#past abbytommy

[peapodbond]

that was us part eight

aka fuck it friday

tagged by @leashybebes

skipping ahead a few parts because i can and i want to. aka 7x05 as seen through the lens of the former fiancee/current besties abbysaltommy text thread

abby texting, tommy texting, sal texting

so, how was the first date?

turns out evan is not out to anyone.

it was his first 'date with a dude', but he's an ally.

sounds like a train wreck. (sorry, abby)

that part was oddly okay? it was adorable.

his best friend showed up at the same restaurant on a date with his girlfriend. evan said that we were 'going to pick up hot chicks later'.

i ducked out of going to the movie and just went straight home after dinner.

sal, cue us up a grindr best of lineup.

wait, i want to know what tommy said about the hot chicks.

not proud of it but i made a closet joke. the friend's girlfriend is moving in so it wasn't out of nowhere. i don't think any of them caught it, actually. but it made me feel a little better.

that's my boy!

you're a menace, sal. at least it was on the first date, tommy? it could have been worse.

mm. this feels like a sign that i should take a break from dating.

as opposed to the absolute bevy of dates you've been on recently?

sal, don't be mean. when was the last time you went on a date?

all right you two, no infighting. as fun as it is to watch you argue, i'm here for some moral support.

we can do that. hey, at least you can use the helicopter rescue to land dudes.

helicopter rescue? what helicopter rescue?

it's not a big deal.

tommy flew into a fucking hurricane and found a capsized cruise ship.

oh my god. days like this i miss la. nothing like this ever happens in phoenix.

i'm lucky i didn't get fired, okay? and we are not doing a grindr lineup. one bad date is not going to get me back on the apps.

you get one week to mope and then we're going for drinks and you're flirting with someone at the bar.

that's not a bad plan, sal. i approve.

at what point do i get a say in this?

you don't.

you don't.

their text thread sits quiet for a few days and abby debates asking tommy for more details. between jordan and marcus he hasn't had much to smile about, and even though he'd only met evan two weeks ago, the way that he'd talked about him… she'd really thought that tommy's luck was about to turn around.

they're driving tess to tucson for a college tour when she finally has enough time to text tommy separately.

it was one bad date abby, i'm fine.

yeah, but you liked him. like, really liked him.

i've really liked a few guys. and i've survived. we didn't even know each other for a full month. he'll just be a great kiss and a fun evening and that's the end of it.

a great kiss, huh?

i already told you that.

let's talk once we're back from the college tour? it's been a while.

sure, but you're signing up for a party viewing of love, actually.

double feature with die hard?

…evan just texted me.

what did he say?

do you want me to go fight him.

he wants to meet for coffee.

you should do it!

hm. at least you get a free cup of coffee. he is buying, right?

sal. yes, he's buying. i really liked him, you know? up until the hot chicks it was the best date i'd been on in… a while.

definitely go, tommy. you haven't said you had the best anything in a long time. abby thinks the last time she heard tommy say something was the best he'd ever had it was when she still lived in la (but after they broke up). if it's not great, it's just coffee. it's only going to be an hour or so.

i feel like someone should play devil's advocate but abby's got a point.

sal, how about i text you if i need you to fake an emergency and leave?

no, don't approach this like it's going to go badly!

works for me. i've always got you on speed dial, buddy.

you can hide any pitchforks the two of you might have found.

so it went well?

the question is how well it went.

sal.

sal.

what? just because he's not out doesn't mean they couldn't have some fun.

he actually did come out? to his best friend and his sister. we're going to try again and go on another date.

where's he taking you?

better be somewhere fancy.

i am not telling either one of you where it is. one of the delucas would try and pop up to spy on us.

i'm in pheonix, you can tell me separately.

it would be gina. definitely. she's small and sneaky.

they're not even denying it. you can find out where we're going after he's actually out to everyone.

sal, don't ruin this for us.

what? i'm being supportive.

so where's the date?

i'm not telling you.

why not?

because you'll tell gina and gina will tell sal and someone's going to pop up like a demented jack in the box.

i resent that implication.

because it's true?

see if i watch another romcom with you, tommy kinard.

that's a dirty lie, abby clark. listen, if we survive the second date then maybe i'll tell you two snoops more about him.

i'll let gina know ;)

i always regret introducing you two.

me and gina or me and sal?

all three of you.

here's hoping date number two is better than date one.

your lips, god's ears, etc etc.

[laundryandtaxesworld]

I have further questions for you’re 1) and i’m sorry i left, but it was for the best WIP. The most important, at least to me, is how well do Theo and Buck know each other??? Like does Theo know that Tommy’s Evan is also Abby’s Buck??? The hijinks!!

i’m so sorry i was late replying.

yes, theo knows that buck dated both of his parents. cause while he did live with tommy, abby was still present and had buck and theo meet.

when tommy says he kissed buck or (evan as he referred to him to theo), theo was interested and wanted to meet this evan.

to the surprise of both of them, it was the same person from before, so they explain everything to tommy.

and once buck leaves theo is like “i’m glad buck is back in my life.”

