A/N: This story is loosely based off of the hit NBC drama show Chicago Fire's premise. Besides writing On Stage and Family First, I always wanted to write Liv and Fitz working at a fire station. I had thought of it for months and I truly feel compelled to write this version of them. I absolutely love firefighters and I believe that they're truly heroes.

Fighting Hearts

It was the beginning of another one of her shifts at Firehouse 51, working as a paramedic. It was a path towards her dream job of becoming a firefighter, ever since she was a young girl that was all she ever wanted to be. This had a lot to do with when she was rescued from her burning house by one of them. The heroism of a brave firefighter saved her life but unfortunately not her parents, she was left with physical and mental scars as a remembrance. At the age of 10 years old, she was an orphan living with her grandmother Claris. She never liked thinking or talking about the darkest moment of her life, preferring to shut it out completely.

Blowing hot air onto her gloved hands, she rubs them together in attempts to stay warm as she walks in to the main entrance of the fire station. Olivia had spent the past weekend indoors, combating the cold weather of Chicago. Although she was born and raised in The Windy City, Chi-Town, she could never get acclimated to the cold weather. She always promised herself that one day she would move to some place warmer.

She didn't do much outside of working, her life solely revolves around the firehouse. Living only a block and half away from her job, she would normally walk to work as a form of exercise.

"Good morning, Lieutenant (Lt.) Finch," she greets one of her friends.

"Good morning, Liv. Ready for the next 24 hours?" he asked, referring to their shift. Lt. Finch is part of the first responders' truck squad.

"I sure am. Fully rested too," she responded brightly, pushing the fallen strap of her duffle bag securely back onto her shoulder.

"Good, at least one of you are. Your partner is slightly hung-over," he tells her with a serious face although his eyes twinkle with humor.

"Of course. When will the two of you learn not to live like frat boys?" she asked good natured. Stephen and Abby were best of friends and roommates, both of them equally wild party animals.

"Ahhh that'll be when pig flies, mate" he joked, giving her a good Scottish accent.

"Pope," Olivia looks around to see Chief Beene calling her from the side of one of the fire trucks.

"Gotta go see what, chief, wants," she tells Stephen before heading over to the fiery red truck. The closer she got to him, she was able to see Lt. Grant standing with Chief Beene, looking over some paper in his hands.

"Good morning, Chief, Lieutenant," she bids once standing in front of them.

"Good morning, Pope," both men greets her.

Getting right down to business, Cyrus says, "I wanted to talk to you before you headed inside. Lt. Grant has requested you on his team for this year's winter toy drive. The reason why I'm personally asking you this, is because the community depends on the donations and Lt. Grant delivers abundantly each year, for the past five years he' has been with us. This is the only way some families can even afford to give their children a Christmas."

Olivia was taken aback that Grant would request her on his team. For as long as she has been working at the fire station, he has always seemed to avoid her, only talking briefly whenever it had to do with work. He always has a serious no nonsense demeanor about him. When most guys would sit around and joke, he would much rather be doing something else. She never understood why he was that serious.

He was cute, very cute and had a great body, but that was all she knew when it comes to the mystery man, Fitzgerald.

"Uh, I can do that. I would be happy to help." She offered, happy that she would be busy during the holidays and not have to worry about being alone, which she often was. They always say that the best way to forget about your own pain, is to not dwell on it but instead help others, and that she would gladly do.

"Great. When the toys are collected, you're also required to distribute it to the families. Grant, here, has develop a system of delivering the packages anonymously, so that not only the kids would be surprised but the parents. He'll tell you more about that. You two are going to be our main key players in making our toy drive successful this year. Thanks for doing this, Olivia." Cyrus gives her a smile and a pat on the shoulder before leaving her in Fitz' presence.

She looks down at the shiny door of the truck, all of a sudden feeling shy.

"Thanks for doing this," his deep baritone voice lets out.

"It's no problem, Lt." she looks up to watch his face, she almost gasps at the gratitude she sees displayed in his eyes. She'd never realized that they were so… Blue.

"Here's a list of toys that the Elementary school was given, from the sign-up sheets they'd sent home with some known underprivileged children," his voice shook her out of her trance – slightly embarrassed that she'd gotten lost in his cerulean orbs.

"Thanks," Olivia collects the ten pages and briefly scans the top one. She sees one family with three little girls, and all they each wanted were frozen dolls.

