Hold The Line.

CHAPTER SIXTY FIVE , BENEVOLENT GHOSTS ARE THE BEST GHOSTS

━━━━━━━━━━

"Oh, come on. It's California. Of course, you're gonna have earthquakes." TK chuckles. "You can't tell me that's cooler than the 126 going up against a solar storm."

"What even is that?" Buck scoffs. "You can't even see it."

"Guys—guys!" Mateo interrupts their debate. "Don't you see what you're doing? You're falling into the classic Iron Man vs. Captain America trap. Is Captain America better because he's a super soldier with an indestructible shield? Or is Tony Stark better because he's a tech genius with a sick weaponized suit?"

Buck raises his brows. Mateo reminded him so much of Tom, it caused a sad smile to form on his lips.

"So?" TK points at Mateo. "Who's better?"

"Neither is better, bro. That's the point." Mateo says. "It's a speechless argument. They're both badass. And when they team up, nobody can beat them."

Mateo then slightly opens his mouth. "Except maybe Thanos."

The three firefighters see the everyone from the strike team back from their mission. "Oh, glad to see strike team's already got their feet up." TK says.

"Ooh, you guys must be exhausted." Buck adds. "All that go-karting up and down the hill?"

None of them responded to the teasing remarks. In fact, it looked more they each had defeated expressions across their faces.

Marjan slightly opens her mouth. "You didn't hear, did you?"

"Hear what?"

...

"That radio's dead. I can't get cell reception to save my life."

"Hopefully command can pull GPS from the chopper to find us."

"Hopefully. How are they doing?"

Hen looks at Emery and the pilot laying on the ground, both unconscious. "Sedated. He has a fractured femur, couple of cracked ribs. He'll live." She informs him. "There doesn't seem to be anything wrong with Em besides a few cracked ribs and a head injury. We won't know how serious until she's awake."

Owen lifts his gaze at the swirling fire. "You feel that? It's creating its own wind."

"It's a firestorm."

"Firestorm? That's a fucking fire-tornado."

Simultaneously, Owen and Hen whip snap their attention to the woman slowly stirring. Hen's eyes fill with tears of relief, "Emerson, oh thank god!"

Emery gives the woman a weak smile. She lifts a hand and lightly touches Hen's face. "Hey, Hen." Emery pulls the oxygen mask off her and begins to sit herself up.

"Careful—careful." Hen lightly touches Emery's back to help Emery sit up. Owen grabs Emery's hands and gently pulls her up. Emery softly exhales "Oh, your hands are really soft." She runs her thumb across his knuckles. Emery then frowns, "Strawberry apricot oil extract?"

Owen smiles, "Yes! How did you know that?"

"I use the same thing." Emery laughs. "I take my body hygiene, oral hygiene, and0 my skincare very seriously, Captain Strand."

"Have you ever considered coming to the 126?"

"Oh. Do not try and recruit my girl." Hen immediately shuts the captain down. "And not while we're surrounded by this fire."

Owen nods his head, "Right. We'll need to find some shelter." He pulls his map out and reveals it to the two women.

Emery squints her eyes, despite that she still couldn't read the blurry words on the map. She lifts her eyes and looks between Owen and Hen, hoping they were in far better shape than she was.

"Okay, we're somewhere near here?" Owen points. "This could work."

Hen then nods her head. "That could work."

Owen slightly lifts his head. "Feel that? It's making its own wind."

Hen's brows pull together, revealing a look of worry. Owen notices. "What?"

"You just repeated yourself." Hen states.

Emery sucks in a sharp breath, "Maybe you hit your head harder than you realized, sir."

"I think I should probably check you out." Hen digs through her medical bag. Emery blinks at the bag, "How did that not get destroyed in the crash?"

"Mines just better, Em." Hen says with such ease the girl couldn't stop her but of laughter.

"Do you know what day it is?"

"It's night."

Hen shines a light in Owen's eyes. "You know where you are?"

"Somewhere I really don't wanna be." Owen answers.

Emery looks around at the fire, "Okay, I'm sorry—but do we really have time for this?"

"Uneven pupillary responses, Captain." Hen states. "I think you might have a concussion."

"So what are you gonna tell me, to stay off my feet?" Owen stands. "Avoid stress? Firefighter Sharpe is right, we don't have time for this."

