#parent chimney sorta

[wildlife4life]

WIP Wednesday

Tagged by @911onabc, @buddiearemydads, and @ebdaydreamer

So i've actually got two for ya'll today. First is from my a/b/o kidnapped mpreg Buck and the second is brand new, like just started writing it 30 minutes ago and its teen! Buck who comes to live with Maddie and Chimney, who is trying to find the balance of parenting (sort of) and friend, with the added trouble of fighter! Eddie who is two years older than Buck.

The car bounced under her as Buck threw in the last of their luggage.  Neither of them knew how long they would be gone, so they essentially packed every item of clothing they owned, which really wasn’t a lot.

Maddie hadn’t been in L.A. for too long and acquired very little in that time. Buck had been living out of his suitcase and a duffle, but that was nothing new to him.  Before coming to L.A., the omega was always ready to leave at a moment’s notice and since he still had yet to find his own place after leaving Abby’s, all Buck owned was now in the trunk.

Maddie’s eye roamed around the jeep, her jeep, the very same car that she gave to Evan to escape their parents.  Stored away last year after purchasing his newer jeep, that he then sold alongside her car just yesterday.  “Just to add to our nest egg.” Buck had explained after cashing the check and before she could even ask what vehicle they’re supposed to use now, the younger omega took her to a storage lot and revealed, the blue jeep.

Their freedom.

It was still in great shape, well taken care of. Well loved.  “I wasn’t going to sell it, but I felt I had to move on from the kid that drove this jeep all over trying to find himself. Storing it away let me keep the last part of you I had and allowed to me to grow up.” Buck explained.

It was sentimental and smart. The jeep was the last car Doug would even think to look for, since he’d only seen the cars that were now going to a used car lot.

And here we have Chimney catching Buck (and Eddie) at the illegal fight club.

This was not hurt being covered by angry cries. This was a 16 old kid who had lied his ass off about a movie with friends, and instead was at an illegal fight club with a gravely injured fighter being attended to by Hen and Bobby. This was Buck putting his entire new life in L.A. in jepardy.

Buck’s mouth opened and close, and Chimney could see the half ass lie forming, “The truth Buck!”

The teens jaw clicked shut, hardening as his blue eyes flickered over to the scattered crowd of fighters, onlookers, and betters intermingled with police officers. He was looking for someone, Chim realized, and he followed the young man’s gaze, trying to find who he assumed was Buck’s partner in crime.   Most of the people left were sleezy older men, scantily dressed women, and a mix of battered fighters. Then Chimney spotted him.

Hidden further back by a beat up two-door truck was a shirtless young man, late teens if Chimney had to guess, with large brown eyes darting around in worry and concern. He was slim, but in good shape, based on the lean muscles of his arms and defined abs. The guy was sporting a few bruises on his chest and his lip was busted open and swollen. Mix in the sweat and messy chestnut locks of hair, Chimney clocked him as one of the fighters. And when the young man’s eyes landed on him and Buck they narrowed in on Chimney with underlying threat and anger. This was who Buck was looking for.

In the corner of his vision, Chimney caught Buck shaking his head, and Chimney gave his attention back to girlfriend’s brother, “Did he bring you here?” he asked.

Tagging: @bekkachaos @elvensorceress @shortsighted-owl @thekristen999

[ikilledyvette]

Definitely not distracting myself from Election Day anxiety! Despite the first sentence of this fic, this is a standalone for now. I've got a whole multi-chap story in my head, but IDK when or if I'm gonna get to it. If you'd like to be tagged on the off-chance I do write more, just let me know!

Eddie is the first one to get stuck in a time loop and predictably takes the longest to accept that, no, he doesn’t have a brain tumor, and no, he isn’t going crazy, and yes, this is really happening to him. Once Eddie finally acknowledges this, he becomes convinced that fixing things with Christopher will break the cycle. It doesn’t. 

Eddie, well. He maybe has a very small emotional breakdown then because he’s long since lost track of how long he’s been trapped here, and finally, finally he managed to get his son back; finally, he was actually happy, and then—

It’s Tuesday again, and Chris is gone, and Eddie is all alone.

So yeah, maybe Eddie has a very minor breakdown where he just sorta ... lies down on the station floor and listlessly tells everyone there’s no point in getting up, no point in doing anything; he’s just going to stay here until it isn’t Tuesday anymore, which won’t actually happen because it’s always Tuesday; it’ll never stop being Tuesday, and is it possible he died, and this is literal Hell? This really feels like it might be literal Hell. At which point, Chimney and Hen lift him up on a gurney and drive him to the hospital, and Eddie is admitted overnight and then wakes up the next day in his own bed, alone again. It’s Tuesday.

Well. No point wasting more time feeling sorry for himself. That’s not how Eddie was raised, so he gets back to work on breaking the loop, this time (reluctantly) telling people in order to get their advice. He tells Buck first (because he always goes to Buck first), and Buck believes him because, well. He’s Buck. (Maybe YOU’RE in a coma dream this time, Buck inevitably says each and every time they have this conversation.) Eddie also goes to Chimney (because he must have some idea right, all those movies), and Chimney pretends not to believe Eddie but obviously does; at least, he does once Eddie predicts the next six things that happen. (Thus begins the 118 Time Loop Movie Nights. Eddie’s pretty sure he’s now seen every single time loop movie and television episode that was ever made. His favorite is Edge of Tomorrow.) And Eddie inevitably goes to Bobby, too (because Cap always gives good advice, even if Eddie can’t always follow it), and Bobby clearly doesn’t quite believe him, but humors Eddie anyway. (Also, if Eddie asks early enough, he can get Bobby to change the menu. Eddie is so sick of pancakes. Eddie will never eat a pancake again.)

He never bothers trying to convince Tommy or Hen about the time loop because Tommy only goes along with weird shit when Buck is involved (Eddie gave Tommy so much shit for dressing up for that mummy funeral), and it’s just too hard to imagine Hen “this time he only got stabbed” Wilson humoring anyone. Honestly, Eddie respects her for that.

He goes back to church. (It doesn’t help.) He screams at his parents. (It doesn’t help—not with the time loop, anyway, but on a spiritual level, it’s pretty great.) He shaves off his mustache, not because he thinks it’ll work, but because Buck, Chimney, and Bobby each independently suggest that it might. (It doesn’t, and Eddie scowls for the remainder of the day because everyone at the station keeps coming up to him and saying things like, “Finally came to your senses, huh, Diaz?” or “oh, thank God,” or “YES! Pay up, bitches, I WON!”)

Eddie stumbles into the actual solution entirely by accident. Three days after the Mustache Solution fails—and maybe, maybe in the middle of a second emotional breakdown—Eddie, refusing to get up out of bed, calls 911, and says, “Well, turns out I’m still stuck in this time loop. Any advice?”

Maddie takes the call, and while she clearly thinks Eddie is either having some kind of psychological meltdown (possibly true) or has a terrible head injury (not true, unfortunately), she’s also ... nice, offering good-natured commiseration about the time loop in between more professional questions like “are you bleeding” or “is there anyone else around, Eddie?” She sounds worried but also calm, like this isn’t even in her Top 10 Weirdest 911 Calls, and for some reason, he finds that oddly soothing.

Eddie ends up in the hospital again, but the next day when everything resets, he asks Maddie to lunch, saying yeah, it’s kind of out of the blue, but isn’t it weird how little time they’ve actually spent together over the past seven years? Maddie agrees, and lunch goes great. They have a surprising amount in common: Buck, obviously, but also complicated relationships with their parents, and struggles with depression, and a history of leaving newborn children behind and lying to themselves that it’s for the best. So. Not all positive stuff, exactly, but it’s kinda good to have someone else to talk to about it. And they chat about lighter stuff, too. Maddie says she’ll try one of his telenovelas if he tries one of her k-dramas. He formally accepts with a handshake, and she laughs and says, “Deal.”

Eddie goes to bed that Tuesday, thinking I needed this break, and hopes to hang out with Maddie again someday if he ever returns to his own timeline. And then he wakes up, and it’s—Wednesday? And Eddie doesn’t know what the hell to do with that. 

He’s not ... could he ... could he be secretly in love with Maddie? 

Eddie barely gets through the thought before making a face and immediately shaking his head. No, Maddie’s pretty, and she's nice, and he can see why both Buck and Chimney adore her—but he doesn’t love her, and she definitely doesn’t love him, and getting tacos together doesn’t exactly feel like the kind of Important Life Lesson that all of Chimney’s movies taught him to expect. Eddie considers having a third mini breakdown about it, but it’s Wednesday now, so unfortunately, there will be actual consequences for that.

Instead, Eddie goes back to work and just ... continues on with his life. He doesn’t tell anyone about the time loop, obviously, because no one but Buck would believe him, and even if they did believe him, they’d just tease Eddie that his Important Life Lesson was to make a friend. (Eddie has friends! Ones outside the 118, even! He has Tommy! And ... and other people! Okay, Eddie used to have a lot more friends, but lately, he’s just ... he’s been so busy with work. He’s picking up all the overtime he can because otherwise he’s home alone in an empty house, looking at old pictures and collapsing in his son’s bed and crying where no one can see him—but it’s fine. He’s fine.)

