Chapter Eight: Hoedown Throw-down
*Trigger warning/ Smut Warning*

Luna returned from her mini vacation last night she entered the firehouse sneaked into the locker room and got dressed for her shift. She hides behind the wall waiting to enter the kitchen as everyone is arguing.

"Hey, yeah, there you go. Go ahead and whack it. That ought to fix it." Judd yells he was crankier than usual, only because Luna was gone. He missed her and wouldn't admit that to anyone but himself.

"I got a bat in my car if you want to use that." Luna laughs as everyone pulls her into a hug minus Judd. they almost knock her over.

"I missed you so much." Marjan gives her an extra squeeze.

"I missed you as well all of you. " She walks over to Judd. "I missed you Juddy." He sips his coffee looking at Luna before motioning for her to come over to him. She squeals and pulls him into a big hug.

"Oh, God, what am I gonna do?"

"You're gonna do the right thing... Fall on your sword and tell the truth." Marjan explains giving his shoulder a dramatic squeeze as Luna laughs, Mateo looks like he might faint. Of course, as all of this is happening Captain enters the room.

"Hello." he greets everyone. Before stopping in his tracks when he sees everyone staring and that Luna was back.

"Paul did it."

" Objection!" Paul yells as Luna laughs.

"What?" Owen shakes his head very confused.

"See, I tried to make you one of those Cap's half-caf caps like you like, but Paul overpacked the filter basket."

"Again, wow," Paul replies as Luna is about to keel over from laughing, and Marjan is trying to hide her laughter.

"No, it's true. I always try to warn him that his grounds are too tight. Throws off the calibration and... he broke your machine." Mateo says as Paul looks over at Luna and Marjan he mouths three holding up three fingers as Marjan holds up three fingers back sending him a crooked smirk, Luna is just quietly laughing.

"So unplug it. Get it serviced." Owen replies nonchalantly.

"So you're not mad?"

"At a coffee maker? Who cares?" He heads upstairs.

"Did he just say "who cares"?" Mateo looks back at everyone.

"Did he just call it a "coffee maker"?"

Judd hops up from his seat. "Yeah, whatever's going on with him this morning is..."

"It's bad."

The group heads upstairs to Cap's office and watches him from the window. Before tapping on the glass.

"Hey, Cap."

He turns to look at his team who is staring at him. "Uh, can I help you guys?" they enter his office.

"Yeah, we were gonna ask you the same question," Marjan says she takes a seat in one of the chairs and Judd sits in the other, Luna kisses her teeth and Marjan sighs patting her lap for Luna who happily takes a seat.

"Hey, if you wanna take a crack at these quarterly fire prevention and training totals, knock yourself out."

"Look, I hope you're not expecting us to pretend like we don't see those dark clouds hanging over your head," Paul says as Luna hits him on the shoulder. He was so morbid sometimes.

"Dark clouds? There are no clouds."

"Those frown lines between your eyes would beg to differ." He comments as Luna hits him again.

"Has anyone ever told you that it feels a little bit like a violation when you do your thing?"

"Yes, all the time," Marjan replies.

"The therapy that you forced me into... My guy's always saying that the first step to solving a problem is admitting that there is one."

"Is Cowboy Judd gonna force me to talk about my feelings?" Owen leans forward onto his desk as Luna rolls her yes.

"I'm as surprised as you are, you know?" Judd slaps his cheek shaking his head with a smile

"It's TK. He may not be coming back after his medical leave."

"Whoa, what... was there a complication?" Paul starts freaking out,

"No, medically, he's gonna have a full recovery. He just doesn't know whether he wants to do this."

"The kid got shot, all right? So you gotta give him a minute." Judd replies as Luna nods.

"Yeah, as many as he wants, but now he's saying he's not sure that he ever wanted to do it."

"That's crazy. I mean, he was made to do this." Mateo says as Owen nods.

"I agree. Even if he doesn't know who he is right now, I do, but I'm the one person who can't tell him."

"Nobody can, Cap," Marjan speaks up,

"Yeah, it's something somebody has to figure on their own."

"Exactly." Luna nods.

"You want me to talk to him?" Judd replies as Luna kisses her teeth staring at him.

"Sorry to interrupt, guys, but Captain Strand, is there any chance you've spoken with Captain Blake this morning?" Rosewater was standing there in the doorway.

"No, why? She hasn't come in."

He shakes his head. "We haven't been able to reach her all day."

"That's odd." He picks up his phone and the bell starts ringing the lights start flickering

"What the hell is that?"

"Some sort of a power surge," Luna says as everyone jumps up and heads out of the office. They walk down the stairs seeing the lights and sirens going off and the bell going on and off. Power tools were flying everywhere. The radio was blaring.

"Are we being hacked?" Marjan asks.

"I don't know! Judd, get up there and secure that ladder. Paul, and Marjan, kill the batteries in the rig. Luna, You take care of this," he hands her a few power towels that were going all over the place. She begins unplugging them.

