#close enough!

"tommy," evan mumbles, face mashed up against his neck.

"yeah, evan," tommy whispers, exhaling shakily. "what do you need?"

"tell me something you told athena," evan asks, breath hot against his collarbone. he hums and tommy knows he's close to falling asleep.

he picks something he won't mind repeating in the morning. evan falls asleep before tommy finishes telling him about the designated hitter rant and how pitchers should only have one job.

tommy stares at evan's ceiling and tries not to think about all the ways today could have gone worse. hen's punctured lung could have not reinflated. howie could have died before they flew the cure back. any of them could have died in the explosion. they could have run out of air. ravi could have bled into his brain when he collapsed. bobby could have— tommy presses the hand evan isn't holding onto like a lifeline against his eyes and breathes. evan could have been inside. their job is incredible and tommy loves every minute of it but every so often a call comes along that terrifies him down to his very atoms.

tommy wakes up to his phone vibrating on the bedside table. "'lo?" he keeps his voice as low as possible.

"i reached out to the 133 and harbor — we're keeping the 118 a shift staffed with our own guys until everyone is back in fighting shape."

"morning, sal."

"the one and only. sorry to call so early, i just got off shift. figured you'd be the one to pass on the good news. you at the hospital?"

"uh-uh. drove evan home."

"no shit." most people smile over the phone. sal smirks. "we're talking about that later."

"goodbye sal," tommy sighs, hanging up and checking the time. they can sleep for a bit. he texts athena, lets her know that three stations are sending over coverage until everyone is out of the hospital and approved to work again. bobby's probably trying to schedule everything from his hospital bed and driving her crazy. hopefully bobby can relax now that he knows it's been taken care of, and that should help athena resist the urge to kill him herself.

she texts back to ask if tommy's coming to the hospital.

tommy stares at the phone for a long moment, wondering if this is a trap. he's pretty sure sal doesn't have her number. finally texts her that he has a feeling evan will want to be there as soon as visiting hours start so yeah, they'll be there early. do they need tommy and evan to grab anything from their place?

there's a lull before athena replies and tommy braces himself.

may's planning to drop their bags off after breakfast. tommy wonders about their lives. he's got his own bag stashed in the front hall at home, is pretty sure most first responders do. knows evan's was in his bedroom closet at the loft. he might have moved it.

he likes the message and puts his phone back down, hoping to try and get some sleep. tommy doesn't remember falling asleep and he slept like it — he feels brittle and sore, aching down to the marrow of his bones.

athena waits long enough that tommy's nearly asleep and hoping that she missed the implications of driving in with evan before she sends a text that's just a long line of laughing emojis.