Chapter Text
First thing Chim did as interim captain was to apply for an appeal for Eddie to be reinstated back to 118.
His second act was to block Buck's transfer application (he was confused that Buck hadn't pulled his application but he guessed he was busy with the whole moving out of Eddie's place situation now the Diaz's are back for good in LA).
His third (and fourth) things to do in his to do list was to cancel Buck’s PTO requests, telling him that this wasn't the time for him to go away, he needed all hands on deck till things were back to normal, you don't want to make this difficult for everyone, right, Buck?
Buck just stared at him with that foreign blank look before walking away.
The vacation was not planned at first.
He was frustrated at that point, between his own brother ignoring him and canceling both his transfer request and leave applications to Eddie kicking him out of his own house, claiming Buck was just house sitting for them until they came back and the intricate contract they had signed was never valid.
(A voice in his head, oddly sounded like a combination of Ravi and Tommy at their utmost bitchiness, pointed out Eddie was lying, he had subletting rights and he should sue him for breach of contracts.)
It was then when he got a phone call.
It was from Beth, Mr. Graham’s niece, informing him that her uncle had passed away and will be having his funeral this weekend, can he come please?
Buck was flabbergasted, Mr Graham was the man who owned the Galloping Meadows horse ranch, the second ranch he worked in Montana during his vagabond days. Even after leaving the ranch for his next adventure, they had kept in touch and even flew back a few times to visit, his kindness was one of the happier memories Buck had cherished during his travels.
Now that Chim had blocked his transfer and leave applications, Buck applied for leave once again, this time filing it directly with the HR department. Thankfully they were willing to process it immediately (in fact they were going to chase him down for unclaimed PTOs he had been stacking up for the past few years) so now he has the next 5 weeks of paid leave.
He moved all of his stuff from Eddie’s place (never his place) and into a storage unit, packing only what he needed for his road trip to Montana.
Chim was furious that Buck went behind their back to apply his leave but frankly Buck was done.
He was tired.
He blocked Chim’s and later Hen’s number when they kept harassing him via missed calls and text messages and told Maddie if she doesn’t give him the space he needed, he would block her too.
He left LA the very next day.
Montana still looked the same, after all these years.
He stopped just outside Whitefish, breathing in the cool, crisp air. He had driven for the past two days through the I-15N, the farther he got from LA, the lighter his heart became.
He never even realized how much grief had smothered him.
Just outside the Galloping Meadows Ranch, Beth was waiting for him, still impeccable as the day he once met her, the ambitious but yet very down to earth law student who laughed at her uncle’s new ranch hand when he tripped into the water trough trying to impress her with his antics.
“Evan. It’s been awhile.” The brunette smiled as she shook his hands.
“It is. I’m sorry for your loss.” Buck offered his condolences and they walked up to the main house, a beautiful rustic ranch house. From where he was standing, he could see the big stable that once housed the herd of horses Mr. Graham used to breed for the ranches nearby. “What happened?”
“Last stage of prostate cancer. Sold most of the stock to pay for the treatment until doctors told him that there wasn’t anything else they could do.” The woman finished quietly, her hand brushing against the porch railing as they climbed the steps. “By then the treatments were just making him miserable. He decided he’d rather spend whatever time he had left here.”
Buck nodded, taking in the weathered wood of the house, the flower boxes beneath the windows, and the faint scent of hay that still lingered in the air despite the empty pastures.
“He stayed until the end?”
“Yeah.” A small smile touched her lips. “Stubborn old man got his wish. Sat on that porch every morning with his coffee, watching the sunrise over the fields. Said if he was going to go, he wanted his last view to be home.”
Something tightened in Buck’s chest.
He could still remember the first time he met the man.
He was three weeks into his new job with the dude ranch, a stable boy raking up the hays and learning how to take care of the horses when the man arrived with the stallion he had borrowed as a stud for his mares.
Instead of brushing him off or calling him a nuisance for his barrage of questions, the old man had simply answered his questions and even explained the different ways to curry a horse.
He transferred from the bustling Bar W Guest Ranch to the small Galloping Meadows that very same week but never regret that spur of the moment decision as he stay for the rest of the summer and autumn, only leaving when his wanderlust and the bitter winter winds made him dream for the warm beaches of the West Coast.
He could still remember the first time he stayed up all night to help take care a horse suffering from colic, help trained yearlings to listen to orders, raking hays and cleaning out the stable day in and day out, falling asleep on a bundle of hay to wake up to the cantankerous mare, Pretty Caroline, nosing at his hat and him hiking alone in the forest trails around the area.
There were a lot of good memories tucked into this place, he thought.
That afternoon he took a horse out and rode his heart out across the fields, only stopping to cry and scream as loud as he could, the horse and the sky as the only witnesses to his grief.
The only people he stayed in contact with were Dr. Copeland, who scheduled an online session with him every few days, looking sea-sick the first and only time Buck tried to answer her video call while riding (they comprises by Buck finding a stationary spot where he can have the sessions, usually backed against the great view so the good doctor can enjoy it) and Tommy, who looked surprised when he answered the video call.