Everything was unplugged and nothing else. Was freaking out. Owen was trying to get ahold of dispatch on the radio.

"Dispatch, FS-126, you copy?"

"Copy that, 126. This is dispatch."

"It's good to hear your voice. Have any idea what's going on?" Owen asks.

"Looks like we just had a... 10-4, Big Papa Jay, look out for smokey..." he clicks the radio off.

"Guys! Guys, check this out!" everyone walks over to the tv.

"Waves of solar energy began hitting Texas and much of the central time zone an hour ago. We're told it's the largest solar storm to reach Earth since an event in Quebec in 1989 that wreaked havoc on the power grid for 12 hours. Joining us via satellite from Los Angeles is astrophysicist Dr. Isabelle Wali. Dr. Wali, what are we dealing with here?"

A woman pops up on the screen. "The waves of energy currently battering our plane are a result of a coronal mass ejection or CME... an explosion on the surface of the sun which has released powerful bursts of electromagnetic energy into the solar system."

"So what can we expect?"

"Well, it's been 150 years since we've experienced an event this powerful, so we're not sure, but it will likely...Created... lar..." the news cuts off and a Japanese cartoon starts playing instead. They concluded that shit was hitting the fan rather quickly might they add. Luckily for them, they were able to get the dispatch system working and were headed to their first call. They arrive and hop out seeing an airplane lying belly-side up on some power lines.

"Whoa, somebody did not stick the landing," Paul says as they look at the plane

"All right, let's deploy the rescue cushion. Dispatch, can you hook me up with the pilot?"

"I'm on it, Captain Strand." Randy from dispatch replies.

" Thought you said they turned the power lines off," Owen asks seeing some waves of electricity going through the powerlines.

"Yeah, they did. That must have something to do with the solar storm."

"Those added electrons in the air need a way to get to the ground," Mateo explains as Luna and Marjan are struggling with the bag that holds the cushion.

"Okay, thanks, Professor, now help me with the bag." Marjan sasses.

"Sorry," Mateo says they get the cushion deployed and Owen explains how they have the cushion below and each person has to jump only if it was an armed flight and one of the passengers was severely ill, the jump could injure them more. Owen says he will go up and rescue the other passenger himself and that's exactly what he does

Owen lowers the guy down with the rope. They watch as the electrons start surging powerfully.

"Cap, you gotta jump now! Go, go, go, go!" everyone was yelling watching as the surges were nearing the plane. "Come on, Cap! Cap, jump!"

"Cap! Cap!" Owen jumps as the plane engulfs in flames.

"Holy crap, Cap, you all right?" Mateo asks as everyone is inspecting Owen.

"Yeah, never better."

"Yeah, well, I give you a two for style and a ten for timing," Judd says as everyone chuckles.

Their next call was about a bus that crashed and took out a hydrant. Luna and Owen go inside the bus which is toppled over. Inside is TK he is trying to save the bus driver who is buried under the water, Owen gives him oxygen from his mask while Luna pulls the debris's off the driver and pulls her out just in time.

"You saved us." TK hugs his dad before turning to Luna who was standing next to Owen. "You saved me again."

Luna shakes her head at TK. "No. this was all, you T."

"Go on, get in there." Owen pushes his son towards the ambulance.

"He's an impressive guy," Carlos says as Owen smiles.

"He's my son."

The day was tiring and the 126 finds themselves back at the firehouse, they all pile out being greeted by TK.

"Aquaman, back on dry land?" Mateo teases.

"What are you doing here? How'd it go at the hospital?"

"Nothing crazy... they just added a couple of extra stitches. I'm good. " TK was jittery he looked like he was about to throw up.

"Why do you look like you're about to jump off of a cliff?" Owen replies as Luna chuckles a bit.

Tk stands up. "Hey, guys? Uh, I wanted to talk to you about something, and, um, if you could bear with me because it's kind of a lot. Mm. I'm an addict..."

"TK..."

"No, Dad, I need to do this. Please? It's opioids, and a few months back, in New York, I had a relapse... A pretty bad one. I OD'd and my dad... Well, my captain... he found me unconscious. My heart had stopped, and, well, he did what he does best, and he saved my life, and the only reason I came down here was 'cause he forced me to... you know? What I'm trying to say is, I never really chose this for myself. Any of it. Not even becoming a firefighter. And, uh... Well..."

"Hey, hey. Whatever you gotta say right here, say it, All right. Yeah?" Judd pats Tk's shoulder lovingly.

"He's right, man. We got you, fam." Paul says as everyone nods.

"Yeah, well, that's the point 'cause today at that intersection when that woman was dying, I would have given her everything I had to save her, and I did give her everything I had, but it wasn't enough...Until you showed up. All you guys. And I knew in that instant that not only was she gonna be okay but I was gonna be okay too because this is what I wanna do for the rest of my life. And, at least for now, this is where I wanna do it...With you guys, so... I choose this family...Because this is... This is where I belong. So, um...No, that's...That's all I got." Tk says as everyone chuckles.

