𝙛𝙚𝙚𝙡𝙨 𝙡𝙞𝙠𝙚 𝙬𝙚 𝙝𝙖𝙙 𝙢𝙖𝙩𝙘𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙬𝙤𝙪𝙣𝙙𝙨, 𝙗𝙪𝙩 𝙢𝙞𝙣𝙚𝙨 𝙨𝙩𝙞𝙡𝙡 𝙗𝙡𝙖𝙘𝙠 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙗𝙧𝙪𝙞𝙨𝙚𝙙 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙮𝙤𝙪𝙧𝙨 𝙞𝙨 𝙥𝙚𝙧𝙛𝙚𝙘𝙩𝙡𝙮 𝙛𝙞𝙣𝙚.

❝𝗡𝗔𝗜𝗔𝗥𝗔.❞ 𝗝𝗔𝗖𝗞𝗦 𝗩𝗢𝗜𝗖𝗘 came out staticy over the phone. "Earth to Bats. Hello? Naiara, answer me." Jack continued, putting the phone uncomfortably close to his face as he typically does.

"Yes, yes, hi, Jack." Naiara groaned, grabbing her phone of the counter behind her and propping it up on an unopened box of cake mix. Jack moved the phone away from his face, taking in the scene, as it really was one to behold. Naiara's hair was up in a rather half-assed ponytail, and she was covered, head to toe, in flour.

"Remind me again, why are you doing this?" Jack asked as Naiara aggressively whisked a bowl of batter. "You already made up with your friends, I don't think they need four dozen batches of cupcakes, or muffins, or cake pops, whatever the hell you have baking over there."

Naiara just whisked harder, "I'm not baking for anyone else, I'm baking for myself." And she whisked harder.

"That's not any less depressing, Nai." He shook his head over the phone, "Don't the rest of your fire friends have the day off too? Or at least one of them, like the handsome one who invited me to the Christmas party?" He suggested, winking at a flour covered Naiara.

"Buck? No, dude we are just friends, plus they all have lives. Eddie has his son, Buck has Eddie's son, Hen has her kids, Bobby has Athena's kids, Chimney has Buck's sister, and I have my oven, and flour, and eggs." She grinned, pouring the batter into the muffin pan.

"I'm so confused by all of that. Buck has Eddie's son? Chimney has Buck's sister? And I thought 19 was drama filled." Jack laughed, then turned his head to talk to someone off screen.

"Who are you talking to? Is it Cassie? Please tell me it's Cassie." Naiara jumped, letting flour fall from her hair. Jack then turned the camera, showing two of her former teammates.

"Cassie, yes!" She cheered, sticking her face into the camera. "Hi, Maya." She grinned, waving to her very brief former captain.

"How's my favourite chemical swimmer?" Maya asked, leaning over Jack's shoulder, a teasing smile playing on her lips. Naiara just gave her a glare and a kind smile.

"How's my favourite lady kisser?" Naiara grinned, leaning on the counter. Maya went to open her mouth, but was stopped quickly by Naiara, "I mean Cass, sorry Cap." She tilted her head and shrugged.

Maya groaned over the phone, but it came out as static, someone needed to remind Jack to get a new phone. "Sorry, Maya, I still love you!" Naiara yelled as Maya walked away.

"Jesus Christ, Nai, are you hosting a bake sale or something?" Cassie asked, grabbing Jack's phone from his hands. Jack immediately shot up from his chair and reached at his phone, but Cassie simply moved his phone out of his reach, which started a fight, in which Cassie, obviously, was triumphant. "Seriously, Naiara, what is with all the baked goods?"

Naiara shrugged, "I wanted to bake." Was all she said as she grabbed a clean bowl and reached for the eggs and flour. The carton of eggs felt light in her hands as she stared at it. "Shit." Was all she said as the realized quickly of her misfortune, she was out of eggs.

She dropped the bag of flour and the empty egg carton and wiped her hands on her shorts before taking her phone, "Hey, Jack, I gotta go. Gotta run to the store to pick up more eggs." She said swiftly before hanging up the phone and pull up her contacts, pressing the call button on one.

"It's our day off, why the hell are you calling me, Nosedive?" Buck's voice came out groggily, clearly, he had just woken up, despite it being noon already.

She put the phone up to her ear, holding it in place with her shoulder as she rubbed her hands on her clothes. "You're telling me that you were planning on spending the whole day sleeping? Pathetic, Bucky, just pathetic." She laughed, rubbing her hands harder onto herself, coating her black clothes in flour. "Anyway, get your lazy ass up, I'll be at your apartment in ten. Call Eddie, tell him we're on our way, we'll make it a fun outing."

