Buck laid the rolled hose down on the compartment door and waited for Eddie to get over and drop his as well before they shoved them in where they belonged.

"So, Chris wants to have a sleepover in the backyard this weekend," Eddie said.

"He's getting ready for his first shift soon, right?" Buck asked.

"Yes, he is. I figure that we will be outside for a few nights a week until then. He wants you there."

Buck shrugged, knowing that Eddie wasn't pushing him. Buck still had the shot that would counteract the damage done to him as a baby that would allow him actually to shift. When everything about Daniel came out, testing had to be done to make sure that it was reversible. There had been a delay because Buck hadn't sent in his sample at first and then later on because of the backlog at the place where the testing was done. Buck had debated for three months now that he had been given the syringe of the stuff. No one was rushing him but the thing was that Buck wasn't sure he wanted his life to change. It was good for another two months before he would have to buy more.

There was the chance that an injury would still make him shift, but if the bombing and his leg injury, the tsunami, and the lighting hit hadn't done it, there was little that would do it now.

After shutting the door compartment door, Buck looked around and saw the man he had seen on their last five callouts. He had stopped after the third time of telling anyone about it because they just made it like he was trying to get attention.

"We have another call; let's go," Bobby said before he got into the engine.

Buck looked at the man, and the man just stared back. He obviously didn't care about being seen. There was nothing to stop the guy since no one believed him.

"There is no one there," Eddie said as he shoved Buck toward the engine's cab.

Buck got inside the engine and focused on the information they were being given about the call they were heading to. He tried to push that thought out of his head.

Once they were there, Eddie was the first one out of the engine, and he laughed as he looked back at Buck.

It was a flashback to hell as the glass shattered, and Eddie ducked even before the sound of the firing hit them. Then ther was another shot, and this time ther was just pain. It ripped through his shoulder, and he tried to get out of the way, but then he was falling, and there was nothing but the need to escape. He took off as fast as his body could take him, heading for something safe. He saw the open door to the garage and ducked under it, his brain not registering that he was too big for it until he was already under and most of the way to the open kitchen door on the other side.

The house was silent, and his ears heard nothing but the air conditioning. Now that he had stopped, there was nothing but pain; he tried to lick at his arm. The pain was too much, so he curled into a ball and settled in to deal with it. He could endure. They would find him. The rest of the team had to see where he went.

---

Eddie picked up Buck's turnouts and looked at the bullet hole again. It had ripped clean through, and given where it was on the turnout, he had been shot a little higher up, and Eddie had been. A detective was on hand to look at things and deal with this.

"Two shooters," Athena said.

"Yes. One shot out the window on the engine, and then the other went after Buck. I should not have dismissed what he said."

"What do you mean?" Athena asked. She waved at the detective.

"Athena?" Lou Ransone asked as he came over.

"Eddie told me he should not have dismissed what Buck said."

"And you are?"

"Eddie Diaz, Edmundo, if you need my legal name. Over the last two working days, Buck noticed a man at three different calls in three areas. Today, he was giving a look that said he saw him again at the call before this."

"Before this made-up call that Dispatch just told us came from a phone that is now disconnected, and there is no fire here?" Ransone asked.

"It's a fake call?"

"The Theory is that they waited until the call you were on was done and then called it in so that you would be the one to be called into this. There were no cameras or cops with body cameras or dash cams on the call yet. Where did Buck go?"

"I am not sure. It's..." Eddie ran his hand through his hair, and he sighed. He knew what he had seen, but he had thought it was just a trick of the light or something—or the adrenaline of being shot at again. "I saw Buck moving, and then his turnouts just slumped down, and an orange blur took off. It wasn't very big, but I was not focused on it."

"He's a shifter?"

"Yes and no," Athena said.

"What do you mean yes and no? Someone is either a shifter, or they are..oh. That's him?" Ransone asked.

"Yes, the current case is being run up through the federal courts because of the suppression? Yes." Athena looked at Eddie again.

"He has the serum but hasn't decided whether to use it. It's the kind of thing that he just keeps on debating. He's been fine."

"There have been times where the suppression would be fought on a biological level," Ransone said.

"Yes, and the thought was that if being blown up, swept up in a tsunami, and hit by lightning hadn't done it, there was nothing that would. It's just like Buck to get shot for it to break, though." Eddie rubbed at his face, and he dropped the turnout down again. It was in a big evidence bag, but he still didn't like it being as bloody as it was.

"What do we do?" Athena asked.

"We have nothing so far, so we will put out the call for Buck as a human, not a shifter. That part doesn't need to be known. If he's shot, as the blood suggests, he's not going to heal up quickly at all, given it's his first shirt. He's going to be found, and hopefully, someone will take him to a vet for the bleeding. But if we put out the call about an orange cat, there are going to be issues if the people looking for him go after him again without anyone around."

"How do we know the people who did this don't know already?" Eddie asked.

"We don't, Eddie," Athena said.

Eddie swallowed and considered what it all meant. Buck was out there, hurt, scared, and alone, and Eddie wanted to be there for him.

