TITLE: Third Watch, the Next Generation; Emily
AUTHOR: trista groulx
DISCLAIMER: kim, jimmy, alex (taylor), faith, bosco, carlos, holly, doc, ty, sully, emily, kylie, joey, charlie and anyone else who pops up from the TV series are not mine, they belong to NBC, their creator, and the actors and actresses who portray them. the idea for third watch is so not mine, but anyone who i've created for this story are mine so ask if you want to use them.
RATING: PG-13 for language (could change as the series progresse)
SUMMARY: a look at the next generation of third watchers, this time from a familiar charcter's POV, the lovelyemily yokas
AUTHORS NOTES: this story will take place the day after Alex's part ended, i'll keep you posted on what the timeline is, i really hope some ppl are digging this effort, cause it's really a challange for me...
WARNINGS: certain orginals will have died, and their deaths may be explained as i feel fit. there are potential spoilers up to the end of season five, so if you're not that far on TV then don't blame me i spoil something for you.
emily and charlie's ages have been altered to fit with this story, so that there is only a small age difference between Alex and Emily (otherwise it would have to be 15-16 yrs and that wouldn't work) please tell me what you think trista aka the dustytiger

on with the fic!

I woke up that morning next to my ex, Dylan, again. I cursed myself for making the same mistake again. I was glad my daughter, Angela was too young to really ask question about why her father was at home again. I didn't even want to imagine what went through that little mind of hers. Most of the time she never even saw him, which was good. If my mother ever found out she'd smack me a good one! Why do I do this to myself?

I hadn't even had anything to drink when we all went out last night. The girls from the firehouse, and the guys from the station house, across the street. We always said that even if both sexes came from both houses. Apparently it had been a tradition since my mother was in the force for the two houses to go out after rough days.
She always says that it helps make relations better off the field, but I think that in our case it makes for strange bedfellows. Though I guess it may be just in my case, because my partner, Alex and Dylan's partner Tyrone seemed to be happy when they left together. Of course he has more personality then Dylan will ever have, yet I still find myself in love with the man. Even when I see so many of my friends, and even my own mother happy with men that treat them right.

"Get the fuck up," I snarled at him, all right so maybe I had something to do with the hard feelings between us.

"Nice to see you took Em," Dylan responded.

"Look, can you just leave before the baby sees you?"

He got up, and pulled on his pants, and shirt. "She's my kid too you know?"

"Then leave, then just knock on the door as if you're visiting."

"She's just a baby she doesn't understand."

I shrugged. "Maybe not, but I don't want to find out for sure. If you want to see Angela you'll just have to leave, then knock on my door."

He got up and left. Sure enough, he did not knock on the door after to visit with his daughter. I wondered if he ever even pondered it after he left. We had had so many fights over her since I found out I was pregnant. Now the fights were mostly because he hardly made an effort to see her. Most of the time he did visit she would just fuss because she barely knew him. He would end up getting annoyed, and leaving angry. I tried to explain that if he would come over more she would get used to him, but he never listened. If I could chose Angela's father, I would make him almost any man but Dylan.

"Mommy!" I heard Angela scream, then start to cry. That was my sign that it was time to start the day, and that I would not get that fifteen extra minutes of sleep I craved.
Our morning routine was pretty simple, I had a breakfast shake, while she ate her cereal. I got her ready, then myself. I then went to my mother's to drop her off. My mother had not been working for a few years, and as soon as Angela was born agreed to take her on days that I worked. I gave her whatever money she would accept, and I was very grateful for the childcare.

I was running early that morning, when I went over to visit my mother. It was strange, although I went everyday, and had a key, I still rang the doorbell every morning. Bosco answered the door, Mom was in the kitchen drinking a cup of coffee. As soon as she saw him Angela started to struggle in my arms, holding her hand toward him.

"Baco! Baco!" she cried, until he took her.

"Hello Angie!" he said, kissing her lightly, a huge smile crossing both their faces.

