Here be the last chapter. :)

Lou woke with a start when she felt the small cold hand on her shoulder, she groaned and winced as she stretched, the plastic chair was not the greatest bed but for now it was her daytime bed. Until they all get to go home. She smiled at Emily who had woken her and handed her a cup of coffee.

"Have you gone home since that day?"

The female paramedic literally chugged the hot liquid before answering, She thought carefully how to answer this "Was where I call home briefly, then the station for my stuff, and then back here. How is he?"

"Better each day." The blonde woman looked like her life force had been sucked out of her over the past five days, but she still managed to smile, "He is moving around much easier today and the doctor is confident his heart stopped just because of the tamponade. Once they got the blood out from the pericardial sac he stabilized quickly and has just improved from there. Now, how are you?"

"Fine." Lou mumbled. "Just fine."

Emily dropped into the chair next to her and whispered, "Bullshit." causing the other woman's eyes to widen and her jaw to drop. "I may be married to him and gotten the phone call, but you were the one who worked on him. On all of them. Ican't even begin to imagine what that was like." She cleared her throat, refusing to cry, she had done enough of that over the past few days. "I have seen you every day bouncing back and forth between the ICU and the other rooms. Not to mention you worked a shift two days ago and responded from the hospital the entire time. So, one more time, how are you?"

Since half of A-Shift's crewmembers have been injured and hospitalized Lou had staunchly refused to feel, but as she looked into the older woman's face her resolve snapped like a twig. She stood as if to run away from the feelings, but a great heaving sob stopped her short and her frame soon began to wrack with them, tears poured down her face, and she felt like she was drowning in her grief. Her brain burned with all the memories of that day, the feeling of helplessness as her co-workers were dying around her. She almost lost some of the people she cared for the most, a tight hug around her middle kept her from succumbing completely.

Johnny and Marco had just been discharged and were following through with the promise of checking on their Captain to update Roy. They stepped off the elevator and into the waiting room that was just outside the door of the ICU they were greeted with the sight of Lou having an absolute breakdown while Emily held on to her as if she were keeping the other woman from flying apart at the seams. They ambled over as quickly as they could to offer help. The older woman looked passed the shoulder of the sobbing woman and saw the concern in their eyes, "My boys, come here, help me keep her grounded." They joined in a group hug of sorts allowing the woman who had not only save their captain's life, but theirs as well, let all the emotions out she had bottled up.

This was how Brackett and Dixie found them about ten minutes later, responding to multiple calls from the front desk of the ICU that there was a visitor in the waiting room that was 'making a scene.' By the time they arrived Lou's cries had become hiccups, but she held for dear life to the three people around her. "What's going on here?" The doctor asked while Dixie set about feeling for a pulse count and rubbing the small patch of back she could see of the female paramedic.

Johnny craned his head as best he could to face the man. "Dunno doc, we were just coming up here to check on Cap and we walked into this." He tilted his head to the right at Louise who was rapidly losing strength. "She was much, much worse, when this first started." He grunted as Lou's sagged further and the weight was pulling on his broken wrist. The doctor and nurse assisted in lowering her to a nearby chair trying to get her in a comfortable position. Emily Stanley kept her hold on slowly hiccupping, almost despondent, woman's hands.

"Dr. Brackett, it was my fault, I insisted she tell me how she was doing. I guess she had been bottling up a lot over the past five days." Her eye darted to two injured men. "You two should sit also, you know."

"I'm ok, Missus Stanley, I have been sleeping, lying down, or sitting far too much." The mustached man answered. The other man just waved her off silently.

"Sit."

The two men quickly complied hearing the command in her voice, now knowing it wasn't only their captain that could flip to no nonsense like a switch.

"Ms. Stanley, it was not your fault, she was a ticking time bomb. She treated some of the people she is closest too, all on her own, and almost lost one of them on scene." He gave a small, empathetic, smile to her knowing it was her husband. "By the time your husband was carried to her the others were rapidly declining. Based on the symptoms, it sounded like Gage had a brain bleed, Lopez was bleeding to death internally, and that DeSoto was going to be permanently paralyzed and while we now know they are all ok or, are going to be, she didn't know that at the time and no doubt her brain has replayed the events of the day hundreds of times." He sighed. "When Stoker and Kelly brought her into the ER that day, she was deep emotional shock and we had to treat her before it became irreversible." This was news to most of the people there, except Dixie and the Doc who had stayed with the female paramedic till she woke up, "I had to sedate her and keep her overnight to ensure she slept. She begged me not to tell anyone because of everything that was happening at the time."

