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doublel27 · 3 years

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No, you don’t like Owen Strand right now (and you’re not supposed to)

Or my meta on why I think the show is purposefully running Owen into the ground and out of our hearts, and that it’s coming for a big pay off.

CW: 9/11, Minor Character Death, Cancer, and other just general 911 problems.

A lot of people cite the issues with Owen Strand as a growing problem on 9-1-1 Lone Star. And if you listen, most people say it starts in Season Two, where Owen leaves funny and quirky and takes a straight run at insufferable. I’m of the mind that this is part of a larger arc we’re going to see come to a head later in season three. And if I’m wrong, I will publicly admit it and eat my hat. But until then…

Season Two starts off in an interesting place for Owen. TK has recovered from his gunshot wound, Owen’s cancer is heading into remission and he just needs surgery to remove what’s left of the tumor, Owen is sleeping with his ex-wife who he strongly suggests to Judd in season one is the “One Who Got Away,” and things are looking great for the 126. However, the first scene, the first big speech and moment at the start of the season for Owen is about forgotten heroes—the military, the first responders to 9/11, being left behind by the system. Owen’s anger in that opening sequence is real and righteous. The cancer Owen is diagnosed with in the pilot is real, it does affect the first responders who survived 9/11, and they sued the city because their insurance didn’t pay for it. He’s standing alone in front of the VA hospital and opens with this speech “Mr. Vasquez, this is Captain Owen Strand Austin FD. I wanna say how sorry I am for your loss. No one should ever have to feel what you’re feeling. I understand you wanna blame the government for what happened to your daughter. For denying her sacrifice. I know how painful that feels. [...] You see, on 9/11, it was the one day this country swore it would never forget. And it did. Those of us who were there that day, we don’t have that luxury. We don’t get to forget. And I know too many people who survived that day, only to die years later, forgotten. Ignored. Because their problems were too expensive. Too inconvenient. So yeah, I understand your rage.” The moment ends with the gun of the tank stopping inches from his face and he responds to Grace with “Still standing.”

Season two opens with Owen acknowledging his rage but that he’s still standing. It’s one of the few times he even touches on his feelings.

Things get blown to hell (literally) in 2x02 when Tim Rosewater, the sweet and sarcastic paramedic, gets hit with a flaming chunk of lava three feet from Owen’s face, and there’s nothing Owen can do. The promise he made to the 126 at the opening of the series: everyone gets a fair shake, no one gets left behind, and everyone who clocks in at the beginning of a shift clocks out is broken here, as it inevitably would be. When he goes home to Gwyn, he sits in the ashes of the volcanic eruption, jokes about what’s the worst that can happen—he gets cancer again, and is reminded of the ash on 9/11, although muses that this time it’s prettier and I don’t know if it’s because he’s further away from that moment, or his losses are smaller or he’s actually sort of letting Gwyn comfort him. Gwyn suggests that she’s glad he’s okay in the wake of Tim’s death and Owen responds “Oh, I was always going to be okay. You don’t need to worry about me. I’m invincible, evidently.” He recounts that being diagnosed with cancer was the universe finally evening the score, but surviving it…he doesn’t know what to do with.

2x03 opens with Owen not sleeping, dreaming of Tim’s death and of Tim haunting him. We see him take a reckless turn in the wake of Tim’s death, but it doesn’t bother us because it’s to go get Judd, Marjan, Paul, Eddie and the kid. But we watch him unspool the longer he and Hen are in the mineshaft. He’s hallucinating Tim and it’s getting deep into his invulnerability psychology, into the voices of the people who died on 9/11 from Tim’s mouth. The 14 men who didn’t make it home but Owen did. Owen tells Hen the whole thing, the anger he feels that they let him leave that building alive without them. The guilt he feels over forcing TK into following his footsteps, over the failure of his marriage (singular). When Hen suggests they’re going to die, Owen quips, “You’re only trying to cheer me up.” (If you need to know more about the house Owen’s is modeled on, BlueInk3 detailed it here.) Owen once again escapes certain death due to the 126 and 118 stealing the truck and driving into a wildfire. Owen wakes to TK and Judd and the rest of his team staring at him and they carry him out. Owen wakes again to Tommy, who was so concerned by the conversation with Owen she came up to where they were fighting, and in the end another miracle has contained the fire. Owen’s takeaway is that it’s okay, he’s invincible and it’s the only logical explanation for how they walked out. Hen corrects him, that the actions of two teams, particularly TK and Buck deciding to steal an engine, explain what happened and they didn’t walk, they were carried. Owen doesn’t buy it. And we can see that based on his actions further on.

Then, in 2x04 “Friends with Benefits,” that storyline seems to disappear, because Gwyn pushes for a label and it turns out, she’s miraculously pregnant and Owen heads into a three episode arc of “I’m going to be a dad (again).” He pulls himself (mostly) together after ping-ponging between professing that divorced together not-together is the best thing and proposing to Gwyn by recreating their wedding suite set up. (Gwyn says no.) But with the advent of the baby, Owen makes a commitment to Gwyn, choosing to get the surgery he’s been avoiding. He throws himself wholeheartedly into this second chance. We have already learned that Gwyn and Owen’s relationship fell apart in the wake of the tragedy of 9/11 because Owen chose the 252 over Gwyn and TK. Here he is, with another tragedy that brought all of those feelings and memories back up, but Owen has a chance to fix it. Here’s Gwyn, warm and alive and they’re not miserable, and there’s another baby. A baby he doesn’t have to leave. He can fix this. He can have his do-over.

Until he can’t. Gwyn figures out in 2x07 that it might not be his baby, due to timing, and Owen is fixated on the Kintsugi bowl, all the more beautiful for it’s cracks. And when it comes down to it, when it comes down to the moment she’s emailed the paternity test, he asks her to delete it. Owen doesn’t care. He wants her to delete it. Because for him it’s not about whether or not this baby is biologically his. It’s about what the whole system of their reunion represents. It’s that he’s had a better time with Gwyn in the last year than they did their entire marriage. It’s a chance to fix something he broke, to come home to someone instead of run away. It’s a chance to have a more beautiful life because of the cracks that he repaired. Gwyn checks the email and Owen says he still doesn’t care. It doesn’t matter, because again, it’s more than whose baby it is. It’s this miraculous do-over for Owen to get things right. But Gwyn doesn’t believe him. And she leaves him, again. The spiral that was put on hold with the news of the baby quickly starts up again with the advent of 2x08. “Bad Call” is a fan favorite episode for a lot of reasons. It gives Carlos, as a character, backstory and depth, introducing us to his father and continuing the path to detective Carlos that began in season 1 with Michelle and Iris. It weaves together all of the calls into one beautiful storyline. Tommy, Nancy and TK get a solid feature as the paramedic team. Paul, Marjan, Judd and Mateo get a beautiful save in the building. But it’s also the start of Owen’s unraveling. He’s doing alright-ish at the top of the episode, but he and Gwyn haven’t told TK about the break up. They haven’t told anyone. Owen is, literally, still living in a world where no one knows his world is unraveling. And then TK shows up at work frosty and Gwyn calls to tell him that she told TK, that she had to, and she’s worried about him shutting down. We then get to the call with the explosives, where Owen has to call everyone out of the building, and the 126, being the one 126 (and Owen’s proteges) stay in the building to find the kid, and Owen goes back up after them—because he’s working on keeping that impossible promise to bring everyone home. The episode continues with Carlos showing up to Owen’s because TK hasn’t come home and he’s worried. Gwyn jumps straight to relapse, but Owen stays cool. Owen stays collected. He calls the station and discovers that no one has had contact with Tommy’s team for hours. Owen starts with his invincibility/god complex by starting his own investigation here with Carlos, a currently suspended cop, along for the ride. Now, this is all easily justifiable to the audience. We love the paramedic team. Owen and Carlos love TK. Of course they’d be going off to find him. But there are channels this probably should have gone through that were not Owen and Carlos out on their own mission. Owen is supportive of Carlos, and is helpful. He supports Carlos in calling his dad to solve the investigation his dad’s been working on. They find Tommy, Nancy and TK. Owen is the first one through the door of the Sun and Salt. Owen picks up the gun that TK had kicked away moments earlier and shoots Tommy’s assailant after she had jabbed him with a heavy dose of drugs and Carlos rushes in to pick up TK. Now, the only quibble most people had with this looking back is that Owen is the one who shot Tommy’s assailant. But Carlos was relieved of his gun and badge earlier in the episode and asked not to leave town by his father. Owen got to the gun on the ground first and did what had to be done, but the thing is, why is Owen the first through the door? It’s this hero/god complex/invincibility business that makes him sure he can enter that building first. It’s also the fact that he would like to die, especially in the line of saving someone. That drives him to pick up the gun and shooting it off. And, let’s be honest, it’s not the first time Owen comes in at the tail end of someone else’s legwork to appear the hero. But that’s all part of the game.

