Burning Flames ¦ Evan Buckley

Chapter 7 - Mentioned Nothing

"It's been 14 hours already. How longs' it take to pull a rod out of a guy's skull anyway?" Buck groaned as he paced back and forth in the dining area.

"You ever heard of that saying 'It ain't brain surgery'? Well this is" Hen spoke, her tone down yet plain.

It had been a long night for everyone, including El. She had grown fond of Chimney since arriving at the firehouse. She never had an issue with him. He was kind, supportive, funny. The light in the dark. She admired that about him and now none of them could be there. They had to sit on the sidelines and wait. It was agonising.

El fiddled with her fingers at the table however peered her head up when she heard Bobby. "He's alive"

"He still have both his eyes?" Hen asked, this being one of the main concerns at the scene.

"Yeah" Bobby nodded.

"Any..any brain damage?" Buck stuttered.

"What about memory loss?" El chimed in, this being the first thing she had said since arriving back.

"There were some complications when they took the rebar out. He started haemorrhaging. They got the bleeding under control but had to put him in a medically induced coma. They'll let us know if his condition changes" Bobby spoke, lack of emotion displayed in his voice. It was yet again, the captain's tone.

"You mean if he wakes up," Buck spoke.

"Or if he doesn't" Hen sighed, her medical knowledge speaking.

"Or When...when he wakes up" El spoke, her voice shaking in an attempt to be the optimist which was extremely unlike her. There was nothing she hated more than giving up on a person.

-

As bad as it seemed, a small spark of joy emulated from the crew when an emergency was called in. El and Buck worked together in breaking the locks off of the large red container that was filled with screaming people, begging for help.

El felt a rush of adrenaline that had been lacking in her system when she saw the large amount of dehydrated people inside the back of the truck who had snuck into the country. Pushing every thought she had back, El began to help people out of the truck, using her strength to carry the children out before handing them off to paramedics.

Once everyone was out of the truck it was a tending game. El took off her jacket and began to hand water round to everyone, checking temperatures and making sure everyone was okay as they could be given the severity of the situation. Things took an aggravated turn when Hen tackled the driver to the ground, using this as an opportunity to let off some steam.

"Mikey!" El yelled upon seeing her friend at the same scene. She wandered over to him after arresting the culprit.

Mikey held onto the man's arms and put him into the back of his patrol car. He slammed the back door and his focus shifted as he heard the familiar voice of his friend, "Ellie!" He called back, holding open his arms.

El smiled at his nickname, it was sweet, her old friends used to call her that. He gave her that sort of homely comfort. She hugged her friend tightly "Didn't think you were working today?"

"Athena's not come in again and they needed extra hands, plus I couldn't leave all the fun to you." He chuckled, pulling away from the embrace leaving his hands on top of her shoulders. "How are you doing? I heard about your friend."

"It's been...tough" She sighed "It's that bad we were all excited to actually be called out and then we were welcomed with this. The worlds fucked up"

"All that matters is that we caught the guy and those people are getting the help they need." He smiled, "And I'm sure Chimney will be fine. He seems like a tough guy."

"I hope so, feels like I'm being the only positive one. Which is weird for me, let's be real" She let a small chuckle escape her lips. Her eyes travelled round the area, surveying everything once again, one man did all of this. Her eyes soon laid upon Buck who was on the phone, likely to Abby.

Mikey followed El's gaze and a smirk grew on his face. He let out a soft chuckle and poked her on the shoulder, "Oh, Ellie has a crush." He teased, poking her again.

"Shut your face before I shut it for you sunshine" She threatened however couldn't keep it up, her face growing to a smile. "I don't have a crush, that's Buck, the one I kept blowing up at..." She admitted. Since meeting they had clicked and kept in touch with one another, so often they would rant about people they had to deal with or worse, coworkers.

Mikey tilted his head to the side with a grin planted across his face, "Are you threatening a man of the law?" He nodded his head at her response and chuckled, "That's THE Buck?" He questioned, "Wow."

"Man is a strong term" She smirked at him. "But yeah...that is the Buck. Why the wow?" She raised a brow at him confused.

He held a hand over his chest as a gesture of fake offence, "Ouch, you know that hurts." He smirked and glanced back towards Buck. "All I'm saying is that if you don't have a crush, I definitely do."

"You are insufferable" She laughed "He's all yours boo, have at him, but not sure he swings your way"

"It's a good thing this isn't baseball." He said, turning to his patrol car. "Now give me another hug, I have to take this dirtbag in and get him booked." He held open his arms once more and pulled her into a hug.

El laughed and hugged Mikey back, he was the only person she allowed to hug her. Hugs were sentimental but Mikey was a sentimental guy, she could tell. He was unlike anyone she had met since that dreaded day. "Make sure he does some proper time" She gave him a smirk before walking off, going back to work.

-

"You know, we work with El, we have 24 hour shifts with her and she's never mentioned a guy" Buck turned to Hen.

"It could be her brother?" Hen spoke, looking at him disapprovingly.

"Yeah but she's never mentioned if she has a brother" Buck rebutted, curiosity getting the better of him.

"She literally never mentions anything Buck" Hen laughed "Don't be offended, we're all in the dark here" Hen finished before walking off back to her patients shaking her head.

Buck watched from afar for a while, wondering if this was the guy she was texting yesterday before the accident with Chimney; however what he couldn't figure out is why he cared so much? It was likely due to her lack of liking him, he was a likeable guy, everyone liked him, especially women. This whole situation was making him more and more curious.

-

As soon as the team heard the news that Chimney was being taken out of the coma, Bobby did what he could to get them some time. El felt honoured that they had asked her to join them, it not feeling real that they would even consider her close enough to invite. She went along, despite feeling like an outsider, but maybe she wasn't, maybe it was all in her own head and like Buck said, she needed to lighten up; in more ways than one.

El leant against the cabinet, watching as everyone took their place, Bobby taking his hand, holding it close. Chimney's fingers moved ever so slightly at Bobbys words, hope beginning to fill the room. El moved closer, much like Hen had done and placed her hands on the end of the bed, leaning against it, trying to find some words.

Buck clearly was no better with words than her so to save him from severe embarrassment she joined in "I'll control the winch for as long as you want too" She laughed a little, the others chuckling despite their pain. It's what Chimney would want. Laughter. Not tears.

"His family's right here" Was enough to make Els' eyes gloss with tears. Not only was she seeing someone she considered a friend, lying unconscious for potentially the rest of his life but she was considered as a part of a family, for the first time in 7 years. 

Authors note!
Mikey is TalitheWriters character! Make sure to check him out! He's going to be a recurring character in the story!