onlythingthatmatters | a whole new you (for figureskated)

When the first guy walks into station 118 convinced that he's in a relationship with Evan Buckley, she's willing to believe it's a misunderstanding. Yeah, she doesn't recognize him, but she's not sure she could pick out every hook-up she's had out of a line-up. Maybe she slept with him when she was tipsier than usual, and he had some kind of delusion after that they continued to talk. After all, he seems harmless enough, just - confused. When he gets a little too close while she's trying to explain that they're not in a relationship and she doesn't know who he is, Bobby steps in and forces him to leave. And she spends the rest of the day feeling unsettled, sure, but it's fine. What are the chances of it happening again?

Pretty damn good, as it turns out, since another stranger approaches her while she and Chim are picking up coffees for the crew. This guy is way more aggressive, outright accusing her of fucking with him and then dropping him for some kind of sick game, and the next thing she knows, she's wearing his iced coffee and he's storming out the door.

They've barely settled back into the station when some asshole starts throwing rocks at the ambulance. She happens to reach the doors the quickest to shout at him to knock it off and is treated to a borderline incoherent rant about how she's a bitch, she needs to pay for breaking his heart and the hearts of guys like him, and this time when he throws a rock, he's aiming for her. It just scrapes her arm before Hen is pulling her back behind cover and Bobby announces that there are police inbound. He runs rather than stay and wait to be arrested, but they get a good look at his car, so it's not like he can get too far.

It's been a terrible day, basically. It's even worse after reporting everything to Athena (first on the scene), being advised to look into her social media accounts, and finding a MySpace page in her name with her picture that she never created. By evening, Athena's assured her that they've started the process of asking the website for access to the account so they can see who created it and who else has been talking to the fake her. Which means there's not much more they can do about it tonight.

She's released from her shift early, but she ends up hanging around the firehouse for another couple hours because as much as she hates the idea that yet another stranger could walk in at any time, absolutely convinced that she'd wronged him, she hates the idea of going home to her apartment alone because what if one of these guys found her address, too? It's bad enough they're showing up at her place of work. That's what she tells Bobby when he approaches her to ask why she's not leaving, and when he asks her if she'd feel safer if he slept over on her couch just in case, she finds herself saying yes.

So that's how she finds herself pacing her apartment while waiting for him to show, stupidly stressed out by pretty much every noise - of which there are too many because her walls are not as soundproof as she'd like. And feeling stupid for being so stressed out by this because what are the chances someone would be able to track her home address and try to break in? She'd like to think it's low, but before the past couple of days, she thought the likelihood of someone using her pictures and personal information to catfish the men of LA was very low, too.

Even expecting Bobby, she still flinches at the sound of someone knocking on her door, and she takes a second to force herself to look less freaked out before she peers through the peephole and opens the door to her Captain. "Hey. Um. Thanks."

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A while ago, Bobby accepted that Buck was going to make her own decisions and not always think before she acts. What he didn't expect was a parade of men coming into the station accusing her of all manner of personal relationship issues.

He assumed the first one was someone she met on a call. It wasn't unheard of that the people they saved could have a crush on them. When things went beyond general confusion and into possibly dangerous territory, he stepped in and threw the guy out. Bobby asked if she was okay, she said she was, and he didn't want to pry. Bobby suspected she wasn't okay at all

Then it happened a second time. Then a third. He calls the police and all of the rest. Knowing Athena and the rest of the LAPD are on the case eases his mind a little bit, but clearly not Buck's considering she's still at the firehouse long after being released from her shift. That sealed it for him. Buck wasn't okay and he did the only thing he could think of doing and offer to stay on her couch that night.

He gets to her apartment soon after shift ends, overnight bag in hand along with ice cream. It always helped when Marcy was feeling on edge, and knocked on her door. When she answers she gets his usual kind smile, "It's the least I can do, especially after that last one showed up. Where should I put this?," and holds up the ice cream.

