Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“The best part of having a call right in front of a couple of food trucks is the discount for our lunch!” Chimney murmured around the food in his mouth. “Being spoiled for choice is just a very close second.”

Eddie saw Hen make a face out of the corner of his eyes. Without turning away from his phone, he said, “Don’t let Cap hear you prefer any lunch to his cooking!”

“You are disgusting, Chim!” Hen said. “Denny knew at the latest at the age of three not to talk with a full mouth!”

Eddie had to agree with that sentiment. Thankfully, he was focused on his phone and the pictures Buck had sent during the morning. So, he had only needed to hear Chimney talking around his food without having to see it, too. 

Eddie scrolled through the numerous pictures of Buck’s and Chris’ pancake breakfast and wondered a little if Buck’s goal was to make him jealous because he didn’t have a free day himself. It would be exactly the kind of thing Eddie should have expected after he had teased Buck about his free day when he had complained about still not being back on shift with the rest of their crew.

Seven months ago, Buck’s leg had been crushed under their own ladder truck when it had been blown up. His recovery had gone surprisingly fast, and Buck had pushed hard to be able to come back to work with them, but he still often felt it wasn’t going fast enough. Some people had expected him not to come back at all from the injury, and Buck seemed to have made it his goal to show all of them where to shove it.

One day, just after Buck had been allowed to do some additional training besides his physical therapy, the topic of additional certifications had come up. Buck had been agitated and nervous, clearly searching for something to occupy his mind with at that time, but there had also been some dread about going to classes. In an attempt to distract Buck, Eddie had suggested doing some of those certifications together while Buck was laid up. Now, Buck was scheduled to come back to work in just a little more than two weeks after finishing the last course he had started with Eddie but had not been able to finish the physical part of before his recertification.

“What are you mooning about?” Hen asked and wrapped her arm around Eddie’s shoulders.

Eddie turned his phone to show her the picture of Buck and Chris grinning brightly over a full plate of pancakes. He had long given up on correcting anyone on the assumptions they made concerning his relationship with Buck. In the first place, Buck had turned out to be the best friend Eddie had ever had in all his life and Eddie was happy with the status quo. 

Sometimes, though, Eddie wondered about how it would be to date Buck, how it would feel to kiss him. Sometimes Eddie even yearned for it. But not too long before the bombing Buck had made it very clear that he had no interest in dating in general for the time being. Maybe someday Buck would change his mind about that and they could have a conversation about adding new aspects to their friendship.

“I also got pictures of them eating and having finished all of that. By now, Chris is coming down from the sugar high and Buck is regretting all his life choices.”

Hen chuckled. “One day he’ll learn that lesson. Maybe today is that day. What’s their plan?”

“They’re gonna hit the movies. Chris has been talking about this one movie he wants to watch for weeks, and he has wrapped Buck around his little finger completely.”

“Sounds like a lot of fun,” Hen said. She turned them around and Eddie followed without protest when she pushed him in the direction of their engine. “Everything is wrapped up and our lunch break is over so we—”

Eddie froze mid-step gasping for air and pressed his hand against his chest with a frown when he felt a pressure building there. Suddenly he was filled with an all-consuming fear, but he didn’t know where it came from. He blinked when black dots started to dance before his eyes, and then he wasn’t in a street in the middle of LA anymore.

Eddie stared for a moment that felt like an eternity out over the ocean where the water had rushed back far from the shore and a wave was rising on the horizon. He felt his knees hit the ground hard at the same time as he saw his hands — no, those were Buck’s hands — grab Christopher.

“Buck!” Eddie choked on the word. “Chris!”

He watched Buck run down the pier, watched as people all around fell into a panic but the fear that had filled him a moment earlier was pushed away by fierce determination.

“Run, run, run!” Eddie muttered even though he knew there was no outrunning the wave somewhere behind Buck and Chris. Why hadn’t there been a warning? Why hadn’t the coast been evacuated?

Eddie choked on air when Buck carefully but hurriedly lowered Chris into a booth of some game. For a moment he turned around and Eddie saw the wave nearly upon them. Then Buck jumped into the booth as well. It wouldn’t be any kind of protection against the water, but Eddie still understood the logic. Buck pulled Chris into his arms and turned so he was between Chris and the approached water, and the desire to protect Chris at all costs overwhelmed Eddie and made him sob.

“Get to the surface and hold on to anything you can!” Buck nearly shouted against Chris’ ear. “Don’t give up. Don’t ever give up getting back to your dad!”

Eddie felt the force of the water hit his back and he felt the hot concrete under his hands when he fell forward, but all he could see was the chaos of the water around him. He held his breath and kept chanting Buck’s name in his head. There was no up and down, no forward or backward in the water. His lungs burned while screaming for air, but he didn’t dare to breathe, not as long as Buck couldn’t breathe.

He couldn’t do anything. His fingers dug painfully against the concrete. He wanted to grab Buck and pull him out of the water, but he was damned to just watch and hope against all odds that the wave wouldn’t rip away the two people who were his whole world.

Eddie didn’t know when Chris had been ripped out of their arms, but it was all that seemed to be on Buck’s mind even while he desperately tried to find the surface and fight his way toward it against the force of the water. Finally, when Eddie already thought he couldn’t hold on anymore, Buck broke through the surface, and they gasped for air at the same moment.

“Christopher!” Eddie whispered the word with Buck when he shouted it over the noise of the wave. Buck grabbed something hanging over the street and Eddie felt the line cut deep into the hand when the water tried to carry Buck further away with more force than any human could fight against.

Eddie’s eyes burned and he batted away the hands grabbing his arms. He felt he couldn’t breathe again, this time for very different reasons, because there was just no chance — but then there was an answering call of Buck’s name, barely audible but neither Buck nor Eddie missed it.

“EDDIE!”

Eddie lost sight of the water and Buck’s shouted instructions to Chris were cut off mid-word. He stared at Bobby, who stared back wide-eyed and worried, cupping the back of Eddie’s head.

“Where did you go, son?” Bobby asked quietly.

“Buck and Chris were at the pier,” Eddie whispered while still gasping for air. “There is a tsunami! Bobby, they—”

“Okay, there was clearly something in the food here,” Chimney muttered beside him. His fingers pressed against Eddie’s pulse point at his throat, and they felt impossibly cold.

Eddie shook his head. “We bonded.” He raised one shaking hand and rubbed it over his chest where he could feel something new, something strange but still so familiar and intimate that was without a question Buck. “I-I don’t know how. I think it happened when he saw the wave.”

“Oh hell, kid,” Bobby whispered brokenly.

Chimney snorted. “Really?”

“Chim!” Hen hissed.

“Eddie is clearly hallucinating!” Chimney hissed back. “You can’t ignore that just because you’re all obsessed with this soulmate bullshit! They aren’t even dating!”

Eddie ignored him, mostly because he was overwhelmed with a feeling of triumph and relief coming from Buck. “Ay Dios. He got Chris!”

“There is no tsunami!” Chimney continued and Eddie saw his hand wave around at the edge of his vision. “We’d have gotten a warning and—”

The static of Bobby’s radio interrupted him. Dispatch listed nearly a dozen different fire stations before the shaking voice announced their destination and then said, “Five minutes ago our coast was hit by a tsunami. You’ll get individual assignments at the command center. We might still need to adjust where that is because the water is still pushing inland, and we can’t say how far it will reach.”

Impossibly, Bobby seemed to pale even more as he grabbed his radio. “Crew 118 is on the way.” He stared at Eddie for a moment longer before he stood. He grabbed Eddie by one arm and Hen grabbed the other and they pulled Eddie to his feet together.

“They are alive?” Hen whispered right beside Eddie’s ear.

Eddie nodded. Bobby and Hen didn’t let go of him as they led him to the engine and Eddie tried desperately to get back the connection to Buck he had shared earlier. He needed to see them, but nothing happened. He didn’t know how it had happened, he didn’t even know a single story of a bonded pair with this kind of ability, so he had no idea how to reproduce what had happened.

“And you saw them?” Hen asked after she and Bobby pushed Eddie inside the engine. She sat down beside him and grabbed his hand while Bobby climbed into his seat in the front. Chimney chose the place across from Eddie and was the only one from their crew who stared at him skeptically while everyone else looked at him with a mixture of worry and determination.

“It was like seeing through Buck’s eyes,” Eddie whispered and squeezed Hen’s hand. “I could hear him talk. And I think … some of his thoughts, too. There are only emotions left right now.”

“We need you to concentrate on our situation here, so it’s good that you’re back with us,” Hen said softly. “We’ll find them, okay? I know Buck will do anything to get Chris somewhere safe.”

Eddie sucked in a breath and nodded.

Chimney huffed. “Even if I believed that whole nonsense of bonds, everyone always says it happens when the pair is together. At a ‘meaningful moment’, whatever that means. And it doesn’t come with an automatic mental connection!”

Eddie winced. He knew what he was feeling now and he didn’t doubt it anymore, but there had been a time when he had doubted soul bonds as well. His parents claimed to be bonded, but their love was toxic and destructive not only for them but also for everyone who came near them. He didn’t know how that fit with the tales of trust and love needed for a bond to be created and maintained.

Since he had come to LA, Eddie had seen firsthand what a healthy bond could look like. In Hen and Karen, in Pepa and Paco, in the tales his Abuela told about his late Abuelo. It had made him hope for his future. It had made him long for something he had suddenly been sure he would never be able to achieve with Shannon who he had still been married to when he arrived in LA despite the fact that he and Chris hadn’t heard anything from her in two years. It had been this realization that had finally made him set a divorce into motion.

“Shut up, Chim,” Hen said. “This is not the time for your opinions. And you are wrong anyway, there are tales about people bonding over a great distance. Usually in exactly the kind of situation we are in right now.”

Chimney frowned and Eddie turned his head to look at Hen. “What kind of situation?”

“One of them being in great danger,” Bobby said from the front. “Any update?”

Eddie shook his head and met Bobby’s gaze which nearly exactly mirrored his own pain. “All I can get from Buck is fear now. But I know he has Chris. I don’t know how they weren’t—” He choked on a sob and shook his head again.

Hen rubbed a hand over his back. “We’ll find a way to get to them!”

***

Buck didn’t really know how he had managed to get Chris and himself on top of the fire truck. He remembered every second of it very vividly, but he still didn’t know how he had gotten them here. 

He didn’t know how they had come away from the pier alive at all. When he had seen the wave Buck had just followed his instinct in grabbing Chris and running despite knowing that there was no chance to outrun the wave, that there were barely seconds left, and that anything resembling any kind of safety was minutes away.

Buck had imagined hearing Eddie’s voice in his head while he had run and while he had fought against the water when the wave had swept them away and stolen Chris out of his arms. He didn’t know if he could have made it without Eddie’s ghost in the back of his mind, without the reminder why he couldn’t just give up when his lungs had burned so much in the moments before he had finally found the surface, when the force of the water had dragged on his limbs with a force he had felt unable to overcome.

Now he was lying on top of a fire truck, Chris tightly wrapped in his arms, both of them gasping for air and shaking. Buck knew he should be relieved that he had managed to get them out of the water and that he should start making plans about how to keep them safe until all of this was over. But the only thought that kept circling through his head was ‘Eddie will never forgive me’.

‘There is nothing to forgive,’ the voice in his head that sounded like Eddie replied after a while.

Buck sucked in a breath and whispered into Chris’ hair, “I’m losing my mind.”

Eddie’s voice in his head chuckled. ‘Feels like it, right? You saved Chris and yourself from a natural disaster you had no chance anticipating would come. There was no warning. The alarm didn’t sound until you were already running. There is nothing you need to be forgiven for.’

Buck huffed. Of course his subconscious would say something like that to him! But if he had taken Chris to the movies as had been their plan originally then they wouldn’t be here right now. They would be far away from any damage the tsunami caused and from any danger. Just because they had managed to find an island of relative safety for the moment, they wouldn’t be safe for a very long time to come.

‘Are you hurt?’ Eddie’s voice asked.

Buck blinked. Everything arched, but he hadn’t taken any time yet to figure out if it was the exhaustion of fighting against a natural disaster and defying all odds about surviving that, or if any of it was true pain of an injury. Eventually, he shook his head. He didn’t think any of the pain was more than arching from fighting against the tsunami.

‘Is Chris hurt?’

“Oh, damn it!” Buck said and sat up abruptly.

Chris chuckled tiredly. “That’s a bad word, Buck!”

“Don’t tell your dad,” Buck said with a grin, which he hoped looked less strained than it felt. The voice in his head laughed. “Do you feel any pain anywhere?”

Chris slowly shook his head with a little frown and shrugged. He sat up carefully, one hand holding onto Buck the whole time. “I don’t think so?”

Buck raised his brows.

Chris shrugged.

“Okay. Can I check you over?”

Chris nodded and inhaled deeply. Buck smiled reassuringly as he started to check Chris over from head to toe, talking the whole time about what he was doing, for what he was checking Chris exactly, and asking for permission every time he moved on to a new area. Chris didn’t protest any of it and even asked eager questions about how Buck would see any hidden injuries by just pressing his hands against Chris’ body.

“No injuries,” Buck said at the end and smiled brightly. “Some bruises that will hurt a lot over the next couple of days, but that’s a pretty good outcome for what we just went through.”

Chris nodded slowly. “Are you hurt?”

“I’m fine,” Buck said. 

“You need to be checked, too!” Chris said with a frown.

“I already did.”

Chris glared at him. “You didn’t! You need to pat your body, too, like you did mine!”

‘Do what he says,’ Eddie’s voice whispered in his head. ‘And maybe let him help. That will make him feel better.’

Buck blew out a breath, but then he nodded. “Okay. You’ll help me, right?”

That question created a grin on Chris’ face that immediately lightened Buck’s mood, too. Chris proved how much attention he had paid to Buck’s check on him when this time he instructed Buck what to do and barely missed a step. They found a couple of scratches and Chris pointed out that Buck also had scratches on his face, but overall, there was nothing either of them had suffered that they needed to worry about for the moment. The soreness of the bruises they had suffered would be a worry for a time when they had managed to get out of this situation.

Buck cradled Chris’ head as soon as Chris declared the inspection complete and pressed a kiss against his forehead. “I’m so very glad that I got you back. I’m sorry I couldn’t hold on to you!”

Chris shook his head and scooted over until he could climb into Buck’s lap, wrapping arms and legs around him. “I knew you’d come find me. And I did what you said. And what Dan taught me during surfing lessons!”

“You did wonderfully,” Buck whispered and returned the hug as tightly as he dared. “I’m so proud of you!"

‘I’m proud of both of you,’ Eddie’s voice whispered brokenly in his head. ‘I was so afraid to lose you both.’

Buck closed his eyes tightly. The real Eddie thought Chris and he were watching a movie right now. He wouldn’t know to be worried until all of this was over. He couldn’t even imagine how angry Eddie would be when he learned where they were. The voice in his head was no comfort at all against the knowledge of that anger awaiting him.

There was a deep frustrated sigh in his head in answer to that thought. ‘Buck — Evan. I need you to close your eyes and concentrate very carefully on what you are feeling aside from the pain of your battle against nature.’

Buck huffed. ‘What for?’

‘Just do it.’

Buck knew it probably was the worst idea of all to listen to that voice he had to have imagining, but he still did what he had been told. He inhaled and exhaled slowly and tried to dismiss the arching in his muscles and bones.

