Hold The Line.

CHAPTER SIXTY FOUR , THIS CITY GIRL WANTS TO GO HOME

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"What's up with the air?"

Emery chuckles as she hops out of the engine with her boots colliding with the dirt. "There's a fire going on right now. Duh." she pats the crumbs of chips off her pants. "Hey, do you think they'll have food here? I ate all my snacks on the ride here."

"I'm talking about the way it feels." Buck goes back to the conversation about the air. "And you should've just slept the entire time like I did."

Emery rolls her head to the side and looks at him. "Well, if I did that then I would also have drool on my face."

Buck's smug expression drops. "I don't have drool on my face." He then shifts. He was a drooler. "Wait, do I really?"

Emery hums and nods her head. "Yeah, yeah. It's right..." she stands close to him and raises a hand. Eddie and Hen exchange a look, already knowing where this was headed.

Emery flicks his nose. "There."

Buck grunts and rubs his nose. "Oh, what the hell?"

Emery laughs manically.

"I can't believe I fell for that..."

"I can't believe you fell for that." Eddie sighs. "And it's called humidity!"

"Yeah! Welcome to Texas!" Emery says in a deep southern accent.

The three turn to her and she giggles. "What?" She innocently questions.

"What. The hell was that?" Eddie questions.

"Oh, come on. Don't act like you didn't have a southern accent when you were living here." Emery pats his arm.

Eddie blinks, "I didn't. You met me when I first moved to L.A."

Emery thinks back to when she first met him. "Ohhhh you are so right." She nods her head. "Well, I'm sure I'll meet someone here with an accent. They're so cool!"

"Seriously. An accent is what gets you?" Buck deadpans.

Emery looks at Buck and smiles. "Yeah, sucks for you." She nudges his arm and walks away. Buck's eyes follow Emery's and he thickly swallows. Someone beside him clears his throat. Buck whips his head around back to Eddie and Hen, who was looking at him with teasing smiles.

"Realll subtle, Buck." Eddie winks and follows after Emery. Buck's mouth opens, "N-No, I wasn't..." he groans. Hen laughs and walks away as well.

"I'm Deputy Chief De Leon of the San Angelo Fire Department. Acting incident commander."

All the first responders on the scene have gathered around the two acting captains.

"For those of you just joining the party, welcome."

"Buck, stop staring."

Emery looks at Buck and Hen with her brows raised. She follows Buck's gaze to a woman on the other side of the field. "Oh, are you being creepy?"

"I'm not staring." Buck says to Hen. Then he looks at Emery. "And I'm not being creepy."

"You're staring." Eddie nods. "And it can be seen as creepy."

"I want to introduce my operations section chief, Captain Owen Strand out of Austin."

Owen takes a step forward and Emery exhales. "Holy shit, he's gorgeous."

"Okay, you two need to calm down." Hen looks at Emery then Buck.

Emery shrugs, "Hey, I'm not staring at him for an uncomfortable amount of time like someone..." she points at Buck.

"I wasn't staring." Buck seethes.

Eddie huffs, "Can you two focus, please?"

Emery and Buck look away from each other and back at Owen.

"The thing we were praying wouldn't happen has happened. The wind has shifted." Owen informs everyone. "The fire's now on a collision course with the city of San Angelo. There's a possibility of weather coming in, but we can't rely on it, and we won't. We have one last shot to turn the tide."

After Owen Strand finished his explanation, Emery noticed Buck's eyes drifted back over to the woman he was staring at before and she pulls her brows together. She follows his eyes and looks at the woman and her jaw drops. "Holy shit, she's gorgeous." A small scoff escapes her lips. "Whatever they're drinking in Texas. I need that!"

"I will call HR on you both." Hen seethes. Emery rolls her eyes playfully and looks to the side. "He started it."

"No, no, I swear I know her from somewhere." Buck says.

Emery purses her lips and softly hums. "You know what? You're totally right." She lightly pats the back of her hand against Buck's abdomen. Buck quickly looks at Emery with wide eyes. He then smiles, "All right—okay! Well, where do you know her from?"

Emery looks at Buck with a blank expression. "Huh? Oh, no idea." She looks back at the woman.

Buck's smile drops. Eddie and Hen laugh at Buck's frustration. "You just said—"

"I said that you were right. Not that I knew where she was from." Emery shrugs. She then looks back at Buck with a cheeky smile. Buck squints his eyes, "You're a real piece of work."

"Right back at ya." Emery lightly nudges Buck and walks away with Hen.

"So, what's that all about?"

Emery turns to Hen with her brows pulled together. "What was what all about?"

