"𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐡𝐞𝐚𝐝 𝐢𝐬 𝐛𝐥𝐞𝐞𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠."
-ˋˏ ༻✧𓆩♡𓆪✧༺ ˎˊ-

SADIE SAT ON THE BLACK LEATHER chair, reading one of her favorite childhood books, Stephen King's IT, while absentmindedly listening to the conversation her family was having beside her. Sadie was extremely engulfed in her book, she nearly didn't hear her name when Chimney consistently yelled at her to get her attention.

"Sadie! Come on, Harry Potter, we asked you a question," Chimney quipped with a smile, internally partying in victory when he got Sadie's attention.

"First of all, this is not Harry Potter—it's Stephen King, and what was the question again?"

"If you were not a member of the LAFD, what would you be doing?"

Sadie thought about it for quite some time. Sadie knew what her initial answer would be, but she thought it would sound absurd if she ever said it out loud.

"Actor. I've always loved movies as a kid," Sadie quickly spoke, hoping her family wouldn't ask any questions, but that was nearly inevitable. 

"Really? I could totally see you on the red carpet. You rock cocktail dresses perfectly," Hen boasted, reminiscing at the time Sadie invited the 118 to her twenty-first birthday. Sadie held her head down from all of the eyes on her, cheeks flushed from all of the attention.

Luckily for Sadie, Buck walked in at the perfect time, all attention now on him. "Okay, Bucky, question: if you weren't part of the LAFD, what would you be doing right now?" Sadie asked the blonde, seeing his eyebrows furrow in confusion and in profound thought.

"Uh, I don't know. I'm not getting fired, am I?"

"That's inevitable," Chimney muttered, looking at Sadie who had a smirk plastered on her face.

"He'd be a golden retriever."

"Nah, he'd definitely be a stripper. Like the ones that would wear a bedazzled bikini with money hanging out of the bra," Sadie teased, smirking at the sight of her best friend giving her an icy cold glare.

Sadie's thoughts were intruded when the sudden vibration of her phone buzzed in her pants.  Taking out her phone, Sadie saw that it was her dad who was calling her. Confusion laced her face, and she immediately pressed the fluorescent neon green button, knowing that Owen knew her work schedule, so it must have been something important.

"Dad, what's wrong?" Sadie entreated, anxiously waiting for her father's voice on the other end of the line. Her fellow team members looked at Sadie with worry, knowing that the ray of sunshine in the room, instantly diminished as she scampered down the stairs, the pitter-patter sound of her leather boots decreasing to the main floor.

"Um, hi honey, can do you have time to talk? It's T.K."

At the mention of her older twin brother, Sadie felt like she was melting into the floor. Her heart was incessantly beating, the drumming sensation in her chest starting to become annoying.

"Dad, what happened to T.K.?"

"He...Sadie, he relapsed. I found him in his apartment with pill bottles on the floor. Luckily I got there in time before anything worse could happen."

"Oh thank god, I-I should have been there, dammit. Is he okay?" Sadie rubbed her forehead forcefully with frustration, the sight of seeing her brother on the floor, lifeless, bringing back terrible memories from when he overdosed the first time.

"He's okay, but I decided that we're going to move to Texas. You know, for a fresh new start. Anyway, I just thought you—"

Owen couldn't even finish his sentence when he heard the pitched rumbling sound, with the terrifying noise of crackling concrete invading his phone. Sadie could barely keep her phone in her hand as her first instincts were to instantly help her teammates that were stumbling beside her.

Eddie was rolling out from under the firetruck and Hen pulled him up to his feet before he could be crushed by collapsing debris. While Sadie was helping people up, she slipped on her feet, hitting her head on the cold concrete of the firehouse.

"Son of a fuck. Ow." Sadie saw that a metal bar was nearly about to fall on her body, until she felt the familiar strong arms pick her up from off the ground, leading her to a safer area. His tall body was hovering over Sadie,  arms wrapped around her head in an attempt to make sure she doesn't get hurt by any more debris that may come their way.

"Sadie! Are you okay?" Eddie asked frantically, his eyes scanning her body for any injuries. He noticed how Sadie was continuously rubbing the back of her head and he instantly glanced to see there was a minor laceration on Sadie's scalp. "Oh my god, you're hurt."