---

Tommy Kinard opened his front door and looked at the note left about a missing firefighter who had been involved in a shootout and had gone to the ground. Tommy knew the man's face and what station he was with without even needing to look it up. Evan "Buck" Buckley was from the 118. Tommy knew the guy had replaced him. It seemed that the shootout had happened two blocks over, and no one had found him yet. He was considered to be in danger.

"For fuck's sake," Tommy said as he heard his phone start to ring. He set down the three bags of groceries he had picked up to get his phone. He pulled it out of his pocket, laid down the flyer, and checked that it was Miriam.

"You were supposed to call me when you got home," Miriam said.

"I just walked in the door. I hadn't even put down my stuff yet, and the door was still shut."

"Oh, you took longer shopping than I thought."

"I told you I was out of a lot of stuff."

"I know. I was just worried. The guy from the 118 hasn't been found, and it was in your area."

"I have a flyer. I'm going to check the backyard and everything, just to be safe. I assume they would use exigent circumstances to get back there and check for Buckley, but I have no idea."

"Okay, well, keep me informed."

Tommy hung up before Miriam could get onto a tangent of some kind. The whole of the LAFD had heard about the shooting just an hour after it happened, and they were all waiting to see if it was going to be like the last time a sniper was going after LAFD members. So far, it was just the one, so Tommy assumed that Buckley's life was being examined.

Getting the groceries put up was quick and easy since Tommy hadn't bought that much that was not fresh food. He noticed a spot of something on the floor when he went to put the bags up to be used the next time. He crouched and touched it. It was dried. He used the flashlight on his phone since it was darker in the corner. It was dried blood. He got up and turned on the main lights. There was not a lot of it, so it was doubtful that it was from Buckley.

He tracked it all the way to the garage door. He had made a mess in the garage and kitchen that stunk pretty awful, so he had left things open to air out. The garage door hadn't been moved, and the blood was on the bottom; when he got down and looked at it, he told him it was an animal that had gotten inside. The trail of blood was easy to follow back to his bedroom, where he found an orange kitten covered in blood and sleeping on the floor under his stand. He reached down to touch it and make sure it was alive when it woke up. It attacked his hand and left more than a few scratches on his fingers. He checked to see if they were bleeding and found that they were. Tommy headed to the bathroom to clean up the cuts, and then he dealt with the blood in the house and got it cleaned up before dealing with the kitten. He shut his bedroom door to keep the kitten contained.

Checking online, Tommy made sure that there was nothing in the news about Buckley being a shifter. If he were, he would be a full-grown cat, not a kitten, but he still wanted to be sure. It was hard to tell shifters from animals when in animal form. Tommy had learned that the hard way in the Army. It was the kind of thing that was best taught with time, but still, in animal form, it was hard.

Tommy opened his bedroom door and slipped inside once he had everything cleaned up. It looked like the kitten had brought something bloody inside and escaped. He would probably find it dead in the backyard when he mowed next.

The kitten was still under the stand, but it was awake. It stared at him as he got closer. The hissing and growling were more than enough to make Tommy laugh. The kitten was trying to make itself bigger than it was. He could easily grab it by the scruff and get it on the bed, at least, but he needed a plan. There was only so much he could do that wouldn't end with the kitten running away again. It wouldn't leave the house since it was shut up now.

"You could just stop that," Tommy said.

The kitten seemed to react to the words but didn't stop growling. In fact, it got up, started to arch its back, and spit at him.

"Look at how adorable you are," Tommy said.

That seemed to make the kitten even more pissed off as it ran at him, full-on intent to attack. When it flew through the air at him, Tommy caught it and moved it to where he could wrap it in his shirt. Then there was the glint in the eyes. This wasn't a kitten; this was a shifter. Tommy grabbed a blanket and pulled it a little so that it would make a big spot for the kitten. He laid the kitten down there and got level with it.

"Evan Buckley?" Tommy asked.

The kitten stopped in its forward movement to attack Tommy's face and just sat down. Yeah, this wasn't good. The news wasn't putting out anything about him being a shifter, and the hunt for the people who attacked him was still going on. Years in the Army told him that it was easy to understand why that wouldn't be out. It was either that no one knew it, which would be hard given that they would have his clothes as evidence, or it was being kept quiet for a reason.

"Okay, Evan, let's get you cleaned up; I'm sure the blood is pulling at your fur."

Evan let out a pitiful meow but didn't react when Tommy scooped him up and took him to the bathroom. Tommy pulled the door shut so Evan couldn't escape. He put him on the counter and then started to run some water to warm him up in the bathtub. He had both in the bathroom. The bathtub was massive, big enough for his frame and possibly even another person in there. He used it when he needed the jets to work out the sore muscles.

When the water was warm, he plugged the tub in and let it fill a few inches before turning it off. He had a few things that worked well in the kitchen, but the two bath towels he used sometimes were the best. He got some soap on one and lathered it up between the two before walking over and picking up Evan. Evan didn't react until he was in the water.

Evan seemed to lose all steam then, so he dropped into the water and started to roll around in it. If ther was ever anything that made him really think it was a human in an animal body, it was that. Evan walked over to the spigot and started to bathe at it. So, Timmy turned it on again and let more water go into the tub. Evan got under the water and looked pitiful, but it was at least working on getting the blood off a little since ther was pink coming off him.

