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Jake’s POV
Jake walked into the 118 fire station with a knot in his stomach he handn’t felt since the mission. He hasn’t seen Evan in years. No letters scented with Old Spice, no phone calls when time allowed, no late-night FaceTime just to see each other’s faces; nothing for over three years.
“Hello, how can I help you?” an older firefighter with a captain’s badge and a warm smile asked as Jake stepped into the truck bay. Clearing his throat, Jake tried to steady his voice. “Hi, I’m here to see firefighter Buckley, if possible.” The captain furrowed his brow, making no move to let Jake in. Jake added, “My name’s Jake Seresin. Evan and I… we knew each other a long time ago.”
The captain showed no reaction or if he did, Jake missed it because suddenly, a crash of dishes came from the loft above. Jake looked up and found exactly what he’d driven half the state to see: Evan, standing in front of the stove.
Evan’s eyes widened when he saw Jake, softening in a way that made Jake’s heart pound. But when Evan hurried down the stairs, passing other firefighters who peeked curiously from the loft, his smile was cautious, hopeful but guarded.
Time stopped when Evan got close. Jake couldn’t believe what was happening. He expected yelling, screaming, to be kicked out of the fire station. This is why he decided to do this reunion in public. Their last conversation ended with them saying things they knew they didn’t mean. However, that didn’t stop them from following through on them.
“Hi,” Evan whispered, nearly brushing past the captain. His voice was low, vulnerable.
Jake noticed the captain’s eyes flicked toward the loft where the other firefighters had been watching, their torsos balanced precariously over the railing before they quietly slipped back.
Jake took a breath trying to steal his nerves before addressing Evan who was still looking at him waiting. If Jake was fire and brimstone then Evan was still water. The persona of Hangman was chiseled from the stone Texan Catholicism made all little boys into; but Jake had always been the soft one in this particular dynamic, the one who reacted irrationally, who made rash decisions that drowned everything else they had built together.
“I got promoted again” was all Jake could force out of his dry mouth. This was not the speech he had been going over in his head for the hours he drove to get here. He had wanted to make it clear that leaving Evan had been the biggest mistake he ever made. He needed to apologize for leaving, for not coming back, and for being so stuck in his own head he couldn’t see what was right in front of him.
“Oh sweetheart, I'm so so sorry” Evan said.
But Jake couldn’t focus on the words because Evan swept him into a hug but Jake caught the slight hesitation, the brief pause before Evan pulled him a little closer. Evan’s hand gently guided Jake’s head beneath his chin. Their height difference always worked in their favor—Jake had insisted on huddling close to stay warm during cold nights, and now it felt like home.
Jake half pulled away from the embrace and took another steading breath to let it all come out. “I’m a dick, I left without looking back but I promise I'm not doing that anymore. There was a mission. When we showed up they basically told us it was going to be impossible. I didn’t fly it, I was the spare but you were right. They got shot down; I lost it so hard I didn’t even hear command give me the go ahead before I was in the air ”
Jake tried to search Evan’s eyes for signs of anger but all he could find was his best friend. For three years Jake had lied to himself that he didn't need anyone. He actually became the Hangman. Yet here he was and all he could think about is how much he needs the man in front of him to make him feel real again.
“Quit.” was the only response he got from Evan before the alarm in the firehouse started going off. Everyone in the firehouse started moving towards the trucks and ambulances. Jake opened his mouth to say something. Anything. But before he could Evan slowly kissed his forehead and whispered “Stay here with me”
The captain from the front passenger seat in the engine called out “Buck! Do you need to be the man behind?”
Evan straightened up and half turned to look at his captain and went to speak. Yet amazingly at the last second he turned back to Jake; looked him in the eye while calling out “No, he is still going to be here when we come back”.
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Buck’s POV
The 118 pulled out of the station in record time, despite Buck being the last to hop on the engine. The response location was 15 minutes out from the station so Buck adjusted in his seat and looked at his team. Who all were staring back at him expectantly. He knows his family just as much as they know him; so it did not surprise him that they expected a hell of an explanation on what just happened back at the station.
“So, Buckaroo, who was that?” Chim snickered, wincing when Hen elbowed him.
“You don’t have to say anything,” Hen added softly, “but that looked intense. Is everything okay?”
“Yeah, that’s my- Jake, my best friend. I haven't seen him in years.” He wanted to say more. Wanted to tell them how much Jake meant to him, but the truth was, he didn’t even know where they stood. Jake was back, but that didn’t mean things would just pick up where they left off.
Hell. Buck doesn’t even know if that is even an option.
“Your best friend?” Eddie said with a smirk, “And we never heard about him before? Interesting.”
Buck shrugged, trying to keep his voice steady. “He’s a Navy pilot. We met when I was a ranch hand on his parents’ property in Texas. He was deployed after that.”
“I missed him,” Buck admitted quietly. “We never got to say goodbye.”