He frowned when he noticed that there was something else, something strange and new but still so familiar. It felt like a hook deep in his chest, but not painful and not quite physical. It rather felt like it belonged, like it should have been there all along, like he had finally found something he had been arching for all of his life. And, most importantly, it felt so very much like Eddie.

‘We have a soul bond, Evan,’ Eddie whispered. ‘And it apparently comes with the ability to talk in our heads with each other.’

Buck gasped. ‘That’s not … I mean…’

‘I think it happened when you saw the wave,’ Eddie said. ‘I saw all of that. Freaked everyone out because they didn’t know what was happening to me.’

‘That’s not how any of this is supposed to work!’ Buck protested.

Eddie laughed. ‘I’m dealing with a couple of very skeptical people on my end, too. But you can’t deny what’s there between us now.’

‘No,’ Buck agreed. ‘And … I don’t want to deny it, either. So I’ll just hope I didn’t hit my head and am hallucinating now.’

Suddenly, something warm spread out through his body from the hook in his chest and it nearly felt as if Eddie was wrapping him into a tight hug. Buck sucked in a breath and hugged Chris a little tighter to his chest in response.

Maybe he had hit his head and nothing of this was real, but for the moment it felt like the most grounding and reassuring thing he had ever felt in his life. He would hold on to it if only because it was the only thing that made him believe right at this moment that Chris and he would get through this day alive after all. Buck would have time for questions and doubts when Chris was safely back in Eddie’s arms. He would have time to deal with heartbreak if it all turned out to be a hallucination when he was sitting alone in his apartment.

‘Where are you?’ Buck asked.

‘We are on the way to the command center that’s being build right now,’ Eddie said. ‘I’ll try anything I can to get to you as soon as possible.’

Buck wet his lip. ‘They won’t just send you in my direction just because you tell them you feel where I am. I can’t even tell you where I am.’ He turned his head to look around, but he truly didn’t recognize anything around them. ‘We are sitting on top of the engine of the 136. I’ve no idea where the crew is. I saw them on the pier on a medical call, but that was at least fifteen minutes before the wave.’

‘I’ll find you,’ Eddie promised.

‘I don’t want to distract you, but can we keep talking?’ Buck whispered brokenly. The thought of losing this connection again was terrifying despite the doubt that any of it was real in the back of his mind.

‘I’m not letting go of you,’ Eddie promised.’I’m here. Even if I have to concentrate on something else for a while. Even if you have to concentrate on something else for a while. I’m not going anywhere.’

Buck swallowed down his protest that he had Chris to keep save and thus nothing else to do but sit around on this engine and wait for rescue to come. But he knew that protest would be a lie. He wouldn’t be able to not help if there was someone who needed help and if Chris and he had somehow managed to survive the first surge, others direction who had survived might eventually be pushed in there, too.

Buck rested his chin on top of Chris’ head and looked around them. The water wasn’t reaching as high up the engine as it had a couple of minutes earlier when the waves had swapped over the edge regularly. But if he remembered correctly what he had read about tsunamis in the past, more waves pushing inland would follow before the water would recede again.

He could only hope that none of the surges still to come would endanger their little island. They were stuck here either until rescue arrived or until the water had receded far enough that they could walk out on their own. But both might be hours away and Buck was sitting on a truck full of equipment that might just enable him to help others reach their island. He just needed to make a plan and find a way to keep Chris safe at the same time.

Chapter Text

For a while, Buck and Chris sat side by side on the engine, leaning against the cap of the vehicle. Buck kept one arm securely wrapped around Chris and watched as much of the chaos around them as he could. 

Eddie’s voice in his head had become quiet, but the hook in his chest pulsed with determination and worry and something else that Buck tried to not think about too closely for the moment. It felt suspiciously similar to the love he felt for Eddie, but that had never been a topic between them. 

Eddie had been in the middle of his divorce when Buck and he had met, so Buck had pushed his initial attraction for Eddie away as much as he could. Their friendship had grown fast, and Buck couldn’t even tell when he had fallen in love with Eddie, but Buck had been much too comfortable with their friendship as it was to ever bring it up.

“Hey, Chris,” Buck whispered eventually and dropped a kiss on top of the boy’s head. “There’ll be other people in the water, and I should try to help as many as I can.”

Chris turned his head to look at him and nodded solemnly. “There is lots of space here for more people!”

Buck chuckled. “Yeah, exactly.” Very reluctantly he let go of Chris and shifted around until he was kneeling in front of him. “But listen, buddy, no matter what, you are my priority.”

Chris frowned and squinted at him through his glasses. Suddenly, Buck wondered over the miracle that the glasses hadn’t gone missing or been damaged despite the strap around Chris’ neck.

“What does that mean?” Chris asked.

“That you are more important to me in this whole mess than anyone else,” Buck said. He bit his tongue and contemplated his words. If they ever came into such a situation, he’d always decide to keep Chris as safe as possible above anyone else including himself, but he didn’t feel that was the right thing to say to him. “I think I need to go back into the water, at least for a little while. But that means I might be swept away if I’m not very, very careful.”

Chris’ eyes grew wide and he grabbed Buck’s shirt tightly despite his shaking hands. “No!”

“I’ll be very careful,” Buck promised with a sad smile. “Gotta bring you back to your Dad, right? But I need to be sure you are here and as safe as you can be so that I can concentrate on my own safety, alright?”

Chris nodded frantically.

“You need to stay here, can you do that? Even if I’m swept away, you need to stay here on this engine. Because this big red truck is a lot easier to spot in the eventual chaos after the water is gone than a tiny boy in a yellow shirt.”

“I’m not tiny!” Chris protested petulantly, but then he giggled. “Maybe when you compare me to a fire truck.”

Buck grinned, glad to have achieved what he had gone for with the comment. “You need to stay here until your Dad or I or anyone else of the 118 picks you up. I know you’re here. Your Dad knows you’re here. So, we will come looking for the engine if I’m separated from you and we need to search for you.”

Chris stared at him and bit his lip, but eventually he nodded and the grip in Buck’s shirt loosened a little.

“Good.” Buck kissed his forehead. “And I promise to do everything I can to not leave you alone.”

Chris nodded again and Buck hugged him one more time before he stood carefully. The water was still rushing inland with horrible force. There was no chance anyone would be able to withstand that force, no matter how good a swimmer they were. Buck rubbed his palms over his pants, remembering how the line he had grabbed earlier had cut deep into his palm. It had given him precious second to orient himself, but he had been lucky it hadn’t cut through his skin.

If he could just install something similar here so people could latch onto it and hopefully use it as an aid to get out of the water. Something that would lead to the engine.

‘What about a hose?’ Eddie asked. ‘You have a fully equipped engine at your disposal, right?’

Buck blew out a breath. ‘Most of it is under water, though.’ The hoses on top of the vehicle were pretty much the only thing he could reach, but they would be ideal to create a catchline. They were thick and sturdy enough to not be damaged by debris getting caught in them. But getting them to the other side of the street would be a problem.

‘There is a tree,’ Buck mused. ‘If I can secure one end there … But I’d need to swim against the current. No chance for that.’ He turned around, but the next tree was too far down the street to be of any use.

‘The engine isn’t far away from the buildings, is it?’ Eddie asked. ‘Is there a ledge wide enough for you to climb on to get upstream far enough?’

Buck sucked in air through his teeth and shook his head while inspecting the buildings. There wasn’t anything like that, but there was debris and several cars stacked behind the engine. He only had to hope all of it would be stable enough while he climbed over it.

‘Make sure the hose is attached to the engine first!’ Eddie said.

Buck huffed and rolled his eyes but didn’t argue with Eddie that he had very well thought of that himself. Soon enough, Buck was climbing over the debris and discovered that in one of the cars the driver was trapped and alive. He tapped against the window and promised to come back to get him out and to the engine as soon as possible.

First, though, Buck had to push on with his mission to cross the street. There was a woman somewhere upstream calling out for help and Buck called back, instructing her to hold on just a little while longer. He could only hope she’d heard him over the roaring of the water.

Jumping back into the much too cold water felt horrible and took his breath away just the same as the initial impact of the wave had done. Only Eddie’s voice in his head pulled him back from the edge of a flashback. It felt like hours since this ordeal had started, but Eddie informed him darkly that it had barely been fifteen minutes.

Buck gritted his teeth as he fought once more against the water. Eddie’s voice was in his head the whole time, warm and encouraging, and Buck was grateful for the focus it provided. He nearly missed the tree, and then the woman caught the hose before Buck had managed to secure it to the tree. Somehow, he managed to hold onto the tree and the hose until the woman had reached the engine.

Buck lost track of time in the minutes and hours that followed. He got the driver out of the car, and then there always seemed to be someone being pushed past them by the water without a break. Chris’ assessment of the space they had on the engine wasn’t as accurate as Buck would have liked as it filled up much too fast.

Eventually, though, Buck sat down beside Chris again. He hadn’t even noticed how exhausted he was until he had been pulled out of the water by two of the people on the engine this last time. For the moment there was no one in the water anymore near them, and the current had considerably slowed down. Buck needed this moment of quiet, but he suspected there would be more people to save either if another wave came or if the water finally started to flow out into the ocean again.

“Buck!” Chris cheered when Buck sat down beside him. Chris leaned heavily against him. “This is Lynn! She’s been telling me stories! Lynn, this is my Buck!”

Buck smiled and nodded to the woman sitting on the other side of Chris. It took him a moment, but then he remembered that he had caught her in the water. She had been so disoriented that she hadn’t noticed the catchline and Buck had only caught her at the very last moment. There had been other people who had slipped through, who no one had been able to catch, and who hadn’t understood the catchline to be the rescue it was.

“Thank you,” Lynn said softly.

Buck nodded. “You are very welcome.”

“Your son is a delight,” Lynn said.

Buck grinned widely. “Yep.” 

For a moment he contemplated correcting her, but Chris didn’t correct her and so Buck decided not to either. He hadn’t corrected the Christmas elf when Eddie and Buck had taken Chris to see Santa at the mall the previous year and, at that point, he really should have corrected the assumption. Now, though — if his mind wasn’t playing games on him and he and Eddie truly shared a soul bond — it wasn’t even a wrong assumption anymore.

“Are you okay, Buck?” Chris asked quietly.

Buck sighed. “I’m very tired. Usually, I’m doing these things with a lot more equipment at my disposal.”

“And usually, Dad is there to help you, too!”

Buck grinned and rested his chin on top of Chris’ head. “Yeah, and usually Eddie is there to have my back. And the rest of our crew, too.”

“Chris mentioned you are a firefighter,” Lynn said.

Buck shrugged. “Yeah. Pretty insane luck that we ended up on a fire engine. I need a short break, so I’ll sit with you for a while and if the current is still as slow as right now in a couple of minutes, I’ll try to get into some compartments underwater. There should be bottled water somewhere if they are organized like our own engine.”

“You’ve already done so much for everyone here,” Lynn whispered.

“And I’ll continue until we are out of this mess,” Buck promised. He bit his lip. “Did you…?”

“I was still alone,” Lynn said. “My family was supposed to meet me, but they got delayed. And now they are thankfully safe and far away from this mess.”

Buck nodded. There were others in their group who had been separated from loved ones. Some of them had retreated into their own heads following the shock, had barely helped to get themselves out of the water. Others were guarding the edges of the engine, looking out and searching, hoping their family or friends would be pushed this way as well, no matter how low the chances of that were.

“Buck?” Chris said quietly.

“Yeah, buddy?”

“You said Dad knew I was here. How can he know that? I didn’t see you call him.”

“I lost my phone,” Buck said. “You are right, I didn’t call your dad. I … didn’t even send that text with the picture we had planned to send to tell him we had changed plans.”

Chris turned his head and looked at Buck wide-eyed. “But how will he know where to look for us then?”

Buck hesitated. He hadn’t heard Eddie in his head for a little while, but somehow, he just knew that Eddie was insanely busy with one rescue after another. After all the work he had done over the last little while, Buck was pretty sure that he hadn’t hit his head bad enough to not only hallucinate a soul bond but also Eddie talking to him in his head. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have been physically able to do half of what he had done.

“I … This may sound strange, but your dad and I bonded.”

Chris frowned. “You have a soul bond and didn’t tell me?”

“Hey, no!” Buck shook his head and cupped the back of Chris’ head. “It happened when I saw the wave. That’s what Eddie said, at least. I don’t remember anything of that moment other than the sheer terror. But I know Eddie’s voice was in my head soon after when I was running down the pier with you.”

Chris stared at him wide-eyed. “You’ve been talking with Dad in your head?”

Buck nodded. “Yeah. I mean, not all the time. He and the rest of the 118 are all busy with the rescue efforts that are being put together. So, he needs to concentrate on his tasks. I needed to concentrate on mine, too.”

Chris sucked in air and pressed one little hand against Buck’s chest. “You rubbed your chest. Abuelita says that’s where you can feel the bond. Where she can still feel the missing bond.”

Buck swallowed. “It is. And it’s … amazing. Even if I have no idea how it could happen.”

Chris huffed. “You didn’t tell me you were dating!”

Buck only grinned sheepishly and shrugged. He would explain to Chris later that Eddie and he hadn’t been dating, that there hadn’t been any secrets kept from Christopher. But for the moment he didn’t want to draw any more attention to his and Eddie’s situation. Bonding while separated was already strange enough and everyone here on the engine knew about it now. He would rather not have anyone speculate about a bond happening with no prior romantic relationship.

“I didn’t know you could bond while so far away from each other!” Chris said.

“It happens sometimes,” Lynn said quietly. “There are actually many legends about it. I think there is at least one story about it from any ancient culture you can find despite so many of their stories being lost. And of course, some not-so-old legends and myths.”

“I remember some of those,” Buck said. “But all I’ve ever heard about was that none of it is true.”

Lynn shook her head. “There are plenty of people who are already overwhelmed by the fact that soul bonds in generell still can’t be explained by any scientists. I think many dismiss these old legends because they don’t want to deal with another thing they can’t explain and, in this case, also one most will never observe.”

Buck made a face. “I can see how that would be a stumbling block.”

“What do the legends say?” Chris said. He turned around to look at Lynn and leaned heavily against Buck.

“The circumstances always seem to be very similar,” Lynn said with a sad smile. “One of them or sometimes even both are in great danger. And more often than not they are in the process of defending people that mean a lot to both of them.”

Chris nodded slowly. “Like Buck saving me from the wave.”

Buck blinked against his tears, but Lynn chuckled softly. “I think that’s pretty much exactly what happened to your dads here. Losing you specifically would have probably wracked both their lives.”

Chris pressed a little tighter against Buck but didn’t say anything. Buck dropped a kiss on top of his head. As out of it as Lynn had been when he had pulled her out of the water, it had made it a lot easier for Buck when he had seen her sit down beside Chris and engage with him. None of the people he had pulled out of the water before her had really taken on any responsibility for Chris. Buck knew that he couldn’t expect that from anyone, but that had also meant that he had worried more about Chris with every additional person on the engine.

“Thank you,” Buck said to Lynn and she smiled in a way that told him she knew exactly what he was talking about.

“Is Daddy coming to us?” Chris asked.

