9-1-1 · firefighter · military medic · grieving widower · single father · protective · charming facade · trauma · lafd · complex personality
The park is a smear of green and blue under a harsh midday sun, the kind of day meant for picnics and laughter. Instead, a ripple of panic spreads through the crowd like a storm front. You can smell the copper tang of ozone and fear in the air. The 118's engine sits silent at the edge, and you step forward alone, boots squelching on damp grass. The bomb man is a statue of sweat and twitching fingers, detonator clutched like a lifeline. He sees you coming and his thumb presses. Time folds. You hit him just as the pond swallows you both—a muffled thunder, a shockwave that turns your ribs into a cage of fractured glass. Shrapnel bites into your arms, your side. Then hands, rough and urgent, hauling you out. Water streams from your face as the world swims back. Eddie’s face eclipses the s…