Buck groaned over the phone and Naiara could hear the shuffling of his bedding as he got out of bed, "I'm not bothering Eddie on his one day off, just let him spend time with his son." He complained, a piss poor excuse for not going out.

"Buck, shut up and call your boyfriend, make it a family outing. Well, a family outing plus me." She smirked to herself.

"He's not my-" Buck began to protest before Naiara hung up on him, not allowing him to complain further.

She didn't bother changing out of her flour covered athletic wear, instead just throwing on a pair of sneakers and grabbing her keys, swiftly leaving her house and jumping into her Jeep.

Naiara was quite proud of her Jeep. She was saving up ever since she started firefighting in Seattle. One of her dreams was to own a Jeep Wrangler. Her favourite colour was dark green, so it only made sense that she would get a dark green Jeep Wrangler. Every time she sat down in the drivers seat of her Jeep, she smiled a wide, proud smile. She was really fucking proud of her Jeep.

She started the engine and pulled out of the abnormally large driveway. The whole drive to Buck's apartment was filled with Naiara's unapologetic show tunes playlist that quickly switched to her standard pop girly playlist (Buck's favourite) as she pulled into the parking garage attached to the building. She swiftly pulled out her phone and shot her friend a text, eloquently telling him to bust his ass and get to her beautiful, amazing dark green Jeep Wrangler.

Buck came out to the vehicle about ten minutes later, looking like he had just rolled out of bed, despite Naiara giving him a fair bit of time to get ready. He tiredly opened the passenger door and got in, his exhausted expression slightly twisting into relaxation and the soft sound of Chappell Roan through the speakers.

"Did you text Eddie?" Naiara asked as she pulled out of the parking garage.

"Yeah, he's getting Chris ready now, so they should be set by the time we get there."

The drive was relatively silent, except for the soft sounds of Naiara's playlist and Buck very poorly singing along. By the time the two of them had arrived at Eddie's, him and Chris were already standing outside, waiting.

Eddie walked up to the jeep, Chris' car seat in his hands, and placed it on one of the backseats before lifting his son into the seat and buckling him up, placing his crutches on the seat beside him. Eddie then turned and walked to the drivers side, getting into the seat behind Naiara.

"Chris, pick the music." Naiara turned her head and shot him one singular finger gun.

Chris tilted his head and thought for a moment, before shouting out; "Show tunes!" Naiara was very proud of the theatre kid monster she had created.

Eddie groaned from the backseat as Naiara pulled out of the driveway and Buck took control of her phone, turning on the suggested playlist.

The drive was quite fun as Buck, Naiara, and Chris erupted into awful sounding renditions of random songs from Six, Hamilton, and Beetlejuice. Eddie just sat in silence in the back, trying to hide the fact that he was really lip syncing along to the songs.

Naiara kept her eyes on the road as she sang, watching as a cop car sped up slightly in front of her, and as other cars began merging recklessly around her. L.A traffic seriously got on her nerves. There was at least five crashes a day, and Naiara did everything in her power to avoid one, heaven forbid her dark green Jeep wrangler end up in a junkyard.

Three things happened in one swift moment after Naiara took account of her surroundings. 1, a car beside the Jeep sped up beside the cop car. 2, that same car then began swerving in front of the cop car. 3, the cop car then swerved off of the bridge they were driving on.

Naiara slammed on the breaks, causing Buck and Chris to stop singing and Eddie to reach from the backseat and turn the music off.

"The hell just happened?" Buck asked rhetorically, unbuckling. Naiara and Eddie followed suit.

"Chris, stay here, we're gonna go help them." Eddie said sternly as the three adults left the vehicle. A small group of people had gathered by the now broken railing of the bridge. "Firefighters, let us through." Eddie yelled over the worried chatter of the crowd.

The crowd reluctantly parted as the three passed through, staring down at the water below. "What do we do?" Buck asked nervously.

"Did anyone call 911?" Eddie called to the crowd behind them. Multiple murmurs from the crowd confirmed that multiple people had called. "Okay, we wait for first responders, let them take the scene." He said calmly.

"What? There has to be something we can do now, we are first responders." Naiara practically shouted at Eddie.

"Naiara, there's nothing we can do right now." Eddie groaned.

