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Chapter Text

Buck stared down at his phone in confusion.

Your flight from Harrisburg to Tulsa has been changed!

He groaned.  He was supposed to board that flight in a little under three hours.  He was pretty sure he didn’t have it in him to stay here any longer.  He just wanted to get the hell out of here and back to his team.  Two days under the same roof as his parents was more than enough to remind himself why he only came back once a year.  Even Maddie didn’t come back this often.

He sighed and pushed his glasses up to his forehead to try and rub away the headache that had settled in-between his eyes the moment his mother had opened the front door.

Before he even had a chance to figure out what was going on with his flights his phone buzzed once as a notification from his Delta app flashed across the top of the screen at him.

You have been checked into your flight from MDT to OMA!  Boarding begins at 3:30 PM.

What the—

Omaha?  Why was he flying to Omaha?

A second later his phone started buzzing and Bobby’s face smiled up at him.  

And now it was starting to fall into place.  Bobby was the only other person with access to his SkyMiles number.  He glanced down at his watch.  It was 2:47, he was cutting it close.

“Bobby?” He asked as he answered the phone and started heading for security.  He only had his duffle bag so there was no reason to stop at the front desk.  “What is going on?  Why are we going to Omaha?”

“Hey, kid.  How are you?”  Bobby asked, instead of answering his question.

Buck sighed.  “Oh you know, as fine as I can be after listening to my mother berate me every second she wasn’t totally ignoring my existence.” He rubbed at his forehead again.  “Really though, Bobby, why are we going to Omaha?”

Bobby sighed heavily.  “Sal quit this morning.”

“He what? ” Buck asked.  He really wished he could be surprised, but he wasn’t.  Sal and Bobby had been at each other’s throats for weeks.  Seems like half a year away from each other hadn’t calmed the man down after his last blowout with Bobby.  Buck just wished it wasn’t when they were already a month into the most active tornado season they’d had in a decade.

“Yeah.” Bobby sighed.  “We have an old friend in Omaha, someone who used to work with us before you joined.  Chimney called in a favor, we’re heading up there now to see if we can convince him.  Hen and Eddie are joining us tomorrow.”

Buck frowned.  A new driver?  He was still getting used to Ravi being on the team and he’d known the kid for two years now.

“Who?”

——

Tommy Kinard was not what Buck had been expecting.  He’d left the team a year before Buck joined so he’d only ever heard stories about him.  Along with only one kind of blurry picture of the team before he’d joined and started documenting their travels much better he really didn’t know what to expect.  Chim’s stories of the man had always seemed larger than life and had him maybe expecting this loud brash man with a bit of an ego because he knew how much of a badass he was and carried himself like so.

The Tommy Kinard standing in front of him was not like that.

Yes, he was as big and broad shouldered as Buck had imagined him, with a handsome face that was dusted with a few days old stubble.  His eyes were a deep blue that threatened to drown him the longer he looked.  

But he had a gentle thoughtfulness around him as he reached forward to take Buck’s hand.

“Hi, I’m Tommy, sounds like I’m gonna be your driver for the season.” He smiled as Buck shook his hand.  His hands were rough and warm and his teeth were so white and his eyes crinkled at the corners making Buck’s insides go a little melty.  It was a little overwhelming to have all of Tommy Kinard’s attention on him.  

You can drive me anywhere you want, Buck wanted to say.  Instead he stuttered out a quick, “E-Evan.  My name is Evan Buckley.”

“Nice to meet you, Evan,” Tommy said, his smile widening into a grin, crinkling his eyes even more.  Behind him Buck ignored the puzzled look on Chimney’s face.  He was still shaking his hand and Buck let go carefully to not seem like a freak when his hand started to get clammy.  He pulled his hand back to grip the duffle bag strap across his chest.  

“Uh, yeah, ni-nice to meet you too, Tommy.” Buck smiled, his tongue felt like it was stuck in his throat.  

“Are you hungry?  We can stop and get you something on the way back to the house,” Tommy said, turning towards the door and for some reason the angle drew Buck’s eyes down to the man’s chin.

Why was the cleft so hot?

He swore he physically felt the record scratch in his brain.

Wait what?

Why did he think that was hot?  

Huh.  

Well it seemed like this was going to be a thing.

“Evan?”  Chimney hissed at him as they trailed after Tommy following him out to his truck.  

“Shut up.” Buck hissed back, his face feeling hot to the point his glasses were starting to fog a bit.  “I’ve been at my parent’s all weekend, it’s all I’ve heard.”

“Suuure.” Chimney drawled, popping his gum at him before jogging to catch up with Tommy.  

Buck still trailed behind them a bit to sort his thoughts.  His eyes drifted down to Tommy’s ass, perfectly hugged by the jeans he was wearing—

He sighed.

This was gonna be a long summer.

——

“I can’t believe Sal just upped and quit right in the middle of the craziest tornado season we’ve had in years,” Evan said, and took a giant bite of the California burrito Tommy handed him as he drove away from the 24 hour Mexican place a few blocks away from his house.

“I can,” Tommy and Howie said at the same time, sharing a glance as Tommy turned back onto the main road.  

Listen, Tommy liked Sal.  Maybe even loved the guy.  He was the first best friend he’d ever had back when they were dumb teenagers in high school getting into all kinds of trouble.  Sal had saved his life on more than one occasion even if he didn’t fully understand that.  Tommy owed him a lot.  

But that didn’t change the fact that Sal was the most temperamental son of a bitch he’d ever known.

“Like obviously I knew he and Bobby have had their problems, but I thought he might have waited until the end of the season.  Like, did you know that this time last year there had been 589 confirmed tornadoes and by the end of the summer there were 836?” Evan rambled as he took another bite of the burrito, his words going muffled for a few moments before he swallowed.  “This year alone there have been 1,097 confirmed tornadoes.  That’s insane .  We haven’t seen a storm season like this in years.  It could potential rival 2011 and 2004 for most tornadoes on record— and the tornadoes themselves have been crazy—”

Evan kept rambling and Tommy couldn’t help but hang onto his every word.   When Bobby and Howie showed up on his doorstep earlier this evening he didn’t think this is how his night would go, but damn if he wasn’t happy about it.  

“The tornadoes this spring have been more intense than any other in the last five years.” Another bite, some chewing, and a swallow and then— “I still think we had our first EF-5 since 2013.  Everything I wrote in my senior paper for my undergrad still stands I think the whole Fujita scale needs to be overhauled—”

“Buck, why don’t you take a break and breathe?  Maybe chew your food?  Bobby would kill me if you choked on my watch,” Howie said.

In the rear view mirror Tommy watched as Evan stuck his tongue out at the back of Howie’s head before taking another vicious bite of his burrito.  He snorted and turned his eyes back to the road as he approached his neighborhood.  

“Where is Bobby anyway?”  Evan asked.  

“Athena’s in town,” Howie said.

“Ah.”

“Yeah, Hen and Eddie don’t get into town until tomorrow.  So he’s staying the night at her hotel while we’re stuck with Tommy at his old house.”  Chimney explained.  “We’ll probably take a day to regroup and then head out.”

“Hey now.”  Tommy said, pulling into his driveway and looking up at the old split level house that had once belonged to his grandmother in her later years.  “It may be old but it’s still mine.”

“I’m sure it’s great, Tommy,” Evan said quickly, unbuckling his belt.  “Thanks for letting us stay on such short notice.”

“Anything for an old friend,” Tommy said.  And maybe a new one.

There was a loud bark that startled Tommy when he opened the door that was quickly followed by an excited squeal of “DANNY!” As Evan dropped to his knees in the tiny foyer to greet the golden retriever.  He forgot they had also shown up with “Buck’s dog”.  The large golden lumbered down the stairs and nearly knocked Evan on his back.  All while Tommy and Howie were left standing on the porch.  

Tommy waited patiently and even Howie kept quiet as the golden licked all over Evan’s face as his tail wagged excitedly to see his person.  He could tell that Evan needed this.  

Another head popped around the corner from his kitchen… Ravi, he was pretty sure.  

“Hey Buck!  How was your trip?” Ravi asked.

“Hey Probie,” Evan said standing up.  His face shuttered and he was back to the heavy tiredness that had dragged his shoulders down when Tommy first saw him in the airport.  He decided he didn’t like that look on Evan, the easy smiles were much better.  “The trip was fine, really quick there and back.”

Howie was frowning and pulling his phone out as Tommy kicked his boots off by the front door and followed them up the stairs.  

“So I’ve already claimed the guest bedroom.” Howie declared, tapping away at his phone. “You two can fight it out over who gets the pull out couch and who gets the air mattress.”

“Um, have you seen Buck?  I’m not getting into that argument with him again.” Ravi sighed, already reaching for the box the air mattress was in that Tommy had left on the coffee table.

And yes, Tommy had seen him, thank you very much.  He couldn’t stop seeing him.  He would certainly be seeing Evan in his dreams tonight.

He didn’t know if he had met anyone who could be more his type.  Tall, broad shouldered, the bluest eyes and a killer smile that could put him on his knees.  He just seemed so genuine and fun and he was smart too, spitting out facts quicker than Tommy could keep up with.  Tommy had only known Evan for an hour, but he liked to think he was good at reading people after so many years of bartending, and Evan seemed like the best kind of person.

He’d said yes when Howie and Bobby had asked if he could be their driver for the rest of the season but he’d still been a little uncertain about getting back out there.  But for a chance to get to know Evan better?  He’d be their driver until he couldn’t drive anymore.

——

“Hey Mads.” Buck smiled when his sister appeared on the screen.  “I’ve missed you.  How are you feeling?”

Maddie smiled back at him.  “Feeling really good.  I think I am truly past the last of the morning sickness and Albert’s been a big help now that I’ve grown to the size of a hot air balloon.”

“Oh come on, you’re not that big.” Buck laughed lightly.

“Tell that to my back.” Maddie huffed.  

They talked about mundane things for a few more minutes before Maddie finally asked the question he knew was coming ever since she texted and asked to video call him.

“How are you doing?  Really?  I’m sorry I couldn’t come with you.”

“No, Maddie, it’s okay.  Don’t apologize.  I know you don’t like going back there.  You don’t need the stress.”

“You don’t like going out there either, Evan,” Maddie said quietly.  “I don’t know why you keep doing this to yourself.”

“You know why I do it.” He replied quietly, looking away over Tommy’s yard and watching the lightning bugs blink in the bushes.

“He wouldn’t want you to put yourself through that.  He wouldn’t want you to keep punishing yourself.”

“Well we don’t always get what we want do we?” Buck said harshly.  Maddie frowned at him and he winced.  “Sorry, I didn’t mean it like that.”

“It’s okay.”

They were quiet for a few moments and the wind rustled the trees in the yard.  The warm summer breeze was soothing as it washed over him.  He would never admit it but the humidity wasn’t all that bad, not when it felt like this… like Daniel was still around.  He picked at the old worn bracelet around his wrist.

“Did Chim tell you what we were having?” Maddie asked suddenly.

Evan’s face broke into a grin, cracking through the melancholy.  Chim had hollered “It’s a girl!” at him the moment he’d stepped through security.  “It was the first thing he shouted at me when he picked me up at the airport. Congrats!  I can’t wait to meet my niece.”

“Well you stay smart this summer and you’ll be able to come meet her when she gets here in October.”  Maddie smiled and Buck could see her hand rubbing over the top of her belly.  She let out a big yawn.

“It’s getting late.  I should let you go to bed.”

“It’s later where you are and I know you still want to talk.” Maddie had always been able to read him like an open book.  It had been annoying sometimes, but he was thankful he had her as his big sister.  

“I’m not the one who’s five months pregnant.  Go get some sleep, we’ll talk more tomorrow.”

Maddie bid him good night and he closed his eyes and leaned back in the patio chair and just listened to the air.

He did this sometimes.  Chim and Eddie would tease him about it, calling him the “atmosphere whisperer” which was not clever at all; they could definitely do better.  He would tease back and ask if his whispering had let them down yet (it hadn’t).  You could have all the scientific equipment in the world but sometimes you just needed to listen to what the forces of nature had to say. 

He didn’t know how long he sat there until he felt a cold wet nose nudge his arm and a soft whine.  He cracked an eye open and let out a yawn rubbing at his eyes, geez he might have actually fallen asleep.  

Danny was sitting on his haunches in front of him, head in his lap, and Tommy Kinard was standing behind him, arms folded across his chest.  

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to bother you.  Your dog was getting a little antsy watching you out here,” Tommy said.  

“Oh, no you’re okay.  Sorry, about that, he has some separation anxiety and I’ve been gone for a couple of days.”  Buck leaned forward to scratch behind Danny’s ears.  The golden retriever perked up and his tail started wagging across the deck behind him.  

“That’s what Howie was saying.”  Tommy sat down on the chair next to him.   “Mind if I…?”

“It’s your house, dude.” Buck chuckled.  “We’re the ones totally taking over your space.”

“Ah it’s fine.” Tommy smiled, his eyes twinkling in the dim porch light as he looked over at Buck.  “It’s not the first time Howie has invaded my life and turned it upside down.”

“Yeah?  How’d you meet? “

“Howie spun out on a dirt road and absolutely destroyed one of the chasing cars they had in the way early days before the RV.  They brought it into my shop and the thing was a piece of junk anyway, there was no saving it and I told them they needed a better driver—” 

“Literally anyone is a better driver than Chim.”

“I know.” Tommy laughed and it made Buck feel warm.  Danny wandered over to the other man and Tommy scratched the top of his head.  “Bobby asked me if I wanted to be that driver.”

“Just like that?”

“Well, I had known Sal since we were kids and I think he might have set up the whole thing.    I was kind of listless after the Army— barely had my GED, no idea what I wanted out of life and Sal knew that.”  Tommy sighed, smoothing back the fur on the top of Danny’s head.  “I loved it, feeling like I was part of something again.”

“Why’d you quit?” Buck asked.

“My grandma got sick.”  Tommy shrugged.  He was playing with Danny’s ears now, rubbing his thumbs across them while the golden practically fell asleep in his lap.  “She had been sick before and she was getting bad fast so I came back to help her with the bar and spend time with her.  She died about three years ago and now I run the bar.  It’s good, keeps me busy.”

Buck nodded along even though he couldn’t imagine a life where he wasn’t out there doing what he loved.  He did like listening to Tommy talk though, even with the faint wistfulness that echoed after each of his stories.

He was in the middle of telling Tommy a story of his own, from their chasing season last year about Eddie and how he got stuck in mud up to his thighs and they had to call the fire department to come get him, when he let out a jaw shattering yawn.

“Jesus, sorry.” Buck let out another yawn and raised his hand to cover it.

“Don’t be.” Tommy waved him off and went to stand.  Danny, who had long settled into a spot between both of their chairs stood up and stretched out his back.  “It’s late and Howie told me you had a long day today.”

Buck stood up with him and stretched his arms above his head, he still felt stiff from the four hours of flying and layover he had.  He was exhausted but at least his headache was gone.  “What time is it even?” He asked, looking around for his phone.

“2:17,” Tommy said before letting out his own yawn.  

Buck’s eyes went wide.  He’d been on the phone with Maddie at 10:00 and it wasn’t even that long of a call.  He hadn’t even realized how late it was.

“What!  You should have told me to shut up and let you go to bed or something,” Buck said.  “I’m so sorry—”

“Evan, relax.” Tommy chuckled lowly.  “I regularly work until 2 in the morning.  If I wasn’t enjoying myself I would have said something.  I didn’t realize how late it was either, if anything I shouldn’t have kept you up.”

Buck frowned at him.  That didn’t seem right.  “I—”

“Trust me, Evan,” Tommy said and there was something about the way he said his name that sent a tingle up his spine.  “I liked listening to you talk and if you didn’t notice you let me talk just as much.”

“That feels like a lie, but I’ll take your word for it.” Buck smiled.

Tommy slid the glass door open to let Danny in and stood by to wait for Buck.  There was a broad smile on his face.  

“Thank you,” he said and Tommy would never know but he wasn’t talking about the door.  It’d been nice to talk to someone who didn’t know where he’d been the past weekend.  Someone who wasn’t waiting for him to fall apart after the visit to his parents.  It made him feel real again.

——

The skies were blue and the sun was shining and not a cloud was in sight when Hen and Eddie arrived the next day around noon with Bobby and the RV.  

He’d woken up late in the morning to the sun in his face, streaming in through the big windows in Tommy’s living room and the smell of bacon and something cinnamon-y in the air.  He yawned and sat up stretching his arms, the springs in the pullout couch creaking along with the cracks of his spine.  

For an old pull out sofa bed it wasn’t half bad, though he might need Hen to massage the knots out of his back later when she was around.  It was better than an air mattress at least, he never slept when he was on one of those things.  

He let out a jaw cracking yawn and swung his legs over the edge of the mattress to the floor.  He was still yawning as he shuffled into the kitchen to find Chimney sitting at the table eating and talking with Tommy who was standing at the stove still cooking.  Danny’s head was sitting in Chimney’s lap, begging for a piece of bacon.  

Chimney had no doubt already given him a piece or four.

“Good morning sleepyhead.”  Chimney grinned.  

Buck hummed and sat down at the table right as a steaming mug of coffee was put in front of him.  

“Morning Evan!” Tommy smiled.  “How do you take your eggs?”

“Uh…” He blinked at the mug of coffee as his brain tried valiantly to boot up faster.  “Scrambled is okay.”  He blinked at the coffee again and perked up a bit when he saw some hazelnut creamer.  “Um, thanks Tommy.”

“No problem!”  He said cheerily over his shoulder, turning back towards the stove.  

Danny momentarily came over to him sniffing at him to see if he had any food before moving to sit next to Tommy by the stove.  Buck smiled as Tommy reached down and patted the dog on the head.

“Am I the last one up?”  He yawned, turning to look at Chimney.

“Yeah.” Chim nodded, scooping the last of his eggs off the plate and into his mouth.  “Ravi’s in the shower,” he said, standing up to rinse his plate off.

Buck nodded and tried to rub the last of the tiredness from his eyes.   He took another sip of his coffee and thought about everything he needed to do today mentally making a to-do list in his head.  He’d have to go get his planner out of his bag when he was a little more awake.

“Not a morning person?” Tommy asked, setting a plate down in front of Buck and taking Chimney’s spot with his own plate of food and reaching for the syrup at the center of the table.

“Uh, depends actually,” he said.  “I’m not usually up until odd hours of the morning.”

“Well I hope breakfast can make up for that.” Tommy smiled at him and Buck smiled back.  

Danny dropped his head down on his lap heavily with a whine causing Buck to look down at him.  Buck scratched behind his ears, flopping them over his eyes with a coo.  “You don’t need anymore bacon, buddy.”

Danny gave him a small bark but stayed settled in his lap.

On their plates were scrambled eggs, a few strips of bacon, and a couple small slices of French toast.  

“This looks great ,Tommy, you didn’t have to do this,” Buck said, picking up the fork Tommy had left on the plate.  

Tommy just shrugged.  “I have some food I need to use up before we hit the road, whatever we don’t use today I’ll leave with my bar manager tonight when I stop by.”

“Sorry for interrupting your life like this.” He apologized.  

“Not your fault Sal’s a temperamental asshole.  Besides I owed Howie a favor.”  Tommy replied with a small laugh.

Buck wanted to hear it again.

“Oh?”

Tommy’s lips quirked up on one side.  “Howie saved my life about eight years ago when a twister suddenly turned the opposite direction it had been tracking—” Buck’s eyes widened and he wanted to know more, but he kept quiet and let Tommy keep talking.  “We were stuck in the middle of a field, half a mile away from the truck with a tornado coming straight at us.  We took off running when suddenly Howie drags me to the side and throws me in an irrigation ditch and jumps in right next to me.”  

“Oh wow.”

“Yeah, we got far enough to the side that the tornado went by us instead of over us but it was still one of the scariest moments of my life.”

Buck could understand that.  The scariest moment of his life had also involved a tornado.

“So there we are, half drowning in mud, bruised to hell from flying debris when Howie sits up and looks at me and goes ‘You owe me for that’,” Tommy laughs brightly and Buck feels warm on the inside.  “I’ve probably paid him back about ten times over at this point, but I could never say no to him.”

They continued to chat while they ate and Buck soaked up everything he could learn about the other man.  So far he knew that Tommy was an only child.  He owned a bar that his grandmother had started as a safe space for the lesbian community in the early 80s.  He’d lived in Nebraska for his whole life save for the few years he was in the Army and stationed in Virginia before being deployed to Iraq twice.  And when he smiled he did it with his whole face.

He was just so interesting. 

He really hoped they could be friends this summer.

“Bobby’s here!” Chimney called from down the hall a few moments before the doorbell rang and Tommy stood to get it.  

Buck watched him cross the room and jog down the stairs to the door.  His ass looked just as good in those sweats as they did in jeans.  Yeah that was definitely going to be a thing wasn’t it?

He let out a sigh and below the table Danny echoed it, forlorn at being denied more bacon.

A moments later Bobby’s face appeared at the stairs with Hen and Eddie close behind and his face cracked into a smile, his minorly inconvenient crisis temporarily forgotten.

——

“Tommy, do you still have the truck?”  Chimney asked once Buck was freshly showered and they were all sitting around Tommy’s dining room table discussing the goals and plans for the rest of the season.

“Of course I still have the truck.” Tommy scoffed, cuffing Chimney on the shoulder.  “It’s out back in the other garage.”

“You have two garages?” Buck asked.

“I have two trucks.”  Tommy replied simply like that explained everything.  Buck wouldn’t know, he wasn’t a car guy, but Eddie was nodding along like that made complete sense.

“This is the best storm chasing truck ever,” Chim said as Tommy led them all out to the back garage.  “This thing has gotten us out of more jams than you would believe.”

“Are you counting the bar fight in—” Tommy started as he unlocked the padlock.

“Yes I’m counting the bar fight,” Chimney said.

“I didn’t know if we were gonna end the night in a jail cell or hospital bed.” Hen laughed and Bobby shook his head with a huff.

Buck watched them all go back and forth, feeling completely lost, and by the looks on Eddie and Ravi’s faces they felt the same, which made him feel better at least.

Tommy rolled the door of the garage upwards to reveal a brilliantly blue painted truck with a big bull bar across the front bumper and an extra set of lights across the top.  It was an older model of the truck Tommy had driven them home in last night but it looked to be in pristine condition.  

“There she is.” Chimney sighed and Buck elbowed him in the arm.

“Am I gonna have to tell my sister she got her man stolen by a truck?”

He laughed as Chimney started smacking him with one of the nearby work rags.  Danny started barking at him, thinking it was a game until Buck grabbed his ball and threw it across the yard a few times while Tommy, Eddie, and Chimney discussed any modifications that needed to be made to the truck and Buck listened with half an ear.

The three of them were still talking about the truck when Buck’s arm started to get tired and he needed a rest.  He headed back into the house where Bobby and Hen had long since retreated, both sitting at the table with their laptops open in front of them.  Buck smiled at them and after making sure his water bottle was full of water sat down next to Bobby where he still had a good view of the back garage.  Chim was waving his hand wildly making Tommy and Eddie both laugh.

“The boys are still talking about their toys?” Hen asked dryly with a raised eyebrow.

Buck huffed.  “I think so?  I honestly did not understand half of what was coming out of their mouths and I helped Chimney and Eddie out all the time!”

Chim and Eddie were their resident engineers.  They built most of what they used every day from scratch and improved upon the stuff they hadn’t.  They had brought to life several of Buck’s ideas over the years.  

He and Bobby were the meteorologists, reading the radars and looking at all the variables to figure out where the best storms would be brewing.  They were the ones who decided where they went and what storms to chase.  He’d known Bobby since his undergrad years when the man had taken him under his wing, all the way up through his doctoral studies mentoring him the entire way.  He didn’t know where he would be without Bobby.  

Hen was a climatologist.  She was researching all the ways climate change was affecting the weather patterns and creating stronger and more violent storms every year and what they could do to reverse it.

Ravi was their meteorologist in training.  He was in his third year of his undergraduate studies.  Buck had taught one of his entry level science courses his freshman year as part of his own doctorate work and they’d been friends ever since.  He was in his summer internship and still a little wary of actually chasing the storms but he seemed to be doing good so far.  

He could hear him in the other room muttering to himself while he studied.  He was a good kid.

Over the next few hours between reading radars and models and atmospheric measurements he and Bobby decided that their best bet would likely be in Oklahoma over the next few days which gave them enough time to finish here and drive the six hours south to get ready for the chase the following day.  

Eventually Tommy, Eddie, and Chim all returned indoors declaring that the truck would only need a few minor modifications to get it fully ready which would take them a week or so but it would at least be ready for a chase or two.

With their plans decided and ready to be set into motion the next day, Bobby went back to Athena’s hotel and the rest of them decided to trail after Tommy to have a chill night at his bar.

——

“You sure it’s okay that I do this?”  Tommy asked as he finished looking over the books one last time to make sure everything was in order before he was gone for the next two and a half months.  He hadn’t been away from the bar this long since he’d taken over.

“Yes, Tommy.”  Melton, his bar manager, said.  He’d worked with Tommy’s grandmother and knew the ins and outs of the business better than even he did.  “We’ll be fine.  This will be good for you.”

“You excited, boss?” Lucy asked.  He would never tell her but she was one of his favorite bartenders on the nights she wasn’t studying for her masters degree.  

His eyes drifted over to the booth where his friends were sitting, old and hopefully new, laughing together as Evan exaggeratedly waved his arms and told a story.  

Hen and Howie were as stalwart as ever, it was something that he liked about them, they adapted and grew when they needed to but their core always remained the same.  

He and Eddie had clicked faster than he’d probably ever clicked with anybody after finding they had several shared interests from cars to UFC and probably several more they would discover over the next few months.

Ravi seemed like a good kid.  He liked him.  He hadn’t talked to him much yet but he seemed enthusiastic about what he was doing with his life, which is more than Tommy could say about his own life.  

Bobby had seemed the same as ever but settled with himself in a way he’d never seen before.  

And then there was Evan.

Tommy tried really hard to keep it together around the man, but every time Evan turned those inquisitive blue eyes and bright smile his way he could feel his heart start stuttering rapidly in his chest.  He hadn’t been lying when he told Evan that he’d been enjoying himself the night before on his back porch.  Evan was so easy to talk to that he hadn’t realized four hours had gone by until they started yawning.

“Ohhhh,” Lucy said.

He whipped his head back towards her with a withering glare. 

“Oh what?” Melton asked, looking up from where he’d been double checking the books for Tommy.  His gaze followed Lucy’s and Tommy saw the moment understanding dawned in his eyes. “Ohhhh.”

“Shut up.”

“The boss has a crush!”  Lucy squealed.

“Keep your voice down!” Tommy whispered loudly at her, his face flaming, but he could still hear the others laughing on the other side of the bar completely unaware.

“This will be really good for you then.” Lucy grinned before it softened into a more friendly smile.  “He seems nice.”

Tommy glanced back towards where Evan was currently gathering everyone’s empty glasses and discarded trash.  When he turned around to see Tommy looking at him he smiled brightly.  Tommy smiled back.

“Oh you got it bad.” Lucy giggled (which she would vehemently deny) and Tommy rolled his eyes at her.  He could feel the tips of his ears burning.

“Shut up,” He said again because he couldn’t argue.  Evan walked up to them with a bright smile asking for another round.  He did have it bad.

Chapter Text

Buck is cranky.  

He knows it, Danny knows it, everyone knows it.  

His eyes feel gritty, he has a crick in his neck, and he feels slightly nauseous but he’s pretty sure it’s just because he hasn’t been sleeping very well the last week or so.

He’d been anxious leading up to the trip to Pennsylvania.  He’d been tense and sensitive bordering on hyper vigilant the entire two days he’d been at his parents.   He actually got a decent night’s rest that first night at Tommy’s house but then last night he had to share the pull out couch with Eddie and Danny.  

It was decent when it was just him and Danny, and Danny had jumped to the floor half way through the night.

It was not decent when it was two six foot men and one seventy pound golden retriever with abandonment issues.  Danny loved Eddie and had stayed on the pull out with them all night.

He thinks it's just a combination of all that pouring into his sour mood this morning.  He’d actually been in a pretty good mood this morning after a quick stop at Costco to load up the RV with snacks and supplies.

He’d also been pretty good for the first half of the six and a half hour drive until they had pulled over at some gas station in the middle of Kansas for a quick break.  He’d been walking Danny around the pet away when Tommy and Eddie came out of the gas station laughing together.

Something cold he didn’t understand washed over him.

He watched them walk over to Tommy’s truck at the gas pump.  Where Tommy started unhooking the pump.

“Buck!”  Eddie grinned, jogging over to him.  “Want me to take him so you can get a break?”

Buck, who had been staring at Tommy, blinked at him.  “W-what?”

“Danny?  Want me to take Danny so you can take a break?”  Eddie repeated.

“O-oh yeah… yeah that would be nice,” He said, handing him the leash.  “Thanks Eddie.”

“No problem man.  You doing okay?”

“Yeah… why wouldn’t I be?”

“I don’t know, just another traumatizing weekend with your parents while reliving the most traumatizing moment of your childhood really takes it out of a guy.”

Buck let out a laugh that sounded more like a bark.  “Well we can’t all repress our emotions.”

“Ohh ouch.” Eddie hissed jokingly.  “That was cold man, but I get it.  You know you can talk to me, right?”

They had this conversation about once every six months.  Sometimes Eddie gave the speech, sometimes it was Buck, but every six months almost like clockwork one of them would be dealing with something they should probably go to therapy for and turn to each other instead.

Buck gave him a tired smile.  “Yeah, I know Eds, thanks.”

“What are best friends for if not joking about our screwed up childhoods?” Eddie laughed and that got Buck to actually laugh too.  What were best friends for indeed.  They’d come a long way since that first day four years ago when Bobby had brought Eddie onto the team and Buck had spent most of the first week hissing at him like an offended cat.

He clapped Eddie on the back and headed for the gas station to use the restroom.  When he came back out he saw Eddie and Tommy laughing again by the pet area while they all waited on him.  

That cold feeling washed over him even harder.  

Once they were on the road again, Bobby had the AC on full blast and Buck hunkered in the corner under his hoodie and big headphones to study the model predictions for tomorrow in Oklahoma.  

Only he couldn’t, for the life of him, focus on anything.  Which was stupid, he’d taken his meds, drank lots of water, he was even wearing his glasses before the headache formed, but he still couldn’t focus.

He was probably still upset by what went down at his parents house this past weekend.  He actually was definitely still upset by it but there had been no time to tell anyone what had happened.  

And now Eddie and Tommy seemed to be getting along so well, way better and way faster than Buck and Eddie had and he didn’t know how to feel about that either.  It was more than okay that Eddie was friends with Tommy.  He just felt all sorts of scrambled right now and he definitely needed to actually sleep tonight or he’d be useless tomorrow.

He hooked the old bracelet that hung from his left hand between his thumb and forefinger, twisting it around as he tried to focus back on his maps and models.   The familiar feel of the worn cord and thread calmed him a bit as he continued to rub his fingers over it again and again as his eyes darted over familiar images.

——

“You okay kid?” Bobby asked when they were about a block away from the hotel, stopped on a random corner so Danny could sniff the base of the street sign.

“I don’t know.” Buck sighed, feeling a little shaky on the inside in the way he always did when Bobby showed that he cared.  He’d always cared ever since Buck had met the man ten years and he started bringing “leftovers” to their office hours and fed him like a scared cat until Buck started to trust him.   

Bobby was the dad he never had and he would say that to his own father’s face— he hadn’t but one of these days he was gonna snap.  

“You seem a bit more worn out than normal after going back there,” Bobby said as they started walking again.  “Anything you want to talk about?”

He was silent for several long moments just watching Danny’s tail sway in front of him as they walked.

“They packed up his bedroom.” 

“Daniel’s?”

“It’s been twenty years, why now?”  He asked.  He still couldn’t believe it.  “It’s empty.  It’s all gone.  Like he was never even there.   They didn’t even keep any of his stuff, not that I could find.  They didn’t—” He took a deep breath, he was getting angry now.  “They didn’t ask if I wanted any of it.  I couldn’t even find a picture of him on the wall, Bobby.  It’s like they wiped the fact that he existed out of their lives. I still haven’t told Maddie, I don’t even know how I’m gonna tell her.”  His eyes were stinging and his mother’s shrill voice ringing in his ears.  

You don’t know what it’s like— a loss like that.  Like he hadn’t been living with the loss for twenty-one years.

And his father’s calmer but still condescending voice.  You know grief is a funny thing son.

There was nothing funny about it.  

“They act like they’re the only ones who lost him.   But he was my brother, Maddie’s brother, he had friends.”  Buck still talked to Daniel’s best friend from high school.  They checked in on each other, sent each other Christmas cards, followed each other’s Instagram— that kind of stuff.  But the two of them also visited Daniel’s grave every year, two days after Buck’s birthday, on the day he’d died.  

“He was my big brother.  He meant everything to me.” Buck whispered, as he slowed to a stop in the middle of the sidewalk. A tear broke free of his lashes and tracked down his cheek, he reached up to scrub at his eyes.  “And it doesn’t mean anything to them.”  

Not like Buck had ever meant anything to them, but after years of being blamed for his death just for them to act like he was never there?  It hurt like an open wound that was never going to close with how they always picked at it.  

Bobby pulled him in for a hug, wrapping his arms around his back as Buck cried.  He’d promised himself he’d never cry in front of his parents again when he was eight and missing his big brother a year after he was gone.  They had acted like he was wrong for grieving his brother.  

But Bobby had always been different and so Buck leaned heavily on his shoulder and cried the tears he’d held in for the last four days all while Bobby hugged him tight.  

He stood there for a few long minutes until Danny started tugging on his leash instead of sniffing him and whining like he was trying to figure out what was wrong.  He winced as he pulled away and saw a large visible dark spot on Bobby’s t-shirt. 

“Sorry.”

Bobby huffed at him and wrapped an arm around his shoulder, squeezing his neck as they started walking again.  “Nothing to be sorry for, kid.  You know that.”

Yeah, he did.  

The next time he laughed as Danny got his leash wrapped around a pole his heart hurt a little less.  

——

Eddie gave him a look when he and Bobby met them at the sports bar around the corner from the hotel for dinner a little while later.  

Bobby had changed his shirt and Buck knew he didn’t look super great but at least he wasn’t  weeping all over Bobby anymore.  

He gave them all an unconvincing grin and asked how long the wait was.

No one looked convinced, not even Tommy.  

The hostess came and got them a few minutes later and led them to a large corner booth that was going to be a tight squeeze.  It was a weekend night and the restaurant was already packed though so Buck slid in first to the back corner like he always did.  Eddie slid in on his right like normal and Tommy slid in on his left which was new but not unwelcome.  

Everyone else slid into the booth until finally Eddie and Tommy were both pressed up against him.  He was used to being this close to Eddie after years of close friendship, it was comfortable.  

He was very aware of the solid line of heat Tommy was pressed to him from knee to elbow; it was comfortable in a way he couldn’t explain.

They ordered their drinks and appetizers and continued browsing the menu while chatting about the drive that day and the likely chance of thunderstorms tomorrow.  He’d just decided on a crispy barbecue chicken wrap when Tommy started shifting next to him.   

“Sorry— do you mind?” He asked as he lifted the arm that had been pressed against Buck up and behind him across the back of the booth behind his head.  “I just need to stretch out a bit.”

“Uh y-yeah no… no I don’t mind,” Buck said, trying desperately to keep the red from crawling up his neck and into his cheeks.  Based on the raised eyebrow from Hen on the other side of Eddie he was not successful.  He quickly grabbed his ice water and downed it one go.  

It only helped a bit, he was hyper aware of Tommy’s arm brushing against the back of his neck as he shifted a bit to talk to Bobby.  

“You good?”  Eddie asked, so quietly only Buck heard him.

“W-what?”  

“You seemed a little upset earlier.” Eddie hummed, still browsing the menu.  “Anything you need to talk about?”

Oh right, he had been crying hysterically earlier, of course Eddie was going to notice especially after the gas station earlier.  Honestly everything had slipped out of his brain the second Tommy put his arm around him. 

Okay not necessarily around him, but it was a close thing.  

It was like mental and emotional whiplash the way he’d flipped flopped between all kinds of emotions today.

“I think I have whiplash,” Buck said a little louder than he meant to. 

Eddie looked up at him alarmed and Tommy also turned to look at him.  His arm rubbing against the back of his head again.

“What?”

“Do you need to see a doctor, Buck?”

“When did this happen?”

“Are you okay?”

Buck wanted to slide under the table.  “Yeah— s-sorry.  I’m okay.” He waved them all off and dragged a hand down his face.  “Just… I’m just tired, it’s been a long couple of days.”

He was saved from saying anymore as the waitress reappeared to take their food orders and everyone got distracted by the prospect of real food for the first time all day.  Everyone except one— Buck glanced to the side to see Tommy watching him carefully until it was his turn to order. 

“Soooo Buck,” Chimney drawled.  “How are the calculations coming for our drone?”

“Drone?”  Tommy asked.

Buck perked up.  He always loved talking about his work.  “Yeah!  We’re building a drone to try and predict where a tornado is going to occur, what direction it will go, and how powerful it might be— among other things but those are the big three.”

“Can’t you do that with a regular radar system?” Tommy pointed out.

Buck grinned at him.  “You can, but we’re trying to do more than that.  Right now most tornado warnings aren’t called until it’s already halfway to the ground.  We’re talking about knowing the exact time a tornado will form, exactly where it goes, the highest wind speed possible.  The drone is just a prototype measuring tool to help us find the most likely parts of a supercell system to turn tornadic before it happens.” 

Tommy nodded along.  “So you want to be able to call out the tornadoes before they happen instead of as they happen.” He said, basically repeating what Buck said but in way fewer words.

“Yes!” Buck said, and he wished he had his journal so he could show him the work.  “Our main goal is to extend warning times and accurately predict where the most danger might be, especially for people who might not be able to get to safety as fast or as easy as others.”

