#CaptainSwap

[tarlosbuddie]

CapSwap - Chapter 2

Read on AO3

Summary of the fic:  Bobby and Owen exchange their station and team for show called CapSwap produced by Taylor Kelly.

Chapter summary: New captain, new rules. Owen Strand arrives at the Station and the 118 is ready to have get to know him and to have some fun.

Word Count: 2478

Chapter: 2/?

Hanging banners has been a tradition in the 118 since Chimney, Hen and their former teammates hanged one to congratulate Bobby on winning the bet his first month here. They have had so many captains quitting after a few weeks that they wanted to celebrate, mostly by pranking him. So, before he arrived, they used the biggest ladder they could find and hung a white banner that read “You’re still here!!” and threw him a bunch of confetti as he walked in. Buck got his first one a few months only after he arrived. He came for his shift the day after being fired and the red letters formed the words “You’re not fired! (yet)”. It was one of the first times that he felt like it was a real family. Chimney had a few ones too, the most recent one was from when Bobby came back from his suspension and it read “Your reign is over Interim Captain Han”. It was Eddie’s idea. He knew Buck was on sick leave but he filmed the whole thing to cheer him up. They bought enough cakes and banners to be known by the local stores at the point.

This time, Chimney comes to work early, with the biggest smirk on his face. He is not about to break the tradition, especially with everything being caught on camera. Taylor and her crew are getting ready and Chimney waves at them.

“You guys don’t wanna miss this.”

“Get the camera ready.” She orders her team. “I need a strong clip for the promo of the show.”

Buck and Hen are already next to the ladder, ready to hang what Chimney always described as their best one yet.

“You’re sure it’s a good idea to prank the new captain?” Eddie asks. Taylor directs the camerawoman to film his reaction as she starts taking notes in her little notebook. “Maybe he’s not as cool as Bobby is” the firefighter adds.

The second person directs her camera toward Chimney who’s grinning. Taylor circles his name in her notes, hoping that by the end of the month, she will get the juicy reason behind his nickname.

“Trust me, when you’ll see this, you’ll know he’s not really shy,” Chimney promises.

“Okay Eddie, now move your pretty ass on that ladder,” Hen says. 

Both Eddie and Chimney climb the ladders on opposite sides of the banner. Buck is not allowed to do it anymore since he proved he’s not capable of hanging a banner straight. So he just stays behind Eddie, having his back from the bottom of the ladder where he thinks about Hen’s comment. She is right, he can’t deny that.

The banner is a lot heavier than the ones they usually buy. Chimney insisted that it must stay rolled up until Captain Strands arrived. They climb the stairs, eager to start their shift. They all wait on the balcony, the oldest holding on the strings of the banner. 

A car finally arrives, and Taylor keeps one of the cameras on the crew when she directs the second one toward the car. She has seen pictures of him and she picked him for her reason, the man looks perfect. She knows the public will love him and she’s counting on him making a grand entrance. 

Owen gets out of the car, with his Austin Fire Department jacket as she requested in the contract. She was not expecting him to wear such a fit white tee-shirt underneath but she appreciates it. It would look great on the promo. He doesn’t bother to take his sunglasses off, he only moves them down a little to wink at the camera she asked them not to look at. She can cut it off, but she is not sure she will want to when she will check the footage. 

He makes his way toward the inside of the house. He is about to take up the stairs when he hears whistles coming from the balcony.

The banner unfolds as he walks under it. It’s a huge picture of him from a firefighter calendar, wearing his NYFD pants, with the suspenders touching his bare chest. The text on the banner reads “Welcome to the 118 Mister December 2003.”

Everyone is laughing, including the man staring at a shirtless picture of himself taken 17 years ago. He runs toward the stairs to introduce himself. One of the cameras follows him when the other is on the opposite stairs. 

“Welcome Captain Strand,” Eddie says first. He stands straight and shakes the captain's hand. The other members do the same, and Owen memorizes everyone’s favorite nickname. Chimney is the last member of the team to introduce himself. 

“I’m Chim-” he starts but Owen cuts him.

“Mister April 2019. I’m guessing you’re the one I owe that great surprise to?”

“Huh, yeah.” He answers. 

“Can one of you show me my office and the nearest shower please? I just spent the best part of the weekend in my car and I would kill for a shower, and a coffee.”