2x09 doesn’t feature Owen that much, and that’s because “Saving Grace” is really a Judd Begins story. The 126 as we know it doesn’t feature until the halfway point, the show bouncing between Judd and Grace’s car accident and Judd’s life since 1995. When we do see Owen, he greets Judd, but can’t look at him as Judd cuts a piece of lasagna for Grace, and the framing of that shot is a choice. He supports Judd, being the first to hug him. He listens as two on-duty cops tell Carlos they’re here to interview a drunk guy who definitely ran into a convenience store and might have run a couple off the road, and Owen watches Judd and specifically asks if he’s good. Judd is not good. Eventually, Judd spirals into the man’s room and is ready to kill him over Grace’s injuries, when Owen and Grace’s daddy show up to get him, and it’s Owen who speaks to Judd first, calling him off, and Owen who eventually touches him to ground him and get him to back off. And again, Owen is Judd’s friend. They’re more peers—Owen, Tommy and Judd—than with the other members of the 126 (who I affectionately call the kids’ table). But he’s still chasing down other people’s problems. Judd credits Grace’s awakening with saving the man in the bed’s life, but the last shot of the scene is Owen looking back at the man who might have almost killed Judd and Grace, alive. Our last glimpse of Owen is when Judd comes out to tell everyone that Grace is going to be okay. He’s concerned for Judd, but when the news that Grace is pregnant comes out, Owen claps, a little awkwardly, and then heads in for the hug, insisting that the whole team come congratulate Judd. But the juxtaposition of Judd becoming a father and Grace living, as Owen is losing Gwyn to New York and the baby isn’t his…well, that’s something.

2x10-2x12 is a whole Owen spiraling out arc that gives us, as an audience, a true look at the mess that Owen is becoming. TK moves out of Owen’s house and in with Carlos. Owen tries to spend the whole day moving them and is looking for new jobs to do around the place, and TK has to both tell Owen that they’ve got it and take the time to check on his father. He wants to make sure his father will be okay with him moving out. Owen blows it off, putting on his usual smile and dipping out. Later, TK invites Owen over for dinner with Carlos and Owen insists that he’s busy, but we see him just playing solitaire. He finds Mateo, currently homeless because Mateo’s roommates have been awful idiots, and takes home a surrogate son/friend. On their 24 hours off Mateo, who just wants to sleep, is badgered into staying up all night with his beloved Captain, drinking an entire bottle of very expensive tequila. And when he raises a question about tequila hours Owen points out that he can now “Because there’s no cancer treatments, no one in recovery and no one who is pregnant in the house.” YIKES

The yikes continue to roll in 2x10 as Owen breaks down with Mateo while very drunk, and spills that he’s canceled his cancer surgery. He’s sad, he’s distraught, and when Mateo comes to work the next day he sounds the alarm with his coworkers. He’s worried about Owen. Owen’s clearly depressed. Owen walks in, his smiling chirpy self, and everyone looks at Mateo like maybe he’s crazy. But the audience watched him fall apart with Mateo. We know Mateo didn’t imagine it. Well, it comes out that he DID indeed cancel his cancer surgery and TK shows up at Owen’s house the next day PISSED with an intervention. Owen is glib throughout the whole experience, putting everyone else on the spot, and the team pushes back. TK in particular pushes at his father. He has known something is off, but Owen blows off every concern. He skewers Mateo for telling the rest of the team, suggesting that Mateo—who remains the most conscientious of all of the members of the 126—cannot be trusted. In the end though, Owen cannot deny that he canceled his surgery, even if he uses everybody else in the room as an excuse of why he hasn’t rescheduled. TK ends up leaving, suggesting his dad is going to do whatever he wants, and the rest of the 126 follows.

The thing that shifts Owen to schedule his surgery is a false alarm with Buttercup. Owen thinks Buttercup’s cancer is back and calls TK and Carlos to let them know something is wrong. His family shows up, and Owen promises to schedule the surgery because of Buttercup’s illness. It turns out that Buttercup just ate Gwyn’s sloth tea infuser, but Owen goes through with the surgery anyway. It takes nearly losing someone that Owen loves to get him to take care of himself. This will come around again.

He lets TK come to the hospital, but promises that he’ll be fine. He rolls his eyes at the puzzle TK gives him. TK knows that he needs to be busy, and Owen tries to keep busy. We get a montage of Owen doing all kinds of ridiculous things, but he learns how to download a police scanner app from Billy, and like two sides of the same coin during their medical leaves, Billy and Owen listen to various dispatch calls to keep their adrenaline running. Owen listens to the scanner like it’s a podcast. He’s still out and about with his scanner podcast, when he stumbles upon a fire. Owen, like a moth to a flame, throws himself at the fire. He watches the man who set it run away, and tries to help. When the 126 shows up, they make him get out of there, but Owen is already hooked. He’s convinced it’s arson, and tries to talk to the deputy chief about it. But when he’s blown off, Owen goes off on his own to try and figure it out. He buys a bunch of things to try and prove it was arson, which is not a smart look, but then Owen’s not thinking about that.

He’s so focused on solving a problem, Owen isn’t thinking about what things look like, or how they’ll be taken. This is a continuing problem with Owen. He leaps without looking. It doesn’t matter, not really, because Owen is invincible, untouchable, in his own mind. This theory of why he’s alive, that he cannot be taken, or that if he does enough he’ll finally be deemed a hero enough to die, leads Owen into these situations. And it also leads us into being entirely irritated in the process.

He gets to the point where he’s so focused chasing the arsonist that he delays going to TK and Carlos’s house to investigate and ends up needing to get dragged out by Billy. He then hatches a plan with Gabriel Reyes to catch the arsonist, one that leaves both of their sons in the dark and opens a rift between them. The plan culminates in arson fires set in both the 126 and in TK and Carlos’s home. Owen figures it out in the nick of time, both times, warning the 126 with minutes to spare. With Carlos and TK’s house, Owen gets there with Judd and Tommy and Billy to help save them.

Once again, things fall apart around Owen, but Owen remains relatively unscathed. He wasn’t at the 126 when it blew up. He gets TK and Carlos out of their house and he’s got some minor burns.

You would think this would lead Owen to take a break, but in the next episode, Tommy Vega ends up in a hostage situation in the wake of her husband’s death. Owen, not knowing what has happened, but learning Tommy is in the middle of a disaster, throws himself in the middle of it. He’s running around, calling people, bothering the SWAT team and eventually sweet talking his way inside to get to Tommy. Owen is legit inserting himself into something that isn’t his business and is potentially incredibly dangerous. Again, we have a man who believes that he’s invulnerable, who is waiting for the universe to deem him fit to die, and so it’s a win/win. Either he makes it out alive or dies a hero.

We move into the dust storm, and while Billy and everyone else stays inside, Owen runs out into the middle of the storm. Despite it being a mistake, there are more people that are going to need his help. When Owen walks out into the storm, visibility is incredibly low. There’s a chance he’s going to get lost or end up dead. But he’s Owen, and he’s either going to be deemed heroic enough to die, or he’s going to live. And unsurprisingly, he lives. His former team all think he’s responsible for the mass-triage happening outside, but it’s really Mateo who has done all of that work. This isn’t the first time Owen’s won the credit for things, even if he hasn’t done them. But he gets through without incident. The team decides to go clean up the 126 on their own. While there, Billy shows up, letting Owen know that he’s taken the Deputy Chief job that Owen has turned down. Billy lets Owen know he’s pulling the plug on the 126, and Owen punches Billy in the face.

This leads to the spiral that we find Owen in at the start of Season 3. Owen has tried to solve a problem and lost—it’s not a typical thing for Owen, and he bolts in the face of losing. He ends up in a cabin out in Hill Country making twigspresso and genuinely pretending the rest of the world doesn’t exist. He hasn’t shaved. He doesn’t respond to the team. Marjan comes up there ready to bully him back down into Austin and he refuses. During this storyline, Owen ends up involving himself in a drug cartel that is smuggling people into the country and using them to move drugs as well. Owen makes several blunders in getting involved in this situation. When it comes down to it, Owen nearly gets everyone killed. If it wasn’t for Marjan, Owen would have died right alongside everyone else. But she explodes the dirty deputy’s cruiser and she saves the day. Owen seems to get the credit, but it’s really Marjan being there that allows those people to live. Marjan tries to get him to see reason, but beyond getting Owen down into Austin, he refuses. He shaves, Tommy comes to get him and it turns out TK is in the ICU and dying. Like with Buttercup, having someone he loves in grave danger spurs Owen to take action he was avoiding. Owen throws himself into getting the 126 back up and running because he takes TK’s current predicament as a punishment for giving up in the first place. As an audience, this seems ridiculous. But again, Owen has a bit of a god-complex. The world is hurting him because he made a poor choice. TK is giving up because Owen gave up first. So he has to go. He refuses to stay.

Now, the rest of the team (aside from Tommy) reads as very confused in this scene. Marjan actively suggests that Owen not go, which is contrary to her desires up to that point, but let’s be honest, TK’s not doing so hot. Paul looks concerned and Carlos looks very doubtful but it’s hard to tell where any of his emotions are at this point. The fandom, though, definitely took it as Carlos being done. Tommy goes, because she long ago accepted that Owen is both an immovable object and an unstoppable force. They track Billy and that leads them to finding out Grace is gone. Owen throws himself into solving problems, because there’s nothing he can do for TK. Also, an Owen who gives up, an Owen who isn’t trying hard enough, is an Owen who doesn’t deserve the miracle of his son living. In Owen’s flawed logic, TK will not be okay as long as Owen is failing. He hugs Carlos, passing on the caring of TK to TK’s ex-boyfriend, and leaves.

Throughout 3.04, we watch Owen do what Owen does best, knuckle down, pretend things are not as bad as they seem, and shove his emotions away. Tommy tries to apologize, but Owen offers her comfort. Truth is, Owen doesn’t fall apart until Grace is giving birth, presumably because he’s very much reminded of his son’s birth; the same son who is potentially dying at that moment. Owen escapes the bus and falls to his knees in the snow, because the reality is talking to Billy, saving Grace, none of that will actually make a difference. And I think deep down, Owen knows that.

In the end, TK lives, and I’m sure Owen can add this as another one of his miracles that came because he, Owen Strand, did the right thing. It’s not. We as an audience know what happened, because again, like with Mateo, we were shown the reality that it was Carlos pouring his heart out to TK and TK’s ‘Coma Carol’ with his mental projection of his mom which convinces TK to fight for the life he wants.

