Cast:
Firefighters:
Sadik Adnan (Turkey)
Mathias Anderson (Denmark)
Elizabeta Hedervary (Hungary)
Yong Soo Im (South Korea)
Alfred Jones (America)
EMTs:
Iryna Chernenko (Ukraine)
Angelique Hoareau (Seychelles)
Emma Peeters (Belgium)
Matthew Williams (Canada)
Others:
Anna "Anya" Braginskaya (fem!Russia)
Margot Redoux (Monaco)
"She's gonna go weak at the knees! She's gonna be like 'woah you're so cool!'! Maybe she'll even swoon, whatever that is!"
"In your dreams," Yong Soo scoffed with a grin as he went on polishing the rig, a loose curl bouncing with the vigor of his movements.
"Alfred's right," Elizabeta broke in, jumping down from the cab, suspenders hanging loose around her waist. She flexed her arms, making her biceps bulge impressively against her black cotton t-shirt. "No girl can resist a firefighter!"
It was the right time for a group of local EMTs, who often worked in conjunction with Fire House #3 to walk by the garage on their lunch break.
"Ooh, very impressive, Miss Héderváry!" called Ms. Peeters with a smirk at Elizabeta.
"Thanks hun!" Elizabeta returned the smirk two-fold. Ms. Chernenko, a stout woman of Ukrainian origin, looked positively florid. Ms. Peeters elbowed her and said something the firefighters were too far away to hear.
"Iryna says she thinks you look top notch!" Ms. Peeters hollered at Elizabeta, while Ms. Chernenko tried to strangle her with her own shirt from behind.
"It's all good!" Elizabeta replied, grinning ear-to-ear. "No one could blame you."
"You know how Emma likes to tease," Ms. Chernenko finally spoke, waving her hand and hurrying her step.
Ms. Peeters and Elizabeta exchanged another series of grins and faces before the EMTs passed on.
"So have you actually asked her out, or are you crossing that bridge when you get to it?" Sadik asked Alfred from where he was doing inventory on the rig.
"Uh…"
"Wait, wait, we're having this whole conversation and you haven't even asked her yet?" Yong Soo demanded. Alfred gave them a sheepish look and rubbed the back of his neck.
"I'm sure she'll say yes!"
"I've seen Anya. If she doesn't say yes, she'll break your neck," Elizabeta said. "Watch your step, Alfie, or you're gonna get squashed."
"I'm okay with that," Alfred said, with that hopelessly optimistic look that earned him comparisons to puppies and Labradors.
"I think the more important question we've got right now is where we're going to lunch," Sadik said, tapping his pencil against the clipboard.
"I agree!" Yong Soo jumped in at once.
"Do the three of you ever think about anything besides food?" Elizabeta grabbed a rag to help Alfred polish.
"Yeah, sometimes I think about Star Trek," Alfred said. Elizabeta gave him a dry look and then they both laughed.
The thing about being a firefighter was that hardly anyone fell into the position. Probably one in a hundred of those kids who came into kindergarten with their proud plans to become a firefighter actually went ahead with it—and those were the members of Fire Station #3. So they could all sit around and share their stories of glorifying the local fire department as children and they all had a little spark of pride in their chest for becoming at least a part of the person their child-self had pictured.
Comparatively, Elizabeta did not suspect very many children dreamed of being EMTs. All the glory was in rushing into a burning apartment building and carrying out a mother of three like a sack of very valuable potatoes while your peers doused the roaring flames in a lake's worth of water, the force of that almost as dangerous as the fire.
But when Elizabeta swung the woman down onto the grass, she knew her rescue would have been worth shit without Ms. Chernenko and the other EMTs to haul her onto a stretcher and rush her to the waiting ambulance. It blared off, red beacons demanding deference, and the rest of that family bundled into a cab, too shaky to drive, to meet their loved one at the hospital.
"She'll be alright," Ms. Hoareau assured the husband, putting a comforting hand on his shoulder. "They'll just want to make sure her lungs weren't damaged and keep an eye on her, but there's no need to worry."
