TK was tense to say the least. The inspector was due any minute and all TK could think about was if they had done enough. The past four days had been all about preparing for the inspection. Any minor repairs that had been put off became glaringly evident and he and Carlos had made numerous trips to both the hardware store and the paint store for repair and touch-up materials. TK had asked his dad and Judd to help them with some of the more labor intensive repairs that TK had listed.
"TK, will you please sit down, you're making me nervous." Carlos said, pulling the last few dishes out of the dishwasher and putting them away.
TK looked up from where he had been pacing the living room.
"This inspector's decision is the deciding factor in whether or not Bailey gets to stay in Austin with us or if she has to stay with the Hubbards and moves to El Paso," He said. "You should be nervous. How are you not nervous?"
Carlos leaned up against the kitchen island.
"Because I'm trying to focus on things that I can control," He said, shutting the dish washer and walking over to his boyfriend. He takes TK's hands in his and swings their arms. "We've done everything that we possibly can. Actually, I think the house looks better now than it did when I first bought it. Whatever happens, happens, just please relax."
TK looked up at Carlos.
"Really?" He asked, simply needing a bit of reassurance at the moment.
Carlos smiled softly.
"Yes, now please come sit down for a second and take a breath before the Sable and the inspector get here." He said.
TK nodded and together he and Carlos sat curled onto the couch. They hadn't been there long before the doorbell rang, catching their attention.
"Okay," TK breathed. "Let's do this."
Owen picked up Bailey alone that morning. She had been confused at first but Owen had told her what TK had told him which was that he had a last minute appointment that couldn't be postponed or avoided.
"It's weird coming in without TK here." Bailey laughed as she climbed out of the passenger seat of Owen's truck.
Owen chuckled.
"It's weird for me too. The only time I come in alone is when I'm managing B-shift or when TK's ambo crew is on opposite shift for a bit." He said.
Bailey walked in alongside Owen with her backpack slung over her shoulder. As always, she had brought a number of things with her when things in the house got slow. She'd brought a sketchbook and a couple of small canvases to possibly do some painting if she found some inspiration.
"Hey, Bailey's back!" Marjan called from the top of the ladder truck.
Bailey laughed and waved.
"Heyo!" She said.
"No TK today Cap?" Paul asked, sliding out from underneath the truck.
Owen looked down at Paul, mildly surprised to see the man sliding out from beneath the 50,000 pound vehicle.
"No, he had a last minute appointment that he couldn't miss or reschedule so the EMTs will be flying a man down today." He said.
Paul shrugged and pulled himself back underneath the truck to continue his work. Bailey chuckled; it wasn't what she expected to see at 8:00 in the morning but a day at the 126 was never normal.
Three hours later and Bailey had officially exhausted all of her activities. She'd drawn, read, played with Buttercup and more. Yet, she was still bored.
"Okay, I'm officially bored." Bailey said, flopping back onto the couch.
Judd chuckled as he took a bite of his granola bar.
"Ran out of things to do already?" He asked.
Bailey looked up at him.
"There's not much for a teen to do around a fire house on slow days, Judd." She said.
"Well, why don't you come out on a call with us when one comes through." Judd shrugged.
"Really?" Bailey asked, perking up at the suggestion.
Judd shrugged again.
"Yeah, nobody'll mind, we love having you around and it's not like you haven't been on calls before. Just ask Cap when you see 'im next." He said.
"Who's asking me what?" Owen said, walking into the kitchen and pulling open one of the cabinets.
Judd looked over at Bailey and nodded.
"Um, I was wondering if I could come out on the next call with you guys." She asked.
Owen pulled down a bag of kale chips and closed the cabinet. He turned and looked at the teen and shrugged.
"Yeah," He said. "As long as it's not a fire."
"Sweet!" Bailey smiled. "Thank you."
Owen chuckled.
"Don't thank me yet, we're gonna put you to work." He said.
"I welcome it." Bailey challenged.
Owen laughed.
"You fit in so well." He said.
Carlos pulled the front door open and smiled when he saw Sable and a man, the inspector he presumed, standing on the porch.
"Hello," He greeted as cheerfully as he could without making it sound forced. "Come on in."
Both Sable and the man came inside and TK occupied the space to Carlos' immediate right.
"Thank you so much for coming out," Carlos said, outstretching his hand toward the man. "Carlos Reyes."
"Jack," He said, taking Carlos' hand in a firm shake. "Jack Hasselhoff."