“As soon as he can. There are a lot of people who need help, though. And it might not be easy for him to come to us. The water is causing a lot of chaos right now. It will be even worse once it’s gone. So maybe we’ll need to go looking for him when the water is gone.” Buck also hadn’t been able to tell Eddie where they were exactly. Searching aimlessly for them in the current situation wouldn’t be very productive.

***

“My soulmate and my son are out there!” Eddie said through gritted teeth. They had arrived at the temporary command center for the rescue operation nearly fifteen minutes ago, and it felt like a mockery that they still weren’t out on the water.

“Eddie!” Chimney said lowly, one hand wrapped around his elbow. “You can’t just go around telling these kinds of lies!”

The incident commander — Eddie hadn’t caught his name and the name tag was hidden by the life jacket he was wearing — turned to Chimney with a frown. “Lies?”

“Buck and Eddie aren’t bonded,” Chimney said through gritted teeth while pulling on Eddie’s elbow. “And last we knew Buck and Chris planned to go to the movies and stay far away from the coast. I don’t know what’s going on with him, but I think something was off with his food.”

Eddie ripped his arm out of Chimney’s grip. The rising anger was difficult to battle. “I knew about the tsunami before we got called about it, didn’t I?”

Chimney huffed. “You were hanging on your phone the whole time. Wouldn’t be surprised if the tsunami warning on the phones came just before your little—” He waved a hand. “—episode.”

“There are reports about bonds happening over a great distance,” Bobby said and stepped between Eddie and Chimney. “Get a grip of yourself, Chimney.”

“You believe those fairy tales, Captain Nash?” the IC asked. “Are you sure your firefighter is ready to work?”

Eddie drew his shoulder back, ready to protest that suggestion, but Bobby said calmly, “I’m sure.”

“The 136 was out on a medical call at the pier just before the tsunami, weren’t they?” Eddie said and felt vindication about the clear surprise on the IC’s face. “Buck and Chris are on top of their engine now. Buck got one of the hoses across the street with the other end tied to a tree to create a catch line.”

Eddie had been distracted when they had arrived here mostly because Buck had been in the middle of getting to the other side of the street. Eddie hadn’t wanted to stop encouraging him through their mental connection. It had very much felt as if Buck had desperately needed the reminder to keep focused on his task.

The IC blinked and stared at him while Chimney shook his head and rubbed a hand over his face.

Bobby cleared his throat. “Paramedic Han will stay here and help you set up a temporary field hospital. He has the certification and the experience for that. He also knows many of the LAFD and SMFD paramedics at least in passing, so he’ll be able to tell you who can go out into the field and who should stay here to help.”

“Cap!” Chimney protested heatedly.

“It’s the best use for your experience, Chimney,” Bobby said in a clipped tone. “We’ll talk about this later. For now, we all have our jobs to do.”

Chimney huffed but eventually relented with a nod. Eddie was just relieved that he didn’t need to work with Chimney for the moment only to listen to his doubts without a pause. At one point, just after Eddie had joined the 118, there had been a moment of bonding between them about their doubts regarding all the soulmate lore in the world. 

Eddie didn’t know where Chimney’s conviction that all of it was bullshit came from, but he had freely shared his own doubts born out of his parents’ behavior. Soon after, Eddie had admitted that seeing his aunt and uncle as well as listening to his grandmother had made him rethink many of those thoughts and somehow, he had always felt that Chimney had taken it as some kind of betrayal.

A couple of minutes later Bobby, Hen, and Eddie were finally boarding a dinghy, and the woman at the rudder greeted Hen with a laugh and a tight hug.

“Bobby, Eddie, this is Beth Foster,” Hen said. “She was at the 118 with us for … nearly four years, right?”

Beth nodded. “Yeah. Four years and six captains, which was one of two reasons I left.” She nodded at Bobby. “Of course, just after I left you came along, Captain Nash, and ended that curse on the 118.”

“Nice to meet you,” Bobby said and shook her hand. “What was the second reason you left?”

“Ah, there was no place for another paramedic at the 118,” Beth said. “I’m on B-shift with the 136 now.” She made a face. “Our A-shift is missing right now and all of B- and C-shift is here to help.”

“They were at the pier,” Eddie said quietly.

Beth raised her brows and nodded, but she didn’t question Eddie. “Let’s get this boat in the water. It’s just the four of us. The smaller our crews, the more survivors we can pick up before having to come back here.”

Eddie wished they could just go and search for Buck and Chris right away, but he knew better than to ask about it. Buck had taken a moment to lecture him for the thought alone in-between pulling people out of the water and on top of the engine, reminding him that he couldn’t just ignore everyone else who needed help on his race to find Chris and Buck. Eddie had grudgingly agreed.

Someone in the command center was directing them through the flooded area in a pattern that didn’t make much sense to Eddie. But he also had to admit that he didn’t know much about Santa Monica or tsunamis. Their boat filled quickly and less than half an hour into their first tour through the flooded streets they found a woman hurt badly enough that they turned around immediately to bring her back to the field hospital.

They hadn’t headed out far yet on their second run when Eddie turned his head abruptly to the right, staring down the flooded street they were passing by and he was overcome a burning urgency he couldn’t place. “We need to head that way!”

“Did you see something?” Beth asked and leaned forward, looking in the same direction.

Eddie shook his head. “No, but I … We need to go there!”

“Eddie?” Hen asked and there was a soft understanding in her voice that nearly robbed Eddie’s breath.

Bobby cleared his throat and grabbed his radio. “Dispatch, this is Captain Nash with boat 2 of the 118.”

“Receiving, Captain Nash.”

“There is debris we can’t pass by blocking our route,” Bobby said and Eddie turned his head, but he hadn’t missed it. There was no debris at all. “We are heading south and trying to circle back at the next opportunity.”

“Alright, Captain. Keep us posted on your location.”

Beth cleared her throat but turned the boat without argument. “Why the lie about the debris?”

“I’m sure there is a reason that people who form soul bonds over a distance in circumstances like this don’t advertise it,” Bobby said. “So, we are not going to advertise whatever’s going on with Eddie.”

Beth gasped but only turned to Eddie for a short moment.

“Bobby…” Eddie whispered.

Bobby grabbed his shoulder. “I might not have any idea what’s going on with you and Buck right now, but I remember … It took a while after Marcy and I bonded. My cooking? That’s a soul bond knack. I didn’t lose it when she died. But Marcy, she could heal anyone in our family. And that was overwhelming and scary in the beginning until we learned to understand her knack.”

“We got your and Buck’s back, Eddie,” Hen said softly.

“Me, too,” Beth hurried to say and kept glancing at Bobby with wide eyes.

Bobby didn’t often talk about Marcy, especially not with strangers around, and Eddie understood why. People tended to be noisy and to ask inappropriate questions and while Bobby hadn’t ever mentioned to Eddie the pain of his broken bond, Eddie’s Abuela had talked about her pain and the reason why she had pushed through it when most soul-bonded couples left this world together.

Eddie just nodded and stared ahead. There was some kind of energy drumming right under his skin that was nearly physically pushing him forward. He wanted to demand that they go faster, but there was enough debris in the water to make that impossible.

“There!” Eddie said and only Bobby’s hand on his shoulder kept him from jumping up.

At the same time, a young woman kneeling on top of a car spotted them and began waving frantically. “Over here! Help! We need help!”

“Stay where you are!” Hen shouted back. “We’ll be with you in a moment!”

“My Dad’s in the car! His foot is stuck, and he can’t get out!”

Eddie winced as he watched the car a little closer. The tide had been rising again over the last little while with another wave pushing inland. It had to be the fourth or even fifth wave and Eddie hoped it would finally be the last. The water nearly reached the top of the car, and he wasn’t sure if help for the father wasn’t already too late. When they had arrived at the temporary launch-off point for the rescue boats, the water had been even higher than it was now, and Eddie was sure the water had to have been above the roof of the car at that point.

While Hen turned to the young woman on the roof of the car, Eddie got into the water with Bobby hovering at the side of their boat to assist him. Eddie expected to find a body, but the man in the driver seat was fighting against the water, stretching to the top of the car as far as he could. His face was barely over the waterline and Eddie saw him gasp for air before he sank down.

Eddie grabbed the full-face mask with the air tank and dove into the car. It took a long moment of wrestling with the man before he understood that Eddie was here to help, that the mask would give him the air he was so desperately fighting for.

When Eddie came up for air and to get a second mask for himself, the woman was sitting in the boat and Hen was checking her over.

“I don’t know how he’s still alive,” Eddie said to Bobby as he grabbed the mask and a Halligan.

“The girl said the car moved a couple of minutes ago,” Bobby said grimly. “So, be careful of it moving again.”

Eddie inhaled deeply and nodded. With the mask in place, he dived back. It was difficult to communicate with his victim, who was still caught in the panic the rising water had to have caused. It took much too long for Eddie’s liking to figure out that somehow the man’s foot had gotten stuck under the driver’s seat. The leg was bent at an unnatural angle, but Eddie was relieved to see no broken skin.

Eddie didn’t know how long it took him to get the seat lose and he missed Buck at his side for support more than ever before in the months since the bombing. Somehow, he finally managed to get the man to stay out of his way far enough that he could find the right leverage to get the seat lose and pull the man out of the car.

When they came up, the roof of the car was completely submerged, but Eddie didn’t have time to think about it for long. Bobby and Beth pulled first the man and then Eddie out of the water and then it was a flurry of action with Eddie assisting Hen in treating the man’s injuries and determining their next action.

They were already halfway back to the field hospital — because Hen was convinced the man needed more treatment than she could give him as soon as possible to have a chance to keep the leg — before Eddie took notice of anything but their patient again. By that point their patient was unconscious, and his daughter was sitting beside him, holding his hand.

“Thank you,” she said to Eddie, her eyes filled with tears. “If you had just come a minute later…”

Eddie smiled reassuringly. “But we didn’t. That’s what you need to keep reminding yourself of, okay?”

She nodded hesitantly and Eddie retreated to the other end of the boat. Hen was keeping a worried eye on their patient, but she would shout if she needed any help and Eddie felt he needed a break. He turned his head to stare at the water rushing by at the side of the boat and concentrate on his connection with Buck. He felt calm and relaxed right now, and Eddie hoped that meant Buck was able to take a break for a little while.

Chapter Text

Eddie took the granola bar Hen held out for him with a smile. They were taking a different route through Santa Monica this time, one that would lead them right out to where usually the beach was. There had been reports about people being trapped on the Ferris wheel and everyone expected it to go when the wave would finally recede. Many were already surprised that it was still standing at all.

“Thank you,” Eddie said quietly. They were in one of three boats being sent out because Eddie had the certification to climb the Ferris wheel and lower people down on a rope. Additionally to those three boats, they were accompanied by two more so that survivors they found on the way could be picked up.

“How is Buck?” Hen asked.

“Playing I spy with Chris and one of the other survivors.” Eddie chuckled. “Mostly they are both trying to distract Chris, I think. It can be difficult to keep a child in one place for so long even if Chris knows that they have no choice.”

There were days when Chris could be very content with spending the whole day at home and playing some games or reading, but most days he was full of energy that needed to be burned. There weren’t many people Eddie had ever met who could handle Chris’ level of energy, especially as most people somehow didn’t expect it from him, but Buck had never complained about it.

Hen sighed. “Yeah. How are you holding up?”

“I’m able to compartmentalize,” Eddie said. “That’s one of the first things they teach you in the Army. I’ll freak out about all of this once Buck and Chris are safely at home and I’m out of uniform.”

Hen nodded and leaned her shoulder against his. “Everyone will freak out then. And they’ll want to see Buck and take care of him. Your house will be full at all times if you don’t set very precise boundaries. I know Denny will want to see Chris as soon as he learns about where Chris was today.”

Eddie chuckled. Denny and Chris had struck up a fast friendship. Denny was also very good friends with Harry Grant and one of Bobby’s nieces, but so far Chris hadn’t warmed up much to them yet. Chris was very easygoing and got along well with most people, but he was careful about who he trusted with his friendship.

“I know. I’ll invite Abuela to stay and she’ll gladly handle all of you!”

Hen laughed. “That’s a good plan!”

“You have been bonded with Karen for a little while, right?” Eddie asked quietly.

“A little over eighteen months. Which you know because you were at our bonding ceremony!”

Eddie grinned. “Yeah. So. I know it’s a rude question, but do you and Karen have any knacks?”

“Not yet,” Hen said. “I expect something to come eventually, though. There are a lot of theories about it, but I think they’ll come when Fate decides we’re either ready for it or need it. In your case, you clearly needed it today.”

Eddie huffed.

“Your knack made it possible for us to save at least five people today already,” Hen said. “And the day is far from over. Once the water is gone the real recovery will begin. Right now, our operation is in constant limbo because the water dictates where we can go. As soon as the water is gone, established S&R routines will be being acted upon and that will keep us busy until relief from FEMA and the Red Cross arrive.”

“Those are already on the way,” Eddie said. Buck and he had taken an online course on disaster management together while Buck had been on medical leave. He knew which procedures had been set in action as soon as the tsunami alarm had been set off, he didn’t need Hen’s lecture about it.

“Trust your knack,” Hen said softly. “I’m expecting you to be led by it a lot more intensely once the water is gone and we are less restricted. I don’t think it will lead you astray. They are designed to help us.”

“You think it’s Fate?”

Hen shrugged. “I don’t believe in any kind of god. My mother tried to raise me differently, but I just never understood what she or anyone else in our church was believing, what any of it was providing them.”

Eddie made a face. “My parents are in the kind of church who still believe until this day the bullshit propaganda of same-sex soulmates being frauds, of soul bonds only being true between hetero couples.”

Hen blew out a breath. “Wow.”

Eddie stared out ahead of them. “I grew up learning that falling in love with another man would be the greatest sin I could ever commit. I learned very early on that I needed to escape that church as soon as I could. I … I always knew about myself that it could go either way with me. I was in love with a good friend I had in high school, and I know he felt the same. But I never dared to act on it for fear of what my parents would do.”

Hen winced. “Why didn’t you leave the first chance you got?”

Eddie huffed. “I joined the Army and made sure I’d either be away for training or deployed to the other side of the globe. You don’t call that getting away from them as far as I could?”

“But Shannon stayed there after you married.”

“Which was her decision because she didn’t want to leave her friends and she wanted to finish college there,” Eddie said. “I tried to convince her to move to LA several times after she was done with her degree. She never could tell me why she really stayed, especially with the way my parents treated her and Chris.”

“So, you moved as soon as you could to get away from your parents.”

“I wouldn’t want Chris to be subjected to their beliefs for longer than he already was. And at the same time my parents are horribly toxic in their own relationship but still claim to be soulmates,” Eddie said. “Which I never believed, and honestly, now even less. The healing thing is true, right?”

“It is,” Hen said softly. “Just sleeping with Karen right beside me makes small wounds that took days or a week or two to heal before our bond heal over night now.”

“My parents don’t have that,” Eddie said.

Hen stared at him. “That’s… They can get into a lot of trouble for lying about this.”

Eddie shrugged. “Hard to prove, isn’t it? They can hardly hurt one of them, then sit them side by side and measure how long it takes for the wounds to heal.”

“No, but it might come out if one of them is ever hurt badly enough to warrant a stay in the hospital,” Hen said softly.

