Chapter Fourteen

The building was silent when Demetri stepped inside, a hollowed out husk that was scorched beyond repair. He could hear the soft trickle of water if he focused on it or the sound of what was left of the fire that the water had yet to reach… but he was listening for the sound of the PASS alarm, the one thing that would save a life in a situation like this.

"Anyone hear anything?" Eleazar asked over the radio, he had split off with Afton and Ben while the Chief took Felix another direction. He and Whitlock had taken the left side of the building, something pulling Demetri that way and Peter knew he had to go with him.

"Nothing yet," Marcus replied followed by everyone else.

Demetri swung his halligan with enough force to shatter the wood before him that was blocking his way. This anger he was feeling was undirected until things got in his way, oh was he angry. Angry at the fire at himself and his friend who could be lying dead within the burnt out ruins of this husk.

"SWAN CALL OUT!" Peter shouted over the crackling of the wood, his hand flying out to catch Demetri by the arm as a sound pierced through the wall at his right.

"What is it?" Demetri asked as he moved to where Peter was, tilting his head to the side.

A sharp ring pierced the air once more setting the two men into motion, using their halligans to pry away the charred wood. There was a frantic energy to their movements as they pushed through the wall and found themselves in the maw of hell and in the middle of it all lay their friend like a fallen angel or a demon that crawled from the very depths of hell.

"Found 'er!" Peter called over the radio. "To the left of the building, near the centre of the offices."

"Copy that, on our way to you." Felix replied.

Neither Demetri nor Peter stopped to respond as they began to carefully lift the debris away from their friend. It seemed the water was unable to touch her thankfully and as Peter cast a look to the roof above he could see a beam and a little bit of floorboard was the reason as to why, he let out a thanks to whatever deity there was for that.

"Come on Bella, come on." Demetri hissed as he tore the mask off Bella's face and turned his ear to her mouth, relief hitting him like a wrecking ball as he heard and felt the small puff of air. "She's alive but we need to get her out of here!"

"Shit, give me a hand with this beam!" Peter hissed as he struggled to lift the beam that was the reason why she was pinned in the first place.

Jasper paced and paced outside, listening to the radios and the chatter of those inside. They found her but there was no mention if she was alive or not. Fuck, just when everything was finally looking up, Fate decided to throw him for another loop and all this started.

"When have you and Bells been dating?" Emmett asked as he chewed at his thumb nail, his eyes never leaving the burnt out doors.

"We're not." Jasper started with a wince. "I was going t'ask t'make it official today but some fuckin' hija de las mil putas ruined that."

Emmett jerked his eyes to Jasper in surprise, the normally calm placid man he was acquainted with was not one to be this angry and the one other time that he had seen it was when they had that gang member in their holding cells; even then the Spanish didn't slip out. He remembered Peter's words the first time he met the youngest Whitlock.

My brother has been through a lot, undercover work nearly broke 'im… when he gets angry, truly angry, he slips into Spanish…

"What?" His voice was flat, even to his own ears.

Turning to face Emmett, Jasper let out a harsh sigh. "We've been… friends since that games night… I was going to ask her to make our thing official when this blonde chick kissed me without…"

He trailed off as there was a ruckus at the door, the Chief, Peter and Eleazar were out first followed by Demetri and Felix who carried Bella between them on a makeshift stretcher. The rest of the firefighters who went in followed them out carrying Bella's gear but making sure that the air was close enough for Demetri to hold it to her face.

Alec and Jane rushed over with a free stretcher and had them place her on it, both of them hurried back towards the ambulance as they began to check her over but they needed to get her back to Seattle ASAP. Her leg was broken and bleeding, she could have a concussion and it was concerning how she didn't respond to their calls or ministrations.

"Emmett!" Jane called. "You coming or what?"

Emmett cast Jasper a quick look. "Tell me at the hospital, I'll meet you there."

A nod was all he got in return as he raced towards the ambulance and slammed the door behind him, leaving Jasper shaking where he stood. Peter rushed to his brothers' side immediately. "Come on Jay, we gotta get goin'."

JxB

The waiting room was empty bar Emmett by the time everyone got there.

"She's in surgery with Caius and Rose. She had a collapsed lung, a nicked artery thankfully it was a small nick, broken arm and other damages they can't tell me till the surgery is complete." Emmett explained without looking up, he didn't need to know who was there; the smell of smoke was easy enough to deduce.

"Bella's a fighter, she won't let this kill her Em," Paul grunted as he fell into the seat beside him, his head wrapped in bandages.

Marcus took the other side. "You know my brother won't allow her to…"

"What are you doing here?" Demetri's voice echoed the room darkly, cutting off all forms of conversation and drawing every eye to them.

Jasper stood in the doorway looking like a wreck but he didn't flinch away from DeLuca's stare. "I'm here for the same reason as you."

"You did something that upset her, she told you to piss off when we got to the fire and was upset when she joined us this morning." Demetri continued. "Maybe if she wasn't so upset then she'd have been thinking clearly and not risked herself in the fire."

That was a low blow but Demetri didn't dare take it back, not when the others inhaled sharply, not when Peter cursed at him as he raced to his brothers side. Only when he felt the familiar grim of his cousin did Demetri turn his eyes away.

"Not cool Dem." Felix whispered.

"I didn't mean to upset her!" Jasper hissed once the shock and the blow settled. "I never wanted to hurt her, I love her god damn it and I was gonna' ask her out properly when that puta kissed me just as she came in the diner."

Everyone paused at that, Demetri snapping his head around to glare darkly. "One of those it wasn't what it looked like incidents, hm?"

"It was, I never met the puta till that day. I arrested her and locked her up just before the fire happened." Jasper explained defeated when he saw that no one but his brother believed him. "Tanya Cullen nee Volkov, she was the one who screwed everything over."

Now that had everyone's attention.

Demetri let out a long string of curses in both Greek and Italian. "Of course, why else would Cullen be here this morning."

"Carlisle didn't know where Tanya was," Marcus piped up as he began to pull out his phone. "No one knew that he was here either. I'll call Aro, let him know and he can find out what this is about but everyone needs to calm down. Do you understand, if anyone so much as raises their voice again I'll have you removed from this hospital and out doing clean up."

A chorus of 'Yes Chief' rung out through the room as he began to make his call, god what a mess of a day.

Author Note: I really wasn't going to kill her... promise...