That caught TK's attention.
"I'm sorry?" He said.
"Jack Hasselhoff." Jack repeated.
TK nodded.
"Okay, just wanted to make sure I heard that right." He said.
Jack chuckled.
"It's okay. I know that it's a double take kind of a situation," He said. "You're one of the few to not make a joke about it."
TK nodded, he kind of needed Jack to like them so a joke would have been a bad choice on his part. He shook his head to clear his thoughts and then reached out his own hand.
"TK Strand." He said, shaking Jack's hand.
Sable smiled.
"I'm so glad we could schedule this so quickly," She said. Carlos glanced side-long at TK; they hadn't really given the social worker much choice in the way of scheduling out farther but at least she was on their side now. "So, I'm sure you two are both anxious about this whole thing so how about we jump right in and get this done as soon as we can."
TK nodded and cleared his throat.
"Where would you like to start?" He asked.
Sable looked to Jack and motioned for him to take the lead.
"Well, at the risk of sounding too peppy I'll say, let's start at the very beginning, a very good place to start." He said, a smile playing at his mouth.
"Okay." Carlos said simply, motioning for Jack to walk ahead of him.
Jack smiled and walked past them and into the living room. Carlos cocked his head and looked to TK.
"Did he just quote The Sound of Music?" He whispered.
TK nodded.
"This should be interesting." He muttered.
"Very." Carlos agreed.
Not even an hour later the alarm had sounded through the station. Bailey looked to Owen for confirmation and when he nodded she jumped up happily. She hurried behind Paul and Marjan and Judd climbed in behind her, making sure that she got in okay.
"I love going on calls." Bailey smiled, squirming in her seat as they pulled out of the firehouse.
Judd chuckled.
"I swear if I didn't know better I would think you really were TK's kid," He said. "You guys have the same peppy, excitability."
Bailey smiled and shrugged.
"Certainly not the worst thing I've been accused of." She said.
Judd was mildly confused but seeing Bailey's lax behavior about it, he let it go. He did take a mental note of it though. They pulled up to the source of the call about three minutes later and the team piled out of the truck. Bailey took one look around and her jaw nearly hit the pavement.
"This gives a whole new meaning to cat out of a tree." Bailey said, leaning up against the truck and shaking her head. A dog sat quivering on the roof of a townhome. The owners were trying to coax the poor pup back toward the window but the dog was too terrified to move. "How did he even get up there?"
Owen walked up next to her and chuckled.
"Dogs are strange and miraculous creatures. Look at Buttercup for example, for the first week that we had him TK was adamant on not falling in love with him. There was a lot of underlying emotion there and he was pushing Buttercup away. So, in retaliation Buttercup attached himself. He chewed on TK's shoes, would only sleep on his bed, hoarded his day clothes in his dog bed. It was kind of hard not to love him after that but dogs are pretty interesting animals." Owen said, recalling the first few days of having Buttercup.
Bailey laughed.
"I can just picture Buttercup with these innocent eyes." She said.
Owen laughed and nodded.
"All the time, even with one of TK's shoes in his mouth his eyes were just asking, 'what did I do wrong?'" He said.
Bailey laughed and looked back to the house where Paul was climbing up the ladder to the roof and scooping the pup up. Overall, the call didn't take longer than a half hour or forty-five minutes but it was just enough time to give Bailey some time out of the house. Once they got back she ended up helping out with the list of chores and tasks that had accumulated over the course of the day.
"So, what's the verdict?" TK asked, practically bouncing on his toes.
Jack looked from Sable to the couple with a straight face. Carlos was practically holding his breath and TK clutched his hand with an iron grip.
"Well, after looking at everything," Jack said, flipping through the pages on his clipboard for a moment. "I think that it's safe to say that Bailey will be very happy here."
TK was shocked to silence for a moment but then held his arms up in victory.
"Thank you," He breathed. "Thank you so much."
Carlos looked to his boyfriend, a smiled broad on his face. He reached out his hand and Jack shook it.
"Thank you for coming out today." He said.
Jack nodded.
"Always nice to deliver good news," He said. "I wish you luck and respectfully, I hope to never have to see you again."
Carlos chuckled.
"You too." He said.
Jack took his leave, leaving TK and Carlos with Sable in their living room.
"So, what's the next step?" Carlos asked.
Sable reached into her bag and pulled out a file.