Watching them at work is like watching a machine, and it is only on the field that Ms. Chernenko's leadership of the team becomes apparent. It was as if she became a wholly different person, Elizabeta thought. Gone was the diffidence, the gentle smiles, the willingness to take a backseat in whatever was going on—it was as though she had entered a battlefield as the only commander capable of rescuing the fight. The terrible orange light of the fire illuminated her face, throwing into relief the commanding glint in her eyes. Her usually loose blonde hair is jerked back with an array of bobby pins
Liz was pretty sure she'd have followed Ms. Chernenko into battle. She was certainly doing quite the job directing other residents of the small apartment complex while trying to handle minor injuries and smoke inhalation out of the back of their ambulance. Only the woman who had been rushed off seemed to need immediate medical attention, having been at the epicenter of the fire's outbreak.
I should say something to her, Elizabeta thought when the blaze had been tamed and Alfred and Yong Soo were seeing to the last of the embers while Sadik checked the perimeter. But as she tried to make her way over to the ambulances, Ms. Chernenko loaded into one, calling a few last directions to the remaining EMTs before driving off.
"Had some directions for her?" Mathias called down from the rig, one hand on his walkie-talkie.
"Nah," Elizabeta replied, her voice trailing off. "Just something to tell her…"
Alfred had proposed to meet Elizabeta at the mall for lunch and the latest action film out—Atomic Blonde.
"I read the comic, it's really good," he said as they plowed through fries and burgers, Alfred slurping on a shake out of the corner of his mouth.
"Yeah?" Elizabeta's eyebrows lifted slightly in surprise. "I thought you hated reading."
"I do, but comics are different," he said. "Easier. Plus the fonts are better for me." Elizabeta nodded. Alfred's dyslexia earned him a free pass to never navigate without a GPS in the rig. Between that and his glasses, his chances of accurately reading road signs were abysmal.
"Okay, that's fair. Another question: why now of all times to ask me to hang out outside of work?"
"We've hung out before!" Alfred protested.
"As part of a group," Elizabeta pointed out. "A work group." Alfred sighed and stirred his milkshake with a French fry.
"Fine." The word was drawn out in a borderline whine. "I needed to talk to you about something."
"About what?" Elizabeta peeled a stray bit of tomato off her plate and swallowed it.
"Anya."
"You came to me for girl trouble?" Elizabeta asked. "I'm flattered!" She put a hand on her chest. "Allow me to bestow upon you the greatest of advice. What's your issue?" Alfred continued to play with his food rather than answer for a moment.
"Well…you know Anya comes from a conservative family…" he began, and Elizabeta straightened up a little. This already sounded more serious than she'd anticipated (which, frankly, had been something like "She doesn't like Star Wars" or "I snorted milk in front of her and now I can never talk to her again"). "And I think it weirds her out a little that I'm…y'know."
"What? That you're trans?" Elizabeta demanded loudly, making Alfred wince slightly.
"Yeah."
"Did it ever bother her before?" Elizabeta asked, lowering her hands from her food.
"No, but that was before I wanted to date her."
"Alfred, you've wanted to date Anya from the moment you saw her, even if you didn't know it," Elizabeta said. "I could tell as soon as you started talking about her."
"Yeah, okay, fine," Alfred allowed. "It was before I asked her to date me."
"Did she say something?"
"No, but…"
"What'd she do?"
"She didn't do anything," Alfred huffed, shoving the ice cream-loaded French fry into his mouth. "I just…I get a vibe, you know? I can tell. I can't tell when people aren't sympatico with it."
"Listen, just because she grew up with a conservative family doesn't excuse her being an asshole," Elizabeta asserted.
"I'm not trying to excuse anything, Liz, jeepers," Alfred said. "I just. I don't know. I feel weird that she feels weird."
"Have you asked her about it?"
"No. I mean, I think she'll come around."
"You didn't want to bring it up," Elizabeta said flatly.
"No, but I also think she'll come around," Alfred said. "I think she just needs to get used to the idea."
"So what kind of advice are you looking for here, exactly?" Elizabeta asked. "Because I'm not really the expert in this field." Alfred groaned and put his forehead down on his lunch tray.
"I don't know. Some magical girl-mojo to make everything go smooth?" Elizabeta laughed.
