Chapter Text
It was trivia night coming up, Evan’s favourite night, and he had been determined to drag Eddie out to distract him from Christopher’s absence temporarily. After talking with Tommy about the idea, they had come up with a plan that involved a fourth party: Olivia. She was not a trivia person and it would be a bit of a challenging sell, but they decided to call her together, using the power of peer pressure.
“Answer call,” the determined blonde spoke into her headset as she filled the oven with two trays of cookies, “Hello?”
“Hey Liv.”
“Hi!”
Olivia exhaled sharply as she heard both Tommy and Evan’s voices through her headset. “Hey, boys!” she greeted them playfully, “Not very often I get the two of you at once, what’s up?”
Tommy first asked, “So what are you doing tomorrow night?”
”You free for trivia night?” Evan completed the thought.
It was a good thing it wasn’t a video call and that Evan and Tommy couldn’t see her expression. She was definitely wondering why this week of all weeks was the week they would invite her, considering she had never shown any interest in trivia and that it was typically reserved as a boys’ night activity.
“Uh, I’m free, but why invite me? I’ve never been big into trivia.”
She could hear Tommy’s chuckle and quiet voice telling Evan to go ahead and explain.
“I just wanted to cheer Eddie up since he’s been having a rough time...”
“And you want me there so he doesn’t feel like a third wheel,” Olivia finished the sentence for Evan.
“It would mean a lot to me if you came, Liv.”
“And because it means a lot to Evan, it means a lot to me.”
Olivia sighed; she was relatively sure this was the first time Tommy and Evan had teamed up against her, and she had a sinking suspicion that this would not be the last. The way she saw it, she had two options...
“All right, I’ll be there for a bit,” she replied before she could think about it too deeply. “I’ll meet you guys there around 8.”
The sound of celebratory cheers caused a smile to escape her lips and Olivia sighed as the conversation ended with Tommy and Evan’s eternal gratitude.
It’s Evan who noticed her walking up to the booth first, elbowing Tommy to signal to him. And then the recognition in Tommy’s eyes as he watched her made Olivia smile even brighter as she channeled her usual confident swagger. The energy she brought radiated from her as she walked towards the booth and she hoped with every fiber of her being that it was masking the fact that she had no interest in being there.
Tommy quickly stood to give her a hug, his squeeze strong and affectionate. “Thanks for being here.” The gratitude was met with a quick ‘hmm hmm’.
Evan’s hug was quick and playful. “Nice to see you.”
“Likewise.”
Olivia reached out her hand to Eddie, who was seated in the booth, a hint of mischief and something that could easily be mistaken as flirtation in her eyes. “Olivia Chambers. Tommy’s best friend. We work together at the 217.”
Eddie shook the hand offered to him. “Eddie Diaz, I’m best friends with that one over there.” He gestured towards Evan.
After taking Eddie in for a moment, Olivia slid into the booth next to him, her smile directed at the two men across the table. And immediately, a drink appeared for her as the waitress delivered her usual drink to her, a long island iced tea.
”Of course you already ordered my drink for me,” she quipped, looking straight at Tommy for this.
Tommy chuckled. “Your drink order hasn’t changed in 7 years.”
“So I’m not really a big trivia person but I couldn’t resist an invitation to hang out,” Olivia admitted casually, then she shot a sideways glance at Eddie and added with a friendly, borderline flirtatious tone, “I didn’t realize the company was going to be cute.”
“Hey, I’m cute!” Evan called out with a playful pout at Olivia, who just stuck her tongue out at him.
”Cute but also taken,” Olivia countered before turning to Eddie and asking, still as playful as ever, “You’re not taken or into guys, right? Because I have a history with hitting on the wrong guy.”
“Neither one,” Eddie admitted quietly, “Definitely not into guys, and definitely not taken right now.”
Olivia and Eddie were both met with a tight-lipped smile from Tommy and a curious look from Evan for that exchange. Olivia shrugged at Tommy, as if to say ‘If I can’t joke it about now, when can I joke about it?’
Tommy looked to the other guys at the table and commented, “Olivia’s questionable taste in men aside, it’s nice to be able to just unwind. Especially on a slow Air Support week when I’ve been relegated to Ground Support.”
