Archive of Our Own ^beta

Vic kicked her feet up on the table and grabbed a handful of popcorn out of Travis' bag. They were watching the live coverage of the fire at an office building, the red and orange blazes far from calm. Black smoke could be seen coming from the back of the building and Vic had a feeling they'd be called into this one fairly soon. They'd already had an eventful day. Calls left and right, so she was really hoping for a quiet night in, but it didn't look like that was going to happen. "It's getting worse by the minute." Andy said from her spot on the floor. "Why haven't the called us in yet?" She asked, turning toward Sullivan, who was standing in the doorway. 

"Chief Ripley wanted you all to get at least some kind of break. They're managing without us for now, but we'll probably be called in for overhaul." Sullivan said, and the whole team groaned. 

"I want action, not overhaul." Maya whined, leaning back into the couch. Silence washed over them again as Ripley appeared in front of the camera to give an update. Vic leaned forward to listen to what her fiancé was going to say. He stepped up to the microphone and sighed as he started his explanation of the fire and their progress on getting it put out. 

“He looks exhausted.” Travis mused.

”He looks like hell.” Vic quipped. “He needs to sleep. They need to let him leave so he can go home and sleep.” She complained, shaking her head as she shoved more popcorn in her mouth. Travis eyed her with a smirk. “What?” She asked, through a mouthful of popcorn. 

“You sound like a worried wife.” Vic smiled at him, turning back to the TV to take in more of her fiancé’s appearance. His hair was disheveled with soot and the bags under his eyes were more prominent than when she’d last seen him that morning. 

Eventually, the team got news that the fire was completely out and they were requested for overhaul, so they loaded up and made their way to the burnt office building. Upon arrival, stations were packing up and Battalion Chief Frankel was commanding the scene. Vic was grabbing gear for overhaul when Sullivan came up to her. “Have you heard from Ripley tonight?” 

“No, why?”

”I can’t seem to get a hold of him.” Sullivan said, and Vic laughed and went back to grabbing equipment. 

“He’s probably at home getting a shower and then going to bed, he’s had a long day.” Vic assured him, starting to walk away when Sullivan stopped her. She turned around and the worried look on her Captain’s face was confusing her. 

“His SFD issued truck is still here.” If Vic hadn’t known all of his habits, that may have concerned her. But she knew that at the end of a long day, if he was handing off to a different incident commander he would just trade them vehicles. 

Vic looked back at Frankel then back at Sullivan. “He probably just traded vehicles with Frankel.” 

“Can you try calling him just to he sure?” Sullivan asked, and Vic sighed but pulled out her phone to do as he asked. She didn't like calling him when he was just getting home, because it disrupted his sleep. The rest of her team was getting started on overhaul and she really wished she could help, because all she wanted to do was finish this and go home and snuggle up next to Lucas. 

The phone rang a few times before clicking to his voicemail. "Voicemail." She whispered to Sullivan as she listened for the beep to signal that she could leave him a voicemail. "Hey, Luke. Nineteen's here at the office building for overhaul and Sullivan was worried about you." Sullivan glared at her and she smiled before continuing her message. "I'm sure you're getting in the shower, so don't call me back, just get some rest. You deserve it. I love you, I'll see you later, hubby. Bye." She said before hanging up the call and throwing her phone back into the engine. Sullivan nodded his thanks before turning and running toward Frankel. Vic threw her turnout jacket on and ran toward the entrance of the building where Miller and Montgomery were waiting.

"You're with us, Hughes." Dean said, opening the door for them all to walk in. Smoke hung in the air of the once bustling office building. Vic had driven by this office building countless times on her way to work. And sure, this was her job, she was used to once beautiful buildings being burnt to the ground, and yet, for some reason, there was an unknown pang sitting in the center of her chest. She pushed the thoughts aside and made her way through the room, checking corners, ceilings, and walls for any hot spots, or any remaining small fires that could start up again. "Clear." Dean called out. 

"Clear." She repeated, turning to Travis. 

