Child/Teenage Years

Born to a single mother who worked tirelessly as a nurse, Echo grew up in a home where care was both a duty and a necessity. With her mother working long shifts, the responsibility of raising her twin siblings, Jeremy and Anabelle, fell on her shoulders. From a young age, she learned the weight of sacrifice, always putting others before herself.

Despite the overwhelming responsibility, Echo found passion in paramedicine. The idea of saving lives fascinated her, a way to turn her upbringing into something meaningful. She would spend hours reading medical texts, watching procedures, and practicing what she could. But no amount of training could prepare her for the loss that would define her—Jeremy, her brother, was killed in a shootout.

His death shattered her. The grief was suffocating, and rather than face it, she ran. She packed her bags, leaving behind her mother and Anabelle, fleeing to Los Santos in search of something—maybe a new life, maybe just distance from the pain.

7 Years Ago

In Los Santos, she threw herself into her work. Becoming a paramedic was more than just a career—it was her salvation. The rush of responding to calls, of stabilizing patients, of being the reason someone survived, it filled the void inside her. She worked relentlessly, pushing herself until she had nothing left to give. Over time, her dedication paid off, and she climbed the ranks, earning the title of Captain.

She surrounded herself with people who made the weight of existence a little lighter—Naomi Hawkins, her best friend, and Alex Gerkin, the first person to make her feel something real.

She didn’t mean to fall in love with Alex. It happened slowly, creeping up on her in the stolen moments between ambulance calls, in the way he always waited for her. He was steady. Patient, Kind, And he saw her. And that terrified her. Because Echo Manco did not let people in. She wanted to. God, she wanted to. But love meant vulnerability. Love meant opening herself up just enough to be broken when they left—and people always left.

The two danced around their feelings, never quite admitting what was there, but it was obvious to everyone around them. So, she told herself it wasn’t real. That if she just ignored it long enough, it would go away. But it didn’t. And eventually, Alex stopped waiting. He found someone else—someone who wasn’t too much of a coward to choose him. Someone who didn’t run at the first sign of happiness. He married Naomi. And Echo told herself it was for the best. So as Echo did She ran. Not towards anything but away. She left Los Santos behind returning home to care for her mother.

3 Years Ago (28th November 2021)

Then, The Letter came, informing her that Naomi had died.

The pain of losing her best friend was unbearable, but Echo dealt with it the only way she knew how—by shutting people out. Alex Hawkins tried to reach out. He called. He texted. He tried to grieve with her, but Echo ignored him.
Because facing Alex meant facing the truth. That she had loved him and never let herself have him. That she had lost him long before Naomi died. That it was her fault. She might've been able to protect her. He tried to reach her in any way possible, but Echo let every message go unanswered.

2 Years Ago (1st of May, 2022)

Eventually, the calls stopped and then, she found out why.

Alex Hawkins was dead.

Echo wanted to scream, to undo everything. But it was too late. She had pushed him away, and now he was gone. She could still hear Naomi’s laughter in the back of her mind. Could still picture Alex leaning against the ambulance, grinning at her like she was something worth holding onto.That was the cruelest part. She had spent her whole life running from the pain of losing people, and in doing so, she lost them anyway.

In the span of just a few years, everyone she had once loved was gone. There was nothing left to run from. There was nothing left to hold onto. So, she returned to Los Santos.

8 Months Ago (16th August 2024)

Back in Los Santos, Echo met Lena Ashwood, a woman who made her feel alive again. Lena’s wit, her humor, and her warmth drew Echo in, and for the first time since her brother’s death, Echo allowed herself to care deeply about someone. Lena was different. She was the kind of person Echo could have fallen for, and she did—but Echo was terrified. The idea of losing someone else, of opening her heart to love, was too much to bear.

When Lena asked Echo to be her bridesmaid, Echo’s fear took over. She couldn’t bear to see Lena marry someone else. It wasn’t about Lena, it was about Echo’s fear of losing her. The thought of Lena being happy with someone else was more than she could handle, and so she rejected the invitation. Her refusal was an act of selfishness, but it was also an act of protection—a way to avoid facing the pain of letting go

Then, Lena was shot, and Echo was the one who saved her. The reality of almost losing Lena hit Echo harder than she had expected. The nightmare of Lena dying played on repeat in her mind, and the fear of losing another person she loved pushed her into a spiral of self-destructive behaviour. She turned to alcohol and drugs to numb the pain, unable to face the emotions that had been buried for so long, chasing oblivion. One night, in a reckless haze, she climbed a mountain, Maybe she was looking for something—clarity, punishment, an escape. Maybe it was just another bad decision in a string of bad decisions. The alcohol and pills were still in her system, and as she stood at the peak, the world blurred beneath her feet. She fell. Hard.

When she woke up, the world felt different. She couldn’t move her left arm or her left leg.
The hospital told her she was lucky to be alive. She didn’t feel lucky.
She felt empty.
Her career as a paramedic—the one thing she had dedicated her entire life to—was gone. The job that had given her purpose, that had made her feel like she was worth something, slipped through her fingers. She left her department as she didn't want others to see her as a liability.

After everything—after Jeremy, Naomi, Alex, Lena—she had always managed to hold onto one thing: her work. And now, even that was gone. So, she did what she did best.

She ran, as she always did.

A Month Ago (1st Feburary 2025)

She ran to where she knew she'd be accepted—home. She cared for her ailing mother in her final days. But after a month, Meredith Manco passed away quietly in her sleep, leaving another void Echo could never fill.

She disappeared again, lost in the spaces between who she was and who she wanted to be. But running only ever brought her back in circles. As time passed, she slowly regained movement in her left side. For a month, Echo hid from the world, drowning in the consequences of everything she had lost. She had spent her entire life trying to prove that she could save people, and now, she couldn’t even save herself.

She was no longer the paramedic she once was. The job she had lived for was gone, and she had to figure out who she was without it.

Present​

For the first time, Echo chose to stop running.
She reached out to those who would understand—Helena Cassidy-Wren and Theodore Cassidy-Wren—who gave her a car and offered her a home. But Echo wasn’t ready to depend on anyone just yet. She lived out of that three-wheeled car, doing postal work to keep her mind busy.

Then, she made a choice.
She walked back into a hospital—not as a paramedic, but as a nurse-in-training. It wasn’t the same, but it was close. It was a way to heal again, to matter again. The work gave her purpose, a reason to keep moving forward.

And then—Lena found her- After months of silence, after everything left unsaid, Lena stood before her once again. Their story had always been one of missed chances, unspoken words, and lingering almosts. But this time, Lena wasn’t letting her slip away and For the first time, Echo wasn’t running.
She wasn’t running from Lena, from love, from loss.

She had returned to Los Santos not because someone needed her.
Not because she had something to prove.
But because she wanted to stay.
For once, Echo Manco was ready to face everything she had feared—love, loss, regret, and the possibility of truly living.

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