34 | ❝ NEW LIFE, NEW LISSIE... BUT THERE NEVER BEEN ENOUGH SUPRISES... ❞

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CHAPTER THIRTY FOUR

❝ NEW LIFE, NEW LISSIE... BUT THERE NEVER BEEN ENOUGH SUPRISES... ❞

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[own storyline]

LISSIE POV

SHE THOUGHT IT WAS A COMPLETELY CRAZY IDEA. But maybe that was exactly what they needed lately.

When her father told her to help Athena get ready, because when he brought May and Harry over, the five of them would go to the registry office, at first, she couldn't believe what she was hearing. Later, however, she realized that her father and Athena had indeed decided on a completely spontaneous and secret wedding. And, as befits the best daughter, she decided to support them in this. It was the first such formal event she had been to in a long time, and at first she had no idea what to wear. Recently, she had focused primarily on comfort, and even clothes that would hide her from the rest.

That afternoon, she wanted to change that. She didn't feel comfortable enough to wear a dress yet, but at the bottom of her wardrobe, she found a green strappy jumpsuit that she hadn't had a chance to wear anywhere before. She covered her back with a matching jacket. She was slowly coming back to herself, but the visible mark of what had happened remained, and she wasn't ready to show it to others.

"You're stressing out as if she's going to run away," Lissie adjusted the white rose pinned to her father's suit. Athena had similar ones in her bouquet, as did everyone else — Harry in his jacket pocket and Lissie and May in their hair. "She'll show up."

"Don't you think it's a crazy idea?"

"Maybe a little," she smiled, and the official looked as if she wasn't listening to them at all, wanting to give them a moment to calm down. "You said yourself that in this job, it's hard to predict whether you'll make it home... We've all seen that recently. Besides, maybe it's for the best, because you weren't doing so well with planning this wedding."

Bobby laughed briefly, and after a moment, Athena entered the room in her wedding dress, which Lissie had already seen. Harry held her hand and led her into the room, with May walking beside them. Lissie smiled at the sight of the three of them and, in a way, couldn't believe that this was actually happening. She might be an adult now, but she needed this — a family she loved and who loved her.

It was completely different from what she remembered of Marcy's wedding. Back then, there had been a lavish reception with her stepmother's entire family and the team from the fire station where her father worked. Still, she couldn't imagine a better wedding for her father and Athena. So when they exchanged their vows and then the rings, she felt a few tears well up in her eyes. Her father had found happiness, and she knew he deserved it.

'Now no one can deny that we're a family,' Harry said.

Bobby and Athena opened their arms so that all three of their children could hug them. Lissie was the first to do so, and she was overcome with a sense of calm because she was no longer just an addition to her father's life, but actually part of the whole family.

The official took a family photo, and then Lissie opened a group chat with all their friends from 118th, as well as Suzanna, Seth and Maddie. She attached the photo and quickly wrote underneath it:

"Introducing Mr and Mrs Grant-Nash. My parents had a completely spontaneous, secret wedding, but to make up for it, you're all invited to a party next week!"

Lissie watched as congratulations and outrage poured in, not only that they weren't there, but also disbelief that Captain Nash and Sergeant Grant could come up with such crazy ideas. She smiled to herself and thought that Jonathan was right. There were still a lot of good things waiting for her, and this was one of them.

A FEW DAYS LATER, SHE HAD AN APPOINTMENT WITH JONATHAN. It had become standard practice for him to ask how she was feeling, and she admitted that she was proud of herself for always answering honestly. However, she was still tormented by nightmares and didn't know what to do anymore. It even seemed that Jonathan himself was running out of ideas.

"Can I ask you something?" she said, approaching his desk. Her visit was actually over, but she was still waiting for Suzanna to arrive at the clinic, and she certainly couldn't leave without saying hello to her boyfriend.

"You don't have to ask me that every time you have a question for me," he smiled at her.

Lissie blushed slightly.

"I guess it's just that I'm used to you always asking them... And what I want to ask is more of a... personal question? I think so, anyway."

"Ask," Jonathan encouraged her. "At worst, I won't answer."

She nodded.

"Why do you deal with these kinds of cases? Kidnappings, trauma... You could be doing... I don't know, couples therapy? That seems much easier."

