#Wilson looking so fondly with his puppy doe eyes while house staring at him like that

[thebatcreature]

Obsessed with this genre of House and Wilson looking at each other

[marvel-medigeek-fics]

“Guys, why are the cabinets filled with nothing but cake mix?” Bobby says to a half asleep crew, all of whom are barely human, much less able to help with the cake mix overload.

“What kind?” Buck says from the table, shoveling down cereal like he hasn’t eaten in days.

Hen has her head down on the table, not listening to anything, so she’s no help. Eddie opens the cabinets sleepily, pulling out a bottle of oil and half a vial of vanilla. Chimney snores loudly from the couch. It’s not a surprise that everyone is so tired: 6 calls in a row, including a strip mall fire and a nasty wreck. There hasn’t been an hour to sleep since 8 hours ago: before their shift.

“Can we send it back?” Eddie says, leaning against the counter.

“When we could be making cake? No! Are you out of your mind?” Buck replies after slurping down the remaining milk in his bowl.

Eddie holds his hands up in surrender and walks around to the couch opposite the one Chimney snores from. Bucks eyes follow Eddie until he lays down, then they snap to Bobby’s raised eyebrows and “really?” expression.

“So? Cake?”

—

When Chimney wakes up, three different cakes are cooling on racks and Buck has frosting over every part of his exposed skin: some flung across his face, some dripping off of his arms and some somehow in his hair like gel. Bobby looks happy, mixing batter and slyly licking the spoon, rinsing it before continueing to mix.

“What’s with the cake?” Chimney says, breathing in the amazing smell of a baking cake.

“Bucks idea. He said we should use the cakes for a good cause.” Bobby’s pride is evident on his face and Chimney grins, reaching forward for a taste out of Bobby’s bowl.

“That good cause being the dispatchers.” Buck says coming up behind Bobby, still holding a piping bag and wearing frosting.

“Then hand me a box. I’m making Maddie a cake!” Chimney quickly acclimates to the idea of it means making Maddie happy.

The three of them churn out cakes, some of them looking like flaming piles of garbage and others looking like professional cake off pieces. Chimney and Buck never miss a chance to smear batter or frosting onto each other, quickly turning it into a competition. That’s what brothers do.

—

Eddie wakes up to the klaxons echoing and Buck cursing as he pulls out a half done cake without oven mitts.

“Are you guys making cake? Seriously?” Eddie says, pulling on his gear and climbing into the ladder truck.

“I would’ve asked you to help, but...” Buck teases him about his lack of cooking skills.

“I may be a terrible cook, but I’m damn good at frosting.”

“I’m holding you to that, just you wait.”

When they get back from tending to a simple house fire, Eddie immediately is handed a piping bag and pointed to a waiting cake. Just like he said, Eddie is a natural at decorating cakes.

“Where’d you learn to pipe like that?” Chimney says, innocently licking a red velvet covered spoon.

“My sister taught me.”

“Can she teach me, because that is awesome, dude.”

“I’ll ask her.” Eddie says, piping a rosette in Bucks arm when he turns back to staring at the ovens. He doesn’t even notice it and both Chimney and Eddie snicker in the background.

Hen, who has been watching them the whole time, speaks. “How many of these are you planning on making?”

“All of them.” Buck says, still not noticing the now 6 rosettes dotting his arms.

“And that is..?” Hen continues.

“57.” Bobby says from his bowl, mixing his 6th cake. “And It’ll go a lot faster if you help us, Hen.”

Hen dissolves into laughter and when she finally composes herself says, “I have never made a cake that didn’t come out like soup. Do you really want to be feeding soup to whoever you’re making these for?”

“Dispatchers. Oh look, frosting.” Buck answers her questions and then pops each rosette into his mouth one by one, ignoring Chimney giggling in the background.

“I will gladly eat cake, but make it? No. But if you need help with anything not baking related, you know where to find me.” She heads over to the couches and falls asleep quickly, exhausted from shift and the bedtime battles.

By the time the shift is over, 39 cakes are stored all over the firehouse, in any unoccupied box. 18 cakes were deemed fails, including the one Buck slightly burned his hands on, the one that turned in to a brick courtesy of Chimney, the one that splattered on the floor while Eddie moved it from pan to rack, and the one Bobby determined wasn’t spicy enough for a spice cake and threw away.

—

The next week, after a mountain of paperwork and musical chairs with cakes and freezers, dispatcher appreciation day organized by one Mr. Evan Buckley is finally here.

The call center smells amazing, sweetness wafting all over the building. The call lines buzz and it gives Buck an enexplainable happiness. Maybe it’s just thinking about what happens after the call comes in. He’s been sitting here since Maddie came in for her shift at the crack of dawn. Okay, 8 AM.

