Dandelions

Ravi Panikkar

Ravi didn't usually mind being the one who stayed behind. Someone had to hold down the fort, and today it was his turn. Still, there was a little sting when the engine rolled out without him — that tiny ache of being left out, like missing the punchline of a joke everyone else gets to tell. He shoved the feeling aside. It wasn't personal. It was just the job.

He stretched his back, wandered down from the loft, and spotted a guy standing near the entryway — civilian, unfamiliar, a little stiff in the shoulders like he wasn't sure if he was in the right place.

"Hey, man. Need help with something?" Ravi offered him a friendly smile. That was the thing about fire stations: you never knew if someone came in looking for directions or carrying something heavier.

Before the man could even formulate a reply, the front door creaked again, and in walked Tommy Kinard — bright-eyed, annoyingly handsome, and so utterly at ease it was almost disarming.

"Hey Ravi!" Tommy said, his voice breezy as ever.

Ravi grinned. "Hey Tommy. Picking up Buck today?"

It came out casually — the kind of casual that wasn't casual at all. He wasn't trying to stir anything, but Tommy and Buck had been... obvious, in the softest, most domestic kind of way. Ravi had seen the way Tommy's face softened around Buck, how his posture shifted just slightly whenever Elle was mentioned — the same way someone reaches instinctively for a favorite sweater.

And apparently, the civilian had noticed too.

The guy's head turned like a reflex the moment Tommy walked in — sharp, curious, maybe even a little dazed — and Ravi clocked it instantly. That look. He'd seen it before. People had a habit of doing double takes when Tommy was involved, especially when he smiled like that — easy and bright and completely unaware of the effect it had on people.

"We're picking up Elle, then taking her to the park," Tommy said, practically beaming.

Ravi felt a flicker of warmth at that. Elle. Sweet kid. Buck's daughter, sure — but kind of the whole station's, too. He liked how Tommy said we, like it wasn't even a question.

But the moment of peace dissolved as soon as the engine came rumbling back.

The doors rolled open. The crew filed in with the familiar energy of a call just wrapped — tired but buzzing. Buck stepped off the rig like he always did, all charisma and command, wiping his hands on a towel, laughing at something Eddie said—

And then he saw him.

Everything changed in a second. Buck's smile froze mid-syllable, eyes going wide.

"Connor."

The name dropped like cold water.

Ravi tensed, suddenly aware of how quiet it had gotten. The kind of quiet that sucked the warmth out of the room. He looked back at the guy — Connor, apparently — and saw the recognition flicker in real time. The way Buck's face shut down. The way Tommy's body shifted instantly, stepping in, shielding almost without thinking.

Oh.

Ravi felt his heart slide into his stomach.

This was Connor.

The one who left. The one who signed away Elle like she was paperwork. The one Buck never talked about unless someone else brought it up — and even then, only in clipped phrases that landed heavier than silence.

Now he was just... here.

Standing awkwardly in the middle of the station like he had a right to.

Ravi didn't speak. Didn't move. But his instincts went on full alert, the way they did on scene when someone showed up late and things didn't add up.