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1. All eyes on you
The first sign that something was wrong should have been Buck laughing. Instead, Eddie barely looked up from the grocery list spread across the kitchen island to see Buck biting the inside of his cheek so hard that his face was flushing. “What?” he asked.
“Nothing.” Buck rushed out, stifling a laugh and looking over Eddie’s shoulder at the coffee machine on the counter.
Eddie narrowed his eyes but didn’t comment, continuing to add things they definitely didn’t need to the list. Buck’s composure lasted approximately three more seconds. “I just…” He snorted. “I think Theo’s been busy.”
Theo looked up from his cereal with wide, innocent eyes. “I helped.”
“You did,” Buck agreed solemnly.
Eddie frowned. “…Helped with what?” Buck simply pointed and Eddie followed his finger to the coffee machine. Two enormous googly eyes stared back at him. “What…is that?”
Theo giggled. “It’s Mr. Coffee.”
Buck lost it, his laughter no longer contained inside. Eddie looked closer at the googly eyes, stuck perfectly above the buttons. Theo had to have climbed on something to reach it. “They’re removable,” Buck offered quickly. “He didn’t damage anything.”
“I made him handsome,” Theo informed them proudly.
Looking around the house, Eddie suddenly noticed all the eyes on him. The toaster had eyes, the kettle had eyes, even the fridge had eyes, right at the top. Another glance towards the dining room told him that almost every single item was now watching him. Even the Roomba had become deeply unsettling.
By the following morning, Buck assumed they were out of googly eyes. He was wrong, very very wrong.
-
Theo skipped happily into the 118 carrying his little backpack, ready to wait in the loft before Carla picked him up to go to daycare while Buck balanced a tray of coffees. “Morning!” Theo yelled to everyone in sight.
“Morning,” Chimney called. Hen looked up from the report she was reading. “Hey, Theo.” and Theo waved enthusiastically.
Theo wandered around and smiled at the rest of the team. It was sweet, almost too sweet. Buck knew that smile, and he should have investigated what the little boy was up to but was interrupted by Harry. “Cap wants everyone in the kitchen.”
-
Hen was the first victim. She picked up her travel mug and paused. “Why is my coffee looking at me?”
Chim leaned over to take a look, before whispering. “Hen.…your mug has eyes.” Two oversized googly eyes wobbled with every movement. Buck looked straight at Theo, sitting on the couch with a book in his lap, none the wiser. Theo, as if sensing Buck’s stare, sent him a toothy grin.
Less than five minutes later, Ravi points to Eddie. “Eddie?” Eddie looked up from checking inventory in the ambulance. “…Your clipboard.”
He frowned. “What about it?”
“It’s judging me.” Ravi hisses. Eddie turned the clipboard over, revealing two tiny eyes blinking back at him. Above them in the loft, they could hear Theo giggling so hard he probably almost fell off the couch.
Harry opened the fridge, looking for a post-breakfast snack. “Guys?” he called out, eyes stuck on the contents of the fridge.
“What?” Hen yelled back, taking a sip from her no longer googly-eyed coffee mug.
“The milk.” Harry pulled the milk out and set it on the counter, googly eyes shaking intensely. Everyone looked and the milk looked back.
“So does the ketchup,” Chim announced, noticing the ketchup in the fridge door was staring at them.
“And the mustard,” Hen added.
Buck groaned. “Theo.”
Theo pressed both hands over his mouth, but his giggles could still be heard throughout the station. They were interrupted by Carla coming up the stairs. “You ready to go, little Buckaroo?”
“Carlaaaaaaaa!” Theo scrambled to grab his backpack before bidding the team farewell.
-
Even with Theo gone to preschool, the game was still going. Every few minutes someone found another pair of eyes, and a random item watching them. Buck thought maybe everything was confined to the kitchen, noticing eyes on the microwave, the blender, even the paper towel dispenser.
As the team headed downstairs, Buck let out another groan. All of their lockers in the locker room had eyes, even the top row that he knows Theo can’t reach. It became a game to find a new set. Buck noticed a wrench sitting by the engine in the tool box, Eddie’s water bottle that was next to it, both staring at him. By lunch nobody was even surprised anymore.
They simply announced discoveries.
“Found another.”
“Coffee filters.”
“Helmet.”
“Soap dispenser.”
“The television remote.”