Okay, maybe he hasn’t been fine. But other than Eddie’s new aversion to pancakes and a neurotic need to check the date roughly twenty times a day, he’s actually doing pretty great now. For one thing, he and Maddie keep getting lunches and swapping TV shows. (Chimney and Buck squint at them, suspicious of this newfound alliance.) And most importantly, Eddie hasn’t forgotten what he learned about finally reconnecting with his son. (The short version: honest communication and lots and lots of therapy.) Three weeks after the time loop ends, Christopher finally comes home on two conditions: Eddie keeps going to therapy and also finally shaves the mustache.

Eddie does both.

[wisen-widdyarts]

I introduce Basil's family! Despite Basil being heavily based off Sherlock, there's no harm in coming up with your own headcanons! So, I wanna share a few over these 3! (Sorta long post under this-)

These are Basil's parents, Isabella Marie Moore and Norman Reese Moore! They married at a young age (17 and 21) and didn't have Basil until later in life due to complications with fertility (38 and 42.) They were both born and raised in London, and are in the lowest class. Isabella worked as a housekeeper/maid for a higher class family while Norman worked as a chimney sweep. Despite their complications with money, they tried to give Basil the best life they could. They weren't emotionally distant, though often times their work would keep them away for longer than expected, mostly Norman, which often led Basil to entertain himself with books and chemistry when home alone.

Due to their poverty, they often times couldn't afford proper medical care and would have to resort to home remedies if fallen ill, otherwise they'd push through it. Basil watching his mother create home made medicines and remedies sparked his early interest in the science of chemicals. Unfortunately, these homemade remedies didn't always work. Not long after Basil had left for university at the age of 18, his Father had developed lung cancer after his many years of working in chimneys, and passed away only a few months later at the age of 60.

His Father's dead ultimately made it difficult for Basil to find the courage to return home on occasion to, for he couldn't imagine going home to his house and his father not be there. This led to him staying at University for most of the time and not visiting his Mother, though they still wrote to each other.

His mother continued to work as a housemaid, and still was strong and independent despite her son's distance and her husband's death. It was only after they had finally started rekindling their relationship after Basil graduated that she passed away from an unknown illness at the age of 63. Basil isn't proud of the forced distance to his mother for all those years, but he tries not to dwell on it and wants to push forward for her and his father.

(That's all for now! I'll tell more when I post more doodles of them, enjoy for now my lovelies!)

[thetalee]

do you have any thoughts on Kevin Lee? asking you as a person that loves dead people

I kinda see him as like, a reflection of Chimney? Or something like that. Chimney's glimpse at what could be, maybe.

He got the things Chimney wanted but was denied. Two loving parents who are both there, a mother who isn't dead and a father who isn't an asshole; he got a placement at an objectively - at the time - better station, where he was accepted and could actually be a firefighter instead of being surrounded and sidelined by bigots.

And the thing is, Chimney did finally get all that, too. After Kevin died. He slips further into the spot that Kevin left behind in Anna and John's lives, he finally gets to prove himself as a firefighter instead of the paramedic bone that Eli threw him. Chimney kinda sorta becomes Kevin. Which is interesting when taken along with how, back in season one, he tried so very hard to look like someone else to Tatiana when he took the credit for Bobby's cooking and Buck's rescues.

It's also interesting, I think, how that trait first shows up with the Lees. Kevin is regaling everyone with tales of what he's been doing at the 133, and Chimney, in response, starts listing off the things that the 118 has responded to but which he wasn't taken along for, letting the Lees assume he was involved.

[2moss2slug]

Rant kinda:

I see people wondering how everything is going to fit into s7, like the cruise emergency, madney wedding, henren baby.... But I feel like all of this could be spaced out evenly even with a shortened season (and it also seems obvious we will be getting a story with a shift between the Buckley-Diaz dynamics in the early episodes)

Like when I rewatch the older seasons MORE was done! And we didn't spend 4 episodes primarily focused on a SINGLE arc with over encumbersome emergencies. (s5 and s6 pacing will always get to me) and I feel like season 3 is the best example of this, I mean they had the tsunami arc, lawsuit, henren trying for a baby then deciding to foster, Eddie's fighting ring, ATHENA BEGINS, Hens ambulance accident which helped shift henren to a healthier place, Maddie getting over what happened with Doug, starting Micheal cancer storyline, plenty of soft scenes between Chimney and Maddie, and comedic things spread throughout the FIRST HALF of the season. All of this was in 10 episodes, whose to say this can't happen again with s7? Because I feel like we lost the plot a little bit on balancing character storylines with each other and with emergencies.

Plus, we can parallel the new stories we'll get, like 911 has done before with storylines (also something s5 and s6 lacked imo) not only paralleling more emergencies to character storylines but characters to characters, keeping a theme for storylines different characters have in an episode! And maybe I wasn't paying attention and they did this in the newer seasons, it just wasn't as impactful. And we desperately need more narration.

Just think if we have a parenting storyline. Hen and Karen relearning what it's like to take care of a baby again, Buck realizing he has a much more parental role with Christopher (I really think s7 is leading up to that), a segment that really talks about Athena having an empty nest (and please just explain that Harry went to live with Michael because of his trauma in LA it makes sense), honestly Maddie and Chimney would probably have a soft family scene at the beginning/end.

Or there's an episode about Maddie and Chimney finally getting married, and it goes over how Bobby and Athena got married fast, Hen and Karen sorta having the most experienced out of everyone, and the soul searching in sure buck and Eddie will be doing.

Montages at the end of episodes are everything.

I think that's it.

[b0d1ly-st3w]

have my postal 1 dude headcanons because hes so meeeeee

tw for mentions of self harm

• hed just barely turned 20 by the time postal 1 happened

• a bit of a mallgoth, really loved nine inch nails and marilyn manson

• had a really bad self harm addiction back in highschool, he was 2 years clean by postal 1

• actually felt so bad for everything hed done, cant even hear fake gunshots without wanting to throw up

• i believe that the demon was responsible for his breakdown, it convinced him that everyone was poisoned and that he was the only one that could save them

• schizophrenic, has hurt himself before because voices convinced him to do so

• shy and selectively mute

• other postal dudes treat him like a kid because of his age (postal 4 dude is his parental figure)

• asshole dad who was never around

• smokes like a chimney, anytime anyone sees him he always seems to have a cigarette in his hand

• great with kids, thats why he couldnt bring himself to hurt them

• the funeral ending was a hallucination (ik thats redux but they are practically the same leave me alone)

• the most traumatised postal dude

• would probs be a mitski stan

• autistic, bites the other postal dudes

• loves cats

• bisexual and in denial (has a fat crush on every single member of nin)

• just starts screaming randomly, but not in a funny way like a genuine terror way

• stares at people with his autism eyes

• wears his sunglasses everywhere

• lives off cheese and vodka (hes like an alcoholic mouse)

• absolutely loves horror movies, gets postal 4 dude to watch them with him

• scared of corkscrew, but corkscrew really likes him and feels the need to protect him

• suffered from anorexia at a young age, sometimes has days where he literally cant eat anything without crying

• people pleaser, changes his entire personality to make people happy

• loves wool sweaters, practically lives in them

• always cold

• drinks to forget

• gets randomly angry for no apparent reason, will start punching the shit out of people and screaming

• against the big light prefers lamps

• will just sit in the corner and listen while people talk

• loves pepperoni pizza

• still has braces

• probably loves hello kitty but will never admit it

• shoplifts literally anytime he goes into a store, steals things for other postal dudes

• would violently sob to real men by mitski

• bullys postal 4 dudes music but actually likes it (can you tell i love the idea of them being friends?)

i added more because ive got so many headcanons for this emo loser <3

• really picky with what he can eat, will spit anything out he doesnt like

• his family where heavily religious, thats why he wears a cross

• can fall asleep literally anywhere

• defos a stoner

• practically lived at korn concerts

• likes hugs but also despises being touched

• corkscrew carries him about everywhere, gives him piggybacks all the time

• either completely stone cold or really giggly and happy, there is no in between

• uses :⁠-⁠) :⁠-⁠P :⁠-⁠O :⁠-⁠( when texting

• probably likes cannibal corpse

• chop suey! by system of a down is his anthem

• spins around in circles to stim, postal 2 guy joins in because funni

• steals peoples jackets

• would be absolutely cracked at hatsune miku project diva

• has a hyperfixation on music and plays bass

• i think he would be really soft spoken most the time

• when hes drunk hes absolutely mayhem, runs around and throws cushions at people

• tried to give himself a stick and poke and got mad when it didnt look good

• if postal 1 was set in the early 2000s i think hed be an emo

• goes nonverbal often, hardly ever speaks

• claustrophobic, will start crying if he feels trapped

• hates parades (unless its a pride one #ally)

• (⁠●⁠_⁠_⁠●⁠) stares at people like this

• tooth gap<3333

• hates wearing bandages around his arms because theyre itchy and uncomfortable

• probably had an entire bag of bandaids on standby

• ik he canonically has sorta short hair but i like to think its really long

• wanted a mohawk

• wears eyeliner but will deny it even though its so obvious

• he did have a girlfriend at one point but she left him because he was strange (autism making him bitchless💀)

• ik this makes no sense but i think it would be funny af if he was scottish, like all the other postal dudes expect him to sound like them but then he starts speaking in the heaviest scottish accent imaginable (and before you say im only saying that because hes ginger im scottish so im actually projecting get it right)

