Disclaimer: none of these characters are my own apart from any I create for fanfiction purposes only. "The story I tell here about TK and Ava is my own invention, and it is not purported or believed to be part of 9-1-1's story canon. This story is for entertainment only and is not part of the official story line."

Ava strand was sat in her car, her hands were clinging to the steering wheel in a death grip, she was staring at literally nothing. She had just worked one of the worst shifts ever. Not only had they had to deal with a huge road traffic accident, involving three cars and a bus full of school kids. Hours later they had received the call from the 9-1-1 operators that the 126 crew were all coming in from a failed call, there had been a gas explosion, killing all of them bar one man, who also happened to be her best friends' husband, Judd Ryder.

It wasn't the images of the patients, or her close friends, lying in the beds clinging to life, that were haunting her.

No.

It was the cries of their families as she and her colleagues told them, one by one that their, son, husband, father, brother was dead. And then having to restrain Grace as she ran to her husband who was clinging to his life in intensive care.

And this is where she found herself, sitting in her cold, dark car, at 3am, crying her eyes out. The first thing you get taught in med school, is how to cope with death. But no matter how much you prepare, you can never prepare for the first death of one of the patients in your care, you just can't. now she had experienced more death than she could count on her fingers, but this time, Ava felt overwhelmed and sad, just sad.

It was so unfair that they all had to die, and it was unfair that when Judd woke up, he would have no friends left, and no job either. And this all lead Ava to question how the god that grace so deeply believes in, would allow such a tragedy like this to occur.

Picking up her phone, Ava unlocked it and called her Dad.

Her dad, Owen Strand, was her hero, her role model, and her rock. She loved him with all her heart. And she knew that he would have something supportive to say and then he would start telling her about this new health thing he'd discovered to take her mind off the fact that she'd had a crap shift.

"Ava are you okay, it's 3am?" her dad's voice said through the phone.

"yeah, sorry it's so late, or so early, I don't know, guess I'm apologising for both." She rambled

"what happened Ava?" he asked, with that gentle, supportive voice.

"uh...I..I had a really, really bad shift dad, like nuclear bad." She stammered.

"oh Ava, I'm sorry, do you want to talk about it" he asked

"not really, just needed to hear your voice and tell you that I love you so much." She murmured.

"okay, well what if I told you that I discovered this new vegan restaurant down the road from the station, and they do amazing quesadillas, which I know are your favourite" he said cheerily.

Ava smiled, "they are my favourite, which filling is your favourite?" she asked.

"hmmm hard question, probably the avocado and black bean one" he replied.

They chatted for about an hour, and they just talked about anything other than their jobs, Ava told him about Matt's promotion to master chief, in the navy, and how they are decorating the house. Owen told her about TK who had signed up to run the New York marathon and how they are getting along well. Then he said he had to go because he had a shift in the morning, so she said goodnight and hung up.

The second she put the phone down she was reminded of reality, that a whole fire house had been killed tonight and somehow, she had to come to work tomorrow and forget that it ever happened. Because if she dwelled on it too much, it would consume her, the grief, the questioning at whether she could have done more, could she have done anything differently, what if she'd intubated him quicker or focused on her injuries more than someone else's.

To distract herself from her own head, Ava put the radio on and wacked up the volume, it was rubbish country song that she had never heard of before, but it did the trick, and so as she pulled up outside her house, she saw that Matt had left the lounge light on.

When ava got into the house, she dumped her bag in the hall, and trudged up the stairs, she took off her shoes, and all her clothes and put one of Matt's t-shirts on and crawled into bed, and curled up next to Matt and fell asleep.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Three months later

Owen sat in the waiting area of the hospital ER, just half an hour ago, Owen had found his son, unconscious on the floor, in cardiac arrest after overdosing on opioids. This wasn't the first time this had happened, but it didn't make it any less scary.

Owen had managed to bring his son back to life and had joined him in the ambulance whilst he was whisked away to hospital, while his team desperately tried to keep him awake and breathing after the Narcan started to wear off.

So, this is how Owen ended up sitting in a hard-plastic chair, sipping a tepid coffee, waiting for the doctor to come out and tell him, his son was okay physically. But that was not what was on his mind, no, it was the fact that he at some point would have to tell his daughter, TK's older sister, and that was not a conversation he fancied.

Not only would Ava go into medical mode, demanding to speak to the doctor who was caring for her brother, but she would also start worrying, panicking and threatening to come over, get the next flight and she would go into overprotective sister mode.

But Owen needed to do this, needed to let her know, needed to. So, picking up his phone, he pressed call on her name.

"hiya dad, how are you?" she chirped through the phone.

"hey Ava, I need to tell you something." He said, cringing at his solemn tone

"what, is everything okay? Are you okay? Are you hurt? is Tk alright? Is he hurt?" she practically shouted down the phone.

"ava, calm down, I'm fine, but TK…he, he overdosed this morning, he's okay, he's alive, but I don't know why and I'm just waiting for the doctor to come and let me know how he is" he said, trying to ignore the growing lump in his throat.

