The alarm chirped with its annoying morning cry and the two occupants of the bed let out equally frustrated groans. Mariana pulled her pillow over her head as Eddie turned off the alarm. He tugged on his wife's pillow and she batted his hand away.
"C'mon baby, we need to get the boys ready and leave in two hours," he sighed. She had been up half the night, comforting Christopher who had a nightmare, after she got home from a twelve hour shift in the ER. He barely remembered her slipping back into bed until three in the morning.
"Yeah, I know," she grunted. Mariana dragged herself out of bed and he could see the exhaustion clinging to her bones. Guilt roiled in his stomach at the sight of the bags under her eyes. He wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her back onto the bed, pressing a kiss to her shoulder as she leaned back against him.
"Hey, if you're too tired, you can stay back today," he offered.
"I just need some coffee and I'll be good. The team needs me."
"And we need you to be at your best," he reminded her.
"I'm just a bit tired, amor. I'll be fine. You've got my back."
He let her slip out of his arms and head to the bathroom to get ready for their shift. She had insisted on going to help Christopher last night, but he could have easily stepped up and told her to go back to bed. His heart sank as he realized how much work she had been doing recently. Between online classes, parenting two boys, being a frontline worker twice, and still helping out at the group home by handling paperwork, Mariana barely had time to sit down and take a break. His duty as her husband was to take some of her stress and help her and he was failing at it.
Just like he did Shannon.
/
"Oh, no. Who gave that guy a clipboard?" Hen exclaimed. Mariana grinned as she joined them, her second cup of coffee held in her hands.
"I did. Less work for me," she explained.
"Don't worry. It's a kinder, gentler clipboard as is the man who holds it," Buck declared. "Meet Buck 3.0."
"What, three? What happened to 2.0?"
"Two's leg was crushed by a ladder truck and his girlfriend left him," Chimney replied for Buck. Mari snorted into her coffee and leaned against the truck.
"Still not sure what inspired the software update," Eddie commented.
"I'm just ready to let go of the past."
"Your parents lied to you your entire life and you're just gonna let that go?" Hen asked. "What's your secret?"
"Therapy," Buck answered. "As in my parents agreed to come to a few sessions with me, work our stuff out. Look they're trying so I figured I should try too, right?"
Mari grimaced and exchanged a knowing look with her husband. She would be supportive of Buck, of course. Nice to his parents? That's another story.
"Very mature, Buck," Hen noted.
"Very Buck 3.0."
Everyone groaned in unison as Hen said what they were all thinking. "Okay, I'm not calling you that." She turned to Chimney. "Are you gonna be taking part in these family sessions too?"
"Nuh-uh. Key word family. Which I am not. Technically."
"You're allowed to give yourself some time, you know," Eddie said. "To process."
"I know. I'm just tired of looking behind me. I'm ready to start thinking about the future. Speaking of which...HEY PROBIE!"
The new guy startled and his books tumbled to the ground. Mariana had to grab onto the fire truck before she keeled over from holding in her laughter.
"Sorry, I didn't mean to startle you," Buck apologized. "You're the new B-shift probie, right?
"Yeah. I mean, yes sir. Just finished my first shift."
"How was it?"
"Oh, pretty quiet."
The second the word was uttered, Mariana Ramirez-Diaz knew it was going to be the worst shift she's had in a long time. She set her coffee cup down on one of the tool boxes and headed over to the gear lockers to start gearing up. Her suspenders had barely strapped onto her shoulders when the bell rang.
"Welcome to hell!" she called as she headed for the truck. It would be a long day.
/
"Jinxed?" Eddie sighed over the comms. "You guys sound like my abuela's neighbor's curandera."
"Well, does she happen to know how to reverse it?" Buck asked. "'Cause if not, we're about to experience the shift from hell."
"Non-stop calls. All day long," Chimney added.
"Stupid calls."
"Probably tempted fate. Now the EMS gods are gonna make us pay."
"Come on, you guys don't really believe that," Eddie scoffed.
"So Mari and Buck never told you about the last time somebody used that word?" Hen asked.
"The gods took it out of context!" Buck insisted.
"The gods knew exactly what you said," Mariana shot back. "In the ER, you don't even think of the word."
"Oh Mari, not you too," Eddie groaned.
"Thirty-six calls, Eddie! Thirty-six in one day!"
"Thirty-six?" he repeated. "In one shift?"
"Yeah, it was a house record."
That launched the infamous "was Buck being stuck in the locker room a call" argument between the idiots in the back. To this day, no one knew that Mariana had accidentally triggered the fire suppression system when she was trying to fix one of the shower heads.
"Well, I think you guys are giving the EMS gods a little too much credit," Eddie commented.
"And I think you want to sleep on the couch," his wife replied sweetly as she pulled up to the scene. They climbed out of the truck and Eddie gestured in front of him to the smoking cars.
"See? Fender bender. Not crazy."
"Oh really? Look up," she taunted. A man was duct taped to a billboard and shouting something about his album at the crowds below. Eddie faltered before shrugging. "We've seen weirder."
"Just you wait, Edmundo."
Bobby split up the team but left Mari to dart between the groups to work on medical or rescue. She passed tools around, helped check vitals, and move debris out of the way. She was jogging back to the duct tape guy to help with the inflatable pad when she passed her husband kneeling down in front of a woman and bandaging her hand.
