Chapter Text
All Buck ever wanted to do was be a hero. His dad was a firefighter, so when Buck was younger, he’d run around the backyard, spraying water at invisible fires and rescuing his stuffed animals from disasters. He was a happy, well adjusted kid despite the death of his mother during birth. He loved his dad, and they were quite the pair. His dad wanted to fall in love again, so he did, with the first badge bunny who came along. His father had rescued her and her two kids from a fire just six months before they were married. It wasn't long after their wedding, unfortunately, that Buck’s father died during a rescue when a building collapsed on him.
His stepmother quickly put an end to Buck’s antics following his father’s untimely death. Instead of putting out imaginary fires, Buck was responsible for cooking, cleaning, shopping, and anything that his new stepmother demanded. His new step-siblings did not take well to him because his attractive personality was made better by his even more attractive face. The harsh red birthmark above his left eye couldn’t distract the world from his beauty.
The years after ticked by slowly, and after a childhood of being called useless and unwanted, Buck decided that college wasn’t for him. He would stay in the home his dad bought so many years ago, taking care of his less than desirable step-mother and her soon-to-be adult children.
It’s a hot Wednesday when the world around him begins to change; a house down the street catches fire when he is walking home from the store. A few of the neighbors are gathered on the street, shouting through their phones at 9-1-1 operators. There's a flash of movement and then a child’s face appears in the upstairs window. Buck throws the groceries he is carrying on the ground and springs into action, racing up to the front door. He hears one of the women on the street screaming into her phone that he is running into the burning house.
Adrenaline pulses through Buck’s blood, red and hot erasing every thought he’d had up until this point. He knows two absolute truths right then. (1) the child upstairs needs to be rescued and (2) he is going to be the one who saves her. With his elbow covering his mouth and nose, Buck runs up the stairs two at a time.
“I’m here to help!” He shouts, piercing the thunderous roar of the fire. “Where are you?”
He stills then and waits hopefully for the sound of something besides the house being swallowed by fire. A fist wraps itself around his heart right then and tears the breath from inside him as nothing happens. Then, a scream comes from the room at the end of the hallway. The fist around his heart releases its death grip, and Buck leaps down the hall. When he reaches the room, he doesn’t stop to breath, just swipes the little girl into his arms and flees the burning house.
Cheers echo around Buck when he makes it outside. He stands proud for exactly fourteen seconds before he notices the time. His stepmother is about to wake up from her afternoon siesta and will inevitably be pissed off if she doesn’t have a margarita ready to drink when she does. Buck gathers his previously dropped groceries and races home as a fire truck arrives.
Buck makes it home and has enough time to carefully shove the mess of groceries into their places and start gathering the ingredients for a margarita before a harsh knock on the door echoes through the front of the house. He nearly jumps out of his skin to make sure that the knocking stops before his stepmother wakes from her siesta by the pool. Buck opens the door, and he is shocked to see a firefighter standing in front of him.
“Sir,” the firefighter starts. “Did you run into that fire down the street?”
Buck thinks that a dumb question. He knows that soot from the fire has turned his normally pale face into a mess of black lines and sweat. But, he nods his head, confirming for the firefighter whose name plate reads CAPTAIN NASH in all capital letters right below his right shoulder. Buck still has his own father’s name plate stuffed in a box under his bed.
“That is seriously irresponsible of you kid,” Captain Nash chides.
“Look, Captain Nash, I saw the kid and then some sort of switch inside me flipped. I ran before I knew what I was doing.”
Captain Nash breathes out, “I know the feeling kid, but when you act on it without the right equipment you could get yourself injured or killed. That’s more work for us than if you don’t try to be the hero.”
“Hey Cap! There’s another fire! And we’ve got to go!” A handsome firefighter who is all tan skin, chestnut hair, and five o’clock shadow yells.
“Next time you want to be a hero, call me. I’ll get you to join the academy,” Captain Nash suggests. “We’re always in need of more firefighters.”
Buck closes the door after Captain Nash joins the rest of the truck to go to the next fire. His nervous heartbeat slows down when he looks out at his stepmother’s lounge chair and sees that she is still snoozing away peacefully. He sets out to make her margarita. However, the calm doesn’t last long, because Buck’s step-siblings join him in the kitchen shrieking about a party that they are hosting the following week.
It takes them a few minutes before they notice that Buck is covered in soot and sweat. Then, “You look disgusting!” and “You smell horrible!” reverberate through the large kitchen.
~~~
For the first time since his father died, Buck considers becoming a firefighter again. He lets himself dream of a future where he runs into burning buildings and gets to be the hero. But, joining the academy means getting booted out of the house by his stepmother, and as unkind as she is towards him, she does let him live rent free in the house. Buck knows he cannot afford to live anywhere without a job, but he doesn’t have any work experience so finding a job will prove to be difficult. The list of problems only grows the more he thinks about it. So, he wakes himself up from the dream and lets his monotonous life move on.
