๐ฎ๐ฌ๐ญ๐ฒ
After the fire and Cooper's death, Vic didn't return to musicals, she gave up on that dream, her dream, but she had something new in mind.
Vic couldn't stop thinking about the fire, about Cooper and her grandmother. She thought of the flames, she was so close to them and felt no fear.
Vic decided she wanted to help people, save them from the fires, she wanted to do it so no one else had to die like Cooper. Her grandmother would be very proud of her choice.
Vic dropped out of musicals and enrolled in the fire academy, it was quite difficult at first, her parents didn't support her, which didn't make much difference as they were never present but her friends stopped responding to her messages and answering her calls after she left the theater and Vic realized she had no friends outside of her music school.
She liked the fire academy, met a lot of nice people and was very excited to start her job, she felt happy, proud of herself.
As soon as her training at the academy ended, Vic bought an apartment near Station 19, the station that had been assigned to her.
Vic was so excited to start her job at Station 19, everyone knew it was the best in Seattle.
On her graduation day Vic was very excited but also sad, she really wanted this, to start a new life, a new job, new friends, but she misses her old life, her grandmother, her parents, they weren't present in her graduation, with an excuse that the restaurant could not close.
Vic went on stage when she heard her name, Victoria Hughes, she didn't like the name Victoria, no one called her Victoria, Vic was perfect, a small and simple name. During her childhood some children called her Vicky. Vicky was nice, but she wasn't a kid anymore, Toria was what her grandmother called her, she loved that nickname, Toria.
Up on stage Vic received her Seattle firefighter badge, shook hands with several people, she met her battalion chief, who seemed incredibly excited to have one more woman in her battalion, Vic smiled when she shook hands with her captain, Captain Herrera, she remembered him perfectly, it was a coincidence that she was on his team and Vic felt safe with that.
The boss of his boss's boss, the chief of the Seattle fire department, he shook her hand and their eyes met, Vic's eyes widened, she knew him, those bright blue eyes, Vic knew she'd seen those eyes blue somewhere, it was impossible to forget that shade of blue.
The same blue eyes that calm her 4 years ago in that fire, Vic smiled and kept squeezing her hand, Ripley frowned not understanding her look on him and Vic realized he didn't remember her.
Vic let go of her hand, walked down the stage and returned to the row where she was sitting, with a smile still plastered on her face, she was ready, finally ready to start her new life.
๐ฎ๐ฌ๐ญ๐ด
Vic was impulsive, she didn't follow the rules when it came to saving someone else's life, so she scream at her chief, twice. In the captain interview, when she blamed him for station 23 being late, and today, in the skyscraper fire where Montgomery nearly died, she yelled at him.
Vic could be fired if she did it again.
She was sitting in the hospital chair, it was late, she didn't know what time it was but she could tell from the darkness outside that it was quite late. The rest of her team made it out of the skyscraper safely, they dropped by the hospital to check on Montgomery, but he wasn't out of surgery yet so they all went home to shower. Everyone but Vic,she stayed in the chairs of that hospital waiting for news, she just needed to know if he was okay, that's all.
She remembered waiting in those same chairs four years ago for the news of her grandmother's death, it was the worst day of her life and Vic could feel her stomach sick at the prospect of the same thing happening to Montgomery.
She was snapped out of her thoughts when the hospital door opened and Chief Ripley walked into the waiting room, he didn't see her sitting there and went to the nurse behind the counter, the nurse said said something to Ripley, probably that Montgomery was still in surgery, he turned back to the waiting room and then saw her.
She was sitting with her knees up on one of the chairs, her arms were resting on her knees and her head was between them, there were traces of dried blood on her face and on her uniform, she was a mess. Ripley no longer wore his equipment just his chief uniform, his blonde hair was all disheveled, his face was covered in ash, as was his white shirt which was now a gray mess, his look was different, his eyes were no longer bright.
Ripley sat in the chair next to her without saying anything, the two remained silent for several minutes until Dr. Pierce entered the waiting room and approached them, she said Montgomery was going to be fine, the surgery was over, Lucas sighed of relief and Vic crossed the room to the exit, she needed to get out of there.
The emergency room door was close to the waiting room, but for Vic it felt like an eternity to walk there, everything around her was in slow motion and she could feel her heart racing, her hands were shaking as were her legs, she couldn't breathing, as soon as Vic reached the exit, she leaned her back against the wall.
โHughes are you okay?
Vic heard his voice, she turned her head slowly and saw him, Ripley was right beside her, looking at her confused. Vic couldn't answer so she just nodded, but she was having a panic attack, she knew it and Lucas knew it too.
Vic couldn't breathe, her chest was rising and falling rapidly, her legs were shaking so badly that Vic knew she was about to pass out.
Lucas took her arm and pulled her gently until she sat on the edge of the sidewalk, he sat next to her keeping some distance.
โ Take a deep breath, focus on your breathing, everything will be fine, Montgomery will be fine. โ Ripley said calmly without taking her eyes off her.
"๐'๐ฎ ๐ข ๐ญ๐ช๐ต๐ต๐ญ๐ฆ ๐ต๐ฆ๐ข๐ฑ๐ฐ๐ต
๐๐ฉ๐ฐ๐ณ๐ต ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ด๐ต๐ฐ๐ถ๐ต.
๐๐ฆ๐ณ๐ฆ ๐ช๐ด ๐ฎ๐บ ๐ฉ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ๐ญ๐ฆ,"
Vic sing her song in her head as she tried to take a deep breath in and out. She focused on his eyes, his blue eyes.
Her breathing normalized and she wasn't shaking anymore, Vic looked back at Ripley feeling much better, she gave him a small smile which he returned, after all her chief wasn't that bad.
