stuck

✧

If Buck's suggestion in the firetruck had come off as playful or a joke when he suggested that Eddie and Olivia get their kids together on a playdate, they didn't take it as one. The minute she was dropped off at her condo, Christopher would not stop talking about her which then led Eddie to text her and suggest they get the two boys together.

When she saw the text it was late at night and she was praying that it wasn't a late-night booty call sent to the wrong person. Instead, it was an invitation to their local park and a suggestion that they get their children together.

It didn't take much convincing for her son to say yes, he loved hanging with Denny and sometimes Harry, so if his mom was taking him for a playdate with another kid from the 118, then it couldn't have been so bad. Plus, Christopher and Malakai were closer in age than Harry and Denny, so if anything, they would have a lot more in common. Hopefully.

Going through her mental checklist as she exited the car and rounded the backseat for her son, Liv ensured she had everything she needed. Call her a control freak but she needed to be prepared for any possible situation.

"Mommy?" Malakai zoomed his brown orbs at the backpack over her shoulder, shaking his head at his obsessive mother.

"Yes, my love?" She hummed, motioning for the moody fourteen-year-old in the passenger seat to get out of the car.

"Are you sure he's nice?"

"The nicest," she assured. "Christopher is one of the sweetest boys. Right after you."

He hummed, not too sure if he believed her or not. "If I want to leave, I'll give you our signal."

"You got it."

As they continued their walk, the Diaz boys had come into view and Eddie was waving his hand in the air to make sure that she could see them.

Right off the bat, the two kids greeted each other with a wide grin and seemed to be excited about what was transpiring. While they went off in the direction of the play structure, Eddie and Olivia settled on a park bench right in their line of sight.

"I'm guessing that's your sister," Eddie pointed at the teen with her headphones over her ears and phone attached to her hand.

"That's her." Olivia looked away from Eddie, glancing at her younger sister and meeting her eyes. She waved her over which earned an eye roll but with a bit of reluctance, she was walking over to the two adults. "Did we leave our manners at home today?"

"I'm Elisa," the teen greeted. "Nice to meet you, Eddie." Panning her stare at her sister, she opened her palm and raised an eyebrow. "Can I have your keys now? I'd rather sit in the car."

"Do not turn my car on." She tossed the keys at her and sighed, pushing her sunglasses back over her eyes. "Sorry about her."

"It's fine," Eddie shrugged. "Uh, how long has she been living with you?"

"The minute I turned 18 I took her in. So she's been with me since she was 6." Liv pursed her lips, not sure if she should dive into the details or not. "Long story short, our mom wasn't fit to be a parent and her dad...didn't care too much about her."

"That's got to be rough," he sighed. "Half-sister, right?"

"Same mom, different dad," she confirmed. "Doesn't change a thing, though."

"Of course not," Eddie murmured. Removing his eyes from her side profile, he glanced over at the play structure and smiled fondly at how quick their kids seemed to get along. "This was a good idea, they seem to be getting along pretty well."

Olivia followed his line of sight, nodding in agreement as they watched the two laughing their heads off about some joke that must've been told. "Guess I'm not getting rid of you anytime soon, huh?"

"From the looks of our kids laughing their heads off, chances of that are slim to none."

✶❤︎✶❤︎

When Olivia arrived at work, she wasn't expecting one of the first calls they were tending to be at Saddle Ranch, a restaurant that every LA resident knew, but not for its best qualities. It had been around mid-morning and the place was crawling with drunken people who clearly took the phrase, it's 5 o'clock somewhere a little too seriously.

As they ventured further into the bar, that's when the shock factor hit them all. A woman's head was stuck in the tailpipe of a truck.

"What's her name?" Chimney asked.

"Betty." "Jennifer."

Everyone raised concerned eyebrows in the direction of the male's voice. "Sorry, I thought you meant my truck.

"This is your truck?" Bobby asked.

"Yeah, but it's not like I backed into her. She did this out of her own free will."

"You dared her to!" One of her friends exclaimed.

"We were flirting!"

"Your idea with a girl is daring her to stick her head in your tailpipe?" Eddie retorted.