• gave himself so many piercings but half of them closed up

• likes flavoured tea, his fav is peppermint

• would probably have a crush on tyler durden

• not really a hc but imagine him falling asleep on the sofa and postal 4 dude covering him with a nice fluffy blanket and giving him a little kiss on the forehead like dads in movies 😭😭😭

• wanted to be a musician growing up

• would watch the entire saw franchise in one sitting

• postal 4 dude always checks his arms and makes sure hes eaten, but he doesnt get upset with him if he does relapse or doesnt eat because he knows hes trying

• everyone tells him all their drama because they know he wont tell anyone (he knows everything)

• no one is willing to argue with him because he will either start crying or attack them

• probably bipolar

• signed postal 2 guys petition

• probably rabid/j

• really good at art

• scared of seagulls

• hes really lanky and tall

• (⁠;⁠ŏ⁠﹏⁠ŏ⁠) default facial expression

• red is his favourite colour

• hes an anti-shaggin moment/ref

• will just lay on top of people with absolutely no care whatsoever

• really bad at helping others, hed probably awkwardly giggle at someone crying

• he likes stuffed animals, has a whole collection of them because he was never allowed them when he was a kid

• if you asked him his pronouns hed probably bite you (he doesnt understand)

• if demon ever got a physical form all the dudes (excluding 1) would team up and beat its ass

• demon still appears sometimes and even tells 1 what to do, but he does his best not to listen

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TW!! SLIGHT DESCRIPTION OF S/H

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• one time postal 3 dude was just going downstairs to get some water and found 1 on the floor sobbing, hed had an episode and sliced his arm pretty bad, 3 did his best to help and swore he wouldnt tell 4 but he found out anyways

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• hates chocolate cake with every fibre of his being

• paints his nails all the time, comes downstairs every day with a new colour

• one of the dudes got him a copy of pretty hate machine on cd for christmas and it was his most favourite thing for months

• loves little insects, willingly picks them up

• collects so much random shit its insane

i got more

• can never sit in pure silence because there always seems to be noise, but really its all in his head (this is based on some of the tracks from the redux soundtrack as obviously some of them are just unintelligible noise)

• picks at his skin alot

• used to skip school alot, but always did well in tests and exams

• cant swim

• actually really loved school

• salt and vinegar crisps man

• actually tried to quit smoking but failed horribly

• uses internet slang and postal 4 guy has absolutely no fucking clue what hes on about

thats all i got

[princessfbi]

Sleepover ask - Ok so when everyone was doing that thing that ranked their favorite 911 characters I remember being struck by how low Hen was on your list! Low like under a buckley parent low I think. And no judgement ofc bc to each their own, but I just gotta know how she ended up there in your book

Ohh! Ok so I think it's because of a few reasons. For context, Hen tied with Margaret Buckley and above that Phillip Buckley tied with Abby Clark in my list.

One: I think one portion of this is because it took me a second to figure out how the poll worked. Nine out of ten times if you tag me in a game and I don't do it, it's because I don't understand how to do it. It took a VERY long time doing that polling to realize I was not in fact being timed and I wasn't taking a test 🤣 So I'd be interested to see what I would get if I took my time.

Two: I like how much I dislike the Buckley Parents. For the longest time I couldn't even look at the actors because I would have a full on visceral emotional reaction to seeing them (sorry to the Hallmark movie that had Buck's dad in it that I had to turn off). They are literally the worst and super complicated and nuanced in the way that they aren't just cardboard flat characters meant to be villains. So me disliking the Buckley Parents as much as I do, doesn't mean that I'm indifferent to them which is how I feel towards a lot of the characters much further down the list. So I think it's less a comment on how low on the list Hen is when in reality it's more how high the Buckley Parents are.

Three: This is in no way a slight against Aisha because I think she plays Hen beautifully but I find that I tend to like Fanon Hen more than Canon Hen. Aisha is an absolute POWER HOUSE and there are scenes I absolutely LOVE.

But I tend to look at the show in two lens: as a viewer and then a writer.

As a viewer: I'm a little turned off by her in a very biased way because I've worked with people with a similar temperament to Hen and I gotta be honest, they were not super great to work with. Particularly in the 'i'm in a bad mood over something that has nothing to do with you but don't talk to me or i'm going to bite your head off' vibe which is something she's done a couple of times with Chimney, Buck, and Eddie. And that's a totally valid character choice to make, it's just not something I enjoy watching personally.

But as a writer? I find that I get frustrated a lot with some of Hen's storylines particularly in her instances of impulsivity. All of the characters have been in a situation where they've been impulsive but we've seen the consequences and follow up those actions.

Buck filing the lawsuit -- Buck having to work for forgiveness from the team and Bobby.

Eddie street fighting -- Eddie having to answer for his actions with Bobby and go to counseling.

Bobby skating around the protocol to get Hen out of the vault -- Bobby's past being revealed and being suspended.

Chimney lying in his relationship with Tatiana -- Their relationship failing.

Athena going rogue to get Emmett's killer -- Athena getting suspended.

Maddie getting obsessed with a victim -- Maddie getting put on leave and forced to see a counselor.

We just get to see the follow through of this moments of impulsivity or recklessness but we don't really get that with Hen. It feels like it's more like an excuse to make Hen seem badass but the catch for that is that her victories feel a little hollow then. The sticking her hand in an open chest wound situation is one example where it was such a HUGE break in protocol (Chimney AND the nurse both had big reactions to it) but then Hen sort of got off easy. I remember watching that and thinking about the line Buck says about Eddie free climbing the roof where he's like "I feel like if I had done that you would've yelled at me." Anyone else in that situation and I think we would've gotten the consequences of that action. But with Hen it just sorta always seems like it ends on a "super lucky nothing bad happened here MOVING ON" scenario. And this isn't just with Hen (ie part of the reason why I wish we had gotten a little more tension with Chimney's return so that the attack on Jonah felt a little more satisfying) but it happens with her the most frequently.

Argument can be made for Bobby too but it happens less so.

The only time we got to see something similar was when Hen was distracted by her problems with Karen's fertility and the girl died. But even that wasn't really a consequence to Hen's actions and more bad timing. And that storyline hurt BUT it's one of the strongest Hen arcs we've seen. It's something that she still struggles with and continues to battle and I'm getting chills just writing about Aisha's performance when she breaks down in Athena's arms.

So my frustration comes from the fact that we know it can be done, and done really well, it's just not done very often which feels like cheating her character out of a complete arc.

All this is to say I still love Hen a lot and there are a BUNCH of scenes of hers that I think really just dig right into the core of the show. I just have my frustrations.

Send Me A Sleepover Ask

[littlerosetrove]

My initial spoiler thoughts for episode 6x18.

Ummmm yeah I’ll be tagging this post #911 critical and #911 negativity for blacklisting purposes, because, well, I have some critical and negative leaning thoughts.

I literally just finished the episode so… Hooboy folks. I guess in no particular order.

Y’all. I am. Really disappointed in Natalia coming back and Buck accepting her back. Now while I don’t believe them to be any sort of endgame, this is tiring. Buck has learned nothing when it comes to romantic relationships. What was it, at the end of season 5 or beginning of season 6, Buck said he doesn’t want to settle or be with someone who doesn’t accept all of him? And fucking yet. I really don’t care that Natalia apologized, said she “overreacted.” There was definitely truth in that initial reaction. Be serious now. Once again while I understand Buck is full of trauma, but this is so unsatisfying for his character. Like goddamn let him grow, holy shit. Like out loud when Buck accepted Natalia back I said, “You have got to be kidding me.”

Sooooo I can only assume Buck reckoning with his death will be carried into season 7? Because I saw no real conclusion to that big storyline. 🙃

No real answer to Bucks happiness either. He still seems to be searching for it in the wrong places. *tired sigh*

Props for Buck keeping his cool during the rescue. He sorta took on some leadership. Sorta. Can’t say this story thread has been handled all that well, though.

Was Eddie cute when he called Marisol? Yes. But I’m biased with Eddie. Did I expect this possible outcome of Eddie and Marisol possibly dating? Absolutely. Do I like it? Not at all. We know Marisol won’t be an endgame AND sure, she hasn’t had much screen time yet, but I’m bored already. 911 does not have a great track record in making the love interests, particularly for Buck and Eddie, interesting. And I get people saying “Eddie’s never dated, so this is his chance to try that out, even if it doesn’t go anywhere.” I get it, I really do. At the moment I don’t know how to explain what I’m thinking in a satisfactory way. I’m just… not looking forward to what I can already tell will be a boring experience with Eddie dating Marisol. And not knowing how long 911 will drag out this relationship…. I feel tired. I may feel more positive later, another day, but that is not today.

I’ll give points for Eddie letting Chris in on the fact that he’s (trying to) date.

Kameron and Connor were a mess, huh. Connor just seems immature and a bit of a dick. My goodness, does Kameron really have no friends or family in LA? I’m still hella confused as to why she thought it was okay to crash at the donor’s place. The show did nothing to establish any friendship between Kameron and Buck, so y’all that was weird. I mean, good for Buck saying “not my wife, not my baby.” Good for him in setting some kind of boundaries, cause it seems Kameron and Connor have none. Yeah uh…. I know I don’t think this donor story was handled that well, but any future and further thoughts will be for a different post. I - hope this is the last we see of Connor and Kameron.

