"Alright, Sadie, you're not getting out of this."

Sophia groaned as she headed toward the hospital's exit and Blake cornered her before she could make her escape. "Fireworks, really?" she complained. "Come on, you can't tell me you haven't treated probably hundreds of people on this damn holiday because of injuries from those."

The Fourth of July had arrived in all of its glory, and somehow, Blake had convinced her to go with him and a few other doctors and nurses to go see the fireworks show along the East River.

"This is true," Blake conceded. "But alas, I am not on duty tonight, and these are professionals. We never get people in with injuries from watching the show."

"Fine," Sophia huffed, although she actually felt a twinge of excitement.

"Are we going?" Carmen appeared at her side, all smiles.

"Yes, yes, we're going," Sophia said, rolling her eyes at Blake. "I'll order the Uber."

They headed into Brooklyn in two separate Ubers, the first time Sophia had been out of Manhattan and the first time she had been in an Uber since moving to New York. She eyed the driver warily despite his indifferent staring at the road ahead of him. But her legs didn't want to move to get into the car.

"Hey, Sadie, you coming?" Carmen stared at her from the back seat of the car.

"Yeah, yeah I am." Forcing herself into motion, Sophia got in next to Carmen. She was with other people. She would be safe.

The Brooklyn Bridge Park waterfront was already lined with spectators, sitting on blankets and snacking on sandwiches and beer. The Manhattan skyline glittered across the water, and the feeling of excitement that had dropped away with the anxiety of the Uber ride came rushing back.

With it, a sprinkling of guilt. But Sophia pushed it down. She had no reason to feel guilty, no matter how much her emotions told her she should.

The group spread out their blankets and pulled out their food, and Sophia laid back, staring up at the darkening sky. Carmen, always chatty, appeared next to her in a moment, sucking on a straw that went into a glass of who knows what.

"You ever seen the fireworks here?" she asked.

Sophia turned her head and gave the other woman an amused look. "Carmen, I just moved here."

"Right, right. Well, I used to come here all the time with my family, back when I was a kid. I've lived in New York my whole life, so I kinda just assume that everyone has also lived here their entire lives..."

Sophia let a smile drift across her face as her eyes focused back to the pink-streaked skyline as Carmen told her story after story of how her family celebrated the Fourth, appreciating that her coworker could talk enough for the both of them.

"But my parents moved upstate when I graduated from college, so they don't always come back for the holiday. What do you usually do for the Fourth, Sadie?"

Sophia registered that the question was for her, so she turned her face back toward Carmen's eager eyes. "Honestly, not much," she admitted. "I worked a lot on holidays." It was the truth, just not the whole truth. "And there wasn't really anyone available for me to celebrate." Another half-truth. In the two Fourth of Julys she and Dean were together, he was off for one while she was working, and the next year, vice versa.

"Maybe this can be your tradition!" Carmen's words were meant to invoke excitement, but they hit Sophia in the stomach with a dull ache. The last thing she wanted was to still be in this mess in a year.

"Maybe," Sophia replied, unenthused.

"Hey, Sadie!"

Grateful for the interruption, Sophia sat up to find Blake standing, gesturing for her to follow him. "What's up?" she asked as she stood.

"I want to introduce you to some people."

Mildly curious, Sophia followed him down to the river bank and away from the bulk of the crowds. After his confession that he liked her, Blake had kept his behaviors perfectly friendly, which Sophia greatly appreciated. As much as she didn't really want to form any attachments during her time in New York, she really was in desperate need of a friend, and a friend who didn't know anything that was going on in her life or ask her any questions she didn't want to answer. Blake fulfilled that role perfectly.

"Where exactly are we going?" Even though Sophia did trust him, leaving the well-lit, spectator-filled lawn was putting her on edge.

"To meet our safety crew," Blake explained, and a group of people appeared from the gray dusk at that moment, standing around chatting with each other.

"Alright, Sadie, let me introduce you to someone of FDNY's finest."

Firefighters. He was taking her to meet firefighters.

She had been able to deal with being around them during the collapse. That was a crisis, and she had a job to do. But socializing? Already she could feel the knife slowly plunging and twisting into her gut.

"Rhodes!" One of the men called out when he spotted the two of them. "Nice of you to join us."

"Not working tonight?" another one called out. "Lucky bastard."

"Hey, I gotta rest sometime," Blake said, a cheeky grin on his face. "And this is my friend, Sadie, she works in admin at the hospital but is incredibly cool under pressure. Sadie, this is Aaron, Carter, Lizzie, Terri, and Nolan."