Buck and Olivia silently chuckled to themselves, the latter had been kneeling beside him and passing the necessary tools to mark the tailpipe so they knew where the right place to cut would be.

"She's got a bunch of bruises on her arm," Olivia pointed out, tilting her head up and staring at their captain with a concerned look.

"It wasn't me," the truck owner was quick to defend.

"It's from the bull," her friend informed. "She rode it like five times."

"Get me out of this thing!" Jennifer complained.

Buck slid from the truck on the creeper, staring at the team. "These things are meant to increase the power to the engine."

"TSA-23 saw should do the job," Bobby said.

"Oh, yeah. Like a knife through butter."

Clearly, Chimney was already thinking the same thing since he returned to them with a turnout coat in his hand and the saw, he handed the coat to Bobby and the saw to Buck.

"What?! No, I spent twelve hundred bucks on that tailpipe!"

"Might wanna close your eyes," Olivia shrugged. "This one's gonna hurt."

"...Just type your number into my phone and I'll text you so have mine." One of Jennifer's friends held out her phone with a smirk as she approached Buck.

"Do you have Snapchat?" The other friend asked Eddie.

"No, and I don't think I'm what you're looking for," Eddie shot her down. "I have a son."

"That's great! So do I."

Olivia audibly scoffed as she faced the two girls, "You two need to clear the area. We don't need any distractions especially when there's a saw about two inches from your friend's head." She turned back around, facing the two men and shaking her head. "Idiots."

Buck raised an eyebrow at his best friend but got a smack on the shoulder in return and then they quickly scrambled back over to the poor woman whose head was stuck in the tailpipe. They managed to safely cut her out from the tailpipe with a small assist from her friend who was carrying a bottle of lube in her purse.

Once her head was successfully removed from the tailpipe, they offered to take her to the hospital to get checked out but all she could focus on was the male firefighters and their looks. For obvious reasons.

"Is your son really the reason you don't date?" Buck questioned Eddie as they headed for the truck.

"Don't even bother asking, all he'll tell you is 'it's complicated'," Olivia threw her hands up in defeat. "At least, that's what he told me."

"Because it is complicated," Eddie playfully scoffed.

"Yeah, I don't think you get a say in this, Liv," Buck butted in. "You're the epitome of complicated. You say you're single yet you bring your ex-boyfriend everywhere. I mean, you talk about boundaries yet, I see him at Christmas, Thanksgiving, Halloween—"

"Worry about your invisible girlfriend, Evan," Olivia angrily elbowed him in the ribs before hurrying to walk ahead of the two, purposely ignoring his shouts for her to come back.

✶❤︎✶❤︎

Pacing the apparatus bay, Olivia slid her thumb back and forth along the screen as she idly used Instagram. She switched over to her message app, responding back to the texts from Elisa, who was giving her constant updates about school. As much as she loved how much her sister shared with her, there were certain things that she just did not need to know.

Hearing a couple of footsteps approach, she shoved her phone into the front pocket of her uniform pants, and locked eyes with Christopher, Eddie, and Buck entering the station.

"Well, if it isn't my favorite Diaz," Olivia mused as she swept Christopher off of his feet and pulled him into an embrace.

An instant laugh escaped his mouth as he hooked his arms around her neck. "Livvy! I missed you!"

"Everyone upstairs?" Eddie questioned as he gently dropped his hand on his son's shoulder.

Olivia nodded, not bothering to release Christopher from her grip. The two male firefighters trailed after her as they climbed up the staircase to meet everyone else. Within minutes, Christopher had the entire team dying of laughter, despite Chimney being the butt of their jokes, he didn't seem to mind as he barreled over in laughter.

"Oh, you think I do this too much?" Chimney mimicked a hand talking, causing everyone to laugh.

"We all agree," Buck exclaimed.

"What's this?" Bobby questioned as he strolled over to the laughter, instantly making everyone quiet down because they weren't sure what his reaction would be. "I don't remember calling in for reinforcements. You any good with a hose kid?"

"I can try!" Christopher excitedly said.

"So sorry, Cap, my aunt's trying to get off work early," Eddie nervously stood to face their captain. "And I didn't know where to take him."

