𝙤𝙝 𝙢𝙮, 𝙨𝙝𝙚𝙨 𝙖 𝙡𝙤𝙣𝙜 𝙬𝙖𝙮 𝙛𝙧𝙤𝙢 𝙨𝙪𝙗𝙪𝙧𝙗𝙖𝙣 𝙩𝙤𝙬𝙣𝙨.
𝙘𝙖𝙢𝙚 𝙩𝙤 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙘𝙞𝙩𝙮 𝙛𝙤𝙧 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙡𝙤𝙫𝙚, 𝙜𝙤𝙩 𝙝𝙚𝙧 𝙝𝙪𝙧𝙩𝙞𝙣' 𝙣𝙤𝙬.

𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗦𝗧𝗔𝗧𝗜𝗢𝗡 𝗪𝗔𝗦 calm. Most of the team were at the table eating, while Eddie and Naiara worked out in the gym. Eddie's hands stabilized the punching bag as Naiara swung. Her punches gradually got heavier as Eddie pushed himself against the bag, keeping it from moving too much.

"Is this all pent up rage from the run in with your ex-friends? Or are you just a naturally angry person?" Eddie asked, popping his head out from behind the bag, but quickly shielding it as Naiara swung again.

"Yes." Was all she said as she swung again, watching as Eddie popped back out, stabilizing the bag with one hand and putting the other on his hip.

"Yes to...?" He nagged. Naiara bounced on her heels, her head twitching as she focused in on the bag. She swung, hard, hitting the bag with as much force as she could.

"Yes to both, Diaz!" She panted, backing away from the bag. "I am a naturally angry person and all of that pent up anger is being released on this poor, poor punching bag because all the people I thought cared about me, abandoned me for five damn years and had the audacity to blame me for their rage." The rant ended with another swing and another step back.

"We had a plan, y'know? We all decided that one day, no matter how long it took, we would all get our dream jobs and no matter what it took to get that job, we would all support each other." She sighed, dropping her hands, then her head. "We would all support each other." Her voice fell to a whisper as she dropped onto the bench behind her.

Eddie let go of the bag and sat beside her, watching her pull the tape off her knuckles. "You were all supposed to support each other." He repeated her words, rubbing his hands against his knees, "So, where was your support?"

"Where was my support?" She repeated back to him, tilting her head to look her coworker in the eyes. "At first, I thought it was about the danger, cause we have a doctor, a nurse, a scientist, an artist, and a chef. All professions that don't know danger, not like we do." She explained, pausing briefly to wipe sweat off her top lip, "But then I remembered an episode of this cop show I watched, where an artist was a serial killer, or all of those movies where there's an evil scientist, or how we have to put out kitchen fires all the damn time." She continued, turning her body to face Eddie.

"And I have these friends back in Seattle, doctors, who have had these crazy near-death experiences." She added.

Eddie tilted his head and placed a hand on the empty spot beside him, using his other hand to gesture for Naiara to continue.

"One of my doctor friends almost got blown up when she was an intern because she stuck her hand in an open body cavity with live ammunition inside it. And there was a shooting inside that same hospital, eighteen people in total- including a neurosurgeon- were shot, eleven people died. That's dangerous! My- our job isn't the only dangerous one." She recalled, pulling the elastic from her hair.

"So it's not the danger." Eddie declared, lifting himself off the bench. "So what is it?" He questioned as he extended a hand to Naiara, helping her to her feet.

𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗩𝗢𝗜𝗖𝗘 𝗢𝗙 Taylor Kelly sounded through the barn as Buck turned on the TV, already having it set to the news. Eddie made his way up the stairs, taking a seat next to his best friend. "So, was that punching you or Naiara? Sounded pretty heavy." Buck asked turning to look at Eddie.

"Nai, and between you and me, you do not want to get into a fight with her. That punching bag is currently on life support." He joked, kicking his feet onto the table. "She's in the shower now, but I did find out some stuff about her ex-friends." Eddie spoke.

