CHAPTER TWO
━━━━ season two, episode two

earthquake in l.a!
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"Remind me why we're doing this again?" Blakely Nash impatiently tapped her fingers on the car as her arm rested on the open window. She directed her eyes up towards Athena Grant, who was leant against the squad car, waiting for someone. "You already know I'll catch him if you let me join the chase."

"I know." Athena chuckled. After being informed that Marvin Chavez, a criminal famous for grand-theft-auto, had ran from the police after they had almost got him, the sergeant came up with a plan to wait outside his home, having an idea that was where he was heading, and trap him so he would have nowhere else to run. "But, don't worry, he should be here soon."

Speaking of the criminal, as he shall appear. They soon spotted the boy sauntering down the side of his house, as he snacked on a Snickers bar. It was quite clear that the pink-haired teenager believed he had gotten away with his crime yet again. But, he was quickly proven wrong, once he rounded the corner and stopped, when he saw Athena and Blakely.

The cop duo watched the seventeen-year old turn to either side of him, as the boy was searching for another way to escape. "Where you planning on running, Marvin? This is your house."

As the thief looked back at the sergeant, she tilted her head at the boy, as if he dared to turn around and start running again. Giving up, Marvin began slowly making his way over to Athena, so Blakely quickly grabbed the handcuffs in the car to pass them over to Athena. "You know, if you're gonna keep stealing cars, you might want to consider a less-memorable hair colour." Athena advised, as she walked over to him. "When I hear a felonious act, the suspect matches your description, I know where to find you." She held her hand out for him to take, so she could start to cuff him. "This is the third time I've had to arrest you this year."

"The hair is my signature." Marvin shrugged. "All master criminals have one."

Blakely pulled a face at his words, before her boss shot back to the pink-haired teenager. "Yeah, all stupid ones."

Once Athena had put the handcuffs on the young boy, she started guiding him over to the car. "I'm just getting all of my stealing done before I turn 18. I'm joyriding, which is like, borrowing the car without asking." After Athena opened the door to the backseats, Marvin looked back at her before he stepped inside. "Only thing I steal is some gas from the tank, if you think about it."

As Athena shoved him into the backseat, Blakely rolled her eyes at the Chavez boy. "You still stole someone's car, dude." She rolled her eyes at him trying to justify his actions.

Athena stood beside the open door, looking down at him with a stern expression on her face. "And, you're not going to juvie court this time, Marvin. Ran from the police. It's serious now." She stated, before shutting the door, and walked around the vehicle to get into the driver's seat and set off.

"Am I really going to jail?" Marvin asked, as they drove across the bridge. They were on the way to the police station, where the cops would take him to custody. His eyes were slightly tearing up as he looked at Athena. "Like, real jail?"

"You committed grown-up crimes." The sergeant reminded. "Grand-theft-auto, evading the police, reckless driving. You're lucky you didn't hurt anyone."

"I'm not gonna make it to jail." He admitted, and looked away from the Grant woman. "My mom's gonna kill me first."

Athena and Blakely merely sighed, continuing to sit in silence, until the former grabbed the small box of mints without taking her eyes off the road, but alas, that wasn't the problem. When the tiny mints shot up in the air, the bridge underneath them rumbled. The tires screeched against the concrete as Athena swerved, and lost control of the car. "The hell?" Her brows pinched together in confusion.

Blakely squeezed her eyes shut for a second. Her hands were gripped onto the door and the back of Athena's seat, hearing Marvin panic from behind her. "Oh, my God. Oh, my God."

As they carried on down the road, unfortunately, they weren't able to get very far, when the road in the middle of the bridge started to crack and was split in half. Athena had just enough time to stop beforehand, unlike the car in front of them, who wasn't lucky enough, as the vehicle fell down at the same time the bridge collapsed. After taking a deep breath, Athena looked over to her right and put her hand on Blakely's thigh . "Blakely, honey, are you alright?"

The light-brunette slowly opened her eyes with a deep exhale, before glancing over at her mother-figure. "Physically... yes. But, emotionally... we'll see." She answered honestly, then stepped out of the car with Athena, to get a closer look at the horrific scene in front of them.