His gaze softened for a moment, then a heaviness appeared in it — something seemed to be tormenting him, and he was trying to fight it.

"I made that decision a long time ago," he replied uncertainly. "I had a sister... I was in high school when something similar to you happened to her," he confessed, and she wasn't expecting to hear anything like that. "A boy raped her in her class, and at first she didn't want to admit it. I knew something was wrong, but when I asked her, I didn't get any answers... Until I found her in the bathroom with her veins cut... Compared to Athena, I arrived too late."

Lissie didn't answer right away. All the pain she had been holding inside her went away. When she asked the question, she didn't expect such a drastic and honest answer.

"I'm sorry..." She put her hands in her hoodie pockets, not knowing what to do with them. "I'm sorry I asked. I didn't mean to pressure you or make you feel bad about telling me."

"It's okay, Lissie," he smiled sadly at her. "It happened a while ago... I miss her every day, but I know that if she were here, she would be proud of me. I couldn't help her then, so I try to help other girls who are going through something similar."

"Thank you for telling me about it."

Jonathan nodded, but didn't have time to say anything else because there was a quiet knock at the door and Suzanna entered the office. Her red hair was pinned up, and she was wearing one of her favorite suits.

"Guess who just won the case?" she said as she approached them.

Baker rose from his seat and kissed her on the cheek, refraining from a more ostentatious greeting. Lissie shook her head, having seen much more than that several times before.

"Congratulations. I told you you'd do it," Jonathan said with a smile. Suzanna blushed at his compliment, and Lissie thought she looked about twenty years younger.

She had noticed earlier that her aunt was glowing — something she had never really seen before. She was sure that it had something to do with her relationship with Jonathan and wished them all the best.

"Okay, give me the car keys."

Lissie reached out to her aunt.

"What for?" Suzanna frowned, looking at her goddaughter. "We're leaving right now."

"You're going to be all over each other again, and after last time, I'm not mentally prepared for that," she said bluntly, and instead of being embarrassed, the couple just laughed. "I'll wait for you in the car."

"Give me a few minutes," Suzanna asked, handing over the keys. "I'll join you in a moment."

"Take your time, but remember that we have an appointment."

"An appointment?" Jonathan asked with interest.

"We're going to the hairdresser's," Suzanna explained. "We need some girl time together."

"Well, I hope you have a great time."

"We'll see," Lissie said, picking up her rucksack from the sofa and slinging it over her shoulder. "See you next week, Jonathan."

LISSIE COULD NOT REMEMBER THE LAST TIME SHE HAD BEEN TO THE HAIRDRESSER FOR HER OWN PLEASURE. She had made some progress, because since Chicago, she had not even cut her hair, and now they were longer than she was used to. She had once heard that hair held bad memories, and although she wasn't sure if it was actually true, she decided to give it a try. She was getting back to herself step by step, and returning to her old, best hairstyle was to be the next step in her transformation.

"Have you thought about what you want to do?" Suzanna asked as they waited for their appointment. Apparently, it was a reputable salon Athena regularly visited. "I think I'll just have the ends trimmed a little."

"Don't you want something crazier, so Jonathan will notice?"

"He recently said he likes my red hair, so I don't see the need to change anything."

"You love it yourself and you don't need some guy to tell you that," Lissie remarked, looking at her aunt over the newspaper with the latest popular styles. However, she came to the conclusion that most of them were suitable for a fashion show, not for everyday wear.

"That's true," Suzanna nodded. "But that doesn't change the fact that sometimes a compliment from a man has twice the effect on a woman. You can't tell me Buck doesn't compliment you."

Lissie frowned as she put the magazine down on the table. She looked at Suzanna closely and saw that Suzanna was looking at her too.

"I don't know what you're talking about..."

Suzanna laughed briefly. She leaned back in her chair and folded her hands on her stomach.

"Seriously?" she said with quiet irony. "You're going to pretend everyone doesn't see the yearning looks and doey eyes? Or that you spend more time together than with anyone else?"

"First of all, we're both still on sick leave, so we're just making the most of our time while the rest are working," Lissie tried to explain, but she only blushed, which did not convince Suzanna at all. "Anyway, Buck and I are friends. What's wrong with that?"

