"Hey."
Athena looked up from her phone at the sound of the soft voice from the door. Mariana leaned against the wall, her thumbs hooked in the belt loops of her jeans and a wan smile playing on her lips.
"Hi honey. Come in, sit down. Bobby's just grabbing breakfast from the cafeteria."
"Yeah, I bumped into him in the hall." Mariana sat in the chair next to the bed and scooted up so she could see Athena better. "How are you feeling?"
"Tired. Sore. But I'll be fine," the older woman said dismissively. Mariana huffed out a laugh and shook her head in exasperation.
"Yeah, now I see why everyone gets annoyed at me when I do it," she commented wryly. "How do you really feel?"
Athena sighed and she focused on the sheets of the cot instead of Mariana. "I'll be fine."
Mariana didn't press. She just reached out and squeezed Athena's hand. Athena clasped her other hand on top of Mariana's and she smiled at her in an attempt to hide the pain.
"You called me mom," Athena said to change the subject.
"Slip of the tongue." Mari's dark eyes glimmered with a hint of mischief.
"Oh, you and I both know that isn't true. It's an honor, Mariana."
"You won't be saying that when you have to actually parent her," Bobby announced as he entered the room. The two women laughed and Mariana rolled her eyes.
"I don't know what you two are talking about. I am a little angel who always listens to her parents."
/
"Summer camp?" Buck declared as he read the brochure.
"It's all he can talk about," Eddie sighed. "Some of the other kids from school are going. Its only two weeks."
"He'll be fine, mi amor," Mariana drawled out. "The camp has great opportunities, an experienced staff, and Carla recommends it."
"Time!" Eddie announced and Hen set her pencil down, pushing her practice exam towards Eddie.
"Woah, woah. Two weeks away from home?" Buck said. "Isn't Chris kinda young for that? I mean, what if something happens? What if he gets homesick?"
"I'm pretty sure I brought in the brochure so you guys could make me feel better about him going," Eddie stated. "Mari is team send him off."
"I want him to experience the stuff I never got to do." She stuck her tongue out at him.
"Clearly, you did not think that plan through to its logical conclusion," Chimney said.
"I started going to sleepaway camp when I was eight," Bobby assured the couple. "I loved it. Camp Weegeewagen." He finished his statement with a yodel and Mariana had to bite down on her lip to stop from laughing.
"Looked forward to it every year," he declared.
"Yeah, but Christopher's a city kid."
"So was I. St. Paul is a city."
"If you say so." Chimney shot Mariana an amused look as she snorted at Bobby's statement.
"C'mon, I've lived in much worse conditions and look at me, I'm fine," she announced. Everyone stared at her and she pouted. "Rude."
Buck kicked her shoe and she snatched the brochure out of his hands and used it to swat his arm as he tried to duck. Bobby reached over with his wooden spatula and smacked both of his kids on the shoulder to stop them.
"I'm just trying to imagine trying to sell Denny on the idea of two weeks without Internet."
"Its pretty exciting," Eddie said. "They even have this farm to fork program where the kids pick the veggies and cook 'em for dinner."
"Sounds a lot like child labor." "Buck! You're not helping."
Bobby merely stuck the spoon in between them before the fighting even started this time.
"Okay." Eddie stacked the papers together and wrote down the score on the top of the page before handing it to Hen.
"Damnit! I gotta get above a 511."
"504 is pretty good."
"Getting into medical school at this point in my life is hard enough. I can't afford to be an average applicant."
"Hey there is nothing average about you," Bobby interjected. "You just started studying this. Give yourself a break."
"Yeah, hey, c'mon," Buck added. "You are gonna rock the MCATs."
"Hen, I've seen plenty of doctors in my life and none have the skills and level head that you have. You will get this and you will be an amazing doctor," Mari piped up.
Everyone turned to look at Chimney who was busy stirring away at the soup on the stove. He looked up and pursed his lips before nodding. "Hen, you're brilliant. You don't need a test to prove that."
Hen smiled just as her phone dinged with a text notification. "Bobby, why is your wife asking me if she could hold May's graduation party at my house?"
"Uh, our living room is kind of under construction right now."
Mariana hopped off of the stool she was seated on and moved to stand behind her boyfriend. She leaned over his shoulder, peering down at the MCAT prep book he was reading to try and help Hen. "I don't miss taking these kinds of exams. The NCLEX was hell. I think the TCRN cert is even worse."
"You have your recertification coming up soon," he reminded her.
"Yes and I have the perfect helper. Now, about this summer camp...you realize that we would have the house to ourselves for two weeks?"
Eddie leaned over to snatch the brochure out of Buck's hand, flipping it over to find the sign up information.
