I am in a good mood today. Why? Tyler finally confronted Dad about his cancer diagnosis and it turns out it went better than expected. In fact, the only thing that would ruin my mood today is if we lose any of our patients. Even the traffic was on my side today. I find myself grinning as I get my uniform on. My mood is almost euphoric. I say almost as I know that there is always something that can go wrong. As soon as I am ready I head to the ambulance.

"Someone's a ball of sunshine," Tim teases as I join him.

"At least I am in a good mood. Let's get the inventory done as soon as possible," I retorted, diverting his attention away from my unusually good mood. As we get the inventory done we are joined by Michelle.

"You seem like you are in a good mood Piper," Even Michelle notices my good mood. It really must be obvious.

"Yeah. After the tornados everything just fell into place," I responded vaguely. The reason why I am being vague is because of the fact that I'm not sure if Michelle is aware of Dad's cancer. After seven hours of quiet the signal bell goes. With that, we spring into action. Now we shall see if my good mood is ruined. After seven minutes of driving, we made it to one of the local strip clubs. It is an utter mess. I roll my eyes as I see no use for venues like this one. Still, I am here to help not judge. Before Michelle has a chance to give her orders I head to what I assume to be the worst of the victims.

"What have we got Dad?" I ask as I get to work.

"Well it is a penetrating injury to the face caused by a tiara," Dad explains the mechanism of injury to me.

"I mean what caused the injury?" I retort as I begin to carefully wrap the tiara and as much of the injury as I can.

"A fight broke out," One of the largely unharmed party members fills me in on what happened. So much for not judging. I find myself thinking about the pettiness of what could have happened to start this fight. After triple-checking the tiara I turn my attention to Michelle who is helping with some minor cuts and bruises.

"Hey Cap I'm sorry for going solo but I found the worst of the worst. I've secured the tiara to her face," I say, bringing Michelle's attention to the tiara victim. She looks just as annoyed as I do. After double-checking my handy work Michelle gives me the all-clear to get the gurney to transport the woman. After a long thirty minutes, we are finally back at the fire station. I am currently trying to hide the fact that I am trying to hold back the mild disgust. I've never understood the desire to go to a strip club. Let alone start a fight.

"You seem annoyed," Tim observes.

"I just don't get the idea of strip clubs and don't bother explaining it," I responded. There is not much that I can do. People are weird. Tim's face scrunches in confusion. I choose to ignore it as we have a job to do.

It has been a couple of days since then and it is just another routine day. The thing is I don't think the peace is going to last. As if on cue the signal bell goes. Luckily for me, it is a medical call. After a few minutes of driving, we made it to the scene. What greets us can only be described as chaos. As soon as our boots hit the ground we are greeted by a pissed-looking Carlos.

"What are we walking into here? Dispatch said something about a riot," Michelle asks to get a better understanding of the situation.

"It's a protest," Carlos confirms as we start our walk towards the paitent.

"It's a woman's shelter. What are they protesting?" Michelle is confused.

"Women. They're incels. Involuntary celibates," Carlos replies. I can hear the poison in his voice. I glance at Tim. This is going to be a rough one.

"That's a thing?" Michelle's confusion only grows.

"Yep. In New York, we'd call them losers," I confirm as we make it to the scene.

"Prince Charming here took a bottle to the head. He was out for a minute or two but he has woken up in rare form," Carlos' partner explains the full situation. Luckily for us, he is in the post-ictal phase. That means he hasn't got the energy to refuse our care.

"Check his ABCs and get his vitals," Michelle orders. Tim and I quickly get to work. A part of me wants to get the job done as quickly as possible. I can feel the crowd of men glaring at us. The man quickly gets to work on putting us down.

"Lady co-worker. Lady boss. You stink like estrogen, bro," The man goes on the attack. He is honestly lucky that we are here to treat him otherwise I would have slapped him by now.

"You smell like garlic so I guess we are even," Tim counters. He soon turns his attention to Michelle.

"His pupil response is good," He gives Michelle his report.

"He's tachycardic and I'm detecting Cheyne-Stokes respiration," I follow suit with my report. It really isn't looking too good for the man.

"Let's get him on the board and load him up," Michelle gives us the order to prepare for transport. With that, Tim tries to help the man up but something weird happens. As soon as Tim touches the man he cries out in pain.

"He did the same thing I barely touched him earlier," I catch Carlos speaking softly to Michelle. Her face seems to say it all. There is something else going on than a simple seizure.

"Sir, do you have any medical conditions we should know about?" Michelle turns her attention to the man.

