Chapter Text
Maddie is trying her very best not to like the new guy.
Which sounds bad, even in her head. That’s why she’s been carefully avoiding thinking it. Just like she’s been avoiding the newest dispatcher at the Los Angeles Service Center. It’s not you, it’s me is such a cliche but sometimes things are cliche for a reason. Maddie’s feelings are very much Maddie’s problem, so to avoid anyone getting hurt, she’s politely pretending that Adam Milligan doesn’t exist.
Too bad all of her friends are making it hard as hell.
Everywhere she turns, Adam is there.
Drinks after shift? He’s laughing at the bar with Jamal. Trying to eat her lunch in peace? Adam and Linda are talking about gardening. Bobby and Athena’s backyard for one of their famous Saturday lunches? Helping May beat Eddie and Buck at lawn games.
She does a double take. No one beats Eddie and Buck at lawn games. They’re the uncontested champions of Saturday lunch. Hen and Chimney have gotten close a time or two but never have they actually gained any sort of real advantage.
“Whoo! Get their asses!” Chimney calls. Their daughter, who he is holding, nods seriously and babbles, “Asses.”
Maddie slaps him lightly on the shoulder. “Quit teaching our daughter curse words.”
“Sorry babe. Jee, don’t repeat that, okay?”
Instead of promising never to say bad words and also to never grow up, Jee throws her arms up and yells, “Hen!” as her current favorite aunt approaches them with a plate of Bobby’s cookies and an unopened beer in hand.
The cookies are easily exchanged for a smiling Jee-Yun, but Maddie comandeers the beer for herself. She feels like she needs it. Beside Maddie, her husband continues to cheer for the downfall of her brother. Oh, family.
May and Adam high five each other as their bean bags fall neatly into the holes cut out of the boards propped up next to Buck and Eddie. Chris dutifully marks down the points with a smile. It seems even he is happy to see the two of them knocked off their thrones.
Everyone in this backyard is smiling, except for Maddie, who can only glare at Adam and wonder why the hell he’s here.
“Hey, now who’s setting a bad example?” Chim asks, the seriousness in his eyes not matching the light tone of his voice.
Hen pauses bouncing Jee to glance between Maddie and the cornhole game. “Do you…have something against Adam?”
“Of course not.” Maddie takes a sip of her stolen beer and tries not to look upset. “He’s fine. I just don’t understand why he’s here.”
These barbecues were supposed to be a 118 thing. Josh sometimes went out with them, or came over to the Buckley-Han house for smaller gatherings, but never family things. None of Maddie’s other dispatcher friends did either. Why was he so special?
“He’s May’s guest.” Hen says easily. “Not like that. The two of them have been friends for a while. They met when Adam was working as a barista at a shop May used to do homework at. I guess he was basically tutoring her in biology during slow periods. She’s the one who recommended he become a dispatcher.”
“Wait, May’s favorite coffee shop? The one that collapsed while we were on our honeymoon?”
She nods. “Yeah. He was trapped in the rubble for almost three hours with a group of middle schoolers, kept them calm while saving the life of his two coworkers who were trapped in the kitchens.”
Chimney frowns and saves Maddie the trouble of asking, “How do you save the lives of people you’re cut off from?”
“By talking to them through the wall, and instructing them on how to do proper CPR and use the aprons and towels they had in the back to stop their bleeding.” Hen says. “Honestly, if May hadn’t gotten to him first, I would have given him a brochure for the fire academy. He’s good people, Maddie.”
She’s saved from trying to defend herself by Athena calling that the burgers were done. Everyone swarms the buffet table and Maddie’s unfounded grudge is forgotten, at least for the moment. They don’t end up sitting anywhere near each other so she is free to spend the rest of the afternoon disliking Adam Milligan from a distance.
Even though he and his cornhole skills are all anyone can talk about. Apparently he, like Bobby, is from Minnesota.
Great, Maddie thinks as she tries to get her daughter to eat macaroni, that’s just great.
______
Of course, the key word is trying when it comes to not liking Adam. Because now that he’s invaded yet another space, Maddie is starting to like him despite herself.
Not just because he did the impossible when it came to knocking Buck and Eddie down a notch.
Not just because he really, truely, is good at doing his job.
But because Adam Milligan is a kind person who always offers to take extra shifts if someone has a personal emergency, is quick witted but never cruel, and is currently crying on the floor of the bathroom. Maddie has never been good at disliking people who are crying.
He glances up when the door swings shut behind her, eyes wide at being caught. Quickly he swipes a hand across the spider-web scar on his cheek where tears had been tracking their way doward, but that doesn’t do much good. Adam tries for nonchalance anyway, “Oh hey Maddie. Sorry, I must have read the sign wrong. I’ll get out of your—”
“You’re not going anywhere.” She says, and great, that’s her fixing voice. “Sit back down.”
Obediently, Adam does, not protesting when she joins him.
For a minute, she waits to see if he’s going to bring it up. When it becomes clear that Adam isn’t planning on doing anything but sniffling slightly and staring at the wall, Maddie says, “It’s alright to cry. We have all had bad calls. You don’t have to hide in the bathroom to let it out.”
“All my other jobs, I just cried in the walk-in freezer.” Adam admits. “Wasn’t sure where to go here.”
“Normally we just use the breakroom.”
“Yeah but that’s all glass.”
It was. They probably should have a better designated place for breakdowns, one that wasn’t so public that everyone on the floor could see you cry. Then again, it meant that none of them ever had to go through it alone. “Do you want to talk about it?”
