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Carlos didn’t even understand how there was a snowstorm in Austin right now. He had lived here since he was born and never did they get more than the occasional yearly flurry, and that itself was pretty rare. So, to see the entire city covered in a thick white blanket out of nowhere was completely weird.
Part of it was beautiful of course. Everything was peaceful and glistening. A small part of him wished that he could have been able to enjoy it with TK. Laughing with each other as they heaved small balls of snow at each other, like he had seen the couples in movies do. Sitting next to each other as they bundled up in thick coats and sharing a nice mug of hot cocoa. Unfortunately the man had dumped him out of nowhere without a proper explanation, shattering Carlos’ heart into a thousand tiny pieces with no one there to pick them up. Then TK had almost died for what felt like the thousandth time and explained where his head was at. While they were back together at the moment, their bond was still super fragile and off balance, like one wrong move could be the thing that broke them up for good. That left him with the ugly parts of the snow. Not physically, but the struggle it brought with it. His patrol car struggled getting through streets that weren’t completely plowed down to the pavement. People were slipping left and right, branches were breaking, and people were freezing. Austin wasn’t equipped for this kind of weather. Their equipment and houses weren’t built to withstand it. It left people in danger and left their first responders struggling to do their jobs to help.
As pretty as the snow was, it only served to remind Carlos of how much he hated the cold. Sure, it was easier to manage lower temperatures. He could pile on coats and under-layers until his body was warmed again, while during the summer he could only take so many layers off before he was practicing public indecency. The part that really irked him about the snow was how sick it made him feel. As already stated, he grew up in Texas. He wasn't built for the cold weather. He was used to heat most of the year round and mild winters that never got too frigid.
He remembers being younger and the few winters the temperature had dropped before the thirties. He had still been in childhood sports at the time. He wasn’t the best soccer player out there, but he wasn’t terrible at the sport. Well, until it got cold outside and every single breath he sucked in felt like it was pulling shards of ice into his stomach. His lungs would twist and burn painfully as his throat got drier and drier. By the time he was done playing each night, he would be able to taste iron in his spit. This throat would feel like someone had gone in and scratched until the fragile skin was torn and raw.
That wasn’t so far from how he was feeling right now. He had been on the clock for the past five hours, which was only a tiny fraction of the entire 48 hour shift he was scheduled to work. Just from the time alone he was already starting to feel sick. The cold was making his head pounding in a nonstop ache that he couldn’t seem to shake off. His stomach was uneasy from the combination of warm coffee contrasted by the piercing cold. And of course, the cold had its everlasting effect of making his throat beyond sore. He had the constant urge to cough, but he knew the second he opened those floodgates that it wouldn’t stop. He could taste non-existent blood in his saliva each time he swallowed. Not to mention his nose was running everywhere, clear mucus dripping over his lips in seconds just after he wiped it. It was not fun.
Carlos shifted uncomfortably in his seat, bringing his jacket sleeve over his nose for what felt like the thousandth time. His stomach was heavy and lukewarm with coffee and as much as it made him feel sick, he was currently wishing he had another despite how sick it was making him feel. He needed the heat. His car could only blast the heat so much and it really wasn’t doing much for him. He looked over his dash at the frozen world in front of him. As pretty as it already was, he wished it reflected the beauty he saw on the TV more. There, the snow would be a brilliant shade of glistening white as the sun reflected off of thousands of tiny droplets. Here, clouds still covered a thick majority of the sky, keeping the sun away from melting even an inch off of the ground. The clouds were dark and grey with the constant threat of more ice.
Carlos had seen the danger. He had watched it almost kill the man that meant the most to him in this world. He had watched it bring his friends at the firehouse to near death. He had seen it on the hundreds of calls he had not only responded to, but heard about from other people. An elderly woman slipping in her own porch and nearly cracking her skull open. Invisible ice on the roads sending card sliding into others and being responsible for hundreds of recent wrecks. A little boy almost blinding his little sister in a snowball turned ice fight. It was dangerous. Carlos was ready for it all to melt. He was tired of seeing it risk the lives of his fellow first responders.
He sighed, rubbing his hands together as he tried to warm them up. He tried to boost the heat in his car more, pressing his hands against the vents to warm them up. The contrast of the heat against his frigid fingers felt like fire burning over his skin. He couldn’t decide if he loved or hated the feeling. He pulled them back away, shaking the blood back into them. Had it really only been five hours? It felt like a lot more than that. He wanted to go home and hold his boyfriend close. He hadn’t been able to do that in so long now and he needed the reassurance that the conversation they had in the hospital hadn’t been a figment of Carlos’ imagination. He needed to know that TK did actually want him back in his life.
His walkie buzzed to life on his chest, making Carlos jump in his seat. He rolled his eyes at the reaction and checked the pad on his dash.
