What's 1800 miles away from home?
wc : 13.7k cross-posted : Ao3 Playlist
Masterlist (Firefighter! Paige x Nurse! Azzi)
Author's note : Guyyyyys chapter 9 is here! Enjoy the read before the game and wings up ⬆️
(Honestly it’s not my best one but it’s ok I guess…)
That was the first thing that Azzi shallowly intellected, when she woke up.
She felt like the heat under her comforter was even higher than usual; that it was holding her down against the mattress in an even heftier way, wrapped around her; it felt like a cocoon.
Her grip on the hem of her soft white shield tightened, and she rolled ever so slightly away from the light, burying her face and shoulders even more under the warmth. A sigh escaped her lips.
She was blissfully comfortable and moving was the last thing she wanted to do right then.
Especially because it was one of those types of mornings where one wakes up so exhausted they didn’t even remember where they were. She felt like she could stay in bed all day long.
But the moment her brain connections began to link back together, she also registered that she hadn’t been woken up by the annoying buzz of her phone, which was weird because if she remembered well, it had been two days since the last call so she should definitely be hearing from her mom today.
Which meant that it was either too early (even for her mom) to be calling her, or something was up.
Azzi frowned thinking about it.
Her interrogation not leaving her mind, she decided to check the time. Surely, it wasn’t 8 am yet if her alarm hadn’t gone off. But the light coming from the slightly open window (of which she had seemingly forgotten to close the shades), was telling her that it definitely wasn’t that early, not too early to be awake though.
She groggily shifted toward her side of the bed, reaching out for her phone, simply angling it toward herself while not bringing it to her completely. The bright light of the screen made her squint, and not having her reading glasses on, she still had to lean a little closer to it to see. But at the same time she read 7:23 am (and cursed herself for not being able to stay asleep thirty more minutes), she heard a shuffle next to her, and an arm that had apparently been snuck around her waist all this time, tightened and pulled her back to the center of the sheets.
Azzi nearly jumped at that.
She had not been expecting any movement from beside her.
Though, once the first surprise at the unusual sight and early movement passed, the white hand that was resting flat on her lower abdomen made her remember.
Paige was here, they had sex last night, and she was now officially her girlfriend.
Damn, how could she have forgotten?
The nurse turned around ever so slowly, careful not to move Paige’s hand or disturb her in her very much still asleep state. Her own movements felt so loud in a room that was only bearing the soft exhale of the blonde and very faraway city noises. It made her flinch, fearing to wake up the older woman.
Though once she was facing her, Azzi's breath stopped. The sounds coming from Paige felt like they had been exemplified ten times now. It was like they were the only thing in the room capable of reaching her ears. Sweet, soft puffs of air coming off in a steady rhythm and marked by a lifting and lowering back; usually, simply a proof of life for the nurse’s everyday life, although feeling like so much more right there.
But beside them, Azzi’s brain also tripped at the sight she was greeted by.
Paige was still sound asleep, not aware of the city waking up just outside, of what was probably so many people to take care of for them today, and of anything possibly able to disturb her in any and many different ways.
Her long half naked body was spread on the soft white sheets of Azzi’s bed, as she was laying on her stomach, her head nearly completely hidden in the pillow she was clutching. Like Azzi had noticed before, her torso was softly swelling with air every time she inhaled, and always deflating exactly two seconds later. And that sight, the regular recurrence of it could have frankly lull the brunette back to sleep.
It would have actually, if her eyes could close and stay away from Paige’s candid sleeping traits for more than a second.
But she looked so much lighter than what she showed in the daytime – like years of life had been taken off of her. Azzi noticed, and it seemed so precious to be able to look at her at this moment.
The way the muscles of her face seemed so decontracted, like any of the stress and issues that the outside world brought to her and that were pulling the strings taunt like puppeteers had stopped for a minute. Just letting her be, letting her disappear into that restful strainless slumber.
Azzi gazed at her intently; the soft golden rays of the sun coming in long lines through the window and hitting the skin of her back; fanning over her messy blonde hair and the small spots of her cheeks barely reachable behind them.
And just as she was settling back more comfortably into her mattress, laying on her side, but facing Paige this time, something else settled inside her. Something gentle floating around her chest, like a falling feather searching for somewhere to land on softly. It didn’t crash, it didn’t disturb anything already there; it just moved, brushed over everything that was around, hovered until a small place was made for it to nestle on. As unavoidable as gravity.
Everything was still quiet. But with a gentle addition.
Though the before and after was flagrant. Like something else, something even better, was building with what had already been there. Over the premises already there.
And Azzi mused on it, on that new feeling. On the fluttering sensation. It was so different from anything else she had felt before; yet not scary, never scary. Never unsettling. It was another kind of comfort and certitude.
Just as she was starting to get lost in her head, Paige grumbled, sneaking her hand under her shirt, higher on her stomach, and attempting to pull Azzi closer to her. Her eyelids fluttered open before closing back immediately; she planted her face even further into the pillow, a long drawn out groan dissolving in it. Azzi didn’t even have the time to be surprised, the scene was too comical for that. So, she simply chuckled.
Her own hand slid down to the one that was on her, stroking its knuckles in regular coaxing motions while Paige was gently waking up (still very much not in the mood to, but now that she remembered Azzi was there, she was obviously a bit less grumpy).
The unusuality of having someone in her bed quickly got replaced in Azzi, and fondness was found taking over it instead. The sight of Paige, buried in her mattress, a leg out from under the comforter, her face planted in the pillow, mumbling nonsense, while clothed in nothing except a very snug boxer and her sports bra was really doing something to Azzi inner balance. So much so, the nurse couldn’t prevent herself from bringing a hand to her face and softly brushing back the stray blonde strands covering her eyes.
Paige snuggled deeper into the pillow, but her hand pushed just the tiniest back bit into Azzi’s own.
“Good morning” Azzi greeted lowly, her voice a bit scratchy from sleep lasting in it.
Paige’s own hand passed over her side, nearly tightening there, until she seemed to realize that was where Azzi’s tender ribs were; and then, instead, moving it more to her back before she firmly pulled her toward her a second time.
And once Azzi was close enough for her, which meant, close enough for Paige to feel her own side pressing against Azzi’s front, she mumbled back, “– mornin’”.
The brunette kept her hand on Paige’s upper back, her fingers tracing undefined forms on the skin there for an uncertain amount of time. None of them cared about that right then, taking their time to enjoy those first moments of the day. Each time Azzi would stop, the blonde would groan in complaint, forcing her to continue, until, finally, she opened an eye and blinked tiredly at the other woman.
That eye was enough for Azzi to notice the brightness it held when it landed on her. And that did something to her. That did something just as violent as the next words that came out of Paige’s mouth, though their effects were very much polar opposites.
Because, still mumbling, Paige said, “Shouldn’t ‘ve had sex with you last night”.
That was very uncalled for.
And she definitely felt a pang inside her shatter the flutters.
Nearly speechless and ready to slap Paige awake so she would explain herself, she tried to contain herself and ended up asking a feeble, worried ‘why’.
“Cause now I wanna do it again, but’ve a thirty hour shift, and when I come back, you’ gonna be on shift, and then… when you come back you’re gonna be on your periods, so I won’t be able to go down on you… It feels endless… like– Imma be horny for the rest of my life now.”
And that was like her imaginary slap had come back right to her and had shoved a smile back onto her face. Azzi burst out laughing, incapable of stopping it from surging up at the surprise (and the relief).
Damn, Paige would have to stop playing with her heart like it was her fucking puppet.
The blonde opened both eyes then, a malicious grin plastered on her lips, knowing all too well what she had just done and having no damn regret about it (that was ragebaiting at its finest). Then, she pushed up on her forearms and lifted herself just enough to plant a light kiss on Azzi’s still giggling lips, her hand still very much inside the brunette’s shirt, grazing at her obliques now.
