twenty nine
"7.1"

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(just an fyi, i'm basically skipping the last half of episode 1, and going straight to the earthquake!)
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"ARE YOU SERIOUS?"

LYNN STOOD in disbelief as she narrowed her blue eyes at Buck, who was now standing a few feet in front of her. Lynn raised her arm in a random direction, flinging it around aimlessly. She swore there was probably steam coming out of her ears.

"What?" Buck questioned, and Lynn would've commented on his adorable puppy dog face if she wasn't so angry.

"Y-You can't act like that," Lynn scolded rapidly, and she ran a spare hand through her already messy from working out brunette hair. "Seriously? You're my best friend, Evan, I mean it. But why are you so far up Eddie's ass about getting to know his coworkers, about getting to know me?"

"Because!" Buck protested, his voice sounding a bit higher than usual. He flung his arms in the arm,

"Because what!?" Lynn snapped, and at throughout the entire time, both of the firefighters were taking slow steps towards each other. They simply didn't care if people heard them arguing, maybe because it was just about damn to fix their problems and be over it.

And as Buck peeled open his mouth to no doubt shout something back, a loud, almost erupting noise echoed throughout the firehouse. The ground was moving forcibly under Lynn's feet, and she easily lost her balance. She leaned forward to fall enviably to the ground, but immediately Buck wrapped his arm under Lynn's so he could bring her back up before she fell completely. Her eyes met those of Buck's, and for a split second, it seemed as if the two were in their own little bubble and there was in fact no earthquake going on this very minute.

"Get out! C'mon, guys! C'mon!"

Instantly, both Lynn and Buck snapped out of their busy thoughts of each other, and went into action. They sprinted off away from the dangerous objects that could fall on them on the apparatus floor, and instead out side, where many other firefighters were already heading.

"Is anyone else back there!?" Bobby hollered out towards Buck and Lynn as they both started heading towards him.

"No!" Lynn called back, and she started to cough loudly into her elbow as many cans fell and exploded into large patches of smoke, merely a foot or so before her.

"C'mere!" Buck stated, and he wrapped his arm around the woman, almost flanking her side to the gas as they both rushed out.

"It's an earthquake!"

•••

   "Is everything okay?"

   Lynn finally peeled her eyes away from the destroyed path due to the earthquake and decided to pay attention between Eddie and Buck, who had now seemed to be having a conversation. She was slightly relieved, to see them seemingly having a decent conversation, and not an argument.

   "Yeah, there's no service," Eddie explained to the previous question of Buck's, and Lynn tugged out our her phone from her back pocket. She worriedly pulled up Lizzy's contact, and tried sending a quick message to see if the woman was okay, and the man was right, there wasn't any service.

   "Texts won't even get through," Lynn added, gazing up from her phone and towards the two boys sitting across from each other.

   "Who you trying to get ahold of?" Buck questioned, not towards Lynn because he already knew the brunette was worried about her sister, but to Eddie.

   "My son. I'm trying to reach my son."

   Everyone sitting in the firetruck, Buck, Lynn, and Bobby all seemed to take a moment to process the fact that Eddie actually had a kid. He had never even mentioned it, well, to be honest, he hadn't mentioned almost anything about himself other than being in the army.

"Whoa, you got a kid?" Buck asked, basically asking the question they were all dying to hear.

"Christopher," Eddie responded, and then he tapped his phone a few times with his thumbs, and then flipped the screen so both Lynn and Buck could see.

In the camera roll, was a picture of an adorable brunette boy, who looked like he couldn't be anymore than six or seven. Lynn could see the fact, even in the picture, that Christopher had his father's face. It was adorable, especially when Buck let out a cute 'aw'.

"He's seven."

"And super adorable," Buck grinned, and Lynn unknowingly smiled beside him. "I, uh, I love kids."

   "Well, I love this one," Eddie stated, and Lynn flashed the man a sympathetic smile. She had no idea how she would react if she had a kid during this, how worried she would be, and how distracted she'd be from her job. "I'm all he's got. His mother's not in the picture."

   "He's at school?" Buck questioned, and Eddie nodded towards Buck, answering his question without words. Lynn swore she saw a worried glance cross across his face before quickly disappearing.

   "Hey, I'm sure he's fine."

•••

  "You guys ever deal with anything like this before?"

   Lynn swallowed some nervousness in the back of her throat as her eyes landed on the huge skyscraper the team was called to. Except it wasn't just your regular high-rise, it was cracked about halfway through the building and one side was leaning dangerously; and it looked as if any second it could just tumble all down.

   "No," Bobby replied, and he didn't necessarily look as stressed as the rest of them. Which made plenty of sense, since he is the captain.

   "I have to get back in there!"

   Everyone seemed to finally tear their eyes away from the cracked skyscraper, and towards two older adults who were being flushed out of the building by other firefighters. Lynn narrowed her blue eyes suspiciously, wondering why the hell they would fight against someone who had just practically saved their lives.

   "My baby's in there!" The woman cried out, and Lynn's face straightened out as she suddenly understood.