Which was probably the reason they had so far always found an excuse if either of them had ended up in the hospital. The first time Eddie had wondered about it had been after Adriana had been born. The pregnancy and especially the birth of his younger sister hadn’t been easy for his mother and Eddie had been old enough to understand that very well.

Eddie’s father had been out of town when Adriana had been born. And he hadn’t returned until Adriana and Helena had already been home from the hospital. At home, no one had questioned the long time it had taken Helena to heal and in their church, no one had asked either. But it had been the first time Eddie remembered wondering if his parents were truly bonded and what it meant if they were lying about it.

“I stopped caring a long time ago what will happen to my parents,” Eddie said with a deep sigh. “They made my childhood pretty horrible. But what’s much worse is that they would have ruined Chris’ life completely if they had gotten a chance for it. I know if my mother hadn’t been hounding Shannon while I was deployed, things between us would be different now. We’d still be divorced because getting married was always the wrong decision. But I think she wouldn’t have abandoned Chris. She would have some role in his life, even if she wouldn’t be there all the time.”

Hen wrapped an arm around Eddie’s shoulder. “You found someone to help you raise your child and he has been all in on it since the first time he met Chris.”

Eddie chuckled. The way Buck had treated Chris from the very first day was one of many reasons why Eddie had fallen in love with Buck. They had just clicked as friends from the very beginning, too, and Eddie didn’t remember a moment since he had met Buck when he hadn’t trusted him with his son. Eddie hadn’t known that kind of friendship before Buck.

“Is it exhausting using your knack?” Hen asked.

Eddie shook his head. “If it is, it’s not bad enough to notice over the exhaustion of the rescues we are pulling here. Still can’t believe we got the groom and his stepson off that boat and to the field hospital after they were impaled the way they were.”

“Your knack leading us to them gave us enough time to rescue them just as with the father in the car right at the beginning,” Hen said.

“I guess we’ll see how useful this knack will be after this,” Eddie said darkly. “Or if it might become a hindrance. I can’t just dedicate all my life to saving people I pass by. At one point I need downtime, time to concentrate on my own life, on my family.” It was a worry because at the moment it felt completely impossible to ignore this knack.

“And you’ll have that time,” Hen promised. “There hasn’t ever been a case documented where a knack was a hindrance to someone. They’ve always been a support in some way. Who knows, maybe your knack will even change when we are done here.”

Eddie frowned. He had to admit that he didn’t know as much about soul bonds as he might need right now. As far as he could tell, Buck and he had two knacks, but maybe their mental connection was all Buck’s knack while this gut feeling leading him to survivors in need of help was all his. But somehow, he just knew Buck would share it with him, too. He couldn’t remember having ever heard of something like this. Usually, soulmates didn’t share knacks as far as he knew.

But he had also never heard about someone bonding when they weren’t right beside each other, more often than not even touching in some way. Clearly, there were stories about bonds forming over a great distance, but Eddie had never heard of it before. He would ask Bobby about them later because Bobby seemed to know at least something about that.

They left the last of the buildings behind them and Eddie’s gut churned as he saw the area where usually the Santa Monica pier was buzzing with life and excitement. Half of the Ferris wheel was reaching out of the water, but other than that it looked as if the ocean had just swallowed the land. There were debris fields swimming on the surface, being pushed in the direction of the buildings reaching out of the water, but other than that it nearly looked like a peaceful ocean looked on any other given day when watching it from the beach.

“This is horrible,” Hen whispered.

Eddie nodded in agreement. “Check my harness for me. When we reach the Ferris wheel, I should get up as soon as possible. We have no idea how much time we’ve left before the water starts to recede. It will go out with just as much force as it came with.”

Their boats wouldn’t necessarily withstand that force. And the debris would turn dangerous very fast. Hen did as Eddie had asked, and he was climbing the Ferris wheel before Beth had even fully stopped the boat. The first person Eddie encountered was a firefighter from the 136 who had climbed up the Ferris wheel when she had seen the wave in the hope of escaping it. She introduced herself as Lena Bosko and Eddie’s new-found sixth sense told him not to trust her.

For the first time, Eddie tried his best to push that feeling away. He would be careful, but for the moment he had no other choice than to work with her. She didn’t seem to be injured, and at least she had some training to help him, which no one else trapped in the gondolas could provide even if she lacked any kind of equipment.

“Our worst injury is in the highest gondola,” Bosko said and pointed upwards. “Possibly spinal injury. He was standing and filming the wave and then fell and hit his head at the edge. His soon-to-be ex-wife made sure he hasn’t moved since.”

Eddie made a face. “Lucky bastard not to fall out.” And a huge idiot for thinking more about getting the best shot instead of hoping he would be spared because of his position so far up. 

Eddie grabbed his radio and relayed to Bobby that they would need an airlift because he couldn’t see any way to lower a patient with a possible spinal injury down to the boats. Predictably, Bobby couldn’t promise anything about the air support, so Eddie climbed up there to at least stabilize their patient as much as possible. The patient was awake, though he was slurring his words, and the woman with him didn’t act at all as if the divorce was imminent. Eddie didn’t ask why they had even been riding the Ferris wheel together when they were heading for a divorce.

Eddie got Bosko a harness and a rope despite her protest about the time better used for something else, and together with the two firefighters from the other boats they got everyone except the man with the suspected spinal injury down. The only other problem they encountered was a man who had gotten on the Ferris Wheel to battle his phobia of highs and who threw himself into a panic attack when they tried to help him into the rescue harness.

Eventually, a helicopter arrived and they transferred their patient with the spinal injury to the paramedics of the helicopter crew before lowering his wife down to the boats as the last person still in need of a rescue. 

Bosko and Eddie were just starting to climb down themselves when Bobby called out from below. “Debris! Incoming!”

Eddie turned his head and cursed when he saw how near the debris coming in their direction was. It seemed they had just finished their job here at the last possible moment.

“No time to climb down,” Bosko said.

“We can’t sit this out up here,” Eddie replied and returned his attention to the structure under his hands and feet. They needed to hurry, but they were too far up to jump, especially as they didn’t know what kind of dangers would be waiting for them beneath the water. It was too risky to jump, but he would just have to trust his ropes to hold him when he made some a little riskier moves to get down faster.

He was halfway down to the boats when he saw Bosko rush by beside him with an excited cry. Eddie didn’t turn to look after her; he didn’t have time to care for her. So he kept concentrating on his next step, on the next little jump down to let his rope do most of the work. He heard the commotion beneath him when the others pulled Bosko out of the water.

The boat with Bobby, Hen, and Beth was the last one still waiting beside the Ferris wheel. Bobby was at his side as soon as Eddie jumped the last little bit onto the boat and cut his line, leaving it behind at the Ferris wheel and Beth pushed the engine of the boat to get them away from the debris but also the Ferris wheel itself that was already dangerously leaning to the side.

“Damn it,” Eddie muttered.

“Should have jumped with me,” Bosko said laughing. Something was off with that laugh, though, and when Eddie looked at her, he just knew that she had somehow injured herself with the jump.

“Not risking my life for a little adrenalin rush,” Eddie said darkly.

Bosko rolled her eyes.

“We’ll have to wait out here until the ocean will have receded,” Beth said. “Thankfully we don’t have anyone on board who needs immediate medical attention.”

“Has any of you heard anything about the rest of my crew?” Bosko asked and it was the first time she didn’t show off the devil may care facade she had worn the whole time while they had worked on the Ferris wheel.

“Dispatch didn’t have any news when I reported we had found you,” Bobby said softly. “They know to call me if they hear about anyone else.”

Bosko sighed and nodded. Eddie watched her for a moment but then turned his attention back in the direction of the coast. The water was rushing back out to the ocean with growing force and watching it from this side was as fascinating as terrifying. Beth drove the boat in a wide circle around some debris fields before they joined the other two boats. The boat suddenly felt tiny even though it could easily seat twenty people and aside from Eddie’s team and Bosko they had only two rescues on board.

Eddie watched the coast with a worried frown when he was suddenly overcome with the sense of falling backward. He blinked and then he saw himself — saw Buck falling backward, desperately trying to grab the arms reaching for him. Eddie lurched forward and found himself in Bobby’s strong arms without knowing what was happening.

“Buck! BUCK!”

***

Chris yawned and leaned a little more heavily against Buck’s side. He had been quiet for a little while, just stopping their game in the middle of a round and Buck expected him to fall asleep soon. It might be good for Chris to get some rest even if it wouldn’t be a very good rest. When the water would finally be gone the rest of the day would just be even more exhausting than it had been so far.

“What’s Daddy doing?” Chris asked tiredly.

Buck chuckled. “Climbing the Ferris Wheel.”

Chris was quiet for a little while. “Really?”

“There are some people trapped in the gondolas above the water,” Buck said. “Eddie is helping them to get down into boats.”

Chris inhaled deeply. “And the people in the gondolas at the bottom?”

Buck winced and shared a look with Lynn. “I don’t know, buddy. Maybe they were able to climb up in time.” It was much more likely that most of them had been killed, but Buck really didn’t want to discuss that with Chris at the moment or ever, really.

“I hope so,” Chris whispered.

“Look!” someone shouted and when Buck looked up, he found several of the others pointing to the water.

“The current has turned!” Lynn said, but there wasn’t much excitement in her voice and Buck had to agree with her.

“Sit down guys!” Buck shouted out and wrapped his arm a little tighter around Chris. “And hold on to whatever you can! The engine could be dragged away by the water or any debris hitting us!”

Some people scrambled to sit down again, to hold onto anything they could.

“Should we cut the line?” Lynn asked.

Buck bit his lip and shook his head. He had thought about that and even discussed it with Eddie at one point. A hose wasn’t easily cut, and they didn’t have anything to accomplish that job, even though it might be safer. On the other hand, the line could still provide lifesaving help to anyone who had found a place to stay safe over the last couple of hours but would now be dragged out to sea otherwise.

Buck closed his eyes when some people started to talk to each other in hushed voices or called out in shock and pointed at something in the water. While Buck expected there to be some more survivors being pushed their way, there would probably be many more bodies in the water now.

Buck put his hand over Chris’ eyes and kissed the top of his head. “Don’t look out over the water, sweetheart, okay?”

“What’s in the water?” Chris asked.

Buck shared another pained look with Lynn who smiled sadly and shrugged. There was no good answer, and probably no way at all to protect Chris from the reality of the disaster they were living through. Now that the water was receding they would eventually need to walk out of the area by themselves, even if any S&R teams would come by. Buck couldn’t imagine that they would make it out of here without seeing any evidence of what the wave had done to probably most of the people who had been caught by surprise.

“We had a lot of luck finding this engine,” Buck whispered. “Not everyone had as much luck as we had today.”

“There are dead people in the water,” Chris whispered.

“Yes,” Buck agreed. “I don’t want you to see them, okay?”

Chris nodded slowly. “Okay.”

Buck kissed the top of his head again, and for a moment he sat there with his chin resting on top of Chris’ head and staring at some point behind Lynn. He was startled out of it by a cry for help that came from somewhere behind the engine. Buck raised his head and Lynn wrapped her arm around Chris’ shoulder as she had always done when Buck had needed to leave him behind to help another person.

Buck was very careful when he pushed himself on top of the cab. The engine had been rocked by some debris a couple of times already, and the water was rushing by faster and faster with every second. He spotted the man trapped in the middle of a debris field right away and he gritted his teeth as he pushed himself as far over the cab as he dared.

“Grab my hand!” he shouted.

The man did just that, but they missed each other by just an inch and then the debris field crashed into the engine, noticeably moving it along. Buck cursed and the man cried out in pain. But then, somehow, Buck got a grip on the man’s wrist and pulled with all the strength he had. The man cried out in pain again, but Buck kept pulling. Not getting him out of the debris would most likely kill him, any injuries caused by pulling him out could hopefully be treated.

Suddenly there was another set of hands grabbing the man’s arms and Buck and the young man coming to his aid managed to get the man out of the water.  The man was crying and sobbing, but also whispering “Thank you, thank you, thank you!” between it all.

They got the man into the back of the engine that was a little more protected, and Buck ignored the muttering of everyone else as he checked him over. There were cuts and bruises and the man wasn’t able to move his left arm, but nothing of it seemed to be life-threatening.

“I don’t have anything here to make a sling for your arm,” Buck said softly. “But try not to move it. I’ll probably find something in the engine to create a sling as soon as we are able to reach the compartments.”

The man nodded and closed his eyes. “Thank you.” He hadn’t said anything else no matter what Buck had asked him, and so Buck just patted his chest softly as a reply.

“We don’t have space for any more people!”

Buck closed his eyes and took a deep breath before he turned to the man who had spoken up. The guy had been silent and broody, keeping to himself ever since he had been pulled on top of the engine. He hadn’t helped once with the rescue of anyone, which had made him stand out very strongly, and he had glared at every new person pulled out of the water for a while now. Buck had tried to keep an eye on him, but there hadn’t been much any of them could have done from the very beginning.

They had all gone through a horrible experience and were now trapped in a very small space with danger lurking all around them. Buck had always known that any of them could have a horrible reaction to practically anything around them at any given time. He had hoped to get away without any arguments breaking out.

“There is still plenty of space,” a woman snapped at the man who had complained. Buck had asked them all about their names at one point and had gotten help to make a list, but he hadn’t memorized all of the names, too exhausted and distracted to properly concentrate on it.

“Yeah?” The man jumped up, ignoring that the engine was constantly hit by some debris, making it an immense risk to get up on his feet. Buck wracked his mind for a moment to remember the man’s name so he could call him by it when trying to calm him down, but he was pretty sure the man had never given it.

“Calm down, dude,” the young man who had come to Buck’s help a moment earlier said. Buck thought he had introduced himself as Ravi, but he wasn’t sure anymore. He had helped Buck several times when he had gotten back into the water, especially when Buck had dived along the engine to search the compartment for some bottled water, sadly without any success.

“Who do you think you are to tell me anything?” the man snapped. “We can’t pull more people up here!”

“Should we let them die, or what?” Ravi asked darkly and stood up himself.

“Get back down, Ravi,” Buck hissed at the same time as the man said, “Tough luck. Won’t be the only ones to die today. You can’t save the whole world, boy! Be glad you got away alive. If we pull up anyone else someone needs to leave to make room for them! Are you volunteering?”

“That’s enough!” Buck said harshly. “Sit down, both of you! We are all just trying to get through this the best way we can!”

“You’re trying to play the big damn hero, you mean!” the man shouted. “We don’t have enough room for more people! Why doesn’t anyone get that?”

“I understand that you are concerned,” Buck said, trying to keep everyone else calm with a single look, especially Ravi who seemed set to argue with the guy losing his mind. “We all are. But we aren’t in a position for arguments. Would you please just sit down again? I don’t want you to fall off.”

“So, you want to throw me off, too?”

Buck frowned. “That’s not what I said.”

“I think it’s a mistake to have you let any say here!” the man hissed and fisted his hands at his side while making half a step in Buck’s direction. “You are no one! It’s your fault we are running out of space!”

“Hey!” came from several directions and Buck already saw the situation escalating. He didn’t know how to calm the man down. Any kind of further escalation would just endanger all of them, but Buck didn’t think the man was in any position to care about that.

Buck stood up out of pure instinct of seeing someone coming his way in a threatening way. “You need to calm down. We are all exhausted and nervous but—”

“You aren’t going to tell me anything!” the man hissed and reached one arm out. 

