Tommy wasn't sure that the fire fighter knew that his spying was for shit. The guy had been watching Tommy way too much for it to be anything but a little bit of lust or a crush, but still, Tommy figured that, given they were at work, the guy would hide it a little bit better.

"The new guy is going to end up tripping over his own two feet," Miriam said as she came to settle in beside Tommy.

"No shit. I just hope that he doesn't take me down with him," Tommy said.

There was the sound of the rest of the crew heading for them, so Tomy turned his attention to the people he worked with every single day.

Then there was the sound of sirens. Tommy turned. He wondered what was going on because the LAPD never showed up here like that, not with sirens going. There had been a time when the lights were on, but that was more about making sure people saw them while driving in areas they weren't supposed to be in.

Tommy looked around for Remy, and he found that he was looking at something on his phone and not paying attention to anything else. The station was having a day where they hadn't been called out for anything but air ambulances, so that was always a good day.

"Escaped convict?" Miriam asked.

"Nah, one of us is being arrested," Lucy said.

Tommy could feel those eyes on him. "I haven't taken Evan up anywhere in weeks."

That made Miriam snort.

The cops were being led by Athena Grant when she got out of her vehicle. Tommy turned around to make sure the team was settled beside him when he realized that the new guy wasn't even with them anymore, done staring at Tommy, and was heading for the locker room.

Tommy turned back to face the group of cops on their way toward them. A few fanned out.

"We have someone who evaded TSA and escaped out of the net, so you guys are going to help us check through all of your areas, and we will make sure that the guy didn't get in here," Athena said. She eyed Tommy, and He just raised his hands.

"Shit," a voice called out.

Tommy turned to see the new firefighter standing behind someone.

"I expect that kind of luck from Buck," Athena said before she and the rest of the officers moved to put themselves between the escaped suspect and the rest of the firefighters.

Tommy stepped around to see where the guy was and what was behind him. There was thankfully nothing behind him that would be set off if a shot were fired. There were a few things back that wouldn't be good, but nothing that would put any of them at risk.

"I've already radioed dispatch, and they will only send you if there is no other choice," Athena said to Remy when the man stepped up closer to her.

"That's good, but my team is going to head out and make sure that none of our vehicles have been disabled in any fashion," Remy said.

"Okay, you all heard him," Tommy called out. The LAPD and Remy could handle this guy. The fewer people in there for the standoff, the better.

Getting everyone assigned to a plane or a helicopter was quick. Tommy saved his favorite for Miriam and himself. He was nearly down with it when he heard the shots being fired. He turned in time to see just enough of it all to know the suspect was dead, but then there was a clink off the bird beside him, and then pain in his side. He looked down, seeing the hole in his flight suit.

"Evan's going to kill me," Tommy said. He leaned back against the bird and pressed his hand to his side. He was pretty sure it hadn't come out either, not with hitting who knew what on the way toward him. That was the downside to things being metal here. Ricochets were a big thing.

"ATHENA!" Miriam yelled as she rushed to his side. She pressed her hand over his, and then she pulled him away from the bird and checked behind him.

"It was a through and through. I see the exit on your back. I'm going to press on it," Miriam said.

"That's better than it being stuck inside. It could have gone anywhere." Tommy leaned on the bird so that Miriam could get better access to his back.

"You'll call Evan?" Tommy asked.

"Of course I will. We will also just fly your ass out of here," Miriam said.

Remy was the first to reach them with Athena on his heels.

The pain was starting up, and Tommy wasn't going to live this one down because all he had been doing was checking to make sure the suspect hadn't damaged any of their things. The medical team was on Athena's heels, so thankfully, they started to prep him as quickly as they could, but the pain was so much that Tommy felt himself going in and out until he was just out.

---

Tommy woke up and he didn't feel pain, there was pressure and a knowledge that there should be pain. He didn't move other than to breathe because he had no clue where he was. It might have been years since he had been in combat, but he also knew that some things never left. He picked up the sounds around him, the pump for his fluids, but thankfully, there was no machine beeping in his ear.

There was a faint sound of someone else breathing in the room, and he would bet all of his money that it was Evan.

