Taylor climbed out of the news van and straightened her skirt, looking around the scene. It was still chaos, which was fine by her. If this could help her career and her relationship with Buck, it would be a win-win.
She'd heard the call about a massive car crash that was going to take hours to deal with. And when she heard the stations that were going to respond, she'd gotten her cameraman and off they went. Taylor had packed the van days ago, waiting for this opportunity.
"Get some footage, but nothing too gory," Taylor directed, pointing her cameraman in the direction of a firefighter using the jaws of life to take the door off of a smashed car. It wasn't the firefighter she was looking for, but it would do for now. They wandered around the periphery of the scene, getting good shots.
It only took a few minutes to spot a 118 on the back of a turnout jacket. It wasn't Buck or Eddie, thank goodness, but Taylor figured that the different stations split the scene into sections, so she got ready to stick around that area. She rushed back to her van, loading her arms up with supplies. It was time for her real plan to start.
"Are you okay?" Taylor asked a woman standing to the side of the scene with a bandage on her forehead. "Would you like some water?"
"Thank you," the woman replied shakily, accepting the bottle that Taylor was holding out for her. She kept flicking her eyes around, trying to catch a glimpse of her man. Doing all of this would be a waste of time if Buck didn't see it.
"Taylor?" Taylor felt a jolt of excitement flash through her body at the sound of Buck's voice, but smoothed her features into one of concern by the time she turned to face him.
"Hey."
"Were you caught in this accident? Are you hurt?" Buck asked, looking her over with a panicked stare. She loved that he was worried about her and would've said yes if she thought she could get away with it.
"I came to do a report for my station, but when I saw how many people needed help, I decided to abandon it and focus on that," Taylor replied, biting her lip as she looked around at all the people who were shuffling around with injuries.
"Really?"
"I might get in trouble with my bosses, but that doesn't matter. Doing what I can to help people is more important."
"Wow. You're amazing," Buck said in awe. Taylor had to stop herself from smiling smugly at the praise. She already knew that was true, but she'd never get tired of hearing it.
"It's what everyone should do," Taylor replied, reaching for another bottle. "Have some water. You look exhausted."
"Thanks," Buck said with a soft smile, taking the bottle gratefully. Taylor stared at the bits of throat she could see as he tipped his head back and drank half the bottle in one go. The sight was so enticing that Taylor had the urge to pull Buck into the nearest fire truck and have a quickie with him. She'd heard the stories about the old Buck and wouldn't mind seeing him in action. But trying to pull him away from an active scene wouldn't make her look very good, so she held back.
"Buck, we've got a trapped woman!" Eddie called out as he darted past them. He didn't even look in Taylor's direction.
"I gotta go. Thanks for this!" Buck said quickly, running off without even giving her a proper goodbye. A peck on the lips wouldn't have taken much time. She watched after them, scowling as Buck gave Eddie the rest of his water as they made their way to the car they were about to work on. Buck was supposed to stay near her, watching how helpful she was being. But once again, his focus was on Eddie.
Eddie could've done this on his own or asked someone else for assistance, but of course he'd gone to Buck. If Taylor didn't know any better, she'd say he did it on purpose because he was jealous of her spot in Buck's life. Eddie may have Buck at work and during any free time he didn't spend with her, but Taylor got Buck in her bed at night and he couldn't say the same. That's what counted. Taylor gave Buck something Eddie never could. She needed to remind Buck of that as often as possible.
Taylor was pissed. She had been at the scene for an hour now, but besides the one time she'd talked to Buck, no one had acknowledged her. It was hot and loud and she was almost out of water bottles, but she couldn't leave. Buck had to see that she stayed or else this wouldn't have as strong of an effect as she wanted. But she was also getting really annoyed at all the people she was helping. Taylor had almost died in a helicopter crash and she held it together, but now she was listening to people cry about their cars and minor injuries.
"I can't believe this shit!" a man growled a few yards away from where Taylor was standing. She looked up to find a group of three rough-looking guys huddled together, glaring at the scene in anger. "I just put a ton of money into my bike and now it's wrecked!"
"LA drivers. Everyone is a damn idiot!" one of the other men snarled. Taylor followed their gaze toward the accident, spotting a couple of motorcycles on their sides. One had a car halfway on top of it. Taylor wasn't really a motorcycle girl, having seen the aftermath of crashes during her traffic days, but she did enjoy the occasional thrill of riding on the back of one. And she knew how important they were to the people who rode them. These guys were likely to explode.
