A/N: Here's the latest update my lovelies :)
Also, I know that the Gail in this fic is absolutely nothing like the Gail from Pitch Perfect but I really wanted a badass Elizabeth Banks character in this so I just used Gail and changed her :P
I do not own Pitch Perfect or any of its characters.
Jesse, Gail and the rest of their colleagues waited anxiously as they heard Beca's message through the radio. Jesse was sporting a fast-forming black eye from when Beca had kicked him when he'd tried to pull her out.
"Come on, Beca," he muttered, watching the windows of the building. "There!" He said, pointing to one that had just smashed open. Smoke began curling out of it. The fire crew positioned their ladder as a fireball ripped through the glass of a window that was only a few away from the one Beca had just smashed. Gail picked up her radio.
"Mitchell, the ladder is in place but you need to move now," she said. No answer came. "Mitchell, do you read me?" She shot a panicked look at Jesse. "Beca?"
"Fuck this," Jesse said and he took off running towards the ladder.
"Swanson, don't you dare!" Gail called, running after him. He began climbing the ladder and she wasn't far behind him. He reached the top and carefully climbed into the room, avoiding the broken glass that was still sticking from the window. The room was thick with smoke now and he immediately coughed as he staggered in. He pulled the torch from his pack and shone it around him. The beam landed on the two girls and he rushed over to them. "If you get us killed Swanson I swear to God I will murder you," Gail said, panting as she followed him into the room. "You take Chloe, I'll get Beca." Jesse crouched over the redhead and shone his torch in her face.
"Chloe, can you hear me?" He felt Gail taking something from his pack and he turned to see Gail taking the oxygen from it as well as the other mask that was used for CPR. He turned back to Chloe and saw her eyes had opened and she was frantically looking around her. "It's okay," he said gently. "Can you stand?" She shook her head and said something that Jesse couldn't hear.
"Jesse get her out of here," Gail said, her voice sounding panicked. He turned to see her crouched low over Beca, her ear close to the girl's face.
"Is she-" Jesse said as he began to move towards her.
"Jesse!" Gail shouted. "Get Chloe out of here now." With an anguished look at Beca, he turned back to Chloe and then lifted her over his shoulder. She let out a cry of pain.
"My back, Jesse!" She cried.
"I'm sorry Chlo', we'll be out of here soon," he said easing his way down the ladder.
"Where's Beca?" She asked, her words muffled by the combination of the mask and Jesse's back. He still heard her, though.
"She's... She'll be okay," he said, his legs shaking slightly as he climbed down the ladder with her still over his shoulder.
Back in the room and Gail was frantically trying find Beca's pulse. But she couldn't. There was no flicker of a heart beat and no rise and fall of her chest. She began cutting away at Beca's make-shift sling. Once her arm was free, she moved it away from her chest and then tilted Beca's head back to clear her airways before she began CPR. She was aware of the heat growing stronger and the smoke getting thicker. This wasn't the ideal place for CPR, but she knew by the time she got Beca down the ladders, she would have been gone for too long.
"Come on, Beca," she said, tears mingling with the sweat on her face as she pumped the small woman's chest. "Please. Don't make me tell that girl of yours that I lost you," she said. "Don't make me do that, Mitchell." She wasn't sure how long it had been, but the ache in her arms told her it had been a while.
"Gail, what's happening up there?" Jesse's voice came from her radio. She looked up to see that the fire had finally eaten its way through the door. She was out of time. Beca was out of time.
"Fuck!" She cried, finally stopping the rhythmic pumping. She closed her eyes, letting the tears spill over them.
Then she heard a cough.
Her eyes snapped open and she looked down to see Beca's chest rise and fall ever so slightly. The tiny brunette gave another cough and Gail quickly strapped the oxygen mask over her face before flicking it on. She pressed her shaking hand to Beca's neck and felt a tiny pulse beneath it. She hoisted the girl over her shoulder and made her way out of the window. Half way down the ladder, fire bellowed out of the room they'd just come from. Gail could hear the cheers of the watching crowd as she finally put two feet on the ground. She lay Beca down on the waiting stretcher and told them to get her to hospital urgently.
"Severe smoke inhalation and a possible broken arm," she said to the other paramedics. "Lost output from anywhere between ten to twenty minutes."
"Beca!" Chloe called from her stretcher.
"Jesse, what the fuck is she still doing here?" Gail asked, wiping the sweat and tears from her face.
"She refused to go before she'd seen that Beca was okay. She... She is okay, isn't she?" He said, worry etched on his face. Gail swept a strand of her blonde hair out of her face while she thought for a second.
"She's alive," she said, finally. "But aside from that, I have no information." Chloe choked out a sob. "Talk me through Chloe's condition, Swanson." Gail said, pushing down the lump in her throat.
"Uh, minor smoke inhalation," he said. "If Beca hadn't put that mask on her when she did, we'd be looking at a lot worse right now. Patient is also complaining of back pain and has minimal feeling in her legs, so possible spinal fracture."
"Stop talking about me like I'm not here," Chloe snapped. She immediately felt guilty when she saw the sheepish look on Jesse's face. "I'm sorry Jess, I didn't mean that," she said. "I'm just scared."
"I know," he said. "It's okay."
"She saved me," Chloe said, looking down at her hands. "If she doesn't make it, it's my fault."
"She knew what she was doing Chloe," Gail said, placing a hand on her arm. "Come on, we have to get you to hospital."
After several x-rays, it was confirmed that Chloe had indeed fractured several vertebrae in her spine. She was immediately whisked off to emergency surgery so they could attempt to repair them.
Jesse had called Aubrey from the university and told her to meet him at the hospital. The blonde was now sitting outside the OR with bloodshot eyes.
"Is there any news on Beca?" She asked when Jesse re-joined her with two plastic cups of coffee. He shook his head.
"She hasn't woken up yet," he said. She placed her hand on his knee and squeezed it. "She's still breathing on her own which is a good sign."
"Thank you for getting Chloe out of there," she said. He shook his head again.
"It was all Beca," he said. "From what Chloe told me, she lifted up a bookcase and then carried her on her back up a flight of stairs and after Chloe passed out, she carried her into a nearby office, smashed a window and managed to get an oxygen mask on her. And she did it all with a broken arm. All I did was climb a ladder and carry her out."
"Don't play yourself down, Jesse. You still climbed into a burning building to save your best friend and mine," she said. "But don't worry. When Beca wakes up she'll be getting thanked as well."
"If she wakes up," Jesse said, sadly.
"Did you not hear the story you just told me?" Aubrey asked, her eyebrows raised. "Beca's strong. She's a fighter. She'll get through this."