"I think you have some competition, Mom," I laughed, pouring myself a cup of coffee.

Mom laughed. "It took me too long to get him, I'm not giving him up now." She smiled at her new husband. I was so glad when they finally got married. "You're running early this morning."

"Ang got up early, didn't realize I was that early till I got here. Besides, this way I can visit with you."

"Did I see someone else in the car with you when you picked up Angie last night?" Bosco asked, not even looking away from his game of peak-a-boo with my daughter.

"Yeah, I was driving one of the guys from the station house home, he had a little too much to drink, since I had room, and it was on my way," I lied.

"Oh, he looked familiar."

"It was one in the morning, everyone looks the same at that time."

I hated to lie to them, but I just couldn't tell them the truth. I had agreed to drive him home, despite knowing what would happen next. So I thought of Alex's advise, and decided to pick Angela up in hopes of not making the same mistake. She was so tired she didn't even wake up when I took her out of her crib there, into her car seat, drove to my place, took her out, and put her in her own crib. Even if Dylan had not been there, I would have picked her up, I like knowing she's under the same roof when I've had a bad day at work.

"Why didn't you just leave Angela here over night?" Mom asked.

"I just wanted her home. I had a rough day, and I wanted her close."

She nodded. "I understand. When I was working after you born, when I saw something really bad, I used to make Sully drive by the house quickly so I could check on you."

I laughed. "Mother's instincts sure aren't rational sometimes." We both laughed.

"Glad I don't have to deal with that," Bosco said, still on the floor with Angela. "Look what you have to grow up and face, Angie? So I say you make me a deal and stay a baby for every all right?"

We all laughed, except for Angela who just began tapping Bosco's arm to keep his attention. He was the only person that called her Angie, at first I asked him not to, but decided there was no point in getting into an argument. When I left Angela there, I kind of felt like she got the family she didn't get with me at home. I loved my daughter, and was glad that she got to see a positive male role model almost every single day. I looked at my watch.

"I should probably get going." I said hugging Mom. "I should be back at the usual time tonight."

"All right, call if anything changes."

"Always." I looked at Angela. "I'll see you later, Baby." I picked her up and gave her a hug.

"Okay, bye bye!" She said before I put her down.

I got to the door. 'Love you all."

"Love you too, Em!" Mom called.

That was another very big part of my morning routine. Although I wasn't in a position quiet as dangerous as my mom had been all her career, I still knew that an accident could happen, and I wanted my family to know that I loved them. I considered Bosco family, even before my mom started dating him. He was almost always a part of my life.

My brother, Charlie, was not so forgiving, and hardly speaks to Mom now. I see him when I go to family stuff at Dad's. He's married, and has two kids. He works as general labourer, his wife is a doctor at Mercy. Sometimes I think I see Charlie's wife more then he does! He takes after my dad, and takes care of the kids, and hardly works.

It kills my mother that she sees her other grandkids only at Christmas, the day after Christmas. Charlie spends Christmas Eve with dad, Christmas day with her family, and drops in for a little while to see Mom, in the spirit of the season. He asks that Bosco not be there when they visit, that it would confuse the kids.

When Angela was born I asked Bosco if he wanted me to have her call him anything special. He was flattered, but decided just to have her call him Bosco, even if she couldn't pronounce it. He had started to call her Angie almost immediately, and soon realized that it would be fine. I explained that I didn't want everyone to call her Angie, so it was kind of their special thing.

I was pretty sure that he was not helping her to say Bosco, and have her call him Baco the rest of his life. I laughed to myself remembering that her first word was "Baco", she started saying it one night when we were all at our apartment having supper. Bosco was thrilled she liked him that much.

When I got to work I didn't see Alex anywhere, and I wondered where she had gotten to. I went up and got changed, then went to the bus. Sure enough she was there putting everything exactly where I liked it, humming to herself.

"Last night went well?" I asked, scaring the living shit out of her, she jumped, and even almost shrieked until she realized who I was.