"Clear. Let's go." She nodded and followed him out into the hall and into another room, this one was smaller, probably was once a storage area. There were cabinets that had fallen to the ground, shelves that were broken on the floor. The confined room held a lot more smoke than the rest of the building, so they immediately got to work at searching for hot spots. Vic walked over to the two fallen cabinets and gasped at what she saw. There were firefighter boots sticking out from the end of the cabinet. Someone was still in here. "Miller, Montgomery! I got someone over here!" 

The other two firefighters turned to look at each other, before running toward Vic. "I thought station 23 said they did search and rescue before the fire was completely out?" Travis said, keeling to help them pull the cabinets off of whoever was under them. 

"I thought so, too. But apparently not. Montgomery, can you radio Frankel?" Vic asked and he nodded, trading her positions. Vic kneeled beside Dean and on the count of three they used all of their strength to lift up. Vic could hear Montgomery talking to a clearly pissed off Frankel, and she laughed to herself knowing that station 23 was about to be in huge trouble with Frankel and Ripley. She returned her mind to the task at hand and once again pulled up on the cabinet, finally getting the first one to stand, releasing the legs of the person trapped underneath. 

"Frankel wants the name. Can you see the name on the turnout?" Travis asked, as Vic and Dean pulled up on the second cabinet. 

"Not yet." She grunted, out of breath. Her muscles were screaming in pain, but she knew she had to save this person. They didn't deserve to die because of a stupid mistake that 23 had made. She lifted up as hard as she could, pushing the cabinet to a standing position. Vic exhaled a breath and looked down at the name printed on the back of the turnouts, and in a split second, all of the breath left her body and she fell to the floor. "Ripley." She choked out as the room spun around her. The pang that was at the center of her chest was now a feeling of dread. Worse than anything she'd felt before. She could faintly hear Travis yelling into his radio to get the Aid Cars back to the scene. 

Her hands hovered over Lucas' body, not sure what to do. Years of training could never have prepared her for this moment. "Check for a pulse!" Miller was screaming at her, but to Vic it was all white noise. She could hear her heart beating in her ears as she stared at Lucas, unmoving on the ground. Before she could move, Dean pushed her out of the way, and Travis lifted her from the ground, wrapping his arms around her to keep her from running toward Lucas. She watched through tear clouded vision as Miller pulled the collar of Ripley's turnout coat down and placed two fingers at the base of his neck. Vic and Travis both held their breath, waiting for Miller to break the eerie silence. "Pulse! Help me, Montgomery." Travis ran over and grabbed Ripley's legs and helped Miller carry him out of the room. Vic looked around and saw his radio, his SCBA, and his white helmet all discarded n the ground. She grabbed them all and ran out of the building behind her teammates. 

As soon as they exited the building, Frankel and Sullivan ran over and assisted Miller and Montgomery in getting Lucas safely onto a stretcher. The ripped off his turnout coat and placed a neck brace around him. Vic stood back and watched in horror, Andy had come to her side and grabbed her hand to ground her. "Ride with him, Vic." She whispered, pushing her slightly forward as they started to load Ripley into the back of the aid car. She was about to step in behind Miller and Montgomery when she noticed some guys from station 23 packing up their truck and engine. Vic wiped the tears from her face and walked toward them. "How the hell do you not notice that your Chief didn't come out of the building? And then you did a search of the building? It’s supposed to be a deep search, you do not leave until every inch of the building is accounted for! That's basic shit that you learn in the Fire Academy. You left your Chief in that building to die, you're lucky we went in and did the job you were supposed to do!" Vic yelled, she could hear her team telling her to stop, but she was fuming. 

"She only cares cause she's bangin' him." The one guy muttered to his friend. Vic saw fire, her adrenaline kicked in and she launched herself at the two men, only being stopped by Jack, as he grabbed her round the waist and set her back behind him, grabbing her shoulders. 