   "Please, our daughter is still inside!" Now it was the mans turn to yell out, and Lynn glanced over to Buck standing beside her, where their arms were basically brushed up against each other. He had the same pitiful expression, and then Lynn's gaze fell to the floor.

   After what seemed like a minute or two, the couple was finally calmed down enough that they were sitting next to each other alongside their son. And everyone on the team was now more focused than ever.

   They seriously think that's gonna hold it up?" Buck commented, and Lynn followed his gaze towards the highrise. It seemed as if firefighters were now reenforcing the building with steel beams, probably to keep it as safe as possible for the rest of them to get anybody and everybody out.

   "Let's go find the incident commander," Bobby stated, and he quickly directed towards the blue tents where plenty of official looking officers were.

   It was only a short time before the team was introduced to the incident commander, Chief Williams. She explained the plans, current estimate on people still trapped inside, and precautions they're taking in order to keep the building up and up to safety for the first responders.

   "A high-rise is supposed to be the safest place to be when an earthquake hits," Buck spoke up, making eye contact with Williams as she explained that the hotel was actually built on a fault line; that's why it had come tackling down.

   "Not when you're built right on top of a fault line," Williams responded, and it seemed just lightly laced with sarcasm, but the woman couldn't have it last as she turned more serious. "This quake was a 7.1."

   "Northridge was just a 6.7," Chimney explained, and he sounded extremely surprised at the information. "7.1...that makes the largest in SoCal in twenty years. And the last one was in Joshua Tree."

   "How many crews do you have in there?"

   "Not enough," Williams replied, her eyes meeting those Bobby's. "We've put in a request for Heavy Rescue 3, but they're on their way to a freeway collapse. We can use every hand we can get."

   Lynn sucked in a deep breath, knowing any second the team would get into serious, firefighter mode. They saved people, that's what they do, no matter what. Whether it's a plane crash in the middle of the ocean or this skyscraper damn near close to falling to the ground.

   "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," Bobby spoke up in his usual captain speech voice as he turned to his people, looking at each of them in the eye.

   Lynn was reminded of what her father always told her as a child, when she dreamed of becoming a freighter. "You'll always have to move forward, there's nothing you can do for the ones who are already gone."

   "I can't order you guys to go inside that building, and I'm not gonna judge you if you decide not to," Bobby finished, and Lynn glanced beside her friends, and then lastly, Buck. The two eyes met, and Lynn's blue eyes searched those of Buck's, and a worried feeling grew in her stomach.

   "Hen, you got a kid, so..."

   "And you too, Eddie," Lynn added, finally tearing her eyes away from Buck, and landing on Eddie.

   And I'd hope if someone whose job it was to save him had the chance, they'd do it," Hen explained, and Lynn gave her a reassuring smile, knowing Hen was not one to back down.

   "No matter what," Eddie nodded alongside his newfound friends, and that was it was firmly confirmed that they were all going in, together.

   "Where do you want us?"

   Before Bobby could even begin to direct where his team would go, a police officer interrupted their busy conversation, gaining everyone's attention.

   "Hey, you guys will want to see this."

   Everyone followed the young police officer as he turned to a different side of the highrise, the side that was being concentrated with steel beams. They shuffled in a slow manner, and each person slowly let out a loud gasp as their eyes landed on a window several floors up. A man was being pressed against the glass window, like there was furniture that was pinning his body down. Lynn wasn't sure how much longer that fragile glass would hold him though.

   "We could set up a bag street-side in case that window gives?"

   "Nobody works under that side of the building," Williams responded, shaking her head in a firm way. "Somebody's gonna have to get him from the inside."

   "Buck, you say that's the eleventh floor?" Eddie asked, and he lightly nudged his elbow into Buck's stomach, gaining the boys attention so they would both glance back up to the skyscraper.

   "I would," Buck agreed, but there was a slight hesitation in his voice, and he narrowed his eyes at Eddie. Lynn was almost hopeful at seeing the sight, that both of the boys were seemingly okay with one another; and she was happy it wasn't affecting their ability to work together professionally. "I bet we could take the ladder to that fourth floor. Cut the distance in half."

   "Head on up," Bobby nodded in confirmation towards the two men, who then gave each other one look before they were about to dart off in the direction of the ladder.

   "Evan."

   Before Buck was fully out of the grasp of Lynn, she hooked her soft fingertips around his wrists pulling him to a stop. She wasn't even sure why did she such a thing, but some part of her just had to let it out.

   "Be safe," Lynn stated towards the man, who had turned on his heels to stare down at her, and he flashed her a reassuring smile.

   "I will, you too, Evie," Buck replied, and he intertwined their fingers for merely a second to give her a tight squeeze, and then released to chase after Eddie by the ladder truck.

   Lynn let out a shaky breath as her eyes watched the men start fiddling with the ladder truck, trying to find the best way to get up to the fourth floor.

   Why was she so dreadful at seeing her and Buck split up? At least when they dealt with the plane, they were together, she could watch his back and he had hers.

   So, why was there a deep, troubling feeling in the pit of her stomach?