“How the…” Buck raked a hand through his hair as the station tones rang out. Sitting on the front of the station tones, was a set of eyes. Two big googly eyes, that were currently yelling for them to get in the engine. Buck wasn’t able to think about how Theo managed to get them up there, truthfully he didn’t want to know.
The 118 was ultimately, very impressed, despite the disconcerting looks their condiments, furniture and equipment had been giving them. And they all knew deep down, this wasn’t over yet.
The prank wars at the 118 had officially begun.
2. Hello! My Name is
A bright packet of HELLO! MY NAME IS… labels sat in the dollar bin while they waited in line at the supermarket. Theo gasped, before trying to escape the trolley seat. “I need those.”
Buck made the mistake of asking the obvious question. “What for?”
Theo looked at him like he’d asked why people needed air. “So everyone knows who they are.”
Buck didn’t think anything of it, tossing it into their cart alongside the rest of their shopping. If it stopped Theo from trying to climb out of the trolley, he’d do anything. They had too many trips where Theo had escaped, causing chaos in the aisles.
-
The first sticker victim was Buck. Theo carefully peeled a sticker from the sheet, tongue poking out in concentration as he slowly printed each letter. Buck waited patiently, and when Theo finally finished, he proudly slapped the sticker onto Buck’s T-shirt.
Buck looked down.
HELLO! MY NAME IS…
MR POOP
Buck threw his head back, and chuckled lightly. Theo nodded before smiling back at Buck. A lot has happened since he first was called Mr Poop.
Later that morning, Theo arrived at the 118 with the remaining stickers tucked safely into his backpack, colourful markers thrown in too. Hen spotted them immediately. “Oh no.”
“Oh yes,” Buck said. “I’ve already been renamed.”
Theo marched straight up to Eddie. “I have yours.” Theo wrote carefully, tongue sticking out as he worked on each letter. He pulled Eddie down to crouch in front of him, then stuck it to Eddie’s chest.
Eddie looked down at his sticker.
HELLO! MY NAME IS…
THE BEST
The room went quiet and Buck smiled before he could stop himself. Eddie was, in fact, the best.
“No explanation?” Chim asked.
Theo shrugged. “He’s just the best.”
Eddie’s ears turned pink as a flush crept up his neck. “Well…” Buck nudged his shoulder. “I don’t know, seems pretty official.” Eddie couldn’t quite hide his smile.
-
Hen received hers next as she read it aloud. “Doctor Hen.” She laughed. “I’ll take that.”
“I know you’re not a doctor,” Theo informed her. “But you fix everybody.”
Hen’s smile softened immediately. “I do try.” Hen patted the sticker proudly
Chimney leaned forward expectantly. “My turn.” Theo grinned. He didn’t even have to think about this one. He wrote the letters easily before slapping it onto Chimney’s chest.
JEE’S DAD
Chim stared at it and Buck laughed. “Not Captain?” Chim asked. Theo shook his head. “Paramedic?” which earnt him another shake.
“You’re Jee’s dad.”
Ravi crouched down to Theo’s level, ready for his label. “I wonder what mine is.”
Theo looked up and giggled to himself. Buck already knew what Theo was going to write as the little boy peeled the sticker off and gave it to Ravi. “Probie.”
Ravi laughed so hard he nearly tipped backwards. “Buck!”
Then Theo wandered over to Harry, who’d only just arrived at the station for his shift. Without hesitation, he wrote one word.
HARRY
Harry looked down at the sticker, before seeing everyone else having different names on theirs. “…That’s just my name.”
Theo nodded before walking away, it was time for preschool and as anticipated, Carla was walking in the station door. “Yep.”
“Thanks?” Harry said, watching as the little boy bounced away.
Buck laughed, slinging an arm around Harry’s shoulder. “I think you’ve already got the perfect name.”
Harry shrugged. “I’ll take it.”
-
Hen lined everyone up in the engine bay for a photo. “Smile!” Everyone wearing their new names on their stickers.
Buck is MR POOP.
Eddie is THE BEST.
Hen is DOCTOR HEN.
Chim is JEE’S DAD.
Ravi is PROBIE.
Harry is HARRY.
Hen immediately sent it to the 118 family group chat. Less than a minute later, Maddie replied.
Maddie
Why is my brother named Mr Poop?
Buck
Ask your nephew
3. Are you going…quackers?
Buck should have known something was wrong when Theo emerged from the hall closet carrying a shoebox. “What’s that, bubba?”
