fools

✧

Sirens blared from the firetruck as the 118 headed over to Hacienda Park after receiving an alert from dispatch about a random motorcycle fire. The team ventured out of the first responder vehicles to gather their equipment before heading over to the fire.

That's when they spotted the burning motorcycle.

"So, what, not they've got self-driving motorcycles?" Chimney scoffed.

"Wouldn't that defeat the point?" Hen responded.

Bobby glazed his eyes over the playground, inspecting the scene for any bystanders or the owner of the motorcycle. "That rider couldn't have gone far. Buck, Eddie, Liv, hose that down and turn that bike off."

They wordlessly nodded and shuffled over to the motorcycle to put the fire out, Olivia was able to shut the engine off in the process.

"Think I saw Christopher watching a video like this online," Eddie said. "The bike wasn't on fire."

In the process of putting out the fire, they soon discovered a civilian on the merry-go-round. He barely looked conscious as the team approached him.

"Hey, can you hear me?" Bobby approached him.

When they approached him, his eyes were bulging red. "Oh! Oh." Buck appeared horrified by the man's appearance.

"Alright, get him off of there," Bobby ordered the trio. They lifted the man off of the playground structure and cautiously set him on the ground so he could be checked out by Chimney and Hen.

"His pupils are extremely dilated. Globe luxation in both eyes causing them to bulge out," Hen reported.

"Blood pressures off the charts."

"Starting a line."

"Uh, what — What happened to him?" Buck inquired, curious about the civilian's current state.

"Depending on how many times he was spinning around like that, it could be G-lock," Olivia enlightened.

"G-force poisoning from the force of the spin?" Eddie spared a glance at her.

"Right now, all his blood is pooling inside his head. It's pressing against his brain," Chimney explained. "That's why he's out cold. We don't get that swelling down, he could have a stroke."

"We've got to get him stable enough for transport," Hen said. "Running isotonic fluids."

"Wait, I-I feel like I know this guy." Buck suddenly spoke, inspecting the man's face a bit closer.

At his words, Olivia and Eddie tilted their heads to the right, almost in sync, and inspected the guy's face to get a good look at him. There was something about the man that looked awfully familiar.

"Alright, BP's stabilizing," Chimney announced.

Hen picked up a bottle of eye drops. "Administering numbing drops."

Chimney adjusted the position of his thumbs and pushed open the man's eyelids for Hen. "I'll hold back the curtains while you show these guests to their seats."

After administering the drops into his eyes, Hen pushed them back into the socket, causing everyone to cringe at the motion. Finally, he began to regain consciousness.

"Cap, we're good here."

"Alright, let's get him up and transported to the nearest neurosurgery trauma center."

"I can see. Thank you."

"Who did this to you?" Eddie questioned.

Before he could utter a name, Bobby glanced in a different direction and spotted the culprits. "Oh, I have an idea."

Buck was correct about the familiarity of the guy. In fact, it was the group of influencers they encountered on one of Eddie's first few shifts as part of the 118.

✶❤︎✶❤︎

There were many stares that no child or even grown adult wanted to be on the receiving end of when it came to Olivia Rivera. Oftentimes her face could just contort into a stare that made you want to run away and hide.

Most of the time, the recipient of the stare was her mother, sometimes a stranger on the road (she would never admit it but her rage road was out of this world), and the number one contender; her children.

This time around it was Elisa Calloway on the receiving end of this death stare. But she was in no position to run away or hide.

"...Elisa's a very good student it just seems like she's distracted," Ms. Day, the teenager's AP English teacher said. "AP English is a tough course and if she keeps up with the low test scores and lack of participation, I don't see her passing. I'm more than willing to let her turn in any late work. All she needs to do is try."

"Well, I can assure you that I will do everything in my power to make sure that this one is on top of all of her assignments," Olivia set a firm hand on top of her sister's shoulder, giving it a squeeze. "Thank you for being so understanding."