"Alfred, no relationship in the world is like that." Alfred let out another hearty groan and Elizabeta softened. "Listen, if you think she needs time, give her time. But talk to her about it, okay? Don't let it be an elephant in the room. It's not something you should feel embarrassed talking about anyway."
"It's not!" Alfred protested, turning his face to be heard more clearly. "At least, not like this. But now it's like…"
"It's different with someone you're dating," Elizabeta guessed, toying with the knife on her plate. "But if you really want things to work with her, you've got to be open. That goes both ways, too. She needs to be honest with you. If she's not comfortable with this, she needs to say so now, not string you along until she gets the guts to leave."
Alfred sighed with a smile. "If there's anything Anya has plenty of, it's guts. I'm sure she'd have said no if she didn't want to go out with me."
"See? That's a good sign then," Elizabeta said, trying to sound encouraging. Being an only child raised by a single father, she wasn't really awash in sisterly advice, but she was also the only woman in the station, so if Alfred had to pick a work friend, she saw why he'd chosen her. "Then she probably wants to make it work too, so talk to her and tell her to stop being weird."
"I will!" Alfred said up, no doubt heartened by Elizabeta's magical girl advice.
"Good, then we can—ow!" In the course of using her knife as a plaything, Elizabeta's hand had slipped and cut open her thumb. "Damn."
"Oh, hang on!" Alfred dug around in his Marvel-patterned backpack until he dug out a first aid kit, and forked over a band-aid of the proper size from it. Elizabeta stared.
"Since when are you Mr. Safety?" she asked. Alfred's cheeks warmed and he ducked his head, bangs falling over his forehead.
"It wasn't my idea, it was Mattie's," he said. "Ever since that incident at the university he's been on my ass about taking more precautions."
"And that means carrying around a bunch of band-aids?" Elizabeta asked, though she didn't object as she wrapped one around the pad of her thumb.
"It's actually pretty cool," Alfred said, opening the kit wider. "It's got gauze, band-aids, instructions for heat stroke, sprains, hypothermia, sanitized wipes, tiny scissors…"
"Does he have one of these?" Elizabeta asked.
"Probably like, five," Alfred snorted. "He's like a mom, always got something in his fanny pack that you might need."
"Is it weird working with your brother?" Elizabeta asked, scrunching up the band-aid refuse. Alfred shrugged.
"Not really. I mean, we only see each other in passing. It's kind of nice, actually," he said with a smile. "We worried a lot after the divorce and the custody thing that we'd be split up, so it's nice that we get to live close together even though we're all moved out now."
Elizabeta nodded. Sibling relationships were somewhat beyond her, never having had one, let alone the symbiotic relationship of twins.
"That's cool," was all she could really say.
"Are you done? We wanna get good seats for the movie," Alfred said as he stowed his first aid kit.
"Yeah, let's roll." They got up, stuffed down the last of their fries, and went off to watch Charlize Theron kick some super spy ass.
"How was your date night last night?" Iryna asked as Emma flipped through a magazine. The morning was slow for them today, and they were parked in a Denny's lot waiting for a call. Angelique was in the back taking inventory for the fiftieth time that week.
"Oh, it was magnificent," Emma said brightly, looking up from her magazine. She was always glad to talk about her wife. "I took Margot to the ballet, and I kept it a surprise, so when I told her to dress up nice, I think she thought we were just going out to eat," she said.
"Oh! Was she very surprised?" Iryna asked.
"Yeah," Emma said with a grin. "When we pulled up to the theater she looked about as surprised as I've ever seen her! It was great. She loved it, we saw Don Quixote and I think she was on Cloud Nine. She loves fancy stuff like that, but it's hard to surprise her with my pay."
"What is it she does again?"
"You know, I'm not even sure," Emma said with a slight frown. "Some kind of business transactions…she's always been a bit vague about it. But it wouldn't matter, her family's filthy rich anyway, and she's the only child, so it all goes to her. Plus, her parents spoiled her rotten."
"Hm. I hope she doesn't expect you to do the same," Iryna said.
"Oh, she does. And I do, for my part," Emma said with a nonchalant shrug and a crooked smile. "She's my princess."
