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This wasn’t the way the day was supposed to go.
The start of the week was exciting, the team saved a billionaire from a whale, that same guy sent Hen up to space as the rest of the 118 handled the land part of the world. Sure, there were flying meteors landing all over L.A and they had a lot of work to do while also worrying about the Hen and Athena part of it.
But it wasn’t supposed to end in a hospital bed.
The team had returned from the hospital after Buck’s encounter with a robot, everyone was exhausted already when the bell rang again, they were dispatched to the metro where a satellite had dropped and trapped people inside of the train.
“Okay we have to work fast before this place goes down completely,” said Chimney. “Buck, Ravi work on opening the doors and getting those people out, Me and Eddie will take care of any injuries.”
“Got it” Buck says as he gestures for Ravi to follow him, the two of them head down to the train, the people inside were screaming for help, Ravi and buck grabbed the crowbars and slid the doors open, trying to get every person inside of the train outside for Eddie and Chimney to treat them.
Buck gathers up a few of the people and starts leading them outside while Ravi checks the rest of the train. As Ravi turns on the radio to let Buck know it’s all clear he hears someone quietly saying something at the back of the train, he makes his way through some rubble and finds a man stuck between two seats.
“Sir? LAFD, can you move at all?” Ravi asks, the man just shakes his head no. Ravi turns on the radio “Buck, i have a male trapped between two seats, i’m gonna need a saw and an extra pair of hands”
“Got it, coming to ya” Buck replies and a few seconds later he appears behind them. “He can’t move, looks like he’s wedged in there pretty good.” Ravi says. “Okay, let’s try to get the seats to move instead” Buck says as he grabs the saw and starts to remove parts of the seat, while Ravi shielded the man. Buck takes apart the first seat as Ravi moves into working to get the man out. “Okay, on three, two, one.” Buck says as both him and Ravi pulled the man from the seat.
“Nice job man,” Ravi says. “Yeah, we work well together,” Buck replies. They start walking towards the center of the train as their radios go off. “Ravi, Buck evacuate now, this thing is going down in about two minutes” Chimney says. “Evacuating now” Buck says into the radio as they move a bit faster, they get to the doors and Buck transfers the patient to Eddie.
Ravi doesn’t follow though. He hears a sound come from behind him. “Ravi, we gotta get out of here” Buck shouts. “Just a second i think i hear someon-”
“There’s no time you gotta get out of there” Buck shouts as he reaches out his hand to help Ravi out of the rubble, as Ravi’s about to grab his hand, the structure of the roof collapses, a piece of debris flies towards Buck as he quickly shields himself, realizing he couldn’t see or hear Ravi anymore, he starts panicking and moving every piece of the concrete, trying to get to Ravi.
“Buck, Ravi, Do you copy?” Chimney’s voice echoes over the radio. “Are you two okay?” Buck doesn’t hear his radio though, he keeps lifting pieces of debris. Until he feels a hand on his back. “Buck, did you not hear the radio?” Eddie says as Buck snaps back into reality “No, no, no, Ravi, I have to get to Ravi” Buck says. “We’ll get him out I promise, it’s not safe in here right now, we have to get out of here” Eddie tries to reassure Buck.
“I have to get him out. What if he’s passed out, What if he can’t radio for help, What if he’s badly hurt, What if his airway is obstructed, What if his bones are broken?” Buck’s words slurring as he speaks, thinking of all the possible scenarios that could be happening right now while Eddie is dragging him away. “What if he's dead?” he says in a shaky voice. “Hey, no, we can’t think like that until we clear the vicinity then we can check on him alright?" Eddie tries to calm him down while Buck’s staring at him with panic in his eyes.
"Buck." Eddie stood firm, unmoved by Buck's words. He was not about to let his best friend get hurt along with Ravi. Thinking about what might be happening to him hurts too much.
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Black.
All he could see was black.
He couldn’t hear anything, no sounds.
“Munna, it’s time to get up for school, you’re going to be late!”
‘Is that my mom, why is she telling me to get up for school? I'm not in school anymore, I don't live with them anymore, what's happening?’
“I’m up already, Maa”
Ravi saw a kid that resembled him when he was younger. He hears a faint voice say his name, but instead of him answering, the kid answers.
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The hospital felt different, it always does in these situations. The team was stuck waiting for answers, for updates, for anything really.
Buck has been pestering every nurse that comes out of Ravi’s room and Eddie has been having to apologize to every nurse that Buck talks to.
“It’s late, you should go get some rest Buck.” Eddie says.