“You're very passionate about this,”  Tommy said.

Buck felt the blush bloom across his face.  “I just… think safety should be accessible to everyone, you know?”

“That’s our Buckaroo.”  Hen smiled.  “Always looking out for others.”

“Which is why you’re also working on handicap accessible storm shelters with Eddie right?”  Tommy asked.

“Eddie told you about those?”

“Only for about four hours of the drive here.” Tommy chuckled and Eddie just shrugged unashamed.  Buck knew he could have easily gone on for another four hours.  “I know a lot about material durability and the pros and cons of concrete vs fiberglass against an EF-5 now.”

“As you should,” Eddie said.

Tommy asked him more about the drone and he spent the rest of the dinner explaining their thought process for designing it so it would survive being battered by the strong winds of the wall cloud.  Talking through bites of his chicken wrap about how he’d been working on this with Chim for the better part of four years. 

He went to bed that night feeling happy for the first time in days, being able to ramble about his projects to someone who didn’t already know about them?  Danny snuggled up against his back as he flipped through his journal notes, thinking about how Tommy never looked away from him the entire night.  He didn’t even spare a thought for his parents as he fell asleep with those deep blue eyes in his mind.

——

They regrouped in the morning over some Costco muffins and protein shakes and decided that going about an hour west of Oklahoma City would be their best bet for the day, and as they approached the small town gas station to top off the tanks they knew they had made the right decision.

The sky was wide open before them, sunny and blue behind them to the east and dark and foreboding in front of them to the west.  The supercell before them was incredible.  Giant fluffy clouds towered several miles into the atmosphere fanning out at the top in the shape of an anvil.  Lightning sparked across the formation and even from miles away they could hear the thunder roll.  

Tommy didn’t know all the big scientific words for the storm but he had lived in the Midwest for damn near his whole life.  He knew a tornado producing storm when he saw one. 

So did Evan apparently if the way he couldn’t stop buzzing around all of them was any indication he was pestering all of them until Bobby called him over to look at some models and Tommy missed all the questions Evan had been asking about the truck.

He was standing in the open door of the driver's seat while Eddie was doing the same on the passenger side checking the flood lights across the top of the cab.  Howie was currently under the truck making sure the bumper was reinforced.  They likely weren’t going to get too close to any actual tornado today, but with how quickly things could change it was better to be prepared.

The extra lights and reinforced bumper were two things Tommy always chased with.  Car accidents were more dangerous than tornadoes for most chasers and especially with Evan and Eddie in the truck with him he wasn’t taking any extra chances with their safety then they had to.  

Eddie gave him the all good for his side and he hopped down and closed the door to find Evan, Bobby, and Ravi crowded around the tailgate looking at the radar for the developing storm.  As Tommy was going to join them and see if he could learn something new (it was cute when Evan got all excited while explaining something to him) several cars, a large white van and one of the biggest pickup trucks he’d ever seen also pulled into the gas station lot.  

“Oh you gotta be kidding me.” Eddie muttered under his breath and when Tommy turned to ask him what was happening he was shocked to see Sal DeLuca step out of the truck with none other than Vincent Gerrard at his side.

He hadn’t even realized the man was still alive let alone chasing.  But to see Sal of all people standing next to him after every horrible thing he’d said to all of them?  That hurt.

Sal looked surprised to see him though, and Tommy took some small satisfaction at the fact that he couldn’t even look at him.  

“What’s all this then?” Bobby asked guardedly as they were approached by the two men plus another blond Tommy didn’t recognize.  

“This is the first season of Thunder Trackers brought to you by J.H. Studios.” A new voice said as a woman with fiery red hair exited one of the cars, her nose scrunched in disgust as she looked around the wide open country all around them.  “The name is still pending.  Trackers will be bringing the latest cutting edge technology in the midst of the most unprecedented tornado season in years.  It’s already predicted to be a big hit.”  She smiled and Tommy didn’t like it.  He also had no idea who she was.

Judging by everyone else’s reaction though, they knew exactly who she was.

“Taylor,” Evan said tightly.  “You’re chasing storms now?”

“Oh no.” She shook her head.  “I don’t have time to chase clouds all day.  I just have to get some face time on camera for the network.  I’m just hosting the show, but the big wigs wanted me to have some time in the field for some of the trailers.”

“We’re the ones doing all the real work,” the blond said and Taylor rolled her eyes.  “We’re about to show everyone what extreme storm chasing really is.”

Was this guy for real?

Hen scoffed loudly.  “I can’t do this.” She waved off heading for the RV and Tommy turned to join her to grab some water bottles and other supplies for the truck before they took off.  

“Extreme storm chaser he says.”  Hen huffed, sitting heavily at the kitchenette booth where her computer was set up.  “As if there’s any other kind of storm chaser.”

“He seems a little full of himself.”  Tommy commented, grabbing three big water bottles out of the fridge for the truck cooler.  

“That’s cause he is,” Hen said.  “His name is Jonah Greenway.  He was a few years ahead of Buck in school and chased with us one year.  He didn’t last half the season, Bobby fired him for getting weird in towns that had been hit by tornadoes.”

“That doesn’t seem like a fireable offense,” Tommy said.

“It wasn’t until he started screaming at Buck and the lady he’d just pulled out of what remained of her house.”

“He what?”

“Yeah, face practically purple, finger in his face, screaming.  I would have swung but Buck, the gentle giant idiot he is, won’t stand for any kind of violence.  He just pulled that lady behind her and kept Jonah at bay until Bobby and Chim got there.”  Hen explained.

“What was he so upset about?” Tommy asked.   He couldn’t understand why anyone would be upset at anyone for saving someone’s life— especially Evan.

“We still do not know.  He wasn’t making any sense, but he was always jealous of Buck.  He joined Gerrard’s team about two or three years ago.  The perfect match made in hell.”  Hen stated.

Tommy chuckled and with the water bottles and a few snacks and protein bars made his way out of the RV to get everything in his truck.

He’d barely stepped one foot onto the gravel when Sal ambushed him from the side.

“Look, Tommy—”

“I don’t want to hear it, Sal,” Tommy said, pushing past him towards the truck.  

“What are you even doing here?  I thought you quit chasin’.”  Sal asked, following him instead.

“Didn’t you hear?  Bobby’s team needed a driver,” Tommy said over his shoulder, chucking the water bottles into the truck with a little more force than necessary.  

“Okay, I admit that I shouldn’t have blown up at Bobby like I did.” Sal grimaced.  “But I had already been offered a job and it was time for a change.  Besides, the network pays better than the nerds.”

The what— 

Tommy turned back towards Sal about to give him a piece of his mind when he stopped by Eddie’s raised voice.  “What is wrong with you!”

Instead of laying into Sal like he wanted to at that moment he instead went towards the raised voices.  Several others had joined in with Eddie’s and it was getting a little more than heated.

They were all gathered around the tailgate of Sal’s new truck.  Eddie looked furious, held back by Evan’s white knuckled grip on his arm, while Bobby held onto the other arm looking like wanted to just let Eddie loose but knew better.  Evan had paled, his face ashen as he barely held on looking right into the back of the truck.  

Taylor looked unaffected, bored even.  Jonah standing next to her on the other hand, looked thrilled.  

Tommy caught up with them to see what was going on and stopped when he saw what was in the back of the truck.  

It was Evan’s drone exactly as he’d imagined it the night before as Evan had excitedly described it to him while building a makeshift model out of his French fries and Tommy’s onion rings on the table. 

Evan looked sick.  “How could you?” He barely whispered and then he was walking away.

“Shit, Buck, wait!” Eddie called, chasing after him.  

Tommy made sure that Bobby and Howie were okay before going to follow Evan and Eddie.  He rounded the corner to the back of the gas station to see Evan bent over, hands on his knees letting out stuttering breaths and Eddie calmly talked him back down to Earth.

“What is going on?” Tommy asked, not sure whether to reach out to Evan or keep his distance.  “Who is she?  And why do they have Evan’s drone?”

“Taylor Kelly, wannabe big time news reporter.” Eddie spat out like it was a curse, his face dark as a thundercloud all while he steadily ran hand up and down Evan’s back.  At least he was breathing normally again, Tommy noted with some relief.  “She’s Buck’s ex-girlfriend.”

Tommy’s pretty sure his eyebrows rocketed off his forehead.  Oh.

“I really didn’t think she had it in her.” Eddie laughed darkly.  “She and Buck broke up sometime last year.  He never told me why exactly but I have a pretty good feeling now.”

Tommy could hear Bobby and Howie arguing over the drone and using big words like ‘intellectual property’ and ‘espionage’ and something about patents and lawyers.  He’d forgotten how loud Howie could get when he was angry.

It was all becoming a very clear picture though.  Taylor had stolen Evan’s designs and sold them to this… J.H. Studios for a spot on this new show.

“What the hell.”

Eddie nodded his lips pressed into a firm line.  

Soon enough Evan’s breaths slowed back down to normal and he straightened up.  He looked way too normal for someone who’d been on the cusp of a panic attack thirty seconds ago.

“Sorry about that, I’m okay,” he said, shrugging off Eddie’s hand.

“Buck—”

“No, I'm fine,” he said firmly.  “We don’t have time for this.  We’re losing daylight.”

The two teams were separated when they came back around the front, Bobby and Howie were standing next to the truck looking furious as Evan walked right by them to the passenger door.

Before he could close the door behind them Howie reached out.  “Look, Buck, it’s not the end of the world alright?  Jonah’s the one who built it right?  That thing probably won’t even make it three feet off the ground.”

Evan sighed and rubbed at the spot between his eyebrows.  “I know, it’s just…. We put all that thought into it… it was my idea.  I just—”

“We can test run ours today, see how it does?”  Howie prodded but Evan was already shaking his head.

“I know it’s not ready yet.  I don’t want you to flush all your hard work down the drain cause someone hurt my feelings.”

Tommy frowned at that but it seemed like Evan was in good hands so he turned to actually top the truck off with gas like he should have done when they first pulled into the station.

Sal was standing at another pump, doing the same with his own truck, and not looking at him.

He finished filling the tank and closed the cap as he hung the pump back up.  

“Hey Sal?” Tommy called as he pulled out his keys.

Sal turned to look at him apprehensively.

“This was your one chance.” He warned.  “Do not come after my team again.”

Tommy got in the truck and started the engine, buckling himself in and looking over at Evan in the passenger seat.  He and Eddie sitting in the back seat had matching expressions of confused curiosity on their faces.  

He grinned at them, pulling out of the gas station with the RV rumbling along behind them.  

“Where to?”

——

Despite the rough start they have, the rest of the day goes pretty well.  And Tommy learns another fun fact about Evan.

They’re off to the side of the road, he and Eddie are in the back of the truck making sure that the antenna and every other of Bobby and Evan’s scientific tools are truly secured to the truck, when Evan pulls a tripod out.

“What’s he doing?”  Tommy asks while Eddie is tightening the bolt at the base of the antenna.  

He looks up as Evan sets up a camera and starts fiddling with the settings.  

“Oh, Buck is a freelance photographer,” Eddie says, going back to the bolt.  “He’s almost as obsessed with his cameras as he is about the weather.  He’s really good, even been featured in some magazines and a few nature documentaries.”

Eddie stands up and gives the antenna a firm shake.  “We’re good here.  Buck you good?” He calls over to his friend.  

Evan holds up one finger over his shoulder as he leans down towards the camera.  After a few moments the finger changes to a thumbs up and they’re hitting the road.  

The thunder is starting to get louder and the lightning a little more frequent as the storm rolls closer.  Rain is starting to pelt the windshield even harder and he has to turn the wipers up to full speed.  Evan talks back and forth on the walkie talkie with Bobby while watching the radar on the laptop in front of him.  

Hail starts falling, loud against the roof of the cab, and the sky is turning a more vivid shade of green by the second when Evan finally tells him to pull over.  They’ve barely stopped when they see a funnel cloud drop down out of the clouds.  

“Bobby we’ve got a funnel,” Evan reports.  A minute later the funnel reaches the ground and starts tracking north away from them.  

Seeing a tornado always took his breath away they were as amazing as they were terrible.  Tommy puts the car into drive to follow as all of their phones start buzzing with warnings and a loud beeping takes over the radio.  

“The National Weather Service has issued a severe thunderstorm warning for the following counties…” As the radio continues to list the impacted counties, Evan frowns and pulls up the alert on his phone and then looks at it before looking at the radar open in front of him.  

“What is it?” Tommy asks, his eyes darting between Evan and the road before he focuses back on the road.  The wind was howling all around them and rain was pelting the car so hard and fast he had almost no visibility.

“All of these counties are to the south of us—”

“—damaging winds and isolated tornadoes are possible.”

“Are possible? There’s one on the ground right in front of us!” Eddie says.  “Why isn’t there a warning for where we are right now?”

“I don’t know!” Evan exclaimed, tapping through his computer.  “There’s no warnings anywhere!”

Eddie picks up the walkie talkie.  “Bobby, we have a problem!”

“What’s wrong Eddie?  Is everyone okay?”

“Yeah Bobby, we are all good here, but we’re tracking a tornado that’s been on the ground for about five minutes and there have been no warnings issued.”

“What?”

“Bobby,” Evan said, snatching the walkie from Eddie.  “We’re about four miles south of the town of Glen Hill, this tornado is going to hit any second.  Large cone tornado moving about twenty miles per hour, wind speeds are measuring about 115 miles per hour.  Those people need to be warned.”

“Bobby’s already calling a friend in Oklahoma City at the NWS station.”  Hen reported.  “We see the tornado you’re reporting on the mobile doppler about five miles out, but nothing on the NWS feed.”

“How can it be showing two different things?” Tommy asked, he slowed down slightly as wind started swaying the truck and the debris started getting a little too close to them.

His heart was racing and his hands were feeling a little clammy.  He hadn’t been this close to a tornado in years.  

The radio started blasting out another long loud tone followed by several shorter ones.

“Seek immediate shelter in the vicinity of Glen Hill.  A strong dangerous tornado has been spotted on the ground to the south tracking north at approximately twenty miles per hour.  This is a very dangerous situation.  Seek immediate shelter below ground or in the innermost room of the house away from windows—”

The alert continued listing out safety tips and they all let out a collective shaky sigh of relief as Tommy rolled to a stop near the “Welcome to Glen Hill” sign.  The tornado had turned east at the very last moment, missing the town but the debris being kicked up into the air meant that a few buildings had still been hit.

“I hope they made it.” Evan said, sounding shaky as they watched the tornado.

The warning alert continued to drone on in the background advising different counties and cities to take immediate shelter.

“That was close,” Tommy said, his hands were glued to the steering wheel, he's pretty sure if he takes them off they'd be shaking.

“Too close.” Eddie echoed, sounding winded.  “What the hell happened?  Why wasn’t it on the radar?”

“I don’t know.” Evan frowned, clicking through radar images before closing his laptop.  “We should go see what got hit and if they need help.”

With a nod, Tommy threw the truck into drive, looped back around to the road and started heading towards the broken trees.

——

“It was a glitch?”  Buck gaped as they all sat around Bobby’s motel room eating pizza later that night.  They had called it a day after that close call, all of them a little too shaky after helping an elderly couple out of the remains of their destroyed home before fire and rescue showed up.  

They had barely made it to the basement they said, they heard the tornado before the warning had appeared on the TV.  They hadn’t heard the sirens.  Buck hadn’t heard them either, not until he was already helping the elderly woman to her feet.  It had started blaring in the middle of that eerie after storm calm startling all of them before they shut back off a minute later.

“That’s what John is telling me,” Bobby said.  “Their techs are saying the radar feed got stuck on a loop.”  Bobby didn’t sound like he believed that.  Buck didn’t either.

“Good news!” Chimney reported from where he was hunched over his computer.  “No deaths reported and only minor injuries— there wasn’t even any livestock lost.  Five buildings were destroyed or damaged including the house you guys dug that couple out of.”

Buck let out another sigh of relief and idly scratched at Danny’s head, feeding him one pepperoni.  They got lucky this time.

He’d been playing the what-ifs on loop in his mind.  What if they hadn’t been there?  What if the tornado had stayed on track to the north?  What if—

Tommy nudged him in the side looking at him in concern before his eyes darted down.  Buck followed his gaze to see Danny munching on his pizza, having stolen it straight off his plate while he was distracted.

“HEY—!” But it was too late, the pizza was gone and the golden was licking his chops.   Everyone else in the room was somewhere between snickering and full on laughing.

“All of you are fake friends.  Tommy’s my only friend now,” he said, sticking his tongue out at them before he started laughing along with them.  

It helped lift the mood in the room even more.  

They had just settled down when Hen perked up reading something off her phone.  “KOTV reporting:  Drone belonging to TV film crew of ‘Thunder Trackers’ crashes in field.”

The ensuing cheer they all let out at that had the motel manager knocking on the door five minutes later.

Chapter Text

“So are you going to tell me why Chim says you’ve been moping around the last week or are we just going to sit here and continue to stare at each other?” Maddie asked. 

Buck opened his mouth.

“And don’t tell me it’s because there have been no good tornadoes, your drone project was stolen, or that mom and dad packed up all of our dead brother’s things,” Maddie said listing off with her fingers.  “We’ve already talked about all that.”

Buck closed his mouth.

Maddie knew him too damn well, even though they were over a thousand miles apart.  

Maddie raised an eyebrow at him and the look made him sweat a bit while he tried to figure out what to say.  Deflect and redirect was his go to but they had already been on the video call for nearly an hour, he had nothing to redirect to.

“I think I like Tommy.” He ended up blurting out, startling Danny out of his nap.  The golden retriever raised his head off the pillows to stare intently at Buck before sighing heavily and laying back down, far too used to his outbursts.

“That seems like the opposite of a problem?” Maddie asked.

Buck nodded his head, biting his lip trying to figure out how to say this without sounding like a fourteen year old girl.

“Y-yeah no, I just… I like him, Maddie,” he said, stressing the words with wide eyes.

On the other side of the phone screen Maddie’s eyes widened in realization.

“Oh!”  She pursed her lips.  “ Oh… wow.”

“What?  What wow?”

“Not wow ! Like… wow I didn’t think—  I didn’t think that is where your interest would lie.” Maddie assured him, waving her hands.  

“I didn’t either until he shook my hand in the airport and all I wanted to do was lick his face.”

“Okay, so I didn’t need to know that—” Maddie made a face and shook her head. “But that’s not the point.  Does this new… realization bother you?”  Maddie asked.

“No!  Of course not,” Buck said.  “I’ve always been an ally.”

“Oooh-kay so now you’re more… than an ally.” Maddie nodded and her expression was thoughtful like she was trying to find the right words.  Buck had always appreciated that about her. “Are you trying to figure out what that means for… for you?”

“No, I most definitely still want to lick his face.” Maddie made another face but he kept going.  “It’s more like I… I don’t know.  I can’t stop thinking about him and I make a fool of myself every time I talk to him.  And I know he likes guys.”  Tommy had actually told him that the first night on his back porch when they had talked into the early hours of the morning mentioning his ex-boyfriend in some story.  

“I just don’t know why he would like me?  He’s so cool and confident and interesting,  he knows someone like everywhere we go and they all say how great he is!  And then I’m like… I’m just this boring nerd that he’s driving around.”

“Buck, you chase tornadoes for a living there is nothing boring about you.”

He sighed.  “I feel so stupid—”

“Hey now!  Don’t say that.  You are not stupid.” Maddie scolded before her voice turned soft like it did from the time he was six years old and just skinned his knee.  “Your feelings are valid and it sounds like Tommy at least likes you as a friend… and if he wants to be more, then that will come too.”

“Yeah well, I haven’t seen much of him or Eddie the last few days.” Buck grumped.

“Didn’t you say they were working on the truck?  You hate working on cars.”  Maddie pointed out.

“I know I do, I just…”

“Don’t want to be left out,” Maddie said, once again nailing the issue right on the head.

“Ugh, I sound like a fourteen year old girl.” He groaned with a laugh and fell back on the bed next to Danny.  The golden huffed at him before stretching out on his side against Buck.  He reached over and scratched his belly getting a few small kicks out of it.

“Hey— nothing wrong with being a fourteen year old girl… but yeah you kind of do.” Maddie laughed with him.  

Their laughing died down and Maddie tilted her head at him with a smile.  “You’ll be okay, Evan.  Whatever happens… it’ll be alright, besides you always got me.”

Buck barked out a laugh.  “I can’t live in you and Chim’s spare room forever.”

“No, but you’ll forever have a place here,” Maddie said and held up her pinky.  

Buck rolled his eyes but smiled and held up his own pinky, hooking it in the air the same time as Maddie.  “Promise?”

“Promise.”

——

A few minutes after he hung with Maddie there was a knock on the door and he knew who it was before he even unlocked it.  He cracked a crooked smile at Chimney as he opened the door.

“Maddie?” He asked.

“Maddie.” Chimney confirmed, bending down to pet Danny’s head as the golden came over to investigate.  “She’s worried about you, says you’ve been cooped up in here for too many days.”

Buck grimaced.  He wasn’t wrong.  They’d been stopped in southern Missouri for a few days now stuck in a weird cold front that had overtaken the Midwest and left the skies rainy and gloomy with little chance of producing a supercell powerful enough to form a tornado.  The down time however had given them the chance to finish equipping Tommy’s truck which meant that when they took it out on the next chase they’d be ready for anything.

While Tommy and Eddie had been working on the truck, Chim had been working on the drone and Buck had been revising his calculations and editing pictures.  Soon enough three days had passed and Buck had left the room only to walk Danny and the one time Bobby had brought him dinner when no one had seen him for a day and a half.  

“You doing okay Buck?” Chimney asked.  “Maddie told me what your parents did, that’s messed up, man.”

Buck shrugged.  “It is.” He was still upset, but he’d realized a long time ago that he would never change his parents.  “But it didn’t surprise me either.”

“That’s not what’s been bothering you is it?”  Chimney asked, popping his gum.

Buck nearly groaned.  Everyone was too damn perceptive— or maybe Maddie was right and they all could just read him like an open book.  

Instead he just shrugged again.  “I think the whole thing with the drone really caught me off guard.” He lied.  

In truth he’d been devastated but he hadn’t been all that surprised when he realized that Taylor had managed to sell the designs he’d caught her taking pictures of.  She’d tried to play it off but the trust had been broken.

Hearing that it had crashed into a cornfield before it even got close to the cloud base had been the best thing he’d heard since walking into Daniel’s room and finding everything gone.

“Well how about we get you out of your head and out of this room?”  Chimney asked.

Buck eyed him.  “What do you have in mind?”

Chim grinned at him.  “We have a game of basketball going at the park across the street—”

“No.” Buck shook his head, turning back into his room while Chimney followed him.  “Chim, come on you know I hate basketball.”

“Please Buck, come on, I need someone on my team Tommy and Eddie have been ganging up on me all week and Ravi is hopeless at the game.”

Buck bit his lip and glanced at his dog.  

Danny just blinked at him.

He wasn’t any better than Ravi was, but—

Five minutes later Buck was walking across the parking lot with Chimney to the park.

He still thought this was a terrible idea.  He didn’t even like basketball.  He wasn’t even good at it.

But he did like the way Tommy looked in that cut off hoodie, the way the sweat on his skin glistened in the sun and how the humidity curled his hair—

That was besides the point.  

But somehow Chimney talked him into it even though everything in Buck said this was a bad idea.

And that’s how he and Eddie end up splayed out across the concrete.  

He didn’t even know how it happened.  He had actually been having fun weaving between Eddie and Tommy and passing the ball back and forth with Chim and missing every single basket he attempted.  The all ribbed him for it but it was fun to joke and laugh it off and just not really think about anything for a bit.

Then one second he’s running next to Eddie and the next they’re both laid out and groaning in pain, but only Eddie is holding his ankle after a crack so loud Buck’s pretty sure he felt it.  

“Oh shit—”

“Eddie! Buck!”

Buck pushed himself to his knees and feels a hand wrapped around his bicep and as he blinks up into the sun to see Tommy standing there helping him to his feet while Chimney is taking a look at Eddie’s ankle.  

His shoe is off and it’s already swollen to the size of a grapefruit and Buck’s pretty sure he’s gonna swallow his tongue.

“Ed-Eddie… I—”

Eddie waves him off, breathing heavily through the pain and hissing when Chimney wiggles his foot.  

“I’m no paramedic, but it might be broken.  I can get it splinted though until we get you to a hospital, Eddie.”

Buck’s going to be sick.

“I’ll take him to the ER,” Tommy said.  “Do you need to go Evan?  You went down pretty hard too but I didn’t see—”

“NO!” Buck shouts, taking a step back.  Tommy looks startled and holds his hands up.  “No, sorry… I’m okay.  I don’t like hospitals.”

Tommy furrowed his brow before his eyes darted to his knee.  “You’re bleeding.”

Buck looked down at his knee to see blood streaming down his leg.  Now that he was looking, his knee and his elbow were both stinging pretty badly.  He turns his arm over to see that it is also bleeding quite a bit and lets out a slight hiss at the movement.  

“It’s fine, they’re just scrapes, I can get them cleaned up.”  Buck begged off.  “You should get Eddie to the… the hospital.”  He swallowed harshly.  

“Buck—” Eddie groaned.

“S-sorry Eddie.”  Buck manages to get out before he runs back to his room like a coward.

——

Eddie is laid out on the bed, his foot wrapped and propped up on some pillows while they wait for his discharge papers.  It was just a minor sprain, thank god, and he’d be back on his feet in a week.  The swelling was even already going back down thanks to the ice.

Tommy was sitting in the corner scrolling through his phone and frowning as he thought back to Evan’s “I don’t like hospitals” when Eddie groaned and he looked up.  Eddie had his arm thrown over his face and he was frowning.  

“Buck is gonna feel horrible about this.”

“It was an accident,” Tommy said, putting his phone away.

“I know it was, but try telling that to Buck,” Eddie said, bringing his arm down and looking at Tommy.

“He did seem to have a pretty strong, uh, reaction to what happened.  Is he okay?”  Tommy asked.  

“He will be.” Eddie let out a long heavy sigh.  “Look, without really getting into it because it’s Buck’s story to tell but— Buck… had a pretty rough time growing up.  We all did really, it’s like Bobby’s collecting a team of ‘daddy issues’ at this point and geez— what did they give me?” Eddie shook his head looking like he was trying to clear his thoughts. “In a lot of ways Buck had it worse than all of us.”

Tommy frowned.  “Is that why he doesn’t like hospitals?”

Eddie nodded.  “It’s why he also has a ‘strong’ reaction to certain things and accidentally knocking me across the pavement and thinking he broke my leg is one of those things.  If you haven’t been able to tell yet, Buck is very sensitive.”

Tommy nodded.  “I’ve noticed.”

“Right.  He wears his heart on his sleeve and takes things a lot harder than he needs to.  We all love him for it—  It’s what makes him Buck.  But… sometimes it’s hard on him.”  Eddie sighed.  “He's probably back at the hotel right now thinking he needs to be put down for his crimes against me and the rest of humanity or something.”

Tommy’s eyes widened.  “That’s—”

“I know,” Eddie said.  “Trust me I know.  There’s only so much childhood trauma you can slog through while dealing with your own.  Like I said, Bobby’s collecting us all at this point.”

“Who hurt you guys?”

“You want that list in alphabetical or chronological order?” Eddie laughed before he turned serious.  “Listen if you want to get to know Buck, like really know him then you just need to be patient with him and when the time is right strike. ”

“Jesus.” Tommy muttered, feeling caught as his ears heated up.  “What did they give you?”

“I don’t know,” Eddie said looking up at the ceiling.  “But I don’t really have a filter when I’m on pain meds.”

The nurse came in not long after that with the discharge papers and care instructions that basically boiled down to keep it iced and elevated and stay off of it for a few days.

Tommy wheeled Eddie out to the truck.  They already had a pair of crutches back with the team from when Buck broke his leg a few years back Eddie told him and they had kept them in the RV just in case something like that happened again.  

It was an easy drive back to the hotel and easy to get Eddie situated in bed with his foot elevated.  It was less easy to convince Evan that no one was mad at him and that Eddie was going to be okay.

“Buck, seriously, I’m not dead.  It’s just a sprained ankle,” Eddie said.  They were having an impromptu planning meeting in Eddie’s room, all of them spread out across the small hotel room.  They were going to stay in Missouri tomorrow as the cold front was beginning to be pushed out by warmth from the south which was prime conditions for supercell formation.  

Tommy knew the basics from his high school science classes but all he knew was that the wind had already started to pick up something fierce and that always was the precursor to a storm rolling in.

“But I ruined your ability to chase!” Evan protested.  “I… Eddie, I’m your partner, you should be able to trust me.”

Bobby had just informed them that Ravi would be taking Eddie’s place in the truck tomorrow.  The kid needed experience and apparently there was no one better than Evan to guide him through his first chase.  Even if it sounded like he didn’t believe that.

“Buck, of course, I still trust you.  You didn’t ruin anything.  I’ll be back in the truck in a few days once the swelling goes down.” Eddie assured.

Evan looked like he was having trouble believing that.  “I hurt you, Eddie.” He looked like he was going to cry and Tommy hated it.  “I did that.”

He ducked away from Bobby’s arm and rushed out of Eddie’s room, the door swinging shut loudly behind him.

“Well that went about as well as I thought it would.” Hen huffed and the others made varying noises of agreement.

Tommy didn’t say anything, his eyes still on the doorway Evan had disappeared through.

“I’ll call Maddie.” Chimney sighed, pulling out his phone.  

“I’ll go get dinner and bring it around to everyone,” Bobby said.  “Ravi, you coming?”

“Sure thing, Cap.” Ravi nodded, standing up.

“I’ll go check on Buck— make sure he knows we still love him.” Hen followed them out of the room with Chimney close behind, already talking quietly to Maddie.

“See what I mean?” Eddie asked when it was just him and Tommy left in the room.  “Takes everything harder than he needs to.”

He laid back on the bed with a groan and threw his arm over his face.  Hen had propped his bandaged foot up on a stack of pillows so Tommy moved around the room to help him get set up for the night.

“He’s going to be okay right?”  It sounded like everyone had it covered, but he just wanted to be sure.  There was something about the thought of Evan hurt and alone that made him antsy.

“Yeah.” Eddie sighed.  “He’ll bounce back.  He always does.”

——

The next day bloomed hot and sunny with predictions of powerful storms rolling through the state.  It was a perfect day for chasing even if it didn’t feel like it without Eddie in the backseat.  Instead they had Ravi, which on a normal day Buck wouldn’t have thought twice about having him join them on a chase, but it wasn’t a normal day because Eddie was sitting in the RV with a near broken ankle that Buck had given to him.  

It was an off day for all of them and Buck could feel Ravi’s nervousness rolling off of him in waves while he compared radar shots to anemometer readings on his laptop.

“Ravi, are you sure you’re going to be okay?  We can get Bobby or Chimney to come if you’re not sure.”  He glanced up from the computer to look at Ravi in the backseat.

“Y-yeah no, I’ll be fine,” Ravi said nonchalantly and shaking his head.  “I just have never purposely driven towards a tornado before.”

“We’ll be okay, Probie.  Tommy’s the best driver we’ve ever had,” Buck said, as Tommy climbed into the driver's seat and clapped his hands together.

“I would love to see you say that right to Sal’s face.” Tommy grinned at him, rubbing his hands together.  He looked up at Ravi as he stuck the key in the ignition.  “You ready to chase tornadoes kid?”

Ravi audibly gulped.

Tommy let out a slight laugh as he put the truck into drive.  “I was nervous my first time too, try not to worry too bad, that’s my job.”

Ravi nodded his head as he pulled his seatbelt over his chest and buckled it.  “When was the first time you storm chased?”

“Oh, uh…” Tommy’s face flushed and Buck looked at him curiously.  “I think I was twelve?  Sal and I were… driving around when it started storming and we watched a funnel drop right in front of us.”

Buck hummed and raised an eyebrow at him.  “Isn’t Sal like… two years older than you?  Neither of you were old enough to drive.”

Tommy sighed and looked both ways before he turned onto the highway.  “Okay so… Sal and I used to steal cars when we were kids.”

Buck barked out a startled laugh.  He definitely hadn’t expected that.  

“You what?”

“Sal was my next door neighbor growing up.  He was rebellious and I didn’t have a great relationship with my dad so one thing led to another and we used to steal cars to go joy riding.” Tommy explained.  “Sal’s actually the one who taught me how to drive.”

“Did you ever get caught?” Ravi asked.

“Once.  Sal took the blame.  I narrowly avoided juvie while he joined the army instead of going to jail.”  Tommy sighed and the cab fell silent as they barreled down the highway towards the towering supercell in front of them.

The tranquil blue skies were quickly turning a violent green color and Buck asked Tommy to pull over so he could get a few pictures before they continued on towards the shelf cloud to get some more wind speed data for the drone.

He left the passenger side door open and jogged up the small mound of dirt on the other side of the ditch to get the angle he was looking for.  He adjusted the settings for the shadowed lighting that was fast growing darker.  After snapping a few pictures he moved closer to the road in front of the truck nearly sitting on the front bumper and got a rather interesting photo of the headlights reflecting off the asphalt towards the approaching storm clouds rolling towards them like a tidal wave.

“You see that inflow tail?”  He called over his shoulder unsure if Tommy or Ravi even heard him over the wind picking up around them.  It would have been perfect to test the drone in if it were done, hopefully they’d get another one that looked just as good to test it on.  

He was so distracted taking his last set of pictures that he didn’t notice the hail falling until two things happened simultaneously.

“Evan!” Tommy yelled right as a tennis ball sized piece of hail hit him in the shoulder.

“Ow shit!”  He yelled and immediately threw up his hand to protect his head while he curled forward to protect his camera.  Another chunk of ice slammed into his arm and he just knew it was going to leave a horrendous bruise later.  

He scrambled around the side of the truck and into the passenger seat but not before he got hit a few more times.  Swearing as he slammed the door shut, he was already bruised and sore from hitting the concrete yesterday during the ill fated basketball game and it seemed like he was going to have a few more bruises to add to his collection.

“Are you okay?”  Tommy asked worriedly, brushing a hand over the bright red marks on his arm that were starting to color at the edges.

Buck nodded and tucked his camera away into a safe place.  “Not the first time that’s happened and probably won’t be the last,” he said with a shrug before he winced.  Yeah that was going to leave a mark in the morning.

“I’ll keep watch better next time.” Tommy frowned.  “I didn’t even see it until Ravi said something and jumped out.”

As if summoned Ravi jumped back into the truck wearing a bike helmet with a big grin on his face as he dumped some of the hail he’d gathered into a cooler.  

“This will be great for my research next semester,” he said brightly as Tommy pulled back out onto the highway and Buck opened his laptop to check the radar.  Hail that size usually meant a tornado was not far behind.  

The wind was picking up the further they drove and Buck had given Ravi the walkie talkie to “be in charge of” to keep his mind off the howling and the shaking of the truck.  He knew that Ravi could read a radar just as well as he could but with this being his first real storm chase he knew he wouldn’t be able to focus as well as normal.  Having something to even just hold onto would go a long way in keeping his mind calm.  Tommy had glanced at him with a small smile on his lips like he knew exactly what he was doing.

“Take this next left, there’s a hook forming here that could easily develop into a tornado if it hasn’t already,” he said tapping at his screen.  

A moment later the sirens began to go off, the droning noise louder than the wind as the nearby siren circled around towards them.  

“Uhhhh—” Ravi started behind him and Buck looked up as Tommy started to slow down to see a cow standing in the middle of the dirt road.  

“Cow.”  Buck blinked.  

Lightning flashed in the sky behind the cow as Tommy laid on the horn and started to inch the truck around the cow.  

“Tornado.” Buck added as the lightning lit up the silhouette of the cone shaped twister about a mile away behind the cow.

“What—” Ravi squawked.

“Call it in to Bobby, Ravi.” Buck ordered as he looked back down at his computer and over to Tommy.  “Think you can get closer?”

“Of course.” Tommy grinned, flooring it as soon as he got around the cow.  

The wind speed readings started to spike up the closer they got until they were only a few hundred yards away watching as the tornado crossed the road in front of them.  Tommy pulled over and Buck relayed the readings back to Ravi who then relayed them to Bobby and Chim, all without a single waver in his voice.

“You’re doing great Ravi.” Buck tacked onto the end of the readings.  Ravi in turn relayed it to Bobby without a second thought which got Tommy laughing while the kid smacked the walkie to his forehead in embarrassment.  Buck chuckled too but also told Ravi he was still doing a good job.  

“Uh, Buck, how often do you see that ?” Ravi asked and Buck turned around to see him pointing out the passenger side windows.  

He turned back around to look out the window right as Tommy swore and threw the truck into drive and floored it into a U-turn, gravel spun out behind them and the back wheels drifted across the dirt before Tommy got the truck straightened out and took off down the muddy road.

Not even half a mile away there was another tornado coming straight at them while they were distracted watching the first one to their left.  Buck looked down at his laptop to see the readings from the anemometer were going a little haywire, spiking up and dropping down wildly as the crosswinds from both tornadoes hit them.  

The second tornado was a skinny rope like tornado, not as powerful as the first and likely just a satellite of the larger cone twister but a tornado was still a tornado— unpredictable and dangerous.

The wind roared like a train barreling down on them, the tornado tearing through the fields behind them as Tommy whipped around a corner to back track at an angle going the opposite direction of the twister.  A large piece of debris glanced off the side of the truck with a terrible screech, scratching up the side of the truck.  Ravi let out a startled yell and Tommy told them to hold on as he made another sharp turn around the back country road trying to get through the clouds of dust and gravel that was whipping around them.

Suddenly the wind slowed and quieted and the debris and gravel stopped pelting the truck, instead it was sprinkling rain lightly, pattering across the windshield.

Just as fast as it had snuck up on them it was all over.  

They were all breathing hard as Tommy continued down the road, slower than before but still not quite the speed limit.  They were all breathing hard looking at each other with wide eyes.