"That's so sweet." Iryna couldn't stop the tiny smile from spreading across her face, but it was accompanied by a deep pang in her chest, a pull in her heart. Emma's eyes shone with a soft, warm light whenever she spoke of Margot, and while love had never been a core goal of Iryna's (her life simply had not allowed it), she found more and more that her thoughts drifted towards it. Now, with a stable job and her two younger siblings out on her own, she found herself wondering what it would be like for someone to look at her that way, to speak of her with such tenderness and affection even in her absence.
Emma was flipping through her phone, and Iryna's mind was plunged into the abyss of the unhappily single, and she thought of Ms. Héderváry, and what her face looked like when she spoke of someone she loved. She was such an animated woman, Iryna had to assume she was just as much so when she talked of those dear to her.
"Here! I have a picture," Emma said, holding her phone out so Iryna could admire the picture of Emma and Margot dressed to the nines.
"Oh, you're both so lovely!" Iryna cried. Margot was indeed beautiful, and Iryna could see how Emma had been taken in, although she didn't think she could have ever dealt with the Monacan woman's diva-esque attitude. She needed someone more reliable, warmer…
Emma sighed contentedly and sat back in her seat. They fell back into silence, Iryna flipping through their safety manual for a review, until Emma spoke again. "So what about you, Ira? When are you going to get yourself a girl?"
"When it's the right time," Iryna replied placidly without looking up. It took an unfair amount of effort not to imagine taking Ms. Héderváry out on a night on the town—or even better, a cozy night in, with tea, and movies, and Elizabeta's strong shoulders…
"Ms. Héderváry is currently single," Emma said with poorly-feigned casualness.
"So you have told me," Iryna said, looking over at her companion, who threw her hands up.
"I'm just saying—" Before Emma could defend herself further, the radio buzzed and Iryna called to Angelique that they were heading out—duty called.
It was after two A.M. by the time they finished their last call, and everyone was falling asleep standing up.
"I can't believe no one was more hurt," Angelique said, covering a yawn. Most victims had been treated at the scene; only an elderly man had needed to be sent to the hospital, accompanied by Emma and a few other medics.
"It was good teamwork," Elizabeta replied, feebly holding her hand up for a high-five only to realize that Alfred had gone over to sit on the ground and was currently huddled under a shock blanket, falling asleep against Matthew, who was equally dozy. Yong Soo took a few steps to save her from being left hanging.
"Agreed," Iryna said, her voice still sharp despite the weight of her eyelids. "This is what a job well done looks like. I'm proud of you all."
"Then the whole day was worth it," Sadik piped up, flashing a tired, but still cheeky, smile at Ms. Chernenko.
"I am far too tired for any backtalk from you, Mr. Adnan," she replied, shaking her head. One of her hair clips popped loose and was only saved from oblivion by a hasty, luck-fueled catch by Elizabeta, who seemed to surprise herself when she opened her hand and the flower-shaped clip was there in her palm.
"Your flower, my lady," Elizabeta teased, dropping into an exaggerated bow and holding the clip out. Iryna's already warm cheeks flushed in the darkness and she took the hair piece back.
"Thank you, Ms. Héderváry," she said, fumbling to pin it back in her hair and let someone else take the spotlight as soon as possible.
"Here, let me help," Elizabeta offered, reaching out to fix the clip. She was a good two and a half inches shorter, not putting her in a very good position for fixing Iryna's hair, but she went at it anyway. This close, Iryna could smell the sweat and smoke on Elizabeta, though she was sure she smelled much the same. There remained a thin cover of sweat over Elizabeta's throat, and Iryna's heart beat so loud she hoped it drowned out the mental impulses telling her to press her lips against Ms. Héderváry's neck.
"Hello, anyone home?"
"Huh?" Iryna jumped, and everyone was staring, particularly Ms. Héderváry, who was very much done putting her clip back in place. Tired snickers and a bark of laughter from Mr. Im, who, even in his exhausted state, retained more energy than the rest of them put together.
"She was just distracted by my muscles, it's fine," Elizabeta said, posing albeit with less enthusiasm than usual, given her level of exhaustion. Through the unbuttoned front of her coat, Iryna could see the muscles in her chest tense and flex. When she again failed to response, Elizabeta laughed. "See! I told you."
