thirty three
"us"

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   BRIGHT SUNLIGHT.

   THAT WAS THE first thing Evelynn Kennedy saw when she peeled open those ocean blue eyes. She groggily moaned, unconsciously, as her eyes fluttered open and the shining light from the cracked curtains only made the ringing thumping in her head worse. She took a second, just completely focused on her breathing as she tried to understand what the hell was going on.

   The last thing Lynn recalled was muttering her goodbyes over her radio as it seemed like she had given up; that her wound had succumbed her. But here she was, alive.

   As she finally started to finish her thinking, her eyes scanned the room she was contained in. Even before she had first woken up, she knew from the smell of cleaning products mixed with old people, she was in the hospital. So, she was currently wrapped with a itchy hospital blanket that ended up below her chest. Of course she also had the matching hospital gown underneath, covering her body. Her legs were stretched out, with her arms laying beside, but attached to her left hand, was another's.

   She glanced down to the feeling of attachment, and the smallest of smiles crossed her face as she immediately recognized the body.

   It was Evan Buckley.

   The man looked peacefully passed out with his head resting gently on Lynn's thigh, his face facing her, with his slender fingers intertwined with Lynn's. He looked worn out, though, with exhaustion covering his skin. He was currently wearing a soft looking grey hoodie, and dark grey sweats.

   "You're awake."

   Lynn jerked her head, which she immediately regretted once the pain only seemed to be worse, and a sad smile grew on her face as she identified her older sister.

   "Liz," Lynn whimpered softly, pouting her pink lips out as she immediately wanted to cry at the sight of her—happy tears, though.

   Through the talking, Buck had stirred in his sleep and shook his head as he suddenly awoke from his slumber. Lynn felt bad for disturbing the boy, but as soon as she saw the look on his face, she felt so much better.

   "Evie," Buck breathed out, examining the girl up and down, probably to see if he was still asleep and dreaming or if this was real. "Oh, my God."

   Instantly, much to Lynn's surprise, he rushed forward and wrapped his muscled arms around Lynn's frail body. She would've groaned out, but she clenched her jaw against the pain and just embraced Buck even further. She snaked her arms under his armpits and onto his back, snuggling her head into the crook of his neck.

   "Okay, okay, you might break me," Lynn stated after a second, letting a laugh escape her mouth as Buck immediately let go and backed away, sheepishly rubbing his neck while shrugging slightly.

   "Sorry," Buck mumbled awkwardly, but then he returned to grinning towards the girl. "I'm so happy to see you're okay, God, you really scared me."

   "Us," Lizzy corrected, raising an index finger warningly towards Buck, then towards Lynn. "When I got the call you were in the hospital, I wanted to kill you myself for scaring me shitless."

   Both Buck and Lynn let out soft chuckles at the protective sister, shaking their heads to the side.

   "I mean it!"

   "I know, I know," Lynn rose her arms in defense, but pain clearly rippled on her face as a weird feeling erupted in her stomach.

   "Hey," Buck instinctively moved forward from his seat next to the bed, and he placed a supportive palm on Lynn's arm. "Are you okay?"

   "Yeah, I just shouldn't move so much," Lynn responded, waving both her sister and her best friends worry away. "How long was I, uh, out?"

   "It's been four days," Lizzy explained, letting a little sigh escape her lips while she took a seat beside Buck on a wooden chair that looked quite uncomfortable. "The doctors said your surgery went as well as could be expected, but they weren't sure when you would wake up."

   Lynn took a second to process exactly what Lizzy was saying, and it felt weird to think she lost four days to being completely unconscious.

   "You just missed the others, actually," Buck spoke up after a moment of silence, and he nervously tapped his index finger on Lynn's bed. "They stopped by to see how you were doing, but they had a shift...so they had to go."

   "Why didn't you go?" Lynn questioned, tilting her head off to the side like a lost puppy.

   "I, uh, I took a furlough week," Buck shrugged awkwardly, and he cleared his throat afterwards.

   "For me?"

