S1E1:
Firehouse 51
A young and enthusiastic Peter Mills arrives as the new candidate for Firehouse 51, he is greeted by Joe Cruz brings who gives him a quick tour of the house. The boys made their way around the firehouse and eventually found Sasha Buchanan giving a young 3rd grade class their own tour of the firehouse. The kids were watching her in amazement that this woman was in fact a firefighter.
"Alright kids, this here is our new candidate," she looks up at him expectantly. Through her long eyelashes, she could see that the young candidate was mindlessly ogling her.
Cruz jumped in with, "This is Peter Mills,"
"Mills ha? Well, welcome aboard, and try not to lose any children," she said walking toward him, "Good luck candidate." She winked and smirked at the young lad and leaving him to the mercy of the curious kids and their questions.
Walking away from the 3rd grade class tour she heads to the squad table, occupied by her team. She can already hear Kelly trying to make snarky comments toward Matt, they'd been going at each other ever since Darden's accident. Even though everyone knows it wasn't Casey's fault, that Andy was always hard headed and did without thinking, Kelly still liked to point out Casey's part in the events that lead to Andrew Darden's death a month ago.
She hadn't been on shift that particular shift, for that she was thankful. Andy had always been a close friend of hers and Kelly's, ever since kindergarten. It was hard for her to make friends as a young child, something she never really understood. It was just her luck that she would become such close friends with Kelly Severide and Andrew Darden, class clowns and then later would become notorious bad boys.
"Who wants to try on a helmet?"
She turned back to the class tour and analysed the young Peter Mills, tempted to make a comment about the candidate being so close in age to the kids.
"So, this is called a pass alarm. Now, if a firefighter is totally still for more than 18 seconds, a loud alarm goes off until he moves again,"
"Why?" one of the very few kids who was paying attention asked,
"Well if he's hurt or trapped, we'll know where to find him."
"I'd just like to point out that girls can be firefighters too! And pretty badass ones at that" she yelled over to the group and more pointedly to the candidate. She heard a few sniggers from the kids as one of the little girls stood up and ran over to the squad table,
"My daddy was a firefighter, my best friend is a firefighter, and there was no way I was gonna let the boys have all the fun" she smiled and watched as a little dark-haired girl smiled in amazement.
"Now this house is special because it has a Rescue Squad. Squad 3 serves a big piece of the city, they're experts in water rescue, extraction. They're basically the best of the best."
"Peter Mills, you're making me blush" she smiled over at him, getting a smirk from Kelly
One of the other girls asked him why he wasn't a part of the Squad to which he answered that he one day hoped to join them. It was when he said that his father had been a part of Squad 4 back in the day that Sasha tensed, remembering her father had also served in Squad 4 with Henry Mills. It took her a few moments to realise that Matt and Kelly were bickering again, acting like children in front of children. Classy.
"You should know that they make the Rescue helmets extra big to fit their heads"
"I resent that Casey, you know I have to fit my ponytail in there most days. It ain't easy to tame this"
As the boys continued their passive aggressive argument Sasha saw that Peter Mills was trying to follow the animosity. Anyone could see in his eyes that maybe being in this firehouse was not as magical as he'd been raised to believe. Sensing the tension, she stood up and called for the kids to follow her, taking young Peter Mills along to show them the fireman's pole.
"So, Peter Mills, you wanna be a member of Squad 3?"
"Yes ma'am, hopefully I can- "
"Let me give you some advice candidate. Best to just keep your head down, do your job and do it well. Then you can start thinking about Squad. Don't let the boys hear you talking like that so early on in your candidacy. They don't take too well to crows.."
"Oh, I didn't- I was just- "
"Oh, and by the way," she waited for him to stop his stuttering, "You call me ma'am again, I'ma be forced to kick your butt in front of all these kids" she laughed a little bit when he stiffened.
She decided that she quite liked this candidate.
Car accident. Columbus Drive Bridge. Ambulance 61. Engine 51. Truck 81. Squad 3.
"Time to go to work Candidate." She smiled, "Sorry kids, Peter Mills has to go be a hero."
The kids cheered in delight watching the firehouse kick into action as all the firefighters started gearing up to head out. Sasha started making her way to the Squad truck, passing her hand over the 3-headed dog on the door when she felt someone come up behind her,
"You got a thing for the candidate now?"
"Come on Kelly. You can't be the only one to break my heart," she said with a wink and climbed into the Squad truck.
Driving toward the crash site, Sasha couldn't help but think back to her first ride on truck as a candidate. Of course, it was a lot harder to earn the respect of the men in the Firehouse, being the only girl around, but in time, they helped her become the skilled firefighter she was now.