Tommy opened his eyes and found the room was mostly dark, with the curtains pulled, and a little light escaping around the edges of the curtains. He hoped that night hadn't come and gone. He laid his hand on his side and found the bandages there. The breathing changed, and Tommy knew that Evan knew he was awake, but he was trying not to scare Tommy.

"You would make a shit spy," Tommy said.

"I wasn't trying to be a spy." Evan sat down on the edge of Tomy's bed, and then there was light in the room. A soft one from the wall behind the bed. It was not enough to hurt his eyes, which he was happy about. He wasn't sure what time it was.

"Time?"

"Just after seven in the evening. Your team is all outside, and they will do a parade march past the door before Jake and Miriam come in. They just want to get eyes on you. There was some drama because while one of the bullets hit you, another hit a spot that no one had known was having issues from the inside of the helo next to yours, and it hit right at the spot to start to leak fuel."

Tommy laughed. It was a day for the books, and he wasn't sure that it was a good one.

"Prognosis on me?"

"Through and through and other than a simple cleaning up of what damage was done and making sure that no organs were nicked, you will be fine. The surgery was more to make sure that you weren't going to bleed from an organ and die that way. The suspect had been aiming for Athena, and she had gotten a shot off, which was how the last two had hit past her and toward where you were. It was pure dumb luck that they hit you and that they didn't hit anywhere else."

Tommy nodded. Now that he was awake, he could feel the pain a little more. He reached out for the button to call the nurse. He wanted more pain meds before that pain hit him. He didn't know that he was going to want to have anything close to pain like that in his side.

Evan cupped his cheek. Tommy turned his head toward it as they waited for the nurse to come into the room to check on him.

"You've been in and out of sleep for a while. This is the first time you have not gone back under after a moment. They said it's normal, but still, I'm glad you are awake."

"I am as well. Remy had us leave to make sure we were out of the line of fire, but it seemed that it didn't work."

Tommy focused on the nurse who came into the room, and then the doctor came in and told him what had happened during the surgery. Then they were alone again.

"Have them come through," Tommy said.

"Sure. Let's get them out of here. I'll stay out there so that Miriam and Jae can come in. There are only supposed to be two at a time. You should be headed home in the morning as long as you go through the night just fine."

Tommy was glad of that because he didn't rest well in a hospital, and the quicker he was at home, the better.

"How do you feel?" Tommy asked.

"I'm good," Evn said.

Tommy wasn't sure about that, but he would deal with it when they got home. No matter how long they were together, he would always worry about Evan when it came to possibly losing anyone.

The parade from everyone at the station was quick, with a few looking longer and shaking their heads. Then it was Miriam and Jake in there, with Jake staring at him.

"If I thought you would do it, I would tell you to break up with him because you never got into this kind of shit before him. His weird luck was sometimes horrible, sometimes great, and it's brushing off on you, and I don't like it."

Tommy laughed, and that hurt. Oh, that hurt. He laid his hand on his side. "I can't leave him."

"Oh, we know. We'll get your bedroom set up with the weird pillow that you use when you can't roll to your side and get groceries. Evan already gave us a list of stuff." Miriam kissed Tommy's forehead, and she lingered there a little longer before she left Jake in the room.

"I love him."

"We all know that," Jake said. He laid his hand over Tommy's on his side. "He was in a fit state, but everyone was able to calm him down. He spent like ten minutes on the phone with Eddie. I had no clue what Eddie was saying, but Evan was just listening to him. You are going to have to endure him being the worst mother hen in the world."

Tommy laughed because he knew exactly what it was going to be like when Evan finally got him home. This was the first big accident for anyone in his circle since Bobby had died a few months before. There was no telling what Tommy was going to have to endure, but he was going to endure it.

He was alone for only a few minutes, and Evan came back in with a box of what smelled like fried potatoes. Tommy's favorite food when he was under the weather. He wasn't sure where Evan had gone to get them until he saw the stamp on top of the box. Evan had ordered him food.

"I'm going to feed you," Evan said.

Tommy nodded. The new medication made him feel like he was moving under water, and he wasn't even going to attempt to do anything that might get the potatoes more on him than the bed.

This was love, and no one could tell him any different.