"Yeah, he came to my place, and we talked so long we ended up falling asleep," she explained, a stupid grin on her face. "He wants to take me out for supper tonight."

"That's great!"

"Something happen with Dylan?"

"Yeah," I replied, angry with myself. "He stayed over last night, and let's just say I got a lot more action then I had wanted. I even tried picking Ang up from my mother's nothing stopped me. I'm so stupid."

"You're not stupid."

I never thought I could be so glad to hear that. I smiled, and hugged her. "Thank you," I told her, almost crying.

"Okay, what's gotten into you?" she asked.

"I'm sorry, it's just you can't even imagine how nice it was to hear that."

She smiled at me. "Any time."

I really did wonder why she was being so nice to me. I was such a horrible person to her, and yet she was being so supportive. Most of the time I'd be suppositious if someone were acting like that, but I knew she was being genuine. She was one of very few people that actually still cared about other people. She proved that to me so many more times since that day, and I couldn't understand why we had gotten off to such a rocky start.

"As much as I'm sure you really want to talk some more, we probably have lives to save!" she said, smiling.
I couldn't help but smile back. "Of course we do, that's what we signed up to do."

We both got into the bus, I was driving of course. I didn't think she'd ever get to know New York, but it worked this way for both of us. It ended up being an unusually slow day. We ended up spending a lot of time talking.

"So why did you become a paramedic?" she asked me.

"When I was a teenager I was involved in a bank robbery with my mother. I never understood what she did till that day. She actually shot a guy, and almost took a bullet for me. After seeing that I knew I wanted to do something that took as much guts as that. I just couldn't get over the fact she had actually killed a person, and that he probably wasn't the first person she had killed. No matter how bad a person is do they really deserve to die?" I explained. "So I decided to try and save lives instead of maybe have to be forced to take them."

Alex nodded. "So you're second generation too?"

I laughed. "Yeah, my step dad was a cop too. He and my mother we partners at the station house. So what's your story?"

"My dad was a firefighter, and my mom was a paramedic, they met when they were working at the firehouse here. That's why I decided to try to get a job here."

"Wow, it's amazing how many people around here have parents that have worked in the same places. As you probably know Davis' dad worked her till he got a desk job. You learned both Carter's parents are old timers as he put it. You met Kylie last night, right?"

"Yeah," she responded.

"Carter's dad is her biological father, he gave her up for adoption when she was a baby."

"What about Dylan?"

I laughed. "No way, he's a first generation one. I think he may have gotten into police services to pick up chicks."

She laughed. "Doesn't he know that it's the fire boys that get all the girls? That's why my brother wanted to be a fireman!"

"I never said that Dylan was a smart person."

She laughed. "And here I thought New York never had a quiet day."

"They're few and far between. But how about we head back to the house? There's no point wasting gas in this beast."

"Sounds like a plan to me."

When we got back to the house everyone else was sitting around, also bored. Carter and the fire boys were playing a game of poker.

"If you ladies care to join, we can make it strip poker!" said Garry hopefully.

"Not a chance in hell," I replied.

After all this time they still didn't realize that I only had eyes for one man, and he didn't feel the same way for me. That's the problem with working with a bunch of guys, they are completely clueless sometimes. I was glad to finally not only have females around the house, but also to be able to ride with one, even if I didn't give her the credit she deserved most of the time. She knew what she was doing, and though I'd never admit it to anyone at the house I loved the chance to girl talk.

"Hey I'm game," said Alex. "But can someone remind me what's high and what's low?"

I shook my head, not believing that she would be crazy enough to actually play a game of strip poker with a bunch of greasy bucket boys! She gave me a reassuring glance, that I knew meant that she knew exactly what she was doing. None of the guys seemed to notice, except Carter, he had always been fairly good at picking up signs between women. I wondered just how in touch with his softer side he may be, but never said anything out loud, that is not a rumour you want to start with a bunch of testosterone driven males.

"She can take my place," Carter offered.