Columbus Drive Bridge
Arriving at the site, she could see that 2 cars had crashed. The first was occupied by a woman and a young girl, who she assumed was her daughter. Sasha ran over Lieutenant Casey as he assessed the immediate dangers facing the occupants. He turned to the approaching Rescue team and yelled for them to get the Jaws.
Sasha moved out of the way, allowing Kelly and Capp to make their way back to truck, knowing that she wouldn't be needed for this particular part of the Rescue. Years ago, Sasha knew that she would never be a part of a Squad team if she didn't specialize in a certain type of rescue. So, she sought to use her high school swimming experience and college education to become a specialist in water rescue, Hazardous Material and Electronics specializations.
"He's in the Water! The Driver! He was ejected!"
When she heard those words and confirmation from Chief Bowden, she turned back to the Squad truck to change into her Scuba gear.
"Oh, Jesus Canon, put it away!" she heard one of her teammates say from the other end of the rig,
"Oh Capp, let's not pretend you don't love looking at my ass," she laughed and headed out toward the Chief, awaiting instructions for their drop.
"Alright, Cannon and me are goin. Capp and Hadley on rig and run the line."
As we started to climb over the bridge railing and start descending to the river, she hears a commotion from the other firefighters, with an unhappy transmission from the Chief cancelling the dive, "No one is in the water."
She could already tell that Kelly was rolling his eyes, mumbling about the incompetence of some of Truck 81's members,
"Alright boys, bring me up. Momma needs to get out of this cold ass river."
There is still a lot going on around her when she gets back on level ground. She sees that Gabby and Shay have both left for the hospital,
"Was the little girl alright?" she asked no one in particular, hoping one of these men would stop moping long enough to answer her,
"Dawson said something about a Becky or something? They rushed her off to Lakeshore."
It was Peter Mills, resident hero, "Well well, if it isn't our new candidate. Tell me, were you a line-backer in another life?"
"Oh, ha ha, you're hilarious"
"Is that lip I hear candidate?" she asked, the mood turning very serious, very quickly.
"Wha- No, I mean – No ma- No sir- I mean-"
"Calm down Peter Mills, don't embarrass yourself." She said smirking at the flustered boy.
"Buchanan! Get your ass in here. We need to get back!" Kelly yelled toward her,
"Woah, my real name. Poppa must be mad. I'll see you back at the house Peter Mills."
As she sauntered off, she wondered if the candidate was in fact ogling her finely toned ass, just like the rest of the boys…and Shay of course.
Firehouse 51
Packing up the gear from their last call, Sasha was getting frustrated with Kelly and his constant ranting about the "incompetence" of Truck. He had been this way since Andy's accident, of course he places full blame on Lieutenant Matt Casey, though she never agreed with that.
"Hey! Guy in the water?" Kelly yelled out to Casey, "how bout guy with his head up his ass?"
"Kelly stop it!" Sasha tried to intervene,
"You handle your firefighters, I'll handle mine." Casey stated,
"That's a nice theory, Casey. How bout givin it a try"
"Casey that's enough. It was one mistake. Not that big of a deal." Sasha was getting fed up with their childlike bickering
"Know what! I'm gettin real tired of your bull Severide"
"I don't care what you're tired of" at this point, it wasn't even about the mistake that occurred at the last accident site anymore, she thought as she rolled her eyes, turning away from the scene.
"Hey!" the Chief yelled, in between his punches, "I thought you all should know that I AM gonna fight that Dick that slept with my wife. At Saturday's Drop-a-Cop."
"You go Chief!" Sasha yelled from inside the rig, trying to tidy things up,
"Or we could all just throw the gloves on right now." Sasha could hear his anger and frustration coming out about the situation. Especially after the chat he'd had with the 2 Lieutenants earlier in their shift, "Beat the hell outta each other. Maybe when the Mayor comes on Saturday, that's what he sees. Truck versus Squad. Old as the CFD so deal with it."
There was a silence that seemed to bring the firefighters in, "We all lost Darden. A month ago, Friday. And that ain't changing. So maybe we should."
Sasha sat at the edge of the rig, watching as the Chief aimed his last comment toward Casey and Kelly. The other firefighters were starting to go back to their previous tasks, trying to escape the tension, but Sasha had other ideas.
"Jeez Lt, put some clothes on. You'll scare the neighbourhood off with those boy nipples," she snarked.
"Shut up. You love it when I'm naked."
"Behind closed doors Lieutenant. Behind closed doors." She winked at him sauntering away.
She didn't, however, notice the young candidate Peter Mills following the conversation between all three Lieutenants. He rather awkwardly looks away, feeling a pang of jealousy at the comradery between Lt. Severide and Lt. Buchanan. He knew friendship that easy going came from years of being together through the academy, candidacy and now both being Lieutenants on Squad 3. But some would say it wasn't the friendship between the two, that he was jealous of…but the underlying sexual tension between them.