Uhhhhh there was a clear time jump, I think? From the rescue/accident to - everyone going back to work. But I swear Buck still had scratches on his face, so????????? And considering the injuries of Bobby, Eddie, and Chimney, how in the hell are they back at work already???? The time jump was not clear at all, so that had me hella confused.

I am happy that Athena and Bobby are getting a vacation. Here’s to hoping the cruise ship doesn’t get into an accident. Let my 911 parents have a relaxing and fun time.

I think it’s sweet that Maddie and Chimney are going to get married at their house. I love that for them. Something simple and sweet.

Hen and Karen might get to adopt in the future! They really seem to want that, so yay for them. =))

I did enjoy the rescue, but… I actually feel like it could have been a little longer. *shrugs*

In summary - I’m mixed. If this had truly been the series finale, boy howdy I would have felt overall unsatisfied. Like truly, I’m really glad there will be a 7th season. I’d feel unsatisfied for season 6 as a whole, which I will be making a future and different post on, idk, maybe in the next few days.

[hoediaz]

what if the gas pedal sticks? 

2.7k | pre-relationship buddie | rated t | ao3 

Buck doesn’t get angry anymore. Because Buck doesn’t deserve to indulge in his desperate rage, not if he expects people to stick around and not if he expects people to believe that one day he might be good enough to deserve their love. Because Buck can’t be angry anymore, not when there’s a kid out there who might one day rely on him, a kid who feels like Buck’s beating heart.

But the hard, desperate, painful truth: Buck is fucking furious. Buck is always so goddamn fucking angry. He can hide it and he can repackage it and he can cover it, but beneath it all, there it always is: cold, steely anger clinging to the threads of himself. The anger that pushes him into buildings he knows he might not walk out of, the anger that sends him off of ledges he knows he might not come back from.

-

or, evan buckley was an angry kid; buck is someone else. except, of course, that he isn't, not really. (inspired by these posts)

Evan Buckley was an angry kid.

Evan Buckley was the kind of kid that would ball his hands into fists under his desk until nails pierced skin whenever a teacher would smile at him, all condescension, and tell him to please just focus, Evan.

Evan Buckley was the kind of kid that would slam his fist into the trunk of a tree, bark scraping against knuckle, when he was sent home with a test marked up in red, a disappointing grade that wouldn’t make his parents do a damn thing but would put a small frown on Maddie’s face.

Evan Buckley was the kind of kid that would pull the throttle too hard when the girl he had been kinda-sorta-not-really dating would smile at him, all condescension, and tell him it wasn’t going to work out, squeezing until the bike slid out from under him.

Probie Buckley, Firehose, Buck 1.0: he was a bit angry, too.

He was better at hiding it, better at repackaging it as blinding confidence, smirking as he drawled to his teammates as far as I’m concerned, the world began the day I was born, and reckless charm, sitting a stranger on his lap in a borrowed fire engine on the city’s dime.

But Buck 3.0 or 4.0 or whoever he is now, the Buck that has a serious, long-term girlfriend, and a loft that he rents all by himself, and a stable career, and a piece of paper in some attorney’s office with his name on it under legal guardian, he’s not angry.

He’s sometimes sad, and often lonely, but he’s…he’s changed. He’s taken all of those bitter edges that belonged to Evan and Firehose, and he’s tucked them away. He’s written over them with Christopher’s smile and Chimney’s teasing and Maddie’s hugs and Eddie’s —

He’s not angry anymore.

read the rest on ao3

[fleabagdiaz]

leaving home ain’t easy

madney, 2.7k, s5 speculation fic (sorta)

read on ao3

Chimney doesn’t think he’s ever been this tired in his life. Getting used to the whole dad thing has been hard enough, and now on top of it he’s pulling extra shifts to make ends meet, and staying up all night worried about his family. The sleep he does get is frequently interrupted by wordless cries, real or imagined. The only thing getting him from one day to the next is knowing that Maddie is even more tired than him. That he needs to be strong for her, and for Jee-Yun, for the family of his own that he finally managed to build. The thought of losing either of them, in any way, for any reason, is too much to bear. So he gets up in the morning and drinks two cups of coffee and kisses his beautiful daughter and aches to see the love of his life still in so much pain. He smiles as often as he can. Tries to smile enough for both of them until Maddie can again.

And he misses her. Even when she’s right in front of them, he misses her. He would do anything to take away even a fraction of her pain. Every day he tries to, and some days are better but most days are the same. So he just misses her, and loves her, and takes care of her as much as she’ll let him. Which is not as much as he’d like.

He does his best. To keep everything and everyone together and safe. To keep smiling for Jee. And he knows Maddie is doing her best too. More often than not, he feels like he’s spinning too many plates with not enough hands and something is bound to shatter. It won’t be like this forever. Things will get better. She will get better. Sometimes, though, it’s hard to remember that.

And he’s just so goddamn tired.

The day the blackout finally ends, he gets home from one of the longest shifts of his entire life practically sleepwalking through the door. All he wants is to collapse into bed next to Maddie and fall asleep to the sound of her breathing, content with the certainty that she’s safe and within arms reach.

As soon as he walks into their bedroom to see the bed pristinely made with a crisp white sheet of paper resting on the pillowcase, an alarm bell goes off in his head. Jee isn’t in her crib. Maddie is nowhere to be seen. Dread rips through his body like an icy wind.

Chimney snatches up the note. It takes him too long to read. The words seem to spin around on the page, and the pounding of his heart is so loud he can barely hear his own thoughts.

My love,

I’m so sorry. I had to leave. I couldn’t keep hurting you and our daughter by staying. You both deserve so much better than me, and I never deserved anything as good as either of you.

Please don’t try to follow me. I promise you’ll be better off without me. I’ll be safe, just somewhere else. And you can be happy.

Jee is with Anne. Tell her I’m sorry, and I’ll miss her every day. Tell her it’s for the best.

Love forever and always,

Maddie

The paper falls from his hand, and he has Athena’s number dialed before it hits the ground.

“I’m sorry, Chimney, but we can’t file a missing person’s case in this scenario unless there’s evidence of foul play,” Athena says after he breathlessly explains the note. Her voice is strained with exhaustion. With everything she’s been through in the past week, he feels terrible asking her for help. But his chest is twisted up so much he can’t breathe and his mind is twisted up so much he can’t think and he needs to do something.

“She could hurt herself, or…” The words stick in his mouth, coated with tar. Chimney swallows.  “Or worse. Athena, I can’t lose her.”

Athena sighs deeply. As exhausted as Chimney feels, he’s sure Athena is in an even worse state after everything she’s been through in the past week. “Give me a minute,” She says.

He paces around the kitchen for what seems like hours, his thoughts slipping further and further down a spiral. Every time he pulls one back up, another falls even further. He’s just about to bolt out the door and start wandering the streets of LA screaming Maddie’s name when Athena’s voice comes back through the receiver. “Bobby’s going to come pick you up and take you to the airport. You call Buck and tell him to check the train station. I’ll have my people at the station keeping an eye out for any concerning calls with someone matching her description.”

A plan. They have a plan. And he has help. He’s not alone. Chimney takes a shaky breath, “Thank you so much.”

“Well, I know how you’re feeling right now and I wouldn’t wish it upon my worst enemy.” Athena replies.

“How is Harry doing?”

“He’s safe and home. That’s about all we can ask for.”

Chimney nods, even though he knows Athena can’t hear him. “He’ll be alright. He’s a tough kid.”

“And your Maddie is the toughest woman I know. You’ll bring her home, too.”

He thanks her again and hangs up, dialing Buck’s number as soon as the call ends. If he keeps moving forward, keeps steady with this plan, then maybe he’ll get through this. Or at least get through the next few hours.

If he stops to think, he knows he’ll drown.

“Maddie did what? ” Buck cries out.

“She left. I don’t know where she went,” Chimney reiterates, passing his hand over his eyes. “So, listen, I need you to—”

“Is she okay? Is Jee okay? When did this happen?” He hears Buck’s car keys jingling in the background, like he just picked them up.

“Buck, focus. Jee is fine, no idea about Maddie. That’s why we need to go find her. Can you head to the train station?”

“Well, what about the airport? Maybe she went back to Hershey to stay with our parents or an old friend. I could go there and—”

“Just listen for a second,” Chimney snaps, then immediately regrets it. This is Buck’s sister after all. He’s loved her even longer than Chimney has. He softens his voice. “Please. I’m scared too, but we have to work together. Me and Bobby are going to the airport, you head to the train station. Can you think of anywhere else she might go?”

“Uh, I don’t know." Buck sounds a little bit like a chastised puppy. But he stays on track this time. “I’ll call Josh on my way, see if he knows anything. My parents too, I guess.”

“Thank you,” Chimney says. His phone buzzes with a text from Bobby saying he’s outside of his apartment and he rushes out the door. “I gotta go. Let me know if you hear anything at all.”

“Yeah, of course, Chim. You too.” He pauses for a moment. “We’re gonna find her, right? We have to.”

Chimney sighs, already halfway down the stairwell. “I sure fuckin’ hope so, Buck.”

He jumps into Bobby’s car without a word, and they take off towards LAX. The tension in his jaw is starting to hurt, but he can’t relax. Any thoughts of sleep have vanished from his mind, although he knows that beneath the adrenaline the exhaustion is lying in wait.

