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The members of Station 19 sat in silence in the waiting room as they waited to hear the status of their fallen firefighter who had just been shot in the line of duty during an attempted armed robbery.
“Captain?” Doctor Bailey called out as she entered the waiting area still in her surgical scrubs.
“Yes?”
“Dixon made it,” she started with as she then pushed forward and explained the fallen firefighter’s injuries and what the surgical team had done in order to keep the young firefighter alive on the operating table.
“Thank you,” Andi commented as she tugged Vic into a hug along with Maya.
“Now, you need to know that he’s going to have a long recovery,” Bailey interjected the firefighters rejoicing, “and he’s going to have an even longer road to get back in the field.”
***
Travis watched as Theo Ruiz walked through the fire house as though he owned it, out of every firefighter in the city, they ended up with HIM as a cover, he couldn’t believe that was even a possibility but the only bright spot in this entire situation was that he had been demoted from being a Captain and was now back to being a Lieutenant. Yet, what made the entire situation worse was that Ruiz was everybody’s friend and even Vic took a shine to him. He had missed Ruiz’ first shift with them since he had taken the day off in order to go with Emmett to the hospital in order to get the all-clear in order to return to work. The pair had gotten a lot closer since the shooting and Emmett had actually moved into Travis’ place since his dad had disowned him after he had come out to him while he had been in the hospital. Needless to say, that it had been a full shit show with both Chief Dixon and Emmett’s fiancé Alicia both shouting at the injured firefighter before they had been kicked out of the hospital by security.
While at the time he had believed that he hadn’t been ready for another relationship, the shock of almost losing Emmett had forced him to reevaluate his priorities in life and the two had been going strong ever since.
“Problem?” Emmett questioned softly as they watched the others down in the bay.
“It’s him,” Travis replied as his hands tighten involuntary on the railing.
“Who?” Emmett demanded as pressed his shoulder up against Travis, “who is he, Trav?”
“It’s Theo.”
“What is he doing here?” questioned Emmett as soon as he heard the name, during his recovery, he had learned all about the accident that had killed Travis’ husband Michael, “do you think he knows that you work here?”
“I have no idea,” he replied he tore his attention away from the floor below and turned his full attention toward his boyfriend, “you ready to be back here?”
“What about…”
“I’ve already cleared it with Cap, you’re assigned to me,” Travis interrupted, already knowing his question. He was going to be responsible for helping Emmett over his fear of fire, very similar to how they had helped others over the years.
“As long as I’m with you,” he countered simply since his past experience under Gibson and Bishop had left a lot to be desired.
“Agreed,” Travis smiled as he brushed a kiss against his cheek, “let’s go see the guys.”
As the couple made there way down the stairs, they managed to surprise the others, “Travis! Probie!” came the collective greetings across the bay.
“Hey guys,” Emmett smiled as he was dragged into a few embraces form the others, “it’s great to be back,” he said as he glanced around at the wildly altered fire house, “it smells like a hospital in here.”
“COVID cleaning,” Warren supplied as he gestured over toward the signs posted around the bay containing health warnings.
“It’s been a while,” Dean commented as he took in the youngest member of the team.
“I’ve seen him,” Vic countered, ignoring the fact that the only reason that she HAD seen him was because she had crashed on Travis’ couch after moving out of Dean’s. She hadn’t even known that Emmett was staying at Travis’ after he had been released from the hospital since Travis hadn’t mentioned it to anyone at the station. When she had arrived at his place, she was stunned to see items sitting around that she knew didn’t belong to Travis and then she had spotted the younger man emerging from the back room like he lived there, which he did according to an amused Travis.
“It’s great to see you to Vic,” Emmett replied as he glanced over at the silent Theo Ruiz who was staring at Travis in shock.
“Travis…”
“No,” Travis shook his head in refusal as he took an involuntary step back from his, “we are not doing this.”
“Come on,” he tried again to plead his side.
“No.”
“What’s going on here?” demanded Maya as she glanced between the two firefighters in growing confusion.
“They don’t know,” Travis realized as he glanced around at his friends in disbelief, “I can’t do this,” he repeated as he spun around and headed back toward the locker room.
“Travis!” Vic called out after her best friend, “I don’t understand,” she stated quietly as she glanced between the departing figure of her best friend and the guy, she was interested in.