   Lizzy must've taken this as her moment to leave the two alone, and deep down she had a feeling that her newfound friend and younger sister could quite possibly finally admit their feelings for each other.

   "I'm gonna go grab a coffee, you two want anything?" Lizzy suggested, raising from her seat just as fast as she sat down.

   "Uh, I'm not sure if I can have coffee with whatever meds I'm on," Lynn giggled softly, and just hearing the noise seemed to make a smile grow on Bucks lips.

   "I'm good, thanks," Buck nodded, after realizing he hadn't actually responded yet.

   And with that, Lizzy quietly left the clean hospital room to leave the two firefighters by their lonesome. They stood in that silence for a second, not where it was awkward but more that they just enjoyed each other's company.

   "You really didn't have to take off work to stay with me," Lynn stated, sending Buck a sweet smile while her fingertips played with one another nervously.

   "I wanted to," Buck replied, returning that same smile. "I wanted to be here when you woke up, well, I guess I just wanted to be here in general."

   Lynn nibbled down on her pink lip, it had seemed so simple to tell Buck her feelings when she was on her death bed. But here she was, alive and breathing, yet she wasn't even sure how to say the words.

   "You really scared me, Eve..."

  Lynn let out sigh under her breath, knowing how terrible she must've made Buck along with everyone else feel with saying her goodbyes over a radio.

   "I'm sorry, that I said all that over the radio," Lynn mumbled a little. "I really thought I was going to die, and I-I couldn't go unless I said something."

   Buck sniffled quietly, and Lynn gazed over with sad eyes just in time to see Buck swipe away a tear that had managed to fall from his eye; and Lynn felt even more awful than before.

   Buck reached his hand forward, intertwining his fingers once again with Lynn's palm. The two rose their eyes, making eye contact while just seemingly staring at each other.

   Buck then gazed back down towards the bed, and he popped his jaw out while he shook his head slightly. Lynn furrowed her eyebrows softly, feeling a little overwhelmed as well.

   "Eve, I-we, I need to talk to you about us."

Lynn's breath seemed to catch in the back of her throat, nervously. What if the boy was talking about how he wanted to flirting to end? What if he was going to scold her? What if he didn't want to be friends anymore?

What if? What if? What if?

Just as Buck pulled back his pink lips, about to finish his somewhat ominous and nerve wrecking statement; he was interrupted.

"Evelynn?"

Lynn snapped her neck at the voice, which almost sounded so weird to hear all these years later. There, standing in the middle of the door with her polite hands on her hips, was Evelynn's mother.

"Mom?" Lynn said in disbelief, and she had shock clearly written in her voice. Her lips peeled open and she swore her jaw smacked the ground.

"Evelynn," Lynn's mother repeated, and she had a very unamused expression covering her face.

"W-What are you doing here?" Lynn stuttered, letting a small scoff escape her mouth. She then glanced her blue eyes over towards Buck, almost forgetting they were having a conversation merely a minute earlier.

"I was called to be informed that my daughter was in the hospital," Lynn's mother replied almost without any emotion, and Lynn was already getting a bad feeling about the whole situation.

"Long story," Lynn chuckled awkwardly, losing eye contact as she dropped to her fingers anxiously playing with one another. "I, uh, was working the earthquake and I—"

"—I thought they were talking about Elizabeth."

Lynn's somewhat amused expression faded instantly, and her pink lips spread into the smallest of gasps. It was like all the blood in her body stopped pumping, and she was completely frozen.

"You came because you thought it was Lizzy in the hospital and not me?"

The air was so filled with tension that you could've quite literally cut through it with a knife. Buck felt incredibly awkward stuck between the family argument, but a part of himself was rumbling with anger to the fact that Lynn's mother could be so inconsiderate.

   "Where is your sister?" Lynn's mother questioned, and Lynn's nose twitched with anger.

   "Are you joking?" Lynn growled, leaning her body forward even though pain made her want to wince. "I'm laying in this damn hospital bed with all these needles in me and you have the audacity to ask where Liz is?"