"Oh?" Buck questioned, muting the TV as Eddie began.

"They had this pact. That no matter what, no matter where, and no matter how, they would all get their dream jobs. And they would all support each other, but Naiara just didn't get that support, so obviously there was something else. Some other underlying issue." He ranted, pulling a hand through his hair.

"Oh god, is that Taylor Kelly? I seriously hate her." Naiara groaned as she padded the ends of her hair with a towel. Hanging the towel around her neck, she sat in between Buck and Eddie.

"You know her?" Buck asked, moving a small bit away from Naiara.

The dark haired woman nodded, turning her head to look at Buck. "We were friends in high school." She spoke. "Until she slept with my boyfriend and cut the brake line on my bike. I almost died. Major bitch." She explained, laughing as she insulted the reporter.

Both Buck and Eddie stared at Naiara with concern riddled throughout their features. "Have you ever had a normal experience?" Eddie asked, leaning to the side.

Naiara snorted, hopping off the couch, "No."

𝗖𝗥𝗢𝗪𝗗𝗦 𝗚𝗔𝗧𝗛𝗘𝗥𝗘𝗗 𝗔𝗥𝗢𝗨𝗡𝗗 a taped off crash site, multiple officers standing behind the tape to keep people back. Fire emerged from a car that sat on it's side as an injured man stumbled away from it. Another car sat a small ways away, completely upturned with no sign of movement from the two inside.

The firefighters of the 118 followed Sergeant Grant closely through a small section of the crowd and under the police tape. As they got under the tape, the firefighters split up, going off to their respective tasks at the scene.

Eddie took to triage, taking care of the injured man and other injured bystanders. Hen and Chimney ran straight over to the upturned car, triaging the unconscious people inside. Buck, Bobby, and Naiara started on the fire.

Naiara connected the hoses to the hydrants on the sidewalk, allowing the other two to start putting out the fire.

Running back towards the fire, Naiara lifted a hose and pointed it at the fire, assisting the others in extinguishing the flames.

The three turned off their hoses as the flames died, "Buck, Nosedive, I want you both to check the car, see if there's any survivors." Bobby called. The two nodded, dropping their hoses and walking to the blackened car.

"What was it like? Your station back in Seattle." Buck asked, taking his helmet off and resting it on the ground. Naiara followed in suit, taking her helmet off and approaching the car.

"It was great. Nice people, nice environment, all around amazing." She briefly explained, wandering over to the shattered windshield.

"Do you miss it?" He asked, looking into the car through the sunroof. She nodded before walking up beside him.

"I miss a lot of things from back there," She started, as her and Buck began to pry the sunroof open. "My friends mainly."

"I'm guessing you had a best friend out there?"

"Sure did, Jack Gibson. He was to me what Eddie is to you. We got on super well when we first met and were just inseparable. He's my person." She reminisced, right as the sunroof popped open.

"Oh, so not like Eddie and I at all." Buck laughed, watching Naiara squeeze into the sunroof and take the pulse of the driver. Buck watched as Naiara shook her head, then checked in on her radio.

"Drivers deceased, COD presumably multiple burns and a visible crush injury from the steering column." She sighed and climbed back out of the car, grabbing Buck's hand as support. Buck and Naiara both grabbed their helmets and walked back over to the truck, setting their helmets back down and removing their jackets. "What'd you mean? When you said not like you and Eddie at all." She asked as she removed her gloves before they both made their way to triage.

Buck grinned, "I kinda hated him at first. Y'know the feeling when someone new comes in and you're scared they're gonna be better than you, and they they prove they are better than you?" He questioned, quickly glancing to Nai.

"Very specific, but yes, i'm sure all firefighters do."

"Well, that's what I felt about Eddie at first, until we removed a bomb from a dudes leg. That was somehow our bonding moment, best friends ever since." Buck explained as him and Naiara finally got to triage, Buck patting Eddie's shoulder as they walked by him.

"Well, I can say for a fact that Jack and I did not become friends that way." Naiara smiled, handing Hen some supplies as she worked on one of the victims from the upturned car.

