(i'm not gonna talk about how long i spent on this just for buck's arm to ruin it everytime, i have up, sorry)

The next morning, Kayla sits on the bench not too far from the little workout area as she sips on her morning coffee. She's dressed comfy in an oversized t-shirt and jean shorts as she waits for Buck to get done working out so she can bother him more about Maddie being in town.

A figure makes its way into her view and she almost spits out her coffee. Eddie smiles at her as he tightens up his boxing gloves. His hair is messy and arms on full display in his loose tank top, she almost drools. He gives the bag a few jabs before doing a cool kick, leaving her very impressed.

Chimney soon comes into the mix as well as Buck grabs some heavier weights and she just watches in enjoyment at the men around her. Most of the time men are annoying and kind of stupid but damn do they know how to put on a show to try and fill their egos in front of a woman. Sitting criss cross, she sips her coffee as Buck starts to take selfies on a selfie stick of all things.

"You're in the wrong light, man." Eddie says, her head quickly jerking over to look at him. "Some of us don't need lighting to look good." Buck is way too confident, so it is her pleasure to knock him down a peg, "Yes, you do bull head, take the advice." Buck glares at her as Chimney and Eddie laugh as she smiles brightly at her best friend.

"Hey, Eddie, what'd you mean by "the wrong light"?" Chimney asks, "The light in this room is flat and blue. Makes you look soft. If you want to look lean and muscles to pop, you need warm side light. I'll show you. These are the ones I sent in for the calendar." Eddie grabs his phone and Kayla gets off the bench.

Walking over she looks over his shoulder then chokes on her coffee when a photo of him shirtless pops up. Chimney and Eddie laugh but Eddie looks concerned, "You okay, darlin?" He asks, a bit of a southern accent coming out. "Yeah, yeah, I'm good coffee just went down the wrong pipe." She coughs out and walks over to sit back down. Knowing it's safer on the bench.

"It's, uh, kind of cheating submitting pictures by a professional photographer." Bucks grumbles but Eddie chuckles, "The photographer's 12. She's my niece. She's a master at the iPhone filters." Kayla feels her heart melt at the mention of his niece. "You think she'd be willing to take my submission pics for me? I'm told I photograph like an Asian Fabio."

"Don't lie, Chim. That's not good for your soul." He makes a face at her while Eddie laughs, "Sure she would, yeah. Yeah." Eddie says, making Chimney excited. "Ah, you know, you really shouldn't get his hopes up like that. No offense, Chim."

"No offense taken, Evan." Chimney walks away while Kayla stares at Buck. What had crawled up his ass and died to make him so moody. He was just beaming earlier about Maddie being in town and how excited he was for her to meet his sister.

Before Kayla can ask him what's going on, Eddie does "What's your problem, man?" She gets comfortable and ready to watch this sausage fest go down.

"Okay. You. You're my problem. Your comfort level. You're-you're not supposed to just walk in here like you've been here for years. It's meant-meant to be a getting-to-know-you period. You're meant to respect your elders." Buck says, taking her by surprise. "You're not his elder, Buck," Chimney says as he does some kind of chest exercise it looks like.

"Buck, weren't you the one last year always riding a little close to the edge because you thought you were all big and bad? At least Eddie is following the rules during his first few shifts." Kayla says, calling him out because it seems very hypocritical for him to be treating Eddie like this.

"Look, I in no way meant to, uh, be too familiar or step on anybody's toes. I know you're going through some personal stuff right now." Eddie's words make Kayla's eyes widen, oh he is not about to bring up Abby is he? "What personal stuff?" Buck asks, "I know your girlfriend recently broke up with you and you're coming to terms with that." He fucking brought up Abby.

"No, I'm not. And she didn't break up with me. Who told you that?" Buck looks over at Kayla who is still watching very closely, her eyes not even blinking. "I'm just saying I hear you're a good guy, and... I'm sorry you're going through pain, but... you don't need to take it out on me or-or be threatened by me. We're on the same team."

"Why would I be threatened by you?"

"Exactly. There's no need to be. We do the same thing. I've just done it while people are shooting at me is all." Eddie walks back over to the punching bag as Buck looks a little defeated, she follows his gaze to see Bobby watching the whole thing. "We're not broken up." Buck says before walking away and Chimney laughs.

Deciding it's better to let Buck sulk for a bit, she gets off the bench again and walks over to Eddie. "Buck doesn't like to tell people when he's going through something. He'll be nicer when he realizes that the whole Abby thing isn't as bad as he thinks it is." She leans against the pillar next to the punching bag. "I kind of figured that. Like I told you before, I've dealt with people way worse than him."