[apollabarnes]

☎️☎️☎️☎️☎️☎️

make me write

☎️ - that was us

nonnie, we're all in for a treat here. (when i finish this it'll be the new chapter three) (abby, tommy, sal texting)

originally i was writing this series to coincide with abby's appearances, so i didn't try and cover the time between abby leaving los angeles and coming back during the train derailment — however, since i've continued writing this series i really do want to write what would have happened in between. the tommy and abby interactions at the hospital feel like the time she bought him a drink wasn't the last time they talked before she came back to town.

for anyone new to this, check out this is us in order on ao3

abby's mom dies and she falls apart. she barely makes it through the funeral, buck holds her together while she's sorting through all of her mom's things and it's just. suffocating. her mom's passport is the last straw — how many things did she put off, thinking there would be more time before she got her diagnosis? how many things has abby put off? she loves being a dispatcher. she loves la. buck is the best thing that's happened to her in close to a decade. there were so many things she was planning to do before she tore her rotator cuff. then it was rehab, trying swimming again, quitting again — pushing off all things she'd thought about doing since she was a kid. tommy had helped with that, given her somewhere to recover while she licked her wounds, and still she'd put things off. put them aside. her mom's travel itinerary. that's where she's going to start. abby packs a bag, buys a ticket, talks to buck. sits in the airport lounge. if she texts buck now she'll just turn around. she scrolls through her phone contacts, stopping on tommy's. snaps a photo of her drink and the departures screen behind her. guess who's going to europe? and a guinness to get you started. ireland first, then? how'd you guess? your mom mentioned it a few times. really loved a good brogue. she did, didn't she? yeah. i'm really sorry, abby. thanks. any recommendations for when i'm over there? i'm more of a desert guy, hang on. got an idea. what is this, a group chat? sal, abby's looking for places to visit in europe. hey, sal. head to italy. stop. eat. sal, jesus. he's got a point, i do love pasta. jesus, fine, stop harassing me. i've been informed you're going to ireland first. i'd say head to the blarney stone but you've already got the gift of gab, on the phone all day. try to get to the giants causeway, hmm? and they try to rank the castles, but all of them are great. didn't realise you'd spent so much time in europe. most of this is gina's expertise, but hey. she took me over a few years ago. i know a little.

[buckevantommy]

Yeah, saving someone's life and then dating them never turns out the way you expect it to. And yet, they're so grateful.

In my canon, Tommy's ex-fiance was a guy he saved - possibly while still at the 118 and then they crossed paths again during his time at Harbor. Or maybe it all happened quite quickly at Harbor. In any case: Hot firefighter pilot hero? That guy thought he'd won the lottery. But eventually he realised Tommy was just some guy who played hero at work and the lustre wore off and he either he ended the engagement or met someone else and cheated on Tommy who then ended the engagement. Maybe tommy was blindsided by the whole thing because he was in his first longterm gay relationship and thought it was gong to last forever, or maybe he saw the signs along the way and chose to ignore them - because he was finally free and he just wanted to be happy - until it all blew up in his face.

I simply can't be doing with the abbytommy thing. There's the nonsensical details like mismatched timelines and the total lack of mention/presence in the narrative, plus the wasted opportunity for another queer romance to exist - it feels like censoring for them to give Tommy a past relationship but make it 'straight'.

[buckevantommy]

we all know the abbytommy connection makes zero fucking sense and also it spits on the invisible string theory connections otherwise weaving buck and tommy together throughout the narrative. but i want to talk about how it makes no sense in relation to tommy's reasoning for ending things with buck.

because if tommy is scared of buck breaking his heart bc he realises he wants to date more men or better men bc buck's bisexuality is still a newly realised thing, then it would make more sense for the nugget of tommy's past we were given to be that he was engaged to a man who left him - someone who made him believe in love, but then cheated on him or ended things bc he wanted other men or women, or just fell out of love with tommy bc tommy wasn't enough for him.

THAT makes SO MUCH MORE SENSE than some nonsensical hand-wavey het engagement that doesn't fit the narrative timeline or tommy's character growth or the fact that no one else at the 118 even knew about it and abby never mentioned it. it makes ZERO FUCKING SENSE and was done for shock value only. i'm treating this as something done by a showrunner who didn't read the book, y'know? the book ie. the characters before this ep, are more canon than what some idiot decides to put on the screen with zero comprehension of the source material and moreover the fanbase just bc he thought it would be haha-dramatic.

anyway. 9-1-1 has shown time and time again that it has little to no regard for continuity so it really should be no trouble for them to ignore the abby of it all like it never happened when they finally bring tommy back and make bucktommy endgame.