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Kate sat at her kitchen table, her laptop screen covered by family, she watched as Maisie held up a picture to camera.
"I drew this for you" she Beamed
Kate closed the mascara bottle, she smiled at the picture her niece had drawn.
"It's me and you at the park," the little girl explained
"It's amazing, I wish I had it with me" Kate frowned
"Daddy says we are gonna send it to you"
David shook his head "sweetie that was suppose to be a surprise"
"Sorry" Maisie apologized sadly
"It's okay Maisie moo, I hate surprises anyway" Kate reassured
Kate noticed her brothers wife appear in the background, she also happened to be Kates best friend, "is that my sister in law I see"
Molly walked over to the scream, picking up her daughter she propped her on her lap "hey, I miss you so Much" she confessed
"I miss you too, I miss our girl nights" Kate whined
The door opened and Buck walked in, coffee in his hand.
"I'm just on a call, come here" she motioned
Buck walked over, handing Kate a cup of coffee, he pulled up a seat beside Kate and gave a polite smile to the screen.
"This is buck, my roommate " she introduced
"It's nice to meet you all" Buck greeted "you feeling better Mrs Quinn?" He asked
"Please, call me Bridget" Kate's mom instead
"Who are you" the 4 year old chimed in
"I'm Buck, your aunties friend" he smiled, "you must be Maisie"
"I am" she nodded, "you wanna see my picture"
Before Buck could answer, the paper was already shoved against the screen.
"Wow, you are a real artist" Buck said, not really sure what to make of the picture.
Kates heart warmed as she watched Buck coo with her niece.
"I have to grab my charger, It was nice meeting you" Buck announced, waving a small goodbye.
"He's cute" molly teased,
"Will you be quiet" Kate hushed, lowering down the volume on her laptop
"You like him!" Molly shrieked
Kates face turned red with embarrassment "alright I have to go, I'll call youse tomorrow. Love you bye" Kate quickly ended the call.
Buck walked back out from his room, "chimney is dragging me out tonight, you wanna come?"
"Oh, hard pass. I've got a book with my name on it and I plan on starting it tonight"
"That sounds a lot more fun then my night" Buck chuckled
Kate nodded "Anything sounds more fun then a forceful set up, trust me I know"
"Bad date?" Buck asked
"It was when I first moved here, an old friend set me up with the biggest ass on planet earth, he was so condescending and loud, he even asked me if I'd ever seen the sun before"
Buck raised his brows, "seriously?"
"Seriously" she sighed "than he out straight asked if the night was going to end with sex"
"Did it?"
Kates mouth fell open, "Evan buckley, what do you take me for"
Buck laughed at Kate's reaction
"I mean it did. But still" she protested
This only made Buck laugh more, which he received an even glare for and a hidden smile.
"Was it at least good?" He asked, taking a breath from the laughter
"Mediocre" she shrugged "he didn't last very long, kinda brought my expectations down for LA men"
Buck shot her and offended look "oh come on, you can't put us all into one box because of one bad guy"
"Well I've not had anyone to compare it too, so yes I can"
"You've been here for almost six months, you haven't had sex with anyone else?" He asked, sounding shocked
"I never made it the full way last time" she shrugged, "besides what about you?"
Buck didn't respond, only releasing a small huff "that doesn't count, I was suppose to be in a relationship. It would have even cheating" he defended
"if you haven't noticed LA always seems to have an emergency, I haven't had the time to go out and do anything and last time I did I got so drunk I vomited before we could get past making out"
"That's it, you are coming out with me tonight" he insisted
"I can't I've got-,"
"Your book will have to wait, because you are going out tonight"
Kate let out a sigh of defeat "fine, but only because I haven't been out in ages"
*
Their first call out of the day, was far from boring. A woman was standing on a freeway sign protesting about her how her husband never seen her, the whole highway was blocked off, people left their cars to watch the crazy woman protest.
"I'll talk to her" Buck volunteered, He swung one leg over the railing, Eddie eased him down carefully.
The emergency landing float was dragged from under the overpass, Lola yelled out for them to stop.
"What are you doing?!" She demanded " I-I told you! - I told you!" She stammered
"It's just there for your safety, Lola." Athena yelled over the speaker.
Buck landed down next to the woman, as his feet landed on the grate, she pulled out a gun fired it into the float, screams awoke from people in cars. They all backed away quickly.
Every officer on scene pulled out a weapon, each gun pointed at the crazy lady, if she wasn't seen before she definitely was now.
