Hi! So I just binged 9-1-1 and love it, especially Maddie and Chim. I wanted to explore the idea of missing and or alternate scenes in the show - especially those in season 4 because like we got jipped with the covid storyline. This fandom is pretty active on a03 but I also thought I would try my luck on this site as well. :) We'll see what kind of traction we get here. :) Reviews are my soul food. :) Thank you in advance!
Missing Scene #1: Maddie and Chimney tell the 118 the good news
She grabs his arm, tight. "Chim," she tells him, a hint of wavering in her voice.
She tries so hard not to scare him, to scare anybody, but she would be lying if she said she wasn't scared herself.
He's a steady, dependable man, they love each other, as much in actions as in words, and it's not like this wasn't something they'd talked about before.
She just wasn't expecting it so soon. She had this feeling he wasn't either. The way he was looking at her, said that he wasn't expecting it now. He still didn't get it.
His brain hadn't given him those context clues, or at least, the ones hers did, not yet. Not right away. Men. Always slow on the uptake. Yet, women want them around anyways.
Especially this man; she wants him around more than she can physically describe in words.
"We need to go. Now."
"What? Why?"
He's still confused as ever and he's enjoying himself at a party he's clearly not ready to leave, that nauseating salmon still perched on his fork.
He had been ready to feed that to her, sweetly, just like he always does with things of his that she wants to try, it's something that's always been comfortable between them, and the rest of the 118 often tease them about being newlyweds.
At least this time it's not cake. That had been earlier. The teasing had been earlier, too. She could still taste the icing in the back of her throat. The thought made her lips curl in nausea and she had this strong feeling that she might never eat cake again.
She leans over and whispers the secret in his ear and his eyes widen. He grabs her arm, just like she'd grabbed his, and pulled her through the crowd of people.
"Where are you two off too so early?" Athena asked, a light hand on her wrist, and she looks at Chim, he looks at her, they nod at each other.
Unofficially, Athena was the monarch of the 118, so word would travel, but not too fast. It's how they needed it to be, for now. Until they knew for sure.
"I think I might be pregnant. I - I don't know. The signs are there - fatigue, nausea -"
"Hormones," Chimney interjects and it's all she can do not to punt him in the ribs and she thinks, maybe he's right.
Athena puts her hands daintily up to her mouth and gasped. "Oh Chim...Maddie...that's wonderful news."
Maddie smiled weakly, feels that, suddenly, a lot is riding on a stick that she pees on. Maybe too much.
"Thank you - um -" she points feebly to the back gate and Athena ushers them along with a light touch on the small of her back. "Yes, yes of course, go."
Chim intertwines their fingers as they leave, and as he drives his one hand is on the wheel, and his other is still wrapped around hers, resting on his thigh, and it's comforting.
She's lost count on how many times she's thought of the word 'safe' around him, but it's what she feels and it's that feeling that most deeply translates her love for him. Safety. Her lifeboat in the storm. Her firefighter among the smoke and flames.
She leans over and kisses his cheek, her lips brushing over his stubble. Mm.
It was the first thing she'd noticed the day she met him, the salt and pepper specks in his hair, both things Eddie didn't have, and she wondered how much older he was then her. Three, four years?
For the rest of the time the guys were at her apartment, she had to refrain from reaching out and sliding her hand across his super defined jaw. She could remember Evan's slack-jawed expression when she'd said that Chimney was the cute one.
Eddie's no slouch, but, and this could be those hormones talking, Chimney is a man. A man who's subtle wrinkles around his face and eyes show that he's lived a life worth talking about, as a paramedic, she knows that he has, but there's more to it.
There was, but she didn't learn about that until later. Her attraction only grew then. He'd gone through all of that and still came out the other side, in one piece and hot as hell. Definitely the hormones talking. She squeezed his hand.
Together, they went into their place, and she dropped their things at the door after scrambling in the drugstore bag for the box of pregnancy tests. Plural. You could never be too careful.
He's rushing her; she can hear him pacing outside the door, can picture him wringing his hands with some sort of thoughtful expression on his face, and anxiety. A lot of anxiety. She was feeling it too. She wasn't really sure what she wanted, but in about thirty more seconds, what she wanted wouldn't really matter anymore.
She took a breath, turned over the first test. Two pink lines stared back at her. Clear as day. Okay. So...okay. She turned over the next one, holding her breath. Again, there was no mistaking the two pink lines. Well. Okay. She was definitely pregnant. And she felt...happy.
She'd told Chimney she wanted kids but she hadn't been in a stable home, or a stable enough relationship, to have them. Both things were true.
And if she were being honest, she didn't much picture Doug as a father, and it wasn't only because she'd been afraid of the idea that he would hit their kids. His own kids. It was more than that.