Mrs. Lee responds to his text asking when Maddie dropped Jee-Yun off. About an hour ago. Poor thing looked dead on her feet. The two of you should let me watch this little angel more often like you used to!

If Mrs. Lee knew anything about Maddie’s plan, she would’ve called. As much as Chimney would love some encouraging words from her right now, he can’t bring himself to worry her until he has to. We’ll keep that in mind. Thanks so much!

He sends a silent prayer to who-the-hell-knows that they’re not too late. If Maddie’s caught a plane or a train, he doesn’t know if he’ll ever be able to find her, let alone get her back.

“I know how much you love her, Chim,” Bobby says, his voice breaking through Chimney’s spiraling thoughts. “And I hope we find her as much as anyone. But if we can’t, it’s not your fault. Sometimes people just don’t want to be found.”

Chimney wishes he knew what to say to that. Wishes he could form a response without the threat of his voice cracking.

Bobby keeps driving and Chimney watches endless monotonous buildings blur past the window. He usually likes LA. People crack jokes about the traffic and the smog and the wannabe-celebrities. Hell, he does too. But he’s lived here for most of his life, through ups and downs, through terrible losses and his wildest dreams coming true. This city has hand-delivered him the greatest family he’s ever known.

In this moment, he’s never hated LA more.

“I can’t lose her, Bobby,” Chimney finally says.  A tear spills down his cheek.

Bobby says nothing, just reaches over and places a hand on Chimney’s shoulder.

The rest of the drive goes by achingly slowly, in comfortable but heavy silence. They’ve almost reached the airport when Chimney’s phone buzzes with a text from Buck.

No sign of her at the train station. Can’t get a hold of our parents. Josh has no idea. Gonna help him call around to hospitals in the area.

The tightness in Chimney’s chest squeezes more with every word, until hospitals hits him like a semi-truck.

He can’t think about that now. He can’t. Maddie is okay. She has to be. And he’ll take her home, and get her the help she needs here, where he’s only ever a traffic-dependent number of minutes away, and he can see her every day and hold her hand and tell her how much he loves her until she finally believes it, even if he has to say it thousands of times a day for the rest of their lives.

The car hasn’t even rolled to a stop outside departures before Chimney is out the door. Bobby calls out after him something about parking but Chimney doesn’t catch it and, right now, he doesn’t really care.

When he gets inside the airport he immediately ambushes the poor, dead-eyed employee at the information desk, cutting the line of twenty protesting patrons. “When’s the next flight to Philadelphia taking off?”

A bewildered expression replacing his dead stare. He blinks at Chimney, then types something on his computer. “Uh. 30 minutes. But it’s booked.”

“Makes no difference to me. Just tell me the gate number and get me any ticket that’ll get me through security. Preferably a cheap one.”

“Sir, you can’t—”

“Listen, man. I promise you I have a good explanation. It’s a real tear-jerker of a story, too. But I really don’t have time to tell it, and it would be much easier to just sell me the ticket now and get me out of your hair.”

Five minutes later, he’s shelled out $400 for a flight to Montana that he’ll never step foot on and is schmoozing his way to the front of the security line. The words fall out of his mouth before he knows what he’s saying. My grandmother has less than a day to live, I just have to make my flight. My wife is in labor, I just have to make my flight. My kid suffered a traumatic brain injury and is finally able to play his first baseball game again, I just have to make my flight. Anything to get people to let him skip through the security line they’ve been waiting in for God knows how long. He would tell the truth, but it feels so mixed up and raw and intimate that lying comes much easier. Somehow he makes it to the front of the line and through security in less time than it usually takes him to find parking here.

And he takes off at a dead sprint through the terminal.

His heart breaks more with each step. He’s not going to make it. He has no idea if this is even the right flight. Or if she’s here at all. He’s going to lose her. Lose the best person and the best life he’s ever had. He should just let her go. It’s selfish to make her stay if it’s not what she wants.

He can’t possibly let her go. Not like this.

He runs past hundreds of people, thousands. But he knows, he knows , that none of them are Maddie. Something in him would stop him dead in his tracks. Would lead him right to her. In the blur of faces and bodies, he knows Maddie will stick out, clearer than HD.

And she does. Sitting at the otherwise empty gate for the flight to Philly with a carry-on suitcase at her feet, staring out the window at the place where the plane must have just been. Looking as beautiful as ever, but so empty and so tired that, despite the relief that floods his body, the pain in his chest remains, sharper than ever. He slows to a stop twenty feet away from the person he loves most in the world, save for the person they made together.

“Maddie.” He breathes her name, too quietly for her to hear. Disbelieving of his luck, he cautiously approaches her, like she’s a mirage that will disappear at the wrong angle.

When she finally turns and sees him, her eyes widen for a moment, her body tensing. And then her shoulders slump in defeat.

Chimney sits down in the chair next to her. What now?

“Hi,” He says simply.

He’s almost surprised when she responds. “Hi.”

“You had us worried there for a minute.” Chimney’s not sure if that’s the right thing to say. He’s not sure if there is a right thing to say.

Maddie takes a deep breath. Her eyes are puffy and red, and a tear rolls down either side of her face. “I couldn’t do it.” Chimney takes her hand in his own and nearly falls apart when she clings tightly to it. “I was trying to do the right thing. I was trying to set you free. Set you both free. But I couldn’t…” She shrugs helplessly. “I couldn’t leave.”

“Well I, for one, am damn grateful for that.” Chimney’s voice cracks halfway through the sentence. And then they’re both sobbing into each other’s shoulder in the middle of the bustling airport, and Chimney doesn’t know how it’s possible to feel so much joy and so much pain at the same time. Like at any moment his chest might burst open from the sheer force of it.

After several long minutes, Maddie’s breathing comes more evenly, and he pulls back to look her in the eye, wipes her tears with his thumb. “Let’s go home, Maddie. And in the morning, we can get you checked into that inpatient program that Dr. Bolsaro recommended. We’ll get you the help you need. Here. We need you here, and I think you need us too. It’s okay to need us.” Maddie stares at him through her tears, her expression still just as hollow. He knows she doesn’t believe him yet. But that doesn’t mean he’ll stop telling her. “We all want to help you. You’re worth every second. All of it. You’re worth everything.”

“I’m not,”  She whispers. Chimney’s already fragmented heart shatters into even smaller pieces.

“I swear to you, you are. You don’t have to believe me. You just have to stay, and let us prove it to you.” He stands, and holds out his hand. He isn’t sure if she’s going to take it. But he hopes, and he hopes, and he tries to believe that the hope will be enough.

She holds his gaze. Then turns to the window, her eyes fixed on the spot on the tarmac where the plane took off to her wretched old life. The life she thinks she still deserves. The plane she didn’t get on anyway.

And then she turns back to Chimney. And she takes his hand.

[wildlife4life]

Seven Sentence Sunday

Tagged by: @ebdaydreamer and @buck-tartt (on fuck it friday, but i've been busy with a sick tot until today!)

Here's another snippet from my teen! Buck, fight Eddie (also a teen, but late teen) and kind of parent Chimney.

Buck’s eyes flickered to the ground, “You have let me go. Give me and Eddie a chance to get away and I’ll come to firehouse and explain everything.” Chimney shook his head, “I can’t do that Buck.” “You have to because it’s the only way everyone is getting out this mess without handcuffs and lives intact. I know what you’re thinking, but Eddie didn’t drag me here and he won’t hurt me. He would never hurt me. So let me go, distract who needs to be and I will come to firehouse.” The paramedic groaned in exasperation because the kid was right. Keeping Buck with him would raise more suspension and get a whole of people in a lot of trouble.  But he didn’t trust this Eddie guy, who was clearly older than Buck and clearly trouble with a scary amount of the influence over him. He really didn’t trust either one of the boys, but for the time being he needed to, for Buck’s welfare and Chim’s job. “You are so fucking grounded you know that? And Maddie… oh my god Maddie is going tear us both a new one! You more than me, but the besides the point.” Chimney ranted and Buck just pursed his lips, growing impatient. Chimney looked back to where Eddie was still standing, his fist clenched tight and a few steps closer than he was before. Most of the police officers were still rounding up the few stragglers and had yet to make their way further back where many of the cars were still parked, including Eddie and his truck, but his hiding spot wouldn’t last for much longer.

