more than an ally 🏳️‍🌈

2. On the way to the call, Bobby gives them the rundown. Male. Early 30s. Legs went through the floor on the second floor during home renovations and wound up stuck. It seems pretty straight forward to Buck. 

On arrival, they have to break into the house because the front door is locked. Buck kinda feels bad about it because it looks like the door was just recently installed, but there really was no other way. They also see the dangling legs in the ceiling right away. Bobby instructs Chim to head up and he immediately yells back “Hey, guys, it’s Tommy!” 

Buck is all “who’s Tommy?” feeling a tad jealous as the others start to talk and joke around.

Tommy is trying to downplay everything even as the floor creaks from Chim’s weight. Bobby is trying to figure out if they should try to get Tommy out on the second or first floor. 

“Floor’s pretty unsteady,” Chim confirms. 

“I think I got termites,” Tommy complains as Bobby decides it will be safer to bring him down. 

At some point while they work to get him out, Chim and Hen tell Buck that Tommy used to be at the 118. 

“You actually replaced him,” Bobby adds. 

“And why did you leave? To flip houses?” Buck asks, not sure if that’s actually working for Tommy. 

“He’s a pilot at Harbor,” Hen supplies. 

Buck immediately starts asking questions about it. Bobby doesn’t stop him because it’s keeping Tommy talking and distracted while they work to get him out and stop the bleeding. Hen suspects a bad cut and is hoping that it wasn’t a major artery. 

So, Buck gets to hear about Tommy flying and his transfer and how he came to be a pilot in the first place and Tommy asks about Buck’s time at the 118. They’re flirting a little in a way that goes over Buck’s head entirely and that Hen has gotten used to from Buck with guys and girls alike. Tommy though is very intrigued by Buck even more so when he finally gets a look at him because while he looks a little younger than what Tommy usually goes for, he’s also eyecatching. 

3. It’s after convincing Tommy he has to go to the hospital because he has splinters in his leg and the cut is deep and needs stitches that Chim asks about the house. 

Tommy explains he purchased it on a short sale for a third of its value because of all the repairs it’s in need of. He figured if he did everything himself over several years it would make sense financially. His idea was to make it livable. The kitchen he’d already tackled and it wasn’t done exactly but he had water and gas and the old appliances that came with the house were still somehow working. His full bathroom on the second floor was also in working order even though the tile was atrocious and he hated the tub. But he’d been sleeping in what was supposed to be the living room because he had wanted to get his bedroom ready before he moved in there so there’d be one place that was actually finished. 

“That sort of makes sense,” Hen said. 

“Aren’t you going to end up spending just as much money renovating as you would if you bought a house that didn’t need this much work?” Chim asked. 

“Doing it myself, Chim,” Tommy explained. “I’m not paying anyone for the labor.” 

He’d done the math. His mortgage was tiny and he would pay it off in ten years give or take instead of thirty and as long as he could also live there then he could renovate as slow or fast as he could. It felt lofty, but Tommy also liked the idea that he’d end up with a house that he built with his own hands…a house that was how he liked it, where maybe one day he might meet someone that he could invite to live with him. It had three bedrooms. Maybe that future included a kid? Two? 

“That’s actually pretty cool,” Buck supplied. “And that means you’re also picking out your own materials and aren’t using all the stuff that won’t actually hold up for long.” 

“Yeah, but now I might have termites,” Tommy said as he was put into the ambulance.

“What do you know about home renovation?” Hen asked Buck after the doors closed behind Tommy and Chim. 

“I worked construction for a while,” Buck informs them.  

4. They leave Tommy at the hospital and Bobby forces them to go back to the station to finish out their shifts. Buck asks about Tommy. Hen and Chim fill him in and Buck is a little (a lot) fascinated by him. But that’s basically the end of it, until a few weeks later when Buck has to go to the hardware store because one of his roommates left the bathroom door locked and in an effort to unlock it, they messed up the lock. Buck somehow ends up being the one tasked with buying and replacing the doorknob/lock and he runs into Tommy. 

“So, was it termites?” Buck asks. 

“Thankfully not,” Tommy says. “Just some old rotting wood. So now I have to figure out how to rebuild the floor and ceiling. This is way more than I know how to do on my own.” 

“I can help,” Buck offers and explains that actually he does know what he’s doing from months spent working construction.

Tommy is reluctant to accept the help but he does because Buck is hard to say no to. 

5. They become fast friends and between the two of them they get a lot done around the house. Tommy is constantly asking for Buck’s opinion on things. They text all the time about paint colors and moldings and tile. It takes up so much of Buck’s time that he doesn’t need to sleep around as much and that he doesn’t take up with Abby. He’s at Tommy’s house during any of his days off even if they don’t coincide with Tommy’s. 

They bond while working together. Talk about everything including how Tommy came out recently and is finally living his true self…but how hard dating as a gay man had turned out to be. Buck in turn tells him about how hard he’s found it too and that’s when Buck realizes that he hasn’t gone on an app or even gone into a bar/club to meet a girl in ages. They talk about being each other’s wingmen and going out, but they never go through with it because they both secretly feel weird (jealous) about doing that. 

That leads to realizing how much more fulfilled he’s been working with Tommy and how valued and how all the times he’d gotten caught up in watching Tommy might mean something more than admiration for the work Tommy has put on to get his arms as muscular and also how good his ass looks. Eventually, he realizes that he has feelings for Tommy and that scares him almost as much as it excites him. He starts to act a bit weird and flustered and Tommy calls him out on it and then he catches onto why and he kisses Buck and then asks him to go out on a date. 

6. When the house is finally finished, a couple of years later, Buck has already been living with Tommy for a few months. Tommy didn’t ask him to move in, it just sorta happened a few months into their relationship and the house had started to feel a lot like theirs due to all the parts they built of it together. They get a dog to celebrate and also for practice for the eventual future where they adopt a kid. Buck also thinks that their backyard will be perfect for their wedding.

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