Buck whipped around to look out the back window.  Both tornadoes were still on the ground tracking north into an empty field with no towns around them for miles, hopefully they would dissipate before they got close to anyone’s home.

“You okay Ravi?”  Buck asked.

The intern was wide eyed and looking a little pale but he nodded shakily.  “Y-yeah.”

“Good, twin tornadoes aren’t common and always a little more intense then just seeing one close up— especially for your first chase.  You did good though and stayed calm.” Buck smiled at him.

“Thanks Buck.”

He nodded and turned back towards the front catching Tommy’s eye as he went.  Tommy was smiling at him and he felt his face heat up.

“Watch out!”

Tommy slammed on the brakes, throwing an arm out over Buck’s chest.  The belt locked and caught him, pressing into the bruise on his shoulder.  He winced and let out a grunt before he looked up expecting to see a fallen telephone pole or some other type of debris blocking the road.  Instead there was—

“Another cow?” Buck asked, rubbing at his shoulder lightly.  

The cow turned its head slowly to look at them, its ears flickered and it just stood there in the middle of the road unfazed and staring at them. 

“Actually… I think it’s the same cow,” Tommy said in disbelief.

They turned to look at each other blinking for a moment before Buck started to crack up and Tommy quickly followed until they were both full on laughing and gasping for breath with tears in their eyes.

They continued on that way for a few minutes until the cow finally moved out of their way and they calmed down enough for Tommy to start driving again.  Buck couldn’t even look at him because it would set off another peal of giggles.  He could see Tommy biting his lip out of the corner of his eye and keeping his focus directly on the road in front of them to keep himself from laughing as well.  

“There is something seriously wrong with you two,” Ravi said tiredly from where he’d sprawled across the back seat after his own adrenaline crash.

——

It was nearing midnight when they pulled into the hotel in Kansas City about twenty minutes behind Bobby and the others in the RV.  He had already checked them in for the night and they were getting their bags out as Tommy parked the truck next to them.

“Looks like you guys had fun.” Eddie whistled leaning forward on his crutches to see some of the scratches alongside the doors from a rogue tree branch.

“That’s one way to put it.” Ravi groaned.  “You can have your spot back man, I like the RV better.”

Buck let out a tired laugh as Danny bounded up to him happy as he always was to see him.  He hissed a little as the stiffness from the bruises was really starting to settle in but knelt down to greet his dog anyway.

“We already took him out for the night,” Bobby said, handing Buck his bag.

“Thanks.”  He stood back up to follow them all into the hotel, ready to just collapse into his bed next to his dog.

His stomach rumbled loudly enough to rival some of the thunder they’d heard earlier today and he realized that he hadn’t actually eaten anything that day besides one of the protein bars Tommy kept stashed in his truck. 

“Hungry?”  Tommy asked.

Buck grimaced and nodded.  “Hungry enough to keep me awake, I should probably get something before I go to bed.”

“I can take you somewhere I’m sure we can find somewhere that’s still open.”

“You don’t have to do that.” Buck frowned, Tommy had to be just as tired as him, if not more after spending the entire day driving while intermittently dodging tornadoes.

“I’m hungry too.” He shrugged.  “Anyone else want to go get something?”  He asked the group as they piled into the elevator.  It was a tight squeeze and Buck found himself pushed into the corner with Eddie.

“Maybe me,” his friend said.  “Buck your room is right next to mine, want to help me with my bag?”

That was definitely intentional but no way was Buck going to say no after it was his fault Eddie needed help anyway.  

The elevator dinged for their floor and Tommy got off with them though his room was in the opposite direction down the hallway.

“Meet me in the lobby at ten?”  He asked.

Buck nodded before he followed Eddie down the hallway opening and holding the door so his best friend could crutch inside.  

Eddie dropped down on the bed with a groan while Danny sniffed around the room like he always did whenever they arrived somewhere new.   Buck dropped Eddie’s duffle down on the desk and awkwardly stood back by the door, wringing his hands.

“Eddie, I—”

Eddie just held a hand up to stop him and Buck’s mouth clicked shut as Eddie pushed himself upright.

“There’s nothing to apologize for Buck, it was a total accident,” he said.  “But if it makes you feel better I accept your apology and reserve the right to trip you the next time we’re on the court.”

He cracked a smile at that.  “Probably won’t be any time soon.”

Eddie huffed out a laugh.  “Probably for the best, we don’t need you maiming anyone else.”

“Are we good?”  Buck asked.

Eddie just gave him a look.  “We were always good, Buck.  Are you good?”

Buck thought of Tommy waiting for him down in the lobby.

“Yeah, I’m good.”  He let out a sigh of relief.  The entire thing had been self inflicted but it always unsettled him when he and Eddie were ‘fighting’.  “Do you still want to come get food?”

Eddie shook his head and laid back on the pillows, throwing an arm over his eyes.  “I think I’m just going to call it a night.  I’ll come next time when I’m off the crutches.”

“Okay, do you need anything before I go?

“No, I’m good.  Have fun on your date.”

Buck’s face flushed and he was relieved Eddie wasn’t looking at him.  “Alright, call me if you need anything.  Come on, Danny.”

“Goodnight Buck, goodnight Danny.” He sounded like he was halfway to sleep already.

“Night, Eddie.”

——

“No Eddie?” 

Evan shook his head. “He decided he just wanted to go to bed.   Said he’d come with us next time.”

“Sounds good,” he said.  “Are you guys okay?  

Evan smiled at him.  “Yeah, we’re okay.”  He buried his hands in his hoodie pocket.  The hoodie was a deep blue and even in the terrible lighting of the hotel lobby it brought the colors out in his eyes.  It was mesmerizing— that or Tommy was just very tired.  Either way he was adorable.

“There’s this little twenty four hour diner right around the corner I saw when we pulled in,” Tommy said, pointing over his shoulder.  “Sound good?”

“Sounds great!” Evan agreed.  “I’m starving.”

The walk to diner wasn’t long but Evan started shivering the moment they stepped through the lobby doors.  Tommy hummed and stepped closer to wrap his arm around Evan’s back, trying to rub some warmth back into his arms while still being mindful of the bruises he knew were hiding under the sleeves.

Evan blinked up at him startled but didn’t say anything about it as he smiled and leaned in just a touch closer to Tommy.

“How are you feeling?”  Tommy asked as he accidentally glanced over a bruise and Evan winced.   

“Sore but nothing, a few ibuprofen and some ice won’t fix.”  He answered as the diner came into view and Tommy steered him towards it.  

“That’s good,” he said, holding the door open and following Evan and squinting as they stepped into the brightly lit diner.  

It was one of those ones that was themed like a classic diner from the 50s with the soda bar and old vinyl booths.  There were a few other people scattered throughout talking quietly and paying them no mind as they slid into the cracked worn seats of a nearby booth.  

A quietly stern but kind waitress named Rosie appeared seconds later, taking down their drink orders before giving them a few more minutes to look at the menu.

“I think I could eat everything here,” Evan said, his eyes darting all over the menu.  “I feel like I haven’t eaten in a week.”

“Have you?”  Tommy asked with a frown.  The basketball game yesterday was the first time Tommy had seen the other man in nearly four days.  He’d been working on his truck with Eddie and while he had greatly enjoyed getting to know the other man better he found his thoughts drifting towards Evan and his smile more often than not.

“Have I what?” Evan asked, tilting his head adorably.

“Been eating?” 

Evan frowned and looked up like he was thinking.  Tommy didn’t like how he had to think about the answer.

“Yeah, but probably not as much as I should have,” Evan admitted sheepishly.  

“Evan.” Tommy raised an eyebrow at him.

“I know, I know,” he said, rolling his tired eyes.  He was wearing his glasses again and they did little to hide the bags hiding behind the rims.  “I just… forget to take a break sometimes.”

“Well now you have me to make sure you take a break sometimes,” Tommy said, leaning forward to make sure Evan was looking at him.  “From here on out you will eat at least one meal a day with me.”

Evan stared back at him, his face turning a little pink and his mouth agape.  His eyes darted around his face until they dropped a little lower and Tommy felt his ears heat up.

The moment was broken when Rosie came back with an iced tea for him and a chocolate banana milkshake for Evan.  She quickly took their orders before she was gone again.

“Did you hear me, Evan?”  Tommy asked as she left.

“Uh— y-yeah, I heard you.” He nodded quickly, his face turning from pink to red staring hard at his milkshake before he looked back up at Tommy with a smile.  “I, uh, I would like that. I-I think.”

“Good.” Tommy smiled back at him, taking a sip of his tea.

“Just one question.”

“Oh?”

“Does this count as today’s or yesterday’s?” Evan asked, holding his phone out.  The background picture was of him and his sister, which he only recognized because of the many pictures and stories from Howie over the last week or so, but that wasn’t what Evan was looking at.  The time on the screen read 12:02.  

“Well, we got here when it was still yesterday so I don’t think it should count towards today.”

Evan gave him a pleased looking smile.  “I’m alright with that.”

Tommy’s heart double timed in his chest at the sight of that smile and he smiled back at the other man.  “Good.”

Rosie arrived with their food not too long after that a breakfast platter for him and a club sandwich with fries for Evan.  They were practically falling asleep into their plates by the time they were finished and had to gather the energy to make it back the block to their hotel on both feet.

They had just made it back to Evan’s room, feeling exhausted and a little goofy, when Evan’s shoe scuffed against the carpet causing him to trip.  Tommy caught him around the arm, the other looping behind his back and pulled him back before he could go crashing into the door.  Evan thumped into his chest a little breathlessly, knocking their foreheads together. 

“S-Sorry.”  Evan stammered pulling back slightly to look at him and this close Tommy could feel the warmth of his breath caress his cheek in the chilly night air.

“That’s alright.” Tommy said quietly, watching as Evan’s eyes darted all over his face before they lowered and finally came to a stop.  Tommy’s own gaze dropped low to Evan’s lips and he moved his hand from Evan’s arm up to his face, gently gripping his chin and brushing his thumb just below his bottom lip.

Evan shivered and he held on a little tighter.  

“You okay?”  He asked.

“More than,” Evan said, his eyes darting up to his, a shiny blue even in the flickery dim hall light.  

Tommy ran his thumb once more, gently over his lower lip and Evan’s eyes fluttered closed.

His own eyes slipped shut and he leaned forward, pausing only briefly before he gently pulled Evan towards him for a kiss before dropping his hand and curling it lightly at his waist.  

It was short and sweet and the most gentle kiss Tommy ever had and yet it still took his breath away.

Evan swayed into him a little more, leaning into the kiss before Tommy pulled away, took a steadying breath, and opened his eyes.

Evan was gaping at him with wide awed eyes.

“Was that okay?”  He asked hoping he didn’t sound as nervous as he felt.

Evan’s shut his mouth just for his lips to twitch up into a soft smile. 

“That was very okay.”  His eyes were still wide as he laughed lightly like he still couldn’t believe that happened.  To be fair Tommy couldn’t believe it either.  “In fact it was so okay I wouldn’t mind doing that again.”

“Oh really?” Tommy chuckled.

“Really.” Evan nodded.  “I’m thinking… at least one kiss a day?”

Tommy laughed a little louder and loosened his arms so Evan could get his room key out, he could hear Danny pawing at the door.  “I think we could work something out.”

Evan smiled brightly and pulled back to get the door open. “Great!” He exclaimed before he coughed slightly and lowered his voice.  “Uh, I mean… good, that’s… I’m glad you think so.”

Tommy leaned forward and brushed one more brief kiss over the corner of Evan’s mouth, giving his waist one more squeeze before he dropped his hand and took a step back.  “Goodnight, Evan.  I’ll see you in the morning.”

“Goodnight, Tommy.” Evan smiled as he pushed the door open and Danny yipped at him.  “See you then.”

He waited until the door shut and he could hear the lock latch before he turned to walk down to his own room a few doors away.  

He barely made it two steps before he heard an excited “YES!” come from the other side of the door.

Tommy let out another laugh as he walked down the hall, brushing his fingers over his lips where he could still feel the heat of Evan kissing him back.  

Chapter Text

The following few weeks are some of the best of Tommy’s life.  There was just something about being with Evan that was so easy and simple. Evan made him feel young and light in a way he’s never felt before.

It was just... fun.  

He felt like he was in some kind of crazy summertime romance, the kind that he’d always dreamed and sighed over as he watched the romcoms and read the books.  The last several weeks of his life felt like they belonged in a movie at this point.  A literal whirlwind summer romance— chasing tornadoes and chasing love… Lucy would laugh herself sick if she ever heard him say that.

But it was true, he was honestly having the time of his life being with Evan Buckley.  It was the best summer he’d had in years, possibly even his entire life. 

Sneaking glances and stealing kisses and falling into bed in the quiet hours of the night.  

They were keeping it on the down low for now, just enjoying the exhilaration that came from being the only ones who knew— well them plus Evan’s sister.  Tommy got the chance to meet Maddie on one of their nightly video calls when Evan confessed that he’d talked through his initial jumbled feelings for Tommy with her.  

Tommy had thought it was cute and told him as much, kissing the birthmark over his brow while Maddie cooed at them before she’d gotten weepy and blamed pregnancy hormones.  

“You’re okay with me not telling anyone yet?”  Evan asked one day as they were barreling down the highway to Texas.  Evan had “jokingly” called shotgun in his truck everyday for the last week straight and Eddie let him have it saying that he was going to be in the RV anyway working on his proposal for the storm shelters he was developing and that someone would need to be in the truck to keep Tommy awake in his old age.  He was a little shit but he and Tommy had become fast friends, faster than any friend he’d ever made before including Sal.

So now Evan was sitting next to him in the truck, their hands intertwined over the center console with Danny sprawled across the back seat snoozing away.  They had gotten a pretty good laugh when the golden rolled over and stuck all four legs up in the air.

Tommy glanced sidelong at Evan before turning his gaze back to the road in front of him.  Evan leaned towards him, playing with his hand between both of his in the casual sort of affection Tommy had enjoyed since he’d kissed him that night in Kansas City barely two weeks ago.  

He couldn’t believe it had only been two weeks.

He felt like he’d known Evan his whole life, even if he had it still couldn’t be long enough to learn every way there was to make the other man smile.

“Yes,” he said slowly.  “Why would I not be?  We’re doing this at your pace, Evan.”

Tommy had been shocked to learn that he was the first man Evan had ever kissed, let alone felt this way towards, with how easy they had fallen into this song and dance.  Even with the support of his grandmother it had taken Tommy years to admit to himself that he was gay.  He had nearly fallen off the bed laughing when Evan had told him that he’d taken one look at him and decided he wanted to lick him and that he’d been surprised for all of five seconds before he checked out his ass.

“I don’t know, I just don’t want you to feel like I’m keeping you a secret,” Evan said earnestly.

“I know that.” Tommy nodded with a smile.  “Besides I’ve already met your sister, you’re not keeping me a secret.  You’ll tell everyone else when you feel ready and no sooner okay?”

Evan sighed and nodded.

A few minutes of silence passed, some of the longest Tommy had experienced since coming to know Evan.  

“Is there something else on your mind?” Tommy asked, glancing at him again.  Evan was frowning and idly running his finger along the inside of his palm, Tommy intertwined their fingers together.  

Evan slumped back into his seat and bit his lip.  

“I am okay with everyone else knowing, really, I just…”

“Just?” 

Evan sighed and looked over at him seriously before Tommy turned his eyes back to the road as a semi-truck merged in front of them.

“I don’t want to subject you to the Buckley Dating Curse.”

“The what?” Tommy asked with a laugh.

“It’s a real thing, just ask Chimney,” Evan said

“Chimney is engaged to your sister and they’re about to have a baby together.”

“Yeah, but he almost died in the process.”

“What?” Tommy asked wide eyed, risking another glance at Evan.

“Maddie was married to a controlling abusive asshole before she was with Chim.” He explained.  “After she served him with divorce papers he tracked her down and nearly stabbed Chimney to death.”

“What the hell.”  Seriously what the hell, Howie.  Tommy would have been out there in a heartbeat to make sure he was okay.  He vaguely remembered Sal saying something about Howie being out for the season a year or two ago due an accident.  He’d thought Howie had broken a leg or an arm or something.  

“Yeah.  We’re definitely all a little traumatized from that, but the ‘curse’ became a whole thing after I nearly died on a date.”

Tommy would have slammed on the brakes and pulled over the truck if he wasn’t barreling down the interstate at 80 miles per hour with Bobby and the RV right behind him.  

“What do you mean ‘nearly died’?” Tommy asked, his hand tightening around Evan’s slightly.  

“I choked on some bread on a date and the paramedics had to trach me,” Evan said, pulling the collar of his shirt down a little.  There was a small silver scar at the base of his throat.  “I think you’re pretty safe from the curse to be totally honest but I also like having you to myself right now.  We’re all always in each other's business, it’s nice for this to just be us. You know?”

Tommy nodded trying to shake off how quickly Evan was moving on from ‘I nearly died once’.  “I do.  I like having you all to myself too.” He teased pulling Evan’s hand up to kiss his knuckles.  “Plus I’ve met one of your exes and I think I can take them.”

Evan let out a light laugh and he wanted to shower himself in the sound.  “I think you could too.  Taylor’s the scariest one so I think we’ll be okay.”

The GPS chirped at them to take the next exit and he turned on his blinker to merge back to the right lanes.

“We’ll be okay.” He echoed back at Evan with a smile.

——

They were in west central Texas, somewhere south of the panhandle to meet up with one of Bobby’s NWS friends after another bout of siren malfunctions when Tommy got quite the surprise.

Evan was a father.

He wasn’t actually, but the way his face lit up as he ran forward to pick Christopher Diaz up in his arms and spin him around in a giant bear hug said otherwise.

“Buuuuuuck—” Christopher laughed breathlessly until Evan put him back down on his feet and allowed Eddie, his actual blood related father to pick him up in his own big bear hug and press kisses into his hair.

Tommy didn’t know a whole lot of kids.  He owned a bar that he spent about ninety percent of his time in and none of his friends really had any so he’d worried when Eddie said that they were going to pick up his son from his parent’s hotel that he’d be awkward about it but his worries had been unfounded.

Christopher was a good kid.  He was just barely eight years old and he was whip smart, funny, and adorable— He had the same flair for drama that Eddie did and shared the same clever sense of humor with Evan.  He had Tommy laughing several times before they got back to their hotel for the night.  

Bobby had sprung for a nicer hotel than usual and had been teased mercilessly by the team when they found out that Athena would also be joining them in Texas for the next night or two.  Tommy wasn’t complaining however, it was hot and muggy outside and the hotel was climate controlled with good AC flowing in the rooms and a nice pool area which is where he found himself sitting with Eddie, Evan, and Christopher eating their dinner of hamburgers and fries that night.

Evan was floating on his back in the pool, sprawled out like a starfish across four different pool noodles that they kept stored in the RV for when they had downtime like this, while Tommy finished his mushroom and Swiss burger and Eddie egged Chris on to finish his own food before he went to jump in the pool.

Chris was chewing on a chicken strip next to him when he looked up at him with a thoughtful expression.

“What’s up buddy?”  He asked taking another bite of his burger.

“Will you take me storm chasing?”  Chris asked in turn.

Tommy choked, coughing slightly to get it dislodged out of his throat.  “Uhhhh—”

“Not until you’re older, Chris, we talked about this.” Eddie admonished.  

Tommy nearly choked again when Chris huffed and rolled his eyes but otherwise agreed and continued to eat his chicken strips without argument.  

A few minutes later Eddie was wiping off his face with a wet wipe when he glanced at Evan floating serenely in the pool and turned back to Chris with a wide grin that Tommy knew would be the end of Evan’s peace and quiet.  

“Buck’s looking a little too peaceful don’t you think?” Eddie asked his son.

Chris nodded vigorously, a matching grin spreading across his face.  “Cannonball?”

Eddie snorted and nodded, picking Chris up.   “Good choice.”

Tommy raised an eyebrow and watched as Eddie walked them to the edge of the pool.  Both Diaz’s were whispering to each other, their heads close together as they waited for Evan to float by.  

Tommy almost felt bad, not warning Evan about what was about to happen to him but then he watched one of his eyes open slightly, his lips twitching trying to keep a smile off his face, totally aware and probably used to it if his wink at Eddie was any indication.

Moments later Eddie jumped into the deeper end of the pool with Christopher wrapped up in his arms with a big splash.  The little boy was giggling as they resurfaced and Evan made a big show of sputtering and flailing with his own splashes, which then quickly devolved into Evan and Eddie splashing at each other viciously while Chris floated nearby on a pool noodle that Evan had subtly slid his way.  

Tommy was more than content to sit on the side line and watch the three of them play in the water but then Evan nailed him with a face full of water shot like a cannon from the end of the pool noodle and Tommy couldn’t let that slide.  He kicked off his shoes and pulled his soaked shirt over his head before he also jumped into the pool and playfully wrestled Evan under the water in revenge while Eddie cheered him on.

They continued on like that for a few more hours playing all sorts of pool games that Tommy hadn’t played since he was a kid.  Marco Polo, Evan was evasive and Eddie was incredibly quiet but Tommy was the champion— he had Christopher hanging off his back like a baby monkey whispering directions in his ear.  A cannonball contest, that they declared Christopher the winner of.  And finally the world’s worst attempt at some kind of water tag that resulted in three grown men chasing each other through the water while Chris floated around on his pool noodle laughing at their antics until they were all laughing so hard they could barely get through the water.  

They didn’t realize how late it had gotten until a hotel employee came to tell them that the pool was closing for the night and they had to get out.  As they dried off and gathered up their things Tommy realized he hadn’t had fun like this in a hotel pool in years, since before his mom died for sure.  Just one more thing about being with Evan and just the 118 Meteorology Team in general that reminded Tommy that life was more than just his endless days managing a bar and surviving the days.  

Life was okay to actually live.  Especially when Evan grinned at him and excitedly handed him a chocolate chip cookie ice cream sandwich from the little alcove in the lobby that had an assortment of snacks, just because he remembered Tommy telling him the other night that chocolate chip cookies were one of his favorite desserts. 

Tommy would have kissed him for it were it not for the eight year old steadily dozing off on Evan’s shoulder as he tried to finish a fudge drumstick.

The four of them finished their ice cream treats and Evan passed Chris over to Eddie to get him ready for bed while Evan stopped by his room to retrieve Danny for Chris— apparently Chris was Danny’s absolute favorite human and the dog always got to sleep in Eddie’s room when Chris was in town with them.

As soon as they were around the corner and out of view Tommy pulled Evan close to kiss the chocolate smeared at the crease of his mouth off his face.   Evan gave him a happily dazed smile when he pulled back, his thumb stroking lightly at the small of his back where his shirt was clinging to his damp skin. 

“What was that for?” Evan asked.  Evan loved kissing and he continually seemed surprised that Tommy loved kissing him.

“Because I wanted to,” Tommy said simply, leaning forward to give him another light peck.  

——

“Goodnight Chris,” Buck said, smiling as he ruffled the kid’s hair one more time while Danny snuffled at his shirt making the boy giggle as Buck pulled the blankets up and Danny settled into the bed next to him.  If there was someone that the dog loved more than any of them it was Chris and Buck was more than happy to give up his dog for the night if it made Chris happy.  “I’ll see you in the morning for breakfast and then I’ll see you in a couple of months for your birthday alright?”

“We’re gon-gonna—” Chris let out a wide yawn that reminded Buck that it was far past the boy’s bedtime and Eddie smirked slightly from where he was sitting on his own bed sketching out ideas like he usually did right before bed.  “We’re gonna go to the… the San Diego Zoo right?” 

“Absolutely.  We’re going to go to all the zoos and the aquarium and the beaches and—” Eddie raised his eyebrows at him and if Chris wasn’t watching so closely he would have stuck out his tongue at him.  They were also taking the boy to Disneyland for a day but it was a surprise, which Eddie knew he could keep a surprise.  “We’re gonna have so much fun.”  Buck said, carding a hand through Chris’ hair as he let out another sleepy yawn as his eyes grew heavier.

“Hmm, night Buck,” Chris said with another slow blink.

“Night buddy.”  Buck smiled and looked at Danny.  “Be good and hold down the fort alright?”

Danny sighed at him and dropped his head down on Chris’ hip.  Buck gave them both one last smile before Eddie walked him to the door and clapped him on the back in a tight hug and bid him goodnight.

The hallway was quiet save for the rumbling of the ice machine a few doors down.  It was late but he wondered if Tommy was still awake. The man was more of a night owl then he was so it was likely, but he had been invading the man’s space for the last few weeks… maybe he would want some time for himself?  It couldn’t hurt to ask though right?  Tommy had been the one to come to his room the last couple of nights and he had asked if Buck was joining him in the truck before he’d even called shotgun earlier that day.

He was walking by the ice room about to dig his phone out of his pocket to text the other man when a hand wrapped around his elbow and yanked him sideways off his feet and into the side room.

He let out a yelp, his heart lodged in his throat as he stumbled into a solid chest as warm thick arms looped around him holding him upright.  The thrumming of the ice and vending machines were almost as loud as the heartbeat in his ears as he looked up to see Tommy’s bright crinkly eyed smile watching him in amusement.  He was wearing a faded t-shirt and flannel pajama bottoms, his hair damp and curling on top of his head.

“Hey there.”

Buck let out a breathless laugh and twisted around until he was facing Tommy fully, wrapping his arms around him in a hug.  “You just scared the hell out of me.”

“Sorry about that,” Tommy said, looking very much not sorry, one of his hands looped around his waist while the other trailed up the side of Buck’s face, his knuckles brushing across his cheek before his hand curled around the nape of his neck, scratching lightly.  “I just saw you walk by and couldn’t resist.”

Buck leaned into the touch, the scratch of his fingernails making him sway into Tommy as the last of the momentary panic melted out of him.  His hands slid up the back of his soft t-shirt as he pressed against him, his cold hands on Tommy’s shower warmed skin made the other man shudder, goosebumps rising across his skin as Buck dragged his fingers up his spine.  “Well I guess I can forgive you.”  Buck hummed, his lips ghosting over Tommy’s.  “On one condition.”

“Mmm just one?” Tommy asked, his eyelashes fluttering as his gaze dropped down to Buck’s mouth and his fingers curled into his hair.  

“Maybe more than one.” Buck grinned before leaning forward and pulling Tommy closer to catch his lips with his own. 

Tommy hummed into his mouth, angling his head and stepping forward until Buck’s back hit the wall, his head pillowed by Tommy’s hand, the thrum of the ice machine loud next to his ear and Tommy pressed up against his front.  It was weirdly overwhelming all those things at once, but in a good kind of way, like every one of his kisses with Tommy had been so far.  

He relaxed further into his hold, holding him as close as he could, and let out a sigh that allowed Tommy to deepen the kiss even further.

He didn’t know how long they were there, making out against the ice machine, it could have been five minutes or five hours… Time seemed to move differently when he was with Tommy.   The world and all his worries just melted away when their hands intertwined and their lips met.

Buck was about to pull away to catch his breath and suggest they head for one of their rooms for the night when ice crashed through the machine next to them breaking apart the peaceful haze they had fallen into.

Tommy jumped nearly a foot in the air, knocking their noses and foreheads together as he startled and tightened his hold on Buck, letting out the cutest squeak he’d ever heard.  Buck would have never believed it if he hadn’t heard it with his own ears.  He let out a gasping laugh to cover up the fact that his own heart was pounding in his throat and ears again.   The ice scared him too but at least he didn’t squeak.  

Tommy nipped at his bottom lip frowning at him when his eyes started to get blurry with tears.  “Come on, now.” He whined but his own lips were starting to twitch upwards.  “It wasn’t that funny.”

Buck would beg to differ but he still couldn’t breathe right and just shook his head and patted Tommy’s chest lightly to get him to loosen his grip.  Tommy grumbled but took a step back to grab his ice bucket from the machine but Buck didn’t let him go far before he slid their fingers together and pulled him into the hallway towards their rooms, still giggling a little hysterically the entire time.  

There was no one in the hallway so he pulled him in to kiss him once more which turned into twice more and then just more more and then Tommy was the one leading him down the hall towards his room with that bright goofy grin that made Buck’s heart thump loudly in his chest.

——

Hands slapped the table in front of him and Buck blinked blearily in confusion.  

It was too damn early to be slapping tables like this, but he turned his eyes upwards anyway to see Chimney standing over him looking just as tired as he felt, dark circles under his wide slightly bloodshot eyes.  He looked a little manic.

“Uhh, Chim, buddy you okay?” Buck asked.

“It’s done,” Chimney said.  He was practically vibrating.  “It’s ready to go.”

“What’s—” Buck’s voice caught in his throat and his eyes widened so fast it kind of hurt.  “It’s done?!  Really!?” He asked, his voice going a little high as he tried to keep the volume low.  

Chimney nodded with a wide grin, popping his gum and Buck jumped out of his chair to pull the man into a tight hug.  

“It’s done!” 

“What’s done?”  Tommy asked, dropping back into his chair on the other side of the table heavily with the glass of orange juice that Buck had forgotten in his sleepiness.  Tommy was just as tired as he was but was already out of his chair at the first sad sigh Buck let out when he reached out for juice that wasn’t there.

“The drone!”  Buck nearly yelled in his face.

Tommy blinked at him before turning to look at Chimney and a smile grew wide on his face.  “That’s great!”

“If the conditions stay as promising as they were showing last night then we should be able to take it out on our first test run in an actual storm.”  Chimney explained and Buck nodded along excitedly.  They’d taken the drone on a few test runs last week during a bright sunny day in Oklahoma and it had run perfectly.  Chimney just needed to finish up a few last minute adjustments before they actually took it out into a super cell.

Buck felt wide awake now, buzzing restless energy the rest of the day into the late afternoon.  Tommy had been shooting him amusedly fond looks all day that Buck kept catching out of the corner of his eye which just added to the glee he was feeling as they set up shop on the side of a dirt road out in the middle of Texas.  

Buck’s jeep and Tommy’s truck were parked side by side while Chimney set up a makeshift launchpad for the most recent version of their large reinforced drone with every kind of weather reading gauge and meter they could fit on it.

Thunder was rumbling in the distance as they watched lightning flash through the clouds, occasionally striking the earth as the towering supercell rolled ominously towards them.  The winds picking up and blowing through the corn fields, the growing stalks swaying in the gusts looked like green and gold waves rolling across the fields as the storm crawled steadily closer.

“Now what?” Tommy asked once Chimney launched the drone and they watched it climb into the skies towards the dark swirling clouds.

“Now we wait for the instruments to start sending back data… hopefully.” Buck mumbled, biting his lip as he opened his laptop and set it on the tailgate of Tommy’s truck.

“Hey,” Tommy said gently, swaying towards him to bump him lightly.  Buck wanted to reach out and grab his hand, but he unfortunately needed both hands to type.  Instead he glanced up at Tommy over the rim of his glasses.   Tommy smiled at him.  “Of course it’s going to work.”

“He’s right, Buck.  You and Chimney have worked hard for this,” Bobby said, coming up next to him and setting up his own laptop.   The weather instruments on the drone would be feeding data mainly into Buck’s but Bobby could read live information faster than anyone Buck had ever met and would be scribing their predictions on his own computer.  “If it doesn’t work then we’ll just go back to the drawing board like we always do.”

“I know…” Buck sighed.   “We’ve just been working on Drone 4.0 for a year and a half now.  I really want this one to work.”

“What happened to Drone 1 through 3.0?” Tommy asked curiously.

“Uhhhh.”  Buck winced as everyone else groaned.  They all remembered the various failures and crash landings, one of which had resulted in Buck breaking his leg and messing up his knee when Drone 2.0 knocked him down a pretty steep hill and into a lake.  “I’ll tell you later,” Buck said as his laptop whirred to life with incoming data.

He started rattling off readings and numbers as Bobby started typing and Chimney kept a steady hand on the controls from where he was sitting on the hood of Buck’s Jeep.  Everyone else fell quiet as they worked, the only sounds being the ever present wind and thunder.  Tommy was a steady presence next to him, blocking most of the wind and some of rain droplets from hitting him.  

Bobby dropped their immediate readings into the calculation generator that Buck had been putting together since the days of his undergrad.  As they waited for the results the wind picked up and some of the pressures from the anemometer suddenly dropped, once Buck was finished rattling off those findings Bobby dropped them into the back up calculator.  

The first round of calculations finished and Buck leaned over Bobby’s laptop, with the other man’s head so close to his own Bobby’s reading glasses were poking him.

“Are you seeing what I’m seeing, Buck?”  Bobby asked.

“Mmhmm.” He nodded looking at Bobby with a nervous smile and pushed his own glasses back up from where they’d slid down his nose.   So far everything seemed to be going to plan.   

“What are you seeing?”  Tommy asked, his eyes slightly glazed as he tried to follow along with all the numbers that were constantly flashing across Buck’s screen.

“If my calculations are correct then we should see a tornado form to the northwest in about four minutes, likely with moderate wind speeds of 90 to 110 miles per hour with a north east trajectory.”  Most plains storms moved to the north east so he felt pretty confident about that one but if there was one thing he’d learned it was that making the unpredictable predictable was pretty hard.  

The next three minutes were agony, waiting to see if years of hard work and sleepless nights and literal, blood sweat and tears was all for naught.

They all kept their eyes trained to the north west waiting for anything to happen as the timer hit four minutes and the seconds continued to creep by, Buck was certain he was going to be sick and closed his eyes tightly, pushing his glasses up his forehead to rub at the bridge of his nose, trying to keep the exhaustion and stress headache at bay.

“I see a funnel!” Ravi exclaimed excitedly.

Buck’s eyes snapped open to see Ravi pulling a pair of binoculars off his face and pointing excitedly.  

“Oh my god!” Buck screeched as they watched the funnel cloud drop and within a minute it was a tornado on the ground.  Bobby grabbed him around the shoulders and started shaking him as he laughed in excitement.

“You did it!”

Behind them Chimney started hollering and Hen is whistling.  Eddie is yelling and high-fiving a cheering Ravi.  

Buck can’t believe it. 

It actually worked.

It really actually worked!

All those years of researching and calculations and burning his fingers while helping Chimney build prototype after prototype, the broken leg, the countless sleepless nights and a stolen design later he had been able to accurately predict exactly when a tornado formed.

He was practically vibrating, his hands shaking as they watched the tornado tear through the field.  Thankfully there were no towns nearby but Bobby let go of him all the same to call it into NWS.  

His arm was immediately replaced by Tommy clapping him on the back.  He’d been cheering just as loudly as the rest of them.  His face open and smiling that smile that scrunched his nose and crinkled his eyes.

It was fast becoming Buck’s favorite thing in the world and before he knew it he’d had his hands around Tommy’s head, pulling him forward to crash their mouths together.  Tommy let out a surprised noise, muffled by Buck’s lips on his before he relaxed into it, swaying into Buck and looping his arms around his waist, one of his hands resting between his shoulder blades and pulling him in close.

Buck’s eyes fluttered closed as they usually did when Tommy leaned into him, biting at his lip lightly.  One hand curled up in Tommy’s hair while the other stayed wrapped around his shoulders to keep himself upright as his knees went weak— not like Tommy would let him fall anyway.  He never did.

A wolf whistle from Eddie broke them apart, but just barely.  Buck didn’t want to let go yet and it seemed like Tommy didn’t want to either, his arms still wrapped tight around his waist as they both tried to catch their breath looking at everyone else with wide eyes.

“FINALLY!” Chim exclaimed while Hen slow clapped her hands together.

“So does this mean we can talk about it now?” Ravi asked.

Bobby just smiled proudly at them.

“Wait, you guys knew?” Buck asked, his arms tightened around Tommy’s shoulders a bit.  “All of you?”

“You two weren’t exactly subtle.” Chim grinned and popped his gum at them.

“Giggling like little girls when picking out snacks in the gas station—”

“Tommy is always looking at you. Like always.”

Tommy’s arms tightened around his middle a little at that.

“You’re always calling shotgun in Tommy’s truck nowadays, you never ride in the RV anymore.”

“Remember when you almost hit that cow cause you were lost in each other’s eyes?”  Ravi looked unamused.

“I definitely saw you guys making out by the ice machine a few nights ago,”  Eddie said with a raised eyebrow and poorly hidden smirk.  

Buck felt his face heat up and glanced at Tommy.   The man’s ears had turned a vivid red but it hadn’t wiped the soppy look off his face as he looked at Buck felt himself melt a bit at that.  No one had ever looked at him like that before.

“That!” Chim yelled, startling them.  He had jumped off the hood of the Jeep to point at them wildly,  his other hand still holding tight to the drone control.  “That look right there!  I can keep a secret better than either of your faces.”

“That… doesn’t make sense,” Tommy said with a laugh and soon the rest of them were all laughing, still feeling the joyful high of their success.

The smile that stretched across Tommy’s face was making Buck feel a little insane though and he leaned back in for another kiss.  This one softer and sweeter with less teeth and jumping but still made Buck’s heart thump in his ears like every other kiss they’d shared so far.

Chapter Text

Tommy woke up slowly that morning.

The room was quiet and cool which was a good counterbalance to the heat of Danny laying heavily across his legs— which had quickly become the dog’s favorite spot to sleep every time Tommy had stayed in Evan’s room for the night, which was usually most nights these days.

He blinked his eyes open and brought his hand up to his. Face to scrub the sleep out of them.  The room was still dark with the heavy curtains pulled over the windows but he could see sunlight shining through around the edges.

He stretched slowly to not disturb Danny and turned to see Evan sitting upright in the bed typing away at his laptop, his glasses were hanging low on his nose and he had an intense focus on the screen that told Tommy he’d been at this for hours.

He hummed and rolled his body fully towards him.  Danny huffed and stood up to circle the foot of the bed before he flopped back down again with a heavy sigh.  Evan didn’t even blink so Tommy reached out and gently looped his hand around his elbow.

“Evan, have you been up all night?  Did you get any sleep?”

“Hmm?” Evan blinked blearily at him, his eyes bloodshot and kind of glazed behind his glasses.

“Sleep, baby, did you sleep?” Tommy asked again.