"Yeah, that was pretty wild," she answers with a brittle laugh. She'd changed into comfy clothes when she got home, a t-shirt and pajama pants, and there's gauze peaking out from under the left sleeve where the rock grazed her arm. "Who would've guessed that when the men of LA decided they had a bone to pick with me, it would be for something someone else did?"

Not her, definitely. "Freezer's over here," she says, leading him to the kitchen. Her apartment is - it's okay. She'd kind of been doing a multi-roommate situation when she was attending the academy, so this is what she was able to find that she could afford on a probationary salary. There's a kitchen, there's a living area, there's a bathroom and a bedroom. Nothing's infested, and she's decorated with some souvenirs from her travels but there isn't much from her pre-adult life, at least not out in the main areas. No family photos or anything.

"I don't think I could have predicted that if I tried," Bobby said as he put the ice cream in the freezer. Then he took a look around the place. It was a little better than his own apartment, at least there were some personal items hung up. It was clean and there was a place for him to sleep which is really all he needs at this point.

As far as the lack of family photos? Bobby's the last one to judge.

"I'm glad Athena's on the case. If anyone can find out answers about it all it's her."

“Even if we do get access to the account, what are we supposed to do with it? DM everyone they’ve spoken to and say hey, sorry my face broke your heart but can you please not track me down in real life and lose your mind?”

Okay, maybe that’s a bit dramatic. Some of these people have to be normal and not inclined to real life stalking, right?

"Delete it would probably be the first step. I think messaging everyone could make it worse."

Maybe. He's heard the stories of weirdos on the internet. Fewer interactions, real or fake, would probably be the best course of action.

"Though this suddenly makes me really happy I didn't tell the whole world I like Flan."

Yeah, that might be the most poorly timed joke in the history of jokes.

"Why, you think the flan appreciation society would stalk you?"

Well, he is. Probably pretty handsome for his age bracket. Though Buck's not sure she trusts a website specifically for dating First Responders. Not that Buck knows that much about healthy dating.

"So, um, bathroom's over there, couch is here. I got out a blanket and pillow for you but I couldn't figure out a way to get a bedsheet to fit on it."

"I mean anything is possible. Though they'd probably be pretty boring as far as a society goes."

But he nods along with her tour, "I can give it a try if you want."

"Well, boring has to be better than the rock-throwing type, right?"

Buck would much rather have had a flan thrown at her. At least flans are soft. "If you want to try, you can go for it. It's under the blanket anyway." Which is folded on the couch, because at least she's going to try to be a good host to her boss.

"Yeah, you're right about that."

If Chim hadn't helped out with that, Bobby would have, and it would not have been pretty for the rock thrower. Then he went about trying to figure out how to get the sheet on the couch.

"Did you eat already?"

"I ate at the firehouse."

Which. She did not eat that much at the firehouse because even though she was there for dinner, she was a little too stressed to feel hungry. But she's not really hungry now, either, so that's fine?

"Okay," He's agreeing even though he saw what she ate at dinner, but he's not going to push. A few minutes later he manages to wrestle the sheet on the couch, and looks quite proud of himself for doing so.

"There," then he he sits, "How're you doing...really?"

"Weird," she admits after perching awkwardly on the edge of her armchair. She doesn't want to say she's scared, especially not to her boss, but she's definitely... jumpy. "I always kinda figured if I ever had someone stalking me to my workplace, it would've been because I got the chance to fuck up my character judgment myself. I don't even know who to expect like this."

He nods as she talks, just listening and she has a point. At least if it was something Buck actually did, she'd have some kind of idea, but she's right. With this is could be anyone at any time.

"I can see if Athena has any way to find out who's viewed it, if that would help?"

Bobby can tell she's scared, not that it's difficult to figure out, and tries to be reassuring, "I don't think anything's going to happen tonight, and if it does, that's why there's two of us." It probably doesn't help as much as he thinks it should.

"I do know nothing's going to happen right this minute. You can give yourself a minute to take a deep breath."

a whole new you (for figureskated)

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