Adam shakes his head. Despite that, he says, “It wasn’t a bad call. She was fine. Older lady, broken hip, she’ll probably spend the next few weeks recuperating with her son and daughter-in-law, who she adores. I stayed on with her until the paramedics arrived. We talked about music and how annoying technology is today. Then before she hung up…” Adam’s voice wavers. “She thanked me. Called me her guardian angel .”
Clearly there’s something that Maddie is missing here, but that doesn’t stop her from wrapping an arm around Adam as he breaks back down into sobs. She runs a hand over his back in long, soothing sweeps, and makes comforting noises.
Truthfully, Maddie was a fixer. She liked to be able to fix people’s problems for them either with direct action or the right advice. Today it looks like all she can be is a shoulder to lean on. That’s fine.
Both of their breaks are probably up by the time he’s calmed down but it’s early still. They wouldn’t be missed.
Adam blows his nose and drinks a few handfuls of water straight from the sink, then nods. “Okay. I’m ready. Thanks again, Maddie, and I’m sorry you had to see me like that.”
“Don’t be. I’m glad you stumbled into the wrong bathroom.” Maddie says, truthfully. She bumps him with her elbow. “If you ever want to talk more about it, just say the word. I’m here.”
“Really?”
“Really.”
He blinks, and smiles sheepishly. “I kinda thought that you didn’t like me very much.”
Oh shit. “That…that’s completely on me, Adam, and I’m so sorry. The last new guy we had got dragged out of here in cuffs and that hurt me. I decided that the best thing to do, so that I wouldn’t get hurt again, would be to avoid you. But that didn’t work out. I’ve been…”
“Stubborn?” Adam suggests. “Cold? Ornery?”
“Acting very Buck about all this. Ornery ?”
They both laugh. That’s how Sue finds them, bent over and giggling hysterically. Her concerned face only makes it worse. Damn you Adam Milligan for being so likable. This better not come back to haunt me.
______
Beep.
“9-1-1, what’s your emergency?”
“Oh my god, oh my god, you’ve got to send help.”
“Ma’am, please stay calm. Tell me where you are, and what’s happening.”
“It’s Holly, she’s stuck up a tree! We’re outside the Roberts Apartment buildings. Please, you have to send help. Baby, baby stay calm. Oh, how did you even get up there?”
“Okay. I’ve dispatched fire and rescue to your location. Can you tell me your name?”
“I’m Rebecca.”
“Hi Rebecca, I’m Maddie. Can you tell me if Holly appears injured?”
“Uh, no, she looks okay. It’s so dark that I can’t tell for sure though.”
“That’s okay. Keep talking to Holly, keep her calm. How old is Holly?”
“Four.”
“I’ve heard that that’s a great age. Help is just around the corner, you might even be able to hear the sirens now. Your daughter will be in good hands.”
“My daughter?”
______
Maddie pours herself the last of the coffee then starts the process of making a new pot. Tonight is not the night to be lax about keeping everyone caffeinated.
“Hey, have you seen Josh?”
A snort bursts out of her, unintentionally. “Josh is long gone, Adam. You need something?”
“Just had an admin question for him, it can wait. I will take some of that coffee though.” Adam steps further into the break room and pulls a cup out of the cabinet. “You look tense. Everything alright?”
Maddie shakes her head and sighs. “I just took a call about a dog stuck up a tree. Wonderful way to kick off the full moon. This is your first, right?”
“Full moon?” He tips his head. “They happen roughly once a month, so no. Not my first.”
“Your first time working one, Milligan.”
They take their full cups and walk back towards the floor, where the lines are ringing with nonsense. It is Adam’s first time at dispatch during a full moon and apparently no one had forewarned him. “Are you superstitious?”
“No.” Adam says. “I don’t have irrational fears.”
Maddie notes the distinction he places on irrational. “I’m not really either, but there’s some truth to the idea that the full moon brings out the crazies. This time of the month is always wild. That’s why Josh schedules himself off every time. Mark my words, by the end of this shift, you’re going to have some stories to tell.”
The next several hours are a blur of what’s your emergency and biting back the urge to say what the hell. Maddie sends firefighters to a ‘ritual’ gone wrong and advises the would-be witch to try battery operated candles next time. Police are halfway to an assault in progress before the concerned citizen she’s on the line with finally gets a hold of his neighbor and is informed that the screaming is just a horror movie obsessed parrot. Both groups are needed at an incident involving a self driving car that the owner claims is possessed by her ex.
Not a dead ex, though. Just a dream walking one.
“I need a drink.” Maddie says as she clocks out. “You in?”
“Of course.” Adam says.
The party is already in full swing by the time they arrive at the bar, since the 118 had gotten off their shift half an hour before Maddie and Adam. Her wonderful husband already has her regular waiting on the table. She kisses him on the cheek, then the lips, before taking a seat.
Going out after a full moon shift is something of a tradition now, so it takes no time for them to fall into the bantering exchange of wacky calls. Maddie will never get over how intense Chim and his partner get over stuff like this. Bobby chimes in with some commentary on their calls and recounts stories his wife had texted him about.
It takes Maddie a while to realize that Adam had never come back from ordering himself a drink. She looks around and finds him sitting at the bar, engaged in a deep conversation with Eddie.
Hen follows her gaze. “I saw you two arrived here together. Does that mean you’ve finally warmed up to him?”
“Warmed up?” Bobby asks, setting his water down on a coaster. “Did you not like Adam?”
He sounds genuinely worried about the prospect, which has Maddie biting back a smile. Her brother’s relationship with his captain might be paternal by their own admission but Buck was far from the only person Bobby had ever ‘adopted’. “I was a bit hesitant about him at first, to no fault of his own. But we’re past that now. Adam is a great guy and I like him a lot.”