The first people that come in aren’t even fully conscious and jump when Buck wishes them his appreciation. They take the cake though and thank him. There’s going to be an awful lot of friendships made today. 

Josh is the first person to come in that Buck recognizes, “Are you here to challenge Maddie to a rematch in public?” 

Buck dips his head and laughs, grinning when he looks back up at Josh, who is happily eating a slice of cake. “Something like that. Happy dispatcher appreciation day.” 

“Thank you. Especially for this cake!” 

“That good, huh?” 

“Um, yes. What’s your recipe?” 

“Just plain old boxed cake mix.” 

“Well, let me tell you. Delicious.” Josh winks at Buck and leaves with another slice. 

Different members of the 118 switch out throughout the day and Chimney takes the next shift. Maddie just happens to take her break when Chimney enters from the elevator. Josh’s knowing face doesn’t escape either of them, and they just grin. 

“Happy dispatcher appreciation day to my favorite dispatcher.” 

“Thank you, Chimney.” Maddie replies, smiling so hard her cheeks hurt. She slices two slices, sticks a fork in to them and passes one to Chimney. They don’t take their eyes off of each other, and twice Maddie stabs her fork through the plate, she’s so distracted by Chimney: the way he looks at her and the way his thumb rubs hers softly captivating her focus.

Bobby and Hen have the next shift, and it takes Hen most of hers to drag Chimney away so Maddie can do her job. Bobby, meanwhile, strikes up a conversation with Sue, who was watching quietly over Maddie and Chimney’s *ahem* conversation.

“Happy dispatcher appreciation day.”

“Thank you, Captain Nash. My only question is how you got your crew to work together to do all this.” She gestures with her fork around the counter and the styrofoam coolers in the corner.

“Buck has his ways of getting people to work together.” Bobby smiles proudly.

“Maybe it’s the puppy dog eyes.”

Bobby chuckles. “They are convincing.”

Hen appears in the doorway shaking her head. “When he uses them on Eddie especially.” She smirks and waves to Sue.

Bobby doesn’t say anything to disprove that, instead smiling knowingly. Terry comes in, stepping around Hen carefully. “Hey, Hen.”

“Hey, Terry.” Hen replies, fondly remembering her first meeting with Terry a few years ago during a police investigation. Terry was the reason the police closed the case and that was the start of a beautiful friendship.

“I’m not technically a dispatcher, but I hope I can still have some cake. Hopefully not made by Henrietta “terrible baker” Wilson.” Terry teases.

“Of course you can. They were made by Bobby the nationally recognized baker, so no need to worry.” Hen replies, pointing to Bobby.

“Not exactly.” Bobby laughs wryly and Sue stifles a giggle. “But thank you, Hen.”

“I ain’t wrong.”

“Don’t disagree with Hen.” Eddie surmises sarcastically.

“He isn’t wrong.” Bobby replies.

“You know it.” Hen winks, waving a subtle goodbye to Terry and Sue, who are also on their way out.

Bobby stands to leave as well and Eddie throws him a bewildered look. “Going to leave me alone? I don’t know anyone.” He fake pouts and Bobby rubs his shoulder calmly.

“You’ll be fine. Don’t sweat it.” Bobby smiles like he has a secret. Which he does.

Eddie takes a seat, politely thanking the dispatchers that come in for their service. He knows a few of them, not well, but Buck mentioned some of them when he was relating the tale of the heist. Eddie chuckles wryly at the way Buck told that story like it was the end of a murder podcast.

“What’s so funny?” Eddie looks up at Buck smirking in the doorway. He somehow cut a piece of cake without Eddie noticing.

“Nothing.” Eddie sighs and continues. “You know that cake is for dispatchers, right?”

“I was almost a dispatcher, you know.” Buck says, tapping the fork on his forehead. “Went through the training and everything.”

“Solid backup plan.”

“Shush.”

“I think you would’ve rocked that polo.”

“Thanks.” Buck says, amused and slightly embarrassed.

Maddie appears at that moment, with Chimney right behind her.

“Hey guys.” Buck says and Eddie nods to them both. Chimney waves and Maddie says hello back. Chimney stealthily nuzzles a kiss into Maddie’s neck and both Eddie and Buck avert their eyes politely.

“You guys can kiss too, so it’s not weird.” Maddie says, winking.

“No, I think that would make this way weirder.” Eddie shakes his head, not removing his hands from over his eyes.

“Can you just eat cake in the break room? Like normal people!” Buck says, groaning softly.

“Nope!” Chimney says, kissing Maddie again.

“Eww!” Buck fake gags and Eddie busts out laughing.

“Don’t be childish.” He teases. Buck continues gagging as Maddie and Chimney continue their public display of affection. Maddie flips him the bird behind Chimneys back, which only makes Eddie laugh harder.

Will you be that childish when I kiss you for the first time? Eddie thinks to himself.