"The teasing and flirting?" Hen smirks. Emery blinks, "I wasn't flirting." She huffs. "Teasing? 100%. But, we've always done that."

"Not like that." Hen sings.

Emery rolls her eyes, before the two women could enter the medical tent; Emery grabs Hen's arm. "Is it really that obvious?"

Hen internally jumps up and down. She knew if she had a huge reaction, Emery would immediately shut down the conversation. The last thing Hen wanted was Emery to hide from her feelings. She just wanted these two together already. So, the woman inhales a breath and chuckles. "Em, I'm a very observant person, so it might not be obvious to other people—"

"My crush shouldn't be obvios to anyone." Emery seethes. Hen then laughs. Emery pulls her brows together as Hen continues to laugh awfully hard. Hen then quiets her laughter and looks back at Emery. "Oh, sweetheart, you do not have a crush." She then squints her eyes.

Emery thickly swallows from the tone Hen was using. She knew what feeling Hen was referring to. But, Emery felt a pit form in her stomach. She couldn't think about that. Not right now.

Emery clears her throat. "Wanna check out the med tent? I wanna go check out the med tent." She quickly brushes past Hen and enters the tent.

☆

"Uh, where have you two been?"

Hen and Emery stop laughing when they notice Buck's peeved expression. Hen pulls her brows together, "Took a tour of her medical unit."

"Where's Eddie?" Emery looks around with a frown.

Buck holds his hands out, "I don't know." He groans. "You guys abandoned me."

"Whaaat?" Emery squeaks. "Abandon is such a strong word." She waves a hand. "I would say desert—we deserted you. That sounds so much cooler."

Buck crosses his arms, "You're supposed to feel guilty not cool." He then motions to the rig. "Why did we drive these trucks all the way here from LA jut to park 'em?"

"Only way up to that fire line is by foot." Hen answers. "Trucks go into the motor pool, Commander De Leon will use them as he sees fit. That's how it works, Buck."

"Still, not sure I like the idea of strangers on our rigs." Buck murmurs. Emery purses, "Someone's a little possessive." She then sighs. "But I've gotta agree with Buck here. Who knows what these strangers are gonna do to our engine?" She chuckles. "They might switch things around to be funny! Or—Or! They might try and memorize everything great about our rig and take those ideas for their own rig." She wags a finger. "And i won't have it!—This rig is ours!"

Hen and Buck keep their eyes on Emery as she catches her breath. Hen looks at Buck and shakes er head, "See what you did?"

"I do and I immediately regret it." Buck casts his eyes to the ground.

Emery's mouth drops in shock, "Betrayal!" She points at Buck. The blonde playfully rolls his eyes with a smirk on his lips.

Hen claps her hands, "All right, you two."

Emery and Buck look at the woman. "There are no strangers here. Just grunts with shovels."

Emery folds her arms, "Who you calling grunt?"

Hen tosses the shovel to Buck and he catches it. "Uh, where are your shovels?" He points between the women.

Emery and Hen look at each other and laugh. Buck blinks cluelessly. The two women look at the blonde. "We volunteered for base camp medical unit."

Buck's mouth hangs open which causes Emery to giggle. "Have a good hike."

"Why are you staying at the medical unit?" Buck asks.

Emery shrugs, "I need to keep my EMT knowledge fresh. Can't be getting rusty."

Buck shakes his head in disbelief but he chuckles.

Eddie walks past the three and grabs his yellow coat. "Eddie, can you believe this?" Buck walks over to the man. "Hen and Emery aren't going up the fire line with us. It's just gonna be you and me."

Emery snorts, "Sounds like a date."

A cart skids to a stop in front of Eddie, revealing the woman Buck and Emery were staring at earlier. "You ready, soldier?"

Eddie nods, "Be right there."

"Well, hop to it." She says. "These at risks kids aren't getting any less at risk." She then drives away at full speed.

Buck's jaw goes slack, "Uh, her? You're going with her?"

"Yeah."

Buck keeps his eyes on the cart the woman was driving away in. His eyes widen with a realization. "Wait, guys, guys, guys, I know who that is!" He whips around to the three firefighters. They all look at Buck, waiting for him to speak again.

"She's Firefox."

The three exchange a clueless look. Emery frowns, "You know what? I take back my words from earlier, you're not right. Because I do not know who that is."

"Firefox?" Buck repeats.

"As if I'm supposed to understand the second time he repeats it." Emery shakes her head. She nudges Eddie's arm and points at Buck teasingly. "This guy."

"You guys seriously don't know who Firefox is? She's gone viral like 5 times." Buck explains.

Emery blinks, "Like...on social media?"

