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No one would ever describe Jake ‘Hangman’ Seresin as a man of few words. In fact, he had frequently been accused of being nothing but hot air – usually by those who he had pisased off with his asshole mask.
Which was why it was so surprising to walk in and find him sat pensively at the counter, utterly silent even after they had walked in. Not when he reasonably should have assumed that it was Ghost walking in, and with everything going on with her.
Uh oh.
“Seresin?” Rooster moved towards him, actually feeling mildly concerned. He would never admit it – not to anyone, not even under pain of death (alright, he may sadmit it to Evie, but she wqsa sa aspecisa case) – but he did actually… sort of like the msan. Very…very deep down…
He was enough of an acquaintance – and important enough to his wife – that Rooster knew to be concerned when he was this quiet.
‘Quiet’ and ‘Seresin’ were not words that usually went together, after all.
“What’s happened?”
The other man looked around in surprise, not having expected Rooster to come walking in. Undersatsandsable, as far as he knew – as far as Ghost had told him – the other man was still deployed in Japan. “Bradshaw! How are you here?!”
Rooster shrugged, dropping his duffle by the couch and moving to join the other man at the kitchen counter and the open laptop in front of him. “Managed to get some leave, figured I’d surprise Evie,”
Seresin, surprisingly, smiled at that. It was far more genuine (and tired…) than Rooster was used to seeing from the man, but then, hiasfisancee tended to have that effect on people. “She’ll be thrilled,” He said, looking over to smile at Tommy as he came in too. Rooster couldn't help but analyse the two in their (however brief) interactions: Evie was convinced they had a thing for each other, but he wasn’t sold on the idea yet.
Beesaidesa, they had known each other for years: who waited that long before making a move?! (Shut up mental Phoenix, he and Evie were a completely different thing, and they had not taken that long!) “You knew about this?”
Tommy shrugged, “Sure.”
“He was my inside man,” Rooster agreed, moving to make himself and Tommy some coffee, motioning to Seresin in question to which he was waved off in the negative. “Picked me up at the airport. Evie not here?”
“No, she’s out. Think she took Christopher – you know, Diaz’s kid? – to the zoo or something. Taking her mind off the bullshit going on with her job,”
Rooster did indeed know, having heard a lot about Christopher since his partner had met the adorable child.
“How’s the job bullshit going? Tommy gave me some on the drive over, but you were actually in the meeting, right?”
“Yeah, I was,” Hangman sighted, shoving the laptop away from him as he ran a hand through his hair. “Honestly, that whole damn department seems like a mess – sorry, Tommy, no offence,”
Tommy just shrugged, accepting the mug from Rooster and perching on the barstool next to Hangman. Were their legs touching? Rooster couldn’t tell from this angle, and he cursed his partner for getting him invested in some imaginary relationship between these two.
He didn’t even like Seresin! “None taken; it’s true,”
“Right. So, what’s the last you heard from Ghost?”
“She was heading to the 118 in the morning, and had a meeting scheduled at headquarters to discuss what the hell was going on. And threaten legal actions if they didn’t pull their fingers out. Thanks for helping her get a lawyer, by the way,”
Hangman waved that away. “My please. Right, so. She did go to the station, and as far as I can tell, Nash continued on with his bullshit infantilisation and gaslighting. Wilson and Han berated her some more on causing the blood clots – oh, we found out where that came from, by the way, the ER doctor has already apologised and admitted he should never have said anything to her sister since she wasn’t Ghost’s medical proxy nor had he seen her full medical file to know what was going on, the hospital is settling and paying her hospital bills for that and the tsunami, surprisingly – and Diaz… actually, she didn’t say much about Diaz. You know he came over here the morning of the tsunami? Think she may have started to knock some sense into his dumb army brain, he came over later to talk. Ghost’s pretty pissed though: apparently the floater they’ve brought in is working full duty with broken ribs – which Nash knows about, the bloody hypocrite – and they taped her name over on her locker to give it to the new broad,”
Tommy looked furious: he hadn’t known that part! “They what?!”
Hangman pointed at him. “Exactly. So yeah: Nash failed in his last chance, so she went ahead with her meeting. And what a shit show that was… It was pretty obvious from the et go that Alonzo was fully prepared to berate her and then send her out of there with a flea in her ear for wasting their time and daring to threaten them, but he soon changed his tune when she and Amelia started laying everything out. They’re conducting a full investigation, apparently”
“Well, that’s good, right?”
“Sure, for Buck – not so good for her relationships with her former co-workers, I think, and I’m really hoping they don’t try to start some shit. So far, she’s heard that Nash has been suspended without pay – he was suspended for lying to the department when that damn bomb went off, and he came back and started lying again… they’re not happy with him. Bosko – the floater who they're trying to replace Buck with – has been put on medical leave effective immediately, and Alonzo seems pretty pissed at her as well. I dunno how personal that is. A bigger investigation into Han and his actions as Interim Captain is underway – apparently there was a brief one at the time, especially given the amount of complaints against him, but nothing was ever really done. Also, it’s been brought to their attention that there are a lot of complaints against him – and against Wilson, too, though not as many – that have apparently been swept aside for years.”