/
"More houses are en route. Search dogs as well. The debris field is pretty far and wide," Captain Reese explained as the 118 surveyed the damage of the train derailment. Mariana grimaced at the sight of the debris, knowing full well that there would be plenty of casualties here.
"We've had our hands full with all the passenger cars down here but there are reports that there are folks trapped up there," she continued. "We just can't get to 'em yet."
"Buck, Eddie, go have a look. See if there's a way to secure that car so we can get those people out," Bobby ordered. "Is USAR on the way?"
"Dispatch assures me a heavy rescue is coming. We need more help in the triage center."
"Mari, you're up!"
The latina grabbed her go bag from the truck and sent a thumbs up to Bobby, heading towards the tents set off to the side. The last time she was on this side of a mass casualty event was the plane crash two and a half years ago. The adrenaline rush was still the same.
"Ramirez, long time, no see," one of the other paramedics greeted as she entered the tent.
"Where do you need me?" She cut to the chase, not one to engage in small talk when people were dying.
"We're trying to get minor injuries and checkups out of here while the firefighters extract the bigger injuries and black tags."
Mariana glanced back at the dangling train car where Eddie and Buck were currently climbing through. It groaned and shifted under the weight of gravity and she grit her teeth, her heart rate spiking at the thought of that thing coming down.
"Medic! Just need to check this one," a firefighter shouted as they led a woman into the tent. Mariana grabbed a cot and waved her hand to indicate she was free before she turned to face the woman.
"Mariana?" Abby gasped. The latina scowled and gestured for her to sit down on the cot as she grabbed her stethoscope. "I heard you were shot."
"Yeah, well, I'm alive," she bit out. "Any headaches, shortness of breath, dizziness?"
"No, no. I only got knocked around a bit."
"Great. You can go now."
"Wait."
Mariana stiffened as she glared at the redhead. "Is Buck happy?"
"Ask him yourself. Oh wait, that's right, you stopped talking to him and just left him to dry."
"And I'm sorry about that. I figured he moved on and I met my fiance and-"
"And my boyfriend and best friend are in that train saving him. Because Buck is a good man and the best person you can have in your life and you just abandoned him. I have no room for sympathy for you. Get out."
Mariana didn't even give Abby a chance to defend herself because the latina was off to help the next victim. It was an older woman with a fractured collarbone and dislocated shoulder from a seat smashing into her arm. Victim after victim flew by and ambulances drove up, accepted a new patient, and left for the hospitals just as quickly as a new victim was brought into the tent.
She stripped off her blood covered gloves and went to grab a new pair when two paramedics flew into the tent, frantically calling for help. Mariana snapped on the new gloves and rushed over to find an ashen faced Valentina staring up at her.
"Broken femur that went through the skin and punctured the artery," one paramedic explained.
"I need the next RA asap," Mariana reported over the radio as she grabbed one of the tourniquets. "You gonna tell me what the hell you're doing here?"
"He sent me a letter...said he wanted to see Diego...that he made friends in prison who could help him," Valentina gasped out.
"So you boarded a train to run when we have court in a week?" Mariana snarled as she tightened the tourniquet around her aunt's thigh. "Are you insane?"
"Diego...he was right next to me."
Mariana froze and stared at her aunt in complete horror. "You have got to be fucking kidding me."
Valentina flinched at the snarl in her niece's tone. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry for everything. I'm just so scared. I've always been so scared of him."
The younger Ramirez extended out Valentina's leg much to the obvious excruciating pain of her aunt. She splinted and wrapped the leg in double time to ensure that the muscles surrounding the femur wouldn't contract. Blood was seeping through any and all bandages she applied to Valentina's inner thigh and she cursed under her breath.
"I'm gonna die, aren't I? It's what I deserve," Valentina wept. Mariana gripped her shoulders and shook her aunt, her dark eyes boring holes into the older woman's eyes.
"You don't get to apologize and ask for penance now," Mariana yelled. "I was fourteen when he hit me so hard that I lost a tooth! I was fifteen when he took a belt to my back! Sixteen when he tried to kill me and NOW you apologize?!"
Mariana stepped back as two paramedics approached with a gurney to load Valentina on a truck. "What train car were you in? I need to know."
"The fourth from the front," Valentina gasped out.
Mariana's heart raced as she rushed out of the tent, throwing her blood soaked gloves into a hazmat bin as she passed. Her hands shook as she adjusted her radio channels and pressed down on the call button.
"Has the fourth car been searched and evacuated?" she asked, fully aware of how panicked and scared she sounded.
