The Other Career
Chapter 1
"For someone who came from a god damn civilian life you sure shoot like a pro." Ray said to him as he crossed the training compound with Ray and Jason. "What's the plan this weekend?" Ray asked.
"My sister just moved to LA I have a 72 hour pass to visit." Buck said to him. "I'm taking Clay." Buck said to him.
"Please tell me you aren't boning the new kid." Jason said to him.
"Please I have more taste and unlike some I can follow orders." Buck said to him slapping his friends shoulder. "See you later boss, I have my phone on me but unless they kill the president do not call me." Buck said making the other two men laugh as he headed for his quarters on base. As a single man he didn't have much when it came to quarters. A quick change into his civie's he grabbed his weekend bag and headed for his jeep. The staff on the gates were surprised to see him but after a quick check he was on his way with his radio blaring.
9-1-1-Seal Team-9-1-1
"Head's up guys two seriously buff guys just got out of a jeep." May called to the fire house Athena looked at her daughter and raised an eyebrow. "I mean seriously where do they find people like this." May said to her mother as she joined her at the bannister and looked down at the two approaching men she whistled. Maddie came up beside them and yelped. "You know them?" May asked.
"I know one of them, Evan." Maddie called out the last word making the man in question look up and grin at her. "They let you out?" Maddie asked.
"72 hour pass sis." Evan said to her as he made his way towards the stairs. "Hope you don't mind that I brought Clay with, he like me is woefully single and has sod all to do with his weekend off." Evan said to her she shook her head as he reached her and wrapped her up in a hug. "Clay this is Maddie, no idea who anyone else is." Buck introduced his friend to his sister.
"Nice to meet you all." Clay said to them.
"Single." May muttered as she walked away.
"Single and can kill you in a thousand different ways." Evan called after her.
"Only a thousand?" Clay asked.
"Well its still early." Evan said to him he laughed as they were lead to the table.
"Captain Bobby Nash, you two don't want jobs do you?" Bobby asked them.
"We have jobs." Evan said to him as he was handed a bottle of water which he opened.
"Military." Eddie said noticing both men had tattoo's peaking out from under the short sleeves of their t-shirts.
"Navy." Maddie said to him.
"I guess someone has to." Eddie said. "Army." Eddie said to them.
"Ah desert rat." Evan said Eddie laughed.
"What detachment?" Eddie asked.
"Bravo." Eddie said to him Eddie's eyes widened. "You boys aren't just navy." Eddie said to him Evan and Clay shook their heads.
"Technically I wasn't even Navy until I joined." Evan said to him.
"You want to let the rest of us in on this?" Hen asked.
"They're seals." Maddie said to her she looked at the two of them strangely. "So the joke that the idiot made about knowing a thousand ways to kill you, probably isn't that far from the truth." Maddie said to May who laughed.
"Hey don't insult the guest." Evan said to his sister. "I brought hotness to the table you bring insults." Evan added Clay and he shared a look and then batted their eye lashes at the group the room dissolved into laughter.
"Hard to imagine you two do serious jobs." Athena said to them.
"Humour gets you through the darker or ruder the better." Clay said to her she glared at them.
"Not with children at the table." Athena said to her.
"Damn I've faced taliban less scary." Evan said to them making the room laugh again.
"She's a cop." Hen said to him.
"In LA that can't be boring." Evan said to them.
"So why did you come all this way?" Bobby asked.
"Well I think its been a year since the last time I saw my sister, deployments can get tediously long and well I'm not a fan of her soon to be ex husband." Evan said to them. "Thought it was time to catch up and I have no idea how long it will be before I get back this way." Evan explained.
"You flew right?" Athena asked.
"Drive from Virginia, we'd have had to turn around before we got half way. So yes we flew and rented that when we landed." Evan admitted. "We'll fly back tomorrow night so its a quick visit as we have a prior engagement we need to be back on base for." Evan added.
"Well we better feed you then." Athena said to him.
"I thought you never would." Clay exclaimed making everyone laugh.
"So whats it like?" Chim asked.
"What is what like?" Evan asked.
"Training." Chim asked.
"The worst experience of your life, they'll break you and they'll rebuild you." Evan asked. "Different for each class so if you want a true explanation of what recent training was like then you need to ask Clay." Evan said to him. A boy with glasses looked at him curiously. Evan smiled brightly at him and he got a big smile.
"You have dog tags?" Christopher asked Eddie snorted as Evan fished his tags out of his clothes taking them off he handed them to the boy. "Cool." Christopher said as Evan's phone rang. He looked down as Clay's went off as well.