"Hughie! Hughie, let Frankel deal with them. Go be with Rip." He told her and she shot one last glare to the men of station 23 before turning on her heels and jogging toward the aid car. She hopped i the back and sat beside Montgomery, grabbing Ripley's hand, the tears returning to her eyes. Her feet tapped anxiously the whole way there. Her eyes concentrated on the heart monitor, trying to convince herself that his heart was beating and that was all that mattered at the moment. But Vic wasn't even sure she believed that. Never before had she loved someone this much, and of course, the first time she fell in love, the person she decided to spend the rest of her life with, would be the person that the universe decided to take from her.

It was cruel. That was the only thought she could form that could even begin to describe all of this. Cruel. Cruel that she had no idea he was in that building. Cruel that Station 23 hadn't done their jobs correctly. Cruel that she was the one who found him. Cruel that she loved him so much that this hurt so bad. Vic had told herself countless times that falling in love was a bad idea, this was exactly why, because she knew eventually it would end in pin. She had always assumed that their painful ending would be a breakup, not a death. Yet here they were. But he wasn't dead. Not yet, at least. But she ahd to prepare herself for the absolute worst, soften the blow a little bit. 

As soon as they arrived at Grey Sloan, the doors flung open and they rushed to get Ripley out, handing off to Dr.Hunt and he pushed the stretcher with Vic's fiancé on it into the ER. Vic stood motionless outside the doors to the trauma center. She felt helpless. There was nothing she could do and she hated that. She had no idea what kind of condition he was in, just that he had remained unconscious the whole way to the hospital. 

"Is there family we can contact for Chief Ripley?" Dr.Altman asked, pulling Vic from her thoughts.

"I'm his fiancé." She muttered.

"Is there any immediate family?" She asked, making Vic painfully aware of the fact that since she hadn't yet taken the oath of swearing to love him, they didn't consider her family. 

"His sister." She said, her voice raspy from all the crying she had been doing. "Oh my God, his sister. I have to call his sister." Vic said, tears returning to her eyes and Dr. Altman gave her a solemn look, which she hated. She hated that everyone felt bad for her. She didn't want their sympathy or their pity. In her family, they sucked these things up, they didn't show their emotions to everyone, and they sure as hell didn't talk about it. But here she was, on the verge of a panic attack, but Travis pulled her back to earth. She would forever be thankful to him for that. 

Travis turned her toward him and gently grabbed her shoulders. She slowly lifted her red, teary eyes to look at his face. "Vic, hey, breathe. I'll call his sister, ok? Just focus on your breathing. These doctors are some of the best in the country, they're going to take car of him. Ripley's going to be fine." He assured her and she nodded, taking a deep, shaky breath in through her nose. 

"I'll have an intern take you to the waiting room and I or Dr. Hunt will come find you when we have any news." Dr. Altman explained to them. Vic held tightly onto Travis' arm as an intern led them to the waiting room. Once there, Vic gave her phone to Travis for him to call Jennifer. Vic wanted to do it herself, but she didn't feel like she could talk to anyone without crying. Much less, Lucas' sister.

Travis returned a few minutes later and sat beside her, holding out a water bottle he had gotten from a vending machine. "She's going to come as soon as she can." Vic nodded, taking a small sip of the water. She didn't want to drink much because she felt like she could throw up at any given moment. Her foot was tapping impatiently on the floor, only being stopped by Travis' comforting hand on her thigh. "Trust the process, Vic. It's gonna work out." She nodded, but she didn't believe him. They sat in silence after that, Travis knowing that Vic didn't want to talk about it.

Eventually, Dr. Altman came out, now in her scrub cap, they both knew that meant surgery. Vic stood up to meet her in the center. "Chief Ripley has some severe crush injuries which has caused internal bleeding in his abdomen. He also had some smoke inhalation that we’re treating. They're prepping him now for Dr. Hunt to perform an exploratory laparotomy."

Vic nodded. "Is he going to be ok?" She looked at Dr. Altman, searching for any sense of hope in her eyes. Vic needed something to hold onto, Some sense of hope to hold her over.

"I wish I knew. He's very close to Crush Syndrome, so we're monitoring him closely for cardiac arrest. For now, he's stable. I'm sorry that I don't know more, but I need to get to the OR. I'll come update you again once the surgery is complete." Vic fell back into her chair, her hands going to pull at her hair, as the tears returned to her eyes. She didn’t think they’d ever stop. When she looked up, her team was coming into the waiting room, all of them covered in ash. 

