2K words | rated teen | Chimney POV | background bucktommy
Contains major spoilers for "Lab Rats."
Summary: In the immediate aftermath of the lab disaster, Tommy keeps Chimney company while he quarantines.
We were born to try
Chimney’s half dozing in the treatment chair, phone still cradled in his lap after finishing his conversation with Maddie, when he’s awakened by the sound of someone sitting down a few feet away. He opens his eyes to find Tommy Kinard watching him through the plastic sheeting of his quarantine cube, face as somber as Chimney’s ever seen it.
“Tommy,” Chimney says. He feels disoriented, like he’s been asleep for hours instead of minutes. “What are you doing here?”
“I thought you might need someone to keep you company while you’re stuck in here,” Tommy answers. “Unless you’d prefer to have some privacy.”
“No, it’s fine.” Chimney stares at him for a moment. He’s in his flight suit, so he must have been on duty, but that doesn’t explain why he’s here, in a tightly-controlled military base of operations for a biological disaster. “Did Buck call you?”
“He did. Said he needed a lift.”
Chimney grunts a weak laugh. “What, Uber’s not good enough for him anymore?”
“I don’t think they pick up people from rooftops. Especially the ones fleeing half the US Army.”
“You… You brought the antiviral?”
“No,” Tommy says humbly. “Evan and I just led everyone on a wild goose chase as a distraction while Karen drove Athena back here with the vial.”
“Well thank you for that.” Chimney lets his head fall back and closes his eyes. He’s so fucking exhausted. Just… seven layers of exhausted in a messy, broken heap. “Where is Buck?”
conflicted because theo is unbelievably fucking adorable and i am absolutely not immune to the emotional mack truck of a big man suddenly being the caregiver of a tiny child. but i hate that it reframes a decent, relatively nuanced arc about buck making an emotionally mature and generous decision. and i'm infuriated that the recipients of that decision, characters i didn't love but still had a tiny attachment to as established people in this universe, were dispensed with in such a careless, brutal matter
oh wow another tommy drawing from me... how unexpected.. no one couldve seen that coming..
anyway look at the texture in his face it deserves his little spotlight moment. his eyes are kind of awful but its good enough.
A little Buck & Hen coda piece for episode 7x04. About 1.2K words, not rated. Contains major spoilers for "Buck, Bothered and Bewildered."
Also posted to AO3 here.
“Hey, what’s going on with you today?”
Hen’s voice startles Buck off the frame of the open roll-up door at the back of the equipment bay, where he was—what? Gathering his thoughts? More like letting them run amok, because there seems to be no getting them under control at the moment. Even the mindless task of polishing the engine had proved too much, and Buck just… needed a minute.
It’s been approximately eighteen hours since Tommy kissed him. Eighteen hours in which his whole damn perception of himself has been turned upside down and inside out. So there’s that. But there’s also been an embarrassing amount of losing himself in the memory of it, and imagining what it might be like to do it again. Maybe with Tommy’s broad chest pinning Buck against a wall… or those rough, competent hands on Buck’s skin somewhere… Or—
“Nothing,” Buck answers, a little too defensively, but of course Hen can tell he’s lying.
“You’ve been distracted all day, Buck.” She gives him an unimpressed look. “Are you and Eddie still not talking about how you tackled him during a friendly basketball game?”
“I didn’t tackle him! It was more like… a mid-air hip check.”
Hen huffs and shakes her head. “You can take the boy off the football team, but you can’t take football instincts out of the boy, I guess.”
“Hip checking is hockey, not football,” Buck corrects her. “And to answer your question, Eddie and I did talk about it and it’s fine. He knows I just, uh, let my emotions get away from me during the game. I apologized for it. We’re good.”
“Then what are you all in your head about? Last time you were like this, it was when you were secretly contemplating donating certain bodily fluids to a certain former roommate and his wife. They didn’t ask you to help with baby number two already, did they?”
“No! I’m just—”
Buck breaks off with a wince. God, he’s not sure if he’s ready to tell anyone yet. He’s definitely not ready to make some big, dramatic announcement when he’s still trying to wrap his head around this. Not that he’s waffling about what it meant—the head-to-toe thrill that went through him when Tommy’s mouth collided with his. Buck recognized that sensation right away, with all the certainty of someone who’d accidentally touched a live wire. He’s not a kid, for Christ’s sake.
Talking about it—out loud—though. That’s a different story.
On the other hand, this is Hen. Who better to unburden himself to than her? And then maybe he’ll be able to focus on what he’s supposed to be doing here, at work, and save his personal mess for after the shift ends.