"Most relationships start with 'we're friends'."

Suzanna made quotation marks in the air, and Lissie wanted to roll her eyes, but her body betrayed her, because her heart began to beat faster at the very thought of her and Buck together... But it was too early, definitely. She didn't trust herself, as if she wanted to, and thinking about any relationship was out of the question.

Besides, Buck was her friend. A damn handsome and caring friend, whom she knew she had been in love with for a long time.

"Secondly," Lissie began, ignoring her aunt's words. "I don't yearn."

'Well, maybe,' Suzanna replied with a mysterious smile. 'But he does it every time he looks at you. And you can deny it all you want, and I understand why you're doing it, but I know what I see when I look at you with him. You glow like I've never seen before."

Their conversation was interrupted by the arrival of two hairdressers who invited them to take a seat. At first, Lissie didn't know exactly what to do, but after a brief consultation with the girl, who clearly knew what she was doing, she not only decided to return to her old shoulder-length hair, but also to completely change her brown color to blonde — something that was meant to be a kind of tribute to her two deceased mothers.

It may not have been much, but she was finally starting to feel like her old self again. She couldn't be the same girl one hundred per cent, but she could regain what she could and make herself an even better version of herself.

The hair change seemed like a simple thing, but for her it meant something completely different — she was finally starting to have more control over her life.

ROSIE POV

SHE FELT LIKE SHE WAS STILL ON SICK LEAVE, DESPITE RETURNING TO WORK. It had been three weeks since she returned to the fire station, but she had "light duties" and was bored stiff. She was fed up with it, even though she had experienced something similar when Vincent Gerrard was captain and she had just joined 118. Back then, it was easier because she had Chim by her side.

This time, she had done literally everything she could in the unit — she had organized the equipment so that everything was easy to find, cleaned every corner of the building, and sorted through Bobby's documents so that he could find his way around them. She even prepared a sample menu to make it easier to prepare meals during a given shift.

She did this several times, but so far she had not been taken with the others when they were called out. She tried to talk to Bobby, but he dismissed her in every possible way. She was not the only one who was not thrilled about this, because Ian and Chim stood behind her, for which she was grateful. She missed her field work terribly.

Since she had nothing else to do, she decided to FaceTime Lissie. She knew that by this time she should have finished her therapy session with Jonathan, so she could certainly talk for a while. At least if she wasn't planning on meeting Buck, which she felt was more than certain.

Ever since young Nash had arrived in town, Rosie had noticed a change in her brother's behavior. She was happy about it, although she preferred to be cautious because she knew his attitude towards women, even if he had been dating Abby for a while. She realized that the feeling was mutual, but if Evan broke Lissie's heart... She would never forgive him for that, even if they were related. Mellie was very close to her, and she would do anything for her, as she had shown a few months earlier. However, the further their relationship progressed, the more she began to believe that they were meant for each other. She quietly dreamed that one day they would officially become sisters.

Buckley waited for her friend to answer the call, but she didn't, which surprised and worried her. To be sure, she called Jonathan's private number to ask him if Lissie had even made it to therapy. Her heart was pounding like a hammer, but when he confirmed that they had seen each other and that Suzanna had picked her up after the session, her fear vanished.

"I heard there was a fire, but I didn't think it was that bad," she heard Suzanna's voice as she entered the fire station. "Johnny called me to say you were panicking because you couldn't get through to our Sunshine."

"Is it strange that I care about the safety of my best friend, Susie?" she asked, taking a sip of water. "I'll always worry about her. You'd better tell me where she is, because from what I've heard, she was supposed to be with you."

"She's parking the car. I need to prepare you mentally for her arrival."

Rosie frowned, not understanding what her friend meant. What could have happened in the last few hours that she needed to be mentally prepared for?

"Is she ready, Suzanna?" Lissie's voice rang out from behind the wall of the building. "Can I come in?"

"Come, come," said the person in question. "It's nice to have someone to talk to when no one else is here..."

When she saw her friend at the entrance to the fire station, the bottle of water she was holding fell from her hands in shock. Young Nash stood before her, her hair dyed blonde, but it was the length of her hair that caught most of her attention.

