It's been quite a while since I wrote something for this collection. I have to say I had no inspiration and I have been pretty busy with other stories, university and real life. Hopefully, it won't take me as long to write the next one-shot, but I can't make any promises...

This is for a prompt from anonymous, who wrote "I got two words for you: Strucure collapse. Bonus points if the siblings get caught in it somehow." Well, anonymous, I hope you like what I made out of your prompt. I certainly enjoyed writing this chapter.

The tones blared, alerting Firehouse 51 to a call. What followed was a worryingly long list that toned out almost the entire station, along with several others. "Engine 24, Engine 99, Truck 22, Truck 81, Squad 3, Squad 7, Ambulance 24, Ambulance 61, Battalion 15. Structure collapse, 29 West Mulholland Drive. 2-9 West Mulholland Drive."

While paramedics weren't usually seen wearing full turnout gear, they put them on for certain calls. This was one such occasion. It was just safer to be wearing both turnout jackets AND pants and boots rather than turnout jackets and their regular navy uniform pants and work boots. Helmets were grabbed off the rack and within minutes, the ambulance followed the large firetrucks out of the apparatus bay.

"Structure collapse?", Sylvie Brett mused behind the wheel of Ambulance 61.

Her partner, PIC Lucy Cohen, nodded solemnly, tucking wayward strands of short, messy blonde hair behind her ear. "There's a construction site at that address", she offered. "Office building of some sort. PD had a couple of calls there - it's popular with urban explorers, thrill-seekers and teenagers on a dare."

"Mid-afternoon. There's gonna be loads of people there."

"Mhm. And with the cavalry they dispatched, it'll be more than just some collapsed scaffolding or a ceiling come down."

xxx

Lucy's prediction proved to be accurate. Half of the building had folded in on itself like a house of cards, leaving a huge pile of rubble and debris, spiked with broken scaffolding. Battalion 15, in the form of Chief Renner, took charge and set the firefighters to task after having received a run-down of the situation from the site manager and foreman. Rescue equipment was pulled out, tactics were discussed, backup requested.

"We have 31 people unaccounted for", the Chief informed the men and women under his command. "There are three people stuck on the roof." Getting them wouldn't take long, a simple matter of getting a ladder up there and bringing them back down. "Some four or five were on the third floor, towards the back of the building." Good news since they might just be stuck there and not buried under the rubble. "The other 23 or 24 were working in various parts of the front half when it came down. PD is sending dog units and additional manpower, more ambulances and an emergency response team from Med are en route."

And then the work began.

Truck 22 pulled away and headed to the other side of the construction site, approaching the building from the back to rescue the people on the roof. A group of men from Engine 24 went with them to locate the people that had were assumed to be stuck on the third floor of the still standing part of the building.

The crews of Engine 99, Truck 81, Squad 3 and Squad 7 spread out, starting the slow process of search and rescue.

The paramedics set up a triage area and it was unanimously agreed that Patricia Ventimiglia, the PIC of Ambulance 24, would be in charge of triage since she was the most experienced of the four of them. One of the other ambulance crews would assist her when they arrived, while Lucy, Sylvie and Richard "Ricky" Balldorff joined the search teams. Patricia could handle triage until backup arrived because, well...there weren't any patients to triage yet.

xxx

With blaring sirens , a swarm of police cars joined the sea of blue lights that was already there. Regular beat cops and dog handlers got out, the latter making short work of getting their four-legged partners from the back. Among them were two that bore a striking resemblance to not only each other but also to Ambulance 61's PIC. Same curly blond hair, similar facial features, similar body language.

Absolutely no-one - save for maybe the site manager and foreman - was surprised when they made a beeline for Lucy, an Australian Cattle Dog right with them. After all, the three of them were family. Oliver Cohen greeted his little sister with a half-smile while Jeremy, the oldest of the siblings, gave a command and the dog headed off, nose on the ground.

