01 | ❝ NEW FIREMAN AND JEALOUS CHIMNEY ❞

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CHAPTER ONE

❝ NEW FIREMAN AND JEALOUS CHIMNEY ❞

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[ season 2, episode 1 ]

ROSIE POV

SUMMER IN LOS ANGELES WAS REALLY KILLER – ALL BECAUSE OF THE TEMPERATURES THERE THEN. Rosie Buckley hated hot weather because she knew what usually started happening then, which was complete chaos. That was exactly what happened that day — injured people didn't make things any easier for them, and especially not for the paramedics, of whom the girl was one.

"Does anyone famous live here?" asked the patient Chimney, Rosie's friend from the Academy. The man looked at him with pity, as did Hen and Rosie, who were next to him. They couldn't do anything about the stupid things the patients said during the interventions.

"You probably miss Chicago at times like this," Hen said as the three of them walked toward the ambulance. "They don't have operations like this there."

Chim laughed, putting the bag of equipment inside. They were supposed to go to one of the restaurants to tend to the customers.

"Would our Rosie miss that city?" he asked, amused. "She loves adrenaline too much and hates being bored."

The young Buckley swallowed hard - despite almost two years having passed since her return to Los Angeles, she still felt nostalgia for her previous place of residence. There was only one reason, namely her friends, whom she had managed to get to know in the meantime. She would have liked to take them with her, but she didn't want to turn their lives upside down.

"I hope I don't say that you called at a bad time and after this flood of calls, we'll be sitting in the fire station until the end of the shift," the girl said. She knew that it certainly wouldn't be the case, but she wanted to tease him, at least a little. After all, she had the right to do so and no one could stop her. "Will you focus on work or on reminding me of my several-year trip to the east of the country?" Hen and Chim got into the ambulance after her, then closed the doors and took their seats, letting the driver know they were ready to go. On days like these, they could find someone needing help at every turn.

"Yes," Wilson and Han said in unison, answering their friend's earlier question. "We'll keep reminding you of this for the rest of our lives." She felt that she had years before she was forgiven for leaving LA.

She wasn't proud of leaving so suddenly and without saying goodbye. She had been young and stupid then - she had got pregnant and was simply too chicken to admit it, especially since Chimney was the father of her daughter. Back then, she had been afraid that she would be as bad a mother to her child as her own mother had been to her – the woman treated her like air, so she had moved out of her native Pennsylvania at the age of eighteen, with the help of her neighbor's son, Seth. They both moved to the other end of the country to start a new life.

Los Angeles gave her a chance, which she blew, literally for a single moment of fear. No one knew how much she regretted it – her relationship with fireman Han was going great, and she left... She thought it was just for a while, but it turned out differently, and she returned to the city only after more than eight years.

THE NEXT DAY, IT TURNED OUT THAT ROSIE'S CAR HAD TO GO TO THE WORKSHOP. So she called Hen to pick her up on her way to work, since Chimney had already left with Marrie for school and wouldn't make it back to pick her up. Wilson complied with her friend's request without hesitation - they had a chance to talk for a while without the rest of the team around. The dark-skinned woman had a lot of questions for Buckley, so she wanted to take advantage of it.

"How's the progress of the 'recover Chimney' mission?" she asked her directly as soon as she got into her car.

Rosie thought her heart would jump out of her chest at the sound of that question. She could have expected that she had complied with her request too quickly.

"First of all, who came up with that codename?" she asked her. "Secondly, where did you get the idea that there was a plan? We explained to you that if fate lets us get back together, it would happen... someday."

"Karen came up with the name, and I'm just the mailman," she said. "And as for the second one, we both just want you to be happy..."

"Is this payback for Chim hooking you up with Karen while I was gone, and now you're getting even for his old plans?" Wilson fell silent, then quickly looked away.

As they entered the firehouse, they exchanged a few words with the guys from the other shift – mostly talking to Rosie, asking for recommendations for a garage. She got a few leads on where she planned to call during her lunch break.