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The 118 firefighters finally arrived on scene at the Hollywood Palm Hotel, that was now — thanks to the recent earthquake, leaned over like the Tower of Pisa in Italy. "You guys ever deal with anything like this before?" Eddie Diaz asked his team, with their eyes attended to the almost fully collapsed hotel in front of them.

Bobby shook his head. "No."

"I have to get back in there!" A female voice cried. A woman with blonde-hair, alongside a man who was her husband, were currently being escorted away by members of the LAPD. "No, you have to let me back in there. My baby's in there!"

"Please, our daughter's still inside." The woman's husband added. "She's eight years old!"

"No, my daughter's inside!" The mother had then spotted the 118, and shouted out to them, in hope that they will find their daughter. "Kat! Her name is Kat!"

"You have to let me in there! She's all alone. Stop it!" The father begged for them to let him and his wife go back into the hotel to find their child. The parents were so desperate to know if the girl was okay, which was completely understandable. But in this dreadful case, they had to leave the role up to the first responders to find her, since she went missing after the floor underneath her collapsed, and she fell down through the rubble.

"They seriously think that's going to hold it up?" Buck questioned, as he gestured over to another team of responders that were putting up poles in attempt to balance the debris.

Bobby was looking in another direction. "Let's go find the incident commander." He announced to his team, before walking off, with his firefighters following him.

"Any word from Blakely and Athena?" Hen asked her Captain.

"Haven't been able to get a hold of them." Bobby replied, obviously hoping that both his daughter and his girlfriend were unharmed. Ever since the earthquake devastated the city — like he said, he hadn't been able to get in contact with them, and that worried him. "What about you?" He turned the attention onto her. "Karen? Denny?"

"Same." Hen answered, as the team continued on walking. "Cell phones are toast everywhere. The system must be overloaded."

A woman from another firehouse approached the leader of the 118. "Captain." She put her hand out to shake his hand, and introduced herself. "Chief Williams, incident commander."

Bobby shook the woman's hand. "Captain Bobby Nash. How can we help you?"

"Hotel manager said they were between checkout and check-in when the quake hit, so they were light on guests." Chief Williams started to explain as she led the team over to another area. "We've made contact with most of those. Multiple evac operations in progress. All but 12 of the 68 staff have been accounted for. It's been pretty chaotic."

"The family back there said their little girl is still missing." Hen interjected.

"As long as it's still safe to do so, we'll be looking for any survivors."

"What do your engineers have to say?" The Nash man asked, as they stopped to stand in front of a blueprint of the hotel.

The woman then began to explain. "Looks like we had a brittle failure in the pre-stressed concrete section of the building's underground parking garage, causing it to pancake at an angle." Chief Williams turned her attention towards the actual building. "Right now, the reinforced steel is the only thing keeping it from completely collapsing. One good aftershock—"

"And the whole thing could come down." Bobby finished.

"Thought a high-rise was the safest place to be when an earthquake hits." Buck pointed out.

The Williams woman sighed. "Not when you're built right on top of a fault line. This quake was a 7.1."

"Northridge was just a 6.7."

"7.1– that makes it the largest in SoCal in twenty years," Chimney shared. "and the last one was in Joshua Tree."

"How many crews do you have in there?" Bobby asked.

"Not enough." Williams responded. "We 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."

"Thank you." Bobby nodded.

"Yeah." And the woman walked away.

"Okay, listen up." Bobby started off, as he turned to his firefighters. "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 got a kid, so..." Chimney reminded his best-friend, assuming she wouldn't go inside that building, knowing that if she did, there's a chance she could get hurt.

"Yeah, and I'd hope if someone whose job it was to save him had the chance, they'd do it. No matter what."

Eddie glanced over to his Captain. "Where do you want us?"

"Hey." A police officer breathed out, as he walked
over. "You guys will want to see this." He notified the 118, who followed the cop over to where more responders stood, and flickered their eyes up to see what they were looking at, only to find a man who appeared to be pinned against the window.

Chimney turned to his Captain. "We could set up a bag street-side in case that window gives." He suggested, as they observed the situation the man was currently in.

"Nobody works under that side of the building. Somebody's gonna have to get him from the inside."