Evan frowned at him in confusion before looking up over Tommy’s shoulder where the sun was streaming in beyond the curtains.  His eyes widened and his mouth dropped open a bit.

“Oh I… I didn’t even—”

Tommy huffed out a laugh and leaned up on his elbow to press a kiss to Evan’s neck.

“What are you working so hard on that kept you up?” He asked sitting up and wrapping his arms around him, hooking his chin over Evan’s shoulder to look at the screen which was full of numbers and words that Tommy didn’t fully understand.

Evan relaxed back into him and started to explain how he was writing up all their findings from the initial drone launch yesterday and follow ups to those findings to work out even more tests by adjusting certain variables here and there to make it even more accurate and bring them even closer to finding out exactly what came together in a storm to produce a tornado.

In a couple of weeks they were heading down to Austin to present their findings from the drone and the final designs of Eddie’s storm shelters to some potential investors.  Their goal was always to save lives and protect people, but unfortunately that required money that a bunch of scholars and researchers didn’t really have.

In the middle of explaining how an adjustment to his algorithm could help potentially predict the exact conditions a storm needed to produce tornadoes and possibly how many of the twisters a supercell could sustain, Evan let out a jaw cracking yawn that had him leaning heavily into Tommy.

“It’s a rest day today,” Tommy said, kissing the side of his head and moving to stand up and get dressed.  He wondered if Bobby knew this was going to happen and that’s why he declared a rest day for them.  “How about you take a break and sleep for a couple of hours?  I’ll take Danny for a walk and catch up with Bobby to see what our plans are for tomorrow.”

Evan yawned again, blinking up at him.  “Are you sure?”

“Very sure.” Tommy leaned down to kiss him again as he buttoned up his shirt.

“I’ll wake you up in a couple hours and we can go get brunch, sound good?”

“Sounds great.” Evan mumbled, already halfway to sleep as Tommy pulled the blanket up to his shoulders.

He was snoring by the time Tommy was leading Danny out the door.  He chuckled to himself and quietly locked the door behind him before heading for the nearby river trail he’d seen yesterday.

——

“Buck, Chris wants you to FaceTime him tonight when we get back to the hotel,” Eddie said from the back seat as they barred down the highway towards a beautifully structured supercell towering miles into the sky.  It was dark and forbidding, and hail was beginning to pound against the windshield but Tommy continued forward.  “Says he misses his Buck and that you haven’t been sending enough pictures of Danny.”

Evan let out a chuckle and looked up from where he was studying the radar on his laptop.  “I’m sure that can be arranged.”

“So when do I get to call you Buck?” Tommy asked, sparing a glance over at Evan for barely a second.  Evan looked at him in surprise. “I’ve seen you naked, doesn’t that at least give me the privilege of the nickname?”

“Please don’t start this while I’m trapped in here with you.” Eddie begged.

Evan huffed out a little laugh.  “Actually you’re the only one who gets to call me Evan.”

“I guess I can live with that.” Tommy smiled at him, slowing to a stop behind a car at an intersection.

Evan grinned back at him mischievously and leaned towards him over the center console, dragging his fingertips up Tommy’s arm slowly leaving goosebumps in their wake.

“And you’re the only one who gets to see me naked.”

Tommy quirked an eyebrow at him.

Eddie groaned.  “I will jump out of this truck,  I swear to god, I will.”

Lightning flashed and thunder cracked almost simultaneously.  

“I don’t care if there’s a tornado out there, if you subject me to this again —”

Evan laughed and leaned back into his seat.  “Oh come on, Eddie.”

“I will, Buck, don’t test me.”

——

“So Tommy—” Howie drawled the second he slid into the booth across from them.

“No.”

“You don’t even know what I’m going to say!”

“I think I have a pretty good idea.” Tommy chuckled and brought his drink up to his lips.

“You give them shit for not being subtle,” Hen said, elbowing Howie in the side.  “But you are about as subtle as a brick to the face.”

“Hey!” Howie looked offended for a brief moment before he shrugged.  “Eh, you’re right.”  He rolled his eyes back over to Tommy and pointed the open end of his bottle and a finger at him.  “If you’re so smart then what do you think I’m about to say?”

Tommy let out a loud laugh and Evan raised an eyebrow at him.   “Alright— You want to know what we’re doing for my birthday this year and I’m going to tell you like I’ve told you every year before that I don’t want to do anything big.  You’ll say ‘okay’ and then you and Hen will go behind my back and plan something anyway that may or may not end with us in the county holding cell for the night.”

Howie let out a low whistle.  “You do indeed know exactly what I was going to say”

“It’s been five years but I still have no memories of the five birthdays before that.”

Hen barked out a laugh at that while Howie looked like he was trying (and failing) to remember the aforementioned birthdays.  “You and me both, Tommy.”

“It’s your birthday?” Evan asked quietly, sounding… kind of hurt.

Tommy turned to look at him in alarm, immediately dragging him closer with the arm around his shoulders.  “Not for another few days…. I didn’t mean to not tell you.  I honestly just forgot.”

That somehow just made Evan frown even more, the space between his eyebrows creasing which just made Tommy want to smooth it away with his thumb.

“We should do something for your birthday,” he said, leaning into his side, his eyes wide and earnest.

“Okay.” Tommy agreed because he was truly hopeless when it came to Evan Buckley.

Eddie snorted into his drink and Howie squawked.  “Why does he get an instant yes?!”

“Because he’s cuter,” Tommy said, turning his head to kiss Evan, soundly ignoring Howie’s spluttering.  Evan hummed into the kiss happily, the frown long gone, until the others started to jokingly protest that they were going to get them kicked out.  He pulled back just for Evan to drop one more quick peck on his lips, squeezing his knee as he leaned back to take another drink and steal some of Eddie’s fries.

“You can still do whatever you want to do, Chim,” Evan said appeasingly and Tommy didn’t argue because he already knew that Howie was just going to ‘surprise’ him anyway like he always had.  “But I get him on his actual birthday.”

Tommy raised an eyebrow at him but Evan just smiled back brightly.

“It’s a surprise,” he said.

Tommy tried to keep his face straight but couldn’t help how his lips quirked upwards into a smirk as he squeezed Evan’s thigh under the table and pulled him in a little closer.

“I’m gonna stop you right there, Kinard.” Howie pointed at him before he could even say anything.  “I don’t need to know anything more about my brother-in-law’s sex life than I already do, especially not with one of my closest friends.  You can canoodle with your boyfriend later.”

“Awww Howie.” Tommy cooed at him.  “You think we’re friends?”

“Oh shut up you asshole.” Howie laughed, pelting him in the forehead with a mozzarella stick.

Later that night when he was laying in bed waiting for Evan to finish brushing his teeth he couldn’t stop thinking about it.  

“You okay?” Evan asked sliding under the blanket and kicking out the corners to be less restricting.  

Tommy hummed and turned to look at him.  Evan with his fluffy curls and curious blue eyes and pink birthmark.  He reached out to graze his thumb over it, he honestly could not keep his hands off the other man, but Evan turned into the touch like he always did.

“Are you okay with Howie calling us boyfriends?”  He asked quietly.

Evan blinked his eyes open, curiosity turning a bit uncertain.  “Are… are you okay with it?”

“Evan.” Tommy huffed with a smile on his face.  “I’m very okay with it.  I’m okay with whatever you want to call me— boyfriend, partner, whatever feels right to you when it feels right to you.”

Evan hummed at him this time, sliding his arms around his waist and pulling them together.  “Well… I’ve never had a boyfriend before.  I kind of like the sound of it.”  He smiled at him and it made Tommy’s heart beat loudly in his ears.  He still couldn’t believe this was his life these days.

“I like the sound of that too,” he said, pulling Evan forward until their lips met.

——

The day of Tommy’s birthday found them in central Iowa after another successful day of storm chasing with the drone and accurately predicting another two tornadoes while gathering more data.  It was late in the season, far later than most storm chasers normally chased, but Evan hadn’t been lying that first night when he said it was the most unprecedented tornado season in years.

Even so, their good storm chasing days were growing farther apart with much more downtime in between.  Which is how Tommy found himself blindfolded riding passenger in his own truck while Evan drove them to his ‘birthday surprise’ later that evening.

“You’re really not going to tell me where we’re going?”

“Then what’s the point of the surprise?”

“I’ll still be surprised either way.”  Tommy pointed out, tilting his head towards Evan.  He was mostly teasing him at this point.

Evan laughed.  “Sure, but it’s more fun this way.  We’re almost there anyway.”

He perked up at that.  They had only been driving for about fifteen minutes and he trusted Evan,  but it wasn’t every day that someone put in the effort to surprise him like this.  Butterflies wreaked havoc on his stomach if he really thought about it too much.

He did feel a little silly when Evan told him to plug his ears and hum to himself when they rolled to a stop for a minute before the truck started rolling forward and he tapped his shoulder.

“Can I take it off now?”

“No.” Evan laughed and the truck slowed and rolled to another stop.  He turned the truck off and hopped out.  “Wait here for just a minute okay?” He closed the door and silence echoed around the cab before it opened again. “And no peeking!!”

The door shut again and Tommy rolled his eyes behind the blindfold with a smile.  He wasn’t about to ruin Evan’s surprise now.

He hummed and thought to himself to pass the time about how a month and a half ago he wouldn’t have ever believed that he’d be back to storm chasing again, let alone calling the hottest, kindest man he’d ever met his boyfriend, but here he was.  Now that he was here he wasn’t sure he’d be able to go back to the lonely, boring life he led before.

There was a small tap on the window before the passenger side door opened and Evan’s hand was on his elbow.

“Okay, I’m ready— watch your step,” he said as he helped Tommy out of the cab and closed the door behind him and then led him around to the back of the truck.  

“Okay… you— you can take the blindfold off now,” Evan said nervously.

Tommy pulled the blindfold off his head and blinked.

Evan was standing in front of him twisting the bracelet he always wore around his wrist and between his fingers anxiously giving him a sheepish smile.

Behind him was a large white screen and dozens of other cars and trucks lining up in neat rows with a few people milling around carrying popcorn and drinks and hotdogs back to their cars.  The sun was slowly trailing down the sky towards the horizon painting the sky in brilliant blues and purples and golds.

“Um…. I hope this is okay,” Evan said, stepping towards him but going towards the tailgate of the truck where he smoothed out a blanket that Tommy hadn’t noticed.

In the back of the truck there was an air mattress with what looked like every single pillow and blanket from the RV including a couple from their hotel room.

“I know it’s not a lot, but you’re always telling me about the movies you like and you scroll the channels looking for a movie when I’m working late to just stay up with me.  And then we went by that drive-in in Kansas and you said you hadn’t been to one since your mom took you as a kid and how much you loved it… so I thought that ma-maybe—”

Tommy didn’t get the chance to find out what Evan might have thought.  Instead he stepped forward with one hand around his wrist and the other beneath his chin and pulled him in for a kiss, pouring as much feeling into it as he could.  Evan hummed and swayed towards him like he always did and as much as Tommy wanted to deepen the kiss further, he pulled back.   His thumb stroked along Evan’s jaw as he cradled his face in his hand.

“It’s perfect.”

Evan leaned into his touch and smiled at him.  “Really?  You-  you really like it?”

“I love it.” He assured him.  With them being on the road so much and far from home, it was one of the most thoughtful gifts he’d ever been given.  

His boyfriend looked relieved.  “G-great!   I, uh, I’m not actually sure what movie is playing or if it’s one you’ll even like… This was the closest drive-in I could find, there’s not a whole lot of them around anymore.”

Tommy nodded and pulled Evan in with his arms around his waist.  “I’m sure whatever movie is playing will be great.”

Evan leaned into him, his hands resting on his arms.  “G-good… That’s good.  Happy birthday Tommy.”

Tommy leaned back a bit to look him in the eye.  “Thank you Evan.  Really… I don’t think anyone has ever done anything like this for me before.”

Evan frowned at that and Tommy leaned forward to kiss it off his face.

“Let’s go get some popcorn.”

It had been a hot muggy day and as the sun went down the night stayed warm with a pleasant breeze that Tommy thought was perfect but Evan shivered at a particularly sharp gust of air during the opening scene of Top Gun .

“How are you always cold?” Tommy laughed quietly and pulled his boyfriend down into his arms where he was leaning against the mound of pillows piled against the cab of the truck.

“I just am.” Evan grumped and snuggled in closer to him.   Tommy pulled a blanket up over him and rubbed his hand up and down his arm to warm him up.

“I mean if you wanted to cuddle all you had to do was ask.” He teased.

“Bite me.” Evan sniped back.

“Maybe not here,” Tommy said lowly, leaning down to kiss Evan but pulling back again before it could get any more heated.  The drive-in was packed and Tommy did not want to get bailed out of a county holding cell on his birthday for public indecency.   That and Tommy did actually enjoy this movie and wanted to watch it, especially after his boyfriend had told him he’d never seen it.  “But when we get back to the hotel I think that can be arranged.”

Evan shivered again but this time it had nothing to do with the breeze as his arm tightened around Tommy’s waist.

“I’ll hold you to that.” Evan grinned, leaning up to peck Tommy on the corner of his mouth while sneaking a handful of popcorn that he said he wouldn’t eat.

Watching the movie with his boyfriend curled into his side asking him questions and continually stealing his popcorn was the most at peace Tommy had felt in years.  He was pretty sure he hadn’t relaxed since before his grandma had passed, but here with Evan’s fingers dancing up his side and along the hem of his shirt he found himself so loose limbed that he nearly dozed off.

“Chim and Hen claimed tomorrow night as your birthday party,” Evan said when the credits started to roll, voice a little muffled from where his face was pressed into Tommy’s neck.

“So what I’m hearing is that we need to stock up on the Tylenol and Gatorade by tomorrow night.” Tommy huffed with a laugh.

“I would ask you if it was really that bad, but I already know the answer to that.”

“We’ll likely end up in a bar for the night which doesn’t sound crazy, but that’s how it always began.”

“Did you ever actually end up in a holding cell for the night?” Evan asked, sitting up to look at him.

“Once.” He admitted.  “Bobby had to come bail us all out that morning.  It was Sal’s fault.”

“Of course it was.” Evan laughed.  “What even happened?”

“I don’t actually remember, but I think there was a rooster with knives on its feet at some point.”  Tommy shuddered, that chicken would randomly appear in his nightmares and he had no memorable context for it other than the knives.

Evan started howling with laughter falling over breathlessly when Tommy pushed him over, before he followed him down to the pillows to kiss the smile off his face.  It was his birthday after all. 

——

As predicted they ended up in a bar that was actually owned by a friend of Tommy’s.  She had been thrilled to see them and when she found out about the occasion she’d give them a free round on the house to get them started and front row seats to the trivia night that was about to begin.

Judging by the looks on Howie and Hen’s faces, they already knew that.

Tommy loved trivia games, so he let the two of them have this one, just this once.

Evan also loved trivia, just as much as he did as he was thrilled to discover and the two of them (plus Eddie) made a formidable team against Hen, Howie, and Ravi— who, while they put up a good fight, got increasingly buzzed as they all had to take a drink for every question they missed.

Which meant they all got drunk pretty quick.

They were now just starting a lightning round of trivia where the rule was to just shout out the answer and the first one who got it won points for their team.  Which was wildly entertaining with half the room already half way through a bottle.

“When did the War of 1812 end?” Eddie read off the screen in front of them.

“1812!!!” Howie shouted at the top of his lungs, swaying heavily to the side as he jumped out of his seat confidently.  

“1815.” Evan muttered under his breath.

“BUCK! Speak up!!!” Eddie yelled, grabbing Evan’s arm and waving it wildly in the air.  

“1815!!” Evan shouted.

The screen lit up bright green and they were awarded ten points before the next question appeared.

His brilliant boyfriend managed to get every single question right except for one about the Cornhusker-Hawkeye football rivalry between Nebraska and Iowa’s biggest schools.  The noise in the room was deafening as everyone else shouted the answer along with Tommy at the same time.  They ended up winning the night as a whole though, which led to a platter of free appetizers and another round of drinks that surely was going to leave them with one foot in the grave.

“Extreme storm chaser he says, as if there’s any other kind of storm chaser.” Hen said with disgust and Evan started nodding his head so vigorously that Tommy was worried it might fall off his shoulders.

“Who are we talking about?”   Tommy asked.

Eddie pointed at the screen over the bar to their left showing a news cast about the upcoming show Thunder Trackers.   On the screen was Jonah Greenway and his smarmy smile that gave him the creeps.

“Why does everything have to be a competition with him?” Evan added while Hen nodded her own agreement this time.  “What is the point of ‘rival’ storm chasers?  Or even just having a TV show in the first place.  What are they trying to get out of it by causing interpersonal drama in the field of meteorology?  Tornadoes are dramatic enough!  Why does it need to be a race?  Trying to get to the storm first, or save people first, or-or-or—” He was starting to get worked up and Tommy reached over to run his hand up and down his back soothingly.  

“Oh no.  They’re drunk,” Howie said on his other side as if he himself wasn’t also very, very drunk.  “I was on Hen duty and you were on Buck duty and we failed. ”

“I’m on what— never mind.”  Tommy shook his head. “It’s my birthday, why do I have to be the one to make sure Evan stays sober?”  His boyfriend was now leaning heavily into his side, still ranting with Hen about how the Thunder Trackers team were just a bunch of thrill seeking glory hounds who were ‘stealing stealers that steal ideas.’

“We didn’t even need to keep them sober.” Howie explained.  “We just had to make sure that they didn’t get drunk together.  Not after last time.”

“What happened last time?” Tommy asked.

“Last year they got wasted together and saran wrapped Gerrard’s van.”

“I’m not seeing how that’s a bad thing,” Tommy said.

“It wasn’t.  It was actually hilarious.” Howie agreed, taking a drink of some bright pink drink that Tommy was pretty sure belonged to Evan.  “But then it took Gerrard a day and a half to cut his car out of melted plastic wrap and he threatened to press charges if he ever found out who did it.  So now we’re not supposed to let them get drunk together anymore— Athena’s orders.”

The night continued on in much the same hazing memory fashion as all his previous birthdays with the 118 including but not limited to a lot of drinks and some terrible karaoke— Tommy had laughed until he couldn’t breath over Evan and Eddie butchering a song so bad it was unrecognizable— but eventually Bobby arrived to herd them all back to their hotel across the street.

Other than Ravi (who had wisely chosen to stop after two drinks a few hours ago) and Bobby (for obvious reasons) Tommy ended up being the least drunk of them all only because of his incredibly high tolerance after years of tending his own bar.  

He was still pretty drunk though.

Not as drunk as Evan though, who could not stop giggling and falling over himself as he tried to kiss Tommy on the cheek sloppily until Tommy detached his arms from around his neck and dropped him into the bed.  Danny hopped up on the mattress next to him and nosed at Evan’s face while Tommy pulled his shoes and jeans off to make him more comfortable. 

“My pupppyyy dog!!” Evan crooned and clumsily petted the dog’s golden fur as Danny licked his face before trotting across the covers to give Tommy a few kisses of his own.

Tommy scratched behind the golden’s ears until he was appeased and settled at the foot of the bed for the night.

“Tommyyy.” Evan whined, flopping his whole arm across his empty side of the bed as Tommy went to lock the door for the night. “Come to beeeeedd—”

“I’m coming, baby.” Tommy chuckled and kicked off his own boots and jeans before crawling under the covers next to Evan awkwardly trying to kick out the tight corners to loosen the sheets the same way Evan always did.  Once he managed it he turned off the lamp, plunging the room into darkness save for the thin strip of light that poked out from behind the curtains from the streetlights outside. 

Evan hummed happily and burrowed in closer, wrapping his arm around him tightly.  Tommy wrapped his own arms around Evan’s shoulders as his boyfriend settled down into him to use him as a pillow.

“Didja have a good birthday?” Evan mumbled into his shirt.

“The best,” Tommy said, pulling him closer to kiss the top of his head.

Evan’s breathing soon evened out and his tight grip went a bit lax as Tommy listened to him fall asleep.  It really had been the best birthday he’d possibly ever had.

He thought back to his birthday last year.  It had just been another night at the bar with Lucy and Melton.  Sal had shown up for the night which had been a nice surprise after he hadn’t seen the other man in months.  It had been a week night so it was slow enough for him to reminisce over a few beers and catch up with his old friend.

Lucy had gotten him a “World’s Best Boss” mug as a joke and Melton had given him tickets to a monster truck rally in Des Moines.  It had been a good birthday.

But laying here in the dark of some random hotel room in the middle of Iowa, with Danny’s head draped over his foot and Evan curled up around him breathing slowly his warm breath washing over his neck, even though they both were likely to wake up in the morning feeling absolutely miserable, Tommy couldn’t remember a time he’d ever felt this light and happy.

Evan hummed in his sleep and shifted for a moment before settling back down and Tommy couldn’t think of a better present than having Evan in his arms and in his life.  

Chapter Text

“What are you doing?” Tommy asked, without opening his eyes.

Buck froze, the camera halfway back to his eye after fiddling with some of the settings, he let out a soft curse, he didn’t realize the shutter noise would be loud enough to wake his boyfriend up.

“Uhhh—”

Tommy smirked and cracked open an eye, his gaze falling on Buck who was kneeling next to him on the floor.  He looked so stupidly handsome like that laying on his stomach with his arms pillowed under his head with that stupidly handsome smirk and that stupidly handsome eyebrow, with his hair all fluffy and messy and the shadow of stubble that graced his jaw.  

Buck lifted the camera and took another picture, smiling when Tommy let out a laugh and pushed himself upwards.

“You making me your model again?”  He asked with a jaw cracking yawn, swinging his legs over the side of the bed and stretching his arms upwards in a way that made Buck’s mouth go dry and the air whooshing out of him.

“More like you’re my muse,” Buck said with a grin and wiggle of his fingers after he swallowed to get his throat and lungs working again.

“Oh really?” Tommy grinned back at him as he pushed himself upwards walking to the dresser to rummage around for some clothes. 

They had gotten to Tommy’s house back in Omaha yesterday evening after chasing a storm two hours away in central Nebraska.  They’d been going near nonstop for a week and a half chasing multiple outbreaks that had been popping up all over Nebraska, Kansas, and Oklahoma zig zagging up and down between the three states which meant they were all exhausted and in need of a good break for a day or two.  

It had been an easy decision to come here considering how close they already were plus the fact that Athena had been working out of the Omaha FBI field office the last few months meant that Bobby could see his wife and Tommy could check in on his bar.

He and Tommy along with Chimney, Eddie, and Ravi were staying at Tommy’s house much like they had those first couple of nights that they had met Tommy.   

That was nearly two months ago but it had felt like he’d known Tommy for a lifetime.  This time around he’d gotten to sleep in Tommy’s incredibly comfortable bed instead of sharing the old pull out couch with Eddie and Danny.

Speaking of— there was a scratch and a whine at the bedroom door.  

Tommy smiled and leaned down to give Buck a kiss before going to open the door and let Danny in.  The golden bounded over and up onto the bed, tail wagging excitedly as he licked all over Buck’s face in greeting.  

“It doesn’t look like anyone else is awake yet.” Tommy said, glancing down the short hallway.  

“They’ll probably sleep until we leave for the bar,” Buck said, scratching under his dog’s ears and scrunching up his face to tease him.  He glanced at the clock on Tommy’s nightstand.  “I don’t think any of us have really slept the last week. It’s already a little past noon which means this guy probably has to go out for a W-A-L-K.” 

Danny’s ears perked up and he tilted his head at Buck.

“Yeah, yeah I know you can spell that word, just give me a few minutes,” Buck said as he pushed himself upright with a grunt as his knee popped.

Tommy stuck his head out of the bathroom door, his toothbrush hanging out of his mouth.  “You ‘kay?” He garbled around the brush.

Buck snapped another picture before ducking to avoid the roll of toilet paper Tommy threw at his head with a laugh.

——

They walked into the bar which already seemed to have a decent sized crowd for early on a Friday night a catchy country song was playing over the speaker and Tommy furrowed his brow as he looked up at it.  

“What’s up?”  Buck asked, squeezing Tommy’s hand lightly.  

Tommy gave him a wry smile.  “Lucy’s in charge of the playlist tonight.”  He pointed up at the ceiling.  “She plays music that Melton and I don’t know but the younger crowd always seems to love it.  She says we’re not ‘hip’.”

Buck snorted.  “If it makes you feel any better Chimney had to give me a whole pop culture crash course on movies and music when we met.  My parents didn’t like most... anything really and they would get mad if we played music too loud and all the music I knew was from Maddie’s old iPod.  It was pink.”

Tommy pressed his lips together before leaning forward and kissing his birthmark as if to stop himself from saying something else.  He hadn’t told Tommy a lot about his parents but he knew Eddie had said a few things, and considering how little Eddie liked them, the man was now definitely not a fan of theirs.  

“Tommy!”

A glass shattered behind the bar and there was a muffled curse.  

“Boss man’s back?!”

A blond head appeared from the back and the woman’s face broke into a wide grin.  “And he brought the boyfriend!”

Tommy huffed and rolled his eyes with a smile leading Buck over to the bar and introducing him to both Lucy and Melton.   

“It’s nice to meet you both in person,” Buck said, shaking their hands.  Lucy pulled him forward into a hug instead that he returned with a smile. 

“Please I feel like I’ve talked to you more than the boss here the last couple of weeks.” Lucy grinned and Tommy scoffed out a quiet “hey!” before she shushed him.  “You know I’m right.  You are the worst texter on the planet Tommy Kinard.”

Buck muffled a laugh behind his hand.  She wasn’t wrong.  He hadn’t been subjected to many of Tommy’s texts since the man preferred to call and they spent almost every second of the day together anyway, but even his texts to double check his food order were dryer than Death Valley. 

“Thank you for sending us proof of life, Buck.” Melton said. 

“Excuse me, I call you once a week to check in,” Tommy said with a frown.  

“Which would be fine if I knew it was to actually check in and let us know how you were doing, instead of checking in on us to see how we were handling things.” Melton ribbed him.  “Buck, here, at least keeps us updated on your well-being.”

Buck grinned and leaned against the bar looking up at his sheepish boyfriend.  He had been texting both Lucy and Melton from Tommy’s phone for the last couple of weeks sending them pictures of mostly Danny but also a few of the two of them on their dinner dates or even including Eddie when they were in the truck chasing.

“Well now that you both know that I’m alive and well, can you tell me how things are going?”  Tommy sighed in exasperation but the corners of his mouth were twitching as he folded his arms over his chest. 

“I don’t even get a “hey Melt how are you? How’s the cat? Do you have a girlfriend yet?”  Melton said, pulling out a large binder and setting it on the bar.  

“Hey Melt,” Tommy said.  “How are you?  How’s the cat?  Do you have a girlfriend yet?”

“I’m good. Nova’s good. And yes I do actually.”

Tommy’s eyes went wide as he clearly wasn’t expecting that.  “What— Melton that’s—”

“I’m just messing with you Tommy, I don’t have a girlfriend.” Melton grinned.  “I do have a boyfriend though.”

Buck laughed as Tommy’s face flashed through nearly ten different expressions before he finally reached out and pulled Melton into a hug.  “That’s great, Jack.  I’m so happy for you. I want to hear all about it.”

“I’m still single,” Lucy said with a wave.

“That is very much a you problem, Luce.” Melton teased. 

“Yeah I know.” She grinned with a shrug.  “But now you’re both in relationships, I’m gonna start feeling left out.  Might need to go do something stupid like get back on Tinder.”

Buck winced in sympathy.  

Melton walked Tommy through last month’s finances while Buck sat and chatted with Lucy while she cleaned some glasses and served the few other patrons sitting at the bar.  He already knew quite a bit about Tommy’s bar:  Stella’s by Starlight .  He knew that his grandmother, Stella herself, had owned it for nearly 35 years, initially starting out as a small lesbian bar that she started with her girlfriend before it grew into a more inclusive queer space over the years.  

They always had several special events on top of the trivia nights they already did during pride month and this year had been the first time Tommy had missed it in five years, but from the sounds of it it had been one of the most successful pride months they’d had in ten years. 

“We hired a new bouncer a few weeks ago.  Mars had to move back to Norfolk to help his mother out after she broke her hip.”  Melton said.

Tommy was flipping through a few pages in the binder and looked up at him with concern written on his face.  “Is she okay?  Do they need anything?  You told him—”

“I told him that his job was still here whenever he was able to come back and I was able to get him on the family leave policy for the time being so he’s still being paid.”  Melton explained.  “Last I heard she was doing pretty well and I got some meals sent up to them too.”

“Good, that's good.” Tommy sighed and closed the binder.  “Well everything seems to be in shape here, as I knew it would.” He said with a pointed nod at Melton.  “I just worry sometimes you know?”

“You wouldn’t be you if you didn’t, Boss.” Lucy quipped. 

Buck smiled as he watched them interact.  They seemed to both really respect Tommy and Tommy seemed to care about all of his employees greatly which made his heart beat a little louder in his chest with feelings that were bigger than they should be at this point. 

Tommy smiled at them.  “Well I’ll leave y’all too it.  We’re heading out again tomorrow but I’ll be back sometime in August.  Tell everyone else I said hello.”

“Will do, Tommy, now go have some fun with your friends.” Melton said, nodding towards the front door. 

Eddie, Ravi, Chimney, and Hen had arrived just in time for a booth to open up in the back.  Tommy and another one of his waitresses cleaned it off quickly and soon they were all packed in next to each other like they were most nights they went out.

They were having a great night, laughing and talking like they didn’t see each other nearly every second of the day for four months straight.  They were the closest thing to a family Buck had really had since Daniel had died and Maddie moved away and with Tommy at his side he’d never been happier.  

They were both sliding out of the booth with matching grins on their face from a joke that Chimney had told to go get another round for everyone when Tommy suddenly froze and Buck nearly barreled into his back.

 Buck looked around his boyfriend’s shoulder to see an older man with shoulders as broad as Tommy and a gut that hung over his belt a fair bit.  He looked tired and worn out but there was something in his dull eyes that seemed familiar.

“Junior.” The man said.

“Senior.”  Tommy replied back shortly.  “You’re not supposed to be here.”

Buck’s eyes widened.  This was Tommy’s father.  He didn’t really know anything about Tommy’s dad besides “We don’t talk anymore” and “he’s not a good guy.”

Thomas Kinard Sr. straightened up to his full height but he still didn’t measure up to Tommy.  “You know I have every right—”

“You have no right to be here.  Your own mother banned you years ago.”  Tommy said boredly, like he was repeating a well rehearsed list.  “You need to leave.  You and I have nothing to say to each other.”

“You are still the same candy ass your bitch of a mother—”

“Hey!” Buck interjected loudly, stepping around Tommy.  Tommy was already looping a hand around his elbow to hold him back before he could get into Senior’s face.  “Tommy asked you to leave so you need to leave before someone makes you.”

Before the man could say anything else Melton and the new bouncer appeared.  

“Sir— I’m going to have to ask you to leave or I will call the police,” Melton said as the bouncer dropped a hand on Senior’s shoulder.  

“Get your hands off me!” The man shouted, shrugging his hand off and lashing out.

Tommy took a steady step back, pulling Buck with him out of the way as the bouncer caught Senior’s  fist.  He held on tightly and dropped another large hand down on his shoulder before pulling him towards the door.  The man was yelling and screaming vitriol that was fast turning incomprehensible before the bouncer had him out of the door and back onto the street.  

“Jesus.” Melton breathed out, running a hand over the top of his head. “Sorry about that Tommy.  Mike’s only been here a few weeks and doesn’t have the faces of our banned patrons memorized yet.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Tommy said, cool as a cucumber.  “It’s been about a year and a half since he last tried this he was bound to show back up sometime.  I’m just impressed he managed the one night I was actually back in town.  Tell Mike not to beat himself up about it, he definitely won’t forget Senior’s face now.”

Melton nodded and went about assuring the rest of the patrons that everything was handled and to go about their night as Tommy pulled him up to the bar to get their drinks from Lucy.

“Are you okay?” He asked, worrying his lip with his teeth and leaning against the bar to look up at his boyfriend.

Tommy blinked at him.  “What?  Yeah I’m fine.  He does this every few months.  It’s been a while since he’s actually managed to get into the bar though.”

“You sure?”

Tommy smiled at him and reached up to pull Buck’s lip away from his teeth with his thumb, his hand tucked under his chin.  “Really I’m fine.  He hasn’t said anything that has gotten to me in years.” 

His thumb brushed over his lip and Buck’s eyes danced over his face for a moment before he smiled back at him.  “Alright then.  But you’ll let me know if you need to talk?”

“Of course.” Tommy said, leaning down and brushing his lips over Buck’s before Lucy cut in with the first half of their drinks.  Tommy grabbed them and with a passing wink at Buck he headed back for the table.

“You’re good for him.” Lucy said, as she slid the other half of their drinks towards him.  “I’ve never seen him so… light before.  It’s a good look on him.” 

Buck smiled.  “It is.  I’m glad that… that I can make him happy, at least.”

“You make him way more than happy, Buck, I can tell.”  Lucy smiled.

Buck nodded at her and thanked her before he returned to the table with his, Eddie, and Tommy’s drinks.  

As he got closer he heard Hen ask “Who was that?”

“That, unfortunately, was my father.” Tommy answered, passing out Hen, Chimney, and Ravi’s drinks.

“I have never seen Buck that angry before.” Ravi commented. 

“Me neither and I live with the guy and his sister for half the year.” Chimney added.

“I have.” Eddie said, glancing over at him as he approached.  

He rolled his eyes at him.  You play Uno with a guy one time.

“It was definitely a first for me, but I have to admit…” Tommy said, turning to face him with a grin.  “It was pretty hot.”

——

“Is this your mom?” Evan asked and Tommy looked up from where he was untying his boots.

Evan was already dressed for the night in just a pair of flannel pj bottoms (that Tommy is pretty sure he dug out of his drawers) holding a picture frame that had been sitting on top of his dresser.  

Tommy recognized it instantly and finished kicking off his boots before he walked over to Evan and hooked his chin over his shoulder, hugging him from behind and looking down at the faded picture of a pretty young woman with long brown hair and humor in her eyes.

“It’s my grandma actually.”  He reached over the dresser and grabbed another picture off his dresser.   This one of another woman with blue eyes, curly blond hair and a brilliant smile.  She had a guitar slung on her shoulder and she was holding a baby.  “This one is my mom.”   He looped his arm back around Evan’s front to hold both pictures side by side.  

“They’re both beautiful.” Evan commented and Tommy felt more than saw his lips quirk upwards against his cheek.  “Is this you?”  He pointed at the baby in his mom’s arms.

“It is,” Tommy said.

“You were adorable.” Evan cooed.  

“Were?” Tommy said, pulling back to look at him with an affronted frown.  

Evan turned and grabbed at his cheeks squishing them with one hand.  He laughed and leaned forward to kiss his pursed lips.  “You still are.”  He pressed another kiss on the tip of his nose.  “The.” Another one on his chin.  “Most.” And then back to his lips.  “Adorable.”

Tommy hummed with each kiss, turning Evan into him more to deepen the last one.  Evan sighed into it as Tommy’s tongue danced over his.  They stood there for a few long moments trading slow kisses until Tommy pulled back and brushed their noses together, pressing one more quick kiss against Evan’s lips.

“Go get in bed and I’ll join you in a minute,” he said, taking the picture from Evan and placing them both back on the dresser before heading into the bathroom.  

As he finished getting ready for bed he thought about how unexpected it was to see his father again tonight of all nights.  

He thinks that maybe his dad used to be a good man at one point in his life.  He has blurry memories of fishing with him and working on cars together, happy and laughing.  He doesn’t think his father has smiled since his mother died, but he’d also stopped smiling a while before that too.

He hadn’t thought about his mom in a long time, not until Evan had smiled at him and lit up his life in the same way she used too.  He’d found himself talking about her every once in a while to Evan telling him about memories like the drive-in and how she made the best apple pies and loved to read her horoscope in the paper every day.  Memories that used to be painful to even think about, but felt healing when it was Evan he was talking to.  

He walked out of the bathroom and flicked off the lights until it was just the lamp on the side of his bed and the light of Evan’s phone left.  

“She wanted to be a country singer,” he said as he got under the covers and pulled Evan into his chest and holding him there.  He wanted to talk.  Tell Evan about his mom, but he didn’t know if he could with his earnest eyes boring into him.  “She used to sing in bars every weekend— Friday, Saturday, and Sunday… though Saturday night was always reserved for my grandmother’s bar.  She would always take me with and I’d sit in the booths and listen to her play.”

Evan hummed, head still pillowed on his shoulder as he tapped his fingers across his chest like a melody to the beat  of Tommy’s heart. 

“What was her name?”

“Celia.”  

“That’s pretty.”

“Mhmm.  We were gonna move to Nashville.   My grandmother was her biggest fan and supporter, said that when she finally divorced my dad she was gonna keep her as her daughter instead.”

“Heh—  I like her.”

Tommy chuckled before he let out a heavy sigh, tears pricked at the back of his eyes and he breathed slowly before they could spill over.  He had only ever talked to three people about his mom before Evan— his therapist, Sal, and his grandma.  “She died when I was 12— my mom— in a storm.”

“Tornado?”  Evan asked in a whisper and there was something in his voice that Tommy couldn’t place.  

“No, actually, just a regular ol’ bad thunderstorm— knocked a giant tree down onto the highway and it was dark, she didn’t see it until it was too late.”   He still remembered the police officer coming to their house in the middle of the night and his dad answering the door while he listened from the landing of the second floor.

“I’m sorry,” Evan said quietly, his breath caressing Tommy’s collarbone.

Tommy stroked a hand up Evan’s bare back.  “I had to stay with my dad after that but I spent most of my time with my grandmother and her girlfriend or next door at Sal’s house.  Anything to get me out of there... Sal was like the big brother I never had even taught me how to drive.”

“Was it stolen?”

“No.” Tommy laughed lightly.  “That one wasn’t— eh, actually maybe it was.  It was his older sister’s car and I don’t think she gave us permission to use it.”

Evan laughed along with him.  