“Okay,” he begins, pulling Hen gently by the arm out into the parking area. “Okay, but please don’t tell anyone. I mean, anyone. But especially not Chimney.”
“All right,” Hen says slowly. “What did you do?”
Buck takes a deep breath. “I kissed Tommy.”
“You what!?”
“Well, he kissed me, actually. He came over to clear the air, because he was afraid he was the cause of some bad blood between me and Eddie. You know, since they’ve been spending so much time together, and it was driving me… Uh, I’m not proud of that, either.” Buck runs his hand over his mouth and pushes on. “Then we were talking, and he said he’d teach me Muay Thai if I wanted, and then the next thing I knew, he was just… going for it.”
“Wow,” Hen says simply, and even though Buck can’t bring himself to look her in the face right now, he can tell she’s genuinely shocked. “Wow, I guess you really never can tell with some people. Not that Tommy and I were ever especially close, what with the way things were when I first arrived at the 118. Huh.”
Buck stops himself from telling her that this conversation is supposed to be about him, not Tommy. Honestly though, it hadn’t occurred to him until this moment to think about whether Tommy is out or not. That’s not cool, Buck chastises himself.
“Uh, yeah that’s probably another reason this should just stay between us for now. We didn’t really talk about whether it’s okay for me to tell people. About him.”
Hen raises her eyebrows. “But you did talk, didn’t you? He didn’t just run off or something?”
“We sort of talked? He asked me out on a date. Saturday night.”
“And you said…” Hen prompts.
“Yes,” Buck tells her, with a whooshing exhale and a grin. “I said yes.”
“Okay, then. Good. So what’s the problem?”
She’s looking at him with that mix of patience and exasperation that he knows too well. Like he’s being dense.
“The problem is that I’m thirty-two years old, Hen! It shouldn’t have been such a surprise to me that I—” Buck lowers his voice to a loud whisper. “That I’m into guys, too. Like, don’t most people just know? While they’re growing up?”
Hen reaches over to squeeze his arm. “Not necessarily. There are plenty of good reasons why some people don’t figure it out until they’re older. Sometimes much older than thirty-two, by the way. There aren’t any rules here, Buck. Everyone has their own path to get there. But… you are there, you think?”
“Oh, god. Yes.” Buck gives a small laugh, just lets it bubble out of him. It’s like opening a valve, releasing the pressure inside of him. “I’m one-hundred percent there. No doubt in my mind at all.”
“That’s wonderful. Even so, give yourself some time to process it, okay?”
“I will. But, uh, how long does processing take?” Buck asks helplessly. “I feel like I’m back in that hurricane. There are about fifty different emotions hitting me from all directions right now, and it’s kind of hard to function.”
“That’s just the nature of the beast, I’m afraid. It’s a scary thing, having that big revelation about yourself and figuring out what it means for your life.”
“I’m not scared. More like… in a daze. Every time I think about it, it knocks me back again. And then I think about tomorrow night and I start to get all jittery. Nervous. Cause I’ve never done this and I have no idea how to go about making a guy like me.”
“He already likes you, if he asked you out, right?” Hen says. “So focus on that. Anything else?”
Buck considers it, tries to loosen the tangle of feelings that’s filling up the whole of him right now and lay them out in an orderly way. Hen doesn’t rush him.
“It’s just a lot,” he says eventually, giving up on putting it into words, “and I kinda wish I could switch off my brain for a while.”
“I’m sure. Trust me, all those messy, upsetting emotions will settle down, and then you’re gonna feel really good about it.”
“Oh, I already do,” Buck reassures her. “I mean, I did last night even, right after it happened. And now, still. Just kind of… illuminated on the inside. That sounds weird, doesn’t it?”
Hen shakes her head, then puts her arms over his shoulders and jerks him into a tight hug. Buck returns it gratefully, glad to find an anchor in this crazy day, at last. When Hen speaks again, close to his ear, her voice is uncharacteristically wobbly.
“That’s the joy, Buck,” she says. “That’s the joy of it. And that’s what makes the struggle all worthwhile.”
crash that helicopter storyline except when the 118 arrives at the site of tommy's helicopter he's like: "no evan can't se-- who the FUCK are all of you????" because literally all of A-Shift got suspended and they had to hire new people to fill their spots
They're all suspended, get threatened with criminal charges, and have to become fugitives. They stay one step ahead of the law in an unmarked van, driving around the country to help other falsely accused firefighters. They have a charismatic leader. A pretty one (or three). A big guy who hates to fly (commercial).
I think if I was in a room with Oliver and he looked at me like this, I would perish instantly. Farewell, world. I'm just a pile of dust on the ugly carpeting of some convention center now.