Tommy held out a hand covered in the bath mitt after a few minutes, and he turned off the water with the other; it was getting a little too high for his liking. Evan climbed into his hand and let Tommy work on getting him soaped up and the blood off his fur. The long orange fur was pretty once the blood was off. He had been shot, and thankfully, it had been a through and through from the chatter he had heard. He debated getting a hold of Hen or Howie, but that didn't seem like a good idea until he could get Evan to someplace safe. If there was any word that someone had him, the hose people who tried to kill him could come back.

"Look at you," Tommy said when he let Evan get off his hand. The blood was mostly gone, but what was left needed the soap to be gone so he could see what was left to be done.

Evan dove into the water like a true kitten would. It was a first shift, and it was hard to make sure that one didn't become too animal. Tommy had done it when he was a teenager, like most, but it seemed there was more to tell with Evan here.

Tommy let him have fun in the water, grabbing a rubber duck and dropping it in. He sometimes made stupid posts online and had a few bath toys to do it. He knew what he looked like and what it would do for engagement on his posts.

The water was still pretty much clear, so Tommy held out his hand again. Evan attacked his hand and pulled the mitt off, jumping up and down on it in the water to prove he killed it, and then he crawled into Tommy's hand.

"You are too fucking adorable," Tommy said. He started to scrub again with the other mitt and found that the last bits of blood were not hard to get out. "You are also proving that ginger cats are idiots, Evan."

Tommy lifted his hand, but Evan didn't like it, so he jumped off and into the water, splashing a little bit everywhere.

House cats were rare for shifters, while domesticated dogs were kind of normal. Wolves were the biggest group, but that had to do with people liking to be werewolves. The whole thing was about who a person was, and if they wanted to be a wolf, they would be a wolf. It was the way things had been for a long time. There were a few large cats in the pack that Tommy belonged to, and they made up the shifts at Harbor, but he had never really felt like he belonged there. He hadn't belonged at the 118 either, but then he had kept his shifter status a secret back then, as even in the LAFD, things were hard, especially for a gay man.

"It's time for all kittens to get dried off," Tommy said as he pulled the plug on the tub and let the water start to drain out.

Evan darted over to attack the whirlpool made by the water until it was gone. Tommy picked up the cup on the side of the tub that he used to rinse it after he cleaned it, and he filled that up to get any lingering soap off of Evan.

Tommy grabbed one of the larger towels he had so that Evan could be snug in the middle of it, and he wrapped him up in it to carry him over to the counter to get him dried off. He didn't scrub too hard since he had to do a little to get the blood off. He didn't need skin issues for Evan. He needed to make sure that Evan was in good health because it was paramount to getting him back into human skin.

It was rare, but sometimes, if a first shift was traumatic, it was hard to get the human back.

When Tommy was done drying him off, he wrapped him in a dry part of the towel and carried Evan to the kitchen. He had a few things that would be easy for Evan to eat in that form. While there were no issues with a shifter eating human food in shifted form, there was the fact that Evan was small.

He grabbed the pan from the cabinet, laid it on the stove, and then grabbed a chicken breast from the fridge. He used a knife to cut it into chunks before dropping it into the pan. He had baked a lot of them the day before to have quick meals using whatever he wanted over the week. He could sacrifice a few of them to feed Evan. He wasn't sure if he wanted fish at all, but Tommy only had tuna in the freezer when it came to fish. He had cans of salmon but he didn't feel like dealing with the bones and everything.

It didn't take long for the smell of the chicken to fill the room, and Tommy was getting hungry himself. It was too early to eat chicken, so he worked on some eggs and a few other things that he could share with Evan if the guy were still hungry after the chicken.

Evan was on the island's edge and looked like he was about to jump off.

"Do not even think about it, Evan," Tommy said.

Evan plopped his butt on the counter and looked like he was the epitome of innocence as he just stared at Tommy.

"You are trouble," Tommy said.

Evan yawned and seemed to lose interest in what he was doing. He then returned to the towel and started to play with it.

Tommy got the chicken on a plate and laid it in the middle of the island so that hopefully, any mess wouldn't make it onto the floor. Evan attacked it with gusto and started to inhale it all. Tommy watched for a few seconds before he turned back to his breakfast. He pulled his cell phone out of his pocket and texted Howie. They mostly kept in contact that way, but a few calls happened here and there.

Tommy: Any news?

Howie: No, and his sister is going insane. I'm going insane.

Tommy: Anything I can do to help?

Howie: Got a time machine to go back in time to when he told us a creepy guy was watching him on calls?

Tommy raised an eyebrow at that. Yeah, he wasn't telling Howie a damned thing until Evan was shifted back into a human. If there had been a person following Evan to each of the calls, then the attack would have happened. It was horrible.

Tommy: Sorry, I gave out my last one last week.

Howie: Just keep your eyes open for anything weird. I can't talk about a lot of it, but it seems that his parents paid for the hit from jail while they await trial for child abuse.

Tommy knew why the shift had been his first then. There had been news about the newest group of parents in the area who had been charged with child abuse having to do with the suppression drugs that altered DNA back in the nineties. If Evan broke through that, it would be a while before he came back to being human in mind and where he could shift. Tommy would be his safe space during it all.

