#118

everyone had been sharing stories about how bobby was always so excited to get feedback from them, and how they felt like they were glued to that desk until they threw him a bone. and very quietly, chimney confessed that he hasn’t had the heart to go through it since he took up captaincy. and athena tells him that just won’t do. that she’s finally ready to get this last look into his life.

and so they go through it. a lot of it is expected- paperwork, pens, the framed photos of athena and the kids chimney had gently placed in the drawer. but a lot of it is unexpected. there are dozens and dozens of newspaper clippings. big saves throughout the years.

hen with that little girl in the earthquake. eddie saving the boy from the well. buck leading the rescue at the overpass collapse. in the article about the cruise ship, when it describes who alerted the coast guard, bobby has crossed out LAPD and clarified. Hen.

there’s a box of recipe cards, and buck eagerly flips through them, holding each one like it's sacred. he goes to give them to athena, who pushes them back towards his chest. and she says he’d want you to have them and when he goes to argue, she just tells him he’s in charge of barbecues from now on, and he starts really crying.

chimney hands her a stack of receipts paperclipped together, from dates and dinners throughout the years, including the bill for their very first one. and now she’s watery eyed too.

chimney starts laughing because he finds a handwritten draft of a speech bobby prepared for him and maddie’s wedding, a particularly sentimental section annotated too cheesy? and yes, chimney says, very cheesy, but he’s choked up anyways. 

the last thing they pull out is his notes from when he interviewed eddie. it’s a glowing review. hard worker, veteran, level-headed. buck peaks over his shoulder as he reads it, pointing to the scribble that says respects authority. jokes that bobby might’ve missed the mark on that one. at the end of the list of praises, circled:

good for buck. 

and he can’t argue with that one. so, he just smiles at eddie, who’s smiling right back. they all leave the office carrying memories. and as chimney sits in the captain's chair of the empty office, he reads the one thing he kept inside. a crinkled sticky note he’s stuck to the bottom of a drawer, taken from his last performance review.

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