#i just had to write bobby and eddie after that quote. so yeah.

[chronicowboy]

Its not unusual for Eddie to be quiet for whole shifts. Some days, its just a bad day. One where all the work Eddie has done to get better can only keep him trudging forward step by heavy step. One where all his demons come back at once and try to drag him down. One where Eddie is too busy fighting old habits to join in on the jokes and banter. They've all gotten good at dealing with these days - Buck especially, but that's no surprise when he was there for The Worst Days.

So, its not unusual for Eddie to be quiet, but there's a simmering despair to Eddie's silence today that has Bobby's hackles rising. Its not his usual listless, fatigued quiet. Its a heavy, burdensome quiet. Bobby can't stand it, so he waits until the rest of the team trudge off to the bunks before he corners Eddie in the lounge with two cups of tea.

"You're not gonna let me escape are you?" Eddie sighs, collapsing back against the couch he'd tried to jump up from.

"I'm not holding you hostage," Bobby offers him one of the mugs with a smile, "I'm simply gently suggesting that you talk to someone. And I happen to be right here."

"Yeah." Eddie sighs again, eyes drifting down to the steaming surface of his tea. "What do you think I should talk to someone about?"

"Whatever it is that has you like this." Bobby gestures at him kindly. "You seem heavier."

He doesn't say it, but Eddie looks a lot like he did when Buck was in his coma. Bobby can't help but wonder, what with all the Natalia talk, if its because Eddie thinks he's losing him all over again, in a different way.

"Its nothing..." Eddie shakes his head, averts his eyes. "Just something that old lady from the living funeral said to me and Hen. Something my aunt said too."

"What'd they say?" Bobby prompts gently.

"My aunt said that I'm alone," Eddie mumbles. "Marie said that we all die alone. And, recently, I don't know." Another sigh, a hand scrubbed down his face. "Recently, it feels like time is running out and I can't help but think that when it does, its just a lonely death waiting for me at the finish line."

"Eddie, you aren't going to die alone." Bobby aches for him. Buck may be his son, but Bobby's always seen a piece of himself in Eddie. Its why he finds himself here so often, trying to coax Eddie's heart out of its cage. "You know that there are two people who would never, ever let that happen."

Eddie huffs a bitter laugh, eyes landing somewhere far away.

"Yeah, that's what I thought too."

Bobby is mature enough to admit he flounders a little here. All these talks he's had with Eddie, its always felt a bit like speaking to a brick wall. But now, now he thinks Eddie might have finally understood.

"Eddie," Bobby murmurs seriously, seriously enough to have Eddie meeting his eyes, "its never too late. Never."

"Feels like it might be this time, Cap," Eddie chokes out. He glances down at his tea. "I don't want to be alone."

"Love is a risk," Bobby blurts out desperately. He's never met two men who deserve a happy ending more than Buck and Eddie, and, whilst he can't take credit for how far they've come, he feels a blazing pride that their happy endings are to be found in each other. He can't let them miss out. "Love is a terrible, awful risk. Always. Always. Its never easy. It might be in the end. You might look back one day and think that it was all worth it to end up here. But you're in the today, the now, when the love is horrible and painful and the most difficult thing in the world." Eddie looks up at him with tear-filled eyes, and Bobby's heart breaks for him. "Every beat of your heart is like a punch to the stomach, and you think that maybe it would be easier if you'd never felt the love at all."

"No," Eddie interrupts, shaking his head. "No, there's no way I was never going to feel this.. I'd always end up here."

"That's mighty faithful for someone who doesn't believe in the universe," Bobby mumbles.

"I believe in him," Eddie shrugs helplessly.

"Eddie, you haven't lost him." Bobby lays a hand on his shoulder. "He's just out of reach, but you can get to him. You've done it before. Both of you have. You always make it back to each other. That's your deal."

"I don't know how to reach him this time," Eddie confesses breathlessly.

"You have to take the leap, Eddie." Bobby sighs. "Its going to be terrifying, and it might not all fall into place at once. But one day, you'll look back and you'll be so damn glad you jumped."

Eddie bites into his lip as the first tear rolls down his cheek.

"What if he doesn't catch me?"

"Then, he'll pick you up off the floor," Bobby promises with all the conviction he has. Its the one thing he knows with any certainty in this world. "Eddie, whatever happens, you can't lose Buck. Not completely. And things might change. But think of how it could change for the better."

Eddie smiles to himself, a tiny, wobbly, private thing that Bobby's only caught glimpses of when Buck is around.

"So, I just jump?" he asks.

"You jump." Bobby nods. "You jump, and you hope, and you trust that he'll be right there with you."

"That he'll have my back?" Eddie grins ruefully.

"Yeah, trust that he'll have your back," Bobby smiles right back.

They'll be okay.

[blueathens]

Ocean’s 9-1-1 - AGAPE SERIES

                     ACT TWO, CHAPTER 6

SONG: Stranger Things by Chase Atlantic QUOTE: “Man, this is why I could never rob a bank, I’m clearly not smart enough for it.”

A/N: Not proofread or edited.

A/N 2: This chapter is quite bad in my opinion due to me not having many ideas for what to do for it.

A/N 3: Also for the investigation scenes, the 118 dialogues are written on the right side in italics and labelled with who's speaking as they obviously all came in one by one, but in the show it combined them all together - i don't really know how to describe it...but I just thought maybe this be a better way to write this scene.

Previous || Next

Masterlist//Main Masterlist//Agape Masterlist

"Hello?" Kasey groggy voice answers the phone, not taking a single look at who was ringing her in the early morning. She slowly sits herself up in her car where she once was sleeping, and very tiredly rubs her right eye with the bottom of her palm.

"Did you know there was so many types of flour? There's self-raising, plain, wholemeal and– " Kasey yawned as Eddie's voice welcomes her on the other side. "Have you only just woken up?"

"Good morning Eds, how are you today? I was doing amazingly until this crazy man rang me to inform me on all the different types of flour instead of confessing his undying love for me."

"My undying love?" Eddie laughs as he picks up another bag of flour, spinning it around in his hand as he tried to read the uses of this type of flour. "It's seven in the morning, Kas, how have you just woken up?"

"Quite easily actually," Kasey sarcastically responded. "I opened my eyes and–"

"Do you think I can use cake flour to make pancakes?" Eddie questions, interrupting Kasey before she fell into an entire sarcastic rant, brows furrowing as he looked at the flour in his hand before shifting his gaze to the multiple bags of flour in front of him. "I was going to make pancakes but realised I had no flour."

"And you thought to call me to ask questions on cooking?" Kasey would have let out a loud laugh if her body wasn't still trying to wake up. "I'm flattered but I do think you should have called Bobby instead."

"Would he be up?"

"I wasn't," Kasey said flatly.

"I thought you would have been," Eddie responded. "You usually are."

"So is Bobby," Kasey mutters, "I think he's also at work already."

"Huh," Eddie nods. "Anyways, what flour?"

"I don't know," Kasey rubs her eyes again whilst Eddie purses his lips to stop the stupid smile that was playing at his lips from hearing Kasey's voice. "Wait until you get to the sugars," Kasey laughs slightly. "But we don't need to talk about that until baking a cake or something."

Eddie lets out a small sigh of relief as he allows his body to relax after hearing he doesn't have to worry about the different varieties of sugars.

"Anyways," Kasey yarns again, sitting herself up more against the window, "I'm pretty certain Bobby uses plain flour for pancakes."

"You sure?"

Kasey hums in confirmation and that was enough for Eddie to pick up the plain flour and toss it into his basket.

"Pancakes are easy to make, right?" Eddie questioned over the phone, and Kasey shot an eyebrow up at the next sudden question about cooking.

"I like this Kasey Strand you have pictured in your mind," she teases, "sounds like she's a pretty amazing cook."

"Shut up," mumbles Eddie.

"I think you'll make some pretty good pancakes," Kasey reassures him before she pulls the phone away from her ear to check the time. "I've got to get ready for work, Eds. You're coming in at 9 aren't you?"

Eddie nods before realising Kasey can't see him, "Er, yeah, yeah I am."

"Alright cool," Kasey smiles. "I'll see you in a bit! Good luck on those pancakes"

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"Hey! Hey!" A muffled voice said over the sound of slams against a window grabbed both Buck's and Kasey attention, both stopping and turning on their heel to stand by the drivers window, ready to aid the man slamming his window in desperation. "Can you tell me what's happening?"

Buck and Kasey gave a quick glance at one another before turning back to face the man. Buck licks his lip in thought, "Ugh, don't know, sir. We just got here."

"I can see that," the man lowers his face to the small gap that was in the off centre of his van door, but he stayed looking at the two young firefighters. "Do you know what the call was?"

"Two people down in the bank."

"Down? Like dead down? Injured down? Depressed down?"

"No," Kasey rolled her eyes and Buck snapped his neck to look at her, eyes squeezing shut as he listens to the next words that fell from his best friend's lips. "Their getting it down."

"You was called in for a dance party?"

Kasey stares at the man blankly. "Yes, we're the strippers that they hired."

"Oh," the man gives a form of a smile that was a mixture of gladness and slight excitement. "In that case–"

"She's not being serious," Buck sighs.

The drivers eyes widen, and the smile fell of his face. "M-my partner's in there."

Buck gives Kasey a look that she seriously shouldn't have made that joke, but Kasey's eyes moved to look down at her boots.

"Was your partner exhibiting any kind of symptoms of anything before entering the bank?" Buck called out loudly so he could be heard through the window.

"What?" The drivers face scrunches up. "No."

"Does he have any allergies or medical conditions?"

"No!" He states loudly. "He eats better than I do. He's-he's a pescatarian."

Buck holds his hand up in front of him. "Okay, well, uh, you just," he looks at Kasey, but she was still awkwardly staring down at her boots. "Sit tight!"

Buck pulls Kasey away with him in a rush, not listening to the last words of the driver as he was already onto scolding Kasey for the jokes she has been making recently, stating that there was a time and place for that.

"You're better than that," Buck states, hands waving all over the place. "It's bad when I'm the one telling you off."

"You're always telling me off." She rolls her eyes.

"Clearly I'm the only one who's been using our shared braincell recently," Buck shakes his head with a slight smirk. "At the moment it's like you're my child, call me daddy...I–" the two pauses at what Buck just said. "Never mind, that sounds wrong."

Kasey turns to look at him, horror was across her face as she stares at him. "Never," she emphasises strongly. "And I mean, never, say that again. That was horrible."

Buck nods, "we'll never bring this back up again."

"My therapist is going to hear about this." Kasey walks off into the bank.

"Therapist?" Buck calls.

"Yes," Kasey pauses as she keeps the door open whilst she looks over her shoulder. "Someone you talk to, not someone you sleep with."

"That was one time!"