   "Evelynn, you made your choice on this family when it came to your father."

   Lynn's face straightened out as she tried controlling the anger that was pounding through her veins; but the thing she couldn't stop, were the tears threatening to fall.

   "Ma'am, Lizzy went to get coffee in the cafeteria, I suggest you leave."

Lynn shook her head softly as she swallowed the growing anxiety in the back of her throat, and she gazed curiously over to Buck, who had actually spoken up against her mother.

"And who might you be?" Lynn's mother questioned with clear annoyance in her voice, sending a taunting expression towards Buck.

"Evan is practically the closest thing I have to family," Lynn snapped, her upper lip curling in anger as she switched between Buck sitting a few inches away, to her mother in the doorframe. "And you don't get to treat him like shit."

"Don't you swear at your mother," Lynn's mother hissed through gritted teeth, and Lynn let out a scoff as she tried her best to control her laughter.

"One second I'm not family, and not your daughter and now you're saying you're my mother? Can you make up your fucking mind?"

"Evelynn!" Lynn's mother almost gasped, and she was now sharing the same angry feeling Lynn was. "This was a mistake. I never should've came here, even if it was Elizabeth, I should've known you would act like a child."

"Oh, I'm the child? You're the one who had consistently blamed me for dads death for ten years!"

   The hospital room then grew silent, where Buck sent the saddest puppy dog eyes towards Lynn as her voice cracker mentioning her father. And her mother, stood still in her steps while only glaring at Lynn.

   "You're so foolish! Your father would still be alive if you hadn't went to that stupid high school party!" Lynn's mother shouted, and it was one of the first times in so long Lynn had actually seen emotion played on her face.

   "And you think I don't blame myself? That a day goes by where I don't think about him? Well, you're wrong! I have been haunted with guilt every single damn day!" Lynn screamed, and if this were a cartoon, Lynn would've quite literally had steam flowing from her ears.

   Just as Lynn pointed her index finger angrily towards her mother, a certain pain rippled throughout her body and her arm shakily fell to the bed as she groaned out loudly.

   "Evie?" Buck questioned instantly, rising up from his seat with worry and confusion written on his face. "Evelynn?"

   Evelynn heaved backwards as she felt sudden exhaustion, and she could only imagine it was because she hardly had any energy in the first place, let alone after a long argument with the person she hadn't seen in quite literally a decade.

   "I think it's time you leave, ma'am, Eve clearly needs to rest without you putting a strain on her," Buck answered, and it was truly one of the first times Lynn had ever heard a vicious tone in his voice.

   "I didn't plan on staying anyway, young man," Lynn's mother glared, and without another word, the woman seemingly left the hospital room to leave the two firefighters alone.

   "I'm sorry," Lynn finally breathed out, her head still resting gently on the soft hospital pillow as her eyes stared down the ceiling. "That you had to witness that."

   "It's alright, Eve, I just can't believe all these years that she still...blames you," Buck stated, his eyes hovering to the floor as he tried to imagine the amount of pain Lynn must go through with constantly carrying the weight of thinking she killed her father. "She has no right."

"Thanks," Lynn forced a smile, trying her best to control the tears pricking the back of her eyes, and she suddenly felt the mere exhaustion of her wound mixed with fighting with her mother take over her body. "Mind if I sleep?"

"Of course, Evie, I'll be here," Buck nodded with support clear in his voice, flashing the woman a reassuring smile as she laid her head back on the white pillow.

And it only took a second for Lynn's eyelids to become so droopy that she fell straight into a deep slumber. Where Buck didn't dare move in his sleep as he hooked his fingers once again around Lynn's, not daring to ever let go.

a/n: wow i finally proofread this chapter!! i had it for awhile but never got the chance to check for mistakes, so enjoy!! i'm super excited for the next chapter, because i know it's what everyone's been waiting for😌also if anyone's interested, i recently published a draco malfoy fanfic as well, if you'd wanna check that out <3