"Well, with everything moving as quickly as it is with the Hubbards I want to get Bailey moved by the end of the weekend," She said. She'd warmed up to TK and Carlos quite quickly once she'd uncovered more of Bailey's situation. "So, I am going to grant a temporary guardianship transfer until the judge gets in Monday morning and we can get the official paperwork signed, notarized and filed. You've completed all of the steps, albeit at an accelerated pace, so I have absolutely no qualms in giving this lovely file to you."
Sable handed the file over to TK who took it and held it close, not for any particular reason, just as a reassurance that this was happening.
"So, we can tell her then, and start moving her things here?" Carlos asked.
Sable nodded.
"Definitely," She said. "I will be stopping by the Hubbards tomorrow morning to tell them about the transfer so I suggest moving her things soon after that."
Carlos nodded.
"I bet she'll already be thinking about how to decorate." He laughed.
Sable smiled.
"I don't doubt it," She laughed. "Well, I will leave you to celebrate and I will contact you the moment that I get the papers signed by the judge."
As soon as Carlos shut the door behind Sable, TK launched himself at his boyfriend, pinning him so that his back was pressed against the door. He kissed him deeply before pulling back and resting their foreheads together.
"Well, that was unexpected," Carlos laughed. "Welcome, but unexpected."
TK smiled.
"If I wasn't so excited to go and tell Bailey the good news, we would be heading upstairs to have an entirely different type of celebration." He said, biting his lower lip just a bit.
Carlos' eyebrows shot up.
"She'll probably be with the Hubbards for one more night." He said.
TK smiled.
"As unhappy as that makes me, we will be returning to a position very similar to this as soon as we are alone." He said.
Carlos smiled, and kissed TK lightly one more time.
"Let's go tell her the good news."
Bailey had just finished unpacking the last of the new equipment when TK and Carlos pulled up. She looked up from her place on the floor with a smile.
"Well hello there." She said.
TK furrowed his brow.
"Why are you on the floor?" He asked.
"She was helping me unpack the new equipment." Mateo said, coming out from behind one of the open truck compartments.
"Ah," TK said. "Well, I'm sorry to say that we must borrow her for a bit."
Bailey furrowed her brow but shrugged and pushed herself to her feet. Mateo frowned.
"Will she be back?" He asked.
"That will be up to her." Carlos said guiding his boyfriend and Bailey towards the kitchen.
"Let's head up to my dad's office." TK said.
Bailey was confused as she was guided upstairs. Owen was in his office when the couple and Bailey walked in. He looked up from his computer when TK shut the door.
"Is everything okay?" He asked.
"Everything is great. But we have to talk to Bailey and we figure you should know too." TK said.
Owen nodded, sitting up straighter in his chair.
"Okay," Carlos said. "Bailey, we know that the Hubbards are moving to El Paso and that you don't want to go."
Bailey nodded, wringing her hands in front of her as her anxiety began to climb.
"But we have to tell you that we haven't been entirely honest with you about something," TK said. "We kept saying that we didn't know if we could help and even though that was mostly true, things have changed."
Owen stood and approached Bailey, placing a hand on her shoulder in support.
"We talked to your social worker and they came by the house this afternoon." Carlos said.
"You guys had an inspection?" Owen asked.
TK nodded, his father was aware that TK and Carlos were going through the process to become certified foster parents but he was surprised that they were able to get through the system so quickly.
"S-so, what umm, what does that mean?" Bailey asked, stuttering through her question.
TK smiled.
"How would you like to move in with us?" He asked.
Bailey's eyes widened.
"Are you serious?" She asked.
Carlos nodded.
"Your social worker approved a temporary transfer of guardianship until she can meet with the judge on Monday and get the official paperwork signed." He explained.
"So I don't have to go to El Paso?" She asked. "I can stay here and live with you? I can keep coming to the fire house? I don't have to move?"
Questions were tumbling out of Bailey's mouth. Carlos laughed and nodded.
"Well, you still have to move, you'll just be moving into our house instead of to El Paso." He shrugged.
Bailey was smiling, laughing, and crying all at the same time. She immediately stepped forward and wrapped her arms around both Carlos and TK.
"I take that as a yes." Carlos chuckled, wrapping his arm around Bailey tightly.
"Yes," Bailey said, though her voice was mumbled against TK's shoulder. "Thank you."
TK smiled up at Carlos who was beaming as well.
"You're officially part of the 126 now, mija." Carlos said, kissing Bailey's head softly.