eternal flame | eddie diaz

forty-nine

survivors

✧

"Shots fired. Firefighter's been shot. We need LAPD and air support!"

Captain Mehta's words snapped Eddie back to life and quickly shocked the man back into flight or fight mode. Escaping the safety that the fire engine was providing, Eddie army crawled under the truck while chaos erupted around and grabbed Olivia by the hand, dragging her underneath the engine so she was out of the line of fire.

"Get her in the cabin! Get her in the cabin!"

With the help of the other few firefighters around, Eddie hoisted Olivia over his shoulder while the cabin doors opened and tossed her in the back as cautiously as he could. Fires and gunshots ensued while they drove off in the direction of the nearest hospital.

"I got you. Okay, I got you, Liv." Eddie hysterically ripped apart the gauze and placed it on her gunshot wound. "Just stay with me, okay? That's all you gotta do."

Despite the blood pouring out of her wound and the disoriented look in her eyes, Olivia shakily reached up to grip Eddie's forearm with her uninjured arm. "Did you...get hurt?"

Any outsider looking in would have asked the same question. Eddie was covered in blood from head to toe, Olivia's blood. "Don't worry about me, baby. All I need is for you to keep those pretty eyes open for me."

Olivia gulped and shakily exhaled. "H-Hurts."

Eddie silently nodded, wishing he could somehow take her pain away but he couldn't. All he could do was watch their surroundings and wait until the engine pulled up into the front of the hospital so they could get her into surgery.

When they did, another ambulance pulled up at the same time with another wounded firefighter. Eddie felt helpless as he watched his now unconscious girlfriend get wheeled into the building.

The minute she was out of his line of sight, he turned over and threw up the contents in his stomach. It wasn't until a hand settled on his back that Eddie felt a bit of stability for a few seconds, he looked over his shoulder and saw Buck with the same grief-stricken expression that Eddie had plastered on his face for the past morning.

"I got here as fast as I could. What can I do?"

"I-I don't know." Eddie ran a frantic hand through his hair. "I need to tell her sister. I need to reach Tyler somehow and tell him what's happened so he can let Kai know. And Christopher. I-I have to tell him. I don't⎼"

"I can reach out to Tyler," Buck said. "Stay here. The first thing Olivia will want to see is you. Stay with her. I'll handle things."

"B-Buck, I can't lose her, man."

"She's strong. We're not going to lose her." Buck kept a straight face, he wasn't going to break in front of his best friend. "I'll have someone come by to bring you a change of clothes."

✶❤︎✶❤︎

It didn't matter how hard he scrubbed, Eddie could still feel Olivia's blood splattering his face and body over and over again. His skin was practically raw by the time he got most of it off but it didn't matter how clean his skin looked, he could still feel the weight of the blood covering him.

He escaped the restroom to return to the waiting room and sit while he waited for any updates from the doctors. It felt like a lifetime had passed by before Bobby and Athena were racing through the hospital doors with a change of clothes for the man and in hopes of good news.