Theo set it on the living room floor and pulled the lid off, inside were dozens of tiny rubber ducks. Firefighter ducks. Pirate ducks. Cowboy ducks. A duck dressed as a banana. A vampire. A superhero. A glittery gold duck. If it was shaped like a duck, it was in the box.
“I forgot I still had those.” Buck said, rubbing the back of his neck.
“You forgot you owned,” Eddie picked up a duck wearing sunglasses. “an entire duck civilization?”
“When I had my Jeep, people used to ‘duck’ each other.” Buck explained.
Theo tilted his head. “Duck?”
“If someone liked your Jeep, they’d leave you a little rubber duck. I kept all the ones I got.”
Theo stared into the box with absolute reverence. “So… they all picked you?” Theo thought that was the coolest thing he’d ever heard.
-
The following Monday, Chimney shoved his foot into his turnout boot. Squeak. He frowned, pulling his foot out and tipping the boot over. “Guys?” Nobody looked up from where they were getting dressed, filing back out of the locker room.
Chimney walked into the bay holding something very, very small between two fingers. A tiny yellow rubber duck that looked like a princess, specifically, Cinderella.
“Why are you carrying a rubber duck?” Hen asked.
“I wasn’t.” Chim held up his turnout boot. “It was in my boot.”
Everyone continued about their day, and the mystery was forgotten almost immediately.
Until lunch.
Eddie opened the fridge to pull out the tupperware he had packed the night before. He opened the container and pulled out a tiny rubber duck, this one dressed as a soldier. “…Guys.”
Buck looked over. “What?”
Eddie held up the rubber duck. “This was not here this morning.”
Buck laughed. “Maybe Chim’s duck had a friend.”
“I’m serious.” Eddie says, placing the duck on the kitchen island, next to Chim’s Cinderella duck.
-
Their shift continued as any 48-hour shift would. Hen was restocking the ambulance and reached into the med kit to check for fresh gauze. Instead, she pulled out…a duck. A doctor duck. She stared at it then slowly walked into the kitchen. “I have questions.”
Chimney immediately pointed. “Twenty bucks says it’s Buck.”
Everyone moved about their day and their first call began with Ravi climbing into the engine. A firefighter duck sitting on the dashboard. “Number four.” he yelled out to the rest of the team, showing them the duck.
Chim grabbed a marker. “We’re numbering them.” As he wrote on the whiteboard he’d set up in the engine bay.
Duck Count: 4
-
By the end of the week, the station had become obsessed. Every discovery was announced immediately, with more money going into a pool to figure out who is “ducking” the station.
The tally climbed and climbed. Nine. Eleven. Fourteen. Nobody understood how or where the ducks were coming from. Buck had checked Theo’s backpack each morning before leaving to make sure there were no ducks.
The theories became increasingly ridiculous. “They’re reproducing,” Chim had suggested which caused Hen to roll her eyes, stating the obvious fact that they’re rubber.
The next week, Eddie reached into his jeans pocket while grabbing his keys, instead of his keys, he pulled out something small. Something squeaky. Duck. He stared at it, confusion obvious on his face. “…How?”
The whiteboard now read -
Duck Count: 23
Nobody knew where they were coming from and everyone had checked everywhere. After the googly eyes incident, they were all on edge.
Buck was about to preheat the oven to bake cornbread for dinner. A few minutes later, he opened the oven door to slide the pan in. Without saying a word, Buck reached inside the cold oven, picked up a tiny rubber duck that had somehow been sitting on the rack, and held it up.
“There is no way!”
“I checked the kitchen!”
“Who hides one in the oven?”
That was when Buck noticed something else. Silence. Theo had been suspiciously quiet for several minutes. Once a week, Carla would bring him to the station during shifts to have dinner with Buck.
Buck glanced around the kitchen. No Theo. “Theo?”
A muffled giggle sounded as Buck neared the dining table. Buck stopped, then bent down to look underneath. Two bright eyes met his. Theo had both hands clamped firmly over his mouth, trying, and completely failing, not to laugh.
Buck couldn’t help it, he started laughing too. “So it was you.”
Theo nodded so hard his curls bounced. “I got everybody.”
“You really did.” Buck held out his hand. “Come here, you menace.” Theo crawled out from under the table, still giggling so hard he could barely breathe. Buck scooped him into his arms. “So…” Buck said, trying to sound serious. “Any more ducks?”
Theo buried his face in Buck’s shoulder, before Buck felt a tiny nod. Buck sighed dramatically. “How many?” Theo whispered the answer into his ear. Buck’s eyes widened. “Twenty-seven?”