"Jack? Who's Jack?" Hen asked, gesturing to Buck for more gauze.

"Nai's bestie back in Seattle." Buck answered, "How did the two of you become friends anyway? Like specifically, what's the story?"

"Nothing like your explosive bonding moment with Eddie," She quipped, "When I first got to the firehouse I was kinda outcasted and well, being the probie, kinda treated like shit. Then, I got into a massive fight with our captain over how I was being treated by one of the other firefighters. Gained a lot of respect from everyone that day, especially Jack. He told me that I had the biggest balls out of everyone in our firehouse."

"This captain, was it the cool female captain you were telling us about?" Hen asked, wrapping her patients arm in the gauze Buck had handed her.

Naiara shook her head, "No, she was actually the one who was treating me like crap, Maya Bishop. She came around, though, we were actually friends by the time I left. She didn't become captain until a few years later. Our captain at the time was Pruitt Herrera." She explained.

"Pruitt Herrera, I've heard that name before." Chimney interjected from behind Naiara and Buck. "Wasn't he the retired captain who died in a fire a few months back? Saving his team or something like that." Chimney asked, monitoring the LifePak hooked up to his patient.

Naiara nodded, a solemn look on her face. "Yeah, that was him. That was actually my last call before my transfer. My team and I got trapped in a storage facility that was on fire. Our visibility was really low and no one could ventilate the roof, or even the walls for a fact. All of us were severely low on oxygen and Pruitt, who had been listening to our radios, came to the facility, climbed to the roof, and ventilated it for us. Fell right through the roof, saved us all."

Chimney stood up, placing a hand on Naiara's shoulder, "He sounded like a great man."

"He was. The damn fire chief didn't even want to give him the line of duty funeral he deserved. We ended up making a firefighter calendar for him. Last I heard, they did actually raise enough money." Nai explained.

"Firefighter calendar? Were you in it?" Eddie asked, walking up to the rest of the group with Bobby behind him. Naiara nodded, a small smirk on her face.

"No way! What month?" Chimney asked, kneeling back down beside his patient.

"September. Its my birthday month, so I thought it'd be fitting." Naiara smiled, watching as more paramedics arrived and wheeled gurneys over to Hen and Chimney.

"Did you dress up? Wear a sexy firefighter costume?" Hen asked, helping the paramedics put her patient onto the gurney.

"Something like that." Naiara grinned, walking away from the group and over towards the truck.

Eddie and Buck exchanged a quick glance, devilish smiles forming on their faces, "We have to find that calendar." They said simultaneously.

𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗙𝗜𝗥𝗘𝗛𝗢𝗨𝗦𝗘 𝗪𝗔𝗦 buzzing, everyone talking around the table while waiting for Bobby to be done cooking. "Okay, I need to hear more crazy calls from you guys, cause from i've heard so far, i've had a very mundane career so far." Naiara asked before taking a sip of her water.

"Just talk to Buck, i'm sure he's got some stories for you." Bobby spoke from behind the counter. Naiara immediately turned to Buck, who simply shrugged.

"Well, I got my leg crushed under a firetruck that was blown up by a kid with a vendetta against Bobby, then a few months later, I blew a blood clot and then almost drowned to death in a tsunami." Buck vaguely described. Naiara just stared at him, a shocked expression on her face.

"How can you just sit there and describe that like it's every other tuesday for you? You can't just be that casual about that." Naiara marveled at Buck. He, once again, just shrugged.

"Hello?" Somebody called from the entrance of the firehouse before Buck had the chance to respond. "Anyone here?"

Bobby walked over to the railing from behind the counter, "Sir, are you hurt?" He called down.

"No. No, i'm not hurt, I need to speak to someone, but i'm not sure if they're here." The person yelled up to Bobby and the rest of the crew who joined him at the railing.

Naiara stared down at the familiar face staring back up at her, Dustin's brown eyes piercing her own.  Eddie glanced over to Naiara, watching as she pushed herself off the railing and slowly walked to the stairs.