"Thanks man," she said sitting down.

It seemed that she had been an old poker pro. Soon the guys were down to their socks and boxers. She was laughing it up. Only Garry was left in the game. I glanced at his cards, and even my lousy poker skills told me he had a decent hand.

"I'll bet you everything I've got," he told her.

"So does that mean my bet is everything I've got?" she asked innocently.

He laughed. "Only if you want to, Sweetie."

"Why not?" She shrugged, then looked at her card, and made a pouting face. "I hope I don't regret this."

"Sweet Jesus!" he exclaimed, he put down his hand. "Straight flush, all hearts!"

She looked dejected, and put down her hand, a royal flush. "This any good?"

"Fuck! You little-"

"Strip for me baby!" She laughed, coming over and giving me a high five. "Don't mess with the ladies."

Just then the fire bell rang, leaving Garry not just scrambling to get his gear on, but also to redress from his game. There was also a call for an ambulance at the same address, so we got into our bus, and followed the trucks. When we got to the scene there had been an explosion, at a local school. It was later ruled to be an accident, there had been a gas leak, and one of the teachers happened to throw a butt in the wrong place.

I had always hated it when children were involved in any call I had been to. It had gotten particularly worse since Angela was born. When the paramedics were ordered in to help out, I didn't want to. I watched as my partner disappeared into the depths of the building. Armed with only helmet and a board. She came back a few minutes later with what looked like a six year old on the board.

"Mind if I go back in?" she asked.

"I'll work on her."

The child tuned out to be more shocked then hurt, and after I checked her quickly she was able to join all the kids that were not suffering from anything serious on a school bus that was located far away from the scene. It would drive them to the hospital where they would be given secondary exams, and then their parents could pick them up from there. Since they were certain any parent who heard would just go there automatically anyway. I looked up and saw Alex again. She had a line up of about a dozen kindergartners all holding hands following behind her.

"Where are they supposed to go?" she asked me.

"I need to do a quick check first but then they're going to go on the school bus over there." I explained. "I can do this myself, if you want to get back in there."

"Yeah, thanks, there are still a few classrooms we haven't been in."

"All right, this is my friend, you have to be good for her then she's gonna bring you across the street. Remember to keep track of your buddies for her all right?" she asked looking at the group.

"Okay!" they all exclaimed at the same time.

I was glad to see that most of the youngest kids seemed all right. I heard that there was one child in the class I was working with who was hurt, and there were a couple of firefighters working to get him out. I was walking back to the bus when I heard Alex, frantic in my monitor.

"Get Carter and give him your radio now!" she barked.

"What? Why?"

"I know he's the only person who wasn't tied up when I last came out. I have at least four students, I think in one of the senior grades. They must have been skipping class, and they're pretty trapped in a broom closet not far from where the initial shock was. There wasn't supposed to be anyone there, so no one's been. You can come too we can use all the hands we can get."

"I'll get Carter."

I knew that I was white as a sheet, as I passed my monitor off to Carter. He immediately dashed off, following her directions. I could not get my feet to follow. I went to see if I could take over for anyone. Garry let me work on the kindergartner who he had helped get out from under the teacher's desk where he had been hiding, and went back into the building.

"Where the hell is Doherty?" asked the Lieutenant in charge of our squad, another had also been called.

"How would I know?" I asked, loading the child into the bus.

"She's your partner!"

"Last I heard from her she was in the boiler room. Ca- Nieto took my monitor and went to help her there."

"What the hell is she doing there?" He thundered. "She's not authorized in that location!"

I looked at him straight in the eyes. "I'm not worried about the pile of shit she's gotten herself into right now. I have a child who will die if he does not get to a proper hospital soon. I need authorization to leave without my partner."

"You have it. Wait for Doherty at the hospital and help direct the parents to their children in the meantime."