Finally, unit 118 was visited by none other than its captain, Bobby Nash — he was raving about the other crew members' attire, and Hen and Rosie watched with slightly incredulous looks on their faces.

"You're cheerful." Wilson adjusted her glasses. "This is unnatural, you know? At least coming from you."

"Is it that strange?" The oldest of the three who were leading the conversation asked. He was clearly surprised by his colleagues' approach to the topic.

"You've been so cheerful for the past few weeks, I wonder if someone's going to get fired," Rosie replied. "It's scary, you know?"

Since she had returned to the unit, there had been one situation where she had lost her job – all after an argument with Bobby, when she had defended her brother, but he wouldn't listen to her at the time. Hen and Chimney were furious with him because of her, but fortunately, helping to find the burglars helped them get back to work, and Rosaline, because that was her real name, even got an apology from her boss that he shouldn't have taken it out on her.

The conversation was joined by Buck, Rosie's aforementioned younger brother. He was in a great mood, although he couldn't beat the captain in that regard.

"What's this?" The boy's sister asked as he bragged about his training progress. The girl tried to look at his phone screen, but the entire interface was too complicated for her. "Is this a training app or is it designed for space flights?"

Hen burst out laughing.

"It measures my body fat, and I've lost another half a percent" the youngest member of the team replied. "I thought you'd be proud of me, you know?"

Rosa sighed, then patted him on the back, smiling broadly at him.

"And in your head?" Chimney asked, who had just approached them in his firefighter outfit.

Buck laughed, then began to talk about selecting candidates for the firefighter calendar, which sparked a whole discussion in the company of him, Chimney, and even Bobby. Hen was against it, because she thought that such an undertaking promoted the pattern that only men put out fires and saved people, when it was quite the opposite. Rosie, on the other hand, tried to remain neutral.

"Hen, it's for charity," she told her friend. "You know the guys will get more attention than we will."

"You should take pictures and send them. You're really attractive, so you'd definitely catch a guy's eye," Hen said, then looked at her best friend. "Right, Chim?"

Henrietta Wilson put out fires professionally, but she also loved starting them. This was one of those moments.

Rosie and Chim choked on their water and began to panic. They both wondered why their friend kept pulling these stunts on them, and most often in public, in front of the entire firehouse.

When they managed to stop choking, they both looked at Hen, who was amused by their reactions. Their eyes said they were really mad at her.

"This is going to end badly for you someday!" Buckley said, irritated.

"Just so you know," Chim agreed with his ex-girlfriend. "Karen has more finesse than you!"

The five of them burst into uncontrollable laughter, and Buck's older sister's attention was drawn to the sight of a new firefighter who was changing in the locker room. She may not have been looking for someone to date, but she couldn't pass up the opportunity to take a close look at the guy – after all, she couldn't deny his beauty.

"He's a handsome man," she said, drawing the attention of the rest of her conversational group.

"I agree with you," Hen said, glancing at her friend. "And I prefer girls, as you all know. But don't look at him too long." The girl frowned, then looked at Wilson in surprise. This time, she didn't understand her reasoning at all, despite her friendship with her.

"Why?" she asked her. "No one's going to accuse me of stalking if I look at someone for five minutes."

"Look at Chim," the other woman replied. "He looks like he's about to smash something. I've never seen him like this before."

"Get lost, Hen!" the two shouted angrily, and then they both went their separate ways.

Their best friend just smiled to herself. She knew it was only a matter of time before she finally hooked them up.

SHE HAD MANAGED TO DROP HER CLOTHES WHEN HER PHONE VIBRATED. She was surprised that someone had texted her at this hour, but she glanced at her phone as she sat at the kitchen island, then smiled. The messages were from THE CHICAGO GOLDEN TRIO group chat. That mostly meant that Lissie and Ian were almost certainly done with their shifts, or in the middle of them, bored out of their minds.

IAN:

Why did Seth write to me to save him from an angry Chimney? What did you do to those poor boys, Rosie?

