Chapter Text
The crew had just returned to the fire station from a challenging three-alarm fire, and Bobby was getting out of the truck once it was parked, only to see five people standing by the stairs to the loft.
“Are you Captain Robert Nash?” The one standing in the middle of the group spoke up. His arms were crossed, and he was wearing cargo pants with a t-shirt. A gun in a holster was on his belt, along with a badge. Bobby paused, really wanting to get a shower to wash away the soot, but he sighed.
“Yeah, it’s Bobby. Uh, what can I do for you?”
“We would like to talk to you. In private.” The female in a naval uniform spoke up.
“Is there any way that this could wait for a few minutes? We just got back from a tough call, and I would like to clean up.”
“No.” The taller of the two men, who were wearing camo pants with a tan green t-shirt, spoke up.
“You’re going to talk to us now.” The other said as well. The fifth person standing there turned to look at the rest.
“Animals. All of you. Ok, I get we’re not happy with this man, but let him clean up.” He spoke, gesturing with his hands. He was wearing a button-up shirt with a tie and also had a holstered gun and badge on his belt. The first guy who spoke turned to look at him. He uncrossed his arms.
“Really, Danny? You’re going to start this now? In front of all these nice people?” He asked.
“What do you mean, 'start this now”? Really, Steven? This man just came back from, I’m assuming, saving people’s lives, and you won’t even let him clean up in his fire station?” The man raised his hands as if he were surrendering, clearly fed up with the other man. He looked at Bobby. “I apologize for this neanderthal. We’ll wait until you’re done.” Bobby nodded slowly at the words.
“Alright. Feel free to wait in the loft. I’ll be as quick as I can. Pending another call, I’ll be free to talk to you five once I’m cleaned up.” He turned to head to the locker room as the two men continued to argue and head upstairs.
“Who the hell are those people?” Chimney asked as Bobby entered the locker room.
“I have no idea, Chim.” He muttered, moving to take off his turnout gear.
“I know who the guy in the middle was. I heard about him and saw him once when I was serving. That’s Steve McGarrett, and I think the other two were on his team. I don’t know who the woman and the guy in the tie were.” Eddie spoke up.
“You say that like we’re supposed to know who Steve McGarrett is,” Chimney grumbled.
“A SEAL. Hell, the SEAL. He served until a few years ago, when I heard he got reassigned to the reserves and put in charge of a police task force in Hawaii. The other two, I don’t know their names, but from the look of it, they’re still active duty.” Eddie answered. Bobby frowned.
“Then what could they possibly want to talk to me about?”
“Get cleaned up quickly and you’ll find out?” Chimney shrugged, heading to the showers. Bobby sighed but headed to the showers to quickly get cleaned up.
In about ten minutes, he was heading up the stairs to the loft, having showered and changed into a clean uniform. He reached the top of the stairs to find the man in the tie, presumably Danny, as that was what the other man called him, sitting on the couch, one leg crossed over the other. The rest of the group stood by the railing of the loft, either leaning back against it or propping themselves up on their forearms, gazing down at the trucks below. The first man who spoke turned around when he saw Bobby get to the top of the stairs.
“Your office?” He asked, clearly ready to get down to business. Bobby nodded and gestured to his office.
“It’s on the smaller side, so just letting you know that it might feel cramped with all of us in there. And my team is going to eavesdrop either way, so up to you if you want the appearance of privacy or not.”
“Then out here is fine,” Danny spoke up from the couch.
“Seriously?” The woman asked him.
“If his team is going to eavesdrop anyway, then I don’t want to get up from this couch. It’s surprisingly comfortable.”
“We can stay out here.” The first man sighed. Danny smirked at the woman, and she rolled her eyes. Bobby sat down in one of the chairs while the rest of the group sat down on the couch or stood beside it.
“Could I get an introduction? I’m at a disadvantage since you know my name, but I know none of yours.” Bobby asked.
“I’m Commander Steve McGarrett. This is Lieutenant Catherine Rollins.” Steve gestured to the woman. “Master Chief Jason Hayes and Senior Chief Ray Perry.” He gestured to the two men in camouflage pants, first pointing to the taller one and then the shorter one. “And this is Detective Danny Williams.” He finally gestured to the man wearing a tie. Bobby nodded at each of them and then looked at the stairs as the rest of the team slowly filtered up to the loft. Eddie, Chimney, and Hen all walked over to the chair where Bobby was sitting. They seemed to be worried that Bobby was outnumbered and were trying to even the situation out a bit.
“Diaz?” Jason questioned when he saw them.
“Yeah. Eddie Diaz. Former Army Medic. You remember me?” Eddie asked, crossing his arms.
“Of course he does. You were the only reason he went home on that mission.” Ray spoke up. Jason shot him a glare.
“It was not that bad, Ray.” Jason huffed. “But yeah, thanks for the medical care. I didn’t know you were a firefighter. And I didn’t know you also knew Evan.”