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"All right. Get him started on O2. Ten litres." Bobby instructs, hands placed firmly on his hips whilst both Buck and Kasey came to stand on either side of him, pulling up their blue gloves. Bobby then turns his head to look at the woman that worked within the bank. "You said there's a second patient?"

Bobby, Hen, and Bobby wondered into the vault of the bank, a man was on the ground, twitching and gurgling.

"Same as the courier out front." States Hen as she takes a look at the man that had the same white foam bubbling in his mouth like the last guy.

She kneels down next to him, medical bag by her as she places a hand on the ground right by his head and a hand on his cheek. "Exhibiting extreme muscle spasms. Cap, pupils are dilated."

Eddie walks in and stands next to Kasey to also take a look at the man.

"I don't know what we're looking at here."

Eddie leans forwards slightly before shaking his head.

"Could be a nerve agent." Kasey looks up from the man to stare at the back of Eddie's head. She crosses her hands, body falling slightly stiff as she chews on her bottom lip.

"You've seen that before."

"Been trained for it," Eddie looks over his shoulder at Kasey, brows scrunching as he takes in her body language, he then turns his head back forwards to gesture a handout to the man. "Symptoms all line up. The fact that we have multiple people down. I can't say for sure until we run some tests."

"Hen you need to move," Kasey said, voice slightly strained and quiet. Eddie takes a step back, shoulder brushing Kasey's as they watch Hen move away from the man.

"You okay?" Eddie whispers.

"We had something like this in the field." Kasey mutters before giving a half shrug. "I don't really know, our medic apparently gave one of our guys some form of poison, but we didn't know until much later on though. She refused to help him...she then died a minute later cause another guy shot her dead." Kasey purses her lips with slight raised brows as she recalls an event from her path. "She ended up being a spy who needed to kill my team."

Eddie looked at Kasey with a screwed-up face and Kasey shrugs.

"Luckily we caught on quickly as we only had her that day, and, er, I honestly had no idea what was going on as I wasn't in the best of conditions."

Eddie understood that Kasey wouldn't want to talk about it any longer as he turns and leaves the vault, Kasey shortly followed, she knew she wasn't the one who needed to be in a rush. She only did a bit of medic training, nothing compared to what Eddie had to do, she was more in the combat not the medic side.

But something in Kasey felt off, like this was going to end up being what happened to her team, that they believed it was something else, but it ended up being something worst. She gives Hen a wary look, seeing if she was going to follow behind, and Kasey presumed she was as she was now standing up and moving away from the man.

"Step away. Step away." Kasey heard Bobby say as she walked out the vault, catching up to the two patching men who was being followed out by the blonde woman. "I need everybody's attention. We are now preparing for a possible chemical exposure incident. That means nobody in, nobody out."

There's a click.

"We can't risk spreading whatever may be present here."

Hen hears the beeping and turns around.

She runs in.

"Cap," Eddie says, the team turning around to see her rushing in. Eddie moved first. "Hen! Hen!"

"Hen! Hen!"

She falls to her knees behind the man's head, but his hands grabs her face.

"Wait...No. Stay calm, sir. Stay calm!" She attempts to pull his hands off from her face. "I'm with the LAFD. We got to get you out of here!"

The vault door was a second away from closing.

"No!" She screams as she pushes herself up, rushing towards the heavy metallic door, whilst both Bobby and Eddie tries to pull the bars of the front of it, trying to keep it open; but failed to.

The vault door was closed shut.

Bobby presses the side button of his radio, "Hen, do you copy?"

Hen pants, "I'm here, Cap. Making myself comfortable."

"Not too comfortable."

"How do we open this?" Bobby points his thumb behind him at the closed vault as he questions the woman.

"Uh, we don't. The vault operates on a time lock. It wont reopen until the start of business tomorrow."

"What if it's an emergency." Bobby asks.

"There is a number for the vault company on Mr Prentiss' desk."

"Show me."

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"I feel like a minion." Kasey mutters to her friends that were with her as they tried to open the vault in a various of different ways. Kasey turns to look at Eddie. "Look at Eds, Buck! He looks like a depressed minion, and you look like what's-his-name? Kevin!"

"Kas, what did I say about the jokes?"

"Just trying to defuse the tension," Kasey sighs as she slams her hand against the small screen of numbers. "I'm just nervous."

"We know," both Eddie and Buck voiced.

Bobby walks towards the trio, slight regret in his stomach that he told the three of them to work together on the vault.

This trio is a trio that should never work together, or it would be disastrous, but Bobby felt that them working together to attempt to open the vault – it couldn't go as bad as it already has.

"Not even a scratch," Buck alerts as he turns around to look at Bobby who was also in the same suit as the three of them.

Bobby walks towards the computer screen on the desk behind Eddie and Kasey.

"Okay, two people, 72 breaths a minute, we need to drill into that vault and get some air flowing."

"Doors are wired, Cap." Eddie waves his hand at the vault. "Running hot."

"We need to cut the power."

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All the lights were switched off, only the torches attached to everyone's suits were on.

"You know the man in the van," Buck begins as he talks to Kasey who was standing next to him. "I think he was commenting on our minion suits."

Kasey turns to where Buck was standing, not seeing each other clearly due to the dark, but both had two different smiles on their faces.

"Really?!" Kasey bounced in excitement. "What he say?"

"I couldn't really hear him, but I think he liked them!" Buck switches on his torch when he noticed he was one of the ones who didn't have their torch on. "I said okay to him and knew I had to come and find you."

"Wicked!" Kasey whispers to herself.

Eddie begins to drill into the vault and the duo turned to watch.

"How are you and Jamie?" Buck questioned his friend as the two of them haven't been giving any instructions for this part except hold torches to help Eddie to see.

"We're alright."

"You happy with him?" Buck tried, side eyeing his friend as her eyes stay on Eddie.

"I suppose," she shrugs. "We've only been going out for a few weeks."

"But you would know if you were happy with him, I knew I was happy with Abbie immediately."

Kasey furrows her brows. "What are you trying to say."

Buck stumbles on his words as his looks around the dark room as if it would give him some form of answer, "just, er, I'm just making sure you're happy."

"Sure," Kasey drags out.

"We're through!" Eddie yells as he pulls out the end of the drill to look at the hole he made before someone pushes a tube through it.

"Okay, Chim, power us back up." Bobby says in his radio. "Buck, crank the O2."

He turns to the oxygen tanks, twisting the dial, before letting go and turning round to face Bobby.

"We're wide open, Cap." The four of them look at the computer screen to see the two bodies on the ground of the vault. "Okay, now what?"

"Now we get in there."

"How are we gonna do that?"

"We're gonna crack this safe."

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"Chim and I are clearly the cool ones here," Kasey mutters as her and her team stand behind Bobby as he bends down. Her mask was in her right hand whilst her left hand pressed against her hip. "We're the only ones in our wicked minion suits."

She eyes the others in their usual uniforms.

"No idea why but–"

"Okay, we start drilling here," Bobby points to the blank wall that was surrounding the outside of the vault.

"Creating a crumple zone."

"Exactly."

"Then what?" A confused Buck asks.

"Then, I have an idea. But we got to soften it up first."

"Soften up a foot of concrete?" Chimney questions.

"Yeah, it beats three layers of tempered steel." Buck looks at Kasey with a grin. "Told you I'm the one using the braincell between us." He places both hands on the hammer that was once resting against his shoulder in one hand. "Let's do it."

The drill goes in first to make a few small holes in various of places of the area Bobby pointed out. Afterwards it was the hammer that was then used to smash against the holes that were created, using them as a marker to where to break down the wall.

"Okay, Chim, I need you back inside," Bobby demands, "eyes on the vault cam. If we're compromising their safety in any way, you got to let me know."

"Copy that, Cap."

"All right."

"How does Chim look adorable in this minion suit?" Kasey asks, ignoring the concerned looks Bobby and Eddie was giving her.

"Kasey," Bobby says, and she turns to look at him with a small frown. "Get into the fire truck."

"Aye, aye, Captain."

Kasey climbs into the driver seat of the fire truck, driving it forth until Bobby halted her with a signal of his hand. The three guys connect the line in front of the truck into the small hole made into the wall.

Eddie rushes forwards after a listening to the sound of rattling for a few seconds. "The wrench isn't going to do it, Cap!"

Bobby held his finger up, gesturing to Eddie to give him a second whilst he went on his phone. Meanwhile, Kasey was drumming her fingers against the steering wheel, humming a song that was stuck in her head whilst she awaited for her next instructions.

Buck jumped into the passenger seat of the fire truck. "Reverse the truck, someone just died."

"What?" Kasey snaps her head to look at him whilst she begins to reverse the truck.

"Keep on reversing."

"What do you think I'm doing, Buck?" At those words the area of wall they wanted to break, came out onto the wrench. Bobby and Eddie runs towards the hole, followed closely behind by Kasey and Buck who looked over Eddie and Bobby's shoulder only to see Chimney standing on the other side.

The vault door was now open.

"Hey, guys."

"Seriously?"

"Fucking hell!"

The four of them looked between each other before watching Chimney walk into the vault, mask now on his face.

"Hen! Can you hear me?"

There's a groan.

"Chim?" Hen dryly asks.

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"300,000 dollars."

"Tucked away on the 118 ladder truck. Any idea how it got there?"

HEN: "No, why would I?"

"You're with the 118. And you were at the bank when it was stolen."

KASEY: "Great observation, Captain Obvious."

HEN: "If by 'at the bank' you mean that I was unconscious and I was locked away in a vault, yeah. And I wasn't alone. "

MR PRENTISS: "Um...I'm sorry, this is so embarrassing. The doctors say I'm fine."

"Still feeling the aftereffects?"

"Do you have any idea what happened?"

MADDIE: "The call came in a little after 5:00."

KASEY: "I was in this minion suit for most of the time and for some reason Chimney looked freaking adorable in the suit! Yellow is his colour, just saying."

"I don't see how that's relevant."

KASEY: "Not to your question, no, but it's needs to be said. Anyways, we thought it was a nerve agent at first."

"On this report it says you've seen it before? When you was-"

KASEY: "I don't know much. A spy supposedly poisoned someone on my team and it looked a lot like what happened today."

"So you could've poisoned those people to help the 118 rob a bank?"

EDDIE: "That's a bold accusation."

"Looks like our money trouble is over. That's the text your sister sent you right after she took the 911 call. You care to explain."

BUCK: "Her landlord finally agreed to let her out of her lease and refund her security deposit. He'd been giving her some grief about it."

"You expect us to believe you just happened to take this call? And you just happened to dispatch  your brother's squad to the scene?"

MADDIE: "It happens more than you think."

CHIMNEY: "We're like a family."

KASEY: "The 118 is my family. So why would we purposely put Hen in danger?"

"That's what we're asking you."

