Chapter Text
“You know, I am very happy to have the next two days off together. Work has been crazy the past week – not to mention Buck’s current obsession that he won’t shut up about, is driving me absolutely insane – so it will be a relief to spend some quality time with my lovely wife.” Bobby said the last part with a sweet smile.
Athena scoffed as she washed another glass. “You mean with your lovely wife and our therapist. You do remember we have a session scheduled for tomorrow morning, right?”
“I do remember this,” Bobby nodded solemnly as he picked up the glass to dry and put away, “but after that it’s just you and me, baby. And you have to admit, even though therapy could hardly ever be considered fun, sessions with Doctor Winters aren’t nearly as tedious or useless as sessions with Doctor Frank used to be.”
Athena rolled her eyes. “Not that having Doctor Frank beat is some great accomplishment, but as far as therapists go, Doctor Winters is definitely one of the better ones I’ve ever come across, I’ll give you that. At the very least she doesn’t just tell me to take some pills and suck it up. She gets points just for that.”
Bobby chuckled. “High praise indeed.” A smirk appeared on his face. “You know, before you know it, you’ll be doing homework and everything. Thinking ahead about what you want to talk about in our next session, writing out bullet points. You’ll be a therapist’s dream client in no time.”
Athena huffed. “Don’t hold your breath.” Before Athena could continue, the doorbell rang. She frowned as she looked in the direction of the hallway. “You expecting anyone?”
“No,” Bobby sighed as he dropped his towel and started walking backwards out of the kitchen, “that better not be anything emergency related or Buck hounding me with more talk about his obsessions outside of work now. All I want for the next few days is peace, quiet and time with my lovely wife.”
Bobby saw Athena’s mouth open to say something as he was turning around to head towards the front door. Before she could speak, he added “and our therapist. I know.”
Athena grinned as her husband continued on to see who was interrupting their quiet evening. She happily turned back to the dishes – just as glad to be having a nice evening with her husband and having a couple days off to look forward to – before she started wondering what took Bobby so long. If it were Buck spouting off random facts, surely she’d have heard his animated voice getting closer to the kitchen by now.
“Bobby, baby, who is it?” Athena shouted as she put the last pot down and dried her hands. When no answer was immediately forthcoming, Athena frowned and turned to investigate. As she rounded the corner towards the entranceway, she saw her husband’s back, his hand clutching their front door, staring at what appeared to be a man she didn’t recognize right away.
“Bobby?” Athena questioned as she came closer, one hand coming to rest on her man’s back as she tried to look past him to get a better view of their visitor. Athena could tell that the man at their door had been staring at her husband as well, but a few seconds after he saw her head appear from behind Bobby, he slowly turned his attention towards her. There was something not entirely unfamiliar about him but before Athena could try to place it, the man spoke up.
“Um hi… I um… I’m Charlie…Nash. I’m Bobby’s older brother.”
Athena’s eyes widened as she took the man in for another second before her gaze turned towards her husband sharply. She took in his rigid posture, hand still gripping the door, spine straight, staring at his brother as if he’d seen a ghost. She guessed he'd might as well have. The hand she still had on his back, started rubbing him soothingly without conscious thought. For a second Athena’s mind blanked, before she realized she’d have to be the one to take the lead on this for now. She took a deep breath and gathered her strength, murmuring a quiet ‘right’ to herself before turning back to the man at their door, who looked vaguely like her husband but was a virtual stranger to her. In all the years she’d known Bobby, he'd only once mentioned an older brother who used to throw lawn darts at him when they were kids. That’s truly all she knew about this man who was technically family, but about whom she never expected to find out more, let alone meet. Guess that’s about to change, she thought to herself.
“Um hi, I’m Athena, Bobby’s wife.”
Charlie seemed slightly surprised at that, even though the fact that both their names were on the shiny new mailbox he’d passed on his way from his car to their front door, and that she was basically pressed against his brother’s side with a hand moving up and down his back, should’ve made the type of relationship they had quite clear.
