Hey folks! This story was originally a one-shot in response to a prompt on Tumblr but many readers asked if I could turn it into a multi-chap so here it is! Will be 9 or 10 chapters.
Chloe's head is pounding. Not like, hangover pounding but more like her head is about to split open, pounding.
Even though her eyes are shut, she can feel the chaos going on around her; loud voices, engines running and sirens going off.
There's something warm and sticky running down the side of her face and she wants to reach out with her hand to wipe it off, but somehow her arm is not responding.
She frowns, whimpering at the jolt of pain spreading from her frontal lobe from the muscle twitch alone. Her brain starts to come out of the fog it's been trapped in for the last twenty seconds.
She was in a car, chatting with Aubrey as the blonde drove to the Barden alumni party a few hours away from Atlanta. Chloe remembers seeing the truck barreling towards them and yelling at Aubrey to look out.
Chloe's eyes fly open, a gasp flying past her dry and chapped lips. She tries to twist her head to look at Aubrey but a sharp pain in her neck makes her cry out.
"Can I get a neck brace in here!" A voice, belonging to a woman, reaches her ears just before its owner appears in her line of vision. "Try to hold still, miss."
"My – my friend," Chloe manages, a few tears spilling out of her eyes as she realizes Aubrey is not talking beside her. The woman slides something cold and uncomfortable behind her neck and straps it tightly, preventing Chloe from moving her head even an inch.
"She's out," the brunette tells her, hands retracting. "She's being transported to the hospital as we speak. She was talking and worrying about you, too. We're working on getting you out, now."
It's only when Chloe's brain registers the words that it also registers the situation. The passenger door is jammed inwards, pinning her right arm and leg.
Chloe has always been claustrophobic, and the realization that she's stuck has panic bubble inside her chest. "I – I'm –"
"Hey, look at me," the young firefighter requests firmly, popping her head into the smashed window as best as she can. Her dark blue eyes lock onto Chloe's, working as an anchor that drags her away from the rapidly rising panic attack. "We're getting you out. We're just getting the appropriate tools. You're safe, and I won't let anything happen to you, alright?"
Whimpering, Chloe nods as best as she can. She hears the woman bark out orders, something about telling someone to move faster, before she's back into Chloe's restricted line of sight.
"My name is Beca. What's yours?"
"Chl – " Chloe tries to swallow the bile rising in her throat. "Chloe."
Beca's smile manages to calm her down as much as possible given the situation. "Okay, Chloe. Hang in there. I need to pop back out to let my colleague work on getting the door open."
"O-okay."
Chloe closes her eyes, trying to focus on her breathing as the sound of metal crushing metal makes her ears scream. It lasts a minute, maybe more, she doesn't know. The pressure on her limbs is released and Chloe draws in a lungful of air.
"Smith, Jones, bring the board!" Beca is back, hovering over her to fiddle with her seat-belt. "Almost there, Chloe. Just a few seconds, now. You're a champ."
Chloe can feel herself slip in and out of consciousness as her body is tipped sideways, transferred onto something flat and hard and lifted out of the car. The only thing she can make out is the bright blue sky and blinding sunlight overhead before her mind slips into darkness.
While Aubrey is discharged quickly after getting to the hospital, Chloe has to run a few tests because of her head injury and an x-ray on her arm, which ends up being broken and put in a cast.
The doctors decide to keep her overnight for observation and Aubrey has just left for the evening, needing her own rest after the traumatic event.
A knock to the door pulls Chloe's attention away from her magazine. Eyes falling on the firefighter from earlier, she raises an eyebrow in surprise.
"Um, hey," the woman says, awkwardly standing in the doorway. Unable to really focus on anything else than her breathing and not having a panic attack back in that car, Chloe failed to realize how sexy the firefighter is; clad in her thick black gear pants held up by thick red suspenders, a navy blue tee shirt and her gear jacket slung over a shoulder.
"Hi." Chloe replies with a genuine smile and a small wave. "Are you going to come in, or...?"
"Right," Beca, if Chloe remembers correctly despite her head concussion, winces and steps in while Chloe stifles a laugh at how bashful she's acting.
Sexy and cute.
Beca points her thumb over her shoulder as she stops by the foot of the bed. "One of my men needed some stitches after our last call so I thought I would see how you were doing while we waited."
"That's nice of you," Chloe murmurs. "I'm okay. Broken arm and slight head concussion, but I'll live. Thanks for pulling my friend and I out of there."
Beca shrugs, jamming her free hand in her pocket. "Just doing my job, miss."
"It's Chloe."
"Right," Beca repeats, a faint blush spreading across her cheeks as she breaks eye-contact. "Chloe. I'm Beca."
