Chapter Text
Graham rubbed a firm hand over the back of his neck and tried to crack it- a futile endeavor. Now that the whirlwind of the day’s activities had subsided, he had time to reflect that this probably hadn’t been his craziest day on the job; it just seemed that way at the moment. Perhaps it had been because their first call had come in at 2 am, and their last call, which they were just returning home from, had reached them right as the sun had begun to sink below the watery horizon.
“Tired?” Boulder rumbled to him quietly.
Graham offered the screen on the dashboard a tired smile. “This is still nothing compared to grad school.”
Boulder chuckled softly and allowed a comfortable silence to fall. The bots may not have needed sleep, but it was easy to see that the bulldozer was tired too; if not from sleep deprivation, then from exertion. Graham leaned back in his seat, not even pretending to drive. They’d be home soon, and then they’d get some much needed rest…
The human engineer was startled out of his almost dream-like trance by Boulder’s sudden gasp. He immediately sat up and looked around for signs of trouble- surely not every citizen in Griffin Rock could experience a life or death situation on the same day…?
“I just ran a stop sign.” Boulder said gravely, by way of explanation.
Graham stared at the screen, caught between bewilderment and an unexplainable sense of dread. “What?”
That was when he heard it. The sirens.
“Oh no.” Graham muttered, half to himself, as he noticed the red and blue lights in the rearview mirror.
Chase had been following them back from the emergency call, but Graham didn’t think that Chase would really… actually, that was a lie. Of course Chase would.
Meanwhile, in the cop bot’s cab, Chief was giving the dashboard screen a skeptical look. “Are you sure this is strictly necessary, Chase?”
“Of course, Chief.” Chase replied, cool as can be. “Boulder knows he’s required to come to a full and complete stop at all stop signs and stop lights. He very clearly did not.”
“That’s a relatively minor offense, Chase.” Chief reasoned. “Usually we’ll let them off with a warning unless they endanger someone. Can’t you just talk to him when we get home?”
“Unfortunately no, Chief.” Chase maintained. “While I understand that you sometimes choose to exercise discretion in the application of the law, Boulder is a member of the rescue team. He should be held to a higher standard than the average citizen.”
Frowning, Chief sat back and tried to come up with a logical argument against that.
Behind them, Heatwave had also slowed to a crawl, and the two firemen were quite bewildered by the sight before them.
“Is he malfunctioning or something?” Kade asked in a hushed whisper.
Heatwave was silent for a moment, as if he was contemplating that very possibility himself, before he suddenly burst out; “He’s trying to pull Boulder over!”
From there, the two quickly dissolved into raucous laughter.
“Aren’t you going to pull over?” Graham asked after a solid minute or two had gone by.
“What? No.” Boulder continued to make his way down the street, unperturbed.
There was a beat of silence. “Why not?” Graham pressed, almost afraid of the answer.
“He’ll never catch me alive,” was the whispered response.
“Boulder.” Graham’s admonition was lost as Boulder cranked up the speed to a whopping 10 mph.
“He’s trying to run.” Chase reported severely to Chief. Chief examined the bulldozer before him critically.
“I think we’ll catch him.” Chief replied hopefully.
Meanwhile, Heatwave had opened a private comm channel to Blades and Dani just so the four of them could laugh at the whole situation together.
Eventually, miraculously, Boulder did stop at the firehouse garage doors. He transformed and gave Chase a sheepish glance, and made up some excuse about how he had had his audials turned off the whole time. Graham, who had had a long day and had already considered tucking and rolling out of Boulder’s cab and walking home, simply went upstairs without a word. Blades, Heatwave, and their respective partners tried and failed to control their amusement and quickly dispersed out of fear of drawing Chase’s ire.
By morning, it had been determined that, since Graham had not actually been driving at the time of the incident, Chase could not rightfully cite him for the infraction; neither could he ticket Boulder, since it was impossible for Boulder to appear in court or pay a fine. Thus, the officer mandated that Boulder complete four hours of community service in the park.
No one had the heart to point out that that’s probably what Boulder would have done on his day off anyways.