Chapter Text
His hands were sweaty. His mind was already buzzing. His body felt jittery and shaking. He was anxious. And he still has hours worth of work ahead of him before he would face the cause. The same cause that has been building for weeks on end…
“So today’s the big day, huh?” Paul teased, walking into the gym.
TK sighed and gave up trying to lift the weights. It was a lost cause today. He couldn’t focus on anything much. He’d done fine on calls earlier. But downtime was another story.
“Big day for what?” Judd questioned as he joined them. He took up residence on a nearby bench.
“TK is meeting Carlos’s parents tonight,” Paul supplied with a smirk, causing TK’s face to redden.
“No shit?” Judd replied, his own smirk plastered on his face.
“Yeah,” TK sighed. “Carlos’s birthday is this weekend. His mom is supposed to cook at his place tonight, and he wants me to come over to meet her and his dad after I get off.” He ran a hand through his hair nervously. “I said I would.”
“That’s a big step,” Marjan called, seemingly out of nowhere. TK hadn’t seen her come into the room.
“Thanks. Thanks for that.” TK slumped down onto the weight bench, giving up on his workout as everyone seemed more interested in teasing him and questioning his plans.
“She’s right,” Judd laughed. “But I wouldn’t worry too much. Reyes likes you. And that will trump anything the parents think. Trust me.”
“Speaking from experience?” Marjan laughed. She leaned against the nearby weight machine.
“Oh definitely,” Judd huffed. “Grace’s dad hated me the second he laid eyes on me. But eventually came around.” He stepped over toward TK and clapped him on the shoulder. “You’ll be good, kid.”
TK just shook his head. “I hope.”
“Not a fan of parents?” Paul continued, ever eager to find out more information and push.
TK rubbed at his face, feeling the tell tale signs of a headache coming on at this line of questioning. “I didn’t say that.” He chewed on his lip anxiously. “Just…parents don’t usually like me.”
Marjan walked over and pinched his cheeks playfully. “What’s not to like about this face?”
“Funny,” he huffed, batting her hands away. “But…parents don’t usually like addicts dating their sons.” He leveled her with a meaningful gaze before staring at the floor. He didn’t bring up his recovery all that often with the crew, not since the day of the solar flares really. Just pieces every now and then. Like this. Just enough to hint at his anxiety and process, but not always the full story.
“Hey,” Judd squeezed his shoulder. TK didn’t even realize he was still standing so close to him. “Don’t say that.”
“Judd’s right,” Paul continued. “You are more than that. Carlos knows that too.”
“But will his parents?”
“Yes,” Marjan adamantly said. “Because it’s true.” She punched his shoulder playfully and gave him a soft smile. “And Carlos adores you. Don’t even give me that look.”
He shook his head at her. “I—“
“Listen to her,” Paul interrupted.
“Can’t be worse than Grace’s dad,” Judd added. “I had to build a pool deck before he liked him.”
TK laughed at that, feeling some of the tension leave his body.
“Not shocked,” Paul laughed. Judd threw a towel at his head for the comments.
“Just not met a lot of parents,” Tk shrugged. “Alex…he didn’t really want me around his folks. So never really met them.”
“Well, we know Alex was problematic,” Marjan couldn’t help but add.
“Maybe.”
“Definitely,” Paul continued. “No offense.”
TK just nodded. Not sure how to respond. “Um, I met few in high school I guess, but not sure that counts. And, well, after…I wasn’t in a place to really care or try for that.” He didn’t elaborate, hoping they would understand. The years between high school graduation and entering the fire academy hadn’t been his finest.
“You’ve come a long way since then,” Judd said, more serious than before. “Stop beating yourself up. Reyes cares about you. I’m sure he has talked you up to his folks. Don’t worry about it.”
TK nodded. He appreciated the confidence from Judd, but couldn’t buy into it. He was actually worried more about Carlos talking him up. Carlos, well, he really cared about him. Which was amazing. But also scary. Especially with this. Carlos didn’t see his faults as well, as faulty as they were. He was biased. TK didn’t think he could live up to whatever version he had described to his mom and dad. It just wasn’t possible. He was scared of letting everyone down.
“I don’t—“
The alarm started blaring throughout the house, stopping TK from finishing his thought. He groaned instead. He had hoped they wouldn’t get called out again, given that he needed to be at Carlos’s in just a few hours. He really didn’t want to be late…
“Come on, TK,” Judd nudged him. “Sooner we go the sooner we can help you get ready for your boy later.”
“Did you bring your clothes here? Please tell me you brought more than one shirt so we can help?” Marjan smirked.
