1. Tommy’s maxed on flight time for the week, but the train derailment is an all hands. He gets onto a ground crew and they book it to the crash site. He’s there for all of four minutes before he hears a woman in near hysterics, upset about someone in the upper car. When Tommy looks around, he sees his ex-fiance and runs toward her. “Abby?” he calls, realizing she must’ve been on the train. He knows she’s not at dispatch anymore, but he doesn’t know what the hell she was doing on a train. “Tommy,” she says, barely able to speak around her panicked breaths. “It’s Sam, he–he’s–” Tommy doesn’t know who Sam is, but he reassures her that he’ll look for him and sees the photo. Then he turns to the almost dazed firefighter who she’d been talking to. “C'mon,” he says, nodding toward the car. As they start to walk toward it, a third firefighter in tow, Tommy says, “Sorry to step in like that. She’s actually my ex.” And the third firefighter says, “Oh, you two should start a club.” Tommy’s about to ask him to clarify, but then he sees Bobby Nash.

2. In the train car, Tommy has the idea to use a helicopter to lift part of the beam or car away, but no one’s nearby. There’s medevac on the way for critical patients, but there’s no one coming for utility. “Anyone have one I can borrow?” Tommy asks, only kind of joking. There’s a tension between Bobby and Buckley, the guy Abby had been talking to, and Tommy’s instinct is to break it even as he tries to work through the problem. He helps Buckley with Sam while he’s trying to comfort/help him, and they keep Sam talking. Buckley is so earnest and concerned that Tommy feels like he should be comforting him, too. But the last thing Tommy wants is for Abby to hurt again, so he pulls Buckley aside and says, “We have to do something. They’re not going to pick him to save.” And Buckley thinks for a moment and comes up with an idea to cut into the car from the outside, since the material is thinner. Tommy calls Harbor and tells them to get a chopper out ASAP. “I’ll be able to get you up there, I can pull you away if it gets dangerous, but I need you to tell me if you hear it starting to go. If that car pulls that line, it’s not just you that goes down, my chopper could crash and kill me, my copilot, and a lot of people on the ground, do you understand?” he says firmly, and Buckley nods with huge eyes. “Okay. I’m trusting you to keep us all safe.” “I-I will,” Buckley says, nodding. “I promise.” And Tommy smiles. “What’s your name, kid?” he asks. “Uh, Evan. Buckley. Buck.” “I’m Tommy,” he says, and Evan smiles like he’s been waiting to hear it all night.

3. Bobby is wholly against it, and there’s a really weird argument about it. Tommy steps in and points to the air right as they start to hear two choppers, one medevac and his. “He won’t be attached to the train. He’ll be attached to me.” And Bobby looks at him for a long moment and asks, “Are you as good a pilot as you made it sound?” And Tommy, yanking off his turnout coat, smiles and says, “C'mon, Bobby, you know how modest I used to be. I’m better.” He jogs out to an empty stretch of land and signals the chopper to him. When he hops in, he sits in the copilot seat and tells Art, “I’m taking over.” And Art, who’s been working with Tommy long enough to know better, hands over control and heads to the back to be the one to drop the line, since Buckley doesn’t know how to drop from a chopper, though he’d been willing to find out. Tommy likes the kid’s enthusiasm, but he has zero sense of self-preservation. He’s adorable, though. But he gets Evan hooked and lifts him up to the point where he needs to cut through, and Tommy has an eye on him the whole time, ready to yank him away if the car starts falling. When he sees Sam getting brought down in the basket, Tommy dangles Evan from the line and sets him carefully on the ground, hovering until Evan unclips himself and waves wildly to signal that he’s clear.

4. On the ground, Tommy runs up to Abby and Sam, and Sam looks at him and Buckley and says, “So you’re Buck and Tommy.” And Tommy looks over at Evan and then back to Abby, and she chuckles nervously. “So this is, uh, kind of awkward,” she says to Tommy. “But this was who I was seeing after…you.” And Tommy very kindly doesn’t point out that Evan looks young now and they broke up four years ago. But they wave them off into the ambulance, and Evan looks at Tommy like he’s personally betrayed him. “Wait, you’re the ex that left her when Patricia got sick?” he demands. “Uh, no, I’m the ex that left her because he realized couldn’t pretend to be a straight guy for the rest of his life, and my timing sucked,” Tommy corrects, and Evan blinks uncomprehendingly. “I’m gay. She’s a woman. So…” “Oh!” Evan says, understanding. “Oh. That’s, uh, not what she said happened.” “It was kind of implied more than outright said,” Tommy admits. “I wasn’t out out yet.” And Evan trips through this thing about being an ally, and Tommy thinks it’s kind of adorable but ridiculous. But Evan closes his rambling out by saying: “Also, you’re such a good pilot. That was…amazing. I’ve never done anything like that before.” And Tommy hesitates before offering to take him up for real, inside an actual chopper instead of dangling outside. “I could even teach you. My fees are competitive,” he teases, and Evan flushes and nods and gets Tommy’s phone number.