"Giving Johnny a run for his money on stubbornness, huh?" The woman responded and chuckled.

"Hey!"

"Jonathon Gage, if I had to count the many times you slipped my nurses to sneak out for a smoke or real food, I would still be counting." The blonde nurse rebutted. "Back to Lou, I've seen her in the parking lot sleeping in her car at night. I spoke to her about it, and she told me that she was not going any place else till everyone was home. I've been making sure security has been keeping an eye out for her, so that's had to add to everything."

"First off, Dix, remind me later to talk about Gage still smoking." He glared at the young paramedic who at least had the decency to look ashamed. "Second, Lou is running herself ragged and I may have to pull her from active duty till further notice. You can see she's lost weight unhealthily and the bags under her eyes attest that while she may be sleeping in her car, it's not been a lot. I am genuinely worried if she doesn't rest her body will make the choice for her, if it happens when she's driving or on a run it could be deadly."

"Dr. Brackett, if I may?" Asked Marco the Doctor nodding his head, "If you pull her from active-duty roster, she will get worse. I don't remember much from that day, but I've been told how hard and long she fought for us. That's who she is, a fighter, and being a paramedic allows her to fight for something good." They may never know the full story on her but they know she had the heart of a saint and soul of fighter growing up the way she did. In the past four months she got to turn her fight outward to help others and it had helped heal so much about her. The person she was now is nothing close to the person she was when she first showed up; unsure of herself and running away from her past.

"Quit talking about me like 'm not here." The words were barely above a whisper. "Don't take me off active duty, I'll do what you want, I promise." The female paramedic stared into her director's eyes, pure determination now present. Her voice became strong again, "I'm sorry about my 'episode' earlier, everyone."

"Don't even worry about it." Gage shrugged.

"Least we could do after what you did for us." Marco agreed.

"Hey, I got two teen girls, you should see what it looks like when they have a breakup." Rebecca laughed.

"While you needed that catharsis, you need so much more, proper rest, real food, and to get away from the walls of this hospital." The doctor said watching her expression change to sadness in anticipation of what the doctor was going to say. "How about this? Next two shifts off so instead of complete removal from active-duty roster, I will re-evaluate and then we'll make a decision about the roster."

"Okay." She felt like a child being grounded but instead of her parent's version of grounding where she couldn't see the light of day for weeks at a time only being given rice and water to eat, this was a grounding to go get some sun, rest, and real food in her system. She sighed and tried to get the subject off her. "When do you think Roy and Doc will be given those same instructions, you know to get out of here?" Brackett chuckled knowing she was uncomfortable with the attention she had been getting.

"Pretty soon, actually, Roy's paraspinal swelling has gone down with the steroids and I don't anticipate much or any PT or OT. Hank is now just in ICU as a precaution and will probably go home in three to four days. Considering everything, I firmly believe if you hadn't taken the quick actions you did, it would have been much worse." The man didn't give praise lightly, so the woman wasn't flippant about it at all she blushed deeply.

"Thank you doc, and I fully intend to do what you want me to." She said sincerely, "First, though, can we visit our Captain?"

"I don't see why not," The doctor acquiesced, "And while normally we only allow one visitor at a time Imma allow all of you to so these hose jockeys can go home and rest as well."

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The small army of people that marched into his room caught him off guard, well not so much off guard, as gown flapped open. God, I hate these things. He felt himself blush as he reached around to hold the fabric behind him. Emily laughed and rushed over to re-tie the gown in the back and draped his robe over his shoulders.

"Watch out there, my fireboy, you about showed everyone your 4 in 1 tool." Johnny and Marco at least had the decency to turn around coughing out their laughter while Lou snorted out a loud laugh and blushed. At first Hank didn't know if he should be upset or embarrassed but as caught the swelling and redness of his wife's and female paramedic's eyes he immediately chose to worry. His mind quickly traveled to the only other downed man staying in Rampart.

