The sound of music erupting through the room was soon joined by muttered cursing and groaning from the occupant in the bed. Mariana rolled over, snatching her phone off her bedside table. She swiped her thumb across the screen and answered without looking at the screen.

"Hello?" she croaked out, sleep coating her voice.

"Morning, angelita. Did I wake you up?" Eddie's voice rang through the other line.

"I hate you," she grunted out, removing the pillow from her face and staring up at her ceiling. She could practically hear the smile in his voice.

"No you don't. Get up, it's nine thirty."

"I have an alarm clock and you're not it."

"Nine hours until you are on shift with us because you keep taking on doubles. Nine hours of putting up with Hen and Chim making fun of me."

"You do realize that I would be making fun of you if I was there right."

"Yeah but I actually like you."

She could hear the two paramedics yell out from behind him and she laughed, sliding out of bed and making her way towards the kitchen.

"You can last nine hours without me, alright? Now, I gotta make myself breakfast and go for a run."

"Beautiful weather for the beach. You should run there."

"Mmmhmm, you're right. A run on the beach sounds amazing. Then I'll go for a swim in my new bikini," she mused as she poured herself a cup of coffee.

"Nevermind, I regret calling you. You're the worst."

"You love me, Edmundo."

"I do, querida. Sleep well?"

She faltered, the images of her nightmares flashing across her mind. "Yeah...yeah. Slept fine. Is Carla watching Chris today?"

"Nope. Carla is on vacation. Buck has him today."

"That should be interesting. You need to get back to work so I can go back to relaxing before I have to come in and make sure your ass doesn't get in trouble."

She hung up before he could interject, a grin playing on her lips as she grabbed the egg carton out of the fridge. A run by the beach actually sounded like a really great idea today.

That's where she found herself two hours later. The weather was beautiful in Los Angeles and she felt amazing. Five months after having a punctured lung and Mari felt like it never happened. Clad in a swimsuit that was essentially a lifeguard two piece uniform, shorts, a rash guard, and tennis shoes, Mari was ready to spend a few hours at the beach until she had to get ready to go into work at six. Thanks to covering Alex's partial shift two nights before, Bobby let her split her shift for the day.

With Kendrick Lamar blasting through her headphones, Mari's only indication that something was wrong was everyone around her stopping and staring at the ocean. She slowed down and turned to see what was happening, a feeling of horror growing in the pit of her stomach.

The tsunami sirens kicked on and all her years of emergency training flooded in. Ripping her headphones out of her ears, the brunette screamed as loudly as she could.

"RUN!"

Mariana bolted up the beach, sprinting towards the sidewalk. She knew she couldn't outrun the water, but she could give herself an advantage. Jumping onto a parked car, she gripped onto the street sign post and wrapped her arms and legs around it tightly. Mariana tucked her head in and began to pray as she waited for the water to hit.

Dear God...please get me through this.

And the water came crashing down.

Mariana had saved a few drowning victims, but she herself never knew what it felt like. Until now.

For someone who had multiple broken ribs just months prior, Mariana thought she knew what it felt like to not be able to breathe. But when a massive wall of water collides into you and yanks at every part of your body, your soul, and your mind, you start to reconsider. She didn't know which way was up and which way was down as salt water rushed over her. She clung to the pole with her life, feeling debris smash and cut into her. Holding her breath, she tried to avoid inhaling water but some caught in her nostrils. The water was rolling, spinning, begging to pull her under. Her grip was loosening, but she needed to stay firm. If she was caught in the currents, no matter how strong of a swimmer she was, Mariana would find herself either as fish food or sent to the 118 in a body bag. The currents were pulling her in every single direction and debris bit at her skin. Her lungs grew heavy from holding in the air and Mariana pulled herself up until her head broke the waves. Gasping for breath, the latina tried to get a bearing on where she was. She looked around for anything that was familiar and came to a crushing realization.

Everything was destroyed.

She pushed back the urge to cry and instead pushed off the pole and swam towards an overturned car. Taking the opportunity to get onto her feet, the brunette surveyed the damage as she fished around her pocket for her phone. With a curse, she realized it was gone.

"Well, Ramirez, time to get yourself out of this mess."

Eddie Diaz was going to find his girlfriend and glue her phone to her hand. The second they got the tsunami alert, Bobby had instructed him to call her in for her shift early. He called once, twice, and now he was trying a third time.

"Heya! This is Mariana Ramirez! Sorry I can't come to the phone right now. Please leave a message or text me!"

"Mari, this is the third message I've left and I'm getting kinda worried. Please call me back as soon as you get this."

He slid his phone back into the dry case they handed out earlier and strapped it into one of the pockets in his uniform. Hen shot him a concerned look and he just shook his head. If he knew his girlfriend, she was probably saving some cat out of a tree single handedly right now because that was just her reckless, self-sacrificing mentality.

