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The box trembled.
“So, uh, what do we think it is?” Buck asked.
Chim approached it with some trepidation. “It’s probably nothing, right, Cap?”
The call hadn’t been about the box. It had been a minor car accident. No one had actually been injured in the accident, but the very angry guy in the Porsche had taken affront at the inconvenience and actually punched the other driver who had then fallen and hit his head on the hood of his own car. The irate guy had then tried to lunge at the police officer before his partner got cuffs on him.
After all of that had been taken care of, Eddie had spotted the shaky box.
“We don’t know that,” Bobby said. “I’m calling it in.”
Buck shrugged his shoulders. It was probably nothing. Maybe some raccoons were in there scavenging around trash someone had left behind.
The box gave another shake and with it came the sound of—
“Do you hear barking?” Hen asked.
“Wait, did someone abandon a puppy on the side of a road?” Buck asked and he rushed forward, Eddie at his heels.
He was still careful as he popped the box open and yes, someone had definitely abandoned a box containing not just one puppy, but five. They were small wiggly little things that at the sight of someone peering in scrambled to the sides of the box, shaking the whole thing. Buck had no idea what breed they were exactly, but he thought they had to be some mix because they were all kind of curly. They were mostly blond, but they had white and black and brown mixed in too.
“Puppies,” Chim said.
“They’re cute,” Eddie said.
“Adorable,” Buck added. “But who just abandons puppies like this.”
“Someone not very bright,” Hen said.
Buck couldn’t help himself, so he reached in to grab one of them. The puppy wiggled but it came easily and weighed almost nothing at all.
“Buck, don’t just — they could have fleas,” Hen said.
Buck froze and didn’t bring the puppy any closer.
Bobby approached, then. “Dispatch is sending animal control out. They’ll take them to a rescue and get them checked out.”
The puppy Buck had picked up made a “woof” that sounded so cute, Buck couldn’t help but bring him closer. He immediately began to lick at Buck.
Hen just shook her head, but she crouched to look at the remaining four in the box.
“They’ll get adopted out quick,” she said.
Buck pet down the back of the one he was holding. He was so soft and he was sniffing at Buck like crazy, it was all that Buck could do to keep hold of him because he wanted to be put down likely so he could run off. It was actually surprising they hadn’t managed to get out of the box.
“They must not have been here very long,” Chim said. “You guys don’t even know. If Jee-Yun saw them she’d be begging me to bring one of them home.”
Until that moment, it hadn’t crossed Buck’s mind that it was an option.
“Why don’t you?” Bobby asked.
“Yeah, like I’d hear the end of it from Maddie. They are pretty darn cute though. Maybe when Jee’s older and can take on the responsibility of caring for a dog. Otherwise, who do you think will be doing all the walking and feeding? This guy.”
“What about you, Cap?” Eddie asked.
Bobby laughed and shook his head. “Didn’t go over well last time I brought a dog home, did it?”
“That dog had the devil in him,” Hen said.
Eddie nodded in agreement.
“And you, Eddie?”
Eddie shook his head. “Nope. Count me out on that.”
Buck, who had previously never given too much thought to getting a pet, wondered if maybe he should try and adopt one of the puppies. They were cute enough and now that he’d moved in with Tommy it would even have a backyard in which to run. And maybe they could even get the dog used to going on runs with him and Tommy. Buck could imagine it easily. One thing stopped him though, it wasn’t just his opinion that mattered.
“Buck?” Eddie asked.
Tommy wouldn’t say no to a dog, would he?
It wasn’t like they’d discussed it or anything, but between the two of them they could definitely handle a dog and it would even work out when their shifts didn’t align so neither of them was home alone. The more he thought about it, the more the idea grew on him.
“I — I kinda want to take one,” Buck said.
“Of course you do,” Hen said.
“What is Tommy going to say about that?” Eddie asked.
“I would need to check with him, but I think maybe…maybe this is the next step for us.”
“A dog,” Chim said.
Buck gave a nod. “Yeah. I mean, I know he likes animals. I’m not gonna just show up with a dog without asking him first, but maybe it’s a good idea. It’ll be—” he trailed off not wanting to say it out loud.
“It’ll be what, Buck?” Hen asked. She was crouched scratching the head of one of the dogs.
“It’ll be nice when he’s on shift and I’m not and when I’m on shift and he’s not.”
It wasn’t what he’d almost said, but no one either realized or felt like calling him on it. He did think that Bobby was giving him a knowing look. A dog was preemptive for kids. Good practice for when he and Tommy decided they wanted a family. If that was something Tommy wanted. If it was something that he wanted with him. Buck had always wanted kids, but if Tommy didn’t he didn’t think it was a deal breaker.
Suddenly, a pit was growing in his stomach and he bent to pet the dogs some more. He couldn’t help but smile while petting them.
“Buck,” Eddie said.
Buck turned and found Eddie with his phone pointed at him.
“And sent,” Eddie said with a grin.
—
Tommy wasn’t used to being on phone as often as he was these days. He still read a lot during any downtime at work, but one of the first things he did when getting back from a call was check his phone. Tommy didn’t mind, he loved the rabbit holes that Evan’s research binges sent him down. It was also, absolutely true, that the 118 got itself into some situations that absolutely required recounting.
So, when he climbed down from the helicopter right at the end of his shift, he reached for his phone to check and see if Evan had had occasion to text.
Instead, he found a text from Eddie that had come in not thirty seconds earlier.
It was a picture and in it Evan was leaning towards a box full of puppies. They looked adorable and with how curly and blond they were, Evan kinda fit right in. Tommy couldn’t stop looking at the picture. At Evan’s smile and at the dog that was preparing to take a leap at him.
