Summary: "It's only after Lucas dies that Victoria Hughes discovers she is pregnant with his child." One-shot. AU from S2E15.
A/N: I just finished watching Station 19 last night after a week and a half of binging it. I say "finished", but I mean caught up. Have to wait till May 5th to get S5E16 on Hulu. Not gonna lie, I'm obsessed.
The title, Gladiolus, refers to the flower of the same name. It means remembrance, and I feel that it fits the theme of this short fic well.
Gladiolus
It's only after Lucas dies that Victoria Hughes discovers she is pregnant with his child.
She wants an abortion, but she can't bring herself to do it. This child is all she has left of him.
Her son is born with dark olive skin, a mix of both his parents' heritage. He has his earnest blue eyes and beautiful golden curls.
She already knows that he's going to look just like him.
She almost gives him up.
She names him David Ripley-Hughes, in honor of his father. His middle name is Travis, after her best friend. He doesn't know yet.
Even Sullivan takes to him like an uncle.
He grows up alongside Pruitt Arike Miller and the Bishop-DeLuca girl, with full knowledge of who his father was.
With his fire-siblings and all of Nineteen at his side, he seems to fly through his childhood.
Pru decides to go to law school.
The Bishop-DeLuca girl follows Carina's footsteps and goes to medical school.
He goes to the fire academy. And when they ask him what last name to use for his uniform, he chooses his father's.
He looks just like him. She accidentally calls him Lucas sometimes. He's understanding about it.
She doesn't know how she's supposed to feel when he's assigned to Station 19 with her and the family.
But Dave Ripley is a damn good firefighter, and she's proud of that. Everyone is. His father would be, too.
She's there when he gets injured for the first time, a long cut across his thigh. It's from a traumatized man with a sword, on a Crisis One call. It leaves him down for a few weeks, but it heals nicely enough and leaves a pretty good-sized scar behind.
He jokes about how he forgot to bring a sword to a swordfight.
He gets it from her, the twisted sense of humor. Lucas would have loved him.
Not only does he help out with Crisis One, but he helps with the clinic and the PRT. He plans to become Joey's assistant once Warren retires. And that time isn't all that far away.
When he loses his first patient, it takes him almost two weeks to recover. Like his parents, his heart is large.
Sullivan is the first to retire, too tired to carry on.
After the first stages of congestive heart failure begin, Montgomery follows.
A car garage drops on him and Maya. His face is wet with tears when he exits with her body thrown over one of his shoulders. He breaks the news to Carina and her daughter himself, and Gibson rings the bells at the funeral after Andy's eulogy.
There's a huge fire-family celebration when he is promoted to lieutenant.
Gibson retires next. He's one of the few that Vic thought would carry on forever, but Maya's death reined the walls in on his limitless energy.
It's only Vic, Andy, and Warren left from their original firehouse family. They're lucky that the younger crewmembers are as passionate about the station programs as the rest of them.
Andy retires after Warren does, and David is promoted from lieutenant to captain to fill her place. Carina's daughter takes his place at Joey's side in the PRT.
She asks him if he plans on ranking up further, to battalion chief or even fire chief.
He tells her that he's happy where he's at.
Vic stays on until she collapses on the job. She's diagnosed with mesothelioma, the cancer that ended Pruitt Herrera's career as captain.
David tells her that it's okay to retire for her health, that he'll be alright without her working alongside him at Nineteen. She doesn't have much of a choice.
It's strange to watch her station from the outside, continuing on without her. She should be there, right with her son. She wonders if this is how Pruitt felt watching Andy continue on. She wishes he were here to get advice from.
During one of the family's visits to the house, he introduces them to his girlfriend, Cameron. She looks like Maya, but reminds Vic of herself. David still reminds her of Lucas, so she knows that they'll get along fine.
Montgomery is the first to go after Maya.
Station 19 has a private funeral, and Vic doesn't know where she finds the strength to ring the bell for him.
David proposes in front of the entirety of Nineteen, current and past. It even feels like those who have passed on are in the room with them. Lucas, Officer Ryan Tanner, Pruitt Herrera, Doctor Andrew DeLuca, Dean, Maya, Travis…
She tries not to remember how Lucas had died before they were able to get married, and of how the same could happen to David. She can't handle any more loss.
Station 19 flourishes under Captain Ripley's command. He might even be a better captain than the Herreras were. He would have made a remarkable fire chief were his ambition that great, perhaps better than his father.
Chemo stops working. She starts getting worse.
Even Sullivan looks concerned when he and Andy visit. Pity doesn't suit him.
Gibson rushes into a fire to help an elderly woman in his apartment building.
He comes out in a bodybag.
Everything hurts too much.
David and Cameron pull their wedding day forward.
"David Ripley-Hughes, do you take Cameron Lily to be your wedded wife? To love her, comfort her, honor and keep her, in sickness and in health, so long as you both shall live?"
He raises his chin. "I do."
Two days later, her doctors put her on a ventilator. She doesn't have to ask to know that her time is beginning to come to an end.
She'll see him soon. Lucas.
Miranda visits her on a regular basis, keeps her updated, keeps her company when David is on shift and the others aren't around. When he's free, he spends nearly every moment with her.
When he takes a personal day to stay by her side, that's when she knows that it's time. The rest of the crew filters through to see her, and the doctors take her off of the ventilator for each visit so that she can speak to them.
This is the day.
She and Andy laugh about the days when they and Maya would gossip about Andy's relationship drama with Ryan and Jack.
She and Warren talk about Dean and Pru and all of the different programs that had come to be because of him.
She and Sullivan talk about Lucas, and he tells her some stories that even Lucas himself had never told her.
She and Carina talk about Jack's endless, reckless heroics and how nothing had ever really tethered him down.
She and Emmett talk about Travis and his open, unconditionally loving heart.
And then it's just her and David, the son that Lucas never got to meet. He sits with her, and they just talk. About anything. About everything. About Lucas and Dean and the other members of his fire-family that he never got to know properly.
She can't look him in the eyes when the monitor begins to beep, and she turns her weary gaze to the window, to the shadows the setting sun casts across the streets of Seattle. It's her home. It's beautiful.
"Mom." In that moment, he sounds and looks so much like Lucas. So calm, so steady, so quietly devastated. He has his father's gentle smile. "You can let go, now. It's okay."
He greets her on the other side. Grief and joy alike fill her as she takes him in, looking just as she has always remembered him. She hardly dares to breathe, hardly believes it to be real.
He glances at the floor, and his eyes are raw when they return to her. "Victoria. You made it."
It's him. It really is.
"Lucas...Oh my God." The tears are streaming down her cheeks as she runs to him.
He catches her and pulls her into a tight embrace, presses his lips into the hair on top of her head as she burrows her face into his shirt and breathes him in.
His voice is softer than she remembers, and she wonders if he's crying, too. "Hey."
"I missed you so much." She mumbles into his chest.
"I know you did." He murmurs. "I missed both of you, too."
She blinks up at him.
There's a deep pain behind his gentle smile. "You did so good, Victoria. I've been watching you for so long, and...you did so good."
She's openly sobbing, now, and there's nothing she can do to stop it. He's here. "I see you...every time...I look at him."
He huffs out an amused breath, the pain ebbing out of his expression. "I always thought he looked more like you."
She's missed him too much to slap his arm. "I love you."
He pulls her back against his chest. "I love you more."