“Sal and I got busted for stealing cars when he was 17 and I was almost 16.  He took the blame and they were gonna send him to trial as an adult since he’d been busted half a dozen times before, but his dad was a lawyer and got him to join the army instead.  Then I joined him two years later just to get away from my dad.

“You know the rest— I got out when I was 24 not really sure what to do with myself.   I was working part time at a mechanic’s shop and part time as a bartender for my grandma.  Then one day Sal showed up with Howie and Bobby and a destroyed Toyota Corolla.  When my grandma got sick I came back here to take care of her, her partner had passed away a few years before that and she hadn’t spoken to my dad in years so it was just the two of us for a few years until she passed.”

“They sound like they were incredible women… your mom and your grandma.”

“I wish you could have met them, they would have loved you.”

Evan shifted and Tommy moved his hand to stroke up and down his arm as they listened to the steady hum of the AC and the sound of the trees creaking in the wind right outside the window.  Howie, Eddie, and Ravi had long since gone to bed so the house was dark and quiet.  Evan’s breathing was slow against his neck and Tommy was about to follow him into dreamland, his eyes drooping tiredly.

“I had a brother.”

Tommy’s eyes snapped open and he froze for only a second before he continued brushing his hand up and down Evan’s arm. 

“Oh?”

“Yeah.  His name was Daniel… He died.” Evan sighed, twisting the old bracelet he always had on around his wrist.    “And it was my fault he died.”

Tommy stayed silent but he didn’t stop the soothing motion up and down Evan’s arm until he started twisting around.  Tommy let him adjust until laid out across his chest, his hands pillowed under his chin as he looked up at him with those big blue eyes.  They were sad.  Tommy brought his hand up to cradle the side of his face, stroking his thumb across his cheek gently.   

“Nearly everyone says it wasn’t my fault, but it was,” Evan said simply, closing his eyes and leaning towards his touch.  His finger hooked through the bracelet.  “I know it was.”

“I’m sure it wasn’t.” Tommy murmured.  

Evan opened his eyes and looked back up at him.  “That’s sweet, but it was.”

“Evan—”

“It was two days after my birthday.” He cut him off, his eyes going a little hazy with a far away look.   “I had just turned seven and he was fifteen and he had gotten me the coolest camera for my birthday.   It was my favorite present.  I couldn’t stop taking pictures of everyone and everything.  I went through, like, three rolls of film on the first day.” He laughed lightly, tracing a pattern over Tommy’s heart.  “I even took the thing to bed with me.  He knew me better than anyone else.”

“There was a really bad thunderstorm that night and the next thing I know Danny’s leaning over me shaking me awake and saying we had to get to the shelter.  We lived in a really old house so it didn’t have a basement but it did have an old root cellar in the backyard.” Evan let out a deep breath and Tommy started rubbing his back.  

“Mom, Dad, and Maddie were already there and it was so loud and stuff was flying everywhere and I realized I had left my stupid camera in my room and I tried to run back for it.  Danny, of course, wouldn’t let me and after Maddie grabbed me he ran back for it.”  Evan’s eyes and voice were getting watery and he stopped tracing over Tommy’s heart, his fingers just sitting there limply.  

“That door closed and I never saw him again.”

Tommy’s heart broke for the Evan in front of him and the seven year old Evan who had clearly idolized his brother.  A few tears broke free and streaked down Evan’s face.  He caught them with his thumb and brushed them away.  Evan let out a shuddery breath.  

“The house was fine, only minor roof damage, some broken windows and the siding ripped off one side.  The camera was still on my bed…  They found him a mile away.”  

“He made a choice,” Tommy said gently.  “You didn’t make him do it.”

“I know,” Evan said simply.  “That’s what made him such a great big brother.”

“Baby—”

“I’m not actually supposed to exist,” Evan said so suddenly that Tommy stopped short.  He couldn’t imagine a world where Evan didn’t exist.  “If it wasn’t for Daniel I wouldn’t be here.”

“What do you mean?”

“When Daniel was younger he was really sick.  He had leukemia and they had tried everything from chemo to transplants but no one was a match.”

Tommy felt sick to his stomach.

“So they made one.”

Evan pushed himself upright and Tommy followed him, the blankets pooling around their waists.  

“I’m not the one that’s supposed to be here.”

“Hey… look at me,” Tommy said, cradling his face with both hands and bringing him close. “Of course you are supposed to be here.”

He looked up at him, tears a steady stream down his cheeks now.  

“That’s why my parents are the way they are.  I’m just a horrible reminder they got stuck with.  They brought me into the world to save their son and I killed him instead.”

“Fuck them.” Tommy seethed, his hands tightened around Evan’s face but he kept his thumbs gentle as he wiped the tears away.  “You listen to me, Evan, and listen good.  You were meant to exist.  You are supposed to be here.  I never knew your brother, but I understand him.  I would do anything for you, Evan Buckley.”  Evan’s breath hitched and he stared up at him with watery eyes but Tommy kept going.  “I don’t think you understand how much better you’ve made my life just by being in it.”

Evan leaned in and pressed his lips to his gently before he tilted his head to the side and quickly deepened it.  It was saltier than their many kisses before but Tommy loved it all the same because it meant he had Evan in his arms.  

After a moment Evan leaned back and rested his forehead against his, just breathing him in.  Tommy wrapped his arms around him tightly and pulled him in as close as he could without actually opening his rib cage and nestling him in against his heart.

He laid them back down with Evan’s head burrowed into his neck and their arms around one another.  

“Tell me about him?”

Evan let out a watery laugh.  “He was the best big brother anyone could have ever asked for.”  He held his arm up in front of their faces where the old bracelet dangled loosely from his wrist.   “He made this for me… well actually, this is the one he made for himself.  He went to some kind of summer camp a year before he died and he made these matching bracelets— one for him and one for me.  I was only six at the time and I grew out of it a long time ago.  I started wearing his when mine didn’t fit anymore.”

Evan sighed and lowered his arm.  Tommy reached up and held his hand close to his heart.

“He always wanted to travel everywhere and see everything, he loved camping and trying new things.  He said that he’d had enough of small cold hospital rooms.”  

Suddenly it clicked for Tommy why Evan was always cold and why he didn’t like hospitals.

“He really wanted an old motorcycle and to go road tripping around the country.  Him and his best friend had this whole plan for after they graduated high school.  It’s why I’m always taking pictures and wearing this bracelet… it makes me feel like I have a piece of him with me, ya know?   I get to take him to the places he never got to see.”

They fell quiet save for the sound of the house AC and their even breathing.  Tommy was starting to think Evan had actually fallen asleep when he let out a quiet laugh.

“He was really good at basketball.”

Tommy let out a quiet laugh in surprise, arm tightening around Evan’s back.  “Sounds like you didn’t get any of your ball game from him then.”

“Oh shut up.” Evan laughed again, sounding a little lighter, sitting up on his elbow to shove at Tommy’s face playfully.  “He absolutely would have made fun of me for maiming Eddie though, I would have never heard the end of it.”

“As is his right as a big brother,” Tommy said, smiling up at him.

Evan leaned down to kiss him, his hand carefully cradling the side of his face.  After a moment he laid back down, pressed right up against Tommy as close as he could.  Tommy pulled him even closer.  

“Thank you.” Evan sighed, sounding tired.  “For… for letting me talk about him… like— like that.  Like he still matters.”

Tommy frowned up at the ceiling, hating the implications of that sentence, but he didn’t voice it yet.  Didn’t like what he already knew of their parents and what they possibly could have done to make him think that his older brother didn’t matter because he gave up his life for Evan.   It wasn’t the time and Evan was starting to fall asleep as he relaxed into Tommy’s side.  

“Of course he does,” he said instead.  “I never met Daniel, but I’m thankful for him.”

“Hmm? Why’s that?” Evan mumbled, sleep definitely pulling him under its spell now.

“Because of him I got to meet you.”

——

A few days later they were at some hole in the wall Chinese restaurant back in Kansas City. Their one agreed upon meal a day had fast turned into every meal together and actually pretty much just into every waking and unwaking moment spent together since the night that Tommy had kissed Evan and this whole thing began just a few weeks ago.

A few weeks that had felt like a lifetime.  Tommy couldn’t believe that two months ago he didn’t even know about Evan, now he couldn’t imagine his life without him.  

Evan was sitting across from him waving around his fork as he talked about the meetings they’d had at the National Weather Service regional office throughout most of the day.  

“Wait— there was another warning failure?”  Tommy asked, eyes wide, his own fork paused halfway to his mouth.  He hadn’t sat through any of the meetings earlier that day, instead he’d spent the day hanging out with Eddie and Danny.

Evan nodded his head.  “Yeah down in Texas where the tropical storm hit.  There was an outbreak in the Dallas/ Fort Worth area last night but the sirens didn’t go off in this small town called Blue Plains or something and they got hit pretty badly.”  

He dug his phone out of his pocket and tapped at the screen a few times before he turned it around and showed Tommy a news clip.  ‘ TORNADO TEARS THROUGH EAST TEXAS TOWN: THREE DEAD’  was the banner at the bottom, showing news coverage of the destruction of the town and several interviews with residents.

Tommy made a face when Jonah Greenway appeared on the screen, interviewing with the reporter, and he tuned him out to look up at Evan who was also making a face.

“Yeah— I know I don’t like him either, but they're actually the reason there were so few casualties.  They got it called into NWS to send an alert to everyone’s phone when the sirens didn’t go off.  Preliminary reports are stating that it was an EF4 just from a first glance survey of the damage.  It completely wrecked the south end of the town and the high school.”

Evan put his phone down and took another bite of his orange chicken. 

“Bobby’s pretty pissed about the whole thing, he’s spent half his career improving the early warning system as a whole and campaigning for more durable sirens and consistent upkeep.  We don’t know if they’re just aging or what, but this year has seen a record high of siren failures and false warnings.”  Evan explained.  

Tommy nodded along as he listened.  If he was Bobby he’d be pissed too.  He’d been working with them for two years when he learned why Bobby was sober and how his whole family had died in an unwarned tornado while he wasn’t home.  Even Tommy knew how renowned Bobby was for his improvements to the warning system.

“Ohhh fortune cookie,” Evan said, eyes lighting up when he saw the little cookies off to the side of the tray.  

Tommy didn’t put a whole lot of stock into those sorts of things.  His mom always believed in stuff like that from psychics and horoscopes to the littlest fortune cookie papers.  He had learned a hard lesson when she’d died that none of it was real.  

But with her on his mind the last few days and the way Evan’s eyes went bright, Tommy smiled and reached out for one of the cookies.

“What’s your fortune say!” Evan asked, nearly cracking the cookie into pieces in his excitement as he shoved it towards Tommy, all while trying to open his own.

Tommy chuckled at his antics and took the cookie, carefully opening the wrapper and cracking it in half to get to the little piece of paper inside.  He blinked down at the words and back up at Evan before glancing back down at the fortune.

“What does it say?” Evan asked, eyes wide and curious.

Tommy coughed slightly to clear his throat.  “It says, your next great adventure is right in front of you.”

“Oh, that’s cool!”  Evan grinned.  “I like that, but you’re already on a great adventure!” He teased and tossed the paper from his own fortune on the tray between them.  “Mine just says, you bring others joy.   Which is great, but it’s not a fortune at all.” He pouted and took a sip of his drink. 

It wasn’t a fortune, but it was the truth, Tommy thought.  Evan certainly brought him joy.  He looked back down at the little scrap of paper in his hand.  Your next great adventure is right in front of you.

He looked back up at Evan who forgot his pouting and dove back into his fried rice, smiling up at him when he noticed Tommy staring.  A piece of rice was stuck to the corner of his mouth and his nose scrunched up with his smile.

There was a feeling growing in his chest that used to scare him once upon a time— but with Evan in front of him smiling at Tommy like that, he couldn’t find it in himself to be afraid.  He slid the paper into his pocket when Evan wasn’t looking.  

He didn’t put a whole lot of stock into these sorts of things, they never turned out to be true, but maybe this one would after all. 

Chapter Text

Usually by the time July came around the prime storm chasing season for tornadoes had ended and most meteorologists and chasers turned their sights to the Gulf of Mexico in preparation for hurricane season.

However Buck hadn’t been wrong when he said this year’s tornado season was crazy. Even though the tornadoes had been growing weaker since mid-June there was still an abnormal amount for them to chase.  It was actually why they were still chasing this late in the year, the weaker storm systems were perfect for testing the drone and figuring out its potential flaws that stronger storm structures would rip it apart leaving them with nothing. 

Which is why Buck furrowed his brow as he studied the data that was pouring in from the drone high above them in the thundering clouds.  The information he was seeing was much stronger than he was expecting after their preliminary look at the radar this morning before they’d taken off for the fields of western Illinois. 

“This isn’t good.” Buck muttered as he went over the readings they were getting from the drone for a second and a third time.

“What isn’t?” Tommy asked, driving them quickly but carefully through the torrents of rain. 

“Eddie call Chim and tell him to bring the drone back in,” Buck said, looking over at the two of them. “It’s not strong enough yet to withstand the wind speed in this cell.  Tommy pullover, I’m pretty sure we’re about to witness the beginning of a very powerful tornado about a mile ahead of us.”

“How powerful are we talking?” Tommy asked as he pulled the truck over on the side of the road and put it park.

Buck frowned and reread the data. “180 mile per hour winds at the very least.” He flipped screens and ice slicked through his stomach as he mapped out the possible path of the tornado. It would go straight through the middle of a small town. He motioned for Eddie to give him the walkie talkie. 

As soon as it was in his hand he radioed Bobby. “Bobby, are you seeing what I’m seeing?”

“I’m seeing it, Buck… I’m just not sure I’m believing it.” Bobby responded, sounding as unsettled as he felt. 

“A tornado that strong this late in the season? Bobby if we’re right—” Buck swallowed. He really hoped this time they were wrong. “It’s gonna hit the town of Willis. We need to get a warning sent out now.”

“Evan—”

He looked up to see Tommy staring out the front windshield in concentration as the windshield wipers worked in overdrive. 

“Is that—”

Right on cue just as the prediction said, he could see the tell tale signs of rotation in the clouds but only just barely. 

“ Bobby, we think we have a funnel, but it’s hard to tell. I think this is going to be a rain wrapped tornado.” Buck reported with a harsh swallow. 

In the years after Daniel’s death he’d researched the night of that storm into the ground.  He knew everything there was to know about that night— the temperatures, the rating, the wind speeds, the anemometer readings, he’d even found old archives of the radar images from that storm. The tornado that had killed his brother had been rain wrapped and even if it hadn’t been in the middle of the night they still would have never seen it coming.

The readings for this tornado looked startlingly familiar to the readings of that night and with the curtains of rain pouring down around them it was very possible that the tornado was already on the ground tearing towards the small town to the north of them and they just couldn’t see it. 

He went to refresh the radar to see if he could map out exactly where it was so he could instruct Tommy on how to safely follow it. 

It froze. 

Halfway through loading the radar data from NWS the screen froze. Buck hit the refresh button a few times and even checked that his hotspot was still connected but the screen stayed frozen.

“What the—”

He refreshed it one more time before moving the radar data from a nearby mobile doppler they knew as in the area. 

This time the entire screen wouldn’t load at all, instead giving him an Error: Unavailable message.

“Bobby… I can’t get the radars to load. I— I have no idea where this thing is,” he said, clicking wildly at his laptop but neither screen would load. He had no visuals and with the drone no longer in the air he had no incoming data to translate. 

“I’m having the same issue. Ravi’s calling into NWS in Chicago to see what’s happening— Chimney’s trying to see if there’s any other way we can get a warning sent out. Stay where you are for now—”

Lightning struck out across the sky like the gnarled branches of a dying tree lighting up the entire sky except for a towering wall of black clouds and rain a few miles ahead of them. Thunder cracked so loudly he could feel it in his bones.

The rain immediately around them started to slow and lightning flashed again and this time they could see large pieces of debris flying through the air— metal barn roofs, the roofing and siding of old farmhouses, the trunk of a tree—

Buck glanced down at his phone and the laptop, devoid of any kind of warning save for the thunderstorm watch that had been issued for the area hours ago when the sun was still in the sky. 

“Bobby—” Buck gulped. “It’s already hit the town, if the data from the drone is correct then it’ll have moved on by the time we get there. I don’t think it’ll be on the ground for longer than thirty minutes but have Ravi work on getting warnings out for the rest of the storm. We’re going to go see if we can help.”

It was nearly 5pm in the evening, which meant that most people would be home from work or nearly there, caught unaware by an unwarned tornado. There could be people and families trapped. 

He looked over at Tommy who was already pulling the truck onto the highway, Eddie right behind him looking upset but determined. 

“Alright— but be careful, please. We’ll try and get this fixed and be there to help as soon as we can.”

The worst of the storm had passed over them by the time they made it to Willis. Trees and telephone poles were downed as Tommy slowly maneuvered them through the streets until they reached the middle of town where the worst of the damage was.

Tommy pulled over out of the way as best as he could and the three of them piled out of the truck. Thunder was still rolling in the distance and there was a light sprinkle of rain, but the atmosphere had calmed almost unnaturally as it was prone to do as nature tried to balance itself back out after the violence of a powerful tornado.

The house in front of him was caving in on itself, the roof had mostly collapsed inwards into the second story and most of the windows had been blown out. The house to the left looked like it had been demolished while the house to the right was still standing but missing half of its roof and most of the siding.

He didn’t know where to start until he saw the door to the house in front of him shake and he took off running forward calling out.

Behind him he could hear Tommy and Eddie doing the same thing at other houses across the street as people began to filter shakily out of their homes.

The door was wrenched open as he climbed the stairs up the porch to reveal an older woman clutching a cat in her arms. Her eyes were watery and her cheeks stained with tears but she looked unharmed.

“H-hey— are you okay?” He asked, holding out his hand for her to take as he helped her out of the house. “Is there anyone else home?”

“N-no it’s just… just me and ol’ Edgar here, my husband’s out of town. But we’re okay…”

“Good— that’s good.” Buck sighed in relief as a neighbor ran up to check on her and he ran to investigate the next house with Tommy and a few other neighbors.

It didn’t take long before the streets were swarmed with flashing lights of emergency workers and volunteers. They dug nearly thirty people out of the rubble of their homes by the time Bobby and the others showed up and Tommy finally convinced him to take a break after he found the body of an older man trapped in his house.

Tommy didn’t ask him if he was okay, he knew better than that, and Buck could tell that Tommy wasn’t okay either. So instead they took a few minutes to sit on the tailgate of the truck, leaning into each other and leeching all the comfort they could off of each other.

They worked until late in the night under the light of floodlights coordinating with the other volunteers and the sheriffs department to make sure that everyone was fed and taken care of. There were still several people unaccounted for and so they decided to camp out for the night in a nearby park since the nearest hotel was over an hour away. It would be easier this way to get started early in the morning. 

Buck wanted to keep working but Bobby and Tommy convinced him that he wouldn’t be any help if they also had to take care of him when he passed out from exhaustion and so he reluctantly agreed to go to bed for the night, curled up in a tent outside the RV in between Tommy and Eddie with Danny sprawled across their feet. 

He thought it would be harder to fall asleep that night with the tornado and the memories of Daniel’s death fresh in his mind but between the exhaustion and the way Tommy was wrapped tightly around his back he found himself asleep before he knew it. 

——

The next morning dawned bright and early with the birds chirping and the sun was shining as if a force of destruction hadn’t just torn through the place less than 24 hours before.

Evan was quiet as he helped Bobby cook up some breakfast for all of them as Tommy took Danny on a walk around the block. 

The devastation was mostly centralized through the center of the small town and there was still a lot of work to do as the morning crews were starting to relieve the people who had worked through the night. 

There were piles of debris and downed trees all over waiting to be cut up and hauled away. Already he could see some people milling through their houses looking a little lost as they tried to salvage what they could. 

Unfortunately he also caught sight of the Thunder Trackers van already on the scene. He’d seen them around a couple times the night before but they had all managed to avoid them pretty well and stay out of each other's way. 

It looked like it would be a little harder to avoid them today, with the amount of camera crews and news vans that were also parked nearby. He recognized Greenway and Gerrard but not the dark haired man in a suit standing next to them. Sal was nowhere to be seen. 

He rolled his eyes and made his way back to the RV. He didn’t know Greenway very well but he did know Gerrard and it was just like him to be profiting off other people’s misfortune. 

They finished up breakfast rather quickly before they spread out for the day to start assisting in whatever way they could. 

Tommy couldn’t help the laugh he let out at the way Ravi ran in the opposite direction as Evan was handed a chainsaw by a county worker. 

So now it was just him, Eddie, and Evan working together to cut some of the downed trees into smaller pieces to make them easier to haul away. 

He was holding to a precariously positioned log with Eddie to keep it from flying wild as Evan sawed it in half when he saw Eddie roll his eyes and look at something behind him.

“Oh great.” Eddie muttered under his breath, barely heard over the sound of the saw. Tommy raised an eyebrow at him. “Look who decided to show up.” Eddie said with a nod over his shoulder. 

He looked over his shoulder as much as he could without dropping the log and blinked in surprise. 

Sal was standing behind him looking like he’d rather be anywhere else as he gave them an awkward wave. “Need an extra set of hands?”

The sound of the chainsaw stopped and Evan yelled for them to get clear. He and Eddie jumped back as the tree cracked in half and fell to the ground with a loud THUD and several more loud cracks. As Evan started to saw the rest of it into smaller more manageable pieces, Tommy turned to his old friend. 

“Sal,” he said evenly. 

“Tommy.” Sal nodded.

“What do you want?”

Sal lifted his hands defensively trying to appease him just like he used to when they were kids. “I don’t wanna start nothing. I just want to help.” His eyes slid over to Gerrard and Greenway and the whole media circus that was following them around behind whatever big-wig suit from the studio had come out to profit off these people’s misery. 

“Actually help… not— not whatever they’re doing,” he said with clear disdain in his eyes.

“Great!” Evan said walking between them, the chainsaw held high in front of him. “You can help Eddie carry these logs over to the truck.” He grinned as he dropped the safety glasses back over his eyes and revved the chainsaw to start cutting through another downed tree. 

Sal blinked and looked over at Tommy who just smirked and gestured towards Eddie and the cut up tree. “You heard him.”

It was rather easy falling into the familiarity of working side by side with Sal again. It had been a long time and they had definitely had their ups and downs, but their relationship had always been akin to being on a rollercoaster even when they were kids, and so falling back into step with his old friend wasn’t actually that hard at all.

Especially not when he made Evan laugh for the first time since the warning failure the night before with some type of offhand comment about Greenway as they watched the guy dig someone’s lost dog out of the wreckage— all in front of several shiny cameras of course.

Sal was rough and jaded on the outside, always had been, but that didn’t change the fact that he was a good man beneath the surface. 

They were taking a break to eat lunch— some sandwiches and chips and cookies from the volunteer organizations— when Hen and Howie came over to join them. 

“So how is it working for the enemy?” Howie asked, always one to get right to the point. “You like working with Jonah again?”

Sal sighed and took a long drink of his water. “The money was nice at first and the new truck but it is not worth it. I can’t stand the guy. He’s even worse than he was a few years ago.”

“Oh really?” Hen asked curiously, sharing a glance with Howie that Tommy didn’t miss. The two of them could have silent conversations better than anyone he’d ever met.

“Yeah, there’s something seriously off about him,” Sal said, taking a bite of his sandwich. 

“Well we could have told you that, Deluca,” Howie said.

Sal rolled his eyes. “Yeah, yeah— I know. Trust me. I’ve learned my lesson.”

It was probably about as close to a ‘sorry’ as any of them were ever going to hear from him, but Tommy didn’t think any of them actually minded all that much.

——

“You sure you can drive this?” Buck asked as they all piled into the old pick up truck that a resident was letting them use to cart wreckage down to the dump. Buck was pretty sure it was older than he was and it was a manual, which he had never learned how to drive after an unfortunate incident with his father’s old car.

Tommy smirked at him as he started up the truck and shifted it into gear. His hand flexed on the gear shift, drawing Buck’s eyes downward. “Trust me, Evan.” He looked back up to see Tommy staring at him intensely and he felt his face heat up at the look in his eye. “You know I know my way around a stick shift.”

He gulped. 

He couldn’t pull his eyes away from Tommy’s dark blue ones and the way they always seemed to pin him in his place, totally enraptured by their depth.

The moment was broken when Eddie started to gag exaggeratedly in the back seat, Sal groaning along with him.

“I can NOT believe you just said that, Kinard.” Sal bemoaned. “That was absolutely terrible. Please tell me they’re not always like this.”

“Oh they are,” Eddie said, covering his eyes.  “Every damn day.”

“Eddie, man, you’re the one who chooses to ride in the truck with us.” Tommy chuckled shamelessly. He reached over and laced his fingers through Buck’s before settling it back on the gear shift to shift the truck into a lower gear as they rolled to a stop at an intersection.

Buck smiled at him giddily, leaning over to kiss Tommy on the cheek, ignoring the way Sal and Eddie groaned in the back seat again simultaneously. 

It was a long hard day of good work and they got back from the dump later in the evening about the same time that the sun was beginning to set and the mosquitos were coming out. Everyone was already beginning to pack up for the night and so they decided to do the same. 

“Sal, hey!” Buck said, jogging up to the man as Tommy went to give the old truck keys back to their owner. 

Sal was walking back towards his own truck. It looked like the rest of the Thunder Trackers crew and all the extra cameras were already gone for the day. 

“What’s up, kid?” Sal asked gruffly. 

Buck grinned, he’d always liked Sal and he was pretty sure the other man liked him… or at the very least tolerated him. 

“Why don’t you join us for dinner tonight?” He asked. “Bobby’s grilling burgers and you know he always makes too much.”

Sal looked uncertain and Buck couldn’t blame him. He’d had front row seats to many of their arguments in the past.

“Yeah man!” Eddie said, looping an arm around his shoulders. “You should totally join us, we can catch up a bit more.” 

A familiar hand went around his waist and he looked up to see Tommy with a grin that matched Eddie’s. “Come on, Sal, for old times sake?” 

“I—”

“Athena’s here to distract Bobby.” Buck offered. He’d seen her pull up earlier that day with her partner in their fancy FBI issued SUV. 

Sal sighed. “Fine.”

With Sal now in agreement, however reluctant it was, they headed back to their makeshift campsite on the outskirts of town. 

“Hey ’Thena,” Buck said with a big grin once they got back to the RV and found the FBI agent talking with her husband. He could see Athena’s partner Agent Ransone talking to the county sheriff a few feet away.  He wrapped his arms around the woman to give her a warm hug.  “How are you doing?”

“As well as I can be, Buck,” Athena smiled as she wrapped her arms around him tightly and gave him a few pats on the back. They hadn’t initially gotten along when they first met nearly ten years ago but with their shared love of Bobby they had quickly warmed up to each other and now Buck considered her family and could confidently say that Athena thought the same of him as well. 

She drew back and patted the side of Buck’s face before she caught sight of Tommy standing next to him. “Introduce me to this man of yours,” she said with a smirk that pursed her lips as she looked him up and down.

Buck let out a laugh as his boyfriend shifted next to him. “I’m pretty sure you’ve known Tommy nearly as long as you’ve known me, if not longer.”

“Sure I do, but that was back when he was just Bobby’s driver, now he’s your boyfriend,” she said pointedly. “I know he can wrangle tornadoes but can he wrangle you?”

Tommy barked out a laugh while Buck spluttered. 

She held her hand out to Tommy who shook it firmly with that grin of his that Buck loved. The one that crinkled the corners of his eyes and made them sparkle with joy. 

“Nice to see you again, Agent Grant,” Tommy said.

“Oh please Tommy, call me Athena.” She replied, pulling him in for a quick hug. “You’re keeping an eye on our Buck which means you’re family.” 

Buck gave up on trying to defend himself, happy to see Tommy get along so well with the little family he’d built for himself. That and Athena hadn’t really ever been a fan of anyone else he’d brought over to meet her and Bobby so to see her smiling at Tommy and welcoming him with literal open arms meant the world to him. 

——

“So you and Buck huh?” Sal asked, sitting down next to him. 

“Mhmm.” Tommy nodded, taking a drink of his lukewarm coke as he watched Evan laugh with Bobby over the campfire as they grilled up some hamburgers for everyone. 

“I never would have thought you’d end up with someone like him—” He paused and Tommy tensed waiting for whatever was about to come out of his old friend’s mouth next. “But I’m glad that you did. I can tell that he’s good for you.”

Tommy looked at him in surprise. 

“What?” Sal scoffed. 

“I just didn’t—”

“Didn’t think I would have anything nice to say?” Sal rolled his eyes but then he sighed. “Listen— I know I haven’t been a very good friend over the years.”

“Sal—“

“No, let me finish okay?”

Tommy shut his mouth and waited for him to go on. 

Sal sighed and scuffed his boot against the ground. “I know I haven’t always been a good friend.” He repeated. “But I’ve always wanted the best for you Tommy. Sometimes I look at you and see that scrawny little 12 year old who caught me breaking into your dad’s car, but I see the way you are with Buck… and it reminds me that you aren’t that kid anymore. You’re a grown ass man now.”

Tommy snorted. “It’s true— I drink and everything. Even own my own bar.”

Sal laughed and shoved at his shoulder. “Oh trust me I know you do— and shut up, asshole you’re distracting me— what I’m trying to say is I’m proud of you, kid.”

Tommy’s jaw dropped. 

A few long seconds passed by and Sal was starting to look uncomfortable. Tommy dug his phone out of his jeans pocket and held it out towards Sal’s face. “I’m sorry. Can you repeat that? I don’t think I heard you the first time.”

“Oh fuck off—”

Tommy put the phone down with a laugh. “I’m kidding, Sal. Thank you. I’m just surprised you said it at all.”

“Yeah well, Elena has been telling me I need to get my shit together and get better about ‘talking about my feelings’ or she won’t let me see my niece and nephews.”

Tommy blinked in surprise. “You talking to your family again?”

Sal sighed and leaned back in his chair. “Mostly just my sister and my mom. Tony and Gio are still pissed after what happened at dad’s funeral and Vince still listens to everything they have to say like it’s the word of God. I figure I can only be a raging asshole for so long before something has to give—”

Tommy winced. “I didn’t mean it like that—”

“I know you didn’t.” They sat in silence together for a few minutes, watching the fire crackle and listen to the others talk and laugh around them. “I really am happy for you though, man. Buck’s a good kid, you two just… fit. You’re more settled then I think I’ve ever seen you. It’s a good look on you.”

Tommy looked back over the fire to find Evan. He was sitting next to Eddie now, his hand brushing over the top of Danny’s head as they talked. Their eyes met a moment later as if he knew Tommy was looking for him and he smiled crookedly and raised his hand to wave at him. Tommy smiled back at him, glad that it was dark so no one could see the way Evan’s smile affected him, if anyone called him out he could just blame it on sitting close to the fire. Danny barked at him, offended that Evan had stopped petting him. Evan rolled his eyes and dropped his hand back down to Danny’s head. 

“I love him, Sal.”

This time it was Sal’s turn to blink in surprise. “Love huh?”

Tommy nodded, not taking his eyes off Evan— he never wanted to take his eyes off him but that was besides the point. “I didn’t think I could ever love someone like I love him.”  

He thought about the fortune cookie paper he carried in his wallet. He knew it had been true the minute he’d read it and looked up at Evan sitting in front of him.  He loved him.

——

They spent two days in Willis helping clear out debris and sort through people’s livelihoods to see what could be salvaged and rebuilt and Tommy had always admired the tenacity of the people of small town Midwest— they reminded him of his grandmother. They’d never let something like a violent EF4 tornado keep them from living their lives. 

He stepped out of the bathroom scrubbing a towel over his head after showering off the grime and sweat of the last few days and pulled on some pajama pants and one of the soft worn thin t-shirts Evan loved to steal from him. 

“So Bobby and Athena are married now right?” He asked, petting Danny on the head as he walked past him to turn off the lamp in the corner and make sure the door was locked. 

“Yup.” Evan nodded without glancing up from his phone. He was already under the blankets having kicked the corners out from beneath the mattress just to wrap them tightly around his own legs instead. Just another one of the many quirks that endeared Tommy even more to Evan Buckley. 

Tommy crawled into bed next to him and tugged out just enough of the blanket for him to pull over himself. Danny hopped up on the end and claimed his favorite spot— laying heavily over one of Tommy’s legs.

“Does she always show up like this now that they’re married?”

“Huh?” Evan looked up from whatever he was looking at on his phone, looking at him over the rim of his glasses. 

Tommy couldn’t help it and leaned forward to kiss his forehead. “Athena,” he said, settling back against the pillows. He picked up the TV remote and began flipping through the channels to see what kind of movies were playing. “She didn’t use to show up like this back when they were just dating. Is this a thing now that they’re married?”

“Oh.” Evan looked up at him. “No. She’s actually been hunting down a serial killer for the last, like, three years. She thinks he’s using storms as cover ups for murders all over the Midwest.”

Tommy blinked at him, his jaw falling open. 

Evan blinked back at him.

“I’m sorry, what?”

Tommy was a resident of the Midwest and he had never heard of something like that.

“It sounds crazy, right?” Evan asked, dropping his phone to the blanket and turning his full attention on him. “The only reason they’re even letting her investigate is because Athena has a long track record of never being wrong. That’s why it’s just her and Agent Ransone.”

Tommy frowned. “Why is she so sure of it?”

“She doesn’t tell us anything about it really since it’s an active investigation.” Evan looked shifty for a moment like he was looking around for anyone listening in even though it was just them and the dog. “Don’t tell anyone I told you this, because technically I’m not supposed to know, but Athena has been getting these videos or pictures at the end of the summer the last few years that have shown some of the victims.”

“That’s unnerving.” Tommy frowned even deeper as he remembered Agent Ransone talking to the sheriff earlier. “Wait— does that mean every time she’s shown up she thinks the killer might be around?” That would explain why today was the first time he’d met her this year even though he knew that Bobby and Hen had met up with her several times over the summer.

Evan shrugged and picked his phone back up. “Probably. Like I said though, Athena doesn’t talk about it to us really.”

“Why do you know about it then? And the videos?” He asked with a raised eyebrow. 

“She asked Chimney and I some questions one day when we were working on the drone about its video capabilities and if we were going to livestream it and what kind of signals would be best. We haven’t put a camera on the drone yet, but it’s something we’re working up to on the next prototype, hopefully we can get actual funding to get a nice camera that can actually last through those conditions—”

“Baby,” he said gently steering him back on track. 

“Oh right— anyway Chimney thought it was weird and got talking to Hen about it and Hen told us… though— don’t actually tell anyone all that.” Evan scratched at his nose and looked at him sheepishly. “That all happened last year and technically I don’t think any of us are actually supposed to know about any of that. But then this year with the siren failures she’s been—”

“Wait—” Tommy’s eyes widened. “She thinks this guy is responsible for the warning failures? I thought those were because of aging and weathering or something?”

Evan shook his head. “A few months ago maybe, but I’m pretty sure she doesn’t think that anymore. That’s why we had all those meetings in Kansas City a few weeks ago. She said something about it not matching the guy's MO or whatever that means and then she just watched Bobby rip into some of the engineers about upkeep on the sirens and system updates to prevent outages. I actually think he’s flying out to DC at the end of the summer to go ‘advocate’ for better maintenance over all.” 

He made quotation marks with his fingers and rolled his eyes. “He says ‘advocate’ but he might actually throw a chair through the window this time or something. He’s been trying to get an overhaul done to the NWS system as a whole for years now. And he’s not wrong, especially with all the issues there have been this year it’s becoming pretty obvious that the whole thing is outdated and not just the physical parts of it.” 

Tommy just hummed and tried to wrap his brain around everything Evan had just told him. He threw his arm around Evan’s shoulders and pulled him in until he could lay his head down on top of his curls. “And what are your plans for the end of the summer?” He asked as casually as he could as he clicked through a few more channels mindlessly.

Evan hummed back at him and kissed at the hinge of his jaw as he craned his head back to look up at him. “Well… I was thinking about going to Nebraska for a bit. I don’t know if you know this but my boyfriend is pretty cool and is from the area. He even owns a historic bar.”

“Oh really?” Tommy smiled. 

“Really.” Evan said, curling a hand around the back of his head and pulling him down for a searing kiss that had him leaning forward to get more. 

At least until Danny let out a high pitched bark to let them know to knock it off and let him go to sleep. 

“The prince has spoken,” he chuckled breathlessly into Evan’s mouth before he leaned back onto the pillows and turning off the lamp on the nightstand leaving just the glow from the TV filling the room as Evan settled back onto his chest, one of his favorite places to be so he could wrap his arms around him.

“He’s very set in his ways.” Evan agreed, nudging Danny with his foot until he growled quietly at them. It was clearly bedtime, and after the last few days they had he couldn’t help but agree with the golden.

Evan yawned into his collarbone before he rolled a bit closer and threw his leg over his hips to settle in as close as he could to fall asleep. Another one of his affectionate quirks that Tommy had gotten used to rather quickly once they started sharing a bed.

Tommy reached up and pulled Evan’s glasses off his face, yet another thing he’d gotten accustomed to in the last couple months when Evan would work himself to exhaustion and forget to take them off. He didn’t mind though, not when it was for someone he loved.

Chapter Text

It was a pleasantly bright sunny afternoon as Tommy tossed a ball and watched Danny run back and forth across the dog park like he was running on solar powered batteries.  They had been at this for nearly an hour and while Tommy’s arm was starting to get tired, the golden sure wasn’t.

“You sure you’re okay, old man?” Sal laughed as he listened to him grunt and wheeze as he threw the ball yet again.  His arm was gonna give out long before the dog did.

“You’re two years older than me, you really want to be calling me the old man?” Tommy asked, adjusting the earphone in his ear as he watched the tennis ball bounce and Danny nearly rollover himself as he tried to get a hold of it.  

“Yeah, yeah, at least I don’t sound like I’m one bad move away from going on life support.”