“I’m gonna need your workout routine too” She muttered in between the first and the second kiss as she cast an inconspicuous glance down her body. “cause damn Az, you’re fit as hell”
Azzi still had a lingering smile on her lips when she proudly answered, “That’s just what running hallways twelve hour day does for you… and cottage cheese… and maybe, maybe good genetics to start with” she said chuckling when Paige made a face at the cottage cheese one.
“Dang, if it’s just that I’m doomed, Imma be a stick forever…”
Azzi looked down at her pouty lips.
“I think you’re going to be ok” she answered her, marking her point with a squeeze at Paige’s arm still thrown over her.
“Hm” The blonde responded non-commitally, mesmerized. “If you say so…”
They settled back more cozily; Paige leaned down on Azzi’s breasts, preventing the younger woman from leaving as if she wasn’t going to suck up every second they had together in that bed. Azzi kept her hand working on her nape, in her hair, playing with blonde strands and twisting them around her fingers. Paige’s trailing hand sneaked lower a few times during the couple minutes they stayed like that, each time beginning to play with the band of the brunette’s underwear, and each time her hand getting either pulled back up or just smacked away, making her giggle.
At one point, after a few consecutive buzzes of one of their phones, Azzi took the device, initially planning on putting it on DND, but Paige having asked for the time, she took a look at that too.
“KK is texting you,” Azzi informed her, simply noticing the stream of messages with little care, before responding the initial question, “7:38”
“uhm ‘k” Paige said, settling back down, intending on avoiding her best friend's annoying texts for a few more minutes. She was probably just starting a bullying session on their group chat with Ice because Paige didn’t come back the night before. Nothing really urgent.
Plus it wasn’t even 8am yet, what was she even doing up so early?
Paige literally jumped off the bed, uppercutting Azzi with the top of her head as she leaped off, swearing.
“Sorry– sorry!” she stammered, “Fuck I’m late!”
She quickly took in the room, trying to find her clothes as she frantically moved around.
“What the heck Paige?!” whined Azzi still holding her chin.
In a second, Paige was lifting up her sweat shorts from the ground, hopping one leg at a time inside, nearly tripping on it and face planting against the corner of the side table in the process.
“I’m supper mega fucking late!” she exclaimed, reaching for her phone Azzi was still holding. “Damn it, my shift starts at 8… and I needa pick KK and Ice up”
She promptly opened her thread with the two of them, and there were at least thirty unread messages there. Fuck, double fuck, triple fuck.
The first one she saw made her face fall even more.
KK: Paige I hope you remember my car is at the garage right now?
KK: You better be here in ten minutes.
That was fifteen minutes ago…
Oh she was so dead, she thought as she hit the call button on KK’s contact.
She threw her phone on the bed, once she put it on speaker, and took up once again the research for her shirt, very much still topless.
The phone call connected on the first ring.
“Paige, where the fuck are you?!” cursed in greeting KK’s annoyed voice.
The blonde half under the bed, still not having a white shirt in sight, began apologizing profusely.
She got up and hit her head on the wood plank on the side, which led to more cursing.
“I can be here, in like…” She took a look at the time once again, “ten minutes if I drive fast”
That got her a pointed look from Azzi, who was listening to everything, and was clearly displeased with Paige saying she could reduce a twenty minutes’ drive to a ten one.
“Ok fifteen, maybe” Paige corrected herself.
There was still no white cotton shirt around her.
Dang they weren’t that impatient last night, she was sure neither of them had thrown it to the other side of the room while undressing. She had a proof for that her shorts were literally at the foot of the bed.
“Don’t bother,” grumbled KK clearly exacerbated with the blonde unorganized person, “Aaliyah and I just picked up Ice we’re ten away from the station.”
Paige perked up at this, letting out a breath of relief.
“Oh, nice…” recognized the blonde now looking at the room with her hand on her lips, hitting the universal perplexed dad pose.
“Yeah, ‘nice’ as you say, not thanks to you Romeo,” accused KK, though Paige swore she was not as mad as what she wanted to pass for. “You have one job and it’s to drive us to work on time bro.”
“I know, I know,” admitted Paige. She did feel guilty. “I– I didn’t wake up.”
“Yeah, ’wonder why,” her best friend sarcastically responded.
Azzi snorted at that and Paige was sure it had been picked up by the microphone.
She ‘heard’ KK roll her eyes through the call, but the smaller one didn’t add anything else, seemingly taking pity on Paige’s hearable stressed out state. No one really wants to start a thirty hour shift stressed.
“Just know that if your only one minutes late for the breifing, Geno’s gonna fuck you up” She warned her. “And I’m gonna snitch and tell him all the details on why you’re late, you horny fuck.”
Paige rolled her eyes even though the comment on what had caused this entire situation in the beginning was very much making the apple of her cheeks turn pink.
“Oh, and say hi to Fudd for me” asked KK, now the smile clear as day in her voice.
And of course that was the moment Azzi decided to be a little shit too.
A scoff was heard through the microphone.
“Yeah, that’s what I thought”
Paige who had just cast a ‘are you for real?’ look at the brunette, quickly put the phone toward her mouth, and unceremoniously hung up with the fastest ever “See you in fifteen”.
When she looked back up, Azzi was smiling from ear to ear, the brightness of her teeth and dewyness of her lips being even more pronounced with the sunlight hitting her face. And Paige nearly forgot her task at hand.
(She feared Geno’s punishment too much for that)
So she just helplessly said.
In the end, Paige had left Azzi’s place without her shirt, and very much blind (she had apparently lost her glasses too). For the first one, she simply stole one from the nurse’s closet, promising to give it back the next time they saw each other – even though Azzi had shrugged while giving it to her, saying she wouldn’t mind her keeping it. But the second item was a bit trickier to replace. Paige successfully (illegally) drove to the station without them, but seeing how she literally saw nothing and nearly ran over two pedestrians (what a joke for a paramedic), she was starting to feel a bit anxious about spending that much time at work, seeing so badly.
Once her car parked, she very quickly ran up the stairs to the locker room, texting Azzi to know if she had found her functioning eyes.
And if the last step kind of tripped her, she ignored it given that no one was around to mock her.
When she entered the locker room ten seconds later, it was 7:57.
And when she got out and entered the common room where everyone else was, waiting on Geno to sort his documents for the team’s briefing, it was 7:59.
Her shirt untucked, her belt a notch too loose, she mindlessly collapsed on the chair next to Nika. She was already sweating and their shift hadn’t even officially started. Nice.
She took the biggest breath of relief, her head dangling back while she sunk a bit more into the comfortable leather. Only once she noticed the very uncharacteristically noiseless room, did she become alert enough to straighten up and take a look around.
KK, Ice and Aaliyah had all the same expression on: high left eyebrow, eyes blankly reproachful, but the tiniest ever twitch at the corner of their mouth. The worst thing was that the three of them were all sitting right in front of her like court judges. So there was no avoiding their staring.
But they were not even the firsts to start it, they didn’t even have the time to say anything because Jaylen opened his mouth before.
“Damn man, did you do cupping last night?” he blatantly mocked her.
Her eyes veered to him – leaving the three girls for an instant, puzzled about what he was referring to. And he didn’t miss a bit of it, simply pointing at the side of her neck.
Paige frowned at him and took her phone to check it with her camera.
That was very purple, too much purple even for her.
She looked at her smirking friends with big eyes, slapping a hand over the bruises while they all burst out and laughed at her shocked face, and reddening skin.
In between fits of giggles, Nika smiled at her, clearly amused by her embarrassment, “You don’t look in the mirror when you wake up?” She was enjoying bothering Paige so much she even poked at the hickeys to add up to her teasing. Definitely trying to annoy her friend to the bone before she even had the time to fully wake up.
Paige swatted her fingers away and promptly began closing her shirt all the way up – two buttons more than what she was used to.
