Chapter Text
“It’s not meant to be, it’s not meant to be, it’s not like it’s the end of the world” Carlos said putting his card into the machine and entering his pin. He finished the payment, taking his card from the machine, putting it back in his wallet and his wallet in his pocket as he stood up. “Take care of yourself yeah?” he said as he pushed his chair back under the table.
“Yeah, you too” TK replied, as Carlos smiled softly and walked away, TK watching him, silently hoping to himself that he hadn’t just made a mistake and wasn’t going to regret this.
It was weird not talking to Carlos. TK noticed immediately the gap in his life, the deafening quiet from his phone, and the lack of affection in his life was sadly making every day roll into another. He was starting to realise how much he had in his life behind those dark gorgeous eyes, the fun, the warmth he felt inside whenever he was near Carlos, the way his pulse started to race just thinking about him. Had he made a mistake?
Back on shift, 2 days later and a call to a car accident came in, fortunately it wasn’t too serious, but with a passenger trapped the 126 was called to assist in the extraction. Arriving at the scene the APD were clearly already there, with a couple of officers milling around. TK felt his heart start to race, hoping that Carlos would be there, he looked around, checking each officer there, but it was clear once the scene was assessed, he was not. TK was disappointed, but continued with the job in hand, returning back to the firehouse once they were no longer required. He wandered around the dorm his mind racing, he couldn’t believe how excited he was to see Carlos and then how bad he felt when he wasn’t there. He sat down on one of the beds, head in hands, what had he done? He just hoped that he would see Carlos again soon and be able to see if the spark was still there.
The next day another call came in, assistance required with a trapped individual, police had been called as it was mixed up with a robbery. Finally, TK thought he must be there, he must be. Again arriving on scene he immediately spotted 2 APD officers. No Carlos. He was starting to get a bit concerned.
TK sighed inside, where was he? It was when he spotted Carlos’s partner Felix that he knew he couldn’t take anymore. Casually wandering over he decided to engage in a conversation to see if he could find out.
“Hey, Felix, how are things?” TK said.
“TK, how’s it going man?” Felix smiled back.
“Yeah good. Interesting scene huh?
“Yeah, poor dude”
“Er, here on your own today?”
“Yeah Reyes has got a couple of days off, think he’s back on Monday.”
“Ah right.” TK replied as casually as he could. Damn, TK thought, but at least he’s ok, and TK realised that he could relax a bit now knowing that he wouldn’t see him for a bit, rather than having this roller-coaster of emotions, so desperate and excited to see him, and then so disappointed when he didn’t. But nonetheless he couldn’t deny the sad hole he found in his heart knowing that he wouldn’t see him for a while.
Monday couldn’t come quick enough for TK. He had spent the weekend thinking everything over and the longer that he thought about it the more he couldn’t wait to see Carlos. The excitement only getting greater the more the days passed. He arrived on shift early, not able to stay home any longer, desperate to get the day started, just really hoping that Carlos would be on shift and at a scene today. His wish was quickly granted as not 5 minutes into his shift they were called to another car accident. TK was slowly trying to hold it together, but could feel the nervous tension within his body, his left leg jiggling away.
“What’s up?” Judd asked noticing.
“Er, nothing” TK responded, looking out the window of the truck.
“Tell that to your leg then” Judd chuckled, “and your face!”
They arrived at the scene and saw 2 cars had smashed into each other, it would seem that the momentum of the crash had meant that both cars had finished up sideways, with one of the drivers trapped. APD were already on the scene with one officer talking to the trapped driver, whilst others were controlling the scene, keeping back the forming crowd and one was interviewing a witness. As TK surveyed the scene he realised that the officer interviewing the witness was none other than Carlos Reyes. TK stood stunned, there he was finally. He had his back to TK as he wrote in his notebook, TK noticing those broad shoulders and that tight ass as Judd called over pulling him out of his thoughts. “Hey Strand, come on, grab those cutters will ya?”
“Sure, yeah, yeah” he said going back to the task in hand.
With the driver free and the paramedics taking over TK turned back to Carlos. The crowd was calming down, with many people moving on and there was nothing really left to see. His heart flipped as Carlos turned around and he could see his face. Carlos walked towards a fellow officer, not noticing TK and seemed to be deep in conversation. TK watching intensely as his dad continued to talk to Michelle about the incident, and the rest of the team packed up the truck. Carlos finished his conversation, looking up and finally noticing TK giving him a nod and small smile. TK’s heart flipped again as he decided to bite the bullet and wandered over as Carlos walked back to his cruiser.
“Hey Carlos” TK said smiling broadly.
“Hi TK nice to see you, hope you are well. Anyway better get on.” Carlos said, climbing into the car and driving away.
TK stood stunned. Carlos was his usual polite self, but so cold, so distant. He was blindsided by the feelings flooding his body. Excitement, attraction, such strong attraction, but then incredible disappointment, and sadness. Sadness and heartbreak.
He knew now, finally, more than anything, what he wanted. He wanted Carlos, he wanted Carlos so much, but he had messed this up so badly. He wanted to go back, back to that day in the juice bar and say yes. Yes to trying, yes to being together, yes to everything, how was he going to fix this?