”And I didn’t almost die at all this week,” Olivia commented playfully, “I consider it a win.”
“There’s no way you’ve gotten into more trouble than Buck,” Eddie commented, “He’s a magnet for disaster.”
Olivia chuckled, directing her first comment at Evan. “Yeah, the news coverage on your various near death experiences has been impressive.” To Eddie’s point, she responded, “I wouldn’t say I’m at Evan’s level but I’ve survived some intense stuff. I got crushed by a tree last month in Angeles Crest. A whole tree!” She didn’t dare to look up at Tommy while she joked around, but instead looked to Evan for his reaction.
“Well, the important part is that you got better!” was all Evan offered to Olivia as she sipped on her drink.
To change the subject and to change the vibes, the blonde’s face lit up with a mischievous smile. “Let’s play a game, Eddie.”
“What do you have in mind?” Eddie seemed intrigued by her suggestion and surprised by it in equal measure.
“You look like you wanna drink to forget. What if I gave you a reason to want to remember?” Olivia asked her, her smile now tight lipped as if to suppress whatever flirtatious energy threatened to escape from them.
Evan raised an eyebrow at the pair’s exchange while Tommy’s eyes flickered in recognition, suppressing a smile of his own.
“It would be unfortunate if you forgot everything you learned while getting to know someone new. But what if we took turns asking questions. A simple game of truth or drink.” She turned to Evan and Tommy. “How do you guys feel about that?”
Tommy looked like he was about to protest at first but it was a fake out and he agreed to play along. Evan smiled at Olivia but waited to see how Eddie would respond.
“All right, Olivia, I’ll bite,” Eddie chimed in, returning Olivia’s smile with a half-smile of his own.
Evan nodded immediately after Eddie’s response.
There were some easy questions to start off, a bit of a warm up.
But it’s the question that Tommy asked a few rounds later that had Olivia raising her eyebrow. “What’s one fact about you that you normally wouldn’t bring up when first getting to know people?”
“I joined the Navy SEALs.” Evan was met with a head tilt and a questioning look from Olivia for this while Eddie smiled knowingly in Tommy’s direction, who simply nodded.
“Vanishing twin syndrome. I had a twin I absorbed in the womb.” This one left Olivia wondering if she did know this fact about Tommy. Evan looked fascinated and Eddie simply nodded this time.
Eddie took a drink, which led to Evan looking surprised, and both Tommy and Olivia looking curious.
“I’m a second generation firefighter,” Olivia said quietly when the boys all looked to her for her response, “My Dad was the Captain of the 217. He died in a wildfire 23 years ago.”
“Did you always want to be a firefighter?”
Eddie’s question prompted Evan to look over at Olivia with curiosity in his own eyes. Tommy leaned back onto his seat, knowing the answer to the question, but still remained present in the conversation.
“I was the 1998 Junior State All Around Champion in gymnastics and I thought I wanted to go to the Olympics. Also did karate, judo, tae kwon do in my teens, I thought I wanted to get into stunt work. And then I lost my Dad to the Angeles Crest Wildfire in 2001. Another pivot. Did some stunt training. Then dedicated the last decade of my life to following in his footsteps.” She was met with a compassionate look from Evan and the tiniest smile from Eddie before she looked at Tommy and added, “It’s just me and my Mom now. Totally fine though. She’s living it up, doing a lot of traveling, and I’m...happy where I’m at.”
Tommy clocked the slight hesitation but didn’t point it out, simply making eye contact with Olivia with a questioning head tilt, to which the blonde responded with a casual shrug.
“So you’ve been at the 217 your entire career?” Eddie seemed interested in Olivia’s story and wanted to hear more from her.
“I started at the 122, but I couldn’t picture myself anywhere else.”
Olivia didn’t dare to look up from the long island iced tea she was drinking, sensing that Tommy had his eyes on her, reading her body language. She was afraid that if she made eye contact with him, he’d pick up on her deliberate word choice and would ask her about it.
The game of truth or drink went on for a while longer that night, and highlights included showing off their scars (something Olivia had opted out of) and discussing their embarrassing moments at work. As much as she hated trivia nights, at least the company was good.