She shooed his hand away, not wanting the medical attention, the adrenaline still in her body. "Eddie, it's fine. Just a small scratch. Now come on, we gotta get out gear." Before Eddie could protest, Sadie was already sprinting towards her gear, and hopping into the truck.

✰*ੈ✩➶༄✰

Eddie was frantically typing on the keyboard of his phone, desperately needing to figure out the status of his son. Sadie looked at Buck and they both had concerned expressions on their faces, seeing the distress evident on Eddie.

"Is everything okay?" Buck questioned.

"Yeah. There's no service. Texts won't even get through," Eddie sighed, his face looking more exhasperated by the second.

"Who are you trying to get a hold of?" Sadie questioned with a light, soothing tone in her voice. Eddie looked up at her, then back to his feet, feeling hesitant to mention his son for some reason.

"My son, I'm trying to reach my son," Eddie hesitantly said. Sadie looked at Eddie with sympathy and put a reassuring hand on his shoulder, her pastel purple nail polish shining brightly in the dim sunlight that seeped through the window.

"Oh, he's so adorable! He's fine, Eddie. I'm sure he's as smart as you and you have nothing to worry about." Eddie gave the girl a thankful nod, bringing out his tight-lipped smile. Eddie pulled out a picture of Christopher and showed both Sadie and Buck the photo of a young boy with curly caramel locks, his smile replicating Eddie's.

"He is adorable, I love kids," Buck added.

"I love this one."

Sadie wanted to listen more to the conversation, desperately needing something, anything to take off her mind of her brother. The way the conversation ended with her father wasn't the kind that had complete closure, so Sadie was off the rails when it came to her mentality.

Her nails were deeply digging into her palms, drawing small creases of blood on her nails. Buck noticed this familiar habit with Sadie and his eyes were filled with concern.

"Sades, you're doing it again. What's wrong?" Buck softly asked, his eyes trailing down to Sadie's hands. The girl instantly unclenched her fist and wiped the remaining traces of blood on her black pants.

"Nothing, don't worry about it," Sadie aversively blurted too quickly for her liking, knowing it would gain the concerned attention of the two taller men who sat next to her.

"Sadie, if there's something bothering you, you can tell us." Eddie encouraged Sadie to speak what she was feeling, but she was a hard nut to crack and she nearly exploded from the frustration coursing in her veins.

"Just drop it, please. I just don't want to talk about it now." Both of the men looked at each other with concern before nodding reluctantly, seeing that she really didn't want to talk about it. Eddie and Buck, however, continued to share the worried glances her way, seeing how Sadie was fidgeting with her faintly tarnished copper-colored locket.

When the 118 arrived to their call, Sadie got out of the truck, her jaw dropped open slightly at the malignant sight in front of her.

"You guys ever deal with something like this before?" Eddie asked, his eyes not leaving the tilting building.

"Nope."

Sadie and the rest of her family strode over to the incident commander, waiting for their orders and what catastrophe they were dealing with. Several minutes later, the 118 got their orders, waiting to do their job.

"Okay, listen up. Here's how you make it to the end of the day. You don't worry about the 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 decide not to."

"Hen, you have a kid—"

"And I'd hope if someone whose job it was to save him had the chance, they'd do it. No matter what," Hen spoke without hesitation. Sadie smiled at one of the mother figures she had in her life, putting a comforting hand on her shoulder.

"Where do you want us?"

With Sadie's luck, she got paired with the two boys who seemed to be the most protective of her. She hasn't known Eddie for very long, but the time she has spent with him, made her more open to him, slowly increasing a strong friendship.

"Well boys, we have a new playground for us to play on. Let's go." Eddie and Buck followed alongside Sadie, running their way up to the tilting building.

But for Sadie, her mind wasn't right, it is clouded with an exorbitant amount of distractions. Not only was she worried about her family, but the unanticipated paralyzing fear of dreaded memories attempting to seep through her mind was also nearly breaking down that cemented wall she built in her head.

And that mindset was going to cost Sadie more than she thought.

ahhhh this chapter is a little shorter than i anticipated, but i hope you all enjoyed it!

also thank you all for 200 reads!!! i'm really having fun writing this book <3