Chapter Text
“Alright, hand it over.” Hen said, dropping onto the couch in the loft of the firehouse.
“Hand what over?” Eddie asked curiously, looking between Hen and Buck. Buck’s face was most likely the color of the engines. Because he’d hoped she would let it go.
“Why?” Buck whined petulantly. “It’s not a big deal.”
“Now, or I’m telling Cap.” Hen made a gesture with her hand, the sign for ‘hand it over’.
“Telling me what?” Bobby asked, standing behind them. Buck groaned and sank into the couch, covering his face with his hands.
“Buck came over the other day.” Hen said, and Buck could hear her smirking. “We did some day-drinking, margaritas, shots and just playing the questions game like we usually do. But then I asked about his birthday.”
“It’s in June.” Buck whined again.
“Yeah?” Hen chuckled. “What day?”
“You don’t know your birthday?” Bobby asked, sounding surprised.
“I’ve never celebrated a birthday on the same day.” Buck sighed, dropping his hands from his face and reaching for his wallet. “Maddie takes me out on either the second or third weekend in June, but, like I said, it’s never the same day. And when she was gone, when I was a kid, nothing ever happened.”
“Ok, but to get a license you have to have a copy of your birth certificate or social security card.” Chim pitched in.
“Don’t have those, either.” Buck stated, pulling his ID out. “I didn’t know the DMV was a real place, and not a made up movie thing, until Hen and I were drinking the other day and she fell out of her chair laughing at me.”
“What?” Bobby asked, his voice louder than he probably meant it.
“I thought it was one of those made-up movie places.” Buck shrugged, finally handing Hen his ID. “You know, like the coffee shop in ‘Friends’ or Hogwarts.”
“So how the hell did you get a license?” Eddie asked, sounding nearly as hysterical as Bobby, but Chim had disbelievingly repeated ‘Hogwarts?’.
“I knew a guy.” Buck sighed.
“Oh my god.” Chim burst out laughing. “You have a fake ID!”
“It’s not fake.” Buck argued. “I just didn’t have the other stuff I needed, and I knew a guy who made them, no questions asked. He made my ID and a passport. I paid him like $150 for both. He did my renewal for me, because I didn’t know that was a real thing until I got back to LA after Peru and saw there was an expiration date on it. The passport was good for ten years. I didn’t realize licenses were only good for maybe six or seven. However long it is.”
“So how old are you?” Eddie asked, his face in his hands.
“I’m 30.” Buck argued, frowning at him. “I mean, I’m pretty sure. It’s around there.”
“This is good work, Buckeroo.” Hen nodded approvingly. “No one would catch it as a fake without you telling us.”
“I didn’t tell you on purpose.” Buck snatched it back, but before he could put it away, Bobby snatched it. “Hey!”
“No, you are not keeping a fake ID.” Bobby said sternly.
“You’ve been driving our trucks without a valid license.” Chim stated, still snickering.
“I’m licensed on those.” Buck argued. “I got certified at the academy. That’s legit.”
“It isn’t if you don't have a valid driver’s license.” Bobby groaned.
“Fine, I’ll go to this mythical DMV place and get one.” Buck shrugged. “Can’t be that hard.”
“It’ll be impossible without legal proof of identity.” Chim said, still clearly entertained. “Hold on a sec,” he pulled out his phone and Buck just shook his head. It wasn’t going to work, but whatever. “Hey, Maddie, quick question, when is your brother’s birthday?” Buck watched as Chim went from amused to confused to concerned. “You don’t know? How is that possible?” he put the phone on speaker for some reason.
“Look, I don’t have a good excuse, but I was a kid when Buck was born. I wasn’t thinking about birth certificates or any of that because at first all I had to be was his big sister. I know his birthday is in June, I know it was around the same time as Danny’s, but I have no idea the actual date.”
“Ok, you don’t know the date.” Chim nodded. “But you know the year, right?”
“I know it was between 1990 and 1993.” Maddie groaned. “Danny was sick and that sort of took all of my emotional capacity, not to mention I was in grade school then middle school then in another town altogether. I don’t know if Buck was a year old, or two or three, when Danny died, and I can’t remember if Danny was eight or ten. I pushed myself so hard back then to forget, mostly because mom and dad made me, that I lost that time and don’t remember much beyond spending a lot of time visiting the hospital before we moved across the city.”
“Oh my god.” Chim blew out a breath, starting to look as frantic as Eddie and Bobby the more Maddie talked. “Oh my god, we could have had an actual baby driving the engines his first year with us.”
“Stop being so dramatic.” Buck argued.
“I gotta go, but I’ll try to call mom and dad to see if they have a copy of his birth certificate. I had to order a copy of mine because it got lost in the move and everything when they were organizing and hiding Danny’s existence.” Maddie said with a heavy sigh. “I’ll let you know if I figure anything out.”
“I’m betting ‘92.” Hen stated as the phone call ended. “That puts him at 30.”
“Ninety one.” Chim argued. “He’s gotta be maybe two years younger than Eddie, at most.”
“Do you know when you started school, Buck?” Bobby asked, sounding really stressed.
“I don’t know. Maybe ‘96?” Buck shrugged. “Graduated in ‘09. Didn’t really hit my growth spurt until I was in SEAL training.”
“And when was that?” Eddie asked worriedly.
“Twenty … ten? I think? Maybe 11.” Buck shrugged again. Thankfully, the alarm went off so Buck could focus on work and hopefully everyone else would, too. Regardless of how old he was, he was still a firefighter and had been for years. More than six by this point. They managed to make it through the call without anyone getting back into Buck’s ID mystery again. Until the way back and Buck remembered something Maddie said. “Oh, hey, what did Maddie mean by ‘ordering’ a copy of her birth certificate?”
“What?” Hen asked, a laugh bubbling up while Eddie, Chim, and Bobby groaned.
“How do you do that? I thought once you had it, that was it.” Buck shrugged. “I didn’t know you could just get a copy. I mean, how do you even request that? Call up and be like, hi, my name is Evan Buckley, and I don’t have a copy of my birth certificate?”
“Yes!” Everyone exclaimed.
“Alright, fine. But how would that work?” Buck argued. “I don’t know my birthdate, I don’t know my social security number, I know I was either born in Hershey or Mechanicsburg. Maybe Harrisburg. That’s three different cities in at least a three to four year time frame to check. I know my name, and my parent’s names. That’s as narrowed down as I can get.”
“If you don’t know your social security number, how are you paying taxes?” Chim asked, scratching his head.
“I didn’t say I didn’t have it, just that I didn’t know it without looking at it.” Buck rolled his eyes. “It’s written down and in my safe, but I haven’t gotten it out in a while. I had it to fill out my application for the fire academy, but that’s all I needed it for. Since it’s part of the LAFD I didn’t need it when I started at the 118, because it was all already done. And with my taxes, I use the same place I always used, and they just carry everything over from the previous year.”
“Bobby.” Eddie said, sounding worn out.
“I know, Eddie.” Bobby replied, sounding just as tired.
“What?” Buck asked, looking between them. “You guys are acting like I dropped a bomb on you. All Hen did when she found out was laugh for half an hour.”
“Because it’s ridiculous!” She exclaimed, laughing again. Buck smiled and shrugged at her, making her laugh harder. “How- how did you even get your loft without any of this?”
“My ID worked.” Buck argued. “Plus I had my passport that matched my name and birthdate.”
Hen continued to laugh, but everyone else was acting weird. Whatever. Buck maintained that it wasn’t a big deal.