𝐡𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐥𝐞𝐬𝐬 || 𝟗-𝟏-𝟏

𝐓𝐖𝐎

THE FEELING of drowning wakes her up, she coughs so bad it hurts her chest so she doesn't see her surroundings. Her hands drop onto her legs that are covered by a hospital blanket, her eyes quickly look up and her eyebrows knit as she realises she's in a hospital.

"Cora!" Lacey cries jumping out of her chair and running to her best friend, she doesn't take a moment before she's in the bed with her and her arms around her neck, "You had me so worried!" She whispers into her friends ear.

A smile is pinned ear to ear as Cora holds her best friend, the memories of the drowning come back to her. Her hands reach up to her forehead as soon as Lacey composes herself and sits on the other end of the bed. On her forehead sit a few stitches nothing bad but she shake's her head a little, "I can tick almost drowned off my list," She laughs but Lacey doesn't it find it the funniest, so worried for her friend her brain couldn't handle a joke.

After a few seconds Lace lets out a small chuckle after she realises that Cora's okay, "You know there's a hot firefighter waiting to see you outside," She whispered nodding her head to a few seats outside that Cora couldn't see.

"Who?" She asks but Cora has a faint idea of who it could be. She remembered his hands reaching for hers in the water, the way he helped her the whole time until she couldn't remember what happened.

"I don't know," She shrugs while getting off the bed, "I'll go get him," Cora thanks her while she walks out of the room. She sits herself up on the bed and tried to look as presentable as she could despite the fact she felt exhausted and was in the most unflattering hospital gown.

Buck walks through the door with a smile on his face and leans on the doorframe with his arms crossed across his chest.

"Hey," She weakly smiled her hands picking the skin from around her nails, "I want to thank you for yesterday,"

"That was two years ago," He says with a concerned face walking closer to the woman who's face had dropped.

"What!" She panics before he bursts out into laughter at her scared expression. She let out a shaky laugh nervously as he let out a deep chuckle.

"It was yesterday," He reassures her and she smirks, "Doctors say you'll be out today," He says sounding glad.

Buck was so silently thankful that she was alright, he had been worried sick all night waiting for her to wake up and now he knew she was alright everything in him settled. When he pulled her from the water and he barely felt a pulse he prayed to something she would make it- he knew she would of course however holding her in that moment, while trying to keep her awake, he had never felt such worry.

"Did the people stuck in the bathroom make it?" She asks remembering what she was trying to do in the first place before everything went wrong.

"Yeah, I think the bathroom door hit you in the head? I don't understand what Hen was doing but...something hit you," He nods and she shakes her head, "Don't worry Hen feels really bad for it,"

"It hurt like a bitch," She laughs and she settles in the bed feeling subconsciously more comfortable with Buck, something changed a little bit in her mind. They talked until his radio sounded and Bobby's voice broke the conversation.

"I've gotta go," He smiled weakly after he responded to his radio. She nodded her head and thanked him again before she watched him leave.

✦

CORA'S PHONE rings and she automatically picks it up without looking at the name. Holding her firefighter jacket she walks out of the hospital where Lacey waits in the car.

"Hello," She speaks up as nobody talks for a second.

A breath is heard quietly before the person starts to talk, "The hospital rang me, said you almost drowned or something?" Her mom, Allison, spoke down the other end of the phone with no emotion despite the words that left her mouth. Any other mom would have been in shambles, driving down to the hospital to weep for hours just at the news yet not Coras mom.

Cora rolled her eyes, "Well don't sound too worried," She mocks and she can feel the burning disapproval over the phone, "I'm fine by the way,"

"That's good," The words she spits don't match her tone that she coughs out of her smoke burnt lungs. Cora never got phone calls off her mom and so they didn't say anything for a few moment.

"Mom is something wrong?" She asks moving closer the the hospitals outside wall so people could pass. Her ears listened for any different sounds in the background, for anything that could be alarming, "Do I need to go back?" She asks becoming concerned.

"No, no, no," She quickly spits out, "I'm fine don't worry about us. I just wanted to see if you were okay, that's all," Cora can hear the forced smile and the happier tone but it was all fake.

"You can always tell me," She said seriously looking at Lacey who was sat in the car minding her own business. Lacey Graves had the nicest parents in the world. Anthony and Bennet Graves, both had hearts made of gold and they loved Cora like she was their own. Every birthday, Christmas, Thanksgiving and every other holiday ever celebrated was spent with them (or at the firehouse when she had to work the busy holidays) and it had been that way for years.

"Just remember I love you- yeah," Cora's heart stings a little, for she rarely said it. It was words Cora hadn't heart in what felt like decades, "I've gotta go,"

Before Cora can say anything the phone hangs up and she's left standing alone in the car park of the hospital. Her mind replays the conversation over and over in her head. Something felt wrong yet it had always felt that way with Allison Reyes, her whole life went wrong in the worst ways possible.