"No, there has to be something. There's always something we can do." Buck grabbed the edge of the railing and looked around. "If we can get down there before whatever station shows up, we just have to find the safest way." He explained.

Naiara shook her head and walked back through the still parted crowd. She scanned her surroundings, looking for any even remotely safe and quick way to get down to the water below. Buck and Eddie did the same, but from the edge of the bridge. "Fuck it." She then turned back towards the edge and ran, full sprint, before diving off the edge.

"Naiara, what the hell?" Was all she could hear as she whirred past her two friends.

She had no time to regret her decision as her hands broke the water below. Her body was quickly engulfed in the freezing water, but she persisted, swimming deeper to the slowly sinking cop car.

She swam next to the drivers side window and made eye contact with the cop in front. He stared pleadingly at her and began tugging at his seatbelt. She swam to the windshield as quickly as she can and began kicking at it, with as much force as someone submerged in water could muster.

The cop finally managed to pull off his seatbelt and grabbed his baton from the floor of the passenger seat, he gestured for her to move away, and Naiara quickly took the advice, swimming backwards a few feet from the car.

The cop then swung his baton, over and over again until the glass finally succumbed to both the force of the baton and the pressure from the water. Water quickly began to fill the vehicle, and with it, the car began sinking faster. Naiara swam in and pulled the cop out, pushing him up towards the surface before he began rapidly gesturing to the car. Naiara stared up at him in confusion before he placed his wrists together and pointed back at the car. Naiara turned and swam back towards the car as quick as she could.

She swam back into the car through the broken windshield and grabbed the metal meshing that separated the front and back, glancing through at the person sat in the back. Blonde hair floated around the unconscious womans head and and out of her face. Naiara's eyes widened as Tessa's sunken face came into full view.

She began panicking, looking around the front of the car for anything that could get Tessa out of the back. She reached over to the drivers side door and unlocked the car, then reached to the glove box and opened it up, searching it's contents for anything to help her. Among the various papers in the glove box was, conveniently, a window breaker.

She swam back out of the windshield and towards the back passenger side door, pulling on the handle, hoping the pressure wasn't too much to open the door. Luckily, due to both the car being fully submerged and completely full of water, the pressure had equalized and she was able to open the door.

Her head began spinning as she had spent too much time underwater at this point, struggling to keep going as she could no longer breathe. She persisted, though, swimming into the car and unbuckling Tessa and pulling her out of the car, using all of her strength to pull her to the surface.

The two swiftly broke the surface, Naiara gasping for air and Tessa remaining unconscious. Using her remaining strength, Naiara swam to shore, pulling Tessa along with her. She was cold and exhausted by the time she reached the shore, but was able to fully pull Tessa out of the water with the help of the cop.

Naiara placed to fingers on the unconscious womans neck, feeling for a pulse, "Goddamnit, nothing, beginning cpr." She then overlapped her hands overtop of Tessa's chest, beginning compressions.

The counted breathily with each push as the cop knelt beside her, prepared to take over if needed. Sirens sounded from the bridge above, giving Naiara some peace of mind despite doing cpr on her clearly struggling ex-girlfriend.

Not long after, a series of shouts and footsteps sounded behind Naiara, signaling that people were finally there to help. One paramedic took Naiara's arm and gestured to the paramedic on the other side of Tessa.

Naiara stopped compression as the paramedic pushed his hands underneath hers, taking over for her.

𝗡𝗔𝗜𝗔𝗥𝗔 𝗣𝗔𝗖𝗘𝗗 𝗧𝗛𝗘 waiting room nervously, now wearing a sweatsuit Buck had delivered to her at the hospital, her phone in her hand. Her phone was opened to her contacts, a specific contact that she hadn't called in a long time.

"Do you want me to call, or?" Eddie leaned forward, dragging out the or. Naiara shot a glare over at him as she paced.

"I can do it myself."

Eddie leaned back in the waiting room chair, "Clearly." He closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose in annoyance.

Still pacing, Naiara pressed the call button, bringing the phone to her ear. Her phone rang anxiously in her ear, making Naiara pace faster, until eventually, a soft "hello?" came from the other end of the line.

"Hey, Will," She said nervously, "Something happened to Tess."

𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙖𝙪𝙩𝙝𝙤𝙧 𝙨𝙥𝙚𝙖𝙠𝙨.

this will probably be the only chapter with an authors note, but this is very rushed and very unedited, i just really wanted to get it out before this weeks ep :)