“We have a robbery on South, suspect is dressed in a black coat and red hat,” the rest of the call disappeared into standard detailing as Carlos checked his review and pulled his car into drive. He flicked on the sirens and began routing to the store. It wasn’t a bank or even a jewelry store. It was a gas station. What kind of idiot robbed a gas station? There wasn’t anything of value to take from a place like that. Apparently the cold made people stupid too. Carlos took a deep breath, remembering how his year had gone so far. Or maybe they were always like that. He reached towards his chest and activated his walkie.
“363-H-20 responding,” He reported, taking a right on a back street as he quickly made his way to the scene of the robbery. He wasn’t far from the place it had been called in from. Judging by the lack of emergency vehicles at the scene so far, Carlos guessed he was likely the first one on scene.
He breaked and switched his car into park right in front of the store and hopped out of the vehicle. His eyes scanned the front of the store. Most of the front wall was glass and he hoped to spot what was going on before he instantly bursted in and somehow got himself or someone else hurt.
Much to his luck, or unluck if you were to ask him, the robber in question bursted out the front door and was dashing towards an alley before Carlos had the chance to figure out what was going on. He cursed to himself as he began running.
Great. It was exactly what he wanted to be doing. A footchase through the snow after someone who was likely an absolute moron. Carlos sprinted through the gap in the alleyway. The man in front of him was quick, he noticed that immediately. He was pretty agile, much to Carlos’ own distaste. He hadn’t been mentally prepared to be sprinting through a back alleyway right now. Technically he was supposed to be prepared for anything while on the clock, but in reality, nobody was ever really ready to be thrown into a solo foot chase.
Carlos ducked under a clothes line, forcing his body to move faster so he didn’t lose the suspect. While the man in front of him was only wearing light joggers and a black coat, Carlos himself was being weighed down by the full weight of his gear as well as the pool of coffee in his stomach that he now regrets drinking.
As he kept chasing the man, hopping over mounds of snow covered trash and avoiding being clipped in the side by metal beams and rods, he distantly hoped that he would turn back out towards the main street again. He guessed that if he could get the man on a straight shot of running, that he would finally be able to catch him. The issue right now was dodging and weaving through skinny and debris filled alleys. It was completely inconvenient and throwing him off of his pace.
He rounded another corner, forcing his legs to cooperate as the snow pulled him down. His quads were beginning to grow heavy and starting to burn as he kept forcing his legs through the thick ice. The burning in his throat had amplified to a constant feeling of tearing pain. He tasted iron in his spit and he knew he would be feeling the throat pain for the next few hours. His nose was running all over his face and he didn’t even want to know how red his skin was getting from the wind burn. He forced himself to keep moving. Each time he raised his leg to keep running, his entire body protested. He usually was far more in shape than this. He blamed it on the cold. He wasn’t conditioned for weather like this.
Carlos cursed as he rounded another corner and saw the suspect attempting to scramble up a wall. He picked up his pace, ignoring the full body protest in his limbs. He jumped at the wall, praying he would be able to get a hand on the man’s ankle. His fingers slipped off of his boot as the suspect cleared the wall and jumped to the other side.
“Shit,” Carlos cursed aloud this time, heaving his body up to clear the wall. He hated the stupid snow. If it hadn't been so damn slippery outside we wouldn’t have lost his grip on that boot. The chase would be over and the suspect would be in custody in any other case than this one. It was entirely frustrating and about to drive Carlos out of his mind. He grunted as he pulled his body over the ledge of the wall.
As soon as his face was over, he saw the end of the alley. Shit. He was sure to have lost him now. He hurried himself. Two things happened at once. He heard the sirens of police and saw a coworker of his tackle the man he had been chasing to the floor, handcuffing him. The other thing was his foot slipping on ice where he had planted it on the top of the brick. Carlos’ whole body jerked at the sudden slip. His weight was thrown forward and before he could react he was tumbling six feet down into solid ice. Normally, the fall would be completely manageable. Embarrassing and inconvenient more than anything. But the ice had completely thrown his balance and awareness off. There wasn’t enough time for him to figure out where the ground was compared to him before his foot was slamming straight into solid ice at an awful angle.
A loud crack rang through his entire body followed by a tear as his body collected with the floor. Immediately, white hot pain shot up from his ankle, seizing his entire leg. He bit his lip hard, ignoring the very real blood he could taste this time. His ankle was immediately throbbing in pain so intense his mind didn’t even know how to react. White hot agony quickly turned into an aching and terrible numbness as the shock began to kick in.
Carlos didn’t want to look down. He knew he had beyond fucked up something in his leg. He didn’t know if it was his foot or knee or ankle, although he suspected ankle as it had been the main source of the pain. He knew he had to though. He tried to pull his foot out from where he was awkwardly laying on top of it, but the tiny movement caused pain to ignite through the limb. He couldn’t stop the groan of pain from leaving his lips this time.
