pinned

✧

"Thank God, you're here! She's this way." An employee at the bowling alley, weaved his toward the group of firefighters, frantically. "Okay, her name's Arlene Branson. She's the owner. She was working on lane five when the pin setter came down on her. I wasn't sure what to do, so I shut off the power to stop it from cycling again, but I didn't think I should move it until you guys got here."

He guided them to the back where the pins and all of the technical machines were located. That's when they saw the owner with her hand stuck in the pinsetter, groaning in pain.

"Help!"

"Arlene?"

"Garrett?"

Garrett, the younger employee scurried over to his boss's side and gestured to the 118. "It's okay, Arlene. I'm here. These people are gonna help you, okay?"

Chimney was the first to speak as he glanced at the woman's arm and its current state. "Alright, I got a compound fracture, more outside than in. Pulse is very weak."

Hen searched through her medical bag to check the woman's blood pressure. "She's lost a lot of blood. Let's get fluids going."

"Alright, do you know how to move this thing?" Bobby glanced at Garrett. "How to release it?"

"I mean, not really. I've only watched Arlene do it." Arlene managed to muffle out something that sounded vaguely like "manual" earning a lightbulb to go off the younger employee's head. "Right! Manual release...which is here somewhere."

"We could take it apart piece by piece," Buck suggested.

"Yeah, we probably don't want to do that if she wants to keep her arm," Olivia mumbled.

Grabbing a metal handle from the wall, Garrett passed it over to Bobby. "Here. Put this in the back, then turn it."

"Blood pressure's dropping," Hen stated.

"Pushing fluids through," Chimney announced.

"I'll get the tourniquet, tie the arm, and get her out," Eddie speedily answered.

"No, no," Olivia reached for his bicep and shook her head. "I don't think that'll work. Right now, this cross brace is the only thing that's holding her arm in place. The minute you move it, she'll bleed more."

Chimney agreed, nodding his head. "And given how broken her bones are, it'll be like tying off a wet bag of rocks."

"What if we embrace the cross brace?" Buck spoke up, immediately beginning to explain his idea to the team. "We cut her from the pinsetter here, then we weld these points here, here, and here, you've got a—"

"Damn good splint," Bobby approved. "Alright, we're gonna need a stick welder."

The team immediately began to work quickly to start the process of cutting the pinsetter. There was a turnout coat covering Arlene's face while they used the welding tool to burn through the pieces of metal.

"Three, two, one." Successfully, the team was able to carefully lift Arlene and the splint.

"Living tissue under a metal endoskeleton," Buck mimicked the Terminator as they followed after the gurney.

"You know, technically, it would be an exoskeleton, right?" Eddie corrected him.

"Can't just let me enjoy the win," Buck quipped.

"Good job," Olivia patted her best friend on the back. "Probably the most work your brain will do today."

Buck furrowed his eyebrows. "Thank you?"

✶❤︎✶❤︎

Picking up the potted plant, Olivia retrieved the key and then stood up to her normal in order to unlock the door. She ushered the teenager into the home and then flashed a smile at the older woman on the couch.

"Olivia, you're early!" Martha got up from her seat to embrace the woman and the teenager in hugs. "I thought you said you would be by later."

"Yeah, I thought I would have plans after picking this one up from school but apparently not." Oliva let out a soft sigh, she and Eddie were still not on speaking terms even after the few days that had passed. "I'm gonna unload these groceries." She gestured to the tote bags hanging of her shoulders.

Once Olivia left, Martha snapped her neck in the direction of the teenager and raised her eyebrow. "Why is she moody?"

"Oh, she and Eddie are arguing. Well — more like they had an argument and now aren't speaking," Elisa enlightened the older woman. "You know, they're so stubborn and won't talk to each other. Except for at work, obviously."

Eavesdropping from the kitchen, Olivia shouted, "Stop telling my business!"

Martha and Elisa shared a look before bursting out into a fit of giggles. The sixteen-year-old decided to pull out her laptop and begin studying for one of her classes before her sister sauntered out of the kitchen with a glare.

"What's this I hear about you and Eddie arguing?"

She merely waved the woman off and shrugged. "Oh, it's nothing."

"Olivia..."

"Stubborn," Elisa mockingly sang as she typed away on her laptop. Feeling another glare thrown her way, she shut her computer and smiled. "Why don't I let you two ladies chat? I'll go take the dog on a walk."

Once Elisa left the house, Martha stared at Olivia with her eyebrow raised, almost mimicking a concerned mother. A look that the younger woman had never been a recipient of.

"Why are you looking at me like that?"

"Look, I won't lecture you, not now at least," Martha quipped. "But you two need to talk. Sooner rather than later."

"We talk all of the time. We're coworkers!"

"You continue to prove Elisa right. You are so stubborn."

✶❤︎✶❤︎

Olivia closed the door to her car and grabbed her work bag, scrunching her face up at the sight of the firehouse. Another day, another twenty-four shift, the woman thought to herself.

She took a couple of strides before spotting a figure walking alongside her out of the corner of her eye and based on the cologne, she knew right away who it was.

"Hey."

"Hey." Eddie cleared his throat, adjusting the duffle bag in his hand. "So...how was your day yesterday?"

"It was fine. How was yours?"

"It was...fine."

Olivia awkwardly shifted her eyes to the right before staring straight ahead and nodding. "Okay. Great."

"Liv..."

"We don't have much time before work starts."

Eddie nodded and the two began walking in silence as they headed for the locker room to swap their clothes for their uniforms. They briefly acknowledged Hen and Chimney before the latter descended into a full-on rant about his love life.

"But am I happy?" Chimney pondered. "Albert is annoying, but maybe he's right. Things with me and Maddie are great but we're not exactly lighting the world on fire."

"Does it matter what he thinks?" Eddie asked. "Only you know how you feel about Maddie."

"I really care about her."

In sync, Hen and Olivia let out disgruntled noises at his response which caused the two men in the room to furrow in confusion.

"The dreaded C-word," Hen huffed as she bent down to lace up her boots. "I really care about good arch support. That's not how you should feel about your significant other."

"What she said," Liv jabbed her thumb at the woman.

"Obviously, I care about her more than good footwear."

"Okay, how much more?"

"A lot."

Olivia wiggled her eyebrows and teasingly puckered her lips at him. "Do you love her?"

Chimney confirmed her question, smiling. "Yeah."

"Does she love you?" Eddie asked.

"It's unclear. I mean, I feel like she does but neither of us have actually said those exact words out loud."

"You've been together for like, a year," Hen pointed out.

"Technically, we've been dating for ten months and three weeks."

"So, you've been together for like, a year!"

"With everything she's been through, you know, that we've been through, we just wanted to take it slow."

"Glaciers move faster, Chim," Hen retorted.

"And they're also melting so maybe fiery is overrated."

Popping his head into the locker room, Buck announced to the team, "Hey, guys? Reynolds wants to do a lineup."

Olivia audibly groaned as she followed Hen out of the locker room. "Man, I can't believe Cap left us with this guy."

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author's note

-an odd ending but this chapter was more of a filler!

-the next chapter is the Eddie begins episode😼😼😼🤝🏽🤝🏽🤝🏽🤝🏽