“I was late,” she mumbled. “‘Didn’t have time to.”
Nika tried to poke at her again, snickering, “ooh I’m sure you were”, but Paige caught her finger and held it away from her, tsking annoyed.
“Ok y’all are gonna leave me alone or what?”
“In your dreams we’ gonna leave you. I want details” Aaliyah stated, putting her hands on the table like she meant business, while Paige was now nearly fighting with Nika for her to get out of her personal space and to stop her from trying to peep inside her collar. “You’re not making me leave fifteen minutes early and making a grand entrance like you just did without giving us anything.”
Paige looked at her, this time, unphased by the guilt tripping; had they not all known Azzi, maybe she would have given them a little something. But that was a whole other situation and she was definitely not exposing her sex life – and Azzi’s – right there and then. In front of everyone. It felt wrong to do so.
Especially with everything being still so new, and also very much fresh in her mind.
Fortunately, Geno came in a minute later, saving her from the interrogatory she was being put under, and officially marking the beginning of their shift.
Forty minutes later, they were coming back to the kitchen, and Paige was now seriously in need of a coffee and something to eat. For the last few minutes, she had been texting Azzi to see if the younger woman had found her missing belongings (and also apologize for her brutal departure earlier).
Right then, she was waiting for an answer, the tipping bubbles moving on her screen.
But then they disappeared.
Paige frowned, maybe Azzi was still searching and thought she had found something.
She waited thirty seconds before sending a second text, a small inquiry ‘So?’.
Nothing came up for another minute, so Paige just started the coffee machine and grabbed a croissant from the counter.
She was sitting at the table, mid bite when a new text finally arrived. Or a picture actually. Her thumb hit the ‘download’ button, and the photo charged, appearing clearly on the screen in an instant.
And that made her go through five different emotions in less than two seconds.
Damn Azzi was gonna be the death of her.
It was a simple mirror selfie on the first look – which she recognized it, being taken in the bathroom, so the first one was confusion. Then she realized Azzi was quite literally wearing her shirt – with seemingly nothing underneath – with her glasses up on her forehead and she was smiling at the camera like it was Paige herself. At this, the firefighter felt her cheeks beginning a discreet spontaneous combustion, but her heart didn’t care and decided it wanted to feel the most intense longing of her life for the brunette and the slow morning they could have had, had both of them been off. Maybe if Paige could have stayed, she would have witnessed that view in person too. And in the process of mourning what could have been and the fact that she was even more horny now than when she had told Azzi so that morning (she was drooling on her croissant, flakes falling all over the table without her being able to notice). Then her regard veered down to read the caption, which made her giggle at her – still very newly – girlfriend’s humor.
Azzi: Can’t find anything you gonna need to get new ones
It was written with the suspicious looking emoji, and Paige couldn’t help but smile at her phone. That was so Azzi.
A smile that quickly left her lips when the next texts popped up.
Azzi: Btw I just put your glasses on…
Oh she knew damn well where that was going. Guilt was already settling in her stomach.
Azzi: Pls tell me you didn’t drive the whole way to the station with nothing…
Paige couldn’t bring herself to answer that. And without any response coming, Azzi continued. Clearly, she wasn’t giving up without pushing and hearing – reading – it from the blonde herself. Which made her feel like a scolded kid.
Azzi: You’re freaking blind how the heck did you get there in one piece???
Paige bit her lips, scratching her neck sheepishly, she didn’t know what to answer back to that.
Azzi: Ok now I’m starting to get worried you did get to the station in one piece right?
Azzi: You know I see you reading my texts?
Oh she was getting impatient now, that was not a good sign.
Paige: You look good in my shirt
She tried to deflect, changing the subject, complimenting, but that clearly didn’t work on the nurse. Paige could hear her exacerbated tone through her texts. She swore she heard her sigh too.
Azzi: Stop trying to divert
Azzi: I’m dropping them off idc what you say you’re not working without them on an entire shift
Paige promptly wrote back to her not to worry about that.
Yes, she needed her glasses and would definitely keep spare contacts in her locker in the future; she also knew the journey between the station and the hospital wasn’t that much of a drive; but Azzi would still have to make a detour if coming from her apartment and knowing how much she hated to drive (which seemed even worse since her accident), Paige didn’t want her to. Especially if it was because of her disorganized ass.
It took her a bit of bargaining but in the end, she successfully convinced the nurse to just keep them with her for her own shift until Paige and Jana came to the hospital. If they did not – very much improbable – she would then bring them to the station afterward.
And Azzi reluctantly agreed, seeing her shift was approximately a third of Paige’s. That always seemed better than her being stubbornly blinde for the whole thirty hours.
Dang Paige wasn’t used to working in burning buildings anymore.
It had been a bit of time since she really was in the center of it all, the stress, the adrenaline of not knowing much but doing everything. Now more used to staying outside and waiting for people to be brought out to her or looking at the buildings’ plan with Geno while Nika was their engineer on the field. That had been her role since coming here, Geno had wanted her as a primary paramedic, and a secondary engineer, someone he could go to if he needed help in his assessment or if there were things needed to be planned out with Nika inside.
Today she had to go in though, seeing the size of the evacuation they were doing – that was probably only the second time since she arrived a few months ago – so this plus the fact that Geno had immediately demanded that Nika looked at the roof plans with him and Alex in parallel to her taking care of the hoses Paige had been sent in immediately.
And she loved being at the center of the action, but the feeling of needing to regulate her own breath constantly, plus knowing that she was probably, at most, seven minutes away from being in the red with her bottles of oxygen; and running up several floors with 60 pounds of equipment on her back; those were things she hadn’t missed.
“Bueckers, Arnold, Aaliyah just relayed they didn’t check the far end of your floor, they had to leave with a whole family before they could” Geno’s voice informed them through their com. “That means that… the two apartments on the left and the last on the right have not been checked out.”
“Copy” KK responded as they were hurriedly running up the last flight of stairs to the seventh floor.
This floor being the highest – and also one of the two the fire was coming from, smoke was everywhere. The grey particles were impeding their sight so badly they could barely see three feet in front of them, even with their flashlight turned on to the brightest.
Once at the top, they could feel the scorching heat coming through the first door on their right. This, plus the fume coming off of it and the small space under the door glowing warm orange light underneath, there was no doubt of what was on the other side. And by the look of that door, they’d better not open it without the hoses ready.
Gotta be fast if they didn’t want it to develop in the hallway.
“Hey, be careful with your O2 and come back quickly. We have a gas leak and a fast spreading flames around you, Jaylen and Jacob are shutting off the system in the basement and the rest of the team is heading to the roof to start venting” he informed them before going off once again. “As soon as you’re going down we’re cutting it open and sending the other guys with the hoses, ok?”
They both agreed, focused, ready to be efficient.
Jogging to the end of the hallway, the two girls checked the doors the other group had indicated. Two of them were unlocked, but of course, seeing how little people listened during evacuation, the third one wasn’t.
KK huffed in annoyance already.
Was it that hard to leave your door open for the fire department?
“P, Imma need the axe for this one.” she said on their private com channel.
Five seconds later the door burst open, wood shattered and shards rising in every direction at the point of contact. KK shouldered into it for good measure, and they entered. They rounded the – at first sight – empty space, looking for anyone. They were inspecting the rooms quickly. Surgically methodical. Nothing too much, nothing inadequate. Everything following an already thought out plan.
The fire had a fast propagation in the first apartments of the floor, the ones closer to the stairs like they had seen when they arrived, thus the reason Aaliyah and her own group had checked the closer ones first.
Unfortunately, they had found a couple and their child unconscious and had to evacuate them before finishing, which explained KK and Paige coming up to finish the job after they’d finished doing the same with their own floor.
