"Don't you think that's a little much?" Herrmann asked stepping back and looking at the back wall of the common room.
AnnaBeth glared at him and he held his hands up and sat back down.
"Otis you need to life it higher" She sighed shaking her head.
"Herrmann's right, does Gabby really need a welcome back banner?" Otis asked.
"Yes, she does" She said putting her hands on her hips "Gabby is our friend, and we love her, now straighten it up"
She slapped Cruz's hand away as he went to reach for one of the muffins, she had baked instead of helping Otis with the other side of the banner.
"Since when did you get so mean" Cruz complained holding his hand "Lieutenant, will you tell her I need to go and do something else?"
"Not a chance" Kelly said taking one of the blueberry muffins before she could stop him.
She was about to scold him for it when she saw Gabby walking through the door.
"You're here" She said excitedly pulling her friend into a hug "I've…we've missed you so much"
Gabby looked up at the banner Otis was still struggling to life high enough on the wall. She put her hand to her heart and squeezed AnnaBeth's hand.
"You guys didn't have to do all of this for me" Gabby told them.
"You're our friend" Cruz told her with a grin.
"And we love you" Herrmann added.
If she wasn't so excited to see Gabby back at work, she would have called them all out. All they had done was complain about helping her. They'd made her cancel the confetti she wanted to throw.
She had wanted to go and see Gabby so often while she was home from the hospital, but she knew Gabby and Matt also needed space to grieve alone.
Gabby walked through to the bunk room to talk to Matt. AnnaBeth picked up a muffin. She smiled as Cruz and Otis dove in for the plate after she did. She smacked Kelly on the back of the head as she sat down at the table.
"What was that for?" He asked eyes wide as she sat down.
"I told you to wait" She replied.
"Cruz is right you are mean" He teased.
"I just…" She started.
"I know" He said cutting her off "Gabby's lucky to have you"
AnnaBeth looked up as the bells went off. She sighed throwing the rest of her muffin in the trashcan on the way out to the ambulance. Truck, squad, and the ambulance were all called out to a house fire.
AnnaBeth looked out of the window when they pulled up at the scene. There were men in suits and so many people all dressed up. She jumped down from the ambulance. One man was shouting that he needed to get back inside, that the bride was still in there.
Her eyes widened as the man ran into the building to get to his fiancé. Truck managed to hold back some other guests from running back in so they could go in and rescue anyone inside.
It was the part that set her nerves on edge, never knowing what was going to happen, how badly injured someone was going to be or if they were too late. She always just sat praying for the best possible outcome.
She could breath a sigh of relief when she watched two people being lifted out of the window. Chilli took control as the groom needed to be taken into med. AnnaBeth jumped in the front to drive. She had seen so many wedding day disasters but nothing like this. Thankfully, they were both alive.
The man was admitted at med for observation, but it looked like he was going to be ok.
She knew it was starting to be a bad habit, but she couldn't stop thinking about that couple the whole way back to the firehouse.
Their family had flown in from Atlanta, they had spent all of their savings and the brides parents had to fly back home to work the next day. The groom wouldn't be released until 7 am.
She didn't know if it was all the wedding talk with Lemon and Crickett, but she just felt like she needed to do something for them.
Gabby furrowed her brow as AnnaBeth walked back into the common room.
"I know that look" Gabby said putting down her coffee cup "That's your I'm on a mission look"
"No" She said shaking her head as she sat down "Well maybe, I don't really know"
"AB talk for definitely" Gabby smiled "Tell me about it, you can take my mind off me having to go for a meeting with Riddle about coming back to work"
"I'm confused" She said cocking her head to the side "Weren't you already cleared for duty?"
"Yep" Gabby replied clearly irritated by the whole situation.
"Ok" She said leaning forward resting her elbow on the table.
AnnaBeth filled Gabby in on the couples situation. How getting married before the brides parents left at 12 tomorrow was just something that had to happen.
"I'm telling you if that man could have held the wedding in the ED he would have" She continued "They're just a beautiful couple, and someone needs some happiness, so I think we should have the wedding here"
Gabby paused looking over her coffee cup. AnnaBeth raised an eyebrow expectantly waiting for her friend to shoot down her idea. It seemed to be all anyone had been doing all day.
"I think that sounds perfect" Gabby told her "We should talk to Boden, you know how much he loves the community, he wouldn't say no"
…..
AnnaBeth sat back down in the common room. She was so sure that Chief Boden would have been all for a firehouse wedding, but he had shot her down. She wished she had just a little of Lemon's powers of persuasions. Lemon could move mountains with a look If she wanted to.