“You seem pretty sure that he is staying in the station while we are gone,” Bobby says from the front of the engine. Turning and looking at Buck like he is trying to study him. Buck can’t keep up with the eye contact.
He turns his whole upper body to look out of the engine windows. He can’t talk about this right now. The farther away he is from Jake the more anxiety chills his bones. What if he leaves? What if Buck was wrong about him staying? What if Jake looked at Buck and didn’t recognize him as his person anymore? What if-
“Buck!” Bobby is calling his name from outside of the engine rushing over to the house where the call came from. But when Buck gets out of the engine all he notices is a teenager in distress sitting in the curb of the cul de sac with his phone held up to his ear.
“You need to let me in, Isaac,” He argues into the phone. “The fire department is here. They are going to come in to check on you.” when it looked like he was getting no answers from who he was talking to he came closer to the team. “Hi, i’m sorry if this is not the best use of 911 but my best friend is locked in his room and won’t come out. His dad committed suicide last week. I’m scared he is going to do something stupid” When he finished his sentence he plummeted back down to the edge of the sidewalk as if his strings had been cut, crushing a pair of yellow wildflowers growing in the cracks of cement.
Buck was transported to 2015.
Jacob Seresin had absolutely no business being a military man. The first time Buck had set eyes on him Jake had been standing in front of his childhood home with a small child on each side of his hips, a bright pink poppy settled in his right ear and the biggest smile Buck had ever seen on someone's face. He looked golden.
Evan had been working as a ranch hand at the Seresin Ranch for 3 weeks.This was the first time he was invited over to the main house in the property to have dinner with Elmyra, the woman who hired him.
Jake had called over to him then “Hey welcome! You must be Evan. El is in the kitchen finishing up dinner. Come in!”
Somehow, something intangible inside Buck settled at that exact moment. Buck had left adrift his entire life. Yet somehow he felt himself drift towards the man and kids like one side of a magnet calling the other home.
Buck knelt by a patch of wild flowers and picked two up. When he got closer he gave the kids his most genuine smile while he introduced himself. “Yeah! I’m Evan” and he placed the two flower pickings on the right ear of each child so the entire group matched.
“Jakey we are matching! I want to show Grammy!” the little girl on Jake’s right hip cheered.
Buck’s heart had stopped when Jake let out a giggle. Back then he hadn't known what a rare sight this actually was but something told him to revel in it.
“Oh my god Lia! We are matching!” Jake exclaimed walking into the house, letting her down while still holding on to the quiet boy on his left side and turning to extend his hand towards Buck.
“Thanks, Lia gave me this she is obsessed with gardening with El right now” Jake said while stroking the pink bud still on his ear
Looking back Buck now knows that this was the specific moment where he started to fall deeply for Jake. At the time all he knew was that something about the way Jake smiled at him and the warmth in his hand made him feel truly within his body for the first time.
One meeting and Jake had him eating out of his palm.
Buck blinked back into the present at the sound of the teenager's voice cracking beside him. The kid was still sitting on the curb, crushing those yellow flowers under his sneakers. “Please,” he was saying into the phone. “Let them in.”
Buck stood, jaw tight, and joined the team moving up the steps to the house. “Let’s go,” he said, his voice hoarse but steady.
The next few minutes passed in a blur—forced entry, calm voices, safe outcomes. Isaac was okay. Not good, not fine, but alive. And right now, that was enough.
On the ride back, Buck sat near the window of the engine, forehead pressed to the glass, watching L.A. blur past like memory. His leg bounced with nervous energy. The whole time, all he could think was:
What if Jake’s gone when we get back?
“High school’s hell,” Eddie said suddenly from across the engine, breaking the quiet. “Especially for kids like that. Sensitive. Smart. Good. That’s a target sometimes. Makes me worry about Chris”
Hen nodded slowly. “The kind of kid who doesn’t hide how much he feels things.”
Buck didn’t say a word. His throat burned. He loved Christopher. He loved that Eddie still tried to protect his son’s softness instead of forcing it into something colder, smaller. But the words felt too close to something he couldn't touch.
Jake had been like that too. Hidden under bravado, under Hangman, under medals and scowls and perfect posture—he’d always been soft. And Evan? Evan had loved him anyways.
Buck stared out the window, the city lights flickering past like distant memories. The team’s quiet chatter buzzed around him, but his mind was miles away—back at the station, where Jake was waiting.
He was about to let the whole crew see a side of himself he’d carefully kept hidden.
Buck knew his team. Nosy as hell, fiercely loyal, and always ready to dig deeper than anyone wanted. But this reunion wasn’t just two old friends catching up. It was a reckoning. A moment where years of silence and distance would be measured and judged.
He swallowed hard, anxiety twisting in his gut. What would this look like through their eyes? How much of what they’d shared—what he and Jake had—would they understand? Could they handle the weight of it?
The road stretched on ahead, but Buck’s heart was already back at the firehouse, waiting for what was coming next.