"One team went through but said it was too unsteady to do a thorough search," Bobby reported. "Buck and Eddie have left the eighth car and now they're trying to secure it before it falls on four and five."
Mariana cursed under her breath and took off in a sprint towards the reunification tent. She skidded to a stop in front of an officer. "I'm looking for Diego Ramirez. Ten years old, black hair, brown eyes."
The officer glanced at the list in her hands and shook her head. "We only have a few children so far and none matching that description."
Mariana turned sharply and headed towards the black tag tent, praying to anyone who would listen that he wasn't here. There were no child fatalities yet and she could have fallen to her knees and prayed to God right then and there.
"Bobby," she said into the radio. Her eyes locked with the fourth train car and the car that dangled dangerously above it. "What's the ETA on getting a team in that fourth car?"
"Twenty, thirty minutes. Why? What's going on?"
"Diego's in there. I just know it."
"Mariana, wait for us to secure the other car before you do anything," Bobby warned.
The train car in the air groaned under gravity and shifted closer to the fourth car. Mariana could see Buck in the distance watching her with a wary look. She stared at him as she reached up for her radio to press down on the call button one more time.
"You know I can't do that. I'm sorry."
Buck threw down his helmet and bolted towards her but Mariana was already sprinting towards the train. She ducked under the police tape, turning off her radio as she ran, and climbed up the stairs of the train, entering the darkened hull. Electricity crackled and snapped above her from broken wires and cords.
"Fire department, call out!"
The whole structure shuddered under the shifting weight above her and Mariana grabbed onto the top of the seats before she tumbled to the ground. The seat shifted, exposing a woman under the metal.
"Help," she breathed out and Mariana swore under her breath, yanking on the seat to move it out of the way. It barely moved but it was enough for Mariana to see what the issue was. The woman's pelvis was being crushed by a beam and clearly was fractured.
"Who the fuck cleared this place?" she muttered to herself as she searched for a suitcase or something with fabric. A tablecloth from a nearby table would work and the latina snatched it up before returning to the woman's side.
"Hi, my name is Mariana. I'm a firefighter and a nurse. What's your name?"
"A-Adrienne," she stammered out. "I couldn't...couldn't shout. The firefighters just left."
"Yeah, they're not supposed to do that," Mari grunted as she wiggled the tablecloth under Adrienne. "Have you seen a boy around here? About ten years old?"
"Yeah, yeah, last I saw he was near the back."
Mariana kneeled down next to Adrienne and gripped the metal beam. "Now, this is gonna hurt. If you say fuck, I won't tell."
Adrienne smiled weakly and nodded as Mariana braced her back against the beam and slowly started to push up as if she was back in the gym and Eddie was putting her through squat drills. The beam creaked as she moved it and the car shifted slightly. Mariana buckled under the weight and scrambled to adjust her footing when the weight was suddenly lifted off of her.
"Bobby is ready to kill you," Buck grit out as he hoisted the metal up. Mariana pulled Adrienne out from under the seat as the redhead cried out in pain. The paramedic quickly tied the tablecloth around her hips and into a knot in the middle.
"Get her out of here," she ordered.
"Not without you," he protested.
Mariana shook her head as she started to move towards the back. "Not until I know Diego isn't here. I'm not leaving him. Not again."
"Mariana, just wait until it's stable and then we can come back."
"And what if the train falls? Get Adrienne out of here. I'll be out by the time you're back from the med tent."
"That better be a promise. Bobby had to practically restrain Eddie from coming in here."
Mariana's eyes darted towards the windows and then back towards where Buck was scooping up Adrienne and hurrying her out. She turned her attention back to the back of the car. "Fire department! Call out!"
The world was too loud and it drowned out any call of life. She dropped to her hands and knees and turned on her flashlight so she could look under any overturned seats. "Diego! Are you in here?"
Something shuffled ahead of her and she crawled closer, seeing a little foot move under some rubble. Mariana quickly yanked the sheet of metal off and pushed the dirt off of the body.
"Titi Ana?" the small voice asked as arms reached out towards her.
"Yeah buddy, it's me. Are you hurt? Can you wiggle your fingers and toes for me?"
She let out a sigh of relief at the sight of his motor coordination still intact. The brunette pulled him in for a tight hug and then she pulled him up into a carry. "C'mon, time to get out of here."
Of course the universe had other plans for them.
The entire structure rattled and creaked and Mariana just knew. The dangling car was coming down. She could hear the startled screams from onlookers outside and the roar of gravity pulling tons of metal down on them. Her eyes darted throughout the cabin and making a split second decision, Mariana threw herself down in between two of the seats and on top of Diego. She tucked his head under her chin and curled her body around his before she shut her eyes and prayed.