There was no reason to force Evan into anything when he was not even sure of what was going on around him.

Tommy: If you need anything, you let me know.

Tommy put the phone down and turned off the heat under his eggs, letting them finish up with that heat while he focused on his potatoes. The sound of licking the plate had stopped, so Tommy started to turn around when he felt his pants tug. He looked down to see Evan climbing his pants leg. He was glad he was in jeans and not anything else.

When Evan got to his ass and started to move to where ther was nothing but jeans and skin to hold onto, Tommy picked him up and curled him around to the front. Evan climbed him and got on his shoulder as soon as he could move on his own. Tommy wasn't sure he should be allowing that, but he also figured that whatever trauma had come from shifting for the first time after being shot was making Evan want affection more than anything.

Tommy plated up his food and rechecked to see that Evan had eaten all of his. The plate was fully licked clean and looked like it hadn't had any food on it. He walked over to the little nook he had made in the kitchen to have his breakfast. It was big enough for two people to sit across from each other. He loved watching the world wake up there in the mornings when he had to go to work.

Coffee was next on his list, and he had set his coffee pot to go before he went to work. The coffee was waiting in the pot for him, and he added a touch of cream, a little sugar, and a cinnamon stick. It wasn't how he preferred it, but it would have to work until he could make his creamer. He would do that in a little while when he didn't have a cat on his shoulder.

"Egg?" Tommy asked as he held up his fork to Evan.

Evan took a small bite off the fork and nearly dropped the egg but didn't seem too worried about it. The egg that Evan had was laid on Tommy's shoulder before it was eaten. Evan was too small. He was barely the size a cat should be when weaned off its mother's tit. That spoke to a lot of shit, given Tommy knew he was a pretty big adult.

"If you want potato, you have to climb down," Tommy said.

Evan didn't climb down; he jumped down, legs spread like skydiving, before he got them back just in time to land on all fours. Tommy smiled because it was kind of adorable.

---

Tommy heard the noises and paused before moving, his clothes ripping as he shifted into a wolf. He checked on Evan, who was still asleep in the clean clothes basket on top of Tommy's favorite shirt. He hadn't cared about Evan sleeping there since it was out of his way while Tommy worked on getting the rest of his clean clothes folded to be put up when he was done.

"Look, someone said he was cleaning blood off his garage door. He has to be here."

Tommy picked up his phone and texted 911 to Miriam and then silenced his phone. It was a code to call the cops and get someone sent to him. He was going to kill these idiots for coming into his home, and he didn't quite care what anyone else thought about it.

"Just do it," a man said before his steps headed back toward the front of the house.

Tommy texted Miriam to have the cops sent silent to him because there were lookouts. Military shorthand was easy to learn, and Miriam had learned it at her father's knee with a little tweaking for changes by the time Tommy was discharged from the military at the end of his years there.

The sound of a creak in the hall had Tommy moving just a little bit, getting ready to attack. A gun was the first thing that came into the room, and Tommy attacked. He chomped down on the arm so hard that he heard the break of the bones before the scream came out.

Evan hissed, and then there was the sound of claws on the floor as Evan ran.

Next, Tommy went for the throat, making sure the guy wouldn't get up before he headed to the front to deal with the guy there. Neither of these men was expecting him.

The man in the living room was looking into the main area, but Tommy's fur was night black, and he blended in. There was nothing the guy could do.

"Who is there?" the man demanded.

Tommy skirted the wall a little and made no noise until the last second when he wanted the guy to turn to him; when he did, he lunged, all of his power being put into his legs, and he took the guy down, his head cracking off the wall. When the man hit the floor, he didn't move, but his heart was still beating.

The front door was unlocked, so when a cop came inside, gun drawn and light settled on Tommy, he didn't move.

"Kinard?" the officer asked.

Tommy backed off the man and backed himself into the corner. He barked just once to let the officer know he was safe.

The officer walked over to check the heartbeat of the man and then rolled him onto his front and cuffed him. "Where is the other one?"

Tommy nodded toward the back of the house as an orange blur came running at him. Evan got himself tangled in Tommy's feet, hissing at the officer when it got too close to them.

More officers arrived, and the lights were turned on, and Evan moved to be pressed into Tommy's body and not close to his feet.

None of the officers who came in were ones that Tommy knew well. He hoped for someone he could trust to tell them that Evan was this kitten, but there was no one, so he would stay in shifted form for now. He could milk that for hours because it was hard to shift sometimes in the heat of the moment when danger was around.

"Yup, these are the ones who were on the alert," one of the officers said as he went outside again, talking over the radio.

Then, a detective came into the room. Tommy had worked with him a few times but still didn't trust him with Evan.

"Kinard," Ranonse said. "We have a positive ID on the man who was stalking Buckley. It seems that they broke into four different houses on the street, thinking that someone was hiding Buckley. You are the only one to wake up, but the open doors alerted us that more is going on." Ransone didn't get too close.

"Detective," a new voice called out.