"oh my god, do you need me to come over, I can do that if you need. I'm probably owed some holiday." She whispered

"err, no, don't come over we'll be okay. But there is something else I need you to know" Owen said.

"yeah dad, you know you can tell me anything" Ava replied.

"I have been offered a job down there in Austin, and I was just wondering whether it would be okay with you, if I took it, TK would come of course. And to be frank, I think a change of scene would do him some good. But I don't want to impede on your life over there."

"dad, that's amazing, of course it's fine, what kind of question is that. I think you would love it out here." Ava replied.

Owen smiled, that was why he was so proud of his daughter, she always thought of other people. In the end Owen had to hang up and go because the doctor came out asking for 'Mr Strand'. He told him that TK was doing well, he was awake and on oxygen just to get his levels up again. But that he could go home after his psych evaluation, which we will be this afternoon.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Ava was in her office when her dad called her, to tell her than her little brother had overdosed again. When she heard that, she felt like her whole world had just come crashing down. She knew TK had an opioid addiction, but she thought that after his first overdose he had it in control, but obviously not.

She wasn't cross, but to a lot of people that's how it came across. No, she was scared. Scared of losing her brother, the boy she had desperately tried to protect from the cruel world. Because TK strand was too nice for this world to ham him. But it did, repeatedly.

Sighing, she put her phone down, and went back into the rather quiet ER and grabbed a file from the large pile on the reception desk and called out the name of her next patient. As she led the young boy who had a wonky finger and his mother, who looked close to hyperventilating, to one of the cubicles, she glanced back at her office door. Still finding it strange that she was the ER coordinator, responsible for everyone in the department and yet she still felt like an intern every time she walked through the doors of the hospital.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

TK sat in the hospital bed, whilst he waited for his dad, to fetch his clothes from the car. His whole body ached, and his limbs all felt like lead. He didn't mean to overdose, but he just was so angry and ashamed with himself for falling for Alex, so hard and then after months of a turbulent relationship, to expect the man to marry him. God, he felt stupid.

But what made it worse, was the fact that he had five missed calls from his sister and two unread text messages, he knew that dad had told her. But he couldn't face explaining it all to her as she would get angry with him, tell him he needed help and that why does he do it to dad and all that. At least his dad understood and cared.

TK had always gotten along well with his older sister, until the age of about 18 when he first overdosed. It was like a switch had gone off inside her and she no longer cared. She just got angry and defensive whenever they talked about it. At first it hurt him, but then he started to become immune to her altogether and now five years later, they barely talk and when they must, it's because its Christmas or thanksgiving or dad's birthday.

In truth, TK missed her. After their mum left, Ava was the one who cared for him, as dad was always at the station. She was the one who walked him to school, walked him home. She was there when he had nightmares, when he couldn't sleep. When every time dad went to work, and TK thought he wouldn't come home. She was always there. To make him laugh, to make him feel better. she was the one he came out to, when he was fifteen. She held him while he cried out all his frustrations and fears, she was the one who convinced him to tell dad. She was the one who took him to his first pride, stood up for him when he was called out for being gay. She was the one who helped him revise for his fire academy exams, even though she was revising for her own exams. She always put him first and yet now it was like she never did any of that and he had dreamt it all. Because now she didn't do anything for him, she didn't even reply to his texts. And god that hurt the most.

Tk was pulled out of his thoughts by his dad walking back into the room with a bag of clothes and his trainers. Tk got changed and then his dad, told him to meet him in the car, whilst he checked Tk out.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Almost twelve hours after the overdose, Owen found himself sitting on the roof of his apartment trying to establish why on earth TK decided to overdo. Turns out that piece of shit, Alex had been cheating on Tk with his spin instructor and that TK just couldn't cope with it.

Owen refrained from saying out loud that he always knew that Alex was going to hurt TK. That would not have gone down well, but instead Owen told TK that they were moving to Austin permanently.

Owen knew that TK and Ava didn't get along, and it killed him that his two children just couldn't stand each other. He had to admit he had no idea when they started to drift apart. Owen had a pretty good idea that it was something to do with TK overdosing the first time. But he couldn't be sure. Ava was a complicated person, just like her mother, and if you tried to delve too deep, well then Ava would build her walls up so high that you just had to back away and try again. And even if you did get past the wall, you were met with metal spikes.

With Ava you had to let her come to you, whereas with TK, you knew when something was wrong because he wore his emotions on his sleeve. TK was like him, in every aspect except his hair. That he got from his mother; those dark locks could attract anyone.

Owen looked to his left and found that TK had taken his advice and had gone to get some rest. Ever since the kids had moved out and that was years ago, Owen had kept their rooms, the same. Except for all the stuff that teenagers accumulate, that had been put in boxes and put in storage. But their rooms were still their rooms, and when Owen went back down into the apartment, that was where he found TK, asleep in his newly renovated room. Owen smiled and turned the light off.

Looking at the clock on the wall, Owen saw that it was past midnight, so after checking the locks and closing the blinds, Owen went to bed, excited for his and TK's future in Austin.

To be continued…..