"Oh god, Roy." Once he had woken in the ICU, he refused any pain killers or treatments till he was apprised of his men and how they were doing, so much was unknown at that time but he was told that the blonde man had a back injury and they were trying some steroids to see it if was swelling versus a more permanent injury. The last reports he had was that the man was doing better, walking through the halls with minimal assistance, even sneaking up to Hank's room one time to check on him, but he knew complications could happen. "I thought he was doing better?" His wife was tying his robe on and knitted her eyebrows together in confusion and looked up at him. He reached over and cupped her cheek in his hand gently swiping his thumb across her eyebrow. "Tell me."

"He's fine Cap." Johnny spoke, back still turned to him, "Roy will be discharged in a few days. Can we turn back around now?"

"Sure can," his wife announced, "he's decent enough." She still wore a face of confusion at her husband's worry. "Hank, are you ok?"

"Your eyes, you've been crying, her too." he pointed at the female paramedic. "Is everything ok?"

"Yes, oh gosh yes, everything is fine, no one else is hurt, I promise Roy's doing great. Lou needed a bit of a catharsis and, well, I don't need much of a reason to cry these days.' She gave a watery laugh. "But they are mostly happy tears now." She said as she rounded the bed and wrapped her arms around his two men, "Today it started with these two getting to go home." Both men blushed. "And once all my boys are home, we're gonna have to have a cookout to end all cookouts, the police are gonna have to shut us down." This time her laugh was less watery and more of its normal musical tone.

"Yeah guys, you haven't had my homemade baked beans yet." Lou said, "And like Emily said we're all ok, or mostly. I will be having a few days off with enforced rest, sunshine, and eating food not from a cafeteria or vending machine per Brackett." She smiled to reassure her superior, "Let's just say the past five days I have been here more than the nurses." He nodded and sat back on his bed motioning with his hand that the others should do the same.

"So, what brings all of you here then?" Still probing to see if they were holding anything back.

"Honest Cap, just visiting, then we'll report back to Roy how you're doing and be driven home, Chet and Mike will be taking us." The Mexican firefighter throwing in his reassurance with his paramedic counterpart nodding animatedly.

"And I will be driving Lou home." His wife announced. He didn't miss the quick look of fear in the woman's eyes. "I haven't seen what she calls home yet, and while I've seen how single guys live," referring to the many times she was the designated driver from hospital or Station 51. "I can't wait to see how a single gal lives now and days."

"Ms. Stanley, I'll be ok." The blonde woman didn't miss the change back to the more formal greeting and a look of hurt her flashed over her features. "No, really, you have a lot on your plate with Captain Stanley, the girls, and the house. I can drive myself." She kept the tone neutral as well as if to push away from the subject as much as she could

"She isn't going to take no for an answer, Lou, give it up." The dark-haired paramedic supplied. "And, trust me, whatever mess you have in there is nothing she hasn't seen. She may even clean it up for you while you rest and if you need food, she'll do that too." He laughed and gave himself a hug as his body twinged in pain. "Ouch, remind me not to do that, but welcome to the family of A-shift, no apartment too messy, no fridge empty."

"And no one left behind." Cap added, everyone nodding. "Besides that, was Em's 'I insist' tone and even I can't defeat that."

"But I...I mean, I don't want." She felt her resolve breaking again, "I...I...I can't..." Cap saw the fear again flash in her eyes as she stumbled over her words.

"Lou, before we all grow old or older." The blonde woman joked. "Give your reason and I will refute it. I have your keys anyways, took 'em from your pocke, so once this visit is over, I will be driving you home, unless you want to be our house guest again?" More panic and more stuttering.

"It's just...you gotta..." She pointed at Cap, "He's coming home soon...don't wanna be a burden. I...it's ok. Honest. Just please give me my keys back, I'll be ok." The begging tone caused realization to dawn on the man.

"You don't have anywhere for her to take you to? Do you?" Mentally he was kicking himself, he had seen her car and even was one of the ones that checked it when she was hospitalized. The trunk had two suitcases in it, but at the time he didn't think much of it, in fact, he thought she had been visiting someone on her days off but forgot them in there. Now, though, that he knew more of her life, things clicked. She worried about the junker to an unusual level, she always showers one last time on her day off and he knows it was one of the first things she did when she came back on shift. He thought to when she stayed at their home, she literally melted into their spare bed, was more than excited to have leftovers and the ability to heat them up in a microwave, and how she packed everything in her backpack each night. He thought these were just quirks she had but now he knew that these were habits borne of keeping a small area tidy, not having a real bed, and never having leftovers because there was no way to keep them. Four sets of eyes landed on the woman as she began to pick at her fingers.