Then, a man wearing an LAFD T-shirt came inside. It took only a few seconds for Evan to move. He ran as fast as he could, dodging around feet before climbing onto the back of the couch and launching himself at the new man.

"Oh, hello, Buck," the man said. He tucked Evan close to him.

"Kinard, if you could go and shift and get something on, that would be great," Ransone said.

Tommy just looked at the man holding Eavn.

"This is Buck's best friend, Eddie Diaz, and his work partner," Ransone said, as if he were reading Tommy's mind.

Tommy headed to the back of the house and slipped into the guest room. He had a few things in there just in case he had people staying over. He found a pair of shorts that would work and then a muscle shirt. He came out again and found that Evan had climbed up to sit on Diaz's shoulder.

"Hello," Diaz said.

"Hi. Is he okay?"

"He is. You knew what he was and didn't call the cops?" Ransone asked.

"Well, it wasn't being put out that he was a shifter, and given his size, it was the first time. He might not shift for days yet. I figured it was better to get his permission when he was a human than to do it without him agreeing. I would rather protect than not, especially if he were still threatened."

"Kinard here was in the Army," Athena said as she came into the living room. She stopped by Diaz and looked at Evan. She didn't reach out until he batted at her. The meows he was letting out here adorable. He had barely been around Evan for a day, yet there was something adorable about how Evan had taken comfort in him.

"Athena," Tommy said.

"You look good despite the blood. Good job on taking out the dangerous one."

"He led with the gun; I wasn't giving him the chance to do anything else. That one there was the easy one to get rid of. He just got jumped on," Tommy said.

"You'll need to go in and give a statement, and we will take care of Buckaroo. He's going to be coming home with me. Eddie offered his couch, but I am not sure we want to bring that kind of legal issue to them. Bobby and I don't have any kids at home at the moment. It's safer."

Evan made a noise that Tommy hadn't heard at all from him and jumped off Diaz's shoulder.

"Buck?" Eddie called out as Evan disappeared under the couch.

Tommy looked for him to come out, but he didn't.

"I don't think Buck wants to leave," Athena said.

"He doesn't have to," Tommy said. He crouched and tapped his fingers on the floor, waiting that few seconds for Evan to dart out from under there and attack them. He picked up Evan and put him on his shoulder. "I get it. I was just like him on my first shift. It was a beating from a foster parent, but I ran to the house of a friend. I growled and snapped at the social worker who came to get me. I was feral as hell and didn't want to leave there. I ended up living out the rest of my years in foster care there. I get it. I mean, it's about him staying here. I can even take him to work with me."

"They allow that at the 217?"

"One guy brought his teenage son when he shifted the first time and was unwilling to swap back. I can't stay with him the whole time, but we will have more than enough people on hand to entertain him."

"Entertain him?" Athena asked.

"Howie has made a few comments about his attention span sometimes, and he's been very much kitten-like in this form. I watched him chase his tail for ten minutes, and then it became a ball of string that had missed the trashcan when a shirt hem started to fray. He played with that until he caught a look of himself in the mirror. It's normal. We take the forms we want most of the time, but it's also a bone-deep understanding of who we are. He's a house cat, which means he's a good hunter, and he's also quite fluffy."

"I'm not shocked by his coloring. Orange cat sums him up. He can be smart as fucking hell, but those moments where he's caught off guard, he seems a lot less smart," Diaz said.

Evan hissed at Diaz and turned around on Tommy's shoulder to put his back to him.

"If I had a single thought that this wasn't him from the way he reacted to Eddie, I would know it's him now. Do you need anything, Kinard?"

"No, I'm good. I went shopping before coming home. I have more than enough protein to keep him happy, and he even stole some of my salad until he hit the avocado in it."

"He loves it, but not in salads. He picks it out and eats it first when it comes in a salad. He'll drop guacamole in taco salads but not whole avocado," Diaz said.

"I'm going to go to the guest room and try and get more sleep in," Tommy said.

"The bedroom is going to be in use for a little while long, but once it's cleared, you'll be able to go back in. We don't tend to kick shifters out of the houses unless there is a good reason. These two and what they have done make this an open and shut case." Athena walked over to Tommy and tugged on Evan's tail a little.

He turned round on Tommy's shoulder. He looked adorable as he let Athena pet him. When Diaz came over to say goodbye, Evan swiped at his hand with retracted claws. Diaz laughed and still petted Evan's head.

"Take care of him."

"I will, but don't blame yourself."

"Oh, we have more than enough blame to go around. We just didn't listen to him, and it could have gotten him killed. That's our burden to bear on that. It's no one else's."

Tommy watched as they cleared out, and then he turned around to head back to the guest room. At least he didn't have to leave the house. He would need to get a hold of someone to come and take care of the blood everywhere. He had gone for the easiest way to kill, but it had been the messiest in the end.

The attached bathroom was mostly just the shower and the toilet, and it wasn't nearly big enough for him, but Tommy needed to get what little bit of blood that was on him off. He didn't want to have to clean the sheets in the room with that stuff.

As Tommy shut the door to the shower, he heard the scratching. He opened the door, and Evan slipped in and darted around to get up on the ledge on the side furthest away from the water.

"You know that none of them are going to hurt you, right?" Tommy asked.

