Ignite | e. buckley

forty

Over a few weeks, and slowly allowing her arm to do more movement, Anastasia got back to normal and was able to go back to work. Kind of. For the first week, she wasn't able to do 100% of her job, just because Bobby wanted to ease her back into the field. She'd go on calls, but instead of doing her usual stuff, Buck and Eddie would do it while she did the safer, less effort stuff. Like when they had to scale a building during a fire on an upper floor, Anastasia was on the ground, aiming a hose. Or when GPS car systems made a few cars drive into a canal, Buck and Eddie dove into the water to pull people out, Anastasia was above water helping people climb out after being brought back up to the surface.

"Buck, why do you have the app on your phone? You didn't use it today, did you?" Anastasia asked. After the chaos from their shift, the two didn't have the energy or brain power to do much, so after showering and dinner, they laid in her bed. Tatum was in the room, but he ended up leaving 10 minutes ago, and his snores could be heard from the living room.

"No, because I didn't need to. They're saying it was just a bug anyways."

"That bug almost sent 100 cars into a river. Suspicious if you ask me."

The news playing on the TV in her room talking about said bug only seemed to fuel the suspicion, but Buck still had his doubts. "Well, let's take a break from playing detective and take advantage of the fact that the house is back to being empty."

Anastasia watched Buck take his phone out of her hands, since her phone was dead and she wanted to play games, placing it on the nightstand on his side. "We did not care about people being in the house, let's be forreal."

With nothing in her hands to distract her, Anastasia's full attention was on her boyfriend, and she became extra focused upon realizing he was shirtless. With no phones and the TV completely forgotten about, Buck hovered over Anastasia, who was now laying completely beneath him. "Are you trying to seduce me, Buckley?"

Buck had one hand placed on her hip beneath the comforter, trailing a line of kisses from her collarbone, along her jawline, and to the corner of her mouth.  "Maybe, is it working?"  He asked her with a little smile, straightening up a little so he was able to be over her face and look into her eyes.

Her hands mindlessly wandered across his shoulders and down his arms, tilting her head as best as she could given that she was laying down.  "Ask me again in like 10 minutes."

× × ×

Now, she was fully healed and Bobby was fully on board with her being in the field like normal. However, her first officially normal shift was a weird one. Weird wasn't even a good enough word to describe it.

Los Angeles, specifically the Walk of Fame area, looked like a post-apocalyptic situation. Cars were abandoned in the streets, there was fire, smoke, and trash, and every building was deserted. The only difference was the zoo animals in the street that they had to walk pass to get to where they were called to. And all of it was just because someone had basically hacked every system in Los Angeles. What started as a navigation app glitching turned into the whole city's software systems being randomly hacked for $20 million.

As strange as the situation was, Anastasia couldn't help but start the conversation.  "So which animal do you think set the cars on fire?  Because my money's on one of the monkeys.  They are suspiciously intelligent.  I think they're just pretending they don't fully understand us so one day they can all takeover."

"Oh, it was definitely one of the monkeys.  They're insane."  Buck agreed with her.

"Okay, how about we focus on finding the humans that need our help before we start theorizing."  Bobby said to the couple to try and get them back on track. 

The team was cautiously walking through the plaza, going pass an elephant, giraffe, some camels, and a few exotic birds.  "Speaking of, I don't see any humans."  Hen commented.  "This is a souvenir shop though, like dispatch said."

A moment later, the team heard heavy breathing and a man's voice before running over to an orange umbrella, one that is usually over an outside patio table.  "Alright, Eddie help Chim.  Hen and I will go in, and you two are on animal control."

"Anim- what are we supposed to do, Bobert?"

Now only a few feet away from the entrance, Bobby turned around to the couple, staring at Anastasia for a second because of the name she called him (again).  "If you see an animal, control it.  We'll try to be quick."

Without another word, Bobby and Hen, disappeared inside the souvenir shop.  It was like the universe was making fun of them, because a few seconds later, a camel calmly walked by.  "Oh, hello."  Anastasia said quietly.  "Why am I in front of you?  You're the one with a weapon!"  She whispered to her boyfriend once the animal passed.

"Hey, you're the one who worked at an animal shelter in high school."  Buck tried to justify.

"For dogs and cats!"  Anastasia said.  "What if the camel ate me?"

"I would not have let that happen."  Buck said, flinching again when another camel walked by.

While Eddie and Chim continued working to clean up their patient and get him stable, the couple continued to stand watch.  Almost like they were bouncers at a club, or security at a concert.  "Hey, aren't you that famous firefighter from Instagram?  The one that used to be in the FBI."  The guy asked while Chimney was trying to clean up the substance from around his eyes for the time being.  It sounded like he got sprayed by a skunk, but they haven't seen any, so Chimney assumed it had to be the same animal that attacked his boss inside the shop.

"Yeah," she dragged out, "that's me."

"Whenever we're done, can I get a picture?"

Anastasia stared at their patient, trying to quickly think of a response because she could hear Bobby telling her to not let her social media presence interfere with her job, but with said social media presence, turning down a fan/supporter could come back to bite her in the ass.  "Valdez, could you get me some more sanitary wipes and bandages?"  Chimney asked, sending her a knowing look while she silently thanked him for saving her from the situation.

While they stood guard outside, making sure none of the animals suddenly attacked and interfered with the job, Bobby and Hen were inside trying to distract some alpacas and get the patient out. 

When everything wrapped up and they could leave, the team packed up as quick as they could.  "This is as by far the weirdest petting zoo experience I've ever had."  Anastasia commented.

"At least you weren't chased away by some blood-thirsty alpacas like Cap."

"Hey, there was no chase or running away." Bobby commented as he walked by. "Just get in the truck now."

"Yessir." Anastasia saluted. "He so ran away." She ended up whispering to Buck and Eddie when Bobby walked away.  "You guys ready for a nap too?"

"I am, but we have a city full of paranoid people calling 911 because of the power outage, so I wouldn't count on that nap yet."

this is long overdue, currently going through a school burnout 😔 brain hurty, just wanna swim

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