5. He doesn’t know what happened, but Abby calls him (he’s had the same cell number since 2012) and asks him if he really is gay. “Last I checked,” he says, putting the phone on speaker so he can keep putting away groceries. “Sorry I didn’t tell you.” “It would’ve been nice,” she says, and he side-eyes his phone at her tone. He hated bickering with her, it always got ugly. “Sorry, I was kind of going through a lot,” he says, rolling his eyes. “So was I,” she says. “I’m not saying you weren’t, obviously you were, but it was separate from what I was going through. I’d been trying to deal with being gay since I was thirteen, and you know what my dad was like,” he says, because she was the last partner he’d had that met his father before he cut off contact. “Imagine being raised by that at the time that I was growing up. I’m sorry that you were the person I was with when I was still in denial, but you can’t act like I just left you for no reason or even owed you an explanation that I wasn’t personally ready to give. I was honest when I told you I couldn’t keep doing it and that there was stuff I was figuring out. I gave you a clean break, I didn’t let you keep thinking there was a chance.” “Wow, fuck you. That’s so low,” she says. “Did you and Buck talk?” He’s now crossing his arms over his chest and glaring at the phone. “No, why? Did he do that to you?” he asks, even though he doesn’t give a shit. “No, I…I did it to him,” she admits, and he throws his hands up in frustration. “So why the fuck am I the only asshole here when you apparently let some guy think there was a chance when you weren’t interested?” he asks. “Look, I need to go. I’m about to be late for a training session. Glad Sam’s okay, have a good wedding.” And he hangs up and scrubs his hand over his face, more than ready to go punch and kick something for a while.

6. He and Evan meet up at the Harbor airfield, and Evan asks if he’s allowed to borrow one of the helicopters. “No, I co-own one with a few of other pilots,” Tommy says, pointing it out. “That’s so cool,” Evan says, going pink-cheeked and starry eyed, and Tommy wishes this guy wasn’t straight so bad. When they’re not in the middle of a life-or-death situation, he’s fun and sweet and enthusiastic and curious. Tommy helps him get set up in the other seat, and he gets into his and clicks on the headset as he goes through the checks, explaining what he’s doing as he’s doing it. When everything is ready, he looks over and asks, “You ready?” And Evan nods and bounces in his seat a little as Tommy takes off. He keeps looking around and pointing stuff out, and Tommy takes him along the coast for a bit. It’s fun, especially when Evan asks if he can do any crazy stuff or if that’s only a plane thing, and when Tommy banks them hard to one side and Evan shouts in surprise and then starts laughing nervously after. “I’m combat trained,” Tommy explains, grinning. “So that was safe, I promise.” And Evan, between nervous, anxious giggles says, “Don’t worry, I trust you.” “Good,” Tommy says, banking in the other direction, and his face hurts from laughing as Evan shouts and laughs. When he levels out, they exchange a look and Tommy’s heart hammers in his chest. He wants to kiss Evan so bad, and Evan actually keeps looking at Tommy’s mouth like he wants to kiss, too. When they land, Tommy walks Evan back to his Jeep, and Evan says, “I had a really good time. I, uh, can’t really offer you anything as cool in return unless you’re really into watching amateur flair bartending. Or surfing.” Tommy’s eyes sweep over him and he says, “I mean, I wouldn’t hate to see you surf.” “Yeah?” Evan asks, his voice going a little breathless. “I could, uh, teach you. If you want. I think you’d be good at it. You’re really…coordinated.” Tommy smiles and he knows he’s standing too close, but Evan isn’t stepping back. “Yeah, guys are always complimenting me on my coordination,” he jokes. “I bet,” Evan says, and Tommy takes a risk and kisses him. Evan kisses back, and they keep kissing for a long moment. “You could just let me take you to dinner,” Tommy suggests softly, and Evan nods, kissing him again.