"Buck, would you say that's the eleventh floor?"

"I would." He agreed with Eddie. "I bet we could take the ladder to that fourth floor. Cut the distance in half."

The two firefighters looked over at their boss who nodded. "Head on up."

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"If you can drive, move your car to the shoulder! Clear a path for emergency vehicles!" Athena was shouting commands to different civilians, as her and Blakely ran in between the full lane of cars, tapping their hands on the vehicles to gain their attention.

Blakely stopped beside Athena when they spotted a foreman advancing towards them. "Are all your guys accounted for?" The former asked. "Fire and rescue's on the way."

"Yeah," He sighed. "thank God."

"All right, you need to get people out of their cars before the rest of this overpass comes down." The Grant woman instructed. "If they can be moved, move them. If you're not sure, come and find us. But mind yourself first. If you want to be a hero, be the one who lives to tell the tale."

"Sergeant!" Blakely beckoned her to come over to where she was standing, which was by an upside down car, with a man trapped inside, coughing and groaning in pain.

The woman crouched down beside Blakely, to see the civilian with blood all over his face, and down to his hand. "Sir, sir, can you hear us?" She called out to him, seeing he was severely injured. "Can you tell me your name?"

"Dean."

"Dean. I'm Sergeant Grant, and this woman right next to me, is Detective Nash." Athena started off by introducing herself and Blakely, while the two of them tried to find a way to get him out. "There was an earthquake. You were in an accident, but help is on the way."

"Ah! I can't move. I— I can't get out!" The injured man cried.

"All right, enhance your calm, Dean." The woman softened her tone as she spoke. "We're gonna get you out of here as fast as we can."

"Oh God..." Blakely trailed off in panic, as soon as she sniffed the air and caught a scent so familiar to her. But, before she could notify Athena about it, Dean did it for her.

"I smell gas."

The Grant woman was already standing up to her feet, before she ran back towards her squad car to open up the boot to find any type of equipment — preferably, a fire extinguisher, in case of any fire. While that was happening, the sergeant also tried her ex-husband again, calling to see if their kids, May and Harry, were safe with him, however, his voice sounded muffled and crackled during the phone call, since there was barely any service, so she couldn't hear his answer.

Blakely stayed behind at the car, coming up with words of reassurance towards Dean, knowing he was in a difficult situation, and he was unable to do anything but lay there, until Athena returned to help. Seeing the woman running over with a fire extinguisher in her hand, the Nash woman gestured for Athena to pass her the equipment, which she did quickly, so she could use it against the flames that started to burn. "Ahhhh! Are you kidding me?!" Blakely let out a groan, when the extinguisher ran out after seconds of using it, and the flame hadn't disappeared.

Blakely dropped the equipment on the ground as Athena crouched back down again to check up on the man trapped inside. "How you doing, Dean?"

"I feel dizzy, and it's getting hot." Dean wheezed through his answer. "It's so hot."

Thankfully, the foreman had approached, coming to their rescue with more fire extinguishers to use to clear the flames. Athena directed her eyes over to Blakely, who resumed trying to put out the fire with the fire man's help now. "How are we doing, detective?" Athena wondered, but frowned, when she saw that their fire extinguishers had ran out yet again. The sergeant stood up straight, to turn to the foreman. "Are those all the extinguishers you could find?" She asked him.

"Underground gas line must have ruptured when the car hit the pavement." He reckoned.

"We can't put the fire out with a constant energy source keeping it going. It's like this car is sitting on top of a stovetop." Athena pointed out, before the flame erupted out of the blue, making Athena practically dive onto Blakely, like a shield, as the three of them were knocked to the floor.

"Oh God, please!" Dean screamed. "I don't wanna burn!"

Blakely groaned as she turned around, furrowing her brows at seeing the concerned expression on Athena's face. "You okay?" The woman asked for the second time that day.

The detective sighed. "Ask me again at the end of the day."

"Can't we cut him out?"

"He's jammed in there." Athena responded to the foreman. "We need something bigger to cool this thing down." The woman stepped away to have a look around, to see if she could see anything that could help with their situation, when her eyes lit up at a certain vehicle not far away. "The cement truck!" She called, looking back at the foreman to ask. "Who has the keys?"