"Yes on social media—are you okay?" Buck cranes his neck forward.

"I'm sorry—I don't have social media!" Emery throws her hands up. "Should I get it?" She then rubs her arms. "I think I'm getting FOMO."

Buck holds a hand up to Emery's face and she lets out an obnoxious gasp. "Dick!" Emery smacks his hand out of her face and she points her finger at him. "I will break you."

"Whatever—she's a total badass." Buck continues. "I follow her on Instagram."

Emery wrinkles her nose. Buck then pulls his brows together, "Some reason, she didn't follow me back."

Emery winces, "Can't imagine why." She spins on the heel of her boot and walks away from him. Eddie laughs and follows after her. Hen stands up from the steps of the rig and sighs. "Don't forget your shovel." She walks away from Buck.

Buck exhales a breath and shakes his head.

"Abandoners."

☆

"So, it looks like you sprained your ankle." Emery gently grips the woman's ankle and places the on top of the pillow. "Okay, I'm just gonna elevate it for you."

The woman winces, "I can't believe I managed to do this. In the middle of a firestorm."

Emery grabs a cooling pack from her medical bag and shakes it until it becomes cold in her hand. "This can't be on your ankle past 20 minutes." She informs. "And twisted ankles are common. And with how much extraneous activities we have to do on the job, I'm not surprised you got one."

"So, you're from L.A.?"

Emery raises her brows, "Born and Raised." She then clicks her tongue. "Well, San Diego born and raised. But yeah, I'm from California."

She lifts her eyes and meets the woman's gaze. "And you?"

"Austin. I'm with the 126 specifically."

Emery's hands stop wrapping her ankle. Despite it being humid, her face got even hotter. "S-So your captain is...Captain Owen Strand?"

The woman notices Emery's starstruck expression and she chuckles. "I know that look."

Emery knits her brows together. "E-Excuse me—what look?"

"The "Oh my god he's so gorgeous. Who is this massive hunk?" look."

Emery swallows but a bit of laughter escapes her lips. "Hey, if it's a look that you immediately recognized...you must know from experience, right?"

The woman's mouth drops open and she laughs. Emery holds her hands up, "Hey, I'm just saying..."

"Well, you're not wrong." The woman states. "But, I didn't have that look with my Captain. I had it with his son."

Emery's brows shoot up. "He has a son?" She then frowns. "You know that? Of course, he has a son."

"Makes him even more attractive—"

"Holy shit, so much more attractive."

Both the women share a laugh. Emery finishes wrapping the woman's ankle and holds her hand out to her. "I'm Emerson Sharpe. You can call me, Em, or Emery. Or just Emerson." She then pulls her brows together. "Or Sharpe—god, I go by a lot of names."

The woman giggles. She takes Emery's hand and shakes it. "Courtney Adams." The woman squints her eyes and keeps her eyes on Emery. "You look so familiar, it's insane."

Emery's smile wavers. "Huh, that's weird." She nervously chuckles and pulls her hand back. "Hey, Em!"

Emery turns and looks at Hen. The woman pulls her brows together from the expression across Hen's face. "Hen, what's going on?"

"Eddie's still with some people from the 126. They're looking for one kid, but—"

"It's almost sundown." Emery looks at her watch. A nervous lump forms in her throat. "Okay, what do you want to do?"

"Talk to the commanding Captain."

Simultaneously, Emery and Hen look at Owen Strand.

"Looks like you'll talk to your crash, after all."

Emery rolls her eyes and looks at Courtney. "I'll walk over with you—"

"No. Keep your leg elevated." Emery points at her.

Courtney squints her eyes, challenging Emery. Emery crosses her arms. Then Hen folds her arms, agreeing with Emery.

Courtney scoffs. "Unbelievable. He's my captain."

"Look, Adams," Emery takes a step forward. "I know you want to help your team. I know. But you need to also take care of yourself. And that ankle...you shouldn't be standing on it—"

"Just because we talked about crushes. Doesn't mean I'm gonna take your advice."

Emery raises her brows in astonishment. She admired Courtney's relentlessness. But at the same time, she was growing impatient. "Look, the more you try to convince me that you're going with us to help your people. The longer your people are out there and more likely to die. So, sit. Back down."

Hen's eyes had widened with every word Emery said. Courtney and Emery were now toe-to-toe. Hen didn't know Courtney well, but she could tell that she was already stubborn. And the thing was, Emery was stubborn as well. It seemed as though, neither of these women were going to back down.

But then Hen was proven wrong, when Courtney scoffed and sat back on her cot. Courtney was pissed that she backed down, but she also knew Emery was right. She didn't want to get in the way of her people getting help.