“Whatcha got there, Kinard? Boyfriend sending you nudes?”
“No. Unfortunately,” Tommy said.
Lucy cackled. He turned his phone and Lucy grabbed it from him. “Did he finally find his family or something?”
“Funny,” Tommy said, snatching his phone back and continuing to the locker room.
He texted Eddie back as he made his way to his car.
Tommy: Cute. What’s with the puppies?
He was about to pull out of his spot when Eddie responded.
Eddie: Someone abandoned them. They’re getting picked up by animal control now. If you don’t want a dog better start figuring out how to tell Buck no.
Tommy went back to the picture. The puppies sure were cute, though he’d argue that Evan was the cutest thing in the picture. He didn’t know how he and Evan could manage to keep a dog, but at the same time it wasn’t the worst idea. Back when he’d first moved into his house he’d been convinced that a dog was the thing he needed to make it complete. It was his schedule that stopped him from getting one because back then he’d been completing his flight hours and it just hadn’t made much sense when he was only really home to sleep. Tommy had never revisited it.
His phone vibrated again.
Evan: how do you feel about getting a dog?
Attached was a picture of the dogs inside the box. They were all quite fluffy with huge eyes and ears that just kinda flopped on the side of their heads. Going by their size, they would get to a good size.
Tommy: how long do we have to decide?
Evan: a few days.
What followed next was information about the rescue shelter that the dogs were being taken to.
Evan: I told them we’d stop by tomorrow.
They were going to get a dog, of that Tommy had no doubt. For his part, Evan had already decided, and while he was sure that Evan could deal with Tommy saying no, it would also break his heart. That’s just who Evan was. It was what Tommy loved about him.
When he got home, he did a little bit of research. He couldn’t be completely sure, but it seemed like the dogs were golden doodles or some subset of that. He and Evan did have erratic schedules, but if they got the dog trained fairly well then maybe one of them could bring it with them to work on occasion. It was allowed, he’d found out, and not just for animals trained for search and rescue. They could get the dog certified as a therapy dog, though.
By the time that Evan arrived home, Tommy had already put a number of things in his amazon shopping cart. Evan laughed and hugged him from behind when he saw it.
“Really?” he asked.
“For one thing I could tell you really wanted to do this. And I think we can make it work.”
Evan immediately leaned down and pulled him into a kiss. “You’re the best. They were all taking bets on how this would go.”
“I hope you put some money on me,” Tommy said.
Evan just laughed. “So, let me show you more pictures. They really were cute.”
There were about ten pictures. Some were of the dogs still in the box, but Evan also had pictures of them loaded up into the car that was taking them to the shelter. One had Evan holding two of the puppies. He looked absolutely smitten.
“What did they say?”
“I guess it’s not super unusual so they weren’t surprised when I asked about adopting one. They said since we did find them I could have first dibs at the shelter. They will be putting them up for adoption by the end of the week. I told them we’d come by tomorrow.”
“So presumptuous,” Tommy said.
Evan just smiled. “Even if you said no, I still would have wanted to see they were okay.”
“I really don’t think there’s saying no to you, Evan.”
Evan grinned at him. “I’ll admit I was a little worried you didn’t think we’d have the time for it.”
“Well, I was thinking about that,” Tommy said. “Did you know LAFD allows dogs at the firestation? Not just service animals, but therapy dogs, and even pets. It’s kinda up to the Captain.”
“Really?” Evan seemed to light up. “That’s great. I think we can really do this, Tommy.”
It took a few days and only a couple of visits. The hardest part was picking one out of the five, but in the end they settled on one of the male puppies. He was sweet and playful and pretty smart going by how quickly he’d caught on to fetch. The shelter made the whole process easy and sooner than expected, they were arguing over names while their new dog introduced himself to their backyard.
“What about this dog looks like a Max?” Tommy asked.
“That’s better than calling him Darcy,” Evan shot back.
Tommy thought Darcy was a nice name and maybe he’d picked it because of Pride and Prejudice, but it wasn’t like he could name the dog Knightley after his favorite of Austen’s leading men.
“What about Teddy?” Evan asked.
“Then we may as well call him Bear.”
“Well if he’s going to be a firehouse dog maybe something relating to that.”
“Blaze? No, that doesn’t fit.”
Evan stopped and he grinned at Tommy, clearly he had an idea. “What about Captain?”
It wasn’t a bad name except for how it was also a horrible name.
“Bobby’s going to kill you,” Tommy said.
Evan just laughed. “It’s a good name! And we can just say that we were naming him after his grandpa. Cappie for short, so it’s not Cap.”
“I take no credit for the name,” Tommy said. “It’s all you.”
“Captain!” Evan called out. “Is that your name? Is it?”
The dog. Captain. He came running towards Evan, panting and wagging his tail. He bumped into Evan’s shins.
“You know, Evan, if you get to pick his name then I get to pick the next time we have to pick a name,” Tommy said.
“What does that—”
He saw understanding settle on Evan’s face. They had never talked about it. Before Evan, Tommy was pretty sure that he would have been entirely against the idea of becoming a father. It just hadn’t seemed like something he would ever have and he hadn’t exactly longed for it or anything. With Evan everything was just different. He made Tommy want things. He made Tommy have hope for the future and he wanted that future to include kids. Evan’s kids. His kids.
Evan had an armful of puppy, but he leaned over and kissed him soundly and Tommy reached down to pet Captain. It really wasn’t a bad name.
“Fine,” Evan said. “So we take turns naming our kids starting with this one.”