KASEY: "Would you purposely put your own family in danger? No. I don't think so, so that question is-"

CHIMNEY: "I mean, a big, messy, extended family, but we take care of each other, we support each other. You know, we have each other's backs."

"Conspire."

BOBBY: "Conspire?"

"Conspire. You conspired with your fiancee's ex-husband to steal the blueprints to that bank."

MICHAEL: "Not stolen."

ATHENA: "You think they did what now?"

MICHAEL: "People request building plans all the time. Architects, contractors..."

"Terrorists."

KASEY: "You really think we have time to plan and attempt a robbery? Dude we save lives nearly every-day, and do you think we do this job for the money, because if we did, then we wouldn't still be working here, would we? Cause let's be honest, we don't get paid enough to risk our lives every day, but we do our job because we care about people, we care and want this world to be more safe."

"We-"

KASEY: "No wonder why people don't like you guys if you're throwing the word 'terrorists' around as if it's the same as 'I love you.'"

EDDIE: "Don't think I ever said the word 'terrorists."

"But you were the first to suggest it might be a nerve agent."

"And everyone figured  you knew what you were talking about. Coming from the military and all."

EDDIE: "It was part of my training. How to spot it. How to respond."

BOBBY: "We had to improvise."

"You do that a lot - improvise?"

BOBBY: "It's part of the job. See the problem, solve the problem."

KASEY: "Er, yeah, I suppose you're right. I do improve a lot, but what do you want us to do, have a cup of tea and a biscuit, so we can discuss a plan whilst someone dies right next to us. Yes, we be with you in a moment Jimmy, just got to decide what water pressure is needed to put out that fire."

MICHAEL: "I was trying to help a friend."

"Your ex's new squeeze is your friend?"

MICHAEL: "Hen is my friend. I mean, yes, Bobby's a friend, too. Hell, they're all my friends."

EDDIE: "I don't really know him."

HEN: "Someone said I seemed stressed? Who?"

BUCK: "Cranky. I said she was a little cranky that morning."

KASEY: "Buck and Eddie was hanging up a banner and I was blowing up balloons, Bobby was with Marty - he was someone checking our fire trucks - and Chimney was on his way to work for the first time since the incident."

"Did she seem stressed?"

KASEY: "Hen? I wouldn't blame her if she was stressed from talking to Buck. But we love Buck and-"

"That's not very professional."

EDDIE: "Who said we was in a relationship?"

KASEY: "What do you have against the 118 poly relationship?"

"It must be hard. Your wife losing her job at JPL."

EDDIE: "Yeah. Kids in general are expensive. But they're worth it, right?"

KASEY: "What you asking me about kids for? I haven't got any...right?"

EDDIE: "Y-yeah, okay, maybe I picked up a few extra shifts here and there, but it's not a big deal. Kasey and I are the ones who usually pick up the extra shifts."

KASEY: "I literally have no life so yeah I pick up extra shifts."

"300 grand does solve a lot of problems."

EDDIE: "I've got two full-time jobs: firefighter and dad. I don't have time to plan a robbery."

KASEY: "Why are you so curious on my sex life? Who said I slept with Eddie? We're both in relationships with other people. But how is that relevant?"

CHIMNEY: "I never said they slept together. But I'm not denying that the 118 has a bet going on to see when they'll get together. I've bet they would be together by next year."

BUCK: "My answer has changed about five times now due to their blindness...how long does a divorce take?"

BOBBY: "There is not a bet going on, that's unprofessional, and for those two members of my team? They are not together and will not be together as they are very happy with who they are already with."

"Six weeks at home,  guy like you, what you do for living,  you must've been climbing the walls."

CHIMNEY: "Well, more like redecorating them."

"Sounds like you had a lot of time on your hands. To think. To plan?"

CHIMNEY: "You mean to plot? Who did I plot with?"

EDDIE: "Yes, Kasey and I are together a lot, but that doesn't mean we're plotting to rob a bank."

"You rang her this morning to-"

EDDIE: "-To ask her about flour as I was making pancakes."

KASEY: "I was joking when I said I had no life. I'm not that sad of a human being. Jeez."

BOBBY: "No one on my team would do this. I am sure of it."

KASEY: "I was like ten when I stole that lollipop and I'm beginning to be creeped out on how you know that."

"We rang your family as we believe they could have been involved too."

KASEY: "How much longer of these pointless questions? I've got a dog waiting for his dinner."

"You moved here two, three years go. Minnesota, right?"

BOBBY: "Mm-hmm."

"Left there under a bit of a cloud, didn't you, Captain?"

"Truth is, you don't know the people you work with, and they don't know you. Do they, Captain Nash?"

"We have hardly any reports on you Strand, don't you think that's suspicious?"

KASEY: "No, cause they did that before and after the military for my own safety."

BUCK: "But i trust them. Kasey is my best friend, my sister, I - and Bobby? I trust him and I trust his gut. So when he said we needed to get into that vault, yeah, I believed him."

KASEY: "So, Bobby and I are now your top suspects or something? Might as well throw my dog into that list too."

"Captain Nash said you're aware of his past."

KASEY: "And? What has- hey! Cross 'Kasey's dog' off of that notebook of yours."

"You chose to run into that vault, Firefighter Wilson, believing that there was a nerve agent present. Why would you do that?"

HEN: "Because it's my job."

"Or maybe you were providing a distraction so one of your friends can do a different kind of job."

SAM: "I don't know what happened. I just did what the firefighter said."

BUCK: "The armored car driver."

KASEY: "He said he liked our minion suits."

SAM: "Those yellow suits that they were wearing was horrendous."

BUCK: "I thought he couldn't leave the truck."

SAM: "Then he said I was in danger. I had to get decontaminated. Look, I was scared, I did not know they were gonna rob the truck."

CHIMNEY: "Wait, so the money came from the armored car?"

MICHAEL: "Not the vault?"

HEN: "But I was in the vault the whole time. There's no way that's me."

"No you were the distraction. Getting everyone to look over there, so no one is noticing the man emptying the armoured car."

"So who's your partner?"

BUCK: "I'm so confused. Can you start over?"

❥๑━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━๑❥

Kasey sat anxiously in her apartment.

It was the second time she's been here since the incident. Bear was sat next to her on her coach whilst she leaned her head back to stare at the ceiling, not wanting to take a look at the rest of her apartment.

The ceiling was something she was okay with, it wasn't in her eyesight much since her incident, so it didn't bring her back any memories. But being in her apartment was odd, it didn't make her feel safe, so she was sat there taking deep breaths as she tried not to break down or have a panic attack.

She fiddled with her fingers as she anxiously waited for her lovely surprise to arrive, having already been warned by Athena that she should go in her apartment as the detective and officers will be round with a warrant.

Jamie, her boyfriend, was in her apartment too. He was in the kitchen making coffee for both of them, completely obvious to his anxious girlfriend or what was about to happen.

The second Kasey heard a fist pounding against her door, she jumped up and rushed to open it, Bear following closely behind.

And there they were, the detective and officers with a warrant before they all shoved their way into the house. Jamie leaned back to look at what the commotion was, only for his eyes to widen to see the herd of officers barging their way into his girlfriend's apartment.

Kasey closed the door after the last one entered, she looked down at Bear and shook her head before commanding him to heal at her feet whilst she leaned against the wall, trying to breath as she stared up at the ceiling once again.

She was in the hallway...she was in the hallway...she was in the hallway...

Jamie walked up to her, two mugs in his hands and handed one over to Kasey who quickly took it to keep her mind occupied.

"Did you know about this?" He whispers to her as he watches them from the hallway.

"I'm not allowed to say." She blows the top of her mug to cool down her drink.

"Do you think I should offer them a drink."

"No, they won't be here for long as there is nothing for them to find." Kasey takes a small sip of coffee, her other hand that wasn't holding her drunk was behind her, clutching the radiator. "No one else but me and Athena knows about this. They'll take stuff like my laptop, but I'll get that back in a few days when they discover this is all a false accusation."

"Where are they looking?"

"All of our houses. They even got warrants in Texas for my family down there. The firehouse and their firehouse. It's all bullshit really."

"We're going to your place afterwards, Doctor," one of the officers states. "You can get in our car with us."

"Can't wait." Jamie rolls his eyes.

"I can't wait to get out of this hell of an apartment. Probably should start looking for a new place." Kasey sighs as she looks at her dog before looking blankly at the wall in front of her. She was struggling a lot by being in this apartment and she needed these officers to hurry up so she can just leave.

Kasey even made sure to take out all her stuff from her car and move it back into this apartment so it didn't look like she was sleeping in her car, or they would use that against her and say she was struggling with money. Which she wasn't, not really, she was just struggling in being in this apartment.

And the real reason she hasn't tried to look for a new apartment was because then she would have to go back into this one anyways and get all of her stuff and clean it up for people to look to rent it out.

"Should've put vodka in this coffee, think we're gonna need it."

❥๑━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━๑❥

“Hey, Marty, thanks for coming.” Chimney says as he opens the fire trucks door as he sat in the inside of it.

“Hey. Yeah, I heard you guys were having trouble with the ladder. Was starting to think you guys, uh, don’t know how to use it.”

Another truck door opens, and Eddie leans out of the open window with a cloth in his hand.

“Well, you know how we operate. All our procedures and protocols.”

Buck and Kasey walk towards Marty.

“But maybe you could show us some tricks.”

“Yeah, you seem to know more about these trucks than we do,” states Bobby.

“Like where to hide 300,000 dollars of cash,” Kasey says as she crosses her arms and leans against the truck that Eddie was in.

Marty awkwardly laughs, “what are you guys talking about?”

Hen walks around the front of the trucks and appeared behind Marty.

“How are your hands, Marty? That alternative medicine still working?”

Marty looks round and all the fed-up firefighters before he dropped his toolbox, tools scattering everywhere, and making a dash for it, but he was stopped by the detectives that investigated every single one of them.

“Marty Collins,” the male detective spins Marty around by a hand on his shoulder. “You’re under arrest for bank robbery and murder.”

“Murder?” Marty questions as the handcuffs are put on him. “Who’d I kill?”

Kasey looks down at her phone as a message comes through.

Dad: No more of those unfriendly people are going to come to our homes, right?

Kasey: Suspect has just been arrested; we should all be good now.

“So,” Buck says as he sits himself down as they all moved upstairs to have their dinner. “Let me get this right. The fake nerve agent attack was a distraction for the armoured car robbery. Which was a distraction for the diamond heist. Crime is hard.”

Kasey laughs before she leans against Eddie to quietly talk to him, “do you think that soldier died from a nerve agent? Or was he poisoned by the spy or–”

“What happened to you on that day? As it sounds like it was your team giving you loads of different stories.”

“I was shot,” Kasey licked her lips, “and er, I was trying to sort myself out whilst my team went through those few minutes of hell. It was all quick and sudden…it’s just…if it was a nerve agent then someone else could have helped…couldn’t they?”