Chimney though...Howie...he would be an excellent father, and there wasn't anyone else she would rather do this with; she knows that's what gets said, but it's just...true.
She loves him. And he loves her. He'll love their kids more. He'll say he won't, but he might, and she'll be okay with that. She always wanted her children to have a father that they could look up to and Howie was that man.
"What's taking so long? You just pee on a -
Maddie walks out of the bathroom and strides towards him. She holds up one of the tests in her hand. She watches him squint at it.
"Wait ...is that..."
She holds up the other test.
"You're pregnant?"
"We're pregnant," she says firmly. She needs him to know that she wants him in this as much as her.
"We're pregnant." He repeats in monotone, but then he smiles softly, almost as if in thought.
"Yep." She says to him, and she can hear it. Her voice is scared. She's still in shock.
"We're having a baby!"
She laughs at his sudden burst of excitement and she has it too, and she practically falls forward into his arms as he hugs her.
She holds onto him for a little bit longer. Inhales the smell of him.
Of that woodsy cologne, the residue of ash that somehow embeds itself within the threads of his shirts, but she doesn't mind it, is used to it now, and an even fainter aroma of spearmint from that gum he's always chewing, she swears it. All of it together, it makes up the scent of him and his scent is a constant comfort to her.
She craves it sometimes. It was all she could think about during the hostage situation at the call centre. Getting out of there, getting out of there alive, so that she could hug him, hug him and bury her head in his chest just one more time.
The moment it finally happened, it was one of the only three times in her life that she's ever cried tears of joy.
As she feels her eyes fill with tears, looking at his face right now, so scared, but so hopeful, too, she knows that it wasn't the last.
"We should text them. My phone is probably blowing up like crazy."
She sniffles, nods her head and pulls back from him.
"Oh!" She retracts her hands from around his shoulders. "I probably just got my pee all over you."
She blushed. Pee was an embarrassing word. Especially when used like that, in front of her boyfriend. To her boyfriend.
"No worries, sweetheart." He smiles. "Today it's your pee. Tomorrow, baby puke."
She smiles back at him. "Yeah. I guess so."
They settle on the couch, and she watches as he opens up the group chat on his phone.
They had the chat long before she came into the picture, but it felt different somehow, because now she makes up one eighth of it. It was aptly and simply titled "The 118 🚒"
Chimney clicked onto the contact and composed a new message. He looked at her in his lap, the cursor blinking away.
"How should we do this? Do we be the polite couple, or the obnoxious couple?"
She laughs. "How about both."
She holds up the two tests, both in one hand this time, her other hand holding the phone, and as naturally as ever he wrapped his arms around her midsection, resting his palms right above her bellybutton. They're both smiling ear to ear as she takes the picture, selfie style.
"Perfect," she says more to herself than to him. "Now for the obnoxious one."
He looks down at her. "What -"
Stopping him, she tips her head up to meet his and their lips touch, and she's still holding the tests in the one hand, except this time, her other hand is firm on his cheek.
He looks at the picture after she's taken it. Nods his head in approval.
"Great. Super obnoxious. Send 'em both. I'm sure they're all just dying to know."
Maddie chuckles. "I'm sure you're right."
She presses send after she's attached both pictures to the message, otherwise blank, and then it's done. Now all that's left to do is wait for a response.
...
"Mom!" May called over the music and Athena looked at her. "Yes?"
"I think your phone went off. Can I check it? It's right here." Before she can say anything, May picks up her phone and takes a look. She just prays it's nothing.
Bobby walked into the living area from their kitchen, his phone in his hand. "Did you see?"
May looks up from her phone as Athena shrugs. "Maddie's pregnant!" she squeals.
Then Buck comes up to them, pumping a fist in the air. "Finally. I'm going to be an uncle! Can I get a hell yeah?"
"You just know these two decided to rub it in," Eddie snorts, "did you guys see these pictures?"
Hen came up behind her, her own phone in her hand. Why was everybody so attached to their phones? Well, she guessed, it was pretty big news.
"Look. Look how cute 'Thena. They're so in love it's absolutely sickening."
She looks at both pictures, and subtly agrees with her. It was pretty sickening, but she couldn't say she wasn't happy for Chimney.
The man had been waiting an entire lifetime for that girl. It had always just been a matter of when he would meet her. Maddie Buckley. The Kid's older, wiser, beautiful, sister.
And to think, when Athena first met Buck, it took everything in her not to punch him in that arrogant little throat of his. She's glad she didn't now, for Chim, and for a multitude of other reasons.
He was part of their family now. For better or for worse. So was Maddie. They both were. She wouldn't change a thing about how any of it turned out. She looks at the pictures Chim sent again. Not a one.
To my fellow Madney shippers - Don't forget to review! Xx