At the same time, the engine was rocked by something, and everyone was shoved to the side. Buck reached with one arm for the man and with the other for Ravi. Then, Buck didn’t know what happened. One moment he thought he could pull them both back, the next moment the man turned and pulled on him and Buck fell backwards off the engine.

He heard Chris shout his name at the same time as he heard Eddie shouting it in his head. The last thing Buck saw was how both the man and Ravi went over the side of the engine, too, and how Lynn wrapped her arms tightly around Chris. Then he was submerged by cold, dark water, that was pulling on him with more force than he was able to fight.

Chapter Text

Buck managed to break through the surface of the water quickly, but he already couldn’t see the engine anymore. He knew there was no point trying to fight against the current. He needed to get out of the water and wait until the water was gone, hoping Lynn would be able to keep Chris safe until he somehow got back to them.

Buck turned to look for anything to hold onto and groaned when he was hit by something in the back. There was so much more debris in the water now than there had been when the wave had rushed inland. He needed to get out of the water fast, he knew that very well even without Eddie’s shouting in the back of his mind.

“Buck!”

He turned and nearly missed Ravi, who was battling desperately with some big debris threatening to push him under. Buck leaped over and grabbed the big board. It was so smooth with the water running over it that Buck barely managed to keep a hold of it, but then he got a hold of Ravi’s shoulder and pulled. Ravi hissed and made a face, but he got free from whatever had made him stuck in front of the board and grabbed Buck’s arm.

“We need to get out of here!” Buck shouted and Ravi nodded frantically.

The water pushed relentlessly. Keeping ahold of each other was difficult and made it even more of a fight to get anywhere. But Buck would be damned if he let Ravi be dragged away, letting him be killed by an ashole losing his mind.

Somehow they managed to get to the side of the street, but then they were pulled just past the last buildings. For a moment Buck was overcome by panic, and he knew in parts it was Eddie’s panic, too. Getting dragged out to the sea might just be their death sentence.

But then there was a tree nearly right in front of them and by some miracle, Buck managed to hold onto the lowest branch. He pushed Ravi up as good as he could, but he felt his fingers slipping. Just as he lost hold Ravi pulled himself up and then grabbed Buck’s arm at the same time as Buck was hit by something in the side and he lost hold of the branch. Buck didn’t know how, but somehow the next thing he knew, he was sitting in the tree, panting and hurting all over but with several feet between him and the racing water.

‘I’m safe,’ Buck said to Eddie, shaking and gasping for air.

Eddie huffed. ‘Sitting in a tree in the middle of a receding tsunami is so far away from being safe!’

‘It’s a pretty big tree,’ Buck promised. ‘I’m sure it will stand up to whatever the water will throw at it.’

Eddie blew out a breath. ‘Just please don’t fall back in. I can’t lose you, do you hear me?’

‘Yeah, same.’

‘We are on our way to the engine,’ Eddie said.

Buck was immensely relieved to hear that. He might have prepared Chris for the possibility of being left alone on the engine, but once Buck had come out of the water after spending what had felt like an endless amount of time saving people, he had somehow convinced himself it wouldn’t happen anymore. He hated that Chris was alone now and if there were any chance of fighting the water with his body alone, he’d try to swim to back.

Buck frowned and looked at what he could see of the coast through the leaves. With all the debris that had battered at him over the last couple of minutes, he didn’t know how a boat would make it through the streets, especially trying to go farther inland.

‘Can you make that?’

‘Cap agrees that we aren’t leaving Chris there alone for longer than he needs to be!’ Eddie hissed and Buck nodded along. ‘Beth says the boat should be able to deal with most of the debris and Bosko could give us directions where they left the engine.’

‘Bosko?’ Buck asked.

‘The firefighter of the 136 we found on the Ferris wheel.’

‘Be safe,’ Buck murmured.

‘You, too!’

“Fuck, man!” Ravi groaned. He sat on a branch a little higher than Buck. “I killed that guy, didn’t I?”

Buck leaned his head against the tree trunk. “You didn’t. He started the argument and ignored his own safety. None of us would have fallen back in if we’d all just kept sitting down.”

“I fought really hard to pull him down with me, though,” Ravi said quietly. “He pushed you over the the edge. And he tried to push me, too. I knew I wouldn’t be able to fight him to stay on the truck, but I thought if anyone deserved to go overboard, it was him. If he was dragged out there and didn’t find a tree or whatever of his own…”

Buck sighed. “Try to frame it differently. You protected everyone on the engine. Because who knows who that guy would have tried to throw off next? I’m not in the mood to give him the benefit of the doubt about coming to his senses again through the shock of throwing someone in the water. I’m not even sure if it was really panic or if he just didn’t care for anyone else, period. He could’ve…” Buck choked on air. “Chris could have been the next. You might have just saved his life.”

“Lynn will take care of your son!” Ravi assured. “She did every time you went back into the water. And there are others who’ll protect him just as much on the engine. Except for that asshole, we’re all grateful for you saving us.”

Buck shrugged. He hated that Chris’ safety was out of his hands now, but until the water was gone he couldn’t do anything but hope that Eddie, Bobby, and Hen would reach him soon.

Buck sighed. “Your name’s Ravi right?”

Ravi laughed. “Yeah, Ravi Panikkar. Surprised you remember that with as many people as you asked about names.”

Buck sighed. “I didn’t remember many. But you helped me a lot, that’s something I won’t ever forget. You did good, Ravi. Really good.”

“I guess.” Ravi sighed deeply. “My parents will be worried sick right now!”

“Where were you when this started?” Buck asked.

“I work in a little tourist shop near the pier.” Ravi huffed. “Worked. Probably not much left of that after today. Anyway, I was on a coffee run for my boss and me. Fuck, I hope she made it out of the shop and somewhere safe.”

Buck swallowed and didn’t say anything. Every single person near the beach surviving this day would be a miracle. There was no point trying to give any reassurances when they both knew the likelihood of Ravi’s boss escaping the wave. There had been no warning and Buck had wondered about that on and off whenever he’d had a moment to relax.

“You’ll be able to call them as soon as we find a working phone,” Buck promised. “They’ll just be happy you made it out of here.”

“That I got saved by a hot off-duty firefighter, twice, you mean!”

Buck chuckled. “I don’t flirt with people more than five years younger than me, Ravi. Also, freshly soul-bonded down here, kid. Which still feels strange.” He hadn’t planned to say that last part, but he was still very much overwhelmed and in parts disbelieving of it all.

“Of course you are,” Ravi said with a little pout. “How fresh?”

Buck huffed out a mirthless laugh. “How long has it been since the wave came? I lost my sense of time at some point.”

“Really?” Ravi stared down at him wide-eyed. “Are they … your soulmate wasn’t on the truck with us.”

“It’s called an engine,” Buck corrected. “And no, he wasn’t. He was working with the rest of our crew. Right now, he is here on some boat somewhere and they are trying to get to the engine so Chris is not alone for so long.”

Ravi blinked. “Okay. I’m staying with you once the water is gone. After everything you’ve done for me, I’m not letting you get on with the rest of your duty by yourself!”

Buck raised your brows. “What are you talking about?”

“Soulmates bonding over a distance in a natural disaster? You were placed here to help. Doesn’t mean you can’t get help from others to do so.”

Buck frowned. “I have no idea what you are talking about! Why does everyone seem to know this is even possible when I thought you needed to be with your soul mate to bond!” Maybe he should have asked Lynn some more questions about it, but he hadn’t wanted to draw much attention to it, and it had been impossible to have a private conversation on the engine.

“I wrote an essay in history class once,” Ravi said. “About soulmates who bonded over a great distance. It’s always happening when they are needed in some way. To help with whatever is happening. Wait! You said he’s on the way to the tr-engine! Can you talk to him in your head? That’s so cool!”

Buck chuckled. “It’s a little hit-and-miss about working. But we’ve been in each other’s heads for most of the time, yes. But our colleagues have been complaining for pretty much most of the time since he joined our team that we leave them out of our silent communication on calls. I don’t believe in Fate or anything like that.”

“Don’t need to believe in it for it to be real,” Ravi said. “I’m pretty sure Fate doesn’t care at all what any human thinks, even those she makes her instruments. You are here now, and you worked relentlessly to help as many people as you could. Don’t tell me you’ll stop doing that once the water is gone.”

Buck blew out a breath. “I won’t.”

All he wanted was to get out of here, to curl up with Chris and Eddie on Eddie’s couch, and let his family be pampered by Isabel Diaz. But he knew how Eddie had been led by some new instinct to people who needed help and he had gotten an echo of that pull every time. If he got the same pull once the water was gone and he was able to mostly move freely, he couldn’t see himself ignoring that even once.

***

“What the hell?” Bosko shouted as Eddie felt Hen wrap her arms around him.

“Buck’s back in the water,” Eddie whispered, grabbing Hen’s hand.

“Where is Chris?” Bobby asked tersely.

“On the engine. I saw … I saw a woman hold onto him. I think Buck was thrown from the engine by some guy losing his mind. Oh my god.” Eddie flinched when he was hit by the phantom pain of Buck being hit by something. He couldn’t see anything anymore, but he did feel his panic and desperation.

“What is he talking about?” Bosko asked.

“His son and soulmate were caught by surprise by the tsunami,” Beth said quietly. “They can talk to each other in their heads. And sometimes see what the other sees. Buck and their son got on our engine at one point.”

Eddie perked up by that and turned to Bosko. “Do you remember where your engine was before the tsunami?”

“Corner of Broadway and 5th,” Bosko said.

Beth frowned. “I thought you were on a medical call at the pier?”

Bosko nodded. “Yeah. We had been at a small fire before that and decided to take our lunch break right there. Then we got the medical call because we were still in the area, and Cap decided only to move the ambulance. It’s less than a six-minute walk to the pier from where we left the engine.”

“Could you find Broadway and 5th right now?” Bobby asked, turning to Beth.

“And I thought I was insane,” Bosko murmured.

“I can,” Beth said. “It was probably moved but not far. We just need to hope to be lucky with the debris getting in our way.”

“You can’t really plan…”

“My son is seven years old and alone right now,” Eddie hissed.

Bosko raised one of her hands defensively. “Okay. Just saying this is insane.”

Eddie was distracted by Buck being dragged into the open past the last buildings. “No, no, no,” he whispered and Hen beside him flinched as his fingers dug into her arm. “Buck…”

But then Buck managed to grab onto a tree and Bobby arguing with Bosko about transferring into one of the other boats disturbed his vision of Buck’s fight. The two survivors they’d had in their boat had already climbed into one of the other boats without any protest.

“You are hurt, Bosko,” Bobby said. “No one here missed that. You won’t be any help, and we need every free inch of space we have. By last count, Buck had nearly twenty people on that engine.”

“And there is someone who might be injured more than Buck could asses,” Eddie said. “Even more reason that we need space here.”

Bosko still looked as if she wanted to argue but one hissed “Lena!” from Beth turned that protest into a silent glare and then she climbed into the other boat with a lot of help from Beth and the people in the other boat. She wasn’t able to use her left arm even just to help her with balance, but it would be the paramedics of the other boat who’d have to deal with that.

Beth had just started the boat when Buck was finally securely in the tree and declared to be safe as if that was even remotely true or possible in their current situation.

“He got into a tree,” Eddie told the rest breathlessly. “Just short of getting dragged into the open sea.”

“That would have been my next question,” Beth said softly. “If we needed to get him first.”

“He promised to stay put in that tree. And it does look pretty big and sturdy.”

“There are some of those between Ocean Avenue and the highway,” Beth said. “Lucky bastard to catch one of those. So, your son first, then your soulmate.”

Eddie rubbed his hands over his face. “Or anyone else who needs help first. We’ll probably be busy with his rescues for some time.”

He hated this situation, but he had hated it for hours already. He had hoped they would just find the engine by chance, but without knowing where it had been at first, searching for it had been out of the question. Now they knew where the engine was and Eddie was burning to reach Chris, but Buck wasn’t there anymore, and he wanted to yell about it all in frustration.

“Buck can take care of himself,” Bobby said roughly. “And if he does get into trouble again, we’ll know to go out for him right away!”

Eddie shrugged helplessly.

“Okay, guys, I’ll need your help,” Beth said as they approached the first row of buildings. “Grab a paddle and guard the front of our boat. The more debris you can push out of the way the better!”

Eddie jumped into action because that at least gave him something to do. The water was rushing out with more force than he had thought possible, making dangerous projectiles out of debris that would have otherwise been more of a nuisance in blocking their way than anything else.

Bosko had mentioned it had been a six-minute walk. Now, they needed nearly twenty minutes until Beth declared to look out for the engine. It was a testament about with how much force the water had rushed inland earlier, as they found the engine nearly at the next street corner.

“DAD!” Chris cried out before they were anywhere near enough for Eddie to reach the engine.

“Stay put, Mijo!” Eddie called back and nodded at the woman who kept a secure hold on Chris.

“Buck! You need to go look for Buck!” Chris shouted desperately. “He got pushed into the water!”

“He is sitting in a tree and waiting for the water to be gone,” Eddie assured just as Beth got the boat behind the engine where they had to fight less against the current and could secure it to the vehicle.

‘We are at the engine,’ Eddie said. ‘I have eyes on Chris. He is worried about you, but fine otherwise.’

Buck sighed deeply. ‘Good. Give him a tight hug from me. And tell everyone Ravi is okay, too. No sign of the asshole, but I kind of hope the sea took him.’ There was a pause. ‘Don’t tell that anyone!’

Eddie chuckled silently, fully agreeing with the sentiment. To Chris and everyone else on the engine, he said, “He got Ravi out, too!”

There was a collective sigh of relief among everyone on top of the engine and for some reason, no one asked for an explanation. Eddie was the first to climb on the engine, Hen right behind him, and he was a little overwhelmed by the sheer mass of people even though he had known from Buck how many he had pulled up here.

“I’ll be right with you, Mijo! Just stay put for a moment longer!” Eddie searched out his son’s gaze and waited until he nodded. “Okay, there is obviously not much space left up here. Beth, can we get people down to the boat?”

“Give Bobby and me just a moment longer to secure the boat,” Beth called up. “We aren’t going anywhere anymore, not with all this crap in the water and the water receding so fast. We’ll need to hunker down here until the water is gone, but people should be as safe in the boat as up there.”

Eddie nodded and turned to the survivors. “Okay. Any injuries?”

Several people raised their hands, and the woman holding Chris — Eddie thought Buck had called her Lynn — pointed at a man lying between everyone’s feet.

“He is the last one Buck pulled out of the water,” Lynn said. “He hasn’t been able to tell us his name or anything. We think something might be wrong with him, but none of us has any medical knowledge.”

Hen pushed passed Eddie very carefully and kneeled beside the man. Eddie watched her for a moment as she started to examine her patient. Then Bobby called out from the boat that it was as secure as it would get between the engine and the other debris stuck behind it. Eddie helped several people to climb from the engine down to the boat and with every person, it felt a little bit more as if there was space to breathe on top of the engine.

When there was an even number down in the boat as on top of the engine, the water already only reached half up the engine anymore. Their boat was now lying on the rest of the debris instead of swimming in the water, but that also meant it wouldn’t move much anymore as long as nothing that was under it was ripped away by the water.