They all slowly approached her and Travis, all of them wearing the same look that Dr. Altman had been wearing. “Hey, Vic, is there anything we can do for you?” Andy asked, sitting on the opposite side of her, placing a hand on her knee. Vic wiped her tears away and shook her head.

”Not unless you can promise me he’s going to live.” Vic muttered and nobody said anything in response. They all just sat in silence, but she could feel their support, nonetheless. The silence was broken by her cellphone ringing. The caller ID read ‘Jenn Ripley’. Vic cleared her throat before answering. “Hey Jenn.” She answered. Travis watched as she listened to whatever Ripley’s sister was saying. “They just took him back to surgery for internal bleeding, they don’t know the extent of it yet.” Travis saw her facial expression change and he knew it couldn’t have been good. “Oh. Ok, that’s fine. I’ll, um, I’ll keep you updated. No problem. Love you, too. Bye.” Vic hung up and let the phone fall into her lap.

”Everything ok?” Travis asked.

”Jennifer’s husband is out of town this week, she can’t leave her daughter by herself.” Vic explained, a distant look in her glassy eyes. It was a look of loneliness that Travis understood and he hated to see it in his best friend. He looked up at the rest of their team and they seemed to take the hint.

Andy nodded and turned to the rest of the team. “Well, we should get back to the station. Vic, call us if you need anything.” She patted her friends knee again and then stood up to lead the team out of the waiting room, Travis sending them all a thankful look. 

Vic’s gaze was trained on a tile from the floor, analyzing all of the marks, wondering what other people had walked through here before, praying for their loved ones to make it. She remembers when Travis had his close call during the skyscraper. But he was ok now. Maybe Lucas would be too, but she refused to get her hopes up. Instead, she sat there in silence for hours until the doctors returned.

She and Travis both saw Dr. Hunt and Dr. Altman come into the waiting room. Vic was on her feet in a split second, her heart beating way too fast as she waited for them to say something. “Surgery went well. He had a lac in his spleen, so we performed an emergency splenectomy. An orthopedic surgeon then came in to repair a break in his left leg. He’s in recovery now. He has yet to wake up, but we’re hopeful he will.” Dr. Hunt explained. All Vic could do was nod her head. 

“Unfortunately, while he’s in the ICU, only family is allowed. We’re going to make an exception for you since you’re his fiancé. And immediate family of yours would be allowed.” Dr. Altman told them, and Vic looked hesitant to go without Travis. 

He took note of this and grabbed her hands. “Go, be with him. I’m gonna call your parents.”

”Well, this is one way for them to meet him.” Vic said with a small laugh, but quickly faded as the thought that this might be the only time they meet him filled her mind. 

Travis pulled her from those thoughts. “They haven’t met him yet?!”

”We’ve only been together for eight months and for six of those we were a secret. I told them about him as soon as we were no longer a secret, but they haven’t gotten to meet him yet.”  She explained, and Travis nodded then turned back to see that Dr. Altman was waiting for Vic.

”I’ll call them. I love you, Vic.” He said, squeezing her hand and wiping her tears away with his free hand. 

She smiled, sadly. “Love you, too, Trav.” With that, she turned to follow Dr. Altman back the hallway to Lucas’ room. They stopped in front of a room and Vic looked in the window at her fiancé. He was pale, and the only thing that made him look like he wasn’t dead was the steady rise and fall of his chest. 

“I’ll leave you to it. A resident will be by to check his post ops, and if his stats are still good by morning, we’ll move him out of the ICU.” Dr. Altman explained and Vic nodded, continuing to stare into the window at him. “Any questions?”

”Will he be awake by then?” Vic asked, finally tearing her eyes away from Lucas. 

“There’s no way to know for sure. I’m sorry.” 

