9-1-1, What's Your Grievance?

CHAPTER SIXTY SEVEN , AWKWARD DINNERS & UNDERSTANDINGS

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There was a big ass elephant in the room and everyone could see it. Shit, Emery thought it was sitting right on her chest. She was just waiting for someone to mention it, so she could start breathing again.

"I'm glad you guys had a nice drive."

"We saw a lot of the country." Phillip says. "For a few days there was nothing but rain. Then we got here. Blue skies and sunshine."

"Yeah, we had a lot of rain earlier in the year, but lately it's been dry." Buck adds.

Margaret keeps her eyes on her son. She slightly tilts her chin up and hums. From behind the couch, Emery and Albert exchange a look. It's like nothing he said really mattered to her. Emery motions her head forward, telling Albert to say something.

Albert slightly opens his mouth. "I-I can't believe you drove all the way across the country." He sits on the the empty ottoman. "In an RV? That sounds exciting."

"Statistically speaking, it seemed the safest way to travel right now." Philip says.

"Yeah. We didn't wanna take any chances, given Maddie's condition,"

Emery pulls her brows together. Was Maddie keeping something from her? Or was this just another passive dig from her mother?

"and it being a high-risk pregnancy."

Emery presses her lips together. Passive dig.

"Well, no, it's not really high-risk—"

"Oh, she's over 35,"

Emery's mouth drops open.

"that puts her at a higher risk. So we all need to be extra careful."

"Baby's fine, mom." Maddie's voice sounds strained.

"But you don't wanna take any chances." Margaret says. "Not when you've waited this long."

Emery didn't think her mouth could drop any wider. But it did. "Wow." Albert whispers.

"Uh, she was just waiting for the right time." Buck says and he slaps Chimney's knee. "The right guy."

"God knows it wasn't Doug."

Emery sucks in a breath, "Okay..." she rubs her palms against her jeans.

"Let's not talk about him." Maddie says.

"It's not like we're shy to tough situations, Maddie." Margaret states. She then looks at Emery. "I knew I recognized you from somewhere."

Emery's face drops. Shit.

"You're the survivor of the Firesnatcher."

"Mom, don't." Buck's tone was firm.

"What I'm just making conversation." Margaret scoffs.

Maddie rolls her eyes, "If I didn't want you to talk about Doug, why would you think it's okay to bring that up to Emery?"

Emery's stomach clenches, but she forces a small smile onto her lips. "It's fine, guys. I'm sure it would've come up at some point." She looks at the siblings. Her eyes were filled with gratitude for them being so protective over her.

Emery looks back at the parents. "Yeah, I'm...the survivor." She presses her lips together. "I'm just not really comfortable with talking about it, right now. If that's okay."

Phillip sighs, "Of course, I'm sorry." He then looks at Maddie. "I'm sorry for bringing up Doug as well. I'm just...I'm so happy to see you happy."

"Now, Evan, Maddie tells us that you've been seeing a therapist?"

Emery raises her brows and she shifts her gaze to Maddie. Buck looks at his sister, "She did?"

"I'm gonna get some water." Chimney quickly retreats.

"Anything we should be worried about there?"

Emery purses her lips and rubs her throat. "Yeah, I love water too. I'm gonna get some—some more..." she stands up and makes a beeline for the kitchen. Emery presses her hands against the counter. "Okay, what the hell?" She softly whispers.

Chimney turns to her, "What the hell? No—what the fuck?" He looks back into the kitchen. "How long do you think we can stay in here?"

Emery hums, "A few more seconds?"

Chimney and Emery stand there for a few seconds, needing their own breathers. "Okay, let's get back in there, champ." She pats his back and grabs the filtered water from the fridge. She hands it to Chimney and he grabs it.

They both walk back into the living room.

"It's good to try and get ahead of it." Buck continues his conversation about seeing a therapist.

"You know, your father and I went to see a therapist." Margaret speaks.

Emery rolls her lips into her mouth. She sits next to Albert on the ottoman.

"Uh, really? When?" Buck asks.