The flames around them grow more intense, causing the three first responders to duck. Hen stands to her feet and helps Emery onto hers. "You're right, but we do need to run like hell!"

The three grab the pilot and run in the direction of the hideout they found earlier.

☆

"This is a joke!" TK's hand slams against the map. "We know exactly where the chopper went down. So why haven't you sent out a rescue team?"

"As I said, the beacon is coming from two miles inside an active burn zone. It is not safe to send anyone up in the dark."

"Commander, with all due respect—"

"Screw that." Courtney growls. "Our captain is up there. And two of their teammembers—their family!"

"What, Court is trying to say, sir..." Judd pats Courtney's hair and she slams her jaw shut. Anytime she felt a pat on her head, she knew whoever was doing it was telling her to calm down without any words. They were normally right, so she chose to keep her mouth shut.

"we accept the risk and we ain't asking anybody else to go." Judd continues.

"You know I can't authorize that." The commander sighs.

"Those are our people up there." Buck snaps, his voice was on the verge of breaking. He couldn't believe this was happening again. Emery's life was in danger and he felt absolutely powerless.

"They could be bleeding out right now. Dying."

Dying. Buck couldn't tell if it was from the smoke earlier, but he couldn't breathe.

"Son, we haven't had any cell or radio contact at all since the Mayday." The commander states. "Nobody else is risking their lives tonight. And your father would be the first one to agree with me."

TK's jaw clenches and he felt his entire body tense along with it. Instead of reflecting his outrage with his words or his fists, TK storms out of the tent.

Emery felt her heart drop as soon as Owen pulled the wooden planks off the mine. It was small. Small enough for her to feel her PTSD cloud her brain.

"In here!"

Hen goes to lift the pilot off the ground again, but Emery grabs Hen's hand. "Hen, I can't go in there."

Hen looks across Emery's teary eyes. "Em..." she crouches in front of her. "If we don't go in here, we die. I know this is gonna be hard for you, but we have people waiting for us—looking for us. And we need to stay alive long enough for them to find us, okay?"

Emery looks at the mine and her heartbeat begins to grow far louder than the roaring fires around them. She swallows the painful lump on her throat. Emery ignored the forming out in her stomach and nods her head. She grabs The Pilot's legs and Hen grabs his arms.

The two women carry the pilot to the cave where Owen was pulling the planks off the entrance. Once he finished, they all carried the pilot into the cave. "The deeper we get, the more protected we'll be from the heat."

The mine was humid and silent, Emery could hardly hear what Owen and Hen were saying. Everything was so muffled and fading in and out of her vision.

"Here. Right here." Hen motions to the floor.

They lay the pilot against the mine floor, making him comfortable despite him being unconscious.

"How's he doing?"

"He's hanging in there." Hen crouches beside the pilot and checks his vitals.

Out of the corner of his eye, Owen noticed the girl's breathing quickly became ragged. "Firefighter Sharpe?"

Hen turns to her friend to see her back against the rock wall and her grasping at her chest. Her eyes widen and she runs over for her. "Emery, hey!" Hen crouches in front of her. "You've gotta slow your breathing, all right?"

Emery shakes heed head. "Hen. I can't—I can't be in...I can't..." her eyes blur with tears and all she could feel was Tom's rotting corpse against her skin. The stench of death burned her nose and she was pulled back in that barrel underground. Then she saw his smile.

Hen saw a tear slip from Emery's eye and her own eyes began to burn with tears. "You're not there, all right? Joe is gone. And you're here—alive."

"But he isn't."

Her voice was a weak whimper. Emery thought she had come a long way with her healing, but being in this cave proved her wrong. God, if she survived this she was going to have to increase her sessions with Dr. Martin.

"All right, Em. Hold my hand." Hen holds her palm out to Emery.

Emery sniffles, but she ends up placing her hand in Hen's. "All right, what do you feel?"

Emery's skin crawls and her stomach turns. "Skin. I feel, rotting skin—I can't—"

Emery goes to pull her hand from Hen's, but the woman speaks again. "Em, stick with me on this, okay?"

Emery inhales a breath and nods her head.

"How did Tom's skin feel?"

Emery's lip quivers. "Cold and soft."

