One of a kind

Chapter 01

Seeing Carlos after everything that had happened between them was strange for TK, but mostly extremely painful. He knew perfectly well that he hadn't moved on from him because there was nothing to move on from; Carlos was the love of his life, and there wouldn't be anyone else for TK. Things just hadn't worked out and, almost as quickly as it had started, the magic burnt out.

TK had been sure not to see him—five months wasn't enough to be able to look at the man you'd hoped to spend your life with and who had left you, and still feel okay.

He needed time, so much more time.

Maybe with the right people around him he could have handled it. If he had his parents to give him advice, or Judd and the rest of the team, or even Tommy, he might have been able to handle it. But he was alone. His father had left them all when his dream of resurrecting the 126 had died. His mother was miles away, and the team, his family in Austin, weren't a family any longer. They all had wounds that needed healing, and they were going their separate ways to do it.

But his father... Owen Strand, the hero of 9/11, the great Fire Captain who had built a type of paradise in an Austin firehouse had lost all his dreams in a matter of three months, and TK wasn't enough to make him keep going.

It seemed that TK wasn't enough for someone who had lost the chance to 'be a father', nor was he enough for the captain without a firehouse. Owen had abandoned them, left them literally stranded, in the worst moment possible.

The team... TK couldn't blame any of them because they all had their own problems. Mateo wasn't happy in his new station and Judd was about to become a father; Paul and Marjan had tried to save the 126 at first, but eventually Paul, defeated, also gave in. Only Marjan kept holding on to a building that was about to be destroyed.

Between the twins and work, Tommy was exhausted, so TK couldn't burden her with his issues, and Nancy was doing everything to try and get them back together. TK was grateful for it, but he knew there was nothing neither she, nor anyone, could do.

He and Carlos had been condemned far before either of them had realised, and in the end, they had exploded.

TK had already been drowning for weeks, the world seeming to do nothing but take, and take, and take. When the punches just kept coming, he thought that, as long as he and Carlos were together, he could bear anything.

But the fights left their mark. Fight after fight over stupid stuff, over the past, over an uncertain future which should have been beautiful but which was slowly starting to weigh them both down.

Since when had they been capable of saying such awful things to each other? Since when had they been able to do so much harm?

"This isn't working, TK." Carlos's words echoed in TK's head every day from waking up to falling asleep, like a curse he couldn't shake off. "We're hurting each other and in the end...in the end we'll end up hating each other. It's better if we call it now."

"Call it? Carlos, I love you and I want to spend my life with you."

"We spend all our time arguing and we don't even know why half the time. We're causing too much hurt, it's better if—"

"Please don't say it."

"You know it's for the best. If we don't do it now, it'll only end up worse for us."

When the ice broke beneath his feet, TK had a second to look at his reflection, at the lonely, sad figure that returned his gaze. He saw it smile, and he could almost hear it calling to him.

He barely heard the crack, but when he realised what was about to happen, a part of him felt relieved. He hadn't had these thoughts in a long time, not since Alex, but that same part of him that felt the relief told him that it was okay. Everyone would be fine without him; they didn't need him after all.