Vic wiped at a tear that had escaped and shook her head. “No, it’s fine. Thank you.” Dr. Altman nodded and then walked away. Vic took a deep breath and pulled the sliding door open, stepping into the room. She stood on the left side of the bed, bringing a shaky hand to stroke through his blonde curls. She didn’t even know how to feel, she was relived and happy, but scared and sad at the same time. The confusing emotions were giving her a headache so she closed her eyes tight and took a deep breath. Opening them again, she grabbed one of Lucas’ hands, pressing a kiss to his knuckles, then another kiss to his forehead, whispering words of love to him.

She sat down in the chair and pulled out her phone. A text from Travis let her know that her parents were on the way. She didn’t know how to feel about it, she was glad that they cared about her enough to come now, but that didn’t make up for the other times throughout her life they had failed to be there. She was sure they had their reasons, but sometimes it hurt. But she didn’t want to dwell on that now, she just wanted her parents to be there with her. She wanted to provide a family for Lucas. 

Within fifteen minutes, the door slid open and Lenya and Anthony Hughes walked through, taking in the sight before them. Vic let go of Lucas’ hand to walk over to greet her parents. She hugged both of them and then turned toward the bed. “Mom, Dad, this is my fiancé, Lucas Ripley.” She said, and if her parents had any reservations about Lucas, you couldn’t tell, because her mom had started crying, and her dad pulled Vic into another hug. 

“Are you ok, Victoria?” Lenya asked and Vic shrugged.

“Everyone keeps asking me that and I don’t know how to answer it. I’m trying to be ok, but that doesn’t mean I am.” Her parents nodded, standing there with her, the mere fact that they even showed up for her was enough to make her at least a little better. They didn’t stay too long, but when they left they hugged her tightly, promising to stop by again soon. 

Vic knew it was late, so with a kiss to Lucas’ head, she curled herself into the chair beside his bed, covering herself with the blanket the nurse had brought for her. “I love you, Luke.” She whispered before trying to fall asleep.

She didn’t succeed in getting much sleep. She spent majority of the night staring at Lucas, hoping he would open his eyes. When Dr. Hunt came back in the morning, he cleared his throat to wake Vic up. She immediately stirred, looking straight at him. “Good news. He was stable all night so we’re going to move him to a regular recovery room today. Then, anyone will be able to visit.” He explained.

”He should be awake by now, right? It’s been all night, why isn’t he awake now?” She asked. It’s the question she’d been wanting to ask all night. She knew the typical standard time before a patient wakes up post surgery, so she was concerned that the doctors were missing something.

”Patients who experience a trauma will wake up at different times. He may not be awake now, but he’s stable and his numbers are good.” Vic nodded hesitantly and she watched as they moved him into a different room. She followed them like a lost puppy. They got him settled into the room before leaving Vic alone with him. She wasn’t sure what to say to him, so she resorted to just holding his hand. Eventually, she fell asleep again. Head resting on the bed, next to Lucas’ arm.

The next time she woke up it was to a hand on her shoulder, she sat up and turned around, coming face to face with Gibson. “Montgomery is out on a call so he sent me.” He said, grabbing a chair and pulling it up beside Vic’s. “Have you eaten?” She shook her head. As if she would’ve been able to keep any food down. “Go get some food, I’ll stay here with Rip.” But that didn’t convince Vic.

She kept a firm grip on Lucas’ hand. “I’m not leaving him.”

”You have to eat something, or Ripley’s going to kill me when he wakes up.”

”If he wakes up.” Vic mumbled, but Jack heard it. He sighed and turned toward her.

Jack wasn’t used to comforting Vic, they were friends and teammates but they weren’t extremely close, and he wasn’t particularly good at comforting people. “He’s going to wake up.” Gibson promised, with excellent confidence.

”You don’t know that.”

“No, but I believe it.” Jack told her and she laughed, bitterly.

”There is a tube down his throat, so forgive me if I’m not as optimistic as you are.” Vic bit back with more malice than she had intended to. Luckily, Jack didn’t take any offense to it, he knew what he was getting himself into when he’d volunteered to be the one to check on Hughes. “Sorry.” She whispered.