“I don’t know either,” Dean shrugged as the others all denied knowing the cause of the problem.
Their attention was drawn toward Emmett who was silently backing away from the group, “Probie!” Sullivan called out stopping him mid-step, “what do you know about this?” he demanded.
“Chief,” Emmett looked around the bay, his attention was drawn to the dawning realization on Theo’s face as he realized that he knew his and Travis’ history, “you have to ask Trav.”
Sullivan merely nodded his head in understanding as he dismissed the Probie so he could go after Travis, “Firefighter Ruiz, what exactly is your history with Montgomery?”
“Chief, it’s ancient history,” Theo reported.
“It damn well better be,” Sullivan countered as he glanced over at Maya, “Captain Bishop, Firefighter Montgomery is going to be partnered with Dixon from now on, so there shouldn’t be an issue with any ancient history,” he aimed the last comment toward Theo who was still standing in the exact same spot since Travis had appeared.
“Understood, Chief,” Maya acknowledged as she glanced in the direction that Travis and Emmett disappeared in, she needed to speak with them to find out what exactly was going on since it appeared that Ruiz wasn’t going to say anything and Vic didn’t appear to know anything either. She just hoped to God that whatever the history there was between the two of them wouldn’t cause any problems during the time that Ruiz was assigned to 19.
“Trav?” Emmett called out as he entered the locker room, “Tra…” he was interrupted by Travis’ pushing him back against the door in a soul crushing kiss that forced him to wrap his arms around his neck in order to prevent him from falling down due to his knees giving out underneath him.
“Emmett,” he whispered against his lips as he finally pulled away from the kiss that helped to refocus him in the present and not the past that the arrival of Theo had caused, “I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be,” he countered as he tugged Travis closer and touched their foreheads together, “breath with me, my air is your air,” he repeated the saying that Travis had once used in order to get him through a panic attack in the storage facility fire.
Travis laughed softly as the reminder, “god I miss him,” Travis had no fear in mentioning Michael to Emmett, over the past few months he had helped him to deal with a lot of his issues about his husband.
“It was a shock to see Theo here,” Emmett agreed, he felt no fear in Michael’s continued presence in Travis’ life. Travis would always love his deceased husband and there was absolutely nothing wrong with that. Although, it had taken a bit before Travis had realized that Emmett wasn’t going to go anywhere, no matter what, “I’m not sure how I would’ve handled the situation if it had happened to me.”
“God,” Travis closed his eyes as he relaxed in Emmett’s embrace, “the others are probably going to barge in here looking for us.”
“Agreed,” Emmett sighed, “what do you want to do?” he questioned softly.
“To just get through these next few shifts with him and then never see him ever again,” Travis stated as someone attempted to open the locker room door but was prevented by their combined body weight being pressed against it, “it’s time,” he sighed as he stepped back a couple of steps which allowed Emmett to move out of the way of Maya who came through the door as soon as they had moved away from it.
“Travis?” Maya looked between the pair in mild interest, neither had admitted to being involved with each other but they could just be close due to being the only gay personnel at the station, “is there something that you need to tell me about Ruiz?”
“Cap, our past won’t be a problem,” he swore as he sidestepped slightly in order to press his shoulder up against Emmett’s, “just as long as we don’t get stuck in a vehicle together.”
“Ok,” Maya nodded her head in understanding, but Travis could tell that she wasn’t going to stop pressing for answers to her questions.
“You’re both assigned to the Aid Car,” she gestured between the two of them, “try not to overdo it on your first day back,” she cautioned Emmett.
“Don’t worry, I’ll keep an eye out on him,” Travis offered with a grin on his face, mock groaning when Emmett elbowed him in the stomach, “I won’t let him overdue anything that could send him back to rehab.”
“Hey!” Emmett interjected, “I’m cleared for duty!”
“Yeah,” Maya countered as she and Travis shared smirks, “the hospital cleared you, but I haven’t yet. So light duty…”
“Come on!” Emmett glared between the pair that had decided to gang up against him, “fine,” he groaned before a devilish idea come to the forefront of his mind, “Trav?”
“What?” Travis struggled to prevent the laughter from bubbling up in his throat.
“You’re staying in the guest room tomorrow night,” Emmett stated bluntly, ignoring the sudden onslaught of laughter emitting from Maya.
