UPDATED: Sorry to everyone who read the first post. SOmething happened with the upload and the file didn't eliminate the format programing.
The actual meat of this story takes place in Friendly Fire but with some changes.
NO ONE knows about Vic and Ripley.
The timeline of their relationship is stretched a bit and the marriage conversation from the beginning of Friendly Fire happened earlier than what it did in the show and had a very different outcome.
We don't know a lot about Vic pre show but in S2E1 she implies its been a hard life then Travis says his husband died. So I've taken that and used my imagination.
I'm not sure if I'll continue this or not but I couldn't get it out of my head and there's not enough stories of these guys. If you are thinking about writing something about them, do it! Please! We all need our fix of this wonderful couple.
I'm not American so any mistakes are all mine. Apologies.
The day they got married, secretly, in the courthouse, he called her Victoria. He'd used her legal name and she had used his.
It was the first time she'd ever heard her name sound like music. She'd never liked her name. It was her mother's. But she hasn't stuck around long and left her with her dad and brother, the first a drunk and the latter an older brother who'd abused and raped her frequently.
They'd both belittled her for her name, cursed any resemblance to her mom. And when she escaped she vowed to never be Victoria or Tori ever again. Victoria was a broken 16-year-old.
Vic was a strong independent woman, and Hughes was a brave fire fighter.
But Victoria Ripley. Hughes-Ripley?
Whatever her last name was. The new Victoria didn't resemble her old life.
That night at a quiet celebratory dinner at a restaurant they knew they wouldn't be spotted he asked her why she didn't like Victoria as a name. And while he had known about her brother and father he hadn't known what the name had meant. When she explained it she surprised even herself when she told him she liked the way he said it.
And so he called her Victoria, and eggy. Occasionally Vic. At work he stuck to Hughes. But the day of the coffee factory fire he called her name. Victoria.
It started out as a normal call. They often served as a RIT team on calls like this. Vic was extremely frustrated by Captain Conlin who ignored the Chiefs orders to evacuate in favor of searching for one of his people. She went after him to try and get him to go with her. To follow orders. "Sir. We can't-"
Everything was black. She was out for a minute and when she came to she knew it was bad. Moments with Lucas filled her brain.
The day 3 months ago they'd addressed marriage as an option and only hours later they married. But it wasn't to circumvent the rules. It was because they wanted it. So they chose to keep the marriage a secret until they'd been married 4 or 5 months. This ensured that HR would be convinced of a real relationship and help to give them credibility in the event that their conduct was investigated. They couldn't be discriminated against as a married couple but they could still be poked and prodded and investigated.
The day they'd gone to meet his sister. The day they'd moved in together. The day he rescued a cat from a storm drain and she'd insisted on taking it home and keeping it despite the fact the Stormy hated humans and would torment the couple with his meows every single night. The moment she told him she could never have children. His face when she'd sprayed him with water while doing the dishes.
She'd had over 8 months with him total and it wasn't enough. But it would have to be.
The beam that was crushing Conlin was heavy and sat on her chest. She could feel him trying to move it. To help her. But she begged him to stop. Everything hurt and there was no way they would get out of this alive.
She heard him radio in that they were down and the building wasn't structurally sound.
She looked at him and whispered the word every fire fighter understood to be the universal code for accepting fate and death. "Semper Paratus."
He nodded. "Hughes and I feel that it's unsafe to send anyone in to retrieve us. Coffee is exploding all over the place."
"Captain what's your location." Sullivan called on the radio. "Hughes? I order you to tell me where you are." Sullivan called glancing at Lucas who had turned white. It was strange, he thought to himself, because Luke at seen worse. Commanded worse. And now he wasn't saying anything. He wasn't doing his job.
"Negative captain. No one comes in." Vic said into her radio. Every word hurt. Physically and emotionally. She knew he could hear her.
"Hughes you are disobeying direct orders. What is your location?" Sullivan shouted, frustrated.
She didn't respond.
Lucas looked at the building, his wife was in there hurt and ready to die. He pulled his gear on quickly and no one seemed to notice him until he was on the radio. "Victoria. What is your location?" He pleaded.
"Lucas. No. Please don't." She was running out of energy. She had so much more to say but no energy to say it.
Everyone turned to the Chief who was visibly not himself. He was no longer chief. He was Lucas Ripley husband of Victoria the woman trapped in the fire riddled building. "Victoria, I am coming in and unless you want me to die in there looking for you. You will tell me your location Victoria."
"No. Stay outside." She whispered into the radio. "I love you." She said a bit louder.
She could see Conlin looking at her. "I'm secretly married to the chief." She told him wich made him laugh for a moment
Chief! He heard someone calling him. He ignored it and moved to the entry of the building but Gibson's voice made him pause. "Drone used the heat map to find them. North east quadrant." Bishop rushed forward to join the chief without waiting for orders from Sullivan who had become the incident commander without any formal handover.