“We need an air evac for this guy,” Hen said quietly as she joined Eddie at the rear end of the engine. “Everyone else will be able to walk out with us by themselves, but there is no chance we can transport him. And I’m not even sure he’d make it long enough for us to try.”

“Get down to Cap,” Eddie said. “We don’t need to shout this around for everyone to hear.”

Hen nodded. “Yeah. Get over to Chris, Eddie. You’ve held on to your duty long enough.”

Eddie sighed deeply and finally turned around to cross the engine to get to Chris. He knew, once he had his son in his arms, it would be practically impossible to let him go again.

“Dad!” 

Chris’ shout ended in a sob this time, and Eddie sank to his knees to pull him in his arms, holding onto him tightly. Chris wrapped his arms and legs around Eddie and Buck whispered brokenly, ‘I’m so sorry, Eds.’

‘Not your fault,’ Eddie said softly. ‘Nothing of this is your fault, Buck. You saved his life. Can you imagine how it would have ended if he’d convinced Carla or Pepa to take him to the pier today of all days?’

“Are you really, really sure Buck is safe?” Chris asked, his face pressed against Eddie’s neck.

“I am,” Eddie promised. “He feels every moment of this hug right now, okay? He is hugging you right back through me.”

Buck laughed breathlessly in his head. ‘Yeah, I really am.’

Chris nodded and pressed himself even more tightly against Eddie. “Can we go get him soon?”

Eddie blew out a breath. “I don’t know. We’ll all be waiting here until the water is gone. And then our first priority will be to get you out of here, Mijo. As soon as you are somewhere safe Buck and I will be able to concentrate on doing our job.”

“But Buck is all alone!” Chris protested.

Eddie chuckled. “He has Ravi with him, so not completely alone. If we stumble over Buck that would be great, but we both agree that getting you home to Abuela or Tía Pepa is more important than finding us in this chaos.”

Chris huffed and Eddie kissed his temple. He shifted to sit more comfortably and then Chris started to quietly tell him all about how his day had been before it had been overtaken by a natural disaster. Despite it all, there seemed to be good memories stuck in his mind and Eddie hoped he would be able to hold onto them even when he was finally out of this situation.

Hen climbed back onto the engine a little while later, checking in with everyone and distributing the little bit of water they had carried on the boat. Eddie knew Buck’s quest to search through the compartments of the engine hadn’t been very successful, but he had also not reached many of them. He hoped they would eventually be able to find some more bottled water and maybe even some granola bars.

“Hey,” Hen said softly when she finally reached them. “Hey Chris, it’s always great to see you. But this adventure is a little bit ridiculous, don’t you think?”

Chris shrugged and barely turned to her.

“Your Dad told me Buck already checked you over once you ended up here. But do you think it’s okay if I check you over again? It’s been a little while since Buck did it, right?”

Chris shook his head, but Eddie softly pushed him in Hen’s direction. “Let Hen take a look, Mijo!”

Chris pouted when he let go of Eddie, but he turned to Hen and answered all her questions. Thankfully nothing had changed for him in the hours he had been trapped on top of the engine and Hen came to the same conclusion Buck had come to in the beginning: By some miracle, Chris would come out of this experience with nothing else but bruises and nightmares.

“We’re getting an airlift for our patient over there,” Hen said quietly. “But they don’t have a paramedic to spare for the flight, so I’ll go with them. Bobby suggested I take Chris with me, too.”

“What?” Chris said agitated. “No! I’m not leaving Dad!”

“Mijo,” Eddie said softly. “We just talked about this. Buck’s and my first concern is getting you out of here. If you go with Hen, I’ll be able to search for Buck.”

‘Liar,’ Buck chuckled in his head. 

They both knew while they might try to find each other, the people who needed their help would have precedence. Eddie, Bobby, and Beth would have a whole group of survivors they’d need to lead to wherever the next field hospital would be set up. There wouldn’t be time for Eddie to come looking for him.

“They’re flying the patient to Cedar Sinai,” Hen said. “I can call Karen from there and have her pick you up, Chris. You can spend the rest of the afternoon with Denny and Karen. I’ll come back here and make sure your dad and Buck won’t do anything stupid. Deal?”

Chris leaned heavily against Eddie and shook his head. “I want to stay with Dad and find Buck.”

“Buck would kick my ass if I carried you around while looking for him,” Eddie said with raised brows. “You’ll go with Hen, Chris. I need you to be safe and far away from this mess, okay?”

“You promise to come home with Buck?” Chris asked reluctantly.

“I’ll come home with Buck,” Eddie promised.

‘Ha, I’ll come home with you, not the other way around!’

Eddie chuckled. “Buck promises to come home with me, too!”

Chris sighed deeply. “Okay. I guess flying will be fun, at least.”

Hen and Lynn both laughed, and Eddie kissed the top of Chris’ head. He couldn’t wait to get Chris out of here, even though he really didn’t want to let go of his son. It was only a very tiny consolation to know he would leave with Hen and that he didn’t have to give him to some stranger.

Chapter Text

Eddie stopped and stared at the space in front of them. The water was still reaching over his knees, and he suspected Buck’s rescues were still trapped on the engine. As soon as Hen, Chris, and their medical emergency had been evacuated, Eddie had started to feel restless and it had only grown the more the water had receded. Eventually, Bobby had ordered him to leave and go wherever he was directed to next. He had also sent Beth with Eddie as support while he had stayed back to eventually lead Buck’s rescues to the next gathering point.

“Eddie?” Beth asked.

Eddie pointed ahead. “That’s not good.”

They were at a large intersection of two streets. There was a lot of space between the buildings. Flooded cars stood all across the streets, most of them overthrown and wedged together, debris trapped between them or floating on the water, slowly moving in the direction of the ocean. The current was noticeable when they walked through the water, but it wasn’t strong enough anymore to rip any of the larger debris with it.

On the other side of the intersection from where they stood was a gas truck lying on its side and Eddie was sure it wasn’t water slowly flowing out of it where something had ripped a leak into the tank. For itself that might not have been worse than anything else soiling the leftover water. But not far away he also saw a broken power line hanging just over the water, sparks flying from the broken ends.

Beth made a face. “Yeah. Surprised there is still power on that line.”

“Let’s call it in,” Eddie said. “Hopefully they can cut it off before anyone gets near enough to get electrocuted. It is also probably not the only broken line in the area. We really don’t need a fire on top of everything else here, either.”

Beth grabbed her radio and called the problem with the powerline in. Eddie turned around, watching the buildings. He was slowly getting used to whatever was leading him through the flooded area of Santa Monica, and he knew neither the powerline nor the tank was the reason he had been led to this place, it was just the first thing he had noticed.

Eddie grabbed his radio. “Dispatch, this is Firefighter Diaz. Has there been any calls from the Ocean Plaza apartment complex?”

“Give me a moment, Firefighter Diaz,” Linda replied. She had been the one to answer all his calls for some time, and Eddie suspected he was her sole focus for the time being.

At one point after Eddie and Beth had left the engine of the 136 Eddie had given up all pretense with dispatch about what he was doing. Earlier, Bobby had been cautious about finding reasons to explain their various detours following Eddie’s hunch and Eddie had been grateful for the subterfuge. He really didn’t want half of the city speculating about him and Buck. But it had become increasingly difficult to find explanations, especially as he had relayed Buck’s position several times so dispatch could send reinforcement in his direction.

Buck and Ravi had left their tree long after Eddie and Beth had already been on their way, and Buck was following the same kind of hunch Eddie was very slowly becoming comfortable with. But Buck was out there without any equipment, and the lack of a radio was a real hindrance for him. So, Eddie had helped with the communication as much as he could, but that had also meant telling dispatch what was going on with him and Buck. Ever since, Linda had been the one answering Eddie’s calls to dispatch.

Eddie stared at the entrance of the building. The door had given in under the force of the tsunami, but he hoped that everyone in the building had been fast enough to leave the ground floor while the water had flooded the streets. Whatever instinct was at play to lead him here, he knew that the water wasn’t the problem they would be facing.

“There hasn’t been a single call from that building,” Linda said.

“Strange,” Eddie said.

Linda chuckled sadly. “Honestly? People in relatively secure buildings not calling is a huge relief right now. There are too many people clogging the lines who’re just too impatient to wait for help when they really don’t need medical help right now. You think there are people in the building who need help?”

Eddie sighed. “Yeah. I’m pretty sure we’ll need reinforcement here. And once more I can’t give any other reason than that I have a hunch.”

Linda hummed. “I’ll see what I can do for you. The more information you can relay, the better.” After a moment of silence, she added, “Wait a moment! I’ve just been told a mother called us whose daughter is living in that apartment complex. She lost contact with her daughter a while ago, but long after the tsunami.”

“Let’s go inside and check it out,” Beth suggested.

Eddie raised his hand to stop him and shook his head, but he said to Linda, “We are going in. I’ll check in every five minutes to report what we find and to let you know we’re okay.” He turned to Beth as he let go of his radio. “I think we might have a problem with that plan, but I don’t know why. But I also know we need to get in there.”

Beth frowned. “Okay, walk me through it.”

Eddie sighed. It wasn’t the first time that Eddie hadn’t been able to decipher what the feeling of alarm that overtook him could mean. “I know without a doubt that we need to get inside this building and help the people in there. But somehow I also know we can’t go in.”

Beth pursed her lips. “Ok. We should probably assume that whatever is a threat to those people inside that building would be a threat to us as well if we go inside. The question is, what’s going on inside?”

“Linda said someone had contact with a person living here after the tsunami, but lost that contact abruptly,” Eddie said, watching the destroyed door again with a frown. “So it’s something that didn’t happen right away with the tsunami but later on.”

“Or it took some time to spread,” Beth said thoughtfully. “Might be some kind of gas leak somewhere. Maybe a problem with the ventilation caused by the water.”

“So, mask up,” Eddie said. “I don’t have much air anymore. I didn’t get a new bottle after we rescued that guy in the car just before he could drown. I have maybe half an hour of air left.”

Beth nodded with a grim face. “Then we’ll make the best of that time and request that whatever support dispatch can send us will bring you two new bottles of air in case we need it again later.”

Eddie nodded slowly. They were quiet as they prepared to enter the building, and when they slowly explored the ground floor the only thing disturbing that silence was Eddie contacting Linda as he had promised. Beth’s suspicion was confirmed nearly right away when the monitors they wore alerted them to a high carbon monoxide concentration. There wasn’t any discussion between them about first finding the cause of that before looking for survivors on the upper floors of the building.

It didn’t take them long to find the generators, which should have probably kept up power in the building in an emergency. The salt water had led to some short circuits in them, though while they were still running, they mostly produced exhaust fumes which were flooding the building and no power at all. They reported their finding to Linda and cut the generators off before searching for the nearest staircase to look for any survivors.

‘Smash some windows,’ Buck said, in answer to Eddie silently wondering how they would get anyone out with the little equipment they had.

‘You’re supposed to concentrate on your own rescues instead of watching me!’ Eddie said.

‘Hardly my fault when you’re sharing your thoughts this loudly.’

‘I don’t have anything with me to smash the windows in this building. They should be reinforced to prevent accidents, right?’

‘There should be a fire ax on every floor,’ Buck reminded him. ‘You need to air out this building. Those generators had hours to fill it up with carbon monoxide. You need to create openings on each floor so the air will start circulating. And keep an eye on your own air supply.’

Eddie grinned. ‘I am, I promise. We both made promises to Chris, I’m not about to break them!’

Buck huffed. ‘I wish we could work together. This whole thing really sucks.’

‘Yeah.’ Eddie sighed. ‘I really resent whatever force is keeping us apart. Take care of yourself.’

‘I am,’ Buck said. ‘Have fun smashing those windows.’

Eddie shook his head, laughing quietly, and repeated Buck’s instructions to Beth. It didn’t take long to find one ax and they smashed two windows on opposite sides of the floor before going up to the next floor. With a second ax from the next floor, it was cleared much faster. Eddie was just about to remind Beth that he was running out of air and they needed to leave for the time being when they found a room full of unconscious people.

“Dispatch, we’ve found twenty people, all unconscious. We really could need some help. I’m running out of air and need to leave this building in the next couple of minutes.”

“Understood, Firefighter Diaz,” Linda said. “A group from FEMA should arrive in the next five to ten minutes at your location. They’ll have a change of equipment for you. Can you get those people out?”

“Not likely,” Eddie said. “But we are airing the building and Beth is staying on the floor to make sure no one wakes up and walks out those broken windows. I’m on my way down now. I’ll direct the new people. Any news about the powerline?”

“None,” Linda said. “But the FEMA people are bringing equipment and people with the right knowledge to wrap those broken ends up. They’ll also try to contain whatever’s leaking from the truck you reported.”

“Good.” Eddie exited the building just as his air tank indicated with a shrill tone that he had depleted his whole supply. He changed the channel of his radio. “Beth, I’m outside. If you find any trouble, you need to evacuate. I can’t come inside again to help you.”

“I’m fine, Eddie, don’t worry. The CO concentration is dropping by the second here. I’d not be surprised if our patients would wake up before help arrives. Would be good if they could walk by themselves.”

“They’ll be disoriented for some time to come,” Eddie said. “They aren’t walking far if they wake up. I’m not sure if we can get any kind of vehicle to this place any time soon.”

“Thankfully it won’t be our problem,” Beth said. “We’ll go on as soon as the FEMA group has taken this building off our hands. We’ll be on our way to wherever you’re led to next.”

Eddie sighed and rubbed his hands over his face. “Don’t remind me. I can’t wait for this day to be over.”

***

“On three,” Buck said and watched Ravi until he received a nod. He counted up and they lifted the heavy sign up. Buck staggered when his foot caught on something underwater, but they managed to push the sign away far enough to free the young woman and the girl who had been trapped beneath it.

“Thank you,” the woman groaned as Buck helped her up.

“My pleasure,” Buck said, keeping an eye on Ravi who kneeled beside the girl, talking to her quietly. “Does anything hurt?”

The woman shook her head. “Everything hurts! But nothing feels really wrong. I can stand on my own, that’s good, right?”

Buck chuckled. “That’s all we can hope for right now. Means you can walk yourself and your daughter out of here by yourself.”

“She isn’t mine,” the woman said and made a face. “I … Honestly, I didn’t even notice she was there until she started to cry at one point. I couldn’t see her, I just heard her.”

Buck sucked in air through his teeth and nodded. It wasn’t the first time he encountered people who had been separated from their loved ones, it wasn’t even the first child Ravi and he found who was alone, but that didn’t make the reality of the situation any easier.

“I’ll take her with me, though,” the woman said quietly. “If you tell me where to go. You’re clearly on a mission to help people where you can.”

“I am,” Buck agreed. “Okay, I would be very grateful for that. Let me check on the girl for a moment, yeah?”

The woman nodded and Buck sent her a smile before squatting down beside Ravi.

“Hey,” Buck said softly. “And who are you?”

The girl shrugged with one shoulder. She had sat up at least and wrapped her arms around her knees, but she didn’t look at either Ravi or Buck. She couldn’t be older than four or five years old, and Buck couldn’t imagine how horrifying the day had been for her.