And that also meant that they would have to be efficient on those three lasting ones if they didn’t want to be stuck up there with the flames coming at them. Because the heat was one thing they could live with, but having to wait for the ladder or for the air mattress to be in place would be a problem with the level of oxygen they had.
“Nothing in the far one” Paige relayed through the radio. “‘Still have two more, but it should be quick.”
They exited and entered another one, same room architecture, nothing they hadn’t seen on the plans beforehand.
But this time though, when Paige entered what seemed to be the bedroom, she paused immediately.
She quickly informed KK, shouting through the apartment, and started looking around: the space behind the bed, under the bed, lifting the comforter. She looked everywhere someone could be, but she found nothing.
The firefighter was sure she wasn’t hallucinating, those were hefty, sixty year old man smoker lungs breaths she was hearing, they were nearly unmissable. And yet. Nobody seemed to be in there.
She put everything upside down in the room, looking under every surface, in the closet, everywhere. She was restless, feeling their time ticking down and the heat more pronounced under her coat. There wasn’t any world in which she would leave someone in there.
KK appeared at the door a minute later.
But Paige stood motionless.
“Paige–” the younger tried again but got shushed immediately.
“Listen” asked the blonde.
They both tried to tame their breaths, no movement was made, the only noises coming from outside and above them. It seemed like the space was silent. But then, there were these short struggling breaths once again. Not her imagination. KK heard them too.
“You hear them right?” asked Paige for confirmation, and KK nodded.
The two girls stayed deadly silent, trying to orientate themselves with the sound, and flashing lights. KK took two more steps into the room, looking everywhere with focused (and working) eyes.
They must have seemed like two crazy people, listening to the sound of the air in the middle of a smoke filled room, with a fire quickly coming at them.
Paige was starting to think so, at least, until, suddenly, KK called her over.
She turned around quickly, and what she saw, approaching her, made immediate sense in her head.
Her best friend getting up from a crouched down position, holding something in her arms.
KK had just picked up a small bulldog from a corner of the room – hidden amongst a blanket behind the closet – and the poor animal was nearly completely out; not reacting in any way to the abrupt movements; breathing looking so difficult. And it looked like he was there for a long time before they arrived. Poor buddy.
The idea made her heart squeeze on itself.
She knew people were stressed in those types of situations, but, fuck, pets were family too. Leaving a dog, any kind of living being, in a burning building seemed inconceivable. She really really prayed it was only a mistake.
“Damn…” she swore, taking the pet in again. It looked so small in the large firefighter’s gloves, “Ok quick on the last check and we’re out, this little guy needs real air.”
And fortunately, the last one was as empty as the first. A simple in and out for them. Now only a step away from saving that poor dog.
They were already telling Geno they were a few seconds away from starting their descent, as they were passing the door. Distractingly they both hover over the small body of the pet. They wanted to protect him as much as possible from the fumes, but there was no way one of them could get her oxygen mask off for him, that was way too dangerous. And very much forbidden. So for the time being, they had put a wet dishtowel on his face, hoping that it would help for the journey back down.
But as they took their first steps toward the staircase, a new issue presented itself.
You have to be kidding me, thought Paige as she stopped in her tracks, in the middle of the hallway.
“Damn can’t we have a break?” mutter KK for herself.
Red, orange, and yellow flames as tall as the railing of the stairs were all over the first steps they needed to take since the door of the infamous apartment had fallen on them. Efficiently blocking their exit, and making them cast a glance at each other, looking for another alternative.
And of course that was the only damn stairway of the building.
Fucking old architecture from the 50’s that respected no actual norms…
Both of them were clueless. They both had an hourglass in their head, visualizing how much time they had left, and it didn’t seem like they had much sand left in the upper compartment.
Paige could see KK furrowed eyebrows through the glass of her mask and it was only fueling even more her uneasiness at the time. Because if there was someone that could get out of any tricky situation, it was KK. She always made up the craziest shit ever and somehow it would always work out.
“Please tell me you’ve an idea,” asked Paige.
KK frowned again, before looking up at her, a perplexed but also determined expression on her face.
“I do but you’re not gonna like it”
Without adding anything else, she gave the small – but damn heavy – dog to Paige and jogged closer to the flames. And even though every instinct in the blonde screamed to reach for her and yanked her back, she stayed put, tensed but still, trusting her friend.
She saw KK quickly peek above the fire before running back in the other direction, clearly having felt the burning heat through her equipment, and having apparently scout what she needed to for her ‘plan Paige wouldn’t like’ to be put up.
When she came back to her level, she didn’t wait.
“We can jump above it,” she declared bluntly.
Paige’s eyes grew seven sizes.
Unfortunately for her, KK looked very much cognitively healthy and aware. And it seemed like it was only a matter of time before she convinced Paige to agree with her stupid and very reckless plan.
“The fire is only over the first half of the stairs so the last five steps, plus the landing are clear,” she began to explain. “And if I saw it right, the platform of the landing is only around 5 to 6 feet under this floor… That's light work. I think we’ve actually done crazier shit.”
“Yeah, without sixty pounds of equipment on!” she maintained.
“You wanna keep arguing like a dumbass and waste your oxygen or you gonna be productive and agree?” KK asked exacerbatedly. “Cause if you keep up with the attitude while proposing nothing else we’re gonna stay stuck here with no oxygen and no time for them to bring up the ladder.” She added with that matter-of-fact tone that Paige hated (she hated it because 90 percent of the time it meant she was right and Paige was wrong).
Both were staring at each other with some eerie intensity now. Fire just as much in their eyes than it was in front of them. Typic Paige and KK dynamic, Ice would say if she was here. She wasn’t though. Ice was downstairs with the team, safe and faraway from that shitty situation.
But KK wasn’t wrong, Paige admitted in her head. Were they running out of time? Yes. Any solution that implied outside help would be hard to put up in the small time they still had before their bottles were empty, and keeping up on talking was definitely a big useless waste of that previously mentioned time.
And Paige hated to admit it but she didn’t have anything better to propose.
It was this or nothing (nothing meaning, here, dying in the freaking fire or asphyxiated).
A huff escaped her lips, blowing an annoyed but resigned cloud of condensation on her mask.
She closed her eyes trying to force her brain one last time to come up with another alternative.
“Fine,” when she opened her eyes, once again, there was a renewed vigor in her irises. “I'd better not be bursting another knee because of you, Kamorea”, she grudgingly agreed while hitting KK on the shoulder, before she started zipping open her coat to hide the dog inside so his fur wouldn’t catch fire when they passed through the flames.
“I didn’t burst your knee,” KK said, offended. “You chose to abruptly stop under that basket… I was just defending on you”
“Yeah whatever helps you sleep at night,” scoffed Paige. “You, go first so I’ll know if it doesn’t work out.”
KK rolled her eyes, but didn’t object.
They both walked a bit closer, and 7 feet away, as the heat was high enough to make them sweat rivers that could extinguish that fire, the smaller one stopped. She took a big breath, crouched down in a squat and got up three times, then jumped four times on the same spot, before placing her right foot a bit behind her. She marked a pause, and then, she was breaking into a sprint.
In a single second, she cut through the fire, and disappeared behind it like nothing.
And then a big thump followed.
“You good?” called Paige through the com.
There was a bit of silence and even though she wouldn’t admit it, Paige felt her pulse spike up during that instant.
But then KK response came through.
“All good! your turn” she informed. “And be careful with the last step, my feet nearly caught it”
With this indication, Paige took two more steps back, she would need a longer run-up if she didn’t want to lose an ankle on this one. Especially with the added thirty pounds from the dog. Damn, her knees were going to feel it.
On the spot, she tried not to waste too much time. A quick glance at her barometer told her she was really, really close to the red zone. So she inhaled deeply and closed her eyes.
