Future Self

There is research on the concept of future self, and, if you think about it, there are multiple alternative versions of who you might turn out to be.
Imagine that you are driving on the interstate on a cross-country trip. You come to a big intersection, and you can go North, South, East, or West. The choice you make will mean that you will have different experiences, meet different people, taste different foods, stay at different hotels, encounter different landscapes, and so on. You can never know exactly which path will work out better for you, only that the outcome of each path will be different. What is important, however, is to have some degree of clarity as to what your goals and intentions are.
If you are driving from Boston to Los Angeles, with California being your goal, turning South and driving to Florida is not consistent with your goal. Or, perhaps, you want to make a detour, and that is okay, but the you who took the detour will be different from the one who didn’t. What is also interesting to consider is that your future self is shaped by your dreams, your fears, your opportunities, your fantasies, and your regrets, and knowing all this about yourself will give you a leg up in determining the vision of your future self. – Galen, Gillian; Aguirre, Blaise.

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Buck read that passage in his therapy workbook several times and wondered about what he would have been like if he had changed his route a bit to get to LA and the Academy.
There was no doubt in his mind he would go out to try and become a firefighter again, it was just a matter of the experiences he would bring to it as well as when he would go through the Academy. And if that would have made any difference in what happened in the end.

He was, after all, all alone with no family of blood or clan to see too anymore. Everyone having chosen to tie themselves to his sister’s side of the story after Bobby’s death.
Now he was in a sort of therapy as he lay on his death bed awaiting the end as he had received no backup on a call that was now being called an accident.

Somewhere in the distance he heard a female’s voice that sounded like his gran’s asking him if he meant it? He looked around and as he closed his eyes for the last time, he sent the wish that said yes.

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Waking up in his old jeep only it looked almost new and not feeling any of the pain from his years of abusing his body on the job he had loved.
He was sitting in the jeep outside the rest stop he remembered he was supposed to have met his sister all those years ago, but she never showed to his hurt feelings at the time. Now he knew her husband had beat her senseless for giving away her transportation without his permission. As such, he went to call a wellness check on her at her home saying he was worried as she hadn’t called him and she had never missed a meeting with him. Leaving his number for the contact back as to whether she was okay or not.
Then headed off to the nearest camping spot he could make camp at for now as no place would rent to him at his documented age of not quite 18.

He waited by his phone as he ate a cold dinner grabbing his phone on the first ring to find out his sister was just out of emergency surgery and her husband was under arrest for the injuries she had received at his hands. The hand marks on her throat and body matched the size of his with his hands having injuries showing he had been in a recent fight.
His anger had even loosened his tongue enough to say he wished the bitch was dead for not obeying him like she was supposed to.

Buck ordered that their parents not be told yet as they would not be healthy for her mentally or emotionally, and if they needed an adult to sign off on her care, to call her paternal grandparents instead, and gave over that number. Packing up as he did so with the phone on speaker. Heading out to the hospital she was at as soon as he hung up at the best speed he could while making sure he was both safe and wouldn’t be pulled over.

Doug ended up being convicted of Attempted Murder in the First Degree and sentenced to Life in Prison. His estate turned over to Maddie as a way of caring for her and paying for her medical bills from the injuries he caused her. Maddie went to live with their grandparents who protected her from their parents right up to and after their deaths by sending her to live with friends in Europe to heal and spend the rest of her life away from the painful memories she had living in her home country.

Buck headed back to Colorado to work and train in the mountains there in SAR before getting the recommendations he needed to head to LA and the Academy there several years earlier than last time. Ending up at the 56-A shift to begin with then the 133-A shift up to earning his Lieutenants bars and finding himself back at the 118-A shift as second in command as Chim had blown his wad in the traffic accident and the rebar, this time he would be out until he actually re-qualified by order of the Chief’s.

Buck’s orders were to get the shift back under control from the toxic nature still running rampant even though the captain had done a lot to get the worst offenders out of the station.
He went in spit polish and by the book with the Chief’s backing him and started writing every wrong thing up. Sending them up to the chief to take care of.
Chim’s partner, Hen, was written up so often for her attitude with the floaters covering for Chim, that she got suspended without pay until SHE passed her own therapist over WHAT SHE WENT THROUGH UNDER GERRARD. If she refused to go to therapy or to cooperate with the therapist, then she would be let go as they didn’t need headcases working with the public in high stress situations that go ballistic.

Two others were let go for their bigoted attitudes and replaced by those who were willing to work and not pass on the work onto others. And with that, suddenly the problems coming out of the 118-A shift stopped being reported with things suddenly going smoother on the job and in the station itself.
With that Hen and later Chim were moved to other stations as being one of those who were part of the problem that the crew no longer would put up with.
Giving a supportive crew for Diaz to come in with his son, both being able to get the help they needed to make a go in the new city they were now calling home.

Fin
8/5/2026