The next Saturday, after his stepmother makes him light all the torches for her party. Buck takes advantage of one of the few moments that he has to himself, he digs his father’s name plate out of the box under his bed. The weight feels familiar in his hand, flashing him back to his father’s funeral and passing it between his two sweaty hands as they lowered his coffin into the ground. Buck closes his eyes and lets his fingers feel the cold metal. The letters on the nameplate remind him of the hollowness he still feels. He searches for the chip on the side from when the nameplate fell out of his little, sweaty hands into the rock garden.
Tears start meandering down his face when he smells the unmistakable smell of smoke. Buck opens his eyes then and rushes to the window, remembering all the torches burning in the backyard. A torch near the house had fallen and engulfed the surrounding grassy area in a quickly spreading fire.
His father’s name plate slips out of his hands again and falls to the ground. Buck doesn’t stop to pick it up because there are several people in the backyard right now who need to be evacuated before the fire can get much worse. He runs down the stairs faster than he ever has before. When he reaches the kitchen, he throws the sliding door open and starts shouting demands.
The fire grabs hold of the house and burns even faster than it did before. He’s gotten people out of the backyard and out to the cul-de-sac in front, when his stepmother starts shouting about the twins. He remembers Captain Nash’s words, but can’t find it in himself to care about himself right now because even though his step-siblings are annoying and their shrill voices make him want to crash his head into the wall more times than not, they are still people and are no less valuable than he is. He runs into the house searching for them, but they aren’t on the first floor.
The fire swelters around him and the smoke holds a gun to his head demanding all his breath, but goes up the stairs. It’s at the top of the stairs that Buck finally hears their screams.
“Don’t forget the Givenchy’s!”
“Not my Louboutin’s!”
Buck interrupts their screaming fest, “You guys need to get out now!”
“But our shoes!”
“Now!” Buck shouts and starts pushing them out of the room.
When they reach the front door, Buck sees Captain Nash shaking his head as the members of his station prepare to put the fire out. “
Thought about calling you, but I don’t have your number,” Buck coughs out. The smoke from the fire makes it harder for him to breathe.
~~~
After the firefighters have put out the flames, Buck notices his step-siblings swooning over the same firefighter who called out to Captain Nash last time. Buck hadn’t gotten a close enough look at the firefighters name plate last time, but this time he notices four letters etched into the metal name plate — DIAZ. Firefighter Diaz shrugs off the affection from the two siblings because all he wants to do is his job. He makes his way into the house to put out any residual Embers.
“Cap! I found this in the last bedroom! Is it any of ours?” Firefighter Diaz shouts when he returns. Buck coughs more at the sight of his father’s name plate, in the man’s hands, covered in soot but still in tact.
“No, I don’t think it is,” Captain Nash answers matter-of-factly.
Before Buck can say anything, his step-siblings jump at the opportunity to hold the attention of the firefighter. “Actually, that’s ours! Our step-dad was a firefighter before he died, and he gave that to us.”
Firefighter Diaz notices how quickly Buck’s face drops and knows something is wrong. So, he quizzes them. “Okay, then what does the name plate say?”
“It obviously says Buckley on it silly! That was his last name!” Buck’s step-sister smiles.
“Actually, you’re forgetting a pretty important detail,” firefighter Diaz laughs.
“Lieutenant Buckley,” Buck’s step-brother suggests. When he notices that he is wrong, Buck’s step-brother tries to suggest other answers. “Captain Buckley? Commissioner Buckley?”
“It says Chief Buckley.” Buck deadpans.
Firefighter Diaz smiles, “It does.”
“That’s just a lucky guess!” Buck’s step-sister shouts.
“It says Chief Buckley,” Buck counters. “And on the left side there’s a small chip in it from when I dropped it in the rock garden at his funeral.”
Firefighter Diaz makes a show of checking, to rub it in the faces of Buck’s step-siblings. But, he knows he doesn’t have to because the details are visible in Buck’s red rimmed blue eyes.
Firefighter Diaz smiles, “I believe this belongs to you.”
“Thank you firefighter Diaz,” Buck smiles back.
“You’re welcome. But, firefighter Diaz sounds too fancy to me. My name is Edmundo, but everyone calls me Eddie.”
“Evan Buckley, but everyone calls me Buck.”
“Well, it’s nice to meet you Buck,” Eddie says, shaking Buck’s hand.
“It’s nice to be met.”
~~~
The bell rings, echoing through the fire station. Buck drops his fork onto his plate, following the rest of the firefighters to the apparatus floor. He quickly shakes himself into his gear and jumps into the fire truck. Adrenaline pulses through his veins, red and hot again. He spends the ride remembering what had got him to this point.
It’s been about a year since his father’s house burned down. Within twenty-four hours of that evening, Captain Nash contacted Buck saying that there was a fully paid spot for him waiting at the fire academy if he wanted it. After he’d graduated from the academy, Captain Nash pulled some strings and had Buck placed in his station as the new candidate. And, it only kept getting better from there.
“You ready?” Eddie’s question breaks Buck from his thoughts. They’ve arrived at the scene.
Buck slides his helmet on and hops out of the truck. He smiles, “Always.”