It didn’t look that impressive from her spot, but surely it was because she hadn’t seen the other side of the fall. It probably was way worse than what she thought. Plus she actually wasn’t seeing much, and it wasn’t even because of the smoke (what a day to be blind). How was she supposed to land properly if she could barely make out the distances between her and the stairs right now?
Would KK be able to help her down if she broke a knee?
Damn Azzi would kill her if she ever learned she did something so stupid after refusing that she came over to give her her glasses…
Ok too much overthinking was being done here. She knew she could do it. ‘Didn’t have any other option anyway.
Kinda jump or die typa situations.
Fuck seeing things. Who needed eyes when they were fighting flames taller than them? Or doing dumb shit their best friend had thought of because they were trying to save a cute and innocent dog?
So she opened her eyes, and ran.
Each step faster, more powerful than the last one. Her boots colliding with the floor and pushing with all their might. Propulsing herself forward. She was quite literally running for her life, and in two steps she would be jumping for it.
She took them, the two last big strides.
And a foot before the ledge… She jumped.
Propelled herself in the air. Her body left the ground.
As she passed right through the flames, she felt it. The scalding, searing heat licking at her fireproof clothes. The incandescent light coming from around and beneath her, masking everything else.
And then, the drop. Her organs fell to the pit of her stomach, her entire body dragged back down by the enormous weight of her equipment. The fall seemed too fast to be good. It seemed like something that would not only shatter one of her knees, but both.
Though before she even had time to think about it, the flames disappeared, letting place to the height. And the space she would land on. Or should have land on.
In a fraction of a second, she saw through her blurry vision KK’s figure, standing on the side looking up. But she also saw the landing. Or more exactly the wall.
Clearly, she had underestimated her own speed.
She didn’t have time to do anything, that her knees were absorbing the shock of more than 200 pounds of body mass and equipment and she was crashing into the brick wall, pain bursting into her left hand and forearm, and a crack echoing in her ears as the side of her helmet hit the wall full force.
Fuck… please let it be the plastic, and nothing else.
Dizzy from the firsthand impact and not being able to catch herself – one hand still grasping at the smooth surface of the wall and the other holding the sleepy mass against her chest, she fell on her ass and hit her head on the wall behind in the process. Of course. Because one time wasn’t enough.
Damn, if she didn’t end up with cognition issues at forty-five because of this job.
“Oh shit!” KK ran to her pulling her up, as fast as she could, while Paige was still recovering from the multiple violent impacts, breathing heavily, as her heart was still trying to break free from her chest with the help of the adrenaline.
“Bro, that jump looked crazy!” the younger said, gripping Paige’s hand and yanking her upright.
The blonde grimaced at the searing pain the simple gesture caused in her member. And the tense look that appeared on her face would at least have had the credit of worrying the other girl after the stunt she made her do.
Paige, mentally taking herself in and noting the pain. Fortunately she felt no lasting haziness, so she nodded at her while stumbling up and pushed her toward the other part of the stairs so they could start the descent, before she answering.
“I’m good, I think I sprained something in my hand or my wrist though.”
Five minutes later, after getting an earful, like two kids, from a very concerned Geno (granted they hadn’t given him any update on their situation in three whole minutes) they were in front of the aid car with Jana. While the Egyptian was embarking someone, both KK – who had offered to come so the blonde could breathe for a few minutes (clearly she had some remorse after seeing her eat the wall like that) – and Paige were taking off their coats.
Once her helmet was off, the paramedic tried to unzip her coat, but with a hand still holding the dog and the other in her glove, it revealed itself to be a complicated task.
Plus, her heart rate was still very high, she felt it. Her hands were shaking with the remnants of adrenaline having yet to dissipate. And she also felt no ounce of patience with it.
She tried to take the glove off while pinching it between her left side and elbow, then in shaking it off like a kid would with something they didn’t want to wear. But when neither worked – and as basically both sent pulsating needle-like pain through her extremity – she resigned herself to the unhygienic and very unsafe last option. She grabbed at the glove with her teeth, tasting the awful soot on it, and she extirpated her hand from it.
Finally free, she successfully opened the coat and got the dog out from inside it.
She passed the poor animal to Ice who was helping coordinate the uninjured people with the police, explaining to her in which apartment they had found the small guy, hopeful that they would quickly find the owner and get him treated as soon as possible.
She felt a slight pull in her chest at leaving him in this bad state, but she knew Ice would be meticulous in finding him help, and she was also very aware that she was still needed in the aid truck.
So, ten seconds later, she was at the front of the ambulance, and as Jana drove them away, she began to take her suspenders off for the ride while KK was in the back. Her coat was already discarded at her feet, but those things were still constricting her.
She really thought it was all done. That she would be able to relax (as well as possible with the lasting pain of her fight with the wall), but as she lifted her hand to the elastic band resting on her shoulders, something caught her eyes.
The origin of the pulsating pressure coming through her left limb.
Coming from her pinkie to be accurate.
And well, to say it nicely… her finger was– very abnormally crooked.
The room was moving at a hundred miles an hour, people were shouting instructions over their shoulders and across the place, nurses were looking for the right medication and doses, while three doctors were talking in the corner of the room to plan out the procedure and what they would do if the next steps did not work.
Azzi was right next to the bed, hovering above their patient – an old woman – and trying to keep her as calm as possible (which wasn’t the easiest part in this moment) while giving her all the information on what was going on at the same time.
And it was hard, really, really hard to do so with all the commotion around.
The old woman, who Azzi had quickly gotten the name of, Mrs. Hackford or like she had told the young nurses in the first place – Elizabeth, was laid out on the bed, breathing with difficulties, and the nurse knew it was half due to the state of her heart and half due to the stressfulness of the situation .
She had come into the ER with the paramedics from station 39, with something they didn’t see everyday but that was very well known in the emergency medical field, and always quite a concern for doctors.
An uncontrollable cardiac arrhythmia.
In other words: her heart was beating fast, too fast and with no regular rhythm, and it was not going back to its normal pace, hadn’t been for nearly thirty-five minutes now.
And that was very worrying. Yes, it was scary for the patient, feeling your own heart get off like this and not understanding anything that was going on, your body failing you for no apparent reason… But not only that, it was something healthcare workers really didn’t like to see because those were the signs or more or less often the premises of cardiac arrest. And if they didn’t find a solution to that in the next handful of minutes, they could very well reach this dangerous point.
Azzi looked up to the other side of the stretcher, finding Caroline’s concentrated eyes as she was pressing on the syringe, injecting the sedative medication into the IV of the very stressed woman. Hopefully that would work and they wouldn’t have to go for the more ‘aggressive’ treatment. But for the moment, the treatment was not Azzi’s priority. Her priority here was to directly take care of their patient, assure herself that she understood what was going on, and if at the same time she could calm her down just the tiniest bit, well that was perfect.
“Hey, Mrs. Hackford,” Azzi tried to catch her attention, looking to draw it away from all the noise and the nurses and doctors rounding her. “Try to focus on me please.”
The woman’s eyes were switching so quickly from one point to the other it was nearly getting Azzi, herself, dizzy. Ok, clearly she was going nowhere with that right now. So, she tried the other method. Fake proximity and contact she repeated in her head.
“Elizabeth,” she called out once again, a hand on the woman’s shoulder.
This time, she got her attention for a split second. So she lunged at it. Grasping it so she wouldn’t lose it.
“Hi,” She said one more time, “My name is Azzi and I’m part of the group taking care of you right now.” The eyes stayed on her so she kept going. “Do you know in which city we are?”
The old woman muttered an unclear but still discernible ‘Los Angeles’ through the oxygen mask, and the younger nodded vehemently. That was a good sign, baby progressive steps, but it was good.
“Yes, perfect,” she agreed quickly, happy that the woman seemed aware and coherent enough. A quick glance up again and the frowns on Caroline’s and Doctor Weber’s – their cardiologist – faces told her it didn’t look good though. The incessant beeping of the monitor did too. That heartbeat really needed to pace down.
