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You hummed quietly to yourself as you locked the front door behind you, headed for the elevators down the hall. It was about a quarter to eight and you were walking over to the mini-mart not too far from your place. You were prepping for dinner tonight and had realized you were all out of butter, which you would need for the alfredo pasta, Buck’s favorite.
He’d just let you know he’d be home soon, and despite dating your boyfriend for half a year now, a simple text from him always sent excitement and happiness flowing through you. Having dinner together after both of you’d had a long day at work was something you always looked forward to.
“Shit, I should have grabbed a bigger jacket,” you muttered as you made it out of your apartment complex, the fall air cold against your skin. “Maybe I’ll just take that shortcut through the park.”
You made a turn left down the street, knowing the area by heart as you entered South Central Park, eyeing the beautiful scenery around you. It was one of your favorite places to go when you needed to think, with lots of benches and trees to sit against comfortably.
It was currently deserted, but as you passed by a pack of trees the sound of a frightened meow caught your ears.
Passing for a moment, you quirked your head to the side, listening intently to the concerning sound. More meows followed, each sounding frantic, and causing you to move closer to the trees, squinting to try to find the source.
There atop one of the highest branches in the large tree was a small white tabby cat clinging on to the branch for dear life. The poor thing was clearly trapped and couldn’t get down from where it had climbed up to.
Worry instantly filled you at the sight as you knew the cat might not survive a fall from this height, and without thinking about it, you began scrambling up the tree after it.
As a child, you’d loved climbing trees and that love had transferred into rock and mountain climbing, which was something you often did with Buck. Therefore, it wasn’t too difficult for you to make the trek up, adrenaline and urgency speeding you up the entire way.
You were sure to be careful as you stopped in front of the branch the cat was on, reaching one upward to raise your body onto it. The branch wasn’t as thick or stable as you would have liked, but you managed to climb on top of it and get yourself into a slightly uncomfortable seating position.
The cat peered at you wide-eyed as you turned towards it, still looking scared and staying where it clung to.
“Here kitty kitty, c’mon over here, everything is okay now,” you cooed gently, offering your palm out for it.
You noted it wore a pink collar that read ‘Sprinkles’, most likely an outside cat that escaped from the owner’s house.
“It’s okay Sprinkles, you’re going to be just fine,” you assured again, leaning forward a bit as you urged her to sniff your palm.
She seemed to debate it for a moment, before deciding to slowly claw her way over to you, crawling onto your lap and pawing at your shirt. Chuckling at its cuteness you wrapped your arms around Sprinkles gently, snuggling the small animal against your chest, and letting out a sigh of relief that you had managed to save her.
Only after you’d pet her a few times, did you come to the realization that there was no way for you to get down with the cat in your hands. Shifting uneasily, you stiffened as the branch creaked under your weight.
Fuck. It might be possible that you didn’t think this all the way through.
Inhaling deeply, you stroked the cat’s back once more, only to have it let out a long meow, before jumping out of your arms and onto the tree trunk. Fear gripped your heart at Sprinkle’s actions, only to watch in shock as the animal slowly, but surely made its way down, safe and sound. Without your help.
You watched as Sprinkles sat down pretty in front of the tree, watching you with innocent eyes as she licked at her front paw.
“Why you little…” you started, subconsciously leaning forward, which again caused the branch to shudder.
Shit! You knew if you even attempted to move and climb down, it would break before you could get a grip on the tree trunk. What should you do? Call 911 or Buck? Was that technically cheating to call your boyfriend if he was a firefighter? You didn’t know and you didn’t care.
Carefully slipping your phone out of your front pocket, you called Buck.
He answered on the third ring.
“Hey, sweetheart.”
His smooth voice only brought you comfort, and you found to stay composed as you responded.
“Hey, baby, what are you up to? You busy?”
“I’m about to head out of the station. You cooking dinner?”
“Uh, yeah about that, I dunno if I’ll be able to cook tonight. We’ll probably have to get take out. Maybe that pizza place you like or Italian.”
“That’s fine baby, I’m good with either, but I thought you wanted to make pasta?”
“Um, I did, but I’m a bit preoccupied currently.”
Buck had been moving around, but you heard him pause at your words, his tone shifting to worried.
“What do you mean? Is everything okay?”
“Oh I’m fine,” you quickly assured, letting out a tense laugh, “it’s just that I headed out to grab some butter from the mini-mart, but on the way there I noticed a cat was stuck in a tree.”
“Oh shit, did you already contact Animal Control?”
Animal Control? Oh yeah, that existed and you should have done that. Hindsight is twenty-twenty or in this case, a buck twenty.
“That probably would have been a good idea… but no, I climbed up the tree after Sprinkles,” You admitted after a moment.
“Aw, that’s a cute name, but next time just call a professional baby, you could’ve gotten hurt.”
“Yeah, funnily enough after I got to her, she kinda easily made her way down.”
“That’s what usually happens, but at least you’re both alright.”
You cringed, not yet wanting to confess that you were still in the tree, but knowing you needed to.
In the background, you heard Hen’s familiar voice ask, “What’s going on?”
The line clicked as Buck placed the phone on speaker.
“___ climbed up a tree trying to save a cat, and then it got down on its own,” Buck explained with a buckle.
“Cats these days,” Hen scoffed in reply.
You decided this might be a good time to clear up the misunderstanding.
“Yeah, the thing is I’m still in the tree… I’m stuck.”
The line went quiet for a good few seconds after that, followed by Buck, Hen, and you think Bobby saying, “What?!”
Buck turned the phone off the speaker at that, saying in disbelief, “You’ve been calmly discussing what we’ll have for dinner whilst you’re stuck in a tree?”
“Well, I’ll be hungry when I get down!”
“Oh my god,” he muttered, “baby, just tell me what park you’re at? And stay as still as you possibly can, branches are not always as sturdy as they look.”
In the background, you could hear the sound of Buck climbing into the rig, along with Bobby shouting orders.
“Yeah, I figured that out,” you sighed, “I’m at South Central Park… Please come quickly, baby.”
“Okay, we’re going to be there in about ten minutes. Sit tight, sweetheart. By the way, I’m in the mood for pizza.”
“Good choice, me too. Black olive pizza sounds amazing right now.”
“Not this again, ___. How many times do I have to tell you we’re a pineapple on pizza household?!”