“What’s wrong with my shirts?” he replied as they ran off toward their gear. They grabbed their thicker coats and rain gear. It had been pouring outside for the past few hours.
“Nothing,” Owen stated, ruffling his hair as he came over to suit up himself. “You get your style from your old man.” He winked and squeezed TK’s shoulder.
“But we have to make sure he looks parent appropriate for later,” Paul teased.
“Ooh, that’s right.” Owen nudged them all toward the truck. “Big night tonight with Carlos.”
“Yeah.” TK hopped up into the truck. Everyone else followed suit and they were soon on the road. “So what’ve we got?” He really wanted the attention of of him and his plans for the night.
“Looks like a car went off the road and is hanging on the side of a hill,” Owen supplied.
“Probably hydroplaned with all this damn rain,” Judd added. “How many in vehicle?”
“Three,” Owen continued. “Couple up front and a kid in the back. Woman called it in. All conscious last we heard. Panicking and banged up but conscious.”
“That’s good at least,” Mateo added nervously
They arrived on the scene quickly. Michelle’s team was already there, hanging back and waiting on Owen to take command. Owen hopped out of the truck and started talking to the police officers already on the scene. TK followed Judd and Paul out, grabbing gear and getting things set up. Marjan started gathering up repelling gear.
“Want to make the news again?” He poked at her.
“Always.” She gave him a wide smile.
“What about me?” Mateo added, frowning slightly.
“You made the news,” Paul quipped back.
“For passing out water bottles I might add,” Judd sighed.
Owen rolled his eyes at the crew as he overhead and joined them. “Okay, looks like the car is pretty unstable. It’s not down too far off the side of the hill, but enough. The family tried to get out, but it started to move on them. Marjan, Paul…I want you two to repel down. Secure the car as best you can. Your job is to focus on getting the parents out up front. I think you may need to pull both out through the driver’s side. TK, I want you hooked up too. I think you can go around the side and get to the kid. She’s in the passenger side back seat from what the mom called in. She’s secured in a booster seat that you may need to cut.”
“How old?” he asked.
“Seven or eight I think,” Owen continued. “She’s not hurt from what mom and dad could tell, just really scared. You’re good with kids so I want you to help keep her calm while we get mom and dad out. From the way the car looks, I’m more worried about it moving and propelling forward on them, given the angle, and crushing them. Kid’s pretty secure in her booster seat, but I didn’t want her bouncing or trying to move and jarring the car.”
“Got it, Cap.” TK followed Marjan and got himself hooked up to gear to repel down the hillside.
“Judd, Mateo, the three of us are going to stay topside and work the wench and send down the baskets if and when we need to. Mom and dad seem okay but we have to see for sure. We’ll hand them off to Michelle’s crew one way or the other for her to check them out.”
“Got it!”
“Sure thing, Cap.”
Owen gave everyone a nod and set to finalizing the plan and securing all the proper equipment. “TK?”
“Yeah?” He turned toward his dad, synching up his harness.
“Be careful. You’ll be hanging off the side of the hill the farthest by the time you get over to side of the car. The back half of the car is more stable but is on a ledge a little further out. Front doesn’t have a lot of ground under it and I’m worried about that mud slipping on you.”
“I’ll be careful.”
Owen hit TK’s helmet and nudged him forward. He joined Marjan and Paul so that he could connect to the wench. The other two repelled down first to assess the damage. TK followed slowly behind to give them space and not crowd the car, uncertain of how stable it would be. He could hear Paul start a conversation with the parents up front.
“What’s your name ma’am?”
“Ma-Maya,” she said. “Can you please help my daughter?”
“We’re going to help all three of you,” Marjan added. “What’s your name sir?”
“I”m Dave,” he replied. “But please, just get Emma out from the back.”
The little girl looked up with scared eyes. It was obvious she had been crying, but overall looked unharmed. Her parents were sporting cuts and bruises on the other hand.
“We’re going to work on it, don’t worry,” Paul continued. “My friend, TK, is right behind me and he’s going to come around and help her. But for right now, we want to get you two out. We’re worried about the weight pulling the front forward. We want to get you two out first while he cuts the booster seat.”
“But—“
“We promise this is the best thing we can do,” Marjan interrupted. “We’re afraid of taking away too much weight from the back.”
“So we’re going to send our boy back here over to add some to it.” Paul gave the daughter a small smile. “He’s muscular. He’ll add some weight to you back there. Just don’t tell him I called him that.”