The pair made their way to the quadrant with no issues when suddenly a stack of bags blew. Ripley hit the ground hard and Bishop landed on top of him.
Once they got up and started moving again pass devices begin indicating the location of the downed firefighters.
It took everything Ripley and Mya had to remove the beam. Vic was unconscious and unmoving but Conlin screamed in pain. Mya helped get him into a standing position and when she turned to help Ripley he had scooped Vic into his arms despite the extra gear both of them carried. "Let's go!" He shouted.
They emerged from the building amidst fire and waves of heat. He laid her on the gurney and ripped off his mask and gloves coughing hard and vomiting a bit on the ground.
Sullivan rushed over filled with anger. "What the Fuck was that?" He shouted, "you can't just abandon incident command to go be a hero."
Ripley coughed again. "I couldn't get her die in there either."
"Them, you couldn't let them die in there you mean." Sullivan corrected looking at his former best friend knowing full well what he meant.
"I'm going to the hospital with her." Ripley said, "You can handle this?" He asked. It didn't sound like a question though.
Sullivan nodded, "You two are involved?" He asked.
"Married." Luke said. He looked at Sullivan one last time and then the paramedics began to move the gurney and Ripley followed.
Once at the hospital doctors took over and one of them looked at Lucas and took notes as he told her about the incident. "Do you know who her emergency contact is Chief Ripley?" Dr. Bailey asked as she finished intubation.
Luke looked around. "It's Travis Montgomery on her paperwork at the fire station but I'm her husband. He ignored the surprised looks, "We've kept everything a secret, because of ranks and HR rules."
"Do you want updates sent to her emergency contact? Technically your marriage supersedes that."
"I want updates, but please share updates with her team too. They are her family too even if they don't know about me."
She was taken to emergency surgery and after he kissed her unmoving body and watched her disappear he felt so incredibly alone. He had become so dependent on her, her laughter, her mere presence in his life. The idea of that being gone hurt him deeply. He wanted to cry. And in the moment he would have been ok with tears in a public place. But his coughing prevented even that.
"Sir you need to get that checked." Dr. Wilson said. She pulled him into an empty exam room and began the protocol for smoke inhalation.
In the waiting room station 19 having handed over command to another station waiting impatiently for news.
"I just checked with a nurse. I'm not her emergency contact anymore." Travis said sitting down to rub his temples.
"She said I love you over the radio. Was that to us? Or the chief?" Bishop wondered out loud.
"We'd know if she was dating him right?" Ben asked.
Travis shook his head, "He called her Victoria, no one is allowed to call her that. I don't even know why."
Sullivan was quiet and he let his team speculate too shocked to even say anything to fill them in. His phone buzzed and a text from Luke informed him of a chemical exposure at the fire. He looked at Mya and noticed her coughing. "Bishop, go get that checked now. I have reports that we were exposed to chemicals during the fire. I'll arrange for someone to come check everyone here so we can wait for news. But you need to go get help now Bishop."
Mya gulped, his tone didn't inspire confidence but she obeyed.
And that's how she found herself sharing a hospital room with the chief.
It was quiet and awkward with their coughs being the only thing breaking the silence.
A blond nurse entered with a clipboard. "Mr. Ripley?"
Lucas looked up, "Yes?"
"We have some papers you need to sign for your wife's surgery, in regards to what measures you want taken."
Lucas's eyes clouded with sadness. "Thank you. Her directives are clear and I won't have anyone going against them. I'll get the office to forward you a copy."
The woman nodded, "Thank you sir. I still need your authorization for the surgery. Just the top form."
Luke signed it and the woman left leaving the two in the small room together. Mya looked at him she adjusted the nasal cannula and shifted her weight. "Wife?" She finally asked.
He nodded, "Almost 4 months now. We didn't want anyone to think we did it to get around the rules so we planned to wait to tell people."
Mya looked shocked, "Wow."
Luke played with the tape on his IV. "I owe you a thank you, for coming in with me. No one asked or ordered you to, you just did it and I couldn't have saved her without you. Or Conlin for that matter."
Mya looked at him with distrust. "I did it for her and Conlin, not for you."
Luke nodded, "I respect that." He paused, "Even if she doesn't make it, we didn't leave her to die and that means something."
"She'll be ok." Mya said trying to be reassuring.
Luke looked like he might cry.
"I'm going to take this little IV for a walk down the hall and see if I can find someone to give us an update on her." Mya said, looking to do anything to escape the awkwardness. She was unable to find someone to give an update on Vic but she found Dr. Wilson who had been on their way to them with distressing news regarding the chemicals in their system. When they opened the door they found the chief on the floor beside his bed a bloodied gash on his head.
He called her Victoria, but would he ever get to call her that again?
Let me know if I should leave this as a one shot or continue.