The 126 gets saved as well after Owen brings his apology letter to Billy, (but really thanks to Marjan for her fighting this whole time and Paul for convincing Lindsay’s parents that the gift he needs isn’t a maserati but Marj’s Go Fund Me funded) and Owen is able to rebuild his house, again. It’s the third time he’s rebuilt a supposedly dead firehouse, although this time he hadn’t lost the people, just the space.

There’s a party, with Gwyn and Jonah coming to surprise TK and the whole house dancing and celebrating. Everyone except Owen. Owen retreats up to his office where he can look down on the party, separate and above them. He sets the bit of iron from the second tower of the World Trade Center on his desk. Owen Strand may have survived to live another day; he may have put his house back in order, but he is still trapped back in 9/11.

By 3.05, the 126 is up and running and Owen is banging any woman that walks, especially ones significantly younger than him. Mateo calls him on it, pointing out that he doesn’t know these girls' names, that he’s not coping with anything that’s happened. The intervention gets brought up, as well as Gwyn and Jonah. Owen pushes this off and gets Mateo to help him with online dating. His first date off of his fancy dating sight goes wildly awry and while Owen is waiting for his and his date’s cars to be brought up by the valet, he spots a car there's an Amber alert on, so he steals his date’s car to chase it. There’s no reason for Owen to do this. This is indeed theft. He calls in the Amber alert car to dispatch and dispatch tells him to stand down and not do anything with the woman in the car, to wait. At this point, Owen is racing through the streets. The way it’s filmed, very shaky and wild, it’s almost certain he’s going to get himself and his carnapped-date killed. Owen ends up deciding to ignore dispatch entirely, but to pull the kidnapper over and confront her. There’s a lot of ways that this could have gone wrong and is foolish. But Owen Strand, the invulnerable hero, doesn’t think about these things. We’ve seen it before, and we see it here.

Once again, he gets incredibly lucky and manages to keep the woman from stabbing him before Carlos and Detective Washington and other members of APD show up. Owen appears to be the hero here, but the audience has watched Carlos build this case, pouring all his spare time into finding out what happened to little Katie. Many audience members were once again angry that Owen seemed to get the save for something he didn’t do. But that’s part of the point. Owen is throwing himself into things he doesn’t know, into situations he has nothing to do with, and when things don’t go to shit, it adds to the evidence that he’s here to save as many people as possible, to be a hero, before he dies a hero.

The next two episodes see a slightly more toned-down Owen, but not really. He’s mentioned as feeling closer to season one Owen, but he’s still tossing himself into disaster at every opportunity.

In 3.06, we learn that Owen is an alien conspiracy theorist, but considering that Owen has taken in every health fad that has ever crossed the internet and is pretty sure that he’s been deemed invincible by the universe, this isn’t a surprise. He and Judd end up finding a massive radiation poisoning incident, and throw themselves into an investigation while they are off-duty. Considering Owen has just recovered from cancer caused by carcinogens, this is a bad plan.

In 3.07, Carlos tries to warn Owen about Sergeant O’Brien, but Owen being Owen, takes it as a challenge. Now O’Brien is an asshole, but Owen doesn’t help the situation. Owen deliberately antagonizes him, and it leads to a bit of a battle that Owen decides how to handle. TK tries to warn him off as well, reminding him of the anger management classes that he took after he hit Billy. They end up on the softball field, which seems harmless, but Owen is out quoting The Art of War and planting people on his team to be ringers. Unsurprisingly, the game ends in a brawl, because even when TK tries to warn him off, Owen cannot hold his temper. He’s been warned off this particular fight multiple times, by multiple people, but it still ended up here. Owen’s redemption in this episode comes when Sergeant O’Brien is caught in a fire and Owen saves him. Once again, Owen comes through with a save due to heroics, and yes, this time it’s because he was doing his job and not throwing himself at someone else’s problem, but it still adds fuel to the narrative of how things work in Owen’s head.

The problem is Owen keeps upping the ante, but calms down a little when things are going well—Gwyn and the baby in season two or as we see in 3.05-3.07 a slightly less unhinged Owen in every episode since the reunion of the 126 in season three. But the longer it goes on, the less reasonable Owen's choices have become. What was justifiable as a father’s love and concern in 2x08 has quickly become an obnoxious pattern. But as we’ve seen, it’s been going on consistently since 2x08. That's EVERY EPISODE for 14 episodes. No wonder we're all like "What the fuck dude?" And now, at the end of 3x07, we’ve hit a thing Owen cannot fix and cannot solve. Gwyn is dead. Gwyneth Morgan, the one who got away, the woman he loves, the gold-standard of women, is gone for good this time. The only times he’s done anything to turn anything around have been either when he thought he had a second chance with Gwyn, or in her absence, when he thought Buttercup or TK was dying. Now he will be confronted with an actual death, and of the one person he tried to rebuild things with.

In the preview, he says that TK’s mom died, but we know it’s more than that. On top of that, he’s going to be involved in a plane disaster. As a survivor of 9/11, as a first responder who was on the scene early, especially as his firehouse was probably in Midtown, a plane disaster is going to bring things up. It’s going to bring a lot of things up. It has to, considering the mass fears around flying that cropped up across all of the US over planes after 9/11.

This combination should get Owen to the point of TRUE rock-bottom, which we haven’t seen yet. As these themes keep circling, I have faith that the writers are planning on bringing Owen to an actual reckoning and recovery, where he deals with at least some of his trauma and begins to heal. Now, I know there’s a lot of concern out there that Lone Star doesn’t know what they’re doing with Owen here, but I think they do. They’ve carried some solid through lines for their characters through multiple seasons. Detective Carlos Reyes was signaled early in Season One as he supported Michelle in her investigation into Iris’s disappearance. We’ve followed Mateo’s struggles to stand up for himself, to the point where he has a voice now from season one through three. There’s more. The show has set Owen up as an unreliable narrator by showing what happens in reality vs. what Owen says/thinks. They have had multiple characters, including one from a sister show, confront Owen about his beliefs about himself, and Owen stubbornly doubles down. Owen may be over twenty years out from 9/11, but it’s never ever really left him. He carries that day with him in his bones, from the promises he makes to his team that he cannot keep, to his belief the only real heroes that day didn’t make it out alive, to his need to constantly make up for the fact that everyone sees a hero when he’s in fact a man who’s failed many times. I cannot imagine they’re giving us this particular set up without coming through with the payoff. They’ve made Owen unlikeable, inconvenient, arrogant and really a continued spiraling problem. And I think it’s on purpose.

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safeashousespdf · 3 years

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i think if they wrote tk calling carlos papi it would be the single greatest moment in tv history. if not for the fans then for ronen.

#ronen is sending me coded messages i'm simply perceiving the truth #owen: i'm gonna be a father :) tk:#[runs to bathroom to take a mirror selfie and send it to carlos with the caption 'hiiiiii daddy 🥺']#owen said i'm about to be a father and tk said great!! i'm about to be a son!!!#this post isn't about being pro-daddy kink (i am but that's unrelated)#it's about bullying tk and that pic of lord farquad that says BOTTOM!!!#911 #tarlos #tk strand #charlie.txt

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tkandbuck · 4 years

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Here’s a thought: Owen knows all of TK’s accomplishments, because he has been there celebrating them with him.

It’s not that he didn’t recognise that Tommy was describing TK, because he’s always ignored TK. She could have been describing any firefighter. He’s just used to TK talking through everything with him. You can see the “oh shit” moment when it clicked that was what was wrong. He went immediately to touch base with TK and see if everything was okay. Because he is a good dad.

He knew something was wrong during the entire episode, even told Tommy that it was icy. He’s not a mind reader, though, either, and so it didn’t connect. He made a mistake by not saying “again” when he said he was going to be a father, because we don’t always think though what we’re saying. TK’s a grown man, so he doesn’t need Owen in the same way that a baby would need him. Did it suck? Yep. Is he going to wake up one morning at 2am kicking himself because he realised what he said? Yep.

It would be nice if TK could express exactly what’s bothering him. It would be nice to have a moment where they talk about the chasm that’s grown between them while Gwyn’s been there. It’s thrown off their balance, how they work when it’s just them. Adding another person to the mix always does that. When she goes, they’re going to be able to get back into their groove.

#911 lone star #tk strand #owen strand #pro-owen strand #please start tagging Owen hate #the show's really starting to be ruined for me

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mikeluciraphgabe · 3 years

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I dislike/like Owen as much as the next and I think we should talk about it.

He’s not a bad character. The writers just make too many episodes about him and I think that’s most people’s problem with him. That and he’s always in everyone’s business but that’s a whole other thing.

Anyway I’ll go into that later

He’s clearly a goodish father, let’s start with that.

Pros: Not every parent is perfect but I think Owen is better then most. He’s clearly there for TK when needed and tells him he loves TK practically every other episode. He also tries to protect TK as much as possible, on and off job, like hiding his cancer and jumping off the ladder to save those two kids. To be honest, I think if any parent who had there relationship would have hidden their cancer as well. Owen also seems to support TK in practically everything his does even if he doesn’t exactly like it. An example is when TK was going to propose to Alex and he said “I think you should move in together first but do what makes you happy.” (Not word for word) he clearly doesn’t like what his son is going to do but he does make an effort to show he’s still here for him when he goes through with it. (Even if TK does get frustrated later that scene.) he also seems to know TK well enough to tell when he should give him advice. That’s what I get out of the things I’ve seen anyway.