He forced his legs out in front of him, laying back as he supported himself with his hands. He slowly peeled his eyes open, looking down at the damage before immediately squeezing them back shut as his stomach rolled. His ankle was completely fucked. Even from behind the leather of his boot, he could see the awkward angle that his foot was sitting at. His shin was pointed outwards while his entire foot was still facing inside. That was bad. That was really bad.
He didn’t even have time to call for him himself before a rumble of footsteps was pounding his way. He peeled his eyes back open, forcing his eyes to stay away from his ankle. He saw two cops looking down at the injury, then at him, both looking as disgusted as he had when he had assessed it.
“Hey Reyes…” One of them cleared their throat, “we’re calling EMS, you’re gonna be fine.” As much as Carlos appreciated the attempt at comfort, he knew his ankle was bad. What should have been blinding pain was merely a distant throbbing and a tingling numbness spreading up his shin. His throat felt like knives had sliced through the back of it and his chest was heaving from the adrenaline of the chase wearing off.
“How far?” Carlos choked out, still making a conscious effort to not make direct eye contact with the injury itself. The man on his right looked down at the phone in his hand.
“Couple minutes,” he replied, “you holding up okay?” Carlos scoffed. At least the two were trying to make him feel better.
“Define okay,” he joked back, although it wasn’t really a joke. Anything would keep his mind off the fact his ankle was completely fucked was better than acknowledging it.
The cop in front of him didn’t seem to have an answer to that question. Carlos sighed, leaning farther back against his elbows as the cold began to set in. He really hoped EMS would arrive soon. The selfish part of him prayed that the team that had been called was TK’s. It was completely self-centered for him to wish his boyfriend to see him in an injured state, but he really needed the other man right now.
He wanted to see the worry in TK’s eyes. He wanted to have the man carefully fret over his injuries and fix him up until he was no longer numb. Distantly, he could hear sirens approaching the area. He smiled weakly. He could almost imagine TK’s warm hands pressing into the skin of his leg, carefully tugging off his boot, and cooing in Carlos' ear as he tended to him.
A hand shook his shoulder. “No passing out on us, Reyes,” a voice in front of him scolded. He hadn’t even noticed that the world was blurring. The shock was really getting to him now, wasn’t it. That wasn’t good. That wasn’t good at all. He hoped that the sirens he was hearing weren't parents of his mental delirium. That EMS really was close enough that they would have his body on a gurney. He wanted warmth. He wanted TK.
Things began getting fuzzy again as he thought of the other man. Another strong hand pushed into his shoulder and his eyes fluttered back open. There were more footsteps headed his way this time. He distantly recognized the uniforms of the firefighters in front of him. The weak smile returned to his face as he saw the faint marking of the 126 on the people in front of him.
Someone was sliding down onto their knees in front of him. Hands were cupping his face. His eyes met TK’s own worried deep brown eyes and Carlos would be happy dying looking into those eyes. TK was his everything. He would gladly die in these arms. He wanted this man to be with him for the rest of his life.
“Hey baby,” TK’s voice soothed through his ears beautifully. Carlos hummed gently just from hearing it. “You’re okay, yeah?” Carlos only weakly nodded. His vision was blurring in and out. He wasn’t going to pass out, but he was getting close.
Things were very fuzzy as his body was shifted onto a gurney and he was hooked up to pain meds. As the medicine slowly began to kick in, the numbness in his leg slowly shifted towards his face towards where TK was sitting in the ambulance. The man was staring down at him. Their hands were interlaced.
TK leaned down and kissed his forehead so gently, brushing his hand through Carlos’ hair. The warmth was everything he had wished for since the beginning of the snowstorm.
His eyes drifted shut and he squeezed TK’s hand softly as he fell into sleep.
“Well, you definitely broke it,” Carlos huffed at the doctor in front of him. The last thing he wanted was being benched from working right now. However, the still present ache pounding through his ankle was telling him he really didn’t have a choice.
“We set it while you were still asleep, but you’re going to want lots of rest and pain meds,” the doctor commented. TK’s hand gently squeezed his own and whatever frustration he had about the situation vanished. If he could use this as an excuse to lounge around with his lover, he would take full advantage of that opportunity.
Distantly, he could hear the doctor keep talking, but he wasn’t listening. All he could focus on was the man in front of him. The man he was so lucky to be able to call his own.
TK looked down at him, mouthing something about the doctor going on and on that Carlos couldn’t really comprehend. He didn’t mind though.
He was happy here.
Completely happy, even though his ankle was broken and there was still far too much snow outside.
He was satisfied.