[veirtyel]

My personal predictions for season 4 of 911

The “buck begins” episode will be surrounding his relationship with his parents. That “I’m not good enough” clip from the trailer is probably him yelling at them, at least I hope so because the alternative would be the fire fam and after the whole lawsuit I’m not in the mood for more conflict between them

I feel like his parents will probably arrive because of Maddie’s pregnancy, possibly become overbearing or judge based on her last marriage or the fact that she’s pregnant and NOT married

Speaking of the baby, Maddie’s probably going to struggle out of fear of having a baby during COVID, also given her background as a nurse she probably knows the risks. That, or something involving chimney, her parents, or own personally fear of having a baby BECAUSE of how her parents raised her and Buck

Basically, I predict the Buckley parents may be causing problems this season

Athena is going to have trouble going back on the force, of course, but in light of the BLM movement she’s probably going to question her position as a police officer AND as a black woman

Hen is probably going to med school, but will be balancing out being a firefighter and/or feel she needs to choose between the two, thus leading to a personal reflection and character development

On a smaller note, their will probably be an episode or moments where they come across someone who refuses to wear a mask, sorta like those moments where the racist people won’t let any of the poc or lgtbq members of the firehouse assist them in 911 and lone star

Speaking of racism 🙃 we might see chimney experience some racism cause’ of COVID, maybe someone won’t let him help then or call him Chinese

Also, some drama might be going down between Athena, Bobby, and Michael

On a happier note, I think we’re getting a lone star cross over?? I think this has already been confirmed though

ALSO, this is less a prediction and more of a hope that we get more Eddie, Buck and Chris bonding moments. Maybe they both help him through the drama with his parents

In addition, we WILL be seeing Maddie and Chim’s baby this season. I’m speaking it into existence

[twisted-in-wonderland-jay]

Sleeping Beauty Retelling pt6

A large hedge of thorns soon grew round the palace, and every year it became higher and thicker, till at last the whole castle was surrounded and hid, so that not even the roof or the chimney’s could be seen. But there went a report through all the land of the beautiful sleeping prince in the highest tower of the palace; so that from time to time several king’s sons came, and tried to break through the thicket into the palace. This they could never do; for the thorns and bushes laid hold of them as it were with hands, and there they stuck fast and died miserably.

The prince is trapped in a dull lifeless dream, no light, or people. He endlessly walked thinking of all his life, Lilia, his parents, and when he would wake up. Soon after walking from what felt like forever he stumbled across color, in this dull lifeless world.

A young boy, Silver couldn’t help but notice his hair and eyes, both were very beautiful in this gray land, and the boys pale face. Silver hadn't a clue who this was, he had never seen a boy with pointed ears and sharper teeth. Silver looked on from a distance, behind a tree, and hid when the boy looked in his direction.

“Hello. Who goes there!?” The boy yelled with the voice of a child, high pitched and loud, running up to the tree Silver was hiding behind, “I know you're there!” The boy came out from behind the tree to find Silver, “Whoa...”

“I-I’m Silver, and who might you be?”

“Oh umm Mother says not to tell strangers my name. But it’s a pleasure to meet you. Come on, it’s dull over here.” The boy took Silver's hand, and led him away.

“Quite strange…”

“What’s strange?!” The boy replied curiously.

“Well, one only dreams of those they've met. And I’ve never met you before.”

“That’s funny because I’ve never met you before either. And I’m the one dreaming here, not you.”

“Oh but you're sorely mistaken, I’m the one dreaming, you see I’ve been cursed to sleep for a long time. That’s what my father says… Well my sorta father.”

“Tsk. Well this is my dream because my father told me of a thicket of thorns, and how a beautiful palace stood behind it, in which a prince was to sleep for a hundred years, before bed, so this is just my imagination, that’s why you're saying all this.” Silver stops and the young boys hand slips from his.

“What?” Silver stands in shock. “How. What. That’s not right. Sleeping prince?”

“You know it’s my dream to see this land and to help this prince, The thorns and magic of a fairy don’t scare me. No sooner than he spoke the world around him started to shatter. “Wait, don't go!” Silver started to fall, as the boy spoke “We’re not strangers anymore. My name is-” Silver couldn’t make out the name, but he saw the smile upon the boy's face.

Back in the dull dream, Silver had wondered how this little prince would ever save him from his sleep.

Who do you think the young boy is? Leave it in the comments 🎶

[crazybagelbitch]

Ryan universe - post relationship, still new: their first fire fam event as an official family of three

“I know I’m probably biased, but I think we might have the cutest baby ever,” Maddie gushes, fussing with her daughter’s headband do that it’s sitting just so. 

Really, Chimney doesn’t completely understand the joy Maddie gets from dressing Ryan in outfits with matching colored accessories, but if she’s happy, he’s happy.

“She certainly is ridiculously cute,” he agrees, smiling down at their almost six month old-- just the fact that she’s already been in this world for almost half a year makes him want to burst into tears-- as he lifts her from her car seat, “I have to say, we did a really, really good job with this little one.”

“I think she looks more like you than me which sorta sucks because I’m the one that grew her in my belly, but you’re cute so it works out in her favor.”

“Hey, she looks like you and you’re totally cute, too.”

“You’re so--”

“Hey, you three!” Buck shouts, having opened Bobby and Athena’s front door, “you know Bobby doesn’t let us eat until everyone’s here, so hurry up!”

“Stop yelling so loud or you’ll make your niece cry,” Chimney rolls his eyes.

“She’s fine. You’re her dad so she’s used to a lot of noise,” Buck retorts, “besides, you at least used to always be on time to things-- the first one there.”

“Yeah, well, then he had a baby and then he started dating me, who’s not as timely, so there we go,” Maddie smiles, “we did it a little out of order, but we’re here now. So move, you’re blocking the door, Buck.”

“Oh my god, Maddie, that is the cutest baby outfit ever!” Karen squeals the moment she lays eyes on Ryan, and Hen and Chimney meet each others glance and start laughing at the same time like clockwork, “oh, Ryan always looks so good now that she’s around you all the time instead of just half.”

“Hey!” Chimney gasps with faux offense, before making his way over to give Hen a quick squeeze around the shoulders, “Hen, you’re wife is being mean to me.”

“Yeah, yeah, she’s mean to me, too,” Hen chuckles, before she lays her head down on his shoulder in a moment of rare physical affection towards him, “she’s just happy you three came together, we both are.”

“Don’t get all sappy on me, Hen,” he groans, as if it’s bothering him but there are tears in his eyes and they both know he’s not bothered in the slightest.

“I’m just really happy for you, you deserve it, after everything...” Hen sighs, moving her hand to rub his back, “and so does Maddie, and so does little Ryan. She’s got two happy and healthy parents which is what’s most important, but now she’s got two happy and healthy parents who love each other, too.”

“Maddie and I always loved each other, Hen. We just...”

“Needed sometime, I know,” Hen nods, “that’s what happens when a psycho ex-husband comes out of the woodwork and tries to kill you both.”

“Well, when you put it that way,” he laughs, nudging his nose against her shoulder for just a moment before they both take a step back from each other, emotionally earnest moment over, “now, where did my baby go?”

“I’m having my turn,” Bobby informs him, grinning down at the little girl in his arms.

“So we’re never going to eat?” Buck asks, “we’re just going to pass the baby around?”

“Be quiet, Buck,” Bobby hushes him, “right now let’s just enjoy your sister’s beautiful family.”

“But I’m--”

“Ryan!” Christopher giggles, making his way over to Bobby’s side so he can look at the baby, too, “she’s even bigger than the last time I saw her.”

“Babies grow pretty quickly, Christopher,” Eddie laughs, “we’ve been over this. She’s just going to keep getting bigger and bigger and--”

“Don’t!” Maddie interrupts him, pointing her finger at him as she pouts, “she’s going to be a sweet little baby forever. She’s already growing up too fast, so don’t encourage her.”

“Uh, Mads, I don’t really think she can just decide to stop growing if--”

“Shut up, Buck.”

“She really is so cute,” May observes, smiling softly as she looks the baby over curiously, “I usually think most babies look weird when they’re really young, but she��s adorable.”

“Thanks, I think,” Chimney teases good naturedly, “but yeah, she is really, really cute. Maddie and I made one beautiful baby.”

“So how about--”

“Bobby, if you ask us for another baby right now, I just might throw something at you,” Maddie says with a glare, crossing her arms tightly and pursing her lips so that she knows he’s been business.

“...You know what?” Bobby asks, and Chimney bites his lip to keep from cackling, “why don’t we all sit down and eat before the food gets cold?”

[sevensoulmates]

I've been hearing rumors about things happening post production and in editing...just wanna voice my thoughts

-some people are saying that when Eddie looks away from Chris in the bus, they expected him to be looking at someone, and most people thought it might've been Ana, but that the part with her in it got cut in the editing. Personally, I didn't see how it could've been a cut scene, I just assumed Eddie's eyes were following Chris's bus. But if what people are whispering about is true, I think there's a lot to be said about why this was cut. This is supposed to be the finale. The most important episode to lead us into next season. If they wanted to set up Ana being important next season, they could've kept her in. The decision to cut her, says to me she wasn't important in Eddie's character arc to reason a cameo. Especially in an episode with the main theme "What's next?" How will our characters be moving on? Hen moving up in career. Athena contemplating whether she will move on from the force. Chimney and Maddie moving forward with their family with Maddie’s pregnancy. Michael moving on with his health progressing and finding a man. Buck moving on from Abby. and Eddie...what? Moving on from Shannon? I feel of everybody Eddie's big "moving on" moment was the least clear. His character, aside from letting go and letting Chris be independent, spent the majority of this episode focused on Buck. My personal opinion, is that with Eddie learning to let Chris be independent and do things on his own is the first step to Eddie finding a balance between his identity as Christopher's Father and as Eddie the person. And it seems Ana will not be large part of that. And obviously everyone is talking about Buck and Eddie finding "love" in the next season. if they were really thinking of setting up a new important relationship for Eddie next season, why cut Ana (if she even ever really was there in the first place)? What is in the talks with the writers and producers if they thought it necessary to cut Ana and make majority of Eddie's arc this episode focused on Buck?