“It’s nice to meet you, Athena,” Charlie said to her after a second.
Athena hesitated, she knew a ‘likewise’ would be the polite and expected answer, but she wasn’t sure yet if it was indeed nice to meet him. Athena knew next to nothing about her husband’s childhood or his birth family but from his lack of talking about them and from the fact they were clearly no longer in his life, and hadn’t been for quite some time, she could infer enough to know that the relationships there probably weren’t of the warm and fuzzy variety. Athena’s first priority was and always would be her husband’s wellbeing, so she was immediately wary of his older brother suddenly showing up after all this time, and without any notice, but she decided to keep things pleasant, at least for now.
“You too,” she said carefully, “Can I ask what brought you to our doorstep today?” She paused. “How did you even find our doorstep?”
Charlie took a breath. “There are some things that I felt I should share with Bobby so I started thinking about how I could track him down. I didn’t have much to go on,” he said slightly embarrassed, “so I decided to check in with his old fire station to see if they knew how I could reach him. His old Captain told me that he got transferred to station 118 in Los Angeles back then, and that was all he knew. I figured my best bet would be to start there and hope Bobby was still there or the firefighters there would at least be able to point me in the right direction. When I showed up at the station, the firefighters I encountered seemed wary and didn’t want to say much right away, but they did confirm he is still Captain there. Eventually when I showed them my ID and explained that I urgently needed to talk to Bobby about important family business in person, they gave me your address. Albeit a little reluctantly.”
“The 118 is a very tight knit group and they are very protective of their Captain. As am I.” She added the last part for good measure. She’d stick to being polite for now, but it wouldn’t hurt to let this man know that no one would hurt Bobby on her watch, brother or not. She stared him down to make sure he got the message.
Charlie nodded. “It’s nice to hear that Bobby has so many people in his corner. I promise I’m not here to cause any trouble, I really did come here because I think there’s some things Bobby deserves to know. I uhm… I don’t really feel comfortable talking about this out here, though,” Charlie said while glancing around the neighborhood. He cleared his throat and looked from Athena to Bobby and back, “Could I come in?”
Athena chanced a glance at her husband. Still rooted to the spot. Great. As curious as she was, there was no way Athena was letting Charlie inside their home without Bobby’s permission. Athena turned her body more into her husband’s side and with her free hand, she grasped his hand that was still in a deadlock around their doorknob. She gently pried his fingers free and interlocked them with her own. Giving his hand a gentle squeeze, she tried to capture his attention. It took a few seconds but eventually she managed to get her husband to look her in the eye and she implored him silently. A slight frown appeared on Bobby’s face and then he visibly tried to shake himself out of his stupor.
Athena turned herself some more so her back was basically facing Charlie and she could speak quietly to her husband. She was aware that Charlie could still hear them, but she wanted to at least create a little bit of privacy between the two of them.
“Baby? You with me?”
Bobby searched her eyes and nodded slowly. His wife had always been his steady ground and looking into her eyes now, slowly brought him back to the present. He squeezed her hand lightly. Athena squeezed back and gave him a small smile.
“What do you think? Do you want to let him in and hear him out? We can ask him to come back later if you need a minute. Or you know, I can send him away entirely if – ” Athena trailed off as Bobby shook his head slightly.
“It’s okay,” he said softly.
Athena turned back towards Charlie, pressing her back against her husband’s front while she was at it and moving him slightly to the side at the same time so there was an opening for Charlie to enter the house. She gestured with her hand for him to pass them into the hallway.
“Please come in.”
Charlie hesitated for half a second before taking a tentative step over the threshold and entering the home.
“Let’s move to the kitchen. We were just cleaning up dinner. It’s around the corner, through the living room. We’ll be right there.” Athena said as Charlie passed by them. Being pressed against Bobby, she could feel more than hear him let out a shaky breath as Charlie’s back turned towards them. She squeezed his hand once more, a little harder this time. She took a deep breath to steady herself and lightly tugged on Bobby’s hand so they could follow behind Charlie. She felt Bobby hesitate behind her, though, so she turned in his arms.