“I’m Buck,” he said softly. “And this is my friend Ravi. I’m a firefighter.” Buck looked down at himself, not for the first time very aware of the fact that wearing a uniform would be very helpful. “I didn’t plan to work today, though. I just had the same bad fortune as all of us to be at the pier at the wrong time.”

The girl chewed her lip.

“Do you know what firefighters do?” Buck asked.

“Fighting fire,” the girl murmured.

Buck chuckled. “Yeah, sometimes.” He lowered his voice. “But let me tell you a secret! Most of the time we take care of everything else but fires. Like freeing people who’re trapped like you were earlier. Or we go out and help people who have a medical emergency. Most of the time my friends take care of that, who’re paramedics. But as a firefighter, I’ve got a pretty good idea about how to take care of small injuries.”

The girl chewed on her lip and frowned, still not looking at Buck.

Buck smiled brightly. “So, right now I’d really like to know if you’re hurt anywhere. There is probably not much we can do. But if you have some really bad injury I might be able to convince someone to send help our way to take care of you.”

The girl shrugged, again just with one shoulder.

“Any pain anywhere?” Buck asked softly.

“That thing was really heavy,” the girl whispered.

Buck chuckled again. “Oh, yeah. Ravi and I noticed when we lifted it up earlier.”

“Doesn’t hurt so much now that it’s gone,” the girl said.

Buck sighed. “Okay. Can you tell me where it hurts?”

She pointed at her right foot and then at her left shoulder.

Buck smiled. “Okay. Mind if I take a look? I’ll just roll up your pants a little bit, okay?”

The girl didn’t react.

“Or you can roll it up yourself,” Buck suggested.

The girl nodded slowly and Buck noticed how she only used her right arm and winced a little bit every time she still had to move her left arm. But she was already so shy about allowing him to look at her ankle, he didn’t know how to convince her to let him look at her shoulder. There wasn’t much he would be able to do anyway, he didn’t even have the materials to build her a sling.

Buck made a face as he saw the ankle once the girl had pulled up the leg of her pants. “You are definitely not walking anywhere on your own, huh?”

The girl shrugged once more.

“Buckley!”

The girl flinched violently and Buck turned with a disgruntled frown. There was a man in an LAFD uniform stalking through the water, waving in his direction. Buck bit his tongue and swallowed down his initial anger. The other firefighter could hardly know what kind of delicate conversation he’d just been involved in.

“Try to get her name,” Buck whispered to Ravi as he stood and turned to the firefighter approaching them as fast as the water allowed him. “I’m Buck.”

The man laughed. “Good to finally meet you! You’ve made me work really hard to catch up to you!” He held out an LAFD shirt and a radio for Buck. “I’m Jeshan Mehta, captain of the 133. And your partner for the rest of the day. Will be a lot easier for you to communicate with dispatch through your own radio instead of using your soulmate to relay all your information.”

“Partner?” Buck asked skeptically and heard Eddie huff in his head. 

He took the shirt first with a relieved grin. He didn’t hesitate to pull his once-white undershirt over his head to replace it with the LAFD shirt — the red shirt he had worn on top of it had been lost hours ago to help secure a splint on a woman’s leg. 

Putting on the dry and clean LAFD shirt was a relief he hadn’t expected. It wasn’t a full uniform, but somehow it still made him feel more like being on the job than being a victim of a natural disaster. Buck flexed his toes while he slung the belt with radio over his shoulder and wished for a moment Mehta had also brought a pair of boots. They wouldn’t protect him from the water that was still reaching a little over his ankles, but they would’ve given him more security than the ruined sneakers he wore at the moment.

Buck closed his eyes and sighed. He’d dealt with what he had so far, and he would be able to deal with that going forward. He cleared his throat and turned to Mehta with an easy smile. “This will be a huge help all on its own. You’ve no idea how many people have called me a lier today at first for telling them I’m a firefighter.”

“I think I have a pretty good idea. I’ve been trying to track you down for over an hour, following the trail of people you helped. I’ve heard quite a few stories about you.”

Buck made a face. “Great, just what I want. All I’m doing is my job, Captain.”

Mehta watched him with raised brows. “Technically you’re on leave to finish your classes you started while on sick leave. But even if it were just a regular off day for you, you’ve been doing a lot more than your job today. And you’ve been doing it mostly by yourself.”

“Hey!” Ravi protested. “Am I air, or what?”

Mehta laughed. “I’ve heard about you, too, son. There is a lot of chatter about both of you all over this mess. I know you’ve been a great help, but you still don’t have any training.”

Buck turned to Ravi and found him holding the girl in his arms. Her right arm was wrapped around his neck and she watched Buck intently.

Buck grinned and winked at her. “I guess you found your ride, huh?”

Ravi frowned. “I can’t…”

“You’ve been a really great help,” Buck said to Ravi. “I’m not sure if I’d made it this far without you. But you’re exhausted and you aren’t trained for something like this.” He smiled and rolled his eyes. “I’m exhausted, too, and I am trained for this. But I know there won’t be a break for me for some time to come. Honestly, take the break that’s offered to you.”

Ravi bit his lip and watched Buck warily.

“You know where I work. Show up on any day when A shift is working and we can catch up,” Buck said, smiling. “I’ll be happy to know you’re out of here and can get some rest.” He nodded at the girl. “And you clearly have found a little task to take care of until you’ve reached a safe place.”

“Do either of you know where the old VA hospital is?” Mehta asked. “They’re opening it up again for the next couple of days. We’re supposed to route every survivor we find there.”

“I know where it is,” Ravi said. He looked around them. “I think I even know how to get there from here.”

Mehta nodded. “Then that’s where you should be heading to.”

Saying goodbye to Ravi and letting him move on by himself was more difficult than Buck had expected. The situation they had found themselves in had created its own kind of bond and Buck could only hope Ravi would truly show up at the 118 sometime soon. He wanted to know Ravi had gotten out of this situation, and because they had both lost their phones, they hadn’t been able to exchange many contact information.

“Want to take a bet on how long it will take your friend to apply to the academy?” Mehta asked as they started to move on, Buck leading the way.

Buck laughed. “As soon as he gets access to any kind of device to fill out the online form. I’m not robbing you of your money with that bet. I’ll send the academy a letter of recommendation. Not sure how helpful that will be, though.”

Mehta huffed. “It will be very helpful. It will probably secure him a place no matter his current qualifications.”

“I’ve barely been on the job for three years myself,” Buck said with a frown. “And spent the last seven months on sick leave.”

Mehta sent him a look. “You’ve also used that time to further your education. That didn’t go unnoticed by people who matter.”

“People like you?” Buck asked. “You know an awful lot about me.”

Mehta hummed. “A lot of the captain’s noticed your dedication while you recovered. But we aren’t the only ones. You made sure people don’t remember your name because of the bombing — and don’t think you wouldn’t have been remembered for that.”

Buck frowned. “It wasn’t even my idea. Eddie suggested the classes to keep my mind occupied.”

“And he took many of those classes with you while still working full-time,” Mehta said. “Don’t think that went unnoticed either. Though, people will wonder a lot less about that part now.”

Buck made a face. “How big is the chance to keep the circumstances of our bonding a secret?”

Mehta looked at Buck and then started to laugh loudly. “None at all, son. As far as I know, every single person on that truck of yours knew about it and some of them aren’t shy to tell that tale. They’ll find a reporter to listen to them in no time. People will be desperate for that kind of hero’s tale among everything that was destroyed and lost today.”

“It’s not a hero’s tale,” Buck muttered disgruntled.

“Every person you saved today will disagree with you,” Mehta said softly. “Diaz also had to disclose your knacks to dispatch when you started using him as your radio.”

Buck huffed. When it had happened for the first time, he had needed a medical evac for a patient fast. The man would probably lose his leg regardless, but Buck knew he wouldn’t have survived if he had needed to wait for help any longer. Somehow, form that first time of forwarding Buck’s position to dispatch, it had just become a habit.

‘We’ll deal with it,’ Eddie assured in his head. ‘With the way I reacted when the wave came, we couldn’t have kept it secret anyway.’

Buck sighed. ‘Did you hear what Mehta said about the press?’

‘We will deal with it,’ Eddie repeated. ‘We can’t change it. And I wouldn’t do anything today differently than we did.’

‘Except for me and Chris not going anywhere near the coast.’

Eddie’s breath hitched. ‘Yeah, granted. And of course, also except for you working with someone else at your back than me.’

‘Same for you,’ Buck said. ‘We should be working together. I just have no idea who to complaint to about that.’

‘Fate, according to Ravi,’ Eddie said. ‘And I’m not sure that is someone we want to start any kind of fight with.’

Buck laughed, startled, ‘Probably not. Still, it sucks that we aren’t working together. Even knowing you already worked without me for more than half a year. It feels different today.’ He sighed. ‘And not just because of the work itself. I…’ He trailed off, not sure how to voice his thoughts.

‘Yeah,’ Eddie agreed, and somehow Buck felt he knew exactly what Buck hadn’t been able to say. ‘But we’ll figure it out. We just have to get through this day first. I’m glad you at least have someone with the right education supporting you now.’

‘Don’t diss Ravi,’ Buck muttered.

Eddie laughed. ‘I’ll let Bobby know that you have already chosen our next probie. Take care, Buck. I’ll need to concentrate on something else now.’

‘You as well,’ Buck murmured. 

He stopped and took a deep breath, staring at some debris ahead of them. With the water nearly gone the whole extent of the destruction the tsunami had caused was so very visible now. It was horrifying and difficult to ignore.

For a moment Buck wondered if maybe he did want to start a fight with Fate about the whole prolonged separation from Eddie. Somehow, he just knew that it would be easier to bear this with Eddie at his side, and it started to feel like a punishment that they were kept separate.

“You back with me?” Mehta asked with raised brows.

Buck shook his head to clear his thoughts. “Sorry.”

“Nothing to be sorry for,” Mehta said. “If I were in your situation, I’m not sure how I could let go of that kind of connection. I’m a little envious, really. On the other had, I’m glad every day my soulmate has a much less risky job than we do. I’m not sure I could handle sharing this work with her.”

“I hate that I don’t know where he is and that we can’t work together,” Buck muttered darkly. “Was bad enough while I wasn’t allowed to work and had to trust others with his safety. It feels like someone is mocking me right now by keeping us separated.”

Mehta hummed. “You and your soulmate have been our biggest assets in this disaster so far. Your shared knack has saved dozens of people we might have never found in time because they didn’t have any ability to call for help. Working separately has probably doubled that count.”

Buck threw him a dark look. “Who do I need to call to get a replacement for my temporary partner?”

Mehta laughed. “You’re stuck with me. I promise to do enough not to be too big a disappointment.”

Buck huffed and turned to follow the next hunch wherever it would lead him. Eventually, he said, “I’m glad to have you as back-up, even if you aren’t who I wished for.”

Chapter Text

Buck dragged his feet through the mud. It had been dark for a long time and Buck felt the exhaustion of the day in every bone and every muscle. At least for the last hour or so his hunches had started to lead him more and more in the direction of the old VA hospital FEMA and the LAFD had opened again as a central place to deal with the survivors.

“Buck?”

Buck flinched when Mehta grabbed his shoulder and only noticed then that he had stopped walking.

Buck rubbed his hands over his face. “Sorry.”

Mehta hummed. “I think it’s way past time for you to quit. I think your knack feels the same.”

“I hope so,” Buck murmured with a frown. “It’s not…” He paused because he hadn’t even noticed the change until this moment. “It’s not pushing anymore. I just didn’t…”

“I noticed,” Mehta said. “At least I noticed you weren’t leading us anywhere anymore. So I did. It’s just a couple of minutes left to the hospital. And from the last report, Eddie is still there working.”

Buck nodded, finding a little bit of energy with the promise to be as near to Eddie as he hadn’t been for the whole day. “Let’s go.”

When they continued on their way and Mehta suddenly stayed right beside him, Buck threw him a dark look but didn’t protest. He probably wouldn’t trust himself either to manage to stay on his feet if he were in Mehta’s position. He couldn’t remember when he had ever been as exhausted as he felt right now. He’d worked long and jarring shifts before, most prominent in his mind the earthquake roughly a year ago. But none of them had been like this day.

Buck sighed in relief when Mehta’s prediction turned out to be true. The immediate change when they arrived overwhelmed Buck for a moment and he stopped to take a deep breath.

The streets of Santa Monica were dark, the power lines destroyed by the tsunami and the power cut to prevent any more injuries. Stepping out of the destroyed part of the city and into a street that had clearly not been touched by the water felt like stepping into a foreign country. Then they arrived at the hospital, stepping out of the dark and into bright light, but also stepping out of the relative silence that had fallen over the destroyed streets with the darkness and into the buzz of a busy refugee camp.

Buck stopped again and just stared at the busy chaos in front of him. It was overwhelming to see so many people out and about. Intellectually he knew, of course, how many people had to have been caught up in the tsunami, how many people they had lost on this day.

Seeing how many people had survived these terrible ods was heartbreaking in its own way.

“Buck!”

Buck blinked. He didn’t know if the voice had just been in his head or if he had really heard Eddie’s voice for the first time in so many hours. He hadn’t noticed Eddie before despite seeing him in a group of exhausted and disheveled people where he had been directing them to different places. Now he suddenly couldn’t look at anyone else. Eddie had dark rings under his eyes and the whole way he held his body told Buck that he wasn’t any less exhausted than Buck felt.

Everything around them seemed to vanish. Buck didn’t want anything more than to wrap his arms around Eddie and never let go, but he couldn’t make his legs move anymore. Eddie only hesitated for a moment before he rushed to Buck. First, he pulled Buck into a bone-crushing hug, then he cradled Buck’s face with both hands and kissed him.

Buck closed his eyes and grabbed the front of Eddie’s shirt tightly, his hands shaking. It wasn’t at all what he had imagined for their first kiss, not even in the few moments he had allowed himself to think about it on this day. It was a desperate and messy kiss, and it was completely about reassuring each other that they were alive and healthy.

But even though, the hook he had felt in his chest ever since he had pulled Chris and himself on top of the engine so long ago pulsed with warmth and love and joy and a sense of security that Buck still wasn’t quite able to trust.

‘I’m sorry,’ Buck whispered in his mind. He felt tears running down his face.

Eddie pulled back and inhaled deeply. “I already told you, there is nothing you need to be sorry for. Chris is safe and by some miracle uninjured. You kept both Chris and yourself alive.”

Buck didn’t dare to open his eyes. He felt Eddie rub the tears away with his thumbs. “I…”

“Look at me, Evan”, Eddie whispered.

Buck sucked in air through his teeth but followed the instruction. Eddie looked at him with a soft and warm smile and Buck felt a pull at the hook in his chest.

“I’m so very grateful for everything you did earlier today,” Eddie said softly. “The only reason that Chris is alive is your dedication to him. I hate that you and Chris were here today, but that’s no one’s fault. Least of all yours.”

Buck swallowed and lowered his gaze.

Eddie looked at him with a fond smile. “I’m just glad you’re both okay.” He leaned their foreheads together and sighed. “I just wished we hadn’t been separated for the whole damn day!”

“Yeah,” Buck agreed softly. “I … this all feels so surreal, still.”

Eddie bit his lip. ‘I remember pretty well how insistent you were not that long ago that you weren’t looking for a relationship.’

Buck lowered his gaze, grateful that their shared knack gave them some privacy. ‘That was … You were in the middle of your divorce! And everyone tried to pressure me into dating again after Abby.’

