Lieutenant Buckley – Chapter 13 & 14 – ScarsLikeVelvet

Chapter 13

Evan quickly settled into the rhythm of the firehouse. His first task of the day became meal prepping, and the rest of his team alternated when it came to assisting him and getting taught a variety of easy to make, nutritious meals.

Captain Sal DeLuca was surprised to learn that Evan’s cooking cut their budget for meals nearly in half even though he bought most of the ingredients at Whole Foods to ensure they were the best he could get—at least that was what Buck told them and Sal’s wife Gina agreed.

Evan also put his foot down when he realized that C-shift’s probationary firefighter, James Baker, didn’t get the instruction he was entitled to after complaining to DeLuca, and DeLuca talking to C-shift’s captain.

“If they don’t teach him, then pull him onto this shift. You have enough people to be able to teach us both without either one of us getting neglected. I know Baker doesn’t seem to be the brightest bulb on the chandelier, but that doesn’t mean he deserves to be treated like this. He signed up for a job and he needs to be trained for it, else someone might die if he is ever forced to head into the field without training,” he ranted.

Sal decided it wasn’t worth protesting his probationary firefighter’s idea when he knew the man was right. He talked with Grace Mason, the shift’s engineer and his second-in-command about what Evan had proposed and they came to the agreement that Sal would keep Evan under his wing, while Grace would keep an eye on Baker, while they would allow Buckley to take over at least part of Baker’s training because he seemed to have a knack for leading people and helping them learn stuff, even if they had had issues with it before.

——

“I don’t know what I did to deserve changing shifts,” James Baker said as he put his belongings into his locker beside Evan’s.

Evan looked at him and smiled.

“You show up to your shifts and try to do your best with the things you are offered,” he told him. “I figured you should be shown everything you need to know to do your job properly before the not knowing accidentally gets you killed one day.”

Baker stared at him with wide eyes, blinking slowly as he processed the words of his fellow probationary firefighter.

“You think they aren’t teaching me properly?” he eventually asked.

Evan forced back the snort that wanted to escape him.

“I know that for a fact,” he stated calmly. “Though I have to admit that part of the problem seems to be some laziness on your part or the fact that you just have never been taught how to learn properly. I’m not sure either way, but I do know that we’ve got people ready and willing on this shift to help you shape up into the firefighter we all know you can be.”

A soft, surprised sound escaped Baker.

“I’d do anything to be allowed to leave the station and help with actual firefighting one day instead of remaining behind and just doing drills when I’m unsure if I am even doing them properly because no one takes the time to tell me one way or the other,” he offered.

Evan smiled at him.

“We will help you achieve that goal,” he told him. “But the first thing we’ll do is take a test together to see where we both stand education wise.”

James Baker nodded. Excitement at the prospect of being taught how to fight fires and perform rescues properly clear in his posture.

——

“Evan!” DeLuca called out near the end of a shift a couple of months into his probationary period.

“Yes?” Evan called back.

“You have a visitor,” his Captain called and motioned toward the door leading outside, where a tall figure hid in the shadows.

Evan rolled his eyes fondly and didn’t stop the smile that was ready to appear on his face. Lou had talked about coming by for a visit at work once he was done with the paperwork for his latest case, but Evan hadn’t expected for it to happen so soon.

They had been dating on the quiet for a while and had quickly realized that they clicked in ways they had never clicked with anyone before.

Lou had become Evan’s emergency contact after three months of dating and he had introduced him to Sal and Gina at a barbecue he had thrown for the team, though they had kept things low-key during the party, as neither of them was ready to be fully out.

“You okay with me taking five?” Evan asked.

“Take fifteen,” Sal replied with a fond expression, while heading back into his office to take care of some of the paperwork Evan had left for him on his desk. He knew it would be up to regulation, but since Evan was still a probationary firefighter, either he or Grace needed to sign off on everything Evan wanted to file.