“I’m not sure, Kasey, is there a way for you to ask someone on your team about that day?”

Kasey shakes her head, “they all died within that week, we had another spy in the team, but I survived because I got called out to go into this other team where a medic could look at my wound. I came back and they were all dead, except the other spy who got away.”

Eddie gave her a sympathetic look; he knew how hard it was being out there.

“But they all died the same way, they all died like they were having a nerve agent attack…but that can’t be a coincidence…right?”

Eddie shakes his head, “maybe it was poison, and you were the only lucky one to get away.”

“Yeah, guess I should be glad I was shot.” Kasey purses her lips in thought. “It was a crazy week and I never really thought about it until now…think I kind of just blanked it out of my memory until now…until seeing something so similar to it.”

“I don’t think this will be something that will ever be answered, Kas.”

“I know…it’s just crazy.”

“It is…how old were you.”

“I was eighteen and it was my first week out in the field. They gave me a medal for that week too, for spotting the spies. I did nothing though, it – I don’t deserve those medals.”

Kasey shuffled back into her seat, not wanting to think about it any longer as she listens to Hen as she digs into her food.

“Franklin knew the bank and Marty knew us.”

“But how did they knew each other?” Eddie questioned with a mouthful of food.

“Brothers-in-law. Well, ex-brothers-in-law. Franklin had been married to Marty’s crazy sister. And when they ran into each other again, a plan formed. Franklin was the inside man. His job was to create a medical emergency in the bank. The kind that would trigger a hazmat response because Marty knew that we’d have to seal the perimeter to execute the Big Bird protocol. He gets the driver to leave the truck and empty all of his pockets. And while the driver gets clean, Marty gets rich. Except, how’s he gonna get all that money out of there? Can’t just walk it off the scene. He needed a mule. Or a team of mules. Us.”

“Not a bad plan,” Bobby says, “I mean, it’s crazy, but it could’ve worked. We bring the money back here and all he has to do is wait for the right moment to sneak in, access the ladder truck and retrieve the money. Except there want any because the police had already beaten him to the punch.”

“But how’d the police know exactly where to find the money?” Buck questions.

“Cause there was one variable that Marty didn’t count on,” Chimney tells them, “the double cross. See, Marty may have known everything there is to know about the LAFD protocol, but Franklin knew about the bank. He knew what was in that vault. He could steal those diamonds with his eyes closed. See, Marty’s plan was simple, but Franklin’s was more time-sensitive, so he told Marty the best day to rob the armoured car would be his last day. He knew there’d be a party at the end of day at the close of business. He’d start with Marty’s plan, then he’d improvise. Franklin made sure he collapsed inside the vault. He knew what our result would be. Then all he had to do was wait for the vault to automatically close and time-seal for the night. Then he’d have hours alone inside that vault while we ran our rescue protocols. It was a meticulous plan. But there was an unexpected complication.”

“Me,” Hen continues. “He was supposed to be in there alone. So me running in to save his sorry arse? A complication. He had to take me out, too. But now he’s playing ‘beat the clock.’ Soon as the cameras couldn’t see, Franklin swiped six million in stones and waited to be saved. All he needed was a clean gate away. He sends the police after us. So, while the police are investigating us…he could flee the country. New name, new passport, new life.”

“He just wasn’t fast enough,” informed Bobby.

“Marty knew he’d been double-crossed.” Said Eddie.

“He goes to confront Franklin.”

“So Marty killed Franklin,” Buck says proudly in the way that he was finally understanding the story.

“Man, this is why I could never rob a bank, I’m clearly not smart enough for it.” Laughs Kasey.

[crowleywasagryffindor]

Snippet from upcoming chapter for Lifeline

So I got burnt out, skipped an update week, started to feel okay again and got a chapter out for this week's update - then proceeded to spend half the day writing and have most of the next two chapters done. What the hell, brain?

Anyway. Thought I'd share a snippet because I found the last bit hilarious after I wrote it.

"So, the others aren't far behind and I'm pretty sure they're gonna demand an explanation - Chris just told them about the kid causing trouble at school." Hen says, eyeing the both of them carefully. "Uh - well, we're dealing with it." Buck answers her with a frown as Eddie turns to grab their coffee, passing Buck's to him. He nods gratefully, but doesn't drink it just yet. He turns it over in his head - yeah, they'd had issues at first, when they'd been called to the principals office to discuss an incident about Chris hitting another kid. But once Chris had explained that the kid was being a jerk (neither of them told him off for using the word after Chris explained the kid was being loudly homophobic toward his friends) they'd figured out a plan. So far, the plan was working. "Why do they need an explanation?" Eddie asks after a few moments, voicing Buck's thoughts. "Well, that might have something to do with what the kid said in the first place. Apparently there were some homophobic comments?" Hen says, opening her mouth to continue. Chim's voice stops her, however, as he ascends the stairs to join them. Eddie takes a sip of his coffee, not considering what a terrible choice that is any time Chim starts speaking. "Oh, and then he explained how it doesn't matter because the kid is wrong, anyway," "Which is a great thing to hear," Bobby adds quickly. "Because," Chim continues after shooting Bobby an impatient look. "-and I quote, 'Dad and Buck are sleeping together, which is not weird at all.'" Eddie promptly inhales the coffee - chokes - then turns bright red, all in a matter of seconds.

[octoberobserver]

Eddie Needs Glasses and Buck Can’t Cope

So this popped into my head and wouldn't leave until I wrote it down. It may become a larger fic on ao3 if the interest is there lol.

Eddie Diaz had kinda shit eyesight. Particularly when it came to reading. It wasn’t a secret per se, but wasn’t something he actively broadcast either. He had been toying with the idea of maybe trying contacts for the last few years, but ever since becoming a firefighter, he hadn’t bothered seriously looking into getting them as they were strictly prohibited on the job. Lately though, he had been finding it harder and harder to ignore how he was squinting more and more when trying to read the newspaper or when checking texts on his phone.

“It's 'cause you're an old man, Eds," Buck would always cheekily point out whenever he caught him frowning at his screen, insisting it was the brightness level.

“I’m not even four years older than you, Mr Thirty, Flirty and Thriving,” he’d grouse back, knowing it wasn’t really helping his grumpy-old-man image even if he was quoting a 2000’s romantic-comedy that Buck had never seen.

At his last eye-exam (that was mandated as part of his physical to get reinstated after being shot), his optometrist suggested reading glasses. “Just for when you really need them, Mr. Diaz.” Chris had been the one to fully talk him into it. Pointing to his own glasses with a sweet grin and “We can match, Dad.”

So that settled it.

“Oh. My. God.”

Eddie barely hid a wince, tensing up a little as he heard Chimney’s over-the-top gasp from behind him. He nervously touched the side of the frames, adjusting them a little.

“Eddie...you’re wearing glasses,” Chim pointed out as if Eddie had no idea, his voice tinged with awe.

Eddie shot a glance at his co-worker, giving up on the crossword that Bobby had already dubbed a lost cause at breakfast, and turning around.

“Astute observation, Chim,” he smirked sarcastically, “nothing wrong with your eyesight.”

Hen snorted as she joined the table, sitting down to her BLT, “I think they’re nice, Eddie. They just for reading or…?”

He nodded, rolling his eyes at Chimney continuing to stare at him as he took a seat next to his partner.

“Yeah, mostly. I’ve kinda been a bit near-sighted since my second tour, maybe longer. Never really did much about it, but it’s unavoidable now. Chris keeps saying I squint at the TV too much too.”

Hen hummed in understanding, chewing on a piece of tomato as the unmistakable thunderclap of Buck racing up the stairs reached their ears.

“Yo, did Albert leave that—”

Buck stopped dead in his tracks, words dying in his throat as he blinked at Eddie like he had never seen him before.

“Hey,” Eddie smirked, forcing himself not to squirm in his seat under his partner’s laser-focus, “what about Albert?”

Buck shook his head, still wide-eyed.

“Eddie…” he breathed, “you…”

“Got glasses. Yeah.”

A beat passed where Buck’s gaze trailed Eddie’s entire face. He fought the urge to slide down his seat at the indecipherable expression slowly crossing his friend’s.

“You look like Clark Kent,” Buck said finally, his voice sounding as if his brain were miles away from the conversation. “Nerdy in a sexy—”

Eddie froze as Buck broke off.

Buck, for his part, flushed as red as the tomato Hen had just finished eating.

“Uh, thanks?” Eddie mumbled, his heart-rate picking up more than a little.

Hen chuckled into her coffee as Chim cleared his throat in that loud, Dad-way that he had perfected despite his daughter being not even a year old yet.

Buck nodded vigorously before crossing over to the coffee pot, his back conveniently turned.

“So I’m Clark Kent and Chris is Superman?” Eddie felt compelled to ask, trying not to linger on the word ‘sexy’, his gaze zeroing in on his best friend’s broad shoulders.

“Yep,” Buck replied, still not turning around. “Guess bespectacled heroics run in the family.”

Eddie smiled down at his plate, his knuckle brushing against his frames, but not self-consciously this time.

“Yeah. Guess so.”

(You know they end up watching 13 Going On 30 at some point. In fact, I may be writing a fic detailing just that 😂)

[lemotmo]

911 4x14 - thoughts and rambles

Okay, I just watched the finale of 911 after I managed NOT to get spoiled all day long. I’m still proud of that fact by the way. I wanted to peek at spoilers so badly, but because work was so exceptionally busy I made it work. And I’m so happy that I had no idea what was coming.

I’m not one to write episode reviews or anything like that, but I feel the need to write down some of my rambling thoughts, because this episode really blew me away in many ways. It was like a good fanfic come to life. I have to admit that, when I opened Tumblr, I was a little surprised that, in between the positivity, there was still quite some negativity about this episode. All while I’m sitting here, still crying over that great ending with ‘Skyscraper’. So, let me get these random thoughts out.

Be warned! Spoilers and thoughts on the overall storylines from the episode, different characters and of course relationships between characters after the cut. Mainly Buddie positive relationship thoughts though, because this episode filled me with the Buddie-feels. 😊

1. The episode as a whole felt a little rushed. The sniper storyline wasn't well-developed at all. I think that probably has to do with the fact that they had to shorten the season because of—well, you all know why. Let’s not spoil my happy mood here.

2. Eddie and Buck and all the blood—man, that entire sequence of events with Buck rescuing Eddie was just *chef’s kiss*. And the way he was in shock and shaking when he was talking to Taylor. Such good acting by Oliver! Also, did Taylor call Chris ‘his son’? I mean—what? Even outsiders can see it now. The Buckley-Diaz family vibes are real.