The girl burst out laughing. Sometimes she regretted introducing Ian to her neighbour and childhood friend, Seth Navarro. When he came to Chicago, the two men had become very good friends – since young Garcia preferred men, Buckley wasn't surprised, he even tried to hit on him at first. They were good friends now, which pleased both her and Lissie. After all, he needed male company, and he spent most of his time with the two of them.

ROSIE:

What did he tell Seth? He's acting like a child, and I just saw the new fireman changing... I'm sick of him being jealous of every little detail instead of doing anything about us. Like, you know, it's his business. It still annoys me, even if I wanted to leave it to fate.

Since she was waiting for Buck to get himself sorted out after his shift, she had some time for fresh gossip. She missed the live conversations between the three of them - she was hoping they would finally let her talk her into going to Los Angeles. She was hoping it would happen during the holidays - since they met, they had spent the holidays together, since Buckley and young Nash were born on the same day, Christmas Eve. For the past two years, she had flown over to their place with Marigold, to keep up the tradition. This time, they were silent on the subject.

LISSIE:

The new fireman?

IAN:

The bastard didn't say a word... What's he like? Handsome, though?

Rosaline sighed heavily. She loved them both, but their memories were like those of a hamster - she'd never met two people who could get distracted so easily in the middle of a conversation.

ROSIE:

GUYS! Sometimes I get sick of you, you know? Yes, he's handsome. No, I won't send you a picture of him, because I don't have one. I've only known him for a few hours, so it would be weird if I took pictures of him in secret. If you want to see him, I invite you to Los Angeles.

LISSIE:

That can be arranged. Do you have time for a video chat tomorrow night? We'll talk it over.

ROSIE:

If you want to come earlier, you're more than welcome. You're both always welcome, and Marrie misses her favourite aunt and uncle, but don't tell Buck that if you see him in person. He might not take it well.

IAN:

We miss the little one too. Send her hugs and regards from Uncle Ian.

LISSIE:

You, how you say something sometimes...

IAN:

I think you'll write, honey.

Rosie snorted with amusement. From the very beginning, she had treated Ian like another brother, but Lissie was the closest person in the world to her – not only because they had the same birthday, but she also loved the girl's character, even despite what life had put her through, which, unfortunately, Bobby had also played a part in.

She still remembered how after Marigold was born, Melissa had been able to lie to the doctors and nurses that she was her sister, so she could find out what was happening with Buckley and her daughter.

She was the sunshine of the entire unit in Chicago they belonged to, but to her, she always shone like a star in the sky, so she called her that all the time. She spotted her brother outside the locker room, so that was a sign that it was time for her to go. She looked at the conversation to type one last message for now.

ROSIE:

I miss you guys so much! We'll work out the details when I see you on video. If Ian sees this, let him know that if he decides to drop by, I can offer him the couch. But I have to go now - Buck's waiting for me, and Marrie's staying with her dad today. I'm shocked at how much they love spending time together, you know? Kisses to you and yes - I'll give the little one a kiss from you.

She turned off her phone and joined her brother, who greeted her with a smile on his face. Although she could also see the confusion in his eyes.

"Chim told me to remind you that he has a check-up after the accident, so he can't pick Marrie up from school," Evan said, and his sister grimaced. "Seriously, I feel like he's still mad at the new guy."

Rosie rolled her eyes, then sighed heavily. She had expected Chimney to be offended after he had ignored her all day during his shift. This was the first time he had ever done that in their time together – even Hen was shocked.

MARIGOLD WAS DISAPPOINTED THAT HER DAD COULD NOT SPEND THE AFTERNOON WITH HER AS THEY HAD PLANNED, BUT AFTER GOING FOR ''COMFORT ICE CREAM'' SHE GOT BETTER. All three Buckleys were in excellent spirits when they entered Buck's flat, or rather the place where the boy was staying, as it belonged to his girlfriend, whose name was Abby. She was a 9-1-1 dispatcher, but after her mother passed away she decided to go away and explore the world. Rosie wasn't fond of her, even if that relationship did get young Buckley started on the road. For that she was grateful, but in Rosie's opinion she wasn't for him.