Evan looked everywhere but at Tommy. Tommy laughed and grabbed the soap bar so we could clean ourselves up. He focused on that and not Evan behind him somewhere in the shower. Tommy had seen the picture of him that had been used for the flyer for them looking for him and the whole missing persons alert. Evan was adorable and that was something that was undeniable. He wanted to have it more, but he also knew that he needed to settle in and just live with the fact that Evan was going to disappear when he shifted back.

---

Tommy felt the bed move, and he started to move around to get his hands on the person who was in bed when he realized that the bed moved because of the fact that he now had a man who was about his size in bed with him instead of a couple pound kitten. Evan was still asleep, plastered to Tommy's side. He was also naked. Which was normal for shifting. Most people just stripped down before doing it but Evan had been in his work clothes. There was no reason to think that Evan would be upset about this, but Tommy was happy he was in a full set of sleeping clothes. Ev

Evan was going to be sleeping for a little while longer as the shift back would have made him tired, and waking him up wasn't a good thing. Tommy flailed out for his phone and found it just before knocking it off the stand. He picked it up and found his text thread with Athena.

Tommy: He shifted back just now. I'll make sure he calls when he's awake.

There was no indication that Athena got it, but given the time of night, ther was no reason to worry about that. It was just after four, and while the sound might have woken her up, he wouldn't worry. He laid his phone down again and tried not to wrap his arms around Evan. There was no reason to think about how good it felt to have someone in bed with him again.

Tommy willed himself to fall asleep again. He wanted to make sure that he was fully asleep because while he didn't have work the next day, he did have to do a few things around the house that would need his full attention unless he put them off again. He may have needed to invite some people over and pay them with food and good beer to get some help with it all. That might work out better in the end.

It was a little while later that Evan started to wake up, his body moving, and his mouth moved as well. It took Tommy a few seconds to realize that Evan wasn't sure where he was.

"Evan," Tommy said before shaking Evan's shoulder to try and wake him up.

Evan moaned in pain a little before he jolted up and nearly fell back off the bed. Tommy caught his arm and waited for Evan to open his eyes a little. The darkness of the room was not a near-total, and Tommy's eyes were good at seeing things in the dark. He reached over when Evan was settled and turned on the low light he had on the back of his headboard. It cast enough light for Evan to see him.

"Tommy?" Evan asked.

"Yes, it's me. How are you feeling?"

"Head hurts like hell. I thought that shifts weren't supposed to be like this."

"It's because of the impression drugs you were given as a child. The counteracting is still something you need to take to get rid of that pain."

"I have that at home. I just hadn't fully decided."

"Because a change at this age in your life is daunting. I know. I've counseled a few people who had found out they were suppressed. It's pretty much split down the middle on people who decide to do it and those who choose not to change that part of them."

"That's not what the pamphlet said that I was given."

"No, because the people who do that stuff have a bias. There are a lot of tweaked numbers out there, but the true number is somewhere around half and half."

Evan looked down, then up, grabbed the blanket, and pulled it over him. "Sorry."

"Nakedness doesn't mother me. I knew when you shifted back, you would be naked. I didn't expect to wake up with a gorgeous and adorable man in my bed, though."

Evan started to blush at that, and there were the scents that made Tommy think that staying with Tommy had been more than thinking he was safe there.

"It's just after five. Why don't you go and get a shower and I'll get breakfast started. I'll find something that you can wear until we can get you home."

Evan just nodded. It was the kind of thing that was done on rote. He looked like he was a world away.

"Can I trust you not to kill yourself in the shower?" Tommy asked as he got up off the bed.

Evan threw a pillow at him. It was easy to miss it, and Tommy just laughed at him.

Tommy found some clothes for Evan and kept his back turned as Evan made his way into the bathroom and then into the shower. Miriam was going to be upset about not getting Evan at the airfield with him. She had adored carrying him around in her hoodie pants, and Evan had been content to stay there as well. He was going to grow out of that soon.

"I did research into stuff but hadn't realized how much it was messed up on the numbers," Evan called out when Tommy slipped into the bathroom to set down some clothes.

He opted for no underwear because he wasn't sure he could survive the idea of Evan running around in his underwear. He had become smitten with a man in shifted form, and that was throwing him.

The biggest thing that was throwing him was that he hadn't realized it until he had naked Evan in bed with him.

"Sometimes it's hard for others to notice if they are not around, but people like me who deal with this stuff most of the time know that the numbers are pretty much split."

Evan hummed and turned around to put his back to Tommy in the shower. Tommy fled because he wanted to slip himself in ther and plaster himself to the wet body in there or even just get on his knees and suck him off.

The kitchen was humid, so Tommy opened the door to the outside, pulled the box fan out from behind the cabinet, and turned it on. He didn't want to deal with the air at the moment since it was nice out and the weather was supposed to be beautiful all day.

Tommy had the coffee made, and breakfast at least started when Evan came into the kitchen.

"I saw you running," Evans said.

"You had your back to me."

"Okay, I heard you running, I heard the shift in your heartbeats, and even over the smell of the bodywash, I could smell you."

"And?" Tommy asked. He kept his back to Evan.