"Well shit." Evan muttered as he got up from the table and headed for the office he could see shutting the door behind him as he answered his phone.
"Uh that can't be good." Athena said to them.
"If its cancelled its going to be one hell of a visit." Hen said to her Maddie frowned. "Hon you get this often." Hen asked she nodded.
"It happens often enough." Maddie said as Evan and Clay came back from their calls. "Bad news?" Maddie asked.
"We've been scrambled." Evan said to her. "We'll meet up with the rest of the team on site." Evan said to her. "Car's on the way." Evan said to Clay. "Grab the go bags out of the car." Clay disappeared. "Sorry bud I'm going to need those back." Evan said to Christopher. "When we come back for a visit I'll tell you some child friendly stories." Evan said the boy grinned and handed back his tags which Evan put back around his neck.
"Anything we can know?" Hen asked.
"Not that I was told no, I was just told to give them my location so they could send a car to pick us up." Evan said as he noticed a car pulling into the lot he fished the keys for his rental out of his pocket. "Don't want to be a pain but can someone get that back to the rental?"
"Sure thing sailor." Eddie got up and took the keys as the rest of the team followed Evan down the stairs and out to the car manned by a man in uniform Evan saluted the man.
"We have a plane ready for you if you are ready." The Lt. Said to them.
"Not really but give me a minute." Evan said as he turned to Maddie. "This happens way to often for my liking but I'll call you when I'm back state side." Evan said drawing her into a hug he kissed her cheek. "Chimney right?" Evan asked as he pulled back the asian man nodded. "You know what I do for a living so here's the thing if you hurt my sister they will never find your body. They'll never even be able to proof that you are dead." Evan said to him.
"Understood." Chim said to him with a shaky smile.
"Evan." Maddie growled.
"What? You won't let us deal with Doug because I didn't give him the warning, so I'm giving him the warning." Evan said to her Eddie snorted. "Got to go." Evan said as he walked back to the car and the open front passenger seat door.
"Stay safe." Maddie said to him. Evan offered a cock sure smile to this and they watched as the two men were driven out of the lot. "Dammit." Maddie growled.
"Never gets easier does it?" Chim asked.
"With what he does no." Maddie said to him. "He dies I'm likely never to know the how." Maddie added.
They walked back inside the fire house and started dinner. "How'd your wife deal with this?" Chim asked Eddie.
"She left me." Eddie said simply.
"Evan is single and well gay so no wife there." Maddie said to him.
"And that goes well with his team?" Athena asked.
"It does, I've met a couple of them. I just hope he isn't doing the dirty with Clay." Maddie said to her. "I once asked him about training." Maddie said to them.
"He didn't tell you anything I hope?" Eddie asked her. "Maddie what they do to those men to make them capable of doing the job, that's not what you tell your family ever." Eddie said to her.
"He was a civilian." Maddie said to him.
"Tell's you just how bloody strong that kid is." Athena said to her. "I don't know what the success rate for civilians passing the seal training but I can promise you its pretty damn low." Athena said to her she laughed. "He isn't a civilian anymore." Athena said to her.
"Nah his a petty officer." Maddie said to her.
9-1-1-Seal Team-9-1-1
"You know that set a new record." Evan said as he entered the teams plane.
"Yeah sorry about that." Jason said to him.
"Plane food is disgusting at the best of times, but twice in two days with jet lag, if their isn't decent food on this plan I will murder someone the food is better in prison than rations." Evan said as he grabbed his fatigues and started to change out of his civilian clothes Jason laughed at this. "Seriously though we'd not even been there an hour." Evan said to him.
"You know the job." Jason said to him.
"My sister does not get that Jason, she barely gets I was stupid enough to sign up." Evan said to him. "She still thinks I did it to spite our parents." Evan said to him.
"You did." Ray said to him making the men laugh. "Have you called her since you left?" He asked.
"I've been in flight for twenty hours Ray." Evan said to him. "I'm not even sure what time it is back in LA." Evan said to him with a shake of his head.
"Give him a sat phone and call your sister." Jason said to him.
9-1-1-Seal Team-9-1-1
The phone at the bedside ringing roused both Maddie and Chim it was three am and both groaned, the number didn't show but she answered it. "If you aren't dead or dying I am going to kill you, its three am." Maddie said as a welcoming line.
"Hi Mad's." Evan replied.
"Evan Joseph Buckley do you have any idea what time it is and could you not have you know waited until a decent hour?" Maddie asked.