Rosie instinctively put her hand to her mouth. Tears welled up in her eyes, and a loud sob escaped her throat, alarming her companions.

"It's not that bad, is it?" Lissie asked, shocked. "I wanted to go wild and..."

Rosie shook her head, trying to control her emotions. Finally, she threw herself into her friend's arms, hugging her tightly, and her friend hugged her back.

"Bad?" Her voice began to break. "Star... You don't even know how happy I am with what I see... The old you that I met years ago is coming back to us... You can deny it, but that's how I feel. You may not be the same as you were then, but that doesn't mean that some part of you doesn't want to come out into the open. Changing your hairstyle is a step in the right direction and at the same time a way of honoring the memory of your loved ones who cannot see what we see now. I'm so damn proud of you."

Tears welled up in Lissie's eyes, but she laughed softly and hugged her friend again.

"You have no idea how happy I am..." said Suzanna, putting her arms around them, tears streaming down her own face. "You've both been through hell in your own way, but you're here and you're still fighting. I'm bursting with pride."

The two friends looked at each other in confusion. The behavior of the lawyer they knew was... definitely unusual.

"Suzanna?" Rosie asked her. "Is everything all right?"

"What?" Suzanna clearly became uncomfortable. "Yes... I was just moved by your conversation. Especially after that nightmare... Let's change the subject. How are you doing at work?"

"Well... Chim told me that you're really having a hard time with the light duties" my father has made to you," replied Lissie. "Ian mentioned that to steer clear of you"

Rosie frowned.

"It's an interesting feeling to find out that I've become the subject of your conversations," she said, watching the youngest of them. "What do you call your gossip circle?"

Mellie and Suzanna burst out laughing, which made Rosie laugh too.

"How does it look from your side?" asked the blonde. "Because, you know... There are as many opinions as there are people, and it's best to ask the source."

An irritated Buckley sighed loudly, which was a sign that things were really not looking good. Although that was putting it mildly...

"I feel like I'm someone whose job is to 'fetch, carry, sweep'. I miss working in the field even more than when I was on sick leave. I was more productive at home than I am here. I never thought I'd say this, but it's true."

They both noticed that Suzanna visibly tensed up when Rosie finished her statement.

"I told him that's not the right approach..." whispered the redhead. "Bobby is afraid to let you go out in the field because of your injury. I talked to him and tried to talk him out of it, but... You can see for yourselves that it didn't work."

At first, Rosie thought she had misheard. After all, she had passed all the tests, she had been approved, and he... was afraid? She understood that as captain he had to ensure the safety of the team, but this? She couldn't wrap her head around it at all.

The whole team returned from the operation and drove into the fire station. Under different circumstances, she would have been happy about it, but not at that moment.

When she saw Bobby, the emotions she had been holding back exploded with double force.

"You're keeping me in the fire station because you're afraid?!" she snapped just as the captain was about to greet his daughter and sister. "This is unbelievable, Nash! I've come a long way and done everything I could to come back here, and you... You put me aside like I was a broken child's toy! But fine... If that's the case, I won't comment on it, except for one sentence. You're a terrible coward!"

After saying this, without even waiting for Bobby's response, who stood in front of her completely stunned by her reaction, she headed for the changing room to calm down in solitude. It hurt her to say what she had to say to the captain, because he was her superior, but she was heartily fed up with it and he had to finally understand that — whether he did or not was no longer her concern.

LISSIE POV

SHE HADN'T PLANNED TO TALK TO HER FATHER ABOUT ROSIE THAT DAY, BUT AS WE KNOW, PLANS CHANGED VERY OFTEN. She knew she had to wait for him to come back from work first, so she took advantage of the moment and decided to bake a cheesecake. The physical and manual labor would definitely help her collect her thoughts.

Sometime before evening, Athena was the first to return home. She was clearly tired from her shift, but she smiled when she saw her stepdaughter and the warm cake on the table. Lissie's new hairstyle attracted the most attention.

"I see my place worked out for you, huh?" she asked, putting all her things on the chair next to her and then sitting down on the other one.

"It was a perfect choice" Lissie confirmed.

