Burning Flames ¦ Evan Buckley

Chapter 22 - Merry Ex-Mas

The time between Halloween and the lead up to Christmas was always a weird one for El. As soon as the ghosts and vampires were away, out came the reindeers and Santa's'. Christmas was a time that revolved around family and family was something that El lacked. Despite finding friends at the 118, they all had families of their own, lives outside of the firehouse, whereas Els...there wasn't much of a life outside of work. Sure there was Mikey, he was like a brother to her, however he had a focus, he had Maddie.

Mikey was still unaware of El's past whereas she knew about his. She felt bad keeping it from him however she still couldn't bear to talk about it outloud, it made things easier if she kept it to herself, at least for now. It wasn't just the death of her parents, it was every event that followed after.

Scenes at work were all one in the same it felt like. Everything felt as though it was mashed into one giant scene, chaos spreading amongst the streets as people rushed to buy christmas gifts for those around them. El opted for the most part to order things online.

-

"How long's he been in the air?" Buck asked as they made their way to the next scene.

"Plane took off from LAX 18 minutes ago. It was diverted to SoCal Airport." Bobby confirmed.

"18 minutes. It's nearly long enough to reach altitude. It's not good. Cargo isn't pressurised or heated" Eddie continued.

"I thought coach was bad" Chimney commented.

"Hey, Chim, make sure we have 02 and warming blankets standing by." Bobby interrupted.

"Copy that" He responded.

"So you two got anything riveting planned for Christmas?" El asked, noticing there was a small amount of awkwardness in the air between Buck and Chim. Neither of them said anything to which El responded "Sounds great" Paired with a sarcastic thumbs up.

-

The team arrived on scene and the bird had already landed. They wasted no time in grabbing their equipment and heading straight for the cargo bay, being on a tight schedule, unsure if the victim was still alive.

"Oh, joy" Chimney spoke as he stepped in the cargo hold first, seeing the piles of stacked boxes.

"Ah well, looks like we're opening presents early this year, huh?" Buck commented as he entered after, El just behind him.

"Clock is ticking guys. We gotta find this kid. Dispatch said he was having trouble breathing even before he went up in the air." Bobby spoke.

El suddenly heard the sound of a phone ringing "Hey, shhh" She called out to which everyone stood in their tracks "Did you guys hear that? Eddie , stethoscope" El spoke.

Eddie gave her a nod and checked one of the larger boxes, one that could fit an averaged size man in. "That's our guy, nice call Rhodes" Eddie nodded back to her, a small smile appearing on her features.

Everyone got to work with getting the shrink wrap off of the box before beginning to carefully cut into it, not knowing where he was positioned inside it. As soon as there was enough of a gap, El slipped her hand inside and began to move the packing peanuts around until she saw his face "Yeah, I got him! He's in there" El confirmed.

Upon hearing those words the boys began to work quicker in getting the box fully open. Only moments later, one side of the box was open and the peanuts began to spill onto the floor. Carefully El and Buck began to pull the blue toned boy out from the box, a large teddy bear in the way which was soon moved by Chimney.

Once the boy was onto the backboard El took a step back, letting Eddie, Hen and Chim take charge in the medical side of things. While they did so she attempted to find the phone which was still ringing consistently. It was an intense atmosphere as the young boy had no pulse and was cold to the touch, it was hard to tell whether that was from the severe lack of heat or how long his heart stopped for. However, as if a Christmas miracle took place, Eddie called out that he had a pulse.