“Ha ha.”  Tommy was seriously considering hanging up.  But he didn’t.  “You try entertaining this dog for three straight hours and we’ll see which one of us is on life support afterwards.”

Sal barked out another laugh.  “You forget I was there when Buck got Danny.  You’ll have to ask him about it but that dog was even crazier as a puppy.”

Tommy checked his watch and whistled for Danny to come back.  It was getting close to 5pm which meant that the others would be done with their meetings soon.  

“Is there a reason you called me, Sal?”  He asked as hooked the leash back up to the dog’s collar.  “Not that I don’t love talking to you… it’s just been a while.  Everything alright?”

Sal sighed.  “Just another day of the same bullshit.  I needed someone to talk me down before I did something I might regret.”

“Well— you definitely didn’t call the right guy.” Tommy huffed.  “I probably hate Gerrard more than you do.”

“I know.” Sal groaned.  “I’m going to quit as soon as we’re done with this stupid fucking show.”

“Why not just quit now if you hate it so much?”

“Because I don’t want to give them the satisfaction of me quitting before filming is over because I know they’ll turn it into some kind of drama for the show and the last thing I want is to give them more material.  They’re all so full of shit that it’ll probably be the most interesting thing that happens on camera.”

“So I still don’t see what the problem is…”

“If I quit I don’t get paid, and I think I deserve some kind of compensation for the last two months of hell.”

“Hey man, that’s on you— you didn’t have to quit the ‘nerds’ team.”

“If I hadn’t quit you wouldn’t have met the love of your life so I don’t think you’re the one who should be talking shit right now.”

And well… Sal had him there.  

“Whatever.” He huffed.  “You’ve only got a couple weeks left and then you’re done and maybe you can come beg Bobby for your job back.  If you're really nice I might even put in a good word for you.”

“You’re not gonna drive next year?” Sal asked and Tommy could just see the look of shock on his face. 

“Of course I’m going to drive next year.  You really think I’d let you drive the love of my life around?  I know how you are behind the wheel, man.  I don’t want to subject Evan to that.”  Tommy teased him.  “We’re in Austin right now so they can meet with some potential investors for the storm shelters Eddie’s working on and Evan’s drone.  If everything goes well we’re probably going to need another driver next year and the ‘nerds’ will pay more.”

“You’re never going to let that go are you?”

“Nope.” Tommy grinned, opening the door to his truck and letting Danny hop in.  He got in quickly after to start it and get the AC running.  

“Well— after two months with Captain Asshole and Glory Hog Joe I think I can have a civil conversation with Nash again…” Sal said, his voice now coming over the truck’s speakers as he put the earphones away.  There was some muffled speaking and a moment later Sal returned.  “Listen, I gotta go.  The show’s producer has been coming out a few times over the last couple months and Gerrard and Greenway get a bee up their ass every time he’s here.  I don’t know why he’s just as bad as they are, but now I gotta go give him a back road tour of Kansas or some shit—”

“That sounds—”

“Don’t say it, Tommy, or I’ll give you a back road tour of my boot.” Sal grouched.  “Let me know how the nerds meeting goes.  I’ll talk to you later.”

“Bye, Sal.” Tommy chuckled as Sal hung up and he pulled out of the parking lot of the dog park and headed for downtown Austin to meet back up with everyone.  

——

They were already outside by the time Tommy pulled up and Evan turned to look at him with the biggest grin on his face, looking incredibly handsome in his dark blue suit with his red tie dangling around his unbuttoned white shirt.  

“We did it!” Evan shouted before Tommy could even ask as he got out of the truck.  Evan bounding up to him and throwing his arms around his neck.  

Tommy hugged him back tightly.  “That’s great news!”  He grinned back, kissing Evan on the cheek before turning to high five Eddie.  “What happens next?” He asked.

“Strand signed on for 50k for the storm shelters which will be more than enough for us to get a couple of prototypes built for testing.”  Eddie grinned.  

“He also signed on for another 15,000 to get a new drone outfitted and he invited us to a convention in New York in October to meet with even more potential investors!” Evan’s eyes were sparkling and Tommy couldn’t be happier for either of them.  All their dreaming and hard work was starting to pay off.  

“I’ve never been to New York before,” Eddie said thoughtfully.

“Me neither,” Tommy said.

Evan smiled brightly.  “You won’t be able to say that after October!  You’re coming with us right?”  He asked, his hand squeezing Tommy’s. 

“Of course.” Tommy smiled, squeezing his hand back.  Going to New York with them was nothing when he would literally do anything to see Evan smile.  He really hoped that Evan never quite understood just how much he had Tommy wrapped around his finger.

“This calls for a celebration!”  Howie exclaimed, swinging around Eddie and into the conversation.  “Hen and I know a really good place down the street from the hotel.”

The place Howie was talking about was literally called ‘A Really Good Place’ and it was a sports bar with what were supposed to be award winning wings.  

They weren’t bad.  They were actually pretty good.

Tommy knew award winning wings— having been nominated for and won ‘Best bar wings in Nebraska’ three years running— so while these wings weren’t as good as his were, they weren’t half bad.  

It was a few hours later when they were on their third round of both wings and drinks when the screens around the bar suddenly flashed bright blue as the local news channel cut across the program.  

‘BREAKING NEWS: TRUST IN NWS CALLED INTO QUESTION’

“That’s not good.” Hen muttered as they all looked up at the screens.

“Yet another warning failure in the Midwest tonight as a tornado tears through a small community in Kansas leaving four people injured with two in critical condition.”  The news anchor said as subtitles flashed across the bottom of the screen.

“This is just another failure in a long string of false warnings and siren malfunctions that have left the National Weather Service scrambling as the residents of several Midwest states demanding answers—”

 “Bobby’s not going to like this,” Ravi said as they all watched the newsreel through images of the damage.  It wasn’t as bad as Willis had been, but the lack of warning still left people hurt which was unacceptable when they likely could have easily made it to shelter had they known.

“Small Creek, Kansas is in disarray tonight—”

Tommy frowned and pulled out his phone to shoot Sal a quick text and letting out a small sigh of relief when the man sent back a thumbs up almost immediately.  

“What’s up, Tommy?” Howie asked from where he was sitting across the booth.

“Just checking in on Sal.  He was telling me earlier that they were chasing in Kansas today.  Not sure where—”

He looked up to see Howie and Hen having another one of their wordless conversations with their eyes alone.  Not even Evan and Eddie had the same kind of telepathic skill that they did.  

“Something you two want to share with the class?” Tommy asked, raising an eyebrow at the both of them.  

“Not right now,” Howie said with the biggest fakest yawn Tommy had ever seen.  “I think I’m going to call it a night.”

“Same here.” Hen agreed, pulling out a couple of bills and dropping them on the table to cover her tab.  “We’ll see you boys in the morning.” 

“I think I’ll join you since I really am tired,” Ravi said, clearly recognizing something was up but not willing to ask just yet.  “See you tomorrow.”

Tommy watched the three of them exit the sports bar right as Evan and Eddie came back from where they had been playing a game of darts.  

“Where are they going?” Eddie asked, picking up Chimney’s abandoned glass of beer that was still nearly full.  

“I’m not sure.” Tommy muttered before turning to Evan as he started pulling him towards the pool table and all thoughts of Howie and Hen acting odd were replaced by thoughts of Evan’s blue eyes.  

“I am not drunk enough to sing karaoke with you right now, man.” Eddie groaned as they sat back down at their booth.  Tommy absolutely did not believe him after watching him down as much tequila as he had.  “Why don’t you get your boyfriend on stage with you for once?”

“Maybe when I have my guitar with me.” Tommy chuckled, taking a bite out of his onion rings.

Evan gasped, his eyes going wide as he whipped his head around from Eddie to Tommy.

“You sing? And you didn’t tell me?!”

It was moments like these that reminded Tommy that he hadn’t actually been with Evan his entire life but instead they had only been together for two months and still had plenty to learn about each other… Which was fine, Tommy would spend every day of the rest of his life learning something new about Evan.

Evan was leaning so far into his space now that their noses were touching and he was nearly going cross-eyed trying to watch him.  

“What did you think the guitar was for? Decoration?”  Tommy chuckled.

A couple weeks ago back at his house, Evan had picked up the old guitar and strummed it a few times, grimacing and laughing with Tommy at how out of tune it sounded.  Tommy had then tuned it and even taught him a couple of basic cords.

“I thought it was your mom’s,” Evan said quietly.  

Tommy rubbed a hand over Evan’s curls.  “It was actually one my grandma got for me when I came back home after the army.  My mom's hanging up in the bar.”

Evan seemed to contemplate this, leaning further into Tommy’s side as he ran his fingers through his curls.  “When we go back home will you sing for me?”

Tommy’s heart skipped a beat and his breathing hitched for barely a second.  His fingers pulled on Evan’s curls for just a moment before he went back to the soothing motion that Evan loved.

Home.

He blamed it on Evan being slightly tipsy but he still said it. 

He pressed a kiss to the side of his head.  “I’ll sing for you whenever you want.”

——

“Mmmm where are you going?” Tommy asked, tightening his arms around Evan as he tried to squirm away.

“I’m just going to the bathroom.”  Evan laughed lightly, turning to kiss him on the top of the head as he tries to pry Tommy’s hands off his waist.  “I’ll be right back, though we should probably start getting up.  I know Bobby wanted to get a somewhat early start.”

Tommy groaned but let go of Evan, rolling into his place to get an extra five minutes of sleep.

A few minutes later, Tommy is still laying in bed, curled up in the warm spot that Evan left behind and dozing lightly when Evan lets out one of the most heartbreaking cries Tommy has ever heard.

He launches himself upwards, scrambling across the bed as he gets tangled in the blankets and sheets and falls face first off the bed, banging his knee hard against the floor in the process.   Danny starts yipping at him excitedly thinking it’s time to play and sniffing at his head as he struggles to detangle himself and stand up.

He lets out a curse and just pulls the sheet with him, wrapped around him like a toga as he crashes into the doorframe of the ensuite bathroom.  

Evan looks up at him eyes wide and watery, he’s wearing one of Tommy’s shirts and is sitting on the closed toilet lid with his hand curled around something but he looks otherwise unharmed.

“Evan?”

“It… it broke.” Evan sniffed.  

“What broke, baby?” Tommy asked breathlessly, his heart racing.  They could fix it— whatever it was.  Anything to wipe the look of utter devastation off Evan’s face.

Evan looked down and unfurled his hand.

Sitting on his palm was Evan’s old bracelet, the one Daniel had made when they were just kids.  The one Evan wore everywhere.  He never took the thing off.  There was an actual strip of pale skin in between the slightly tanned and sunburned patches of skin where the bracelet used to sit on Evan’s wrist.   The thread that held the ends of the corded bracelet together had finally frayed apart.  

“Oh Ev.” Tommy sighed, coming into the bathroom to wrap an arm around his shoulders.  Evan leaned into him, his forehead resting against his stomach.  “I’m sorry.”

“I— I always knew it would on-one day.  I just… just wasn’t ready for it.”  Evan sniffled.  His shoulders trembled in the way they did when he was trying not to cry.  “I-I’m sorry.  It’s stupid.  I— I shouldn’t—”

“Hey no,” Tommy said, kneeling down and wincing when his throbbing knee hit the cold tile.  He looked up into Evan’s eyes, reaching up to cradle a hand around his jaw.  “There’s nothing stupid about it.  This is special to you, of course you’re going to be upset that it broke.  It’s okay.  Okay?”

He sniffed again and nodded but Tommy could tell that he didn’t fully believe him.  

“I… I’m gonna go take Da-Danny on his walk,” Evan said suddenly, pushing to his feet and helping Tommy to his.  “You can take a shower.  I’ll be back in a bit.”

Tommy frowned but let him go, knowing that sometimes Evan just needed a moment to gather himself.  He turned on the shower and let the room steam up before he got in.  He showered quickly and toweled dry.

Evan and Danny still weren’t back when he got out so he continued to get ready for the day, grimacing as he poked at the purpling bruising on his knee before he pulled his jeans on.  He was sitting on the edge of the bed and tying his boots when he saw the bracelet on the nightstand next to Evan’s water bottle.  

He picked it up and ran his fingers over it.  It was so familiar after seeing it around Evan’s wrist for the last two months.  It was strange though, to see it without Evan, it didn’t look right.  He grazed his thumb over the green and blue braided cords and threads and realized he had made something like this before.  Evan had told him that Daniel had made the bracelets at a summer camp he went to.  He’d done the math in his head and figured that Daniel would have been about his age if he were still alive so if it were anything like the summer camp Tommy had gone to as a kid then they probably used similar craft designs.  

He set the bracelet back down on the nightstand as he heard the key card scanner beep and the door knob started to twist.  Evan’s eyes were red and a little puffy as he gave him the saddest smile Tommy is pretty sure he’s ever seen.  

“Bobby wants to leave in the next hour or so and head up to Dallas.” Evan told him as he unhooked Danny’s leash.  The golden bounded over to greet him and Tommy scrubbed his hands over his head and scratched at his ears.  

“Sounds good,” Tommy said, standing up to wrap his arms around Evan’s waist.  He pressed a kiss against his birthmark.  “You okay?”

Evan nodded but sighed heavily wrapping his own arms around Tommy, leaning into him.  “Yeah, I will be.  Sorry I woke you up like that.”

“Don’t be.” Tommy scolded, lightly dropping another kiss in Evan’s hair before he turned to pull their bags up onto the bed to pack.  “You go get in the shower, I’ll handle this.”

Evan nodded once and  shuffled off to the bathroom with a change of clothes.  Once the door closed Tommy’s eyes zeroed back in on the bracelet on the nightstand and an idea started to form in his head.

——

Once they had checked in for the night Evan decided to just go to bed early instead of going to dinner with everyone else citing exhaustion as his excuse.  Everyone saw right through it— he’d been wearing his glasses all day and his eyes had never really lost that shiny look to them.

They were staying at a slightly nicer hotel for the night so Tommy made sure the AC was set to where they liked it and handed Evan a hoodie from his own bag and told him that he’d ordered him something for dinner and that it would be there soon.

Evan had told him to go out with everyone else and have a fun night and Tommy only protested for a second before caving.  The only reason he’d caved was because it was the perfect opportunity to put his plan into motion… had it been any other time he would have stayed in and wrapped Evan up under all the blankets and hugged the sadness out of him.  

Instead he kissed Evan on the forehead, right over the birthmark on his brow, and told him to call him if he needed anything before he pet Danny on the head and told the golden to “hold down the fort” and take care of Evan and headed out. 

He was halfway down the hallway to the elevator when a door opened and Bobby stepped out in front of him.  

“Hey Tommy, how’s Buck doing?” He asked, concern clearly evident in his voice and eyes.  “You going out with everyone else?”

Tommy shook his head.  “No.  I’m running a quick errand.  Evan wanted some space but I won’t be gone too long.”

“Want some company?  I was about to head out to the store myself,” Bobby said.

And that’s how Tommy found himself walking down the shampoo aisle at Walmart with a man that he not only greatly respected but the man that was essentially his boyfriend’s father.  

Bobby dropped a few toiletries into the basket hanging over his arm before turning to Tommy. 

“That’s all I need, what are you here for?”

“Uhm—” 

Bobby raised an eyebrow at him as he led him to the craft aisle.

Tommy browsed the aisle for cords or thread that would work somewhat well with the worn material of the twenty year old bracelet.  He frowned when nothing here seemed to match even after he looked a second time and pulled out the broken strand of the bracelet to compare it.

“Is it alright if we go to Michaels or something?” Tommy asked, putting the bracelet back in his pocket.  It’s where he’d initially planned to go before Bobby had tagged along.  

He looked up at Bobby to find the man smiling at him.  

“That’s fine with me,” he said, holding out his hand to him.  “Need help up?  Buck said you banged your knee pretty hard this morning.”

Tommy took his hand and only winced slightly as he got back on his feet, leaning against Bobby for a moment to stretch it out.  

“Yeah it’s bruised pretty good but I’ll be fine in a few days.”  Tommy sighed as they headed for checkout.  “I was more worried about Evan in the moment— still am if I’m being honest.”

“That’s the thing about Buck.” Bobby chuckled.  “Once you love him you will literally never stop worrying about him.”

Tommy’s eyes widened.

“You don’t have to pretend with me, Tommy, I see the way you look at him.” Bobby looked at him knowingly and Tommy swallowed.  “I’m happy for the both of you.”

Tommy blinked at him curiously.  “Uh, both—?”

“Yes, Tommy, both of you.” Bobby laughed.  “Don’t forget I’ve known you just as long as him.  We’ve been friends for a long time, I can see that Buck is as good for you as you are for him.”

Tommy smiled at him and rubbed at his nose.  Bobby finished scanning his items and the two of them walked out to the truck.  

“I’m glad you found each other, Tommy,” Bobby said, once they were both buckled in and he was pulling out of the parking space.  “Really.  I’ve known the both of you for about ten years now and I see the way you balance each other out and really bring out the best in each other.”

“I’m really glad I found him too, Bobby,” he said.

“Selfishly,” Bobby said.  “I’m glad that he has you to worry about him now.  Of course I’m always going to worry about him, that’s a given since the day he walked into that very first class.  But I know that if he’s with you then he’ll be okay.”

Tommy couldn’t speak, not with the way his heart was in his throat and his eyes were prickling.  If he said anything then he’d very much embarrass himself and if Bobby saw the tear that he scrubbed away as it raced down his cheek then he didn’t say anything.

Instead Tommy just drove them over to Michaels where Bobby helped him pick out blue and green cords and a bright yellow thread along with a couple of beads to mend the bracelet back together.  

It took a few days to actually fix the thing, considering he and Evan spent nearly every second of the day together so it was a good thing that Bobby actually knew what he was doing because he helped distract Evan here and there so that Tommy could actually work on it.  

He finished it the night before they were supposed to head to Oklahoma.  Bobby didn’t even need an excuse to distract Evan for him— the two of them had spent the majority of the day with Ravi bent over their computers as they tried to make sense of the weather predictions that were pouring in for the next few days in Oklahoma.  Apparently something unusual was brewing for so late in the summer which had become the norm for the year with how many ups and downs the weather had put them through.  

It was pretty late by the time Evan got back from Bobby’s room with a plan of action ready to go for tomorrow, which he was currently telling Tommy about in detail while he sat next to him on the bed and slurped down the leftover pasta they’d all had for dinner that night.  

Normally Tommy would have hung onto his every word without issue, but tonight all he could think about was how heavy the bracelet felt in the pocket of his hoodie.  

“Are you okay?” Evan asked, setting the now empty tin bowl to the side.

“What?  Of course I am.” Tommy replied as he went about folding their clothes he and Eddie had taken to the laundry mat while the rest of them had been mapping out where the outbreak was likely going to happen.

“You just seem… a little twitchy?” Evan questioned.  “Is there something bothering you?  Was I talking too—”

“No!” Tommy exclaimed a little too loudly and Evan blinked at him in surprise.  

He sighed and reached forward, pulling Evan’s hand into his.  “No.” He repeated a little quieter this time.  “I just…”

“You just—?”

“I did something and now I’m over thinking how much you’re actually going to like it.” He sighed.  He really hoped he wasn’t overstepping, especially now that Evan seemed to be feeling a little more normal again for the first time in days. 

“You did something for me?” Evan grinned, his eyes sparkling.  

Tommy nodded.  “Mhmm, I can fix it if you hate it… just tell me—”

Evan leaned forward to kiss him quiet.  “I’m sure I’ll love it, whatever it is.”

He took a deep breath and reached into his pocket where the bracelet had been sitting since he finished it and turned Evan’s hand over. The backs of his knuckles brushed over the warmth of his palm as he dropped the repaired bracelet into his hand.

“I know how important this is to you and I’m so sorry if you hate it—”

Evan’s breath hitched and Tommy stopped talking as he stared down at it.  He could see his eyelashes flutter as he blinked and reached up with his other hand to pick it up.  

“You… you fixed it.” Evan whispered.  He looked up at Tommy, his eyes wet with something like awe in them.  

Tommy gulped.  “I did… I realized that I had made something like that at a camp I went to when I was a kid and— I know— I know it’s not exact and I added a couple things to it but—”

He was cut off as Evan leapt forward, crashing their lips together as he tackled him backwards to the mattress, knocking over the piles of laundry he’d just folded— but he didn’t care as he groaned into Evan’s mouth and wrapped his arms around his back, pulling him closer.  

Evan’s hands were curled around his face and he could feel the worn cord that he’d grown accustomed to in his hands over the last several days brush across his cheek as his boyfriend pulled away and dropped more kisses all over his face.  

“Thank you, thank you, thank you!” Evan pressed the words into his skin with his lips.  “I love it.  I love you—”

Evan froze like he hadn’t expected the words to fall out of his own mouth.  “Oh… uh— I…”

Tommy’s heart unfurled in his chest and he grinned up at Evan, wrapping his arms around him and rolling them over— knocking even more clothes off the bed— until he was now hovering over his boyfriend who had turned bright red.  

He leaned down and slotted their mouths together for one perfect moment before he pulled back and leaned their foreheads together.  

“I love you too.”

Chapter Text

They roll into town in Oklahoma the same time the Thunder Trackers team does.

“Of course.” Buck huffed.  Eddie grunted in agreement from the back seat.

It made sense that they would be here too, an outbreak this big this late in the season was virtually unheard of.  Of course they would want to get it on their TV show— just… did they really need to be staying in the same motel as them?

“I know for a fact there are at least ten other hotels in this town.” He grouched and rolled his eyes as he saw Jonah and Gerrard discussing something in front of a camera.  

Sal was standing next to a dark haired man in a suit looking incredibly bored, though he perked up a bit when he saw the pull into the lot.  

“Nice of you to finally join us,” Sal said, walking up to them as they got out of the truck.

Danny bounded over to him happily, excited to see him after several months.  Danny had always liked Sal. 

“Sorry, some of us are out here doing actual work—” Tommy snarked back at him good naturedly. 

“Don’t I know it.” Sal muttered scratching at Danny’s ears.

“Who’s the suit?” Eddie asked, nodding over to the Thunder Trackers team.

“That’s the show’s slime ball producer,” Sal said.  “He’s very invested in the show doing well as he owns the studio.  Pompous asshole named it after himself.  I don’t like him.”

“You don’t like anyone.” Tommy pointed out.

“I like you guys don’t I?”  Sal asked.  

“Even though we’re nerds?” Buck grinned.

The man groaned and looked at Tommy.  “Never going to let it go?”

“Nope.” Tommy grinned as well, looking way too pleased with himself.  “How much longer are they filming?”

“I’m done after this chase, and then they’re going to go film some more science behind the scenes BS that I’m not a part of— thank god— but as soon as this chase is over I’m out,” Sal said.  “Might go back home and visit my ma and my sister after this.”

“We’re heading back up that way at the end of this week.  You should swing by the bar sometime while you’re in town.” Tommy said, he reached over to grab Buck’s hand, lacing their fingers together.  “We’d love to see you.”

“Ugh, not if you’re gonna be all mushy and crap in front of me.”  Sal wrinkled his nose. 

“You will never be able to escape,” Eddie said, wiggling his fingers like he wasn’t the one to be ‘traumatized’ by them the most.  

Tommy raised his hand to his lips and brushed an affectionate kiss over the back of his knuckles.

“That right there—” Sal said.  “You have to buy me a drink every time you do something like that.”

“Good thing I own a bar then.” Tommy laughed with that scrunchy smile that Buck adored.

——

“You got it working?”  Buck asked.

“Yes, Buck, I know how to work a camera just fine.” Eddie rolled his eyes.  “Don’t worry about it so much.”

Buck ignored him and radioed the RV.  “Are you guys seeing the feed okay?”

“Crystal clear, Buck.” Ravi replied.

“Thanks probie!” 

It wasn’t often that they pulled out the video camera having long ago moved on from videotaping most of their chases, but it came in handy every once in a while— especially for something like the last big storm event of the season and with more potential investors on the horizon it would be nice to have the video to go look back on for their proposals.  

“Ready babe?” Buck asked coming around the tailgate where Tommy was twisting the gas cap back on.  

“Just about, baby.” Tommy replied with a smile. 

“And here you see in its natural habitat the wild Buck seeking out its mate—”  Eddie said in the worst Australian accent he’d ever heard.

“Eddie, I swear to god if you don’t get that camera out of my face,” Buck said with a glare at his best friend.  

“Please get the camera out of his face, Eddie.”  Ravi groaned over the walkie.

“Wasn’t the point of the camera to be in your face for your notes?” Eddie grinned without a care but he did lower the camera so he’d count it as a win.

“Yeah for science—”

“I think a nature documentary is pretty scientific.”

Tommy barked out a laugh and immediately tried to turn it into a coughing fit.

Buck rolled his eyes and ran a hand through his hair.  “Just… get in the truck you two.”

——

“Oh… well that’s different.”

“You can’t just say that while we’re staring at a tornado, Buck.” Eddie groaned, keeping the video camera trained on the tornado a mile and a half to the east of them.  

“He’s got a point, baby.” Tommy chuckled though he sounded a little antsy and Buck felt kind of bad.  One of Tommy’s priorities was keeping them all safe so that they could focus on the actual science of everything else and he really didn’t like it when something could potentially ruin his carefully laid out safety plans.

“Sorry— just one second,” he said, typing at his laptop and running the data one more time.  

Yup.  It was right, but it was still weird.  

He brought the walkie talkie up to his mouth.  “Uh— Chimney, can you confirm where the drone is?”

“It’s about two miles north of you, Buckaroo,” Chimney said with a crack of his gum that sounded distorted over the radio.  “What’s up?”

“Is Bobby right there?”

“I’m here, Buck, what do you need?”

“Can you double check the readout from the drone?”

It was quiet for a moment and Tommy leaned into his side, looking over his shoulder at the screen.  

“What’s going on?”  He asked.

“Oh yeah, I see what you’re seeing, Buck.”  Bobby responded.  “This will be a good chance to test how accurate our direction predictions are and gather some good data on how outflow feedback can affect a storm.”

“Buck what’s he saying?”  Eddie called over his shoulder.

“We’re thinking a tornado is about to drop a mile north to us and travel southwest.”  Buck answered.  

Tommy's eyes widened a tiny bit.  “How often does that happen?”

“It’s not as rare as you would think, but it’s still pretty uncommon— only about 20-25 percent of tornadoes move south instead of northeast.”  Buck explained, pointing at the screen where it showed a negative value instead of the positives he was used to seeing over the last few weeks.  “This tells us that the outflow winds from the storm’s core is basically causing the storm to double back in on itself.”

He swiped over to another screen that showed the radar.  He zoomed in, searching and made a little “ah ha!” pointing at the screen for Tommy.  “See this hook right here, is the tornado that’s in front of us to the east, you can already see that it’s starting to weaken as the moisture levels are dropping around it.” He looked up and pointed at the tornado and realized Eddie had the camera trained on him.  “See you can already see it starting to dissipate.”  Eddie swiveled back around to the tornado and sure enough in the next thirty seconds the tornado was off the ground and disappearing back into the clouds like it had never been there.  

He pointed back at the screen.  “This pattern of rotation that’s starting to develop to the north of us is that double back effect from the outflow that caused the first tornado to dissipate.”  He looked up to where the clouds were starting to swirl ahead of them.  “And there’s the rotation.”

Tommy glanced up curiously before grinning at him.  He leaned over to kiss his cheek and hook his hand through his elbow.  “You’re so smart.  Now let’s get out of here before it drops a twister on our heads.”

“Awww you guys are so gross.” Eddie grinned behind the camera, having trained it back on them.  

“I hope you realize soon that we’re still watching the livestream…” Ravi’s voice came from the walking talkie in his hand.  

“Eddie!” Buck squawked but he didn’t stay upset for long, instead laughing.  “Whatever, let’s just go, we can probably find a safe spot a few miles to the north.”

As Tommy started the truck and they buckled in he pulled up the map and frowned when he saw a town directly to the south of them.  He really didn’t want another Willis to happen and with how unreliable the early warning system had been he radioed back to the RV.

“Bobby do you see the town—”

“Chim’s already on it, Buck.” Bobby assured him. 

“Oh?  Does Chim know what’s going on with the sirens?” 

“He has a theory,” Bobby said, which told him absolutely nothing.  He shared a glance with Tommy who had told him the other night that he thought Hen and Chim were acting odd lately.

Tommy just shrugged, unsure what his theory was and a glance in the rearview mirror told him that Eddie didn’t know either.  He’d have to ask when they weren’t dodging tornadoes then.

“Buck, look—”

He looked up from his computer to see Eddie pointing the camera out of the window towards the south near where they’d just been to see a funnel dropping out of the clouds.  

“Bobby, we have a funnel cloud.” He reported over the radio.

The tornado hit the ground and immediately started heading away from them towards the south.

“We were right!” He exclaimed excitedly, going to refresh the radar.

It froze halfway through loading the screen.

“Are you kidding me?” Buck just about shouted at his computer.  “AGAIN?”

A moment later all three of their phones let out loud alarm noises.

TORNADO WARNING— SEEK IMMEDIATE SHELTER—

Buck clicked it open and saw it was from NWS with all the correct towns and counties in the vicinity.  

A moment later he could hear the distant wail of a siren in between rumbling cracks of thunder.

“Chimney man— I don’t know what you did but you are the best.” Buck grinned into the radio. 

“I live to please, Buckaroo.”  Chimney’s voice echoed over the walkie sounding all too pleased with himself as he deserved.

In the end the tornado missed the town by barely a mile, but it was way too close of a call with the sirens— again.  It couldn’t have just been weathering or age if Chimney had been able to fix it, there had to be something else going on, he didn’t know what but he hoped it was fixed soon.

——

It was well past dark by the time they made it back to the hotel in town, the truck rolling up next to the RV in the parking lot.  They were all exhausted having left Texas early that morning to drive four hours up to Stillwater and basically go straight into storm chasing as the storm cells really started revving up early in the afternoon. 

They ended up chasing four different tornadoes throughout the day before it finally got too dark to safely chase anymore and the first super cell moved out of the area.  They were getting a brief respite to rest and eat dinner before a second storm cell to the west moved over them, also very likely to be tornado warned so it was likely that they wouldn’t be getting a whole lot of sleep that night.  

“Good job today team.” Bobby clapped his hands together as he, Tommy, and Eddie clambered out of the truck.  “We did good work today, especially Chimney—”

Buck clapped and let out a teasing cheer as Chimney dramatically bowed but he was actually very proud of him, as he often was, but finding and fixing the feedback signal for the sirens had been no joke.

“Go get some food and rest while you can—”

Thunder rumbled ominously overhead.

“This storm system should clear up around three in the morning, but it still has the potential to spawn a few more tornadoes according to the data we’re getting.”  Bobby continued.  “So just be prepared in case we have to evacuate.  I have some friends in Oklahoma City keeping an extra close eye on the radars tonight but hopefully Chimney fixed whatever caused the sirens to malfunction earlier today for the time being.”

They split up for the night.  Bobby headed to his room to call Athena who was on her way into town and Hen and Chimney were off to do their own thing— whatever that was.  While Tommy, Eddie, and Ravi were climbing back into the truck to go get dinner for everyone.

“Don’t wait for me,” Buck said.  “I’m gonna go take Danny for a walk, he’s been stuck in the room all day.”

“Alright.” Tommy smiled at him and leaned in to press a kiss to the corner of Buck’s mouth.  “We’ll be back soon.  I love you.”

Buck smiled, his heart feeling fluttery just like it always did when Tommy said those words.  “I’ll be here, love you too.” He snuck one more kiss before Eddie was yelling at Tommy to ‘hurry his ass up because they were starving, you can make out with Buck when you get back, Jesus’.  “Go, before Eddie starts to get hangry and cannibalizes Ravi or something.”

“He’s not already?” Tommy asked jokingly.  He’d seen a truly hangry Eddie and no one wanted that.

Buck laughed and pushed him away before turning to get Danny out of their room.

The golden was very excited to see him, yipping and jumping up on him to lick at his face.  Buck laughed and rubbed his hands all over his fur before scratching behind his ears before he pushed him back down.

“Alright, alright— I know you’ve been cooped up all day.  Let’s go.”

They were between storms according to the radar he probably had about 30-40 minutes before the weather started getting super nasty again which was more than enough time to take Danny on a quick walk around the the block.  He’d take him out to the park or something with Tommy tomorrow if the weather cleared up as predicted.  

Danny was sniffing at the base of a telephone pole when his phone started ringing.  He pulled it out, thinking it was Tommy double checking what he wanted for dinner as he liked to do if they were out of what he wanted, but was delighted to see Maddie’s beaming face smiling up at him.

“Hey Mads.” Buck greeted with a smile.  “What’s up?”

“I just wanted to call and check in.  I just got off the phone with Chim but he seemed pretty busy. I heard you guys had a bit of a crazy day.”

“That’s one way of putting it.” He shrugged.  “But it all worked out in the end.  How are you feeling?”

“Ugh— my feet are starting to swell.  Did I tell you that?  I can barely get my shoes on.  Josh had to go buy me some house slippers so I have something to wear to the store!”

Buck snorted.  “No, you did not tell me that.”

Maddie talked for a bit more as he walked Danny down the sidewalk, telling him about her week and more weird pregnancy cravings and a funny thing that Albert had done before turning the conversation back to Buck.

“How are you and Tommy?”

Buck smiled as he thought about his boyfriend.  “We’re good… really good.  He uh… he fixed my bracelet.”  He looped the leash around his arm so he could raise his wrist into view of the camera.

“Oh Evan, that’s amazing.”

“Yeah.” He chuckled.  “He, uh, he also told me he loved me last night.”  He scratched at his nose sheepishly.  “After I practically yelled it in his face.”

Maddie giggled.  “Of course you did.  How do you feel about that?”

“I love him, Mads,” he said giddily as he grinned at his sister.  He loved Tommy and Tommy loved him back.  

“I’m so happy for you, Buck.” Maddie smiled at him and her eyes were looking a little watery.  “I know you were going to stay in Nebraska for a few weeks but you better bring him to visit as soon as you can.  I want to meet him in person, and this little girl wants to meet her uncles!”

Buck smiled back at his sister as she gently ran a hand over her rounded belly.  “I can’t wait.  I’m so excited to meet her!”

He shivered as a cool breeze splashed a few raindrops across his face.  There was a distant crack of thunder in the lull between the storms which spooked Danny a bit as the dog pulled on his leash and rounded back the way they came towards the hotel.  

Maddie rolled her eyes good naturedly at him while he pulled his jacket around his shoulders and ears a little tighter.  It wasn’t actually that cold out but with the rain the temperature had dropped significantly from the balmy hot temperatures of the day.  

“Go cuddle your man and warm up.”

“You don’t have to tell me twice.” Buck grinned.  “I’ll call you tomorrow.”

“Alright.” Maddie nodded and let out a yawn.  It was getting to be about her bedtime, the baby was making her extra tired the last few days.  “Be safe.  I love you!”

“Love you too, Maddie,” he said, hanging up the phone and hurrying back to the hotel with Danny at his side.  

——

He’s unlocking the door to his and Tommy’s room when he hears the familiar bickering whispers of Hen and Chim behind him.  He turned to look behind him into the parking lot, unable to hear what they were actually saying over the low rumble of distant thunder but it looked like they were… sneaking out?

They were ducking low in between cars in the parking lot and glancing around at their surroundings before poorly sneaking to the next car trying their best to stay out of the lamplight of the parking lot lights.  

Buck blinked as he watched them disappear around the side of the building.  What were they doing?

He got the room unlocked and unhooked Danny from his leash.  The dog immediately ran for his bowls and started lapping up the water before turning to devour his food.

“Be good buddy,” he said, hanging the leash over the back of a nearby chair.  “I’ll be back soon.  Hold down the fort.”

Danny didn’t acknowledge him, far too busy with his dinner.

He made sure the door was locked behind him before he went to see what Hen and Chim were up to.  It had been a really long day and the two of them had been acting odd every time he saw them.  Honestly they were all feeling a little off after the latest siren malfunction in a horrible series of failures but it seemed to get to Hen and Chim especially bad today— even though Chim had managed to save the day and get them working.

He walked around the corner to the side parking lot which was nestled up against some train tracks leading into a nearby train yard.  It was dark on this side of the building with just one flickering streetlight and the occasional flash of lightning.

Under the streetlight was Hen and Chim, actively breaking into the Thunder Trackers van.

His jaw dropped as he watched them.  What were they doing?  He was pretty sure they weren’t drunk, they’d all just gotten back from their long day out chasing and Tommy, Eddie, and Ravi weren’t even back from picking up dinner yet.

“Guys— what the hell?”  He asked, coming up behind them and crossing his arms across his chest.

Chimney jumped and screamed while Hen whirled around and held him at lock pick point.

“Buck!” She hissed, lowering the lock pick tools.  “What the hell?!”

“You just scared the hell out of us.” Chimney clutched at his heart, breathing heavily.  “What is wrong with you?”

“Uh… do you really want to be asking me that while you’re actively committing a crime?”  Buck pointed between the two of them with a raised eyebrow that he’d learned from Tommy.  Hen was already turning back towards the van.

She let out a noise of triumph as the door unlatched and Chimney slid the door open for both of them to climb in.  They both ignored Buck as Chimney started digging through papers and equipment while Hen began to boot up the computer.  

The screens all lit up at once going to an open home screen open to a tab with the radar flashing across it.  “Who doesn’t password protect their computer?” Hen muttered.

Buck frowned.  She was right, everything was password locked these days.

“What are you looking for?” He asked.

“Anything incriminating,” Chimney said.

“This all seems pretty incriminating to me.” He stated with a wave around the van they’d just broken into.

“Just shut up and keep watch Buck.”

Buck sighed but turned to glance around the parking lot.  If Hen and Chimney thought something was up then he wasn’t going to argue with them.  He’d learned a long time ago that the two of them had very good instincts and when they put their brains together they were nearly unstoppable.  

This side of the parking lot was still empty, save for the three of them.  The wind was starting to pick up a bit more and a few droplets of rain splashed on his face.  Thunder crashed loudly in the distance and the light above him flickered.  