Evan nodded in acceptance and headed toward his partner with a smile.

“Hey, Lou,” he greeted the man and guided him away from the building and into the parking lot where they were out of the camera’s range. “Are you okay?”

Lou peered around to make sure no one was watching before he pulled Evan into a tight hug.

“Did something happen?” Evan asked, sounding worried.

“I can’t talk about the case,” Lou admitted. “But it was one of the worst I’ve ever worked and I just needed a hug.”

Evan didn’t hesitate. He wrapped his arms around Lou and just held him. He knew not to ask questions or push for anymore. All his partner—they had decided they were too old to call themselves boyfriends, lover sounded to sordid, and they didn’t like any other word to describe a relationship so they picked partner as a description for their intimate relationship—needed right now, was physical contact and the quiet reassurance that he wasn’t alone.

Evan was more than willing to provide both. He knew there might be questions later, but given that they had worked out most of the kinks in their relationship already and knew what they wanted from each other for the future, there was no need to hide anymore.

The whole station was LGBTQIA+ friendly, and the whole team was open about who they were and who they liked to date, so Evan didn’t expect any problems. He had just been a bit reluctant to share because of his military background and how used he was to hiding who he was.

Lou curled against him as they stood there in the afternoon sun and just breathed while working on finding his balance again.

——

Lou took the time Evan could give him and slipped away the moment Evan had to return inside. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to get to know his partner’s team. He just didn’t have the spoons for it at the moment, and that was what Evan told them when everyone asked what was going on.

“He’s going to be okay, though, right?” Lucy asked.

Evan smiled.

“He will be,” he assured her. “He said he already set up an appointment with his therapist, and we will talk more in depth about what’s got him so rattled when I am off shift. Right now, he just needed a hug.

Everyone nodded in understanding, and as the group dispersed again to catch up on the tasks, they had to abandon time and again over the course of the day due to various call-outs they patted his shoulder and congratulated him quietly on the great catch.

Chapter 14

Captain Sal DeLuca decided to have Evan Buckley’s probationary year over and done with early. The man had soaked up information like a sponge and trained diligently so that every movement required of him was done on instinct and without a second thought.

Sal had quickly realized that Evan went back to the Academy on his days off to train, and had encouraged Baker and everyone else who felt they needed it to do the same. Hell, he had accompanied them a time or two just to make sure his instincts were still on point.

It was a very good exercise when it came to team building, and when the graduation ceremony for Buckley and Baker happened, it was a real celebration.

Baker had taken Evan’s instruction to heart once he realized the slightly younger man wanted him to do his best and there wasn’t a malicious thought behind what he was offering.

Evan dragged his whole team through various certification processes to make sure they were all up to snuff for the rescues they might encounter and though people hadn’t been all that happy about it at first, they quickly realized that their workflow became more efficient and more efficiency meant more downtime during their shifts.

Of course, Evan used a lot of his downtime to train and Sal was quick to encourage everyone else to do the same. It certainly made the yearly fitness for duty evaluations a breeze for their team as no one was allowed to fall behind on their PT as Evan called it.

It became his thing. Both the feeding of the team and the training.

James Baker, meanwhile, left the 122 for the 56, a station closer to his home, who appreciated the training he had gone through under Sal’s care in ways that few other stations ever could.

——

“How far along are you with your fire science degree?” Jonas Marten asked Evan one evening as they were settling down for dinner. He was curious as he had seen Evan study a lot lately.

“On our next four days off, I’ll be taking the final examinations,” Evan offered as he sat down across from the other man.

“You’ve breezed through the degree, didn’t you?” Martin Ackles chimed in.

“If you call taking 2 ½ years breezing, then yes, I guess I did,” Evan replied, filling his plate with a big portion of vegetables and tofu stir fry.

“You started the degree before you joined the academy?” Sebastian Stanton asked in surprise.

Evan couldn’t help but roll his eyes. He had become a lot more relaxed over the years with the 122.