Theo dissolved into another fit of laughter. Across the room, Chimney groaned. “There are more?” Theo finally managed to catch his breath just long enough to announce, with all the pride of a master magician revealing his greatest trick.
“You haven’t found the bathtub duck yet.”
Every firefighter in the room immediately sprinted toward the bathrooms. Buck simply rested his chin on top of Theo’s head, laughing as boots thundered down the stairs. “You know,” he murmured, “I think you’re going to keep this station on its toes for a very long time.”
Theo’s grin was positively duckish.
4. Firefighter Fashion Week
Buck should have been suspicious when Theo asked to borrow the bubble machine. He should have been even more suspicious when Maddie arrived carrying two enormous tubs labelled JEE’S DRESS-UPS, Jee following closely behind her and Chimney in the rear carrying Nash.
“What are those for?”
Maddie smiled far too innocently. “Theo asked Jee if he could borrow some costumes.”
Before Buck could respond, Theo came running into the kitchen, squeezing past Eddie and squealing. “They’re for fashion. Jee! Let’s go.” They all watched as the two kids ran off.
An hour later, Buck’s backyard had been transformed. The bubble machine hummed happily beside the deck, while garden lights had been strung along the fence in the middle of the afternoon because Theo insisted they were “sparkly.” A kids picnic table served as the judges’ table and a long strip of old bedsheets stretched across the lawn.
“The runway!” Theo announced proudly. He had even drawn a sign in crayon and had it standing near the backdoor.
LAFD-FW
Buck crouched beside him. “What’s FW?”
Theo looked at him as though the answer was obvious. “Firefighter Week.”
More of the 118 piled into Buck’s house and Buck had no idea what was happening. Hen and Karen arrived with a cheese board and both kids in tow. Harry, Ravi and May showed up with more snacks and drinks. Christopher hadn’t managed to escape in time whilst Theo was directing everyone to their places. “Everyone line up!”
Nobody moved so Theo folded his little arms, nudging Jee who also crossed her arms. “I worked really hard.”
Within seconds, six fully grown firefighters were obediently standing shoulder-to-shoulder. Harry leaned toward Ravi. “We’re being bossed around by someone who’s three feet tall.”
“Be thankful he doesn’t have a clipboard.” Ravi responded.
“The first category,” Theo announced, consulting an index card covered in block letters, “is Best Firefighter Pose!”
Buck immediately struck what he believed was a heroic stance. Hands on hips. Chin up. Looking like a superhero on a comic book cover. Hen rolled her eyes. “Amateur.” She planted one boot on the picnic bench like she was posing for the cover of a magazine.
Chimney saluted. Ravi simply smiled. While Harry did a Usain Bolt impression. Theo and Jee walked down the line with all the seriousness of professional judges. Karen and Maddie were sipping their wines, snapping photos of the kids.
The two mini-Buckleys took their job very seriously. A series of mmms and ahhhs chorussed as they moved down the line, stopping at each firefighter to take in their poses. After much deliberation, Theo turns to face the group, announcing the winner.
“Hen wins.”
Hen punched the air. “Yes!”
Buck looked offended. “How?”
“Uncle Buck. Don’t be a sore loser,” Jee explained.
-
Next came Turnout Chic. The costumes finally appeared and Buck was suspicious of the hand-writing on the cue cards looking very similar to Maddie’s. Theo and Jee had apparently spent their last sleep over “improving” everyone’s uniforms.
Hen was handed a tiny pirate hat and a sheriff’s badge. Chim received a feather boa and tiara, Jee smiling wide at her dad. Buck somehow ended up wearing butterfly wings over his turnout coat. “They don’t even match!”
“They fly.” Theo started to run around, flapping his arms to show Buck how to fly.
Ravi was given a simple, plastic flower that May tucked into his chest pocket. Harry on the other hand looked like a Disney princess and unicorn had thrown up on him, every square inch was covered in some kind of princess accessory and rainbow imaginable.
Another round of deliberation came from the two smallest kids, this time asking the older three to help them. Together they decided that Chimney was the winner.
That earnt a fist bump from Chimney. “Yes!”
-
“Fire Couture!” Nobody knew what that meant and Buck knew that Theo didn’t either. He simply pointed dramatically toward the runway. “Go do fashion.”
