7.1

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Reaching the top of the stairs, the delightful scent of omelets wafted under Olivia's nostrils as she made her way over to the kitchen area of the upper level. As soon as she planted firmly down on one of the stools an omelet was placed underneath her face and she was shooting Bobby a small smile before digging in.

"You ever feel like you missed your calling, Cap?" Chimney wondered as he stared down at his own plate of food.

"What are you thinking?" Bobby questioned. "Michelin-rated restaurant or short order cook?"

"I was thinking TV chef. I mean, what you do, it's like performance art."

Humming in agreement, Hen added on, "Mhm, and much like watching cooking on TV, we never get to taste anything. Usually, by the time it hits the table, the bell goes off."

"Alright, speed round. If you weren't doing this, what would you be doing?" Bobby asked.

"Fighter pilot. Topgun. Callsign: shogun," Chimney answered without hesitation which caused Hen and Olivia to laugh.

"What about you, Hen?"

"Editorial cartoonist, The New Yorker." Hen collected her plate from behind the counter before walking around and sitting in between the two. "I have a lot to say."

"You draw?" Bobby wondered.

"No, it's a dream. It's not supposed to be attainable," Hen said and then chose to jab her knife in Chimney's direction. "Topgun? You can barely drive, you rebar head."

"Okay, little Liv, your turn," Chimney directed the question at the firefighter who was just trying to enjoy her omelet.

"Dunno," Liv shrugged.

"You don't know?" Hen inquired.

Removing the coffee cup from her lips, she shrugged as she looked at the trio in front of her. "I went to community college for a year, got pregnant and had my son, then went straight to the academy. But I'm glad the rest of you have big dreams!"

Grimaces filled their faces at her words but all she did was go back to eating her omelet. Soon enough, loud footsteps were climbing up the staircase and joining everyone in the kitchen.

"Alright, Buckaroo," Chimney broke the silence. "If you were not a member of the LAFD, what would you be doing?"

An uneasy expression graced his face at the question. "Uh, I don't know. I'm not getting fired, am I?"

"That's inevitable," Chimney muttered.

"He'd be a golden retriever," Hen joked.

"Stripper," Liv chirped. "No, no, wait, a bartender."

"No, no, no, a bouncer at a bar," Chimney shook his head.

"Bouncer at a strip club," Hen chimed in, earning a high five from the two.

"What's going on with you, kid?" Bobby questioned Buck as he stood beside Olivia.

"Just traffic sucks in this town unless you're driving ten tons of engine with sirens," Buck complained. "It took me almost two hours to get from Abby's place to the call center downtown, then back over here. Just told Maddie she needs to start Ubering."

"How's your sister settling in down there?" Bobby asked.

"Well, she's a Buckley." He reached for one of the apples in the fruit bowl and tossed it in the air with a smug grin on his face. "Practically running the place." At his comment, Chimney and Hen halted, shared a look, and then picked their plates up to sit at the table.

"I need to meet her," Olivia wagged her finger at the boy. "ASAP."

"I'll bring her over to game night," Buck insisted.

Once Liv had introduced Buck to the two kids living under her roof, it had become a weekly occurrence, sometimes more than weekly, for him to come over as they rallied around the living room with an unhealthy amount of sweets and played a number of board games.

"Game night with my son and younger sister?" Liv hummed. "I was thinking more of an adult setting."

"Hey, I like game night. But, I'll see what we can do."

Minutes later, everyone had scattered around the firehouse to sort out the equipment or work on the firetrucks. Everything felt normal up until the ground rumbled, glass was shattering, and everyone was tumbling over their feet at the feeling of the unstable ground.

Buck was tugging on her hand as Bobby helped the two out of the glass-paneled locker room that was shattering around them, tanks were clanking against the floor and imploding, Hen was pulling Eddie to safety as he slid on the creeper, and Chimney was helping everyone around him.

"Anyone else back there?" Bobby yelled.

"No," Buck called out. He darted his eyes over to Liv and tapped her shoulder. "You good, Liv?"

"I hate natural disasters."

✶❤︎✶❤︎

Sirens blared through the streets of Los Angeles, everyone in the truck had been surveying their surroundings and viewing the after-effects of the earthquake. Some power lines were down, buildings were on the verge of collapsing, and houses as well, trees were on the edge of falling, and streetlamps were on the roads.

Noticing the sudden worry lines settling into his best friend's face, Buck reached over to squeeze her hand. "He's okay, Liv."

Looking up from the device in her hand, Olivia sighed and shook her head. "There's no service, Buck. How am I supposed to know if he's okay?"