"I can see that," Grant smiled contentedly. "You look lovely. Bobby kept telling me you always had your hair this length, but seeing it in person is definitely better."

"It's nothing... Just a change of hairstyle, but it's true that I feel... More like myself. Plus, I wanted to do something that would remind me of Mum and Marcy, and since they were both blondes..."

"You look beautiful, Mellie."

Lissie blushed visibly, because Athena was another person who thought she hadn't made a mistake. And she certainly felt that way herself, because she had the impression that she was actually regaining herself in some way.

Athena got up from the table to get a bottle of water, and that's when Bobby came home. Lissie went to meet him and stood in the doorway between the kitchen and the living room with her arms crossed.

"We need to talk," she said, not letting him say hello.

Bobby, however, looked very shocked — not so much by her behavior as by her appearance. In his dreams, he had not expected to see her hair this long again, and blonde at that. He even felt as if he had gone back in time, because Lissie resembled her own mother even more. The shades were almost identical, and if he hadn't known that Evelyn had been dead for many years, he could have sworn that it was her standing in front of him. He was completely stunned.

"You look..." he tried to say something, but his voice stuck in his throat. Tears welled up in his eyes, and he finally felt as if his Mellie was slowly coming back.

"Whatever you want to tell me now, it can wait," she said firmly, and Bobby felt even more strongly as if he were seeing her mother before his eyes. God, the older she got, the more she resembled her. "We need to talk about Rosa."

"Definitely," Athena joined them, having been let in on the problem earlier. Although Grant herself knew a thing or two about the problem, having discussed it with Hen. "You have to let her out into the field eventually, because this could end badly. I know from experience that Rosa hates being cooped up."

"Exactly," Lissie nodded. "I worked with her in Chicago, and every day she had to be on light duty almost killed her. The field is her element."

Bobby sighed heavily. He walked past the two women to go deeper into the room and put his things away. Lissie and Athena quickly turned to face him and looked at him in a similar, expectant manner. One of them could be scary, let alone when they joined forces.

Nash gave in and raised his hands.

"All right, don't look at me like that," he replied with amusement, but quickly became serious. "You're right, I shouldn't have kept her at the fire station all this time. It's just..." He paused briefly and rubbed his eyes wearily. Lissie felt guilty because she could see that he was exhausted after his shift, and she was only adding to his problems, which she could have dealt with the next day. "I don't want anything to happen to her. I know that in this case, I probably shouldn't let her go back to work, but Buck and Rosie suffered unnecessarily because of me... If you were with us at the fire station, I'd be just as afraid to let you go out in the field."

Bobby looked at his daughter, and she remembered her last conversation with Rosie about returning to work. Now her father was talking about it... Maybe it wasn't a coincidence? In a way, she was touched by what her father said — that he had even considered that one day she might work in his unit. She felt like it was some kind of sign, but of what? Should she give up on returning to the dispatch center and take the plunge back into the fire service? Was she even ready for that?

All she knew was that she was terrified.

And Jonathan told her that fear was often the best motivation for making difficult decisions that would change our whole lives.

"I understand why you're worried, because I won't be able to repay Rosie for what she's done for me," she said, hugging herself. It wasn't even about her saving her from Haywood, but all the time she had spent looking after her and caring for her. "When we lived in Chicago and worked together in the fire brigade, she always did everything she could to keep me safe, especially during various strange operations. Dad," she approached him, placing her hand on his shoulder. "The field is her environment. Sooner or later, you'll have to let her go on an operation."

Bobby looked at the two of them for a moment, then finally capitulated.

"All right," he said calmly. "I promise I'll talk to her on my next shift."

Lissie and Athena high-fived each other happily. Young Nash went to the kitchen to cut the cheesecake she had baked earlier, but she only served Athena a slice, keeping the other one for herself.

"What about me?" Bobby protested amusedly, and Lissie just shook her head, setting her blonde curls in motion.

"You'll get yours when you talk to Rosie," she replied confidently, but smiled innocently at him. "I promise I'll save you a piece."

"That's not fair, but I guess I have no choice but to accept it," he said, then kissed his daughter on the cheek. "You look wonderful with your new hair, Mellie. You look just like your mother."

Lissie just blushed and buried her head in his shoulder.