Cons: Now, obviously, there are things Owen should work on as a father. He “left” (emotionally I guess??) TK was he was young because of 9/11. Which is understandable but Owen could have tried a bit harder with therapy and maybe making an effort to come home instead of doing paper work at the station. He could also work on communication. Again, with the cancer but also with the undercover thing he did with Gabriel. I understand why both fathers didn’t say anything, to keep the cover, but I think the situation got a bit more out of hand then what could have happened if Owen (and Gabriel) had planned a bit better and told the two. (Idk just really think it could have gone better) anyway, the thing he also said about being a father. That hurt TK deeply. Obviously we later saw him apologizing and explaining to TK what he meant. I just think Owen needs to learn that, even thought TK is an adult, anything and everything that comes out of his mouth will affect TK in someway.

Now, to Owen’s over all character

Pros: He seems like a really good captain at the work place and a good person over all. He makes sure his team is doing well and makes sure they all have a place to stay. He makes sure they eat well. He also seems like someone who would give a homeless person a free meal idk lol.

Cons: He is a bit annoying with being all up in everyone’s business. Owen also does some extra things. Like punching Billy in the face.

Over all, Owen Strand isn’t a horrible character nor a great character. He’s a bit neutral. I would definitely be a bit upset if he died (mostly because TK would be sad) but it wouldn’t bother me too much to the point I riot.

If he were to die, he would die trying to save TK because, to me, that seems in character.

#there’s a LOT missing #feel free to continue!#owen strand #911 family #911 #911 fox #911 long star #911 lone star #tk strand #character analysis

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ukzq5510 · 3 years

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9-1-1: Lone Star [3x06] Stagione 3 Episodio 6 | Serie TV Streaming Sub ITA

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TRADUZIONE: Italiano GENERE: Dramma, Action & Adventure, Crime ATTORI: Rob Lowe, Jim Parrack, Ronen Rubinstein, Natacha Karam, Brian Michael Smith, Rafael Silva, Sierra McClain, Gina Torres, Julian Works

Trama Dopo gli attacchi dell'11 settembre 2001, Owen Strand fu l'unico rimasto in vita della sua caserma dei pompieri di Manhattan, a cui spettò l'arduo compito di rimetterla in piedi. Dopo che una caserma dei vigili del fuoco di Austin perde gran parte del suo personale, Owen, insieme al figlio T.K., anch'egli un vigile del fuoco, decidono di raggiungere la città texana per dare una mano nella ricostruzione della caserma. Owen, apparentemente uno spavaldo uomo di città, lotta con un segreto che nasconde al mondo e che potrebbe benissimo porre fine alla sua vita.

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Trova tutte le serie TV e i film che puoi riprodurre in streaming online, comprese le serie trasmesse oggi. Se ti stai chiedendo cosa puoi guardare su questo sito web, dovresti sapere che include generi tra cui serie poliziesche, dramma, mistero, azione e avventura. Grazie mille Diciamo a tutti coloro che sono felici di accettarci come notizie o informazioni sullo spettacolo della stagione, sugli episodi e su come guardano i loro programmi TV preferiti. Speriamo di poter diventare il miglior partner per te quando cerchi consigli per uno spettacolo televisivo da vari paesi in tutto il mondo. È tutto da parte nostra, saluti.

#9-1-1: Lone Star 3x06 Streaming Sub ITA CB01 #9-1-1: Lone Star Stagione 3 Episodio 6

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37uy84vb93 · 3 years

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[3x04] 9-1-1: Lone Star Stagione 3 Episodio 4 Sub ITA Altadefinizione

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► 9-1-1: Lone Star (Serie TV) Streaming ITA

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#9-1-1: Lone Star 3x04 Streaming Sub ITA #9-1-1: Lone Star Stagione 3 Episodio 4

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lire-casander · 4 years

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es la vida quien dice cuál es el destino

[1,207 words] [general audiences] [beta’ed by @meloingly. any remaining mistakes are my own] [title from la historia de tu vida by maldita nerea. the title roughly translates into it’s life who gets a say in fate] [tk strand, carlos reyes, owen strand, judd ryder, marjan marwani, michelle blake, paul strickland] [tooth-rotting fluff, mentions of the solar flares] [written for @carlosreyesweek 2021, day #1: “i love you, but stop talking” + fluff + favorite line/scene]

[owen strand is a pro at embarrassing both tk and carlos]

es la vida quien dice cuál es el destino

Carlos is torn between laughing and hiding his reddening face in the crook of TK’s neck to try and mask his embarrassment. He knew this could happen when they began talking about throwing this particular party, but he always thought the mortification would come from his side of the family — not from Captain Owen Strand, a little worse for the weather after one too many wine glasses. He chooses to drop a kiss onto the tender skin of his newly-wed husband as he moves to bury his face there, shaking slightly as TK laughs — not so subtly — at his father’s words.

He’s been at it for what feels like hours now, although Carlos knows that objectively it can’t be longer than five or six minutes. But after his mother’s retelling of one of the worst episodes of his childhood — when he believed he could be Superman and tried jumping off the rooftop — Carlos had thought the cringe-worthy stories of his past were over. He’d thought it would be TK’s turn when Owen had stood up and announced that he was giving the best man’s speech.

Carlos had been so wrong, it isn’t even funny.

“—and there he stood, sporting heart eyes and the goofiest smile in the world, right outside of the station, waiting for TK. And I knew Carlos was in love with my son before, but that moment made me believe it,” Owen is saying, recounting his perspective of the day that Carlos almost lost TK for the second time in less than twenty-four hours — first at that silly bobba tea place and then after the solar flare when he played superhero without backup.

“Dad,” TK cuts in, chuckling. “What’s the point in retelling all of our history when everyone here suffered through it the first time? And telling it backwards?”

“Yeah, listen to your son, he’s right!” Judd calls out from his place at one of the tables that are near theirs. It comes out surrounded by a chorus of laughters, making Carlos believe that everyone’s having fun at his expense.

He knows he’s always been a little way over the moon about TK — and not only about those green eyes that had captured him the first moment he locked his own gaze to theirs, but also the charisma and the insecurity, the softness underneath the sharp angles of that soul that Carlos has come to cherish more than his own life — but to see it dissected by his father-in-law in front of the rest of their friends and family seems a little too much for him.

“Because,” Owen replies pointedly. Carlos looks up long enough to notice that the 126 Captain has turned toward them fully now, and he’s scolding his son. “Because it’s easy to see now that you two are in love, and it was easy to see it back then after you got shot, TK, but before that? Those little details that were there all the time? I bet even you, TK, couldn’t see them.”

“Go ahead then,” TK concedes, shaking his head. “Embarrass us a little more. Keep waxing poetic about how Carlos looked at me back then.”

Carlos groans audibly among the cackles of their guests. “Don’t encourage him!”

“Nothing I can do about it, sweetheart,” TK whispers. “You can keep hiding. I love feeling you against me.”

Carlos bites down on his lower lip before repositioning himself against TK’s neck, the lewd innuendo in his husband’s voice working its magic through his body. He can feel himself growing interested, even though there’s still a long time until they’re all alone in their nuptial suite for the night.

“As I was saying, there was always the heart eye factor, as Marjan cleverly put it once,” Owen continues, earning some catcalls from the team. “Even after saving so many people during the solar flare, he came up to me and told me that my son was impressive, and guess what?” He pauses, clearly waiting on the crowd to ask him for more.

Carlos knows what comes next, and he’s about to wiggle his way out of this reception when he realizes that the movement might give a little too much away of how he’s currently feeling for his husband. He remains in place, hoping that the torture ends soon.

“What?!” Michelle echoes Owen’s words. Traitor, Carlos thinks.

“He’d already told TK the same about me, the first call we worked together with APD here in Austin. So I guess Carlos Reyes has something going on for the Strand boys, huh?”

“Dad!” TK gasps, feigning being scandalized.

“I’m not wrong, and you know it!” Owen stops briefly to sip from his champagne glass. “Anyway, they started strong from the first moment they met, like shooting stars finding their way to each other in the dark. It was a beautiful sight to behold, and I am thankful to have been a witness of a love so strong that it has defied every law ever known to man. After a nuclear disaster in my son’s life, being held in the light that’s Carlos Reyes is the best thing to ever happen to TK. Now, allow me to reminisce about how my son-in-law found out that TK’s full name is—”

“Dad,” TK interrupts loudly, leaning forward and causing Carlos to stumble as well, landing awkwardly on his elbow on the table as TK reaches out and takes both the microphone and the champagne glass from Owen’s grasp. “I love you, but stop talking.”

“But I was about—”

“What do you say, we the newly-weds kiss?” TK all but cries out, drowning his father’s voice as Owen tries to outwin him and tell everyone the best-kept secret in TK’s life. Carlos chuckles, but obliges when their guests wolf-whistle and call on them to kiss.

He presses his lips to TK’s chastely, a mere brush until TK grabs him by the back of his neck and pushes him into a messier kiss — a byproduct of their excitement at having finally tied the knot and the knowledge that there’s a king-sized bed waiting for them — and Carlos melts against his husband. They kiss lazily for what feels like eons until Michelle and Paul start booing them over the rest of the voices, and they part, panting for breath and grinning wildly.

“I love you,” TK whispers.

“I love you too,” Carlos retaliates. He will never grow tired of saying those words — he’s always known that TK was his forever, but he had needed to walk on eggshells around TK for the first part of their relationship for fear of scaring him away. TK had always been the missing piece in Carlos’ life — he would have been a fool to let him go without a fight.

He leans in for another peck, unable to resist those bottomless green eyes, as Owen accepts his defeat and cheers for them as well, raising his glass.

“Someday, I will tell everyone your secret, Tyler Kennedy,” he whispers against TK’s lips.