“It’ll be alright,” she whispered for his ears only, “I’m right here. I’m not going anywhere.”
Bobby held onto her like a lifeline, both literally by refusing to let go of her, and figuratively by repeating her words like a mantra in his head. His brother suddenly showing up in LA after all this time surely couldn’t mean anything good and Bobby was already bracing himself. The relaxing two days off he’d envisioned up until ten minutes ago, suddenly seemed very far away. Bobby sighed. Why could they never just catch a break?
Athena looked up at him questioningly.
“Well, I guess that solves the ‘what should we talk about first in therapy tomorrow?’ dilemma,” Bobby said deadpan. Athena huffed his name exasperatedly while lightly smacking him on the shoulder, but secretly she was relieved to hear her husband act a little more like himself. His rigidness and silence were really starting to worry her but the sarcastic joke and tiny smile that her reaction to his joking brought about, managed to do wonders for her rising stress and worry.
They stared at each other for a moment before she rose up on her toes and planted a soft relieved kiss on his lips.
“You know, at this point I wish it had been Buck at the door. Even if it was to recount every single fact, he’s ever found on the internet about every single one of his obsessions.”
Athena shook her head slightly. “The night’s still young, you know. Be careful what you wish for. For all you know, there’ll be another knock soon,” she said in mock desperation.
Bobby shuddered and tightened his hold on her. “Surely God will have some mercy on us. They say he doesn’t give us more than we can carry, right? Well, I definitely can’t carry Encyclopedia Buck on top of this. So, I’m sure we’re at least safe from one more unexpected visitor tonight.”
Athena rolled her eyes. “Oh hush, Captain! There you go again tempting fate. God certainly seems to have a funny sense of humor where we’re concerned so I’m not counting my chickens just yet.”
“Ah, you prefer roosters anyway,” Bobby smirked.
Another exasperated head shake from his wife made Bobby’s smirk evolve into a loving smile.
“What am I to do with you?” she questioned fondly.
A little bit of Bobby’s vulnerability and worry regarding the current situation they found themselves in slipped through as he answered softly, “Love me. Hold me. And never let me go.”
Tears sprung to Athena’s eyes at his words and the fear in his eyes. “Always,” she pledged. Athena leaned in to give him a tight hug. She kissed his chest right where his heart was beating a steady rhythm before pulling back reluctantly.
“We should probably go in there. We can’t let him sit in our kitchen alone forever,” she said softly, never breaking eye contact.
Bobby sighed and nodded. “Let’s get this over with.”
They walked towards their kitchen hand in hand, both wondering where the night was going to take them, both dreading likely getting dealt another blow but both also knowing they’d get through it the way they’d gotten through everything else so far: together, them against the world.
Athena vowed to stand beside him through his family drama the way he’d stood beside her through every family drama of hers, and to protect him from whatever danger his brother might prove to be to his wellbeing, in the same way she’d protect him from flying bullets, raging fires or sinking ships.
At the same time Bobby vowed to stand strong with his wife beside him in the face of whatever his brother might throw at him, and to honor their promise to communicate and no longer keep secrets from one another. Bobby knew there could truly be no more secrets in their marriage after this. However hard is would be to go back in time and tell her everything, come tomorrow his wife would know the whole sorry tale. He’d bare all, so he was determined. He might need a little help from Doctor Winters to get there, though. The good Doctor might really earn her stripes tomorrow. But first Bobby had to find out just how badly shit was about to hit the fan.
As his wife went to take the seat at the head of their kitchen table, he moved towards the chair at her right side, straight across from the chair Charlie was patiently – nervously – waiting in. While he grabbed the sides of the chair and pulled forward so he could sit down, he looked up, right at his older brother and spoke. “So big brother, where’s the fire?”