Caught in the Middle

Chapter 2

"Travis!" Vic jumps out of the aid car as soon as I park it in the empty garage at 19, to run into her best friend's arms. I climb out of the rig after her and awkwardly wave at Travis when he makes eye contact with me over Vic's shoulder. "Hi, Maya. Long time no see."

The awkwardness stretches when he tries to come in for a hug just as I turn to the supply closet. Vic snickers behind me and I can feel myself blush. For fuck sakes, will I ever be able to just be normal around other human beings? This is why I found every excuse to stop taking shifts with 19 for as long as I did, because I hated who I am when I was around these people.

It was my first shift with my old team since we rescued Maddi. I've been juggling organizing the upcoming captains' exam, physical therapy with Maddi that has progressed to track practices, the extra hours at work to make sure the lieutenants are getting the best exposure, and spending time doing things that make me happy.

I decide to bite the bullet and ask where the team went, hoping that they'll be back soon so that I can hang out with Beckett and Jack and not have to worry about offending any one here. "They got called out to assist with the cleanup at the baseball stadium after the storm last night. Huge high school final tonight. I offered to man the desk until the two of you got back from your call." I cringe inward because that meant that I am going to be stuck alone here with the two best friends for a while.

"Cool." I nod my head before looking around for my escape. "Why don't you guys go catch up and I'll refill the rig." I don't give them a chance to reply before I hastily walk to the supply closet to get the crates of medical supplies we used up during our call. I feel my phone vibrate in my pocket and take it out to see a notification from the courier company to say that my doorman signed for Pru and Antonio's birthday presents.

I do a little dance in the tight space and send Borris a text asking him to open the package and send me a photo. He does so within a minute, and I actually squeal when I see how perfect they look. Walker's uncle turned out to be a toy maker and when I complained about not being able to find the one gift Antonio begged for, she offered to arrange a meeting with him.

He loved my idea, and we spent the whole weekend at his shop, designing and building the two unique doll houses and the little figurines that gets to live in them. For Antonio we chose the design of a standard fire house, made from bricks wallpaper. It was enhanced with the red doors and red windowsills to make it really pop.

Mr. Walker even went as far as to make functioning fire trucks, fire hydrants that can be filled with water, and an alarm that blared random call outs. The figurines were made to slide down the firepole and we opted to decorate the captain's office as if Beckett still held the title. The little firemen and women even had custom made turnouts gear and uniforms. I was so envious of the cool gift, that I'm tempted to keep it at my apartment for when Antonio comes to stay over.

For Pru, we went a different route. She hasn't been the biggest fan of firemen and didn't even take a liking to Dr. Bailey's profession. I haven't been able to spend as much time with her as I would like, but Jack told me all I had to know. Her dream is to become a soccer star and play in the world cup on the same team as Ashlyn Harris. Thank heavens for Mr. Walker's knowledge of football because I was a lost cause.

He took the lead in the design of her dollhouse, creating a beautiful stadium that housed a football field, a gym, the coach's class box and the team locker room. Her dolls included five soccer players with the jerseys of her favorite players, the team of coaches in their tracksuits and a few spectators. It was absolutely stunning in all its pink glory and I couldn't wait to see the look on her face when she opened it in a few days.