But she kept going on anyway, because, again, that was not her job now. Her job was to keep their patient informed, to be sure she knew and agreed with everything they were going to do. “That’s good, I’m going to explain everything that is going on ok? my job right is to let you understand what is happening and what we’re doing to help.”
“Ok, so, you came here with your heart beating really, really fast,” she began, articulating extra well, and speaking as clearly and stress-freely as possible in the midst of the din. “That’s actually not very good for the organ to stay in this state for too long, if it does it will lead to it getting really really tired and that’s not what we want.”
Avoiding any big words like cardiac arrest, potential brain irrigation issues, or dangerous fibrillation, she kept on explaining how they were actually giving her medication to try to calm it and that they had a few other solutions if it didn’t work.
The easy language and calmness weren’t there to sound patronizing. No. Quite the opposite even. They were used so the patient could understand everything that was going on. So she could be at the same level as them, her doctors and nurses.
“Just try to take deep breaths ok? The less stress the better for you” she added finally.
The old woman’s hand flew to her forearm that was pressing into the side of the bed and gripped it. Azzi let her do so. She brought her own hand above it to give the woman a point of anchorage. Having exchanged a few words with her seemed to be working, and her eyes were now naturally searching for her, but it didn’t prevent the need and uncertainty she had that pushed her to ask that next (horrible to hear) question.
That’s why a feeble, “I’m going to die?” came through the O2 mask, making Azzi’s heart squeezed. She hated those moments. Those moments where one felt so vulnerable, so lost and unsure of what was coming at them, they were trying to grasp at anything that could appease those fears. Azzi hated those because she was always in the first row to observe, and more often than not she could only do so little to help.
“No, no you won't, don’t worry” she reassured her. It wasn’t a lie, but she also bit her own tongue because she couldn’t actually be sure that she was telling the truth either. An escalation could happen so quickly sometimes…
“I don’t want to die yet,” Elizabeth added, tears collecting in her eyes. “Please…”
“Ok, we’re clearing for defibrillation, everyone back off!” Shouted Weber from next to Caroline now three steps away from the bed.
Instinctively, Azzi immediately tried to put the reglementary space too, but the hand on her forearm was still clutching her so hard she couldn’t.
“Elizabeth, I’m going to have to take a step back just for a second please.”
The hand grip got tighter, before it released completely, but the distress in her long-lived eyes stayed right where it was, flaming up and destroying everything else in them. Leaving place for nothing but fear.
Azzi swiftly took her steps back, but her eyes didn’t let go of the woman’s. Completely unable to. Like the eye contact she was providing was the last thing tethering the old lady to life; like she needed it to survive.
The woman let out a long painfully excruciating whine, one that came from deep in her throat, from her chest, as the loud smack hit through the space.
Azzi surprised herself by flinching. Hard.
It’s not that she was insensitive, usually, but she knew to keep the people she treated at distance. It was already difficult enough of a job for her, the last thing she needed was to worry about them and think about how they could be the age of her mom, her dad, her grandparents, or anyone close to her. How they probably all had families, just like her. It was safer for everyone, if she didn’t let those ideas enter her head. Them just as much as her.
That’s why it was so rare for her to be concerned. Because she didn’t let herself be. Just like Caroline, Sarah, Kaitlyn, everyone here did. Stay at distance, protect yourself first. In all possible aspects.
But that didn’t prevent them from slipping from time to time. Azzi was glad to say it happened less and less for her as time passed. But strangely, those days, it had been like her brain was unable to do so. Well not completely unable. But clearly, that skill seemed less honed than before. Because in the span of two months, she had failed twice already. And that recurrence was unusual for her. The first time had been with that boy she had helped save the night of her accident; she hadn’t been able not to think that he looked a bit like Jose, that he was the same age, and that her brother was probably going out too that night on the other side of the country. That had not been good for her.
But when three days later she had gotten a long text from Tim – who she had gotten the number of before leaving (obviously for legal reasons, but also because she wanted updates on their friend) – telling her their friend was safe now and apologizing once again, while at the same time thanking her for everything she did, when she got the text it was like the tension in her had resolved. It was like the moment she knew the boy wasn’t in danger anymore, her brain reminded her that it was, in fact, not her brother.
And then there was now. She felt, she knew, she was going somewhere she shouldn’t, and she couldn’t prevent it.
“It’s going down!” someone announced, then. It cut swiftly through the fog of memories and thoughts in her mind and she realized that it had worked. The pace was going down.
Azzi’s exhale of relief drowned in the sea of all the others. She promptly got back to the woman's side, taking her hand back in hers as the room started moving again, the case far from good. It was managed for the time being, and they would have to do with that.
“Hey,” she said, squeezing her hand, and caressing it in a soothing gesture. “Your heart is calming down, we did it”
The joyful tone in her voice got her attention directly, and her breathing seemed to settle down a little too, like the general easing tension had gotten to her and she was mimicking it now.
“You did it?” she weakly asked for confirmation.
Azzi nodded, happy to be able to give such good news.
Her face relaxed then too.
“That’s great… thank you” she congratulated them. “well done”
Azzi chuckled at this, “Well, good job to you, Elizabeth”. She beamed up at her.
And this, this was unquestionably the best part of her job. The smiles, the relief, the gratefulness. It was all so gratifying. It was one of the reasons she had chosen that field; helping people and seeing the results of it first hand. That feeling right after something as complicated as this worked out, it was priceless. Azzi thrived off of it.
“That means I’m going to live a little longer?” the woman asked, her voice trembling and frail under all the emotions of the day.
The nurse smiled and nodded at her enthusiastically.
“Oh you’re gonna be right back at it,” she cheerfully said. “Ready for another round in no time.”
The older woman grinned too, her wrinkled hand still clutching at the young nurse’s as the doctors started to ask for an ECG and were getting everything ready to move the patient to another more comfortable room.
As the flow started to ebb down the room and less people were needed, Azzi stayed there. She talked softly to the laying woman now that she was getting more and more coherent and of whom they could discard the mask now.
Azzi wasn’t used to doing that, but she stayed through the electrocardiogram and the change of room. And once everyone from the ER section was really leaving after a good forty minutes of various tests, and transferring information, she passed on the opportunity to take her pause to help two of her colleagues in the PCU.
During her time in the room, she listened to the woman explaining to her how her husband suddenly died from an undiagnosed disease approximately a year ago and that even though it had been very difficult for her to get use to her life alone again after forty years of marriage, she had bounced back when she learned her daughter was pregnant six months ago.
Azzi had beamed up hearing this. It was adorable how excited Elizabeth was about having her first grandchild incoming in a bit less than two months. And every minute she spent in the room was a new occasion for the woman to show her another picture of gifts she had bought for her future granddaughter and tell her every little anecdote behind them.
After another fifteen minutes of prolonging her stay and finding every opportunity she had to make herself seemed busy: checking her chart, looking at the beeping monitor like it would change at any moment, or even fake-verifying the IV, Azzi definitely had no more time for her break – fuck it, eating was overrated anyway (biggest lie she had told herself that day) and was due to go back to the ER. She was giving the constants on the monitor a dutiful last check with the soon to be grandmother showing her a picture of her daughter and son in law, when a soft almost missable brush of knuckles against the door put a stop to their discussion.
Azzi, hoping it was just a nurse from the section coming to check on Elizabeth – and not someone from her section calling her back – answered a swift “Yes?”.
But the head that popped in the small space between the doorframe and the white wooden plank, was actually a way better surprise than whatever she had imagined.
A very cute disheveled blonde ponytail with strands sticking up from everywhere, brightly gleaming and tired blue eyes and an even more exhausted smile greeted her.
“Hey,” Paige said softly as if there was a sleeping person in the room. “I heard my favorite nurse had switched sections today.”
