Extinguished

~4~ Miracle

Taylor's POV

My guys and I don't get into our normal seats in the squad truck. There isn't time.

We have to start getting on our gear on the way to the scene. Drowning calls are different. Most of the time it's a recovery situation, but we still have to do what we can to cut down as many seconds as possible.

We're getting on our scuba gear in the back of the squad, steadying ourselves against the sharp turns and bumps in the road. We're ready with seconds to spare before the truck comes to a quick, final stop. We jump out and head for the river at a dead sprint. As we're headed for the bank, the family runs to us.

"She was swimming, and then all of a sudden she was just gone! We can't find her!" The mother screams frantically as she grabs my arm. I continue to run even faster.

"How long has she been under?" Chief asks the mom.

"I'm not sure," she says, choking back hysterics.

I get to the edge of the river and quickly secure my rope to the clasp on my suit.

"Keep feeding me line until I reach bottom," I say to Diego. "Then give me 5 more feet every time I tug on the rope twice, ok?" I continue.

"Yes Sir!" Diego says quickly.

"Once I've got her, I'll tug 3 times. Pull us back up," I say as I head into the water, securing my mask.

Once in the river, it's dark and murky. I scan the area quickly. She's not right here. Damn it. I tug on the rope twice, and notice I'm able to move a little farther now. Good. They felt the tug.

I walk a couple more feet, and I still don't see her. She hasn't been down here long, where is she?

I tug on the rope twice again, quickly. The next 5 feet is all I need. Over to my left I see her, laying face up on the bottom of the sandy bed. I grab her and tug three times as hard and fast as I can. Immediately I can feel us getting pulled up to the surface.

Once we are at the surface, I put the little girl up over my head, in hopes that she's still alive. I hand her off to Greene once I get to the shore, and climb out myself.

I watch as Green rushes her over to where Freeman and Fields are standing with the gurney.

The girls get her secured, and then I hear Ellie yell "let's get her to the rig, right now!"

It must be bad if they don't even try to do anything here. She must be already gone.

I jump in back with Ellie. With Megan driving, she's going to need an extra set of hands in the rig.

I immediately start chest compressions, while Ellie gets the supplies she needs.

Immediately water starts pouring out of her mouth, leaving her lungs. I continue compressions, over and over, willing this little girl to keep fighting. It's always worse when the victims are children.

Ellie opens the girl's mouth once the water stops gushing, and gets the tube in easily. She checks for a moment to make sure the tube was placed in the right spot, and then hands me the stuff to start bagging. I start squeezing the bag evenly—Watching...waiting.

"Pushing Epinephrine," she says as she administers the drug.

Once that's done she says softly, "I'm gonna do a pulse check."

She fights tears as she puts her hand on the little girl's carotid artery, and waits.

She gasps as she looks at me "I've got a pulse!" She says, completely shocked, not yet allowing herself to become relieved.

I reach over and grab the blood pressure cuff and hand it to her. I don't know much about this part of the job, but I know enough to know that they need to check the blood pressure to see if this girl has a chance.

She puts the cuff over her arm and checks the pressure.

"BP is 60/40 she says as she gasps, her mouth hanging open and tears streaming down her face.

I just shake my head, smiling. This girl shouldn't have made it. There's no explanation for it. Science would say she should be gone, with being under the water for as long as she was.

We get her wheeled into the hospital and handed off to the doctors. While I wait for Ellie and Megan to finish their paperwork, I see the mom coming towards me.

She wraps me in a huge hug, and starts sobbing.

"Thank you. Thank you for saving my baby," she cries, hugging me again.

"Doctors say she should make a full recovery," She continues, wiping the tears from her eyes.

"That's great news, ma'am. Your little girl is a fighter," I say as I smile and put my hand on her shoulder.

On the way back to the station I have calmed down enough between the situation with Liam and the shock and adrenaline from this call. I start to think about how lucky Liam really was. He has his license. He's been driving for over a year, so that isn't the part I'm relieved about.

From the way that Douchebag Monroe explained it, those boys were doing 80 in a 30, and running stoplights. They could have been killed.

It's calls like these that help me remember that life is short. We're not guaranteed tomorrow. Hell, we're not even guaranteed 10 minutes from now. I'm suddenly just so grateful that he's ok—Safe in the firehouse, waiting for us to return.

We get back, and Liam hasn't moved. He's still scared out of his mind, watching his mom and me as we make our way over to him.

From the look on his face, he was fully expecting me to grab him roughly and shuffle him off to the office, the way I started earlier.

He's shocked when instead, I pull him into a huge, love-filled hug. I just hold him like that for a moment, and glance over his head at Ellie, smiling.

"At least this knucklehead is safe, yeah?" I ask as I mess up his hair with my hand.

"Yeah." Understanding washes over her face as she moves over to us, and I wrap her up in our hug. The three of us just stand there for a few moments, in a silent group hug.

"Ok, bud. It's time," I say as I break out of our embrace. He knows what's coming. He knew it all along. He also knows, however, that he's loved. By all of us.

The three of us head to the office, to discuss this matter further.