"We could have had flowers, and a little cake" She sighed wistfully "It would have been beautiful"
She looked up as Chilli scoffed.
"Something against weddings?" Mouch asked.
"Oh, did I say that out loud?" Chilli asked "No I'm not a big fan of weddings, my parents fell in love and then spent every day since then trying to kill each other, so not for me"
"Oh" She said softly not really sure what to add to that.
"And then my Mom got addicted to heroine and left the family so…" Chilli added like It was nothing whatsoever "My cautionary tale"
"Trudy is pushing me to propose, mind if I use that one?" Mouch asked.
AnnaBeth threw a balled-up bit of paper at him. He was so lucky to have Trudy and Trudy was lucky to have him. She didn't need anymore marriage cynicism at the table even if she did feel bad for Chilli and what she must have gone through. She couldn't even imagine. Her parents had been blissfully married for over 35 years.
"That sounds rough" Jimmy told her "I'm sorry you went through that"
"Just don't ask me to marry you" Chilli shrugged.
AnnaBeth could sense some serious vibes between the two of them but she had no intention of getting herself involved. She was not Lemon Breeland and she didn't want to be in her partners business.
…
When Gabby got back from her meeting, she looked like she could explode at any moment. She walked through to the Locker room to check on her with Matt and Chief Boden.
"He brought up the baby" Gabby told them "Under the pretence of checking if I'm fit to return to work"
"No" She said completely taken aback.
Gabby had been cleared not only by a doctor but by the chaplain. The fact that he would bring something like that up was unbelievable. And yet so believable. Big strides were being made all the time, but there were still men who acted like they were in a men's club.
"Give me five minutes alone with him" Matt said shaking his head.
"There's no point" Gabby shrugged.
AnnaBeth was with Matt. She didn't often do confrontations, but she'd happily give Chief Riddle a piece of her mind.
"We're having this wedding" Chief Boden told them "I'm not having Riddle or anyone else telling me how to run my fire house"
AnnaBeth had to bite back a squeal of excitement. She lived for things like this. Reaching out and really being a part of the community, it was something she loved.
It had probably been no more than 10 minutes since Chief Boden had given his blessing that she was in the common room, clipboard in hand channelling her inner Lemon as she delegated tasks.
"Chilli we're on flowers" She said "We need a Pasteur"
"Chaplain Orlovsky will do it" Herrmann said raising his hand "I can call him"
AnnaBeth checked down her list.
"Then that just leaves music, wedding march obviously and something for the reception" She said looking up hopefully.
"You just need an Ipod right" Kelly said looking up from his card game.
"Bless your heart that would be sweet for a slumber party, I think we can do a little better than that" She said.
"I was in an accapella group in high school" Capp said.
"We'll work on it" Kelly said shaking his head.
"Great" She said her voice getting a little higher than she would have liked "Squad's on it"
She wrote a note for herself to look into back up alternatives for music.
….
AnnaBeth was convinced her day could not get any stranger but she was wrong. It was definitely a shift for the books. Even if Chilli had called dibs on the story for her tell all memoir. AnnaBeth didn't mind, she had got out of the blogging game a long time ago.
Kelly looked over her shoulder and sat on the edge of her bed as she checked over her list.
"Why is music on your list?" He asked with a smirk "Don't you trust me?"
"Of course," She replied setting her list down "It's just you know, backup"
"Chilli is in there telling a crazy story about your last call" He told her swinging his legs up, so he was lay on her bunk his arms under his head.
AnnaBeth raised an eyebrow at how comfortable he was making himself.
"We go from a man who would run into a burning building for the woman he loves to a woman cheating on her husband almost getting crushed by her passed out lover in bondage" She said shaking her head "You couldn't make it up"
"You're being judgy about that?" He smirked "I thought that was what you were into"
"Not funny" She said shoving his shoulder "Then to top it off I let Chilli talk me into raiding a funeral home for flowers that they were going to throw out"
"That's where they all came from?" He asked laughing.
"They do look good at least" She sighed "A little rearranging I'm sure I can make it work"
"If anyone can it's you" He told her sitting up "How come you're all woman on a mission about this?"
"I don't know" She replied resting her head against the wall "Because I can, because we need a little happiness around here"
"It's been a rough few weeks" He agreed.
AnnaBeth looked up. She hadn't asked Kelly anything about his demotion since things had gotten weird between them. Not even now they were back on good terms. She had been do preoccupied with everything else that had been going on.
"When is your review?" She asked.
"Tomorrow" He replied.
"It's all going to be ok you know" She told him "I know it will be"
She hoped that she was right about that. She had a bad feeling about Patterson and Chief Riddle. But she had to keep thinking that things would turn out alright.