Azzi smiled at her, that small private glint in her eyes as she replied.
“For a little bit only… Are you looking for something you lost earlier maybe?” she teased as the blonde opened the door a bit more letting Azzi get a peep at her working attire, but she still stayed outside and mostly hidden.
“Something like that yeah…”
Azzi shook her head and looked down at the older woman who had gone quiet at Paige's arrival.
“I’m gonna have to go, I'm sorry” she said sadly, her lower lip slightly jutting out in light reluctance.
The other smiled at her, “Oh don’t worry about me, honey” she reassured her. “I’m sure you’re busy and I’m doing well now, thanks to you and your colleagues.”
A smile tugged at her lips hearing that, “I’ll come back if I can, ok? She leaned a bit over the bed, speaking in a hushed tone like she was telling a secret, “So you can show me some more pictures.”
Elizabeth nodded eagerly, and she got out of the room quickly afterward, joining the blonde in the hallway.
Once outside, she closed the door in a soft click, and before she even had time to turn around completely, two hands snuck around her waist and pulled her into a hug. She found herself absorbed into her girlfriend’s torso and melting in her arms, while a light kiss was left on her cheek when Azzi tightened her owns around her. The grin that appeared on her face and let her two front teeth peek out was one of pure happiness.
It honestly felt surreal to tell herself that this – tall, clumsy looking, so affective, but also very attractively hot, blonde – girl was her girlfriend and that greetings like this one would be her new normal now. It kind of felt a bit weird to think of it. And overwhelming. Being as close to someone and letting them get so close, physically and emotionally, was not something she was used to anymore (or had ever been used to in reality).
“‘m sorry ‘had to leave like I did, this morning” Paige mumbled into her skin, pressing more kisses there before leaning back to look at her, “And it’s prolly crazy, but I’m already missing you.”
Azzi looked at her face and that’s when she noticed for the first time, she had a few smudges of soot on her chin and jaw. That plus the fact that her navy polo was very much drenched and… and that she had it closed all the way to the higher button? Unusual for sure. Like, it was so unlike Paige to wear it like this; plus it made her look like a nerdy informatician. Which became even truer when Azzi pulled the glasses out of the side pocket of her scrubs and put them on the blonde’s nose with a quick ‘here you go’.
And maybe it was weird, but that vibe kind of did something to her.
“Damn,” Paige said, lightening up then. “‘didn't realize my fav nurse was also the prettiest one ‘round here” she added flirtatiously, waggling her eyebrows at the brunette and fake scanning the very empty hallway.
Azzi pushed her face away, giggling, as she detangled herself from her.
“Ok, really smooth, Paige” she tried to play indifference, but could only let out affection. “You better’ve not put any of that soot on me though,” she warned her then. “Cause I can do with your sweat but the line is drawn there. I don’t tolerate anything else.”
The paramedic stared at her confused as they were starting to walk back to the ER, their shoulders brushing at each step taken given how close Paige was to her.
“I don’t have soot on me”
Azzi leveled her up, dumbfounded by her either aberrant ignorance, or the blatant lie she was telling to her face.
“Paige…” she said blankly looking at her as she stopped to grab her chin, “I don’t think I left a hickey on your face or that it would even be that dark and dusty.” She then passed her thumb on the faint dirty spot and brought it up in front of the blonde’s face. “So either you didn’t check yourself in the mirror or you’re just lying to me.”
Seeing the black dust Paige immediately rubbed at her chin, hoping to get it off.
Azzi laughed at her before grabbing the lowest part of her girlfriend’s nearly black shirt and wiping her thumb on it. Then she pulled her forward so they could keep walking, preventing herself at the same time from rolling her eyes too hard at the ridiculous display of cluelessness.
“Com’on charcoal eater,” she teased her. “I need to get back to work before Liv comes and drags me back there herself,” and surely she was already exhausted at the idea of having another 5 hours to go with.
But then when she glanced at the blonde, she knew she said something she shouldn’t have, by the way she perked up at her words, or at least that she just gave her the biggest opportunity to become even more insufferable, if the mischievous glint in her eyes meant anything.
“Oh, I’m not a charcoal eater” Paige smirked at her. Walking into her space, she also whispered in her ear, “I do eat other things though.”
Flirty Paige mode activated…
And damn… Azzi couldn’t believe she was getting turned on by this basic and lame flirting, but fuck– it was working on her and Paige had definitely noticed it for her to keep on going like this every single time (and being official now, she would probably not care to control herself as much as before on the subject). That plus the fact that Paige in those firefighter pants with suspenders and that polo licking at her skin was already a sight to witness… yeah, Azzi was doomed.
In that moment it was either she dragged Paige to the nearest dorm or any secluded room in their vicinity to shut her up – and maybe get a glimpse at this implicit offer, or she pushed her back off of her and made it seem like she was annoyed despite the very probable change of color of her face.
She chose the second option, of course. She was responsible enough not to yield to her own pulsions. At work, furthermore.
Shoved away, Paige stumbled toward the white wall giggling and, simultaneously, the sliding door of the ER glided open.
And they weren’t even a foot in that KK came up to them with a disbelieving and exasperated look on her face which made Azzi clueless at the unusual harshness.
Oh nice, thought the blonde. She was already coming at her for something else. This morning it had been about not telling her she was not coming back the night before, then about the hickeys, now it was something else… She was behaving like a real mother with a rebel teenager.
Azzi cast her a glance from the side. Completely lost.
“Sarah’s been waiting for you with your x-ray results, and you’re just wandering off looking for Fudd, messing around and being all flirty and mushy?!” KK admonished a stern look on her face that the paramedic had rarely seen before. “You didn’t even use the icepack she gave you!” She added accusatorily.
Azzi’s confusion became a full on frown on her face – any lasting giddyness (and hornyness) gone for good now, as her head whipped toward Paige which was no good news for the paramedic.
“An x-ray? Why did you have one? What happened?” she asked worriedly, taking a step back as her eyes swept over the blonde, searching for an injury she had missed. She wasn’t limping (well not enough for it to be something broken), she didn’t have any apparent injury, she wasn’t holding anything like it hurt… She seemed strangely fine.
Not caring to leave her the freedom to answer, KK was now pushing the blonde back in the direction of her exam room. And naturally Azzi followed after them waiting for Paige to explain herself.
“It’s nothing” she dismissed it. “I just bumped my finger into a wall during a call earlier.”
Now that was a real lie. A very evident and purposeful one – she could have told even without KK’s sarcastic huffed laugh. Paige must have been the worst liar she ever met (probably another thing she kinda liked about her but that was not the moment). Pushing the greenish-blue curtains, the other firefighter, then, forced her best friend to sit on the bed, and the nurse still in their steps – she was not leaving without real info on the situation going on – planted herself in front of her, totally ignoring Sarah who was already in there.
“Sure, and the truth?” she asked again, arms crossed over her chest.
Paige had her right hand protectively folded over the left one and Azzi was really, really close to just grab it and check it out herself now.
A few seconds of silence hovered over the room. KK was looking at Paige, waiting for her to explain what happened (ignoring the details that what had caused the injury was kind of her fault if you asked the other); Sarah seemed progressively more annoyed at her time being wasted; Paige didn’t utter a single word.
And Azzi didn’t know if she was feeling too prideful to admit she was hurt, or guilty to make her worried, or if Paige genuinely thought that it was better to hide it at all like she wouldn’t discover a potential injury any time soon seeing how much they saw each other.
All possibilities were ridiculous anyway.
“Ok I’ve had enough” Sarah cut through their starring contest – Azzi one-sided starring contest while Paige was being avoidant. “She has a simultaneous dislocation of the proximal and distal joints of her left small finger,” the results of the radio were angled toward them now, and Azzi leaned over Paige slightly to take a peek at it. “We looked at it with the radiologist, and– miraculously, given how it happened, there’s no palmar plate fracture. Which means–”
She made a quick pause to glance a last time at the image, then added with a pointed look at Paige.