Jack shook his head and grabbed the hand that wasn’t holding Ripley’s. “Don’t be. I’m going to go get you some food, and you will eat it. I won’t leave until you do.” He said, offering her a smile and a gentle squeeze of her hand before standing and leaving the room. Vic watched him leave then bowed her head over her fiancé’s hand, running her thumb over his knuckles.

It ended up being another restless night for Vic. She tried countless times to sleep, but she failed. Travis had called her about a dozen times trying, and failing, to get her to go home and sleep. Vic had insisted that she could take a few days without any sleep. “I’m a firefighter, I’m used to not sleeping well.” She had told him, before hanging up and laying down on the cot a nurse had brought for her. 

In the morning, his doctors came by to do their daily checks, and it always ended the same way. They told her his numbers were good and that it was only a matter of time til he would wake up. Vic spent the day reclined in the uncomfortable hospital chair until somebody knocked on the door. She was surprised to see Battalion Chief Frankel. 

Frankel stepped into the room and held up a vase of flowers with a ‘Get Well Soon’ balloon attached to it. “I brought flowers.” She said and Vic stood up to take them from her, placing them on a windowsill filled with other cards and flowers from people, mainly firefighters.

”Thank you. I can go, if you’d like a minute with him.” Vic offered, surprising even herself. She knew Ripley and Frankel were friends and she didn’t want to intrude if she wanted a moment with him.

Frankel shook her head. “No, no, you should stay. I’m sure he’d rather have you here than me.” She said with a laugh, smiling sadly as she stared at Lucas. 

“He considers you a friend.” Vic offered, trying to fill the awkward silence.

”But he’s not in love with me, Hughes.”

”I should hope not.” Vic mused, allowing a small smile to cross her face. 

Frankel smiled too. “Y’know. When I first found out he was dating a junior firefighter, I was convinced this was his midlife crisis.” 

“You weren’t the only one.”

”Hmm. But then I started to realize how happy he was. He came into work everyday with a smile on his face. A genuine smile that I don’t think I’d ever seen before. He’s happy with you, Hughes. He loves you more than anything.” Frankel told her, and the words settled deep into Vic’s heart, causing pain there. And within a second, she collapsed in a heap on the floor, her body shaking with a sob from deep in her  chest. Frankel rushed over to her and hesitantly took her in her arms, rocking her slowly. 

“It’s not fair.” Vic choked out.

”I know.”

”He doesn’t deserve this.”

”I know.”

And it went on like that. Vic expressed her emotions and Frankel just agreed with her, offering her comfort. Once Vic had calmed down significantly, she stood up with Frankel’s help and sat back down in her chair. “I’m sorry for that.” Vic said, her voice raspy from her tears.

”Don’t apologize for having emotions. If it’s any consolation at all, I fired all the guys from station 23 that had been assigned to search that side of the building that Ripley was found.” Frankel told her and somehow it did help. It was something. It helped to know that they didn’t get to get away with purposely not doing their job.

”Thank you, Chief Frankel.” Vic said.

”When we’re outside of work, call me Deb.” Vic nodded. “I should get going. We’re all pulling for you, Rip.” She said, smiling at Vic before turning to leave.

After she had left, Vic wet back to just holding his hand. She stayed like that for a few hours when suddenly, Lucas started coughing. She immediately pressed a call button for a doctor, as he tried to sit up in bed. Dr. Hunt came running in, pushing Lucas back to lie down. His blue eyes had flown open and had found Vic in the corner of the room as doctors slowly extricated the tube from his throat. Once it was out, he went back into a coughing fit. 

“Chief Ripley, I’m Dr. Owen Hunt, you’re at Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital. How are you feeling?” Dr. Hunt asked, but Lucas’ eyes were trained on Vic who hadn’t moved from the corner. She didn’t want to get in the way of the doctors. 

“I’m fine. I want Vic.” He rasped out, his voice was weak, but they all heard what he said. Dr. Hunt smiled and stepped out of the way. Vic slowly stepped forward and grabbed Lucas’ hand.