"No, I don't." The picking intensified, "I can't get a place, not yet."

"Why not?" Even if she wasn't from money, they knew that the department paid more than enough for basic apartment. "And how did you apply to the department if you don't have an address?"

"PO Box from three cities over," She answered, "The department accepted it with the explanation that I wanted to have a secure place for mail and where I lived wasn't great for that. They left it alone and never asked for my residential address and, well, I had been living from my car for three months already and no one was the wiser. I worked at the YWCA while I was training, so I showered there, and I had learned how to make food with minimal ingredients on a camp stove if I wanted something hot." She shrugged her shoulders. "I knew the departments policy on homeless employees and well...it was just easier."

"That still didn't answer why though." Marco prodded.

"Yeah, so get to talking before these painkillers put me to sleep." The Cap was only half joking, he had started to feel droopy about five minutes ago.

"My dad," She supplied, "PO Box owners names are federally protected but apartment leases and rental agreements, not so much. Hell, when I worked at the 'Y' I had to give a false name, thank god they didn't check too far into it. He probably has an army of private detectives looking for me, remember the trust I told you about?" They all nodded. "Well, you see my grandmother put in some clauses and one of them is if the kid meets the criteria at twenty-five for the full pay out, the parents are cut off. So, while the payout is a lot what they are losing is much, much more. It's kinda hard to explain."

"No, I think I got it. If they get a lump payment when you turn twenty-five, they get the inheirtance, but if you get the lump sum you are recipient of inheritance? Trading of generations?" Emily inquired

"Yeppers, and I was my grandmother's favorite which means more of the company is carved off for me than for my cousins." She shrugged her shoulders, "So in total they stand to lose just a little over a hundred mil in buildings, stocks, and investments."

"Holy shit!" Gage expressed what they were all thinking. Cap gave a half glare but couldn't help but agree silently with the exclamation.

"Why didn't you tell us?!" Shock and a bit of hurt colored his wife's tone. "You have slept on the streets each night while we were safe in our homes." Her eyes watered. "Anything could have happened to you, we could have lost you!" Tears slipped from her eyes at the thought that the paramedic could have been raped, mugged, or even murdered while they were ignorant to her situation.

"It just was easier not too, and who am I to pull you into my family drama especially if you didn't sign up for it? My dad does things that are on just this side of legal," She modeled with her hands, "and would make your lives a living hell full of harassment and false complaints to the department, if he finds me. That is not fair to you or your families."

"Well, that's that then isn't it." Cap stated matter-of-factly. The female paramedic could feel her stomach drop to the floor, if her superior reported her housing status, she would be out a job because she would be 'high risk' for taking things from their vulnerable patients or their patient's homes. Not to mention she could take things from the drug box and sell those for money. The department saw homelessness as something that no one who was gainfully employed should experience, save for natural disasters, and if they were it was due to poor choices that they would carry into their work life like gambling, drinking, and drugs. She could feel everything slipping away and she felt hersel breaking again and her vision blurred with tears. "I, for one, don't give a flying rat ass what your dad tries. Em better tell the girls we're gonna have a permanent house guest."

"Oh Hanky you big softie." His wife started to cry, this time happy tears.

"Don't call me Hanky in front of the guys, Em." He smiled and responded with half-hearted irritation. "Is there anything else you haven't told us? Like you're a murder baroness? Pirate?"

Lou laughed but then got serious as she thought, "Well Louise isn't my legal first name." The occupants of the room stiffened a bit at the fact she had been lying even about that. "It's really Josephine but my grandma called me by my middle name, Louise, since I was little, so I used that and, oh, I am not bilingual." They had relaxed after the confession about her name knowing it was nothing serious, Marco began laughing.

"You should hear what Williamson's first name over at 18s is!" He said between laughs. "And you do a damn good job of faking being bilingual it or my Spanish has gotten really bad." It was the paramedic's turn to laugh.

"No, the definition bilingual means you are fluent in two separate languages, I am fluent in four; English, Spanish, Italian, and French. I also know a little Mandarian." Jaws were dropped.

Cap responded as he faded quickly toward sleep, "Pirate too, stole our hearts." His wife dropped a kiss on his forehead as she covered him with a blanket.