It was all very spooky.  

He pulled his jacket around him a little tighter and wondered when Tommy and the others would get back— if they would pull up to find the three of them in the middle of committing a crime.  He was peering around the back of the van when Hen gasped loudly.  He nearly jumped out of his skin and whirled back towards the open door to see what was wrong.

There across the main screen was what looked like a recording of a young woman laying on her side in an empty room.  The lighting was dim but he could see something dark and red pooled around her head as she blinked blearily towards the camera as it was shoved right up against her bruised face.  The camera drew backwards and scanned over her bruised body.  She was laying on her side with her arms and legs restrained behind her, her clothes torn and dirty.  When it came back up to her face a black leather gloved hand reached out and snapped a gold necklace off her neck.  

Buck’s eyes went wide as he looked to a different screen and another and another.  There were twelve different screens in the back of the van and each of them had a different person on them— both men and women, young and old, in varying stages of bleary awareness all with various wounds.  

He was pretty certain at least two of them were already dead and the rest did not look long for the world either all bloody and beaten nearly beyond recognition.

They all watched in horror as each stream ended the same way.  Whoever was behind the camera would set it down with the lens trained on the victim before it suddenly cut and fast forwarded like it was in the process of being edited.  When it came back on, several of the victims had stopped struggling… stopped moving at all.

Then in the rooms that still had power the lights would begin to flicker until it went dark and the video would either switch to night vision or a dim light from the camera itself would come on only for the room to start shaking as pieces of the wall would be ripped away, dust and debris flying around in the same way they had all seen in person or through their own camera screens for years now.

And then each and every feed would cut— some of them with the victim still on the screen but most of them had been swept away by the winds— but one by one each screen went static.  All three of them gaped at the console in silent disbelief.  After an agonizing minute another 12 videos start playing.  At first he thought that they were replays of the ones they had just watched but he quickly realized that these were all different people.  Twelve new victims all meet the same fate with no chance of escape.  

Buck felt like he was going to throw up.

“What was that?” He asked shakily.  He was trying to keep his stomach and heart from coming out of his throat.

“I… I’m not sure,” Chimney said hoarsely.  

“Th— That wasn’t what you were looking for?” Buck gaped in disbelief, turning to look at the man.

“No!” Chimney exclaimed.  “Why would we be looking for something like this?  We were looking for some kind of signal jammer or Jonah’s laptop at the very least.”

Buck didn’t have a PhD for nothing.

“You think Jonah’s causing the siren malfunctions?”

Hen nodded her head, looking like she’d rather be sick as well.  “But this is more than just… just warning failures and malfunctions.”

“Oh my god.” Buck gasped, remembering the conversation he’d just had with Tommy not that long ago in Illinois, even though it felt like it’d been forever since they’d been cleaning up the devastation of Willis.  “We gotta get this to Athena.  Guys— this has to be her killer.”

He was already pulling his phone out, the lock screen lighting up to a picture of him and Tommy taking Danny on one of his daily walks that they went on together.  He barely managed to get the contacts open before there’s a rough tug on the back of his collar, startling him as the fabric dug into his neck and choked him.  He lost his grip on his phone as his hands flew upwards to relieve the pressure.

He doesn’t get longer than that to struggle before there’s an arm like an iron band around his torso and the cold steel o f a knife against the soft skin of his neck that has his hair standing on edge.  

The body behind him is tall and muscular but nowhere near as broad as Tommy.  He could probably have wrestled out of the hold if it wasn’t for the stinging razor sharp pressure against his neck.  He wants to writhe away from the harsh moist breath against his ear but he’s frozen in fear as Hen and Chimney’s eyes go wide at his startled yelp.

“Buck!”

The hand around his collar pulls tighter, the twisted fabric of his shirt constricting his airway.  He holds his shaky hands out to show he’s not a threat as he’s pulled backwards a few stumbling steps.  He slips once and winces as he feels the knife cut into him with a stinging pressure on his neck.

“Jonah—” Hen started, holding her own hands out, eyes wide as she watched Buck.  He stared back, unable to do anything else.

“Shut up!” Jonah hissed and it took everything in him to not flinch away from the sharpness of the noise against his ear.  “Get out of the van.”

Hen and Chim both step out of the van slowly, their hands up to try and placate Jonah.

“It’s okay, Jonah, it’s all—” Chimney tried.

“Shut up!” Jonah hissed again.  “God— why can none of you just ever stop talking.”

Hen and Chimney both fell silent, watching them carefully.   Buck had no idea how they were going to get out of this, he’d never been held at knife point before even when Doug had come looking for Maddie he’d gone straight for Chimney and they’d only managed to get out of that one by the well timed arrival of Bobby and Athena startling him.

He prayed that Tommy and the others would somehow come back and miraculously pull around to the side lot, or maybe even Bobby—

“Go over there!” Jonah ordered and Buck felt him jerk his head to the side.  Chimney and Hen followed, slowly stepping to the side away from the open door towards the back of the van.

The second Chimney stepped past the bumper he jerked forward as a large broken branch hit him across the back of his shoulders and head, splaying him out on his stomach across the asphalt. 

Both Hen and Buck let out a cry as Chimney fell and Hen moved forward to try and help when she was pushed face first into the bumper and once more until she collapsed to the ground with a low groan.

Lightning flashed and thunder cracked loudly at the same time, blinding them momentarily with the sudden light.  He struggled against Jonah, uncaring of the knife against his throat now as her tried to get to his friends.  Jonah swore and let go of him just to kick out the back of his bad knee and push him viciously to the pavement.

His forehead scraped across the asphalt hard and he let out a paint groan as the feeling rattled his teeth.  A sharp jolt of pain echoed through his ribs as Jonah kicked him in the side angrily and he curled in on himself.

“What the fuck is wrong with you?” A voice he didn’t recognize growled and it sent chills across his skin.  “How could you be so fucking stupid— You left the computer unlocked?”

“I was only gone for five minutes—” Jonah hissed back.

“Five minutes was more than enough time for these three to find everything.”

A car horn honked from the street and Buck blinked blearily trying to make sense of what was happening.  His head was pounding and face and neck stung and he was pretty sure he was bleeding even if he couldn’t manage to bring his hand up to check.  He could feel a warm wetness that had nothing to do with the summer rain streaking down his face and neck.

“What are we going to do with them?”

He heard an aggravated sigh and another low rumble of thunder.  Her wondered where Tommy was… if he was almost back—

“I am always cleaning up your fucking messes—” The other voice seethed before he took a deep breath and gravel crunched.  A boot nudged at his head and he winced as the movement sent pain lancing through his skull.  “Take this one to the house while I figure out what to do with these two.”

There was the sound of shoes crunching across the gravel of the asphalt and Buck blinked just in time to see a boot swinging towards his face. 

Chapter Text

Tommy hummed along to the radio happily as he drove down the glistening rainy streets of Stillwater listening to Eddie and Ravi bicker back and forth about Eddie taking more than his fair share of egg rolls.

Eddie was always quick to fire back and said that he’d bought the extra bag for himself so they were his and only his. One of the first things that Tommy had learned was to always pick up more food than necessary, especially after a long day of chasing. 

Hopefully the others wouldn’t be too upset that they were back much later than they said they would be considering it was the extra order of egg rolls that held them up at the restaurant for an extra twenty minutes. He’d texted Evan to let him know they’d be late and hadn’t heard back which wasn’t out of the norm since he was usually on the phone with Maddie around this time. He wasn’t too worried.

He turned the corner and his brow furrowed when the street suddenly lit up in bright blue and red flashing lights. There were nearly a dozen police cars and an ambulance was pulling out of the motel parking lot. 

“Oh geez, what happened here?” Ravi asked, leaning forward over the middle console between him and Eddie. 

“I don’t know, but I don’t think we can pull in,” Tommy said looking at the police tape that was being pulled over the entrance of the parking lot. He pulled the truck over onto the side of the road and the three of them got out.

As they got closer Tommy started feeling uneasy, which dropped straight into dread when he saw Sal talking to Athena. The producer he didn’t like was standing a few feet away talking to Agent Ransone, both of them were scowling.

“Tommy! Eddie, Ravi! Oh thank god—” Bobby exclaimed rushing over to them. He looked at the police officer standing at the caution tape. “They’re with us—”

“Let ‘em in!” Athena called, waving them over and the officer lifted the tape. 

“Bobby what’s going on?” Eddie asked as they walked in.

“Chim and Hen were attacked. Sal found them unconscious in the side lot and called 9-1-1. It looks like they might have walked onto someone breaking into the Thunder Trackers van. The police are checking the hotel’s security cameras right now. They’ve both been transported to the hospital already.” Bobby explained. “They’ve both got concussions and they think Chim’s shoulder is dislocated. And they were awake and talking when they left but neither of them was really coherent, but they think they’ll both be okay.”

“What?” Ravi asked in disbelief. 

Cold fear spread throughout his body as he looked around the parking lot. “Bobby… where’s Evan?”

Bobby’s eyes went wide as they darted between the three of them and over to his truck as if he was just realizing Evan wasn’t there. “He didn’t go with you?” He asked shakily.

“No.” Tommy swallowed and it felt like he had an iron band around his rib cage.

“He— He was taking Danny on a walk right?” Eddie asked worriedly. “Maybe he just hasn’t gotten back yet—”

Tommy looked past them to the half a dozen crime scene investigators they had combing the parking lot before the next round of storms rolled in. The wind was picking up as thunder and lightning shook through the sky overhead. 

The side door to the Thunder Trackers van was wide open and besides the crime scene techs that were scouring the area that was the only thing that looked off. 

“I’ve got something!” 

Tommy pushed past them to see what the tech was picking up off the ground. 

It was a phone with a dark blue case and a crack across the bottom of the screen. Tommy sucked in a breath as his heart stopped. The tech tapped on the screen, unable to unlock it, but all Tommy needed to see was to see the lock screen before he felt his heart crack in half as the iron band of fear around him strangled all the air out of his lungs.

The lock screen was a picture of him, Evan, and Danny taken on a walk they went on at a park trail near his house in Omaha. Tommy was pressing a kiss to Evan’s birthmark, his eyes were closed and the corners scrunched with a smile. Evan was turned towards him slightly with a wide grin, his own eyes shut while he laughed. Danny took up most of the screen, his snout close to the camera and his tongue lolling out of his mouth. 

Tommy had taken it and Evan had loved it so much he’d made it his background on damn near every electronic device he owned.

Tommy’s text message notification was still on the screen, his name with the little red heart emoji on fire next to it.

He turned and ran, hoping against hope that he was wrong, that Evan was in their room right now looking for his misplaced phone— but as he skidded to a stop at the door, dropping the key with how badly his hands shook he knew he was wrong.

Danny was whining and scratching at the door and he felt someone at his back as he finally managed to get the door open. It swung wide just barely missing Danny as he ran in, nearly tripping as he smacked the same god damn knee from the other day against the edge of the bed. 

He didn’t let the throbbing pain stop him as he stumbled into the bathroom at the end of the room and flipped on the light.

It was empty.

Evan wasn’t there.

He glanced back at the door to see Sal and Eddie both standing in the doorway, both of them eyes wide as they stared back at him. 

“He’s not here.” He said brokenly.

——

Buck blinked blearily. His head throbbed in pain and blood thundered in his ears…

Maybe that was just actual thunder though.

Where was he?

Was he moving? He felt his legs bump against something as he was dragged across the floor. He winced as his bad knee throbbed with the movement before it was overtaken again by the throbbing in his head and face. There were unfamiliar arms wrapped around him, hooked under his armpits and pulling him along. 

“To-mmm?”

“Oh now you decide to wake up.” The man behind him groaned before he was dropped unceremoniously to the hardwood flow.

Tears sprang to his eyes as the pain in his head and face nearly made him black out again and he could quite stop the wheeze of pain that left him as he curled up on his side. Everything ached.

“Why are you so damn big?” It took him longer than he’d like to admit to place the voice but when he managed to crack his eyes open he saw Jonah staring down at him with his head tilted to the side contemplating him. 

The room behind him was unfamiliar and dark and he could barely see anything until lightning flashed bright white light and all he saw was a small empty room with barren walls and peeling paint with weathered wood floors. 

Jonah turned away from him and began messing with something that he couldn’t see, muttering under his breath as he did so. 

Buck’s insides went cold when he realized it was a camera.

“You know this isn’t my normal style,” Jonah said idly. “At least with me you still have a chance to survive. But unfortunately for you and your friends it’s Hudson’s turn and his way always ends in death even if the storm doesn’t kill you. You’re getting off easier than Han and Wilson— at least you will if this storm hits like it’s supposed to, but with the way it’s looking out there I think it will.” 

Lightning flashed and the thunder cracked so loudly that he thought it was going to split his skull in half. Jonah turned back to look at him, camera trained on him, a green blinking light indicating it was on, just like the one Eddie had held for most of the day today. “It’s still a little bit of a guessing game, our new trick with the warnings has helped a bit, but with you out of the way and your drone plans we can make it more of an exact art. I heard you’ve been rather successful with that.”

He felt sick. His drone was supposed to help people… not… not hurt them.

He hurt so bad he could barely think.

“Nngh-n-nooo.” He moaned out, it hurt to even do that, the ache echoing through his face. “W-what—?”

Jonah barked out a harsh laugh, squatting down next to him and poking at the side of his head roughly. It hurt . A stabbing pain went straight through his skull as he flinched away. “Oh how the mighty fall.”

A ringing sounded through the room and it was only after Jonah cursed and answered did he realize that it was the other man’s phone and not his own ears ringing.

“What do you mean they’re in the hospital?” Jonah spat.

It went quiet for a few moments, whoever was on the phone speaking at length, as Jonah stood up and began to pace the room.

He had to get out of here. If he wanted to see his friends again. If he wanted to meet his niece. If he wanted to see every one of Tommy’s smiles. He had to try and get out.

“Fine, I'll be there soon. I’m just finishing up here,” Jonah said suddenly, startling him out of his thoughts. “What was that you were saying about cleaning up my messes?” He hung up the phone and slid it back into his pocket a minute later muttering under his breath.

The second he was back within reach Buck lunged forward with every bit of strength and focus he had left, catching Jonah around the knees and taking him to the ground.

“Shit!”

The two of them struggled for a moment clawing and kicking at each other, but Jonah had the advantage of not having the worst concussion of his life and managed to kick Buck roughly in the chest, knocking the air out of him with a painful ‘CRACK’ .

He curled up on his side, coughing and wheezing as tears streamed down his face from the pain. 

“M’sorry— Bob-bby… Ed-Eddie.” He wasn’t even sure what he was saying anymore. He just wanted to see his family one more time. “Mad-die.” He wanted to meet his niece, and wanted to be her uncle. He wanted to see Chris and pet Danny. But more than anything he just wanted Tommy.

“Tommy.” He cried.

He had to be coming, he had to be back to their room by now, had to know Buck was gone.

Tommy would find him.

With one last burst of desperate energy he tried to fight off Jonah as the man grabbed a hold of his arm.

“Quiet!” Jonah hissed and a new pain sliced across his left wrist and something hot ran down his arm. 

Daniel’s bracelet fell off his wrist again. And Buck couldn’t help the sob that left him. Tommy had just fixed it for him— he’d just told Tommy he loved him barely twenty four hours ago. This couldn’t be the end.

“Tommy—” he cried again, as Jonah removed his shoes and tied his feet together at the ankles. He hurt so much and he was so tired. He shivered. He didn’t know when he lost his jacket. 

Jonah pulled his arms back harshly to wrap duct tape over his wrists again and again and Buck moaned at the strain on his broken rib. 

Jonah sat back on his heels and light filled the room with another loud crash of thunder as he looked at the bracelet

“Da-Danny—” Buck slurred, barely understanding himself. “Danny.”

“You really can’t just keep your mouth shut can you?” Jonah asked, putting the bracelet into the pocket on his shirt as he tore off another piece of duct tape, swiping it over Buck’s mouth roughly before dropping his head back down to the floor.

Everything hurt.

“It was not nice knowing you, Buckley.” Jonah said with a cheery wave and then he was gone.

Everything hurt and he was so tired and cold. 

He couldn’t stop shivering.

He hated being cold. 

He wanted Tommy.

Tommy.

Tommy would find him… he’d found him before, the parts of him that he didn’t know existed, he would find him again. 

Tommy would—

——

Tommy blinked. That was Evan’s bracelet.

He blinked again wondering if he was just seeing things now, which could very well be possible considering how confused and stressed he was at the moment. Hen and Howie were in the hospital and Evan was missing and Athena was here talking about serial killers while her partner argued with Gerrard.  He didn’t even know what they were fighting about.

He wasn’t even sure how they made it to the hospital or why they were even there. Evan was out there. Missing.  

Why was he just standing here listening to people argue?

The doors had just opened letting a gust of wind blow into the lobby sending papers flying and the sound of the downpour that was beginning got louder for a moment. Greenway was striding towards them somehow looking harried and arrogant at the same time, his shoulders and hair were damp from the rain. 

“What’s going on?” He asked. “Jeff called me and said that the van had been broken into? Why are we in the hospital then?”

Tommy tuned out the rest of the conversation and blinked again.

No. He wasn’t seeing things.

That was the bracelet Evan’s brother had made for him back when they were just kids. The one that Tommy had just spent the last several days slowly mending back together.

He would know those woven blue and green cords anywhere, and there… sticking out Greenway’s t-shirt pocket, was the frayed edges of the old bracelet that Evan never took off— not when he was in the shower, not when they were in bed together, not even when he’d spilled mustard on it a few weeks ago at some diner they went to in the middle of nowhere Kansas. He’d been devastated for days when it had frayed apart and fallen off until Tommy surprised him by fixing it for him with some fancy knots, a new piece of thread, and a couple of wooden beads. He had loved it, kissing him until he couldn’t breathe and telling Tommy that he loved him.

That was, without a doubt in the world— Evan’s bracelet. With no Evan attached to it.

He was moving before he even realized it.

“WHERE IS HE?” He roared, grabbing Greenway by the front of his shirt and shoving him over the lobby chairs to slam him into the closest wall.

“Tommy!”

“Whoa!”

“What are you doing, man?”

Tommy ignored everyone and pushed Greenway further up the wall until his feet weren’t touching the floor and he was scrambling to find balance.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about!” Greenway spat in his face, clawing at his wrists and trying to kick at his legs. “You’re crazy man!”

Tommy tightened his hold on his shoulder with one hand and reached into the pocket with the other to grab the bracelet.

He held it in front of Greenway’s face where everyone could see it and leaned in close, his voice lowering dangerously. “This is Evan’s. He would never take it off willingly. Where. Is. He.”

The man’s shallow breath hitched and his eyes went wide as he realized he was caught.

“Tommy.” Athena gripped his forearm. “Tommy, let him down.” She sounded nearly as pissed as he felt and he could hear the clinking of handcuffs.

He didn’t move, still staring Greenway down. The man stared back at him, a look in his eye that made his skin crawl.

“Tommy. Buck needs you,” Eddie said quietly, dropping his hand gently onto his shoulder. “Put him down.”

The quiet desperate tone of Eddie’s words got him to relax, but just barely. Evan was his best friend, his brother, practically a second father to his kid. If anyone here loved Evan more than Tommy did, it was Eddie. He wouldn’t risk Evan for anything and if he thought he should let go of Greenway then he probably should.

The second his feet touched the ground Agent Ransone was behind him, cuffing his hands together and reading him his rights.

Tommy let go of the white knuckled grip he had on his t-shirt and took a step back. He didn’t realize how hard he was breathing until Eddie put a hand on his shoulder in an attempt to calm him.

He glanced down at the bracelet, curled carefully in his fist, his only link to Evan in that moment.

“He cried for you,” Greenway said.

Tommy froze, not breathing still as a statue.

“Cried for all of you actually.” He continued as if he hadn’t just been read his rights. Eddie’s hand tightened on his shoulder and the lobby went scarily still. “It was honestly kind of pathetic, at least Wilson and Han went down quietly. He was just as annoying as he always is.” He laughed. “Couldn’t stop crying for his daddy. That you Kinard?”

He saw red and took a step forward, raising his fist.

“You son of a bitch!”

Tommy blinked and suddenly Greenway was laid out across the hard hospital tile, blood pouring from his mouth. He hadn’t moved though, still standing next to Eddie, his hand clenched into a fist.

Bobby stood in front of them, his shoulders heaving as Athena looped both arms around her husband and bodily pulled him away.

Greenway let out a choked laugh as Agent Ransone pulled him back to his feet and dragged him towards the hall, blood dripping across the floor as a gruesome red smile pulled at his face. His chilling laughter echoed through the halls even after he disappeared from sight. The sound of it would likely haunt Tommy for the rest of his life.

They all stood there in silence as the laughter faded away and the waiting room slowly came back to life, unknowing of the turmoil twisting through his soul.

“Agent Grant?” An uniformed officer asked, cutting through the tense silence. “Dr. Wilson is asking for you.”

Somehow Athena managed to get all of them into Hen and Howie’s shared hospital room. Shared because they were both under protective custody because Athena thought this was the work of the serial killer who she did not believe was Greenway.

Tommy had blinked in shock at that, he must have tuned out far more than he thought. 

“Jonah wasn’t working alone, there was another guy but we didn’t see him— he took us out from behind.” Hen said, there was a stark white bandage taped to the center of her forehead. Howie was currently gone from the room getting an X-ray on his shoulder. “Buck though—” Her eyes widened. “Where is Buck?”

“We… we don’t know.” 

Hen sucked in a breath.

“Hen, was he… was he hurt the last time you saw him? Was he—” alive ? He couldn’t think that way. Evan was out there. 

Hen knew what he was trying to say though. “He was alive… but he was hurt. Jonah had a knife to his throat and he stumbled a bit and it cut into him—” Tommy couldn’t stop the wounded noise he let out as his heart twinged in pain. “It didn’t look deep, but then the other guy hit me and can’t remember anything else.”

Tommy ran a hand over his face and let out a shuddering breath. How was this happening right now? They were just storm chasers— meteorologists trying to make the world safe, how the hell did they end up here?

“It… There’s something else…” Hen said shakily. 

“What?” Bobby asked.

Hen took a deep breath to steady herself and looked at Athena. “’Thena there were videos, dozens of them, in that van. It was… horrible—” Tommy felt himself get sicker and sicker as Hen explained what they had all seen until he couldn’t take it anymore and rushed out of the room. 

He barely made it to the bathroom before he was throwing up the little he had in his stomach— their dinner was still in his truck, long since forgotten. 

He knelt there, leaning heavily over the toilet, his elbow propped up on the seat and his head hanging over his hand. His bruised knee throbbed against the hard floor, but that was the least of his problems.

“Tommy?” 

He cracked open the eye that wasn’t pushed into the palm of his hand to see Sal standing in the doorway. 

“Go away, Sal.”

“No man, come on.” Sal grunted, looping his hands under his arms and lifting him to his feet, pushing him towards the sink as he flushed the toilet. “Splash some water on your face.”

A few minutes later he was sitting out in the hallway next to Sal a few doors down from the officers that stood outside of Hen and Howie’s room. He looked down at the bracelet curled in his palm… what was left of it. It was missing one of the beads he’d put on just two days ago and it was cut clean through the threading Tommy had added to fix the frayed ends.

The bastard had cut it off Evan’s wrist.

His eyes stung and his fingers curled around the scrap of cord as he willed himself to not cry or hunt down Greenway wherever they had taken him and beat him until he gave up Evan’s location. He’d be no use to Evan from the back of a cop car, and he was no help to him if he couldn’t keep a somewhat clear head.

He needed to be ready for anything.

God, he could be anywhere— out there alone, scared, and hurt.

Tommy didn’t know what he would do if he lost Evan. Not so soon after he’d finally found him.

“What’s going on in that head of yours, man?” Sal asked.

Tommy gave him the driest glare he could manage.

“Okay I know how stupid that was, but come on, what’s going on?

“Other than the fact that the love of my life is missing and has been kidnapped by a fucking serial killer, of which there are apparently two— I don’t know Sal, why don’t you tell me what’s going on?” He asked, his voice getting hoarse by the end to avoid the hysteria he was trying to control.  “Because I’m having a real hard time making sense of anything right now.”

“We’ll find him Tommy,” Sal said. “Buck is one of the toughest people I’ve ever met. We’ll find him and he’ll be okay.”

“I need him to be okay now , Sal,” he said desperately, looking at his friend. “We don’t even know where to start looking for him. He’s out there alone and hurt.”

Thunder rolled loudly overhead and the wind was loud enough that they could hear it deep in the halls.

Eddie walked out of the room and hurried towards them.

“We think we have a way to find him.”

Tommy perked up at that.

“But we need to get into the van and Gerrard locked it back up before the police could get much out of it,” he said bitterly.

“Can he do that? It’s a crime scene.” Tommy gaped, though he vaguely remembered arguing when they’d arrived at the hospital.

“Probably not, but I bet it was fucking Hudson that got him to do,” Sal said.

“Who?”  Eddie asked.

“That asshole producer who’s been following us around the last few weeks. I bet he knows what Greenway’s been doing behind the scenes.” Sal said. “That’s what I was talking to Athena about back at the motel. That’s why I found Hen and Howie when I did— I was about to go do the same thing they were doing. I walked up and Hudson was there but Greenway and Buck weren’t.”

Tommy and Eddie gaped at him. 

“I didn’t know they were actually trying to kill people.” Sal defended. “I didn’t have proof but Greenway’s got this creepy hero complex and I thought he was just messing with shit to get footage for the show. I was gonna see if I could actually find proof in the van— I’m not as smart as Hen and Howie so I would just sound like I was talking outta my ass if I didn’t have evidence.”

Athena stepped out of the room and pointed at them. “You three, come with me.”

They followed her back out to the waiting room where Gerrard was sitting between two police officers.

“Dr. Gerrard, we need access to your van. We believe it will assist us in finding a critical missing person.” Athena stated without preamble.

“You’ll need a warrant to do that.” Gerrard spat back out and Tommy’s blood nearly boiled over as he took a step forward. He’d nearly punched him seven years ago for being rude to a storm survivor whose dog was missing. 

Now it was Evan that was missing and he was still the same old uncaring miserable bastard that he’d been back then. 

Sal and Eddie both grabbed a hold of him, stopping him in his tracks as Sal reminded him that “you won’t do Buck any good if you’re in jail dumbass.”

Tommy shrugged him off, he had a point as much as he hated to admit it.

“Besides she doesn’t need a warrant when she’s already got permission,” Sal said.

“What the hell are you talking about Deluca?” Gerrard asked.

Sal pulled a key ring out of his pocket and jingled it in front of him. “You gave me keys months ago, jackass.” He tossed the keys to Athena who snatched them out of the air. 

Athena handed the keys to an officer with instructions of what to have the field tech look for, an active livestream to the van.

It was nearly forty-five minutes before they heard anything and Tommy was about to rip his hair out, or fulfill his first half-cocked plan of hunting down Greenway for answers. The storm was raging outside, lightning flashing through the lobby windows and thunder a near constant crashing background noise as the wind and hail shook the windows. All of their phones had gone off half a dozen times with severe thunderstorm warnings and tornado watches.

Athena was across the room on the phone arguing with someone for nearly five minutes before she finally just ended the call angrily and marched back towards them. 

“We’ve got a location but local PD are unable to get out there because of this storm.”

“ What?” Tommy hissed. “Athena—”

“I know, Tommy, trust me I know,” Athena said, tapping out a message on her phone. A moment later Eddie’s phone dinged and she looked at him pointedly. “Which is why I am not giving you this address, alright? Because it would be dangerous to send anyone out in this weather with the roads washing out. A few experienced storm chasers however…”

Eddie immediately dug his phone out of his pocket, eyes lighting up and sharing a glance with Tommy. 

Tommy nodded and went to follow Eddie. 

“Bring him back to us.” Athena called after them.

He was nearly through the door before he was stopped by Sal’s hand on his shoulder.

“Sal—” He warned.

“Oh no, I’m not here to stop you. I’m here to help you.” Sal said, pulling the keys from Tommy’s shaking hands. “You’re in no shape to drive in this shit.”

The sky lit up with a particularly bright flash of lightning and thunder cracked far too loudly barely a second later, rumbling through the sky all around them as the wind howled and rain splashed against his face.

“Sal—” He said again, this time with an emotion he couldn’t name.

“Save it man.” Sal huffed, slapping a hand back down on his shoulder.

“What are we waiting for?!” Eddie yelled already halfway to Tommy’s truck. “Let’s go!”

Sal unlocked the truck with the key fob. “Let’s go get your man.”

——

Evan was in a farmhouse several miles outside of town and it seemed like the closer they got the worse the storm was. There were several flooded roads that Sal had to navigate as carefully as he did quickly. Time was of the essence as the sirens started to wail over the howling of the wind when they were about a mile away, unimpeded now that Greenway was in handcuffs. Tommy’s heart was in his throat though, none of them were meteorologists even if they knew a thing or two— they had no idea if a twister was barreling straight towards them or not, especially not in the middle of the night like this. 

They pulled up on the farmhouse sitting on top of a small hill in between several tall trees, that were probably as old as the house was, swaying dangerously with a foreclosed sign in the front yard. 

Tommy barreled out of the passenger seat and towards the front door, barely registering that it was unlocked as he crashed through the door.

“EVAN!” Tommy screamed over the wailing of the wind and deafening thunder. “Evan! Where are you?!”

He ran towards the back of the house while Sal and Eddie searched in different directions.

The house was old and empty and dusty, creaking loudly under the onslaught of the storm.

“Evan!” He yelled as he searched through the rooms, the house wasn’t huge, but it was old and built like a maze.

“TOMMY! Get up here! I found him!”

Tommy didn’t think he’d ever moved so fast in his life. The thundering of his and Eddie’s feet up the stairs of the farmhouse just about rivaled the near constant thunder outside as the rain and hail intensified and beat against the house.

“Sal?!” He yelled as he reached the second landing.

“To the right!” Tommy threw himself down the hallway to his right to see a doorway set deeper into the wall hidden from view until you were almost right on it. 

Sal was kneeling on the ground in front of Evan. “Come on kid, don’t do this to us. Don’t do this to him.”

Lightning lit up the room, all Tommy could see were his legs, duct taped at the ankles with his shoes missing.

And the blood on the floor.

Tommy stopped breathing, his heart stuck in his throat. Next to him he felt Eddie freeze.

“Sal.. is he..?”

“He’s breathing,” Sal said. “He’s unconscious though.”

Beneath the hand Sal had on Evan he could see the slight rise and fall of his chest and Tommy breathed along with him as he stumbled forward and fell to the ground next to them. Tommy nearly cried at the sight of Evan’s face in the flashes of light. 

The left side was like one giant bruise, his birthmark lost to the blood and mottled purples. His left eye was slightly swollen, and his nose looked broken, dried blood crusting over top of the bruises across his face and matting into his hair and down his neck.

“Oh baby.” Tommy breathed out, gently cradling Evan’s head as he pulled the duct tape off Evan’s mouth as delicately as he could while Sal and Eddie worked behind him to get the bindings off Evan’s hands and ankles.

Evan’s face scrunched up in discomfort as the tape pulled on his abused skin leaving behind a slight rash still sticky from the residue.

“Evan, baby, wake up. It’s okay. You’re safe now.” Tommy murmured to him gently carding his hand through the matted curls carefully avoiding the obvious injury while searching for more. “Come on, baby, wake up. Come back to me.”

The room lit up like it was noon day and the house shook with the crack of thunder that immediately followed. Beyond the howling wind and rain the sirens still wailed in the distance, slowly getting louder and fading back down as they circled around. 

Evan let out a hoarse cry and leaned in closer to Tommy with a pained keen. Tommy nearly cried himself but they weren’t out of danger yet and he would keep it together until Evan was safe. 

That didn’t stop the gasp of relief when he saw Evan’s eyes twitch open and look up at him dazed and unfocused.

“T-Tom… Tommy?”

“Yes! Baby, it’s me!” Tommy curled around Evan’s vulnerable form, hugging him close. “You’re okay. It’s going to be okay.”

“H-hurts.”

“I know it does, Ev. I know, but it’ll be okay. We’ll get you out of here.”

Thunder cracked and as it rumbled away there was an underlying noise in the distance that was steadily growing louder than the sirens far too quickly, roaring like an approaching freight train. Sal and Eddie looked at each other and then at him both wide eyed in alarm. It was too late to get out of there. 

“There’s a basement, through the kitchen—” Eddie started.

“GO!” Sal bellowed, pushing Eddie to his feet and moving to help Tommy lift Evan into his arms. Evan whimpered and he felt his heart crack in half but it was taking everything in him not to trip down the stairs with his precious cargo. They couldn’t stop not when the roaring was almost on them. 

“SAL GET YOUR ASS DOWN HERE!” Eddie yelled as he shoved Tommy towards the kitchen.

Tommy had barely reached the bottom step of the concrete unfinished basement when Eddie and Sal came thundering down the stairs behind him. The house started to shake harder and much more violently then it had before with the thunder. Above their heads he could hear the wooden frame crack as it began to split apart in the winds. 

Sal pushed Eddie into the small space beneath the stairs and Tommy quickly followed, settling Evan between him and Eddie as carefully as he could, wrapping his arms around him and curling over him. Sal plastered himself over his back covering both of their heads. 

The deafening roar was right on top of them now with a high pitched whistle that seemed to pierce his ear drums. The air around them seemed to shake as the tornado tore the old house apart with loud splintering cracks. He could feel it in his bones, rattling his teeth and sucking the air out of his lungs. He tightened his arms around Evan and prayed for the first time in nearly 25 years to anything or one out there that would listen.

It seemed to last forever— and then just as suddenly it was over.

As fast as it had come up on them it was gone.

The deafening roar was growing further away. The air was still. Tommy was frozen, still curled over Evan. He didn’t know how long they stayed there, his muscles were practically locked from being held so tense, but it was long enough that they couldn’t hear the roar of the tornado anymore. The only sounds he registered was his own harsh breathing mixed in with the creaking and cracking of whatever remained of the house and the occasional roll of thunder.

Water dripped on the back of his neck and startled him back into his body. He looked up to see the stairs still standing over them, but it was too dark to see the leaking rain water.

Sal was still plastered to his back, breathing as heavily as he was. Next to him Eddie was also panting like he’d just run a marathon as he uncurled himself from where he’d also been covering Evan. 

“Holy shit.”

Sal fell back on his ass and looked at them incredulously. “I can’t believe we just survived that.” He let out a slightly hysterical laugh that Tommy had never heard from him before. 

Tommy was quick to follow and Eddie not a moment later as they all sat in disbelief letting out laughs that were bordering on sobs.

Beneath him Evan groaned and Tommy was shocked back to reality.

“Oh my god, Evan!” 

They’d survived but Evan was still hurt, held captive by that psychopath for who knows how long before they finally found him. 

“T-Tommy?” 

“Yeah, baby, it’s me. We’re okay. You’re safe, we’re safe.” Tommy leaned down to kiss his forehead gently but as firmly as he could. His eyes were starting to burn and he could feel the tremors starting in his hands and spreading down to his arms as he came down from the adrenaline but he still had to get Evan to a hospital. He couldn’t freak out just yet. 

“Mmm— hurts.” Evan let out a shuddering breath and a low groan of pain. He was shivering. “Wha.. What h-happened?”

“A lot happened.” Tommy said, carding his fingers through Evan’s hair comfortingly. “I’ll tell you all about it when you’re feeling better.” When he could talk about it without threat of an imminent breakdown.

A light lit up the small dark space as Eddie pulled his phone out. “No signal.” He frowned, the shadows on his face exaggerated his features. “We’re nearly ten miles out of town.”

“We need to get Evan to a hospital now.” They hadn’t had time to check but there was no arguing the fact that he had a concussion, and a bad one at that.

“Maybe the truck survived.” Eddie hummed as Sal started to move out of the crawlspace.

“I seriously doubt that.” Sal said as he helped Tommy upright and repositioned Evan in his arms. His back was going to kill him tomorrow but he’d rather face down a hundred more tornadoes than be parted from Evan.

Sal reached back into the closet and pulled Eddie to his feet while Tommy took a look around. The basement had survived almost completely intact save for a corner where framing had been pulled apart and now had rain water pouring in. 

Evan was still shivering in his arms, his eyes closed again.

Tommy frowned. “Sal, give me your jacket.”

“What do you need my jacket for? You have a perfectly good jacket.”

Eddie heaved a sigh and rolled his eyes before shrugging off his own jacket. “It’s for Buck you idiot.” 

This is why Tommy and Eddie had become such good friends so fast, they were almost always on the same page. 

Sal grumbled and pushed passed them to the stairs as Eddie wrapped his jacket over Evan’s head as best he could. A few seconds later Sal’s jacket whipped around the back of Eddie’s head without a word. 

“Thank you!” Tommy called out as best he could without bothering Evan and what was likely the worst headache of his life. Sal just waved him off and went upstairs. 

Eddie tucked the jacket around Evan’s shoulders and arms, murmuring to him quietly that it was going to be okay, he was safe now and Tommy wanted to collapse in relief. The last several hours since he’d discovered Evan was missing had been the worst of his life. As soon as Evan was safe in a bed he’d let himself breakdown.

“You gotta be fuckin’ kidding me!”

He and Eddie looked at each other, frowning as Sal kept swearing upstairs. Eddie moved to the stairs, Tommy following behind him closely, both of them on edge. 

“What is it Sal?” Eddie called up the stairs cautiously. 

Sal poked his head around what remained of the doorway, the door had fallen clean off the hinges. 

“The fuckin’ truck survived!”

——

The first thing Buck noticed was the headache.

Which wasn’t all that uncommon for him, really. He often woke up with a headache after a long day of not wearing his glasses when he should have or a sleepless night working on his research or pictures. 

The second thing he noticed was how uncomfortably sore he was and soon after that the noises began filtering in. Which unfortunately wasn’t all that unknown to him either, he was uncomfortably familiar with the sounds of a hospital. 