"I have CPPD," the man snarls. Now it makes sense.

"You heard him. Be gentle," Michelle remarks. We will try our best. With a few careful movements, we get him on the backboard. With that, we leave. I am glad that people like that group get on my nerves. As we get under way the smell that Tim mentions is only getting worse.

"Did this guy eat a clove of garlic or something? We could do with administering a breath mint," I half joke. In all honesty, I think there is another underlying condition.

"I heard that. What's your name? I'm gonna report you," He threatens as his speech slurs. With that, an alarm sounds from the lifepack. I glance at it to find out the reason why.

"BP's dropping," I say before removing the man's mask. I listen for breath sounds.

"I'm not detecting any respirations, Ethier," I confirm.

"Start CPR. I'll ready the paddles," Michelle orders. As I start CPR I feel myself grow weaker for some reason. Michelle tries with the paddles and unfortunately, it doesn't work.

"Man what I stink," Tim remarks. As time goes on I start to weaken even more.

"Piper?" I hear Michelle call my name but there is nothing that I can do. I steady myself but there is not much use. I slump over the man's body as I succumb to whatever is causing the issue. The next thing I know is the fact that I am in the back of another ambulance with a stabbing pain in my side. A pained groan falls from my mouth as I get comfortable. After a few seconds, I notice that Tim is in the ambulance with me.

"Tim, what are you doing here?" I ask as I pull the oxygen mask from my face.

"I told Captain Strand I'd look after you on the way to the hospital. He was freaking out. I also need to get checked out anyway," Tim replies. I would giggle but I know that would aggravate the injury to my side. After a few minutes in silence, we made it to the hospital. After what feels like an eternity all of the tests are done. It turns out I landed with enough force to bruise a couple of my ribs. I guess I must have hit the wrong piece of equipment when the ambulance went over. I am soon joined by a familiar face.

"Hey, Carlos. What are you doing here?" I ask as I find it a little odd that he is here.

"TK asked if I could check on you and I was here anyway," Carlos replies.

"Well, you can tell TK that I survived with a couple of bruised ribs. They plan to release me tomorrow," I fill him in. He nods. After some awkward back and forth Carlos leaves.

It has been a few days since then and I have been given the go-ahead to start working. Of course, I have been told to avoid heavy lifting which shouldn't be a problem. Right now I am doing the inventory while I wait for the others.

"Look who's back," Tim remarks as he and Michelle join me in the back of the ambulance.

"Well, I couldn't stay at home for too long. I would've gone crazy," I retorted, getting a giggle from Tim and a slight smile from Michelle. I guess they both know how I feel. As the day goes by I realise that I may have pushed myself. The EMS god seems to hate me. The reason why I think that is because today has been busy. Right now I am winding down but it is proving to be a little difficult as the pain in my squid is playing up again.

"Take these," Michelle says as she offers me a couple of pills.

"Don't worry, they are just some Tylenol. I noticed you were looking a little under the weather," Michelle adds before I have the chance to ask.

"Thank you," I replied before swallowing the pills. After a few minutes of back and forth, the signal bell goes. Luckily for me, it was a fire call. Hopefully, we won't be needed. Knowing Austin the chances of that are low. After a few minutes, it is our turn. We spring into action. After a few minutes, we made it to the scene. It is utter chaos. Dad's crew are battling the blaze while metal canisters rain down on them. Of course, Austin just had to get weirder. I shrug the thought off as we have work to do. I skillfully bring the ambulance to a stop behind the trucks. After a few seconds, my dad and Judd come out with the victim hanging between them. After some back and forth between Judd and Dad, it is our turn. I get to work on checking his vitals.

"Everything is stable," I confirm.

"Breath sounds normal," Tim adds. With that Michelle turns her attention to Carlos.

"He's all yours," Michelle remarks as Carlos joins us. Once the man is arrested we turn our attention to anyone who could be hurt. Luckily for us, it was apparently the end of the shift so there weren't many people in the building. After a few minutes, Dad dismisses us as there is not much that we need to do. Thankfully it doesn't take long for us to get back.

"I think the calls are only going to get weirder," I remark.

"What do you mean?" Tim asks as we leave the ambulance.

"Ever since coming to Austin calls have been different. It makes me miss the simplicity of rescues in New York," I reply. The thing is I have no desire to go back. The only reason why I would even consider going back is if anything happened to Mum. I am starting to think moving to Austin was one of the best things that ever happened to Tyler and I. A slight smile falls from my face as I restart the process of getting ready for bed.