"Aaaaaaaaaaaa!" She was snapped out of her thoughts by a scream that came from the bathroom. The voice belonged to a woman, that was certain, but certainly not to Miss Clark. "Buck, what are you doing?!"

"I'd rather ask what you're doing here, Madds," he replied. Buck was obviously agitated by the whole situation. "We'll talk when you're dressed, because apart from us there's Rosie and the little one in the flat."

"A little one?" She was surprised. "I think we have a lot to talk about..."

"And just so you know!" The middle Buckley sibling called out. "You've been away a long time, sis."

A quarter of an hour later they sat in the living room with food prepared by Rosie and Marrie. The girl was immensely curious about her new aunt, whom she hadn't had the opportunity to meet until now, unless her mum had mentioned something about her. Maddie herself was also surprised that her little sister would change her life so much over the years – while Buck had contact with her eldest sister, Rosaline decided not to because of Maddie's husband Doug. Fortunately, when they both heard that their sister had left him, there was euphoria between them.

"I don't really understand," said Marigold. "Why are you happy?"

"Because... your aunt's husband is not a good uncle." Her mother marked the inverted comma clearly so that she could understand better. Marrie was quite a clever child for her age and she hated being treated like a toddler by adults, so Rosie tried to explain things to her, but in the gentlest way possible, which had worked exemplarily so far. "He's not like uncle Buck, or uncle Ian, or your dad. You have to stay as far away as possible from bad people like that, you know?"

The girl nodded, only to turn towards Maddie a moment later and hug her. This sight would have cheered up even the biggest tough guy.

"She has accepted Maddie surprisingly well," Buck said quietly towards his sister. "Your daughter surprises me all the time."

"Because she is mine and Chim's," she spoke up with pride. "And we are not ordinary."

Buck knew she was right. He only regretted that the father of his beloved niece could not talk to her mother in a normal way.

"As you say," Maddie looked at her sister. "Where did you lose the daddy of that cutest little critter?"

"All I can tell you is that things are very complicated," said Rosie, sipping her tea. "But we've been looking after her together..."

"For two years now," said Buck, digging his sister in. "Before that, she'd been sitting in Chicago with friends, not informing him at all that she was pregnant."

"BUCK!" A woman called out angrily at him. "This is why they say things are complicated... This is where you agree with me, right Madds?"

Maddie nodded her head. Buck may not have known about a lot of family matters, or remembered them on average, but... She remembered every argument between Rosie and their mother. She even confided to her that she would like to have a normal family when the time came, but she was afraid if she would be exactly the same mother as their own.

She may have only now met her niece, but she had managed to see more love, warmth and care in their relationship than she had in most of the time in the family home before Rosie left with Seth. He was Maddie's best friend from her teenage years, with whom... you could tell she'd never argued with anyone about Doug as much as she had with him. Even though their relationship had fallen apart, he had complied with an old friend's request to take care of her sister.

Maddie knew that, to this day, Rosie had no idea that she was the one who had helped get her out of her parents' custody... just as she had helped Buck a few years later.

THE NEXT DAY DURING HER SHIFT, ROSIE TRIED TO READ THE BOOK SHE HAD BEEN FINISHING FOR THE PAST TWO MONTHS. It was only during the slower times of her shift that she could have a little more time for it. When she got home, it was either Marrie who had occupied her all day, or she was just too tired and only dreamed of going to bed.

"Can you fix your problem with Chim?" Hen asked her, sitting down at her table.

"Said the one who is driving us into a corner herself" she looked at her friend. Rosie wasn't happy about the fact that their best friend was even trying to get them together by force. "It really is frustrating, you know?"

Hen, seeing the look on Buckley's face, realised that her behaviour was unacceptable. She had spoken to Karen about it the previous evening, and they had both come to the conclusion that they couldn't ask for anything from them – especially as they had both been through a lot in their lives.