Time passed at the speed of a snail, minutes dragging by as if they were coated in thick syrup. Every once in a while, the entire site would come to a complete stand-still as everyone listened for signs of life from those buried under the rubble. After three hours, the three from the roof had been brought down, the four from the third floor had been rescued. 9 people had been found and extricated and another 4 had been located, leaving 11 still unaccounted for.

The search teams all took short breaks to eat, drink and have a quick breather before going back to work. In the triage area, Doctor Will Halstead and two nurses cared for the patients while two of the five ambulances working the scene transported them to the hospital. Of the eight paramedics on site, three worked triage while the other five helped in the SAR. Even the most clueless bystanders realised quickly that the blond nurse was related to the Cohen siblings and those with better eyes or observational skills surmised correctly that he was Jeremy's twin brother.

Daylight was fading fast and a few firefighters took up the task of setting up floodlights in addition to the construction site's own lighting systems to ensure that they had enough light to continue their rescue efforts. They couldn't go about digging around the rubble in the dark and nobody even thought of just abandoning the search until morning.

Five hours and thirty-eight minutes after the first stations had been toned out, there was another collapse. Another part of the building, already unstable due to the initial collapse, crumbled. Three rescuers with near-identical blond curls vanished behind a shower of debris. When the dust settled, Bronte, the Australian Cattle Dog that Jeremy had been working with, could be seen circling a new heap of concrete, bricks and mortar, whining agitatedly.

Over at the triage area, Aaron Cohen stared wide-eyed at the spot where his siblings had last stood.

xxx

A moment of shock froze the rescue effort before they were picked up again with renewed energy and double the worry. There were 8 civilians still missing, three had been found but had yet to be freed from the rubble. Even though each of the first responders on scene wanted nothing more but to rush over to where their comrades, their friends had disappeared, the civilians came first. Only the team consisting of Firefighter Derek Sandoz from Engine 99, Police Officer Jessica Lee and Tiku, a mixed breed husky, headed to the site of the second collapse.

Jessica called Bronte to her and soothed the worried rescue dog with a few gentle words, stroking its dusty fur. The dog's whining ceased. She shook herself, huffed and went back to searching for her bipedal partner, Tiku following suit.

"Do you think they're gonna be okay?", she asked her search partner. She had only recently joined the force, but had quickly come to like Jeremy.

Derek shrugged. "The Cohens have more lives than a cat", he told her as they pushed aside a large slab of concrete. "And their luck is pretty much legendary by now." Silently, he added Let's hope it hasn't run out.

An hour passed and the number of missing civilians was down to 5, with another 2 being extricated. The number of missing Cohens was unchanged.

Chief Renner rubbed his tired eyes and sighed heavily. Sergeant Mell of the CPD huffed quietly and muttered: "Yeah, you can say that again." His colleague, Sergeant Doherty from K-9 hummed in agreement. They had been studying the construction site plans, monitoring progress and crossing out the sections that had been searched. It was nearly 10 pm now. The sky was pitch black, but the construction site was brightly lit by a substantial number of floodlights.

One of the radios perched on the wobbly table sputtered and the three supervisors expected to hear another progress report from one of the search units.

"Sarge?", a weak voice rasped over the airwaves. "Sarge, this is Oliver."

Mell picked up the radio and responded. "Good to hear your voice, Oliver", he said, smiling in relief. "What's the situation?"

"Uh..." He coughed. "Blergh. Dark and dusty" - Mell chuckled at that, glad to hear that the young man's humour was intact - "I'm alright, I think. Hard to tell." Another series of coughs interrupted him. "I'm in some kind of basement", he continued, sounding winded. His breath hitched, audible even over the rustling connection, and he asked: "What about Jeremy and Lucy? Are they okay?"

Relief flipped back into worry. Mell cleared his throat before answering: "We don't know yet, you're the first to call in."

"Damn. I'm gonna see if- wait, I hear something." The connection went quiet and the three supervisors held their breath. "I hear a banging", Oliver reported after a minute. "I think that's Jeremy."