”Hey, Luke.” She whispered, pressing her lips to his knuckles holding them their as tears slipped from her eyes. He was awake. When she lifted her head, the doctors were gone and she was alone with Lucas. She slowly sat on the edge of the bed and took his face in her hands. 

“I love you.” He whispered, and she smiled, leaning down to kiss him for the first time in almost three days. 

“I love you so much. You scared the hell out of me, Lucas.” Vic told him once she pulled back. He smiled at her, bringing a hand to her cheek. 

“I wasn’t going anywhere.” He promised. “You can’t get rid of me that easily.” He tried to joke, but his sentence ended in a coughing fit. Vic grabbed the water and held it for him as he took small sips. He smiled his thanks, leaning his head back on the pillow, his hand grabbing Vic’s. She stroked his blonde curls and he sighed in content. 

Vic took this moment of silence to close her eyes and thank whoever for not taking Lucas from her. They had their whole lives ahead of them, she was not ready for that to be taken away. She wanted to spend her life loving him, and now she was going to get the chance.

Dr. Hunt and Altman came back into the room then, smiling at them both. “Chief Ripley, you suffered some crush injuries resulting in a splenectomy, as well as a break in your left leg that needed to be surgically repaired. You came in with some smoke inhalation, which explains your cough, but with the ventilation we had you on, your numbers look good. We’ll keep you here for about a week to make sure everything is ok. We’ll get you up on crutches tomorrow, because you need to be moving, and then we’ll go from there. Any questions?” Dr. Altman explained, and Lucas shook his head. 

“Thank you.” He said, gripping Vic’s hand. The doctors nodded and left the room again. Lucas looked back over at his fiancé. “Who else do I need to thank?” 

Vic raised an eyebrow at him. “Dr. Lincoln repaired your leg?” She offered.

He shook his head. “Who found me. In the building, who found me in the rubble?”

Vic looked down at the ground. She couldn’t answer the question, she didn’t want to answer the question. If she did, she wouldn’t be able to get the image of him lying there on the ground out of her head. “I don’t know.” She lied, but Lucas could see right through her.

”You do know.” He countered. “Victoria, who found me?” He asked again, making sure she was looking directly into his blue eyes.

Her eyes closed as she took a deep breath to calm herself. “I did.” She admitted.

”What?” 

“I did.”

”Station 23 was on search and rescue?” Lucas said, sitting up slightly, now invested in this, clearly something had happened that he didn’t know about, and he needed to know if it had to do with the firefighters in his department and how they were performing their jobs.

”They half assed it. Nineteen came for overhaul. Miller, Montgomery, and I were assigned to a side of the building and I found you. I didn’t even know it was you at first.” She told him, and a small smile crept onto his face. 

“You saved my life.” He whispered, bringing a hand up to wipe away the tears that had slipped down her cheeks. They spent the rest of the day like that, just enjoying having each other. The next day, Vic called everyone to let them know he was awake, and her team came to visit him. Travis hugged Vic for a long time, so thankful the she didn’t have to go through what he went through. After her team left, she called his sister, and then called her parents. 

Sure enough, Anthony and Lenya showed up in his hospital room in fifteen minutes. “Now that I can introduce you all properly, Lucas, these are my parents, Lenya and Anthony Hughes. Mom, Dad, this is my fiancé, Lucas Ripley.” Vic smiled as Lucas held out his hand, but Vic’s mom ignored it as she leaned down to gently hug him, being mindful of the stitches in his abdomen. Anthony gave him a firm handshake, and patted him on the shoulder. 

“Glad you’re ok, son.” Anthony told him, and Vic could’ve cried again right then and there. “Vic, go home and shower, you stink. We’ve got Luke.” Her dad told her and she laughed, she believed him because she hadn’t had a shower in days. She turned Lucas to make sure he was ok with that. He nodded and smiled at her. 

“Go. I’m ok.” He said, and she kissed his lips once before hugging her parents and leaving the hospital room for the first time in days. And when she walked out of the hospital and the sun shined on her, she let out a sigh and smiled. He was ok. After all of the darkness of the past few days it felt good to stand in the sun.