Margaret chuckles, "Well, after all this business with Maddie and the husband who shall not be named, we felt like there were some things we needed to work through."

Emery blinks with wide eyes. This is unbelievable.

"So you...you went and talked to a therapist about my problems?" Maddie squints her eyes. Chimney had to gently squeeze Maddie's shoulders to keep her calm.

"It wasn't as if you wanted to talk to us about them." Phillip chuckles. "Buck had to call to tell us that Doug was dead."

"Well, I didn't want you to find out on Dateline." Buck grumbles.

"You know what, I'm gonna start bringing this stuff into the kitchen." Chimney says.

Emery pats her hands on her knees. "I will help. I love helping." She grabs some of the plates. Her eyes shift to Albert. "Would anyone else like to help or a refill?"

Simultaneously, Chimney and Emery look at Albert. He gets the hint. "I'll help." He stands up and grabs the rest of the glasses.

They all retreat to the kitchen.

"Yeah, uh...m-me too." Buck stands up and follows them into the kitchen with his plate.

Emery inhales a breath. "Okay, I know this isn't my place. But I'm washing these dishes, this dinner is driving me fucking nuts..." she trails off her words when she sees Buck walk into the kitchen. "I mean, this is the greatest dinner I've ever had."

"No, no. You're right. This is a shit show." Buck exhales. "I'm sorry, you guys are even here for this."

Emery tilts her head to the side. She then reaches across the counter and places her hand over his. "There's nowhere else I'd rather be."

☆

"Clearing the building now, but we need to shut off gas and power as a precaution."

"Eddie, you're in electrical—Buck and Emery, I want you to go up the street, shut the gas off at the main."

"Copy that."

The entire walk up the street was mainly Buck trying to avoid the elephant in the room. Well, elephants. But Emery could tell that the dinner with his parents was weighing heavy on him. She thought it was because of what wasn't said. But Emery was proven wrong once she spoke.

"Hey, are you okay with...the dinner with your parents?"

Buck keeps his light flashing on the fuse box. "What do you mean?"

"I know you said you "just wanted to get through it" but it seems like you wanted to say more to them." Emery says.

Buck keeps his eyes on Emery's. He was taken aback by the way she saw him so well. Buck was ready to bury those feelings deep inside. Not even allowing his therapist to touch them.

"I do want to say more to them. But, I know how they'll react and I don't think I can handle that." Buck looks back at the box. Emery bites the inside of her cheek and takes a step forward, her arm brushing his. Buck's heart jumps.

"I get that," Emery sighs. "it took years for me to be able to have a civil dinner with my parents." She chuckles. "And the only reason I ended up doing it was for Amaya. Not for them."

Emery looks at the side of Buck's face. "But, if you have feelings. Feelings about how you were treated or even how you weren't treated. You should let them be heard."

Buck turns to her, his blue eyes meeting her soft brown ones. His eyes flit to her lips before looking back at her eyes. "We're gonna have another dinner."

Emery softly smiles, "I'm sure that'll be the perfect time to talk to them." She then frowns. "Calmly, of course."

"Well, of course." Buck agrees, sarcasm in his voice.

Emery softly laughs and a smile finds Buck's. Just hearing Emery's laugh ring through his ears made something wash over him. Maybe that's why he couldn't control his next words.

"Do you want to come to the dinner?"

Emery's laughter dies down and she's left looking at him with slightly wide eyes. Buck's face grows hot, "I mean, it's at Maddie and Chimney's house again. Albert won't be there this time, so...there might be a bit more attention on you."

Emery rolls her lips into her mouth. "Your parents asking questions about my encounter with a serial killer are the least of my worries." She tilts her head, not looking away from him. Emery's always hated making eye contact with people. She would always stare at their lips. Then she would think they thought she was weird for looking at their lips and she could look at their eyes, but it made her uncomfortable—so she would always end up looking at the ground. And everyone would always end up leaving with the impression that she was weird or she had no interest in what they were talking about.

But with Buck, looking into his eyes was always so easy. Even before when he was just an annoying probie to her. Those bright blue eyes always gained her attention.