"I never...I think I might be bi like that revelation happened somewhere around day three here with you. I didn't realize what it was until I smelled your arousal as you were running away."

"You think?" Tommy asked. He laid down the turner before looking at Evan. The food would be fine for a few minutes if he didn't watch it like a hawk.

"I have always checked out hot guys asses, but that's normal."

"Normal for a queer man, yes, not so much for a straight guy."

"Oh," Evan said. He looked like he was thinking that through. "I guess I never thought of it like that before. So, maybe a little more on the probably am bisexual scale of things. I still am not sure what half of this shit I'm feeling is, and the smells of this place are enmeshed with you, and I have no clue what I'm doing."

"Diaz is a shifter, right?"

"Diaz? Oh, Eddie. Yeah, he is. He was also in the Army. I saw your tickets for the fights you've been to. You two have a few things in common. I think he would also love your car lift because he needs to do some work on the Chevelle and needs that."

Tommy cocked his head to the side as he tried to figure out where that was going. "Are you trying to set me up with Diaz?"

"No, no. He needs...friends. He has a few, but I...I am not sure what the fuck I'm doing here."

Tommy stepped forward, and he kind of trapped Evan against the island counter. He made sure that Evan knew exactly what he was doing as he leaned in. Tommy caught Evan's chin with his fingers and held him in place as he pressed their lips together. He dropped the thumb, used his two fingers to keep Evan's head up, and kissed him.

"You were doing fine until you acted like you were trying to set up me with Eddie."

"No, it wasn't that. Eddie tolerated my last two girlfriends. I thought that with you guys having so much in common, he might do more than tolerate you."

"Ah, you get flustered and say shit wrong, don't you?"

Evan nodded.

"That's okay. How about you get plates and forks out? There is juice in the fridge and coffee in the pot. I'll finish up breakfast and we can settle into the nook and have a chat about a few things?"

"Yeah, that sounds good." Evan darted in for a quick kiss before he slipped out from between Tommy and the counter.

Tommy went back to the stove and got everything finished up. Evan set the plates beside him so he could divide everything up. He made more than he normally would want to consume because Evan's stomach would be empty as hell, and he would need it. There were two glasses of juice at the table already when Tommy set the plates down, and Evan was coming back with his own cup of coffee that he was inhaling the scent of like it was something he had never smelled before.

"Learning the different scents?"

"Yes. This smells wonderful. I can actually smell those notes that bags say should've been there, but I never noticed before."

"Yes, which means that shitty coffee will be horrible for you from here out."

"Why did you have to say that?" Evan sat down and looked at his plate of food. "This is too much."

"You'll be shocked by what you can eat now. Just eat what you can."

Evan picked up his fork and speared a little bit of the eggs. "What kind of eggs did you make? I smell cheese, but what else is there?"

"Just a few spices that I find I like. I can make them without if they bother you."

Evan shoved the fork into his mouth, and his eyes closed in bliss, a hum escaping. "No, these are so good."

"I'm glad. Now, I gathered from everything that you were suppressed as a child. I don't need to know why or how."

"I can tell you that someday. Let's just say that my parents did it out of spite."

"Ah, okay. So, there are a lot of bad feelings there. You are going to find yourself eating a lot after you shift back into human form. The magic that allows it pushes it. It's not too bad since your animal form is much smaller than your other form; it's easy to shrink but hard to expand if that makes sense."

"It does. I just don't feel hungry."

"No, because it's kind of suppressed right now; you are a little in fight or flight mode, but once you start to eat, your body will realize that it's safe, and then you will feel it."

Evan looked at Tommy skeptically, but he got some potatoes onto his fork and started to work on the rest of his food a little bit. It was the fourth bite that his stomach growled, and he looked at Tommy with wide eyes.

"See. It's why the myth of werewolves just randomly killing started up. It's the hunger that all shifters feel. It's easy to separate fact from fiction, but those old myths and stereotypes cling for a reason. I texted Athena that you were awake, and she didn't send anything back other than a thumbs up. So, I am not sure if she's going to tell anyone else. Detective Ransone will want to talk to you if you agree. It'll be easy for you to figure out what things are going to be hard for a while over this."

"Yeah, I hadn't accepted it, so it's a mind fuck about it. There is nothing that has to be decided right now, though. Bobby told me that over and over again. I know that. I just don't want to be left behind on things."

"This between us is burning bright right now. I want you, Evan. That kiss was good, but I also know that you might change your mind when you are away from here. I'm not saying that you are going to or trying to tell you that you don't know what you feel, but I don't need you pushing this if you end up not wanting it."

"Yeah, I can see that." Evan looked at his food again and seemed to want to concentrate on it.

Tommy let the silence stand and just ate his own food while watching Evan. Evan didn't seem to notice the scrutiny. Tommy was intrigued by him, and seeing him coming out over the last day and becoming more like the other shifters when they were shifted, he had been excited.

"Can we go and just lay in the sun?" Evan asked.

"You want to...oh, you want to shift back."

"I need to know how to do it. It's not like I learned that at all. I shifted with the pain of being shot. I have no idea how I did it. I want to know before I leave."

"You could have Diaz teach you."

"I want you to do it. I don't want to leave here until I can do it."