"And how does mine feel?" Hen questions.

Emery pulls her brows together and slightly moves her fingers across Hen's palm. "W-Warm. It's warm."

"Right. Because there's still blood. Now," Hen motions to her wrist. "Touch my wrist."

Emery places her fingers against Hen's wrist and a tear slips from her eye out of relief.

"What do you feel?"

"A pulse. Your pulse."

Hen cracks a small smile, "Yes. Good."

Emery's breathing had settled and her blurring vision was clearing. The rotting smell had disappeared and there was only a thousand tons worth of boulders surrounding them. Emery wipes her tears, "Thank you so much." She wraps her arms around Hen.

Hen quickly hugs Emery back and comfortingly rubs her back. "Anytime."

Emery's eyes shift to the man standing behind them and her face flushed. She sniffles and pulls away from the hug.

"Captain Strand, I'm sorry about all that—"

"Don't be." Owen immediately assures. "It seems like you needed it."

Emery inhales, "I did."

Owen then smiles, "Then do not apologize."

☆

"They survived the crash."

TK turns back to Buck.

"Believe it." Buck gently urges. "And your dad is with Hen and Emery, so...he's in really good hands."

TK nods his head, "So are they."

Buck softly chuckles, "No doubt." He glances at his hands. "Look, my captain is not my dad but he might a well be. So, I get it and Hen, she's my sister."

"And Emi..." his voice trails off and a lump forms in his throat. His stomach clenches and it's like he couldn't find any words. "She's everything." He bunches his shoulders. Buck refocuses on TK and notices his confused expression. The blonde's face heats up and he quickly clears his throat.

"Uh, you know, my captain—he could've given up on me so many times and he never did. Even when I used to steal the fire truck."

TK softly chuckles at the revelation. "You used to steal the fire truck?"

Relief courses through Buck, knowing he was able to change the subject. "Oh, yeah. All the time."

"Yeah, my dad he's never given up on me either. And I've done a lot worse than steal a fire truck." TK states. "It just sucks, y'know? Just sitting here and doing nothing."

Buck frowns, "Well..." he reaches in his pocket. TK pulls his brows together Buck pulls something from his pockets. "what if we didn't have to?" The brunette boy's face dropped when he saw keys in his hand.

"Is that—"

"A key to a fire truck?"  Buck's demeanor just screamed smug. This was something Emery would definitely make fun of him for.

"Yes it is."

...

"I still can't get a signal."

Owen inhales a small breath, "Yeah, me either."

"Well, if you two can't I sure as hell can't." Emery huffs. She keeps her eyes on the ceiling with her back on the dirt floor.

"So, how long you been married?" Owen asks. "You mentioned you were married."

"Almost eight years now." Hen smiles. "Karen. She's a rocket scientist."

"A literal rocket scientist?" Owen blinks.

"Well, she's a stay-at-home rocket scientist at the moment. Cutbacks at JPL."

"You have kids?"

"Denny is ten. And our little Nia, she's three." Hen answers. "You?"

"One son. TK." Owen points at the two. "You might have met him. He works with me."

Emery pulls her brows together, trying to think back. She raises her brows, "Wait—that was TK? Brown hair? Very..." she trails off her words. She wasn't going to call TK hot in front of his dad. Emery clears her throat, "Wow, uh, those Strand genes are...are something." She scratches the side of her neck and looks to the side.

Owen laughs, "Nice save."

"Thank you." Emery nods her head with a sheepish smile. "Your son must be climbing the walls right now."

Hen slowly nods her head, "Now that you mention i, I did notice the resemblance at the briefing."

Owen chuckles, "Yeah, people say that. I think he looks like his mom, Gwen."

"If the plague was good for one thing it was getting us back together." Owen exhales. "After 15 years of being divorced, it looks like we're giving it another go-around, which sounds crazy as I say it out loud."

Owen shifts his eyes to an empty space and his gaze saddens. "I'm sorry."

Emery pulls her brows together and she slightly tilts her head.

"For what?" Hen asks.

A heat enters the cave, causing Emery to whip her head around to the opening. "The wind's shifted." She stands up.

"We gotta find another way out." Hen says.

"There is no other way out." Owen replies.

"If the wind keeps blowing smoke in here, we won't last ten minutes." Hen informs them.