"Women can't resist a firefighter," Sadik agreed, slapping Yong Soo's shoulder. "But you'll have to do your flirting later, we need to get this rig back to the station."
"Yeah, yeah, we know how much you hate late calls, Sadik," Mr. Im said. "God, you're such an old man! What time do you go to bed, five?"
"I think it's less about being old, and more about the piece of French ass waiting at home," Alfred said, stumbling over to join them, glasses hanging from one hand.
"Don't be more jealous than you can help, Alfred," Sadik said, a bit of a warning about the terms with which Alfred referred to his husband.
"Don't be crass, Al," Matthew chided in addition, rubbing an eye as he followed after his twin.
"Don't rub your eyes if there's soot in them, Matthew," Angelique warned as he approached. "You'll scratch your cornea."
"Just tired," Matthew yawned. "Are we heading out?"
"Yes, let's get home," Iryna agreed, stretching. "Some of us 'old people' actually need sleep to function." Yong Soo flashed a peace sign but obviously stifled a yawn in the middle of it. Everyone separated to get ready to go, but as Iryna was getting in the back of the ambulance, someone caught her arm.
"Hey, listen, I just wanted to make sure I haven't…crossed a line or anything." It was Elizabeta. "I'm just teasing, you know, so if I make you uncomfortable or anything, please tell me." Iryna just blinked, too tired to deal with a confrontation she hadn't anticipated in the slightest.
"No, not at all," she said. "You haven't bothered me." Aside from being more correct than Iryna was sure she wanted her to be. Elizabeta let out a quiet huff of relief.
"Cool, I just wanted to be sure," she said. "You were just pretty quiet back there so I wanted to check."
"Just tired," Iryna assured her with a fitting smile. "Sorry if I worried you." Elizabeta just smiled in response, realizing she was too tired to be having an actual conversation, and that she was holding Ms. Chernenko up from getting some sleep.
"Great then, see you later," she said, waving as she headed back towards the rig. Iryna waved back, realizing after she shut the doors to the ambulance that she hadn't actually said goodbye, and then figuring anything forgotten at this time of day after their workload would be forgiven.
Sleep now, overanalyzing her relationship and interactions with Elizabeta Héderváry later.
It had become tradition for Fire House #3 to throw a Christmas party—it was a good chance for everyone to celebrate the successes of the year, mourn the failures, and make goals for the coming year. As he had for the last three years, Alfred volunteered to host, despite the fact that he lived in a small apartment unsuitable for large groups of people by even the laxest of safety standards. Thus, as had happened last year, Mathias offered his house as a location, while Alfred did most of the host work.
Elizabeta loved the party as a chance to relax and bond with coworkers as well as to flaunt the Hungarian alcohol she received on a bi-yearly basis from one of her friends back in Budapest. She wore a simple red dress with white accents, and Alfred was full of his usual compliments as he accepted her alcohol to put with the rest on a table he'd dragged into Mathias' living room.
"Hey, Liz!" he said, taking her aside once he'd put the bottles down. "I took your advice—and it worked! Anya's gonna come tonight, you can meet her!"
"That's great, Alfie!" Elizabeta smiled and slapped his arm genially. "See? You're doing great."
Alfred vanished into the kitchen as Elizabeta mingled in the living room, seeking out Sadik to rehash how he had lost the annual soccer match earlier that year. It was a story that six months of time had not lessened her enthusiasm for, having been a member of the winning team.
Coworkers and their family members continued to trickle in; when Alfred's girlfriend arrived she was unmistakable, towering several inches over everyone else in the room with a head of silvery blonde hair. Elizabeta considered seeking her out, but she was too busy talking with Ms. Hoareau about the pitfalls of recent fashion trends, and it would have been a trial to try to make her way over there. In just a moment, Alfred was excitedly introducing her to Yong Soo anyway.
The party lasted hours, as usual. Elizabeta had the chance to briefly speak with Anya—Alfred hovering around both of them, waiting to see their opinions of each other—before she had vanished over in the direction of the booze table. She'd lost a game of Mario Kart to Angelique and Yong Soo, and had then retreated to the dining room where there were plates of sweet things laid out en masse. As she made her way through her…third? Third drink?— chatting with Ms. Peeters—realized she hadn't seen Iryna in quite a while.
