#eva mathis

After her first day, she understood why so many women quit and it’s not because they’re weaker and not built for the job like Gerrard suggests; it’s because firehouses seem to make it their job to make their lives hell. Well, at least it’s firehouse 118’s job.

However, Hen has always been stubborn and determined and she has never let anyone knock her down a peg. Never. So, she’s going to stay right there and finish her probationary year, stick with it for as long as she needs to rub it in Gerrard’s face that she outlasted him. That he couldn’t get to her like he so clearly wanted to.

Hen Wilson is not a doormat.

Hen Wilson does not let people walk over her.

Hen Wilson will prove each and every one of them wrong.

She will make firehouse 118 her home and plants herself there, refusing to be moved. She will bend with the wind and become the biggest tree there is, practically incapable of being knocked down.

Her determination was tested, by god was it tested. She withstood sexist comments and homophobic jokes, not to mention the racism, all the racism. She is pretty sure she wouldn’t have made it, especially not when everything with Eva went down, were it not for Howie.

Even with all her determination, every day there chipped at her and the blow Eva dealt would have made her topple over, had Howie not been there to catch her.

Together they were the two ‘diversity hires’ in Gerrard’s eyes, the sore upon his precious firehouse 118 that would have been the pinnacle of LAFD pride were it not for them. It did not matter that Howie was one of the best paramedics they had and Hen was picking everything up quicker than expected, didn’t matter that the two of them were damn good at their jobs.

So, they supported each other. It was the firehouse 118 crew and then Hen and Howie. Howie said that the person she replaced, Eli, had been pretty solid and a good dude, but that didn’t matter much now. There was no one else in their corner, so they just had each other’s back.

Howie catches her then. She sleeps on his couch for a week when going back to that apartment that she used to share with Eva gets to be too much and drives her to court to testify so she’s not alone. He is her only friend during that time and no matter how shit firehouse 118 was, she will always be glad it brought her Howie.

Furthermore, Howie brought her Karen.

He is a horrible friend for tricking her into a date and she thinks Karen is a massive bitch and why the fuck would he do that, of course. That is what she tells him. Because honestly that was rude of him to do. However, he also knows her well enough that he is right that she has a second date planned out. The dick.

Karen changes how she goes into work. Having her there, far removed from the shit from work (which she has gotten used to for the most part) is nice. Karen doesn’t know most of these people and has no trouble calling them all the assholes and bigoted pricks that they are. Getting to come home to her, makes it easier. Keeps her strong.

At some point, Karen suggests transferring. She has already completed her probie year, kept going after too. She proved Gerrard wrong. She did it.

But Hen doesn’t want to. She doesn’t want to abandon Howie, she doesn’t want to leave firehouse 118 that has become her home, however shitty it is. It’s her house and she’ll stay there. She can take the shit, she has seen all these men embarrass themselves, she doesn’t give a shit about their opinions of her.

Besides, she has even gained some respect from a few of them. Not enough to stop the bigoted jokes, but enough that they don’t snub her. She doesn’t want to start from the ground up and have to rebuild all she gained here at another firehouse that probably sucks as much as this one. It’s a LAFD wide problem, not a firehouse 118 problem.

So, she stays and goes into work and enjoys it. She likes the work, she can stand her coworkers and she has a beautiful girlfriend waiting for her at home.

Denny changes everything again.

Not just because all she has built with Karen nearly comes crumbling down as Eva comes wrecking balling back into her life, but also because when the dust settles, she has a family. Even back when things with Eva seemed to be going well and they were dreaming of a future together with her working pharmaceuticals, a family like this seemed unthinkable, but now she has it.

Work became more than a thing she did because she loved it, it became a way to bring home money to take care of her family, to buy Denny things he wanted and needed, then later a job that Denny was so proud his mama had.

Back in the Academy, everyone had pushed the brotherhood (which sexist first off) that working at a firehouse provided. How you had to rely on your fellow firefighters to get you through the emergencies you face. Hen doesn’t buy that anymore, firehouse 118 holds her coworkers and one friend, home holds her family. She doesn’t need to feel brotherhood with these people.

And for a while, she lived like that.

However, maybe she shouldn’t have completely disregarded that brotherhood, still iew though, and it was probably primarily Chimney, because one day she comes into work to find Gerrard getting removed from his function due to an accumulation of complaints against his conduct.

Firehouse 118 changes again. It’s not something she expects. Call her cynical if you must, but she doesn’t think Mr. Minnesota, older white man will be any different.

She is pleasantly surprised when Captain Nash – call me Bobby – comes in and doesn’t take any of the bigoted crap, instantly respecting her in her profession and moving Sal when he doesn’t want to listen and throws off their ability to work together.

Bobby is the breath of fresh air firehouse 118 needed. He might be distant on a personal level and prefer to just be professional, but he runs the house better than Gerrard ever had. Team morale goes up and bigotry shrinks. The firehouse starts to feel like a home.

Beyond leading fairly and competently, Bobby also knows how to pick recruits. Buck is a great addition, getting Bobby to open up to them as time goes on, pulling their little ragtag crew into some semblance of a family.

That family only grows as Eddie joins them, then Maddie too, while Athena – a friend Hen has already appreciated before – also becomes a part of the 118.

Going into work isn’t just going into work anymore. It’s not just a job that Denny thinks is cool where she can shoot the shit with Chimney and semi-ignore her other coworkers, before bringing money home to her actual family. Work has changed from to going from home to work, to from home to her second home to hang out with the rest of her family.

It’s the best change that has happened to her in a long time. To hold a large family in her heart and feel truly at home at work. To be respected and appreciated. To have the 118 mean something special, not just a number in the LAFD organizational system.

Therefore, when after nearly a decade of peace and good riddance Gerrard comes flouncing back into the place like he owns it, like he can just come back and make her life hell again, she feels her hackles rise and her anger burn.

She is no longer trying to outlast him, she did that ages ago. She has nothing to prove to this man. She does not have to take it defiantly. She does not have to watch him ruin the family that Bobby so carefully built for them, even if he hadn’t noticed it at the time.

Sometimes you don’t know how much you need a breath of fresh air, until you taste it, and Bobby was her breath of fresh air. She would lay herself on the wire for him. He has earned her respect and affection. She is ride or die for him.

So, she looks at Gerrard’s smug face and thinks: ‘I’m not going anywhere.’

Hen might have to move more carefully than she otherwise would have with the whole business with Counsel Woman Ortiz, but she isn’t going to let Gerrard take the 118 from her. It’s hers now. She is Captain when Bobby is unavailable and she is not letting Gerrard just waltz back into her home.

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