"I've just reached my destination and the team seemed to think that it was a good idea to call." Evan said to her with a sigh. "I did mention it was going to be late there." Evan said she could hear laughter at that end of the line. "Ray is laughing at me and asking whether you need help killing me?" Evan said to her.
"You've only just arrived?" Maddie asked.
"Yeah I'm going to hit the rack soon enough to try and get around this jet lag." Evan explained.
"You not moving out straight away?" Maddie asked her brother.
"Not yet, we're going to need to get some sleep." Evan said to her. "Listen don't try and call me on this line, its secure and its a sat phone. If you don't hear from me for a few days don't worry. When this is over I'll call you." Evan said to her.
"Will you come out and visit?" She asked.
"That's the plan but you know what the navy is like." Evan said to her she laughed and said she did. "I need to go, they need the phone." Evan said to her.
"Stay safe." Maddie said to him.
"You know me." Evan replied.
"Yes I do thats the problem." Maddie said but the phone had gone dead.
"Can I kill him?" Chim asked she laughed.
"I don't think that would work Chim." Maddie said to her boyfriend. "Besides the fact that he'd eat you for breakfast in a fight." Maddie said to him Chim groaned. "Evan was dangerous before he joined the seals." Maddie said to him.
"How?" Chim asked.
"Gay out footballer, he learned to defend himself the hard way and he had a penchant for imaginative punishment for people who picked fights with him. Plus when someone can swear at you in fifteen different languages nine of which he speaks fluently. He has black belts in three different martial arts that I know off and he spent time in Israel learning from them." Maddie said to him he whistled.
"How smart is he?" Chim asked.
"He has never been tested, he wouldn't allow it but he is a genius." Maddie said to him.
9-1-1-Seal Team-9-1-1
Twelve hours later Evan was sat with a net over him watching the street through a sniper scope, "Well this has got to be one hell of a place to be in this heat." Evan said to Sonny who was trying hard not to laugh. "Haven't moved in four hours." Evan said to him.
"So you and the new guy is that a thing?" Sonny asked.
"Yeah." Evan said to him Sonny groaned. "I didn't go looking for it and I would appreciate if you kept it to yourself." Evan said to him.
"Dude Jason and Ray probably already know, just don't let it compromise your job." Sonny said to him.
"Bravo 1 we have movement." Evan said as he adjusted his sights. "Primary target is on the move, black suv with three others." Evan said to them.
"Bravo four affirmative. We're on route." Jason's reply came a moment later.
"Getting involved with a team member Evan that's stupid you know that right." Sonny said to him.
"You and Lisa much." Evan said to him.
"Okay yeah when did you know?" Sonny asked.
"I see you and her coming out of a hotel a while back, Sonny I get it and I'm an idiot but I really like him." Evan said to him. "And don't tell me you don't really like Lisa because you would be lying." Evan said to him.
"They could order you both to stop if they find out." Sonny said to him.
"Yeah I know." Evan said to him. "So does he, we also know what happens if we don't follow orders on that front. Sonny this isn't my first rodeo, Ben on delta he quit because they ordered us to stop." Evan said to him.
"You and Ben?" Sonny asked.
"His co had an issue with it, ordered him to cease relations and then beasted him into quitting. Can't prove any of it but thats pretty much what happened. Eric the commander and I had a discussion about it not long after we got word he quit. Eric wasn't particularly happy about it but not because it happened but because we weren't open about it." Evan said to him. "I've never hidden who I am from any of you, I've been out since high school but Clay isn't and its not my place to have that discussion with him and tell him what he should do." Evan said to him.
"You never worried about us giving you hell for it." Sonny said to him.
"You understand that I became a seal as a civilian right. That I got hell because I had never worn a uniform before training, you honestly think I was worried about being open with you guys about my sexuality. I was worried you were going to kill me just for daring to join in the first place." Evan said to him.
"You more than earned your place here Evan." Sonny said slapping his shoulder. "Swap out." Sonny said him. Evan pulled back. "Can't fault your taste in men however." Sonny said to him Evan snorted. "How's your sister?" Sonny asked.
"Dating a firefighter while trying to get a divorce from her ass of a husband." Evan said to him. "Thing about being a seal is I know she isn't telling me everything. She knows if he was absuive I'd kill him." Evan said to him with a shake of his head the thunderous look on his friends face told him that they had a similar opinion. "Pretty much what I threatened to do to her boyfriend if he hurt her just before we got called back." Evan said to him he laughed his ass off at this.
"I've met your sister, she's nice." Sonny said to him.