“Buck? Yeah, we’re close friends. Is that what this is all about?” Eddie asked. “Buck’s fine. The pulmonary embolism was bad, but the blood thinners are fixing that.”
“Pulmonary embolism?” Catherine asked.
“The kid didn’t mention that,” Steve replied.
“Yeah, he had a pulmonary embolism at a party we were having for him. We got him to the hospital, and they put him on blood thinners.” Bobby explained. The group was quiet for a moment before Steve spoke up.
“Well, we’re here about Evan. He was supposed to check in with me a few days ago, but he didn’t. When Danny, Catherine, and I got worried, we headed here to track him down. We also called Jason and Ray, as they could arrive faster. Once we found him and were able to talk to him, we asked him what was going on, and he told us that you, his captain, are the reason he hasn’t been returned to active duty, even though he has received the all-clear from his doctors.” Steve explained.
“What?” Eddie looked at Bobby. “You’re the reason he can’t come back?”
“You didn’t know?” Jason asked.
“Hell no, we didn’t know!” Hen huffed. “Bobby, why would you force Buck to stay on light duty?”
“You know how he is. He’s like a puppy. He needs to get his energy out somehow. And if he’s gotten the all clear from his doctors, why are you keeping him out?” Chimney added.
“He could be a liability. I can’t risk having my paramedics worry about him every time we have to pull someone from a car, because what if he gets cut and the blood thinners cause the cut to bleed severely? And I can’t have my firefighters worrying that he’ll start coughing up blood again, but this time, he’s stuck in a burning building somewhere.” Bobby said, sounding very defensive now that his team was ganging up on him, too.
“Wait, how do you all know Buck?” Chimney piped up to ask, breaking the tension that was starting to form.
“He never told you?” Danny asked.
“Everything was classified; he couldn’t,” Jason answered.
“I mean, Steve tells people he’s a SEAL, and I’m sure you two also tell others that you’re SEALs, but no details,” Catherine added. Steve sighed and spoke up.
“Yeah, but Evan left after…”
“After J-bad.” Jason finished. The group was quiet for a moment before Ray looked up.
“He probably didn’t want to talk about it. We assumed he might have mentioned it, but I guess he didn't.” He said quietly.
“What are you talking about?” Chimney asked, looking very confused by everything that was going on.
“Buck was a SEAL,” Eddie explained. “It seems that Steve was his C.O., and Jason and Ray were on the team too.”
“He told me that he dropped out during training,” Bobby spoke up, confusion clear on his face.
“No. He passed BUD/S at the top of his group. The only one of his class who emerged relatively unscathed after Hell Week. We were fortunate to be up for the first pick. Evan was an amazing addition to the team.” Ray clarified.
“And after what he experienced… what you did, Captain Nash, made him fall back into all that. We found Evan in a bad state. If we hadn’t come when we did, he wouldn’t be here anymore. We got him help and have since taken him to Coronado, to a therapist, so he’ll be fine now, but you broke that kid. Tearing his team away from him like that.” Jason said, his face looking like he was picturing many ways he could make Bobby pay for how Buck was hurt.
“I didn’t know. I was trying to protect him.” Bobby whispered, shocked that he had made Buck hurt like this.
“Yeah, well, you didn’t. You did the opposite.” Catherine spoke up.
“But we’re not here to just upset you with the truth. We’re here on Evan’s behalf to hand in his resignation.” Steve said, pulling out a letter and putting it on the coffee table.
“We already spoke to the Fire Chief about this, but Evan wanted us to talk to you as well,” Jason added.
“What? Buck’s quitting?” Hen whispered.
“Yeah. And he’s moving.” Steve stood up as he spoke, clearly indicating that he was done with this conversation.
“Wait, what? You can’t just decide that for him! He has a life here! A family!” Eddie snapped.
“We didn’t decide that for him. He did. And he’ll be moving to be with family.” Danny stood as well.
“Steve offered him a position on Five-0. He’s moving to Oahu.” Catherine explained, standing to match her friends.
“In Hawaii?” Eddie asked, his voice cracking a bit. “No, he can’t just leave. He can’t just leave!”
“That’s not your decision to make.” Ray mocked a bit, fed up with this group. “Evan’s done with this. With LA.”
“We’re going to help him move over the next week. If any of you show up at his loft and he isn’t happy to see you? Then we’re not going to be happy either.” Jason moved towards the stairs as he spoke.
“And one of us is going to be with him at all times. For his safety. Because of what you did, Captain Nash.” Steve moved to follow Jason, as the rest did as well. The five then left, heading down the stairs and out of the fire station. Hen and Eddie both walked away from Bobby, shocked and hurt by what was revealed. Chimney sat down next to Bobby and sighed.
“That was…” He cut off as he didn’t know what else to say. Bobby just nodded and looked down at his hands.
“I didn’t mean to hurt him, Chim.” He finally whispered.
“I know, Cap. I know. And I think in time, Buck will know too.”