02x03

It was easily one of the most idiotic ideas Buck had ever had. Unfortunately, it was the only plan they had. 

The plan was to go down using an elevator shaft. They'd hold onto the cable attached to their harnesses and hoist themselves down, and that way they could also get Batari, the injured guy, down. The whole plan depended on the elevator right above them not deciding to crash down on them. 

Eddie was going first, as usual, leading Batari down with him. Jamie was a little worried about how Collin was gonna get down, but he assured her that he was fine and could do it. She hoped to God it was true. 

"You sure you can do this?" She asked him again. 

"I don't really have a choice, do I?" 

Jamie gave him a sad smile, then she intertwined their fingers before replying with a sigh. "No, unfortunately not."

"Then I can do this." He tried to give her a confident smile, but it faltered, instead, it looked pained. 

"Get down here, guys!" Eddie called. 

Buck was going to take Collin down since it was easier for him to carry him, and Jamie was going to take Ali. 

"You ready?" Jamie asked the other woman, who only took a deep breath and nodded. She held tightly around Jamie's neck and she had one arm around her waist and one on the line leading them down. 

It went smoothly enough until the building started shaking and the elevator above them started moving downwards. 

"Eddie! Get that fucking door open, now!" Jamie shouted at him. 

He got the door open and right after he got Batari inside Jamie and Ali were there too. Only Buck and Collin remained, and for some reason Buck was lingering, just watching the elevator go lower and lower. 

"Buck! Get your asses down here!" Jamie shouted again, this time at the other firefighter. 

"All right, all right, here we come!" he announced, swinging in at the last minute, because right after the elevator lost control completely and crashed. Ten more seconds and both Buck and Collin would've been dead. 

"Why the fuck did you hesitate?" Jamie was almost screaming at him now. She was angry. "You could've fucking died, you almost did! Again! And you almost took Collin with you this time! You're so goddamn stupid, I should kick your fucking ass." 

Buck didn't answer. He just laid down on the floor and breathed. Eddie, who was checking out Collin's wound again because frankly, he was terrified of what Jamie would do if anything happened to him, was the one who answered her. "You can kick his ass once we're out of here." 

They managed to get out of the building relatively safely. Jamie got Collin to an ambulance, and Ali was checked over by paramedics. However, they found out that their captain and Chimney were disobeying a direct order to evacuate because they still hadn't found Hen, so of course they went back in. 

As they entered the garage they saw Chimney exiting a truck and heard Bobby say that the debris should be far enough out by now for them to get behind it and push it out the rest of the way. 

"Looks like we got here just in time then," Buck announced their presence. 

"Yeah, seems like they were planning on having all the fun without us," Eddie added. 

"Heard over the radio you needed some equipment and available hands down here."

"You know you guys are disobeying a direct order," Bobby told the trio. 

"And they'll be duly reprimanded, as soon as we're done here," the incident commander announced her presence as well. 

"Looks like you're gonna have to reprimand yourself, as well," Bobby commented. 

"I'm seriously considering it. Your people are very persuasive and persistent. One shot, Captain. Either way, no one's coming to rescue us."

"Lovely, very positive attitude," Jamie said sarcastically. 

Despite their odds, they managed to save Henrietta, along with the missing little girl and a small dog. When they exited the building again, Jamie hugged Eddie Diaz for the first time. He seemed taken aback at first, but after a few seconds, he wrapped his arms around her. 

"What was that for?" He asked when she pulled away. 

"You saved my life, Eddie. Thank you," she told him earnestly. If he hadn't fought so hard to pull her up from that window, she would be dead right now, 'cause she was not fighting for her own life at that point.

He smiled softly at her. "I'll probably do it again, I have a feeling you get in almost as much trouble as that dumbass," he gestured towards Buck. 

"Yeah, probably," she laughed. 

"Jamie!" she heard someone shout, and then she was intertwined in two pairs of arms. Angel and Jordan. Her roommates, her best friends. 

"What are you guys doing here?" She asked, tears threatening to spill from her eyes. God, how she loved them. 

"We saw on the news that your team was here, we've been waiting for hours," Angel explained. 

Now she was crying. She was surrounded by such amazing people who would do literally anything for her, who loved her when she couldn't love herself, and usually, she felt so undeserving of it, but right here, right now, after such a hard day, she was basking in it. 

She entrapped them in another hug. "I love you guys so much," she admitted. They knew, of course, but she had only said it a few times. 

"We love you too," Jordan said. 

_______

The next day, she found herself standing in the doorway to Collin's hospital room. He was sleeping, and she didn't want to disturb him, so she was just standing there, looking over him. He looked peaceful, the painful expression he had worn a mere twelve hours ago completely erased from his face. The nightstands were overflowing with flowers. 

She doesn't know how long she stood there before he opened his eyes and spotted her. A glowing smile instantly spread itself across his face, brightening up the entire room. 

"Hi," he said softly, almost as a whisper. 

"Hi," she said back, equally as soft. As if it was some great, big, secret between the two of them. He gestured for her to sit in the chair next to his bed, and she did. She wanted to ask how he was, but she knew it was redundant, she knew he was as well as he could be right now.

For a while they didn't say anything, just sat there with a comfortable silence between them. So many things unsaid yet all of them were known, somehow. In this bubble, just the two of them existed, and it was a painful reminder of their almost love. Their almost everything. 

"It's Buck, isn't it?" He said after a while. He said it so gently that it felt like it would break if Jamie touched it, but it wasn't accusing, nor judging, it was understanding, and sadness. 

She stared down at her hands, trying to figure out what to say. Nothing was enough. Nothing was good enough, and neither was she. "I'm sorry," she said, her voice wavering. 

He nodded slowly and blinked away a tear, then he smiled sadly at her. He looked so heartbreakingly beautiful like this, so fragile, so honest. "It's okay."

Another moment of silence. Both of them grieved what could've been. Both of them grieved what was. 

"I wish it was you," she whispered, wiping a stray tear from her cheek. "I really fucking wish it was you." 

He grabbed her hand and pressed a gentle kiss to her knuckles. "I know." Then, he scooted over and tapped the side of the bed as a way to tell her to get in. She curled up to him and held on to him as a little kid would hold onto their favorite teddy bear. 

"We should just ignore the rest of the world and enjoy this moment together," he whispered as he stroked her hair. She wanted to. Oh, how she wanted to just stay here with him forever, but she knew she was hurting him by staying. She needed to let go. She needed to let him go. 

"All moments come to an end," she whispered back, "especially the good ones." 

"We were good, weren't we?" he asked. Jamie could feel his heartbeat speeding up, as if he was afraid of what the answer might be.  

We were almost everything she wanted to say, but couldn't.

"Yeah, Collin, we were good. You were good," she reassured him. "I'm sorry I couldn't love you." 

"Me too," he sighed. 

A/N: this was short, but i thought it was a nice ending of the earthquake episodes. don't worry, we'll see more of it though, like the aftermath and trauma and etc etc 

collin and jamie make me so sad i wish they never broke up 😢 (i say as if i'm not the author who made them break up)