“You drove here, Captain?” Eddie asks.

“I was not gonna miss an opportunity to take a road trip to our beautiful country.”

“I’ll give you a tour” Eddie offers.

- - 

Owen is taking the longest shower, so the crew decides to rest. The cameras are off, or at least off their faces so they can take a break. They are all sitting on different couches and there is still a free one when Eddie arrives toward his friends with a bowl of popcorn. Taylor walks toward them with a gentle smile on her face and Eddie walks faster to arrive before she does. He hurries up and sits next to Buck on the couch. It’s just more convenient to share the popcorn with his team, he tells himself while he looks at Taylor who’s sitting down on the last couch.

They are eating in silence, not daring to speak while she is here. Buck offers her some popcorn but she politely refuses. She looks even more uncomfortable than they are. Hen notices and invites her to the kitchen.

“Do you want a coffee?” she offers. “It’s bad but it will keep you awake for a long shift.”

“Yes, please,” Taylor answers shyly. “I know you guys all hate me. But I’m just trying to do my job.”

“We don’t hate you, girl,” Hen replies. “We are not fans of having cameras around though.” 

“I thought Buck would be the one hating me after what happened between us.” Taylor says. She looks down at her coffee mug, taking one sip and confirming what Hen told her, it really is a disgusting beverage.

“Buckaroo is a golden retriever. I don’t think that boy is capable of hating someone.”

“What’s the deal between him and Eddie?” she asks while turning to face the couches where the three boys are chatting. Eddie is throwing popcorn in the air for Buck to catch them with his mouth. “I feel like he’s gonna murder me.”

“He’s just having Buck’s back,” Hen says. “We should go back to the boys before Buck chokes on a popcorn or something.”

They walk back toward the couchs, grimacing as they drink their coffee. Taylor explains some ideas she has and then she tells them that they will turn the cameras back one while they talk about Owen. She sits somewhere off camera and directs her team to start filming.

“So, what do you guys think about the new captain?” Buck asks. It’s not his natural tone and he has to force himself not to look at the camera. But then Eddie starts speaking and Buck has something more interesting to look at.

“He seems nice.” Eddie simply says.

“It’s hard to judge a book by its cover” Hen answers.

“We all did it with Eddie on his first day” Chimney says. Buck takes a handful of popcorn and sends it on his eldest friend who’s happily catching half of it with his mouth while the rest ends up on the couch. “What? I was talking about Hen’s comment, not about your jealousy.”

“Okay, first of all, I wasn’t jealous,” Buck clears, shifting a little on the couch to look more at Eddie. He can feel his face turning red from remembering that day. “And second, we were talking about Captain Strand.”

Eddie chuckles and adds “The man seems okay, we should give him a chance.”

“You okay Buck?” Chimney asks. “You look like you’re praying for an emergency right now”.

“Huh. I.” He starts, but Owen is finally out of the shower, wearing another tee-shirt that compliments his body. Buck wonders if this man already took a DXA scan to measure the fat in his body. He stands up and walks toward Owen.

“I think this is for you, Captain” Buck says. He holds an LAFD blue shirt, with the Strand name written on the metal name tag on the pocket.

The captain puts his long sleeves shirt on with the help of his youngest team member. He read a detailed file about these people but he still doesn’t know them like he knows the 126. He chose his entire team, learned to work with them and even though the idea of the show seemed interesting, Owen misses his team.

“So” Owen starts, he claps his hand and takes an enthusiastic tone. “Let’s get to know each other a little.”

“What would you like to know?” Eddie asks first.

“Come on, guys, this is not a job interview. I just wanna get to know the people who I’m working with.” Owen says. They all look at each other, it’s like the first day of school and no one wants to be the first to introduce themself to the new teacher. 

Buck lets himself fall back on the couch and sights dramatically. He wouldn’t know where to start. So much has happened to them lately. Every person in this room could use some serious therapy and there’s a lot you can’t tell a person you just met. So how can the 118 introduce themselves without talking about all of the trauma around them?

“Okay, I’ll start” Owen says when it becomes clear that no one else would. “I’m from New York. I’ve been a firefighter there for two decades.”

“So, you were there when…” Eddie starts asking.

“I was.” Owen answers briefly before continuing his introduction. “My son and I moved to Austin a few months ago. He’s a firefighter in my station too. He’s about your age, Buck. Does your captain have kids?”

