆

Now

"I'm nervous."

"Oh, you're going to be fine—"

"No, I'm gonna throw up."

"Please don't do that." Helena shakes her head with her nose wrinkling.

"I'm sweating." Emery fans her arm pits. "Why am I slouching? Do I always slouch?—"

"Hey, Em, look at me, please?" Helena takes her girlfriend's hands. Emery meets Helena's hazel green eyes. Helena softly smiles. "You're going to be great."

Emery exhales through her nose. "What if she hates me?"

"How can she hate you? We're all best friends."

"Yeah, but now I'm dating you. I don't want her to think that this trio is coming to an end." Emery says.

"It's not—it's not coming to an end. She'll understand that." Helena smiles. "Okay?"

Emery inhales a breath, "Okay."

Helena bites her lower lip before she closes the space between their lips. Emery's heart pounds against her ribcage and she gingerly kisses Helena back. The smell of warm vanilla and eucalyptus herbs fill Emery's nose.

"Oh, great...we're already starting off with the third wheeling."

Emery opens her eyes and sees the brunette standing behind Helena. She pulls her lips from Helena's, "Uh, h-hey."

"I think I'm just gonna go—"

"Oh, come on—Wren, wait!" Helena calls out, turning to her. Wren looks back at the couple and exhales.

"Can we all sit down, please?" Emery points at the outside cafe table. Wren shrugs a shoulder but she sits down. She sinks into her seat with her arms folded. The blue dyed stripe in her hair hangs over her left eye.

"So..." Emery bunches her shoulders. "How have you been—"

"Great. You know, love the feeling of being abandoned by my best friends."

Helena and Wren were best friends first. Then they met Emery and the three have been inseparable ever since. So, when Emery and Helena told Wren that they were dating, Wren wasn't the happiest. I mean, she was happy for them—of course she was. She wanted her best friends to be happy. But she just didn't want to be forgotten. That's all.

"I know that there have been times in the media where people have third wheeled couples..." Helena waves a dismissive hand. "But people have also said that friendship trips don't work and look at us!" She holds out her arms with a huge smile on her face. Emery smiles and does jazz hands, "Yeah, look at us!"

Wren looks between her best friends and a reluctant yet genuine smile forms on her lips. Emery points at her, "Aha! You smiled!"

Helena snaps her fingers. Wren shakes her head and looks away. "Whatever—your guys' cute little performance doesn't change the fact that there will be times when it's awkward."

"I mean, there might be times." Emery winces. "But there will also be times when Helena third wheels you and I."

"Yeah!" Helena exclaims. She then pulls her brows together. "Wait, what?" She looks at Emery. Emery pats Helena's hand and keeps her eyes on Wren's. "And there will be times when I third wheel you and Helena. I did join the party pretty late, y'know?"

Wren wipes her nose and slowly nods her head. "Okay, fair point. We can all take turns being each other's third wheels."

"Now, won't that be fun?" Helena places her hands in her cheeks.

Wren bites the inside of her cheek. "I just don't want to stop being friends...I love you guys."

Emery tilts her head. "Hey..." she places a hand over Helena's. "We are going to stay friends. Best friends."

Emery then raises her brows and a gentle smile finds her lips. "Would I ever lie to you?"

Wren places a hand over Emery's. Helena then bunches her shoulders. "See? We're already taking turns with the third wheeling." She places her hands over Helena's and Wren's. "This is going to be great."

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author's note.

The pressure may have gotten to Emerson this time. But I promise you her character development with becoming a leader is going to be ✨chefs kiss✨

words : 4358