“Evan?” Tommy looks adorably scruffy with a week old beard (he was apparently suspended with pay for a month as punishment for stealing municipal government vehicles for the third time, apparently they had counted the water tanker he absconded with back in 2019 as well) and dirty from having spent the last few days working on his latest car. “Where are you? Are you all right?”
Buck grinned as he settled on the patch of rocks, Caroline nickering against his ears before wandering off to graze. ”Surprise? I'm not in LA right now.”
“Yea, I figured that out by the horse. Where are you right now, Texas?”
“Montana actually. Whitefish, Montana. One of my old bosses passed away and his niece invited me to the funeral.”
There was a long pause.
“A funeral.”
“Uhuh.”
“In Montana.”
“Yep.”
“With a horse.”
Buck’s grin grew larger.
“How is it every time I learn something new about your past, it sounds less like real life and more like a collection of increasingly bizarre side quests?”
Buck couldn’t help the burst of laughter.
“It’s not my fault I have a fruitful youth.”
“How are you doing?” Tommy asked softly.
He tilted his head up into the late afternoon sun, eyes half-lidded. Despite the years gone by, everything here still felt strangely familiar, it was like coming home.
“I don't know,” he admitted. “It's weird.”
“Because of your old boss?”
“Yeah.” Buck paused. “ I didn’t realize he still remembered me. Even after all these years.” Buck paused. “He was one of the good ones, Tommy.”
“He gave me a chance when nobody had a reason to. Let me stay when I didn't really have anywhere else to be. Taught me more than horses and ranch work. He was the first adult who believed in me.”
“He sounds a lot like Bobby.” Tommy finally said softly.
“Yeah,” Buck said quietly. “A little.”
Neither of them spoke for several seconds.
Finally Buck let out a slow breath.
“The ranch feels strange without him.”
“I'm sure.”
“I keep expecting him to come around the corner and start telling me everything I've done wrong.”
Tommy laughed.
“Was he one of those?”
“Oh absolutely.”
“Then he and Bobby definitely would've gotten along.”
Buck smiled despite himself.
The ache in his chest eased a little.
“Wish you’re here with me.” Buck blurted out. “I want to show you my favorite paths, take you riding with me…”
“Evan, I don't know how to ride a horse.” Tommy said helplessly.
“I can teach you.” Buck said hopefully.
“Just like the last time I tried to teach Muay Thai? I still remember that disaster quite well.” Tommy teased before sobering up. “Do you want me to come to you Evan? I will if you want me too.”
Buck wanted to say yes but the thing between them was still fragile. After Bobby’s funeral, they had reconnected but too much had changed for them to simply slip back into what they used to be.
He instead changed the subject, talking about how much had changed since he last visited the place.
The very next afternoon, while standing outside the paddock, watching the horses, Buck was lost in his old memories when a loud cough startled him. To his surprise, standing beside Beth was Tommy, looking sheepish.
“Said he belongs to you.” Beth teased before leaving them alone.
“You said, I’m welcome to come if I want to.” Tommy said shyly. “So I did, cashed in a favor with a friend and hitched a ride on a plane to get here. Do you mean it? You really want me to be here?”
“Tommy.” Buck gently cups his face as he rests his forehead against his. “I would always want you here.”
Beth offered to make up a bed for Tommy that night but Buck told her he would be staying with him. They spent the night holding each other on the narrow bed, the sound of cricket and cicadas as well as the faint nickering of horses outside the window were the only soundtrack to their shared solitude.
Tommy watched as Evan pulled away from his arm the next morning, sun barely peeking over the hills as he put on his clothes. “Where are you going, Evan?”
“Promised to help Beth prepare Charger for this afternoon's funeral procession. Wanna come watch?”
He ended up joining them, watching in fascination as Evan grooms a big black stallion, calmly explaining the process and ended up rambling on the history of currying as Beth cleaned the saddle, smiling at them as Evan even coaxed Tommy into passing the nail nippers as he clean the hooves.
Tommy had been to several funerals, from strict military funerals for fellow servicemen fallen in duty to solemn wakes honoring fellow firefighters for their sacrifice but this was the first time he ever attended a funeral like this.
“It’s a cowboy funeral.” Tommy held his breath as Evan’s soft voice tickled his ear. The two of them had joined the huge crowd under the afternoon sun, standing along the main street leading up to the lone cemetery, watching a group of cowboys riding alongside the hearse, the riderless horse Evan and Beth had prepared that morning leading the procession, “Mr. Graham used to be a respected figure in the community and a cowboy most of his life. See that,” he pointed at the pair of boots placed backward on the stirrup on the lone stallion, “those boots used to be Mr. Graham’s, it's used to symbolize the end of the journey of the cowboy.”
They watched solemnly as the cowboys dismounted and served as pallbearers, their spurs jangled loudly in unison as they carried the coffin across the cemetery before laying the coffin at rest at its assigned burial plot.