“Good enough,” Buck decided, none of them had taken their turnout costumes off. The bubble machine filled the yard with floating bubbles, as one by one they walked the makeshift runway.
Hen was first up, she didn’t walk, she owned the runway. One hand on her hip, she twirled the pirate hat before blowing a kiss toward the judges’ table, which was just Theo’s picnic table with all the kids sitting behind it.
Theo clapped so enthusiastically he nearly fell over.
Chimney was next and he strutted down the runway. Actually strutted, complete with exaggerated hip swings. Halfway down the runway he spun, pointed dramatically at absolutely nobody, and walked back without breaking character.
Buck doubled over in laughter. “I hate how good you were at that.”
“I’ve been waiting for this opportunity.” Chimney flung his feather boa over his shoulder.
Buck’s turn. He committed completely. Halfway down the runway he threw in a dramatic spin that sent his butterfly wings flapping wildly behind him. Jee and Theo shrieked with laughter. “Again!”
Buck spun a second time, and became dizzy but it was worth it.
-
“Eddie.” Theo looked up expectantly. Eddie had taken a seat with Karen and Maddie, playing with Nash while the others participated in Theo’s fashion show.
Eddie bounced Nash in his lap, “I’m okay watching.”
Theo was quiet for a second, before his bottom lip jutted out. “You don’t want to play with me?”
Eddie’s face fell and Buck watched the exact moment his resolve crumbled. “…That’s not fair.” Eddie sighed the sigh of a man who knew he’d already lost. “Alright.”
Theo’s entire face lit up. “Really?”
“Really.” He accepted the accessories Theo handed him without question. A tiny sparkly crown on his head and red cape tied around his turnout coat.
Buck bit his lip so hard it hurt. “You look magnificent.”
Eddie walked the runway with complete, unwavering seriousness. There was no dancing, or spinning, only a slow, confident walk straight down the middle. At the end, he gave the smallest nod imaginable before turning and walking back.
Theo applauded louder than he had for anyone else. “The Best,” he declared and Buck couldn’t stop smiling.
-
Theo disappeared behind the judges’ table with Maddie to “count the scores.” Nobody knew there had been scores. A few moments later he emerged carrying a handmade ribbon.
“And the winner…is Ravi!”
Ravi blinked.“Me?”
Theo nodded enthusiastically. “You looked nicest.”
Buck looked down at Ravi. He was wearing exactly what he’d started with, his LAFD uniform, the only addition was the tiny plastic flower still tucked into his pocket.
Buck laughed. “He literally changed the least.”
“Exactly,” Theo said.
Hen threw her hands in the air. “I gave you high fashion!”
“I wore a boa!” Chimney objected. “I pirouetted!”
Theo shrugged and looked to Jee. At the same time they both nodded and said “Ravi.”
Ravi accepted the ribbon with a grin. “I’d like to thank the academy. I’d like to thank Theo and Jee for recognizing true style.”
Buck groaned dramatically. “This competition was rigged.”
“It was judged,” Theo corrected.
As bubbles drifted across the backyard and six firefighters argued over the results of the world’s least official fashion show, Theo sat cross-legged on the picnic blanket, completely satisfied.
In his eyes, the strongest firefighters in Los Angeles didn’t just save lives.
They also looked much better in feather boas.
5. The Missing Cookies
Buck had baked. A lot. Theo’s adoption hearing was coming up and when Buck was stressed, we all knew what happened, especially the 118. Three full tubs of chocolate chip cookies sat on the kitchen counter at the station.
“You know,” Chim said, already reaching for one, “if you keep baking like this, we’re going to expect it.”
Buck slapped his hand away. “They’re still cooling.”
“I was quality testing.” Chimney says, taking a bite out of one of the cookies.
“You were stealing.” Buck throws his hands up.
“Same thing.” only crumbs were left of the stolen cookie now.
Hen laughed. “Protect those cookies with your life, Buck.”
Before anyone else could steal another cookie, the tones sounded. Everyone piled into the trucks and Buck gave the tupperware one last longing look before climbing aboard.
-
The call took just under an hour and by the time they got back, everyone was hungry. Buck headed straight for the kitchen, then stopped, staring at the counter. In place of his piles of cookies, were crumbs. “The cookies.”
Hen looked up from the dining table. “What about them?”
“They’re gone.” The rest of the team looked up, confusion on all of their faces. “The tubs are empty.”
Chim hurried over. “No.” He lifted the first container, empty, barely even a crumb, the second and third container, also empty. “No, no, no!”