"Big mushy, softie," Lou said as the four left, tears pricking at her eyes by her captain's confession.

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To say she was nervous was an understatement, "You can do this Lou, it just the guys and their families." For the past four and a half months she had worked side by side with the greatest paramedics in the county and today they were having a cookout with everyone in attendance, even the doctor's and head nurse from Rampart's ER.

Some of the guys still had recovery to go but everyone was home, safe, including her. She stood and looked at herself in the full mirror and almost considered just throwing on sweats, but Emily had assured her she looked great. She gave an experimental spin and smiled as the blue beach sundress fanned out. It had been nearly a year since she ran away from her father and mother's estate and so much had changed. She no longer lived in her car, had begun a real career doing wonderful things, and found the people she was happy to call friends. She could hear the squeals of kids playing in the sprinklers and the music playing on the radio, but she just couldn't bring herself to leave the safety of her room. She faded away to when her parents would parade her out in front of their friends, this was such a stark contrast though, because they were there for actual fun not for show and pomposity. A light tapping on the door brought her attention back to the present.

"Lou, you ok?" She nearly laughed out loud at the tentative question, it reminded her so much of when she first met Captain Stanley. Now look at me living in his home with his family. She opened the door and saw the concern in his eyes quickly change to something else, it was the same look he gave his girls when they would go to dances and dates. It was the look he gave Hannah when she was accepted to the paramedic only training program and she wondered what it could be if it's for her now.

"Yeah, are you?" Emily had rounded the corner and immediately had the answer

"Oh you big tough guy hard seeing the people you care about grow up, isn't it?" The woman gave her a wink.

"I'm twenty-four, plenty grown up." The blonde's musical laugh filled the air.

"In years, yes but look at you, finally getting to be you. Great person you are turning out to be, paramedic, friend, life saver." She saw tears in the woman's eyes. "It's pride by the way, what you're seeing. We're proud of you."

"Oh, I never had someone be proud of me I guess." She smiled, "Thank you." Emily grabbed her hands and pulled her out of the room.

"Come on! You're the guest of honor and I know the boys will be catching flies with one look at that dress." Lou blushed deeply.

"Hey! There will be no fraternization in my house, you hear me missy." Hank playfully shouted as his wife pulled his paramedic out of the house and onto the deck. The prediction that her dress would cause flies to be caught was right, jaws dropped and there was a wolf whistle from the Irishman. Lou responded by stealing the hose from the kids and chasing Chet around the yard thoroughly soaking him, laughing the entire time.

"You better keep an eye on those two." Emily looked up at him as she joined the deck. Hank shook his head.

"No, they really are just friends, she's too focused on everything else for romance. She's the same way with the others and trust me Roy and Mike don't have eyes for anyone else than their wives." His wife shook her head. She knew that look the young man was giving Lou, she had seen it in Hank when they were dating, hell, he still wore that look to this day. She decided to keep that to herself as she said.

"They're not friends, then, they're family."

He smiled and nodded his agreement. His family was a strange rag tag group of firefighters, paramedics, nurses and doctors. They argued with each other like little kids but would walk through hell and back to save each other. The newest addition would be a multi-millionaire in just a few months, but he had no doubt that wouldn't change her. When he got the news that she was going to be a permanent member of 51's A-Shift he couldn't help but feel like she was a piece of the puzzle they didn't realize was missing till now. The other men had warmed up to her, some slower than others, but now she fit in so seamlessly it was hard to remember the time before her. He laughed loudly as Roy and Mike dumped the ice chest on Johnny while he was 'working on his tan,' the man yelped and fell out of his lounge chair scrambling after them. He saw Rebecca holding her and Mike's little one, a beautiful green blanket wrapped around him. He heard Marco speaking Spanish loudly across the lawn to only hear his female paramedic to respond in kind and the next thing he knew he and his bride were soaked head to toe from a deluge of hoses and water ballons. All six members of his crew taking part of the sneak attack.

"You twits!" he smiled broadly as they ran for their lives but he knew that wouldn't save them. "Latrine duty, the lot of you." He added, "With toothbrushes!" A collective groaned raised up from the yard, which caused him to laugh. They're the best damn family a man could ask for and I wouldn't change a thing.

End of the first story of Lou, I posted it early because I celebrating ending story 3 and beginning story 4. I hope to flesh these characters out to my and your liking. Thank you for enjoying!