"Miguel. But-but he's helping people on the other side." He explained, as Dean continued to cry for help.

"Athena..." Blakely called out to the woman, after seeing where her eyes were leading. "It's the only choice we've got right now, that's quicker."

"I know." She sighed, before running towards her car, and stopped at the open door on the driver's side, looking towards Marvin. "Can you hot-wire that cement truck?"

The Chavez boy followed her gaze. "That's a 2004 Peterbilt 357 MTM—"

"I don't need the review from Car and Dumbass. I need you to bring it over to that fire." Athena had interrupted. "Can you?"

"I can hot-wire that bad boy with my eyes closed."

"I'm giving you the authority to commandeer that truck and that truck only for official police business." Athena quickly reminded. "But, if you run away, Marvin, and that man dies, your life as you know it will be over."

Marvin frowned. "My life's already over."

"You will wish you were in jail if you piss either of us off." The woman snapped, referring to herself and Blakely, before she shut the door and rushed around the car to the other side, to open Marvin's door and undo his handcuffs for the moment so he could do what she asked him to do.

"All right, we have to clear out!" A rescue worker called, as Athena and Marvin headed towards the large vehicle, with the latter stopping on the way, to grab the tools he needed to hot-wire the truck.

Athena returned to where Blakely was stood, and watched as Marvin started the process. The Nash woman looked like she was trying to hold back a whimper as they listened to Dean's cries for help, who desperately wanted to be free and out of the upside down car, before the fire and the position he was currently in, got too much for him.

"Marvin!" Blakely screamed.

The two women immediately released a breath of relief when they noticed Marvin had succeeded in commandeering the cement truck, and was now reversing it slowly towards the scene. As soon as he parked it, Marvin jumped out of the vehicle to run around to the back and help them by moving the discharge chute in the right position, for the cement to slide right onto the flames.

Once the cement had done its job, and cooled the fire down, they moved the discharge chute again, away from the upside down car. "All right, hold."

Athena and Blakely had their eyes on the sky as a helicopter passed by, when luckily for them, fire and rescue had finally arrived. Blakely waved the responders over. "Passenger side!"

Athena ran under the discharge chute on her way to Dean, crouching down on the other side of the car, when she called out. "You cooling down?"

Dean nodded. "Yeah. Thank you." The man spoke through heavy breaths.

The corners of her mouth tugged up into a smile as Athena reassured him. "All right. You hang in there, Dean. Help's coming."

"Hey. Sir, we're gonna get you out, all right? Just stay calm." One of the firefighters spoke to Dean, as Athena made her way back over to Blakely and Marvin.

"Okay." Dean muttered.

"Look at me," Marvin began, causing Athena and Blakely to turn their heads over to him. "using my superpowers for good." The boy wore a smug grin on his face through his words. "I feel like the Dark Knight."

Blakely gave him a look. "Don't get carried away."

"So we good? Can I go home?"

"That's up to the judge." Athena responded, when she pulled him down from the cement truck. Yes, he helped them out, but that doesn't change what he did before, so of course, she wasn't going to let him off so easily.

Marvin practically scoffed at the woman's words, like he couldn't believe what she told him. "I just saved the day. Doesn't that make up for the bad I did this morning?"

Athena started guiding him back towards the car as Blakely followed. "Listen, I'll write a nice letter on your behalf to the judge. Good deeds may get you into heaven, but the law is the law, honey, and once I put you in the back of my squad car, there's no getting out. Thank you for helping us and that man today."

The rest of the journey was silent, as the three of them returned to the car, where Athena put him back in the backseat to cuff him again. "The next time you get a chance to do the wrong thing," She began. "think about how bad you feel right now, and how good it felt to do the right thing."

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author's note!

i hope you enjoyed reading this chapter! and for anyone who might have noticed that i had taken paige out of the cast list, that's because i decided to give her, her own book if i ever do a buck fic, but i wanted to do that separately.

sorry, there wasn't any blakely and eddie, but to be honest, i'm more excited about blakely meeting christopher haha!! which will happen very soon :)

anyways, thanks for reading, i love you all!! <33