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“Buck has a secret girlfriend.”
The phrase takes on a life of its own as soon as Chim gets word of it.
The thing is, it’s a lie.
It had started when Maddie wanted to set Buck up on a Zoom date with a temp who’d covered a few days at the call center. She usually worked on the West side, but Maddie’s center got hit hard early in the pandemic.
Maddie went on and on about how Buck was so lonely and this woman was so great and didn’t he like the not-meeting-in-person thing once before? This is the perfect time to try it again—with someone who wasn’t Abby.
Which was not a great way to get him interested.
But finally Buck had to tell her—
“I’m actually already kind of seeing someone.” He tried to hedge. Make it seem important enough that he wasn’t interested in anyone else, but not serious enough to talk about yet.
Maddie had relented, by some miracle, but word quickly got out that Buck had a “secret girlfriend”, which was very much not what he said.
Buck’s just glad when Eddie found out he didn’t immediately jump to the conclusion that Buck was cheating on him.
“So you going around calling me a girl?” is all Eddie said before pulling Buck up to the loft to show Buck how much of a man he really is.
So it became a joke around the firehouse. Buck’s got a secret girlfriend. Honestly, Eddie had been ready to tell everyone months ago, especially when Chim decided to move in with Buck as soon as Eddie was back home with Christopher. Maddie had still had a few months left on her lease when they decided to move in together, but she’d already moved all her stuff, so Chimney basically camped out in her old apartment until the lease was up and he decided Buck owed him for the time he’d let him crash on his couch.
Which made sneaking around with Eddie—in a pandemic, no less—that much more complicated.
But it was kind of hilarious, and still occasionally sexy, to sneak around, so everyone was still in the dark. Plus, it turned out to be really difficult to tell everyone.
Not because Eddie was struggling with his sexuality. No, that had taken him way longer than either Buck or Eddie liked, but he was one hundred percent past that. And not because they were afraid Cap would transfer one of them. No, they’d actually had a few close calls and managed to stay professional and not "go all Buck in the mud” as Eddie liked to call it.
Actually, it turned out it was damned near impossible to find the words and opportunity to say, “Hey, you know how Eddie always thought he was straight and you all just assumed Buck was straight? Well, turns out you were wrong on both counts and we’re actually ridiculously in love and kind of annoyed none of you noticed before now. And if you did notice, why the hell didn’t you tell us?”
(Buck may have a chip on his shoulder about how obvious their feelings had been now that he looks back on it.)
So yeah, Buck has a secret girlfriend. And it’s been so long now it’s getting a little weird that he hasn’t told anyone anything about her.
Which is how he ends up figuring out how to tell everyone.
The next time they’re hanging out in the firehouse between calls, Buck checks his phone and finds a picture Eddie just sent him. He’d snuck one of Buck and Christopher, passed out in the middle of a bedtime story. Accompanied by three red heart emojis.
Eddie is a secret romantic and Buck is thrilled about it.
But then Chim catches Buck’s moment of dopey love and throws his hands up, “Will you tell us something about this secret girlfriend? Is she super old? Or, ew, super young? Can you like tell us her name at least?”
Buck has had just about enough of Chim’s everything (he really needs Chim out of his house or at least to be able to stay with Eddie for more than a night without arousing suspicion), so he just leans forward and says, “You want her name? That will make you feel better?”
Chim nods emphatically. “Yes! Please! Anything!”
Buck eyes Eddie from across the room. They’ve talked about this, but he also doesn’t want to throw Eddie out of the closet when he’s not expecting it.
But Eddie nods and so Buck exclaims, “Eddie, okay? It’s Eddie!”
And Chim, well, Chim doesn’t really know what to do with himself.
Hen, who's been suspiciously silent during this whole exchange just begins to hoot and holler at Chim’s untimely demise. “Finally! Geez! I've been waiting months for you two to come clean.”
“Months, Hen?” Eddie asks, not sure whether to believe it. They’d been so careful.
“I mean, years, if we’re being technical. But if I’m right, you didn’t get together until right after quarantine started.”
Eddie nods, in awe of her powers.
“You both were too damn happy, especially considering you were separated from Christopher. Plus, I figured all that chemistry needed was some time alone in a wall-less loft. Nowhere to hide. Not a lot of closet space, either, if memory serves.”
“Hen!” Buck bursts out, admonishing, but also thoroughly amused.
Eddie just shakes his head.
It's then that Bobby comes in and says, “Chim, did you have a stroke?”
And that gets all three of them bursting out laughing.
So really, that’s all they needed to finally tell everyone they were together—the perfect opportunity to strike Chim speechless.