-Next thing I want to talk about was in an interview with an executive producer (who I'm going to assume is Tim Minear even though I am not 100% as they didn't mention a name), the interviewer alluded to Uncle Buck to Madney's baby and said we've sorta gotten to see "Uncle Buck" in the way Buck is with Christopher. Tim then proceeded to mention that Christopher had called Buck "Uncle Buck" at some point in the show. We all know this is most definitely NOT the case as the fandom would've collectively remembered that moment and had receipts if that actually happened. There were none. Which leads me to believe that somewhere along the line Christopher had been given a line alluding to "Uncle Buck" and it had either been re-written during filming (which can and does happen) or it had been filmed and later cut and never made it into the final episode. My thought (and please understand that I am HEAVILY theorizing here) is that there was a line like this, but it got cut and Tim forgot that it never actually made it into the episode and therefore referenced Chris calling Buck his uncle so easily.

Again, what was the thought process behind cutting this line? In a season so dedicated to building up Buck's relationship to Christopher specifically, Chris verbally placing Buck in an "uncle" category would've pretty much slammed the door on the audience thinking of Buck as a father to Chris. An "Uncle Buck" from Chris would've very firmly placed Buck in a platonic category when it comes to how he views Buck and Eddie's relationship to each other. It also would've further separated Buck and Christopher's relationship, as Uncle (in most cases) implies a degree of separation in regards to how a child views a potential parental figure. Cutting a scene with Christopher calling Buck 'Uncle' says to me that the the production team has other plans in how they plan to progress Christopher's relationship to Buck as well as Buck's relationship to Eddie. After all, in the finale, Buck is more outwardly worried over Christopher going to sleep away camp than Eddie. It almost seemed strange that Buck wasn't there to see Chris off considering Buck was the most vocally against it. And I don’t even need to mention the parallels of Abby’s future with her finding a single father with kids is a direct correlation to Buck finding his future in a single father (Eddie) with kids (Christopher). It’s all WAY too pointed to be coincidental, no?

[noblechaton]

In From the Cold

Hey @mimogene, I’m your @mlsecretsanta!! I heard that you love Marichat and so I whipped up some Marichat friendship fluff for ya!! Happy holidays <3

AO3

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Marinette stood, foot tapping lightly on the cold kitchen floor as she finished adjusting her robe and folded her arms. She stared a bit aimlessly at her oven as it hummed away with the flickering flame inside illuminating her perfectly organized sheet of cookie dough clumps. This was the most she could think to do in her current situation, for better or worse.

To say this Christmas Eve had been quiet would be a bit of an understatement. No schoolwork to do, no bakery to run thanks to a family vacation, not even any sort of Akuma made an appearance this evening. The silent night was nice, for sure, but after a few years spending the holidays surrounded by some form of busy work, it was a bit...odd.

It certainly wasn’t how she was expecting to spend her first Christmas alone, anyway. A seasonal cold had kept her from tagging along on a trip to see family and friends in Shanghai, and a lack of staff meant the bakery would be closed until after the holidays. So here she was, alone in her dimly lit house with little else to do than bake a few sheets of cookies while snow and wind whipped at the walls.

She wasn’t necessarily going to complain about her situation, though. After all, there were probably worse ways to spend the holidays than filling your home with the scent of various kinds of fresh cookies. It was more that something just felt amiss after the last few years of noise, that it almost felt wrong to have a quiet night entirely to herself after so long.

With her family some five thousand miles away, however, there weren’t exactly a lot of options otherwise. She definitely wasn’t about to hope for an Akuma attack, and ruling that out left her with little else beyond seeing if anyone had a spare stocking on the wall. 

Even if she did such a thing, would it be rude? Alya always said that she’d have a spot with her family if she wanted or needed it, and Nino had expressed similar sentiments. The idea of going to Adrien’s and spending not only Christmas Eve with him, but Christmas day too, was nice even if it wasn’t exactly realistic.

Somewhat mindlessly, she started pulling her phone out of her pocket and scrolled through her contacts. There was next to no chance that she’d end up at Adrien’s, but that didn’t stop her thumb from hovering over his number for a few extra seconds. She didn’t quite consider herself close enough to Nino to risk barging in on his family’s Christmas, so she moved back up towards Alya.

Maybe she should just be content with her quiet night. That’s what caused some further hesitation as she stared down at the pixelated image of her best friend. Her parents had even left her gifts under the tree already, so she could spend the next day unwrapping whatever she’d gotten and watching cheesy Christmas movies.

Marinette tilted her head to the side and hummed in further thought. Something about opening gifts alone seemed hollow, even if she was given the okay to do so. Much like the night at hand, the idea didn’t feel quite right. So her attention went back to her phone and her thumb soon tapped on Alya’s contact.

Swallowing whatever nerves came with trying to form a last minute text message, Marinette typed away on her phone. She explained her situation and tried to frame things in the most positive light she could. A brief hum followed as she read over her words again and, dissatisfied with the outcome, she started to erase it and started again.

This time, she worded things somewhat better. It was certainly important to note that the worst of her cold had passed, as was mentioning that this was a one time thing. She certainly hoped it would be, at least. A new and somewhat improved message flowed from her fingertips and onto the screen.

Then, she hesitated, again. This was a much more difficult task than she would have imagined. Tapping the backspace button, the letters disappeared as she took a deep inhale and readied herself to try again. Rather than dumping the entire situation in one message, she figured an icebreaker of sorts would help.

“Hey, girl! Hope you’re staying warm tonight!” Her fingers wrote, briefly wondering if the exclamation points weren’t a bit overkill. “I have a question I need to ask if you’re not too busy or anything. It’s fine if you are, though! No worries <3”

She exhaled and pressed send. A few seconds passed before it actually sent, but with that she set her phone down on the counter behind her and leaned back. It wasn’t like she was against spending the holidays with her best friend or anything, quite the opposite in fact. It was more that she was still apprehensive about possibly dropping in like this, but maybe-

Marinette’s thought train suddenly came to a halt as the loud noise of something crashing erupted somewhere nearby. Her eyes rolled around some in an attempt to trace the noise as she moved quickly through her kitchen. She glanced out the nearest window to assess the situation.

Nothing seemed amiss from what she could see, everything seemed to be in order. Snow was still pounding down and the wind was still whipping. A few cars passed by and there even seemed to be a set of carolers on the sidewalk. 

She stared out for a bit longer to see if perhaps it was something hidden. There’d been more than a few stealthy Akuma, after all. Nothing changed, however, and with no one outside reacting to anything whatsoever, that left her with only one other idea.

It came from her roof.

Quickly, she turned the dial on her oven down and made for the staircase. A mental checklist flew through her mind as she tried to figure out what she might have felt outside. Her sun chair had been indoors since winter started, as were her potted plants. She didn’t think it was windy enough for her tea table to have blown away, so she couldn’t be sure.

Still, she was pretty certain that’s where the noise came from, and continued trying to figure out what it could have been on her way through her bedroom. Aside from something blowing over from another house, nothing seemed to fit the bill. She let out a hum while climbing over her bed and moving up her ladder before briefly stopping just before reaching the trapdoor.

Marinette cocked an eyebrow at the sound of further clattering on her balcony and cautiously peeked through the hatch. Slowly, her eyes roamed the area from one side until she spotted the culprit. Or at least, roughly half of the culprit, considering the other half was covered in the slight mound of snow that had accumulated throughout the day.

“Chat Noir?” She questioned aloud, staring at the bottom half of a leather-clad figure with a belt tail she found herself hoping actually was her costumed partner.  

Said belt tail twitched as the person shifted around and attempted to dig themselves out of the snow. With one sudden push, the pile disappeared and in its place stood a snowy Chat Noir. 

“Guess I missed the chimney.” He said, dusting the powder off. Marinette did not have a chimney. 

The wind calmed around them for the time being as a slight silence befell the balcony. He merely stood brushing himself off, while she popped her head further out the hatch and continued trying to process what was going on.

“You, uh,” Marinette cleared her throat and stepped onto the balcony. “You okay?”

“Oh, yeah, yep!” Chat smiled widely. He even gave her a thumbs up for good measure, the ears on his head flicking some remaining snow off. 

“You sure? It sounded like you fell.” She flatly stated. Admittedly, it was hard to know how to react to a situation like this. It was almost surprising that it hadn’t happened before.

“Uh, well…I kinda did.” He leaned down to collect his baton, something he might have done to hide some sort of embarrassment. “Guess Santa Paws hit an ice patch or something and just sorta slipped, it is pretty hard to see right now, y’know?”

“Right.” Marinette flatly said as she nodded along slowly. “Speaking of, can I ask...why you’re out? Is there an Akuma around?”

“No.” Chat replied. “Er, not that I know of. Not yet. That’s actually why I was out! I was doing a patrol around the city to see if any supervillains were around.”

Marinette’s eyebrow raised. 

“All alone in the middle of the night?” 

He stammered for a moment, obviously a bit flustered. The fall must have done more damage to his pride than anything else, she figured.

“Well, yeah.” Chat answered, flashing a few teeth behind an exaggerated grin. “You never know when or where they might crop up, after all. Better safe than sorry!”

Marnette didn’t know what to say. It’s not that he was necessarily wrong, and they had been doing the occasional patrol over the last few months, but they usually did them together. Or rather, he would patrol with Ladybug. So his running around the city alone definitely seemed odd.

“And Ladybug’s...home sick?” She stifled a slight chuckle at how clever she felt. All things considered, she’d know if he was telling the truth here or not, even if she couldn’t exactly out him if he wasn’t.

