Save Me (An Eddie Diaz 911 Fanfiction)

Help is Not Coming

Unfortunately for first responders, the arrival of an earthquake didn't result in the weather becoming magically cooler. However, the earthquake that had tipped over the Hollywood Palm Hotel, had also broken the air conditioner. Summer temperatures under heavy rescue gear was not something to be taken lightly, and the pressure of the heat combined with the continual aftershocks had made the progress of the first responders much slower than they would have liked. Much slower than was safe, all things considered.

While Buck and Eddie were working on rescuing a young woman from a hotel room, having just failed to retrieve her boss from falling eleven floors to his death, their coworkers were on their own missions. Heading down from the top, nine floors above the two firefighters from the 118, Benny and Jane had avoided the elephant between them. When they reached floor twenty, surprising both of them, it was Jane who cracked from the pressure of things left unsaid.

"Aren't you going to ask me Benny? Given your usual lack of filter, I'm quite surprised you haven't by now."

The man was quiet for a long moment. 

"Honestly?" She nodded. "No. I think I know what happened and I don't think it'd be right to ask for details."

"What is this?" she asked, her voice purposefully nonchalant. "You being tactful? How...different." 

"I believe my little chickadee, that this is what they call progress. It's probably due to Ricky. He said that if he had to diffuse another fight between me and his grandmother, that he would just leave me to go to his family gatherings alone."

Jane choked a laugh. "Why are you picking fights with his grandmother?"

"Oh. She loves me, but she always insists on honesty with opinions and to be honest, her new dress made her look three sizes larger."

"So, you had to point that out, did you?"

"I did..." he paused, and Jane knew if he had a spare hand, he'd be stroking his red beard in thought. "You alright?"

She knew they were no longer talking about his grandmother-in-law's dress. Jane paused for a moment. "Honestly?"

"Yes. We were friends once. I know I didn't behave much like a friend, after everything, but I still care."

"I know, and I don't hold anything against you. It was hard and everyone gave you as much trouble as they gave me. To answer your question though...if you'd asked me six months ago, I'd have said that I'd never be okay again. But...I have a family at the 118. I'm seeing someone who has taught me that I'm capable and worth a healthy relationship no matter what has happened. I'm very slowly getting better. Not that this has made the darkness disappear, but I'm slowly embracing the light."

"I can't tell you how happy that makes me Jane. I was scared for you."

Jane thought back to the first time she'd frozen with Xavier. "I was scared for me too, but things changed, and I'm slowly becoming okay, even if I'll never be 100%."

........

It was the hand on her hip. It was always the hand on the hip that made her freeze. No matter the meaning behind the touch, her body reacted as if it had just been submerged in a vat of ice. The very second that she stiffened, Xavier pulled back, lifting his hands and removing himself from her personal space. In her head though, she didn't notice his retreat, she was still recoiling inside herself from the touch of that hand.