“Emmett!” the laughter suddenly died off at the threat of being barred from his own bed, “I’m sorry!” he pleaded as he followed Emmett out of the locker room and out toward the Aid Car in order to conduct morning inventory.
“It’s high school here,” Maya said to herself as she followed the couple out to the bay, “and I’m the damn principal.”
Meanwhile, Vic was struggling with the information that she had just learned from Theo about his past with Travis, “This is…you were…did you know?” she demanded harshly as she spun around in order to face her ‘maybe’ boyfriend in the face.
“Did I know what?” Theo questioned back as he threw his hands up in the air in defeat.
“That I knew Travis.”
“That you were friends?”
“No, we aren’t friends,” Vic paused before pushing forward with her reasoning, “we’re the same.”
“No, I didn’t know,” Theo shook his head, “I knew he worked at 19 but not what shift he was on, when I arrived here, I assumed he was on a different shift since he wasn’t at roll call this morning.”
“Montgomery was on an errand this morning,” Bishop stated as she walked up to the loudly arguing pair, “listen, I’m going to ask you the exact same question that I just asked him. Is this going to be a problem?”
“No,” Theo instantly replied.
“Good, now Travis didn’t say anything about his past with you, so I don’t know what happened between you,” she paused as she glanced over toward the Aid Car where Travis and Emmett were conducting inventory together, “but he requested that you stay away from him and I see no issue with that request, do you?”
“No,” Theo sighed in relief.
“Good,” she looked between him and Vic, “Hughes, is there a problem here?”
“No, Captain,” she stated as she clutched her hands to her side as a call suddenly came over the scanner for the Aid Car. “Damn,” she muttered under her breath as she watched as Travis and Emmett quickly closed the back doors to the Aid Car before getting into the front and heading out on the call. She would have to try to intercept Travis when he came back from the call so that she could talk to him about Theo.
It took Vic nearly the entire shift for her to have a chance to talk to Travis since the Aid Car had been sent out on back-to-back calls, mostly to the same address, “Travis!” she called out as she approached her best friend who was quietly talking to Emmett in the beanery. “We need to talk.”
“Fine,” he sighed, as he turned his attention away from Emmett.
“Beat it Probie,” Vic ordered, momentary forgetting the relationship between the two men.
“Trav?”
“I’ll be fine,” he promised as he watched him head over to the dinner table in order to grab a plate, “what is it Vic?”
“I swear that I didn’t know about Theo,” she pleaded, “you never mentioned his name!”
“Not here,” Travis interrupted her as soon as he spotted the interested looks coming there way from their crew mates.
“Fine,” she followed him down to an empty room so they could talk in private and not have anyone overhear them.
Emmett kept his head down at the dinner table as he listened to the others talk about the calls that they had been on so far that shift.
“So, Probie you were in the hospital?” Theo asked from his place across from him, “get injured on a call?”
“Yeah,” he nodded in reply, he didn’t like to talk about that call that had resulted in him getting shot in the chest and it was only thanks to Doctor Avery that he had even been able to live through it.
“Let me guess, burns?” he smirked slightly.
“No,” he countered as he glanced over at Maya and Sullivan and spotted the pair frowning at Theo’s line of questioning.
“Broken bone?” he tried again.
“No,” surprisingly it was Andy who answered that time, “listen he doesn’t want to talk about what happened, so leave it be,” she ordered harshly.
“Come on!”
“Stop it!” ordered Maya as she finally had enough with the temp guy.
“What’s the big secret?” he demanded as he glanced around the table at the other members of Station 19, “unless he did something…”
“He got shot,” Travis commented as he and Vic appeared in the doorway, “now, leave it be,” Travis moved toward the table and took the empty seat next to Emmett and ate his meal in silence.
“I’m sorry man,” Theo tried to back track his statements.
“You were told to drop it,” Sullivan interrupted, “so don’t say another word unless it’s work related,” he directed as a somber mood came over the table and everybody ate their food in utter silence.
“Yes sir,” Theo came to the sudden realization that Travis no longer had any place for him in his life, he had lost his last connection to his best friend. Not only that, he had broken his promise to Michael to watch over Travis if he ever died in the line of duty. He was truly alone now, he just hoped that he wouldn’t be that way for long and that he would be able to rebuild the tentative relationship with Vic again now that she knew the entire story and not just the broken portion from Travis.
***