I got in the bus, and sped away from the scene. I hated to leave her like that, the child in the back wasn't even that critical. I just needed to get away from that kind of chaos. That was the part of the job I hated. I hadn't even been able to bring myself to go inside the school. I heard updates over the radio periodically. Saying that everywhere was clear but the boiler room, and that everyone who could leave should do so and get to Mercy.

I got there and they took the child immediately having been told he was critical. Then I got do crowd control. All the children, who had arrived in two school buses. It had been a private school so there were only small classes, and few students. Had been checked quickly by whatever staff had been available for our invasion.
The reception staff were bombarded, and run off their feet, and I had to help bring parents to waiting rooms all over the hospital where their children would be advised to meet them after they were examined. It was a pretty straight forward system of different letters of the alphabet assigned to different rooms.

Then once the flux of parents had subsided I got help smaller children find their way around the hospital to their parents. One of the little girls from the kindergarten class came up to me in tears.

"I can't find my Mommy," she whispered.

"It's okay, what's your name?" I asked.

"Emma," she told me.

"And what's your last name?"

"I can't tell, you're a stranger."

I had to think quick. "No, I'm not my name is Emily Yokas, remember we met before? My friend got you out of your class, and then I looked at you and then brought you to the school bus. Strangers aren't friends with people who help kids out of scary classrooms are they?" She shook her head "no." "Good, then can you please tell me your last name so I can help you find your mommy?"

I leaned down, and she whispered her last name in my ear. I took her hand, and brought her to her mother. She ran immediately to her and gave her a big hug.

"Thank you," said her mother. "What's your name?"

"Emily," I replied.

"Are you a mother?"

"Yeah, I have a two year old at home. Can I give you some advise one mother to another?"

"Okay."

"Teach Emma here about good strangers not just the bad kind, please."

"What?"

"She wouldn't tell anyone her last name, which is a very good thing under normal circumstances, but makes it hard to find her parents in a crisis."

"Thanks."

I wasn't sure if she was sincere in her thank you, or annoyed that I had told her a truth she may not want to have heard at that moment. I wondered how it was that Alex had gotten her out. Then I realized I had not seen Alex come back yet. All craziness died down about an hour later, and there was still no sign of her. Then I saw her come in, wearing a bunch of extra gear, with a gurney, followed by Carter with another, then Garry with a third, and finally someone from another house with a fourth. Each had a hardly recognizable child, who I later found out were in the sixth grade. They were rebels who had been cutting class to play cards. That choice cost two of them their lives.

Alex came out, and fell onto a chair. "Here I thought we were going to have a slow day!"

"What the hell?" I asked. "When the Lieutenant finds you do you realize how much trouble you are going to be in?"

She shrugged, casually. "The one I was with, he was a conscience almost till we got here. His name is Adam I promised that I'd stay close. I couldn't leave him in the middle, it would have cause more trauma."

"But it wasn't safe."

"What's the difference, I didn't have an oxygen tank, I had all the other gear everyone else did."

"Then why don't you just become a one of them?" I growled, walking away.

I knew that I had been rough on her, the only reason I was mad was because I was jealous of her bravery. She wouldn't let the argument die. She followed me into one of the staff lounges.

"What the hell?" She demanded. "My very first day you tell me that I have to prove myself to gain your respect. I more then did that today and you give me hell?"

"Alex, your job is to help them once they're out of danger's way," she explained.

"My job is to help them wherever they are, accept for if they are in a place that's up in smoke!"

"It's not! Don't you get that? You let everyone else be the hero!"

She looked at me, puzzled. "I wasn't being a hero."

"Then what would you call it?"

She stood there dumbfounded. "So that's why they did it…"

"Who did what?"

"Just thinking out loud. I've been hearing stories about my mom and dad since I've been here, and I wondered how they managed to do some of the stuff I've heard they did. Now I kind of understand. You just don't think about what you're doing, you just do what you have to do."

I shrugged. "I guess so."

"You were great out there, by the way. They think you saved that boy's life."

"Which one?"