"Sure. We can do that, Evan."

"Evan," Evan said. He seemed to be running the name through his mouth and head.

"I can call you Buck if you want. I just got used to Evan. I don't want to call you something you don't want."

"No, I like it. I like it more than I thought I would. It's kind of nice. I like hearing my name from your lips like that. I got used to it as a kitten. I just never thought that I could tell you to call me Buck, which I guess would have been hard."

"I mean, I have a laptop, and you could have typed it out."

Evan laughed, and he spread the last of the potatoes. "I guess you were right about how much I would eat."

"I do have some skills," Tommy said.

That set Evan off blushing again. Tommy had never seen anyone who was an adult who looked adorable like that.

"So you know Athena well?"

"I do. Oh, you must have missed part of all of that. When did you join the 118?"

"Fall of 2017. Why?"

"I left the 118 in the fall of 2017. You were my replacement there. A good replacement if Howie's words are to be believed."

"You were there during..."

"Yes, I learned a lot and detangled myself from a lot of bullshit that I grew up with. I wasn't part of the biggest issues, but it took me longer than I would have liked to start to step up and go against what the former captain wanted. I just wasn't there. Despite the hate that could be gotten for shifters, it wasn't there at the 118. It was everything else that had issues. I am not proud of my past, but I'm proud of growing past it."

"I had some questionable shit when I was younger as well. Also, last week. I keep trying this one place because they smell so good, but they give me issues."

"{probably because of your shifter nature. There are a few spices that some of us can't handle. You'll find there are places you can't eat at anymore."

"Oh, that sucks. You don't have those spices in the house, do you?"

Nope, I use alternatives and the like when I'm making something."

The knock was subtle and something that only a shifter would hear from a distance, but it made Tommy happy that whoever it was taking care to make sure not to piss off Tommy.

"What was that?" Evan asked.

"Someone knocking on the door. Given the heartbeats, I think it's Detective Ransone. I think it was his heartbeat. There were a lot of people around, so that I could be wrong."

"I don't want to talk in the kitchen."

"Okay, I'll set you up in the living room; how does that sound?"

Evan picked up his coffee cup with one hand, then picked up the orange juice and finished it before leaving.

"I'll get the dishes done later."

"I have a dishwasher. We can get the stuff taken care of later. Top off your coffee. You drank more than you thought when we were talking."

Evan flushed a little, but he looked at his coffee and nodded.

It was indeed Detective Ransone on the other side of the door.

"Athena texted me that he was human again. Shorter than I thought. How are you doing, Buck?"

"I feel weird in my skin. I'm trying to talk Tommy into shifting with me, going into the backyard, and sunning ourselves with water."

"It would be good for you from what I am to understand."

"It will be, but first, we need to make sure that he can shift on his own, which is going to take a little time. I have time off work, and I figured I can help him with it and then Diazs can polish off the stuff left."

Evan snorted, and he shook his head. "Me and Chris learning at the same time. He's about to do his first shift. He's been getting moody as hell lately. I knew he was getting close."

"There is nothing wrong with learning with a pre-teen about all of this."

"I know." Evan looked at Tommy at the words, and he smiled, which went to his eyes. He looked happy.

Tommy had no idea what he looked like before, but he looked very happy. He hoped that part of it was because Tommy was in his life.

---

Eddie: Have fun!

Tommy looked at the text again. It still made no sense, and Tommy hoped that maybe Eddie had just hit the wrong person. Outside of gaming systems and a few other things, he had a big bit of technophobia and a learned ignorance about it, which was strange given that Evan was deep into learning it all.

He was about to start typing when he heard a noise. He looked around the yard, but there was nothing. The sun was shining, and Tommy was enjoying an afternoon with nothing to do. Then, there was a date night that night with Evan. It wasn't their first, but Tommy was enjoying taking it slow. Eddie had taken over most of teaching Evan about being a shifter since there was less chance of something going wrong if Tommy did it.

Two seconds after deciding that he was hearing shit, his phone went flying and hit him in the face. Evan was standing on his chest, looking like he had won something.

"Ah, I see. Eddie literally just dropped you off to me because you were pissing him off, huh?" Tommy asked.

Evan purred a little before prancing forward and rubbing his face against Tommy's.

"You are lucky you are cute," Tommy said. He dug his fingers into Evan's fur and started to scratch.

Evan spent a lot of time in his fur, as Evan called it, and so his size was much bigger now, and his shape was finally settling, which Tommy was still pretty sure was a Maine Coon cat. He was turning a darker orange that looked more like a fire than anything else.

"I was going to enjoy the sun, so if you don't want to, you can go inside; I have the cat flap open at the moment."

Evan dropped down and licked Tommy's throat before settling. Tommy kept on rubbing at his fur. It felt good just to be able to be like this with him. Later, he might shift and get a little sun while curling around Evan. It always felt good when Evan was comfortable, and sometimes it was in his skin and sometimes in his fur. He didn't care too much which one it was as long as they were together.

This was not the way that Tommy saw this happening, but he was glad that Evan had run into his house to get to safety after being shot. He didn't think they would have crossed paths before this if it hadn't happened.

The End