"Hey," she panted as she diverted towards him. "Is that the gear that Buck needs?"
"Yeah, sorry. I ran into Ms Flores and she burned her hand. Some guy from the 147?"
"Huh, I don't think there's another house here." Mariana smirked at his fluffy hair due to the helmet and resisted the urge to ruffle it. Instead, she turned to the teacher and nodded her head in greeting. "Ms Flores, nice to see you again."
"Ms Ramirez, how are you? How's Christopher?"
"It's Mrs. Diaz now, actually. Christopher is great. He's adjusting to online classes well."
"Wow, congratulations," Ana exclaimed. "That's amazing!"
"Thank you. Duty calls. Eddie, we're going to need you there soon."
"On it."
She took the gear from him and booked it back to the mat just in time to see the wannabe celebrity hurtle towards the mat. Mari glanced down at the gear in her hands and then up at the naked guy being covered up with a blanket by Chimney. Glancing up at the sky, she searched for a sign of sanity.
That was just the first call of the day.
/
It was back to back calls. From a kid stuck in a laundromat washing machine to an octopus stuck to a woman's face to a man and a cat stuck in a tree, the 118 didn't have time to sit down not to mention eat. Other than the granola bar Chimney had passed her on the sixth call, Mariana hadn't eaten anything in seven hours and felt dead on her feet. Half the time, they weren't even able to stop in at the house before they were called out again.
So when Bobby climbed out of the passenger seat to direct her backing up the car, Mariana was ready to eat whatever was handed to her and pass out on the couch until the next call came in. He waved her back and then held up his fist to indicate for her to stop. Just as she stepped on the brakes, the bell rang again.
Mari laid her head against the wheel and let out a pathetic whine as Bobby climbed back into the truck.
"You good?" Buck asked his sister.
"Don't. Do not ask me."
The call led them to a party store that specializes in clowns and balloons. Bobby and Mariana started on trying to remove the large helium tanks off of one of the clowns while Buck and Eddie grabbed tools that could help them lift them off.
"You ever replay a conversation in your head and worry about sounding like an idiot?" Eddie asked his best friend.
"Have you met me?" Buck joked.
"I ran into Ana Flores today at the scene. Christopher's English teacher."
"So? What stupid thing did you say?"
"Mari introduced herself as Mrs Diaz."
"And that's weird how?"
"She never calls herself Mrs Diaz. It's either Ramirez or Ramirez-Diaz. Do you think she could be...jealous?"
"How could I know? You're literally the first guy she's dated, not to mention married."
They entered the building to find Bobby and Mariana moving the lighter tanks off of the clown.
"Interesting," Buck greeted.
"Help us move some of these tanks to relieve the pressure!" Bobby ordered, his voice high and squeaky from the helium. The two men bit back laughter and Mariana stood up straight, glaring at her two idiots.
"Will you two get a move on?" Her usually stern mom voice was offset by the elevated pitch of her helium affected voice. They burst into laughter but moved to help lift the tanks, little laughs shared between the two of them.
"Be a professional!" Hen yelled. Her order was only met with increasing laughter and Mariana shook her head.
"Edmundo Diaz, you are in soooo much trouble," she squeaked out. Her husband had to hold onto Buck's shoulder to stop from falling over. Even her infamous glare was overshadowed by her helium voice.
"It's cute, sweetheart," he assured her.
"I am not cute!" The stamp of her foot at the end set the two men off once more.
/
"Man, that was a boring call," Eddie announced as they exited the parking garage. Mariana glared at him and bumped his shoulder as she passed, her turnout coat slung over her shoulder as she made her way to the truck.
"Two people stuck in an elevator. They didn't even need medical attention or anything," he continued.
"Don't say it, Edmundo," Hen warned.
"How can I not? Y'all are acting like a bunch of viejas. There is no curse."
"Estás si bien pendejo. No mames, cabrón," Mariana shouted from the driver's seat.
"I have no idea what she just said but I agree," Buck said. "It sure is windy. Anyone else feel that?"
"Nobody is saying you have to believe in curses. Just maybe don't tempt fate...or your wife."
"How's that not the same thing?"
Mariana scrolled through Uber Eats on her phone, debating on driving them through a fast food place or ordering in. Everyone climbed into the truck and Buck gave her the thumbs up to drive.
"It was a normal call," Eddie insisted. "Went like clockwork. Wham, bam, thank you ma'am."
"You notice how you never hear anyone say, 'wham bam thank you sir'?" Hen said dryly.
"...it doesn't rhyme," Buck pointed out.
"Or maybe all that whammin' and bammin' is nothing to write a thank you note about."
"Unfortunately I can attest that it definitely is something to write a thank you letter," Mariana said absentmindedly. The team let out a simultaneous groan as Eddie chuckled.
"The point is I think this proves that the whole jinx thing is a little silly and we should all be done with it."
Right as he finished his sentence, a power pole crashed straight down onto the truck. Mariana stared at the flashes of electricity falling onto the vehicle with an unimpressed expression.
"Hey Cap," Chimney called from the back. "Did a live power pole just fall on the engine?"
"I believe it did, Chimney."
"Right!" Buck drawled out. "No curse here."
Mariana, ever the dramatic one, laid her head back against the head rest and let out a scream muffled by the sleeve of her turnout coat.