3. Question: How is it that Athena seems to be the only capable police officer that actually does any work on this show? She seems able to do everything: patrolling, investigating, finding evidence without any problem or help, walking into a fire and shooting people… You name it and Athena Grant-Nash will do it. And other police officers just let her as well. Is there no hierarchy in this fictional police force? I love Athena to bits, but this was a bit too much for me, if I’m honest.

4. Maddie! Yes, she’s getting help. Thank God. Listen, I’ve been there, right after child-birth. There was no fluffy pink cloud for me either. Just a lot of greyness. I started talking to someone when I felt it was getting to be too much and it really helped. So hopefully, she’ll get through this eventually. I’m hoping that they won’t brush over it in S5. I want to see her progress.

5. Bathena. Man, those two. Such a strong couple. One of the greatest fictional couples out there. I’ve always liked Bobby. Hell, I started watching 911 because Peter Krause was in it and I used to be obsessed with ‘sports night’ way back when in the nineties. 😊 I just loved how Athena showed up and rescued her man in a direct parallel on how he showed up when she got attacked and he was ready to kill someone to save her. Couple’s goals, I’m telling you.

6. Nia was back! That is all! I loved that so much!

7. Albert wanting to be a firefighter felt a little strange to me, but okay. Good for him I suppose. I admit that I don’t really care about him that much. He’s not a character that really speaks to me.

8. Buck and Christopher. Pffff—THAT scene where Buck broke down and Chris consoled him that Eddie would be fine. I mean, yeah—they really pushed the whole ‘Buck is Chris’ dad’ storyline. And then Eddie went and actually made it official. What can I say? I cried— hard.

9. Carla’s little talk with Buck. So many parallels to last week’s talk with Eddie. I mean, the first thing Buck thinks about is Eddie when he is asked how he’s doing. I’m a firm believer that Carla knows there is something unexplored there, right under the surface. If those dumb boys would just figure it out already.

10. That brings me to all the Buddie. Oh man, this episode soothed my aching Buddie-heart so much. It was like reading a good solid Buddie fic. It was all there, the terror and heartbreak, the fear to lose the other, the ‘you’re not expendable’, the ‘I made you his legal guardian’… all of it.

In the end Buck and Taylor happened (I’m not really surprised there as it was a season finale and 911 likes to end that with happiness for everyone) and Eddie and Ana still seem to be together. At least Buck and Taylor acted like a couple and kissed. Eddie and Ana have this weird dynamic going on. A kiss on the cheek? Really?

I will say this: I didn’t mind Buck and Taylor getting together. Like— at all. It -weirdly enough- didn’t even phase me.

Mostly because I was reeling so hard from the infinitely much more powerful emotional connection that Buck and Eddie displayed. Buck saved Eddie, but in the middle of it Eddie was worried about Buck. Buck was not fine after he delivered Eddie to the hospital. He seemed broken. And then Taylor kissed him and ran off. She later told him ‘You didn’t chase me’ (or something like that) and I’m like— no, he didn’t, because right then Ana called him and he knew this would be about Eddie and Eddie will always be more important. He didn’t run after Taylor. He ran towards Eddie. There's something poetic about that. And then Ana stepped aside, and Eddie looked at him with the biggest most soft heart eyes that I’ve ever seen. He’s never looked like that at Ana. In the last scene, when he told Buck about the guardianship he looked so sure of himself. Then he basically told Buck everything he’s ever wanted and needed to hear. Buck told Taylor earlier that he never felt like he was enough. Well, Buck— Eddie just gave you his entire world (his son). You are more than enough for him.

As a single mother I can attest that it’s very important to think about what you want for your child if anything ever happens to you. You don’t take the decision of guardianship lightly. I’ve been there. I was Eddie. It’s hard to make the right choice. For him to make that choice—to make Buck, his best friend, the legal guardian of his child? That’s incredible.

Combine that with Carla’s question last episode about following his own heart and not Christopher’s. It seems to me that Eddie has seen the light and he’s started to partially follow his heart. He’s still not completely there yet, but if this narrative continues, I can see him breaking up with Ana next season, because he realises that following his heart means following Buck, not Ana. And of course, by then Buck will still be with Taylor and there might be pining. I’m all for that.

There were so many parallels between Buck/Taylor + Eddie/Ana and Buddie. Not to mention the clear parallel between Bathena’s storyline and Buddie’s storyline.

I just— I feel really good about this when it comes to romantic Buddie. Listen, I have nothing against platonic best friends Buddie and if that is your jam, you do you! But, for me, the narrative is clearly pushing us towards a romance. I’m getting some really good slow burn vibes here. So far it feels as if Buddie is still right on track with no signs of slowing down. Now, I don’t have a crystal ball or anything like that so I don’t know what the future will bring and showrunners can always change their minds if they really want to, but –in my humble opinion- there is no reversing this kind of emotional connection. If the showrunners really wanted to stop the ambiguity between Buddie, they could have easily done that in this episode. All they had to do was feature more Buck/Taylor and Eddie/Ana to strengthen their connection towards season 5. Instead they focused on the bond between Buck and Eddie and intertwined them even more in each other's lives. So yeah, personally I feel like this is clear: There is only one way to proceed with the storyline and that is forward.

I’m actually really excited for season 5! A lot more than I thought I was going to be two episodes ago. And now there's Tim with his cryptic little quotes about Buck and Eddie. Another thing to obsess about! YAY! 😊 It's a great feeling to start the hiatus like that.

[patroclusonly]

Well y’all, here is my awaited (by like, two people) really long post explaining why I think Bobby is not that great of a character and why I hate his relationship with Buck. 

(this was supposed to be for a reblog but it’s way tooo long for that)

Be warned, this will be me pointing out everything he did wrong and why the way he acts with Buck is just wrong too in a very direct way and with lots of swearing because that's how I express my anger in writing. So, if you like Bobby you probably won’t like this.

I will put a cut here so only the people that want to read it, do it

To start let me say what I think about the man.

Bobby is the most boring character in the show. There, I said it.  

Yeah, his backstory is super sad and whatever but he’s just bland and I think the reason the fandom loves him so much and loves to see him as a father figure is because he’s an old, non-threatening, white man. He said two coherent thoughts in season one and treated Buck like a kid and everyone bought this “nice, wise and always right” idea of him. 

Also, his natural stand is the ‘welcome to chili's’ stand. Yes. You know it is. Okay, keep going.

To be someone so “mature” and “wise”, he has the emotional maturity of a child. He snaps when he’s angry, he gives the silent treatment and he changes the subject when he feels threatened. 

Every time he’s mad at himself or about something in his life, he snaps at the team or even at people in calls, he gets defensive when someone calls him out on his self righteousness and his superiority complex. Now, to expand that i’m going to give some examples:

-He snaps at Chimney when they learn about the blood thing and he gets mad at the fact that now he has something good in his life because he doesn’t deserve it and so he’s all moody at work???

-He snaps at Hen days after asking for her help to stay sober, 

-He snaps at Buck when he says he read his book and even gets physical, pushing him against the wall 

*Now, because I have a thing against men and threatening physical movements, I’m going back to episode one and how he physically moves to make Buck feel scared (that he might hit him) when he walks towards him in the roof, making him back up.* (yes, Buck was afraid of his reaction and since he’s Buck he wasn’t just gonna stand up to him, much less because it was Bobby, and I’m pretty sure he (bobby) knew that)

-Also, the way he says “what did you just said to me?” to Buck in 3.18 like Buck had just insulted him. That was just a stupid and out of place reaction, not a reaction of a boss in the middle of a disaster but it will be talked about later. 

-That one time when he snaps at the owner of the building where the floor collapsed during the wedding 

-That one time he snaps (and again, gets physical and pushes him against a wall) at the dude in the episode with the vegan protesters because he can’t handle how he’s feeling about Buck and the lawsuit. (I’m vegan so yeah, fuck that dude, but the point is: that was another immature and unprofessional reaction)

(I could take that time when Michael is telling him he’s done enough (after harry sets a fire on purpose to play firefighter) and Bobby says “What’s that supposed to mean?” But I won’t because that’s just another immature reaction but for different reasons)

Going to the silent treatment or change of subject when he feels threatened:

-When Chimney is telling the team he proposed to Tatiana and Bobby is standing as Chim says “silently judging right there with that smirk on your face” (which is the vibe he gives all the time, thinking he knows best, and now quoting De Luca, who was a little jealous but a lot right saying “you come in here with your nose in the air and your eyes looking down”) then he just says “you know what? you’re upset. Let’s drop it.”But Chim keeps pushing and then he just attacks back.

-Also, he wants things his way and isn’t willing to understand the other’s reason for something. “I’m not gonna be satisfied with stolen kisses and take out containers. I don’t like keeping us a secret. It feels like lying.” (remember when Eddie says to Buck “a lot of Is there”? mhmm) and the fact that he worded it that way makes it worse. Also, “it feels like lying” really? what are you, five? 

-another moment that shows his immaturity and stupid things he’s said: “Well what am I supposed to do? Forget it, forget all the mean thing she said to her?” Are you a grown man talking about your wife (who can fix her own shit, thank you very much) and her mother, or about a little kid getting bullied bro?

Jumping to the next time we see Athena’s mother. In episode 7 from season 3 he literally calls her so she would make Athena stop investigating Emmeth’s case and after she convinces Athena to tell them everything, he tells her he can do it, like he’s giving her his permission or his blessing to do it? She was gonna do it anyway, fool.

another stupid line: “he called me a liar and it stung.” why does he sound like a five year old all the time? 

another stupid thing he said because he doesn’t take blame in anything apparently (and this is going to be mentioned again when I get into his relationship with Buck but I’m going to talk about it now too) Athena jokes about not inviting Buck over anymore because something always happens and Bobby says “That’s a great idea. None of this would’ve happened if you hadn’t invited him over for dinner.”  (HMMMMM)

Also, he’s mocking and condescending. But well, I don’t have the time to find all the scenes for that. Let’s just say he is with Chim sometimes (maybe some other character, let me know if you have someone in mind) and then with Buck the rest of the time and you can clearly see it. 

There are some other examples that could be used here but will be used to analyze his and Buck’s relationship in this next part.

Now the idea was to divide this by season and try to organize by episode but it got a little messy. You can understand everything anyway and that’s what matters, okay?

Season 1: 

You can see the potential for a father-son relationship, but all the patience and understanding he has at the beginning is gone after the roof scene (personally, I think it’s all about projecting his own past mistakes and that why he looks so angry and resentful).

He goes from “He just needs a little direction” and explaining things like why Buck can’t go into the hospital with the baby to “leave your problems behind” and kind of shaming him for sleeping around? Saying “we work with women side by side” as if Buck was harassing someone?

