Jolene is sitting in the middle of her living room, surrounded by post-it notes with guests' names on them, trying to work on a seating chart. Robert is sitting on the couch helping. The front door opens and Buck walks in, carrying a black binder and a gift bag.
"Hey," Jo greets.
"Hi." Buck walks over and gives Jo a kiss.
"Where's Ezra?" Buck asks. "I brought him a present."
"Julia and Ben took him down to the park," Jo says. "What are you doing here? I thought you had to work?"
"I do. I just wanted to stop by before my shift and bring this to Ezra. I also wanted to talk to you really quick."
Buck stops and looks at Robert. Robert gets the hint that Buck wants him to leave, and stands up.
"I'm going to go for a little walk." He goes to the front door and leaves.
Jo stands up and looks in the gift bag Buck put on the counter.
"What did you bring Ezra?"
"Nothing much. Just a badge, a helmet, the normal things kids get when they visit the firehouse. I wanted him to look the part when he comes over later."
"If I didn't know any better, I'd say you were trying to steal my thunder," Jo jokes.
"Try and keep up."
Jo's mouth falls open with a smile. Buck winks and kisses her.
"What did you want to talk to me about?" Jo asks.
Buck holds up the binder he's carrying. He takes it over to the table, and they both sit down.
"What's this?" Jo says, turning the binder around so she can look through it.
"It's my contingency plan, in case something happens to me."
Jo's heart drops. She looks up at him, taking a shallow breath.
"Maddie used to be my emergency contact, but now that we're getting married, it will be you."
"I haven't seen one of these in a long time," Jo says, staring at the binder.
"I already have everything planned out, so you don't have to do anything."
Jo opens it up and starts looking through it. "You already have a cemetery plot?"
"Mhm. It's probably the most responsible thing I've ever done."
Jo reads through Evan's wishes. How he wants to be buried, the music to be played at his funeral, even who the pallbearers would be.
"Bobby and I have an agreement. If something happens to either one of us, the other will notify their family."
Jo nods. "So if I ever see Bobby walking up our sidewalk, I'll know something bad happened."
Jo flips through the pages, getting more anxious and scared as she goes. Buck grabs her hand.
"Hey. This is just in case. Nothing is going to happen to me."
"You can't promise that."
"I know. But I don't want you to worry about it."
Buck kisses Jo's hand. "I've got a little time before I need to leave. Can I help you with the seating chart?"
Jo smiles. "Sure."
The couple goes back to the living room and sits down on the floor.
"So, who are we setting up by sitting them next to each other?"
Jo laughs and picks up two names. "I always thought these two would make a cute couple."
...
Two drug dealers, Nick and Trevor, are sitting at the table packaging drugs in their dirty, run-down house. Nick gets up and opens the door to the bedroom. Inside is an alligator crawling around on the floor. He tries to walk into the room, but the alligator snips at him.
"Don't be rude," Nick scolds the alligator. "These bags don't belong to you."
Nick throws a piece of chicken on the opposite side of the room to distract the gator, and grabs a bag of drugs off the bedside table. Then he quickly hops out of the room and goes back to the living room.
"We need one more bag," Trevor says.
Nick huffs, then gets back up. He opens the bedroom door and the alligator is sitting there. Nick distracts him again and runs in to grab another bag. Before he can get out, the alligator comes at him, biting him in the leg.
...
The 118 pulls up to the house just as Athena pulls up. They all get out and start walking to the house.
"Are we being pranked?" Athena asks.
"This sounds too fake not to be real," Bobby says.
They get to the door and go inside. Athena opens the door slowly.
"LAPD and LAFD."
"In here!" Trevor yells.
The gang walks into the living room where Trevor is standing at the doorway of the bedroom. He has a broom in his hand trying to move the alligator.
Athena's mouth falls open. "There really is an alligator in your bedroom."
"You didn't believe me?"
"No."
"Get me out of here!" Nick cries out. He is standing on top of a dresser. His leg has had a chunk of it bitten out. The gator is laying on the floor in front of the dresser, waiting for Nick to come down so he can take another bite out of him.
"I tried going in, but El Chompo won't let me," Trevor says.
"El Chompo?" Buck asks, trying to suppress a laugh.
"That's the alligator's name."
"Have you tried a distraction?" Bobby asks.
"Yea, but it doesn't distract him for long. He's starting to get mad, so it's no use."
"I'll call animal control," Athena says. "They'll be able to subdue him."
"You're not going to take him away, are you?" Trevor asks.
"Yes. It's illegal to own an alligator in the state of California."
Athena sees the drugs stacked up in the room.
"I see the alligator isn't the only illegal thing in your possession."
Athena walks away to call animal control.
"We really need to get in there and look at his leg," Hen says, noticing how much Nick is bleeding.
"We aren't going in until animal control gets here," Bobby says. "I think he'll be fine until then."
The gang watches the alligator and waits for animal control to get there.
...
The animal control officer is standing in the doorway of the bedroom trying to figure out the best way to subdue the gator.
"Here's the plan. We're going to throw one of your coats over top of his head. As soon as we do that, you three are going to jump onto his back so that I can tape his mouth shut. Once his mouth is taped shut, he can't do anything. That will give you two a chance to go in and check on your patient."
Bobby, Eddie and Buck look taken back. He wants them to jump on the alligator's back.
"You want us to jump onto that alligator?" Eddie asks.
"You're the three biggest and the three strongest. Trust me, if he's going to bite anyone, it's going to be me." He looks at Bobby. "Give me your coat."
Bobby takes off his coat and gives it to the officer.
"On my count of three, we move."
Bobby, Buck and Eddie get ready.
"One, two, three."
He throws the coat on top of the alligator. It starts thrashing around, throwing the coat off.
"Stop!"
He stops them before they can jump onto the alligator.
"We're going to try it again." He grabs the coat off the floor. "One, two, three."
He throws the coat back onto the alligator. The guys jump onto the gator. The officer jumps in and holds the gator's head down. He tapes him mouth shut, stopping the gator from biting. Hen and Chimney come in and help Nick off of the dresser and out of the room.
"Now I know why Steve Irwin loved crocodiles so much," Buck enthuses. "That was a rush!"
Bobby and Eddie shake their heads and walk away. They didn't enjoy it as much.
... ... ... ...
So I wrote this story before last night's episode aired. What is happening in the show is different from what is going to happen in this story. But that's what makes it unique, right? Anyway, I truly hope you guys enjoy this one!