“Today’s not that day, Reyes.”

“It’s Reyes-Strand for you,” Carlos jabs.

TK just laughs merrily as he wraps his arms around Carlos and kisses him silly, until the stars are the only thing Carlos can see behind his closed eyelids.

#lire babbling #carlosreyesweek2021 #day 1: i love you but stop talking #day 1: fluff #day 1: favorite line/scene #tooth-rotting fluff #mentions of the solar flares #carlos reyes #tk strand #owen strand #judd ryder #marjan marwani #michelle blake #paul strickland #carlos reyes/tk strand #tarlos #911ls fic #gotas en un laberinto

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seriouslycromulent · 3 years

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Ok. I'm really enjoying 911: Lone Star. I still love the original more (because Athena, Hen & Chim ftw!), but after bingeing Lone Star over the past 2 weeks, I'm sold. It's really good despite some errors in the details.

That's the good news.

The bad news is that I likely won't be interacting with the fandom here on Tumblr because apparently I'm the only person on here who likes Captain Strand.

So I'll just be over here enjoying the show with my pro-Owen love and talking about the series offline with real-life fans who don't have this absurd hatred for one of the best characters on the show (because Marjan, Paul & Tommy are also ftw!).

To each their own. Happy watching!

#911:ls #911: lone star #owen strand #rob lowe #captain owen strand #fandom

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marjansmarwani · 3 years

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ok so instead of studying, i tried my best to figure out the timeline for how long tarlos has been dating n ls. first, its messy in general and kinda doesnt make sense especially w the much space in between, also i could be very wrong but i used 2 confirmed dates to figure that shit out (march 2020, pandemic and 25 jan 2021, tim's death, not sure if there were any other confirmed dates in the show). im gonna assume that tk n owen got to austin around late nov/early dec 2020 n thats bc tk told paul that 116 days ago he got rejected (1x5), id assume they would've gotten out of ny asap, and also bc im gonna assume tarlos started dating around feb or late feb 2020 bc they started dating before the pandemic in march 2020 since gwen mentioned in 2x1 how tk got shot before the pandemic. then tim died a whole yr later on 25 jan 2021, n tk's 1st sobriety was afterwards so that could mean its around late jan or early feb 2021 but there r some flaws bc that means tk didnt get pro help until 3/4 months since his od/relapse but it kinda makes sense to y tk was hesitant to be w carlos in s1 idk anymore but tk also mentioned to owen in s1x1 (i think) how his AA meeting was good so that means he did go to meetings n got help before jan/feb 2020 so that means tk's 1st sobriety should've been in late 2020 before tim's death! anyways, long story short, tarlos 1st annavirsary would be very close according to this mess. i just dk y they just couldnt make a clear tl. kinda wish i was studying instead of this mess.

so the dates i came up w so far would be smth like this: nov/dec 2020 - strands in austin feb 2020 - tarlos dating march 2020 - pandemic 25 jan 2021 - tim's death jan/feb 2021 - tk's 1st sobriety

would love to hear ur thoughts abt this mess, or if u have any theories abt the tl ❤

I admire the amount of work you put into this Anon, I am truly impressed. I have also tried to make sense of the timeline at various times (I tried once to nail down specific months and years for a fic and felt like I was losing my mind the entire time) with no luck. I have simply moved on to the opinion that time is not real in the Lone Star universe or at least not real in the same way we all experience it.

But, as attempts at a timeline go, I think yours is pretty solid! The closest I've come to actually assigning times to anything was for this fic and what you have listed pretty much lines up with the ones I committed to! I think the only difference I had was that I had TK and Carlos start dating in March, but that's only because I lined it up when the episode aired. I do feel like there should be more time between the one-year sobriety celebration and Tim's death (because the new paramedic team has definitely been together longer than few weeks by the time of the kidnapping in my opinion), but once again I am going to say that time isn't real as far as this show is concerned and go with that.

#asked and answered #anonymous #the elusive lonestar timeline

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bellakitse · 4 years

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Master post - 30 days of Tarlos

30 Tarlos One-shots - Master Post

{thanks to @insidious-intent for the gif. ❤}

Complete Series on AO3

Day 1 - I’ll be here for you - 1.5K

“I can’t believe you came here instead of going home,” TK whispers when the kiss ends, his green eyes shining bright with affection and a little amusement. “You really didn’t have to.”

When TK can't sleep, Carlos comes to be with him at the firehouse.

Day 2 - Sunshine Smile Today - 1.3K

Marjan lets out a giggle that she tries to cover with her hand, it’s high-pitched and adorable and makes TK grin. He turns his head to look back at the boys still in the middle of their challenge; his smile grows when he catches Carlos’ eyes, grinning at him as he pulls himself up again.

“He’s gorgeous,” Marjan continues, agreeing with him. “But what’s really great about him is how happy he makes you. It’s such a difference.”

Marjan notices how happy TK is compared to before.

Day 3 - The Last of the Romantics - 1.5K

Michelle has a history of setting Carlos up with the worse guys possible, she swears this time it's different.

* “Tell me about him,” he says resigned, knowing he’s been played by the way Michelle instantly perks up.

“He’s one of the new members at the 126,” she starts with a grin. “And Carlos, he’s so pretty.”

Day 4 - A Witness to their Love - 1.7K

Owen doesn’t call attention to himself for a moment as TK and Carlos get lost in each other. His heart squeezes tight as he watches. His son looks happier than he can remember in the longest time.

Owen is a witness to his son falling in love.

Day 5 - lost in every inch of you - 2.3K

“What, baby?” Carlos questions when he stops. “What do you need?”

“You?” he says in a question, licking his lips.

TK comes home after a long shift, needing to touch his boyfriend.

Day 6 - A Change in Title - 1.2K

“You just called me your boyfriend,” he says as he starts to smile.

TK’s eyes widen, his words seem just now to be catching up with him, and there is the start of a pretty blush on his face. “Uh –“

While out with Carlos, TK hides from someone he rescued, it starts a conversation and ends in a change of status between them.

Day 7 - of chicken flautas and intimidating mothers - 1.8K

“I know we saw each other just last night, but I already missed you.”

Carlos' heart flutters at TK’s words and touch, but he can’t forget the tiny force to be reckoned with, not forty feet away. “That’s really sweet, and I feel exactly the same way,” he continues. “But my mom is here, and she’s watching us – no, don’t look around!”

It’s the annual first responders’ cookout and Carlos is about to introduce his boyfriend to his mother.

Day 8 - Let's Start with Breakfast - 2.1K

“Hi, you must be TK,” he says, turning around to face him fully, and TK doesn’t know where to look – that beautiful face with a head full of curls he wants to sink his hands into, or the perfectly chiseled chest that reminds TK of studying about Michelangelo’s David in his art studies course. “I’m Carlos.”

TK wakes up in his friend's apartment and meets his new roommate, Carlos.

Day 9 - Midnight Talk about Boys - 1.8K

Marjan watches as whatever the other person on the phone – obviously someone TK is seeing – talks to him, whatever the other man is saying makes TK all but melt into the cushions of the couch as he leans back and stares dreamily at the ceiling.

When Marjan can't sleep, she finds TK in the common area talking lovingly to someone on the phone.

Day 10 - Let's Go to the Mall - 2.4K

While at the mall, TK finds a little girl crying because she can't find her mother and uncle. Imagine TK's surprise when her uncle turns out to be his boyfriend.

Day 11 - The Forever Tamales - 4.0K

“Marriage Tamales?” he asks, confused, his heart ticking upward as the sisters nod and smirk at him and Carlos.

They start to explain the significance of the special dish. Every word they utter makes his heart race as he tries to come to terms with the fact that Carlos made him a dish so important to his family.

* A companion piece to 'The Marriage Tamales' from TK's POV

Day 12 - Stumbling a Step - 2.2K

The drive to work is quiet, out of the corner of his eye he sees Carlos grip the steering wheel a little harder as the car comes to a stop in front of the firehouse.

“I have a long shift today,” he says, his tone stiff. “I won’t be home until after midnight.”

TK looks over at his boyfriend; it’s the first thing Carlos has said since their shout out the night before.

A fight with Carlos leaves TK in a foul mood. Judd sets him straight.

Day 13 - chicken soup and mashed potatoes - 1.4K

Carlos wakes up with a pounding headache as his alarm goes off. The tickle in his throat he had the night before now feels like knives; it hurts to swallow.

When Carlos is sick, TK is there to take care of him.

Day 14 - Cuervo Confessions - 1.2K

“What’s so pretty about TK, Carlos?” she asks, her blue eyes twinkling when Carlos lights up at the question.

Drunk Carlos is adorably in love with his boyfriend and has no filter.

Day 15 - Pancakes and Coffee Syrup - 2.1K

Opening the bathroom door again, he stops, freezing like a deer caught in the headlights when he finds his boyfriend’s father standing just outside the bathroom. From the way he’s dressed, it’s obvious he’s just come home from the overnight TK told him he was on.

“Good morning, Carlos,” he greets him calmly. Like this is a regular occurrence for them to run into each other outside his bathroom, and instead, not the first time ever that Carlos has spent the night in his house.

Carlos spends the night at the Strand household, Owen makes him breakfast in the morning.

Day 16 - We begin on a Tuesday - 1.8K - Part 1 of Days that Matter series

When the 126 have a spot to fill in their crew, Judd recommends his buddy Carlos Reyes from the 121.

Firefighter Carlos AU!

Day 17 - on Wednesday we fell - 2.1K - Part 2 of Days that Matter series

Carlos has been part of the 126 for three months now, every day TK falls for him a little more. After a nightmare, TK can't hold back his feelings anymore.