Buck looked genuinely horrified. “I made like… sixty cookies.”
The kitchen became a crime scene, Hen crouched beside the counter, eyes level with its surface. “There are crumbs.”
Chim pointed dramatically. “Evidence.”
Ravi leaned closer, “Are those fingerprints?” There were, in fact, suspiciously chocolatey fingerprints on the lid of one tub.
Then Eddie found the note, folded neatly beneath one of the containers. He opened it and cleared his throat. “We have the cookies. No cops. Or else.”
Everyone leaned in, the cookies were gone and in their place, a ransom note. Buck tilted his head. “Is that it?”
“That’s it.” Eddie offered the note to the rest of the team, before Hen grabbed it.
“Someone helped him spell.” She said, turning the note over. The handwriting was far too neat to belong to Theo.
Chim immediately looked around the room. “There’s an accomplice.” He gasped dramatically. “We’ve got an inside man.”
-
The investigation escalated with alarming speed. A whiteboard appeared and Chimney started his crime board.
MISSING COOKIES
Underneath was a list of suspects, and all of their department head shots on the board. “I object,” Ravi said. Hen added a tick beside his name. “Suspicious behavior.”
“Who had access to the kitchen?” Chimney paces in front of everyone, hands behind his back.
“All of us.” Eddie scoffs.
“Exactly. So it had to be one of you. Whose fingerprints are these?” Chimney points to each individual team member, Buck and Eddie share a look, barely keeping their laughter inside.
“They’re chocolate. We know it’s Theo who somehow took the cookies. But who helped him?” Hen adds, standing next to Chimney, eyes narrowed as she looks between everyone.
Buck pointed at Chim. “You’ve got motive. You were already taking one of them before we went on our call.”
“Hang on, your kid stole the cookies and somehow it’s Cap’s fault?” Ravi chimes in.
Buck turns to Ravi, “Ravi, do I need to grab the chainsaw?”
-
Hen eventually took a photo of the whiteboard, the empty tubs, the ransom note, and the increasingly dramatic investigation. She sent it to Athena with one caption.
Hen
The boys have lost their minds.
Less than a minute later, Athena replied.
Athena
I know exactly who did it.
Hen looked around the kitchen, phone twisting in her hand. Buck folded his arms. “Who?” Athena’s next message was even shorter.
Athena
Check the carpark
Buck frowned and looked towards the station’s side door. Standing in the doorway was Theo, his cheeks smeared with chocolate, cookie crumbs covering his shirt, and a half eaten cookie clutched in one of his hands. Very slowly the rest of the team turned, Jee and Nash were also there, Maddie behind all three kids trying very hard not to laugh.
Chimney gasped. “It was an inside job.”
“I have diplomatic immunity,” Maddie said.
“You helped write the ransom note!” Hen accused.
Maddie shrugged. “He dictated.”
Theo puffed out his chest proudly. “I said ‘no cops.’”
Buck laughed.“I figured.” He reached over and brushed a crumb from Theo’s cheek. “So tell me something.” Theo looked up, and tilted his head, an action he’d picked up from Buck. “Why’d you take them?”
Theo answered as though it were the most obvious thing in the world. “I was protecting them.”
“Protecting them from who?”
Theo stared at him with complete sincerity. “You.”
The team fell silent, no more giggles and accusations being thrown around. Buck frowned slightly. “Me?”
“You always say, ‘Only one before dinner.’”
“…I do.”
“If I hide them,” Theo smiled proudly. “Then you and Eddie can’t eat them all.”
+1. Firefighter Theo
Family Day at the 118 was, according to Theo, “the best day ever.” He’d declared it before they’d even left Buck’s house. By the time they arrived at the station, he’d already helped Ravi set out folding tables, “inspected” the engine twice, and informed every firefighter he passed that they were “doing a good job.”
Buck had smiled through all of it. “You know,” Eddie murmured as Theo hurried after Ravi with a clipboard he’d found somewhere, “he really thinks he works here.”
Buck laughed. “I’m pretty sure he thinks he runs the place.”
The station buzzed with families and visitors. Children climbed through the engine under careful supervision. Parents chatted over coffee. They had set up a face-painting table in one corner, while another firefighter demonstrated how the jaws of life worked.
Theo wanted to do everything. He’d spent the morning proudly introducing himself to strangers. “I’m Theo. I work here.”
Around lunchtime, Chimney wandered over. “Hey, buddy.”