"Being a teenager isn't easy, I try to be as understanding as I can be. Especially when I know a student can do better."

The school bell rang, signaling that it was time for them to leave the class and head out to the next one. Olivia flashed the English teacher one more smile before practically dragging Elisa along with her.

But the radio silence from her older sister was the one thing that scared Elisa the most. It wasn't the death stare or even the crazy look in her eyes, it was the silence.

"Are you mad at me?"

"Yes and no."

"You were definitely giving me the death stare back there so I'm just gonna assume the real answer is yes."

"Look, I am pissed that you're falling behind in a few of your classes but I can't help but blame myself a little bit," Olivia admitted. "This all started around the end of last year and that's when I kicked you out. So, maybe this is just as much my fault as it is yours."

"Well, don't think like that, Liv. None of this is your fault, I just got distracted. That's all. I'm sure I'll be able to catch up."

"Elisa—"

"Nope. I can't hear you. Too busy walking to pre-calc!"

✶❤︎✶❤︎

Olivia shuffled over to the door, swinging it open with a grin. She instantly wrapped her arms around the male firefighter and brought him in for a kiss.

"Hi!"

"Hi, Liv," Eddie pulled away with a soft chuckle. "I don't think I've ever seen you this excited."

"I know but I missed you."

"I saw you yesterday."

Olivia scoffed. "At work. That's completely different, I have to act like your friend, not your girlfriend."

"And even then you barely act like my friend."

"I can't act too nice to you, I don't want people getting suspicious," Liv retorted as she plopped down on the couch. "Why are you late?"

Eddie sighed, thinking back to his day. He just left the house after the ordeal with Christopher at his school. Now he was stuck deciding what to do.

"Long day."

"Okay...elaborate."

"Christopher fell today at school, he was riding a skateboard that some kid brought in and hurt himself. I was pissed and took it out on his teacher and now Christopher is mad at me. He called me a liar because I told him he's just like all of the other kids."

"All kids call their parents liars," Olivia laughed. "It's normal."

"So, you're telling me that Kai has called you a liar before?"

"Well, no. But if he did, I'm sure he would have his reasons. Chris is a sweet boy, I'm sure he didn't actually mean it."

Eddie shook his head. "It was different. He meant it. Now Carla wants me to tell him that he's not like everyone else but..." He glanced over, noticing the sudden shift in Olivia's energy. "W-What? Do you agree with her?"

"I didn't say anything." She innocently surrendered her hands. "But since you asked, yes. I agree with Carla. Christopher has limitations and there's nothing wrong with that but he needs to know that too."

Eddie's posture tensed and his jaw clenched, shaking his head as he slowly sat up against the back of the couch. He swiftly turned to face his girlfriend, raising his eyebrow in her direction. "I-I can't believe you're agreeing with her."

Olivia appeared unamused, all she wanted was to have a peaceful afternoon at home with her boyfriend but here he was trying to purposely pick a fight with her especially when he was the one who asked her the question.

"I get you're upset and I completely understand—"

Eddie wrinkled his nose and scoffed. "Clearly, you don't. God, I don't know why we're even discussing this, it's none of your business."

"You're right, it's not. Your issues are none of my business." Olivia squeezed her eyes shut, shaking her head. "You should leave."

"Yeah, I think I should."

✶❤︎✶❤︎

"Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your—"

"Watch out!"

"Oh!" Olivia cringed, using her boot to lift the towel off of the fecal matter that fell out of the window. "Jesus Christ."

The 118 reported to a date gone wrong. Apparently, a woman was using the bathroom at her date's apartment and the toilet wouldn't flush so rather than fessing up, she decided to quite literally toss the fecal matter out of the window.

However, her plan failed when it got stuck on the ledge and when she tried to push it off, she ended up getting stuck in the window.

"And I thought the new baby went everywhere," Hen commented.

"I've been on some bad dates in my life but this — This takes the cake," Olivia chimed in, trying her best to hold her breath to prevent inhaling the scent. "I can't imagine how she's feeling."

