From Intern to Family | 9-1-1 Fanfic

Chapter 20

Didn't someone say that when you hit rock bottom the only way is up? Well they're a liar.

Day after day it felt like the firehouse was crumbling down around me. Bobby and Eddie hardly spoke to me and I avoided them at all costs. Buck tried to keep things normal between us, but it was just as strained as the other two. Hen and Chim were the most normal and somehow there was still tension between us.

It seemed like after everything's that happened, we finally cracked. Sure, I knew it was mostly my own fault (if not all) and this is what I had wanted. I had told them to back off and to stop caring like they were some sort of family to me. It was my choice.

Then why did it hurt so much?

Still, when everything came crashing down and my life felt like it hit an all-time low the universe knew just how to pull me down even deeper.

The morning had started out fine. I had woken up and got ready for work, ignoring the bruise on my jaw from the night before. I could hear the others moving about the house and some of the kids getting ready for school.

Then, the shouting started. I had rushed downstairs in fear of one of the kids getting hurt, only to be stopped at the bottom of the staircase.

Which brings me to the current situation I was faced with. The two adults continued to shout, this time in panic, as Zara stood frozen in the living room.

Some of the candles were knocked over on the ground, their flames quickly engulfing the dusty, old rug. The fire was spreading quickly and I cursed as the flames licked the bottom step. The twelve year old looked at me with fear, as if I held the answers to this problem.

The flames grew higher and Zara was grabbed from behind. "Cooper! Cooper, no!" She screamed as she was dragged to the front door.

With one adult holding Zara, another had grabbed Dani from the kitchen and left the house with her too. I scrambled up the stairs when smoke began itching at my throat and I coughed.

"What's going on?" A young voice echoed from the top of the stairs. I turned my head and spotted the youngest two, Oscar and Lucy, shaking in their spots.

"Go to my room, now!" I ordered, not looking away until they left my vision. My head turned back towards the fire, immediately noticing how it had begun to creep up the second step. Was everything highly flammable in this place?

My feet scampered back upstairs as I ran into my room, spotting the two stood in the middle of my room. "Cooper you're scaring us." Oscar cried and I gently stroked his hair.

"Sorry buddy. But there's a fire downstairs and I need to make sure we stay safe, okay? You two need to listen to everything I say." I ordered, thankful when they nodded along.

I gave them a couple things to do, ordering one of them to keep their head out the window and to tell me when help arrived. With a sense of urgency, I ran to the bathroom and snatched up all of the wet towels that were dumped on the floor.

The smoke was creeping upstairs now and, luckily, my room was at the other end of the hall. Oscar took the towels from me when I entered the room again.

Lucy turned to me with wide eyes, "What about our safe bags?" She asked, her lip quivering fearfully.

Safe bags were the names I had given to the bags that held our most valuable possessions. Just in case anything ever happened, I made each of the kids fill a backpack of their favourite things. They were kept in each person's room, hidden for safe keeping.

I couldn't let them burn.

My chest shook with how deep of a breath I took, "Okay. I want you to close the door behind me and tucked the towels underneath okay? You two do not move until I come back and if you're in trouble, make as much noise as you can." I ordered.

Oscar opened his mouth to object and I shook my head, silently urging him that it wasn't the right time. I rushed out the room and closed the door behind me, pausing until I saw the towels peeking through the gap at the bottom.

My t-shirt was swiftly tugged over my mouth and nose as I made my way to the other end of the hall. I tried to ignore the blazing fire as I ducked into Lucy and Oscar's room. They kept their bags in their wardrobes, so it was easy for me to find the items.

I made my way to Zara and Dani's room soon after and began searching the room. They hadn't been as obvious as the youngest kids, instead choosing to hide it somewhere sneaky. Luckily, this had been my old room before it was theirs.

The bed creaked under my weight as I reached up and knocked a loose ceiling board to the side. It took a couple tries before it moved enough for me to reach up and grab the bags. A broken piece of wood scraped against my arm, cutting deep enough to draw blood.

Ignoring the injury, I yanked the bags down again and slipped them over my shoulder. As I made my way back into the hall, I flinched away from the flame. Any closer and it would've likely burned me.

My eyes welled at the thick smoke filtering into the bedroom behind me and I darted to the other end of the hall.

The smoke was only halfway down the hall for now, but at this rate it wouldn't be long before it reached my room. I tapped my fingers against the door, trying not to cough at the foreign gas in my lungs.

Oscar swung the door open and I darted in, immediately helping him replace the towels once the door had shut properly. I directed the two to sit in the corner furthest away from the door. Thankfully, it was under the window too so they had some fresh air floating in.

Upon hearing the familiar sound of sirens, I poked my head out of the window. A fire engine had arrived, paired with a paramedic vehicle in tow.

I patted my pockets desperately, sighing in relief when I felt my phone. The phone lit up in my hand and I scrolled through to my contact list. For a while now, I had been hearing Buck get scolded over the radio for answering his phone whilst they were out on calls.

The dialling sound echoed in the tense room and my eyes darted to the door, as if expecting it to come crashing down any minute.

"Blue? Everything okay, I'm kind of busy here." He answered the phone.

I physically deflated in relief at the sound of Buck's voice. "Okay, don't freak out. Have you and the team just arrived at a fire? A two-story house with a chimney and a flamingo statue in the front garden?" I rambled, sending the two worried kids a reassuring smile.

I heard a click and suddenly more voices filled my ears. "Cooper if you're about to tell me that you're inside that house, I'm going to flip." The man hissed and I flinched at the tone.