“It just needs to be put back into place…”
And exactly like this, ten minutes later after injecting an anesthetic into the base of the finger – the needle already being a complicated part – and mentally preparing the blonde to be put through an intense pain in an instant, they were ready.
Paige was still sitting on the bed, looking at her abnormally disposed and dangly finger with a bit of concern, her other hand holding Azzi’s (who had offered an emotional support and had joined her on the bed, sitting next to her after having rolled her eyes hard when her girlfriend had finally shown her her finger); Sarah was manipulating her hand, laying it on the tray and placing her own fingers around the spot she would need to push and pull on; and KK was trying not to laugh at Paige getting a bit paler when trying not to look at it too much and failing.
Her best friend also discreetly filming the moment to add it to their core memories (she was a real one, because since it had been announced that the blonde would be ok, she had not stopped laughing at her antics and how she was dealing with her injury).
“Ok, you’re ready?” Asked Sarah.
“No?” Paige let out in an unsure breath, while looking at the tall nurse getting ready for the phalanx to be put back into place.
Well, for the phalanges because the blonde didn’t do things halfway.
“Ok on the count of three, I’m pulling” announced Sarah with no care for Paige’s – a tad dramatic – ass. “One, two–”
“Wait! wait!” interrupted Paige panicked, “You’re pulling on three or after three? It wasn’t clear how you said it…”
“Paige…” Sarah sighed, looking at her in utter disbelief, while Azzi tried to prevent a chuckle from coming out of her. It wasn’t hard to get on Sarah’s nerves but honestly her girlfriend was so good at it right now, it was pricelessly funny. “Are you serious right now?”
And because the only response she got were two, very round, very lost, and very scared blue eyes looking at her, she answered the question, as futile as it was. KK in the meantime was still stifling giggles in her corner of the room, the camera of her phone very obviously planted on Paige.
“Ok, I’m pulling on three… you’ happy now? Can I do it?”
Paige swallowed and then she nodded.
Sarah got back into place, gently but purposefully retaking the finger in her hand, and she started counting again.
The sharp pain coursed through her finger and all the way up her forearm, despite the anesthetic, and albeit she tried not to, Paige’s grip on Azzi’s hand tightened infinitely more, clinching at it like it would make the awful needle-y ache go faster. And although she was grateful that Sarah had done it quickly, she couldn’t refrein herself from cussing at her.
“Oh– fuck” She grimaced her eyes close. “You fucking bastard– you lied!”
“Yeah that was for your own good” shrugged Sarah while KK, once again, suppressed a laugh. “Ok second one and we’re done… Maybe try not to watch this time ‘cause you look a bit pale right now” Sarah advised.
Paige winced, feeling her tender digit being manipulated once again. “And what am I supposed to look at exactly?”
At this, Sarah smirked for the first time since they got back, and a mischievous glint passed through her eyes.
“I don’t know– Maybe, you can look at Azzi. She’ll become all soft and ‘s gonna make heart eyes at you, gonna make you forget the pain. And I suppose if y’all don’t jump each other’s bones I can live with it.”
Azzi glared at Sarah, which only served as fuel for her smile, but as she looked back at the blonde, it was like the paramedic hadn’t even heard the second part of the sentence. Those two pleading eyes were desperately grasping at her for support and, even though she wanted to give her friend some shit for having been teasing her all day long about her ‘post-Paige glow’, Azzi kept her mouth shut and her eyes connected to the blonde’s.
Paige nodded once again. Eyes locked on the sitting brunette.
And before she could think about it the second clack echoed in her limb.
“Fuck! you didn’t even count?!” she whined to what seemed to be a complacent Sarah.
The vice grip she had on the brunette’s hand was so hard – way tighter than the first time – that it pulled out a flinch out of her. Paige saw it in her peripheral vision while snarling at her newly dubbed least favorite nurse, and she immediately released it. The snarky comment Sarah gave back wasn’t heard, she simply looked down at Azzi’s hand laying on the mattress; and at the view of the hangry red marks of her fingers on the caramel skin, her head snapped back up with remorse, and a prominent guilt etched in her eyes.
She whispered several apologies, soft ‘I’m so sorry’ only for her to hear, and her thumb traced gentle circles over the previously violently squeezed limb. The stark contrast between the first distress she had been put through, then the clear annoyance and pain, and the obvious – and needless if you asked Azzi – guilt and careful attention now… it was just so inherently Paige.
Azzi literally melted. She knocked her shoulder against Paige and squeezed her hand ever so lightly.
Yes, Paige had a strong grip. Yes, it did hurt a bit. And yes, for someone that bruised as easily as she did, it would leave some marks.
But the way she became so soft in less than a second realising she had hurt her. How her eyes passed from annoyance at Sarah’s lack of warning to this worried, bubbly look as soon as she felt the nurse tense next to her. It was those small details that made Paige so adorable and likeable.
Azzi could swoon just at the sight of her cradling her hand like it was the most precious thing in the world. Just because it was hers. And that she had squeezed a bit too hard.
The next afternoon, when they came back to the apartment after their shift, Paige felt like her finger was going to burst out of the splint Sarah had given her. It was pulsating so intensely one could have checked her heartbeat just with it. And even after loosening the splint several times in the last five hours, it still seemed like the velcros had a mind of themselves and wanted to get under her skin.
Geno, the moment they’d gotten back from the hospital, had asked them what had taken them so long. And when KK and Paige told him, his tone had immediately switched from annoyance to concern. He had quickly told Paige that she could should go home, put some ice on it and rest for a bit, and that he would call someone from team C to replace her for the end of her shift, but the blonde had declined, saying she was ok to end her shift (she really didn’t want him to bother another one of their colleague for some stupid shit… their shift were exhausting enough for them not to be bothered on an off-day).
So she had stayed on until this afternoon, silently going through the rest of the thirty hours without any complaint.
Which led her to have a very swollen, and concerningly blue finger to look as she relievingly took off her splint. The pulse going through her digit only making it feel more inflated.
She would have to go buy those anti-inflammatory meds they prescribed her.
And maybe put some ice on it while KK was in the shower.
Yep, that was a good start.
She headed to the freezer with her hand cradled against herself in a (for once) mindful way so she wouldn’t bump it against any surface. Everything she needed was taken out, an ice pack, a bottle of water, and milk to eat with her froot loops while she waited for her best friend to finish.
KK was just starting to hum some song from the playlist she had put on when Paige settled at the kitchen island to eat.
The apartment was calm, softly illuminated by the descending sun and the atmosphere was appeasing. Nothing too much. No extra noise, no extra movement. Not anything chaotic like at the station. It was always like that after a shift because they both were exhausted enough not to want to add onto that. The drastic difference between the two – work place and going back here – was something Paige noticed every time, and loved just a little more each time she did.
It felt like an understanding.
She was musing on this, half munching on the soppy cereal, distracted by something coming from inside her own head, when, unexpectedly, her phone jerked on the counter. Making her jump from the sudden noise and movement.
Mindlessly, she took it, looking at her phone; without realizing it, she was hoping to find something from Azzi there. The brunette had been blowing out her phone since her own shift ended yesterday night, giving her all kinds of instruction to take care of her finger, adding that she would check it once again when they’d see each other that night after her last shift of the week.
But she didn’t have time to see if under the dozen notifications she had, some were from Azzi again. Because the moment she looked at the one that had made her phone buzz…
There, at the bottom of the screen laid something she wouldn't have thought she’d see in probably the next decade. Surely an incomprehensible sight for her. And a scary one, because that could mean anything.
Mom: Hi honey, I’m just reaching out to know how you’re doing. Is everything going on all right for you in LA?
What. The. Single. Most. Ridiculous. And. Absurd. Fuck?