Emery covers her mouth the cloth over her mouth. Her eyes shift to the dynamite and an idea pops into her head. "What if—"

"Shut up."

"Excuse me?" Emery turns to Owen. Her brows were pulled together in a frustrated way. But she notices Owen was faced a completely different direction from the women. Suddenly he spins around to the women, "I said shut up!"

Emery's voice gets caught in her throat. Owen's face was filled with fear but there was also a spaced out look across his eyes that Emery recognized immediately.

"Captain Strand..." Hen says. "I believe you're talking to somebody who's not here."

Owen lowers his head and lets out an exhausted breath, like he's been caught. "I'm aware."

"But he did give me a good idea." Owen walks over to the crate of dynamite. Emery lets her mouth hang open and she gasps. "That was my idea!"

☆

"Court..."

The woman folds her arms, keeping her stance.

"Where did they go?"

"I don't know—I don't know!" Courtney cries. "Why is it everytime something happens I'm to blame?" She then laughs.

The members of the 126 all exchange a knowing look. "Because we know you." Marjan shrugs. Courtney sends her a cheeky smile. "Well then, Firefox, tell me about myself."

"I know you're a pain in my ass."

Courtney nods her head. "Correct."

"And you're stubborn. So you most definitely want to go out there and save Captain Strand, Firefighter Hen, and Emery." Marjan takes a small step forward.

Courtney smirks, "I love it when they clock me." She glances at Eddie. Courtney sighs, "I genuinely don't know where they went, though."

Marjan keeps her eyes on Courtney's. The brunette slightly tilts her chin up and holds up her right hand and makes a cross over her chest. "Cross my heart and hope to die."

"She's telling the truth."

"But if I were to do something stupid, per usual..." Courtney waves a dismissive hand. "I would probably steal a fire truck, obviously."

"You have stolen a fire truck." Paul corrects.

Courtney sends him a cheeky smile. "And you love me for it."

...

"You think these being 100 years old make 'em more or less stable?"

Emery giggles, "Oh for sure less."

"Yeah, you see the crystals?" Owen points at the dynamite stick. "That's nytroglycerin. It sweats out of the dynamite after years and recrystalizes. Definitely makes it more volatile."

Even though her mouth was covered, Emery's cough became more violent.

"God. I hope this isn't overkill." Hen huffs.

They slowly and carefully carry each crate of dynamite to the front of the cave.

"Better to have too much than too little." Emery assures.

An idea hits Hen. "Give me your brush jackets."

"Feeling chilly?" Owen quips.

Hen pulls her jacket off. "If we're gonna lock ourselves in a mine we may as well leave a marker outside just in case somebody comes by."

"Smart."

Emery pulls her jacket off and ties it around a stick. Hen does the same with hers and Owen's.

"Wish me luck!"

Emery frowns. She knew that Owen was being sarcastic, but the amount of optimism in his voice made her stomach turn. Emery and Hen run out of the cave and jam the sticks into the ground. They run back into the mine and watch Owen set each stick of dynamite on the ground. "Are we really doing this?" Hen asks.

Owen pulls the fuse line connected to the dynamite all the way to the back of the mine with enough space.

"I don't think we have much of a choice." Owen says.

"Hey..." Emery gently grabs Hen's shoulder. Hen looks at her friend. There was a soft look across Emery's face and Hen thought she was going to say something nice and comforting.

But then Emery opened her mouth.

"Just take so do you don't get blown to bits."

Hen deadpans. "Really? That's it?"

Emery smiles and nods her head. "Yeah, yeah, that's it."

"Either of you wanna do the honors?"

Hen and Emery turn to Owen. Emery nudges Hen's arm. "Go on."

Hen frowns, "All right then." She walks over to where Owen was standing. Emery runs over deeper into the mine and sends Owen and Hen a passing "good luck!" Then she crouches down with her hands over her ears.

Hen laughs and looks at Owen, who was entertained by Emery's hurried emotions. Hen lowers the fire on the fuse and it ignited. Hen's eyes widen and she drops the fire. "Go! Go! Go! Go!" She and Owen run to where Emery was hiding and crouch next to her.

The mine rumbles which causes the boulders to fall on the entrance, leaving all of them in the dark.