Emery exhales a small breath with a "thank you". She turns to Hen, "Let's go talk to Captain Strand."

Hen smirks and nods her head. "Yes, ma'am."

☆

"Captain Strand."

Owen turns to the two women.

"Henrietta Wilson and Emerson Sharpe, 118, Los Angeles." Hen introduces.

"What can I do for you, firefighters?"

Emery swallows, "You could approve a chopper,"

That's when Owen looks back at the women. Emery's heart drops into her stomach from being up close to him. God, how does his skin look so refreshed in a wildfire?

"equipped with a rescue winch and I fared FLIR tech." Emery then swallows. "Sir."

"To search the hillside before it gets dark." Hen adds.

"To search for what?" Owen asks.

"The strike team was able to evacuate everyone except for one boy who's still missing."

Owen looks at the map hanging from the tent. He walks over to it with Emery and Hen on either side of him. "That is right on the end of the fire line. That wind's blowing 20 knots." He looks at the two women. "I don't feel good about sending anybody up there."

Emery and Hen didn't say anything, but they had the same look of an unbreakable determination. And Owen knew it wasn't going to be easy to convince them otherwise. "All right, tell Commander De Leon I had to take a run up the mountain." He walks up it of the tent.

Emery quirks a brow. "So, we're definitely going with him, right?"

Hen looks at Emery with a look that says "you already know".

...

"Seriously?"

Eddie looks at the woman with his mouth slightly open.

"You wanna follow me on insta?"

Eddie frowns, "Heard you put a lot of effort into it. Was curious."

Marwani smirks, "I'll show you mine if you show me yours." She walks over to him.

"I haven't been on social media in a while." Eddie informs her. "The last post is like, nine months old. Super boring."

"I'll be the judge of that."

"Fine." Eddie holds his phone up.

As soon as Marwani accepted his follow request, Eddie was able to see her page of posts. He squints his eyes and looks closer at time of her posts. "Is that a...Prius in the air?"

"Tornado dropped it between two buildings." Marwani nonchalantly answers. She looks at Eddie's page. "Is this your kid?"

Eddie's face lights up from the post of him and his son. "Yeah, that's Christopher. He's my world. Doing the whole, you know, single dad thing."

Marwani looks at the next post and her mouth drops. "You did not build him a skateboard."

Eddie frowned, "Yeah, well, Emery and Buck helped."

Marwani looks back at the picture and focuses on the two people that were next to Eddie and Christopher. She squints her eyes, "Wait, is that that creepy guy who was staring at me from before?"

Eddie laughs, "He's harmless. Mostly." He then points at the curly-haired woman in the post. Emery was standing beside Buck with bunny ears behind his head. "By the way, she was also being creepy."

Marwani raises her brows. "What are you three looking for a fourth or something?"

Eddie blinks. He softly chuckles and glances away from her with his face hot. "Wh-What?"

Marwani slightly opens her mouth. "So, you three aren't..." she shows her phone screen to Eddie with a new post revealing just Eddie, Emery, and Buck posing. Emery was standing between Buck and Eddie with her arms around their waists. Eddie keeps his eyes on the picture and he opens and closes his mouth.

"No, no. We're all just friends."

Marwani makes an 'O' with her mouth and turns off her phone. "My mistake."

"It's all good. That's not the first time someone's made that assumption about us, believe me."

Marwani smirks, "That right?"

Eddie's mouth opens. "I-I mean, that doesn't mean we would ever—"

Eddie's radio clicks. "Great Oaks Team. Give us your location, we're sending air support."

Eddie and Marwani exchange a look. "Air support?" Eddie looks over into the distance behind them. "Who's crazy enough to go up in something like this?"

On the other side of the mountain, Owen hops into the helicopter. "I appreciate this, Mark!"

Before he could buckle his seatbelt, the other door to the helicopter opens, revealing the two L.A. firefighters. "What are you two doing here?"

"What does it look like? We're coming with you."

Owen immediately shakes his head, declining the idea. "No, you're not. It's too dangerous."

"It's dangerous for you to fly into this without a medic." Hen states.

Owen then looks at Emery. "Okay, and what about you?"

"I'm a firefighter and a paramedic." Emery adds. "And wherever she goes. I follow."

Owen looks between the two women. Emery shrugs, "We're losing daylight, Captain Strand."

He lets out a breath and buckles his seat. Relief courses through Emery and she buckles her seat. "Not crazy about this, Henrietta."

"Yeah, me neither." Hen says. "Call me Hen."

"And you can call me Emery."

Owen looks at the woman in front of him. She was holding up an awkward hand. Owen pulls his brows together but a smile was on his lips. "All right, Emery and Hen. Let's get this chopper up and out of here."

