the new abnormal

✧

"Liv, have you seen my laptop?!"

"Mama, where's my backpack?!"

Olivia grunted and rolled over to shove her head under her pillow. Ever since the news of the worldwide pandemic had broken a few months back, Olivia's house seemed a lot more chaotic than usual.

For instance, Elisa's classes were now online meaning her senior year was going to be spent at home or more so her bedroom. Kai was also doing remote learning but he spent his days with his father at his apartment since he was working from home due to his office shutting down.

The first few months of the pandemic were a little difficult, Chimney, Eddie, and Olivia decided to quarantine in Buck's loft apartment which was a little awkward, especially for the couple but they dealt with it. Then a few months passed by and Olivia and Eddie finally felt comfortable going back to their respective homes but they made sure to abide by the protocols by wearing a mask, washing their hands, and discarding their outside clothes before entering their homes.

Chimney, however, was still staying at Buck's apartment trying to do his best to keep Maddie safe since she was currently pregnant, something everyone was incredibly happy about.

Hen and Karen also ensured to discard any clothes that were outside or in the field before entering their home. Athena hadn't yet returned to work but with May and Harry in the house, Bobby was trying to be as safe as possible.

All in all, things were pretty much the same besides the fact that Olivia and Eddie finally decided to tell their children about their relationship. To be frank, their reactions were a bit lackluster considering they already had an inkling that their parents "liked" each other.

But truth be told, the two firefighters weren't sure how long they could keep hiding their relationship for any longer. Sneaking around with each other was fun at first but then it became more difficult and having to bear the guilt of lying each time they were together was harder.

"Olivia! My laptop?!"

"Mom! My—"

"Just give me a minute!" Olivia grumbled. "My God!"

Olivia quickly rolled out of bed and headed over to her bathroom to get ready for the day. By the time she was ready, Elisa found her laptop and Kai managed to find his backpack which was all hiding in plain sight.

She made her son a quick breakfast before ushering him into the car to head over to Tyler's apartment. The drive, luckily wasn't too long which was something they accounted for when they broke up many years ago.

They usually had a system, Olivia would drive to the apartment each morning and Tyler would be in front of the building so she didn't have to physically enter his home or the building but not this time. Apparently, he had some important meeting that he couldn't get out of so Olivia needed to walk inside.

She unlocked the door and ushered her son inside. She saw Tyler seated at his dining table with his headphones over his ears as he engaged in his meeting. He briefly looked away to send his ex-girlfriend a wave and then turned his head back to the laptop.

"I need to go to work. Try and learn something today." Olivia bent down to kiss her son's forehead. "I love you."

"I love you too."

✶❤︎✶❤︎

"Oh, hey, Hollywood Reservoir is like two and a half billion gallons. Where's all that water gonna go?" Buck glanced away from his phone, ending the silence in the elevator and shifting the attention away from the music encompassing the small space.

"My mom survived the dam break in the 60s, Baldwin Hills," Hen enlightened. "Water only wants to go one direction, back out to sea."

The elevator dinged and the doors slid open, signaling that they were ready to respond to whatever was going on. But when the doors opened, it revealed something no one was expecting.

There was a bus puncturing one of the conference room windows.

"This is definitely our stop," Chimney quipped as he, Bobby, Olivia, and Hen stepped out onto the floor.

Buck and Eddie headed up to the roof in order to secure the bus and prevent it from falling out of the window and into traffic. While Hen, Bobby, Chimney, and Olivia were running around and tending to the civilians who were hurt in the accident.

Things were going fine, Eddie and Buck worked diligently on the roof as they secured the bus while the rest of the team on the lower level tended to all of the civilians. But then they hit a bump in the road when they discovered there was someone trapped underneath the bus.

Chimney checked his pulse and the civilian was still alive. So, their next step was figuring out a plan to pull the civilian from the bus despite it being secured.

Since the bus was already secured, Bobby decided the best plan would be to clear everyone out of the bus first and then they would pull the man out.

"Okay, CJ," Olivia entered the bus to grab the last passenger. She had introduced herself to him earlier when he helped another passenger on the bus by tying a tourniquet to his leg. "It's time to go."

"I can't. It's Pink Apron Day."

Chimney's voice crackled over the radio. "Liv, we need to tilt the bus now!"

Bobby peered through the window, giving Olivia a stare and motioning to her that it was time to wrap things up.

"I just need a little more time, Cap." Olivia flashed him a hopeful smile and in return, Bobby nodded and clicked on his radio to report to Eddie that he should be ready to tilt the bus on his go.

"It's Pink Apron Day," CJ muttered.

"Hey, hey, Olivia," Buck poked his head through the window. "You know we're supposed to do this when it's empty, right?"

"I've got this handled, Buck."

"It's Pink Apron Day."

"Can you come a little closer, CJ?" Olivia held her hand out. He defiantly shook his head and Olivia chose to lower her mask in an effort to relax him. "I know how you feel. These people that you love, Tracy and Vanessa, they're hurting, but they're being helped. And when someone you love is hurting, it's scary. There's nothing wrong with being scared, I'm scared too, you're not alone. All I need is a little help, okay?"

She reached out her hand once more and with one final glance into her eyes, CJ reciprocated the gesture. Bobby spoke into the radio and gave Eddie his go-ahead that it was okay to tilt the bus.

When the bus was tilted, Chimney, Buck, and Hen were able to retrieve the civilian from underneath the bus.

"That wasn't so scary," Olivia breathed out and flashed the boy in front of her a friendly smile. "We did it, CJ

CJ nodded his head and stared ahead at Olivia. "I'm working on my eye contact."

"Well, I think you're doing a great job."

Once the sentiment left her lips, a crack broke out in the ceiling above them, and there was a certain stench in the air.

"I don't like that smell," CJ commented.

"I don't like it either," Olivia denied as she extended her hand out once more. "I think it's time we get off the bus."

"Liv! Liv!"

Then an explosion erupted right where Olivia and CJ were standing.

Buck didn't waste any time running into the bus as soon as the flames died down. He weaved his way through the bus and all of the fallen debris to reach where he assumed Olivia might be.

Thankfully, she thought quickly before the explosion and ripped off her turnout coat to protect them from the flames. Olivia pulled herself away from CJ to see if he had any injuries and he didn't, or at least none of which were new.

"Are you okay, CJ?"

"I'd like to get off the bus, now."

"Yeah, me too," Olivia chuckled and turned to glance at Buck who visibly sighed out in relief.

Buck walked over and helped the two out before they carefully stepped out of the bus and reached safety. CJ went to get checked out while Olivia decided the most important thing to do was shake all of the dust off her turncoat.

Pretending to wipe a bead of sweat off her forehead, Olivia glanced at her Fire Captain. "There's nothing like a near-death experience to wake you up. What's next?"

Bobby furrowed his eyebrows at her mere nonchalance. "Olivia, that sounds concerning. Do we need to talk?"

"It was just a joke!"

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author's note

-okay, we're officially in season four!!

-I think I pretty much planned out the direction of where I want to go with this story and might even go into season 6 depending on whether I go through with certain storylines or not

-with that being said, I've been going back and forth on whether I should split the book up and do seasons two and four for one book and then make another book for the remainder?? if I do then I might have to change the title of the book and that's a whole other problem in itself😅 (clearly i overthink because this is literally only the first chapter of season four)

-anyway hope you all enjoyed the chapter!!