After the burial ceremony, all of them gathered at the ranch for the wake, Tommy watched as Buck circulated around the room, talking and reconnecting with people he once knew and worked with.
“He left the ranch to me?” Buck felt a bit lightheaded.
“It isn’t much, he sold most of the horses and the lands around the ranch but he wanted to give you a home, if you want it.” Beth passed him a stack of papers.
“Beth, it should be you.” Buck tried to turn down the papers, especially when he saw the endowment also included 1 million dollars in a trust fund as well as two of the three remaining horses, Charger and Pretty Caroline.
“You know as well as I do I can’t take care of this place.” Beth shook her head. “Plus, he left me a hefty trust fund and Amberlie to me, it’s enough for me.” Noticing his hesitation, she continued, “Buck, we both know he considered you family ever since the day you came to work for him. Just take it. What you do next with it, sell it or keep it, it’s up to you and only you.” She stood up, carrying her things. “Think about it, okay?” She nods at Tommy before leaving the house.
For a long while, there was only silence in the living room, Buck staring at the papers, Tommy watching him, waiting for his next move.
“I could sell it.” Buck said out loud, turned to stare out the window, overlooking the stable that was once full of horses. “Gonna have to figure out a way if I can take the horses with me and a place to stable them in LA.”
“Whatever you choose to do, I support you, Evan.” Tommy said softly.
“What if I want to stay here?” He turned to him, “What if I want to quit the LAFD and stay here?”
“Then I’ll send Captain Pruitt my notice and see if I can transfer here. Heard the Two Bear Air Rescue coordinates a lot with the Whitefish Fire Department so I won’t miss out much. And if there’s no position open, well, I’ll just find work as a part time flying instructor or something.”
“Tommy, be serious.”
“I am serious. I want to be here with you, by your side. If you want to stay, then I’ll stay too.” Tommy gently kisses him. “Can I stay, Evan?”
The fallout of Buck quitting LAFD was huge.
Chim and Maddie calling him trying to coax him home to LA ended with them calling him stupid and reckless for throwing away his life and family before hanging up on him.
Hen tried to guilt trip him by asking him if this is what Bobby wants (It stung how Hen just easily said that to him as if he didn’t spend days antagonizing over this decision, thinking what Bobby would say when he turns his back from 118, tired of chasing them and trying to support them just to be treated as if he was just nuisance.)
Eddie had texted him long rambling texts calling him a fool, a selfish coward who deserted 118 because everyone was tired of pandering to his tantrums. He ended the text with telling him to stay the fuck away from him and his son, he would never forgive Buck for leaving them like this.
It hurts to read it. Christopher doesn’t need another trauma of another adult abandoning him but Eddie had threatened him with a restraining order if he comes back to LA, easily forgetting how much financial help he had given them freely throughout the years he knew the father and son duo, from helping with the bills, cooking the prepped meals out of his own pocket to even secretly supplementing Chris’s college fund.
Nice to know how much he rates in Eddie Diaz’s life.
But not all were bad.
Athena had called him and after listening to his explanation why he wanted to do this, Athena told him that she understood and she’s sure Bobby would too.
“Bobby would want you to be happy, Buckaroo.” Her voice soft through the phone. “And if this makes you happy, then I would support you too.”
“You’ll come visit me right?” Buck asked shyly.
“Of course, Harry is already asking if he could get riding lessons from you.” Athena laughed. “Just tell me if you need any help Buck.”
Ravi drove down with what scant furniture Buck decided to keep, selling the rest to him. He complained about Buck leaving but wishing him good luck and telling him about transferring back to Shift B where Captain Montgomery wants him to train the new probies for 118.
“The place looks good.” Ravi surveyed the property thoughtfully as they did a walkthrough around the area.. “What are you going to do with the staff lodging?” He nodded at the large building that used to house the ranch hands when it was a horse breeding ranch.
“I’m thinking of converting it into a guesthouse? Maybe an Airbnb for some side income.” Buck answered.
Ravi nodded, smelling a potential business investment. “Can I put some money in that?”
Buck laughed.
Tommy went back to LA with Ravi, but came back 2 weeks later with his own moving truck and driving his red 1966 Skylark Buick.
They spent the entire autumn fixing the ranch and applying for work around the area.
To Buck’s surprise, Glacier National Park Technical Rescue Team offered him a position with them; they had apparently followed his work in LA and were excited at the idea of working with someone with such high qualifications.
After long discussion with Tommy, Buck decided to apply for the heavy rescue position with the Whitefish Fire Department and registered as a reserve officer with the GNP Technical Rescue Team while Tommy found a position with the same Fire dept as their liaison officer with the Two Bear Air Rescue.
Together they made new friends and finding new hobbies and ways to fill their life in Whitefish, Buck teaching Tommy how to ride, hiking and biking together though the trail paths around the area and weekends at farmer's market where Buck would sell his pastries and baked goods, Tommy helping the kids around the market swiping the free cookies from his stall.
Life is good.