"Still, it's kind of a small team so it's good to be on good terms with as many people as you can." He looks over at her and she smiles at him. "You really are sunshine aren't ya?"

"I've been called way worse." She jokes, making him smile as well. "Where did you say you're from again?" She laughs, knowing full well she never told him. "Tennessee, a small town in the western part called Pinehaven. I moved here three years ago. You?"

"El Paso."

"Well, should I call you cowboy?" She asks smirking and his cheeks get red. "I-uh, I wouldn't mind it I guess." He says while rubbing the back of his neck, "Well since I never officially said it, welcome to the team, cowboy." He watches her walk away with a big smile on his face, not noticing Chimney come up next to him.

"If you hurt her, I will kill you. I don't care that you have a silver star, cowboy." Chimney says before walking away as well, leaving Eddie to his thoughts about the sweet southern sunshine.

Night falls quicker than Kayla would've liked but she doesn't get to complain as the team is set out to respond to a call about an explosion. Eddie and Kayla wait in the ambulance as Buck and Cap go inside to look at what needs to be done.

"How's LA been treating you so far?" She asks, trying to pass the time. "It's been okay, still getting used to the new scenery. How long did it take you to get used to being here and not at home?"

"It took me a while. Maybe a month or two. Everyone is different though." She shrugs before looking down to see his hands are empty of rings and Hen's words pop into her head, "Talk to him and find out if he's married or single. Who knows, you're Romeo could've just walked through the door." Sighing to herself, she looks over and Eddie is already looking at her. "Don't make me blush, cowboy." She tries to hide her face as it starts to get red and he chuckles, "Sorry, I didn't know you blushed so easily." He bites his lip, looking at her while she tries to get the redness to go away. "Now this is gonna make my question even more awkward." She laughs and it brings a smile onto his face.

"What's up, sunshine?"

"I was gonna ask if you're married or something but now that just seems like I'm trying to know it for something other than what I originally wanted to." His eyes never leave her as she keeps her gaze to the floor, too scared, maybe embarrassed to look at him right now. "I'm single, I've had a complicated past few years relationship wise but I'm single."

She doesn't get to say anything as Bobby, Buck, and a few other guys wheel out the man in the house. "I've got an adult male, age 65, with a large piece of shrapnel in his right thigh. Femoral artery damage with profuse bleeding, ten minutes out. Buck, I want you to travel with him to the hospital, keep him stable." Buck looks at Bobby then sighs, "Copy that, cap." He says reluctantly.

"Hey. You got to learn how to play nice. It's one team, Buck."

"Hey, Nash, am I gonna be all right?" Charlie asks as Buck climbs into the back of the ambulance with Kayla and Eddie. "My boys and girl have got you. But you might want to consider switching to collecting baseball cards after this." Bobby jokes before closing the doors, leaving Eddie, Kayla, and Buck alone together with a victim.

"Hi, Charlie, I'm Kayla. I'm mostly here to make sure you're doing okay and staying with us. You can squeeze my hand anytime you feel some pain, okay?" She puts her hand in his while smiling gently at him.

That was one of the first things that Bobby noticed about her when she joined. How easily she could make people feel calm in stressful situations with a gentle smile and some reassurance. She didn't know much about actual paramedic stuff but she sure does know how to help people stay calm.

"Are you some kind of angel, Kayla?" Charlie asks, making her laugh. "Far from it, sir."

"I guess you've seen a lot of shrapnel wounds." Buck gruff as he works on Charlie, "My share." Eddie grumbles out as well, also doing what he can for Charlie. "You ever seen a guy with a length of rebar stuck through his skull?"

"Guys!" Kayla complains, looking at them annoyed. "This is not the time to do this. We have someone who is severely hurt and all you care about is trying to one up each other. Focus on the important matter at hand then you two can do your ego battle later." She looks back at Charlie when he squeezes her hand tightly and groans in pain.

Eddie looks down at Charlie's leg, "Need to change those dressings. They're soaking through. Hang in there, Charlie. Almost there." Buck moves to start changing the bandages, "I'm just saying, working the streets of L.A. is not exactly stress free. May not be the same kind of pressure you have in a war zone, but..."