“You mean besides Buckaroo, here?” Chimney jokes. 

“Bobby’s not my dad.” Buck pouts. He looks at Eddie, hoping he would take his defense but his friend just holds his hand up and pretends to zip his mouth shut.

Hen laughs at the three boys and answers Owen’s question “His wife has 2 kids.” 

“Oh she remarried too. I have something in common with his wife. Do you guys have kids?”

“My wife and I have a son and we are fostering a baby girl,” Hen says. 

“I have an 8 years-old son.” Eddie answers.

“His name is Christopher,” Buck adds, holding his phone up to show Owen the picture of Eddie and Chris he has on his lockscreen. “He’s the smartest kid!”

“Hey!” Hen cuts, pretending to be offended.

“I'm sure Denny and Nia will grow up to be as smart as Superman.”

“Are you two…” Owen starts. He felt like he might have missed some information in his files.

“Oblivious” Chim whispers and Hen laughs.

“Buck is helping me a lot with my son. Christopher loves his Buck.” 

“And you, Mister April? Do you have any kids?” 

“He’s dating my sister” Buck answers for him “So if he ever knocks her up, I’d better be the first one to know.”

Chimney almost chokes on the food he’s eating. Hen gently pads his back. He tells her everything, even the things Maddie made him promise not to talk about. She is his best friend and he can’t keep big news to himself. So she knows Buck won’t be the first one to know about the Hans’ new secret. 

“You are dating his sister? Family dinners must be interesting.”

“She’s a 9-1-1 dispatchers. So you might get to talk to her while you’re in L.A.”

“Okay, bonding time is over for now.” Owen declares. “Probie, you start cooking while the others clean the rigs” he orders.

“Huh, probie?” Eddie asks when he sees his Captain looking at him. “My probation period ended last year.”

“According to your files, you’re the last one who arrived, which in my eyes, makes you a probie” Owen half jokes. He knows he misses his probie, and he’s probably trying to find a replacement for them. Judging by Chimney’s and Buck’s laughs, he knows the nickname is gonna stick for a while.

“Huh, the Cap was usually the one cooking.” Eddie says hesitantly. 

“My house, my rules. Everyone takes turns in my house.”

“Then you’ll probably talk to my sister soon Captain, cause we are definitely going to call dispatch to report the entire house suffers from food poisoning.”

Everyone but Eddie takes down the stairs to clean up the trucks. Eddie looks at the kitchen, terrified. Even his kid that never complains about anything told him that he can’t cook. He doesn’t want to poison his captain on the first day. And the show is gonna be broadcast on national television, his whole family is gonna know what an awful cook he is.

The alarm goes off and puts him off his misery and he runs down the stairs. The team was already cleaning the truck so they climbed before he could even get to them. He’s the last one to arrive so Owen ends him the key.

“Heard you can’t cook” Owen says and everyone pretends they didn’t say a thing while they were cleaning the rig, “but I hope you can drive, Probie.”

Buck and Chimney’s phones buzzed from the back seat. Hen looks at the both of them, assuming it might have something to do with Maddie since they both got a text at the same time. She forgot her phone at the station, like she always does. Buck shows her the texts they received. It’s from a new whatsapp group they’ve all been added to.

Unknown Number: How’s the new cap treating you?

Unknown Number: Please, go easy on my dad.

Unknown Number: Yeah, we kinda like the old guy. 

By this point, they’ve all guessed what this group chat is about but they get the final confirmation when they receive a picture of 5 firefighters doing funny faces while Bobby has his back turned. 

Unknown Number: Thanks for lending us your Captain for a month. We'll try not to drive him crazy!

[tarlosbuddie]

Finally managed to put my Google Docs in Dark mode so now I don’t have any excuses not to continue my second chapter. 

[tarlosbuddie]

Can someone write a Wife Snap AU where Bobby I don’t talk about my feeling Nash swaps Fire Station with Owen Let’s talk about skin care Strand?

[tarlosbuddie]

I guess I'm gonna have to write that Captain Swap AU myself.

[tarlosbuddie]

Instead of working of my gifsets for the (billions?) 911 weeks coming soon, I only made ONE gif today. For a gifset I won't probably post or even finish so I sent it to two of my favorite mutuals.