Nobody questioned his jugement. They had long since grown accustomed to the Cohen's close bond and deep understanding of each other. Mell nodded and ordered the young officer to be careful when Oliver decided to try and reach his brother.

xxx

It wasn't long afterwards that the second radio on the table squawked. "-one hear me?"

"This is Doherty, is that you, Jeremy?"

A breathless laugh crackled through and the dog handler confirmed. "Thank God. I've been trying to reach you for almost ten minutes. The rubble probably blocked the signal."

Doherty shared a glance with her colleagues before replying: "Well, it's good to hear from you, you had us worried. How are you?"

There was a pause. "Alright, I think", Jeremy said. "Can't really say. What about Oliver and Lucy?"

"Oliver called in a few minutes ago. We haven't heard from Lucy yet. Any idea where you are?", she then asked. "Oliver mentioned that he heard a banging and thought it was you."

"Yeah, I've been trying to find a way out. I think we- argh- we ended up in a basement."

Relaying that this had also been Oliver's opinion, Doherty told Jeremy to keep them updated and to be careful.

"Always am, Sarge."

She rolled her eyes and grumbled something under her breath, but there was a smile on her lips.

xxx

Midnight inched closer and closer and the search was still ongoing. At the command table, the third radio still hadn't transmitted the message they were hoping for. Jeremy and Oliver had both called in at sporadic intervals, keeping their superiors apprised of their progress and eventually reporting that Oliver had found a way through the rubble to his older brother.

The search quadrants were being cleared one by one and there weren't many left. Seven people were still missing - four civilians and three Cohens. The triage area was empty, the emergency response team taking a breather, the paramedics trading off with those that had been with the search teams to give them a reprieve as well. Everyone worked tirelessly, allowing themselves barely more than twenty minutes of rest before getting back at it again.

"Sarge, this is Jeremy, we found Lucy."

Even though the transmission had likely been meant for Doherty, Chief Renner responded. "How is she?", he asked.

There was a small pause.

"I'm fine", came the reply from the woman in question herself. "I think. It's a bit hard to tell...everything hurts."

The three supervisors snorted at hearing the same answer for the third time.

A bark cut through the air, a second quickly joining in. A few seconds later, another dog alerted in another section of the building site.

The radio buzzed. "I hear a dog", Jeremy stated. "It's muffled, but definitely a dog."

xxx

It took another hour and a half until the three Cohens could be brought topside again. The four workers had been found at the same time and their extraction had proved rather difficult - as had getting to the siblings. But eventually, after almost 9 hours, everyone was accounted for.

The first to be pulled out was Oliver. He was hunched over, one arm protectively wrapped around his torso and didn't resist at all when Ricky Balldorff and Pat Ventimiglia guided him towards the triage area. He gave them a strained smile and rasped out a thank-you, the subsequent coughing fit making him grimace.

Lucy was next. She too was covered head to toe in a thick layer of dust and there were several bleeding cuts on her face and neck. Her helmet was nowhere to be seen. Squinting against the glaring light of the floodlights, she gratefully accepted Kelly Severide's help. She leant heavily on him since her left leg refused to support her and constantly buckled under her weight.

And last came Jeremy. Much like his younger siblings, his clothes, hair and exposed skin were powdered grey. He held his right arm close to his chest, awkwardly petting the excited Bronte and Tiku with his left, praising the two dogs for their excellent work. His knuckles were scraped and bloody and he moved stiffly, teeth digging into his bottom lip as Derek and Jessica led him over the uneven, rubble-strewn ground to triage.

"One of these days", Aaron said as he settled next to his sister on the gurney, "I'm going to forge letters of resignations for you three and tender my own and then we're gonna open up a flower shop or something equally harmless."

They were all settled in the same treatment room. Initially, they had been separated, but by the time Aaron had come back from putting away his jacket in the locker room, Oliver and Jeremy were already settled in Lucy's treatment room. Maggie had only rolled her eyes. She had learnt long ago that trying to keep the Cohens away from each other when at least one of them was still sufficiently ambulatory was absolutely futile. Instead, she had sent Coraline to fetch some cushions and blankets. It wouldn't do for them to make their injuries worse by sitting in the plastic chairs.