“I think I'm going to stay with Ravi, you guys can go, you’ve got kids to take care of.” Buck said as he sighed.
“Take care of yourself, Buckaroo.” Chimney says as he and Eddie leave.
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‘Who am I? What's happening?’
“You look so handsome today my angel”
‘What’s going on, I don't know why I'm here, how am I here? I moved out years ago, I spoke to my mother last week.'
The kid ran around the house, grabbing things and putting them in his backpack. The room was familiar to Ravi, it looked exactly like his childhood home. He couldn't remember how he got here and there were so many questions going around in his head. He'd figure it out, right?
"Don't forget you have an appointment at the hospital today, I'll pick you up from school early.”
'Hospitals. I remember the thousands of appointments, trying to figure out what was wrong with me before I got diagnosed. Then the countless treatments that we had to pay for.'
“I know, I'll wait for you at the front desk like usual..” The kid said, he had a sad expression on his face.
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Buck had been sitting in the waiting room for hours now, he had gotten zero answers to any of his very detailed medical questions from the nurses.
One of the nurses comes out of the room and starts walking towards Buck, who's at this point half asleep. “I've noticed you've been here for a while, are you family?” The kind looking nurse asked.
“Kind of, we work together, work partners.” Buck answers.
“Well you seem to care about him if you've been here for a while.” The nurse smiles.
"He's my best friend, I didn't want to leave him alone.” Buck said him and Ravi had gotten really close these past six months,inside and outside of work.
“You can go inside and see him if you'd like.” The nurse says.
“Thank you.” Buck says as he walks towards the room that Ravi was in, sitting down in the chair next to the bed. Is this how everyone felt seeing him when he was in his coma after the lightning strike?
“Hey ravs, I've been here all day you know, no one's really giving me any information which pisses me off, Eddie had to distract me every time a nurse walked by so I didn't bother them with i million questions. Everyone's worried about you, we were all here for a few hours but I told Chim and Eddie to go home, I should not have left you alone in there, I mean you were right behind me one second and then the other I was trying to move the pieces of concrete that fell on you. Gave me a workout though.” He chuckles a bit. “Maybe if I would've gotten to you faster you wouldn't be in this condition. You know I'm glad that you listened to me at the bar that night, that you didn't quit. You're one hell of a partner, Bobby would've been proud of you. Maybe after you wake up and get outta here we can go play that frisbee golf thing you've been trying to drag me to. We can invite everyone to go with us.” Buck talked for about an hour before he just passed out in the chair.
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Everything felt normal, until he felt like he couldn’t breathe. He looked at the kid and it seemed like it was happening to him too. He followed the kid into the bathroom, where he started looking for something, he found an inhaler in the cabinet.
‘I don’t have asthma. Why do I have an inhaler?’
The kid took a big breath as he looked into the mirror, but he didn’t see himself, well.. he saw his older self attached to some sort of tubes.
‘This isn't real. I’m not back in my childhood. I’m in a dream. How do I get out of this?’
The kid started to freak out, for all he knew he just saw some random person in a hospital bed instead of his reflection.
‘Need to get out.’
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It was the next morning, Buck was with Eddie and the others in front of Ravi’s room, they had just talked with the doctors and were again waiting for something to happen.
“He is looking better than yesterday,” Eddie said.
“Yeah, considering the state he was in when we got to him, a lot better.” Chimney added.
The sound of someone’s sneakers bouncing on the floor could be heard. Probably someone running to good news or something. Or so Buck thought, before the sound got louder and louder until it stopped.
“God, It took me so long to get here, Is he okay? What happened?” A familiar voice said.
“What are you doing here? Aren’t you in another country?” Chimney asked.
“My boyfriend is in a hospital bed, what do you mean what am i doing here.” Albert said.
“Boyfriend???” Buck asked.
“Oh, right, um suprise?” Albert said.
“I am so confused right now.” Chimney said.
“Can someone please tell me what happened now, you can be confused later?” Albert asked.
“We were at a call, the roof collapsed onto him and we didn’t get to him fast enough. The doctors said that he had some internal bleeding, a couple of fractures and a concussion, but he still hasn’t woken up” Eddie explained.
“Jesus. Are they letting people in his room?” Albert asked.
“I was there all night, and I'm not his boyfriend. I think you have to go in there.” Buck said.
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The kid sat down on the edge of the bathtub, his breathing heavy, panicked. Ravi just stood there, unable to help, he needed to get out of this dream. But how?
'Okay, think. How do I get out of here, How do I get the kid to notice me.'
He walked closer to the child and sat down next to him.