Day 18 - I was born Thursday's Child - 2.5K - Part 3 of Days that Matter series

“It’s Carlos, sir,” Judd gets out quickly, and TK feels an ice-cold fear run up his spine at the urgency he hears in his friend’s voice. “He was a step behind me, the floor caved, and he went through into the basement.”

Carlos gets hurt on a call.

Day 19 - Friday, I'm in Love - 1.1K - Part 4 of Days that Matter series

Eight months after Carlos' accident, TK and he are more in love than ever. They also have some news for their family.

Day 20 - Meddle, meddle, meddle - 1.8K

Carlos is having a few drinks with his sisters when the conversation turns to his love life. When they dare him to pick up someone at the bar, Carlos knows exactly who to go for.

* “Fine,” he says, already standing up, he points at the man at the bar. “I’ll play your game, not only am I getting his number, I’m not coming back to the table, I’m going home with him.”

Day 21 - That Green Colored Thing - 1.8K

TK Strand is not jealous.

Just because Carlos has been across the bar for the last fifteen minutes, talking to some handsome idiot who doesn’t seem to understand the concept of personal space and is so close to Carlos, they might as well be glued together doesn’t mean he’s jealous.

Day 22 - Midnight Solace - 1.3K

When not being able to sleep triggers a panic attack, Carlos is there to help TK through it.

Day 23 - We were meant for one another, come a little closer - 3.0K

TK stares at him, mouth open, and Carlos can’t help but stare back as his heart pounds loudly in his ears. He feels naked, like every feeling he’s been hiding from TK for so long is now on the surface for him to see.

Carlos and TK are best friends and roommates. When TK comes home from a failed date, it reveals long-time hidden feelings.

Day 24 - Worth it - 1.0K

They get called to a standoff situation in a laboratory building downtown. TK is in the middle of helping create a perimeter with Paul when he hears a familiar voice over the radio and realizes with a sense of dread that it’s not just Austin Police that is inside, but it’s also his boyfriend of five months, Carlos.

When Carlos is in a dangerous situation TK can't hold back.

Day 25 - Sealed with a Kiss - 2.3K

Carlos is in the middle of finishing the last of his daily reports when the first text comes in, followed quickly by a second.

‘What time are you coming home, baby?’

‘I miss you.’

'I’m waiting in bed…for you.’

TK is a menace, Carlos loves him anyway.

Day 26 - Super Papa - 1.5K

Luca looks at him with wide eyes. “Papa a hero?” he asks, probably remembering what the reporter had called his father.

“Papa is a big hero,” he answers his boy.

TK watches Carlos on the news with their son.

Day 27 - Stating Intentions - 1.5K

“TK, if you don’t stop fidgeting, I am going to tie you to the flag pole and leave you there.”

TK worries in the kitchen of the firehouse while Carlos and his dad talk in his office, it distracts Paul from his cooking with his fidgeting.

Day 28 - One for the Pro column - 1.7K

While at the gym, TK runs into Carlos, the officer he danced with two weeks ago and hasn't been able to stop thinking about since.

Day 29 - Future Tamales - 1.9K

TK visits Carlos' mom to ask her a very important question and to ask for a special recipe.

The final part to 'The Marriage Tamales'

Day 30 - TK’s perfect and simple morning - 1.3K

TK Strand-Reyes wakes up to his bed slightly shaking, and soft little boy giggles followed by an amused ‘shhh’ from his husband.

Luca and Carlos make TK breakfast after he had an accident at work.

#911 lone star #tarlos #tarlos fic #30 days of tarlos #fic masterpost #my writing #fic rec

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let-me-write-shit · 4 years

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Like We Used To: 1

A/N : Okay, so this is my first story after taking an almost ten year hiatus. Bare with me while I get the hang of things. Feel free to message me with input. Hope you enjoy so far. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

CHAPTER ONE

This day could have gone a lot worse. Granted, it’s only 11 AM. All week the weather forecast called for rainstorms, but so far there was not a single cloud in the sky. In fact, it’s warmer than it should be for a late Friday, September morning. ‘Lucky,’ Elizabeth thought, straightening out her long, blush dress in the mirror. Rain doesn’t dry well on silk.

She looked at her three friends, Celeste, Daisy, and Heather, in the reflection of the mirror as they put on their bridesmaids dresses, and smiled. She always knew this day would come, and leading up to it felt like an eternity. But now that it’s here she felt like time had slipped away from her. Elizabeth had been best friends with Kate Barnes since they were twelve years old, and met Lewis, Matt, and Celeste two years later. It was painfully obvious that Kate and Lewis loved each other, yet it still took them a whole two years to start officially dating. They were pros at taking it slow. Now, nearly twelve years later, the two were finally getting married.

Elizabeth admired her best friends’ relationship with each other. There was never any doubt or uncertainty between them. Lewis was it for her; always was. They were perfect for each other. And the couple’s ability to hold onto friendships with ease seemed like a super power. Half of the wedding party and guests were grade school friends. Okay, Kate’s sister, Heather, doesn’t count. Elizabeth recalled old memories of long nights spent with the (almost) newlyweds, Celeste, Jimmy, Matt, and Harry.

Her heart skipped a beat, almost as if she scared herself. She hadn’t meant to remind herself of Harry Styles. They met him at the same time as the others, but he had long since left their friend group. He was famous now, after all. Elizabeth would occasionally find herself thinking of Harry. It was hard not to when you heard him on the radio or saw him on the internet at least twice a week. Most of their teenage years were spent together before graduation when his fame really kicked off. Still, she found herself wondering if he even remembered that she had existed. They lost touch pretty quickly, which always struck a nerve with Elizabeth. How can you go from seeing someone almost daily, to no contact at all, so easily? The last few months of high school felt surreal. Lewis was the only one whom Harry seldom kept in contact with, and even that began to dwindle. Losing a major part of your friend group so abruptly almost felt like a family member had died; it was just off. At least, that is, until their group had met Daisy, Edward, and Owen in college.

The seven friends considered themselves family. Their college friends were aware of the ‘Lost Boy’, as they liked to refer to Harry as. Seeing their old pictures together amused the bunch. But if they were being honest, everyone made it a point to not mention Harry when reveling in old times. It was apparent amongst the group that Elizabeth still bore a sort of resentment towards their old famous friend for the way he left. Understandably. However, there was some speculation of a relationship between Elizabeth and the Lost Boy that teetered over the line of ‘more than friends’. Of course there was friendly flirting amongst the friends, but what horny teenager didn’t?

“Need help with that?” Heather whispered, slipping Elizabeth’s diamond bracelet out of her fingers and clasping it around her wrist.

“Thanks,” Elizabeth breathed, snapping out of it and turning, motioning towards the room, “Can you believe it? It’s finally happening.”

Heather nodded, “I know. Seems like yesterday you, Celeste, and Kate were stealing my tampons and asking me advice about boys. Now you’re all grown up and my baby sister is getting married. When did that happen?”

“I must have been sleeping,” a small hiccup escaped as she tried to hold back her emotions.

Heather squeezed Elizabeth’s arm and gave an understanding smile before saying, “I just got word from the boys that the house is all ready for our arrival tonight. So once the guests leave we’ll tidy up and meet Kate, Lewis, and the boys there.”

“Perfect.”

Leave it to Kate and Lewis to make a big event into an even bigger event; they decided to show their appreciation to the wedding party by throwing a weekend long celebration of their nuptials by renting out a ten bedroom manor in the countryside close to the venue so they can all party together before the newlyweds leave on their honeymoon on Monday.

“Okay, ladies!” Mrs. Barnes, Kate’s mother, sang. “Are we ready to see the bride in her dress?”

The room filled with various forms of yelps as Heather, Elizabeth, Celeste, and Daisy gathered together. Joyce, Heather’s five year old daughter, put her basket of flowers down and ran over to her grandmother, tugging at her dress and asking. “Is Aunt Kate coming in now?”

The photographer got into position. When the crystal doorknob started turning the camera shutter started and the girls gasped and awed when Kate glided into the room. Her off-the-shoulder satin gown hugged her small figure perfectly while her blonde hair curled into a loose bun, with little strands of hair framing her face. She spun for them, smiling and laughing. Elizabeth bounced on the heels of her feet, clasping her hands together and bringing them to her mouth, taking everything in as Kate hugged everyone.

“Awe, Lizzy!” Kate pouted through her smile, wiping a stray tear from Elizabeth’s cheek. Only her grade school friends called her Lizzy. “Don’t cry, you’ll ruin your mascara.”

Elizabeth managed to chuckle through a sniffle and hugged her best friend, “You look beautiful, love.”

Kate squeezed back and breathed “Thank you.” After a minute the two pulled apart and Kate looked Elizabeth up and down with a smirk, “and you look absolutely stunning! If I wasn’t a taken woman I’d ravish you up!” Kate flicked the low hanging cowl in the neckline of Elizabeth’s silk, blush pink, figure forming dress. Even Elizabeth had to admit, this dress was quite sexy.

Elizabeth snorted as Celeste, Daisy, and Heather danced over with extra glasses of mimosas and called for last minute touch-ups before they headed downstairs to the limos that waited to take them to the wedding venue.

The venue was breathtaking, and luckily for the bride, could be held outside, in the back gardens of an old manor. When the limo pulled up the soft sound of violins could be heard as guests finished getting to their seats and the wedding planner got on the walky-talky to inform of their arrival and to have the men make their way down the aisle.

“You ready?” Elizabeth squeezed Kate’s hand as they all made their way in through the manor. The top of the guests’ heads were barely visible from where they stood as they were seated so far down the lawn in the garden.