“So you wanna disrespect yourself, that’s fine with me. You wanna disrespect all these women that you chase around, that’s on them.” He’s clearly way too old school and apparently doesn’t understand that as long as there’s consent, there’s nothing wrong with sleeping around, it’s not something to be ashamed of. And Bobby (the whole team, honestly but Bobby has some defining lines) make him feel so ashamed to the point that once he feels bad about himself when he wants to start having sex again. 

Then after Buck comes back to the station with the truck, after helping with the little girl, he asks Bobby if he’s giving him another chance and Bobby says he’s out of chances and that he  “failed to communicate”  how lucky they are to do what they do.

To which Buck answers: “You’re wrong, Bobby. I absolutely do get what a privilege it is to serve here, and you know what? You were right to fire me. I was a punk. I still am one. But I’m a punk who understands what he lost.”  I think between that and the “I don’t have anything else.” he said in the roof scene, Bobby should’ve stopped doubting Buck’s commitment to the job. 

But he stil thinks throughout the seasons that he doesn’t take it seriously and that it’s all a game for him. 

In episode two, you can see once again the potential to this relationship when Buck thinks he’s letting Bobby down and Bobby takes the time to sit with him and explain that it’s okay to feel like that after losing someone and that he should talk to someone. And he helps him past that fear (when he tells him to do the maneuver) because he knows he’s just afraid and needs a little push. 

(Also, maybe this is not as important but he says “this is not a family” to Buck, but when they’re in the hospital with Chimney after the rebar thing he says “his family is right here”? Which is it man?)

(Also pt 2, I don’t like tatiana but he was super rude. “this is not about love, it’s about decency”. How about you find a better way to phrase your thoughts bro, because somehow you come out with the rudest thing to say every time.)

In episode three, Buck insists about knowing about his little book and Bobby just, pushes him against the wall?? And everyone is like, okay with it??

In episode fours he relapses (still don’t understand what triggers him?But I guess alcoholism is a complicated thing). Buck and Hen help him and he’s all snappy with Hen. 

Now, with the flashbacks you can see how he’s been an alcoholic for years and his wife tells him that she thought he would do everything to stay sober so he “wouldn’t be caught at work again.” 

And he says “I’m strong. I’m unbreakable. I’m superman. I go into burning buildings and I come out without a scratch. That’s me.”  You can see why he projects so much on Buck, but he’s projecting about the wrong thing.

Buck doesn’t think he’s invincible, he just would do anything to save people. Even put himself in danger. And yeah, thinking he can do anything while in the uniform is something that we see him say but it’s still not the same thing. 

(And this is just me being petty about how bland he is but that scene is supposed to be sad and it’s just meh. His wife tells him to leave because she can’t see him and he gives the blandest (and kinda rude considering the situation) “then what?” and when she tells him “I’ll forgive you, just not tonight.” he just goes out again and keeps drinking.)

Also, we know he spent years working while drinking but he can’t let Buck work while just sleeping around 

Okay, I kinda lost the episodes’ numbers here but when Buck starts seeing Abby and he asks Bobby for advice, his advice fucking suck. 

“Why don’t you try something new, just once, getting to know her.” Now, listen here, my boy Buck wanted that intimacy shit. Remember when he asked for truck girl’s number in episode one? That was him wanting more, but he hadn’t been lucky there so just, meaningless sex was the other option for closeness. 

“If you’re interested in her, a woman like that deserves chivalry.” 

“Any woman with substance and experience has lived a life and she’s gonna come with some baggage.” 

He is the definition of old school sexist. My man, every woman deserves chivalry, okay? And please rethink how you value a woman’s worth, thank you.

(Another comment about episode eight: He was snappy and mad a himself and just drops the bomb on Chim about his plan of killing himself???Go to therapy bro, Chimney did not needed that weight on him.)

Entering season 2  (which doesn’t have that much scenes between them)

Let’s jump directly to the famous “I feel like, if I ever did that, you would yell at me.” that Buck says because he’s so right. He’s always treated like a reckless kid that doesn’t think things through but the fact is that he’s really smart and his plans and the times he’s jumped in to save people have worked out just fine? 

You can see the difference between how he treats Buck, who has been working for over a year now, and how he treats Eddie, who is supposedly a probie, from the start. 

And as a mutual pointed out not long ago and it stuck with me, Bobby plays favorites and Eddie is clearly his favorite. He can do no wrong and doesn’t need to be told what to do. He has Bobby’s trust without even working for it and Buck, who’s been there working his ass off for the recognition (not the approval) that he is good at his job (because it’s everything for him), gets nothing but being told off over and over. 

In Bobby Begins Again we learn that after he almost drank himself to death, Bobby gets sober again and tries to come back as fast as he can to work and he just wants the big boss to make it happen. Doesn’t stop to think maybe he’s not ready yet, he just wants to go back to work to, as he says, “atone for what I’ve done in my own way and if you won’t let me do that then send me some place that will.” (also, again, and example of wanting for things to go his way, no matter what)

He also doesn’t even stop to think about how much he fucked up and that, even though he thinks he’s ready to go back, everyone else might not think that. (Also, other reason as to why he projects so much on Buck)

Then 2.18 happens. Everything starts to go wrong for Buck and good for Bobby. 

Bobby goes back to work and Buck has months of recovery after the truck bombing. That was aimed for Bobby. And to which he never apologised or said anything about. 

They can’t fire the “guy who was a hero on the 6 o’clock news” but they can not let back the guy that was actually crushed, because the “hero” doesn’t allow it. 

He’s looked as a hero but everyone forgets that it happened because of him in the first place. 

Season 3:

In episode one, Bobby thinks Buck is ready to come back. Then the blood clots happen and he starts projecting again. 

“I thought I could handle it. Lied to everybody, ignored the pain. I don’t want him making the same mistakes that I did. The job should mean a lot, but it shouldn’t mean everything. He’s gotta learn that.” 

Buck was out for five? six months? And the blood clots were something he couldn’t see coming. It’s not that a month happened and he wanted to go back, even when he wasn’t fully healed. He did everything right but still, Bobby was projecting through his own past mistakes. 

Also “The job should mean a lot, but it shouldn't mean everything. He’s gotta learn that.” Bobby should only be worried about Buck being able to do his job because other people depend on him, not try to teach him some life lesson. And Buck was able to do his job, he passed the recertification, the clots were just a set back. He should’ve been able to come back after healing from that. 

Athena sees how Bobby is bringing feelings into it. [“He’s not my kid”]

“No. But he’s also not you. Maybe he’s making the same mistakes you did. Maybe he’s not.”

Bobby says “Just wait and see?” and I thought he would understand and he would let Buck back and wait to see if he actually had a reason behind his doubt. 

“You gotta let them grow up sometime.” Athena says, clearly seeing that Bobby is too attached to Buck and does (kinda) try to protect him like a kid. 

(Now, from here on I forgot (again) to write down some of the episodes’ numbers so it’s a bit of a blur but I’ll keep talking about how Bobby keeps projecting and lying)

We know that Bobby gets a call to talk about if Buck and his return to work. Let’s keep that in mind for a second. 

“It’s the blood thinners. The department is concerned about liability issues and since the doctors haven’t figured out what’s causing the clots.” He lies. Right to his face. 

“Well, Buck if we were out on a call and something happened to you…” He acts all concerned about how they can’t be worrying about him while on a call. Let’s remember now how Chimney got a rebar through his head and got stabbed and within a month he was back, and no one was worried about him getting any side effects in the job. 

“Then I would have two paramedics standing next to me. I would be fine.”

“They can’t do this to me. You can’t let them take away my job.”

“Out there in the world, helping people. That is where I belong. That is where I have spent five months fighting to get back to. And now you’re gonna tell me that I can’t?”

“I don’t want light duty, okay. And neither would you. I quit.” 

Now those are all things Buck said and Bobby, at any moment, could’ve said something like “I was the one to tell them you weren’t ready but as soon as you get cleared, you’ll be back.” But he chose to keep quiet, to keep lying. 

And then he dares to say “Buck has us”? Really? Like he wasn’t the actual cause of everything Buck was going through.?

Then Buck goes back for light duty as fire marshall and Bobby says: “For what is worth, I’m proud of you. I’m glad you didn’t throw away your career ‘cause you had a little set back.” (and dares to be annoyed with Buck for how he is as a fire marshall)

“I promise you,  your place will still be here for when you’re ready” PROJECTING. 

The whole scene with Bobby, Athena and Buck at dinner is Bobby being a coward because he knows what he’s doing is wrong. The projecting and lying.

“You’re not ready, that’s what I told them when they asked.” 

“You’re the reason they won’t let me back?” That was a clear question, basically “you told them not to let me back” yet Bobby deflects and denies it’s his fault:

“Medication is the reason.” 

Athena tries to help and says “Bobby is just worried about you, that’s all.” and to try and get Buck’s focused anger out of Bobby she says “We all are.” But she made it clear before that she thought he should let Buck back. 

“I thought you were my friend.” 

“I am your friend. I am also the captain of almost twenty other firefighters whose life and safety depend in the decisions I make and I can’t put them at risk if you’re not operating at 100%...” 

“Buck, I know that you went through a lot in that tsunami and maybe you feel like you can survive anything…” 

Now, for those last quotes I would like to remember the “I’m strong. I’m unbreakable. I’m superman.” dialogue and the fact that Bobby never cared if Chim was at 100% or if he himself was at 100% when he was asking to go back to work that time in Bobby Begins Again. 

Also, that night before Buck tells him about the lawsuit, he still doesn’t apologise. 

In episode five, when Athena jokes with Michael about not inviting Buck over anymore because something always happens Bobby says “That sounds like a great idea. None of this would’ve happened if you hadn’t invited him over for dinner.” My initial reaction to this was EXCUSE YOU BITCH??? but what this actually tells me is that he was never planning to tell Buck the truth about him being the reason he couldn’t go back to work.

Now this is both the fucking funniest and the fucking worst thing because this fucker really doesn’t see how wrong his is: 

“I don’t treat Buck any differently than I do any other firefighter under my watch.”

And I think even people that do like Bobby can see the bullshit in that. 

Buck is literally the only firefighter that gets treated differently. And you’d think that since everyone seems to believe their relationship is “father-son” like it would be a good thing for Buck, but no. He’s the one always getting screwed over while the rest can do whatever they want without any consequences. 

And we’re gonna quote the lawyer now because even though he used Buck’s lack of knowledge about how attorney-client relationship works, he makes some pretty on point arguments:

“It’s relevant because it illustrates how everyone except mister Buckley is allowed to return to the job no matter the injury or infarction.” 

“You asked my client for his help that day. That’s exactly what he did, without hesitation, he helped you get sobered up and you returned to your full duty as captain of the 118. (...) So isn’t the only difference between your off duty relapse and mister Buckley’s that he actually did everything in his power to help you return to your job?” 

I think the city tried to settle the lawsuit with so much money for a reason, don’t you?