"I would love to go to a second dinner with your family."

Buck could feel his relief deep through his body. "Awesome, I'll pick you up at 7?"

Emery nods her head, "Come at 6:30. So, we can just take in the calm before the storm." She gives him a playful smile.

Buck laughs, "Yeah, I'll come by at 6:30."

After shutting off the gas, Buck and Emery made their way back to the building where Bobby and the rest of the team was supposed to be.

"All right, Chimney, Eddie. Bomb squad's ready to go in. You guys clear?" Bobby inquires.

No answer.

"Chimney, you copy?"

Emery shifts and folds her arms.

"Chimney, come in."

Eddie soon comes running out of the building with his arms flailing. "Wait! Wait! Wait

"Where's your other guy?" The captain of the bomb squad asks.

"He's in there with the bomber."

Emery's heart drops deep into her stomach. "Shit..."

The captain of the bomb squad begins to walk toward the building, the rest of the firefighters step in front of him. "I need to get my men in there and get a bead on this guy."

"Not until we find out what's happened with my guy." Bobby turns to Eddie. "Did you see anything?"

Eddie inhales a breath, trying to breathe. "That guy was breathing hard. I don't think he was faking that. Yeah, definitely had something in his hand, probably a bomb, or at least a detonator on him."

"Why wouldn't Han just run?"

Emery holds a hand up, "Maybe, he's distracting him with a story. Talking him down maybe?"

"Did you say anything to him?" The captain of the bomb squad looks at Eddie.

Eddie deadpans, "What was I supposed to say? Hey, is that a dead man's trigger or—? I just figured he wanted me outta there."

"Well, a plunger means he controls it." Buck states. "A dead man's trigger is designed so that it—"

"I'm familiar, Buck." Bobby cuts him off.

The pout on Buck's face was evident, despite his mask on. Emery turns to Bobby and squints her eyes at him.

"Okay. My guys got a partial visual with infrared." The firefighters all look at the bomb squad captain. "He said they're just...sitting there."

Emery shrugs, "Told you. Talking him down."

"Could be buying us some time." Bobby adds.

"What do you think they're talking about?" Buck asks.

Emery frowns, "Deep dark secrets?"

The bomb squad captain receives a phone call and answers it. The firefighter watch as he talks on the phone.

"Very explosive—yes very. Copy that." He hangs up the phone and turns to the group. "Company seat her their job site. Discovered 6 pounds of C4 missing."

"Well, he knew exactly where to find it." Bobby says.

"Maybe Chimney needs to stop talking to him." Buck suggests. "Could set him off."

Everyone turns to Buck. Emery slowly shakes her head. Buck realizes why everyone was looking at him and he tenses. "Sorry. Bad choice of words."

Suddenly all their radio's click. "All clear, all clear. We're coming out."

Emery looks at her radio and chuckles. After a few minutes, Emery and Hen went into the building to extract the bomber. He was knocked out when they went in with the stretcher.

"Chimney, did you kick his ass?" Emery looks at the unconscious bomber.

Chimney slightly opens his mouth. "Well..." he trails off. No one was there to see it happen. They would believe anything. "...yes. Yes I did."

Emery and Hen look at each other, they both had the same thought. They look back at Chimney. "No, you didn't."

☆

"Think about it."

Wren and Romero were standing in the backyard with Athena.

"On the 911 call, she said "okay fine. If you people aren't gonna handle this, I'll have to do it myself"."

"So, she's had enough." Romero starts. "She wants to out the dead of God into her neighbors. She grabs the gun, but before she can go out into the street, she's confronted by someone."

Wren slowly nods her head. "She spins around. She's startled." Her eyes shift to the gnome she tripped over before. "Tripped over her damn garden gnome."

"She loses her balance..." Athena adds.

"and then the gun goes off."

Athena frowns, "It's not the craziest story I ever heard. It's definitely close."

"Okay, so the only thing we don't know is who she was yelling at." Romero speaks.

Wren nods her head, "Yeah, everybody else is accounted for. They were all at the block party."