Sometime after the flying poop and the mini conversation between the paramedics, Bobby called one of them up to check the woman's vitals. Olivia ended up being the one to climb up the ladder and check the vitals.

She honestly didn't want to be up there, especially since Eddie was there and they weren't necessarily on speaking terms. But thankfully, they didn't interact too much.

"How are her vitals, Liv?" Bobby asked.

"Vitals are good," Liv reported. "Just breathing a little heavy. No fractures. Are you in any pain?"

"No, but has anyone ever died of actual shame? I'm sorry, Gary! This is not how I wanted our first date to go."

"It can only get better from here, right?" Gary, her date, spoke back. "I've always wanted a bay window."

"He's probably never gonna want to speak to me again," she panicked. "And you have no idea how hard it is to meet someone these days."

"Oh, believe me, as a fellow solo, I know," Buck chirped.

"If it helps, your date seems very sweet," Olivia tried to cheer the woman up with an awkward smile. "I'm sure he would be more than willing to give you a second chance."

"She's right!" Gary shouted, easing the woman's nerves. "I'd love to go on another date!"

Olivia quirked her eyebrow at that woman, smiling softly before descending the ladder. After that, removing Tessa from the window was easy since her vitals were good and her nerves were now lessened.

✶❤︎✶❤︎

"...And then after soccer practice, Daddy took me to get ice cream with Grandma. How was your week, Mama?"

Olivia smiled softly at her son as they laid side by side in his twin-sized bed. She had just picked him up from his father's house not too long ago and as she put him to bed, he decided to divulge everything that happened during their week apart.

He recently started up soccer and couldn't stop talking about how much fun he was having while playing the sport which his parents couldn't have been happier about.

"My week was pretty boring without you," she tapped his nose with a grin. "I missed you so much, my little munchkin." Olivia engulfed her son in a tight hug, kissing the top of his head.

He squirmed in her arms and shook his head. "Mom! Stop!"

"Okay, okay. I'll stop." Olivia loosened up her grip. "Do you want me to read you another story or are you tired yet?"

"I think I'm tired my week's been hectic," the seven-year-old put an emphasis on the last word, yawning.

"You and the word hectic," she shook her head, giggling. Rolling off of the tiny bed, she made sure to tuck the blankets around his body in her absence and then pressed a kiss to his temple. "Sweet dreams, I love you."

"I love you too, mama."

Olivia flipped the light switch off and exited his room, making sure the door was slightly ajar before walking down the hallway. She made it to the dining room area and saw Elisa and her boyfriend, Justin (those two were still going strong), at the dining table studying.

"How's the studying going?"

"Great, thanks for letting us study here, Liv," Justin flashed a smile at the woman. "My parents are having a date night which means we're not allowed at my house. Alone."

"Yeah, no problem." Olivia narrowed her eyes at her younger sister, tapping the space in front of her. "Everything okay?"

"Are you and Eddie still not talking?" Elisa suddenly blurted.

The eldest sibling had enlightened her sister about the situation over text message which caused Elisa to raise some concern.

"Pretty much, yeah. Why?"

"It's just you seem or — seemed really happy with him," Elisa unloaded her sudden worries upon her sister. "I don't want you messing up a good thing. Both of you, actually. You're probably the most stubborn people in this world. I mean, I think we all saw how compatible you two are but it still took you guys like a million—"

"Elisa," Justin cut off her rambling. "I think she gets it."

She rolled her eyes. "Look, I haven't done anything! If you want to give anyone advice, talk to Eddie. Not me."

"Olivia—"

Olivia sighed and got up from the chair, shaking her head. "Nope. End of discussion. I'm going to bed." She darted her eyes over to the boy beside her younger sister. "And you, go home. It's getting late."

"Yes, ma'am."

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author's note

-They've only been together for like a chapter and a half and they're already having a little lover's spat😅🙄

-Don't worry it won't last too long, I just decided to throw in some unnecessary drama🤷🏽‍♀️