"I'm sorry," said the older woman. "It's just... sometimes it's hard to look at you two, okay? It's obvious that you two have been at each other all this time. I know a lot has happened between you two, but..."

"I can't resuscitate a corpse," Rosie said, getting into her words. "Although that term in relation to our profession is rather unfortunate. Let me explain it to you differently. I still love him, but we made the decision to wait to see if what was between us would still come back, but then Tatiana appeared and... You know very well yourself what else."

She couldn't pronounce the word accident because she automatically had Chim in front of her eyes, who had a rod stuck in his head. Those were the worst days of her life.

"Then why do you say you can't resuscitate a corpse when he also clearly still feels something for you?"

Rosie sighed, then looked around her until her gaze came to rest on Hen's face. This was definitely not an easy subject for her, and Wilson should understand that perfectly well.

"As they say? It takes two to tango. If he's not doing anything himself, why should I be the only one trying in this relationship?"

"He's trying, Rosa..." Hen turned her laptop towards her friend. In the folder she showed her were pictures of Chimney, which he had emailed to her to help him choose something for his calendar. "It might not be a big deal, but he told me he wanted to impress you with it."

Rosie felt her heart melt and her insides grow warm. She looked down to the lower level of the firehouse, where Chimney was just now talking to the captain. When fireman Han looked exactly in her direction, she smiled at him just enough for him to see.

"He doesn't have to prove anything to me," she said to Hen. "If he wants to rebuild what has fallen apart between us through my fault... Let him come. That's all I'm asking of him. For me, he is the most handsome without this calendar."

Hen smiled to herself, then picked up her equipment and walked off. Rosie went back to her activities, and after a while someone sat down again.

"How badly am I screwed up by yesterday's action?" Asked Chim, looking at her with the face of a beaten dog.

"I forgave you a long time ago, but don't pull any more of those stunts. Marrie was seriously disappointed that you didn't come for her."

"I was supposed to take her to the stud farm because she wanted to see the horses, hence the sadness," he replied, embarrassed. "But the fact is that I acted like a child. After all, we're not together and you can look at other guys.

"But it was quite cute. Annoying, but cute. Just the next time you do something, ask me out and don't pretend I did you the biggest disservice of your life. And don't complain about me."

He furrowed his brow, then sighed.

"As I understand it, Seth talked Ian out of it?" He asked.

Rosie nodded.

"Let's not talk about that one," she said, grabbing his hand lightly.

CALLS TO THE 9-1-1 DISPATCHER FELL INTO THREE TYPES – THERE WERE SIMPLE CASES, BUT THERE WERE ALSO MORE COMPLICATED ONES. The third type, and the most hated, were calls concerning human stupidity. And that's exactly what happened this time, when the one hundred and eighteenth got a call about a man whose head had been walled up in a microwave.

"Who comes up with such idiotic ideas?" Asked Rosie quietly as she and Chim and Hen got out of the ambulance and followed the boy who was leading them to the scene of the accident. "But it's probably about to turn out that they were filming some dumb video to put on the internet, or on top of that they're streaming the whole thing live."

Chim and Hen, although they didn't answer anything, fully agreed with Rosa's opinion. All three of them have worked too many years in this profession not to sense stupid numbers a mile away.

"Followers are money," the boy said towards the paramedics. "We gave him a breathing tube, but the concrete crushed it"

"I wonder why," said Rosie as they ran up the stairs to the garden.

The victim and the other boy were by the pool. However, to hear of such an idea and to see him was a colossal difference.

"What's his name?" She asked the other boy.

"Jesse."

They tried to gauge his reaction, but unfortunately there was none, as he had completely failed to hear them. Buckley didn't even want to guess what terror the boy might have felt, being inside there.

She took his hand as Eddie tried to unscrew the microwave housing, and Hen measured his blood pressure.

"It's going to be alright," she said to him, despite the fact that he certainly couldn't hear her.

She often took advantage of the fact that she was empathetic, and patients were thus able to trust her more quickly when the rest of the team was trying to work in their favour. Rosie's ability was something of a smokescreen.