"Hey, where'd Iryna get off to?" she asked, looking around. Emma glanced around as well and then frowned. They had carpooled to the party, and she remembered Iryna attempting to make some half-hearted excuse for not coming. Had she said her goodbyes and slipped out while Emma was busy talking?
"Good question," she said, swallowing the last of her cookie (she hadn't bothered keeping track of how many of those she'd had) and getting to her feet. "I'll go have a look for her." She found Iryna tucked into a corner of the living room, with a glass of something clear that was probably not water. "Hey! What are you doing out here?" she asked, finding no place to take a seat.
"Preparing for battle," she replied in a tone so low it sounded more like she was talking to herself. She looked up at Emma with a smile. "Sometimes I like just sitting and listening to everyone talk. It's nice to see them all getting along, and it gives me a break from conversation."
"Ms. Héderváry is wondering where you are," Emma said.
"She is?" Emma nodded.
"I think she's a bit disappointed, she thinks you might have left," Emma said.
"She's disappointed?" Again, Emma nodded.
"How many of those have you had?" she asked, nodding towards the drink. Iryna's eyes glanced up at the ceiling, doing some calculations.
"I don't remember. Six?" She waved a hand. "Not so many. Where's Ms. Héderváry now?"
"Still in the dining room, I think," Emma said, as Iryna threw back the rest of her drink and got to her feet. "Where are you going?"
"To find her," Iryna replied simply, handing Emma her glass, and picking her way through the crowd towards the dining room. She leaned against the doorframe and for a moment, watched Elizabeta browsing the snack options. Her long, warm brown hair was pulled back in a bun and Iryna could see she'd put on light make-up for the event, emphasizing the lovely shape of her eyes—green, bordering on hazel (though Iryna hadn't had nearly enough time to study them to her content). "Ms. Héderváry!" she called. Elizabeta looked up, with a face Iryna could gladly imagine waking up to.
"There you are!" Elizabeta said, abandoning the trays of cookies and crackers to approach. "Emma and I wondered where you'd gone."
"Just having a little drink," Iryna said with a tiny, inscrutable smile. "I have something to tell you, though."
"Oh, yeah?" Above them dangled one of many little green mistletoes that Alfred had positioned throughout the house (Iryna swore she'd seen Matthew pull one down when he realized he was standing under it).
"Yeah," she replied, copying Elizabeta's upfront tone. She reached out, took hold of Elizabeta's shoulders, fingers cool against the other woman's warm skin, and pulled her in for a kiss that left nothing of Iryna's feelings to the imagination. When she pulled back, she let go and smoothed the front of her dress, as composed as could be, aside from the florid shade of her cheeks (though truthfully speaking, at least a portion of that could easily be attributed to the drink).
"Oh," was Elizabeta's insightful reply, mouth still agape. She blinked several times and then tried again. "So I was right, huh?" Iryna pursed her lips.
"Yes, annoyingly so." Elizabeta grinned.
"That's great news!" she said, her eyes shining earnestly. "You should've told me!" Iryna avoided her eyes and folded her hands in front of her.
"I was trying to tell if you were teasing, or serious with those things you said," she replied.
"Oh. I was teasing, but that doesn't mean I'm not…that I wouldn't be interested," she said, shrugging her shoulders sheepishly.
"You would be?" Iryna failed to disguise her surprise.
"Yeah, of course," she said, a little smile twitching on her lips. "You're pretty cool, Ms. Chernenko. Anyone would be lucky to have you interested!"
"Well then, perhaps you will come meet me at Les Amis on Saturday?" Iryna figured this was the time to forge ahead; here was her chance, and she wasn't about to let it slip by. Her tone was as firm and self-assured as Elizabeta had ever heard it off the field. "Maybe three o'clock?" Elizabeta's small smile grew into another grin, and Iryna's heart fluttered, banging itself excitedly against her ribcage.
"Yeah, I will," she agreed, finding herself briefly captivated by the ice blue of Iryna's eyes. "I'll see you then."
"Good talking with you," Iryna said, nodding and turning back into the crowd before her knees completely turned to jelly. A date with Elizabeta Héderváry! The new year was already looking favorable for one Iryna Chernenko.