He hopped out of the truck and took in the extent of the damage. Water and debris had the city in its grip and he sighed. First an earthquake and now this. Los Angeles just couldn't catch a break.

"Any luck on Mari?" Bobby called.

"Nothing."

"She's probably out on a run or something and forgot her phone. She'll join us soon," Chim called from above.

Eddie froze and his heart dropped into his stomach. How on earth could he have forgotten? With Buck and Chris and the fire at the food trucks and the tsunami, it completely escaped his mind. They had discussed it earlier when he called her.

"Guys...she went for a run. At the beach. I told her to go and enjoy her time off. Oh shit, I told her to go."

Bobby could see where his thoughts were going and immediately stopped him, resting his hand on the younger man's shoulder. "Mari is fine, Eddie. She was probably done with her run already. If anything, she of all people knows how to survive a natural disaster."

His mind was flashing to a million possibilities of what could happen to her and he paused for a brief moment to thank God that Chris was with Buck, miles away from the pier. Bobby could see the panic on his face and nodded, grabbing his radio.

"Rescue, this is Captain Nash of the 118. One of our members might be out there. Name is Mariana Ramirez. If you see her, let us know."

"10-4. We'll be on the lookout."

"Eddie, I need you to focus right now. Worrying isn't going to do anything for Mariana whether she's out there or not."

Frankly, Mariana had been in worse situations. There was the time she almost wrecked her car while racing. There was the time she was almost killed by her uncle. There was the time she was shot by a guy while on a call.

So, really, she was perfectly calm for the situation at hand.

Shutting her eyes, she started to recall everything she was taught about tsunamis in school and in EMS training. Caused by an earthquake, be careful for debris and chemicals in the water, salt water stings...and when one wave comes, surges will follow. Mariana swore under her breath and started to look for a way to get to higher ground.

"Help!" a woman screamed. The brunette spun on her heel, seeing a girl trapped under some wood that was pinning her into the water against a car while her mother kneeled helplessly above her. Mariana didn't even hesitate before she dove into the water and swam towards her. She crawled onto the car that was supporting the girl's head and grabbed the wood, grunting as she tried to lift it off of her.

"Hey, what's your name?" Mari asked.

"Erica," the girl sobbed. She couldn't be much older than Chris. Just the thought of the young boy made her heart clench. Pushing aside her emotion, Mariana bent down and grabbed Erica's shoulders to keep her head above the water.

"Can you hold her like this? I'm going to go under and grab her from below. Once you feel two tugs on her, let go. I can't lift the wood for long so this is our best chance."

The mother nodded, unable to speak from the emotion bubbling in her chest. Mariana patted her back before she scooted to the edge of the car and inhaled deeply twice. Then, she stood up and dove straight into the rushing water. The salt water stung her cuts but Mariana ignored the pain as she swam under the massive piece of wood pinning Erica's legs down. It was a telephone pole and Mariana was suddenly glad for power outages for the first time in her life.

She planted her feet onto the backseat window of the car and grabbed the telephone pole, pushing off of the car. The currents quickly caught it and yanked it into the water, giving Mari enough time to swim under it and tug twice on Erica. Any resistance to her pull disappeared and Mari shot up, one arm wrapped around the young girl's waist. She gently pushed her onto the hood of the car and followed suit just as the currents slammed the telephone pole back into the side of the car. The car rocked on its side but settled, leaving the three girls gasping for air and staring at each other in shock.

"You saved my daughter's life," Erica's mother sobbed, pulling Mariana into a hug.

"It was nothing. It's literally my job. My name is Mariana and I'm a firefighter paramedic with the LAFD."

"Jenny Hansen. Thank you so much."

"I'm afraid we're not safe yet, Jenny. We need to get to sturdier ground. Rescue might take some time to get to us, but don't worry. My team is out there, I'm sure of it, and they're the best damn firefighters in LA."

Mariana crouched down on the car, her dark eyes searching the wreckage and surrounding buildings for something, anything that could help them. She spotted the post office garage far down the street and smirked.

"We need to get over there and to the top level. There's no trucks up there and it's high enough that debris can't get up with waves. I'll start a triage center and set up a signal for search and rescue. We'll get out of this. We'll be okay, right?"

"It's so far away," Jenny breathed out.

"I'll try to get us as close as possible by debris. Can you carry Erica? I think the pole might have broken something."

Jenny nodded and Mariana offered her a consoling smile. "Believe me, Jenny. My boyfriend and brother might be the ones to do all the crazy stunts, but I know what I'm doing."

She stood up, studying the path of debris from the car to the garage. All the other buildings around them were enclosed or falling apart from the flood waters. They needed to get to that building. Stepping slowly off the car and onto the next one, the brunette let out a triumphant huff. Maybe this plan would actually work after all.