Chapter Text
The sun over Santa Monica was a liar.
It shone with a promised of an endless summer, casting a golden haze over the pier that made everything feel cinematic. The laughter of tourists, the rhythmic clack, clack, clack of the roller coaster, the smell of funnel cakes and salt spray, it was perfect.
Buck leaned against the railing, shielding her eyes with one hand as she watched Chris attempt to win a stuffed shark that was clearly rigged to remain unwon. She smiled, a genuine, bone deep expression that had been rare until a few weeks ago.
Life had finally stopped feeling like a series of impending disasters. She had her job, and was almost back to duty, she had her health (mostly), and she had… them. Her family. Her boys.
She glanced down at her phone, checking the time. A text from Eddie sat on her lock screen, sent twenty minutes ago.
Eddie: Don’t let him eat too much sugar. I don’t want to be up all night dealing with the sugar crash.
Buck bit her lip, typing back a quick reply. We are eating salad. Promise.
She hit send, grinning as she watched Chris shove a churro into his mouth.
It was a secret, their secret. This quiet happiness. The team didn’t know. Bobby didn’t know. Hell, even Maddie didn’t know yet. It had only happened weeks after the ladder truck bombing, Eddie being there more and more, helping out and it had turned into something softer, something warmer.
She and Eddie had collided one night, love and laughter tangling together until they were waking up in the same bed, limbs heavy and hearts racing. They had decided to keep it quiet, just for a little while. They wanted to exist in this bubble where they could learn who Evi and Eddie are not as best friends, or just partners are work, but together in the best way.
"Buck! Look!"
Christopher’s voice snapped her back to reality. He was beaming, holding up a neon green alien plushie that was decidedly not a shark.
"No way!" Buck pushed off the railing, crouching down to be at eye level with him. She tucked a strand of windblown blonde hair behind her ear. "You hustled that guy, didn't you?"
"I used my charm," Christopher said solemnly, adjusting his glasses.
Buck laughed, ruffling his hair. "Come on, Charmer. Let’s go see the water before we head back. I think we promised your dad we’d be home by five."
"Dad worries too much," Chris said, clutching his alien as they began the walk down the pier toward the shoreline.
"That's his job, kiddo. He loves us." He loves us. The plural fell out of her mouth so easily now. But it was the truth, their love confessions came easy. Everything has been easy, since making it official.
They reached the end of the pier, looking out over the ocean. The ocean was usually a source of peace for Buck, but today, something felt… off. The air had grown heavy, static charged, like the atmosphere before a lightning strike. The usual roar of the waves had quieted into an eerie, sucking silence.
Buck frowned, stepping closer to the edge. "Chris, stay close to me."
"Where did the water go?" Christopher asked moments later, his voice trembling slightly.
Buck looked down. The ocean was receding. Not just a low tide, but a violent, unnatural withdrawal. The wet sand stretched out for hundreds of yards where deep water should have been. Fish were flopping on the exposed seabed. The birds had stopped singing; they were fleeing inland in a chaotic swarm.
The hair on Buck’s arms stood up. Her firefighter training kicked in, overriding the civilian panic.
Tsunami.
"Christopher!" Buck grabbed him, abandoning the plushie, and his crutches. "We have to go. Now!"
She scooped him up into her arms fully, ignoring his protest, and turned to run back toward the street. "Hold on tight!"
"Buck? What’s happening?"
"Just hold on! Everyone RUN!" She screamed.
People around them were confused, pointing at the horizon, taking photos. They didn't understand. They didn't see the wall of water rising in the distance, a dark blue mountain swallowing the sky.
"Move!" Buck screamed, barreling through a group of tourists. "Get off the pier! Run! Now! Move!"
Then, the sound hit them. It wasn't a roar; it was a scream of the earth, a deafening, grinding noise of water tearing apart the world.
Buck risked a glance over her shoulder. The wave was cresting, towering over the Ferris wheel, blocking out the sun. It was like the end of the world.
"I’ve got you," she whispered into Christopher’s hair, her grip tightening until her knuckles turned white. "I’ve got you. I love you, Superman, so much. Always."
The impact was like being hit by a freight train.
The water didn't just wash over them; it pulverized everything in its path. The pier shattered beneath her feet.
Buck was thrown into the air, weightless for a terrifying second, before the ocean swallowed her whole.
Cold.
Darkness.
She was spun around like a ragdoll, small pieces of debris slamming into her ribs, her legs, her back. The water forced itself into her nose and mouth, tasting of salt and oil. Her only thought, the only thing tethering her consciousness to her body, was the weight in her arms.
Christopher.
She kicked, fighting the churning washing machine of the surge. She broke the surface, gasping for air, choking on foam.
Her arms were empty.
"Christopher!"
The scream tore from her throat, raw and desperate. The world was unrecognizable. The pier was gone. The street was a river of fast moving wreckage. Cars were floating past like toys. A kiosk smashed into a palm tree ten feet away.
"Christopher!" she screamed again, spinning in the water, ignoring the debris slicing her skin. "Chris!"
She saw a flash of yellow shirt near a submerged car.
"Buck!" The voice was small, terrified.
