#hint of autistic Bobby Nash

[dadbodbobby]

A mini fic I wrote because I promised @thebuckley-hans that I’d send it to her. Was so proud of it that I decided to post it here.

Bobby and Maddie is an underrated pair and I thought this prompt was perfect to explore that.

Obligatory S6 spoilers under the cut.

First of all, Maddie still felt like she was walking on air. The love and security she felt in this engagement was so different from the last time she did this, and the ring was FOR HER. It just felt like her too.

Doug’s ring was fancy, and big, and so obviously (in hindsight), meant to show off to everyone how fancy and rich and important Doug was. It was like a collar on a dog, to show ownership, she knows now.

But this ring, Chimney’s ring, Howie’s ring, her ring, was a symbol. It was a symbol of love.

A symbol of the long nights spent talking, the bufFridays, the karaoke, the fight to get back to where they once were, the promise to never leave again. The promise to love each other, and their daughter, to stay a family and together. In sickness and in health, for better or worse, for richer and poorer.

All of that being said however, Maddie still couldn’t get the ring off. It had been weeks. Literally weeks, and she still couldn’t get it off. No matter what she tried. And she wasn’t about to cut it off, she wasn’t that desperate.

And even if she was, there was no way in Hell that she was using Buck’s ring cutter to cut it off. She still couldn’t make direct eye contact with her baby brother after learning THAT little tidbit about him.

But regardless, she couldn’t get her ring off with hot water and dish soap, and Josh’s suggestion of butter just made her hungry, so that was a no go. Maddie refused to tell Howie her ring was stuck, it was just too embarrassing. So that’s how she found herself at the firehouse.

Her logic was that out of all the tools that must be in the truck, one of them must be able to get a ring off of a finger without cutting it off. It’s only once she got there that Maddie realized one big flaw in her plan.

How in the hell was she going to be able to look through tools on the truck, find one that looked like it would work, figure out how to use it, get the ring off, clean the tool, and put it back all without being noticed? God this was a bad idea. Maddie hears Chim talking upstairs and panics, speed walking to the downstairs bathroom.

Maddie grips the sink and closes her eyes, letting out a deep sigh. “Okay,” she whispers, trying to calm herself. “I can do this, it’ll be okay. I successfully raised my kid brother for over a decade, I can figure out how to get this ring off without anyone noticing it was ever stuck to begin with.”

“Your ring is stuck?”

Contrary to popular (or correct) belief, Maddie does NOT jump three feet in the air. She simply startles. Anyways, Bobby’s in the doorway, staring at her with a concerned nosey expression.

“No.”

In hindsight, Maddie doesn’t know why she thought lying would work. Bobby was basically the Sue of the firehouse, and married to Athena. Of course lying wouldn’t work.

In the present, Bobby just gives her a soft but knowing dad smile. Maddie feels a quick pang for the girl she once was, the girl who lost any traces of receiving those smiles after losing a brother.

“Bobby I’ve tried everything but nothing works and I can’t tell Howie and I am NOT using Buck’s ring cutter-“

“Why would Buck have a ring cutter?”

“…do you really want me to answer that?”

More confusion, Jesus she thought Eddie was naive about these things.

“You know what, ask Athena. She can explain it.” Maybe she could also explain why it was in the kitchen instead of the-oh dear God!

“…anyways, I can’t get this off and I’m not willing to cut it off, because it’s mine. And I can’t tell Howie because I really do love it, but I need help!”

Bobby gives her the dad smile again, “Just wait here and give me a minute.”

He leaves and Maddie takes the chance to take some deep breaths and ground herself. She does get more antsy waiting for Bobby than she’d like to admit.

Eventually he’s back, with dental floss, of all things, and an apologetic smile. “I didn’t mean to take so long, but one of the prices of being 57 is not being able to wait when you need the can.”

Maddie supposed that was a fair enough reason, especially if he was going to help her. He walks over to her and tears off a decent length of floss. Next, he wraps it tightly around her finger, starting at her middle knuckle and working towards the edge of the ring.

He slips the end of the thread under the ring, pulls it taut, and starts unwinding it in the same direction. Maddie holds her breath, feeling the ring slowly creep up her finger, until lo and behold, it’s off completely and Bobby’s handing it to her.

“Oh my god Bobby, this is incredible, thank you so much!” She wraps her arms around him then, and squeezes. When he hugs her back she can’t help but want to stay like that forever. Maddie honestly couldn’t remember the last time her father had hugged her like that. It felt nice.

He chuckles and responds to her gratitude, before he pulls back. She does too, and can’t help asking,

“Hey, how did you know that trick? It would have never occurred to me to use dental floss like that.”

He breathes through what Maddie recognizes as a wave of grief.

“When Marcy was pregnant with our son, her fingers swelled up a little. Not too badly, but enough that her ring got stuck. We tried everything short of cutting it off, but it didn’t budge. Her mom visited our apartment one day, and she used that trick to get the ring off.

Apparently it had been used for generations by the women in her family. Marcy used to joke that Brooke should go ahead and get a ring stuck on her finger, so she could have practice helping her daughter out. I guess the tradition died with them.”

Okay there was a huge chance that she was about to (understandably) offend Bobby, but she had to say it anyways. He just looked so sad at the thought of that lost tradition.

“Well you just taught me, and I have a daughter. Maybe it’s legacy will live on.”

The look Bobby gives her makes her tear up (“As do most things,” Buck would say, the hypocrite), matching his own tears.

“Thank you,” they keep eye contact for a little bit, and it’s funny. In these past few minutes Bobby’s been more of a father to her than her own father had been to her and Buck since before Buck was even born.

No wonder he considered Bobby his surrogate dad. Maddie was beginning to think that maybe she would be too. She’s too close to crying to be able to talk, so she just nods.

The moment lasts a little longer, before Bobby breaks away to sniff and wipe his eyes. Maddie takes the chance to do the same.

He takes a deep breath, puts his captain face back on like a shield, (or masking, if he’s on the spectrum), her nurse brain unhelpfully supplies, and exits the bathroom like they hadn’t just had a moment.

Maddie waits until the bell goes off, which thankfully doesn’t take too long, before she makes her exit. She enters the main floor just as the vehicles drive out.

Watching the 118 race to the call, she reflects back on everything that just happened. While not a particularly religious woman, she finds herself sending up a prayer to keep her family safe. All of them.

She’d lost a father once, before she lost a brother. But maybe it isn’t too late to be given a new one.