You can also see how Buck, the one that was actually affected by what Bobby did, doesn’t hold any resentment towards him and is just glad to be invited to the rage room thing. And is the one to apologise AGAIN, when Bobby hasn’t apologised once.

“Brass didn’t want the headache, they’re afraid of the bad press (...) They gave me the option to transfer you, they understood how I might not want you back after everything you put us through.” 

Put them through what? Honestly. Buck was the one crushed. Buck was the one left behind. Buck was the one lied to. Buck was the one doubted and betrayed by one of the people he trusted the most. The rest was put through...? some truth thrown in their faces? 

In episode six, Bobby tells Athena “Well, he’s signed every liability waiver and release forum that the department threw at him. Pretty sure we could drop a piano in Buck’s head and he wouldn’t be able to sue the city for it.” 

And then later he says “I don’t know what I’m doing. He just, he doesn’t think things  through. He acts and reacts and that leaves the rest of us to have to deal with the fall out.” I would like a list of the times Buck did something that actually affected the rest of them in a bad way aside from the lawsuit where everyone was just left with hurt feelings, please and thank you.

Buck takes his job seriously. I would say more than anyone else. Because for Buck the job is the most important thing in his life, unlike the rest of them because they all have families to put first. 

Athena, again, because she’s a queen that he doesn’t deserve, sees that Bobby’s just angry and has hurt feelings. 

Buck is finally back and of course, because he’s Buck, he doesn’t just shut up and obeys, and Bobby says:

“You know Buck, someday  you’re gonna figure out when to stop pushing and learn some patience. I hope we’re both alive to see it.” He’s talking all patronizingly again and he uses the word “learn” (which is something important, they way he always uses that or implies that with Buck) because he still sees Buck as a kid that needs to learn a lesson. 

Hen, because she’s another queen, also sees that Bobby is being too emotional and unprofessional with Buck and Bobby says:

“I can see that he’s trying. It just still seems like he doesn’t get it. Like this is all a game to him.” Which honestly, what the actual fuck. Remember that speech Buck gave Bobby in season one when I said that’s the last moment Bobby should’ve thought Buck didn’t take his job seriously? Well, apparently even though he’s been working for two years now, to him,  he takes his job less seriously now. Crazy, right?  

Hen, beautiful smart and objective queen Hen, explains to him that if it was all a game to Buck, he could be fucking around with the millions (MILLIONS) he was offered on the lawsuit, but that he chose to go back to work and that Bobby is just being selfish (she doesn’t say selfish but we reading between lines here) by holding him back. 

Apparently, Bobby kinda gets it and is ready to let Buck back in for real. 

Then the scene where Buck helps the lady with the dude in the windshield happens and Bobby is called to the hospital because emergency contact? Buck explains what happened and Bobby, because he’s so fucking rude without even noticing how that makes everyone else (mostly Buck) feel, says: 

“‘cause you jumped in and saved him. Probably didn’t even occur to you to worry about yourself.” He says this like Buck just proved to him that he had a reason to not let him back. 

“Yeah, I know. I know. I didn’t think, just rushed in like I always do. I guess it’s like, the uniform is my costume. You know, I put it on and suddenly I’m brave and I’m strong and make a difference. Feels like without it I’m not much of anything.” (That last line broke my fucking heart btw) But here you can see Buck knows he’s impulsive, but he’s not really reckless. He can’t help his impulse to save people, it’s who he is. (what bobby isn’t naturally, but that’s another topic we’re not going to talk about right now)

I think here is when Bobby finally starts to understand that Buck is not a kid that doesn’t understand what he has and needs to be taught a lesson. 

“Does that mean you are ready to let me back for real?”

“Doesn’t matter if I’m ready, you are. It’s time for me to get out of your way.” This line says a lot. He finally understands that he can’t just hold Buck back because he sees his own mistakes on him and that he was doing that before. Buck is ready and has been ready for a long time but he just now sees that it’s not up to him to decide over Buck’s life like that. 

(For this next part we’re going to remember how I said that the only one to ever really suffer the consequences and to be treated differently is Buck)

In episode seven, Bobby finds out Eddie’s been street fighting. He listens to Eddie and understands, doesn’t judge him, doesn’t get mad for putting everyone at risk by coming to work injured. He doesn’t even tell him “hey, maybe you should take some time off and figure your shit out.” He just send him to therapy and lets him keep working like nothing happened.

In episode nine, when Hen hits the girl (as in crashes with the ambulance, yk, not actually hit her), everyone is sure that it’s not her fault and they let her return to duty right away, she’s the one to ask for some time off. 

And everyone doesn’t doubt for a second that the accident wasn’t her fault, doesn’t judge her at all. (which is fine because it wasn’t her fault but my point is, would’ve Buck been the one in this situation, I don’t know if it would’ve been as easy to resolve) 

When Buck is worried about Bobby and the radiations thing, he asks him how he feels and if he’s hiding symptoms, and Bobby thinks he’s annoying. But maybe that’s what he should’ve done with Buck when he was the one recovering instead of just assuming and lying and keeping him from returning to work. 

In episode sixteen, Hen just “felt like breaking every rule in the book” and does what she think is right no matter what (which was actually right and we understand but that’s not the point). We’re gonna add some quotes here:

“You can do what you want, I’m doing this.” She says to Chimney like there was any other option for him. 

Everyone praises her and is proud of her. Then Bobby comes in:

“Feels like this is about more than Anton. That girl, the cello player. You’re still thinking about her.” 

She knows what she did was wrong and asks “How much trouble am I in?” 

“Patient didn’t die. No one’s lodged a complaint. It’s a great save. Don’t do it again.” That's it. 

He doesn’t get mad, doesn’t reprimand her, doesn’t suspend her. Doesn’t say “Hey, you just did a really reckless and impulsive thing that broke many rules and I’m sorry but I have to reprimand you . Also, maybe you should take some time off? Go to therapy. Chill. Learn that even though you were right, you can’t just pull that shit at work.”

In episode eighteen, they’re talking about saving Abby’s fiance after Bobby finds out, and I’m going to put the dialogue first and then talk about it. 

 “Stop. You’re too close to this. This is too risky.” 

“Well, I am willing to take the risk.” 

“It’s not yours to take. You can’t just rush into any dangerous situation and assume it’s gonna be okay. ´Cause it’s not and I am tired of being on the wrong side of those hospital doors.”

“Bobby, I am not Athena.”

“What did you just say to me?”

Well, first of all, his priority should be doing the job, saving as many people as they can. Buck is WILLING to take the risk to save both people and  it is his to take. And not only because he promised to Abby he would save Sam, but because it’s who he is. He saves people, no matter the risk for him. (which again, three(? years of knowing him and Bobby still doesn’t understand) 

Also Bobby, hun, if you’re tired of seeing your team (and Athena) in the hospital, maybe you should reconsider your life choices because you’re captain of  a group of people that literally  puts themselves in harm’s way to help other people for a living. 

In conclusion, Bobby is kind of a hypocrite that projects a lot, is immature, resentful and has issues expressing how he feels properly, most of these things are always directed at Buck and that’s why I don’t like him and their relationship. 

You have reached the end! Amazing. This was a really long rant honestly but I believe everything I wrote here, so hopefully y’all understand my perspective and I don’t gain haters for this

 I think I make some pretty good points.

Okay, if you really read all that, thank you! It took me a long time lol 

(Tagging you because you asked: @angelcamael) (And my girl @himbo-buckley who is always there to listen to me rant about this) 

[capsironunderoos]

Remember That One Time...

Evan Buckley X Reader, Station 118 X Reader

Summary: The crew try to convince you that you and Chimney are basically the same person, and the last thing you expect is your boyfriend to weigh in on the subject.

Word Count: 2.7k

Warnings: None! Well... There is an accident involving a Buzz Lightyear toy and a really bad joke...

Author’s Note: This is literally so self-indulgent it’s not even funny. After watching the entirety of 9-1-1 in the span of a few days I realized how alike me and Chimney are, so I wrote this little bit. I hope you enjoy! Also! The parts in italics happened in the past and are stories each character is telling. Also also! The reader used to work in Houston at Station 126, the station from 9-1-1 Lone Star!

Masterlist

“We are literally nothing alike!” 

You and Chimney yelp in unison, sitting beside each other on the couch and surrounded by your friends. 

Bobby, Hen, and Eddie are seated in various areas, laughing and shaking their heads at the fact that you and Chimney can deny how alike you are while simultaneously speaking the exact same words at the exact same time. 

“So no one’s gonna bring up that incident with the peanut butter?” Bobby starts, sitting further back in his chair, crossing his arms over his chest and raising his eyebrows. 

You groan and lean back on the couch so that your head hangs over the back of it, causing you to bump Eddie, who’s perched there. He’s laughing at you but confused with Cap’s story. 

Chimney and Hen hide giggles under their hands. 

“I wasn’t here for that one,” Eddie states, matter-of-factly, egging Bobby to continue. 

“I swear I just bought peanut butter yesterday,” Bobby trails off as he stands in the kitchen of the 118. 

Hen sits at the bar, eyebrows furrowed as she watches Bobby leave no stone, or pan in this case, unturned as he looks for the ingredient in question. 

“Are you telling me someone ate all the peanut butter that you bought specifically for you to use in making us your amazing, delectable peanut butter cookies?” She asks, watching as Bobby stops and puts his hands on his waist in defeat. 

“That’s exactly what I’m saying.” 

Hen groans at his response and he laughs, turning his attention to something over her shoulder. Noticing his shift in focus, Hen turns on her stool, following his line of sight. 

Chimney has made his way upstairs and he’s found his usual spot at the table. He’s absentmindedly looking at his phone, which sits in one hand, while he holds a piece of celery in the other. 

Hen has to bite her tongue to keep from laughing, because, on the table in front of him, sits the new jar of peanut butter. 

Every few seconds, he dips his celery in the jar and pulls out a gob. 

Hen turns back to Bobby, who’s just as amused as she is. 

“Hey Chim,” Bobby calls, and Chim nods in his direction. 

“What ya got there?” He asks, and Chimney puts down his phone, unsure if he’s about to become the victim of a prank. 

“My go to snack Cap, it’s just celery and peanut butter… why? You feeling okay?” Chimney asks, confusion written all over his face, half eaten stick of celery suspended mid-dip into the peanut butter jar. 

“I am, but my peanut butter cookies are a few ingredients short of a batch,” Bobby says, and Hen is sure she tastes blood from the restraint she’s using to keep her mouth shut and her laughter in. Chimney nods slowly, starting to catch on. 

“Wait a minute… you’ve been using my peanut butter to make peanut butter cookies?” Bobby and Hen both stop giggling to each other when they hear his response, the pair turning to look at the other before looking back to Chimney. 

“What?” Hen asks, amusement at this entire situation still evident in her voice. 