"Hold your fire! Hold your fire! Stand down. Do not shoot." Athena ordered
Lola faced Buck, the gun is pointed at his Chest "Hey, hey, hey, hey." He held up his hands in surrender.
"Lola, listen to me very carefully. You now have every firearm in the Greater Los Angeles area pointed at you. If you continue to threaten that man, they will fire. Do you understand?" Athena shouted into the speaker "Do you?"
"I don't want to hurt anybody." Lola lowered the gun, her voice growing quiet "I just can't handle being ignored anymore."
"I know exactly what you mean." Buck spoke quickly, lowering his hands a little.
Lola snorted "Oh, come on. Yes, I'm-I'm sure you get ignored all the time."
Buck gave a short nod "You have a Norman. I had an Abby. You think that you have something, something special, you know, She's the one. So you wait. And then, at some point, it hits you; you're alone. Sh-She's not coming back. You're just there to collect the mail, and-and it is piling up, right? And then, then you realize... "You know what? It's over." You just need to face it and move on."
Kate took pity for the boy she grew to like, not realizing how he truly felt about Abby, now feeling bad for all the jokes she made.
Sirens filled the small pocket of silence, Kate looked forward and seen a motorbike come to a quick stop, Lola's husband climbed off.
Kate looked back down at Buck, he glanced up at her and she mouthed are you okay he gave a quick nod before bringing his attention back to Lola.
"Uh, L-Lola. Lola, honey, it's me. I'm here. And I see you, - just like the sign says." Norman spoke into the speaker
"Liar!" She outbursts "You look right through me. Y-You don't even notice me. I-I'm just around to... collect the mail."
"Lola, honey. listen to me. I-I'm here, and I see you. And I need you to put down the gun, okay? Put the... put down the gun and let them bring you to me. And then we can spend the rest of our lives together, and I can show you how much I love you." He tried to convince his wife.
"I don't believe you, Norman. You don't even know who I am anymore. I mean... I don't even know. I'm-I've been a mother for 18 years. And now that Zack's gone,"
"Lower me down" Kate told Eddie
His brows furrowed "what why-.."
"Just do it" Kate insisted
She quickly secured a harness, swinging her leg over the rail, Eddie lowered her to the grate.
Kate landed in front of Buck, she held her hands up so Lola felt reassured "hey Lola, I'm Kate"
Lola looked at the new face.
"It's hard, I know" she nodded "suddenly not being needed for anything any more, feeling as if you don't have a purpose anymore because you Aren't being a mother, but Lola you are more then someone's mother, you were someone before your son and you'll be someone after him, they might not be the same person but you'll figure out who the new Lola is, I.. Promise"
She broke the one rule first responders were sworn to never break, to never promise anything to anyone. But Kate knew she was right, she knew that Lola would be someone other than a mom again.
A soft hum of music was heard over the speaker, Lola's attention was taken by her husband who played their song for his wife.
Lola told the two firefighters the short story behind the song, if Kate was being honest, it warmed her heart.
"I see you. I see you. Lola, I see you. I see the girl who used to sneak out to the beach bonfires and listen to The Psychedelic Furs and The Cure. Lola! Lola, I see you! I see the girl who once drank nine shots of Jager and woke up without a hangover! Lola, I see you. I see the girl I love! Yes!" Norman shouted, the crowd cheered as he confessed his ever lasting love.
Lola stumbled, Kate reached out her hands and took a hold of the woman who suddenly realized who high up she was.
Kate carefully took the gun from Lola's hand, Lola didn't fight it. She handed it back to Buck and he passed it up to Eddie.
"You ready to get down?" Kate asked,
"I think so" Lola nodded
The three firefighters went back to work, Kate climbed onto the overpass and passed a harness down to Buck, he secured it around Lola's waste, Eddie and Kate pulled the two off of the highway sign.
They brought Lola to the ambulance and Buck drove the van down to the rest of the cars.
"You have a kid?" Lola asked, Sitting in the back of the ambulance.
Kate hesitated for a second "uh.. No"
"That speech could have said otherwise"
"I learned from my mam, I remember the night before I left she told me how it felt weird to not have anyone needing her anymore, but the truth is I'll always need her" Kate remembered, "and even from college, you son will still need you"
The ambulance came to a stop, kate climbed out of the back and Lola followed, running towards Norman as they reunited.
"That was good what you said up there" Buck said,
"You too" kate returned "I'm sorry I joked about it so much, I didn't realize how-.."
"It's okay, I would have told you if it bothered Me" he reassured
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