Eddie huffed. ‘I remember.’

‘They shut up after I told them all off and declared I wasn’t looking for any kind of relationship, didn’t they?’

‘We all thought Abby had shattered your heart.’

Buck made a face. ‘It’s … It was painful the way the ghosted me. But it was more about being abandoned than getting my heart broken. I wasn’t madly in love with her when she left, but I did think at the time it was a possibility for us to head there. One she utterly destroyed.’

‘I’m glad,’ Eddie whispered.

Buck wet his lip. He leaned back a little and cupped Eddie’s neck with one hand, the other hand still holding onto Eddie’s shirt. “I’m very madly in love with you, though!”

Eddie laughed. “Yeah, same.”

This time it was Buck who pulled Eddie into the kiss and it was much more what he had expected their first kiss to be, soft and gentle and full of sweet longing. Eddie chuckled in his head and Buck slapped his hand against his chest without breaking the kiss.

It wasn’t until someone near them cleared their throat that they broke the kiss.

“I hate to interrupt,” Bobby said. “But I need you to get checked out by a doctor, Buck. And then you two and Hen are off duty.”

Buck stepped away from Eddie very reluctantly, but any protest died when Bobby pulled him into a hug right away. “I’m alright, Cap!”

Bobby huffed. “Let’s get that confirmed by a professional, yeah? I’ve been worrying the whole day about you.”

Buck grinned sheepishly and shrugged, patting Hen on the back when she was the next to hug him. All the while Eddie was holding onto his hand and it was him who tugged Buck along, leading him inside the building and to a field bed secluded by a curtain.

“Where is Chimney?” Buck asked with a frown.

“Coordinating the paramedics at the other gathering point of Santa Monica,” Bobby said. “The first command center right after the wave hit was built over there. I left him there to coordinate the triage of everyone that would be brought there and to oversee who would be sent into the flooded area and who would stay there to help with patients. He’ll be relieved of duty in a little while, too. A FEMA team is en route to take over there. Their first effort was directed here, though.”

‘He also was an asshole about our soul bond,’ Eddie muttered darkly. ‘Tried to tell the IC I was hallucinating about it. I’m pretty sure that’s half the reason Bobby grounded him there.’

“Chim didn’t take the swift water rescue cert we all got a while ago,” Buck said thoughtfully.

Bobby nodded. “Which is the reason I ordered him to stay there. I’ve been told by the IC — unpromoted, mind you — it was a good decision twice throughout the day, so I hope Chimney will come away from that recognizing that I know the strength of my people and where to put them in a situation like this.”

Buck nodded and decided to stay far away from the conflict Bobby clearly expected coming his way about it. Their conversation was interrupted by a doctor arriving. She glared at Bobby and Hen for a moment, who didn’t move away even half a step, before she shook her head with a sigh and started interrogating Buck.

***

“I’m so fucking exhausted,” Buck murmured when Eddie pushed him into the shower. 

Eddie hummed and carefully helped Buck out of the dirty and still-wet clothes. He didn’t know how their ladder truck had ended up at the VA hospital, but he hadn’t asked about it when Bobby had herded them to the vehicle as soon as Buck had gotten the all-clear from the doctor. Bobby had driven them back to the fire station and Buck had fallen asleep leaning against Eddie’s chest nearly as soon as they had sat down.

“Chris is with Karen, right?” Buck asked.

“Yes.” Eddie chuckled. “As is Abuela. Sit down so I can get those shoes off without you falling.”

Buck frowned and stared at the sneakers for a moment before he sat down with a heavy huff. “I just bought those a week ago.”

Eddie made a face. “That’s bad luck. There is no saving these shoes.”

“Why is Abuela with Karen?” Buck asked.

Eddie looked at him with raised brows for a moment, then he kneeled to help Buck out of his shoes and pants. Eddie had insisted that they would both shower here and change into the spare clothes they both kept in their lockers at work for emergencies. This way they wouldn’t need to worry about anything when they came home.

“What did you think she’d do as soon as she heard you and Chris had been in the middle of this mess?”

Buck blinked tiredly down at him.

Eddie smiled sadly, and very quickly got rid of his own clothes. “Come on, let’s get you in the shower and out before you fall asleep again.”

“This sucks,” Buck muttered when Eddie carefully pushed him under one of the shower heads. There were some stalls with showers, but there was also a free area with six shower heads exactly for situations like this. Eddie had lost all body shame in the army, and it wasn’t the first time he helped someone else take a shower who was barely able to stay upright because of their exhaustion.

Eddie grinned. “What exactly?”

He knew the answer, of course, but as long as Buck kept talking, he wouldn’t fall asleep on Eddie. Eddie hated that Buck was so exhausted, that he hadn’t stopped working long before he had reached this point. It hadn’t been their choice, though, and Eddie could only hope whatever had driven them today would never come back.

Buck glared at him, but there was barely any heat in it. “You know exactly why this sucks. I can’t even appreciate any of this other than that you’re here with me.”

Eddie turned on the water and Buck shivered despite the water being quite warm. “We’ll eventually get a chance to make up for it,” he promised, laughing quietly. “In your shower. Mine doesn’t have enough space for two people at once.”

Buck closed his eyes and leaned against the wall. Eddie watched him with a frown for a moment before he grabbed the shampoo and started to wash Buck’s hair first.

“Chris asked why we didn’t tell him we were dating,” Buck whispered. “I didn’t answer because … I didn’t want everyone on the truck to know how much more strange our soul bond is than they already do.”

“I don’t think it’s strange.”

Buck huffed. “Could you stop deliberately misunderstanding me?”

Eddie sighed and cupped Buck’s cheek with one hand. “Hey, look at me for a moment.”

Buck opened his eyes slowly.

“We might have both worked under the assumption that neither of us wanted a relationship or was ready for it, but that doesn’t negate what we have built over the past six months or so.” Eddie watched Buck until he got a very tiny nod in reply. “I’ve no idea when I’ve fallen in love with you. One day it just was a fact, and I was prepared to wait for you for however long that would be.”

Buck smiled weakly. “Yeah, okay.”

“We’ll figure out the rest with time. But not today.”

Buck nodded slowly. “When’s your next shift?”

Eddie shrugged and returned to his task of washing Buck. “I’m sure Bobby will text me as soon as he knows.” 

As with every big-scale disaster, there would be a lot of overtime for all first responders in the following days and weeks. Eddie had gone through it once before with the earthquake, and he suspected it might last even longer this time. On the other hand, there might be some family leave available for Eddie, seeing as both his son and his soulmate had been caught up in the disaster. 

Bobby had hinted at something like that when Eddie had first arrived at the VA hospital and the hunch leading him and Buck through the disaster had urged him to stay there and help. Eddie wouldn’t protest if he truly got a couple of days to just take care of his family. Buck was exhausted now, but Eddie knew the real pain of the work he had done today would only show the next day. He would prefer to be there for Buck while he recovered instead of having to do extra shifts in between his normal shift schedule.

“Abuela will insist on staying over with us,” Eddie said, just to keep the conversation going.

“Hen said Karen will feed us,” Buck murmured.

Eddie laughed. “I remember. I can’t wait for something to eat! Preferably something warm.”

“I’m so famished. Pancake breakfast is not the right thing to prepare for something like this.”

“Yeah, I figured. All the better to know that dinner is already waiting for us.”

***

“Buck! Dad!” Chris shouted before they had even reached the door of the Wilson’s house. He hurried down the few steps as fast as he could and rushed over to them.

Eddie was startled for a moment to see Chris with crutches until Isabel stepped out of the house as well. He smiled at her and mouthed a ‘Thank you’. She had to have gone by his house to get the spare pair of Chris’ crutches because the other pair had been lost to the tsunami. His Abuela nodded at him with a warm smile.

“Are you alright, Buck?” Chris asked, wrapping his arms tightly around Buck’s waist.

“I am,” Buck said. “Super tired and horribly hungry. But I’m not hurt.”

Chris nodded and then looked up at Eddie without letting go of Buck. “You were gone really long!”

“There are a lot of people out there who need help,” Eddie reminded. “We worked for as long as we could.”

Chris sighed deeply. “Yeah. Dad said you saved Ravi, Buck!”

“I did. And he helped me help others for a very long time later when the water was gone,” Buck said. “He promised to come by the fire station soon so we can exchange our contact information then. I’m confident he won’t break that promise.”

“That’s good,” Chris murmured. Then he laughed when Buck’s stomach growled loudly. “Abuela and Miss Karen cooked for us! We already ate even if Miss Karen allowed Denny and me to ignore our bedtime today. We didn’t want to go to sleep before you got home!”

Eddie chuckled and ruffled Chris’ hair. “Understandable.”

It was nearly midnight, but he wasn’t surprised that the boys weren’t asleep yet. Karen had texted him that Chris had taken a long nap in the afternoon, and that had clearly been enough to overcome his own exhaustion of the day so that his worry had kept him awake.

“The food is on the table. And Miss Hen has been here for an age already!” Chris complained. “But she wanted to wait for you before she ate.”

Isabel laughed. “Hen’s been here for ten minutes.”

“Clearly an age,” Buck laughed.

Chris looked up at him expectantly and for a moment Eddie feared he’d ask for Buck to carry him. But then Chris huffed and turned around to walk back into the house, which left Eddie hovering behind Buck to make sure he wouldn’t fall as he had nearly done on the way to the car after their shower.

Isabel watched them intently, but she didn’t ask any of the questions Eddie knew she had. He suspected he’d have to answer at least some of them once Chris and Buck were asleep before he would be allowed to get any rest himself.

The stew waiting for them was great, warm and rich but taking no effort to eat. Buck worked his way through two bowls before Eddie had emptied his own even once, his head hovering right over the edge of his bowl. Denny and Chris laughed about it for a while, but then they turned to Hen and Eddie with a list of questions that felt very much prepared.

Eddie didn’t know how it happened, but half an hour later he found himself sitting on the couch beside Buck with Denny and Chris both tucked into bed in Denny’s room. He didn’t remember agreeing to it, but suddenly it was just agreed upon that he and Buck would stay in one of the spare bedrooms and Isabel in the other.

“There is no need for you to drive anywhere with how exhausted you all are,” Karen had said primly while Isabel and Hen had supervised the boys getting ready for bed.

Eddie hadn’t felt like arguing, so had eventually nodded along. The 118 had been welcoming and warm from the very first day he had worked there, and he had known for a while that they were taking care of each other. But it still felt overwhelming to be on the receiving side of that.

“I hear congratulations are in order,” Isabel said softly when the adults had all gathered in the living room. “Chris couldn’t stop mentioning your bond.”

“Feels a little like a dream, still,” Buck said. “Is this some kind of intervention? Can this wait until tomorrow? I really need some sleep!”

“The bed’s all ready for you,” Karen said. “And Isabel brought over some sweatpants from Eddie’s house. But you were really busy the whole day and I think you need to know what’s going on in the news as soon as possible.”

Eddie groaned. “Please, no.”

“People you rescued haven’t been quiet about your help,” Karen said. “And the news stations are scrambling for anything good they can report in all this wreckage.”

“And that’s us?” Buck asked with a frown.

“Yeah. There also was someone around with a working phone camera when you two finally reunited,” Isabel said in a tone that made Edde frown in confusion.

Hen gasped and clapped a hand over her mouth, staring at Buck and Eddie wide-eyed.

Eddie looked at her confused before turning to his grandmother. “So what, they have a video of us kissing?” 

He hated the thought of their first kiss being some commodity in the news, but there really hadn’t been anything spectacular about it. At least nothing that could have been caught on film. Their bond practically blooming for a second time between them was just between Buck and him.

Karen sighed and grabbed the remote. “I recorded it the last time the news showed it.”

Eddie rolled his eyes but turned to watch the TV. There clearly was something about this that had all three women concerned even if he couldn’t imagine what that could be. 

The video was grainy and shaky, but he could make out Buck very clearly as he stopped abruptly at the edge of the lightened-up zone around the hospital. Captain Mehta was right beside him, and his hand came up immediately as he had clearly thought Buck was stumbling.

When this moment had happened, it had felt much longer for Eddie between seeing Buck standing forlornly just outside the busy chaos of the survivors and reaching him. On the video, it was barely fifteen seconds before Eddie reached Buck with wide strides.

Eddie remembered the hug and the kiss and he didn’t think he ever forget that moment. It had felt like finally finding water after days of going thirsty. He didn’t remember the glow that suddenly enveloped him and Buck on the screen, nor the collective gasp from everyone around them.

“What the…” Buck stared at the screen with his mouth hanging open, his hand shaking in Eddie’s.

“You didn’t notice that happened?” Hen asked quietly.

Eddie shook his head. “I … For a little while it was just Buck and me there. I’m pretty sure if anyone talked to us, I wouldn’t have heard it.”

“What is this?” Buck asked.

“It happens sometimes when soulmates are separated during dire circumstances,” Isabel said. “I saw it once with my parents and my mother told me it was some kind of renewal of the bond.”

“It’s by far not as uncommon as bonding with miles between the soulmates,” Karen said. “There isn’t much footage of those situations, though. Adding this to the stories that are already told about you, you’re probably heading into a very difficult time.”

Eddie rubbed his fingers over his eyes. “Difficult how?”

“Lots of media attention,” Karen said. “You’ll need to get in contact with the LAFD’s HR and probably their PR team as soon as possible, I think. They’ll help you manage it.”

“The forming of a soul bond is a very private situation,” Isabel said softly. “I’m sure the respect most people have for that will give you some protection concerning the exact time of your bond forming. But everything from the moment Buck started to pull people onto the fire truck will be very much sought out by the press. It already is.”

Eddie flexed his jaw. “I … appreciate the warning, but I can’t deal with this right now. Buck and I need to sleep. We need some time alone. We’ll face this in the morning!”

Karen nodded. “Of course. I just … this is the reason we were so insistent of you staying here tonight, you know?”

Buck cleared his throat. “Thank you. Really. But Eddie is right. I … I don’t even know what to think right now.”

Eddie didn’t wait for anyone to say anything. He stood and pulled Buck with him. Ever since they had finally found each other he had barely let go of Buck’s hand, most of the time reaching for it without even noticing. It might be a habit hard to let go of again because he felt he needed to make sure Buck was at his side even with the bond humming strongly between them.

It was another problem to deal with later.

Eddie pulled Buck all the way to the guest room Karen had pointed out for them earlier and closed the door behind them firmly. Buck crowded him against the door as soon as it was closed, pressing his face against Eddie’s throat.

‘Fuck,’ Buck whispered in Eddie’s head.

“We’ll deal with it,” Eddie murmured, hugging Buck tightly. “No matter what any of this will look like, we’ll deal with it together. Don’t worry about it right now, okay?”

‘Too tired to worry much,’ Buck said and it felt a little strange to only hear his voice in his head. ‘I hate that someone recorded that moment. It should have been — just for us.’

Eddie sighed deeply. “It’s still just for us. Everyone else got some strange light show, but the kiss, the bond, the love, that’s just for us. And no matter what’s coming our way no one will be able to take it from us.”

They’d found a way to get through everything that had happened on this day. Whatever the press or the public might throw at them, Eddie was convinced nothing of it would even compare to the force of the tsunami in which their soul bond had been forged.