"Aw, hey, well, group hug." Mateo yells

"I don't think that's ne...Ooh, ooh, Mateo, stitches, dude." they get into a big hug. " Ow. Ooh, someone's ripe."

"I'm guessing that's Judd." Luna jokes as everyone laughs.

"Yeah, well, that's what you get for showing up at the end of a shift, man."

"Proud of you." Paul hugs Tk on his own.

Tk stops Luna from walking away. "I didn't thank you enough for saving me."

Luna just throws her hand at him. "No Tk I didn't you still got shot."

He shakes his head at her. "Lu, you used your body as a human shield for me, I dont think anyone has done that in their life for me." they both chuckle as she wipes the tears from her face. "I love you." he hugs her and she hugs him back.

"I love you too."

"All right, everybody hit the showers. Proud of every one of you."

"Don't you mean "every one of y'all"?" Marjan teases.

"Yeah, that too." He replies as everyone laughs going to hit the showers.

Luna walks up the stairs with Marjan.

"So how was your trip to L.A. did you go out to brunch and get day drunk? With all your friends." Marjan asks as Luna laughs.

"Uh, I worked a shift with my Ex and his crew,"

Marjan makes an o face. "You hung out with your ex..." she starts snapping. "Earl."

"Ethan!" Mateo shouts from behind them.

"I thought his name was an asshole," Judd comments as everyone laughs.

"Eddie, his name is Eddie and we worked an entire twenty-four hour together....a newbie said the q word." They all wince.

"So you went through hell?"

Luna laughs shaking her head and waiting for the boys to round the corner. "We had sex. Like really good sex."

Marjan's eyes were about bug out of her head. "Im sorry you guys did what?"

"We had sex in one of the on-call rooms."

Marjan says nothing and starts clapping. "My Luna, evolving into a woman. Look at you having meaningless sex and not getting attached," Luna makes a face. "It was completely meaningless. Right?"

"Well.."

"Luna Marie Jennings." Marjan folds her arms over her chest,

"We were just two friends who had casual sex once...maybe twice."

She makes a shocked face. "Twice."

"I went to say goodbye......"

"Luna...Hey."

She smiles looking at Eddie. "May I come in?"

He nods still a bit stunned she was even there "Of course. Yeah." he steps to the side letting her. She looks around not seeing any sign of Christopher.

"So um what brings you here?"

"I just wanted to stop by and say goodbye. I am leaving to go back to Austin. " She extends out her hand. "To our new friendship." he smiles grabbing her hand and shaking it. She looks at him then back down at his hand and immediately jumps into his arms kissing him and wrapping her hands around his neck. They stumbled through his house pulling at each other's clothes.

He kisses her neck and she moans pulling off her jacket, there was no way they were making it to the bedroom, not with all this built-up tension. He lifts her hands above her head, backing her into a wall. As they kiss each other more grinding against one another.

"We can't keep doing this."

"No your right friend dont do this, we shouldn't..." Luna lifts her shirt over her head. Eddie shakes his head a smirk on her face. "I dont want to be right." he shakes his head, picks her up and she squeals happily.

"Luna! No." she shakes her head scrunching up her face. "You ended right after that right?"

"Well.." Marjan starts hitting Luna in her arms. "I left after that, I dont know I didn't feel the need to. It kinda felt like we both knew. You know?"

"So what are you gonna do now?"

Luna sighs peacefully thinking back about everything. "Idk I feel like I still have so much life to live, and part of me still loves Eddie so much, and the other part is starting to Love myself and I want to learn how to love me before I can let someone else do it."

Marjan smiles clapping as Luna laughs and starts bowing. "Let's go you smell worse than Buttercup."

Luna laughs "Hey." she punches her in the arm as Marjan wraps her arm around Luna's neck the two going to take a shower.

With Everyone showered, it was time to head home. Judd practically ran out the door.

"Judd could not get out of here fast enough, could he?" Paul says as everyone laughs walking down the stairs.

"It's 'cause he's got someone to go home to."

"Yeah, true that," Mateo says as Luna chuckles.

"I don't know about y'all, but something about facing down Armageddon has given me a ferocious appetite. You guys hungry?" Paul asks

" I could eat."

"You could always eat." Marjan sasses as Luna laughs. They step outside seeing a beautiful group of Aurora lights dancing across the night sky.

"Wow. It's incredible."

"What is that?" Mateo asks.

"It's Aurora's lights, It happens after too many electrons in the atmosphere," Luna explains.

"That might be the most beautiful thing that we will ever see." Marjan comments

"Wow."

"Let's go eat." she interlocks arms with Luna.

and for the first time in a long time, Luna loved her life and she didn't regret anything.

Word count: 3100