☆

The air had become thinner.

In this moment, Emery was definitely glad she wasn't the one who spoke the words "let's blow up the entrance". Because now it seemed likely they were all going to die.

"Is it just my traumatic brain injury or does the air in here feel a little thin?"

Emery takes a breath of her oxygen and lowers the mask.

"Everytime we exhale, we poison the air a little bit more." Hen states. "Unventilated mines fill up fast with CO2, nitrogen, and water vapor. It's called black damp."

"Maybe this wasn't the best plan."

"Ya think?" Emery chuckles. "Nice going."

Emery then giggles, "I'm totally kidding, by the way. It was the only plan."

Hen's head falls heavy and her eyes begin to fall shut. Emery nudges Hen, "Hey, stay awake."

"I should never have let you two get on that chopper." Owen admits. "I'm sorry."

"What are you talking about?" Hen questions. "You're invincible, remember?"

"Yeah...it's the people around me that tend not to be."

"Is that what's been haunting you?" Hen questions. "Someone who didn't make it?"

"The people who didn't make it couldn't fit into this mineshaft." Owen softly speaks. "But recently, a paramedic...got killed not 2 feet from me."

Emery's eyes soften. "I'm sorry, Captain Strand." She reflects his soft tone.

"It's brutal." Hen says. "Being the one who survives."

A lump forms in Emery's throat.

"Yeah, it pisses me off." Owen admits.

Emery nods her head, "Yeah..."

"I lost 14 of my brothers on 9/11." Owen speaks. "We all went into the tower, but...I'm the only one who walked out."

"I've never admitted this to anyone. I've never forgiven them."

"You got a lot of guilt about it."

A chuckle escapes Owen's lips. "I've got guilt over everything." He admits. "Over surviving, over forcing my son to follow in my footsteps, over failure of my marriage, over...telling this all to complete strangers."

"We're probably gonna die anyway." Hen says.

Emery inhales a deep breath as her eyelids start to grow heavy. "Well, he's...invincible." She quips. "I'm sure something'll get us out of here."

"Now you're just trying to cheer me up." Owen looks from Hen to Emery.

Emery weakly smiles. "Did it work?"

Owen couldn't stop his own smile. "Maybe..."

A silence settles around the three firefighters that were quickly losing their strength to stay awake. Hen swallows the lump of guilt in her throat, but that doesn't rid her of the heaviness she felt on her shoulders.

"You wanna talk about guilt, Captain?" Hen chokes out. "I killed a girl..." her voice trembles. "with my ambulance."

"Evelyn. 16 years old."

"I'm so sorry." Owen speaks.

Emery lifts a hand and touches Hen's shoulder.

"So yeah, you're not the only one locked in here with a ghost."

"You're the firefighter who survived The Firesnatcher, right?"

Emery's gut turns. She knew it was gonna come sooner or later. Someone would recognize her face or name. "Yeah, I am."

"You looked familiar, but I couldn't place my finger on it until what happened earlier."

"I'm so sorry, Sharpe."

Emery lets out a weak laugh. "No need to be sorry. I made it...I'm alive." The end of her mouth twitches.

"There was someone else in that barrel with me." Emery's eyes blur. "He was my probie. Thomas Fletcher." She looks at Owen. "He didn't make it. And let me tell you, I know a thing or two about seeing people who aren't really there."

"It helps me to know that the person wouldn't want me to put myself through such torment." Emery says. "I have to remind myself it's not real."

"Em, I didn't know that." Hen says. "About you seeing things."

"Nobody knows. Except for my therapist." Emery admits. "I can't just admit something like that out of the blue. It's very frowned upon in our career."

Emery inhales a shaky breath. She grips her forearm and swallows the lump into her throat. "He carved his name into me."

Despite her life slipping away, Hen could feel her back straighten. "What do you mean?"

Emery swipes her tongue across her cracked bottom lip. She pulls the sleeve of her a jacket and shirt up, revealing 'Joe' scarred over her arm.

Hen's lips part, "Oh, Em..."

Emery's eyes water and she looks at the roof of the mine. "It was..." her breathing heavies. "...Joe's way of telling me...I'll never get away from him."