"Oh, come on. Hold on. I thought you said this was a practice round." Eddie's voice turns serious which causes a little panic between the three other people in the ambulance, "It is." Charlie says confused but looks at Kayla sacred. She squeezes his hand reassuringly, trying to hide her nervousness. "Uh, what-what-what's going on?" Buck asks, his voice trying to not sound nervous. "Eddie?" She asks looking at him, "You see that cap? Practice rounds have blue caps. Gold caps are live." He beats on the front of the ambulance to get the driver's attention "Pull over!" He yells.

The ambulance and fire truck pull into the hospital parking lot. Bomb squad is called and everyone gets out of the ambulance to hear what the bomb squad says after they take an x-ray of Charlie's leg. "Yup. There she is." Jim, the bomb squad guy, shows everyone the x-ray. "He's got a live round embedded in his thigh." Bobby says, almost amazed, "Uh, I thought this thing already went off." Buck says, confused.

"The launch grenade has two components: gunpowder which makes it travel and an explosive charge that makes it go boom." Eddie explains, talking as if it's the simplest thing in the world. "Why didn't it go boom, then?" Kayla asks looking over at him, "It's fitted with a proximity fuse. It's a little smart sensor that tells the cap it's traveled a safe enough distance from the shooter to explode. From his hand to his leg probably wasn't far enough."

"Does that mean that as we were driving him here, that the little chip added extra distance or?" She looks at him nervously, Eddie shakes his head giving her a little reassurance. "Well, we can't bring him inside a hospital full of people, not with that still stuck inside him." Kayla looks at Bobby as she tries to think about what to do.

"We called the military for help."

"The military? You're the bomb squad, isn't that your job?" She asks, "Why did we call you if you can't take care of the bomb?"

"You can't diffuse a grenade. We need to find someone who knows how to pull that thing out of him without setting it off. They're sending someone up from Pendleton. Should be here within the hour." Jim says and she starts to get annoyed. "He doesn't have an hour!" Buck and Kayla say in unison, making Jim jump a bit. "I can do it. If he doesn't go into surgery soon, he'll die." Eddie looks at his teammates and the bomb squad, stone cold face.

"You've done this before?" Bobby asks, wanting to make sure Eddie is sure. "Well, none of the guys I served with were dumb enough to shoot a live round in themselves, but I'm familiar with the ordnance.

"I'm in." Buck volunteers as Kayla looks at them shocked. "Let me guess, I can't go." Bobby, Buck, and Eddie nod as she rolls her eyes and walks to the ambulance. "Someone has to keep a check on Charlie."

"You can make sure he's doing okay, a safe distance away. Too many people in the ambulance right now will make this whole thing more complicated." Bobby reassures her as Buck and Eddie get suited up. "You can't really expect this to go well, can you? Buck can't stand Eddie."

"He'll have to get over it."

"Easier said than done, you know how stubborn that boy is." She watches as Eddie gets into the ambulance with a box and grabber in hand, Buck following not too far behind. Bobby goes to talk to him but he's too quiet for her to hear what they're saying.

Bobby gently pulls Kayla away from the ambulance. It's a safe enough difference for them to watch and still be safe. Her hand grabs Bobby's wrist as she watches Eddie try to pull out the grenade. "They got this, Kay. Don't sweat it. You're supposed to be the cool one under pressure."

"Only around victims and patients, you have no idea how much I'm freaking out everyday." She mutters and her eyes never leave the two in the ambulance.

A wave of relief spreads through her body when the grenade is safely in the box and they get Charlie out of the ambulance. Eddie and Buck make their way over to Bobby and Kayla. "Your badass under pressure, brother." Eddie looks at Buck and the boy is a bit taken aback. "Me?" He asks, "Hell yeah, you can have my back any day."

"Yeah. Or, you know, you could... you could have mine." Eddie laughs at Buck's obvious statement, "Deal."

"Nice work, fellas. I'm glad you both made it out of there." Bobby says as Kayla hugs Buck tightly, "You are so stubborn, Buckley." He chuckles as he wraps his arms around her "It's only to make you sweat, O'Malley." She lets him go and punches his arm playfully as he laughs.

She turns to Eddie as he smiles at her, she hugs him too. "Are you sure you're not some kind of superhero?" She whispers as he laughs, "Nah, only good at some things." He says releasing her. "The guy's a professional, Cap. I was never really worried." Buck says and a second later the ambulance explodes, making Kayla jump and Eddie puts a hand on her hip and moves her slightly behind him.

Everyone looks at him confused, "You guys hungry?" He asks with a playful smile.