“Take slow breaths, I know might be weird for you, talking to a stranger in your bathroom, but I'm not a stranger, i know you, i know what it feels like to practically live in hospitals, to go to school everyday only to be dragged out of class for another appointment, I didn't like it either. But all those appointments helped you. It got better, It will get better. You have to trust me.” He spoke, hoping the kid could hear him. To his surprise he could. The kid nodded and started to calm down.
“I know you have a lot of questions but right now I need your help. I need to get out of here, I'm stuck in some sort of dream, I need to go back to the real world.” He said as the kid nodded again. Ravi took that as an 'i'll help you'
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Albert walked into the room, the sight of his boyfriend in that hospital bed wasn't how he expected to see Ravi when he came back to town. It's been a month since they last saw each other. Albert had to leave to handle some family stuff back in Korea. They've been dating for almost a year now, they were planning to tell people as soon as a year had passed, just so they were certain.
Albert took a seat next to Ravi's bed, grabbing his hand. “I came as fast as I could, when the hospital called me I jumped on the next flight to L.A. I'm so glad that Buck and the others were there to get you out of there, I don't really know what I'd do without you, I kinda told them about us, I know we said we'd keep it a secret until we were sure but i know that your the only person i want to be with and i definitely know i am not leaving you alone anymore, I just need you to come back to me. I need you to wake up.”
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“I need you to wake up.”
Those words suddenly echoed in Ravi's mind, he couldn't tell who was telling him to wake up, but somehow he knew it was someone important. “Alright, I think I have an idea but it's a bit crazy, do you think you could do it?” The kid nodded again. “I need you to take that flower pot and throw it as hard as you can into the mirror. You can do it.”
The kid throws the pot into the mirror as the mirror breaks into a million pieces. Ravi feels different. Everything goes dark again. But this time he opens his eyes to see the ceiling of a hospital room. “I did it..” He said quietly. He turned his head and met the eyes of his partner. “You're awake. Thank god you're awake, I thought I was losing you. What do you mean you did it? What did you do?” Albert said as he sighed out of relief.
“I got out, I woke up, just like you told me to do.” Ravi says as he smiles weakly. “You did, I'm so happy you did.” Albert said as he placed a soft kiss on Ravi's lips. "I'm gonna go tell everyone else you're awake, okay? I think Buck will be thrilled” Ravi nodded as Albert left the room. Everyone started to come inside the room and talking to Ravi, Jee gave him a little card she made. It felt good to be surrounded by people who care about you.
“There he is, my hero” Ravi joked as Buck came closer. “Shut up, you scared the shit out of me, you know that right?” Buck said. “You can't get rid of me that easily, who's going to listen to all of your bad jokes and pretend they're funny?” Ravi said. “Okay, now you're being mean. I'm glad you're awake.” Buck said. “But now you've lost the chance for me to go play frisbee golf with you.” He laughed. “Oh come on man, you've gotta try it, Albert plays it with me all the time.” Ravi says.
“Can we go back to the elephant in the room now? When did you two even meet?” Chimney asked.
“We met in the academy, but Ravi graduated earlier than I did. We exchanged numbers and started talking more and more. We've been together for almost a year now.” Albert explained.
“Almost a year and you didn't tell your own brother, I feel betrayed. You too ravioli, dating my brother in secret.” Chimney said. “We didn't want to tell anyone until we were 100% sure about us, but I feel like we are now,” Ravi said as he squeezed Albert's hand. "I'm happy for you both, we all are.” Chimney said as he smiled.
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It's been about two weeks since Ravi was discharged from the hospital, Albert had practically been living with him for those past two weeks. It was kinda nice. “You know, it's been nice having you around so much these past few days, I missed you.” Ravi says. “Mhm, I like being here with you, I also like taking care of you.” Albert says as he kisses Ravi.
“I like being taken care of. You know, you are quite literally the best thing that's happened to me in a while. I'm so happy that you're in my life.” Ravi says. “You're being sappy.” Albert responds. “Am I not allowed to express my love for the love of my life?” Ravi asked as he smiled. “Oh I didn't say stop, I just said that you're being sappy. Continue professing your love for me please” Albert says as he kisses Ravi again.
“I think you should move in.” Ravi says. “You want me to move in?” Albert asks. “I really do. I think I've spent enough mornings waking up to an empty boyfriendless bed.” Ravi says as he laughs. “Okay, yeah I'll move in with you, only if I get to kiss you everyday.” Albert says. “Deal.” Ravi says as he hugs his boyfriend tightly.
“I love you.” Ravi says.
“I love you too.” Albert answers.