Theo looked up from showing Jee how to balance a toy fire helmet on Mr. Moo. “Yeah?”
“I need your help for something.”
Theo was on his feet immediately. “Okay!”
Buck frowned, looking between them. “What are you two up to?”
Chim’s expression was suspiciously innocent. “Nothing.”
Hen appeared beside him, placing her hands on Theo’s shoulders. “Absolutely nothing.”
Ravi nodded far too seriously. “Very normal firefighter business.”
Buck looked at Eddie. “They’re lying.”
Theo disappeared into the station with Chimney, Hen and Ravi. Harry excused himself a moment later and left to join them, the bay doors quietly sliding shut.
Buck looked around wondering what was happening. “Should we be concerned?”
Eddie shrugged. “If they’ve kidnapped him, he’s probably the one in charge.”
A few minutes passed and more visitors continued wandering through the station. A member of the public asked Buck about Engine 118. He answered automatically, though his eyes kept drifting toward the closed bay doors.
Then they opened.
The conversation around the station seemed to soften all on its own. Theo stood just inside the doorway, perfectly still, his hands hung at his sides and his mouth slightly open. He wasn’t smiling or talking, and for one awful second, Buck wondered if something or someone had upset him.
That was until Buck saw what Chimney was holding.
A tiny turnout coat.
It wasn’t plastic or a cheap costume. It was a real turnout coat, custom-made in Theo’s size, with reflective stripes and working buckles. Across the chest, embroidered in neat gold letters, was one name.
THEO
Resting beside it was a miniature firefighter’s helmet and clipped carefully to the front was an honorary LAFD badge.
Theo didn’t move, he just stared at the team who had become his family then back to the coat. “So,” Chim said softly. “We’ve noticed you’ve been working here for a while.” A tiny huff of laughter rippled through the room. “You’ve inspected the trucks.”
Ravi continued, smiling. “Kept morale high.”
“You’ve definitely kept us entertained,” Harry added.
“And you’ve reminded every one of us that this place should always have room for laughter.” Hen finished.
Chimney lowered himself onto one knee. “This belongs to you.”
Theo blinked, his eyes tracking the adults in front of him. “For me?”
“So you don’t have to keep borrowing ours.” Chimney’s voice was gentle. “Every firehouse needs someone who reminds us why we do this.”
Buck felt something in his chest crack open, and he looked to Eddie. He knew the man beside him was feeling the same thing watching everything unfold.
Hen stepped forward first. “Can I help?”
Theo gave the tiniest nod as she carefully slipped the turnout coat over his shoulders. The sleeves covered half his hands and the hem brushed his knees. It was much too big, and it was absolutely perfect.
Chim adjusted the front clasps before gently settling the little helmet onto Theo’s curls. It tipped sideways immediately. Ravi reached over and straightened it. “There.”
Then, with complete seriousness, Ravi stood tall and offered him a crisp salute. Theo stared for half a second before snapping into the most enthusiastic salute anyone had ever seen.
Hen smiled. “Go on.”
Theo looked up. “What?”
“Go see.”
He turned toward the mirror near the lockers, then broke into a run. The turnout coat bounced around his little legs as he disappeared down the hallway.
Buck couldn’t move, and he certainly couldn’t speak, a hand over his chest to check he was still able to breathe. Eddie quietly turned beside him. “You okay?”
Buck let out a shaky laugh. “Yeah.” He wasn’t, not really, because all he could think about was Connor and Kameron, and that fateful day that he met Theo for the first time since he was born.
They should have been here. They should have been the ones wiping away happy tears while their little boy admired himself in a firefighter’s coat. They should have heard his laugh echo through the station. They should have watched him stand just a little taller because the people he adored had made him feel like one of them.
Buck wished, with every part of himself, that they could have seen this.
“Theo!” Hen laughed. “Careful!”
Buck looked up just in time to see Theo sprinting back toward them, helmet crooked, and cheeks pink. His eyes were shining with excitement. “LOOK!”
Buck didn’t even think, he dropped onto one knee as Theo skidded to a stop in front of him.
Buck looked him over from head to toe, taking in the oversized turnout coat, little badge and the helmet that was slipping over one eye. Theo’s smile that could have lit the whole station.
“I’ve never seen a better firefighter.”
Theo launched himself forward and Buck caught him easily, wrapping both arms around him as Theo buried his face against his neck. “Can I stay at the station forever?”