However, the boy suddenly stood up and tried to get the ballast off his head on his own.

"He's panicking!" She called out at once, still trying her best.

The boy slammed his hands against the enclosure, and because Rosie was still holding him, her left hand painfully ran the skin over the microwave. She couldn't free herself, but Chim managed to help her at the last minute, otherwise Jessie would have dragged her into the pool he'd fallen into. Eddie and Buck jumped in to get him, while Rosie helped Hen drag the mattress, so the guys had somewhere to put it – because of the pain, she tried to do it with her right hand.

"Chim, take care of Rosie," said Bobby, seeing the extent of her injury. "We can manage with four of us."

"I'm fine," said the girl.

"That's an order," he replied, then went back to helping the boy.

When young Buckley looked at her hand, it occurred to her that it was bleeding, and she could clearly see that it was not a superficial wound.

"You'll have to be stitched up," Chim said. "Your empathy will kill you one day, and remember, nobody wants that."

"Go, help them, and I'll put on some bandages until we get to the hospital."

Fireman Han reluctantly obeyed her, but he knew full well that the paramedics were the worst patients that could exist. Only the doctors were probably worse than them.

Fortunately, everything worked out, and the boy regained consciousness, but at the same moment, one of his colleagues fired off a poignant video for his observers.

With this behaviour, they had already annoyed Rosie enough that the girl snatched their phone and deleted the video.

"Your colleague could have died for your stupidity," she growled. "This is not the right time!"

She handed the phone back to the boy, after which they took Jesse to the ambulance. As they got inside, the youngster looked at paramedic Buckley.

"Thank you," he whispered quietly, as much as he could. She guessed that by some miracle, however, he had realised that she had tried to reassure him. "And sorry about your hand."

Rosie just smiled at him, and Chimney got in beside her, casually pulling off her temporary dressing she'd made on the spot.

"Don't worry about me. They'll put stitches on me, but I'll be as good as new. You best thank me by not messing around with such dangerous actions any more," she said to him, then looked at Chim. "We need to curb Marigold's YouTube so she never comes up with such foolish ideas in her life."

He agreed. Rescuing strangers could already have a strong effect on the psyche, but they were moving on with it. If he had to rescue Marigold, or Rosaline... He certainly wouldn't be able to deal with that so easily... He was well aware of that.

PUTTING THE STITCHES WAS NOT DONE WITHOUT THE ADMINISTRATION OF PAINKILLERS. Rosie was given time off by Bobby until the end of her shift, which the doctor agreed with. The only thing she was to do was to look after herself and report back if anything happened.

"I'll keep an eye on her," Chim replied as he took from Rosie the papers she had received. The girl was able to hold them, but he persisted, so she didn't want to argue with him any more. "She won't overload this hand."

"Let's go now, because you're giving me nostrums," she said, openly embarrassed.

The doctor only laughed.

"Such a partner is a treasure," he replied. "Goodbye, Mrs Buckley."

He walked away, leaving them alone in the hospital corridor. Both of them were confused. They didn't know how to comment on this, given their relationship.

"I want to try from scratch," Chimney said. "I want Marrie to have a full family, that's for sure, but I don't want to push you into the deep end straight away."

The girl laughed at his words, which, in the context of their last intervention, were rather unfortunate, but she was still glad Chim had said it.

"No one can forbid us to date," the girl replied, pulling out her phone and glancing at the messages. She saw perfectly well what Hen had written to her, but she didn't want to spoil the surprise for her companion. "Take a peek at the text message. Hen sent you something interesting."

The man looked at her suspiciously, but said nothing, just did what she told him to do. It was about the firemen's calendar – Chim had been chosen as 'Mr April'.

He smiled broadly, then looked at Rosie.

"And how do you feel about that?" She asked him.

It really didn't quite get to him, but he was still as happy as a child that he had made it, and they had chosen his picture. You could tell that Howard Han was completely born again that day - and this time he wasn't going to mess anything up. The stakes were too high for him.