Save Me (An Eddie Diaz 911 Fanfiction)

Triggers

The fire drill was a nightmare. A complete nightmare, and it didn't look like it was going to get any better. The 118 was late because of the traffic backed up on Grand and Buck had officially let the power of 'the clipboard go to his head. Now, they worked in front of the high-rise as other fire houses worked to evacuate the hundreds of office workers out of the high-rise. The scene was chaos, almost as bad as it would be in a real fire, except replace the running, screaming pedestrians with annoyed office workers. But hey, it was early. There was always time for them to get an attitude shift.

"I hate fire drills," Hen grumbled from her spot at the fire hydrant.

"City mandates we do them every three years," Eddie said matter-of-factly from right next to her, spinning the nozzle on the hydrant, "Can't fight city hall."

"First alarm was triggered at twelve twenty," Bobby informed the crew, ten feet away from them on the sidewalk. He was looking down at his watch with just a slight frown on his face. "Call came in thirty seconds later. Boots down, hoses out by twelve forty-three."

"Darn it!" Jane shook her head as she checked her watch next to Bobby. "That's not good."

"Why?" Eddie asked, standing and walking over to her side.

"Four minutes over our allotted response time," Bobby explained.

"Ouch," Chimney winced from right next to the truck, slinging a hose over his shoulder. "That's gonna' cost us some points."

"Somebody's gonna' have to explain that to our new fire marshal." All at once, the team turned to Bobby, knowing that it would be up to him to explain their late arrival to "Clipboard Buck".

Not wishing to think about how poorly that was going to go, Jane shook her head. "I miss Toby. He was solid."

Bobby just sighed, "He just had to go and retire."

"He was old," Jane explained, slightly protective of the older man. He'd been one of her favorite co-workers both at the Marshall's Office and when they'd encounter each other at the 118. "He'd been on the force way longer than I've been alive. He and his wife are enjoying Florida, although he says that the beach bums down there aren't nearly as fun."

"How do you know that?" Hen demanded.

"He sent me a postcard!" Jane exclaimed defensively. "Marge had promised to send me her snickerdoodle recipe and he had to drop a line in."

"I bet he wouldn't dock us for four minutes after being stuck behind stand still traffic," Chimney muttered. "Especially with little miss sunshine over there exchanging cookie recipes with his wife."

"The bus stalled," Hen groaned, "traffic couldn't move and neither could we, and this little guy is going to dock us!"

"Be nice," Jane chastised, knowing Chimney was right, but needing to mediate anyway because...that was her way. "Buck is new at his job. I'm sure he just wants to do a good job and we should be understanding and supportive. It was a hard blow he took, so we just need to show how proud we are of him for taking the hit and rolling with it."

"Jane's right," Eddie concurred. "We need to be supportive."

"He agrees with Jane," Chimney raised his eyebrows over to Hen meaningfully, and waggled his eyebrows, "What a surprise."

"That's enough everyone! Let's move it," Bobby ordered them, but they all heard that wary sigh in his voice. Bobby took the lead, presumably to explain the situation to Buck the Fire Marshall, and they all grabbed their gear and prepared to head into the building.