TK joined them and pushed off the side of the hill so that he could swing down to the car. He was careful to not jostle the vehicle too much, not knowing how stable it would remain. “I heard that, Paul.” He gave the girl a wink. “I think I can do that for you guys though.” The back door’s window was already busted from the crash. “Hello there.” He gave her his best smile and kept his face calm. He could see how precarious the car was, but he couldn’t let her know that.
“Hi,” she replied quietly.
“I’m TK. What’s your name, sweetheart?”
“Emma.” Her voice wasn’t much louder than a whisper. She hugged her stuffed animal tight to her chest and gave him scared look.
“And who is this?” He nodded toward her toy. He gently started to work on getting the back door on the driver’s side to open. Paul, who was freeing their mom’s door hit the unlock to see if it still worked for him. Thankfully, it did. TK carefully pulled the door open and slipped into the backseat beside her.
“Olaf.” She hugged the animal, which TK could now see was a stuffed bear wearing an Olaf Frozen t-shirt. It was likely from Build-a-Bear if he had to guess. “My uncle gave him to me. We were on our way to see him.” Tears filled her eyes again.
“Fan of Frozen?” She nodded. “Do you like the first one or the second more?”
“First.” Her voice had more confidence to it for a moment. He couldn’t help but smile at her. “But I like both.”
“Me too! I bet your uncle will let you watch it this weekend.” He slid forward toward her. The car jostled as Paul pulled Maya out and toward him. Marjan made quick work of taking up the space Maya just vacated to stabilize the weight. “What’s your favorite song from it?”
“I like ‘Let it Go’ and ‘Into the Unknown.’”
“Solid choices. I think I like ‘Lost in the Woods’ personally. But I think I just really like Kristoff.”
“He’s pretty,” she said quietly, earning a wet laugh from her dad. Marjan squeezed his hand.
“I have to agree,” TK added. “Okay, Emma, I’m going to pull on the straps around you and start cutting. I need you to stay still. Can you do that for me?” He waited on her to nod. “Good girl. I’ll be fast. “So you like Kristoff?”
She nodded again.
“Do you have a prince of your own yet?”
“No…I’m too young.”
“Are you now?” TK made a face, earning a small smile from her, as he started to cut some of the straps around her. Marjan had began to pull Dave over the console and out of the car. “Well…maybe one day.”
“Do you? Have a prince?”
TK blushed as Marjan let out a loud laugh from the front. “He does,” she replied for him. “He has a prince charming waiting for him tonight.” She never looked up from where she worked on the dad. The dad couldn’t help but laugh as well.
“Okay, Emma, I’m going to move a little closer and pull you over to me while my friend up there helps your dad out. Can you stay really still for me?” He waited for her to nod. “Awesome. Just let me do the work.”
He gave a nod to Marjan and grabbed onto Emma’s booster seat to stabilize and pull her closer. He realized that there was another strap still in place as she started and began to fix it. Marjan pulled Dave out and over to the awaiting basket to pull him up. Once she was out…well things kind of went to hell…
TK heard the car groan. He felt it shift. All the signs were pointing to disaster…
It happened quickly. He threw himself around Emma’s booster seat and pulled her close to him. The strap gave way from the main seat but she stayed strapped to the booster at least. The car shifted once more and slipped off its precarious place on the hillside. The car door that had been opened for TK earlier slammed shut, trapping his wire. The car started over the edge and began to fall. TK was pulled forcefully against the door before his wire snapped. He kept Emma secure against his chest as his entire right side slammed into the close door of the car. Everything felt fuzzy.
But he held onto the little girl as she screamed out in fear. He wasn’t sure how but he kept it together…but he kept her safe in his arms.
The car rolled. He held tight.
Then everything went black…
xxxxxxx
“What time does your boyfriend get off work?”
Carlos looked up from his place at the table. His mom was moving about the kitchen, prepping dinner and getting things together. She had agreed to make his favorite dish. She was also preparing enough food for a small army from what he could tell.
“TK should be getting off soon, but I’ll shoot him a text to double check,” he replied.
“TK?” his dad laughed. “What kind of name is that?"
Carlos rolled his eyes. “He doesn’t like his real name, papi.”
“Which is?”
“Diego,” his mother chastised, “leave the poor boy alone. If Carlos says he doesn’t like his real name, then let it go.”
“I did not say I would drill the boy, Elena. I just don’t understand what kind of name ‘TK’ is.”
Carlos shook his head at his parents as they continued to bicker. He shot a text to TK and waited for him to respond. He usually was quick, shooting off a reply or letting him know if he was still on a call. Carlos kept waiting for the text to switch over to ‘read’ but it never did.
He just hoped his boyfriend wouldn’t be late.