Dustin walked to the bottom of the stairs slowly, matching Naiara's pace as she met him. "Can we talk?" He asked, pulling at his thumb. Naiara simply nodded without saying a word.

The two walked over to Bobby's office, Naiara sitting down in the chair behind the desk, Dustin in the seat opposite. "What do you wanna talk about?" Naiara questioned.

"I miss you." Dustin dropped his head. "I miss you and i'm sorry. I don't know about the others and frankly I don't care because I miss you, Ara."

"I've tried everything to listen to what the others are saying, but they just, they don't understand. I don't think I did either, but you're my friend, at least, I'm supposed to be your friend." Dustin cried, wiping his tears with the sleeve of his shirt.

"I don't think I ever fully understood why you left, at least not until a couple weeks ago. After you and your team left the motel that night, Will freaked out, he just lost it. He was screaming at us. He didn't even care about the fact that his sister was literally lying in critical condition in the hospital. He only cared about freaking out and, and yelling at us." Dustin ranted, pushing himself out of the chair, flailing his arms as his voice raised.

"He didn't care about his sister, everyone else did, but he didn't. I tried for so long to hear him out or even just listen to him, but I just can't, I can't do it anymore. I miss you so much, Naiara, and you're here, so I want you back in my life, I need you back in my life." He stopped his pacing in front of the door. "I don't need you to say anything, I just need you to know that. I just," He paused, grabbing the door knob behind him, "I needed you to know."

❝𝗧𝗛𝗘𝗡 𝗛𝗘 𝗝𝗨𝗦𝗧 left? Just like that, he left?" Eddie asked, pulling out a chair beside Naiara and leaning against the table on his elbow. She only nodded, a blank expression on her face. "Do you think he has a thing for you? And that's why he admitted that all to you?" Eddie asked, tilting his head as if he was pondering the question.

Naiara pushed her arms off the table, "God no, that man is gayer than a maypole, i'm actually pretty confident that him and my brother are dating on the DL."

"Huh. Anyway, do you think he actually meant it?"

Naiara shrugged, "I think so?" She answered, wanting to believe her own words. "God, I don't know. Dustin and I have always been close. We would always go to each other about our problems. Y'know what, if there's one thing I believe, for a fact, it's that Will didn't care about Tessa being in the hospital, just about throwing blame around." She expressed, folding her arms over her chest.

"Has there always been issues with Will?" Eddie asked, turning himself so he was fully facing Naiara.

She scoffed, then nodded. "Any issue we had in the group, you can bet your ass William started it. No matter what, we were always doing something wrong, y'know, between you and me, the only reason we kept him around was because he's dating Nora, thats it." She ranted, copying Eddie and turning herself towards him. "I never really liked him anyway, I just put up with him cause I like my friends, and I used to date Tessa. He's always been a prick though."

"Do you wanna become friends with them again? The rest of them, not Will." Eddie queried, taking his elbow off the table.

"I would love to. Come to an understanding, try and make everything work again." She sighed, running a hand through her hair.

"Then why don't you?"

"I'm scared they won't listen, but i'm also scared that I wouldn't be doing it for the right reasons."

Eddie tilted his head at her, as if to gesture her to explain.

"I'm scared that if I do it, I wouldn't be doing it for me, I'd be doing it for them." She explained, crossing her arms again.

Eddie nodded in understanding, tilting his head and taking a moment to think. "This is what I think," He began, turning his chair completely to look Naiara dead in the eyes, "You can do it for you, for your own happiness, but you can also do it for them, for their peace, and do bring your group back together. There's absolutely nothing wrong with that." He offered with a small smile.

"So how should I do it?"

"Invite them over for dinner or something, lay everything out, maybe write down the main things you want to get off your chest." He shrugged, standing up and pushing his chair in. As he walked to the stairs, he spun around, pausing in his place, "Just do me a favour." He spoke. Naiara turned to face him, pushing her hair behind her ears.

"Don't invite Will."