Work Text:
It wasn’t often that Christopher Diaz took the time to take a break.
Oh, he’d take his state mandated breaks, considering his boss had his dads on speed dile and was not afraid to call them. But an actual break? A vacation, away from his office? That rarely happened.
In fact, the last time was probably when he got the honor of taking his youngest sister Izzy, named for her bisabuela who passed only weeks after meeting her, to her first day of kindergarten. He’d been fixed to take the day on account of his fathers being sent up to Oregon to help with another out of control forest fire, leaving him and Carla to watch his younger siblings. Luckily, his boss had been very understanding (on account that no one in the LAFD really wanted to annoy the Diazes, they had too many hard fought connections). Izzy had been so proud to walk up to Durand Elementary with her biggest brother in his work uniform (she bagged, he caved, it’s a tale as old as time).
His work as an arson investigator led to long hours. He didn’t mind too much. What he was doing was helping to solve the same crimes that May Grant was doing as a sergeant in the LAPD, following in the footsteps of her Chief, Aunt Athena.
He was still able to attend Fire Family Dinner, which had moved to the Diaz house once Captain Bobby had been named Chief of the LAFD and handed over the reins to his Buck. Past and present members of the 118 would always make appearances.
Dr. Hen and Aunt Karen still came when they could, but Hen’s schedule at the hospital sometimes made it difficult. Denny always showed up with Harry, the two still attached at the hip since childhood, now roommates and in the LAFD academy (to Uncle Bobby’s laughter and Aunt Athena’s lament).
Auntie Maddie and Uncle Chim came every once in a while. He was now a captain of a station in the San Fernando Valley, while she ran one of the dispatch centers in the same area. Jee was in college now, their only child, currently wreaking havoc to the world at NYU.
Uncle Ravi was still with the 118, so he always came to support his Captain. He was apparently working on another specialty, at the behest of his dads. When he wasn’t fighting fires, he was with his fiancée, which meant hiding from Athena, lest she threaten to lock him up again.
But like he said, Christopher rarely took breaks. Not unless he was pushed into it.
Or, his little sister could just give him those eyes , the same trick that his service dog Arctic would use when he was off duty, and he was done for.
So, instead of staring at photos of his latest investigation (some idiot decided to try to torch the Barnes and Noble at the Grove, but they couldn’t figure out how and they needed that detail to throw the book at him), he was in full uniform standing in front of a class of kindergarteners. Talking. Not about firefighting.
No, about their family. Because of course Isabel Maddison Diaz wanted him to tell the story of their dads getting togerther to a bunch of kids.
Not about his amazing and rewarding job. Nope! About how it took them six years to acknowledge their feelings and two more to act, and it finally took Christopher threatening to go to a university in South Florida out of spite to get them to make a move.
So, he did. Keeping it simple for the kids (glossing the bombing and his dads’ various injuries over the past few years). But he talked about how his dads met at the 118, about their extended family, about how they finally came together. He talked about their brother Migeal’s adoption, but leaving out exactly what happened to his birth mother (husband killed in car accident that injured wife, his dad had been the one to pull her out and deliver the baby, she named him guardian before passing as well). And he even briefly talked about when they brought Izzy home, going with the stork story just to annoy her.
In reality, he knew that Aunt Lucy, now Captain of the 145, had given birth to Izzy as a favor for his dads using IVF. She had wanted to take several classes and temporarily step back so the timing was perfect. And it had been her idea, or so the dads always said.
As he wrapped up the family tree and was given a tight hug by Izzy, her teacher asked where their parents were today as they had been the ones who had RSVPed.
“Oh, they’re helping out with the wildfires outside Austin, TX. Got called there two nights ago. Uncle TK and Tio Carlos are keeping an eye on them. But we’re used to them saving people, right Izzy?”
His baby sister gave him the same megawatt smile that his Buck had taught him. It was a good day.