Kate looked at Elizabeth, nervously, and took a deep breath, “No turning back now, eh, Lizzy?”

Elizabeth grinned and pecked Kate’s cheek before Kate’s dad joined them and took his daughter into his arms. The tune of the violins changed signaling the start of the processional and the wedding planner motions for Daisy to start making her way out. Elizabeth’s nerves grew as Celeste followed shortly after.

She tousled her mousy brown loose curls once more, gripped on tightly to her bouquet with her clammy hands, and took a deep breath as the wedding planner motioned her forward. As soon as Elizabeth stepped outside onto the cobblestone she heard the shutter from the cameras and forced a smile, looking all the way down the lawn at the rows of guests. She spotted a few people that she knew and loosened up. Elizabeth felt the crunch below her heels as the cobblestone turned to a white gravel. Lewis wrung his fingers together, anxiously, and tugged at his navy blue suit. She couldn’t help but smile wider, remembering that her two best friends were getting married to each other. When Elizabeth and Lewis caught eyes she winked at him and nodded, reassuringly, which seemed to make him ease up a bit. Jimmy, or JJ they liked to call him, Lewis’ best man, seemed to notice the exchange and patted Lewis on the back before grinning at Elizabeth.

She looked amongst the guests as she slowly made her way up the aisle, smiling at people she knew and whispering ‘hey’ as she passed. She looked to her right, a few rows up, noticing one of Kate’s cousins, when a gleam from a ring caught her eye. The owner was spinning the one of many rings around his finger, almost nervously, but when she looked up at his face there was no sign of nerves. In fact, he seemed to be quite delighted. He dressed in mainly black, which seemed odd for the occasion, but he somehow managed to make it look lively with his curly brown hair and soft green eyes. They caught eyes with each other. The left side of his lips curled upwards into a lopsided grin and he blinked, nodding at her in recognition, and, was that…...eagerness?

Elizabeth felt her throat tense up and she was almost certain that her expression was anything but appealing as her attention shot forward, avoiding his gaze. Harry Styles was here. Why the hell didn’t anyone warn her?

[Keep Reading]

#Harry Styles #One Direction #Harry Styles fanfiction #harry styles fan fiction #Harry styles smut #harry styles fluff #harry styles one shot #harry styles imagine #writing #harry styles fan fic #harry styles fanfic

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josephqunnies · 4 years

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What's your opinion about the Strand baby storyline? I'm not opposed to it short term like if they are able to get closure on the relationship and move on with their respective lives with a healthy friendship and Mr pro therapy for everyone but myself gets some help. But long term, they still struggle with parenting their grown child when he comes to them and together lose focus on their individual priorities it seems in a very unhealthy manner. I know it was touched on season 1 that Owen had a history of being an absentee parent and I'm assuming Gwyn too to a certain extent so I would expect that discussion to come up between the 3 of them with tk being in therapy and only getting his parents really when near death it seems. Sorry for bugging you with midnight ramblings lol

So I've been going over this since I got the ask; the promo clip suggested that Gwyn's age could result complications; this will play a major toll in their dynamic, this baby will make it brake their relationship. I think this will determine whether or not they stick together and try to be a family.

As for their relationship with TK it will definitely get messy, I remember when I was 17 and found out my mother was getting a daughter, I was devastated, now imaging that they were both presumably absent from much of tks life (Gwyn having a law firm means she busted ass with work) I think TK does have a good relationship with them now but it will feel (to him mostly) like a second chance at being parents, better parents; there will probably be this feeling of being replaced

I think this baby issue will create a bigger rift between TK and his parents. I don't even think they'll be having the baby anyways

#this was a lot #and I probably didn't make sense #911 what's your ask

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lauraperfectinsanity · 4 years

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1) Different First Meeting: Carlos, while patrolling, gets into a car accident. He isn’t seriously injured, but he’s stuck in his car and concussed. He gets rescued by TK and the newly re-formed Station 126. Concussed Carlos flirts non-stop with the gorgeous firefighter but when he wakes up in the hospital, he thinks he hallucinated the guy to his rescue. ------> “You and I, Collide” by @bellakitse

2) TK is obviously seeing someone. Everyone at 126 can see that, but they don’t know who the mystery guy is (they tried to pry the information from TK, but he’s tight-lipped). One night, while the team is out at the bar with the paramedic team and Carlos, Paul’s attention is caught by TK’s hand on Carlos’ hip while passing him by. He does his “thing” and observes them: the subtle smiles and looks, the subtle flirting and touching, a longing look while the other walks away and a little jealousy when someone approaches the other. They aren’t obvious, but Paul puts together the pieces and ends up blurting out “YOU’RE THE MYSTERY GUY!”. ------> “Secret Smiles” by @brillliantbanshee

3) Different First Meeting: In the first weeks in Austin, the station 126 is still under renovation, and TK, used to take advantage of his station’s gym equipments, needs to find himself a gym to go to. The one he chooses, happens to be the favorite of a certain APD’s officer. ------> “One for the Pro Column” by @bellakitse

4) Michelle has been trying for years to find a boyfriend for her best friend Carlos. Everytime she tried to introduce him someone, though, it ends up a failure. When Michelle meets the new firefighting crew of the Station 126 and meets TK Strand, she’s sure she has found the perfect fit for Carlos. Carlos is very skeptical, despite Michelle’s descriptions and praises of the guy (he has experience with her terrible matchmaking skills), but he still agrees to stop by the station. ------> “The Last of the Romantics” by @bellakitse

5) A couple of Carlos’ sisters are out one night. When they spot their brother, they’re about to say hi, when they notice he’s not alone. It looks like their brother is picking up takeout food with a gorgeous guy and it looks like they aren’t just friends. The two scheme on how to bring up the topic with their brother, and they decide to do it at family dinner, in front of everyone.

6) The 126 tries to guess TK’s full name for years, but the mystery remains unsolved. The mystery is solved when Carlos proposes to him, calling him “Tyler Kennedy Strand”. ------> “The Name of the Game” by Gwenders

7) Carlos and TK have the same phone’s model. One morning, while in a hurry, TK grabs accidentally Carlos’ phone. He’s waiting for a call so, when the phone rings, he doesn’t even look at the caller ID and answers. He doesn’t expect it to be someone looking for Carlos, his mother. ------> “Crossed Connections” by Aklusmos

8) The 126 firefighting crew, the paramedics team and Carlos are out at their favorite bar for the night. Carlos needs to unwind a bit after a difficult week and he’s slightly drunk, but also really cute, clingy with his boyfriend and filterless. ------> “Cuervo Confessions” by @bellakitse

9) The 126 answers a call about an unconscious vlogger who passed out during a live video. TK brings down the door, they enter the apartment and set to help the unconscious patient, unknowingly, in front of the live camera. Despite Marjan, Paul and Mateo’s ongoing competition for social media fame, it’s TK who steals the show and goes viral, becoming, unwillingly, an internet sensation. (NOT SPECIFICALLY A TARLOS PROMPT, BUT STILL COULD BE ONE)

10) It’s Carlos’ birthday and his family is planning a surprise party for him at his own apartment, for when he gets home after his shift. They turn off the lights and wait for him to come home. But it’s actually Carlos that surprises them all when he shows up while passionately kissing, making out and undressing with a unknown guy (like in 1x02). ------> “Birthday Surprises” by Aklusmos

11) The 126 answers a call about a car accident. In one of the cars there’s a woman, not too badly hurt but stuck in the car. TK crawls in the car wreck to check on her while the others work on how to free her. The woman says something about him being charming and probably being a ladies’ man, but he tells her he plays for the other team (like with Owen’s chemo friend in 1x05). The woman is even happier and she tells him she has a very handsome and single gay son, but TK, even if endeared, tells her his boyfriend wouldn’t approve. But TK is shocked when a frantic Carlos shows up, cause the woman in the car is actually his mother (and yes, she doesn’t know her son has a boyfriend). ------> “Collisions” by Aklusmos

12) TK and Carlos have been chosen to go to their district’s high school for Career Week representing, respectively, the Fire and Police Departments, to have someone closer to the students’ age. The students expect the usual middle aged guys when the two come in. ------> “Somebody Call 9-1-1″ by Aklusmos

13) Owen comes back home a day early from a short trip. The last thing he’s expecting is to find his son with a naked man in his bed (Is that Officer Reyes??). TK insists it’s a casual thing with no labels and little feelings, but the leftovers of a romantic dinner and the way the two behave and kiss each other goodbye, tell Owen otherwise.

14) When his sister asks Carlos to quickly borrow his phone to make a call, he doesn’t think twice about lending it to her. What she finds is a photo of her brother with a hot guy as the home and lock screen. ------> “Shout it to the World” by @brillliantbanshee

15) When TK and Carlos hooked up, it was always a rush thing, never even reaching the bedroom, and always ending with TK leaving before even getting to catch his breath. TK tried not to get too attached, even though he’s actually a really cuddly person, especially after sex. With the time passing and them getting to know each other, Carlos starts to see glimpses of this side of his non-boyfriend. When they officially get together, TK has no reasons to hide his cuddly side from Carlos.

16) TK is at the mall looking for a present, when he meets a little kid who lost their mom and uncle in the mall. TK is pretty good with kids and is still in uniform, so the kid trusts him and goes with him to the information desk to call for their mom. TK certainly doesn’t expect for his brand new boyfriend Carlos to show up with his sister, the kid’s mother. ------> “Let’s Go to the Mall” by @bellakitse

17) Mateo is out with some friends one night, when he spots TK. He’s about to call out to him to say hi and maybe invite him to join them, when he notices TK isn’t alone, he’s with officer Reyes and yep, they’re kissing. He doesn’t know what to do with that information and decides to keep it to himself, until one day he accidentally blurts it out to everybody.