"We can go over it later when you're settled in," he casually offers, and with that Lt. Grant spun around on his heels, and made his way over to his squad members who were piled around one of the trucks, ensuring that it was in working order.

Olivia clutches the paper in her left hand as if her left depended on it, she walks into the inner part of the building that houses the kitchen and general living area. She sees the new volunteer, Harrison Wright at the stove, cooking what she presumes to be breakfast. It was an ongoing injunction that newbies and volunteers were subject to the cooking of all meals. Olivia remember her days in the kitchen when she'd first started. They were all sad when someone else new took over her role as they'd grown to appreciate her culinary skills.

"What's up, Wright?" she greets the bubbly young man, who was singing and dancing as he flips pancakes on the griddle. He was such a free spirit, so eager to learn and quick to listen. He may only be twenty-two but he already has an appreciation for life.

"Hey, Pope, I'm good. You want some breakfast?" He gives her a smile and points his spatula to the stack of pancakes heaped on a blue plate.

"Actually, that's fine. I already ate," she refers to the bowl of oatmeal she had, along with a cup of tea before she'd left for work.

"Suit yourself," he gives her a charming smile before returning to his cooking.

She gives him a friendly smile in return, before heading towards the locker room. She had approximately ten minutes before her shift officially started. Entering the military green musky room, she quickly finds the locker with her name on it.

Swiftly stripping out of her winter jacket, gloves and jeans, Olivia was left in her long johns. She meticulously pulls on her work navy blue polo shirt with the fire station's logo embroidered on the right sleeves and upper left hand corner of the front of the shirt, before stepping in a pair of black pants. She grabs her heavy duty work boots and straps the laces tightly to her feet, and once finished, she finally throws back on her black Columbia jacket with the fire station's logo.

"Morning," Olivia looks up from her seat on a neighboring bench to see Abby's sleep deprived face entering the room.

"Hey, Abbs, had a hard night?"

"You have no idea." She groaned.

"Tell me all about it later," Olivia replied with a grin, she secretly lived her life vicariously through Abby. She always wonder what it would've been like to be wild and free. She'd never experienced such freedom in her life. For as long as she'd known herself, she always had to behave like a grown up and if she didn't, there was no one there to properly take care of her. She was all she had.

A few minutes later, both girls were fully dressed and ready for work. They made sure to sign in their times before heading out into the communal area.

Grabbing an apple from the fruit bowl, Olivia tosses it in the air and catches it with great ease. Being that some of the guys were around they all cheered for her which she reciprocated with a slight bow. Working at the fire station she was constantly around men, the female population was severely outnumbered. Besides Olivia and Abby who were the paramedics, there was Lauren, Chief Beene's secretary – the three of them were the only women to work on their shift.

Before she was able to take her seat, the overhead speaker sounded.

OPERATOR'S VOICE: Paramedics needed at 400 Georgetown St. Man age 60, reports that he's having difficulties breathing, possible allergic reaction.

Olivia and Abby both rushed out of the room and heads towards the garage where their ambulance was stowed.

"You're driving," Abby tells Olivia as she claims her seat on the passenger side.

Olivia shakes her head and walks towards the driver side, she hops into the vehicle and starts the engine. Abby talks to the emergency operator on the other end that they were in transit to the victim.

Flicking on the sirens, the girls heads out to their first call of the day.

An hour and half later, they were walking out of the Mercy Hospital complex, relieved that the victim was alive. Upon arriving to his house over an hour ago, they found him in anaphylactic shock. Administering the right dose of epinephrine, they were able to reduce some swelling in his throat, while they'd transported him to the hospital.

The long grueling hours were all worth it to them because they're able to save lives. That was all that mattered.

On the way back to the station, Olivia laughed as Abby regaled tales of her and Stephen's weekend indiscretions.

"You two deserve each other."

"Ewww. No way! Why do you keep saying that? We're best friends."

"That's what you say but I know it's more than that. Which guy best friend, makes his female best friend, make out with him so that he can get rid of one of his hookups?"

"I think you've missing the point about what true friendship is, Liv. I would do anything for him and vice versa. So what if we kissed? It's no big deal."

Olivia snorts, "Yea right. Were there tongues involved?" She asks, focusing her eyes on the lightly dusted snowy white road as she maneuvers the big vehicle.

Abby rolls her eyes dramatically at her, "of course there were tongues. It had to look realistic and you know me better than to give half assed work."