"If I could get my hands on the driver who caused this," the third man muttered, grinding his fist into his palm. Taylor was about to slink away to get out of the line of fire when a sobbing woman stopped next to the car that was on top of the motorcycle and grabbed something from inside. The men noticed as well and stormed over. Taylor was a safe distance from the action, but she could still hear what was going on.
"This your car?" the first man demanded, getting into the woman's face.
"Y-yes?"
"Nice driving. Look what you did to my fucking bike!" he snapped, pointing angrily at his damaged motorcycle.
"I'm sorry! I was rear ended and couldn't stop in time," the woman cried, shrinking away from the man as he towered over her. All three of the men were at least a foot taller than her. If Taylor was the type to be intimidated, this may have given her pause.
"I don't want to hear your bullshit excuses! I want to hear what you plan on doing to make this right!"
"I-I can give you my insurance information."
"Insurance? You think I deserve to have my rates go up after this? I think you owe me more than money."
"What?"
"I've got a couple ideas on how you can start to repay back your debt," the man said, leering at her. Taylor could admit this was swerving into scarier territory. She was just about to nudge her cameraman to start filming when a turnout jacket blurred past and entered the fray.
"Back up!" Eddie snapped, stepping in between the woman and the men. "What the hell do you think you're doing?"
"Mind your business! This doesn't concern you," the man growled, glaring down at Eddie. He had a couple inches on him and that pleased Taylor a bit.
"I'm making it my business!" Eddie shot back, not backing down at all. Taylor got excited, thinking she was about to see Eddie get knocked down a peg. She'd heard about Eddie's street fighting phase from Buck one night, but she hadn't been impressed. It probably wasn't as intense as Buck made it out to be.
"And what do you think you're going to do about it?"
"Whatever I need to do."
"What is going on here?" Taylor turned to watch as Buck's captain's wife stomped up with authority, stopping to stand beside Eddie. She hadn't had much interaction with Athena, but she knew how close Buck was to her and Bobby. Just another hurdle she'd have to deal with later. "Do we have a problem?"
"No problem, officer," the man grumbled, eyeing Athena's hand that was resting against her holster.
"It's Sergeant. And I wasn't talking to you," she smirked, raising her eyebrows toward Eddie. "Everything alright?"
"I noticed a situation escalating between them and another car accident victim and stepped in before it could get out of hand," Eddie explained, gesturing to the woman who was still huddled behind him.
"Is that so?" Athena asked, eyeing the men in disgust. "This isn't stressful enough? You decided to cause more trouble for the sake of it?" The men looked pissed to be getting lectured, but knew they couldn't do anything while dealing with a cop.
"It was just a conversation. No big deal," the man grumbled, backing up a step to show they were surrendering.
"Why don't you get out of here before I make your bad day even worse?" Athena suggested, jerking her chin in the opposite direction from where they were standing. The men gave Eddie another angry look before retreating, but Eddie paid no attention to them, turning to make sure the woman was okay. She was still crying, but assured Eddie that she was fine and left after saying she was going to call her husband to pick her up.
"Thanks for stepping in, even though I had it handled," Eddie said, grinning when Athena rolled her eyes.
"It's my job. You take care of the fires and I deal with the idiots," Athena huffed, looking to make sure the men were still leaving. "Besides, I'd never hear the end of it from Buck if I stood by and let you get hurt."
"I would've been fine," Eddie waved off.
"Really? You boys find trouble more than anyone else I know," Athena chuckled.
"I am not that bad. Buck maybe, but not me," Eddie argued. They continued their friendly banter as they walked toward another part of the scene together, but Taylor tuned them out. She didn't need to hear another conversation about the wonderful duo of Buck and Eddie. When people thought of Buck, they should've thought of Taylor as well. They were the pair. They were the couple. But once again, Eddie was in her spot.
This had been the perfect opportunity for Eddie to be cut down to size, but of course he slithered through unscathed. This perfect scenario had fallen into her lap and again Eddie stood tall. But Taylor wasn't going to give up that easily. She'd just have to do a bit of work.
Taylor took out her phone, taking a few pictures while no one was paying attention. Investigative reporting was a skill and you could find a lot of information from a license plate number. If Eddie was so confident that he had the situation with the bikers handled, why not give him another chance to prove it?