"Yeah... she is... she pretty much raised me." Evan said to him. "The day I told her I signed up that was an epic fight. It was this or a firefigher in LA." Evan said to him Sonny snorted.
"What made your mind up?" Sonny asked.
"You did, bravo team. Ray and Jason found me in a bar and talked me out of quitting. I was not sure I wanted to be that person that they built." Evan said to him. "I don't really have a good relationship with my parents, I'm the baby they didn't want. I found out a while back on my own, that I have a brother." Evan said to him.
"Wow I did not know that where is he?" Sonny asked.
"He died when I was about one, childhood leukemia. They had me in the hope that I would be a donor match for him. I was but it didn't take and low and behold the donor is the one kid that they didn't want." Evan explained.
"Maddie?" Sonny asked.
"Has no idea I know about Daniel, what's the point of bringing him up Sonny. I don't know him, I will never know him and I'd be bringing up bad memories." Evan said to him.
"You think you are the way you are because of them?" Sonny asked.
"Gay?"
"No a thrill seeker, someone who has absolutely no problem running into danger rather than away from it." Sonny said to him making him laugh.
"I'll show you my wall of pain sometime." Evan said to him.
"You have a wall of pain?" Sonny asked.
"Yeah along with a wall of positivity." Evan said to him. "I have a wall in my house filled with positive thoughts. When I was seventeen my best friend and I we were involved in a car accident. He ended up in a wheel chair for life and I got away with barely a scratch. We made a promise that we'd find something positive in each day we lived beyond the accident. 8 other people died that night I was the only one who didn't have serious and life threatening injuries. They can't explain it and I still don't know why." Evan said to him.
"What happened to your friend?" Sonny asked.
"Three weeks into training to be a seal I got a letter from his parents saying he'd taken his own life." Evan said to him. "I swore after the accident that I would make a difference in this world and I live by that."
"You sometimes you have to ask why." Sonny said to him.
"Every day, but I walked away and no one else did." Evan said to him.
"He wasn't a friend was he?" Sonny asked.
"No he was my boyfriend, my first boyfriend." Evan said to him. "I've never really talked about Sean with anyone before." Evan said to him. "Heads up."
"Bravo 2 secondary target is on the move." Sonny called into the radio.
"Acknowledged." Ray's voice came through loud and clear.
"Moving to secondary position." Evan said into his radio.
"Acknowledged Bravo 4."
9-1-1-Seal Team-9-1-1
"You think we can find a cold country for the next one please." Evan said to Jason who was laughing as they drove back towards the plane. "I need a shower and a bunk." Evan added. "And to be as far from Sonny's stink as possible." Evan added Sonny roared with laughter.
"Save the world from his stink." Ray added.
"Can I borrow your 9mm." Evan said to him gaining the laughter of the team.
"You aren't smelling to much better their Buckley." Jason pointed out.
"Yeah but I'm sexier." Evan said to him to much more laughter. They were soon at the plane and heading for the on board showers. The co stopped Evan before he could get that far. "Sir?" Evan asked him.
"You and Spencer?" He asked.
"Yeah I figured that wasn't going to stay a secret for long." Evan said to him.
"After what happened with Ben I don't need to tell you how well received this will be among the other teams. And while I would rather it wasn't going on, I will not order you to stop unless it compromises your ability to do the job together." Eric said to him. "Does it?" Eric asked.
"No sir." Evan said to him.
"Please choose discretion Buckley." Eric said to him.
"I think most of the team knows, Sonny gave me the talk." Evan said to him Eric laughed. "Yeah if clueless Sonny can work it out I am fairly sure that Jason and Ray will." Evan said to him.
"I'm signing off on a week of leave for you all when we touch down. I'm also going to make sure you get to LA, since we cancelled your plans." Eric said to him. "Go shower you smell and not of roses." Eric added.
A few hours later Evan felt a hand on his shoulder opening his eyes from his hammock, "Jason its a long flight, can we talk about this when we aren't bone tired." Evan said to him.
"Sonny mentioned talking to you about Clay." Jason said to him. "You lied to me and I think you know that if we were giving you a hard time we knew." Jason said to him. "This doesn't work if we are lying to each other Evan. I'm not thrilled by your choice but I will and so will every other member of this team have your backs. Don't lie to me again and if it compromises either of you I trust that you will end it." Jason said to him.
"Yes sir." Evan said to him. "For what its worth I like him, it wasn't intentional falling for him." Evan added.
"Go see your sister Evan and take him with you, his like a lost puppy when you aren't about. Its what clued us in." Jason said to him.