"Because he's got a first responder for a mom," Buck tried to lighten the mood. "I'm sure you've taught him all there is to know about earthquake safety."

"Of course, I have but it doesn't make me worry any less," she sighed. "You know how I am? I am a worrier and if something happened to him I'd lose my mind."

"Christopher." Eddie suddenly spoke, startling the two as he took his eyes off of his device.

"Huh?" The two uttered in confusion.

"Christopher. He's my son," Eddie admitted. "I didn't mean to eavesdrop but...I did. I assumed you and Buck were talking about your son. Sorry if I overstepped."

Olivia sifted through her pocket and reached for her phone, showcasing her lock screen. "Malakai. But he prefers Kai. He's 6."

Mirroring her actions, Eddie flashed his device at her, a brilliant grin gracing his lips. "Christopher's 7."

"You guys should, uh, set up a playdate or something," Buck suggested as he leaned forward to take a peek at Eddie's phone. "Cute kid." Leaning back in his seat, Buck nodded assertively. "I'm sure your kids are fine. All three of them."

"Three?" Eddie furrowed in confusion.

"My little sister lives with me," Olivia timidly spoke. "Her situation wasn't the best so...I took her in. So, technically, I have two kids under my care."

"That's admirable," Eddie complimented. "Being responsible for a teenager and a kid cannot be easy."

"Oh, it's not! But, I love them to death."

Buck and Eddie had continued with the topic of children and touched loosely on how Christopher's mother was not in the picture but Liv chose to stay out of it as she reverted her attention back out the window and tried her best to remain level-headed.

As the firetruck came to a halt, everyone observed the scene before their eyes. The hotel building was slanted and seemed to be just an aftershock away from collapsing, everyone quickly filed out of the truck to further examine the scene. Tents were set up for injured civilians and a line of ambulances were lined outside.

"You guys ever dealt with anything like this?" Eddie asked.

Bobby shook his head, keeping his eyes on the building. "No."

Once the incident commander, Chief Williams, gave them a rundown on the situation, Bobby turned to the team. "Okay, listen up. Here's how you make it to the end of the day. You don't worry about things that you can't do anything about. Focus on one task at a time. I can't order you guys to go inside that building, and I'm not gonna judge you if you decided not to."

"Hen you got a kid, so..." Chimney spoke.

"Yeah, and I'd hope if someone whose job it was to save him had the chance, they'd do it. No matter what."

"Where do you want us?" Eddie asked.

"Hey." An officer approached. "You guys will want to see this." He guided them over to the side of the hotel where an older man looked to be pinned against the glass window, on the side of the building that was bound to break.

"We could set up a bag street-side in case that window gives," Chimney suggested.

"Nobody works under that side of the building. Somebody's gonna have to get him from the inside," Bobby opposed.

Eddie seemed to be examining the building and counting the levels in his head. "I wanna say the 11th floor? What do you think?"

"I bet we could take the ladder to that fourth floor," Buck agreed.

"Cut the distance in half?"

"Head on up," Bobby nodded.

While Buck and Eddie suited up to scale the ladder to the eleventh floor, Bobby, Chimney, Hen, and Olivia went headfirst into the hotel to look for any survivors. But the sight before their eyes was something that made all their hearts drop. Dead bodies left and right, debris all around them, and half the structure collapsing.

"L.A. Fire and Rescue!" Bobby called out.

"Anyone down here!" Chimney yelled.

"Right here!" They heard a voice shout.

"Alright, we got a voice over there, guys. Let's go," Bobby demanded as the trio followed behind him. He passed by a firefighter and a hotel worker, asking if they were okay and they were so they continued making their way over to the voice.

The floor had completely given out, causing them to have to make their way across the steel beam that dropped down. From the looks of it, a young teenager seemed to be injured from the impact of the earthquake. His tibia and fibula were both injured, his neck was stabilized, but getting him out was the hard part.

They had two options. One, bring in a surgeon and have them perform the surgery to get him out of there but doing that would mean cutting his leg off but since he was an athlete the thought of not having his leg just wasn't an option. So they went with the second option and brought in the air bag to get him out of the building.

In the midst of guiding him out of the building, Hen discovered the shoe that she assumed belonged to the missing little girl whose parents were frantically running around the moment they stepped onto the scene. The minute they got confirmation that shoe did in fact belong to Kat, the missing girl, they all went into fight or flight mode to look for her.

Then an aftershock hit, and the last thing Olivia remembered hearing were the frantic calls from her team.

a/n: promise I'll give y'all some eddie and liv interactions next chapter🫣