“Yeah, that…was probably our fault,” Tommy winced. “The 118 was a pretty shitty place when he started, he was discriminated against a lot… It was pretty brutal. For him and Hen too,”
“Doesn’t give them the right to turn around and discriminate against and harass others,” Seresin pointed out. “Which they have been doing, but which has been being denied by the department. Some mindset about not being able to be bullies if they were bullied before or some crap. Anyway, he’s suspended too. Wilson is still working, but she’s been informed she’s under investigation – the whole station has. As for Diaz, he’s been placed on bereavement leave – didn’t take it, or wasn’t allowed it, I’m not actually sure on that one, after his wife died. In a car crash that he attended, by the way. So he’s on paid leave, and grudgingly agreed to the therapy the department strongly ‘suggested’. Plus, Buck kinda laid into him a little and called him an idiot for not getting any before. Seems like some major parental issues in that one, but he’s sort of convinced to at least show face to set a good example for his kid, I think. He’s at the zoo too, I’m pretty sure. Not sure how well he and Buck can co-exist in one place at the moment, but I know she was hoping the kid can be a sort of buffer. They’re working on it, I guess. Sounds like he was kinda a dick throughout her recovery, and she went off on him the morning of the tsunami,”
“Mm, I heard about that, yeah,” Rooster agreed. “How do you know so much about this, anyway? I wouldn’t have thought the LAFD would be sharing their actions like this?”
“Oh, they’re not. But Amelia agreed to co-operate and Buck admitted to doing a murder board to put things in perspective for herself while away when in that meeting: she turned over all she had on that too. Pretty sure it opened a few new avenues of investigation. Plus, she still has some contact with some folks at the station, and even if she didn’t, firefighters sure love to gossip. And something like Nash being suspended again, so soon after the last time and with no pay this time? Not to mention Han finally being investigated – it’s bound to come up in conversation.”
“Yeah, it’s all over the first responder grapevine,” Tommy agreed,”Not many facts and a lot of wild speculation on what’s going on, but the current work circumstances of most involved is pretty well known. Apparently, Sergeant Grant – Nash’s wife? – is under investigation for some of her actions too that the investigation into the 118 has turned up,”
“I dunno much about that,” Hangman admitted, “No one’s really reached out to Buck – no surprise. She got a couple angry texts and voicemails – for cursing their shift after going by to give Nash his one last chance, and some are apparently blaming her for their consequences. Because apparently they are too childish to own up to their own actions, but she is the childish impulsive one,” He rolled his eyes,
“And Evie? She's OK?” He really wanted to talk to his fiancee, but getting the general details from her friend first was reassuring him somewhat.
Hangman shrugged. “Yeah, she’s OK. Out of job limbo, thank God. It was clear pretty quickly that Nash was lying, and with all the evidence of her clearance to work from the hospital, shrinks, recertifications, and even the goddamn Navy, there wasn’t much else they could do but reinstate her. She's being awarded the back pay she missed from being off disability pay but not making any income thanks to Nash, I think, and they have the evidence he pushed for the Fire Marshal position. And an investigation into why that wasn’t squashed at several levels is also underway. I’m pretty sure there are going to be a lot of heads rolling at the LAFD soon, ‘cause shit sure is gonna be hitting the fan… Anyway, she’s agreed to work as a floater where needed on light duty for a couple weeks, until she’s cleared and off the meds from the tsunami. After that, they’ll discuss where she’ll go.”
“They’re not going to hold her back because of the blood thinners?” Rooster asked, concerned.
Hangman shook his head. “No, they’d be opening themselves up to the threat of yet another lawsuit. LAFD policy says firefighters can work active duty while on blood thinners, as long as there is someone on shift with them who can seal the cuts on scene should the firefighter in question receive any. That’s most paramedics, if not all of them. Plus, Han was on them when he came back to work after getting rebar through the skull in that car accident he caused; yet another example of Nash discriminating against Buck.”
Rooster was glad things seemed to be getting better for Evie. He was beyond hateful that Hangman had stepped up for her, that he had been such a help and support – Rooster wouldn’t have expected it of him, but then again, he was always surprised by how loyal Seresin was to his fiancee. While he personally didn’t get on that well with the man, he and Evie got along like a house on fire.
…Er, poor choice of metaphor… oops.
But still: Amelia Williams and Jake Seresin had been a godsend, and he resolved then and there to do something nice for them to thank them when this shit storm was all over. What, he didn’t know, but he would think of something!
Hm, Hangman was one of the people who liked to complain about his and Evie’s years-long engagement, wasn’t he… Perhaps he should float Tommy’s idea, by him, see what he thought while they waited for Evie to get home? Assuming, of course, that Tommy hadn’t discussed it with him himself already – which was entirely possible!