Chimney stands then, grabbing the jar of peanut butter and walking over to the bar. Once he reaches Bobby, he turns the peanut butter jar so that the label is in clear view, and Hen does laugh this time. 

Chimney has written his name in huge letters across the front, complete with a “property of” in front of it. 

Hen is holding her side as she watches Chimney and Bobby stare at each other. 

“Wait a minute, wait a minute. Then who’s got the peanut butter? The new jar we bought as a team yesterday?” 

Chimney and Hen both shrug their shoulders, starting to laugh when Hen notices Bobby’s attention shift over her shoulder again. She hits Chimney who shoots her as look but he stops when she gestures over her shoulder. 

You’ve found your way upstairs and into the same seat Chimney was just in. You’re looking at your phone and holding a piece of celery in your other hand, and, when the crew sees what you’re dipping your celery in, they lose it. 

Their laughter brings you out of your trance and you look over to the three of them, already smiling. 

“What is it? What did I miss?” You question, eyes already sparkling with amusement. 

“Please don’t tell me that jar of peanut butter has your name on it,” Chimney pleads through his laughter. 

You furrow your eyebrows, standing up and grabbing the jar before walking over to them. You inspect it fully before you reach the bar, shrugging your shoulders. 

“Nope! Just a plain old jar of PB!” You announce, proud of the fact. 

This sends the three into another fit of laughter, but Bobby is the first to stop, looking at you with a warm smile on his face. 

“That wouldn’t happen to be the jar we bought yesterday would it?” 

Your eyes widen slightly as you look down at the jar and back up to him. 

“This jar? What? No this is… this is…” 

The three stare at you, waiting for you to finish, but before you can you’re groaning in defeat. 

“I’m sorry Cap! Chimney’s jar was already gone and you know how I get without my afternoon snack!” You rush out, and you’re sure Hen is going to fall off of the stool. Chim’s mouth is hanging open, and Bobby is shaking his head. 

“Wait a minute! You’ve been eating my peanut butter?”

“We’ve started buying three jars each time we go grocery shopping now,” Bobby finishes, and Hen is working to catch her breath while Eddie is behind you wiping tears from his eyes. 

“I hate that story,” you grumble and Chimney laughs, patting your shoulder beside you. 

“At least I taught you how to write your name on what’s yours.” 

You smile at him then, unable to resist joining in on the laughter. After a minute, Hen sits up, and you can tell a memory has popped into her head. 

“Don’t do it Hen,” you start, and even Chim is on guard now. 

“Hen…” He warns, and she shakes her head. 

“It’s too late. Eddie has to know. He needs to be prepared.” 

Eddie’s interest is piqued, and you feel the couch shift behind you. When you glance up at him, he’s moved so that his butt sits on the back of the couch, with his feet planted beside you, elbows resting on his knees. 

“Don’t look too eager,” Chimney mumbles, and you pick up where he left off. 

“Yeah this ain’t Christmas morning.” 

This elicits a snort of amusement from Eddie, who’s too intrigued to back down and let this go. 

“Come on Hen, spill it.” 

The hint of mischief in Hen’s eyes is enough to send you cowering behind your hands, shaking your head. 

“You’ve already been exposed to their movie knowledge, but have I ever told you about the Toy Story incident?” 

Chimney shoots up straight at her words, and Bobby is already laughing, remembering exactly what Hen is talking about. 

Unfortunately, you and Chimney know exactly what she’s talking about too. 

“Hen you promised!” You whisper through gritted teeth. 

“Oh man,” Eddie starts, “now you gotta tell me!” 

“What are we looking at Cap?” You ask as you and the 118 quickly walk up the steps to the house. As you do, you notice the toys scattered across the yard. 

“Apparently a child has gotten a toy stuck in a very unfortunate spot, and we’re here to… assess the damage, see what we can do, and transport him.” 

You and Hen exchange glances, unsure of what to think about Bobby’s cryptic response. 

“I had this happen once in Houston. Kid got a toy car stuck in his nose. And I mean stuck.” You tell the story as the parents of the little boy lead you to his room. 

“Didn’t you get a call about an hour later saying that the dad had done the same thing?” Chim asks, and you laugh. 

“Yup. Wanted to understand how his kid had gotten it stuck so far in there.” 

Chimney and Hen shake their heads as they lean down to assess the situation at hand. You and Bobby stand behind them with the other paramedics who hold the board. 

“Oh man,” Chimney starts, and you slowly lean over his shoulder, seeing exactly what he sees. 

This poor little boy has somehow managed to get part of a Buzz Lightyear toy stuck up his rear end. Your eyes widen and you glance at Bobby, who shoots you a look of warning. 

But it’s too late, the joke is out of your mouth before you can stop it. 

“Looks like you’ve got a friend in you,” you state at the same time Chimney does. 

You both freeze, looking at each other before Hen calls Chimney back into action. 

The parents look questioningly towards Bobby, who look at you, a deep sigh of defeat escaping his lips. 

“I’m never taking you two on a call together again.”

As Hen finishes her story, Bobby is laughing so hard he’s having to grab his side. Eddie is howling and shaking the couch as he laughs. 

About halfway through the story you’d buried your face into Chimney’s shoulder, trying to hide the shame evident through the blush on your cheeks. 

He’s hiding behind his free hand, the other one working to further cover your face. 

You both hate that story. 

“You guys do quote movies at almost every call we have,” Eddie notes, and you swat at him blindly, connecting with his leg and cueing another round of laughter. 

“What’s going on here?” At the sound of his voice, you’re jumping up and running over to Buck. 

He laughs at your reaction and  wraps his arms around you. You pull them up to cover your face and he laughs even harder. 

“We’re telling Eddie how alike these two are,” Bobby explains, and you look up at Buck. He smiles down at you before looking back to the others. 

“And we’re trying to tell him to not believe everything he hears,” Chimney states, and you can feel Buck’s chest vibrating in silent laughter. 

“Ya know, I don’t see it.” Buck says, and Chimney gestures at him excitedly. 

“See? What did we say?” 

You smile up at him and he leans down to press a kiss to your forehead. 

“Really? Nothing they’ve done has made them seem like the same person in two different bodies before?” Hen prompts, goading Buck. 

You watch him carefully as he furrows his brow, obviously thinking hard about the situation at hand. 

“Actually,” he starts and you jump back in surprise. 

“Now that I think about it, I’ve lived with both of them and I think you’re on to something Hen.” 

You place a hand on your chest in shock and Chimney is shaking his head in disbelief. 

“Et tu Brute?” You and Chimney whisper at the same time, and the crew erupts in laughter so loud you’re sure the entirety of Los Angeles can hear them. 

“Hey, um, thanks for letting me crash at yours for awhile,” Buck starts as you welcome him into your apartment. You shrug your shoulders, smiling at him as he places his bag on your couch. 

“Don’t mention it,” you respond and he smiles sheepishly. 

He’d hoped your place would never make it on his “places-I-stayed-while-I-got-my-life-together” list, but he hadn’t really had a choice. He just hoped now that he wouldn’t say anything that revealed his feelings for you and completely messed up his friendship, not to mention his place to sleep. 

“I felt bad imposing on Maddie and Chimney all but kicked me out, I was running out of options,” Buck further explains, and you laugh, grabbing two drinks from the fridge and handing him one. 

“It’s really no problem Buck. In fact, I’m kind of surprised you didn’t come here first,” you start, and he can feel his heart speeding up. 

“What?” He stutters. “Why?” 

“Because I have a guest room. You could have been in a bed this whole time as opposed to an air mattress or Chimney’s couch.” Buck lets out a sigh of relief and laughs. 

“I honestly didn’t know you had a guest room.” 

You nod and gesture for him to follow you. He grabs his bag and follows your lead into a room at the end of the hallway. You open the door and reach in, turning on the light for him. He steps into the room in front of you, setting his bag down on the bed. 

“Wow, this is a lot nicer.” You laugh and nod, agreeing with him. 

“I have a lot of family and friends from Houston come to visit, so I found a bigger place a few weeks back.” 

Buck nods. You’d recently started at the 118 after transferring from Houston. He could tell you missed it there, but he was glad you were here. 

“Well,” you said after a beat of silence, patting the door frame as you moved away from it. 

“Make yourself comfortable. I’m just in the next room if you need me.” 

The transition from Chimney’s place to yours went over fairly smoothly. 

Buck fit right into your daily routine and it was nice to have someone at home to help out with chores or to cook every now and then. 

Buck wasn’t complaining either, he liked waking up and having breakfast together before you both went in for your shifts or coming home and opening a bottle of wine to discuss the day you’d had. 

He thinks about how kind you are, always doing small things for him. In fact, you’d even started helping out with his laundry. 

He’s reminded of that now, as he steps out of the shower and makes his way to his room to change into comfortable clothes for movie night. 

He opens his drawer and freezes, caught off guard by what he finds. 

All of his clothes have been folded into neat little squares, no, rectangles, and they fit just so in his drawer. He opens the one under it and can’t believe it, but his socks are the same way. To top it all off, you’ve color coded them. 

He shakes his head in astonishment and disbelief. He knew you’d seemed too eager to help with his laundry. 

“I’m living with the female version of Chimney.”

You’re shocked at Buck when he finishes his story from before you two were together, both of you having moved to sit on the couch, you in-between Buck and Chimney with Eddie in another seat now. What really catches you off-guard is Bobby, who is horse-laughing at the idea of the two of you folding your clothes the exact same way. 

“I gotta know,” Buck starts and in return earns a death stare from you and Chimney, but he continues anyways. 

“Who taught who?” 

You both continue to look at him. 

“I have no clue what you’re talking about,” you chime, and Chimney shakes his head. 

“You know, to fold clothes like that.” Buck continues and you and Chimney start laughing now. 

“I didn’t know she was folding her clothes like that,” Chim admits. 

“You think I learned how to fold clothes from Chimney?” You question, and you join in laughing with the crew. 

“All I’m gonna say is that we have irrefutable proof that you are both the same person who somehow managed to be put in two separate bodies,” Hen states and Chimney shrugs, finally conceding. 

“Well I wouldn’t want anyone else to share my impeccable personality with,” he says, pulling you in for a hug. You laugh and wrap your arm around his waist. 

“Same here.” 

After a few moments, when the 118 has mostly calmed down, Chimney sits up as if a lightbulb has appeared over his head. 

“You know, now that I think about it, I think an argument can be made that you and Buck are the same person.” 

You groan and fall back dramatically onto the couch, hands covering your eyes. 

“Wait a minute,” Eddie starts. 

Unfortunately he hangs around Buck enough to know both of you pretty well, even though he’s still relatively new. 

“I do remember that one time…” He trails off and Bobby laughs. 

“I think it’s your turn to tell a story,” the captain remarks and you cross your arms over your chest. 

“I really can’t believe you guys.”