#i don't know if julia and matt will appear in my writing again

[aplaceinme]

[Kind of a coda for episode 4, season 8; Tommy's POV. Additional information: Lucy Donato appears; as well as two original characters.] You can also read it on AO3

The popcorn sails through the air and then neatly falls inside Lucy’s mouth. Her eyes dance with mirth as she watches Tommy pace back and forth in the hangar. 

“What’s up with him?” Julia says as she approaches the table where Lucy and Matt are sitting. 

Lucy, who had briefly turned to look at her, goes back to watching Tommy. 

Tommy is still pacing, listening intently to whatever it is that the person on the phone is saying. One side of his hair, the one he keeps messing up every time he passes his fingers through it, is completely dishevelled and the expression on his face is one of worry and frustration. 

“Buckley called him,” Matt replies, stealing some of Lucy’s popcorn. 

Playfully swatting his shoulder with a noise of protest, Lucy then says, “Knowing Buck, I’m gonna guess that he did something impulsive on a call and now it’s telling Tommy all about it in full detail.”

“That explains why he looks as if he is having an aneurysm,” Julia chuckles while grabbing the bowl of popcorn from Lucy’s clutches. 

Matt looks expectantly at Lucy. When nothing happens, he pointedly looks at Julia, the bowl, and then Lucy. 

“She can have them. I like her better.”

“Hey!” Matt yelps. “That’s so rude.” 

While Julia looks at them amused, Lucy shrugs her shoulders pretending to be unmoved but the smile tugging at the corners of her lips gives her away. 

The three of them sit up straighter when they hear footsteps approaching and watch in silence as Tommy sits up in the only chair left, carelessly throwing his phone on the table and sighing in defeat. 

“Everything ok?” Lucy asks him, at the same time that Julia offers him popcorn. 

Grabbing a handful, Tommy tells them with a sarcastic tone, “Oh yes, everything is fine. Just, you know, they had a call of a tiger attacking someone. And there was obviously no time to call animal control, so Evan had to walk into the apartment hoping that a sedative would work.” 

By the time he finished talking, his volume had increased and he had ended up dropping all the popcorn from his hands from all his wild gesturing. 

“Well, did it work?” Matt asks 

“Yes,” Tommy admits. “But that’s not the point!”

“And what is the point?” Julia asks while sharing a look of glee with Lucy. 

“The point is that they are all so reckless,” Tommy thumps his fist onto the table. “I mean, last week he fucking tried to stop traffic on the highway with just some flares, right after stealing a firetruck from a TV show set, by the way!”

Matt is biting his lip so hard that Lucy fears that he will start to bleed soon, while Julia's shoulders shake with her silent laughter. Lucy is not faring any better, her amusement hard to contain. 

Since they know that nothing bad happened, it’s easy to laugh about it. Besides, the irony is just too big for them to not make fun of Tommy.

Crossing her arms on the table, Lucy looks at Tommy and asks him, “Weren’t you the one who stole a helicopter with all of them despite the fire chief's orders?”

“Yeah… I seem to remember that. Didn’t you have to fly over a hurricane?” Matt adds.

“And it was all based on a hunch, right?” Julia continues, snapping her fingers at Tommy. 

“That was different,” Tommy huffs. 

“Because…?” 

All three of them stare expectantly. 

“Because I was there. He could get seriously hurt and I won’t know until he is in the hospital, or worse.”

Lucy exchanges looks with Matt and Julia. Neither of them is dating first responders, so they can’t fully relate to that all-consuming worry of getting a phone call telling you that the person you love had an accident while on duty. But they are first responders themselves, they care about their team and it is always possible that one of them will get hurt. That feeling, they can understand. 

That’s why Julia pokes Tommy’s temple and says, “You are getting grey hairs there, my friend.”

Tommy sighs in annoyance and eats a handful of popcorn. “Isn’t there any cake?” 

Matt laughs but brings him a cupcake that Lucy knows for sure he was saving for himself to eat once their shift ended. 

Lucy gives Matt a thankful smile, making him blush. 

Looking in slight disgust as Tommy devours his fears with the cupcake, Lucy decides to be serious for a minute. 

“Look, Buckley is an incredibly capable firefighter. The entire 118 are, and you saw how they have each other’s back. It’s normal to get worried but he will be fine.” 

Tommy swallows hard and nods. “I know, I know that. But I can’t help but worry about him, even though I know how amazing and wonderful he is.”

“Now, he is getting all sappy. I shouldn’t have given him my last cupcake,” Matt jokes. 

Grabbing some popcorn, Tommy throws it at him, and they all laugh. 

Slowly, Tommy’s shoulders start to loosen up, and he looks more relaxed. 

Lucy smiles, and thinks about how they will probably continue to tease him for the rest of the shift. 

—

“My coworkers say ‘hello’,” Buck hears as soon as he enters Tommy’s place. 

Following the smell of meat cooking and the noise of the sink, Buck goes to the kitchen, where he finds Tommy cooking them dinner. 

“Oh, no! What did they do?” Buck asks. “You only refer to them as coworkers when you’re mad at them.” 

Tommy turns off the burner and approaches him while looking him up and down. 

“They were being annoying,” Tommy says deadpan. “I might hate them.”

“You love them, actually,” Buck says, shaking his head. 

When Tommy is closer enough, Buck leans in to greet him with a kiss but Tommy instead grabs Buck’s arms and keeps looking him up and down. 

“What are you doing?” Buck pouts. 

“Making sure that you don’t have a scratch on you,” Tommy explains while walking in a circle around Buck. 

“Oh my god! I told you I’m fine,” Buck huffs, but he secretly loves it. Having someone be worried about him feels amazing. “And? What’s the verdict then?”

Stopping in front of Buck, one of Tommy’s hands goes up to his face and his pointed finger taps his chin. 

“Hmm… I can’t say for sure. A more thorough inspection is required.” 

Tommy gets closer and takes off Buck’s shirt. 

“Let’s see now,” Tommy says, doing another circle around Buck. “This is not enough. This just won’t do. The inspection is still incomplete.” 

Buck smiles at Tommy’s playful nature, loving that he gets to see this side of him.

Walking closer again, Tommy goes for Buck’s trousers. He takes off the belt and it makes a clunk sound when it hits the floor. 

Without taking their eyes off each other and maintaining eye contact, Tommy pops off the button of Buck’s trousers and slowly moves the zip down. 

Out of his trousers, Tommy does one more circle around Buck. “Everything seems to be alright. No scratches, no bruises.” Tommy says with a smirk. “You’ll be glad to know that you have just passed the inspection.” 

 “That’s good to know, but I think you forgot to check an essential part.” 

 “Oh? Do tell.” Tommy asks, barely able to contain his smile. 

 Instead of answering, Buck takes off his boxers. 

 “You’re right, how could I forget?”

Buck shrugs his shoulders and flexes his arms, enjoying this game. 

“You know? I think that this will require a much closer inspection,” Tommy says hungrily. 

 “Oh, I definitely agree,” Buck growls, and grabs Tommy in a fireman's carry, taking him straight into their bedroom.

Their dinner can wait, they have more important things to do. Their dinner can wait, they have more important things to do.