"I know. I remember."
"Oh. Right. I remembered your name, too, I just thought it was too forward."
Chloe hums and bites down on her bottom lip to tame the grin threatening to peak through. "Do you pay visits to the people you save on a daily basis or am I an exception?"
"I, um," Beca's radio interrupts her stutter.
"Lieutenant, Swanson is all patched up and ready to go so quit flirting, we're hungry."
Beca groans, closing her eyes briefly while Chloe gives in to a giggle. "Thanks Conrad," she mutters into the device strapped over her shoulder, before looking back at Chloe with a grimace. "That's not- I wasn't-"
"It's fine, Beca," Chloe assures her to pull the girl out of her misery, even if she's throroughly enjoying how flustered Beca is getting over nothing. "I was just teasing, and apparently, so was your colleague."
"She's a pain in my ass," Beca rolls her eyes, before giving Chloe a lopsided smile. "Glad to see you're okay, Chloe. Take care of yourself."
Chloe nodded, watching the brunette shuffle out towards the door. "I'll see you around, Lieutenant."
With another awkward wave, Beca disappears around the corner.
True to her promise, Chloe finds herself on her way to Firehouse 36 a week after she's released from the hospital. Box of cookies tucked under her arm, she shuts the door of her car and walks towards the firehouse. As she rounds the corner, she realizes the firemen and women are in the middle of a work-out; rolling heavy tires, doing push-ups and pull-up and rope climbing.
Not really knowing what to do, Chloe stands there, hoping someone might notice her at some point.
"Hey there, can I help you?" a young man asks when he catches sight of Chloe, dropping his dumbbells to walk over. His shirt says Benji and the word candidate is written under it.
"Yes, I'm looking for your lieutenant?"
"Squad or truck?"
"Um, I don't know. Her name is Beca."
"Okay, just a sec," he says, looking away from her to glance upwards to the top of the rope. "Lieutenant Mitchell! Someone's here to see you!"
Chloe's eyes widen when she realizes Beca was the one doing the rope-climbing, her body temperature climbing up a notch as Beca swiftly slides down and strides towards her, clad in leggings and a sports bra.
She makes the mistake of glancing down at Beca's well-defined abs and feels her mouth dry up.
"Hey, Chloe."
Chloe blinks up to Beca's face, heat blooming in her cheeks. Beca grabbed a towel from somewhere during Chloe's black-out and is now wiping her neck and chest dry. A sweater appeared out of nowhere too, and is now over her shoulders, left open.
"Um, hi!" It takes her a handful of seconds to remember the reason for her visit, and she all but thrusts the box of cookies into Beca's hands when she finally does. "This is for you and your team. From Aubrey and I. Y'know, for your devotion and bravery."
"That wasn't necessary," Beca tells her softly, nonetheless accepting the box with a kind smile. "Thank you."
"I'm not that good of a baker so I apologize if they aren't the best cookies you've ever tasted."
Beca laughs. "Don't worry 'bout it. I'm sure they're fine." Beca's lips tip into that signature lopsided grin. "Cool cast."
"Oh," Chloe glances down at the cast on her arm, covered in doodles from the kids at school. "Yeah. I'm a kindergarten teacher and some of the kids wanted to draw on it so I now have to drag this thing around for the next three weeks."
Beca chuckles. "Well, I like it."
Chloe smiles back as she gathers her guts to ask Beca out. It shouldn't be so difficult, she's done it before, but being surrounded by Beca's colleagues, who are potentially within ear-shot is nerve wracking. Not to mention the fact that she still feels hot all over from witnessing Beca's dexterity and strength, added to the sexy firefighter effect already doing weird stuff to her mind and body.
"Listen,"
They both rush out at the same time after a beat of silence, freezing upon realizing that, then sharing an awkward chuckle.
"Sorry, you go first." Chloe offers, feeling warmth run over her face and neck.
Beca switches her weight back and forth from one foot to another as her hands slip into the pockets of her unzipped hoodie.
"Um, would you like to have breakfast with me tomorrow morning?"
"Breakfast?" Chloe feels giddiness spread to every corner of her body and tries really hard not to bounce on the balls of her feet in excitement.
"Yeah. I'll be on shift until then and I'm likely to sleep the rest of the day off if we get a lot of calls."
Chloe beams. "Okay. Breakfast sounds good."
"Great," Beca says, teeth raking over her bottom lip as though to contain her own grin. "It's a date."
Chloe clears her throat to make sure her voice doesn't take that squeaking tone whenever she's excited or eager about something.
"See you tomorrow, lieutenant."