"Yes, sir."

☆

"Great Oaks strike team leader, this is air support."

"Judd, do you copy?"

Judd pulls his brows together, "Cap, is that you?"

Paul looks at Judd, with the same look.

"Yeah, I heard you could use a hand. What's your 20?"

"Yeah, we're a few clicks west of the camp we haven't found this kid yet. But we found his tent, but no remains." Judd explains. "We think he went deeper into the woods trying to get away from the fire."

Paul and Judd look into the sky and see a chopper roaring past them.

"All right, we see ya."

"Paul!"

Judd instructs Paul to follow him back to the ATV.

"Captain Strand, Emery. I think I've got something."

They both look over Hen's shoulder and look at the infrared screen. There was a heat signature moving across the screen.

"Judd, we've got something under a grove of trees." Owen informs over the radio. "South-by-southeast of your position. I'm gonna try to get over on top of it."

"Okay, Cap. We're coming at you."

The chopper gets closer to the signature, making sure Judd and Paul were headed in the right direction. "All right, you're closing in. Less than 20 meters."

"Cap, we got him."

"How's he look?" Owen asks.

"Not good. His ankle's caught in a bear trap." Judd informs.

"Think you can get him out?"

"I don't know. It's got him pretty good. We're hooking him up to the LIFEPAK right now." Judd states. "But it looks like he's lost a lot of blood."

Hen turns to Owen and Emery in the back. "He's gonna lost a lot more when they try to free him."

Emery motions her head to Hen, telling her to take the lead. Hen then starts to speak into her headset. "Hey, Judd. This is Paramedic Henrietta Wilson. I'm up here with your captain."

Marwani and Eddie were listening over the radio and Eddie could feel his body tense. "You've gotta be kidding me." He huffs. "And if Hen's there, it's safe to assume Emery is too."

Marwani raises her brows. "Yeah? What makes you so sure?"

Eddie looks at the woman. "She wouldn't leave Hen to do this by herself. Even if your captain's there. Em...she's been through a lot when it comes to loss." He tries his best to explain without telling Emery's whole life story. "She wouldn't let Hen out of her sight in this firestorm."

Marwani nods her head, understanding enough to leave it at that.

"I know you firefighters are fully equipped and capable to handle this."

Judd immediately responds. "No, no, please. Walk us through it."

"All right, before you do anything, I need you to place a tourniquet three inches above the wound. But not over the knee." Hen instructs.

After they do what's instructed, Judd speaks into the radio once again. "All right, tourniquet's on. What now?"

"All right, get him out of the trap, but keep the foot elevated above the heart." Hen instructs. "Then wrap the wound as fast and as tight as you can."

After a few minutes of radio silence, Hen speaks again. "Talk to me boys, talk to me—what's going on?"

"He ain't doing good. He's bleeding out—he's crashing."

"You need to get fluids in him to stabilize him." Hen urgently instructs. "Saline, now."

It was the waiting game at this point, the three first responders in the helicopter waited for Judd to give them an update on the kid's state.

Suddenly, after what felt like hours, the their head seats clicked.

"Miss Henrietta, the fluids worked."

Emery softly chuckles and gives Hen a pat on the shoulder. Hen grabs Emery's hand and gives it a small squeeze. "I'm very glad to hear it."

"All right, I'm gonna harness up for the rescue." Emery says.

Owen looks at the woman and she slightly opens her mouth. "I-I mean, you are." She nervously chuckles. "Sorry, I totally forgot where I was for a second." She puts her hands in her lap and her shoulders slump.

"Even if Captain Strand wanted to, he couldn't with these gusts." Mark replies from the pilot seat. "We shouldn't be up here much longer."

"Judd, can you get him out of there on an ATV?"

"Yeah, that ain't a problem. I gotta pick up Marian and Diaz."

"Roger that. See you back at base."

The choppers turns back in the direction base was located. "Thanks for the assist—"

Suddenly, Judd's voice over the radio is cut off when the chopper rumbles more than before. Emery grips her seat and her entire body constricts. "Shit..."

The helicopter begins to spin out of control and Emery has to squeeze her eyes shut. "Shit!"

"Mayday. Mayday. We are going down—this is a distress call!" The pilot speaks over his headset. "Mayday. Mayday. We are going down."

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Miranda Rae Mayo

As

Courtney Adams

author's note.

Courtney is a POSSIBLE oc that I may have (definitely do) have a fanfic for. Would anyone be down for a Lonestar fic??? It would probably be an oc x oc ORRRR a Paul x oc 👀

words : 4338