She sniffles. "But I h-have..." Emery's jaw clenches. "We all...have ghosts." Her eyelids begin to fall shut. "But it only matters how we..."

Owen and Hen were waiting for her to finish her words. But they received nothing more from her. Owen shifts his eyes to the girl, who was now unconscious. "Sharpe." He then looks at Hen, whose eyes were falling shut. Hen's oxygen mask falls from her hand and her head lulls to the side.

Owen could feel it clouding him. The darkness. He couldn't fight his exauhstion. And before his eyes fell shut, he saw his most recent ghost smile at him.

"Nighty night."

☆

Emery didn't remember much when the firefighters were pulling her out of the mine. But she does remember hearing Buck's voice telling her to hold on. And once she became conscious back in the medical tent, Buck and Eddie hadn't stopped asking what her and Hen needed.

Emery looks at Hen and laughs, "Guys, as flattered as we are. You have to understand that this going to start pissing me off. So..." she waves a hand, telling them to go.

Eddie and Buck both look at each other. Hen inhales a breath, "Well, I know we're leaving in an hour. So, I'm gonna call Karen and let her know I'm okay."

Hen stands up, which causes Eddie and Buck to hold their hands out to her. Hen holds a hand up and they freeze. "Boys. Step away."

Emery giggles as Hen walks away from the three. Her eyes then look at the boys and they were looking at her with the puppy-est of eyes, it caused her heart to flutter.

Buck crouches in front of her. His hands find her knees and a chill shoots down her spine. "Are you sure you're okay?"

Emery opens and closes her mouth. "Y-Yeah. I'm okay. I promise."

Buck keep slightly shakes his head. "You were in a cave and I know you get claustrophobic. I couldn't stop thinking about how hard that was for you and—"

"Evan." Emery places her hands on top of his. Buck's words halt and he presses his lips into a small line and swallows. "I promise. I am o-kay." She gives him a small smile. "I'll admit that at first, it was hard being in there but Hen and Captain Strand helped me."

Buck sniffles. He then brushes his thumb across Emery's knee. He wraps his arms around Emery, pulling her into a warm embrace. Emery wraps her arms around his middle as he lets out a breath of relief.

"I can't believe I..." Buck trails off his words. But Emery had an inkling on what he was going to say. I can't believe I almost lost you again.

Emery lifts her eyes to meet Eddie's gaze and she softly smiles. Eddie presses his lips into a small smile. Despite, Eddie standing there for that whole thing, he didn't feel awkward about watching the two. Emery holds a hand out to him, "Get in here, you."

Eddie rolls his eyes with a smile on his lips. He grabs her hand and joins the hug.

...

Before they left, she and Hen talked to Owen about leaving "ghosts in the mine". Hen had left for the rig and Emery was about to join her when Owen stops her. "Emery. Do you have a second?"

Emery turns to him, "What's up, Captain?"

"You can call me Owen." He chuckles.

Emery frowns, "If you knew me very well, you would know that calling a captain by their first name is not something I'm good with." She chuckles. "It's still getting me some getting used to, calling my Captain by his first name sometimes."

"What were you going to say earlier? Before you passed out in the mine?"

Emery pulls her brows together and thinks back. She then raises her brows, "Ohhh..." she softly smiles. "We all have ghosts."

Owen nods his head.

Emery flits her eyes over to his, a sense of calmness washes over him from her soft brown eyes. "But it matters how we remember those ghosts. And how they impacted our lives for the better when they were with us" She presses her lips into a small smile. "Some ghosts are benevolent, y'know?" She quirks a brow with a smirk.

"Thomas..." Owen starts. "there was a time you thought about him and only..." he didn't know how to even state it. He didn't want that horrid memory coming up again. But over the course of the past years, Emery's gotten good at reading people. So, it was easy guessing what he was trying to say.

"There was a time when I only thought about his death and his body in the barrel with me..." Emery's throat tightens. "It's normally when my PTSD is triggered."

"But any other time, I just think of...my probie." Emery's eyes become teary. "The boy that...gave his all to the job and made everyone smile."

"I guess you could say Tom is one of my ghosts." A sad smile forms on her lips. "But he's a good one, I'd like to keep around."

━━━━━━━━━━

author's note.

Emery dropping knowledge on Owen then leaving is so iconic of her.

words : 4823