“Of course I did,” he said. “I needed something to occupy my time when I wasn’t in one kind of therapy or another.”

Grace Mason, the ladder trucks engineer, laughed.

“You aren’t one to sit still and do nothing, are you?” she questioned.

“Nope,” Evan said. “Being idle isn’t for me. Drove my CO nuts, but he eventually got used to it and dropped training manuals into my lap as if they were going out of style.”

He offered that part with a wistful smile on his face before he focused on his meal, making it clear that more questions on the topic weren’t welcome.

“Do you think I could handle the workload of a degree on top of our work?” Martin asked, surprising everyone.

Evan looked up from his plate, and thoughtfully chewed his tofu for a moment, before swallowing and answering with a, “If you dedicate yourself to it the way you do to your work and training, I’m sure you can handle it. The program I signed up for allows for part-time studying, which might be more up to your speed.”

Martin looked thoughtful.

“I think that might work better,” he agreed. He was relatively newly-wed and wanted to keep his relationship healthy while also furthering his career.

“I can get you the information you need to sign up for a degree for our next shift,” Evan offered, and Martin nodded.

“I would appreciate it,” he said.

The conversation turned away from Evan and his degree toward what needed to be done before their shift was over, and Evan was thankful for that fact.

——

“Evan?” Lou asked one late afternoon on a day they had both off.

“Yes, Love?” Evan replied, turning onto his stomach and resting his chin on Lou’s stomach, so he could look up at him.

Lou reached out and ran his fingers through Evan’s sweaty curls, giving his scalp a gentle scratch, which caused Evan to melt back against him the way he had after they had made love earlier.

He caught Evan’s baby blues with a soft expression, and smiled.

“What do you think about moving in together and getting married?” he asked.

Evan snorted.

“You do realize that I’ve been moving myself in slowly over the last couple of months because I intend to sell my fixer-upper now that I am done renovating it,” he said.

Lou looked surprised.

“You really want to sell if after all the work you put into it?” he asked.

Evan nodded.

“Yes,” he said. “I bought that house as a distraction and to have a home close to the Academy. My commute to the 122 is borderline ridiculous some days, which is why I’ve started to sleep over so often.”

“And I didn’t even notice it,” Lou said, sounding amused about his own obliviousness.

Evan smiled.

“You did notice. You even commented on it. It just felt so organic that we both didn’t feel bothered by it,” he said, making Lou smile in response.

“True,” he agreed after a moment. “So, I guess the moving in part is cleared.”

Evan made a see-saw motion with his hand.

“It is and it isn’t,” he admitted.

“What do you mean?” Lou asked curiously.

“I’m not sure how much longer I’ll be staying with the 122,” he admitted.

Worry immediately entered Lou’s expression.

“What? Why?” he asked.

Evan bit his lip.

“You know that while I am working as a heavy rescue asset, my ultimate goal is to lead my own team or whole shift eventually, which means I need to advance my career. I finished my fire science degree, and that means that sometime in the not so far future, I will be taking my lieutenant’s exam, but the 122 does not have a space for another lieutenant as all the teams are relatively young and while I could wait for someone to injure out or retire, it could realistically be another decade or even two until that happens,” Evan explained. “But that isn’t something I want to do.”

Lou mulled the explanation over and nodded slowly.

“So maybe we might be moving somewhere else in the near future?” he asked.

“If you are willing?” Evan replied.

Lou nodded.

“Of course,” he said. “As long as we are staying in Los Angeles, I don’t care much where exactly we live. Well, I want to live in a house because I hate apartment buildings, but that’s about it. With both our salaries at our disposal, we can even contemplate buying over renting.”

Evan nodded and smiled.

“That does sound good,” he said.

“As for getting hitched,” Evan said. “Just let me know where and when and I’ll be there with all the bells and whistles.”

Lou threw his head back and laughed before grabbing Evan and pulling him up and into a kiss that left both of them breathless.