---

Tommy knew that Evan watched him too closely, and he let it happen. It had been two days at home so far, and Evan was still just as on edge as he had been at the start of this whole thing. He was going to break. There was just waiting for it.

Evan came back into the room with a box of stuff to leave for Tommy, in case he needed anything. Evan was going to be gone for about two hours to head to the store and pick up more groceries. Tommy had told him that he could do with getting out of the house, but Evan wasn't leaving until Tommy's phone was charged. This was Clipboard Buck, someone that Tommy had only seen a few times, mostly in times where it wasn't this serious, but unlike others, he was never going to make fun of him for it.

The first injury after a death was always the worst, and Tommy was happy that it was him. If it had been anyone else, they would have yelled at him at this point. Tommy just pouted and talked Evan into cuddling with him.

"If you need anything, call me. I'll have my headphones on so I can still shop if you just want to talk and don't want to be alone." Evan stared at Tommy until Tommy nodded. "I love you."

"I love you, too," Tommy said.

Evan grinned at him before leaning over and kissing him.

When the front door shut, Tommy relaxed on the couch, where he wasn't supposed to get up unless he had to go to the bathroom. There were two massive tumblers full of drinks, and then a bottle of water, since he preferred it room temperature over cold.

The first text came when Evangot parked at the pharmacy down the road to pick up Tommy's new script for his pain meds since the other were making him sleep too much. He was okay with taking more pills if it meant that he could not sleep as much, since he was sleeping too much and starting to be sore from sleeping.

The next text was when Evan was getting to the grocery store, and then from there it was questions about things that Tommy wanted. Which part was normal when Evan was shopping and Tommy wasn't with him? It was the way that he was, and Tommy loved that part.

When Evan was done shopping, there was silence while he was checking out, and then there was the check-in that he was heading home. Then Tommy got worried when he wasn't home when he was supposed to be. It wasn't even the two hours that Evan said he would be gone, but now Tommy was getting worried.

Until he heard the truck pull in a few minutes after Tommy thought he would be there. Evan came inside with four bags across one arm and a drink carrier of some kind that had to have something in it, but he couldn't see what. He nearly started to get up, but Evan glared at him.

Tommy held up his hands, focusing on the basketball game that he had fallen asleep watching the night before. He kept his gaze focused on it while Evan always put all of the groceries away. Dinner was already in the crock pot, smelling the place up while lunch had been just sandwiches and chips. They had eaten that outside before Tommy had taken more pills to make sure that he was well covered.

Evan came back out with the drink carrier in his hand and two spoons. Tommy's mouth started to water.

"It's open again?" Tommy asked.

Evan nodded his head. He handed over the carrier and let Tommy pick which pair of flavors he wanted.

There was pineapple and strawberry, then mango and strawberry, their two favorite flavor pairs. Tommy usually let Evan pick, but he knew that Evan would make him do it first this time. There were two ways he could play it: take the one that he loved the most and make Evan happy, even though that was also Evan's favorite. Or take the one he liked the second most and give Evan his favorite, and deal with Evan pouting at him for an hour. They were going to share, and that was why they got two different sets of flavors.

"Mango," Tommy said.

Evan smiled at him, and it was the kind of smile that reminded Tommy why he loved him. Tommy held up his arm on his good side, and Evan settled in beside him, handing over a spoon and then looking at the game on the TV. There were going to be a few minutes of Evan watching, and then he would get distracted by something else. Tommy had figured out early on that while Evan could watch games live, he didn't do well with them on TV and would end up doing something else. Tommy loved it because, even though they weren't doing the same thing, they still shared space, and Evan would talk to him if Tommy wanted to. Sometimes, there was a running commentary of things from the two of them if the game wasn't interesting enough to keep his attention.

"How are you feeling?" Evan asked before he handed over the new bottle of pills to allow Tommy to look at them and add them to his pill container that Evan had brought out earlier.

"Good, just like before you left. The pain is there, but it's fading." Tommy kissed the side of Evan's head to soften the words. Evan just curled into him and let his body go lax.

Tonight, Evan was going to break down, and Tommy would take care of him through it, making sure Evan knew he would never be too much for him.

The End