He shifted to try and get more comfortable but that was a mistake as the movement set off a chain reaction of pain from his head to his nose down his neck and into his chest. Dull throbbing mixed together with sharp stabbing pain as he let out a groan.

“Buck?”

He blinked slowly and was happy to find the lights in the room were dimmed enough to not set off another round of pounding pain in his head

Eddie was sitting at the side of the bed, looking at him in concern. His jacket was dusty and muddy and his hair looked like a mess but he looked okay. He leaned forward and settled his hand on Buck’s shoulder gently with a smile.

“Hey there. Glad to see you awake,” he said.

Buck tried to say hi back but the words got caught in his throat with a harsh cough that tore through his skull. A plastic hospital mug with ice water appeared in front of him and he took a sip from the straw and dragged his eyes up to see Bobby holding it for him with a careful smile on his face. 

After a few careful sips that tugged oddly at his throat Buck reached up to touch his neck, his fingers brushing against a bandage there before Eddie caught his hand and pulled it back. 

“Careful there. You didn’t need any stitches there but they don’t want you to poke at it and reopen it.” Eddie explained.

Buck frowned at him, his thoughts still fuzzy as he tried to claw his way back to awareness. Everything that didn’t hurt felt floaty, like part of him was sitting in a haze outside of his body.

“W-what… what happened?” He croaked out in a whisper looking between Bobby and Eddie. 

Where was Tommy?

“Wh-where’s—”

“He stepped out for just a minute,” Eddie said, already knowing what Buck was going to ask, just like he always did. “Sal took him on a walk to the cafeteria to try and get him to eat something. We haven’t been able to get him to leave the room all night so of course you had to choose now to wake up.”

“What happened?” He asked again. He remembered… Hen and Chim? And a van, the Thunder Trackers van with all those horrible bone chilling recordings. He was going to call Athena and then Jonah—

His eyes widened as bits and pieces started coming back to him and Eddie and Bobby’s faces both shuttered.

“You, Hen, and Chimney found Jonah and Hudson’s collection of… home movies,” Bobby said. 

Who the hell was Hudson?

Buck asked as much, remembering the second voice as he laid sprawled out in a pained haze in the back lot.

“Jeffery Hudson is the owner of J.H. Studios, which was producing Thunder Trackers . He was using the show as a cover for his murders or something along those lines, the FBI is still working out the details.” Bobby explained. 

Buck’s eyes went wide. Athena’s serial killer.

No freakin’ way.

“What the hell?” He croaked out.

Bobby let out a laugh of disbelief and shook his head. “Yeah.”

He’d been kidnapped by a serial killer— or was it two serial killers? He couldn’t believe it— he was just Buck. He was going to end up on some crappy documentary about ‘surviving the killer’ or something.

Bobby explained how Sal had found Hen and Chim in the parking lot and they had been taken to the hospital while no one could find Buck. How Hen and Chim woke up and told them what had been on those tapes. That Jonah was Hudson’s partner in some kind of twisted way while allegedly being a serial killer in his own right with how he’d been blocking the signals to the tornado sirens— Hen and Chim had been right about that. That they’d tracked Buck down to an old foreclosed farmhouse and how Tommy, Eddie, and Sal got there just in time before the tornado. How they’d rushed into the hospital just after two in the morning with an unconscious and hurt Buck.

It got less believable the more Bobby told him. 

“I’m going to go let Tommy know you’re awake. He’s waited long enough, okay kid?” Bobby said, giving him a pat on the shoulder.

“I’d like that, thanks Bobby.” Buck whispered.

Bobby smiled at him once more before he left and it was just him and Eddie in the room with the whirring and beeping of the hospital machines to fill the silence. 

Buck blinked at him tiredly. “Are you okay?”

Eddie gave him a small smile. “I will be now that I know you are. You scared the hell out of all of us. Especially Tommy— I thought he was going to kill Jonah there for a minute.”

“What?”

“You should have seen him. He was the one who figured out that Jonah had kidnapped you and he’d just lifted the guy clear off his feet and nearly tossed him across the lobby.” Eddie explained with an awed look in his eye. He let out a small laugh. “You probably would have thought it was hot.”

Buck coughed out a small laugh that reverberated pain through his torso. Bobby had also given him a rundown of his injuries. Two broken and bruised ribs, a cut on his neck— not deep enough for stitches but it had been concerning and the doctors wanted to keep it as clean as possible to avoid infection— his nose was also broken and he had two black eyes as a result, a head injury that had resulted in a concussion and seven stitches just behind his left ear, another laceration on his wrist that had been another five stitches along with slight chemical irritation from the duct tape around his mouth and wrists— all of that underneath the numerous other scrapes and bruises that colored his chest, arms, and face and finally his bad knee was twisted and slightly swollen.

Bottom line diagnosis? Buck was going to hurt for a while. 

The door was suddenly thrown open and Eddie’s hand tightened on his arm as he tensed, only to relax as they saw Tommy and Sal standing in the doorway.

“Evan.” Tommy breathed his eyes wide as he stood frozen in the door frame, his hand still on the knob.

“What are you doing? Get in there!” Sal said, pushing Tommy through the door and leading him to the chair that Bobby had just vacated. “Glad to see you’re awake, kid.”

“Thanks Sal.” Buck replied with a smile. At least he hoped he was smiling, he was so tired and sore he couldn’t actually tell.

“You look like shit.”

“I feel like it too.” He huffed. 

“Feel better soon, alright? I don’t know if I can handle this one’s moping if you don’t,” Sal said, jerking his thumb at Tommy.

Tommy scowled and elbowed him in the stomach. 

“Alright, alright” Eddie said before Sal could retaliate. “Let’s give them a moment, yeah Sal?”

“Yeah, alright.” Sal agreed. He stopped at the foot of the bed and gave Buck’s leg a light squeeze. “Glad you’re okay, kid.”

Eddie gave his arm a quick squeeze as well. “I’ll be back later, okay? Get some rest. I’ll see if I can sneak Danny in or something. I’ll get Ravi or maybe even Sal here to help.”

Buck huffed out the closest thing to a laugh that he could. “I’d like that. Thanks, Eddie.”

Eddie squeezed his arm one more time and then he was following Sal out the door, their voices echoing down the hallway before the door swung shut.

Buck blinked tiredly and turned his head towards Tommy, who was staring at him, wide eyed like he might disappear if he blinked. 

“Tommy.”

Tommy jerked as if he’d been shocked, reaching out for Buck’s hand and scooting the chair as close to the bed as he could. Both hands circled one of his own, cradling it gently. “Evan.”

“I knew you’d find me,” Buck said softly.

Tommy’s hands squeezed around his as he ducked his head. He took a few calming breaths and looked back up at Buck with teary eyes. He pressed a kiss across his knuckles before intertwining their fingers and pulling his hand closer to him to hold. 

His other hand stroked up Buck’s arm gently. 

“I will always find you,” Tommy said seriously before he barked out a watery laugh and looked back down. “But please never do this to me again.”

Buck let out a hoarse laugh but winced as the pain in his ribs flared. Tommy’s hand was cupped around his face in a moment trying to comfort him as he wheezed. “Next time I get kidnapped by a serial killer I’ll make sure to tell you first.”

Tommy rolled his eyes, though his voice sounded strained when he said, “Don’t even joke about that please.”

“S-sorry.” Buck sighed out as he tried to adjust into a more comfortable position. The hospital bed was just as uncomfortable as he remembered.

Tommy’s eyes softened as he moved up to sit on the bed at his hip and helped him adjust the pillows behind him. “No, don’t be sorry. It was not your fault at all.”

He was right, but still—

“Sorry I scared you.” Buck whispered. 

Tommy froze. Only for a moment before he finished fluffing the pillows and leaned back to cradle Buck’s face between his hands gently caressing his cheeks, careful of the bruises and scrapes. His eyes were soft but serious.

“Listen to me,” he said, leaning in close. “Not your fault. If anyone should be sorry it should be me.”

Buck frowned at him in confusion and Tommy let out another slight laugh, smoothing his thumb across his forehead to smooth out the crease that formed when he frowned. 

“I’m sorry I was late.”

 “Eddie said you were the one that figured it out, that you nearly killed Jonah in the lobby.”

“That’s a bit of an exaggeration.” Tommy sighed. “But I—” He closed his eyes, swallowing harshly. 

Buck was so tired he could barely move but he lifted one heavy hand to tangle in Tommy’s t-shirt. 

“You were missing. Hen and Howie were hurt. We didn’t know what was going on and Athena was talking about that killer and I—” He breathed in slowly and opened his eyes to look at him and a tear streaked down his cheek. Buck ached to brush it away but he was just so tired. “Evan, I don’t know what I would do if I lost you.”

“You would find me… just like you always do.” It was the truth. Tommy had found a piece of Buck that he hadn’t even realized was missing. He’d uncovered the ugly truth of his life and found beauty in it. He’d found a love in him that was unlike anything Buck had ever experienced. He’d found Evan and loved him in a way he had only ever dreamed about.

Tommy let out a watery laugh and Buck tugged weakly at his t-shirt until he leaned down and gave him a gentle kiss. Their hands found one another, fingers intertwining as Tommy pulled away. 

“I have something for you.”

Buck hummed and blinked slowly up at him as he reached his free hand into his pocket and turned Buck’s over gently. His fingers uncurled and dropped something in his palm and Buck almost started crying when he saw what it was.

“My—” He sniffed. Daniel’s bracelet was sitting in his hand, some of the cords cut clean through and missing one of the beads Tommy had added to it. He didn’t think he’d ever see it again after Jonah cut it off his wrist. “How—”

“I saw it in Greenway’s pocket.” Tommy admitted. “He just walked into the hospital with it sticking out of his shirt pocket, and I saw it and I just… I lost it.”

“That’s when you nearly killed Jonah.”

Tommy huffed out another laugh, scrubbing one hand over his tired weary eyes. “Okay so maybe it wasn’t that much of an exaggeration.” He sighed and poked at the bracelet cupped in their hands. “It shouldn’t be that hard to fix it again, if you don’t mind me getting a little creative again.”

Buck smiled at him tiredly. “I love you.”

Tommy leaned down to kiss him on the forehead, careful of the scrapes and carded his hand through Buck’s hair, dragging him further down to sleep. “I love you too.”

Buck blinked at him slowly. “Stay?”

“Of course.” Tommy smiled as Buck’s eyes fell shut. “You’re crazy if you think I’m going to let you out of my sight for the next ten years or so... You’re stuck with me now.”

Chapter Text

—Oklahoma—

Buck was so tired and sore but so, so excited to finally be out of the hospital.  Even if it was just straight to a hotel for some more bedrest— he’d take that over a cold hospital room any day, especially since it meant that he finally got to curl up next to Tommy again.

It’d only been three ( long ) days in the hospital but as he sprawled out across the hotel mattress he felt like he was on a cloud, a fluffy cumulus cloud… like he was a princess laying on a cloud of cotton candy… 

Tommy and Eddie each let out a quiet laugh, mindful of his still aching brain, but it made him realize that he hadn’t kept that particular thought to himself.  He was still on some pretty strong pain meds for the various broken bones and aches and pains that still echoed through his nervous system.

The two of them helped him get situated on the bed comfortably, elevating his knee and piling some of his favorite blankets from the RV around him as he talked with Maddie on the phone, giving her one of her twice daily updates to keep her from coming out there herself while she was pregnant.

Once he was settled he pretty much conked out, exhausted from the short drive from the hospital to the hotel and Danny felt like his own personal heating pad curled into Buck’s side mindfully while Tommy sat on his other side and combed his fingers through his hair gently.  

He didn’t know how long he was asleep for as he slowly woke from his doze to Tommy still running his fingers through his hair occasionally.  Tommy, however, had switched sides, taking Danny’s spot on the bed while someone— Hen?— sat on his other side, her warm hand curled around his arm as his other senses started to filter back in.

It sounded like everyone had congregated in their room for dinner, which whatever it smelled incredible— he blinked a few times trying to rid the heaviness from his eyes.

“Hey there sleepyhead,” Hen said with a gentle smile.

“Hi.” He yawned and motioned for Tommy to help him sit up.  As soon as he was upright he leaned into Hen’s side giving her as much of a hug as he could.

She and Chimney had come to visit him a couple of times— they’d been released a few hours after he’d been admitted— and they’d all had their moment to cry together, happy to see each other okay and alive.  But it was still nice to see her okay and upright, especially since he’d been having a few nightmares over the last few days that sometimes convinced him otherwise.

“You hungry?” Hen asked.

Buck nodded wordlessly, still trying to wake up, and felt Tommy slip away from his side.  

“How are you feeling?”  He asked her.  The big white bandaged over her forehead had been replaced with a few smaller butterfly bandages to seal the cut on her forehead shut.

“A little bit of a headache, but I’ll be alright.” Hen assured him.

“Hmmm— good, me too.”  He mumbled back.

The bed dipped next to him and he opened his eyes to see Tommy holding out a plate of Indian food to him.  

“We couldn’t find a Thai place anywhere in town,” he said apologetically.  “Otherwise we would have gotten that for you, but I figured this was a good second choice.”

If Buck could move with any sort of grace right now he’d be leaning over to kiss his boyfriend in appreciation.  Indian was another one of his favorites and the garlic naan smelled so good he was probably going to cry.

“S’great,” Buck said instead, a little stuffy but still a little too tired to cry.

He blinked again trying to clear some of that tiredness out of his eyes without reaching up to rub at his face, he at least had the presence of mind to know that that would hurt .   

It was nice to eat dinner together with everyone again, with the surprising addition of Sal and also Athena who was sitting at the little room desk in the corner with Bobby and lingered a little longer after everyone had bid them goodnight.

“It’s still early but it looks like you probably won’t need to testify, Buck.”

Buck blinked, he hadn’t even thought about that.

“Why not?”  Tommy asked, his hand a distracting warmth that slid back and forth across his upper shoulders— one of the few parts of him that didn’t actually hurt.

“Jonah’s agreed to a plea deal to testify against Hudson.  Between his testimony and the evidence we gathered from the van and off the camera that Sal took from the house it should be more than enough for a conviction.” Athena explained.

Buck frowned.  “He… he’s not gonna get out is he?  Jonah?”  He was going to have nightmares for a long time because of what that man did and it made Buck nauseous that he might get some kind of bargain.

“No.”  Athena assured him, reaching forward to wrap his hand up in both of hers.  “The bargain just gets him out of the death penalty, he’s still going to prison for the rest of his life.”

Buck let out a sigh of relief, he hadn’t even thought about it, but to know that Jonah was never going to see the light of day again gave him more peace than he thought it would.

——

He gasped and coughed as Jonah kicked the air out of his lungs again, his ribs creaking painfully under the stress as he wheezed and kicked and tried to get away.   

He just had to survive long enough for Tommy to find him.  

Tommy always found him.  

Tommy—

His face ached and he could barely see through the fierce panic and pain, he had no idea where Jonah ended up, it was too dark and the thunder was too loud.

“Evan—”

“To-Tom—” He cried as Jonah grabbed his arm and held it down.  He could hear the rip of duct tape and he struggled to get free.   He couldn’t let Jonah trap him in that house again.

“Evan you’re okay—”

“Tommy—”

“Evan wake up!”

He gasped and shot up right before the pain hit him and he curled inwards as his ribs and his head and… well, everything hurt, nearly as bad as he had back in that old farmhouse.  He had to be overdue for another dose of pain meds.  

He could feel hot tears sliding down his face and his nose ached as he sniffled and tried to get his breathing under control.  

“You’re safe, Evan, I promise you—” 

A hand brushed across his cheek and he flinched away before he realized that it was Tommy.  

“Sorry, sorry, I didn’t—”

Buck made a wounded noise as he finally blinked through the tears to see Tommy sitting next to him looking at him worriedly and holding his hands up so that Buck could see them both.  

“N-no, it’s okay,” Buck said, shakily reaching out for one of Tommy’s hands, something to focus on as he tried to breathe through the pain.  “It’s okay.”

“I didn’t mean to scare you.” Tommy whispered as if he was trying not to spook him again.

“Yo— you didn’t.” Buck sighed and winced as the movement tugged on his ribs wrong.  “I heard you…  It just— just took me a second to find you.”

Tommy reached behind himself for the pain pills and his water bottle.  “It hasn’t been that long since we ate so you should still be okay to take these, but you’ll probably need to eat something if you wake up again.”

Buck nodded and sipped at his water for a moment before downing the pills.

“Do you want to talk about it?”  Tommy asked, taking the water bottle back from him when he was done.  

“I think the meds wore off and I tweaked my ribs wrong.” Buck grimaced remembering the creaky feeling in his torso.  “Felt like he kicked me again, like I was back there and I was just trying to get away.”

“Do you need me to sleep on a cot or the floor?” Tommy asked.  “I scared you pretty badly for a minute there.”

“N-no!” Buck shook his head a little too hard, wincing as it ached.  “No, please stay, you’re the only thing that makes me feel safe right now.”  He admitted looking up at Tommy with still watery eyes.  “Please don’t go anywhere.”

Tommy’s eyes softened and he reached out to take Buck’s hand in his own, squeezing it tightly before lifting it to press a kiss to his knuckles, it was the closest thing they could really get to a hug right now with how sore he bruised he still was.  “I’m not going anywhere.”

This time when he sighed in relief it didn’t hurt so bad.

—Nebraska—

It had taken Buck several days to recover from the drive to Omaha.  It was a miserable experience even with Tommy driving as carefully as ever as he also stopped several times to give him a break which turned their six hour drive into a ten hour drive.  

Buck nearly cried when they pulled into Tommy’s driveway.

He did actually cry when Tommy helped him get settled into bed.

And then he promptly fell asleep for what was basically the next three days.

Tommy was a sweetheart through it all making sure he was comfortable and well taken care of without a worry in the world.

It was on the third day when Buck was waking up from what felt like his fourth nap of the day to find himself curled up alone in bed.  Which wasn’t entirely unusual these days considering how much he was sleeping as he still recovered, but Tommy had some kind of sixth sense for when Buck was waking up and usually poked his head into the room within a minute if he wasn’t already in there.

He was warm and comfortable for once and still dozing in and out when he realized that the guitar music he was hearing from the other room wasn’t actually something Tommy had going— but Tommy actually playing the guitar himself, strumming the same few chords over and over again as he hummed along, hitting an out of tune note every so often and muttering before starting over.

Buck slowly pushed himself upright, finally able to do that much without help, and shuffled slowly and carefully out to the living room.

Tommy was facing away from him, Danny laying on the floor in front of him looking up at him with his big blue eyes.  He lifted his head, tail wagging, as he caught sight of Buck coming down the hall.  Tommy strummed another out of tune chord, muttered to himself and scribbled in a notebook on his lap before he started the song over again, humming along after a few chords.

“You finally gonna sing for me?” Buck asked.

He giggled as the guitar made some kind of screech as Tommy screeched right along with it, jumping and looking up at him with wide eyes as he white knuckled the neck of the guitar.  “Evan!”  He let out a sigh and put the guitar back in its case to the side, holding a hand out for Buck to pull him down onto the couch with him gently.  “You scared me.  How are you feeling?”

“Actually sort of awake for the first time in like a week,” Buck said, contradicting his statement by nestling into Tommy’s side and under his chin with a yawn that made his nose throb.  “Kind of hungry too, just gimme a minute.”

“How about I order pizza and we can watch that new Twisters movie?”

“Sounds nice.” Buck hummed, wrapping an arm around Tommy, careful of his own sore ribs.  The position wouldn’t be comfortable for long but he just wanted to actually hug his boyfriend.  “What were you playing?”

“Oh… uh—” Tommy let out a short sheepish laugh.  “Just, something new— it’s been a while since I’ve really played.”

“Hmm.  I liked it so far.”

“Really?”

Buck nodded and pulled back a bit to give Tommy a kiss, wincing as he pressed too close and bumped his nose.  “Really— ow.”

Tommy laughed and drew back to stand.  He leaned down to kiss Buck’s forehead, one of the few places of him that wasn’t bruised and sore.  He curled a hand around the back of Buck’s head where there were no stitches.  “It’s time for you to take your pain meds, I’ll go get them and order the pizza and then we can watch the movie okay?”

——

“You can’t dissipate a freakin’ tornado with BABY DIAPERS.” Buck said, throwing a hand out towards the TV as soon as the credits started rolling.  His head popped off Tommy’s shoulder, as did Danny’s where he was laying at their feet at the end of the pullout couch looking at them curiously.  “Like it’s a cute idea or whatever but there’s so much more that goes into a tornado then the ‘raindrop count’.”

“I’m a little mad that they didn’t kiss there at the end.” Tommy said with a disgruntled frown instead of his usual placating “ it’s just a movie, baby”.

Buck huffed and leaned up to kiss the corner of Tommy’s mouth where his lips were pulled down.  “I’ll kiss you.”

Tommy’s lips twitched upwards and he grinned down at Buck, his eyes twinkling as his thumb was gliding gently over his chin.  “Oh you will, huh?”

“At the end of every movie.”  Buck smiled back up at him.  “The beginning of them too if you want.”

——

Buck started to get restless once he wasn’t sleeping at every odd hour of the day, but if he did too much then his whole body would begin to ache and he’d end up passing out for bed around 5 PM which he learned the hard way— twice.

Tommy finally agreed to take him to the bar one night if he promised to sit in a booth and not go anywhere.

Buck agreed almost instantly, so happy to finally get out of the house that he wasn’t even the slightest bit betrayed when Tommy sat him down in between Sal and a woman that they introduced to him as Elena— Sal’s sister who lived nearby and was actually a regular at the bar with her friends.  

Buck liked her and the way that Sal seemed to calm down a bit around her.  Or maybe… that wasn’t the right way to put it, Elena had such a big feisty personality that Sal seemed calm in comparison— he could see why Tommy had positioned the two Deluca’s on either side of him while he checked in with Melton and Lucy and did some housekeeping around the bar for the first time in months.  

Buck sipped at the Sprite in front of him as he watched Tommy stride back and forth across the room before making his way to the small stage towards the front where the band was finishing up their set.  

“So, Buck,” Elena said with a wide smile.  “Salvatore tells me that you finally got our Tommy to settle down.”

“Uh, if anything, I think it might be the other way around.” Buck told her with a small laugh.

“Trust me, kid, you’ve definitely settled him down,” Sal said from his other side.  

“Ohhhh, you got the boss to pull out the guitar again,” Lucy said with a wide grin as she dropped by their table with another Sprite for him and two more drinks for the Deluca siblings. 

“What?”  Elena gasped excitedly, turning to face the stage behind her.  “Oh you must be really special, Evan Buckley.”

Buck blinked as he watched Tommy sit on a stool at the front of the stage, with one leg stretched out in front of him and the other balanced under him on the stool to balance the guitar on his leg as he tuned it.

It was his mother’s guitar.  A brown acoustic that was beautifully painted with stars and flowers on it.  Tommy had proudly shown it to him when they’d gotten there earlier that night, hanging behind the bar just like he’d said.

Once he got it tuned he coughed a bit to clear his throat and took a drink of his water next to him— and Buck was never going to get over how good he looked in his henley and flannel with his broad shoulders and the shadow of stubble along his jaw.  He put the water bottle down and started to strum out a few chords and Buck instantly recognized it as the song he’d been trying to figure out for the last week when he thought Buck was asleep.

“I don’t think I’ve heard him sing since you two were still in high school,” Elena said looking at Sal.  

“He still plays every once in a while, but he told me a few years ago that he hasn’t found a good reason to really pick it back up again.” Sal explained.

“Seems like he has one now,” Elena said with a not so subtle glance towards Buck.

“Been flying solo for so long—”

Buck’s mouth dropped open as Tommy began to sing.  He’d only ever heard him humming along.  

Tommy’s eyes found his and crinkled as he smiled around the words and Buck felt himself fall head over heels all over again.  Tumbling straight down into the land of no return, not that he wanted to go back to life without Tommy ever again, but it was becoming alarmingly clear just how much he never wanted to be without the man.

“I wanna run down your wild dreams, and I wanna chase every high with you.”

Tommy strummed the last few notes of the song, never once taking his eyes off Buck’s.

“Oh, you’re a very special one indeed.”

“He better be.  Tommy doesn’t go around calling just anyone the ‘love of his life’.”  Sal said as Tommy got off the stage to a round of applause.

Buck turned to look at his friend with wide eyes.  “He really said that?”

“Who really said what?” Tommy asked as he walked up to the table with a bashful smile, the guitar slung across his back.  

“I’m the love of your life?” Buck asked.

Tommy blinked the tips of his ears going bright red even and he glanced at Sal before his eyes softened as he looked back at Buck.  

“Of course you are.”  He leaned over and kissed Buck on the forehead.  

Buck felt his heart flutter in his chest in a way that honestly should have been a little concerning.  He looked back up at Tommy and slid their fingers together.  

“That’s good, cause I’m pretty certain that you’re the love of my life too.”

—New York—

“TOMMY—!”

Tommy gasped and jerked awake, his hand immediately going to Evan’s side of the bed.  His heart rate ratcheted up towards the sky as he realized it was empty. 

Nonononono— 

He could barely breathe as he sat up and turned on the bedside lamp.  It did little to light up the dark corners of the room, but it confirmed his fears.

Evan wasn’t here.

“Evan?” He barely recognized his own hoarse voice as it cracked through the empty bedroom.

No Evan.

He could barely hear himself over the sound of his heart thundering in his ears.

This couldn’t be happening again.

“Evan?!”

“Tommy?” Came the sleepy reply— but he couldn’t be sure he wasn’t imagining it.  He couldn’t handle it if his mind was playing tricks on him.  

His hands were shaking as he struggled to untangle himself from the sheets— when had he gotten so tangled in them? He always made sure he could move easily just in case—

“Tommy! H-hey— it’s okay…” He tensed as the mattress dipped at his side before he recognized that it really was Evan’s soothing voice washing over him.  It was Evan’s cool and steady hands cradling his face and his fingers scratching through the short hair at the back of his neck to ground him.  “I’m right here.  I’m okay… You’re okay, please breathe, baby—”

He hadn’t realized he wasn’t breathing and sucked in a deep breath to calm the burning of his lungs.  As he came back to himself still trying to shake the nightmare of he felt the stress literally melt out of his shoulders as he realized Evan was sitting in front of him, looking at him worriedly as he cradled his face between his cool hands.

They smelled like the fancy soap from the bathroom of the fancy hotel they were staying in.  

The bathroom.

Evan had just been in the bathroom.

He let out a heavy sigh.

“Was it the laughing one again?” Evan asked kindly, his thumb caressing his cheek.  

Tommy shook his head and ran a hand roughly over his face with another sigh. Greenway’s horrible laugh had been echoing through his nightmares in the last couple weeks— nightmares where he’d get stuck in the maze-like house unable to find Evan with that awful echoing laugh and the splintering wood and the roaring of the storm.  

He reached out and pulled Evan into his arms.  He needed to feel that he was okay.  Logically he knew that Evan was safe, that they’d been able to find him and that he was now healed up no worse for wear, but when the nightmares dug their claws into his mind all logic went out the window.  

Evan looped his arms around Tommy’s middle and nestled up under his chin as they laid back down.  

“Do you just want to lay here or do you want me to talk?”  He asked, pressing a kiss to Tommy’s neck right up underneath his chin.  They’d both been through enough of these bad dreams in the last few months that Evan knew that sometimes Tommy just needed the quiet to decompress but most of the time he liked listening to the white noise of his idle chatter.  Just like how Tommy knew that Evan needed the grounding weight of a tight hug and a soft stream of reassurances.

“Talk, please.” Tommy croaked out, his voice still a little hoarse from sleep and panic.  He had one had curled around the side of Evan’s neck to feel his heartbeat, the other pressed against his back to feel him breathe.  

Evan’s hand was dancing up and down Tommy’s side gently as he talked about their day.  Evan and Eddie had been talking to even more potential investors at the convention they were in town for and had dragged Tommy all over the place even though he didn’t quite understand everything that was going on he was happy to be there and support his boyfriend and friend.  They’d gotten two more investors in addition to Strand down in Austin which was very exciting for them.

Evan talked until he could barely get two words out between his yawns, it had been a very long day and the first one that Evan had really been out and about like this since recovering and they found that he still got tired rather easily.  It made it easier for Tommy at least to keep an eye on him.  The next few weeks when Evan went back to California without him were going to be hell and he was likely going to be talking to his therapist a lot between the fear of waking up alone and the anxiety that grew when he was late or Evan didn’t answer the phone…

But for now at least he had Evan in his arms chattering away and slowly giving into the many yawns, and Tommy found himself dozing off right along with him, comforted by the weight of his boyfriend sprawled across his chest safe and sound.  

“Evan?” 

“Hmm?” Evan hummed sleepily.

“Thank you.”  He pressed a kiss to his boyfriend’s messy curls and let out a yawn of his own. 

Evan smiled into his neck and gave him his own small kiss against his pulse.  “You’re welcome.”

—California—

Tommy couldn’t remember the last time he’d enjoyed the holiday season this much— but much like everything else in his life Evan just made everything better.

That and Bobby’s Thanksgiving turkey was probably the best he’d ever had in his entire life and hopefully his grandmother would forgive him for that, may she rest in peace, the woman knew how to cook but the Thanksgiving turkey had always been her enemy.  

It was also the first holiday season he actually felt like celebrating since she’d passed, surrounded as he was by their friends on his trip to California, he barely had time to remember how lonely the last several Thanksgivings had been while manning his bar by himself.  

Meeting Maddie in person for the first time had been a little nerve wracking, but the moment she smiled at him and pulled him into a hug the nerves were gone, just to come back tenfold when Howie appeared behind her and set his one month old daughter in his arms declaring that she needed to get to know her uncle Tommy… (Tommy had been very strong and not broken down into tears that moment, instead waiting until later that night when it was just him and Evan and the dog.)

As fun as the holiday had been, Tommy’s favorite part of the whole trip had been the following week when he and Evan had driven up the coast a few hours to a small quiet beach town, just the two of them before they went back to the Midwest— together this time, with all the time in the world.

They were sprawled out across a blanket on a dark beach, the first night in the little town when Tommy truly realized that this was it for him.  Evan was it for him.  He’d already known of course, he’d probably known it since the moment he first kissed Evan and his entire world came to life again.  

But as he laid there under a clear calm sky full of stars instead of thundering clouds listening to Evan tell him the stories of the constellations he realized that this was it.  This is what he wanted for the rest of his life.  He wanted to spend every day with Evan listening to his rambling tangents, watching him stay up far too late working, taking care of him when he was hurt or sick— he wanted it all, from tonight to fifty-five years from now.  This was it.

He couldn’t fathom going back to his life before Evan, now that he knew him, had him, loved him— the dull in and out of his daily routine would be even less fulfilling then it had been before.  

Then Evan had come stumbling into him— literally— and he’d taken a gamble, a simple kiss that could have gone so many different ways but had led to so much more.

Evan was the love of his life, just like he’d told Sal all those months ago, but he was so much more than that.  He was the air in his lungs, the ground beneath his feet, the beat of his heart— Evan was everything.

“Hey,” he said quietly, nudging Evan.

Evan turned to look at him curiously, with a smile on his face that he could just barely make out in the dim light of a nearby streetlight.  He loved that smile.

“Hey.”  Evan whispered back.

Tommy reached up and curled his hand around the back of his neck, his fingers scratching at the baby hairs on his nape as he pulled him in close for a kiss.

“You know I love you right?”  He asked as he pulled back.

Evan let out a breathy little laugh.  “I did know that actually.”

“Good.  I just needed to make sure that you knew that.  I love you.”

Evan’s eyes sparkled like the stars above them.  “I love you too.”

—Pennsylvania—

“Evan!  It’s good to see you,” Joseph said as they navigated the old headstones to reach him.  

Buck gave the man a quick hug with a smile.  “You just saw us last night, Joey.”  

They had gone to dinner with Joe and his wife last night, something he always tried to do when he was in town considering he only saw the man once a year, and even sometimes it was only for a brief few minutes, trading a few quick words over Daniel’s grave.  

“It’s always good to see you, Evan.” Joey smiled as Buck stepped back and Tommy shook Joey’s hand.

Buck looked down at the ground to see that Joey had already left a bouquet of blue flowers and a pack of Reese’s cups on top of headstone.  Buck knelt down and placed his own bouquet of flowers— blue from him and white from Maddie next to it.  He placed a hand on top for a moment, the stone was dark gray, cool and wet from the morning spring drizzle, and he brushed his hand on his pants as he stood back up.  Tommy looped an arm around his shoulders, his boyfriend staring down at it with a contemplative frown.

DANIEL JAMES BUCKLEY

JANUARY 17,  1988 — JUNE 8, 2003

BELOVED SON

“He was so much more than that,” Tommy said as Buck wove their fingers together.  Buck wasn’t sure when exactly it had happened— maybe when Tommy had fixed the bracelet the first or second time, or maybe even that same night that Buck had finally told his boyfriend about his brother— but some time in the time that they had known each other, Tommy had developed a connection with Daniel and come to love his brother almost as much as Buck did.  

Someone he’d never gotten the chance to meet, nestled into his heart right next to his own mother and grandmother, all because he was another part of the puzzle that was Buck. 

“I know,” he said, giving Tommy’s hand a squeeze.  

The three of them stood there for a while longer exchanging quiet stories and words so as to not disturb the peace of the cemetery when Joe let out a loud snort that was anything but reverent and when Buck looked up at him he saw the other man looking towards the sky behind him and Tommy.

Buck turned to look and let out a startled laugh of his own.  

It was a rainbow.  

“Looks like Danny approves of your boyfriend, Ev,” Joe said.

“He always did have a sense of humor like that.” Buck agreed, feeling his eyes grow a little teary.  He’d always thought that Daniel would have loved Tommy and much like when he thought he could feel his brother in the change of wind he definitely could feel Daniel laugh and give him an encouraging shove towards the rest of his life.

——

The two of them drove back into Harrisburg that night to stay closer to the hotel so that they could easily make their early flight in the morning —and so there was less of a chance for them to run into Buck’s parents but he wasn’t going to be the one to say that— where they ended up at a little 50s diner very reminiscent of that one in Kansas City where’d they’d shared their first dinner.

They were getting ready to head back to the hotel for the night when Tommy handed him his wallet and got up to run to the bathroom real quick before they left.  Buck swore lightly when he opened the wallet upside down and several things fell out of it.  He dug the card that Tommy had told him out of the sleeve and handed it to the waiter before he started cleaning everything up.

He laughed lightly as he separated a few old gum wrappers from what looked like a picture of his grandmother and him in her later years— he had the same one sitting behind the bar back home.  He smiled when he realized that Tommy had kept the ticket stub from the drive in movie Buck had taken him to for his birthday.

He was pulling an old receipt out of the cash sleeve when another small piece of paper fluttered out. One small tear through part of it but the creases had been smoothed back like Tommy had run his fingers over it several times, smudging the ink a bit as he did so.

Buck blinked and flipped it over.

Your next great adventure is right in front of you.

It was the fortune from the fortune cookie, from so long ago it felt like another life.  

Tommy sat back down across from him, his knee nudging Buck back to awareness as he looked back up at him.

“You okay?” Tommy asked.  

“You kept it?” 

Tommy’s brow furrowed before he realized what Buck was holding and he let out a sheepish laugh, the ears flushing bright red.  “Of course I kept it.  You were right in front of me when I read it.”

Buck couldn’t stop the goofy grin he felt growing across his face.  “You silly romantic.”

“Only for you,” Tommy said with a smile.

—Home—

“Nice of you two to finally join us,” Sal said, leaning towards the open window as he pulled his new truck up to the curbside.  

Tommy rolled his eyes as he tossed his and Buck’s bags into the bed of the truck and Buck snorted as the two of them began to bicker while he went to open the back door of the cab— just to nearly get knocked back by 70 lbs of gold fur and solid muscle.  He’d have cracked his head on the curb were it not for his boyfriend standing right behind him and catching him as Danny jumped on them both.

“Hello to you too buddy.” Buck greeted happily as the dog licked all over his face.

“Jesus, Sal, what have you done to him?” Tommy griped as he reached up to scratch at the dog’s ears.  “Did you give him any attention at all?”

“Oh shuddup.” Sal sniped back.  “I should leave you to find your own way home.”

Buck laughed brightly as he climbed into the back seat with his dog and Tommy sat in the passenger seat before Sal really did just leave them on the curb.  

“He’s just excited to see us,” Buck said, cooing at Danny and scrubbing a hand roughly over his head the way the golden liked it.  “Thanks for watching him while we were gone, Sal.”

“Yeah yeah, he’s a good dog.”  Which was basically Sal speak for ‘I’ll do it again if you ever need a dog sitter’.

Danny’s tail wagged happily.   

Just like that first time, the trip to the house from the airport didn’t take very long and it was a good thing that they had such an early flight because they were going to spend the day preparing for the season and making sure that their two brand new drones were ready to go. 

Two new drones and three investors meant that they had a bigger team this year with both Tommy and Sal as drivers and Ravi returning before his first year of grad school, plus two more  new interns— a couple of girls with big brains and bigger hearts that he and Bobby had selected out of the growing pool of applicants for this season. 

This meant that their house was a little crazy when Sal pulled in next to Tommy’s own storm chasing truck in the driveway, the RV sitting out front and Eddie standing on the front porch to greet them.

They all got out of the truck and as Sal and Danny bounded up the stairs to the front door, Buck hung back for a moment to just breathe for a minute while Tommy grabbed their bags from the back.   

“Are you ready?” Tommy asked and Buck felt his heart speed up a bit like it always did at the fond softness in his eyes.

Buck reached out and laced their fingers together.  “As long as you’re with me, I’m ready for anything.”

Tommy laughed and squeezed his hand.  “And you call me the sap.”

“If the boot fits,” Buck said with a grin, darting forward to kiss him.  He hummed happily as Tommy deepened it sweetly before stepping away and pulling him towards the house with a grin.  

It was the easiest thing in the world to chase after him because with Tommy’s hand in his and their new adventure ahead of them he knew he was home.