Oliver's laugh quickly turned into a cough and he reached for the bottle of water sitting in his lap. Lucy giggled and patted her brother's arm in sympathy. Jeremy snickered, suggesting: "How about a restaurant?"

"Absolutely not", Oliver refused hoarsely. "No thank you. Too hectic."

Jeremy conceded. "Good point. Other ideas?"

"Vet clinic", was the prompt response that was just as quickly refuted by Aaron pointing out that those patients were much harder to reason with and much more inclined to bite you and transmit all sorts of nasty things.

Shifting and wincing as pain shot up her injured leg, Lucy offered her two cents to the discussion. "Hair salon or book store."

Jeremy's eyebrows rose towards the ceiling. "Hair salon? Scissors, hot irons, a ton of chemicals?"

She grimaced. "Yeah... no."

"I like the book shop, though", Aaron commented, his brothers nodding in agreement. "So, flowers or books?"

xxx

They were still debating thirty minutes later when the doors slid open. The staff had been extremely busy clearing the backlog from the structure collapse so patients that weren't in immediately life-threatening condition had to wait. And since the three Cohens' injuries were comparatively minor - they all would have received green tags in triage had they not been the last ones out - they had expected the wait.

"Flowers?", asked Dr Connor Rhodes, bemused and amused at the same time. He pointedly raised an eyebrow at them in silent reproach for sneaking out of their own treatment rooms, but chuckled as it was met with four identical innocent smiles.

Aaron explained: "We're trying to figure out what's better - a flower shop or a book store."

Jeremy elaborated, mentioning the remark that had initially sparked the conversation and summarising the other ideas that they had come up with. "But we can't decide because both have their perks and draw-backs."

"True."

The debate was put on hold so that Dr Rhodes could focus on examining them. He felt, prodded and gently manipulated Lucy's left knee before confirming their suspicion that the joint was badly bruised, but nothing was broken. Jeremy could a sprained wrist and a shoulder contusion to his bloodied hands and Oliver was diagnosed with bruised ribs. They were bruised all over and had a number of superficial cuts and scrapes, but all in all, they had gotten off extremely lucky.

xxx

Examinations over, the discussion continued, Dr Rhodes weighing in occasionally as he treated their injuries. It wasn't the oddest conversation he'd had with a patient and it certainly wasn't too out of the ordinary around the Cohen family. The astonishingly injury-prone siblings had the most stimulating and hilarious debates and Connor always found himself drawn into them if they happened when he was there.

"Why not have both?", Oliver eventually mused, his voice sounding better already after some water and oxygen. "Flower shop and book store in one."

The door slid open again to let in Dr Halstead. Having caught the tail end of Oliver's suggestion, he blinked in puzzlement and asked: "What's this about flower shops?"

"AJ's gonna forge our letters of resignation, hand in his own and then we're gonna open a shop", Lucy answered with a casual shrug, grinning at her friend. Her knee was adorned with a cold pack to reduce the swelling.

Will laughed and picked up a pair of disposable gloves. "Of course. So a flower shop?"

"Or a book store", Jeremy provided, seemingly unbothered by Connor cleaning his skinned knuckles. "We can't decide which. But both in one is a bit difficult, cause there's a lot of dirt and soil and pollen in a flower shop..."

Aaron, who was tending to the cuts littering Oliver's face, hummed contemplatively. "True and books don't really like moisture, either."

The two doctors finished patching up their injuries while the siblings discussed logistics, offering a comment here and there but mostly listening in amusement and sharing a look every once in a while.

The quartet eventually settled on having two shops right next to each other, with a door connecting them. They liked both ideas, but as Jeremy and Oliver were more partial to the flower shop while Aaron and Lucy tended towards the book store, they figured this would be the ideal solution. They all knew that it would remain a hypothetical solution, hopefully for a long time. But in their line of work, it didn't hurt to have a plan B.