"I see you! I’m coming!" Buck surged forward. She swam with a strength she didn't know she possessed, fighting a current that wanted to drag her the other way. She dodged a floating plank, dived under a massive piece of signage, and surfaced next to him.
Christopher was clinging to a pole, water rushing up to his neck. His glasses were gone. His eyes were wide with pure terror.
"I’ve got you," Buck gasped, grabbing him for dear life, pulling him against her chest. "I’ve got you, superman. I’ve got you."
She looked around frantically. The water was still rising. They needed high ground. A building, a roof, anything. Something safe, stable.
Then she saw it. The bright red ambulance. Engine 136. It was submerged, wedged against the remains of a storefront, but the roof was above the water line.
"Chris, look at me," she yelled over the roar of the water.
"We’re going to that ambulance. You have to kick for me, okay?" He nodded, burying his face in her neck.
Buck swam. Her muscles burned, her lungs screamed for air, but she didn't stop. Every stroke was a promise to Eddie. I will not lose him. I will not lose him. He will come home to you. Chris is safe. I have him.
They reached the side of the ambulance. The current was ripping past them, creating a dangerous drag around the heavy metal of the ambulance. Buck found a foothold on the submerged running board.
"Okay," she panted, looking up at the roof. It was high, slick with oil and water. "I’m going to push you up. You have to grab the bar and pull, okay? Don't let go."
"Come with me," Chris cried, shivering violently.
"I’m right behind you. I promise." She braced herself, putting one hand on his back and the other on his bottom. "On three. One, two, three!"
With a roar of exertion, Buck shoved him upward. Christopher scrambled, his small fingers scrabbling against the wet metal. He caught the edge of the bar. He pulled, kicking his legs, and managed to haul his upper body onto the roof.
"I’m up!" he yelled, turning back to look at her. "Bucky, come on!"
Buck smiled, relief flooding her veins. He was safe. He was high up. She reached up, grabbing the side mirror to pull herself onto the hood.
"I’m coming, Chris. Just stay,"
The universe, it seemed, was not done with Evi Buckley.
A massive surge, the backwash of the tsunami beginning its retreat, slammed into the side of the engine. The heavy truck groaned and shifted violently, pivoting in the current.
A piece of a destroyed building, a jagged section of roof and rebar came hurtling down the street, riding the surge. It slammed into the back of the engine.
The impact jarred Buck’s grip. Her hand slipped from the mirror.
She fell backward.
"Buck!"
The scream pierced the roar of the water. Buck’s eyes locked with Christopher’s. He was reaching for her, his small hand outstretched over the edge of the engine.
"Stay there!" she screamed, her voice breaking.
The water grabbed her ankles like iron shackles. The suction of the receding tide was immense, a monstrous force dragging everything back toward the ocean.
She tried to swim toward the truck, but the current was too strong. She was moving backward, fast. The red ambulance was getting smaller. Christopher was becoming a small dot on top of it, screaming her name.
"Chris! Stay on the truck!" she yelled, choking on a mouthful of water. "Stay on that truck!"
"Buck! No!"
She saw him about to try and climb down.
"NO!" Buck roared, the command ripping from her chest with every ounce of authority she had as a firefighter. "STAY! That is an order! Promise me!"
Christopher froze. He stayed.
And then the water pulled her under.
She tumbled through the dark, debris hitting her from all sides. She didn't have the breath to scream. She tumbled over the submerged sandbar, the pressure in her ears agonizing.
When she finally surfaced, gasping and coughing, the shore was a distant, horrific blur. She was in the deep water now. Somewhere in the ocean. The debris field was massive cars, parts of houses, trees, planks of things, all floating in a bowl, just like a bowl of soup.
"Eddie, Chris," she whimpered, like a prayer.
The pain in her shoulder was blinding. She couldn't tread water for long. She needed something to hold onto.
A large, flat section of a wooden wall floated past, looking like a raft from hell. Buck lunged for it with her good arm, hooking her elbow over the jagged wood. She hauled her upper body onto it, vomiting seawater.
She lay there, shivering uncontrollably, her vision swimming.
The current was relentless. It was carrying the debris field out, away from the chaos of the coast, into the silence of the open ocean.
Buck turned her head, trying to see the shore, trying to see the red spot of the fire truck. But it was gone. Nothing to see. Swallowed by distance and the curvature of the earth.
She was moving.
"Chris is safe," she whispered to the empty ocean, her teeth chattering. "He's on the truck. They'll find him."
She closed her eyes, clutching her, what felt like a dislocated shoulder. The adrenaline was fading, leaving behind a cold, creeping terror. She was drifting. No one knew where she was. Middle of nowhere.
She thought of Eddie’s text. Don't let him eat too much sugar.
She thought of the way Eddie looked at her in the morning, sleep rumpled and soft. She thought of the life they were just starting to build together. A life that was currently disappearing with the shoreline.
"I am coming back," she gritted out, the words lost to the wind. "I promise. I love you both, so much."
The sun began to set, painting the sky in bruises of purple and red. The water turned black. And Evi Buckley, alone on a piece of shattered wood, drifted into the night wondering what to do now.