#< eventually

“You okay?” Ravi asks, brows pulling down in concern.

“Yeah, just twinged my knee carrying those kids down the stairs. It's a bitch getting old.”

“Speak for yourself,” Ravi sniffs, punching his arm lightly. Buck rolls his eyes and pushes him away. It's familiar, teasing, it reminds Harry of something he and May would do.

“Maybe you should ask Chim to make you man behind next call,” Ravi says, tugging his turn out jacket off, watching Buck wince as he shifts his weight. “We still have about six hours here. You're only going to make it worse if you keep agitating it.”

Buck shakes his head, glancing warily toward Chimney's office. “A few minutes with the heating pad and it will be good as new. I've worked with it aching way worse than this.”

“That's not as comforting as you think it is,” Ravi frowns. Buck waves him off and drops a hand on Harry's shoulder.

“I'm gonna go deal with this, then I'll walk you through how to restock the engine. Great work out there, kid.”

Harry and Ravi watch Buck limp his way up to the loft, and Harry feels his gut twist uncomfortably. He's never seen Buck take a beat, never seen him hurting. It feels weird, like seeing Superman wilt around kyptonite. Ravi blows out a breath and Harry gets the feeling he's thinking the same thing.

“How about I show you how to restock the truck?” Ravi says. “Give Buck a break for once. Plus, you do not need to be subjected to that man with a clipboard yet.”

Harry cocks his head and Ravi gives him an all too knowing smile. “Come on. It's pretty simple. You can probably do it without anyone looking over your shoulder, but I'll go through it with you anyway.”

It is a fairly routine task. Ravi shows him how to check the water levels in the engine, how to make sure the hoses are in good shape and loop them back into position. They go over the supplies in all the compartments and Ravi helps him find the things that need to be restocked in the store room and arrange them the way Buck likes them. It's actually kind of fun. Buck is a great teacher, but Ravi is a little less serious as they go about their work. He's got a way of making little jokes that Harry takes a minute to catch on to, but they're fully laughing together as they start checking the engine levels on the truck.

“What the hell is going on here?” They both look up, surprised by the low simmering anger in Chimney's voice. He's standing in the bay with his arms crossed, watching them with an annoyed expression on his face.

“I was walking Harry through an engine restock,” Ravi says carefully. Chimney makes a noise and turns toward the loft, where Buck is coming slowly down the stairs, still favoring his right side.

“Seriously, Buck? Ravi isn't your probie anymore. You can't just shove your work onto him because you don't feel like doing it.”

“What?” Buck's brows draw down as he tries to take stock of the situation. “I didn't –”

“What kind of example is that to set for Harry, huh? You're the second most senior fire fighter here with Hen out and you can't be bothered to teach him how to do this yourself?”

A look of bewildered hurt flashes across Buck's face for a moment before his expression goes stoney.

“That's not what happened, Cap,” Harry tries to interject. Chimney turns to him with a kind expression on his face.

“You don't need to cover for him, Harry. He should know better.”

“Buck didn't tell me to show him how to do this, Chim,” Ravi steps in. “He didn't know anything about it. We just –”

“It won't happen again,” Buck cuts him off. “Shouldn't have happened at all. Sorry, Cap.”

Chimney scoffs and shakes his head. “Do better, Buck.”

He stalks off, muttering under his breath. Ravi and Harry both turn their gazes to Buck.

“Buck, I'm sorry, we didn't mean–” Buck brushes off Harry's attempt to apologize with a smile that doesn't look quite right.

“Don't worry about it, Harry.”

“That was totally unnecessary,” Ravi disagrees. “There was no reason for him to–”

“Ravi, it's fine,” Buck says with an air of finality. Harry gets the feeling it's not the first time they've had a conversation like this.

“It's really not though. You know that, right?” Buck runs a hand through his hair with a sigh. “Thank you for taking care of the engine for me. I owe you one. Did you guys get finished?”

“Yeah. We were just wrapping up.”

The alarms sound overhead, and Buck shoots them a grin.

“Well, looks like we have the chance to see if you did it right,” He smacks Ravi's shoulder and moves with everyone else to start pulling his turn outs on. Harry can't help but notice that, while he is moving faster than before, his gait is still a little stilted.

“This place is bad for him,” Ravi mutters under his breath, low enough that Harry hopes he just misheard him.

“What are you two waiting for? A special invitation?” Eddie yells to them as he climbs into the ambulance. Ravi rolls his eyes and runs over to get into the engine behind Buck, Harry on his heels.

The call is a minor car accident, no one seems to be hurt, but one of the drivers is stuck in her car and they'll have to use the jaws to get her out.

“Can you handle the extraction, Buck, or you gonna need Ravi to do that, too?” Chimney asks, snapping his gum. The smile on his face is teasing, but something about it rubs Harry the wrong way. He didn't understand why Chimney was making such a big deal out of what he and Ravi did, why wouldn't even begin to listen to their explanation.

“I got it, Cap,” Buck says with a mock salute. He grunts softly as he hoists the jaws up onto his shoulder and hurries over to the car to get to work on freeing the driver.

*This place is bad for him* echoes in Harry's head, unbidden, even as he gets his orders and sets to work helping Eddie assess the conditions of the other driver sitting in the back of the ambulance.

For the first time since he had joined the 118, he feels himself starting to wonder if this is really the house Bobby left behind.