"Yeah, you did. Right here. Buck gave me a heads up, I already cleared it with the chief."

A look of relief washed over his face and he gave Buck a grateful nod but before any more conversations could break out, the shrill of the bell went off and everyone rushed to move downstairs.

During their drive toward the scene of the accident, Chimney was explaining to Christopher how their headsets worked. "These are great, see? It's so we can talk together. But sometimes, I wish I had a mute button for those two." He jabbed a thumb in the direction of Buck and Liv. "They talk so much."

"Hey, Chris, do you wanna hear the story of how Chimney got his name?" Olivia playfully mused.

"Not funny, Olivia!"

✶❤︎✶❤︎

Returning back from their call, the team had spread out around the firehouse to show Christopher all the things their station had to offer. From a meal cooked by Bobby, getting to explore the trucks, and even going down the fire pole.

Sliding over a cup of coffee with a faint smile, Hen cleared her throat and broke Olivia away from her little daydream. "Christopher seems to really like you."

"All kids like me, Hen," Liv retorted. "I am a parent as are you. We know what children like."

"Well, obviously," she scoffed. "I just meant...he seems comfortable with you. Like he knows you."

"I guess, he kind of does," Liv shrugged. "We met the night of the earthquake. Then Eddie suggested we take our kids to the park a couple of days later and we did. I think I can say Kai has made another friend in the 118."

"Wow, Olivia, should Denny and I be offended?" Hen feigned offense as she held her hand to her chest. "I thought Kai and Denny had a good thing goin'."

"Blame Eddie!" She immediately blurted. "He's the one who texted me! I would've totally invited you and Denny but Eddie was the one who set everything up."

"So, Eddie texted you, huh?" Hen pulled the coffee cup away from her lips, showcasing her smirk. "And here I thought you were trying to make it work with the baby daddy."

"Let's not make things weird now, Henrietta," Olivia shook her head in complete defiance. She eyed the upper level, noticing how everyone had dispersed while they were heavily in conversation. "I'm gonna find Buck. See you later."

Hen clicked her tongue and rolled her eyes as Olivia headed straight for the fire pole and landed right on her feet. She noticed Eddie emerging between the firetrucks and heading straight for Bobby to pull him in for a hug, Liv walked over to Buck and nudged his side as she furrowed her eyebrows in confusion.

"Where'd Chris go?"

"Ah, you just missed him," Buck said. "His Aunt just picked him up."

"Oh."

"I'm sure you'll see him again. You know, since your kids are friends now." Buck had been pacing the floor and moved his hands around animatedly as he spoke to his friend. "God, Liv, you don't tell me anything! How could you not tell me this?"

"Because it wasn't a big deal...why are you acting weird?"

"Are you replacing me?" Buck swiftly turned on his heel to face her, narrowing his blue eyes. "I mean, I'm over the whole so-called jealous thing when Eddie first arrived. But I won't accept him stealing my best friend. Absolutely not."

Olivia bit back a smile as she dropped her hands on his shoulders. "Dude, he can't steal me because I'm not an object and I'm not replacing you because believe it or not, you're my best friend. But tell anyone I admitted that and I'll deny it. Or kill you. Depends on the mood I'm in that day."

A sheepish smile graced his face and he nodded. "I won't tell anyone!"

"You know, Eddie's situation sucks," Olivia suddenly blurted as she watched him retreat up the stairs. "I never realized how lucky I was compared to others."

"Yeah, he only has his aunt and his grandmother but she's older so it's not as easy for her to watch him all of the time," Buck said. "And he doesn't have his ex's family to help out either. I wish there was something we could do to help."

Gnawing on her bottom lip, she suddenly perked up. "If only there was someone we knew who takes care of people for a living. Perhaps a woman?"

"If only..." Buck sighed, wistfully. Olivia waited for a few seconds before something seemed to go off in Buck's head and he dropped his jaw and pointed his finger at her. "Are we thinkin' the same thing?"

"I would hope so."

"I think we are."

a/n: hmm...so liv may or may not have a small attachment to her ex-boyfriend and we're getting closer to shannon's appearance🫠