Christmas time was upon us again. And I always knew that this meant crazy calls were just waiting to come in.
And just as I suspected, we started the day off with a crazy mom and pepper spray, with the addition of Buck possibly ruining Santa for little kids.
"Sir, this burning is gonna go away. It's just gonna take a couple of hours." I say, carefully dabbing "Santa's" eyes with a wet gauze.
"Long before you need to be back in the North Pole." Buck chuckles.
"Is Santa Claus gonna die?" A little boy asks.
"Oh, hey. No, no, no. Of course not, and don't you worry. He's not really Santa." Buck says.
My eyes widen in Buck's direction, waving my hands telling him to stop.
"He's not real?" A girl sniffles.
Santa looks at Buck in complete shock and goes to cover his face, but I stop him before he can touch his eyes.
"No, no, sweetie. He's just pretend." He says, completely oblivious.
"Buck... what are you doing? Stop it." I whisper.
"Santa's pretend?" The boy whimpers.
"That's right." He says way too happily.
"Buck, Buck, Buck. Mm-mm." I say louder.
"What?" He asks.
I shoot him a look, putting my hands on my hips.
"Read the room, Buck, seriously." I sass.
"Did you just tell my kid Santa isn't real?" The little girl's mom suddenly voices.
"Mm-hmm." The girl whines.
"Uh, no, no. I was... I was just explaining that this Santa isn't Santa." Buck stutters.
Santa sighs in defeat as I finish cleaning up his eyes.
"Sir, just keep your hands away from your eye, 'Kay?"
"Yeah, thank you." He sighs.
I leave him wet gauzes as I make my way over to Buck.
"Santa Claus isn't real." The boy cries to his dad.
All Buck does is flash a smile in their direction as more kids start to sniffle and cry.
"Guess you're gonna be on the naughty list, Buckley." I snicker.
*
"It got ugly. After I said I had to work on Christmas, he went straight to his room and wouldn't speak to me for the rest of the night."
"I'm not happy about working on Christmas either. None of us are." I say.
"It's just new. He'll get over it." Hen says.
"Abuela's bringing him to my aunt's. I know he'll have a great time. He just... last Christmas was special. This one's harder." Eddie sighs.
"Is that why you invited us all here? Trying to cram in as much Christmas cheer between now and then?" Hen chuckles.
"Sorry, Jack couldn't make it. He really wanted to come, but work had him flooded." I apologize, since Chris had wanted to see Jack too.
YOU ARE READING
9-1-1: The Family We Chose
Action26 year old Talia (Lia) Becker has had a rough childhood with her mental health, and parents. After her life literally goes up into flames, she stays in Austin and works at the 126 as a paramedic for a few years before moving to Los Angeles. There...