"Not...everyone." Athena looks behind the detective and detective in training. Wren turns and her mouth drops open. "Oh, you're kidding!" She laughs.

Athena calls the dog over and the corgi runs over to her.

"The dog was in her yard." Romero snaps his fingers. "That's who she was shouting at."

"I gotta put that in my report." Romero scoffs.

"Don't worry Archie," Athena pets the corgi. "not a jury in the world is gonna convict."

Wren continues to laugh and she wipes her eyes. The brunette then pulls her brows together and her laughter dies down. "Wait...does that mean, I have to put that in my report?"

Romero clicks his tongue and pats Wren's shoulder.

...

Emery was sitting at the dinner table. Chimney had just finished telling Maddie and her parents the story of the bomber. "Well, I'm just glad everybody's okay."

"You all seem to have very dangerous jobs." Phillip states.

Maddie frowns, "Not really. I mean, most of the time, it's pretty run of the mill."

"Yeah. And Stan wasn't a bad guy. He just...needed someone to see him." Chimney states. "To understand how much pain was in." His eyes trail to Buck, who had barely spoken a word the enemies dinner. "He probably wasn't going to blow the place up."

Phillip motions to the girl. "I mean, Emerson, I don't know you very well but we know your story. Wouldn't you say that was because of your job?"

"Dad." Buck says. Even though Emery told him earlier that she wasn't worried about his parents talking about her kidnapping, he still didn't want them being it up. He didn't want them bringing Emery's life up at all, actually. He just wanted

Emery frowns, "Some of my story. But I get your point." She inhales a breath. "The Firesnatcher was a case that the police referred to as rare. I don't think my experience is really the best example."

"But he was your friend, correct?"

Emery's stomach tenses. "I thought he was, but turns out he was just trying to kill me instead, so..." she sips her water satisfied with her response. But from the looks from Maddie and Buck's parents across from her, they didn't approve. Emery swallows her water and glances at Buck, who cracks a small smile. Emery feels her chest warm. She must be saying the right things if she was able to get Buck to smile for the first time during this dinner.

"Still seems...very risky. I mean, from what I hear, Evan has spent quite a lot of time in hospitals." Phillip lets out a nervous chuckle.

"From what you hear?"

Emery moves some of her food around on her plate.

"Cause you coulda come. Seen for yourself." Buck states.

His mother speaks, "Evan, I've told you—"

"You, uh, you're not good with hospitals. I got it." Buck brushes her off.

"I'm not good with seeing my children in them." Margaret softly speaks. "You don't know—"

"Mom, mom." Maddie quickly interjects with a shake of her head.

"I'm fine."

Emery raises her brows and eats an olive off her plate.

"I'm ready for dessert." Margaret plasters a smile on her lips.

"Oh, Howard, where'd you put that box we brought?" Phillip asks.

Maddie exhales, "Dad, more gifts?"

"Not exactly."

Chimney stands up. "It's over by the couch. Let me grab it." He walks back into the living room.

"I like him, Maddie." Margaret says.

"Me too."

"You picked a good one this time."

Emery's eyes slightly widen and her mouth opens. You're kidding.

"Mom." Buck scoffs.

"What, it was a compliment, Evan."

"Oh, was it?"

Emery sinks into her chair and shifts her eyes to Maddie. Chimney quickly came back with the box and set it on the table. Maddie slightly opens her mouth and looks at her parents.

"Your baby box."

Maddie opens the box, revealing the different things from her childhood.

"I thought you might wanna pass on some of these things to your little girl someday."

"Awww." Emery pouts her lip. "This is so cute."

"I didn't know you made these for us." Buck softly smirks. "When do I get mine?"

A silence surrounds everyone at the table. Emery shifts her eyes to the Buckley parents and her jaw clenches when they don't answer. They seriously didn't keep any of Buck's things around to make him one of these? How the hell can someone pick and choose when to love their children at separate times?

Chimney tries his best to recover the awkward situation. "Hey, you're not even a grown up yet." He pats Buck's arm. "They're probably still adding stuff to it."

Emery glances at Buck, the heartbreak so evident across his face she could feel it in her heart.