18) One morning, Carlos shows up at the 126. Owen thinks officer Reyes is there to give him, the Fire Captain, some documents, or he’s there to meet with Michelle, since he knows they’re good friends. Instead, Carlos surprises him by being there to bring TK the phone he left at his apartment that morning.

19) TK has to go back to NYC for an old friend’s wedding and he brings Carlos as his date, even if they’re dating for only a few months. At the reception, they meet Alex, who thought he would meet an heartbroken and lonely TK, begging to be taken back (THIS IS AN ALTERNATE VERSION OF THE PROMPT #20). ------> “A Puzzle I Love to Solve” by @brillliantbanshee

20) TK has to go back to NYC for an old friend's wedding. At the reception, among the guests there's Alex who's hoping to meet his old boyfriend TK to reconnect and maybe give their story a new chance. All his hopes are gone, when TK shows up with a husband and their kid (THIS IS AN ALTERNATE VERSION OF THE PROMPT #19).

21) TK and Carlos are casually seeing each other without putting labels on it and without the others knowing. TK spent the night at Carlos’ apartment, but he wakes up very late, he doesn’t have a car and waiting for a uber is a further waste of time. It’s Carlos’ day off and he offers him to take his car. TK then shows up at the 126 with a gorgeous blue Camaro, among everyone’s surprise.

22) TK and Carlos are casually seeing each other, without putting labels on it and without TK’s team and dad knowing. One night, TK bails on a team outing with an excuse, to see Carlos, when they accidentally end up at the same place as the 126. ------> “Wanna Dance With Somebody” by Aklusmos

23) In the middle of the night, while on shift, Marjan wakes up to grab a glass of water, and finds an unusually soft TK talking to someone over the phone. It’s obvious it’s someone important to TK and Marjan is so very curious (TK and Marjan’s friendship). ------> “Midnight Talk About Boys” by @bellakitse

24) During a call, a guy shamelessly flirts with TK while he works, and Carlos shamelessly glares at the guy while trying not to arrest him.

25) TK and Carlos are seeing each other, without labels and without TK’s team and dad knowing. One night, the two accidentally fall asleep at TK’s house, and, in the morning, Carlos is a little late sneaking out and ends up reaching for the door in the exact moment Owen comes back home from the night shift.

26) One morning, TK is still asleep at Carlos’ house, while the latter is already at work. TK wakes up hearing sounds in the house and is getting ready to face a possible intruder, when he finds a middle aged woman in the kitchen re-stocking the fridge. It sure isn’t how TK thought he’d meet his boyfriend’s mother.

27) One of Carlos’ siblings is getting married and Carlos asks TK to go to the wedding with him as his date, and to introduce him to his family.

28) Carlos is injured on the job, nothing serious, but he’s in a hospital room with his entire family fretting over him, when a frantic TK, in uniform, shows up. Time to meet the family that didn’t know you existed!

29) Carlos is bringing his brand new boyfriend to a family BBQ to introduce him to his family. During the party, though, one of Carlos’ cousin, who’s pregnant, is starting to go into labor there, in the house backyard. Luckily, there’s a very calm and professional TK, who has experience in helping pregnant women and delivering babies.

#Tarlos #Tarlos Prompts #TK Strand #Carlos Reyes #911 Lone Star #911: Lone Star #9-1-1: Lone Star #IT'S TARLOS BITCHES #TK and Carlos #Tyler Kennedy Strand

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nico-di-genova · 5 years

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There’s Always a Silver Lining

Prompt: “no, no, no. I can’t be here. I need to get out of here.”

TK is trying to enjoy his night off, he really is. But stress is already enough to handle, couple that with addiction issues and every night is really just a battle to maintain his sobriety.

“No, no, no,” TK murmured starting to pull away from Carlos, “I can’t be here, I need to go.”

The bar was loud, country music and conversation becoming a mix of noise around them. Carlos didn’t quite hear the man, but he could feel when TK stopped moving, grounded his heels in the peanut shell covered floor and refused to budge. Their hands were still entwined, and the sudden stop of momentum jerked Carlos backwards. He teetered, spinning around to face TK with a mixture of confusion and shock on his features.

“TK, what the-?” he trailed off the moment he saw the man’s face; the distant look in his eyes, the way he was chewing on his bottom lip with a fevered energy, they all spoke to the clear discomfort he was feeling.

“Are you okay?”

To TK’s credit, he at least seemed aware enough to shake his head.

“Okay, it’s okay. Let’s get out of here, yeah?”

Another jerky nod. His grip on Carlos’ hand tightens, knuckles going white under the flashing lights from the dance floor. Carlos can see the way his shoulders rise and fall with each shallow breath he’s taking. He can make a pretty easy guess as to what’s happening here, it’s not the first time they’ve walked into a bar and TK has freaked. Even still, with three months of dating under his belt, Carlos doesn’t think he’s ever going to get used to the way TK’s face twists into shame and humiliation when he’s faced with something he’s not equipped to handle. TK thinks he’s something that needs to be fixed, something Carlos is embarrassed of. He’s wrong, eventually Carlos will convince him of that. But tonight is not that night, and TK very much needs to get out of this bar.

He squeezes the man’s hand reassuringly and starts toward the door they had just entered. TK never let’s go of him. If anything he presses closer. When they’re back out in the open air, away from the noise and the claustrophobia of Austin’s best hang out spot, he slows to a stop. TK is jittery, wound tight with nerves, his jaw visibly clenches in the light from the streetlamps around them. He’s like a rubber band, pulled too tight and he’ll snap.

Carlos uses his free hand, brings it up to cradle the man’s jaw, and trace a thumb along his cheekbone, “hey. It’s okay.”

TK lets out a frustrated sigh, “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be. I get it.”

“It’s so stupid. I just-. I saw the bartender, and the drinks, and it’s been such a stressful week. With dad’s treatment, that lady at the station, Alex’s text-.”

“TK-.”

“I don’t even know why he would be fucking texting me! I’m sorry. I really wanted to hang out, now I’m fucking it all up and-.”

“No-. Babe. Look at me,” He lets go of TK’s hand so he can hold the man’s face fully, still the frantic way he’s bouncing around and ground him for a second. He’s mad, that much is clear in the tenseness of his features. Agitated. Both at himself and the litany of shit that has been thrust upon him this week.

“I’m sorry,” he breathes again, inhaling sharply through his nose in an effort to calm himself.

“Will you stop apologizing. Please? I get it, babe. I’m not mad.”

They’re still standing in the gravel lot, halfway to Carlos’ truck. The cool October air is enough to have him shivering through his thin jean jacket, but they’re not moving from this spot until he’s sure that TK’s calmed down. At this point, he’s a pro in understanding TK’s mannerisms, reading his body language enough to know that he needs to pacify this situation now, or the man is going to end up breaking further down the line.

TK sniffles, and wipes at his nose with the sleeve of his hoodie. It’s the one Carlos bought for him, to add to his every growing collection, navy blue with a small police insignia on the chest. Owen had joked that it would be blasphemous for TK to wear it, but that hadn’t stopped the man. When he wasn’t in his uniform, he practically lived in the thing. It always filled Carlos with some strange sense of pride when he saw it. Even now, something warm and familiar was settling into his chest.

“I really wanted to have fun,” TK said, in a voice barely above a whisper. He wasn’t meeting Carlos’ gaze and he knew it was because the man was trying to hide the tears that were forming his eyes.

Carlos nodded, “I know you did. But hey, it doesn’t have to be here. We could try bowling.”

The closest bowling alley was at least forty minutes away, but the night was young and neither of them had a shift tomorrow. Plus, TK has been here for months and has hardly ever gone outside the confines of the few blocks he’s used to, so some change would probably be good for him.

TK scoffed, kicking at some of the rocks at his feet with his sneakers, “I’m such a mess.”

And that is the kind of talk Carlos would not stand for tonight. Namely because it wasn’t true, not in the way TK meant it anyway. And also because he wasn’t going to let his boyfriend mope around on the one night they got to spend together without having to worry about work. Alex, and the homophobic lady at the police station be damned, he was going to have a good night with his boyfriend. And tomorrow he would politely ask if he could use TK’s phone to call that useless ex of his and politely tell the man to fuck off.

“You’re not a mess TK, and you’re doing great right now,” tilting TK’s chin up so the man would actually look at him, he continues, “I don’t want you to be uncomfortable. I don’t ever want to you to feel like you have to force down how you’re really feeling to make me happy, okay?”

He waits until the man nods his head and brushes away a stray tear that’s trailing slowly down TK’s cheek.

“It’s just a bar, babe. A pretty shitty bar at that. I don’t care where we hang out, I just want you to have fun too. So how about we get in my car, you play that weird band you’re obsessed with, and we drive somewhere outside of the ten block radius you’ve kept yourself in. Sound good, tiger?”

This at least prompted a laugh from TK, a wet and sniffly one, but a laugh, nonetheless. He smiled, the cute lopsided quirk of his lips that always made Carlos’ heart flutter a little, and nodded.

“Yeah. Sounds good.”

TK Strand wasn’t a mess. He didn’t need to be fixed. He just needed someone to tell him that everything was going to be okay, to point out the silver lining where all he saw were dark clouds. Carlos had never been much of an optimist, but for TK he was trying. For TK he’d probably do anything.

#I just love them so much ya'll #there's so much potential #please let me know if you like this!#and i'm still trying to get their voices/personalities down but i'm pretty proud of this #tk strand #carlos reyes #owen strand #911 lone star #911ls fic #911ls #my fic

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