Tommy's Helicopter 🚁

he'd been planning on going back to his house to batch cook before he'd seen meg's kitchen, and maybe this is why people put up with zero walls here — the kitchen is huge and gorgeous and he could make an entire five course meal without running out of counter space. not that he would — who would he cook for, anyway? (the reason that sal's not house sitting is because his daughter is on school break and gina's just finished a case and they're going up the coast for the weekend. tommy knows exactly what happened. sal agreed to help meg out before she told him the dates, and then he had to burn a valuable tommy favour to get him out of trouble.)

he's juggling five bags of groceries and he can't really reach the button for the elevator when another man walks up beside him. he's clearly coming back from the gym or a run, and he jabs the button for both of them. the elevator arrives right away. "thanks," tommy says, shuffling into the elevator. the other guy shrugs and eyes the bags curiously. "you go shopping when you were hungry or something?"

tommy barks a laugh and tries to ignore the way the guy's hair is curling with sweat at the back of his neck. "i work a lot, i'm trying to plan ahead." the guy laughs. "i know what that feels like. oh — what floor?"

tommy has to think about it. "uh — six." the guy nods and bumps his fist against four and six. "you know, you really want to be five or lower if you're going to live in an apartment building," he says. "easier to get out in an emergency."

"the whole state is an emergency," tommy jokes, just before they hit four. the guy laughs and tommy thinks about the prepper on the fourth floor with a beautiful laugh for the next seventy two hours. he stops on hour seventy three because they get called out to a high rise medical incident.

if sal was around, he'd definitely be making fun of tommy for that

when he get home from his shift he walks into the elevator and sees prepper from four standing on one side and a brunette woman standing on the other. they're glaring daggers at each other. tommy debates waiting for the next one but he's exhausted and he can put up with whatever is going on for the next four floors.

prepper stays on the elevator when the brunette gets off, and once the doors are closed and they're moving again he looks over at tommy and says "veronica and i went on one date and then she dated my roommate and she does not like me at all" and tommy blinks at him and absorbs all of that information and comes up with "—how do you have a roommate here?" right when the doors open on six.

"it was during the lockdowns, so…" prepper shrugs and gets off with tommy, looking him up and down. tommy flushes. "you look like you've been awake since the last time i saw you."

"just the last twenty four hours." tommy disagrees, even though that doesn't sound much better. prepper snorts and opens the door to the stairs. "what, are you a doctor or something? get some sleep, man."

"or something," tommy calls after him. he's got the right idea, though. tommy heats up one of the meals he made earlier in the week and shoves it into his face before falling asleep on the couch. he wakes up a few hours later and makes it up to the bedroom.

they run into each other again the next morning, tommy's work duffle over his shoulder. prepper has a similar one. "not looking quite so dead on your feet," prepper says, grinning brightly at him. tommy grins back. "if you were this charming with veronica i'm shocked it didn't last." prepper gapes at him and then laughs, startled. "okay, man, i'm just glad that you got some rest."

"yeah, the soundproofing here is better than a lot of buildings i've been in," tommy agrees. "you need to worry about soundproofing?" prepper asks, amused. his grin does something downright dangerous. tommy flushes again and shrugs the shoulder his duffle isn't on. "not if you're doing it right." he darts out of the elevator when the doors open and to his truck, eager to get away before he says anything more daring.

he's distracted for the first few hours of his shift whenever they aren't in the air, and lucy asks him what happened last night because obviously something did. tommy has no way to explain prepper, so he shrugs and says that nothing happened. because nothing did.

"you gotta explain that, man," prepper says, and tommy's been on shift for forty eight hours. prepper looks as tired as he feels. "explain what?" tommy asks, rubbing a hand over his face. "the thing about the soundproofing." right. he'd almost forgotten about that. "oh. well, when you're having good sex, you're generally too busy to spend much time yelling about it."

prepper snickers the rest of the way to his floor, bumping into tommy's shoulder companionably when he gets off. "i'll have to keep that in mind next time," he muses, running a hand through his hair. tommy swallows the urge to offer to demonstrate. all he knows about the guy is that he dated veronica one time. just because he's charmed tommy with conversations that last less than a minute means absolutely nothing. tommy also swallows the joke that that would mean he was thinking about tommy while he was having sex and just waves him off, smiling tiredly. "get some sleep, walking dead."

the next few days they're on opposing schedules; tommy's walking into the building when prepper is leaving or the other way around. tommy checks the calendar and sees that he's only got two days before meg is back. he wants to do something insane like give prepper his number and ask if he wants to get a coffee sometime. that is friendly or date behaviour, depending on how prepper wants to take it.

the day before he leaves, tommy is in the elevator when it opens on the fourth floor and prepper steps in wearing an lafd shirt. tommy stares at him. "you're a firefighter?"

"hey, don't be mean just because you're a doctor, we're equally cool," prepper grins at him.

"i said something like that when you asked if i was a doctor. i'm a pilot with the lafd," tommy clarifies, blinking at him.

"no way! oh man, that must mean you're out of harbor, right? that's where the airfield is. hey, do you know—"

"i don't actually live here," tommy blurts out. "i'm house sitting. they're coming back tomorrow."

"oh." prepper's smile falls. tommy guesses he can't call him prepper anymore — that was just basic fire safety about the fifth floor. "well, uh. i mean. i hope the building was nice to you."

the doors ding open and tommy bites back a swear and hits the close door button. "do you want to do something that means we can have a conversation that lasts longer than thirty seconds?"

"like — uh, like what?"

"there's always coffee?" tommy asks, something delicate and hopeful blooming behind his ribs.

"i'm gonna give you my number," prepper says, smiling brightly when the doors ping open again. "sorry, mrs. dawson! you know how they get here." he crowds tommy out with him, stopping by the doors and pulling his phone out. "okay, give me yours and i'll send you a text."

"will you really, or will veronica and i have something in common?" tommy jokes. he gets to see prepper blush and watch his eyes go dark, his eyes flicking briefly towards tommy's mouth. "i mean, you could have the first part of the night in common, yeah," prepper says. "i'm hoping it ends better."

"my name's tommy."

"i'm evan. buckley. it's nice to officially meet you," evan says, watching tommy type his number into his phone. evan takes it back and types for a second, and tommy feels his phone vibrate in pocket. "text me back when you get to your station."

evan waits until tommy is opening his truck door to speak again. "maybe we can even test out your soundproofing theory. see which one of is right!"