"I can't believe you kept all this." Maddie's voice was filled with disbelief.

Phillip laughs, "You thought we'd throw it away?"

"We may not have agreed with all the choices you made, Maddie but we never gave up home that you'd come to your senses."

Aaand the moment was gone.

Maddie's entire mood had deflated once again. The smile on her lips had faded.

"And you did."

"You never gave up hope?" Buck speaks up.

Maddie saw that her brother had enough of the passive comments and him being pushed to the side. "Evan, let's not do this."

Buck looks at his sister. "United front, remember?"

Simultaneously, Emery and Chimney look at each other. Oh shit. They both thought.

"You guys didn't even go to her wedding."

Margaret huffs, "She was making a terrible mistake. We told her that."

"Yeah, people make mistakes." Buck says. "Doesn't mean you give up on 'em. But you did. She married Doug, and you cut her off."

"At the time, we thought it was...for the best." Phillip says.

"We didn't know what was going on." Margaret admits. "I swear, Maddie. We didn't know he was hurting you."

"Well you should have. You shoulda known!" Buck exclaims. "You shoulda known! You were right there in the same town—how could you not know?!"

"Actually, you know what? Maybe it does track, cause you barely knew what was going on with your own kids when we were under the same roof." Despite Buck's voice growing quieter, his face still held the same amount of rage and frustration. "Maybe you never gave up hope...you sure as hell gave up on her."

"You gave up on both of us." He stands up from his seat.

Emery slightly opens her mouth when he walks away. But then Buck turns back to his parents. "Oh, and, uh, you wanna know why I'm really in therapy?"

"It is because I have spent my entire life feeling like a constant disappointment. And you wanna talk about our jobs?"

"You think my job is dangerous? I have walked through fire every single day of my life because of you! That is why I am in therapy! Because nothing I ever did was good enough!"

"We tried!" Phillip says. "But you always—"

"You never made it easy on us! Either one of you!" Margaret jumps in.

Maddie's eyes were glossed with tears. "We were supposed to? We were kids."

"Evan, I don't know what you expected us to do!"

The anger on his face and in his voice slipped away. All that was left were tears clouding his vision and a tremble in his voice. Dammit, he felt like a child again. "Love me anyway."

Buck stands up and quickly leaves the apartment, slamming the door behind him. Emery opens and closes her mouth. She looks at Maddie, whose own body was beginning to shake with upcoming sobs. "Are you gonna be okay?"

Maddie inhales a shaky breath and turns to Emery. "I'll be okay. I promise." She then shifts her eyes tot he front door where Buck had just left through.

Emery knew that Maddie wanted her to go to him. And Emery wanted nothing more than to do that right now.

"I should go too." Emery cautiously stands up. "He's my ride." She looks at Chimney and Maddie. "Thank you for dinner and..." she looks at the Buckley parents. "Yeah."

Emery grabs her bag and quickly walks towards the front door with her mind solely on Buck. As soon as she left the apartment, she saw Buck walking down the hall. "Evan!" Emery quickly follows after him.

Buck could feel Emery's voice pull him back from the wave of emotions he was feeling. Hearing her voice made a deep serene surround him. He turns his head and sees Emery jogging over to him.

Emery keeps her eyes on his. "You're my ride, remember?"

Buck blinks, "Oh god. I am so sorry, I just..." he lets out a desperate breath and wipes his eyes. Emery gives him a small smile. She steps closer to him and wraps her arms around his neck. Buck's breathing halted and so did his body. He was frozen.

"I understand." She softly speaks against his neck.

Buck could feel the tightness in his chest begin to loosen from those words. Emery truly did understand, not just him, but the experience with his parents. She's had a few dinner arguments herself. It made Buck feel safe and reassured knowing that he didn't have to explain it to her. Emery already knew. That's why when Buck started crying into her shoulder, Emery didn't hesitate to pull him closer into her.

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author's note.

I just love how when Emery needs to be comforted Buck knows she likes silence and when Buck needs to be comforted Emery knows he needs a hug 🫶

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