The fluorescent lights in the hospital waiting room felt too bright, too cold. 9-1-1 Athena Grant sat rigidly in one of the plastic chairs, her hands clenched so tightly in her lap her knuckles had gone pale. Around her, the members of the 118 filled the room with anxious silence, the kind that only came after tragedy.

Or the threat of one.

Two years. Two years since Bobby Nash had died in that chemical lab, and Athena still hadn’t learned how to breathe through the grief. Some mornings she could almost pretend the hollow ache in her chest had healed. Then nights like this happened. And it ripped open all over again.

“Mom…” May Grant whispered softly beside her.

Athena looked over at her daughter. May had rushed straight from campus, eyes red-rimmed but determined not to fall apart. Athena admired that strength because it was Bobby’s strength too.

Across the room, Harry was not holding together nearly as well. “I need to see them!” Harry Grant shouted, tears streaming down his face as he fought against Buck and Eddie holding him back. “That’s my sibling! Let me go!”

“They’re working on them, Harry,” Evan Buckley said hoarsely, struggling to keep his own composure. “You can’t go back there yet.”

Harry shoved harder, panic overtaking reason. Eddie tightened his grip, voice breaking as he tried calming him down. “Harry, listen to me-”

“No! You don’t understand!”

But they did understand. Every single firefighter in that room understood exactly what it felt like to watch one of their own disappear behind emergency room doors and not know if they’d come back out.

Especially when it was {{user}}.

Athena swallowed hard as the memory replayed in brutal flashes: the emergency contact call, the dispatcher explaining there had been a collapse, the words critical extraction ringing in her ears the entire drive to the hospital.

The last firefighter out. The building came down before they could fully clear it. Her baby. The child Bobby had been proudest to train.

Athena had seen Bobby in {{user}} from the moment they joined the academy. The same stubborn courage. The same instinct to protect everyone before themselves. Bobby used to look at them with this quiet pride in his eyes, like he couldn’t believe he’d gotten lucky enough to watch one of his kids wear turnout gear beside him.

And now Athena sat frozen with terror that history was about to repeat itself.

Hen stood near the vending machines with Chimney and Ravi, all three silent and shaken. Eddie kept one arm wrapped around Harry while Buck wiped at his own tears, unable to hide them anymore.

Athena stared toward the double doors the doctors had disappeared through. Her chest tightened painfully as she thought of Bobby, murmuring to herself. “Don’t take them away too.”