#normal thursday

"firefighters kinard and donato deliberately obstructed a federal investigation sergeant grant. what did you think was going to happen?" colonel hartman demands, stepping forward. "in fact, i should be arresting both of you as well. we have you on video entering a restricted area and destroying the only antiviral for a deadly disease."

"destroying," tommy snorts, "bet you the doc kept records of everything she did here. she seems like the type to keep notes. it's probably in an evidence box somewhere."

"you will take those handcuffs off right this second and you will not attempt to arrest any other first responder on site today," athena snaps, staring hartman down.

"or what? you are in no position to be making demands, sergeant grant. you have been working against us all day. we could have you brought up on terrorism charges."

"uh, hi," evan waves, his phone in his hand, "she heard all that. you got that, right?"

"oh no," lucy whispers, leaning towards tommy. "it's about to get interesting."

"first of all, if you arrest anyone here besides moira blake, you'll have to explain in open court why they've been arrested. i doubt anyone wants the public to know how close we were to a pandemic being released. one that was created here in our backyard and unleashed because the lab didn't follow proper protocol in escorting doctor blake from the premises. second of all, firefighter buckley has investigative journalist taylor kelly on the line. she's got footage from inside and we've filled her in on everything that happened today."

"i'd like to start by asking doctor banting why, when he was alerted to the fact that a scientist at his lab had weaponized a virus, did he allow her to exit on her own?"

"smile, you're on candid camera," tommy whispers back to lucy.

"just wait, she knows you exist now."

there's some vicious arguing that tommy doesn't try to follow, their voices fading into the background as he leans back in his chair. everyone got out okay. evan didn't try to run him over. he probably won't go to jail. keeping his job is a bit up in the air, but he can always go teach private lessons. there are worse outcomes.

"you're awfully zen," lucy murmurs, slouching lower in her chair.

"out of our hands," tommy replies, squinting. evan's phone is angled in the middle of the group, which means taylor is letting loose with something. "what's the point in worrying?"

she eyes the two soldiers lingering near them. "right," she says dubiously.

"i told you not to come."

lucy huffs, kicking lightly at his ankle. "whatever you and buckley had going on up in the air was worth it."

"i hate you."

"no you don't."

"firefighters."

tommy grins at athena, sitting to attention with lucy. "we're free to go?"

"you're good." athena leans down and unlocks tommy's cuffs, then lucy's. "i'd get out of here before harbor shows up with that spare key, they're still unhappy you did that."

"oh, that," tommy glances around shiftily. "i, ah, found the key. and we didn't actually call harbor about the key. we did let them know we'd be offline for another hour."

"where's the key, tommy?"

"evan's right hoodie pocket?" tommy says, grinning faintly. "figured no one would go in after it."

athena rolls her eyes. "buck! with me!"

"hey, what's going on?"

"check your right pocket."

"uh, these aren't mine."

"thanks for holding onto these." tommy glances over his shoulder. "we should probably tell the colonel we're moving the helicopter before we take off."

"i think i'll get a ride back with athena," lucy says quickly. "i gotta check on the kid anyway, so heading by the hospital is fine by me."