The firefighter crew gave her a chorus of hellos and Sophia, still trying to keep her emotions in check, just gave them a quick nod in return, hoping they would count her off as just shy.

"High praise from an E.R. doc." The two women, Lizzie and Terri, sought her out as Blake and the rest of the guys caught up. "It takes a lot for one of those guys to credit someone's pressure-handling abilities."

Sophia forced a laugh. "Yeah, I guess so. Just comes naturally, I guess."

"How long have you been at Mt. Sinai?" Lizzie asked.

"Uh, about two months. How do you guys all know Blake?" Sophia really wasn't in the mood to open up to random strangers about her life here.

"Well, he used to live here, in Brooklyn," Terri explained. "He and Aaron go way back to childhood. Blake became a doctor, Aaron joined FDNY, and I guess we were all destined to meet eventually."

If you were friends with one firefighter, you would probably end up friends with a whole lot more than one. Sophia knew that all too well. "And you're here in case anything goes wrong?" she guessed.

They both laughed. "Yeah, pretty much," Terri said.

"Better than what everyone else has to do," Lizzie added. "We pretty much never have incidents here, and if we do, it involves someone who's drunk, not the actual fireworks. Everyone else in the department has to deal with all the amateurs shooting off explosives tonight."

Sophia snorted. Also something she knew plenty about. "Yeah, people are stupid."

"You talking about Blake?" One of the guys, Sophia thought it was Carter, came over and overhear Sophia's words.

"Something tells me Blake isn't about to lose his hands in a stupid accident," Sophia said drily. "Doctors can be overprotective of their hands. But stupid in other ways?" She let the question hang as Carter chuckled.

"I see why you like her, Blake," Carter said as the other three joined them, thumping the doctor on the back.

Blake blanched. "As a friend, Carter, as a friend," he said quickly. "As a friend."

"He seems to be protesting a lot," Lizzie stage whispered to Sophia.

Sophia felt the knife lurch inward and twist all the way around. "Well, he's telling the truth," she said. "Just friends."

"And these friends," Blake emphasized, "are going to go watch the show. Go gossip about something else you lunatics."

They said their goodbyes, the firefighters jostling Blake as he went, but Blake frowned as they got out of earshot. "Sorry about that," he said. "They don't mean any harm."

"Don't worry about it." As horrible as it was in some ways, the crew reminded her of Dean and his coworkers, of Alicia and Carson. "What are friends for if not to torture you, right?"

Blake laughed. "I guess that's one way of looking at it. But I figure, you said you could use a friend or two. And they're not a bad place to start."

Maybe not for most, but for Sophia, it was the worst place to start. "I appreciate the thought," she said truthfully. "Although I think you're going to have to work harder to convince them that nothing is going on between us before it'll become a fruitful friendship."

"I can try, but something tells me the more I do, the more convinced they'll be that they're right."

"Hey, Blake." They got back to their coworkers, and Sophia caught him by the arm. "Thank you. You know, for not pushing it. I'm glad we're able to just be friends."

"I mean, rejection really isn't something I'm used to, so I figure you must have a pretty good reason for it."

Sophia scoffed, rolled her eyes, and shoved him. "Alright, alright, you better stop before I don't even want to be friends with you."

Sophia sat back down next to Carmen who was now fully engaged in conversation with another E.R. doctor. A young, attractive E.R. doctor. Sophia suppressed a smile. Blake's love life wasn't going anywhere, but maybe Carmen's would.

She jumped as the first boom sounded above them, and a cheer went up in the crowd. Sophia leaned back on her hands to watch the show but soon found her gaze traveling to the river bank where the firefighters stood, watching over the festivities with a careful eye.

She could picture Dean standing there, chatting with Alicia, messing with Carson, needling Scott in the most respectful way possible. As the night grew darker and the sounds of fireworks filled Sophia's senses, it was almost as if she could see him, and all she had to do was cross the crowd and she would be back in his arms again.

Sophia blinked back tears that once again threatened to fall. No. She had made it this far without crying, she wouldn't start now. Even though it was hard. Even though part of her wanted nothing more than to just lie in bed and sob for hours on end.

"Look!" Carmen's shout jerked Sophia from her thoughts and she followed Carmen's finger up to the sky where the finale of the show was currently taking place.

Sophia could feel the booms in her chest, light flashing in her eyes. It was pretty spectacular, and with the World Trade Center and Empire State Building in the background, almost magical.

In fact, she almost hoped she would be able to come back one day and enjoy the show as Sophia instead of Sadie.