Olivia threw her head back and laughed, still maintaining her eyes on the road. She still believed that Abby and Stephen were fooling themselves when it came to only being 'best friends'. The two of them would be on a date with other people and would drop everything to tend to each other, and that to her shows that their love and commitment runs deeper.

Arriving back at the station, they parked the ambulance in its designated spot. Hopping out of the vehicle, she sees Harrison doing some drills while Fitz looks on. He stood tall and statuesque with legs wide apart, shoulders square with a stop watch in his left hand. She stood enthralled by him, watching as he talks to Harrison about his improved times after he'd finished his drills. Fitz stood tall and regal explaining to Harrison what methods he needed to work on in order to be a better firefighter. She watches on as the young man listen with keen intent to what he was being told. Harrison badly wanted a spot on the rescue squad.

Of all of the jobs that she'd had in her life, Olivia had never been surrounded with such sense of camaraderie like she has now. Everyone who was there wanted to be there, they felt as if it was their life's calling to help others.

"Hey, you got a few minutes that we can go over the list?" Olivia was startled out of her thoughts by Fitz's voice. She was lost in her own world, staring at him and Harrison that she hadn't realized that they were no longer talking, and his focus was now on her.

Blinking her eyes rapidly to regain focus, she replies, "uh… of course."

"Great…Let's go in to my office."

Olivia follows him as he leads the way to the east entrance of the building. Before entering through the main door, she turns around and makes a cut throat sign at Abby, who was winking at her, implying that something was up with her and Fitz.

Walking through the door, he opens the first door on the right for her, and Olivia enters into his small office. The desk was neat except for a few stacks of paper, which were in neat piles. The office bore no photos or anything too personal minus a signed baseball.

"Have a seat, Pope," he extends his hands to the chair in front of his desk.

"Thanks," she smiles, plopping her bottom on the chair.

Getting right down to business, Fitz begins speaking. "Like, Chief Beene, said earlier, I do take this toy drive very seriously and I hope that you'll be as dedicated to it as I am. If not I can find somebody else," his tone even and clip.

Ok, then why did you ask me to volunteer with you? She thinks.

Before Olivia could respond, he continued talking, "And I expect to meet up with you outside of work so that we can personally target local businesses. There's already a bunch that donates to us but there's always room for more."

Olivia nods briefly at him, afraid to speak, in case he had something else to say and not wanting to interrupt him.

Fitz finally stops talking and looks up at her expectantly. After a few seconds had passed he asked, "So are we in this together?"

Olivia nods her head in agreement and replies, "We're in this together."

"Good," he delivers a panty dropping smile at her answer. He knew that he could depend on her.

"We should probably exchange numbers"

Olivia looks bewildered at him.

"To set up meetings outside work," he clarifies.

Feeling stupid, she mutters, "of course…" Why else would he want my phone number? Her mind asks.

They exchanged phones and Olivia happened to glance at his screen saver of a black and white dog. "Nice dog," she tells him as she taps on the contact icon to enter her name and number.

"Thanks. His name is Bubba, he's a boxer," he fills in.

"How old is he?" she asked as she saved her number.

"He's five, I got him when I first moved to Chicago."

"Oh. Where are you from?" She inquired, haven't heard him spoke so open before, she took it as her opportunity to get a feel of who Fitzgerald is.

"California," he answers simply.

"Mmm and you moved to Chicago? I wouldn't leave the warm," she tells him, accompanied by a small chuckle.

He gives her a small smile before replying, "Well my mother used to live here. She's the reason why I came out in the first place."

"Oh," it wasn't lost on her that he'd used past tense to refer to his mother's living status. Either she'd relocated to another state or she'd died. Either ways, Olivia didn't want to ask, afraid that he would in turn ask about her parents, and she didn't want to talk about them.

Before either one could say a thing further, an emergency call came through the speakers that all units were needed for a three cars vehicular accident on the highway.

They'd both gotten up and rushed out the door to their awaited vehicles, off to save the life of another accident victim

AN: Thoughts? Would you like to see more of this? Olitz is always and forever endgame. FYI: I despise the bull shit storyline that is a love triangle, so I won't even attempt to write one so there's that. Can't stomach that pathetic character called Jake, so he definitely wouldn't be in the story. Not so sure about Mellie. Want her in or nah? If she's in, she will be in NO way affiliated with Fitz, just because I'm the writer and I don't like her. Soooo. Lol.

But this story will mostly stem around their work and subsequently them as a couple, and how they navigate their past and present. It will be angst ridden. Drop a review and let me know what you think. Hope you enjoy this story!