Her question seemed to cause him to freeze up somewhat, though, an unexpected reaction. There was some low mumbling she didn’t quite hear and a few gestures of his hands, but he didn’t manage to give a straight answer after what felt like a good minute or so. She knew him well enough to know something was definitely off.

“Hey,” Marinette took the few steps needed to close the gap between them. Her hand cautiously reached for his shoulder and stopped his muttering. “Is everything okay?”

Chat chewed the inside of his mouth for a moment. His eyes avoided hers, instead focusing on the ground while he attempted to formulate a reply.

“I, uh...don’t wanna get too heavy on you or anything.” He said. 

She was just a civilian, after all. 

“It’s okay.” Marinette replied. Hard to shut those Ladybug instincts down with her snow-covered partner taking up residency on her balcony while clearly in some form of distress. Still, she had to make sure she wasn’t coming across as too eager. “I mean, I’m not gonna pry or anything, but I don’t mind listening.”

Chat mulled it over for a bit. Sure, he knew who Marinette was and trusted her almost as much as he did Ladybug, but Chat Noir didn’t. At least, not after the scant few interactions they’d had over the years. Maybe it’d be easier without the leather, though that wasn’t much of an option.

Still, the offer of an otherwise friendly ear was extremely tempting at the moment. Especially after plummeting however many feet through the Parisian sky. 

“Without getting into the details,” He started after an inhale. “Christmas has been...kind of a rough time for me over the last few years. There’s been some good ones and everything, but sometimes it just...gets to me.” 

Marinette nodded, adjusting her robe some. The wind started whipping up again, sending flakes of snow flying all around them as she realized just how cold it was. 

“Er, hey, not to make this any weirder,” She spoke up, wishing she opted for the sweater over the t-shirt she picked. “But it’s pretty cold up here, so...would you mind if we take this inside?”

“Oh, uh, sure.” Chat replied a bit quicker than he might have intended. The super suit offered him some protection from the elements, but even he noticed just how cold it had gotten. He tapped the metal toes of his boots on the floor and then perked up with a question of his own. “Should I go down the hatch, or?”

“Eh,” Marinette gave a slight shrug, eyeing him over. She glanced at the snow caked onto his shoes, likely why he asked in the first place. “I needed to wash my bed stuff soon anyway, so I don’t mind.”

With that, she stepped back and climbed down the ladder with Chat following cautiously behind. Halfway down the ladder, he reached up and nudged the hatch so that it fell shut before hesitantly pressing his boots to her mattress. Marinette snickered some at that while she walked down the steps and waited by her bedroom door.

Chat opted to hop from her bed to the floor, striking an unnecessarily stylish pose as he glanced over at the wall full of posters and pictures of a certain blonde model. He then shot her a smirk from his crouched position and she gave him a light laugh before nodding out the door, a silent instruction for him to follow her through the house. He tapped the tips of his toes on a nearby towel on the floor to try and track as little snow as possible.

Marinette acted as a guide as they made their way through a house he found himself quite familiar with by now. It wasn’t much of a journey as the destination she was leading them to, her kitchen, was just another staircase or so away. He walked through the living room to join her and couldn’t help but smile at how unchanged it was from the last time he’d been here.

“Peanut butter?” He asked after taking a whiff of the oven.

“Yep.” Marinette replied, twisting a dial and opening the door. “Been making cookies all day and that was the last kind I had left. They should be just about done actually.”

“I can get that, if you want.” Chat chimed in, leaning over next to her. Marinette gestured at the appliance and let him go.

He stepped in front of the dimly glowing, and deliciously smelling, chamber and eased a hand inside. Heat radiated off and ran along his face while he swiftly pulled the pan out. Dropping it on the top, Chat flapped his hand around some and blew on it a few times. 

“You alright?” Marinette lightly giggled.

“Oh, yeah,” Chat nodded, giving a laugh of his own. “Just...kinda thought it’d be colder.” 

Marinette shook her head some and nudged a few cookies that ended up on top of each other after his sudden movements apart. To be entirely fair, she still wasn’t sure what the limit of protection the suits offered was, so this was something of a learning experience for the both of them.

“Alright, well, let’s let those cool for a bit.” She said, moving to her cabinets. “Care for a cup of cocoa?” 

He hesitated again, eyes wandering out the window. Marinette could see conflict on his face, even if she wasn’t sure what it was.

“Yeah.” Chat eventually answered. “I’d like that.” 

She gave him a shake of her head and retrieved two cups and a large bowl from her cupboard. Then she pulled out some cocoa mix while he took the liberty of getting the milk  and whipped cream from her fridge. He poured the milk while she tore open the packets and dumped them in. She used a little extra, just in case either of them wanted more later. A few stirs of a spoon later and the mixture was in the microwave.

“So.” Marinette leaned against her counter. “Still got something on your mind, huh?”

“Oh, uh,” Chat stuttered for a moment as he took a seat at her table. “I guess so, yeah.”

“I’m not gonna push or anything,” Marinette decided to explain her position on the matter, keeping a smile to try and help him be more comfortable. “But I know having someone to talk to can help sometimes, even if they don’t know what to say, and you’ve been around here often enough that I don’t mind.”

“I have, haven’t I?” Chat gave her a smile of his own. It only really just sunk in how frequently he ended up at her house, specifically in the leather. “Can I ask you something first, though?”

“Sure.” She openly agreed. 

“Are we...friends, Marinette?”

His question caused a brief silence. A near tension, even, as Marinette thought on it. She didn’t have to ponder the answer all that much, of course they were friends, but it could be a bit difficult to explain why she felt so strongly if he asked. So she tempered herself and gave a direct, if somewhat passive answer.

“I think so, yeah.” Marinette replied as the microwave hummed behind her. “I consider you one, at least.”

Chat smiled at that. 

“Thank you.” He cleared his throat and shot her a wink. “Back at’cha.” 

“Anyway.” Marinette chuckled, popping the door open with a second left on the clock. She fixed their drinks, complete with spraying the whipped cream he left on the counter, as she waited for his next words.

“Anyway,” Chat picked up. “I guess it’s just kinda hard to explain.”

“Take your time, kitty.” She passed him a drink and briefly froze up after realizing what she’d called him. Not that he seemed to notice.

“Well,” He took a sip and then stared down at the cup. “A few years ago, I...lost someone close to me, and they loved Christmas. They loved most holidays, actually”

“Mhm.” Marinette hummed to assure him she was listening. 

“And it’s hard not to think of them sometimes, especially during this time of year.” Chat continued. “Plus, I’m kinda living on my own this year, so it’s just me, y’know?”

“I understand.” She gave him a nod, even if he wasn’t looking.

“But, yeah,” Chat exhaled a breath and decided to be honest. His green gaze met hers again for the first time since she handed him his drink. “Sometimes I just have to...get out, try to clear my head or distract myself, and that’s what I was doing. I...didn’t want to be alone.”

“Oh.” Was what Marinette muttered. Her heart seemed to sink in her chest some, and suddenly it all made sense. “I’m...sorry to hear that, Chat.”

“Yeah…” He mumbled, thumbs tapping the side of his cup before he sat it down on the table behind him. Before another second passed, he stood up and started to turn towards the staircase. “Sorry, I should...I should go.”

“Wait,” Marinette called out. She couldn’t let him leave like that, like this. ”Wait, hold on.”

“No, it’s okay.” Chat gave her a slight wave without even looking at her. “Happy holidays, Marinette.”

“Wait.” Marinette said again. She didn’t even notice she’d dashed through the kitchen and grabbed the cuff around his wrist until she looked up. It must have been something of an instinct at this point, a reflex. “I-I mean, you don’t have to go if you don’t want to.”

“Uh,” Chat blinked for a moment, stammering behind his barely parted lips. From the looks of it, neither of them expected her to grab his arm the way she did. “No, really, it’s okay. Thanks for listening to me and everything, but I don’t wanna ruin your family’s Christmas or anything.

“My parents are on vacation, actually. That’s why the bakery isn’t open” Marinette replied, chuckling some as she stepped up closer to him. “Did you think I was inviting you in for a meal with my family again?”

“No, I just...hadn’t noticed. You did say you've been baking all day, so-” Chat stopped himself for a moment to check his mental calendar. “Wait. It is Christmas Eve, right?”

“Yeah, it is.” Marinette nodded, sitting her cup of cocoa down on the table next to his. “Their flight got delayed a few days because of the storm, I guess, so now instead of making it back tonight they’ll be getting here sometime on Friday.”

“Ah.” Chat swallowed and shook his head some.

“So I guess I’m...kind of alone this Christmas, too.” She added. “And I wouldn’t mind if you wanted to stick around for the night. It’d be nice having an extra set of claws when it comes time to open presents tomorrow, too.”

“That, um,” He paused, glancing around the room. He really hadn’t noticed how quiet it was until now. His hesitation gradually started to fade, along with the remnants of the conflict on his face. While he didn’t want to be invasive, it was hard to turn down an offer that came with as much warmth as the one she was offering. 

They were friends, after all.

“That’d be nice.” Chat eventually smiled.

“I certainly hope so.” Marinette gave him a smirk of her own. More than that, she then wrapped her other arm around his form and embraced him in a tight hug.

“Thank you, Marinette.” Chat said after processing what was happening. His own arms curled around her shoulders and snuggled her to his body, a gentle purr emanating from his chest.