"The one you brought in alone. He's a diabetic, if had gone much longer he would have been in shock. How did you know he was critical?"

"I didn't," I admitted. "I just needed to get out of there."

She shrugged. "Sure." She didn't believe me. "Either way you saved his life. So don't get all down on yourself."

"I need to call my mother."

I went to the phone, and called my mother. I just needed to know that my daughter was safe.

"Hello?" I heard Bosco say on the other end.

"It's me," I stated.

"Do you want to talk to your mother?"

"No, I just want to hear Ang."

"Just a sec," I heard him put down the phone and say "Angie Mommy's on the phone."

"Phhht!!" she had done a raspberry into the phone. "That's not Mommy!"

He came back on the line. "I can try again."

"No, it's okay I just needed to hear her. It's a mother thing."

"I understand that it's a mother thing, but I don't understand how."

"That's all I ask Bosco, thank you."

"Anytime Em."

So I wasn't bad at my job, I just had different priorities from some people. For all I knew some people could be envious of me having an innocent child to come home to every night. I also had a ray of hope at the end of the day, that my sweet little girl would do something so goofy, that she could make forget with one small gesture what a bad place the world could be.
If I had not been at that scene today scared out of my wits wanting nothing more to leave a little boy who should not have died from his injuries would have. The motive may be different but the end was the same as Alex and the other running in that building to get everyone they possibly could out.

The best part for me was, I was getting praise for what I had done, where Alex would probably get in a lot of trouble for what she had decided to do. After seeing that tragedy, I got to hear my little girl get very confused by the simple invention of the telephone which made so much sense to the rest of us. She had also reminded me of the importance of seeing a person. I had started out the day down on myself for not being able to resist a person I love. I ended the day glad to have the child he gave me, even if he could not appreciate her. I knew that I had work to do with Dylan, and one day I knew I'd be ready to take everyone's advise and simply cut him out. Find my daughter someone who could be a dad, and hope that her real father didn't have a problem with that.

I had to start focusing on the good stuff in my life, and keep the bad stuff in its place. Since I had met Dylan I was a lot harder on new people I met, because I expected them to hurt me. I knew that Alex was a friend, but I couldn't help but think that it was all a rouse so that she could turn around and stab me in the back. I knew she had no reason for doing so, but Dylan hurt me so bad, and still I could not cut him from my life. I was really was happy to work with a woman for a change. She at least understood why I was in bad moods after stupid moves with Dylan. Although she didn't have a child herself she did have the hormones that make you a good mother, and she understood why I had to hold back sometimes.

My goal every single day was to come home in one piece for my daughter. So that I could hug her, and be not just her mother, but her father too. It wasn't easy for me to decide to continue doing being a paramedic after she was born, but I was good at what I did, and there are not that many people willing to step up to the plate and replace me. It's not glamourous job, and the pay isn't what it should be for what we do. But there is a pride in doing it. There is something that just feels right about saving a person who others would just leave for dead.

My mother would talk to me about how great it was to serve and protect people, and I never understood her, until I took this job. It may be different because I don't go chase bad guys, but I still help people like she did. I know that she did more good when she was working then she did bad, by having to shoot people. I knew she only did it when she absolutely had to, and in the situation, I would guess that anyone could do the same thing.

But I could not get over the fact that to be a good police officer sometimes you would have to kill another person. Any life, no matter how shitty a person had made it was worth saving. I've worked on victims that were shot by cops, and work on them just as hard as I would a person who was shot in a drive by shooting. No one deserves to die prematurely, and that's why I decided to go into this line of work.

My name is Emily Yokas, I'm a paramedic who's afraid to be a hero, but I'm still good at what I do. That is a slice of my fucked up little life, that I'm still glad to lead every single day. Even if most of the reason I get up every morning is my little girl.

end: all you bosco faith shippers have gotten to me... hope you liked my surprise! i also hope ppl like what i'm trying to do hear, i know i'm focusing a little on Alex but she was kinda the inspiration for the story! next up Carter!